Anonymous when you do not want to be

Today's Fiji Times has an interesting feature story on blogs. In this story there are some comments from a certain unnamed "former information security consultant". It will come as no surprise to anyone who has read my recent post advising against blog censorship, that the "consultant who refused to be identified for fear of victimisation" is me. My part of the story reads as follows,

A former information security consultant working in Fiji said recently the reputation of bloggers had been tarnished.

"I am one of many apolitical bloggers in Fiji, and use the web for professional communication, sharing thoughtful writing, or just plain fun.

"I have no political agenda and do not want to be painted with the same brush as Fiji's anonymous political bloggers," he said.

The consultant who refused to be identified for fear of victimisation said FINTEL had the expertise and equipment to block any web address with very little cost or effort.

"The movement of the resistfrankscoup blogspot site to the Wordpress blog site illustrates that blocking websites is not effective.

"If their blogs are blocked, anonymous political bloggers and their readers will simply shift their activities to other available internet resources, such as:

A new blog on blogspot.com (unless they just block the entire blogspot domain);

Any other free blog site such as Wordpress, Livejournal, or countless others;

Any social networking site such as Hi5, Facebook, MySpace, or others;

Any free website provider such as Google Pages, Geocities, or others;

Any instant messaging service from the venerable IRC to jabber, yim, gtalk, or others;

Any group discussion technology from the venerable USENET to Google Groups, Yahoo Groups, or others;

Any p2p technology to circulate files or to chat such as Skype or FWD;

Or users could do any of the above, including reading any blocked blogs, by using open proxy servers, an anonymising service, or The Onion Router.

The consultant said the perception of the interim Government tampering in FINTEL, Fiji's pivotal Internet Service Provider through which all internet traffic flowed, would dampen high-tech investment in Fiji. "Off-shore service centres rely on the perception of data communications security in order to assure their customers that the confidentiality of their data will not be compromised.

"The other cost is through potential issues with EU and other international stakeholders where the interim Government could be perceived to be interfering with the fundamental human right of free speech," he said.

[You can't keep a blog blocked Fiji Times, May 19, 2007]

The trouble is, I did not ask the Fiji Times for anonymity. I will admit that I hesitated to respond to the reporter's queries as speaking on government activities during a state of emergency is not something to do lightly in any country, but in the end I felt it was important to share my views - especially as my views are non-partisan. I also wanted to take the opportunity to state publicly that there are numerous bloggers in Fiji, most of whom have been blogging since long before the coup, who are not interested in pushing a political agenda and who often make no attempt to conceal their identities. To see only some of these, look at my September 12, 2006 post - possibly the first ever blog post about Fiji blogs! If someone is currently maintaining an up to date list of Fiji blogs, please let me know.

I will close with a quote from my updated Blogger profile,

Recently, bloggers have been getting a bad name in Fiji. I am one of many apolitical bloggers in Fiji, all of whom blog for professional communication, for sharing thoughtful writing, and for just plain fun. I have no political agenda and do not want to be painted with the same brush as Fiji’s anonymous political bloggers.

My name is Chris Hammond-Thrasher and I blog in Fiji!

Photo by: mr oji

Can blogging drive political action?

The "Fiji Freedom Bloggers" enjoy a bowl of grog while listening to Bula FM ;-)

Those anonymous bloggers that snubbed us at the bloggers' meet are at it again. Their plan to have individuals who are opposed to the Interim Government stay home on May 1st has netted international press attention and has had the military both hunting Fijian Black and then not hunting him in the very same day.

It will be interesting to see how all interested parties will respond to this call for a May Day strike - for that is exactly what it is even though Captain Intelligentsiya tells us otherwise. Will large numbers of people stay home? What will employers think of employees who call in sick?

Photo by vapours

History in the making - Suva bloggers' meet in 24 hours

It is now roughly 24 hours until history will be made. At 7pm tomorrow (Thursday) night, at the Republic of Cappuccino on Victora Parade and Loftus Street in Suva, the first ever bloggers' meet will be held. If you are a blogger living in the Suva area, or even just thinking about maybe blogging, please come out and meet your fellow blog-heads in person. Drink some coffee, make some friends, and have some fun.

It would not be going too far to call 2007 The Year of the Blog in Fiji. Although, it may be more accurate to call it The Year of the Anonymous Blog. For the first time, blog has become a household word and politically vocal blogs authored by pseudonymed individuals are regularly mentioned in international media reports. Anonymous blogging has become perhaps the most popular method of expressing dissent against Fiji's Interim Government as public forms of dissent have been met with a firm hand by the military.

However, there are also a significant number of bloggers in Fiji who do not make any attempt to conceal their identity. Bloggers such as... While we do not get as many hits or comments as our anonymous counterparts, we do write about many things other than politics. For example, one of the most prolific bloggers in Fiji is Gilbert Veisamasama, Jr. He runs two blogs, Promoting Suva (http://promotingsuva.blogspot.com/) and Invest in Fiji (http://investinfiji.blogspot.com/) and he seems to post to both almost every day.

So, if you are a blogger living in the Suva area and you can comfortably answer the question, "What is your blog's address?" in public, I look forward to seeing you Thursday night!

p.s. Gilbert has given his regrets for tomorrow's meet.

Photo by eurleif