Fourth International Conference on Communication & Media Studies

Abstract

India is considered to be one of the biggest democracy of the world. The constitution of the Republic of India ensure the freedom of speech and expression to the citizens offering the right to speak their mind and voice their opinions with facts. However In today’s India, citizens are struggling to express their dissent under the constant threat of being called anti national thus damaging the democracy of the country (Sen, 2017). The past few years saw a continuous stifling of free speech under gambit of security issues and national harmony. Independent documentary filmmakers are not far behind in this struggle. In their constant endeavors to bring forth the truth, highlighting social issues and fighting social evils, these filmmakers are facing censorship as a tool to curb their voices bringing a state of cultural emergency in the country. In their fight against this censorship, today, the Internet has become a great tool. Social media sites like Facebook and Twitter to talk about the issue and raising a support while Youtube, Vimeo and other online websites to screen the otherwise banned content on Internet provide these filmmakers a democratic platform. The researcher through this paper looks at the particular cases of documentary films that were denied censorship certificate and through in-depth interviews of the filmmakers will try to understand the role of internet as free and democratic space for all.