23 May 2007

Freedom of speech critical says NZ blogger community so help offered to Fiji

9:05 am on 23 May 2007

The New Zealand blogger community says its members may come from across the political spectrum but they all agree that freedom of speech is critical which is why they've offered to assist bloggers in Fiji.

This follows the military in Fiji attempting to track down bloggers who are contributing anonymous articles to websites which oppose the coup and the interim regime.

A spokesperson for the New Zealand bloggers, Dr David Haywood, says they've offered to host articles or the blogsites themselves.

He says they've been motivated by the need for people in Fiji to keep open a window of communication.

"Although we come from across the political spectrum, we've got Kiwiblog on the right and we've got people like Just Left and No Right Turn on the left wing, and then PublicAddress and NZBC sitting in the centre, the one thing we can all really agree on, is that freedom of speech is really important anywhere in the world, and of course, particularly in Fiji at the moment."

Dr Haywood says it's important because the mainstream media in Fiji is having to self-censor because of threats from the military.