Censorship

I am seeing a very worrying trend in South Africa. I am not sure when it started but I think that it needs to end soon or we will be a very sad little country on the southern tip of Africa.

If someone wants to say something that he feels is the truth, then who are we to stop that person from doing it? As long as that view does not incite violence or hatred towards other people, then he HAS to be able to say it.

There has been a website launched lately that brought awareness to the internet world about all of the crime in South Africa. Today, that site no longer exists. Was it pulled by the owner? Was it forced off by the ISP? Were the death threats that the author received the reason?

The author isn't answering his phone, so it seems as if we won't know the answer too soon, which is also a worry.

Let's step back a bit though. Here is someone saying and publishing things that he feels are important. You might not agree. In fact, I hope that you don't agree with him. If we all agreed with each other, why carry on living at all? Argue, debate and talk. Learn. People have threatened the author of the site with violence if he carried on with the site. Who is more in the wrong here? The author or the death threat?

If someone speaks out against anything in South Africa these days, you are branded unpatriotic or racist. Tony Leon of the DA get's it, Patricia de Lille gets it and other people who stand up to raise issues get it. We MUST stand up and stop this. If I wish to make my voice heard I can and MUST do it. It should be expected in a free country. If it doesn't happen, then we aren't truely free.

What do we do about it? We must kep our blogs interesting and exciting so that people on the Information Super Highway know that there are still free thinking liberals in South Africa. Not all of us are pro-death penalty. Not all of us are for a one party state. Not all of us want to leave at the drop of a hat just because things are going badly for a while.

We must be careful not to believe everything we see on the news and on the radio. Remember that these media want us to be one way. Fight against the machine, stand up and be counted.

Please let me know what you think.
J