THE BLOGGING JOURNALIST

WordPress Reportedly Blocked in Turkey

 MIDEAST YOUTH reported August 17, 2007that, "WordPress [link added], a growing blog publishing system, has recently been blocked in Turkey [link added]." See "WordPress blocked in Turkey."

The publication said, "Founder and main developer Matt Mullenweg is asking for suggestions on ways to go about accessing WordPress within the country, after expressing his disappointment over this decision, which seems to be another strategy for Turkey to curb freedom of speech."

Curious, I stopped by Erkan Saka's blog, Erkan's Field Diary,  to see if he had written anything about this. I didn't find anything. Erkan, a "Ph.D candidate at the Anthropology Department of Rice University [in Texas, USA] and an instructor at the Public Relations Department of Istanbul Bilgi University," is from Turkey and is in the country now. Hopefully, he will write something about WordPress being blocked there.

By the way, The Technology Free Press, my technology blog, is powered by WordPress. However, I don't use the free version."

Technorati tags: Mideast Youth, WordPress, Matt Mullenweg, WordPress Blocked in Turkey, Erkan Saka, Erkan's Field Diary

It's Your Blog, Do What You Want To Do

Sydney (Australia) Morning Herald blogger Glenda Kwek asks in a May 28, 2007, post in the blog Mashup: "Should there be rules for comments that are posted online?"

The post, headlined "Civility or censorship," offered a cool take on a subject that has been passionately discussed lately, especially since Wikipedia founder/co-founder Jimbo Wales and Tim O'Reilly of O'Reilly Media "proposed a draft bloggers' code of conduct that they hope will serve as a guideline for blogging."

My guess is the question will be debated as long as there is a blogosphere.

Do I think a Code of Conduct will work?

For some it will, but for others it won't. There will always be contrarians, which is ok with me. I think the key is for each blogger to implement his or her own policy regarding comments. It's up to you to determine if you want to allow nasty comments, shut comments down or ban commenters known to use profanity, racial slurs, etc. If some one makes threats of physical harm, do what you do in the offline world. Call the police. Threats of physical harm have to be taken seriously.

To paraphrase the Isley Brother's 1969 Funk single "It's your Thing," it's your blog. Do what you want to do. 

Reporters Without Borders: Thousands Have Voted Against Net Censorship

"Reporters Without Borders, the Paris-based press freedom advocacy group, noted November 8, 2006, that "More than 25,000 people have already voted against Internet enemies," meaning censors.

Businessweek.com Looks at 'Nations That Censor The Net'

Businessweek.com takes a look at "Nations that Censor the Net." Writes Douglas MacMillan in a November 10, 2006, post: "As effective as the Internet may be in spreading dissent, the methods used to suppress opposition on the Web are no less pervasive."

He notes that, "Reporters Without Borders, a Paris group that does advocacy work for press freedom, has compiled a list of the countries that it says go the furthest to censor the Internet."