Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

Americans thus enjoy comparatively more freedom of expression and speech than people in the developing countries. It would be wrong to assume that freedom of speech is absolute even in the US but in our country, we have the privilege to challenge any unjust arrest, ban or suspension if it is found to violate our rights of free speech. However this is certainly not the case in developing countries such as China where freedom of speech is regularly curbed and restricted by the government. One interesting though sad example of this is the lack of freedom to express one's self on the Internet. Internet is not governed by any single body. It is a free domain that every person can access and use it for whatever purposes he likes, even if they are contrary to the beliefs and values held by the

government of his country. However China doesn't subscribe to this view. In this country, it appears that all online activities are highly moderated and monitored since in the last few years, many arrests have been made in cases where users said something against the government of the time. There are firewalls, shield and various gateway guards that monitor and filter all political communication on the Internet thus curbing free speech to a large extent. Taipei Times (2005) reports:

Such actions on part of the judiciary bolster freedom of speech. And this free and unrestricted expression results in unhindered growth of creativity. Creativity then translates into various forms of art and art lays down the foundation of a culture. In societies where freedom of speech and expression is curbed or violated, art and culture die a natural death. The reason we do not see any creativity or original art emerging from developing countries is precisely because of lack of freedom of expression. For example no political paintings or literature is allowed in countries like China where anything said against the government could result in arrests. In a country where journalists can be arrested for releasing political information like in the recent case of Shi Tao, we cannot possibly expect people to be creative since creativity requires free and unhindered flow of expression. Shi Tao was sentenced to a 10-year prison term for releasing sensitive information about 1989 Tiananmen massacre [2]. Growth and promotion of art are thus effectively curbed in these countries and expecting some original creativity emerging from under such strict laws is only an unrealizable dream.

"From 2000, when the first Chinese "Web criminal" Lin Haiyin was imprisoned for inst

Some common words found in the essay are:
Shi Tao, Golden Shield, Loretta Preska, Amendment Congress, Internet Internet, Penal Law, Bush Internet, Constitution Secondly, Falun Gong, , freedom speech, developing countries, shi tao, freedom expression, free speech, complete freedom speech, neutral art, grounds internet-based, chinese people, countries china, national space, grounds internet-based expression,
Approximate Word count = 1182
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page double spaced)