September 2008 Archives

By Izah Morales INQUIRER.net BEFORE aspiring writers would need thousands of pesos in order to publish a boo k. Today, being published is just a click away. For some, they only need to pay P2 5 for computer rental. Blog has revolutionized the way people get published on the Internet. It has op ened a window of opportunities to amateurs and professional writers. During the Pistang Panitik at the 29th Manila International Book Fair, literary writers < a href="http://dirtypopmachine.multiply.com/journal" target="_blank">Vlad Gonza les, Marne Kilates, Dean Alfar, Vic Nierva an d Sonny Villafania shar ed their experiences on how they use their blogs and how it helped them promote their literary works. Gonzales, a professor of Malikhaing Pagsulat at the University of th e Philippines Diliman, said that he incorporated blogging in his lecture in Pan itikang Popular. âSa blogging, hindi lang tayo tagatanggap [In blogging, weâre not only the rece ivers]. Blogging has the concept of interactivity, [where] there is a space for comments,â said Gonzales. On the other hand, Alfar used blogging as a venue for expression. Through blogg ing, he rediscovered himself as a writer. âHaving a blog helped me become disciplined,â said Alfar. Alfar related that he used âguerrilla writing techniqueâ whereas he writes vign ettes for 15 minutes. Aside from Alfar, Kilates uses his blog to write prose. Despite the risk of being plagiarized, Kilates said that he doesnât want to wor k in fear. âThe risk of somebody stealing your work is the just the same outside of the In ternet, in real time. The benefits of having other people access your stories o r poems, I think they far outweigh the fear of being stolen, being plagiarized, â Kilates said. Also, Alfar suggested that if one is afraid of being plagiarized, then one shou ld not blog about it. âBy blogging, we consciously expose ourselves,â Alfar said.

By Izah Morales The Philippine Blog Awards (PBA) is set to recognize more blogs this year, orga nizers said. This yearâs PBA will give away 36 awards under 3 divisions, namely Best Blog, B est Single Blog Post, and Special Awards divisions, and 15 categories, organize rs said. Last year, PBA only gave 15 awards to local bloggers. "This shows that the Filipino blogging community is actually growing," said PBA vice head and chief executive officer Juned Sonido in an interview. For this year, a total of 600 nominees joined the PBA. About 5 to 10 nominees w ill be judged per category. Blogs will be generally judged based on content design and usability, but the B est Blog Post division will be evaluated based solely on content, organizers sa id. Judges were tapped to choose the winning blogs. However, bloggers and readers a re given the chance to vote for their favorite blog under the Bloggersâ Choice Award category. According to a Universal McCann study, the Philippines has the highest growth r ate in âblogging engagementsâ in 3 years. The country has also exceeded the glo bal average for blog readership â 72.8 percent in 2008 âgrowing form 33 percent in September 2006 to 64 percent in June 2007, and 90.3 percent in May 2008. With more blogs becoming more "mainstream," Sonido said bloggers should now be more responsible for what they write. âEach blog is a representation of your id ea on the internet. Itâs like a kaleidoscope of ideas,â he added. The Philippine Blog Awards is scheduled on September 21, 2008 at the One Esplan ade.

AT least two bloggers, a journalist, and one opposition politician were arreste d under Malaysia's Internal Security Act (ISA) on September 12 in wha t media and activists are afraid may be the start of a wider crackdown ahead of an anticipated opposition push to gain control of parliament next week, the Southeast Asian Press Alliance (SEAPA) said. SEAPA said in a statement that Malaysia's leading blogger Raja Petra Kamaruddin , who is also a staunch government critic on his website "Malaysia Today," was the first to be arrested in this weekâs arrests. Journalist Tan Hoon Cheng who works Sin Chew Daily, a Chinese-language newspape r that had recently covered a controversial outburst from a ruling party member who called the ethnic Chinese community "squatters," was also reportedly arres ted, SEAPA said quoting reports from. Malaysiakini.com. Lawmaker Teresa Kok of the Chinese-based DAP and Deputy Chief Minister in Selan gor was also arrested under the ISA, SEAPA said. The draconian ISA law allows government to detain people without tri al. It is a preventive detention law currently enforced in Malaysia. SEAPA said that the Centr e for Independent Journalists (CIJ) has already issued an urgent appeal, as it reported that another blogger, Haris Ibrahim, was arrested. Ibrahim was rep ortedly credited with starting a "People's Parliament project," which monitors the Malaysian government. SEAPA said Malaysian media, oppositionists and activists are expressing fears t hat the Malaysian government may be planning more arrests. SEAPA said that CIJ sees the recent arrests as measures that âbear a disturbing resemblance to the period in the lead-up to the Operasi Lalang in 1987," where dozens of activists, artists, academics and politicians were detained. "Both incidents are similar in that it relates to ongoing political crisis with in (Malaysian ruling party) UMNO, but manifested as alleged racial tension by t he government," SEAPA quoting CIJ said. SEAPA fears that this weekâs arrests may be part of a wider campaign after last weekâs threat to suspend Malaysian newspapers the Sin Chew Daily, The Sun -- w hich is a free English-language daily, and Suara Keadilan which is published by the opposition. The group said that the CIJ and the Writers Alliance for Media Independence (WA MI) have sounded the alarm over a warning issued by government to the three new spapers over coverage of the same controversy for which journalist Tan was arre sted. "Political observers fear the ruling Barisan Nasional (BN) coalition, which was humiliated in March elections and is now threatened by the opposition's plans, was planning a repeat of an infamous 1987 crackdown," SEAPA said quoting news website Malaysiakini.com.