TODAY, 14 March 07
"China to tighten control over blogs"

TODAY, 15 March 07
"Elite Indian school bans excessive blogging"

Two of the world's populoud countries, China and Indai, have increased scrutiny of blogging. While China seeks to regulate he views and thoughts of bloggers on political matters, Indian schools have imposed a curfew where students cannot be online from 11pm at night to noon the next day.

For China's case, it is a welcomed move by many as this stance has been widely adopted by many countries, including Singapore. At present, there are over 34 million blogs in China alone and that number is growing. Therefore, there needs to be measures in place to control what bloggers are ranting about.

Political issues are classified information which is mostly secret in nature. Such information should not be on blogs as terrorists can use the information to plan attacks, which will be a major security issue for the country. Even in the Singapore Armed Forces where I work, I cannot blog about many issues in my workplace because of the high sensitivity of information.

For India's case, it is an extreme measure that has been enforced. According to the article, the curfew has been imposed because the students have been inactive in other areas like sports and outdoor activities. Instead, the students are more engrossed in Internet surfing, blogging and chatting.

In both cases, we see a similar situation where the country is adopting a tough stance on blogging. However, blogging is a global phenomenon that will continue to rise and there is a need for both countries to be more liberal and open-minded. Both countries need to realise that blogging is all about airing personal views and feelings and sharing their thoughts with their readers. If there are many restrictions for bloggers, then it defeats the purpose of having a blog.

Bloggers themselves need to be responsible by being cautious about revealing sensitive information. I believe most bloggers, especially those in the military, are prudent enough to avoid such folly.

Therefore, the ban in India is totally uncalled for and I do not support it.