The Reporters Without Borders fight for more press freedom, all over the world and right on our doorstep. In Russia the designated president Wladimir Putin and his 'apparatus' accept an atmosphere of fear, which alone makes the suppression of press possible.We wanted something to oppose the power holder: the 'Power of Pencils'. Therefore, we re-invented the oldest promotion idea in the world: In front of the Russian embassy and in front of the Axel Springer House, the centre of nearly all important German newspapers, we gave away balloons. On them was a portrait of Wladimir Putin.

But of course that wasn’t all. A pencil hung on the balloons. The passers-by were asked to literally experience the 'Power of Pencils', by bursting the balloons. When they did so, a special postcard with the claim for more freedom of the press appeared, addressed to Wladimir Putin. The passers-by used the 'Power of Pencils' again and signed the claim. And we sent it directly to the Kremlin in Moscow.

For us Wladimir Putin’s assumption of office in May 2012 was exactly the right occasion to take our initiative up to public.At first we informed journalists about the 'Power of Pencils'. Our website powerofpencils.com went online 2 days before the 'Power of Pencils balloon activity' started, on April, 26th.After that, nearly everything happened automatically. Webpages like NTV, Welt or Tagesschau supported the press freedom by their own free reporting. People loved the symbolical act of letting Putin feel the 'Power of Pencils', posted about it on Facebook and Twitter and participated on powerofpencils.com on the same day of our activity and of course in the following weeks. The 'Power of Pencils' was approved.

On just 1 day we collected hundreds of signed claims to Wladimir Putin - even from Russia, simply by letting people literally experience the 'Power of Pencils', and by reaching the press, that supported the press' freedom by its own free reporting causing an extremely huge press coverage.

Just like the people that we involved in our activity, 1000s of them used their right of freedom of opinion to spread our message via Facebook and Twitter posts and participated on powerofpencils.com. For the first time, 'press freedom' was one of the top 3 twittered words in Germany. We even had our own live channel to Russia: the Russian embassy’s security cameras.