Between Victor and I, it is easy enough to distinguish between legitimate discussion and spam in English, most European and a number of African languages. But comments in Arabic script, Chinese and Cyrillic are not even readable with the my current browser and I have no desire to freight it with additions just for the eventuality. However, it is a global discussion and we wish for you to be heard, so, as I say, just drop a line and we will make sure your comments are posted.

Conversely, if you speak Russian, Chinese, Japanese or Arabic and would like to be offer your service to vet these comments, likewise, please contact us.

I am Victor Ngeny, and I blog over at afro-puffs and you’ll be seeing more of me hereon.  As you are aware Curt put out a shout for a Editor/Director to run this site, and I am proud to say that I will be filling in as a contributor. 

I am based in Kenya, and shuttle between the capital city, Nairobi and Kericho, my hometown, I study journalism at Uganda Pentecostal University in Uganda where my focus is digital media. 

When not on the web, I listen to an eclectic mix of stuff, which you’ll find out as we go along; I play rugby, write poetry, write programmes, think about marketing, try to write the next best novel in the world, sleep among other things, and then go back to the www. 

I will most certainly follow Curt’s lead and report and expose any threats facing bloggers, and those already threatened all over the world, thus continue in CPB’s tradition of policing and reporting on corporate, governmental and individual respect for Article 19 of the UN Declaration on Human Rights. 

Be sure to continue supporting the site and if you haven’t, please join our facebook group where I’ll be posting more links to updates and other information. 

I am sure we will continue to grow together and make CPB stronger.  Cheers.

From the Economist’s article on Syria called “Red lines that cannot be crossed,” published on July 24th.

In May Tareq Bayassi, aged 24, was jailed for three years for publishing “false news” on the internet after being detained without trial for almost a year. “The real reason for the sentence,” says another lobby, the online Committee to Protect Bloggers, “was his having posted an article on the shortcomings of the Syrian secret service.”

From ReadWriteWeb’s article, “BlogHer: Who Are Your Favorite Women Bloggers?” published July 18.

Curt Hopkins is the founding editor of The Committee to Protect Bloggers, a blog and organization dedicated to protecting bloggers around the world from imprisonment, censorship and other offenses at the hand of authoritarian governments. Curt didn’t hesitate for a moment before pointing us toward the following bloggers.

Esra’a Al Shafei is a 21 year old blogger from the Kingdom of Bahrain. She writes at Mideast Youth and at FreeKareem.org, a blog dedicated to agitating for the freedom of imprisoned Egyptian blogger Abdul Kareem Nabeel Suleiman.

Israel-Canadian freelance writer Lisa Goldman writes about Israel and media.

Sokari Ekine is the founder of Black Looks, a blog about Africa, women in Africa and a whole host of other topics.

From the Yemen Times’s article, “Yemeni youth are crazy for Facebook,” published July 17.

Some countries like Syria and Iran have blocked Facebook completely, since they feel the site is a threat to national security. The Syrian government claims that the ban is due to the open nature of the site, which they think promoted attacks on authorities, along with Israeli infiltration of Syrian social networks. However, some human rights organizations, such as the U.S.-based Committee to Protect Bloggers, [say] that it’s simply another way for the Syrian government to control their citizens and quell dissent; criticizing the government is punishable by imprisonment. Yet there are a still groups and networks with thousands of Iranian and Syrian users. Users are finding their own ways to access Facebook, which is apparently as addictive for them as it is for the thousands of Yemenis who log on to the site.

From ars technica’s article on Iran’s death penalty for bloggers, “Iran considering banning filthy bloggers from meatspace,” published July 7.

Here, circumventing censorship could result in being kicked and banned from #life. The Committee to Protect Bloggers describes Iran as “among the worst offenders in terms of harassing, arresting and imprisoning bloggers,” so poking the fate bear in this case may not be in bloggers’ best interest.

From ReadWriteWeb’s article, “Iran Parliament to Debate Death Penalty for Bloggers,” published July 4.

Blogging is wildly popular in Iran, where a new generation of young people frequently challenge the old, hyper-conservative religious government. The Committe to Protect Bloggers says that Iran is “among the worst offenders in terms of harassing, arresting and imprisoning bloggers, as well as students.” You can see the group’s extensive coverage of Iranian cyber-censorship and harrasment of bloggers here. The Iranian government has blocked access to Facebook, Yahoo! and Flickr, among other sites.

Thanks to Amine for having the decency, self-respect and common sense to join our little group. And thanks to all the rest of you for being members #1-999.

***

Jose & Ziva from “Cubanology’s Speak Your Mind,” a show on BlogTalkRadio, will be interviewing me today, Saturday, at 1:00 p.m. (PST). You can listen to Speak Your Mind live or replay after the fact. “Cubanology’s Speak Your Mind” focuses on Cuban issues but this time will be talking about freedom for bloggers worldwide.

The primary duty of the editor is to use personal connections, websites, search feeds and other tools and resources to break news on, and otherwise comprehensively cover, threats to bloggers and threatened bloggers.

Donations to the CPB are minuscule and infrequent. The position is unpaid.

We have an opportunity to travel to Cuba and interview Cuban bloggers for a possible presentation on the Washington Post’s PostGlobal series. Please help us get there and get the information on these bloggers to the wider world. They’ve blossomed over the last year but have recently begun to see blocks and shut-downs. They occupy an interesting place in the history of their country and its current possible transitions.

If you’re interested in helping defray some of the costs of this undertaking, please visit our CPB Facebook Causes page to donate or contact us directly at committeetoprotectbloggers at gmail dot com.

The first is our Committee to Protect Bloggers Facebook Causes page. If you are on Facebook, please join the cause. 946 members have preceded you.

The second is our our Committee to Protect Bloggers Twitter page. If you’re on Twitter, please follow our status updates and we’ll do the same to yours. Twitter is a “microblogging” service, with a 140 character limit, which is also good for disseminating links.

Finally, there is our our Committee to Protect Bloggers del.icio.us account. You can subscribe to the feed, or to a sub-feed based on a specific tag. If you’re also on del.icio.us, you can join our network.