Bloggers to Make History at G20 Summit in London

A coalition of NGOs - the G20Voice - and the UK government are breaking with convention and, for the first time, allowing 50 bloggers to report live and direct from the G20 summit, on 2 April 2009 in London.

This unprecedented event gives the bloggers and their audience the chance to engage with and influence world leaders on issues including development, climate change and women's rights. The bloggers were nominated by the public, with more than 700 nominations received in 12 days.

The organisations behind G20Voice are OxfamGB, Comic Relief, Save the Children, ONE and Blue State Digital.

The 50 include a broad range of influential, knowledgeable and popular bloggers from the G20 countries and the developing world.

These include:
Cheryl Conte from Jack and Jill Politics - representing the US "Black bourgeoisie"
Sokari Ekine - a pioneering Nigerian blogger
Jotman - an undercover blogger exposing injustice in Thailand and Burma
Daudi Were - a leading organiser of African bloggers
Enda Surya Nasution - the father of Indonesian blogging
Rui Chenggang - China's leading economics broadcaster and blogger with 13,000,000 viewers every evening on CCTV
Richard Murphy - the leading expert on Tax Havens.

They will be joined by thousands of bloggers online at www.g20voice.org with audio and video livestreaming, and also via skype broadcasts from inside the summit.

On the day of the summit bloggers will have access to briefings from senior figures and world leaders.

Karina Brisby, G20Voice project founder and Digital Campaigns Manager, Oxfam GB said: "The G20Voice project was inspired by the articulate, engaging and often outraged posts, tweets, podcasts and videocasts from bloggers all over the world about the current economic crisis and how that affects the issues they are passionate about such as poverty and climate change.

"We are seeing a huge increase in the number of people around the world using digital tools to inform themselves and then contribute to debates about the issues that affect their lives. G20Voice recognises the importance of bloggers and gives them a unique opportunity to report back to their audiences direct from the G20 Summit itself."

Adrian Lovett, Director of Campaigns at Save the Children said: "G20Voice will tear back the curtain as leaders draw up their blueprint for global recovery. Thanks to G20Voice at this summit the world will be watching. Bloggers will witness the summit from the inside."

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How to Find G20Voice Online?

web: www.g20voice.org
twitter: @G20Voice
flickr: http://www.flickr.com/g20voice
youtube: http://www.youtube.com/G20voice
moblog: http://moblog.net/voice