Hi everyone,

Hope your Monday is going well so far. Just a quick note to steer you toward a few points of interest…

As some of you may already know, next week is the start of Refugee Week. Between the 18th and 24th of June, there will be a UK-wide programme of arts, cultural and educational events taking place to celebrate the contribution of refugees to the UK. There is a Refugee Week blog that you might find interesting at http://www.refugeeweek.org.uk/getinvolved/blog.htm, as well as several ways in which you can get involved. Check out http://www.amnesty.org.uk/content.asp?CategoryID=10221#blog to see what you can do to take part.

In the run-up to Refugee Week, we are reminded of the continuing crisis in Darfur and the countless numbers of people there who are being forced to flee their homes and livelihoods as refugees. Last week Amnesty launched the ‘Eyes on Darfur’ project. This project is a website for which Satellite cameras have been employed in order for ordinary people (like all of us) to monitor events on the ground in 12 Darfuri villages. The site is http://www.eyesondarfur.org/ and you can find out more about the project from our press release http://www.amnesty.org.uk/news_details.asp?NewsID=17368.

Lastly, on a more flowery note, our web team have created a very cool animation and screensaver for blogs and websites which we thought you should see. Take a look at it and, if you like what you see, copy and past the code(s) at http://www.amnesty.org.uk/content.asp?CategoryID=10903. We think it is rather lovely indeed! Hope you do too and that it will grow its way around the web in no time.

That’s it for today. Until next time…
Liz and Steve
The Project Blog seedlings

Hello again from Amnesty's Project Blog team -

Are you free this Wednesday evening?

To mark the first anniversary of our irrepressible.info campaign, on Wednesday (6 June) we’re are hosting a global web conference on Internet Freedom, called ‘Some People Think the Internet is a Bad Thing: The Struggle for Freedom of Expression in Cyberspace’.

The event, which we’re hosting with The Observer newspaper, looks into the future of the Internet, exploring governments’ increasing attempts to repress freedom of expression and information online - with the help of some of the big Internet companies - and how web users are harnessing the power of the internet to resist them.

It involves some of the top names of the Web and will be broadcast live online at http://www.amnesty.org.uk/webcast

Speakers include victims of Internet repression from around the world; Internet entrepreneur Martha Lane Fox; Josh Wolf, jailed US blogger; Jimmy Wales, founder of Wikipedia; Richard Stallman, founder of the Free Software movement; Cory Doctorow from BoingBoing; and Kevin Anderson, head of blogging at The Guardian.

But…we need you (and people like you) to contribute!

The event is going to be webcast live at 18:30 UK time on Wednesday, 6 June. In addition to live speeches, it will involve podcasts and vodcasts from supporters unable to attend on the night and questions and other contributions emailed from bloggers and other passionate web-users, like ourselves, all over the world. Please tune in and contribute and tell everyone you know who’d be interested to do the same!

Here is the Irrepressible.info site to refresh your memory: http://irrepressible.info/

And look out for a big preview article in this weekend’s Observer newspaper

Also, there are some podcasts about the event and a whack of other information to share at http://www.amnesty.org.uk/irrepressible

We’d love you to spread the word and help us get everyone talking about the importance of Freedom of Expression in Cyberspace.

Hope you can join us!

Liz and Steve
Pro-Freedom of Expression Project Bloggers