Handbook for bloggers by Reporters Sans Frontiers

Blogging minus the bother: CSF releases Handbook for Blogers and Cyber-dissidents to help bloggers go about their work and avoid censors.

BY A CORRESPONDENT

24th September, 2005: Paris-based Reporters Sans Frontiers (CSF) has released a handbook to help bloggers in developing countries carry on their work the safe way - evading censors and watchdogs. The book - Handbook for Bloggers and Cyber-Dissidents - has been released in Arabic, Farsi, Chinese, English and French.

Blogging has taken centerstage as a legitimate means of media in the West, but China, Iran, North Korea and many countries in the Middle East have been rigorous in clamping down on bloggers, CSF said. The choice of languages points to the countries were bloggers' freedom has been suppressed.

In China, where MSN and Yahoo operate their blogging businesses, independent blogging has come under the glare of state media. Chinese government has barred use of words like "democracy" and "human rights" in blogs published in China. CSF believes that bloggers are the unrecognised heroes of the media revolution in such countries. The handbook for bloggers is an attempt to help them keep their blogs and chin up in trying circumstances.

The Handbook for Bloggers and Cyber-Dissidents has content from technical and content experts, including an Iranian dissident who is facing a jail term for blogging. The handbook offers bloggers tips on how to put out credible and innovative blog content.

According to CSF, prominent villains in the world of bloggers are governments in Saudi Arabia, Iran, Iraq, Vietnam, Cuba, China and Uzbekistan.

BY A CORRESPONDENT