Alternatives International Journal

As a journalist at Alternatives International Journal, I wrote several online articles for the monthly publications. With the aim to build solidarity between global resistance movements and increase public debate around the status quo, I covered a range of topics, such as: grassroots solidarity movements, sustainability, women’s movements, freedom of the press, net neutrality, technology, and worker’s rights.

Below features an excerpt from an article entitled “Freedom of Expression in the Age of the Internet”:

Freedom of Speech in the Age of the Internet:

As we partake in this era of expansive technological advancement, the invention of the Internet has changed nearly every aspect of the way that we live our lives. The Internet has completely revolutionized mass communication, and the status of journalism remains in flux in the wake of this radical transformation. It has become increasingly difficult for any one specific group (political, religious, economic, etc.) to censor the spread of information and opinions. Yet freedom of speech remains a cause for which people give and lose their lives.

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Earlier this year, three prominent secular bloggers, Avijit Roy, Ananta Bijoy Das, and Washiqur Rahman Babu, were all brutally murdered in Bangladesh within the span of a few months.

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Despite arrests, no one has officially been charged with these murders. Freedom of expression is a fundamental right under Bangladesh’s constitution; however, these bloggers were brutally murdered in the streets near universities and even near their own homes. The response from the Bangladeshi government has been indifferent, despite its constitutional commitment to protect freedom of expression. Simply declaring that freedom of speech is a fundamental right does not secure the lives of those who write and share their opinions on controversial issues. The globally accessible platform for mass communication that the Internet provides has enabled the free exchange of ideas to foster. Yet the sword continues to attempt to silence the pen with scare tactics and violence.

Tactics of harassment and violence against journalists and bloggers lead to increased self-censorship, though some brave bloggers continue to exercise the right to freedom of expression despite the potentially disastrous consequences. A multiplicity of voices and the coexistence of differing opinions always run the risk of engendering conflict, whether it be a legislative battle against censorship or the struggle to survive in an environment that seeks to silence. Yet it is the most controversial topics, like religious intolerance and government corruption, that most desperately demand the right to freedom of expression. It is not the expression of an idea that is most dangerous, but its suppression that has the most adverse effects on societal ills. It is through revealing the most controversial and the most difficult aspects of a society that enable a society to progress. To stifle the exchange of ideas through mass communication is not to protect public order, but it is to stagnate society. Silence cannot be commensurate to peace.

Read the full article here.

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