Mohammed Omar, a Jordanian journalist, is not afraid of words. In fact, he was the first Arab blogger to use his own name on his blog.

"When I started my blog, I was going through a difficult period, an emotional crisis actually. I was separated from my wife and was with another woman, but the relationship had failed. I knew that writing would help me get through it."

In September 2006, Omar started up a blog (www. mohomar.com) called simply "Mohammed Omar's blog", in which he recounted his personal experiences.

In the early days, his entries read as a sort of atonement for the years of pain suffered. A part from his own feelings, jotted down as they came to him, he wrote about his life, his divorce, his relationships, his childhood, the sexual abuse he suffered as a child...

"At the time, I wanted to destroy everything. Really, I've always wanted to break taboos," Omar says, alluding to his communist-anarchist past and his rebellious character.

But he was nonetheless surprised by the response of his readers.

The reaction was divided: some, furious, insulted him; others supported him, complimented him, encouraged him. They would write, "You say what we are unable to say."

Today, 3000 people read Omar's blog everyday.

For three years, he has been posting daily entries. With time, though, the blog's profile has changed. It is no longer only a place to read about the intimate details of Omar's personal life. In 2007, he began writing two posts a day: one consisting of a review of the day's news headlines with his own comments, the other, his usual entry.

Later, he expanded the blog further; today it comprises ten sections. Omar now shares his impressions of books, films, paintings, music. In other sections, he may examine aspects of daily life in Jordan or his experience as a former communist activist. In yet another section, he keeps a sort of personal diary.

"It's as if I were writing my own biography, but at the same time I offer information to the reader. If I say, for example, that today I made myself a plate of Mulukhiyah, I also talk about the history of Mulukhiyah."

Omar says he spends about an hour a day on his blog. He posts his entries without re-reading them, and manages to post two a day.

There are about 10,000 bloggers in Jordan today. "Only about 200 of them are really active, and they write mostly in English. Those who write everyday are rare, almost non-existent," Omar notes.

He also points to the growing number of women bloggers in Jordan, a social phenomenon he attributes to the fact that Jordanian women don't leave the house as often as men and therefore have more time to spend writing. Many of the women blog about social issues.

As for censorship, Omar says that sometimes when a website posts one of his blog entries that the authorities take offence to, the intelligence services ask the site owners to take it down. "They never ask me because I am a well-known blogger and they don't want bad publicity, especially in the West." He adds that when news sites are involved - there are currently 42 of them in Jordan - there is a certain pressure put on the websites' owners to remove the offending material.

"If you look at the turnover of news on these sites throughout the day, often you'll read a news item in the morning and you won't be able to find it later in the day. These articles would have been pulled following requests or pressure from intelligence services," says Omar. The offending news items often deal with the king, the royal family, the army, intelligence services or religion, he says.