Tuesday 16 October 2007

Blogging and censorship - 64 in prison for blogging

Bloggers in some countries are in the front line when it comes to governments cracking down on freedom of speech. A report by the organisation, Reporters without Borders, which seeks to defend freedom of the press and the safety of journalists has highlighted the plight of bloggers and citizen journalists in its latest report. According to the report over 64 bloggers are currently in prison because of their blogs. The Republic of China is particularly bad in this respect and according to the report has arrested 50 bloggers for commenting on nationally sensitive issues. Eritrea, North Korea and Iran join China in being at the bottom of the rankings in this respect.

As the BBC report highlights, it shows that bloggers or what we might more accurately term, citizen journalists, are equally in the front line when it comes to freedom of speech as mainstream media.

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