Seven young bloggers and human rights activists travelled to Geneva to tell their poignant and often dramatic tales about how Internet technology has become today’s best weapon in their countries' battles for freedom and democracy.

They came from Burma, China, Egypt, Indonesia, North Korea, Tunisia and Uganda as so-called ‘freedom fellows’, under the sponsorship of the US government and a local Geneva NGO, the Institute for Media and Global Governance (IMGG).  Their testimony was for the occasion of the 17th session of the UN Human Rights Council (May 30-June 17).

An excerpt from a filmed interview with noted Chinese artist Ai Wei-wei, who was arrested by Chinese authorities on April 3, was shown publicly for the first time at the Geneva event. In the interview, Ai poetically noted that “Twitter is like an ocean – a sea of humanity where everyone has a voice.”

An avid user of Twitter, Ai added that “because of the Internet, one day the world will suddenly change and it’s going to be dramatic.”

Chinese blogger Wen Yunchao, told the forum that Ai's views are representative of many Internet users in China despite Beijing's crack down on mobile phone use, Twitter and g-mail accounts.  This assertion was challenged by a woman in the audience from China’s Mission to the UN in Geneva,who declared that the Internet in China is free and that she can easily look at her g-mail account.

A young panelist from Tunisia, Henda Chennaoui, told the forum “it was (deposed President) Ben Ali’s attempt to shut down the Internet that radicalized us.”  She said that under the interim government the Minister of the Interior still controls the Internet today. “We organize through Facebook and on May 27 we succeeded in getting thousands to turn out on the streets again.”

North Korean journalist Ewon Eun Kyong of the North Korean online newspaper  “Daily NK”, said “freedom is something North Koreans have never had. They don’t even know that it is a right."

“Daily NK” is  run by opponents of the Pyongyang government, based in South Korea who regularly report stories from inside North Korea via a network of informants inside the country.

Among the seven participants there was unanimous agreement that today’s youth see the world differently, as a world without borders where information can pass without borders thanks to the Internet.