GLOBAL Voices (www.globalvoicesonline.org) is a nonprofit international citizens’ media project founded at Harvard Law School’s Berkman Center for Internet and Society, a research think tank focused on the Internet’s impact on society.

According to its website, “Global Voices seeks to aggregate, curate and amplify the global conversation online — shining light on places and people other media often ignore. We work to develop tools, institutions and relationships that will help all voices, everywhere, to be heard. With tens of millions of people blogging all over the planet, how do you avoid being overwhelmed by the information overload? How do you figure out who are the most influential or respected and credible bloggers or podcasters in any given country, especially those outside your own? Our international team of volunteer authors, regional blogger-editors and translators are your guides to the global blogosphere.”

Global Voices aims to redress some of the inequities in media attention by leveraging the power of citizens’ media. The site uses a wide variety of technologies — weblogs, podcasts, photos, video, wikis, tags, aggregators and online chats — to call attention to conversations and points of view that it is hoped will help shed new light on the nature of our interconnected world.

Global Voices’ coverage of citizens’ media is divided by region with the Middle East and North Africa grouped together. Daily, the site highlights a selection of blogs from around the region, including English translations of those presented in other languages. A wide range of issues are covered, from economics to politics. Since the organization feels that voices from North America and Western Europe are already over-represented in the global media, there is limited coverage of those regions.

Saudi Arabia has featured prominently at Global Voices, both in blog translations and after the site drew attention to the detention of a Saudi blogger. Global Voices supports an Advocacy Program, which pushes for freedom of expression around the world and to protect the rights of citizen journalists to report on events and opinions without fear of censorship or persecution. Led by Advocacy Director Sami Ben Gharbia, a Tunisian exile, the site http://advocacy.globalvoicesonline.org/ shows the ways in which governments around the world censor the Internet.

Under the heading “BlockPages,” find a gallery of screenshots of blockpages from national filtering systems and Internet service providers — including an example from the Kingdom. There’s an Access Denied Map and a 403 Checker to quickly determine which URLs a government has blocked. The site also offers a “Guide to Anonymous Blogging” which is essential for protecting both your privacy and your personal safety.

Despite the Kingdom’s bloggers being exactly the citizen journalists that Global Voices aims to support, no Saudi bloggers attended the Global Voices Citizen Media Summit 2008 (http://summit08.globalvoicesonline.org/), which took place in Budapest, Hungary, June 27-28.

“We did invite two prominent Saudi bloggers to our Global Voices Summit 2008,” remarked Ben Gharbia. “Unfortunately, Ahmad Al-Omran was refused a visa, for no reason, as explained in his blog (http://saudijeans.org/2008/06/22/hungary-visa/). And Fouad Al-Farhan is not allowed to leave the Kingdom for six months starting the day he was released from jail.”

Global Voices were strong supporters of a campaign advocating for the release of Al-Farhan from detention. In regards to their efforts, Ben Gharbia commented: “I don’t think the government could afford to keep a prominent blogger in jail for a long time. The media coverage and the online and offline support for Al-Farhan’s release were simply great. Even the Arab news outlets couldn’t turn a blind eye to the case.”