[Foundation-l] [Wikimania-l] Wikimania 2008 will happen in Alexandria, Egypt

[Ray Saintonge]

Mark Ryan wrote:
> On 10/10/2007, Jimmy Wales <jwales at 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.