Blogs Are Rocking The Boat

What should we make of blogging? Is it simply the latest internet fad, a truly democratic tool for change or, as some have suggested, a vehicle for mob rule? David Reid finds blogs are rocking the boat both East and West.

Weblogs started off as a personal outpouring, a kind of digital diary.

If you work on the basis that a problem shared is a problem halved, you can share with millions and - who knows? Now blogs feature everything from cant on cars, opinions on opera, to rants from the politically righteous East and West.

But not everyone is free to say what they think. Reporters Sans Frontières campaigns for the rights of journalists in China, where the ability to turn a nice phrase in criticism can be frowned on from a height.

In fact, the list of things you cannot talk about in China is almost as long as the things you can, as Cai Chongguo, a Chinese dissident, explains.

We can't talk about police or military corruption. "And of course we can't say anything about workers or farmer demonstrations. All that's taboo. "According to Reporters Sans Frontières, at least 63 bloggers have been arrested, and most of those are publishing articles outside of the country. "These are people who are really resisting government oppression."

'Revolution'
So why are authoritarian governments so worried about blogging? Reporters Sans Frontières says, perhaps it is because the internet is so virulent.

In the same way that spammers can reach millions of people in an easy way, ideas deemed dangerously democratic by many regimes can spread faster than bacteria on a petri-dish.

Julien Pain, of Reporters Sans Frontières, says: "Blogging is a very, very important tool in terms of freedom of expression. "Even if you don't know html or how to set up your own website, using a blog without any technical skill you can become a publisher

"That's why it is so interesting. It is a kind of a revolution now.
"In a country like Iran people couldn't express themselves and now they can, because they are using blogs to tell the world about what they are living and their conditions."

But bloggers are not just getting under the skin of authoritarian regimes. In the West, particularly in America, they are also making waves among traditional journalists. These are people working in what right-wing bloggers see as a cosy liberal club, and call MSM or the mainstream media... Continue reading