Global Voices Advocacy » Solana Larsen

How Should We Govern the Internet? Livestream of Global INET Forum 2012

Solana Larsen — Mon, 23 Apr 2012 10:38:59 +0000

The Global INET 2012 is a 3-day international forum that will celebrate the Internet Society’s 20th anniversary. The meeting will be held 22-24 April, 2012 in Geneva, Switzerland. The conference agenda features roundtable discussions and keynotes by Internet, technical, policy, and other thought leaders on issues critical to the health and vitality of the Internet.

Additionally, there will be three concurrent tracks highlighting key topics such as privacy, net neutrality, IPv6, security, digital content and innovation, and human rights and freedom of expression, along with other issues that will significantly impact the stability, growth, and global reach of the Internet.

There are three livestreams from the meeting. Below is the live broadcast of Channel 1, and here are links for Channel 2 and Channel 3. Videos recordings will also be available on these links after events:

Watch live streaming video from inet1 at livestream.com

There are also hashtags from several sessions that could be relevant to Global Voices Advocacy readers. Try: #INETgov #INETeco and #INETlaw.

In Bahrain, World Press Non-Freedom Day

Solana Larsen — Tue, 03 May 2011 22:28:00 +0000

Today is World Press Freedom Day, a day that is being commiserated more than celebrated in many nations, including Bahrain, where journalists and bloggers are currently under siege by government.

Ironically, one of those world leaders celebrating World Press Freedom Day is King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa of Bahrain, one of 38 heads of state who have been named “predators of press freedom” by Reporters Without Borders. He issued a statement today saying that he believes “a free, impartial and independent Press is the backbone of democratic development.”

However, he also offered a few disclaimers, encouraging media to “move away from provoking hatred” as well as from provoking “violence, vandalism or terrorism” and “breaking the law or violating public morals and people's dignity.”

Though the king said that “no one will be harmed because of peaceful and civilised expressions of opinion under the law,” more than 70 journalists, online writers, and bloggers have recently been fired, arrested, or threatened in Bahrain, according to an online spreadsheet released by Bahrain Center for Human Rights today.

Nearly 20 of those mentioned on the spreadsheet are bloggers or online activists. Among them is the founder of Al Dair online forum, Zakariya Al Aushayri, who died in prison on April 9, 2011. Others have been arrested, interrogated, or classified as “traitors”. Founder of BahrainOnline.org and Global Voices Advocacy contributor Ali Abdulemam was previously arrested and is now living undercover within Bahrain.

Bahrain is currently under a state of emergency since a crackdown on protests that began on February 14. See Global Voices special coverage.

Global Voices Advocacy Wins Zemanta Blog Contest

Solana Larsen — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 11:53:06 +0000

Global Voices Advocacy won first prize in Zemanta's Blogging for a Cause competition today. More than 60 different websites were nominated, and the top 5 to receive the most votes from bloggers have each won $1200. Thanks for all the support!!

The four other winners were Goods for Good, iSurvive, Wokai, Yoga Bear.

In case you don't know, Global Voices Advocacy is a project of Global Voices to build a global anti-censorship network of bloggers and online activists. Its director is Sami ben Gharbia, a Tunisian free speech advocate and blogger.

Zemanta is a cool new blogging and social media application you can download as a Firefox extension. It works in Gmail too!

Among some of the lovely things people said in their endorsements of Global Voices Advocacy were…

On Sacred Beginnings a blogger with the pen name Moonstar Silverwolf writes:

I fully support what they do and hope they continue to have success in bringing to light how much censorship is out there and how badly it can get really quick. I also support their resources on how to guides and assistance for anonymous blogging so that freedom of speech is not suppressed in the online world like it might be in the real world. There are many countries and groups that will squash freedom of speech whenever they can, it is our job to help those who need to speak out and provide them the opportunity to do so without fear.

Aparna Ray delivers her vote as a Newsmerick:

Today, I would just like to pause
And blog for my favorite cause
The project “Advox”
Is brilliant, it rocks!
It's work deserves heartfelt applause!

On the Media Re:Public blog, Persephone Miel writes:

Full disclosure: I’m friends with many of the people who make Global Voices what it is and I’m writing this today in response to an interesting challenge that could help bring some more money to Global Voices. But I’m not doing it to help my friends, I’m doing it because I know how hard they work, how many amazing new projects they’d like to do and how important they are to the project of bulding the cross-border connections that we all need to become global citizens.

Again, heartfelt thanks to everyone for the warm endorsements. If anyone should feel moved to make a donation, we'll gladly accept. But your friendship is the currency we really thrive on. Yeah!

Help Global Voices Advocacy win $3000 by writing one post

Solana Larsen — Wed, 13 May 2009 08:33:12 +0000

Help Global Voices Advocacy win $3000! The prize money would help us continue to raise awareness of attacks on online freedom of speech, and share tools and tactics with activists and bloggers facing censorship on different parts of the globe. All you have to do is write a post in your own blog, including the following text…

“I vote for Global Voices Advocacy, because… (put your own words here).

And… very importantly, you must also copy and paste this text into your post.

This blog post is part of Zemanta's “Blogging For a Cause” (http://www.zemanta.com/bloggingforacause/) campaign to raise awareness and funds for worthy causes that bloggers care about.

Zemanta is a cool new add-on blogging tool. They have issued this competition in order to encourage blogging for charitable causes. The five blogs to get the most votes will each win a prize of $3000.

The deadline is JUNE 6, 2009.

There are so many blogs and causes online, but at Global Voices we feel it's important for bloggers to stick together and support each other when bloggers in many countries still risk harassment, prison or even torture for the work they do – not to mention having their blogs filtered or censored by authorities who object to their opinions.

Freedom of speech on the web affects everyone, not just bloggers. It is a human right to both say and read what we wish. Global Voices Advocacy keeps track of online censorship worldwide in daily posts, and maintains a map of web 2.0 censorship. There are also guides like Anoymous Blogging with WordPress & Tor or Blogging for a Cause that many bloggers appreciate.

And finally…

….if Global Voices Advocacy is to have any chance of winning, we need your help asking others to help support freedom of expression. It would be great if you could treat this as a meme and pass it on/appoint 3-5 of your fellow bloggers to join.

Dear Friend,

You've probably heard about bloggers being arrested or tortured in different countries, or websites being censored unjustly. It's something I feel we really need to take a stand against as bloggers.

One of the few groups that works directly with global bloggers on the frontlines of free speech is Global Voices Advocacy. It's a blog run by Sami ben Gharbia, who is himself a blogger in exile, together with a great community of authors.

We have an opportunity to help Global Voices Advocacy win $3000 simply by writing a post in our own blogs and inserting the short text you can copy on this page:

Let's do it!?

Best,

Your friend