Amnesty gains Stephen Fry's support for hand-written letters

Governance | Niki May Young | 29 Nov 2011

Amnesty International's new Write for Rights campaign, which calls for thousands to write a hand-written letter on behalf of one of its causes, has gained support from prolific tweeter Stephen Fry.

The television presenter and all-round intellectual is the most followed celebrity on Twitter in the UK but even he admits that hand-written letters can be more effective at times:

"I love texting, tweeting, blogging and emailing as much, if not more, than the next person, but there are some occasions when nothing, but nothing, can replace the power of the hand-written letter," he said offering his support to the campaign which runs from 28 November to 10 December.

"Hand-written letters, politely but passionately putting the case for prisoners of conscience, addressed to ambassadors, prime ministers, presidents and monarchs of countries where restrictions on freedom of speech have resulted in prisoners of conscience, these can work surprisingly well," he added, calling for people to investigate the issues they could campaign for on the Amnesty website.

The call-to-action comes ahead on International Human Rights day on 10 December.

The charity has also created a campaign film showing the power of the hand-written letter:

Directory: Amnesty International

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