Free Zone 9 Vigil, August 2, 2014. Martin Luther King Memorial, Washington, DC. Photo by EthioTube via Facebook. “From the rising of the sun to its setting, from the [four] compass points of the earth, arises a mighty cry — #freezone9bloggers!” – @feathersproject When Ethiopia’s Zone9 bloggers and their journalist colleagues were charged with terrorism two weeks ago, our community members put their heads together to decide how we might help the bloggers, four of whom are Global Voices translators. Nigerian writer and GV community leader Nwachukwu Egbunike responded to the call with zeal. “Something just occurred to me,” he wrote to our mailing list. “The last Twitter Campaign was led by Anglophone Africa but had a global impact. Can we have a truly global campaign this time around, tweeting in various languages at a specific time for the #Zone9Bloggers? At least for starters: English, French and Portuguese Africa calling for their release, same day, same time with same hashtag!” After a few days of organizing local teams in as many time zones as we could cover — from Hong Kong to Islamabad to Cairo to San Francisco — a global, multilingual tweetathon was born. Nwach helped kick things off with a series of inspiring tweets for our global community: Though tongues may differ, yet with many tongues we raise a mighty clamour for our common humanity, #FreeZone9Bloggers — Nwachukwu Egbunike (@feathersproject) July 31, 2014 Ethiopian bloggers and social mediaites in country and abroad were among some of the most prolific participants in the event. Ethiopian women's rights activist and Vital Voices fellow Selamawit Adugna tweeted: Dear zone9ers, I can never imagine what u going through in that prison just because you choose to care about your country #FreeZone9Bloggers — Selamawit Adugna (@selseladu) July 31, 2014 Human rights blogger @Bereket, who blogs at AddCafe urged followers: The best way to pay homage to @zone9ners is to be like them: to care & speak out. Right now, l care & say out loud >> #FreeZone9Bloggers — Bereket (@Berehket) July 31, 2014 Former leader of the Ethiopian Human Rights Council Yoseph Mulugeta, a highly regarded expert on Ethiopia judicial system, tweeted: 19page fabricated charges but no mention of Zone9 by name.Not even once.The brand surely terrifies enemies of free speech #FreeZone9Bloggers — Yoseph Mulugeta (@YosephMulugeta) July 18, 2014 Exiled Ethiopian media expert and civil liberties advocate Fasiledes created another in a series of Storify roundups about the campaign, which have been widely shared since their April 25 arrest. Although many participants come from Ethiopia or have direct ties to the situation, messages of support from around the globe flooded the hashtag. Mozambican journalism student Alexandre Zerinho tweeted: Juntos contra o impedimento da liberdade de expressão. #FreeZone9Bloggers — Alexandre Zerinho (@Zerinho_b4) July 31, 2014 United against threats to free expression #FreeZone9Bloggers Some tweeted images along with their messages of support: Respect & Solidarity for @Zone9ners from Berlin @KonstantinNotz #FreeZone9Bloggers pic.twitter.com/V9KjDmCVZJ — Gruen Digital (@gruen_digital) July 31, 2014 Oiwan Lam, a Hong Kong-based media freedom advocate and China editor for Global Voices’ Advocacy project, tweeted: 埃塞俄比亞打壓互聯網言論的做法非常奇怪，因為這個國家61%成年人文盲，互聯網的滲透率只有1.5%，言論又怎可能對政權構成實質威脅？… 是「中國模式」作怪嗎？ #FreeZone9Bloggers http://t.co/wX9gQfjY0k — oiwan (@oiwan) July 31, 2014 Ethiopia's suppression of Internet speech is very strange, because adult illiteracy in this country is 61%, and the Internet penetration rate is only 1.5% [how can these remarks constitute a real threat to the regime? … Is the “Chinese model” doing mischief here? Cuban blogger Sandra Abd’Allah Alvarez, who writes about race and politics from Havana, tweeted: Liberen a los @Zone9ers… ¡porque bloguear no es un crimen! #FreeZone9Bloggers http://t.co/gQyCLBasqF — Negracubana (@Negracubana) July 31, 2014 Free the @Zone9ers…because blogging is not a crime! #FreeZone9Bloggers http://t.co/gQyCLBasqF Echoing many other tweets on the topic, Berlin-based open knowledge advocate Zara Rahman expressed shock over charges against the bloggers that condemned their use of “Security in a Box”, a digital security training tool used widely by human rights activists around the globe: Speechless that charges against jailed bloggers in Ethiopia include “used Security in a Box” #freezone9bloggers http://t.co/mHszND2rwT — Zara Rahman (@zararah) July 31, 2014 Sudanese blogger and human rights activist Dalia Haj-Omar challenged critics to acknowledge that authorities have violated the bloggers’ fundamental right to free expression.