I started blogging in 2003 and it is as a blogger that I joined Global Voices Online as managing editor in 2006. I was seduced by the individual social side of blogging, I'm now wedded to its potential to empower individuals around the world to tell their own stories and shape the future of what we call “news”. I worked for more than 15 years as a radio journalist for the BBC World Service, mostly specialising in news about Africa. I've also worked for various human rights and media freedom organisations. I have a really bad gadget addiction and I love to knit, if I ever get the time.
Latest posts by Rachel Rawlins
Meet Sami Ben Gharbia, Global Voices’ new Advocacy Director
Global Voices is delighted to announce the appointment of Sami Ben Gharbia as Advocacy Director, and the attentive reader will already have noticed his posts on anti-censorship and free-speech issues. Sami pictured next to a free-speech campaign slogan Sami is an experienced human rights campaigner, a Tunisian who has lived...
World, meet Africa! A new way of reporting the continent
It's frequently depressing reading accounts of Africa in the mainstream media. Doubly so, in fact. Firstly because what is defined as worthy of reporting is, well, depressing. And secondly because it so seldom engages with the complex and vibrant reality of the continent in all its massive diversity, preferring instead...
Global Voices Delhi summit – only a few days to go!
The last details are being put together for the Global Voices annual summit being held in Delhi on Saturday 16 December. But the physical location shouldn't make a difference – please join us online from wherever you are! You can join via Internet Relay Chat (IRC). The IRC address is...
Thailand: First day of the coup
Rumors of a coup had been circulating in Bangkok for weeks, and foreigners like me had been ‘warned’ to be careful, don’t stay out late, move in groups, keep updated with news reports, watch the cable TV. So when it happened last night (Tuesday, Sept 19), I was hardly surprise....
Thailand: Liveblogging the coup
At least two blogs have been set up solely to cover the unfolding military coup in Thailand – a group blog 19sep which is in English and revolution.blogrevo which is in Thai. Video copies of coup-related announcements are appearing on YouTube. Below is the first televised announcement of the take-over...
Knight-Batten Awards: And the winner is…..
It was appropriate that, for an award given for innovations in journalism, overseen by J-Lab (the Institute of Interactive Journalism at the University of Maryland), the news came from my colleague Georgia Popplewell at the ceremony in Washington DC via instant message to London and from there out to the...
The world is talking – we're listening
Global Voices has grown dramatically over the past year thanks to our fantastic community of authors, supporters, editors and readers. We're working hard to make sure that the site is arranged in the best way possible – what we cover, how we do it and you read it. So please...
Five years on from 9/11, the world remembers
The mainstream media in many countries have been preoccupied with events in the United States to commemorate the fifth anniversary of the attacks on the World Trade Centre and Pentagon on 9/11 2001. But the repercussions of these events have spread across the globe and people far beyond New York...
Children in crises and the role of reporters – tell the media what you think
Where is the most dangerous place in the world to be a child? This is the question asked in a poll by AlertNet, the early warning network for humanitarian organisations, to highlight some of the world's forgotten crises. The results will be featured in a debate about the responsibility of...
Iraq: “Brilliant” new blog!
At Iraq Blog Count a group of contributors keep a tally of, yes, you've guessed it, blogs in Iraq. The latest addition, Baghdad Chronicle, gets a rave review: Woah, I don't know how this one slipped through IBC's collective radar. Miraj has been blogging since January and the blog description...
Egypt: Rights lawyer remembered
As activists in Egypt continue to demand an independent judiciary Baheyya celebrates the life of the recently deceased campaigning lawyer Ahmed Nbil al Hilali. In his lifetime, he was christened “the saint of the national movement,” the “liberties lawyer,” and “the Egyptian people’s advocate,” since he spent nearly all of...
Somalia: Change of power in Mogadishu
It seems Islamist forces have ousted US-backed warlords from the centre of the Somali capital Mogadishu according to Fontaine at Yebo Googo, but warns that although the fighting is over the balance of power is fragile and the future of the country uncertain.
HIV – Death by Diplomacy
Leading African HIV activists and other campaigners from around the world are anxious that previous gains made at the international level five years ago. Olivia Phiri, Zambian blogger at Real Life of a Journalist reports on appeals made to UN Secretary General Kofi Annan. Activists are concerned that the outcome...
Ethiopia: Raising the Wrong Flag
Wonkette of Weichegud! ET Politics posts a roundup of reaction to the ongoing treason trial in Ethiopia. More than 70 people are charged with crimes which carry the death penalty. As the post points out they are considered to be prisoners of conscience by human rights group Amnesty International; in...
Be irrepressible! a campaign for global internet freedom
As more and more nations carve up the so-called global, borderless internet into separate spheres of control through filtering and censorship, often using technology supplied by large IT companies, Amnesty International has launched a new campaign – irrepressible.info to raise awareness of and protest against the infringements on the basic...
Advocacy: Help protect global bloggers
Bloggers, like others at the forefront of activities promoting freedom of speech and information, can run into trouble with the authorities. At Global Voices we have had first hand experience of this with the illegal detention of one of our editors, Hao Wu. He has now been held for three...
Bloggers Bomb for Blogger
Not the life-threatening variety of course. I'm talking about a campaign to bring attention to the situation of detained Egyptian blogger Alaa Ahmed Seif al-Islam, as well as the more than 40 other peaceful protesters held by the authorities. Blogging supporters have started a new site to track the latest...
We Media conference update
A quick post from London to let you know that one of the speakers here, Nitin Desai, the Special Assistant to the UN Secretary General, who chaired the UN’s Working Group on Internet Governance, will be taking part in a skype and IRC chat with the Global Voices community. We...
Global Voices at the We Media Global Forum
Yes, we'll be there in full effect. And we hope as many bloggers and other internet inhabitants as possible will join us via the exciting live chat page which has whizzy maps and flags, and translation facilities for those commenting in a range of languages other than English. What party...
Broadening Blogging in Africa by Radio
Some members of the audience may have been sceptical – “blogging is too complex… where is the power for the connection, the internet is still a luxury” was the comment of one listener – but the BBC World Service Radio programme Network Africa showed that blogging in Africa is a...
Unbuilding bridges
There's no bridge, and a lot of troubled water in Malaysia. It's all about the cancellation of Malaysia's plan to build a bridge to Singapore. Jeff Ooi has been following the fallout and also wondering whether the Malaysian press was gagged over the story.
