Arash Sigarchi’s blog “Window of Anguish” is well-known and widely read in the Persian community. While in Iran, he was arrested several times for the content he published on his blog and was eventually sentenced to 14 years behind bars. Sigarchi received the Hellman/Hammett award in 2007 for his work in the field of journalism in Iran.

The author lives in Lebanon and covers a diverse range of subjects related to several countries including Egypt, Palestine, Syria and Lebanon. Readership is diverse and the blog is updated nearly every week.

China Digital Times is a bilingual news website covering China’s social and political transition and its emerging role in the world. It aggregates the most up-to-the-minute news and analysis about China from around the Web, while providing translations from Chinese cyberspace, perspectives from across the geographical, political and social spectrum, and original analysis and commentary. The Chinese version also keeps an update of words that are currently filtered by the Great Fire Wall as well as feedback from Chinese netizens about their online publications that are “harmonized” by the GFW.

A blogger from Chittagong, Sabrina Sultana was just like the other kids growing up, till she became physically handicapped by muscular dystrophy. Showing that a handicap doesn’t mean the end of the world, she uses her blog to share her experiences and is a vocal proponent for more rights and facilities for the handicapped in Bangladesh, where accessibility is a major difficulty for the physically handicapped. People with disabilities are often excluded from their communities and from development activities. Sabrina shows it doesn’t have to – and shouldn’t – be that way.

Russian military forces are among the most sealed off in the world. With the exception of the occasional report on hazing, what happens in individual army units remains hidden from the public. This blog’s authors encourage military personnel to share their experiences and thoughts about the military of the present and the future. Anonymity is granted to contributors and the blog’s authors also monitor other relevant blogs and social networks to provide a summary of discussions. The blog is part of a portal that offers legal advice to military conscripts.

Born with brittle bone disease, Raul Krauthausen relies on his wheelchair to get around. In his blog he applies his sharp senses of wit and humor to examining his own daily life and why disabilities are issues that affect everyone.

This blog platform and community created by the RFI Atelier des Medias and has coached African bloggers and given them the space and support to bloom into talented bloggers writing from various Francophone Africa countries and Madagascar.

The editor-in-chief of the portal “Voz das Comunidades,” Rene Silva dos Santos is 18 years old and became famous for his Twitter reports in 2010 of a police invasion of the Community Complexo do Alemão where he lives in Rio de Janeiro. As a way of answering people’s questions about Rio’s favelas, Silva created the portal in May 2011 and made its main goal “getting the support of people in slums to bring to light what’s happening around them.”

Kurioso fills in readers on the everythings and the nothing-special things of the Internet. The author says he has no special talent or desires for the blog, and adds that he just wants to look for, investigate and share what he finds with his public.

Afrinnovator reports on technology, innovation and entrepreneurship in Africa with a focus on eastern Africa. The site is always very current and accessible to a wide audience. The creators and editors behind Afrinnovator explain that their aim is to “put Africa on the map.”

The “Witness protection program” blog covers new legal issues, news and information about whistleblower cases and witness protection. The site’s goal is to spread information related to the issue of witness protection and victims in Indonesia. Perlindungan Saksi also collects various documents that are difficult for the public to obtain and publishes them in an accessible fashion.