Stephen Appiah, captain of the Ghanaian football team, has played professionally for Juventus in Italy and now Fenerbahce in Turkey. His success means that press photographers follow him everywhere.


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In 2003 Chinese intellectual Dean Peng called a press conference of foreign journalists to call for the release of a Chinese blogger, Liu Di. This incredibly courageous move helped secure Di's release.


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In October 2006, a gunman broke into a school in the Amish community of Paradise in Pennsylvania, killing five girls and injuring many others. Herman Bontrager became a spokesman for the community - or, as he puts it, a barrier between the community and the press.

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Carolina Cecilia Xerindza, also known as Sofia Pedro, came to world media attention in early March 2000 during an episode of devastating flooding in Mozambique. She had given birth to her daughter Rosita while sheltering from the floods in a mafura tree.

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In summer 2007, student Barbara Kuukua Oppong became concerned that her studies were being disrupted by Ghana's energy crisis. So, she entered the BBC World Service's 'Newsmaker' competition and ended up interviewing the country's deputy energy minister.

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In March 2000, Vassos Vassiliou appealed to the media because he needed to find a bone-marrow donor for his son Andreas. Andreas was suffering from leukaemia. Following the appeal, over 120,000 Cypriots from both sides of the island gave blood and Andreas received treatment.

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Taking part in the BBC World Service series, 'Born a Girl', Sridevi Raghavan speaks to BBC World Service every five years. First interviewed in 1995, she says the series has helped her focus her ambitions.


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Raisa Vasilievna Melikhova's contact with the media was momentary - she was one of 72 people to ask a question of President Putin in his annual live Q&A session on Russian TV on 18 October, 2007.


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Nick Birnback is a press officer for the United Nations' department of peacekeeping operations. He is based in New York, but says that the real centre of UN peacekeeping is in the field.

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