Fieldnotes on Humanity

Daunting news from Egypt in post-mubarakism surprised the world by jailing a blogger for three years . It shocked people because even in the Mubarak era, jailing bloggers was not as common as these last two months after Mubarak was forced to leave the power. The only and the first case during Mubarak was K areem Amir who was sentenced to 4 years in jail because of allegedly insulting Islam and Husni Mubarak. According to BBC , Maikel Nabil was arrested last month for blog posts where he criticized the role of the Egyptian Army during anti-government uprising. Based AFP , a military court sentenced him to three years in prison. The Maikel Nabil case harks back to Mubarak era; it seems the Army is still remaining in its authoritarian nature and it would likely be hard to expect changes in institutions like the military. It clearly tells us that Egyptian Army does not tolerate criticism and it raises lots of unanswered questions about whether people’s efforts would finally succeed to a...

Since 2004, I am using Haloscan platform in my blog which is quite easy tool that enable the readers to leave comments under the posts. Recently i learned that Haloscan has been purchased by JS-Kit . It is time to appreciate Haloscan that gave us free service and supported free speech. It is time to appreciate those who invented this platform and made it public with no commercial purpose - at least for blogger like me. But alas that JS-Kit is determined to make money out of it. The JS-Kit has made it a paid system. I don't know how a blogger who is receiving not a penny how he/she can pay $12 per year? For the last years, I kept blogging and my readers were giving me their feedback which was joyful for me to read their thoughts. For the last years, no one paid me for blogging, so this raised a question in my mind that if i never paid for blogging why i should pay? I think it is unfair that JS-Kit has decided to use Hasloscan platform for commercial purpose which was used for s...

Note that this article was first published in the America.gov ( direct link of this interview )and if you reproduce this article you must retain this notice. ----- Introduction: A surprising number of Afghans blog on the Internet and even more want to learn how. Nasim Fekrat has been at the forefront of helping Afghans use modern technology to communicate with each other and the rest of the world – but it can be a dangerous business. America.gov’s Jane Morse talked with him earlier this year while he was in United States on a fellowship (see: Eager to Learn About the World, Tech Savy Afghans Turn to Blogs .) In a new guest post, Nasim talks about his latest efforts to teach blogging in Helmand province, the largest in Afghanistan and the world’s top opium-producing region. The province is the site of ongoing deadly fighting between the Taliban and American, British and other NATO troops. This is the sixth day that I am in the war-torn province of Helmand. My friends in other...

This post is written Philippe R. in Courrier International , you can read this in original version in French language . My friend Jean-Baptiste Perrin translated into English. --- With his personal blog Afghan Lord , Nasim Fekrat, 25, is a real fighter. His country Afghanistan has been on the front page of Western and foreign media for so many years, at the heart of what is called "the fight against international terrorism." In Kabul, Nasim fights too. With his own weapons and for a cause much braver and more difficult: freedom of expression. Nasim Fekrat is an Afghan journalist, internationally recognized for his blog Afghan Lord that exists in English and Farsi . In 2005 already, Reporters Without Borders has awarded him its first prize to reward his work, his courage, his commitment. Afghan Lord is currently competing for the best South Asia blog 2008 awarded by the Brass Crescent Awards , oriented towards the Muslim world's blogosphere. Most recently, Nasim ...

------- I wrote this here already It seems that bloggers always looking for bloggers. It happened for me when I heard about Stefen Niggermeier, a famous media journalist and blogger. I was very interested to meet a successful German blogger. His blog is called BILDblog , it observes and takes the role of a watchdog in regard to the largest newspaper in Germany, the tabloid “BILD”, as it regularly points to errors in the paper. His blog received several prizes. Having dinner and chatting with him and asking him about why he became a blogger was an interesting moment. Stefan believes the best way to practice free speech and to write is blog. “In your blog you don’t have to be worried about the text length, you don’t have to consider the editorial advice and those principals which are asked normally from the editor of the newspaper”, he said. Mr. Niggermeier also shared his experience in blogging: “Blogging is easy, just start, if you have word, just put it together and work in a specifi...