Published in The Rising Kashmir on Aug. 16 ::
While condemning booking of WhatzApp and Facebook administrators by police, President Doctors Association Kashmir (DAK) Dr Nisar- ul-Hassan Saturday said that crackdown on social media was a “violation of civil liberties.”
DAK President in a statement issued here said that civil liberties were personal guarantees and freedoms that state cannot abridge and in fact is dutiful to protect them.
“Freedom of expression is a fundamental and inalienable right of an individual in a liberal democracy,” Nisar ul Hassan said, adding that curbing expression of free opinion is human rights abuse as per universal declaration of human rights.
He said that social media is used by Kashmiris to express their pain and make visible the horrendous atrocities in valley to international community.
“Social media is crucial and vital in Kashmir where traditional and conventional means of communication are either blocked or censored. It is critical in Kashmir as authorities are trying to prevent coverage of what is happening”, Nisar ul Hassan said.
“Police and other security agencies are desperate as their illegalities can no longer go unnoticed because of ubiquity of social media,” he said.
“Use of repressive means by police to stifle dissent is vehement denunciation of civil liberties. Police in the valley act without accountability and misuse the power they enjoy,” Hassan said, adding, that it is dictatorial and autocratic to criminalize dissent as treason and free opinion as espionage.
Source: http://www.risingkashmir.com/crackdown-on-social-media-against-civil-liberties-dak/