Although I stand by my Feb. 10 blog thoughts that all bloggers have a duty to portray information in a manner that does not blatantly offend anyone, I do not agree with the legal precedent set in an article from Reuters.
"An Alexandria court convicted an Egyptian blogger on Thursday for insulting both Islam and Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and sentenced him to four years in jail over his writings on the Internet."
Other opposition bloggers have been periodically arrested and held in custody for weeks or months, but Abdel Karim Suleiman, a 22-year-old former law student, is the first to be convicted and sentenced to long-term jail time.
A fellow blogger who attended Suleiman's trial said, "It's a dangerous precedent because it will impact the only free space available now, which is the Internet. The charges were undefined and vague."
Even though certain limits must be placed on the blogosphere, the public has the right to have the ability to as much knowledge and information that people in media have to offer. In this case, convicting a blogger for merely expressing criticism of touchy subjects is unethical as it is unjust.
No comments:
Post a Comment