Blogging and Free Speech

Since I started contributing at the CPB site, I have been struck by the length people would go to stop others from airing their views.  It is very sad indeed that there is even a plan in Iran to pass laws that would sanction the execution of bloggers deemed errant.

TechCrunch today wrote about the dangers of blogging focusing on the WIA report in which 64 blogggers have been arrested so far world wide.  There are more of these cases than one might think and the funny thing is that it is not only, so-called dictatorial governments that arrest or threaten bloggers and website publishers but also individuals and otherwise democratic and free societies like Canada.

Such a sad state of affairs.

New Blogging Gig

I musy say that I am proud to be joining the Committee To Protect Bloggers as a contributor.  The site is one that aim to report and does indeed report on threatened bloggers and threats on bloggers all over the world.

With governments slowly realising the power of the www they are slowly but surely clamping down on freedoms of speech.  This through various means, like blocking access to sites, jailing activists and some even passing laws which all but criminalise blogging.

I thank Curt for taking me on and hope this partnership will be mutually beneficial and will strengthen the cause.

If you have any info on the same feel free to write to me or Curt.

Cheers

Free Speech

Free Speech is the basis on which citizen journalism is built on.  According to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, freedom of opinion and expression and freedom to propagate the same are inherent human rights.

 

When citizens decide to be part of the news and information dissemination process, they do so because of flaws or inadequacies in traditional media, whether this be due to government restrictions, self censorship, bias or plain mediocrity.  Citizen’s involvement in the process should not be viewed as a competition but rather as a call to rethink the broadcast process as a whole. The fact that people can decide to immerse themselves into hitherto unknown broadcast process is but an indicator of failings of the media as we know it.

 

Going to through the web I have become increasingly worried at the lengths governments and authorities will go to stifle free speech, in China and Egypt they are putting them in jail and worse in Iran the government is about to pass a law that will now seek to execute bloggers and journalists in part ‘…..to mental security’.  These governments have in fact shown a high disregard for the dissenting voices, and have tried by all means to get through/around the anonymity offered by the web.  This is by asking ISP providers to provide users records and blocking access to ‘un-worthy sites’ the US, the bastion of freedom isn’t wholly clean also with a judge ordering Youtube, the video sharing site, to release its user records.

 

But we have to ask ourselves is this really necessary, is citizen journalism really a concept worth embracing or is it just a passing fad for hyper-active internet users.

 

The fundamentals of this phenomenon is that traditional media has failed as such are we doomed to have to endured sub standard fare purporting to be reporting, I think not!  When we get alternative reportage, alternative ideas using alternative modes of communications, where new media technology and applications come in, we should be grateful of this.  This doesn’t mean that we should embrace it blindly but careful analysis would determine its veracity, just we do with newspapers.

 

Various efforts on the web to expose this fact have been gaining attention, including the committee to protect bloggers, citizen media law project, global voices among others.  These projects should be encouraged and support lest we lose our voices to governmental gags.