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This is the World Bank's blog on governance and anti-corruption. It aims at providing a space for debate and knowledge sharing on this critical field of development. | Learn more...

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When blogging becomes an issue: worst places to be a blogger

Submitted by Alfredo on Tue, 2009-05-19 18:29

Blogs have changed the way people put into practice concepts such as voice and freedom of expression.  In a matter of minutes, anyone who has access to a computer with internet connection can create a blog and start posting ideas, experiences, opinions, pictures and videos that will be become available to more than 1.5 billion internet users in the world.

Also, blogs' features enable two-way communication and interaction between users, very different to the "static" dynamic of traditional websites. Most important, people can do all of these things at no cost.

However, the expansion of the blogosphere has also triggered negative reactions, especially in environments where censorship and control of information still prevail. Touching on several of these reactions, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) launched a special report in which it highlights the "10 worst countries to be a blogger."

 

The Summit of the Americas: One Eye Wide Open, Another Shut

Submitted by Kaufmann on Fri, 2009-04-17 08:54

President Obama has just written an op-ed for over a dozen newspapers throughout the Americas, in the eve of the Fifth Summit of the Americas that is about to take place in Trinidad & Tobago.

This is significant.  I care deeply about the Latin America and the rest of hemisphere, and wanted to write about the upcoming Summit.  Yet until now what we had was a draft Summit "Declaration" which the country leaders and their (Foreign Ministerial?) teams had been belaboring for a couple of years.

That draft "Declaration of Commitment of Port of Spain" is a travesty.  It is interminable and practically devoid of concreteness or substance.  It would be funny if we wouldn't be in the midst of a major economic crisis, one which is expected to hit South America particularly hard in the coming months.  Andres Oppenheimer has commented on that draft, labeling it as a joke.