The problem with blogs, for those of us living in fairly liberal countries, is that the number of inane morons who now have the ability to publish their own drivel is growing by the day.
Fortunately, the easiest way to fight back against this outpouring of bilge is to avoid reading it.
Of course, in this way, I might miss out on the truly insightful, inspirational or funny, but I can generally count on the reviewers of the world to point me in the direction of anything clever that I shouldn`t be missing.
However, poorly written content on any topic is a luxury that freedom affords us in the Western world. Some countries` governments are so scared by the blogging phenomenon that they go to extraordinary lengths to prevent their citizens from utilising this form of communication.
Behind the Great Firewall
The Chinese government, internationally renowned for clamping down on any type of media, has got its knickers in a right old knot over the emergence of the country`s half a million bloggers.
The Chinese government has got its knickers in a right old knot over the emergence of the country`s half a million bloggers.
Georgina Guedes, editor, Brainstorm
China, with a population of over 1 billion, has 90 million Internet users, and they`re hungry for knowledge. China has nine gateways to the Internet, and all of these are kept behind the "Great Firewall", that prevents citizens from accessing undesirable content.
ISPs starting up in China have to sign self-censorship agreements before they can operate, and the Chinese Net police are very active in that country, shutting down Internet cafes and generally policing internal Internet content.
Unfortunately for the authorities, but dealing a stunning blow for freedom of speech, any tech-savvy individual can download blogging software and doesn`t require the services of an ISP. The Net police are finding it impossible to close down the growing number of blogs in China.
China even has its own Belle du Jour, Mu Zimei, a young journalist who has sex with multiple partners and writes about it on her blog. While her exploits shocked some, they ensured the Chinese word for blogger, "bo ke", became a household word.
Bridging the gulf
In Iran, where some of the world`s most advanced filtering software is used to stop citizens from accessing unacceptable content, bloggers who write in Farsi find it very difficult to reach their audience. On top of this, the Iranian government has a team of people employed to post pro-government propaganda to existing blogs in the public space.
Unfortunately, this scenario doesn`t seem set to improve in future, with the 25 June election of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, an ultra-conservative president. Aside from his determination to continue to clamp down on Internet access and content, he has also vowed to continue Iran`s nuclear proliferation.
So, as much as Western bloggers seem to be filling the Internet with illiterate nonsense, we can celebrate the fact that they`re there at all, as a testimony to the existence of our freedom of speech.
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