Bloggers, like others at the forefront of activities promoting freedom of speech and information, can run into trouble with the authorities. At Global Voices we have had first hand experience of this with the illegal detention of one of our editors, Hao Wu. He has now been held for three months by the Chinese authorities at an undisclosed location, denied access to his family and lawyer.
The most recent victim of state displeasure is the award-winning Egyptian blogger Alaa Abd El Fatah [1] who is one among many detained during peaceful protests advocating democratic change and supporting the independence of the country's judiciary.
Immediate and widespread web-based action was launched to campaign to Free Alaa! [2] involving a number of initiatives, the most recent of which is a Free Alaa Frappr Map [3].
In order to help aggregate all the actions on behalf of bloggers at risk we have set up a page on Global Voices tracking current cases [4]. We also have a wiki page – Global Voices Advocacy [5] – where anyone can add information about bloggers under threat and actions being taken on their behalf.