Ai Weiwei
Ai Weiwei is not just an internationally renowned Chinese artist, but a dedicated blogger as well! His blog regularly comments on both cultural events, and civil liberties in China. Following the massive earthquake in Sichuan Province in May 2008, the Chinese government refused to publish the names of 5000 dead school children. Ai Weiwei instigated a grass-roots movement demanding explanation. In his blog, he published the details of as many of the children as he could identify. As a result of his blogging, Ai Weiwei was assaulted at the instigation of the authorities. His blog has been locked in China since May 2009 and access is only possible through foreign host sites.
Blog: Ai Weiwei
Amira Al Husseini
Amira Al Hussaini is a Bahraini columnist, translator, editor and blogger whose work in print media started in 1991. In 2004, she started blogging and two years later joined Global Voices Online (GVO), as its Middle East and North Africa and Arabic Language Editor. In 2008, Amira ran Voices without Vote, a GVO project commissioned by Reuters, to track and summarise the reactions of citizen journalists to the US presidential elections and foreign policy. Today, she is the Managing Editor of Bahrain Telegraph, a monthly current affairs news magazine.
Site: Amira Al Husseini at Global Voices
Budi Putra
Prior to joining Yahoo! as Country Editor for Indonesia in October 2009, Budi Putra was a Jakarta-based tech writer and professional blogger. Before moving into blogging, he worked as an editor of Tempo, a weekly news magazine that was forbidden under Ex-President Suharto. He is also the founder of the English-language Asia Blogging Network and has published numerous books on the Internet and digital technology.
Blog: budiputra
Claire Ulrich
Claire Ulrich grew up in West and Central Africa. Claire has 20 years professional experience in print and TV media but in 2004, she discovered the world of citizen journalism. Her work for Ohmynews brought her to the attention of Global Voices, and she now edits the french edition. As a journalist and linguist, Claire is particularly interested in translation tools, freedom of expression in the internet and internet skills in developing countries.
Site: Global Voices
Farnaz Seifi
Farnaz Seifi is an Iranian journalist, women rights activist and blogger. During the last 5 years, she has been actively involved in Iranian women's movement, Iran's civil society and cyber-feminism. She has worked for different dailies and online feminist websites in Iran where she was one of the first Iranian feminist bloggers. Farnaz is also one of the founders of the "Zanestan", the first Iranian women's online magazine.
Blog: Farnaaz
Isaac Mao
Isaac Mao is one of China's best-known bloggers and the organizer of the Chinese Bloggers’ Conference, which first took place in Shanghai in 2005. Mao is also a software developer, a social learning researcher, director of the Social Brain Foundation and sits on the advisory board of Global Voices and several Web 2.0 businesses. He has often spoken out courageously about censorship in China and has written an open letter to Google, asking the company to take a stand against the Chinese government’s filtering methods.
Blog: Isaac Mao
Jens Berger
Jens Berger is a free-lance journalist and political blogger. His weblog "Der Spiegelfechter" is one of the most read political blogs in the German sphere. Jens' blog postings and his articles for the online magazines "Telepolis" and "der Freitag" are committed to promoting discussion about alternative political and economic ideas. Above all, Jens would like to see more honesty in politics.
Blog: Der Spiegelfechter
Lucie Morillon
Lucie Morillon is the director of the Internet Freedom Desk at Reporters Without Borders in Paris. Reporters Without Borders is an NGO committed to defending and promoting freedom of the press worldwide. Reporters Without Borders is a key source of support for imprisoned journalists and bloggers. Since 2000, Lucie has worked as an international coordinator in a wide variety of sectors within Reporters Without Borders. For the past five years, Lucie has been Reporters without Borders' US representative.
Site: Reporters Without Borders
Mark Glaser
Mark Glaser is editor-in-chief of "PBS MediaShift" and "PBS Idea Lab". He is also the author of the fortnightly OPA Intelligence Reports for "The Online Publishers Association". Mark's long and winding career as a free-lance journalist has had many twists and turns. It has, amongst other things, included columns on hip-hop, reviews of videogames, travel journalism and satirical takes on the titans of technology! Mark is a frequent contributer to the Online Journalism Review and currently blogs at MediaShift.
Blog: Mediashift
Michael Anti
Michael Anti (Zhao Jing), Chinese blogger, media researcher and political columnist for Chinese and foreign media. He taught International Reporting at Journalism School of Shantou University in 2008-2009. He worked as researcher for New York Times (2003-2007) and Washington Post (2003). He was a war reporter in Baghdad for 21st Century World Herald. He is publisher of the Far and Wide Journal (纵横周刊). He served as International Jury Member for Blog Competition of Deutsch Welle in 2005, 2006, 2007. His once-popular political blog was removed by Microsoft in Dec 2005, which made headlines of world media. His twitter (@mranti) is one of the top influence mircoblog in China, and he was invited to attend Hillary Clinton's Internet Freedom Speech as one of nine bloggers in the world.
Blog: My Life
Rosana Hermann
Rosana Hermann is an author, script writer, TV host and one of Brazil's most popular bloggers. In 2008, Rosanna won the BOBs Award in the "Best Portuguese Weblog" category. Rosanna studied journalism and nuclear physics at university. She has worked for the Brazilian TV stations SBT, Rede Globo and Band. She is currently creative director at R7, one of Brazil's biggest internet portals.
Blog: Querido Leitor
Rustem Adagamow
Rustem Adagamow is one of the best known Russian bloggers and photo journalists. Rustem came to blogging in 1996 during a work trip to Norway. At the time, he was simply looking for a way to while away the long, dark Norwegian nights. Today his is the most popular blog in the Russian blogosphere! Rustem also works for SUP, the company behind leading Russian blog platform Livejournal.com. Rustem also gained attention in 2009, when he became the only photojournalist allowed to accompany the rescue services at a mass-scale industrial accident at Russia's biggest hydro-eclectic power station. Shortly after this adventure, he was invited to join the Kremlin's select reporter pool.
Blog: drugoi
Syeda Gulshan Ferdous Jana
Seyda Gulshan Ferdous Jana is co-founder of "somewhere in...", the first and biggest community for bloggers writing in Bengali. Syeda has worked in the Bangladeshi IT sector for 12 years. She is currently in charge of the Cooperation and User Support section of "somewhere in...". Syeda blogs daily and stays in close contact with her blogger community. She remains convinced that blogging has an important social role to play in developing countries.
Site: Somewhere in...
Vanina Berghella
Vanina Berghella is an Argentinian journalist and blogger who writes about media, journalism, Internet and blogs. Her blog "La Propaladora" is one of the most famous blogs in the Argentinian blogosphere. She is one of the founders and project manager of Clarin Blogs, the largest blogging community in Argentina.
Blog: La Propaladora
