According to a news story on BBC News, Amnesty International is asking bloggers to show their support for freedom of speech.
The human rights group also wants web log writers to highlight the plight of fellow bloggers jailed for what they wrote in their online journals.
The organisation said fundamental rights such as free speech faced graver threats than ever before.
The campaign coincides with the start of a week-long UN-organised conference that will debate the future of the net.
“Freedom of expression online is a right, not a privilege – but it’s a right that needs defending,” said Steve Ballinger of Amnesty International. “We’re asking bloggers worldwide to show their solidarity with web users in countries where they can face jail just for criticising the government.”
Amnesty International is asking bloggers to highlight other bloggers and publicize cases where freedom of speech is under attack. It wants to make the Internet Governance Forum (IGF) lobby the UN to “act as a debating body for national net policies”, helping bloggers and anyone expressing their “freedom of speech” rights do so without persecution.
I’ve written a lot about the issue of bloggers’ rights and freedom of speech, as well as bloggers persecuted for their words and images, and I think we all need to help this cause.
Your Blogging Challenge this week is to:
Blog about a blogger or individual who has risked their life by expressing their opinion.
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Socially responsible blogging? The big question is whether blogging for the oppressed will effect change?
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[…] Lorelle has put up a new blog challenge: blog about those who dare to speak out. From her post: According to a news story on BBC News, Amnesty International is asking bloggers to show their support for freedom of speech. […]
[…] It wants to make the Internet Governance Forum (IGF) lobby the UN to “act as a debating body for national net policies”, helping bloggers and anyone expressing their “freedom of speech” rights do so without persecution. Blog Challenge: Blog About Those Who Dare to Speak Out – Lorelle on WordPress […]
[…] It wants to make the Internet Governance Forum (IGF) lobby the UN to “act as a debating body for national net policies”, helping bloggers and anyone expressing their “freedom of speech” rights do so without persecution. Blog Challenge: Blog About Those Who Dare to Speak Out – Lorelle on WordPress There are several reports that the Greek authorities arrested a man for linking – not writing, but linking – to blog posts that had satirised a businessman (possibly a TV evangelist). The businessman complained to the police and the police picked up the adminstrator of blog aggregation site blogme.gr – and charged him. Update: The man arrested was Antonis Tsipropoulos and the target of the satire was Dimosthenis Liakopoulos – a controversial Greek tele-evangelist. The satire site that mocks Mr Liakopoulos can be found at funel.blogspot.com, but since it is hosted in the US, neither the Greek authorities nor even Mr Liakopoulos can get at it. What Mr Tsipropoulos has been charged with, god only knows. But this is a spectactular own goal by the Greek authorites on the eve of the IGF. Particularly since making a crime of linking to someone else’s content is pure, and legally foolhardy, censorship. Greek blog aggregator arrested – kierenmccarthy.co.uk […]
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[…] Blog Challenge: Blog About Those Who Dare to Speak Out […]
[…] Blog About Those Who Dare to Speak Out […]
[…] Blog Challenge: Blog About Those Who Dare to Speak Out […]