A new publication from ‘Reporters Without Borders’ entitled ‘Handbook
for Bloggers and Cyber-dissidents’ is perhaps interesting. Available
in a number of languages.
“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://www.rsf.org/IMG/pdf/handbook_bloggers_cyberdissidents-GB.pdf
(This post is borrowed from an email from Matthew Fuller…fyi)
Hi Jon, my friend Andy and I were just talking about borders. He was telling me about people who marry in order to gain immigration benefits. He knows 5 people who’ve gone through the process and be able to cross borders.
I asked Andy where did this idea of borders come from anyways? It seems silly that as walking, swimming, moving, thinking animals, we could not just get up and cross the ocean just as easil as we walk from one room to the next. Andy told me it was probably War. Communities formed and territories were marked.
Course now, blanketing these physical boundaries of groups, cultures etc… are written up laws, rules, ideas, prejudices, fears and code. Reds over here, triangles over there and if you’re a square you have no home here. Kinda sounds like a game. Abstract and random.
Borders make me think of countries like Africa. What are borders? The question still arises even when traced back to days of territories and castle walls. Why does the question keep popping up? Maybe cause we are always and should always be testing our limits. That Borders are not permanent lines etched in stone. With time, the lines becomes faint and it comes time to redraw the border.
ok I think I went off on a tangent as I often do, but hey plenty of space in cyberspace.
hope you are doing well and making big waves.
sarah