On 10/10/2007, Jimmy Wales <jwales(a)wikia.com>
wrote:
In honor of David's concerns, I have decided
to make the title of my own
talk at Wikimania 2008 "Free knowledge and human rights" and I will use
this opportunity to speak out against censorship and other violations of
human rights around the world, including examples from Egypt.
I'm not sure that's wise, Jimbo, unless you've already checked
with
the Egyptian authorities and gotten their approval for it. Egypt have
apparently this year arrested quite a few journalists in Egypt
investigating stories about violations of human rights in Egypt. For
your own personal safety, I suggest you don't do this.
He should say whatever
he damn well wants to say. Making a big fuss
that prejudges what he is going to say could be more damaging than his
actually saying it. That would bring on undue attention. Getting
approval from the authorities for a speech against censorship strikes me
as somewhat antithetical. I don't know the circumstances of the
investigative journalists you mention, but there is more to
investigation than simply giving a speech to a gathering of mostly
foreigners. Arresting Jimbo for giving such a speech or out of
anticipation of such a speech would likely be counterproductive for the
Egyptian, given the reverberation that would follow in the blogosphere.
Jimbo is a well-seasoned traveller. I'm sure that he knows how to weigh
the options for his personal safety..
Ec.