LET ME SPEAK!!!
Freedom of speech is a wonderful thing, but no way as obvious as it should be. For some of us this is very natural and logic, but others are not always that lucky. Just imagine that you weren’t able to write the ‘blog’ you want or express what’s on your mind. That would be a bummer right, that would simply even s**k big time. The freedom of expression was taken to a new level when internet came. And more and more people where able to express themselves, for instance on personal web pages. Eventually ‘the blog’ was introduced a few years ago. And this tweaked the freedom of expression even a little bit more. Numerous of ‘blogs’ have appeared since then.Everybody with their own piece of mind and opinion, craving to be heard.

But this would soon show it’s downfall. As most of the people addressed personal subjects, some also where publishing more serious matters. Even created a window for the world so see their side in certain situations. One of those people is Kianoosh Sanjari, who is a 23 year old Iranian student that ‘blogged’ about the daily situations in his country. He was arrested earlier this month while reporting on clashes between security forces and supporters of Shi’a cleric Ayatollah Boroujerdi. He is being held incommunicado and Amnesty International fears that he may be at risk of torture or ill-treatment. Sanjari had allegedly gone to the home of Ayatollah Boroujerdi in the capital, Tehran, to prepare a report on the clashes that were taking place there.
This of course seems far from our beds and not really having any affect on us in any way. But guess again!

This situation was brought to the attention by Amnesty International, as the online world prepares to meet at the Internet Governance Forum (IGF, Athens 10/30 – 11/2) to discuss the future of the internet. Amnesty released a statement to the IGF today and is sending a delegation to ensure that human rights are not sidelined and remain at the heart of the forum’s discussions.And even us ‘game-blogging-gamespot-lovers’ are “under attack” here.
Amnesty International is calling on governments and companies to ensure that human rights – particularly the rights to freedom of expression, association and the right to privacy – are respected and protected.

Another important example is Yahoo!, who via its Chinese partner company, Alibaba, has provided the Chinese authorities with private and confidential information about its users that has been used to convict and imprison journalists. It has also agreed to censor and deny access to information. Microsoft shut down the blog of New York Times researcher Zhao Jing on the basis of a Chinese government request. The company has also admitted that it responds to directions from the Chinese government in restricting users of MSN Spaces from using certain terms. Google has launched a censored version of its international search engine in China.

It's even that bad that there are Chinese students at Beijing that don't even knew about the “Tankman” because of this. And for a brief history lesson for those who don’t know either:
-“On June 5, 1989, one day after the Chinese army’s deadly crushing of the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests in Beijing, a single, unarmed young man stood his ground before a column of tanks on the Avenue of Eternal Peace. Captured on film and video by Western journalists, this extraordinary confrontation became an icon of the struggle for freedom around the world.” (for more info go here)-
This means that the Chinese government was able to erase this from ever happening, even on the internet. Obviously they didn’t do this alone. And still nobody knows what eventually happened to the “Tankman”.

So just imagine that you won’t be able to see what you want to see on the internet. Or even worse that you would be denied to say what you want to say. And you’d even be punished for saying what you want or think is needed. That’s why Amnesty International calls all of us ‘bloggers’ out to stand up. And I also would ask you people to at least show some sign that you care. For instance a reaction, your thoughts, maybe even just a blog with:
LET ME SPEAK!!!
(or something like that) in huge letters would work. You can always also put a link to this blog/post in it. And if there is a right time for something, it’s now. Don’t let them take this away from us, show that even thinking about doing that is a worthless idea.
Thanks for your attention.

PS.:Here's the link to my blog if you want to leave comment on this there; CALL TO BLOGGERS! (let me speak)