Kajsa Klein of The World Speaks says:
“It’s a fine example of world leadership; what kind of signal does this send to the rest of the world – not to mention the millions of US Citizens with voting rights living abroad? It’s not only an aggressive and undiplomatic gesture, it makes America look like a closed undemocratic country.”

Solana Larsen of The World Speaks says:
“It’s blocking our efforts to encourage understanding. Thousands of people have visited our web sites and we know they are thirsty for information and dialogue about the election. Why would the Bush administration purposefully stand in the way of international dialogue with concerned world citizens?”

The World Speaks’ pre-election message:

“Without dialogue there is no understanding. Americans need to hear the concerns of non-U.S. citizens as much as non-Americans need to understand the decision of American voters, regardless of who is elected. World peace depends on it. The United States isn’t alone on the planet.”

Press contacts:
Kajsa Klein (English or Swedish): +46 733 908819 (Europe)
Solana Larsen (English or Spanish): +1 (646) 220-1459 (USA)

Or email: press@theworldspeaks.net and we’ll get in touch with you.

About The World Speaks:

The World Speaks (www.theworldspeaks.net) has quickly established itself as the global non-partisan gateway for dialogue between Americans and non-Americans in advance of the US presidential election. The World Speaks is a collaboration between five international websites based in Canada, The Netherlands, Sweden, the UK and the USA. Together, they have a collective audience that runs up in the hundreds of thousands, and through media partnerships and syndication, millions. Since its launch in early September, the web site has been featured in leading news outlets such as The Los Angeles Times, Metro London, and the BBC World Service.

The World Speaks publishes featured content from the web sites of five founding partners: Earth to America, openDemocracy.net, Talk to US, The World Votes and Voices ‘04. It also brings to the attention of concerned world citizens the work of other net-based initiatives, including 15 global voting sites, a vote-selling initiative, and countless online projects created by non-Americans.

In the last two months, hundreds of non-Americans have written Dear America letters using the Earth to America and Voices ’04 web sites. In addition, members of parliament from India, Finland, Denmark, and Spain have submitted statements. openDemocracy has commissioned articles from leading thinkers in the U.S. and abroad to debate America’s role in the world. Talk to US video clips that profile non-Americans have been featured on satellite television channel LinkTV. And finally, more than 15,000 people are now registered to participate in The World Votes’ mock U.S. election scheduled for November 1, 2004.