India is a democracy, infact we are the biggest democracy in this world and we takes proud in the fact. I learnt in my civics lesson in my school that democracy empowers us with many fundamental rights one of which is “Right to freedom of speech”. Many a times the powerful people in our country try to silence the voice of media,print or visual and they all come all guns blazing crying foul. They bear the responsibility of keeping the citizens informed, keeping the wrong doers on their toes and to strenthen the people thereby. They do it with their right to freedom of speech. But the very instituion that relies on freedom of speech to criticize even the most influential people in the country cant stand the same right to be used against them.

This is exactly what happened in the case of ckunte and NDTV+ Barkha Dutt.

Mumbai terror strike on 26 Nov last year saw many bloggers around the globe joining along with those who were saddened and affected by the tragedy in criticizing the terrorists. The world took a renewed oath to wipe terror from its root. Attack also witnessed a huge social media participation and people were saying there were more lively pictures portrayed by twitter than the television media itself. So frequent were the tweets on twitter that the Indian goverment asked twitter to stop #mumbai tweets as they feared that the updates were assisting the terrorists. Update: As Patrix mentioned said,it turns out that it was just a rumour.
Apart from this, many blogger expressed their anger over irresponsible and insensitive journalism by many reporters. They felt that the information the journalists were giving out (regarding the positions of the security personnel) was helping the terrorists. Also they were appalled by the reporters sticking their mics in front of those who were affected, or to someone who just lost a dear one in the attack.

Chyetanya Kunte was a little known blogger who also happened to dislike the media coverage and expressed his anger over at his blog like many others did. He criticized NDTV and Ms. Barkha Dutt for revealing the deatails of the locations of the victims hiding in the hotels. He also alleged the reporters could also have ben responsible fo death of security personnel. Even though he is an Indian living in Holland, he had every right to raise his voice and express his views, whatever they were.
But Ms. Dutt and NDTV just could not take it,the criticism which is vital for improvement of every person on this planet.

They flexed their muscle against a tiny blogger and served a legal notice to CKunte and forced him to unconditionally withdraw his post titled “Shoddy Journalism” and apologise on his blog. Poor blogger, thought he had no choice against a media biggie and so he obliged and took down his post. (I am lucky to have seen the original post following a tweet on Twitter. For those of you who want to see the post, go to this link and scroll down to the post “Shoddy Journalism”. Thanks to this blog entry).

The apology on his blog never seems like his own writing, surely NDTV lawyers did some job their drafting a technical apology.
The very institution that owes its existence to freedom of speech slams a blogger for doing the same. So should media guys be sued everytime they criticize politicians? What if our leaders begin to punish and ban you people for raising voices gainst them? Would that be fair? Clearly no, and I believe that both NDTV and Ms. Dutt acknowledge this fact. But here, it seems they happened to underestimate the power of a blogger and internet.
A small blogger criticizing them probably hurt their ego and in made a big judgement error.
First of all, if they thought a small blogger venting his anger on his blog can cause much damage to their image, how and why would they take the step of forcing the guy to back out. If they think the blogger’s voice can be ignored,they should have not bullied him but if they feared his voice why would they dare take the step they didm knowing the outrage it can cause in the blogging scene, which it has. Many few knew about Mr. Kunte and his blog post but now, thanks to NDTV and Barkha Dutt, many,many more know about it. You surely could have avoided that Ms. Dutt.

Result: The whole Indian blogosphere is buzzing with the issue and every other blogger is united in criticizing Mr. Barkha Dutt and NDTV. I just fail to find the rationale thinking behind the step. They are now a subject of thrashing by every Indian blogger. Ms. Dutt and NDTV, whether you like it or not, we do have a voice and I am pretty sure that now you are very well aware of this.
They should understand and acknowledge that just like them, we also have the freedom of speech. Bullying one person will only result in more 1000 people standing against you.Now go on and sue every blogger on the internet.

I always thought NDTV is better of the lot of Indian TV news channels (barring that Mumbai coverage ofcourse) but this idiotic,bullish and senseless act has forced me to question my thinking and opinion about NDTV.

More interesting readings and reactions on this issue:

http://www.desipundit.com/2009/01/28/blogger-silenced-by-ndtv/
http://blogibberish.com/?p=61
http://shripriya.com/blog/2009/01/28/shame-on-ndtv-and-barkha-dutt/
http://retributions.nationalinterest.in/ndtvs-assault-on-free-speech/
http://elekhni.com/2009/01/a-bedtime-story-about-blog-freedom/
And the best one so far. Sheer brilliance: The Further Adventures of Hark! DaButt

Update: Patrix’s post added.
http://www.ipatrix.com/muffling-a-blogger/