Censorship of Facebook

Censoring the terrors of war

IAN MAHONEY 19 September 2016

Who decides whether or not an image is fit for human consumption, and on what grounds?

Credit: Flickr/Tommy Japan. Creative Commons 2.0. Some rights reserved.

On the 8th September 2016, Aftenposten, Norway’s largest newspaper, published a front page rebuttal of Facebook’s request to remove an image from its own Facebook page that was written by its editor-in-chief and CEO, Espen Egil Hansen. The rebuttal was written in response to the censorship of Nick Ut’s Pulitzer Prize winning photograph ‘The Terror of War,’ which depicted children fleeing a napalm strike in Vietnam and was posted on Facebook as part of Norwegian author Tom Egeland’s entry about seven images that changed the history of warfare. 

Hansen was right to draw attention to the fact that “The napalm-girl is by far the most iconic documentary photography from the Vietnam war. The media played a decisive role in reporting different stories about the war than the men in charge wanted them to publish. They brought about a change of attitude which played a role in ending the war. They contributed to a more open, more critical debate. This is how a democracy must function.”

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इमोजी यानी पढ़ो नहीं देखो, मन के भावों की भाषा

पढ़ना और लिखना बेहद मुश्किल काम है. इंसान ने इन दोनों की ईज़ाद अपनी जरूरतों के हिसाब से की थी. पर यह काम मनुष्य की प्रकृति से मेल नहीं खाता. भाषा का विकास मनुष्य ने किस तरह किया, यह शोध का विषय है. भाषाएं कितने तरह की हैं यह जानना भी रोचक है. पर यह सिर्फ संयोग नहीं कि दुनिया भर में सबसे आसानी से चित्र-लिपि को ही पढ़ा और समझा जाता है. सबसे पुरानी कलाएं प्रागैतिहासिक गुफाओं में बनाए गए चित्रों में दिखाई पड़ती हैं. और सबसे आधुनिक कलाएं रेलवे स्टेशनों, सार्वजनिक इस्तेमाल की जगहों और हवाई अड्डों पर आम जनता को रास्ता दिखाने वाले संकेत चिह्नों के रूप में मिलती हैं. इन्हें दुनिया के किसी भी भाषा-भाषी को समझने में देर नहीं लगती.

देखना मनुष्य की स्वाभाविक क्रिया है. कम्प्यूटर को लोकप्रिय बनाने में बड़ी भूमिका उसकी भाषा और मीडिया की है. पर कम्प्यूटर अपने साथ नई भाषा लेकर भी आया है. मीडिया हाउसों के लिए सन 1985 में ऑल्डस कॉरपोरेशन ने जब अपने पेजमेकर का पहला वर्ज़न पेश किया तब इरादा किताबों के पेज तैयार करने का था. उन्हीं दिनों पहली एपल मैकिंटॉश मशीनें तैयार हो रहीं थीं, जो इस लिहाज से क्रांतिकारी थीं कि उनकी कमांड स्क्रीन पर देखकर दी जाती थीं. ये कमांड की-बोर्ड की मदद से दी जा रहीं थीं और माउस की मदद से भी.

You messed up my life: Shweta Basu Prasad writes open letter to media

In September this year,actress Shweta Basu Prasad was arrested by Hyderabad Police during a raid conducted in a hotel and was charged of prostitution. Following the arrest the actress was sent to a rescue home, where she stayed for about two months. The allegations of sex work have been cleared by the Hyderabad sessions court and Prasad is now back in Mumbai, currently working with Anurag Kashyap.

You can read her open letter to the media here. It has not been edited for grammatical and punctuation errors.

Dear,
Members of Media,

I grew up admiring some great journalists and reporters who, some times report even live from war-torn borders, natural disaster sites, terror attacked locations, etc. without hesitating a bit. These heroes inspired me to pursue my degree in Mass Media and Journalism degree too. I always thought, ‘wow! These guys, the media, actually risk their lives to bring us the truth’. And boom! You create a mess in my very life. Well done.

GYAN DARSHAN DIES SILENTLY

यह पोस्ट मैने अपने मित्र आलोक वर्मा के लिंक्डइन अकाउंट से हासिल की है। ज्ञान दर्शन जैसे चैनलों का बंद होना हमारे सामाजिक पतन की निशानी है। केवल ज्ञान दर्शन ही नहीं एकलव्य और व्यास चैनल भी खत्म हो रहे हैं।

Gyan Darshan, a knowledge dissemination television channel under IGNOU, breathed its last without anyone knowing about it. Instead of ratifying the legality of the channel by the I and B Ministry, which initiated the 'must carry' provision for cable operators, refused to allow the channel to function from a new transponder allotted by ISRO. Also dead are Eklavya channel operated by IITs and Vyas channel operated by the UGC.

Dr R Sreedher, a wellknown academician and media practitioner, who was responsible for setting up these channels to offer educational support to the disadvantaged rural India, has been waging a lone battle to revive these channels by convincing the Ministries of I & B and HRD to reconsider their decision.

If any of journalist friends want to to do this story can contact Dr R Sreedher at his mobile no +91 9810778459

The following is a version of events from Dr sreedher who have shape it these channels .

1. When we started transmission on 26th january 2000 we used the transponder on the ageing satellite INSAT 1B which was at the disposal of Doordarshan

2. Later in 2002, at the initiative of Mr Kasturi Rangan, Mr Abdul Kalam and others, a new full transponder was allotted to Gyan Darshan on Insat 3c. In fact Gyan Darshan was the first to dock with the satellite

3. Mr Kalam and Mr Kasturi rangan insisted on going digital in 2002 itself so Gyan Darshan became simulcast , analog and digital.

4. One analog transponder can be used to transmit 6 digital tv channels in those days and today i hear that due to compression technologies we can go upto 12

5. Hence Gyan Darshan transponder's capacity was augmented for 6 digital channels in 2002

6. 2003 Jan 26 -Eklvaya - the GD3 channel- technology - was launched with IITs providing the infrastructure and contents but uplinked form IGNOU

7. Jan 26, 2004 Gyan Darshan 4 - Vyas Channel - Higher education channel - was launched with UGC taking the resposiility through conosrtiumof educational communciation

8. 2004 - Govt declares Gyan Darsan channel - a must carry for cable operators along with Lok Sabha and Rajya sabha channels

9. It was never the intentin of the Govt to run these chanels through IGNOU. The first order in Jan 2000 itself said that it was only an interim arrangement till a separate entitity for Educational media transission was established

10. Educational Brodcasting coroporation of India ( Gyan Bharati) was also proposed

11.Since it was found that IGNOU is not the right place to run these channels due to change of Vice chanellor and his way of working on Septemer 30th 2003 Government issued an extra ordinary gazette to take away the role of IGNOU in managing these channels

12. IGNOU was asked to submit a report to the new committee which was to meet in Jan 2004 and the VC was just one of the members of the same.

13. IGNOU VC used his clout and postponed the meeting

14.February 2004 - Loksabha was dissolved and country went it for elections

15. UPA Government thought that these were NDA's babies and gave lukewarm response

16. 2012 - Government proposes to start 40 DTH channels for education while the 4 earlier channels were languishing

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