Be prepared

Bankelele writes:

In a full page paid advertisement in the Sunday Standard, Minister for State in the Office of the President (in charge of provincial administration and internal security) John Michuki appealed to the media to tone down their arrogant, sensational reporting of this government and the country.

Michuki went on to list who he considers the main perpetrators of this kind of reporting and including on his list were “internet blogger forums” which he claims are “increasingly being abused - some of them are full of content that is unmistakably hate oriented.”

Michuki’s enlightened attitude towards the press, press freedom and freedom of expression is well known. The rattlesnake of Kenyan politics may be preparing to strike again.

Aside from blogging I am a (largely silent) member on various Kenyan online groups. Since the referendum on the constitution in November last year there has been an explosion of political activity in these groups. Every other day one person or another is declaring their intention to launch a political party, to run for parliament and some even mention standing for the presidency. While many of these prospective candidates are no hopers you do get the impression that some are serious contenders, at least for parliamentary seats. In fact many of them are ex MPs, political exiles etc. It is this group of people, those actively seeking to stand against the government in next years election, who I think Michuki is targeting when he mentions “internet blogging forums”. After all the so called “gutter press” in Kenya is full of articles that are much more derogatory and insulting than anything I have ever read online in a forum or on a blog.

But understandably even if we feel that bloggers are not going to be targeted in any clamp down that may or may not occur we should still be concerned. In the past few weeks Mentalacrobatics has enjoyed some long visits from interesting Kenyan IP addresses. As much as I rate myself as a superior sports pundit I do not think they were readling my opinion on the Africa teams at the Fifa World Cup. As the saying goes, let us hope for the best but prepare for the worst.

Luckily for us a lot of the work in this area has all ready been done. If you are concerned about blogging safely there are two resources I would recommend to you. First is a article called, “How to Blog Safely (About Work or Anything Else)” written by The Electronic Frontier Foundation. I would recommend this article as your first port of call on this issue. It examines the central issues and provides some solid advice. If you run your own blog or are more technically inclined Ethan Zuckerman’s follow up article, “A technical guide to anonymous blogging” is very useful and informative. Both articles are not very long. It would be wise to have a quick read.

Happy safe blogging.