What rules guided ‘blogging’ in ancient days and how can we correlate
the freedoms of those days with those of today?

The expression of knowledge as defined by Egyptian hyroglyphics was a profound and fundamental way of  self expression at a time when the world still grappled with tacit knowledge. The one way of stiffling this art of self expression was the ban placed on it by the invading romans. Today, hyroglyphics is lost and there are hardly any present expressions of it.

This is akin to the repressive stifling laws that have characterized the media today.  Represeive regimes have used draconian laws to suppress the voices of the media and these laws will make their way to the Internet space as
countries continue to grapple with cross border issues, jurisprudence, jurisdiction, laws, norms, regulations vis a vis the highly unrestrictive and perversive nature of the Internet.

Could it be that the blogging in the past were purely self regulated?
Who gave the spaces for self expression in the caves and what forms of
rules were employed for self expression in those spaces? Can those
characteristics be use to define a framework for self expression in
the blogosphere today and by extension, the online media? Or must
totally newly created rules be formed to govern this new space?

I believe that an expression of whatever guiding principle we choose
must reflect an African position such as recognizes our orality and
culture and not merely an expression of an internationally implemented
law which does not in any way reflect our African realities.

Self regulation may be sufficient but we all know that self regulation
in the African governance space may not last long before it is twisted for selfish gains.