Blogging in the free speech world

David Smith is the Observer's technology correspondent

Should bloggers be subject to a code of practice, like journalists? This was one of the questions debated this morning by the first Internet Governance Forum (IGF), a talking shop organised by the UN in Athens.

The Greek hosts have scored a spectacular own goal with the reported arrest of Antonis Tsipropoulos, whose alleged "crime" was linking to blog posts hosted in the US that satirise a Greek businessman. Tsipropoulos is the administrator for a Greek blog search engine, blogme.gr.

The incident highlights again concerns raised by Irrepressible.info, a joint Amnesty International and Observer campaign promoting freedom of speech online.