Every December, for the last two years, I facilitate a 2-week training/workshop in Germany on new media and digital communications. We have participants from over two dozen countries around the world attending this workshop and sharing their experiences from their respective regions.

One of the primary goals of this workshop, hosted by the German NGO (Freidrich Naumann Stiftung), is to enable and empower individuals and organizations by using the internet and technology to democratize and facilitate freedom of speech and expression especially in conservative and restrictive societies.



In this day and age, I am still surprised that a lot of what we enjoyed is unheard of or restricted in other countries.

In Pakistan, BlogSpot.com is blocked by the government because of one blog that supposedly mocks their religion. Flickr is also blocked in Saudi Arabia as it’s allegedly a source of pornographic content. In Syria, Facebook is also blocked.

A Palestinian delegate told me she read the news about the Israeli government passing a law specifically for Google to prevent it from making high-resolution satellite photos to use in Google Maps.

And we all know about the Great Firewall of China that censors and blocks certain websites and search results for specific keywords.

In Asian countries such as Singapore and Malaysia, bloggers get imprisoned for criticizing people in government (made under the guise of inciting to sedition and the likes).



Most of the reasons behind these restrictions are attributed to religion or national security. It’s even more effective in countries where the government owns or has direct control of telcos or Internet Service Providers (ISPs).

Despite this obstacles, the internet remains as the most accessible alternative medium of communication to reach an audience and as such poses a great promise in promoting free expression. All that is needed is to educated and enable regular folks about its potential. It may take some time for other countries but it has already proven its worth in other regions, especially in the west.