Why should we care about it?

Surveillance and data retention is a problem that deserves Global attention, even for developing countries. In developing countries protests for such causes are sometimes not among the list of priorities, such as poverty, hunger and violence, which are the major concerns. Not quite. In Peru, breaking news points to surveillance coming from the government, and recently in Guatemala, the President himself was under heavy surveillance.

Mass surveillance is threatening the fabric of a democratic and open society and a healthy Internet. Mass surveillance is also endangering the work and commitment of civil society organizations - on and offline. That is why many conscious people got together last Saturday to commemorate Freedom not Fear Day, with a variety of peaceful protests:

In Berlin the greatest protest march against surveillance in Germany’s history took place: Participants in the 2 km long, peaceful protest march carried signs reading “You are Germany, you are a suspect”, “No Stasi 2.0 - Constitution applicable here”, “Fear of Freedom?” and “Glass citizens, brittle democracy”. Apart from related music tracks, loud chants of “Belittle it today, be under surveillance tomorrow” or “We are here and we are loud because they are stealing our data” could be heard. During the protests, which were supported by more than 100 civil liberties groups, professional associations, unions, political parties and other organisations, artists played parodies on surveillance society.

It all started with the opposition to a Data Retention directive in EU. Now it has evolved and become global, as expressed by the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF):

Freedom Not Fear has evolved into a more general warning: showing how fundamental freedoms like privacy, freedom of expression, and democratic participation lose when reactionary surveillance systems penetrate our open networks, justified by a hyperbolic rhetoric of fear.

Saturday was a day to express why freedom, democracy, free speech, the right to private spaces and the right to private communication are important for any open society, and why mass-surveillance, mass data storage, mass data retention and video-surveillance by governments and private corporations are undermining such important liberties. The Internet is not immune for such invasion, actually, it has become a “tool” enabling many governments to control. The main argument has been Security concerns, but as explained by expert Bruce Schneir on his blog:

Too many wrongly characterize the debate as “security versus privacy.” The real choice is liberty versus control. Tyranny, whether it arises under threat of foreign physical attack or under constant domestic authoritative scrutiny, is still tyranny. Liberty requires security without intrusion, security plus privacy. Widespread police surveillance is the very definition of a police state. And that’s why we should champion privacy even when we have nothing to hide.

Events took place in more than a dozen countries around the World, and hopefully in the years to come more voices will join to act against such abuses from Governments and companies.

From a big picture (above) unveiled by Open Rights Group in London, to a meeting of up to 100,000 people in Berlin, activities in Argentina, articles in Chile, an informative talk in Guatemala, and a rally followed by a Statement for October 11, 2008 in U.S., many people joined efforts to express their opposition to the increasing surveillance and controls by governments and also against data retention.

The most important messages were to affirm international human rights, including freedom of expression and privacy protection, repeal legal authorities that permit warrantless surveillance, unconstitutional monitoring and tracking of individuals, and a call to end the culture of secrecy that allows government officials to hide mismanagement, fraud, and incompetence behind the veil of “homeland security”, i.e. a call to transparency.

As GNS Blog said:

Computer technology, with its ability to store masses of data and then mine it for patterns of behaviour, or reproduce it to the unauthorised, or just monitor people’s everyday activity, has a huge potential for ill in the hands of repressive or technologically illiterate governments. Equally it has huge potential for empowerment, the enablement of free speech and social networking

Here you can watch this illustrative video on Youtube:

On his blog, Gopalan had allegedly insulted Justice Belinda Ang in relation to a court matter in assessing damages in a defamation suit that Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong and Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew won against the Singapore Democratic Party (SDP) and its leaders.

Gopalan (pic below) had allegedly accused Justice Ang of “prostituting herself…by being nothing more than an employee of Mr Lee Kuan Yew and his son and carrying out their orders”. In his defence, Gopalan said that he hoped to raise political awareness in Singapore on his blog. He admitted that his words might have been strong, but he was not remorseful as they were true. Gopalan had represented himself in court, and was charged under Section 228 of Singapore’s Penal Code, “Intentional insult or interruption to a public servant sitting in any stage of a judicial proceeding”.

Gopalan’s sentence comes shortly after Singapore’s attorney general announced contempt of court proceedings it had filed against the publisher of the Asian edition of the Wall Street Journal and two of its editors, saying their editorials “impugn the impartiality, integrity and independence of the Singapore judiciary”.

According to Reuters, freedom of speech and expression, especially in relation to politics, race and religion, are tightly regulated in Singapore. While, the government says this is needed to maintain the country’s social and political stability, critics suggest it is misuse of the legal system.

Blog for a Cause!, the Global Voices Guide of Blog Advocacy, is now available in Arabic thanks to this translation by the Egyptian journalist and blogger Amr Magdi.

Blog for a Cause! has already been translated into Spanish and French; the translation into Chinese and Bengali is on the way.

The guide outlines easy-to-follow tips on how to use blogs as part of campaigns against injustice and features successful examples of advocacy blogs from around the world. It is divided into five sections:

1. Frequently asked questions about what blog advocacy is
2. The 5 key elements of any successful advocacy blog
3. The 4 steps to creating an advocacy blog
4. How to make your blog a vibrant community of active volunteers
5. Tips to help blog activists stay safe online.

دوّن من أجل قضية is availble for download as a PDF file. You may need to install the free Adobe Acrobat Reader to view it.

Please download دوّن من أجل قضية and help us translating the guide in your language.

For further information please contact Mary at MaryCJoyce [ at ] gmail [ dot ] com or Global Voices Advocacy Coordinator Sami Ben Gharbia at advocacy [ at ] globalvoicesonline [ dot ] org

Global Voices, Global Voices Advocacy and Média Hungária are pleased to announce the Global Voices Citizen Media Summit 2008, taking place in Budapest, Hungary on June 27-28, 2008.

The first day of the Global Voices Citizen Media Summit will feature several panels on matters relating to censorship and online freedom of speech. It will be devoted to discuss the challenges facing freedom of expression and debate the state of censorship and anti-censorship efforts in the world.
We strongly believe that bringing together core activists farom different local anti-censorship groups, NGO’s representatives and tools developers in a face-to-face meeting will stimulate an in-depth discussion of projects and build a stronger interpersonal ties, leading to a more robust, committed and effective online anti-censorship movement.
Following is an incomplete list of Global Voices Advocacy guests. These attendees have volunteered short biographies in advance of the conference. If you are a GVA guest and would like to contribute your own biography please send it to Sami Ben Gharbia at: advocacy [ at ] globalvoicesonline.org

Ethan Zuckerman

is a research fellow at the Berkman Center for Internet and Society at Harvard Law School. His research in the field of information and communication technology for development includes work on telecommunications policy, free and open source software, and citizen media. With Rebecca MacKinnon, he is the co-founder of Global Voices, an award-winning international community of webloggers and citizen journalists. Prior to his work with Berkman and Global Voices, Ethan founded Geekcorps, a volunteer organization which sent technology experts to work with ICT companies in the developing world. He is the former CTO of Tripod.com, a pioneering web hosting company based in Western Massachusetts, where he lives and works. He serves as advisor to several nonprofit projects that focus on technology and social change, and serves on the board of Open Society Institute’s US Program. His personal blog, “My Heart’s in Accra” is located at http://ethanzuckerman.com/blog.

Rebecca MacKinnon

is a veteran journalist, China hand, and online media pioneer. In January 2007 she joined the University of Hong Kong’s Journalism and Media Studies Center, where she teaches online journalism and conducts research on the Chinese Internet, free expression and corporate responsibility. She also serves as Public Lead for Creative Commons Hong Kong. Before coming to Hong Kong MacKinnon was a Research Fellow at Harvard Law School’s Berkman Center for Internet and Society, where she co-founded Global Voices with Ethan Zuckerman. Fluent in Mandarin Chinese, MacKinnon worked for CNN in Northeast Asia for over a decade, serving as CNN’s Beijing Bureau Chief and Correspondent from 1998-2001 and as CNN’s Tokyo Bureau Chief and Correspondent from 2001-03. She has also covered major news events in North and South Korea, Pakistan, and the Philippines. MacKinnon writes and speaks frequently on the future of journalism in the Internet age, the Internet and censorship in China, and issues of free expression and corporate responsibility. Her blog is RConversation.com

Nart Villeneuve

is a PHD student at the University of Toronto and a senior research fellow at the Citizen Lab at the Munk Centre for International Studies. His research focuses on Internet architecture and governance with a particular emphasis on censorship and freedom of expression. He has developed and conducted Internet censorship testing in over 40 countries worldwide as part of the OpenNet Initiative. His personal blog is nartv.org

Elijah Zarwan

is a Cairo-based consultant to Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, and the Eurasia Group. He has advised the Open Net Initiative and Freedom House on freedom of expression and information in the Middle East and North Africa. He previously worked as an editor and journalist in Cairo and New York, most recently as managing editor of Cairo Magazine.

Danny O’Brien

is International Outreach Coordinator for the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a group working to protect speech, privacy, innovation and consumer rights online since 1990. He has performed in the West End, written for the Irish Times, Guardian and Time Magazine, and founded the Open Rights Group, a British digital rights advocacy organization.

Rob Faris

is the research director at the Berkman Center where he contributes and provides oversight to several major research projects that focus on the interrelationship of economic development, media, politics, governance and free speech on the Internet. His current research includes the study of global Internet censorship and surveillance in conjunction with the OpenNet Initiative, the influence of networked digital technologies on democracy and governance, the evolving role of new media in politics. Rob has over ten years of experience with designing and managing international applied policy research projects. Rob has worked extensively in Latin America and Asia on issues related to economic development, public policy and environmental management, while holding positions at the Harvard Institute for International Development and Harvard’s Center for International Development. Prior to joining the Berkman Center, Rob held a research position at the Harvard Graduate School of Design where he managed a series of projects in Panama and Mexico to develop and apply multidisciplinary computer simulation tools to complex public policy decisions with the aim of fostering greater public participation in collective decisions. Rob holds a M.A. and PhD. in International Relations from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University and a B.A. in Anthropology from the University of Pennsylvania.

Roger Dingledine

is project leader for The Tor Project, a US non-profit working on anonymity research and development. While at MIT he developed Free Haven, one of the early peer-to-peer systems that emphasized resource management while maintaining anonymity for its users. He works with the Electronic Frontier Foundation, the US Navy, Voice of America, and other organizations to design and develop systems for anonymity and traffic analysis resistance. He organizes academic conferences on anonymity, speaks at such events as Blackhat, Defcon, Toorcon, CCC congresses, and What the Hack, and also does tutorials on anonymity for national and foreign law enforcement. Roger was honored in 2006 as one of the top 35 innovators under the age of 35 by Technology Review magazine.

Ory Okolloh

is a lawyer, a political activist and a blogger. She is a graduate of Harvard Law School and is the co-founder of Mzalendo a website that tracks the performance of Kenyan Members of Parliament. She is also the co-founder of Ushahidi, a website that grew out of the political crisis in Kenya and that maps both incidents of violence and peace efforts. She is currently based in Johannesburg, South Africa where she works as a consultant for several NGOs and manages her various activism efforts.

Helmi Noman

is a research affiliate of the Berkman Center for Internet & Society. He researches Internet censorship practices and related laws, the demographics and usage patterns of Arab Internet users, and Arabic Web content.

John Kennedy

is Chinese Language Editor for Global Voices Online and currently resides in Southern China. He blogs in Chinese as feng37 at Tiananmen 2.0 but spends most of his time on Twitter. His interests lie in the application of low- to mid-level technologies toward free speech or media activism, most notably through the use of SMS to report live the PX protest in Xiamen, China in June 2007 and most recently, livevlogging. Future prospects: using geek skills to provide media support for grassroots NGOs, and exploring the blogger-as-politician model seen recently in Malaysia.

Clothilde Le Coz

Head of the Reporters without borders‘ Internet Freedom desk.
I have been working for RWB for a little more than 6 months. I am graduated in political sciences and journalism. I studied in the South East of France (Grenoble) and came to Paris a year ago to work for a review on French media critics. Working for RWB was a good opportunity to wshow that a journalist can be engaged ni a cause and show his/her opinion.

Isaac Mao

is a venture capitalist, blogger, software architect, entrepreneur and researcher in learning and social technology. As one of the earliest bloggers in the Chinese community, Isaac is not only co-founder of CNBlog.org which is the earliest evangelizing site in China on grassroots publishing, but also the co-organizer of Chinese Blogger Conference (2005 in Shanghai, 2006 in Hangzhou,2007 in Beijing). The CNBlog program then transformed itself into Social Brain Foundation (SBF) later on to promote Social Media and free culture in China covering Free Access, Free Speech and Free Thinking areas. The current project SBF is supporting includes Ideas Factory, Memedia, Digital Nomads, Open Education and Creative Commons China, etc. Mao ever made several waves in the technology and business world especially with his open letter to Google founders, chanllenging the search engine giant to support anti-censorship effrots and change its China strategy. He always holds a strong voice against censorship in China and nominated as winner of Index on Censorship Journalism Award.

Paul Maassen

is the programme manager of the ICT & Media programme of Hivos, a Dutch development organisation, and is based in The Hague. This programme has three main components: supporting civil society in the strategic use of ICT; working on media diversity through digital media and citizen journalism, and the whole area of expression under repression (from policy to technology). He holds a MSc in Industrial Engineering and Management (specialisations in non-western management, information management and finance) and worked for Dutch Telecom before joining Hivos in 2002.

Wael Abbas

is a Cairo-based citizen-journalist and blogger who blogs at Misr Digital (Egyptian Awareness).Wael is the first blogger ever to be given the prestigious Knight International Journalism Award for his work on documenting human rights violations through online video.

Xiao Qiang

is director of the China Internet Project and an adjunct professor for the Graduate School of Journalism at the University of California, Berkeley. He is the Founder and Editor-in-Chief of China Digital Times, an independent China news portal. Xiao teaches classes on Participatory Media/Collective Action and Covering China in both the Graduate School of Journalism and the School of Information at the University of California, Berkeley. He also researches and writes about the impact of information and communication technologies on China’s media, politics, and international relations. Xiao studied theoretical physics at the University of Science and Technology of China and from there entered the University of Notre Dame astrophysics PhD program from 1986 to 1989. He was the former Executive Director of Human Rights in China from 1991 to 2002 and vice-chairman of the steering committee of the World Movement for Democracy. Xiao was a recipient of the MacArthur Fellowship in 2001, and is profiled in the book Soul Purpose: 40 People Who Are Changing the World for the Better, (Melcher Media, 2003). He was also a visiting fellow of the Santa Fe Institute in 2002.

Chris Salzberg

is a writer/translator and graduate student living in Tokyo, Japan. I am the Japanese language editor for Global Voices (with Hanako Tokita), and also involved in various other participatory media projects. I have written about Internet censorship issues in Japan for mainstream media and blogs, and have been quoted on the topic by papers such as the Guardian and Sydney Morning Herald.

Mary Joyce

is the co-founder of DigiActive.org, a digital activism organization dedicated to helping grassroots activists around the world use cell phones and the Internet to increase their impact. She ran her first digital activism web site, Demologue.com, from 2005 to 2007 while living in Morocco and Chile. She currently lives in Boston, where she is a master’s candidate at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government and a research assistant for the Internet and Democracy Project at the Berkman Center for Internet and Society at Harvard Law School. . She blogs as Zapboom.com.

Chris Walker

For the past two years, Chris has worked on issues related to information security and human rights for international non-governmental organizations, including the Tactical Technology Collective (TTC). In this capacity, he has offered technical training, implemented software and systems prototypes, and provided extensive project management assistance for large-scale, security-related Information and Communication Technology (ICT) efforts. He has a Bachelor’s degree in computer science and a Master’s degree in International Relations from the Fletcher School of Law & Diplomacy, where he studied practical, theoretical and technical coursework relevant to the interplay between ICT and human rights in the developing world and in closed societies. Chris strives to maintain a low-level grounding in computer and network security while nurturing a high-level perspective on legal, political and activist approaches to the issues surrounding telecommunications, open media, democracy, and international security policy. In addition to the academic background mentioned above, Chris has a professional network security auditing certification and substantial teaching experience that encompasses both academic subjects and practical, hands-on training.

Daudi Were

is an experienced African and Kenyan blogger and a firm believer in the power of interactive citizen media to transform the world in general and the African continent in particular for the better. Daudi has been blogging for the last 7 years. Currently his blog is at Mentalacroabtics.com. Daudi founded and runs the Kenyan Blogs Webring hosted at KenyaUnlimited.com. Other new media projects Daudi has been involved in included the African Women Bloggers Webring, and Ushahidi as well as speaking at various new media conferences such as the Digital Citizens’ Indaba. When not blogging or thinking about blogging Daudi runs a social aware citizen web media company called ThreeStones based in Nairobi Kenya.

Rezwan

started blogging in April 2003 at The Third World View, which tries to portray Bangladesh and Bangladeshis beyond the typical headlines seen in news. I have seen the Bangladeshi blogosphere grow and have been bridge blogging in Global Voices since 2005. I have been instrumental in setting up an online archive for the genocide in Bangladesh in 1971 in the hands of the Paksitani Army. My passion is now enriching the Global Voices Bangla.

Nasser Weddady

HAMSA-AIC Civil Rights Outreach Director. A native of Mauritania, Nasser grew up in Libya and Syria, traveling extensively through the Middle East, before coming to the US as a refugee in 2000. A long-time activist in the struggle to end slavery in his homeland and dictatorship, Nasser has organized conferences for young activists across the Middle East; published in the International Herald Tribune, Wall Street Journal, Boston Globe, and Baltimore Sun; appeared on Fox’s Hannity & Colmes, BBC World Service, Al Jazeera, and Radio Liberty; and testified to Congress’ Human Rights Caucus. Fluent in five languages, Nasser has lectured at the US Institute of Peace, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, and diverse interfaith settings.

CJ Hinke

is a writer, academic, activist, translator, book publisher and bibliographer of numerous children’s books in Latin and Thai. He has lived in Thailand since 1989 where he founded Freedom Against Censorship Thailand (FACT) in 2006 to campaign against pervasive censorship in Thai society. As a Quaker, he became an organiser in the pacifist movement opposing the war in Vietnam and was arrested more than 35 times in demonstrations of civil disobedience. After moving to Canada, in 1976, he became the last American arrested for the Vietnam draft, pardoned by Jimmy Carter’s first official act as US President. CJ formed the Society Protecting Intact Kinetic Ecosystems (SPIKE) which supported the tree-spiking of one of the world’s last intact temperate rainforests in Clayoquot Sound off the west coast of Vancouver Island. FACT’s campaign is active internationally in resisting Internet, book, film and self-censorship. “Freedom of opinions, freedom of thought, freedom of ideas, every one of us deserves a voice.”

Ali Abdulemam

is a computer engineer. He is the creator and editor of BahrainOnline.org and BahrainPortal.org. He is among the first Arab bloggers whostarted blogging in Arabic. BahrainOnline was created in1998, when Bahrain was under the security situation and people demands for reform and asking for returning back to the constitution, after the reform has been started when the new king in Bahrain came, BahrainOnline took huge place as the first electronic news source for all Bahraini and it continues growing up. In Feb 2005 Ali with two of his friends have been arrested for 2 weeks and the charge was insulting the king.With the pressure of NGOs , Media and demonstrations , Ali and his friends have been released but the charges still not dropped, BahrainOnline is still running but access to it remains blocked since 2002 but although it is getting more than 80000 hits per day. Ali attends many workshop and conference with the IREX and FrontLine and WAN-Press. Ali is working to make his new project (BahrainPortal.org) the first Electronic Newspaper in Bahrain and the Persian gulf.

Razan Ghazzawi

is a Beirut-based blogger from Syria who is doing her MA’s thesis on Iraqi Jews’ literature. She blogged on the abuse and racism towards the Syrian laborers in Lebanon and on the destruction of Nahr el bared camp and the disposition of its Palestinian inhabitants.
In Syria, she has been also active in opposing internet censorship and activists’ detaining policies. She is the co-founder of Free Tariq campaign. Razan blogs at Razanisms, and her activism highly affected her photography.

Antony Loewenstein

is a Sydney-based freelance journalist, author and blogger. He has written for the Sydney Morning Herald, The Guardian, Washington Post, Haaretz, The Nation and many others. His best-selling book on the Israel/Palestine conflict, My Israel Question, was released by Melbourne University Publishing in 2007. His second book, The Blogging Revolution, on the internet in repressive regimes, will be released in September 2008 by Melbourne University Publishing.

He is a board member of Macquarie University’s Centre for Middle East and North African Studies and an Honorary Associate at Macquarie University’s Department of Politics and International Relations. He is the co-founder of advocacy group Independent Australian Jewish Voices and works for Amnesty International Australia’s 2008 campaign about Chinese internet repression and the Beijing Olympic Games. Antony appears regularly on radio, TV, in public and at universities discussing current affairs and politics.

Sami Ben Gharbia

is a Tunisian activist now living in the Netherlands who serves as advocacy director of Global Voices. Sami has written an e-book about his story of fleeing Tunisia in 1998, crossing Africa and the Middle East, to reach Europe and get asylum: Borj Erroumi XL. His personal blog is at [fikra] فكرة (which means idea in Arabic). Sami is the co-founder of nawaat, a Tunisian collective blog about news and politics, Cybversion a collective blog of documenting censorship in Tunisia. He was also active in the online Yezzi Fock campaign and the creator of Tunisian Prison Map mashup.

Alaa Abd El Fattah

is a software Developer. With an obsession with computers and cats named after French metro stations, Alaa Abd El Fattah was destined to become and uber geek. Somewhere along the way he lost his footing, the strict requirment of non existant social life and science fiction fanboyism became too much for him. To componsate, he has been posturing as a hacker, a FOSS advocate, a blogger, an ICT4D worker, a pro democracy activist, a citizen journalist and whatever else is the internet’s buzz word this week.

Robert Guerra

is based in Toronto, Canada and is one of the founding directors of Privaterra - an ongoing project of the SAGE Charitable foundation that works with non governmental organizations to assist them with issues of data privacy, secure communications, information security, Internet Governance and internet Freedom. He is often invited to speak at events to share the challenges being faced by social justice organizations in regards to surveillance, censorship and privacy.
He is the a board member of Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility (CPSR), acting board secretary. He was actively involved in the the UN World Summit - being an active member of civil society bureau, the internet governance caucus as well as being the NGO advisor to the official Canadian Government delegation.
He advises numerous non-profits, foundations and international organizations, including Taking IT Global, DiploFoundation’s Internet Governance and Policy Capacity Building Programme, The Open Net Initiative and The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers’s At-Large Advisory Committee (ALAC) and its Security and Stability Advisory Committee - to name a few.

Dr Awab Alvi

is an orthodontist and endodontist. Dr. Awab Alvi has been the author of a very prominent Pakistan political blog titled “Teeth Maestro” for the past four years and is now recognized as a must-watch website for a perspective on the political situation in Pakistan.
Dr. Alvi started his online activism from February 2006 when he co-founded the “Don’t Block the Blog” campaign created in protest of the sudden censorship of the blogspot.com domain by the Government of Pakistan which lasted for over a year. The problems continue to arise frequently and the recent example is the local censorship pf YouTube.com which inadvertently lead to a global outage of the entire site for a few hours simply due to lack of accountability with the monitoring agency, which presumably runs on political whims and bureaucratic pressures, paying little heed to the overall implications.
During the South Asia earthquake in Oct ’05, Dr. Awab Alvi launched a “Donate a Dollar for Pakistan” campaign, this was a first time Pakistan chose to harness the donating power of the internet to help generate over US$10,000 for the earthquake victims in Pakistan.

Oiwan Lam

is a free lance researcher, translator and editor, while her full time work (voluntary work) is with inmediahk.net (a Chinese citizen journalism website) , interlocals.net (a multi-lingual border-crossing citizen journalism website) and Hong Kong In-Media (citizen media center). She worked as journalist on political news (the handover of Hong Kong to China) from 1994-97; then joined an Asian NGO (Asian regional exchange for new alternatives) for their alternative education programme; later worked in Taiwan as managing editor for Inter-Asia cultural studies journal and then studied in Beijing for three year; now she is more or less settled in Hong Kong.

Amine

is an entrepreneur and human rights activist. He is interested in the role of free web-based and mobile technologies in contributing to grassroots development and human rights advocacy. He co-founded DigiActive.org as way to highlight successes, share best practices, and help foster a community of people committed to studying and promoting digital activism globally. He has been involved in the intikhabat2007.com project, a submission-driven photoblog covering the Moroccan elections, the HelpFouad.com campaign to free Morocco’s “facebook prisonner”, and has in the past consulted for international development organizations, the private sector, and non-profit organizations.

Malek khadhraoui

is a Tunisian internet activist living in Paris. Started his activism in 2005 by publishing articles on Tunisians activists websites and on his personal blog. Malek was involved in the online demonstration (www.yezzi.org). He is also the co-founder of Le Libre Tunisien, an association which acts for promoting civil rights and individual freedom and also a webmaster of the collective blog nawaat.org and the Tunisian anticensorship blog Cybversion.org. In October 2008 Malek translated into french the Global voices Advocacy guide to “Anonymous Blogging with Wordpress & Tor“.

Alex Au

Alex Au has been blogging since 1996 at www.yawningbread.org, well before blogs were invented, and is himself a generation older than the typical blogger. He has been one of the leaders of Singapore’s gay rights movement (People Like Us) since 1993 and more recently has also been active in the nascent human rights movement (Maruah). In the last 2 years, he has contributed 3 chapters to various books published by Singapore’s political think-tanks and is a regular speaker at various forums, universities and colleges.

Walid Al-Saqaf

is a print/online journalist turned cyber activist. He is the founder and administrator of Yemen Portal (yemenportal.net), a news and multi-content aggregator focused on content on his country (Yemen). His website got banned from access in Yemen by the authorities presumably for content the government considered harmful to ‘the national interest’. In response, he started an anti-censorship campaign (through blocked.arabiaportal.net) that resonated internationally. He currently stands as one of a few Arab cyber activists working on censorship circumventing technologies, the latest being the “Access YemenPortal” Firefox plug-in that was inspired by Iranian Hamed Saber’s “Access Flickr!” extension. Walid holds a Master in Global Journalism and is currently pursuing his PhD at Örebro University in Sweden. He can be reached on admin [at] yemenportal [dot] net.

We are pleased to announce the translation into French of Blog for a Cause!, the Global Voices Guide of Blog Advocacy thanks to Claire Ulrich from Global Voices en Français. Blog for a Cause! has already been translated into Spanish; the translation into Arabic, Chinese and Bengali is on the way.

The guide outlines easy-to-follow tips on how to use blogs as part of campaigns against injustice and features successful examples of advocacy blogs from around the world. It is divided into five sections:

1. Frequently asked questions about what blog advocacy is
2. The 5 key elements of any successful advocacy blog
3. The 4 steps to creating an advocacy blog
4. How to make your blog a vibrant community of active volunteers
5. Tips to help blog activists stay safe online.

Bloguer pour une cause

Please download Bloguer pour une cause ! (PDF file) and help us translating it into your language.

Blog for a Cause!, the Global Voices Guide of Blog Advocacy, is now available in Spanish thanks to this translation by María Florencia Puente from Global voices en Español.

The guide outlines easy-to-follow tips on how to use blogs as part of campaigns against injustice and features successful examples of advocacy blogs from around the world. It is divided into five sections:

1. Frequently asked questions about what blog advocacy is
2. The 5 key elements of any successful advocacy blog
3. The 4 steps to creating an advocacy blog
4. How to make your blog a vibrant community of active volunteers
5. Tips to help blog activists stay safe online.

Blog Por Una Causa! is availble for download as a PDF file. You may need to install the free Adobe Acrobat Reader to view it.

Please download Blog Por Una Causa! and help us translating the guide in your language.

For further information please contact Mary at MaryCJoyce [ at ] gmail [ dot ] com or Global Voices Advocacy Coordinator Sami Ben Gharbia at advocacy [ at ] globalvoicesonline [ dot ] org

Click on the image to download

Global Voices Advocacy is pleased to announce the second of several planned manuals focused on the topics of circumventing internet filtering, anonymous blogging and effective use of Internet-based tools in campaigns for social and political change.

Blog for a Cause!: The Global Voices Guide of Blog Advocacy explains how activists can use blogs as part of campaigns against injustice around the world. Blogging can help activists in several ways. It is a quick and inexpensive way to create a presence on the Internet, to disseminate information about a cause, and to organize actions to lobby decision-makers.

The goal of Blog for a Cause!: is twofold: to inform and to inspire. The guide is designed to be accessible and practical, giving activists a number of easy-to-follow tips on how to use a blog to further their particular cause.

The guide is divided into five sections:

1. Frequently asked questions about what blog advocacy is
2. The 5 key elements of any successful advocacy blog
3. The 4 steps to creating an advocacy blog
4. How to make your blog a vibrant community of active volunteers
5. Tips to help blog activists stay safe online

In addition to the information provided above, the guide is also full of examples of advocacy blogs from around the world, to inspire readers with a glimpse of what is possible. These featured advocacy blogs have a variety of goals, ranging from freeing a jailed blogger in Saudi Arabia to protecting the environment in Hong Kong and opposing the conflict in Darfur.

The guide was written by Mary Joyce, a student of digital activism based in Boston, and was commissioned by Global Voices Advocacy, an anti-censorship project of Global Voices online.

If you found this guide useful when setting up your blog campaign, please email us to let us know.

Download Blog for a Cause!: in English and help us translating the guide in your language.

For further information please contact Mary at MaryCJoyce [ at ] gmail [ dot ] com or Global Voices Advocacy Coordinator Sami Ben Gharbia at advocacy [ at ] globalvoicesonline [ dot ] org

MohammadR is very satisfied with the response “FreeAccess Plus!” has garnered so far within the Iranian blogsphere. On Balatarin (which means “the highest” in Persian) an Iranian version of Digg, 23 people have voted for a story that praises the FreeAccess Plus! extension as something that is “making miracles” (معجزه میکنید)“.

“Some major Persian bloggers wrote about this extension before it was made available on “Mozilla Addons” site,” MohammadR told Global Voices Advocacy. “Only during the first week, FreeAccess Plus! has been downloaded 150 times. Now, after about one month from it’s release, it has been downloaded more than 3500 times,” he added.

MohammadR said that FreeAccess Plus! is very simple to install (see the video tutorial below). “Just go to “https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/6139“, and on the bottom of the page, click “Install Now” button. This will pop up a new window where you will be asked to confirm the installation, click again on “Install Now”. Note that you need to restart Firefox before the extension works.”

Just install the plugin and restart your browser; and Firefox will do the rest! You will be able to access Youtube, Flickr, MySpace and all websites listed on the add-ons page.

The current version of “FreeAccess Plus!” does not support the option to add websites to those currently listed. MohammedR said, however, that this feature — an editable and configurable list — will be added in a future version of the program.

MohammedR hops that his “FreeAccess Plus!” plugin will serve his fellow citizens by helping them bypass the censorship that is targeting the social web. “Most of the Iranian bloggers were unhappy about the unreasonable blocking of Web 2.0 and social networking websites” he says.

P.S: For more information about the web 2.0 censorship and anti-censorship, please refer to our Access Denied Map.

The Anonymous Blogging with Wordpress and Tor guide is now available in French thanks to this translation by the Tunisian blogger Malek Khadhraoui, and we are busy making translations into other languages.

The guide outlines several methods of protecting one’s identity in order to avoid retaliation and can considerably reduce the risks that a blogger’s identity will be linked to his or her online writings through technical means.

Le “Guide pour bloguer anonymement avec Wordpress & Tor” is availble for download as a PDF file. You may need to install the free Adobe Acrobat Reader to view the PDF. If you experience difficulties viewing PDF format online, try this linkable and blogging-friendly HTML version.

Please link to it, download it and help disseminate this important information. Feel free as well to copy the following HTML code and paste it in your blog:

The recent explosion in new information and communications technology and the proliferation of easy-to-use, often free, software and low-cost methods of self-publishing ranging blogging to multimedia-sharing web applications, have turned Internet users into prosumers, propelling them to a position of potential competition with the mainstream media. Even more importantly, it has transformed them into citizen watchdogs tackling sensitive human rights issues and often serving as an unofficial media outlet for dissenting voices.

The blurring of the lines between citizen and professional journalism has also resulted in the former’s increasing ability to sustain the work of human rights defenders and NGO’s through first-hand reporting of breaking news exposing human rights violations, torture and harassment. The recent success of this army of citizen journalists and citizen watchdogs in Pakistan, Burma, Tunisia, Egypt and Morocco, have confirmed once again the enormous potential of user-generated content as an advocacy tool and as an alternative and independent source of news. The common characteristic of all these cases is that they have made efficient use of web 2.0 technologies in exposing abuses and injustice.

But despite the potential of web 2.0, in regions ridden with censorship and where the state holds the monopoly on information dissemination, open access to the Internet is often a tough goal to achieve considering the “authoritarian reflex” that is activated each time the repressive regimes feel threatened. Governments who already excel at muzzling the traditional media have been turning their efforts lately to the Internet, doing all they can to tighten their grip on this last refuge of communication. The rise of user-generated content is perceived as a threat by a growing number of countries who are seeking to block and control its dissemination by legal and technical means. Rarely does a week pass by without news about yet another major website being blocked by repressive states. Multimedia-sharing websites, social networking communities, mapping tools and popular web 2.0 websites are becoming a primary target of state censorship in more and more countries.

Over the last half-year, governments in China, Tunisia, Syria, Turkey, Burma, Thailand and Morocco have all cut off access to video-sharing websites. In the space of two months, between September 3rd and November 2nd, 2007, Tunisia has blocked access to two popular video-sharing websites, Dailymotion and Youtube, preventing Tunisian Internet users from both viewing and posting videos. Both websites remain blocked in Tunisia. Access to the Flickr photo-sharing site was recently restored in China, but it remains blocked in Iran and in the United Arab Emirates. Metacafe and Photobucket are also banned in few Middle Eastern countries such as Iran and the United Arab Emirates.

Blogging services are being targeted as well. Over the last three months, Turkey, Thailand and China have banned wordpress.com, while Blogspot is over-blocked in Syria and Pakistan and only recently restored in China. The Livejournal blogging service is blocked in Morocco and in Iran and it has been reported to be also blocked in China. Other popular services like Technorati, Blogrolling, Xanga, Movable Type, Typepad, Feedburner and Blogsome have been blocked on and off for the past couple of years in countries such as China and Iran.

Social networking websites like Orkut, Hi5, MySpace, Friendster, ZillR, Multiply, Facebook, Meetup, Digg and My Opera are banned or threatened in a number of countries. Even Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, have been blocked from time to time in China, in Tunisia and in Iran where the popular online retailer Amazon.com is reported to be blocked. Google Earth was blocked in Bahrain for a couple of days and remains inaccessible in Morocco.

Fortunately, against this substantial and highly restrictive filtering system targeting web 2.0 tools being deployed by various countries worldwide, is resistance from numerous anti-Internet filtering movements. In almost every country where state censorship prevails is a corresponding anti-censorship initiative led by citizens. And in addition to rallying to protest censorship, local activists are also continuously working on new ways of bypassing the blocks, advocating to keep the web open and interacting with each other across linguistic and cultural borders and barriers.

In order to shed light on the battle being waged between state censorship and anti-censorship groups, I’ve created the Access Denied Map, an interactive Google Maps mashup that provides information about the censorship efforts targeting various online social networking communities and web-based applications. Each marker on the map highlights the situation in a specific country that is barring access to major websites. Clicking on the marker opens an information window containing text, images or video describing the nature censorship and the efforts to combat it.

The Map does not aim to index all kinds of web filtering, but rather to provide an overview of online censorship efforts related to the social web and major web 2.0 websites. This project will also track and explore the relationships between anti-censorship groups in different parts of the world who are collaborating to defend the right to access web 2.0 tools and websites.

The Access Denied Map will try to contextualize and situate that battle by focusing on two areas:

1. the crackdown on web 2.0 websites (e.g. video and photo-sharing sites like Youtube, Flickr, Dailymotion; blogging platforms such as Blogspot, Livejournal, Typepad and Wordpress; social networking websites such as Facebook, Orkut, MySpace, Wikipedia, VoIP services; etc.);
2. the amplifying of local campaigns defending the right to access web 2.0 tools and websites (circumvention techniques, online petitions and campaign.)

The Access Denied Map will lead interested readers to content that enables them to support anti-censorship movements and keeps readers abreast of the filtering situation in various parts of the world. It will also facilitate collaboration between activists, allowing them to find each other, share tactics and strategies and experiences.

The Map was created using data from the Open Net Initiative (ONI), Global Voices and the Global Voices Advocacy section. The Access Denied Map does not pretend to be exhaustive. Help expand and improve it by adding information about the filtering of web 2.0 applications either via the Advocacy Wiki site or by e-mail through the contact page.

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