If you follow a couple of Indian blogs or use twitter, you must be aware of the NDTV vs Kunte episode. Chyetanya Kunte published an article in his blog on 27 Nov 2008, about the irresponsible role of media covering the tragic attacks on Mumbai. He particularly criticized Barkha Dutt, the Padma Shri Award (Journalism) 2008, winning Indian journalist.

The original blog post titled “Shoddy Journalism” was removed by Kunte and he has put up an apology instead. The very way the apology is written, one can easily make out that he was sent a legal notice to remove the article from his blog.

But the things don’t die on web so easily. Removing the article from the original website and getting a forced apology published is not going to work as the guys at NDTV might have expected. You can find the original article here and here.

Only few people might have read what Kunte has written in the original article before he actually removed the post. Following the apology, many of the Indian bloggers joined hands in support of Kunte and published their views and expressed anger against NDTV.

I do not understand what NDTV has achieved with this entire episode of threatening a lonely blogger. I think its too paradoxical. Is it not the media which works entirely on the basis of freedom of speech? Few months back, the same TV channel conducted a show on bloggers and blogs to discuss bloggers right to freedom of speech and regulating blogs.

Is freedom of speech only applicable to the media guys, politicians, rich and influential who can somehow battle in a court if necessary defending what they have said or written? Is the common man of India denied the basic fundamental right of freedom of speech, which is one of the six fundamental rights in India, which everyone of us studied and remembered so proudly in our school days.

Here are few reactions from Indian bloggers which I found very interesting.

The Further Adventures of Hark! DaButt

http://shripriya.com/blog/2009/01/28/shame-on-ndtv-and-barkha-dutt/

A bedtime story about blog freedom

Blogger Silenced by NDTV

http://www.sandeepweb.com/2009/01/29/barkha-dutt-and-ndtv-the-joke-is-on-you/

http://www.labnol.org/india/indian-bloggers-vs-ndtv-barkha-dutt/6853/

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