Online protest rallies free-speech supporters around the globe

*Credit: Reporters Without Borders* Wednesday has been announced by the French organization Reporters Sans Frontieres (Reporters Without Borders) as the first [Online Free Expression Day.](http://www.rsf.org/article.php3?id_article=26086) In recognition of its announcement, the group has initiated a [24-hour online protest](http://www.rsf.org/24heures/pages/index.php'id=21) going on now in nine virtual countries that have been labeled Internet enemies by the international press organization. I stopped by the protest earlier Wednesday morning and found the demonstration to be similar to what I expected when . My primary concern with the protest was that it would be relegated to a dark corner on the Internet, and that does indeed seem to be the case (though the demonstration does provide a means to automatically e-mail friends about the event). *Credit: Reporters Without Borders* Once inside, I was greeted with a menu of *Internet enemy* countries that I could virtually visit to protest their legal policies. I started at the top and decided to venture to Burma as the first stop on my tour. After arriving in Burma, I was given an opportunity to identify myself and to choose from five ready-made slogans. After confirming my selection, I was transported to a crowd of anonymous looking avatars. Some of ghost figures held picket signs and some did not; those with signs represented real people who could be identified with a click, and those that did not were apparently there for visual effect. *Credit: Reporters Without Borders* In traveling to each of the nine countries, I discovered that China had attracted the most visitors with 3,664 people in attendance at 9:30 a.m. PDT; Burma was a distant second with 1,541 protesters on hand. All together, approximately 10,000 people were credited as being participants in the protest at the time. As a Flash application, the protest is quite slick and well designed, but I still have doubts as to how effective this approach really is. The campaign has generated [significant](http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/in_depth/7292130.stm) [attention](http://www.theinquirer.net/gb/inquirer/news/2008/03/12/online-free-expression-day) from the [mainstream](http://www.upi.com/NewsTrack/Top_News/2008/03/12/day_set_for_protest_of_internet_censorship/2464/) [media](http://www.cnn.com/2008/TECH/03/12/internet.enemies/), and it certainly isn't a bad way to highlight the organization's new list of ["Internet Enemies"](http://www.rsf.org/article.php3?id_article=26082) and an update to its [Handbook for Bloggers and Cyber-Dissidents](http://www.rsf.org/article.php3?id_article=26187). Still, as protests go, this strikes me more as a completely sincere and well-intentioned publicity stunt than a true protest designed to mobilize the masses and catalyze change. The last words of the organization's [press release](http://www.rsf.org/article.php3?id_article=26086) seem to indicate exactly that: "The cyber-demonstration was devised and produced by the Saatchi & Saatchi advertising agency." It's hard to know what to think about an advertising firm devising a protest for a press freedoms organization. At least Reporters Without Borders elected to disclose it in its press release. I doubt many other groups would so freely acknowledge that their protest was anything but organic and that does deserve credit.