Blogs are the new Russian samizdat

Free and open debate has become a rarity in Russia's media, which is now largely controlled by the state or by business moguls closely connected to the government. So bloggers are now following the tradition of the Soviet dissidents who found an outlet for their opinions in samizdat. Proof of the internet's importance is shown by the fact that Russians are the second-largest group of bloggers on the US-based blog-hosting site livejournal.com. "Blogs are a new kind of journalism... of opinions rather than facts," says blogger Elizaveta Dobkina. (Via Moscow Times)