Ytringsfriheds-pris fra Den Berlingske Fond til egyptisk blogger

Prisen på 25.000 kr. går til Mahmoud Salem for hans fremragende og modige arbejde gennem sociale medier med at kæmpe for demokrati og ytringsfrihed.

 

”Han er en rollemodel og et eksempel for andre. Hans arbejde har lagt grunden til en ny form for formidling af ytringsfriheden og de frie tanker ikke blot i hans eget land, men i hele regionen. Han har demonstreret om nogen, hvad de sociale medier kan bruges til.  De sociale medier er blevet et stærkt våben til at skabe forandringer i samfundet og til at bane vejen for en ny demokratisk kultur, som selv ikke stærke regimer længere formår at nedkæmpe”, siger formanden for Den Berlingske Fonds bestyrelse, Berlingskes chefredaktør og koncernchef Lisbeth Knudsen.

 

Mahmoud Salem har som gæst hos Berlingske bl.a. holdt møde for unge studerende på CBS i København fredag arrangeret i samarbejde med Mellemfolkelig Samvirke, Dansk Ungdoms Fællesråd (DUF) og CBS.

Søndag deltog han i et møde arrangeret af Folkeuniversitet og Århus Stiftstidende i Aarhus og i dag deltager han i et læserarrangement hos Berlingske i Pilestræde i København. Det er ved denne lejlighed mandag aften, at Mahmoud Salem modtager fondens ekstraordinære pristildeling.

 

Yderligere oplysninger: chefredaktør og koncernchef Lisbeth Knudsen tlf. nr. 2141 0000.

 

 

Mahmoud Salem Is a blogger, activist, writer and an Investment Banker. He is the most prominent english egyptian blogger and Twitterer, whose blog "Rantings of a Sandmonkey" won the best Middle East and Africa blog awards in 2006 and 2007 and has over 5.5 million unique views and his Twitter account has over 25,000 followers. His human rights activism areas have been in  freedom of speech, human rights, religious rights, and Women's rights. In 2005 he started the first anti-terrorism demonstration in Cairo, and participated in monitoring the egyptian parliamentary and presidential elections.

 

In 2006 he started the international "Buy Danish" campaign with fellow Jordanian blogger, Roba el Assi, in order  to counter the Danish cartoons boycott movement, and was the principal organizer of the first egyptian anti-sexual harrassment demonstration and marsh after the Eid's sexual harassment incident. Incensed by Police torturing egyptian people on videos and sharing them, he and friends collected the videos, posted them online and pushed for a public persecution of the police officers who committed  those acts, leading to an unprecedented two convictions of Police  Officers. In 2007 he was a stage speaker at the Atlas Foundation 25th  anniversary conference, head of the new media panel in the Qatar Foundation First democracy conference and started project Tafkir, an arabic language blogging website to facilitate and promote ideas and dialogue online in arabic. In 2008 he was an organizer and a team leader of 8 egyptian bloggers for the "Egypt blogs America" project, which monitored the US elections and created a documentary film about it.

 

In 2009 he was picked for the Muslim Leaders of Tomorrow  conference and the US Islamic Forum conference, started the IRIS social campaign company, and was a trainer in the "Bridging the Gap" project. In 2010 he is the Social Media consultant for the  International Historic Hotels of Egypt campaign, is starting two projects in environmental awareness and green capitalism in Cairo. In 2011 he was one of the leading voices of the Jan25 revolution that brought down egyptian president Hosny Mubarak and is currently creating a political party, and is involved in many development and  transperancy projects for a better Egypt. His writings have appeared in the Christian Science Monitor, the New York  Times,  The Daily Star, The Guardian and various online websites.