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

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 report looks into several criteria such as the presence of regulations and laws that censor bloggers, the existence of control mechanisms to filter, monitor or limit the access to internet, and the imprisonment or use of harassment techniques, among others.  Based on this evidence, the CPJ identified Burma, Iran, Syria, Cuba, Saudi Arabia, Vietnam, Tunisia, China, Turkmenistan and Egypt as the places where bloggers have to face the most oppressive conditions.

In this group of countries, censorship activities range from "on-line techniques," which aim at blocking the access to the blogosphere and the internet, to "off-line methods," which target the source of information -the blogger- through the use of threats that discourage their online activism or through last resource actions, such as their incarceration.

For more on this topic, it is worthy looking at CPJ's report, their website and blog, as well as other sources like the OpenNet Initiative -and its blog, too- RConversation's blog by Rebecca MacKinnon, and the report "Freedom on the Net" by Freedom House -mentioned previously in this blog by Tanya.