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Reporters without Borders, an international media organization advocating freedom of expression, recently published the Handbook for Bloggers and Cyber-Dissidents which provide handy tips and technical advice to bloggers and other online activists on how to remain anonymous and get around censorship. Bloggers, according to Reporters without Borders, are often the only real journalists in countries where the mainstream media is censored or under pressure. Only they provide independent news, at the risk of displeasing the government and sometimes courting arrest.


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Global Voices Online is a non-profit global citizens media project, sponsored by and launched from the Berkman Center for Internet and Society at the Harvard Law School.

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Colombo, 3 May 2006. On the occasion of World Press Freedom Day (3 May), the World Association of Community Broadcasters (AMARC), called upon governments worldwide to develop national policies and supportive legal frameworks that enable and encourage community media. The call for media law reform was endorsed by participants at the UNESCO World Press Freedom Day conference on "Media, Development and Poverty Eradication" held in Colombo, Sri Lanka 1-2 May 2006.

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East Asian and Central Asian countries ranked very low in an international comparison of media environments in 2005, as documented in an annual survey conducted by Reporters Without Borders. North Korea (167th), Burma (163rd) and Turkmenistan (165th) found their way at the bottom for having repressive media policies. Privately-owned media, for example, are forbidden in these countries. China is 159th, Vietnam is 158th, while Laos ranks 155th. Pacific countries also ranked low, with Fiji in 60th place and Tonga in 63rd place.

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The worldwide controversy over the cartoons depicting the Islamic religious figure of Mohammad pushes the bounds of press freedom, says the Organization of the Islamic Conference, a coalition of 57 Islamic countries to promote economic, social, political and scientific cooperation. The group recognises that while press freedom is necessary for democracy, respect for religious belief was also essential to international peace and security, and has taken to task the formulation of a collective policy on Islamic solidarity.

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World Press Freedom Day honours sacrifices around the world made for freedom of the press and reminds governments of their duty to respect and uphold the right to freedom of expression that is enshrined under Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Proclaimed by the UN General Assembly in 1993, the day is celebrated each year on May 3, the anniversary of the Declaration of Windhoek, a statement of free press principles put together by African newspaper journalists in 1991. -Wikipedia.org