Let it be said up front that The Humanitarian Chronicle supports the plight of cyber-dissidents harassed by hostile governments for their expression.
For the sake of clarity, we define the term cyber-dissident in the same way as has been put forward via Wikipedia:
A cyber-dissident is a professional journalist or citizen journalist who posts news, information, or commentary on the internet that implies criticism of a government or regime.
In regions where print and broadcast media are tightly controlled, anonymous online postings by cyber-dissidents may be the only source of information about the experiences, feelings, and opinions of ordinary citizens.
Cyber-dissidence plays an important role in today’s media.
Currently the majority of the world’s mainstream media is centralized under the umbrella of a few select large organizations. The size of these organizations and their economic interests necessitate political interests which often demonstrate a bias in reporting and sometimes a lack of in-depth reporting as the need to churn out stories weighs heavier than the need to create depth in those stories. Not only that, but they are generally heavily controlled in restrictive nations, thus their ability to report micro events or to voice opinion within such restrictive states that is at odds with the voice of the state, is often limited.
For these reasons, the voice of individual cyber-dissidents is increasingly important. It is with this in mind that we recognize the strength of blogging – a blog being a space on the internet that acts like a journal – a web log.
Whilst the majority of active blogs, and the majority of blogs that come and go are simply the free expression of everyday people going about their lives, there are some who use the platform of blogging to express dissident opinion in restrictive nations and to provide a window into realities we may not otherwise see. Many do so anonymously for their own protection, using pseudonyms to identify themselves on the internet.
It is fast being recognized that these voices are valuable voices offering differing thought from other forms of media. These voices are also being recognized as posing a threat within many restrictive nations and some such nations are taking measures to push censorship and create state legislation that allows for the harassment of such dissidents. The result has been some well reported cases of cyber-dissidents being arrested, imprisoned or fined for presenting opinion critical of state heads in some nations.
The free and open platform of blogging, whilst offering a lot of rubbish, must be recognized as an important tool for the free and open sharing of information. Cyber-dissidents are an important factor in such sharing. For this reason, allow me to restate that The Humanitarian Chronicle supports the right to free expression that should be afforded to cyber-dissidents (as defined above) offering critical opinion of governments around the world. They should be allowed to exercise their right to free expression without fear of persecution.
For more information, take a look at the following:
Global Voices
Electronic Frontier Foundation: Legal Guide for Bloggers
International Freedom of Expression eXchange
Human Rights Watch: Free Expression and the Internet
Wannabehuman: Social Software and Cyber-Dissidence
Handbook for Bloggers and Cyber-Dissidents from Reporters Without Borders, with support from the French Foreign Ministry. (PDF)
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I think it would be wise to point out that western corporations are also guilty of Net Censorship. There is a concept being banded around the United States on Net Neutrality. The concept here is that Corporates will limit the reach of your internet connection in attempts to reduce costs and to force people to pay more for the use of wider parts of the internet.
This here can cause an issue where internet corporates can limit access to information that may be damaging to their systems and reputation.
When we challenge the typical internet censor states (like China) we need to be mindful of the fact that we maybe as subjected to the same levels of censorship at home, just a little more subtly.
I could go on here cause there is a whole world of information warfare occurring under our very noses that we are blissfully unaware of. A war that has been put to extremely good use even as recent as the Georgia Crisis.
This is why ‘Net Neutrality’ is so important. While there are certainly valid complaints regarding the internet in its current form, the positives – I think – outweigh the negatives.