Cyber-dissident
Encyclopedia
A cyber-dissident is a professional journalist, an activist or citizen journalist who posts news, information, or commentary on the internet
that implies criticism of a government
or regime
.
The practice of cyber-dissidence may have been inaugurated by Dr. Daniel Mengara, a Gabonese scholar and activist living in political exile in New Jersey in the United States. In 1998, he created a Website in French whose name Bongo Doit Partir (Bongo Must Go) was clearly indicative of its purpose: it encouraged a revolution against the then 29-year-old regime of Omar Bongo in Gabon. The original URL, http://www.globalwebco.net/bdp/, began to redirect to http://www.bdpgabon.org in the year 2000. Inaugurating what was to become common current-day pratcice in the politically-involved blogosphere, this movement's attempt at rallying the Gabonese around revolutionary ideals and actions has ultimately been vindicated by the 2011 Tunisian and Egyption revolutions, where the Internet has proved to be an effective tool for instigating successful critique, opposition and revolution against dictators.
At least two nonprofit organizations are currently working to raise awareness of the contributions of cyber-dissidents and to defend them against the human rights
violations to which some of them are subjected: Global Voices Online
and Reporters Without Borders
. The latter has released a Handbook For Bloggers and Cyber-Dissidents and maintains a roster of currently imprisoned cyber-dissidents. The Committee to Protect Bloggers has been created http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/4278241.stm
In regions where print and broadcast media are tightly controlled, anonymous
online postings by cyber-dissidents may be the only source of information about the experiences, feelings, and opinions of ordinary citizens. This advantage may be offset by the difficulty in assessing the good faith
and accuracy of reports originating from anonymous sources.
Cyber-dissidents appears in the dystopic
theatrical
play Fahrenheit 56K about a fictional dictatorship
where dissidents expose their wailings against the Party through Internet
.
was imprisoned for posting a series of articles online under the pen name "盼民主"("expecting for democracy") criticizing the Chinese government.
and expressing critical views about Islam
in 2006 called on his nation's women to have more children, journalist Vladimir Rakhmankov published a satiric article on the Internet calling Putin "the nation's phallic symbol
". Rakhmankov was found guilty of offending Vladimir Putin, and fined by the court of the region he lived in to the sum equal of 680 USD. The overall story served as a good adversiting for Rakhmanov's article, that was republished by numerous Russian sources afterwards. http://www.gdf.ru/digest/digest/digest298e.shtml#part
Three Russian bloggers has supposed in 2003, that Russian state security service FSB
, the main successor to the KGB
, created special teams of people who appear on various blogs to harass and intimidate political blog
gers and thus effectively prevent free discussion of undesirable subjects They referred to such tactics are known as "active measures
". A Russian criticist of this theory has noted in 2003, that security services have more important tasks than flooding in forums.
colonel, military historian
who had quit the Communist Party in 1999. For publicly discussing issues related to corruption in the official structures and encouraging democratic reforms, he was charged with "abuse of democratic freedoms" and imprisoned.
Internet
The Internet is a global system of interconnected computer networks that use the standard Internet protocol suite to serve billions of users worldwide...
that implies criticism of a government
Government
Government refers to the legislators, administrators, and arbitrators in the administrative bureaucracy who control a state at a given time, and to the system of government by which they are organized...
or regime
Regime
The word regime refers to a set of conditions, most often of a political nature.-Politics:...
.
The practice of cyber-dissidence may have been inaugurated by Dr. Daniel Mengara, a Gabonese scholar and activist living in political exile in New Jersey in the United States. In 1998, he created a Website in French whose name Bongo Doit Partir (Bongo Must Go) was clearly indicative of its purpose: it encouraged a revolution against the then 29-year-old regime of Omar Bongo in Gabon. The original URL, http://www.globalwebco.net/bdp/, began to redirect to http://www.bdpgabon.org in the year 2000. Inaugurating what was to become common current-day pratcice in the politically-involved blogosphere, this movement's attempt at rallying the Gabonese around revolutionary ideals and actions has ultimately been vindicated by the 2011 Tunisian and Egyption revolutions, where the Internet has proved to be an effective tool for instigating successful critique, opposition and revolution against dictators.
At least two nonprofit organizations are currently working to raise awareness of the contributions of cyber-dissidents and to defend them against the human rights
Human rights
Human rights are "commonly understood as inalienable fundamental rights to which a person is inherently entitled simply because she or he is a human being." Human rights are thus conceived as universal and egalitarian . These rights may exist as natural rights or as legal rights, in both national...
violations to which some of them are subjected: Global Voices Online
Global Voices Online
Global Voices Online is an international network of bloggers and citizen journalists that follow, report, and summarizes what is going on in the blogosphere in every corner of the world...
and Reporters Without Borders
Reporters Without Borders
Reporters Without Borders is a France-based international non-governmental organization that advocates freedom of the press. It was founded in 1985, by Robert Ménard, Rony Brauman and the journalist Jean-Claude Guillebaud. Jean-François Julliard has served as Secretary General since 2008...
. The latter has released a Handbook For Bloggers and Cyber-Dissidents and maintains a roster of currently imprisoned cyber-dissidents. The Committee to Protect Bloggers has been created http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/4278241.stm
In regions where print and broadcast media are tightly controlled, anonymous
Anonymity
Anonymity is derived from the Greek word ἀνωνυμία, anonymia, meaning "without a name" or "namelessness". In colloquial use, anonymity typically refers to the state of an individual's personal identity, or personally identifiable information, being publicly unknown.There are many reasons why a...
online postings by cyber-dissidents may be the only source of information about the experiences, feelings, and opinions of ordinary citizens. This advantage may be offset by the difficulty in assessing the good faith
Good faith
In philosophy, the concept of Good faith—Latin bona fides “good faith”, bona fide “in good faith”—denotes sincere, honest intention or belief, regardless of the outcome of an action; the opposed concepts are bad faith, mala fides and perfidy...
and accuracy of reports originating from anonymous sources.
Cyber-dissidents appears in the dystopic
Dystopia
A dystopia is the idea of a society in a repressive and controlled state, often under the guise of being utopian, as characterized in books like Brave New World and Nineteen Eighty-Four...
theatrical
Theatre
Theatre is a collaborative form of fine art that uses live performers to present the experience of a real or imagined event before a live audience in a specific place. The performers may communicate this experience to the audience through combinations of gesture, speech, song, music or dance...
play Fahrenheit 56K about a fictional dictatorship
Dictatorship
A dictatorship is defined as an autocratic form of government in which the government is ruled by an individual, the dictator. It has three possible meanings:...
where dissidents expose their wailings against the Party through Internet
Internet
The Internet is a global system of interconnected computer networks that use the standard Internet protocol suite to serve billions of users worldwide...
.
Gabon
In July 2003, Amnesty International reported the arrest of five Gabonese known to be members of the cyber-dissident group Bongo Doit Partir. The five members were detained for three months (See: Gabon: Prisoners of Conscience and Gabon: Further information on Prisoners of conscience)China
In 2003, Cai LujunCai Lujun
-Biography:Cai Lujun was born in Feixiang County, Hebei Province. He was a owner a foreign trading company and a freelance writer. He graduated from secondary school.Cai became one of the first person in China to be arrested for posting articles on the internet....
was imprisoned for posting a series of articles online under the pen name "盼民主"("expecting for democracy") criticizing the Chinese government.
Egypt
In 2006, several bloggers in Egypt were arrested for allegedly defaming the president Hosni MubarakHosni Mubarak
Muhammad Hosni Sayyid Mubarak is a former Egyptian politician and military commander. He served as the fourth President of Egypt from 1981 to 2011....
and expressing critical views about Islam
Iran
In 2005, Mohamad Reza Nasab Abdolahi was imprisoned for publishing an open letter to Ayatollah Ali Khamenei; Mohamad's pregnant wife and other bloggers who commented on Mohamad's treatment were also imprisoned.Russia
When Russian president Vladimir PutinVladimir Putin
Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin served as the second President of the Russian Federation and is the current Prime Minister of Russia, as well as chairman of United Russia and Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the Union of Russia and Belarus. He became acting President on 31 December 1999, when...
in 2006 called on his nation's women to have more children, journalist Vladimir Rakhmankov published a satiric article on the Internet calling Putin "the nation's phallic symbol
Phallus
A phallus is an erect penis, a penis-shaped object such as a dildo, or a mimetic image of an erect penis. Any object that symbolically resembles a penis may also be referred to as a phallus; however, such objects are more often referred to as being phallic...
". Rakhmankov was found guilty of offending Vladimir Putin, and fined by the court of the region he lived in to the sum equal of 680 USD. The overall story served as a good adversiting for Rakhmanov's article, that was republished by numerous Russian sources afterwards. http://www.gdf.ru/digest/digest/digest298e.shtml#part
Three Russian bloggers has supposed in 2003, that Russian state security service FSB
FSB (Russia)
The Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation is the main domestic security agency of the Russian Federation and the main successor agency of the Soviet Committee of State Security . Its main responsibilities are counter-intelligence, internal and border security, counter-terrorism, and...
, the main successor to the KGB
KGB
The KGB was the commonly used acronym for the . It was the national security agency of the Soviet Union from 1954 until 1991, and was the premier internal security, intelligence, and secret police organization during that time.The State Security Agency of the Republic of Belarus currently uses the...
, created special teams of people who appear on various blogs to harass and intimidate political blog
Political blog
A political blog is a common type of blog that comments on politics. In liberal democracies the right to criticize the government without interference is considered an important element of free speech...
gers and thus effectively prevent free discussion of undesirable subjects They referred to such tactics are known as "active measures
Active measures
Active Measures were a form of political warfare conducted by the Soviet security services to influence the course of world events, "in addition to collecting intelligence and producing politically correct assessment of it". Active measures ranged "from media manipulations to special actions...
". A Russian criticist of this theory has noted in 2003, that security services have more important tasks than flooding in forums.
Vietnam
The Digital Freedom Network has pointed out cases of imprisoning cyber-dissidents in Vietnam, such as the 2004 case of Pham Que Dong, a former People's ArmyPeople's Army
People's Army was a title of several communist armed forces:* Czechoslovak People's Army* People's Army of Poland* Vietnam People's Army* National People's Army, of East Germany* Yugoslav People's Army* Korean People's Army...
colonel, military historian
Historian
A historian is a person who studies and writes about the past and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human race; as well as the study of all history in time. If the individual is...
who had quit the Communist Party in 1999. For publicly discussing issues related to corruption in the official structures and encouraging democratic reforms, he was charged with "abuse of democratic freedoms" and imprisoned.
See also
- AnonymityAnonymityAnonymity is derived from the Greek word ἀνωνυμία, anonymia, meaning "without a name" or "namelessness". In colloquial use, anonymity typically refers to the state of an individual's personal identity, or personally identifiable information, being publicly unknown.There are many reasons why a...
- BlogBlogA blog is a type of website or part of a website supposed to be updated with new content from time to time. Blogs are usually maintained by an individual with regular entries of commentary, descriptions of events, or other material such as graphics or video. Entries are commonly displayed in...
- CensorshipCensorshipthumb|[[Book burning]] following the [[1973 Chilean coup d'état|1973 coup]] that installed the [[Military government of Chile |Pinochet regime]] in Chile...
- Citizen journalismCitizen journalismCitizen journalism is the concept of members of the public "playing an active role in the process of collecting, reporting, analyzing and disseminating news and information," according to the seminal 2003 report We Media: How Audiences are Shaping the Future of News and Information...
- Committee for the Defense of Legitimate RightsCommittee for the Defense of Legitimate RightsThe Committee for the Defense of Legitimate Rights was a Saudi dissident group created in 1993 which opposed the Saudi government as un-Islamic.-History:...
- Freedom of speechFreedom of speechFreedom of speech is the freedom to speak freely without censorship. The term freedom of expression is sometimes used synonymously, but includes any act of seeking, receiving and imparting information or ideas, regardless of the medium used...
- International Freedom of Expression ExchangeInternational Freedom of Expression ExchangeThe International Freedom of Expression eXchange , founded in 1992, is a global network of around 90 non-governmental organisations that promotes and defends the right to freedom of expression....
- Internationale MedienhilfeInternationale MedienhilfeThe IMH-Internationale Medienhilfe is a non-commercial working group and co-operative enterprise of intercultural, international and Jewish newspapers, magazines, radio stations, television broadcasters and news agencies located throughout the world, which have collectively agreed to provide...
- Internet activismInternet activismInternet activism is the use of electronic communication technologies such as e-mail, the World Wide Web, and podcasts for various forms of activism to enable faster communications by citizen movements and the delivery of local information to a large audience...
- Internet censorshipInternet censorshipInternet censorship is the control or suppression of the publishing of, or access to information on the Internet. It may be carried out by governments or by private organizations either at the behest of government or on their own initiative...
- Persecution of political bloggers
- Political repression of cyber-dissidentsPolitical repression of cyber-dissidentsPolitical repression of cyber-dissidents is the oppression or persecution of people for expressing their political views in the Internet.Along with development of the Internet, state authorities in many parts of the world are moving forward to install mass surveillance of the electronic...
- Sociology of Internet
- Online Volunteer
- Reporters Without BordersReporters Without BordersReporters Without Borders is a France-based international non-governmental organization that advocates freedom of the press. It was founded in 1985, by Robert Ménard, Rony Brauman and the journalist Jean-Claude Guillebaud. Jean-François Julliard has served as Secretary General since 2008...
/Reporters sans frontières - Universal Declaration of Human RightsUniversal Declaration of Human RightsThe Universal Declaration of Human Rights is a declaration adopted by the United Nations General Assembly . The Declaration arose directly from the experience of the Second World War and represents the first global expression of rights to which all human beings are inherently entitled...
External links
- Reporters Without Borders/Reporters sans frontières
- Global Voices Online
- Committee To Protect Bloggers
- Electronic Frontier Foundation: Legal Guide For Bloggers
- International Freedom of Expression eXchange
- Human Rights Watch: Free Expression and the Internet
- Human Rights Watch: Become a Blogger for Human Rights
- Wanabehuman: Social software and cyber dissidence
- The Chinese blogosphere and cyber dissidence
- The Persian blogosphere and cyber dissidence
- Gabon: Prisoners of Conscience
- Bongo Doit Partir