Reporters Without Borders has published a Handbook for bloggers and cyber-dissidents, which is available as a PDF download. The handbook is intended as a guide both to creating a blog and to maintaining anonymity as a blogger. As the handbook explains:

“Bloggers are often the only real journalists in countries where the mainstream media is censored or under pressure. Only they provide independent news, at the risk of displeasing the government and sometimes courting arrest.

“Reporters Without Borders has produced this handbook to help them, with handy tips and technical advice on how to to remain anonymous and to get round censorship, by choosing the most suitable method for each situation.”

More than a legal guide, the handbook is a how-to for new bloggers, with chapters on setting up blogs, gettting blogs recognized by search engines, and the ethics of blogging. These in addition to chapters on how to blog anonymously, technical ways to get around censorship, and ensuring e-mail is private.

Photo of Bob Ambrogi Bob Ambrogi

Bob is a lawyer, veteran legal journalist, and award-winning blogger and podcaster. In 2011, he was named to the inaugural Fastcase 50, honoring “the law’s smartest, most courageous innovators, techies, visionaries and leaders.” Earlier in his career, he was editor-in-chief of several legal publications, including The National Law Journal, and editorial director of ALM’s Litigation Services Division.