FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION ON INTERNET

What Limits are set by The Law on The Freedom of Expression of Communication and Publication via The Internet in UK?

[Name of College]

What Limits are set by The Law on The Freedom of Expression of Communication and Publication via The Internet in UK?

Introduction

Democracy is the system which believes in the freedom of expression. The term freedom of expression is now among the hot topic, as this domain has attracted number of scholars and researchers towards itself. Freedom of expression or (FoE) is the notion which believes that everyone in a democratic system should observe equal rights to express their opinion on any topic. However, to what extent a person should be given rights to express his/er opinion on different topics. However over the internet the communication and information flow is unstoppable and uncontrollable, this demands to set certain limits to the freedom of expression over internet in order to avoid such messages that may create hatred among different communities (Karaca, 2003). Two recent examples of such events have gained the attention of the world. One event is the release of secrete US documents by WikiLeaks, secondly using various social networking sites over internet in particular Facebook Terry Jones attempted to violate the basic human rights law by observing Burn Qoran Day.

This study will attempt to answer the question that what limits should be set by the law on the freedom of expression of communication and publication via the internet in UK? This is a major concern as besides these two events quoted above, terrorist organizations are also using internet to promote their illegal activities.

Information over Internet

The technological revolution applied to communication in its broadest sense has allowed to build a global network of computers connected by satellite, fiber optic and satellite dishes. This system allows moving automatically and almost instantaneously impressive amounts of information every second. Currently, any person or organization can access and provide their own information on the global network 24 hours a day. Books, papers, study materials, software, all type of information (cultural, commercial, political, news, science, databases data), text, audio (music, vocals), image (graphics, photography, video, etc.) is available and easily accessible on the internet, as all computers are connected through a network. Whereas social organizations, neighborhood associations, cooperatives and trade unions, libraries and museums, newspapers and magazines, radio and television are transmitting information over the Internet. (Hawke, 2001)

It is estimated that throughout the world there are approximately 100 million people who uses Internet as a source of information. Internet has turned into a replaced the library and become the major source of information in present world. No doubt there is a real revolution in how to deal with information and communication. There is a tendency to confuse the use of this technology with abuse or addiction. On the other hand there is a natural fear of the unknown that leads to neglect the use of this technology as a way to justify himself to the ignorance and fear of ...