Global Bloggers Under Threat
Published November 08, 2009 @ 08:20AM PT
Popular Cuban blogger Yoani Sanchez was stopped and beaten by police this week on her way to an anti-violence rally in Havana. She was one of three bloggers reportedly detained and assaulted by Cuban officers -- probably for their outspoken online criticism of the country's political rulers. Global Voices has an excellent roundup of the incidents and Sanchez wrote about the incident and posted video of the anti-violence rally she missed.
Also this week, Tunisian blogger and theater professor Fatma Riahi was imprisoned for three days and could face defamation charges for allegedly writing poltical satire and commentary on her blog. She was freed yesterday, but her laptop was confiscated, and advocates fear she could be arrested again once officers dig up evidence that she criticized the state. A community of bloggers has rallied around her, and Global Voices and the LA Times have reported on her situation.
There's great promise in new media to challenge oppressive regimes around the world and bring sunlight to unjust practices of dozens of world governments. That's why these governments crack down on bloggers like Riahi and Sanchez -- they're scared of the power of blogs to bring international attention to their actions.
Threatened Voices, a Global Voices site that tracks silenced and imprisoned bloggers around the world, lists Tunisia as fourth on its list of countries with threatened of arrested bloggers. Cuba's on the list, too, of course. The site is an invaluable resource for tracking -- and exposing -- media suppression around the world.
Blogs will play a key role in the opening of media and democracies around the world in the year to come, and we need sites like Threatened Voices to shine a light on the countries that seek to silence voices of reason.
Share this Post
Facebook
Twitter
Digg
StumbleUpon
Delicious
EmailRelated Posts
-
Crowdfunded Court Reporting
-
A Somali Judge’s Assassination and the Struggles of a Tattered System
-
Open-Sourcing Our Courts
Comments (1)
Comments on Change.org are meant for further exploration and evaluation of the ideas covered in the posts. To that end, we welcome constructive comments. However, we reserve the right to delete comments that are offensive, abusive, or off-topic; that contain ad hominem attacks; or that are designed to subvert or hijack comment threads rather than contribute to them. Repeat offenders may be permanently removed from the site at our discretion.
Author
-
Matt has worked and volunteered in various capacities in criminal justice reform for several years. When he's not blogging, he works as the Online Communications Manager at the Innocence Project. Views expressed here are Matt's, and don't represent the positions of the Innocence Project.
Featured Criminal Justice Actions
-
-
-
Overturn the Texas Prison Book Ban
194 People
-
Overturn the Texas Prison Book Ban
Sadly the more things change the more they stay the same. Nations today are trying to upgrade their use of technology slowly but surely in the underdeveloped nations of the world while at the same time Nations like these which include Cuba and Tunisia are still trying to silence their own people from receiving information that is not a threat against their government but infromation which would help expand the thoughts of its citizens. I am the first person to comment on this blog.
Posted by rocky dominguez on 11/08/2009 @ 12:14PM PT
You must be signed in to report content.