The intersection points of blogging and journalism are many and varied in El Salvador. Journalists are bloggers. Bloggers write about journalists and vice versa. Although El Salvador is a country where most people can't spend significant amounts of time online, the ever-growing number of bloggers in El Salvador is starting to influence public debate. Discussions about the role of blogs were sparked when the conservative El Diario de Hoy newspaper ran a piece titled Cybernetic Proselytism [ES] which warned of supposed dangers from blogs including “disinforming, disorienting and denigrating,” all resulting in prejudice to democracy. In particular, the writers of the article warned that blogs were going to be used inappropriately by political parties leading up to national elections. Jorge Ávalos, a blogger who also is a journalist employed by El Diario de Hoy, responded [ES] with with a quotation from Álvaro Rivera Larios in the digital periodical El Faro: Pero es obvio que algunos sectores de nuestro país no ven con buenos ojos que se forme una ciudadanía crítica. Lo paradójico es que esos mismos sectores le teman a la posibilidad de que los blogs desinformen. Lo que temen esos sectores es la pérdida del monopolio informativo e ideológico que durante años han ejercido sobre la opinión pública salvadoreña, es decir, le temen a la pluralidad de informaciones y visiones que abren las nuevas tecnologías. But it is obvious that some sectors of our country don't view happily that a critical citizenry is forming. The paradox is that these same sectors fear the possibility that blogs will disinform. What these sectors fear is the loss of their information and ideology monopoly that they have exercised for years over Salvadoran public opinion, that is to say, they fear a plurality of information sources and visions which new technologies open up. Ávalos is one of several journalists in El Salvador who write their own personal blogs. Among others are Paolo Luers, Juan Jose Dalton, and Ernesto Rivas-Gallont. Interestingly, both Luers and Rivas started their blogs after having disagreements with the periodicals for which they were writing. Do professional journalists bring something extra to the blogosphere? Reflecting on this question, Ávalos quoted a comment from the forum LibreOpinion.net on the value of the personal blogs of professional journalists: Yo veo con mucho entusiasmo el hecho de que algunos periodistas estén en la blogósfera, porque nos permiten conocer puntos de vista de la noticia que ellos persiguen sin las ataduras que les impone el medio para el que trabajan. Es una labor ya no tanto de reportar sino de opinar respecto de la noticia, y tal periodista, creo yo, sí ha pasado por la etapa de investigar, entrevistar, tabular datos, etc. I view with much enthusiasm the event of some journalists being in the blogosphere because they permit us to know points of view that they perceive without the strictures imposed on them by the media for which they work. It is a labor not so much of reporting, but of opining, with respect to the news; such a journalist has already gone through the stages of investigating, interviewing, tabulating data, etc. Journalist blogger Rivas-Gallont is a well known figure in El Salvador. Among other positions, he was formerly the country's ambassador to the United States and is a columnist for the country's largest daily paper, La Prensa Grafica. Rivas-Gallont started his blog Conversations with Neto Rivas [ES] after La Prensa Grafica reduced the space available for his regular column in the paper, and he needed more room for his writing. Rivas-Gallont recently commemorated the one year anniversary of his blog: Eso es lo que hace interesante y dinámico a un blog. ¡Qué aburrido y monótono sería que todos estuviéramos de acuerdo en todo! Esta publicación no es una manifestación de amor a la madre. Esta es una publicación de ustedes y para ustedes, donde todos expresamos libremente lo que pensamos, sin temor a represalia alguna. Un regalo de la libertad de expresión que, como debe ser, apreciamos en nuestro país. That is what is interesting and dynamic about a blog. How boring and monotonous it would be if we were all in agreement on everything. This publication is not a show of a mother's love. It's a publication of you and for you, where we all freely express out thoughts, without fear of any reprisals. A gift of freedom of expression that is, as it ought to be, something we appreciate in our country. (Journalists who write their own personal blogs are a far cry from the blogs sponsored on the website of El Salvador's largest daily newspaper, La Prensa Grafica.