The sedition law that dates back to centuries , is a controversial topic throught out the globe.
What is this sedition law? Why it emerged ? Why is it threat to humanity? Let's discuss!
Sedition law are arcane offences from a bygone era when freedom of expression was'nt seen as the right it is today. The Sedition law emerged in UK and were designed to protect the crown and the government from any potential uprising.
The laws prohibited any acts, speech, or publications, or writing that were made with seditious intent. A range of actions that could be considered seditious, if they are conducted with the intent to cause violences, are listed as: causing hatred or contempt, or inciting disaffection against the Crown, the government, constitution, either House of Parliament or administration of justice; to incite crime or disturbances of the peace; raise discontent or disaffection amongest the Crown's subjects; or to promote feelings of ill will and hostility between different social classes of the Crown's subjects.
In layman's terms, and speaking extremely broadly, it means that you must not say or publish any bad words about the crown, government, or the justices system, nor should you form flash mobs, particularly if armed with flaming torches and pitch forks, to overthrow the aforementioned branches.
The existences of these obsolete offences in the UK suddenly were adopted by other countries like Isreal, USA, India, China, Indonesia, Korea , Gulf countries, as justification for the retention of similar laws which have been actively used to suppress political dissent and restrict press freedom.
All politicians in the world don't like freedom of press or freedom of expression. Activists say the law has become a convenient legal tool to strife any voice or prespective that goes against the government policies. The law has been invoked for liking or sharing of a social media post, drawing a cartoon, refusing to stand up during the national anthem in a cinema or even the staging of a school play.
Around the world, press freedom and freedom of expression is in decline; evidences of a selective journalism due to sedition law have created crises like mistrust is widespread, and debates about measures required to rebuild trust, free press movement and abolishing of sedition law have become a central topic globally.
The right to utter honest and reasonable criticism is a source of strength to community rather than the weakness. Citizen has the right to criticise the government without inciting, as rightly said by Mahatma Gandhi, " Affection cannot be manufactured or regulated by law. If one has no affection for a person or system, one should be free to give the fullest expression to his disaffection, so long as he does not contemplate, promote or incite to violence" but Politicians are misusing sedition law because students, journalists, intellectuals, musicians, and social activists are being targeted around the world even for uttering a single critical phrase against the governing rulers, which is a serious offence as governing bodies cannot force people to have affection for the government and merely because people have disaffection or strongly disagree with the views of the government or express their disagreement in strong words.
Famous Indian, Bal Gangadhar Tilak who during his prosecution said, "The government has converted the entire nation into a prison and we all are prisoners." This statement is so true even in today's world as we witness same detentions against freedom of speech globally .
If we see the data : Isreal has holded more than 20 Palestinian Journalists, activistes including Al-Rimwa, Al Jazeera's correspodent and the only Palestinian women journalist Bushra Al-Tawal since 8 Nov 2020. In Hong Kong, Chan-Pui Man, a former editor at pro-democracy Apple Daily and 54 year old reporter Allan AU, Candian citizen and activist singer namely Denise Ho, were also arrested during 2019 Hong kong crises. In UAE as per EU parliment in 2021 lot of human rights activists and journalists including a Nepali Journalist, Umaked Pande are in custody even some have being languished in jail for nearly ten years for criticizing the government. Let us not forget to mention about a Saudi journalist, Jamal Khashogii , who was murdered through conspirarcy by Saudi agents and consular officials in the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul on Oct 2, 2018; under the Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman, who ordered, planned and oversaw the extrajudicial execution against Khashogii for criticism of the autocratic policies of the Saudi government and Crown Prince MBS. In USA according to reports more than 100 journalist were arrested while covering the killing of George Floyd in 2020, while in India 67 journalist were arrested, detainted, questioned and booked under sedition law in 2020.
Trust in media and freedom of expression is crucial for well functioning society. Presently in today's world where technology is evolving at a rapid pace, online platforms like Twitter, Instagram, Facebook have established a significant trust, reputation for enabling faster change and progress, causing an acceleration of the rate of change as compared to that of established and specific new brands. The information that helps us shape our worldviews comes in pieces through an unlimited social media posts and a short TV news segment or newspaper. Irrespective of the sources of information consumed as there is so much junk out there, it is easy to to lump it all togeather and say, "the media " are'nt trustworthy because of detentions and sedition law that are made every now and then; where only one voice is allowed in the media, the pro-government voice.
In UK, the old sedition law was removed in early 2010 while around the world free speech crusaders have been demanding to repeal or to expire the sedition law which suppress the the freedom of expression as it is mostly used by the government to protect themselves rather than their nation.
Written by:
Iram Tariq
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