The boffins at the University of Washington released their World Information Access Report 2008 today, which contains a detailed list of countries which enjoy arresting bloggers for such outrageous acts as speaking their minds. The list not only includes usual suspects like Egypt, China, Iran, Syria and Russia, but also the UK and France, which are European countries and ought to know a lot better if they don't want to look like hypocrites.
According to the report, there are to date 64 cases known of bloggers arrested for using a blog to cover or organize social protests, for violating cultural norms, and, amongst others, unheard atrocities such as commenting public policies and exposing human rights violations, as well as corruption.
The growth of arrests have continually risen. In 2003 5 bloggers were arrested, one year later merely 2 – on in Iran and one in France. Last year, however, 36 bloggers were picked up by their respective country's thought police. Two bloggers were arrested in 2007 for no given reason in the supposed haven of democracy, freedom and justice, the USA. Egypt led the sad list with a total of 8 arrests, followed by China which threw 6 citizens in the slammer.
Saudi Arabia merely arrested one person, less than the USA. However the list didn't state how many female teenagers were murdered or sold to camel herders by their parents for using Facebook and other such sites.
Egypt is still leader of the pack in the first quarter of this year, whilst the UK joins Syria and Burma on the second place. Apparently, the blogger arrested in the UK was picked up for violating cultural norms.
'These arrests are probably just the tip of the iceberg, said Phil Howard, an assistant professor of communication who compiled the report with his students.'The real number of arrested bloggers is probably much higher, since many arrests in China, Zimbabwe, and Iran go unreported in the international media.'
Altogether around the world, bloggers have served 940 months of jail time in the last five years, the researchers found. During those years, the average prison term for citizen journalists was 15 months. 'Many countries have political bloggers, and many persecute journalists,' Howard said. 'More and more citizens are expressing themselves online, and being punished for it.'
The report also reports developments leading to rising inequalities concerning access to the internet. Another highlight has to be the fact that number of internet hosts has been continually declining in Africa since the sector has been privatized. Whilst mobile phones and telecommunication services have grown, the total percentage of hosts in Africa has declined from 1.6% in 1995 to 0.7% in 2005. Privatization has lead to huge difficulties in developing an informational infrastructure.
The full report can be viewed here. X |