We’re looking forward to your own report, when you can.

The right to blog: freedom’s next frontier

A summit on global citizen media highlights the experience of activist bloggers under authoritarian regimes and raises questions about how best to champion their work, says Evgeny Morozov.

[…]

The Budapest gathering represents one of the major benefits of today’s internet revolution: the radical democratisation of the global flow of ideas. The technology, the ideas and the processes that have made possible blogs, social networks, and collaborative projects like Wikipedia also give many unconventional thinkers previously consigned to the margins of public life a platform that enables them to be heard by a dedicated (if often tiny) audience. The academic, blogger and pundit Daniel W Drezner has called this new generation - free from the usual constraints of the academia, self-employed, and armed with Google search - “Public Intellectuals 2.0″.

But is it “Public Intellectuals 2.0″ or “Dissidents 2.0″? […]

http://www.opendemocracy.net/article/the-right-to-blog-freedom-s-next-frontier&sid=19020592538

It was the same story in Armenia in March, where the president, Robert Kocharian, ended his term in office with a media blackout that, supposedly, extended to blogs (self-published websites which typically contain the author’s personal observations and opinions). Like all other outlets, the authorities said, blogs could publish government news only. The result was a soaring number of blogs hosted on servers outside Armenia—all sharply critical of the authorities.

[…]

International human-rights organisations have taken up their cause. But the best and quickest way of defending those in prison may be with the help of other internet activists. Sami ben Gharbia, a Tunisian digital activist who now lives in exile in the Netherlands, says that this beats traditional human-rights outfits when it comes to informing the world about the arrest of fellow bloggers. He co-ordinates the campaigning efforts of Global Voices Online, a web-based outfit that began as a collator of offbeat blog content and has now branched out into lobbying for free speech.

Such issues were expected to be in sharp focus at Global Voices’ annual summit in Budapest this week, where hundreds of bloggers, academics, do-gooders and journalists from places like China, Belarus, Venezuela and Kenya were due to swap tips on how to outwit officialdom. The aim, says Ethan Zuckerman, a Harvard academic who cofounded Global Voices, is to build networks of trust and co-operation between people who would not instinctively look to the other side of the world for solutions to their problems.

That is a worthy if ambitious goal. Doubtless, authoritarian governments are in close touch too, sharing the best ways of dealing with the pestilential gadflies and troublemakers of the internet. But they will not be posting their conclusions online, for all to see. Which way works better? History will decide.

http://www.economist.com/world/international/displaystory.cfm?story_id=11622401

However, this issue was touched upon and discussed with some of us saying we believed that the U.S. and Europe should be covered in more detail.

That said, it does remain the case that the issue is more with the developing world and allowing those voices to be heard on issues often not covered adequately by the Western media.

Not sure if an when more coverage of US and Europe will follow, but that’s the reasoning behind GV anyway.

Belarus tightening controls on Internet journalism

MINSK, Belarus (AP) — Belarusian lawmakers gave final approval Tuesday to a crackdown on Internet journalism, one of the last remaining independent sources of information in the repressive former Soviet republic.

The legislation also forbids all Belarusian media outlets from accepting foreign funding, a restriction that will affect about 30 publications that now receive U.S. or EU money.

The bill, drafted by authoritarian President Alexander Lukashenko’s office, “is among the harshest in Europe and throws Belarus back to the worst Soviet times,” said Oleg Gulak, the leader of the Belarusian Helsinki Committee rights group.

The new restrictions come ahead of parliamentary elections, which Lukashenko on Tuesday set for Sept. 28.

His government argues that the Internet needs to be brought to heel to shield the population from foreign propaganda.

“We have to protect society from the negative effects of the Internet,” First Deputy Information Minister Liliya Ananich told parliament members Tuesday.

The new measures require all Internet sites to be officially registered with the government; many independent newspapers that have been closed down by the authorities have taken refuge in cyberspace.

The legislation also toughens controls on journalists, who can be imprisoned for two years for reproducing foreign media reports that “discredit Belarus.”