SysAdmin Journal · Censorship https://sysadmin-journal.com/tag/censorship Posts tagged with Censorship en Wed, 16 Mar 2022 12:09:08 +0000 60 Hindi film « The Kashmir Files » has been rejected by the Film Classification Board of Mauritius — an appeal has been made by mCine https://sysadmin-journal.com/hindi-film-the-kashmir-files-banned-in-mauritius https://sysadmin-journal.com/hindi-film-the-kashmir-files-banned-in-mauritius Wed, 16 Mar 2022 12:09:08 +0000 Ish Sookun Censorship Mauritius The Kashmir Files is a Hindi film directed by Vivek Ranjan Agnihotri. The film's story is based on video interviews of the first generation victims of the Genocide of Kashmiri Pandit Community In 1990. Among the cast are film stars like Anupam Kher, Mithun Chakraborty, Pallavi Joshi & Puneet Issar. Hindi film « The Kashmir Files » was released in India on 11 March 2022. The movie was scheduled to release in Mauritius on Tuesday  15 March 2022 at mCine.

My wife Shelly and I, we had planned to watch the movie on Thursday and I was supposed to buy the tickets today. However, before I phone mCine to confirm whether tickets are still available for Thursday, to my surprise I read on mCine's Facebook page that the film has been rejected by the Film Classification Board.

In another update, mCine informed that they had appealed against the rejection and the decision could be taken today (Wednesday 16 March).

At the time of writing this blog post, no further update was published by mCine and The Kashmir Files remains banned in Mauritius.

I wanted to know more about the Film Classification Board and its members. More precisely, I wanted to know the reasons behind the banning of this movie. However, on the website of the Ministry of Arts and Culture Heritage, the names of the Board members are not available. I could only find the email and phone number of the Assistant Secretary, Mr. Ajay Hooloomann. Therefore, I sent Mr. Hooloomann a request for information to obtain the list of members on the Film Classification Board and members of the Film Classification Consultative Panels.

I haven't received any reply yet.

Nevertheless, in a Government Gazette of 2019, I found the list of members on the Film Classification Board. This list contains 41 Deputy Chairpersons and 99 Board members.

Grateful to someone on Facebook who pointed me to the publication of this list in the Government Gazette.

Update – 16 March 2021 21:24

About half an hour ago, MCine has posted on its Facebook page that « The Kashmir Files » has been awarded VISA 18. The film will play in MCine cinema halls as from tomorrow. Strict sanitary protocols to be observed.

]]> Nigerian government suspends Twitter operations in the country https://sysadmin-journal.com/nigerian-government-suspends-all-twitters-operations-in-the-country https://sysadmin-journal.com/nigerian-government-suspends-all-twitters-operations-in-the-country Sat, 05 Jun 2021 08:07:14 +0000 Ish Sookun Internet Community Censorship Africa The Federal Government of Nigeria has suspended all Twitter operations in the country. It is unclear, however, what does the suspension mean for Twitter, since the social network service is still accessible across Nigeria. On the 2nd June 2021, Twitter deleted a post1 by the President of Nigeria, Muhammadu Buhari2, in which the latter said:

Many of those misbehaving today are too young to be aware of the destruction and loss of lives that occurred during the Nigerian Civil War.

Those of us in the fields for 30 months, who went through the war, will treat them in the language they understand.

As a result of Twitter's action, the Federal Ministry of Information and Culture issued a press release3 in which it stated that the Federal Government has suspended, indefinitely, the operations of the micro-blogging and social networking service, Twitter, in Nigeria.

However, it is unclear until now as to what does the suspension mean, since Twitter is still accessible in Nigeria.

Update

  • Twitter is inaccessible4 on many large ISP networks in Nigeria, including on the biggest operators, MTN.
  • A press statement by the Association of Licensed Telecommunications Operators (ALTON) of Nigeria stated that its members have received formal instructions from the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) to suspend access to Twitter.
  1. https://news.sky.com/story/twitter-banned-in-nigeria-after-president-muhammadu-buharis-tweet-removed-12325144
  2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muhammadu_Buhari
  3. https://fmic.gov.ng/fg-suspends-twitters-operations-in-nigeria
  4. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/jun/04/nigeria-suspends-twitter-after-presidents-tweet-was-deleted
]]> Censorship is not a new thing for the Information & Communication Technologies Authority https://sysadmin-journal.com/censorship-is-not-a-new-thing-for-the-information-communication-technologies-authority https://sysadmin-journal.com/censorship-is-not-a-new-thing-for-the-information-communication-technologies-authority Sun, 25 Apr 2021 10:05:09 +0000 Ish Sookun Censorship Mauritius Censorship seems to be generally accepted by the ICT Authority under the pretense of enforcing Section 18(1)(m) of the ICT Act. Today, the debate is no more whether to censor or not, but rather how to censor. The ICT Authority has done it in the past.

On the 8th of November 2007, the ICT Authority asked the Internet Service Providers in Mauritius to block access to facebook.com after a complaint was received from the Ministry of Information & Communication Technologies. The complaint was made following reports of a fake profile of the then Prime Minister of Mauritius, Dr. Navin C. Ramgoolam, as per an article that appeared in Le Mauricien newspaper that day.

The next day l'express reported the news as censorship of Facebook. A few days later, in an interview to l'express, the then Chairman of the ICT Authority, Mr. Trilock Dwarka, explained that the Executive Director, Mr. Krishna Oolun, had received a letter from the Ministry of Information & Communication Technologies asking him about his « views » on the matter of the fake profile of the Prime Minister. The result was that ICTA asked Internet Service Providers to block access to Facebook for all their subscribers until ICTA has contacted Facebook for the removal of the fake profile.

Access to facebook.com was blocked for about a day. As per Mr. Dwarka's interview, Facebook reacted positively to their request. The fake profile was removed by Facebook and then access to facebook.com was restored on the same day by the Internet Service Providers.

Censorship seems to be generally accepted by the ICT Authority under the pretence of enforcing Section 18(1)(m) of the ICT Act. Today, the debate is no more whether to censor or not, but rather how to censor.

Refer to the Hardtalk programme by Top FM / Top TV at 39 min 7 sec

Recently, while commenting on a radio programme by Top TV, about the Consultation Paper on proposals to regulate Social Media in Mauritius, the Director of ICT at ICTA, Mr. Trilok Dabeesing, reminded people that in the past ICTA had blocked access to facebook.com for a day and that today they are only asking to be allowed to block certain content on the platform. The reasons, once again, are given that Facebook only acts as per U.S law and the platform's community standards rather than our laws, etc.

However, is it wrong to say that in the case of a high profile politician the ICT Authority was able to contact Facebook and ask for removal of a fake profile promptly but the common man is treated differently?

Today the ICT Authority is asking people what do they think about giving them the tools and a legal framework for them to be able to access all public & private content of all Internet traffic in Mauritius because the procedure to contact Facebook, according to them, is slow and that Facebook does not consider the Mauritian legislation.

What do the statistics say?

The Consultation Paper does not provide enough of what we may call supportive statistics & documentation. On radio programmes the ICTA Board Chair, Mr. Dick Ng Sui Wa, mentions « dérapages sur facebook » but does not provide any statistics on those 'dérapages' or what they are. He said that there are posts on Facebook that may disturb our social harmony.

Then, let's categorize such posts and let the statistics speak.

We can probably compare the 'dérapages' on Facebook by categorizing them as follows:

  • posts of indecent nature,
  • posts that incite communal violence,
  • posts that criticize the government using foul language.

All three of the above could be said to be 'dérapages' on Facebook and we can easily assume that the last item would be the winner if numbers are compared.

Will the proposed toolset dissuade people from criticizing the government or from using foul language on Facebook? I don't think so because the amendments are simply calling out loud and telling people that we are now watching you, so if you want to criticize the government with foul language then please do so in a way that we can't see you.

I mentioned in my comments to the ICT Authority that if we want to see a change then we should look at the root problem, which is not Facebook, but a societal issue. Educating a new generation of netizens in Mauritius will not fix rumours or foul language on Facebook in 24 hours, one month or one year but let's look at the digital landscape in five to ten years.

Cover photo by Thought Catalog from Pexels.
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