I agree that charges of sedition might be a bit... much, but one
cannot deny that something had to be done. It is a fact that those
comments were racist, and there would have been people who were
seriously upset and offended by those unjustified comments.
Speaking as one who has maintained a blog for several years and who
has a tracker on said blog, I know just how easy it is for people
to stumble onto the page, whether it be through links from another
blog, search engines, or simply by clicking that 'next' button that
is on the bar at the top of every blog, so there is a need to keep
things civil.
Granted, the blogs in question might not have had all that much
traffic, and so the impact was not as great as it would have been
if it had been published in a newspaper. But that is not the point.
If one wanted to make posts that are for ones own eyes only, there
is an option on blogger that allows private blogs and entries that
do not show up to other people. If one wanted to make posts that
are meant only for friends to see, thenas someone else has already
pointed outone can either put a password on it, or use a host that
provides an option for friends-locked entries, like
livejournal.com. By posting on a public blog that is accessible to
anyone and everyone, the implication is that the blogger wishes the
entry to be read by as many people as possible, and therefore he or
she has to take the responsibility of ensuring that what is said
will not break the law, regardless of the amount of traffic. Say
there is a magazine that is amazingly unpopular, and that only one
person out of 300 reads. Say that magazine decides to publish an
article flaming the Chinese. I dont think anyone here would
tolerate it on the pretext that not many people actually read the
magazine before that. The way I see it, it is the intent that is
being questioned here, and not the impact.
I would like to say that 'this is my personal diary and thus I
should be allowed to post whatever I want in it', but I do not,
because I know that there is a clear and definite line between the
words 'personal', and 'private'. The blog is written by me, it
contains my views, it is personal. But it is by no means private.
There have been several instances when my teachers and even my
principal have poked about my online diary. I know this because
they have told me so. Yet I do not worry, because I have never said
anything that I would not dare say in public, or that I would not
be able to justify and back up by evidence. I dont see it as my
freedom to speech being stifled. To me, taking a bit of care when
discussing possibly touchy subjects doesnt take much, and its
just common sense. It makes me sound like a goody-two-shoes prude,
yes, but there it is.
Just my two cents worth.
