Oops! You could not connect to blogspot.com once more

Last hour (01/22/11/09:49). This morning the server came back… Last Thursday Ezecom, the Cambodian Internet provider, denied that it received official orders to blockade the website. Paul Blanche-Horgen, Ezecom CEO, said to The Phnom Penh Post in a letter: ‘As the CEO I can say, we have received no directive, nor did we block access to any websites on our service‘.

As it goes and comes, probably is a technical issue. I opened a treat at the Blogger Help Forum with this question:

‘This week blogspot.com has suffered a national blockade in Cambodia. The issue has risen global concerns of a possible censorship. Officials denied any action to blockade the servers. Friday morning it came back, but at the evening it was impossible to access any blog again. This morning it came back. Is it a technical problem? The answer is very important, because is sensitive in our country and would avoid misunderstandings and concerns. Thank you for your answer.
Albeiro Rodas
cambodia1.wordpress.com’

If you have a blog in blogspot.com, participate in that forum, so Google technicians can look after the problem and we know what really happened.

Oops! Once more

01/21/11/21:34. Oops! Once more… could not connect. We got this notice from Kampot City:

‘As of 9:31 PM Friday Jan 21 the blogspot.com domain is still be censored in Cambodia.  This message comes from Kampot province.  The dashboard at blogger.com domain is accessible, but when one attempts to visit a blogspot.com site, the title of the page will briefly appear, and then the “Not Found” notice is displayed.  Cambodian people do not enjoy freedom of speech.’

Blogspot is back

The free website belonging to Google Company, blogspot.com, is again accessible in the Cambodian territory. The site with thousands of Cambodian blogs or related with any Cambodian topic, got a blockage since Wednesday, although officials denied any action of censorship. Blogs hosted in the site that is accessible with a gmail account, include not only political pages and forums, but blogs maintained by schools, universities, students, teachers, tourist agencies, NGOs, officials, artists and many others.

Before…

It is more than 50 hours already that no blog hosted in the free website blogspot.com is accessible in the Cambodian territory. Alexa, the web information company on ranks, shows blogspot in the 5th position of the top 100 sites in Cambodia. According to the media, there’s the probability of a blockage in order to silence KI-media, a high critic blogger to the government, although officials contacted by The Phnom Penh Post denied it.

Blogging has taken a very important development in modern Cambodia. While computers and Internet enter into the lives of Cambodians and their developing country and young people get higher levels of education, Internet becomes more and more popular through websites, blogs, social networks, vlogs and forums.

The creation and development of KhmerOS font to open the possibility to Cambodians to access to the Internet without the need to change their native language, has been a great contribution of an organization like Open Institute.

Blogging, for example, is a way of communication, information and improving the skill of young people and, at the same time, spaces for democracy, human rights formation and others.

It is quit astonishing that last week we were setting our virtual library (khmerinternational.blogspot.com), where I published with my students the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the Royal Constitution of Cambodia as a tool for the Cambodian community and some days after we suffered a possible action against freedom of information.

You can find media in US talking against president Barack Obama. You can find thousands of web and printed pages talking against Queen Elizabeth of England, but none of them considered that those media should be closed for it.

We hope that it is a technical issue and the several blogs hosted in blogspot will be accessible soon in the Cambodian territory, a nation that is ruled by a beautiful Constitution with all the guarantees for human rights, democracy and equal opportunities for its people and leaded by intelligent and courageous leaders who work every moment to develop their nation and are not afraid of strong critics if they are convinced of their principles and goals. Several organizations, groups, intellectuals, youth, cultural manifestations, are using blogspot.com. It became an important media in our country and it is worthy of appreciation by all of us.