Leading Egyptian blogger Wael Abbas, who features in my book, The Blogging Revolution, talks about the role of bloggers in a US-backed dictatorship such as his country:
Some people say that we bloggers are the real new opposition, the new civil society, the new press. But I do not think so. We will have a free country. We really will have freedoms such as a free press, active and working NGOs and real political parties, not approved and manipulated by the government and that do not dare cross certain red lines. Our duty is to push people to do their jobs. I believe that bloggers are capable of inciting the reawakening of civil society after a long sleep. Civil society is now acting when issues such as the rights of women, children, workers and farmers are discussed.