Until now, CPJ's Asia program has relied largely on email blasts to get the word out when we post something new on
CPJ.org. Today we launched our
Facebook and
Twitter pages. Like us and follow us for an inside look at the Asia program and quick, timely updates on our alerts and blogs. We also hope you'll take the opportunity to interact with each other on these social networks.
Incorporating social media into our digital presence is more than just
a new communications tactic for the Asia program. Social media is
something we deal with in our day-to-day advocacy. Increasingly, CPJ
finds itself coming to the defense of micro-bloggers and plain citizens
who use their mobile phones to post live dispatches. When the Chinese
government blocked foreign media coverage of the March 2008 crackdown
on ethnic rioting in Tibet, the world had to rely on foreign tourists,
businesspeople, and exiled activists with clandestine contacts in the
region to keep the outside world informed. The lesson for China was
that small digital devices, particularly cell phones and cameras, are
powerful tools for disseminating information and all but impossible to
control.
CPJ.org is still blocked in China. We have to assume that access to
www.facebook.com/cpjasia and
www.twitter.com/cpjasia will be, too -- if
not today, then pretty quickly. And we still are on the target list of
plenty of other governments around Asia. All the more reason for you to
sign up.