Recently FranklinNOW blogger Greg Kowalski wrote about a turning point in making a decision whether to continue blogging on the FranklinNOW web site due to editorial decisions CommunityNOW editor Mark Maley made on one of his blog postings. It looks like the decision to blog or not to blog is a much more life and death decision in other countries. Here is a story from the BBC regarding bloggers in other countries that criticize their government:
More bloggers than ever face arrest for exposing human rights abuses or criticizing governments, says a report.
Since 2003, 64 people have been arrested for publishing their views on a blog, says the University of Washington annual report. In 2007 three times as many people were arrested for blogging about political issues than in 2006, it revealed. More than half of all the arrests since 2003 have been made in China, Egypt and Iran, said the report.
Jail sentence
Citizens have faced arrest and jail for blogging about many different topics, said the World Information Access (WIA) report.
Arrested bloggers exposed corruption in government, abuse of human rights or suppression of protests. They criticized public policies and took political figures to task.
The report said the rising number of arrests was testament to the "growing" political importance of blogging. It noted that arrests tended to increase during times of "political uncertainty", such as around general elections or during large scale protests.
Jail time followed arrest for many bloggers, said the report, which found that the average prison sentence for blogging was 15 months. The longest sentence found by the WIA was eight years.
It acknowledged that the true number of bloggers arrested could be far higher than the total it found as, in some cases, it proved hard to verify if an arrest had taken place and on what grounds.
For instance, it said the Committee to Protect Bloggers has published information about 344 people arrested in Burma - many of whom are thought to be be bloggers - but the WIA could not verify all the reports.
It also noted that many nations, perhaps as many as 30, imposed technological restrictions on what people can do online. In nations such as China this made it difficult for people to use a blog as a means of protest.
The report pointed out that it is not just governments in the Middle East and East Asia that have taken steps against those publishing their opinions online. In the last four years, British, French, Canadian and American bloggers have also been arrested.
The report predicted that the number of blogger arrests in 2008 would exceed the 36 seen in 2007 thanks to greater popularity of blogging as a medium, greater enforcement of net restrictions, and elections in China, Pakistan, Iran and the US.
Read More here
I am truly happy that blogging on the FranklinNOW and disagreement with our local government officials does not carry the consequences that they do in other countries.
Of course you may have public information disclosed about you at a council meeting, which isn't as bad as a Chinese Prison!
So don't quit Greg! The more voices the Better.
Update: June 19, 2008 - In case you were wondering, Greg has decided to pull the plug on his FranklinNOW blog, a little bit premature. You can catch a farewell on his Metro Milwaukee Today site. While Greg and I have not always agreed on several issues and some got quite personal. I do wish him the best of luck in his continued blogging on his Metro Milwaukee Today. I am sure that Greg will continue to pursue the issues he feels are important that we face in the City of Franklin from his blog site.
I also have it from a trustworthy source that the Secret Police did not come and confiscate his PC. Did I say that right Comrade?
Updated June 25,2008 - An interesting comment from Alderman Steve Taylor about commentators on FranklinNOW - A Message from Franklin Common Council President Taylor Re: Blogs
