In blog competition, Reporters Without Borders gives special prize to Burmese blogger

Reporters Without Borders gave its “Special Prize” to Burmese blogger Jotman (http://jotman.blogspot.com/) in the German public broadcaster Deutsche Welle's international weblog competition, the “BOBs - Best of the Blogs,” awarded in Berlin yesterday. “This is an English-language blog about current events in Burma and Thailand,” Reporters Without Borders said. “Located on the border between the two countries, Jotman is one of he most interesting sources on the Burmese crisis. He has, for example, an interview with the leader of the underground army formed by Burmese students. We are proud to award him this prize.” The prize for the best blog in all categories went to the Belarusian author of “Foto-Grifoneurei” (http://ak-bara.livejournal.com), Akbara, who shows beautiful photos of everyday life in Belarus with comments that are often very revealing about the real situation in this little-known country. Belarus is one the countries that cracks down hardest on the Internet. The government has a monopoly of telecommunications and does not hesitate to block opposition websites when it thinks it necessary, especially during elections. An appeal by jailed cyber-dissident Andrei Klimau, convicted of “inciting the government's overthrow,” was rejected on 2 October. The best blog in French was “News from Democratic Republic of Congo” (http://cedric.uing.net), in which young Congolese journalist Cédric Kalonji describes life in the capital, Kinshasa, with an affectionately ironic but lucid eye that make his blog a mine of information for both his compatriots and the outside world. A blog by Brian Conley and others, Alive in Baghdad (http://www.aliveinbaghdad.org), won the best Videoblog award. Produced by US and Iraqi journalists, this weekly magazine shows Iraqis commenting about the situation in their country. Organised for the fourth year in a row, the BOBs is the world's biggest international blog competition and this year drew more than 7,000 entries. Members of the public nominated candidates in 15 categories on the www.thebobs.com website. The competition was open to blogs, podcasts and videoblogs in 10 languages - Arabic, Chinese, Dutch, English, Farsi, French, German, Portugese, Russian and Spanish.