[Media Caucus] RSF Releases "Handbook for Bloggers and Cyber-Dissidents"

[Tracey Naughton]

<http://www.rsf.org/>
<http://www.rsf.org/rubrique.php3?id_rubrique=542>

"Blogs get people excited. Or else they disturb and worry them. Some  
people distrust them. Others see them as the vanguard of a new  
information revolution. Because they allow and encourage ordinary  
people to speak up, they’re tremendous tools of freedom of expression.
Bloggers are often the only real journalists in countries where the  
mainstream media is censored or under pressure. Only they provide  
independent news, at the risk of displeasing the government and  
sometimes courting arrest. Reporters Without Borders has produced  
this handbook to help them, with handy tips and technical advice on  
how to to remain anonymous and to get round censorship, by choosing  
the most suitable method for each situation. It also explains how to  
set up and make the most of a blog, to publicise it (getting it  
picked up efficiently by search-engines) and to establish its  
credibility through observing basic ethical and journalistic  
principles."

<http://rconversation.blogs.com/rconversation/2005/09/ 
hot_off_the_pre.html>

"Lately there has been a proliferation of blogging guides published  
in English, but almost all of them are aimed at Americans and Western  
Europeans. Or they're meant for companies and organizations who want  
to use blogging for smarter P.R., "knowledge management," or internal  
communication purposes, or for people who want to turn their blogs  
into little commercial media enterprises.  Then there are the  
articles about how you can improve your social and romantic life  
through blogging... or how to use your blog to make yourself  
notorious, get on TV and become famous...The Reporters Without  
Borders Handbook for Bloggers and Cyberdissidents is not for any of  
those purposes. It is the first truly useful book I've seen aimed at  
the kinds of bloggers featured at Global Voices every day: People who  
have views and information that they want to share with the world  
beyond their own national borders. They are often people whose  
perspectives are not well represented in their own country's media,  
and certainly not well reported by the international media. Sometimes  
they are political dissidents, but usually not. Mainly, they are just  
ordinary citizens with a passion to communicate with the world - and  
no easier way to do so than by writing, podcasting, and posting  
pictures on their own blogs."
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