A Free Press Needs Your Help.

Our press has its problems, and we all have to wince when we see fiction reported as fact, but now a worldwide free press is getting a push into prominence by Amnesty International, which is calling on blogs to add their voices to a shoutout for freedom of expression.

Bloggers are being asked to show their support for freedom of expression by Amnesty International.

The human rights group also wants web log writers to highlight the plight of fellow bloggers jailed for what they wrote in their online journals.

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"Freedom of expression online is a right, not a privilege - but it's a right that needs defending," said Steve Ballinger of Amnesty International. "We're asking bloggers worldwide to show their solidarity with web users in countries where they can face jail just for criticising the government."

As Diane noted in her post BLOG OVERSIGHT:

For the last three years, in an unprecedented historical phenomenon, we’ve been able to hear from frontline front-line soldiers directly. The combat, the boredom, the loneliness, the camaraderie, their beliefs, their frustrations, their accomplishments. From Iraqis they encounter, suspicion and hatred as well as smiles and gratitude.

...It has been a rich picture unlike anything you know about Iraq if all your information comes from newspapers and TV.

Now, the military has assigned a National Guard unit to monitor the Internet for possible violations of operational security - OPSEC, as they call it.

We take our freedom to express ourselves and to read a variety of viewpoints too much for granted. Because it is being encroached on, now is the time to stand up for our rights, and to let others know they need to as well. Now, before there are further restrictions on freedom of expression, bloggers need to join their voices together in insisting we can and should speak out for those who can't, and shine a bright light on the offenses against our world's free press.

from Ruth