(Image: SpeedBump.com)Here is an interesting story. I met up with a friend, Anil Netto, who is a writer and a web 2.0 political blogger. He travels a lot and has been covering political events all over the country.
What interests me about him is that he has been providing live feeds and information to his readers and those concerned about the latest development of the political landscape in the country. He believes in political justice and provides readers with uncensored news direct and straight from the source or events.
This is where the power of the internet and social media comes to the rescue. One of the 'tools' that Anil uses is Cover It Live! an online blogging tool that allows you to post comments and information directly to your readers. This tools provides readers live information as the events unfold from your perspective. It is not a chatting device, but caution must be taken as you do not want to lose focus as you might get caught up replying directly to the comments, which will then make it look as if you are having a 'chat' with your readers rather than providing a live feed and information as the events unfold.
(Anil working from his laptop covering the events live as they unfold via Cover It Live!)As we know that the internet promotes the freedom of speech, but some countries including China and Malaysia tend to censor news in the mainstream and traditional media. They do this to prevent the citizens from knowing the truth and what is going on around them (in the political sense based on the corrupt practices of the government). It is indeed a sad case especially when the government of the day does so to their own citizens.
This is when people like Anil Netto among others come into the picture. They play an important role to help spread the message of justice through their blogs and findings. Their news are uncensored and is focused to the benefit of the community.
However, it isn't easy as it sounds. These political bloggers such as Anil Netto, and many others including Raja Petra Kamaruddin (an independent online news provider for the community) are constantly watched by the goverment.
To prove my point, I decided to follow Anil for 2 days to cover the 'Perak Controversy'-- respectively on the 7th and on the 8th of Feb. The 8th Feb, was also a day of for the Hindu Community who celebrate Thaipusam.
We did a live coverage on the 'Perak Controversy' a political crisis that the Silver State is facing and followed a few 'key people' who were able to provide us information on the political landscape as issues unfold.
On the 7th I was at the Perak Chief Ministers Home , where he gave a speech and it was filled with supporters and unidentified and plain clothers police offifers. I went up to Anil and had a conversation with him about the event, and Anil immediately pointed out to me that there was an officer hoovering around us with a watchful eye and ear over us. We then had to move on to a different location to prevent them from following us and listening to our conversations and findings.
The second incident, was during the Thaipusam event (8th Feb). We had a lead that there was going to a a candle light vigil by the Hindu devotess to promote fundamental human rights, freedom of speech and expression, which the government has denied over the many years since they have been in power. Under normal circumstances, such events are illegal without a police permit (and they could have been arrested by the police) and these individuals took the opportunity to use this event to do so. Within moments, I was informed that the Special Branch plan clothes police officers are around and were watching our moves.
(Behind me were many other photographers and journalist covering this event)The goverment keeps a watchful eye to make sure that these people do not come in their way to provide information about their corrupt practices. As a results some of them (including Anwar Ibrahim, Lim Kit Siang, Karpal Singh, Raja Petra Kamaruddin, Jeffrey Kitingan) have been detained under the Internal Security Act (some call this the mirror of Guantanamo Bay), which allows the arrest of a person or a preventive detention without trial for a period not exceeding 2 years.
One thing is for sure-- Change is a must and we must all learn to adapt to change. Such government controls of the media and free speech will only lead to their down fall. We have seen tremendous change in the politics of the United States and how social media has played its part. What about you? Are you ready to change and ready to adapt to what social media has to offer?
