OPINION> Commentary
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OPINION> Commentary
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Ban 'human flesh search'
(China Daily)
Updated: 2009-01-22 07:45
We must ensure citizen's freedom of speech while banning the search for people's private information on the Web, says an article on the website of Xinhua News Agency. The following is an excerpt: Xuzhou, a city of Jiangsu province, has recently unveiled a regulation on the safety protection of computer information system, effective from June 1, which clearly bans the widely-known "human flesh search" - a way of search for private information like name and workplace of someone who is thought to be worthy of being punished for improper deeds. Since its inception, the private information hunt has been faced with controversy. It poses threats to everyone in society who hope to keep their privacy intact and could cross the subtle lines between morality and legality. So, it is necessary for the government to ban the sweeping human flesh search. However, the search has played an active role in encouraging netizens to participate in public issues and unveil corrupt deeds. As a judge said, the court does not fully support the ban of the search and what the court opposes is the one that violates the privacy of a citizen. So, we need to support and protect the enthusiasm of netizens in joining in public issues while banning "human flesh search". It may be easy to prohibit the hunt, but it is probably hard to create a channel for the public to freely speak their minds.
(China Daily 01/22/2009 page8) |
