[Air-L] International arrests of citizen bloggers more than triple

[Philip Howard]

Dear AIR Community -

The 2008 briefing booklet from the World Information Access team at the
University of Washington is now online:
www.wiareport.org
The color briefing booklet is here:
http://www.wiareport.org/wp-content/uploads/wiar_2008_final.pdf
The data memo on the arrests of citizen bloggers is here:
http://www.wiareport.org/index.php/56/blogger-arrests

This year there are three stories, developed by a team of undergrad
researchers, on the arrest of citizen bloggers internationally, the
ideological bent of political party websites in Muslim countries, and the
concentration of media assets (old and new) in 15 large Muslim countries.
The main news release by the university is pasted below.

We've shared the spreadsheet of raw data on the website.  If you know of
additional incidents where citizen bloggers were arrested for their posts,
incidents we didn't track, please let me know.  We print hardcopies of the
briefing booklet and send them to 1,000 policy makers and researchers, so if
you would like a hardcopy please send me your physical address.
Best,
Phil
Dr. Philip N. Howard
Assistant Professor
Department of Communication
University of Washington




INTERNATIONAL ARRESTS OF CITIZEN BLOGGERS MORE THAN TRIPLE
Publication Date: Jun. 10, 2008
 
Authoritarian regimes around the world are dealing with troublesome citizen
bloggers by arresting them, and they're doing it more often, according to
researchers at the University of Washington.  

"Last year, 2007, was a record year for blogger arrests, with three times as
many as in 2006. Egypt, Iran and China are the most dangerous places to blog
about political life, accounting for more than half of all arrests since
blogging became big," said Phil Howard, an assistant professor of
communication. With his students, Howard prepared the World Information
Access Report, which documents sources and consequences of social inequality
in the information age.  
In response to harassment, a significant number of political bloggers are
going underground. They are blogging anonymously, and using other online
tools such as MySpace and YouTube to post critical commentary.  

Since 2003, 64 citizens unaffiliated with news organizations have been
arrested for their blogging. Topics of these blog posts vary, as do the
kinds of criminal charges and punishments.  

But these arrests are probably just the tip of the iceberg, Howard said.
"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."


Jail sentences varied from blogger to blogger, the least amount a few hours
and the longest eight years. Nine of Egypt's 14 known blogger arrests
occurred in 2007, an election year. In 2005, Iranian blogger Mojtaba
Saminejad was arrested for writing about the arrests of other bloggers.
"Some people blog about their arrests as soon as they get out of jail,"
Howard said.  

See additional data about blogging arrests at:
http://www.wiareport.org/wp-content/uploads/arrestedbloggingtable.doc

This information likely reflects the growing number of citizens who blog,
but also growing recognition among authoritarian governments that citizen
bloggers cause problems, Howard said. By targeting nonprofessional
journalists who express themselves online, authoritarian governments can
promote fear among their Internet users, Howard said.  
These bloggers expose bureaucratic corruption or human rights abuses, and
express opinions about political figures and public policy. They post
reports and photos from social protests. They write about political art or
share images and writing that according to their governments violate
cultural norms.  

In democratic countries such as England and the U.S., blogger arrests often
involve people accused of posting pornography or inciting racial hatred
online. But even the most democratic countries have cases where bloggers
were arrested for activities many would consider free speech. For example,
Canadian Charles Leblanc was arrested for photographing a protest for his
blog.  

Howard's team studied news reports in major print, television, radio and
online media outlets. Some arrests were reported only online in specialized
news sources, and these were double- checked for accuracy. The compiled list
of incident reports was then coded for variables such as length of arrest or
amount of fine, official charges (if any) and the type of blogging for which
the offender had been arrested.  

Researchers looked for incidents involving people unaffiliated with a news
organization who were arrested for posting content to their blogs.  

The World Information Access team also reviewed trends in the global digital
divide. They downloaded Web sites for 356 political parties in the Muslim
world, and found ideological content to be surprisingly mainstream:
Traditional liberal and conservative political parties have the largest
volume of gigabytes of content, and the most Web pages.  

###