Interviews - Wednesday, January 14, 2009 16:14 - 1 Comment

Empowering Voices

For our second volume of we-magazine I’ve interviewed Sami Ben Gharbia, head of Global Voices Advocacy and a Tunisian free speech advocate and blogger based in the Netherlands. I’ve met Sami a few month ago in Amsterdam and I am – and so WE are – deeply impressed by his work. Global Voices Advocacy seeks to build a global anti-censorship network of bloggers and online activists throughout the developing world that is dedicated to protecting freedom of expression and free access to information online.

The aim of this network is to raise awareness of online freedom of speech issues, and to share tools and tactics with activists and bloggers facing censorship on different parts of the globe. The network is meant not only to provide support to its members, but also to produce educational guides about anonymous blogging, anti-censorship campaigns, and online organizing. By collaborating with software developers, activists, and bloggers, the network hopes to design new and more appropriate tools to protect our rights on the Internet. It is part of Global Voices Online (see our interview with Ethan Zuckerman last year).

The interview was done by SKYPE, I recorded it from my computer screen. The sound is slighty annoying, Sami was in an internet cafe and once in a while you will hear dishes clattering and the music sometimes starts surprisingly … But it is O.K. I think it turned out to be a beautiful piece, it is authentic and suits perfectly the topic we were talking about …