Blogging for human rights: A case of online dissidence

In my previous post, I spoke of blogging as a tool for PR and how this online communication has become a strategic tool in the corporate world. In addition to a professional motive, blogs have the potential to relay powerful messages of protest, hope, and according to one of today's New York Times headlines, dissidence.

I've included a link to the article and encourage anyone to check it out, because it shows the stark contrast of free communication in our society vs. a society like China, in which a young human rights advocate and his wife have been held under house arrest since 2006 for disseminating information about human rights cases, peasant protests and other "touchy" topics that the Chinese government would prefer to keep under wraps with the approaching August Beijing Olympic games. This couple is just an example of the dozens of "online dissidents" who have been speaking out through blogs and online petitions for human rights awareness in China. Hu Jia and his wife Zeng Jinyan have had their telephone and Internet connections severed, in addition to the confiscation of his bank cards, computers and cell phones. Ms. Zeng began blogging to raise awareness and generate publicity about the "intense surveillance of the couple."

According to the article, China has jailed 51 online dissidents. That's more than any other country in the world. I had no idea that blogging had become such a tool for activism in this part of the world, and I think that communicators in the West should be aware of this blatant attack on civil rights. We should do their part and check out Global Voices Online, a nonprofit forum for bloggers around the world, in addition to the various online petitions and Chinese blogs calling for change in their country.

With our blessed right to communicate as we do, let's not be ignorant of those who are without.