Morales sharing his work during the APC Latin America and the Caribbean regional members meeting.During the APC Latin America and the Caribbean regional members meeting in Mexico City, APCNews interviewed Mario Morales from Colombia, who recently joined APC as an individual member, to find out more about his work and his reasons for becoming part of the APC network.
APCNews: How did you come into contact with APC, and what made you want to become an individual member of the network?
Mario Morales: I’m from Colombia and I work on various fronts, all of them directly or indirectly related to APC’s work, as I have been able to confirm at this meeting. I’m a journalist and a digital media analyst in my country. I teach digital journalism and I work for the Media Ombudsman, which deals with both traditional and digital media, and this is one of the areas that is of greatest interest to me in a country like Colombia that is lacking in these kinds of activities and inputs.
Finally, through all of these activities, we have initiated a debate in the public sphere around issues like digital rights, freedom of expression, literacy, neutrality and respect for cultural and ethnic diversity as well as a diversity of opinions on social networks and other digital spaces.
I have closely followed APC’s activities through its member organisation in Colombia, Colnodo. They have provided me with support for 15 years and I have worked on blogs for them related to all of these discussions. I have worked with them and with government agencies on promoting digital literacy among vulnerable sectors of the population, as well as journalists, both in Colombia and in other countries like Nicaragua, Venezuela and Ecuador. I’m also interested in structuring and coordinating initiatives that are rather scarce in our country, in the fields of both journalism and academia, focusing on basic principles related to digital rights and human rights, both online and offline.
APCNews: What do you consider to be the value of belonging to the APC network, for both individual and organisational members?
MM: I would say that the primary value is symbolic, in terms of APC’s role as a meeting and learning point, a point for sharing experiences, processes, results and objectives. And also as a coordinating point for local, regional and global efforts.
APCNews: What are your personal expectations with regard to your membership?
MM: The first is to learn from regional experiences, from the experience gained over the 25 years of APC’s existence. The second is, based on this learning, to offer support at the local and regional level. And the third is to try to structure the activities I carry out as an individual, which are currently somewhat dispersed, and to shape them into a single line of work that produces inputs and results based on clear and solid objectives.