We have done Skype or e-mail interviews with all recipients of the Reporters Sans Frontieres Freedom Blog Awards except two: - The author of Al Jinane, a French speaker. We need a French-speaking blogger to volunteer to do this. Please post a note here (after logging in) if you want to volunteer.
- Jay Rosen of Pressthink. He should be interviewed by a non-American blogger. Any volunteers?
RSF Blog Award candidates[]
Here is what Ethan organized for the RSF blog awards in May. Not all the profiles got done so we're leaving the list up for people's reference:
As many of you know, Reporters Sans Frontiéres is running a contest for "Freedom of Expression" bloggers. We'd like to feature each of the nominated blogs on Global Voices in the month before contest voting closes. Since voting closes on June 1st, that means we'd like to start featuring these blogs immediately.
We'd like as many people as possible to agree to write about one or more of the blogs listed below. This means taking some time to read the blog, learn a bit about the blog author, and write three to four paragraphs about the blog and blogger.
If you're interested in going further and setting up an online interview with that blogger and writing a longer piece, that's great as well.
One way or another, please CLAIM the blog you'd like to write about by adding a note within the wiki. Check to see if someone else has claimed the blog you'd like to write about before starting your work on it. And, if you happen to speak a language other than English fluently, please consider reviewing a blog in that language - we're going to have trouble finding people to review all the Farsi language blogs, for instance.
In Arabic[]
http://beyondnormal.blogspot.com - A blog specialising in the role of the media and journalism in the Arab world.
http://www.serdal.com - A very popular Middle East blog, kept up to date by a new technology specialist. claimed by Ahmed
http://digressing.blogspot.com - An Egyptian democrat’s blog. claimed by Ahmed
http://www.addlinkat.com - An Egyptian democrat’s blog. claimed by Ahmed
In English[]
http://www.chanadbahraini.blogspot.com - This blog focuses on Bahrain politics. With Babbling Bahrania, it launched a campaign for the release of Bahrainonline moderators. - Claimed by Andrea
http://bahraniat.blogspot.com - A blog reflecting political and social life in Bahrain. It launched a campaign to press for the release of forum moderators on Bahrainonline.
http://africantears.netfirms.com/thisweek.htm - The blog set up by a Zimbabwean woman promoting press freedom in her country. - Claimed by Ethan
http://riverbendblog.blogspot.com - A Baghdad women’s blog.
http://dangillmor.typepad.com- A specialist Internet journalist’s blog, which campaigns actively for the rights of online journalists and bloggers.
http://www.politechbot.com - A blog examining the links between politics and the Internet, particularly in the United States. Blogger, Declan McCullagh, is a web specialist.
http://journalism.nyu.edu/pubzone/weblogs/pressthink - An American journalist’s blog on media and press freedom in the age of the Internet.
http://www.registan.net - A blog relating to human rights and politics in the countries of the former Soviet Union.
http://www.s95451559.onlinehome.us - A blog on Ukrainian politics, focusing in particular on the on case of Géorgiy Gongadze, an online journalist who was murdered in 2000.
http://www.freenorthkorea.net - This blog relays non-violent campaigns in support of human rights in North Korea. It especially focuses on the plight of North Korean refugees.
http://insn.org - A blog seeking to promote the development of civil society and democracy in Nepal.
http://www.nkzone.org - A collaborative blog posting news about North Korea, one of the “most secretive countries in the world”.
http://www.jeffooi.com - An independent view on Malaysian politics and society. The blogger, Jeff Ooi, has suffered harassment from the authorities in his country. Claimed by Mack Zulkifli
http://freenepal.blogspot.com - A collaborative blog promoting democracy in Nepal and condemning media censorship.
http://www.blog.com.np - An apolitical blog run by Nepalese journalists that aims to inform people about Nepal’s political life.
http://glutter.typepad.com - A blog run by a Hong Kong women ranging over art and politics, according to her inclination. Her outspoken defence of Chinese cyberdissidents has led to her being regularly censored in China. Claimed by Andrea
http://angrychineseblogger.blog-city.com - A blog run by a Chinese-resident foreigner. Highly personal and outspoken about life in the middle kingdom.
http://desimediabitch.blogspot.com - A collaborative blog that fiercely defends the rights of Indian and Sri Lankan bloggers.
http://singabloodypore.blogspot.com - An Irishman’s blog looking at social and political issues in Singapore.
http://committeetoprotectbloggers.blogspot.com - A collaborative blog defending webloggers suffering harassment or imprisonment worldwide.
http://i-policy.typepad.com - A blog dedicated to Internet law and its implications for free expression.
http://www.mediabloggers.org - A collaborative blog defending the rights of bloggers that has formulated an ethical code for those running blogs. Media blogger association
http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/ethan (or http://www.ethanzuckerman.com/blog) - A blog dealing with the development of telecommunications in Africa which also supports harassed or imprisoned webloggers.
http://ice.citizenlab.org - Nart Villeneuve’s blog, specialising in Internet censorship issues. Claimed by Derek
http://sethf.com/infothought/blog - A blog run by a programmer who specialises in censorship on the Internet and Net politics.
In French[]
http://yahyaoui.blogspot.com - The blog run by Mokhtar Yahyaoui, a former judge and leading Tunisian political dissident, the uncle of cyberdissident Zouhair Yahyaoui. Each blog he creates is quickly blocked by the authorities within the country.
http://www.emarrakech.info/prana/index.php - Blog by a Moroccan doing his best to "understand the complexity of the world". claimed by rbarenblat
http://www.monputeaux.com - The blog of a Putolian (resident of Puteaux, France) dealing with his town’s political life. Local authorities have harassed him over his trenchant comments.
In German[]
http://www.netzpolitik.org - A German blog dealing with censorship and human rights issues in cyberspace.
In Italian[]
http:/www.ictlex.net - A blog focusing on legal issues relating to the Internet and new technology.
In Persian[]
http://kabul2.blogsky.com - A blog on political and social life in Afghanistan.
http://www.hoder.com - One of the most popular Iranian bloggers, a committed activist for freedom of expression (in Persian and English).
http://www.newspectre.blogspot.com - A very popular blog on social and political life and human rights in Iran.
http://www.webnaameh.blogspot.com - A blog created by an Iranian journalist and photographer who has continued his work on the Internet since being dismissed in 2004.
http://www.mithras.org - A blog created by an Iranian woman that purports to be about Australia but in fact depicts Iranian society.
http://shargi.blogspot.com - A blog focusing on freedom of expression, politics and women’s rights in Iran.
http://www.nikahang.blogspot.com - An Iranian journalist and cartoonist’s blog. A former prisoner of opinion, he now lives in exile in Canada.
http://www.memarian.info - A blog set up by an Iranian journalist who spent several months in prison at the end of 2004.
http://hamedmottaghi.blogfa.com - The blog set up by an Iranian journalist who also runs a news website www.naqshineh.com (blocked inside Iran since March 2004).
http://fanus.blogspot.com - A collective weblog on Iran’s social and political life.
http://yeknoon.blogsky.com - A blog run by Sharam Rafihzadeh, an Iranian journalist imprisoned for two and a half months at the end of 2004.
http://shabnamefekr.blogspot.com - A blog dealing with women’s rights and free expression in Iran.
http://www.sigarchi.com/blog - The blog that at the beginning of 2005 resulted in Arash Sigarchi being sentenced to 14 years in prison.
http://www.iranreform.persianblog.com - Mohamad Reza Nasab Abdolahi was arrested in February 2005 and sentenced to six months in prison for posting items critical of the Iranian authorities on this blog.
http://z8un.com - A blog, founded in 2002, by an Iranian woman who is a tireless campaigner for freedom of expression.
http://bijan-safsari.com - A blog run by an Iranian journalist who spent five months in prison in 2003. He decided to set it up after his newspaper closed.
http://www.khorshidkhanoom.com - A blog founded in 2001 that deals with the condition of women and human rights in Iran, providing a balanced and subtle take on local politics.
http://www.ghajar.ir - The blog run by a journalist on the Iranian daily Shargh.
http://man-namanam.blogspot.com - A weblog that led to its editor, Mojtaba Saminejad, being imprisoned since 12 February 2005.
http://www.shabnameha.blogsky.com - A blog run by Rozbeh Mir Ebrahimi, a journalist imprisoned between September and November 2004.
In Russian[]
http://politolog.com.ua/index.php?lang=ua - A blog on Ukraine’s political and social life.
I will do this one - Jerzy Celichowski
Done!
Politolog (politolog.com.ua), as its names seems to indicate, is a blog written by an annonymous Ukrainian political scientist (politolog means a political scientist in a number of Slavic languages). It was started on 9 September 2004. The blog is rather a source of information than of a critical analysis or comments on current events. Often political science books and articles are briefly discussed, links to them or reviews of them are provided. Yulia Timoshenko, the Prime Minister of Ukraine is meantioned particularly frequently but other political players feature in the blog, too, but others, like the Eurovision star Elena Papariza, pop up from time to time. Links in the posts invariably lead to Russian- and Ukrainian-languages sources.
The blog posts are organised in categories. Politics is the dominating one, others include “political technologies”, which in the CIS is a common phrase denominating spin doctors, the media, freedom of speech, “European choice”, internet in Ukraine, the national idea, books on politics, elections, political parties, society and cartoons.
The blog is bilingual in an intriguing way. Formally there are two language versions: Ukrainian and Russian. Practically, however, posts in both options are done in Russian (most items) and Ukrainian. Switching language versions results in changing the language of section headers, dates and the like, the text of the posts remained untouched.
A few links to other political blogs in Ukraine are provided at the bottom of the page. The blog must be hosted on a commercial provider site as there are advertisement on the page.
In Spanish[]
http://www.periodistas-es.org - A Spanish blog on freedom of the press and expression.
http://bitacoras.org - A collective Spanish blog focusing on the weblog phenomena and regularly defending press freedom. Its authors campaign actively for harassed or imprisoned webloggers.
http://periodistas21.blogspot.com - This blog presents itself as a bridge between traditional journalists and bloggers. - Claimed by oso (I've been reading this blog for over a year, but have never communicated with its author)