blog n. A weblog.intr.v. blogged, blog·ging, blogs To write entries in, add material to, or maintain a weblog. web·log n. A website that displays in chronological order the postings by one or more individuals and usually has links to comments on specific postings.

On 8 and 10 December 2005, journalist, photographer and reluctant blogger Onnik Krikorian attended a workshop at the Oxford Internet Institute, and the 2005 Global Voices Summit held at Reuters’ London Headquarters. While the seminar in Oxford concentrated on the role of ICTs in the democratization process in Eastern Europe, the conference in London focused almost entirely on blogging and its potential symbiosis with journalism.

Having recently returned from visiting the United Kingdom for the two events, Krikorian offers his own personal account of the discussions initiated, and how they relate to the situation in Armenia.

When Transitions Online, an internet magazine dealing with the post-Soviet space, asked me to consider posting news and commentary from Armenia on their new blog section, I had to turn them down. A friend, another journalist and analyst in Armenia, had already done the same and suggested they contact me instead. However, I had neither the time nor the inclination to become part of the worldwide blogosphere.

To be honest, I considered blogsging pointless, and perhaps even meaningless in the context of professional journalism.

Matt Malcomson, creator of Blogrel, had already asked me to contribute to his blog, perhaps the serious professional Armenian blog at the time, and I had also turned down that offer. Unfortunately, English language blogs from Armenia had largely been targeted towards a small subset of the large Armenian Diaspora for whom speaking openly and honestly about the problems facing the newly independent Republic was tantamount to treason.

Malcomson even offered me the possibility to take over running Blogrel when he could no longer keep it going, but I instead suggested that he approach an American student and IT professional interested in all things Armenian who runs it even now. Eventually, I did start contributing to Blogrel towards the end of 2004, but decided to start my own blog in the summer of 2005 when the problems associated with collaborative blogging began to occur with increasing regularity.

In part, this was down to a very simple reality. Basically, when it comes to Armenia, there is seldom the desire to promote the genuine dissemination of reliable information on issues frequently hijacked by those with partisan political interests. This generally manifests itself in the form of the stark contrast between the dream of an independent Armenia as it exists in the large Armenia Diaspora, and the reality on the ground.

Of course, a plurality of views is the hallmark of a successful blogosphere, but when it manifests itself in the form of a handful of the most extreme voices in the Diaspora intimidating and threatening anyone who dares to suggest that critical discourse is necessary in order to confront and resolve the many problems facing a country where 44 percent of the population lives below the national poverty line, something is wrong.

Unfortunately, those with a real stake in their country‘s future, such as those citizens actually born and still resident in Armenia, are seldom heard.

Nevertheless, despite an earlier reluctance to blog, I slowly began to find myself hooked. As a journalist and photographer from the United Kingdom living and working in the Republic of Armenia since 1998, blogs soon became a necessary extension of my work. Not only could I post stories and photographs that would otherwise never see the light of day, but I could also link to those articles and photo essays that had been published, as well as draw the attention of readers towards the work of others.

Effectively, my blog from Armenia not only became another medium for my own work, but also served as a portal to other sites and publications which I believed had something important to say. In fact, with blogging fast becoming an invaluable tool for internet-savvy journalists and activists elsewhere, I jumped at the chance to cross-post on New Eurasia, a blog dealing with Central Asia and the South Caucasus established by a young German student from East Berlin now studying in London, Ben Paarman.

Now, fast forward to 2005 when I found myself visiting the United Kingdom to participate in a workshop organized by Harvard University’s Berkman Center for Internet and Society and the Oxford Internet Institute, and this year’s Global Voices Summit in London. If I had previously stereotyped blogs as the irrelevant ramblings of those with too much time on their hands, I was already beginning to understand that blogs were, in fact, an important tool in encouraging free speech in countries where more often than not, very little exists.

A number of sites such as Nathan Hamm’s Registan proved to be an invaluable tool in monitoring recent events in Uzbekistan and Azerbaijan, as did New Eurasia for the latter‘s disputed parliamentary elections in November. The importance of blogs in scraping away at the surface of censorship in China, North Korea, Iraq and Iran is also of note, and it is no wonder that many media outlets are starting to rely on blogs as a source of information from these countries, and why some governments are starting to take action against bloggers.

 
Civic Participation and Democratic Conversations in Eastern Europe

Global Voices was founded by former CNN Tokyo and Beijing Bureau Chief, Rebecca McKinnon, and Geekcorps founder, Ethan Zuckerman, at the Berkman Center of Internet Society at Harvard Law School, and aims to amplify and broadcast the voices of individuals living in countries under-represented or often poorly reported in the international media. According to Zuckerman, when Global Voices went online in December 2004, it had 800 visitors per day. Now, it attracts more than 12,000 — or over 300,000 visitors per month.

The site carries posts, as well as links to others blogs, from countries as diverse and far flung as Afghanistan and Zimbabwe. Of course, it also highlights blogs dealing with Armenia and the surrounding region.

So successful is the site that it has now effectively become the main portal to the worldwide English-language blogosphere, and has also taken a leading role in encouraging new approaches to sensitive issues such as circumventing censorship and promoting democracy. For example, teaming up with the Oxford Internet Institute, Global Voices examined the state of e-democracy in Eastern Europe at a workshop held in Oxford on 8 December 2005.

Ironically, although the workshop offered many ideas on how the Internet could contribute to the democratization process in transitional countries, it also highlighted just how far behind Armenia is in the area of ICTs.

Silver Meikar, blogger and former member of parliament, made Armenia look stuck in the dark ages compared to his native Estonia where internet penetration has reached a staggering 52 percent of the population. In Armenia, internet penetration stands at just 7 percent, while in Azerbaijan and Georgia it is even lower at 5 percent. Moreover, while Armenia can boast only 40,000 internet users, 35 percent of the population in Estonia use the internet at home.

Half use internet banking services, and over 900,000 of Estonia’s 1.4 million people have computer-linked ID cards that allow them to pay their taxes, as well as vote, online. In Armenia, by comparison, it’s difficult enough to hold democratic elections using the traditional and physical ballot box let alone open up the process to other types of falsification that online voting would bring to a country with no democratic tradition.

In fact, according to a recent study by the Armenia 2020 think tank, it will take Armenia 15 years to reach the level of development that exists in Estonia today, but only in the best case scenario. Unfortunately, that scenario does not exist today, requiring as it does that the Armenian government show the political will to combat corruption and allow free elections. Meikar’s presentation at the workshop only reinforced the reality that as things stand, the future is as far away as ever.

Andrij Ihnatov, president of a Ukrainian NGO, also highlighted the role of the internet in last year’s “Orange Revolution.” Of course, with the television media in Armenia effectively remaining in the hands of the state, the independent media has at least followed the example of its counterparts in Georgia and Ukraine by migrating online. USAID and UNDP funded government sites also allow journalists unprecedented access to legislation that is otherwise not so readily available.

As surprise attendee, Hollywood actor Richard Dreyfus, said at the workshop, new technology and the Internet offers individuals, organizations and countries the tools necessary to build democratic states. The question is if and when will countries such as Armenia use them. With November’s controversial referendum to amend the constitution taking electoral falsification to an unprecedented level, that question remains as poignant as ever.

 
Blogging Comes of Age — But Not in Armenia

If the Oxford gathering was a small affair, the Global Voices Summit held in London two days later was massive. Although many might still not take blogging seriously, Reuters certainly did. Over 70 participants that included bloggers, activists and journalists, gathered in the international news agency’s London Headquarters for a day long conference that touched upon many important issues related to the growing importance the media places on bloggers as a source of information.

A summary of the main issues dealt with by the conference can be found online here, but again, the main point struck home to me was how internet use had not really become as widespread in the South Caucasus as it has in other geographical locations. This is especially true when it comes to blogging and an independent or alternative online media.

In countries such as Armenia, which foreign journalists seldom visit, and where content is determined by political allegiances, as well as funding from international organizations and partisan interest groups, this is especially true. However, unlike other developing countries which boast an active blogging scene, only a handful of bloggers post from Armenia. All are foreigners, and generally ethnic Armenians from the Diaspora temporarily living in the country.

In total, there are perhaps only two or three individuals in Armenia that post on a regular basis, but compare that with Kenya where there are literally hundreds. Of course, thanks to the high cost of — and limited access to — the internet as a direct result of the ArmenTel monopoly, there are few local Armenians with the means to set up their own blogs. Even though one blog run by an ethnic Armenian from the United States has tried to attract local bloggers over the past five years, only one young student took up the offer.

However, her brief experiment with the blogosphere ended after only a few days when she left to study in the United States. Since then, there have been no other takers. Many suggest that the relatively high cost of internet access in the republic is partly responsible for this, but, as the experience in the neighboring Republic of Georgia shows, this is not necessarily the main reason for the lack of local bloggers from the South Caucasus and Central Asia.

Although DSL is available in the Georgian capital, Tbilisi, at two thirds of the cost of a 56k dialup in Yerevan, the situation is no better there, leading many to suspect that the biggest problem preventing the emergence of local bloggers in the region is mentality.

The night before my departure from London, I spoke to Ory Okolloh, one of Kenya’s most prolific bloggers to see if her experience with encouraging young Kenyans to blog had any parallels with my reading of the situation in Armenia. In fact, there were few, if any, and actually, it appeared as though there were more progressive and independent young Kenyans in Nairobi than young Armenians in Yerevan. This conclusion was reinforced by the head of a progressive Armenian youth organization two days later.

Access to the internet in Armenia was not such a great problem, according to the young activist. With international organizations and NGOs providing access to the internet even in the regions of the country, many young Armenians are instead concerned by the risk of “appearing on the radar screen” of the local, regional and national authorities.

Since 1996, when a fledgling student movement openly held demonstrations and opposed the administration of former President Levon Ter Petrosian, the current government has done all it can to prevent young Armenians from genuinely participating in the political process. Certainly, the lack of a local blogosphere in Armenia has nothing to do with language. Although Armenians use a distinct script unintelligible to outsiders, local bloggers are more than able to use English and/or Russian if they wanted.

In fact, one site, Indymedia Armenia, allows posts in Armenian, Russian or English, but there are few takers even though potential contributors are given the opportunity to post anonymously.

Still, with underground youth organizations once again gaining confidence in recent months, that situation might well change in the near future. When more young Armenians realize that their opinions matter, and that there are people outside of Armenia who want to listen, the internet is the only medium through which free conversation and discourse can take place. But are people on the outside interested in hearing alternative voices from countries such as Armenia?

Perhaps it’s best to leave that up to Dean Wright, Senior Vice President of Reuters, to answer. “As a mainstream journalist it’s difficult to report all sides of a story when you are just parachuting into a country,” Wright told the conference. “With bloggers we can report many sides of an issue and this contributes to the conversation the world has with each other. It’s one of the things that Reuters takes seriously — bringing that conversation to the fore.”

No surprise then, that Chris Ahearn, President of Reuters Media, also informed those in attendance that the international news agency will continue to support Global Voices’ pioneering work in the area of popularizing the blogosphere and developing the link between blogging and journalism, as well as encouraging the process of democratization across the globe. “I think very highly of what everyone in the room is trying to do,” said Ahearn as the conference came to an end.

One can only hope that by the time of the next Global Voices Summit, there will finally be some young local Armenians who can contribute to the ongoing discussion, and the continuing development of the global blogosphere. In fact, in the interest of promoting democracy and freedom of speech in the entire region, the development of the local blogging scene inside Azerbaijan and Georgia would also be welcomed.

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Global Voices Online can be found at http://www.globalvoicesonline.org, and a live conference blog from the 2005 Global Voices Summit in London can be found at http://gv2005.wordpress.com. The UK’s Guardian newspaper covered the conference in its Monday 12 December edition.