re:publica presentation on the #FreeBassel book

At re:publica last week we talked about free internet activist Bassel Khardabil and his love for free culture, and the love of the free culture community for Bassel. Bassel Khardabil was unlawfully detained in Damascus in March 2012. His name was deleted from the prison’s register in October 2015, and there have been no official news about his whereabouts since.

#FreeBassel at re:publica 2017

It has now been 5 years since Bassel’s imprisonment. Therefore we used re:publica’s motto “Love Out Loud” to call attention to his case again. Although I don’t know Bassel personally it wasn’t easy to talk about his situation. But it was good to see the audience engaging with the story, writing personal notes about their thoughts on free culture and creating a wall of notes in support of the #FreeBassel campaign.

Notes for #FreeBassel

Re:publica recorded the presentation by Barbara Rühling and Mélanie Dulong de Rosnay.

Cost of Freedom Book Sprint 2015

As one of many activities of the #FreeBassel movement, friends and supporters came together for an impromptu Book Sprint in November 2015. You can read about all the past and ongoing activities at freebassel.org. And consider signing the campaign letter to demand his freedom.

The Book Sprint in 2015 focused on the topic “Cost of Freedom” with many stories around the personal costs people in the free culture movement have experienced. The book is freely available here: costoffreedom.cc

And you can check out the slides of the re:publica presentation here: