Amnesty International and the UK-based SilverSurfers.net organisation have joined forces to launch a new online appeal for a Vietnamese man imprisoned for 12 years for using the internet.
The campaign, part of Amnesty International’s new ‘Protect The Human’ initiative, involves SilverSurfers.net internet users from all over the UK sending email appeals
directly to the Vietnamese authorities calling for the 50-year-old prisoner of conscience to be immediately released.
It is good that Amnesty International has decided to target the 50-plus – well done –but the way they have done it makes me feel uneasy. We all know that facts about the high use of the Internet by the 50-plus, especially those under 65, so why does Amnesty decide to make its foray into the 50-plus world via a niche portal site.
It is a bit like Amnesty deciding to put a small advert in a regional newspaper in a geographic area where there are lots of older people living.
Maybe I am being a bit too touchy, but it seems a bit of a gesture and reflects the importance, or lack of it, that Amnesty places on the 50-plus. Maybe it is that or the fact that I hate the term Silversurfers! Dick Stroud
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