Photo credit: nancybechtol
Le Nguyen Huong Tra, a 35-year-old Vietnamese blogger, who was arrested last fall for giving bad press on her blog to a government official and “abusing democratic freedoms,” was freed on bail in January and apparently “educated” what’s off-limits to write.
Waleed Khalid Hasayin, a 26-year-old Palestinian blogger who created a Facebook page that criticized Islam, was arrested for his actions last fall.
Maikel Nabil, another 26-year-old blogger from Egypt, was arrested last month for criticizing the government and insulting the military. He faces three years in jail.
Mark MacLachlan, a 47-year-old government aide in Scotland, was arrested last year for disparaging political rivals on a blog.
The list goes on.
Proclaimed by the United Nations General Assembly in 1993 and organized every May 3 by the United Nations Education, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), World Press Freedom Day pays tribute to journalists who lost their lives in the line of duty.
Digital media is the theme of this year’s conference in Washington D.C., featuring journalists and researches speaking about the opportunities and challenges to freedom of expression when using the web. Naturally, UNESCO is promoting global commemorative events through special pages on Facebook and Twitter.
Le Nguyen, Waleed, Maikel, and Mark may not be journalists in the frame of those who stereotypically report for newspapers and magazines and internet journals, but they are citizen journalists and they ought to be afforded the same rights to write as anyone else. Think about them the next time you read a blog, and think about them today on World Press Freedom Day.
