In a recent interview with an Iranian journalist and blogger who now lives in Canada, I asked how Iranian bloggers protect themselves from government authorities that are increasing restrictions, intensifying scrutiny, and raising the cost of getting caught.   (See “Heretic” Bloggers Risk Execution Under Iran’s New Restrictions.)

He said many bloggers use “anonymizers” to hide their Internet protocol (IP) addresses, but lamented that there was no online manual to instruct new bloggers on how to change their IP address, get around filtering, and create closed blog communities.

I’m sure he will share my delight in discovering that Reporters Without Borders (RSF) has put together a Handbook for Bloggers and Cyber-Dissidents that covers everything from getting started to blog ethics to defensive strategies. It’s available in English, Persian, Spanish, Chinese, Arabic and French.

“Bloggers cause anxiety,” it reads. “Governments are wary of these men and women, who post news without officially being journalists. Worse, they frequently raise sensitive issues which the media, now known as ‘traditional,’ dare not cover.”

The handbook advises those who wish to blog anonymously to set up their accounts under pseudonyms from a public-access computer. It gives instructions on the use of proxy servers such as Tor and advice on how to cover your tracks.

If you live in a country that censors parts of the Internet, RSF also has a section on circumvention systems and how to “tunnel” to a computer in a unfiltered location. All this information is accompanied by plenty of warning that users might soon find themselves dealing with very unhappy government authorities.

For a laugh (or a cry), check out the 2008 “Golden Scissors” awards at the very end for the most effective authoritarian regime actions against the online activities of their citizens.

More than three years after An-Nahar columnist Samir Kassir’s June 2, 2005, murder in Beirut — a crime still not solved — his friends and fellow journalists have created an organization that will monitor press freedom in the region, work to improve existing laws and offer assistance to journalists and bloggers under pressure in the Levant areas of the Middle East (Lebanon, Jordan, Syria and the Palestinian areas).

SK Eyes, named for Kassir, began operations June 16 after compiling a database of violations against press freedoms and documenting relevant legal cases in the Levant. It hopes eventually to expand its reach, according to one of its founders, Elias Khoury.

The organization plans to follow the example of Reporters Without Borders, which has hosted a seminar for the incoming researchers and journalists at SK Eyes.

Nevertheless “it is fundamental that we have an Arab organization to defend the rights of the media and culture in the region and that we do not continue to count on foreign organization to defend us,” Khoury told the Arab Press Network June 27. “We must be responsible for our own causes.”

SK Eyes plans advertising campaigns, nonviolent demonstrations, petitions and other activities to spread awareness of challenges to press freedom. But its efforts also will focus on legal defenses of journalists. The organization has been compiling relevant court cases and legal documents, including potential loopholes that can be used against the freedom of expression. It plans to pressure governments to appoint lawyers to defend arrested journalists.

Arab League information ministers approved the “Principles for Organizing Satellite Radio and TV Broadcasting in the Arab Region” at February meeting.  The charter forbids satellite television from offending Arab leaders, and national and religious symbols.  Many media rights activists and advocacy groups say the charter is an attempt to censor one of the Arab world’s main nonstate media sources.

The International Press Institute’s David Dadge said the charter “represents a step backwards for press freedom in the entire region, and threatens to undermine the significant strides recently made in some of the Arab world’s individual countries.”

On April 1, Egypt’s state-controlled satellite television operator Nilesat cut its transmission of London-based Al-Hiwar, believed to have ties to Egypt’s main opposition, the Muslim Brotherhood.  It also cut transmissions of Al Baraka and Al Hikma.

A statement from Reporters Without Borders said “Nilesat’s decision confirms the fears we expressed” over the charter and the organization worried of “a wave of censorship measures against satellite television stations that criticize Arab governments.”

Nilesat president Amin Bassiouni denied the new charter triggered the measures, and international communications expert Marwan Kraidy told journalist Magda Abu-Fadil that having some kind of regulatory framework to cover the more than 400 satellite channels “is not in itself a bad idea.”

However, Kraidy also said it is unclear whether the charter is a symbolic gesture or a concrete step by Arab governments to inhibit broadcasters, adding the governments’ collective track record in repressing the media “is legend.”

What do you think? Is the charter responsible regulation, suppression of press freedom or something in between?