Recent reports in the media have stated that US president-elect, Barack Obama, is planning to close the Guantanamo Bay detention centre. Having been at the center of US interrogation debacle, Guantanamo Bay has become a human rights disaster for the United States military.

The Free Zone Film Festival in Belgrade, Serbia - freezonebelgrade.org - is young, fresh and noisy. Just four years old, this year (7 to 12 November) it had a new team. Srdjan Keca, the programme director is 28 years old, with his equally young colleagues Bojana Cućilović (festival coordinator), Jeja Veljković (guest team organisor) and Dragana Jovanović (press liason).

So, with the American elections out of the way and a global sigh of relief at the result, we thought we could dedicate this blog to a fairly apt question. Before the Obama-hype, Steps International asked famous athletes, politicians and everyday people who they thought could be President of the World.

Monday 6th October

A few weeks ago I was in Frankfurt to take part in a discussion about the Why Democracy? documentary film project. It was organised under the auspices of the ‘Fernsehworkshop Entwicklungspolitik’.

Monday 22nd September. Cape Town.

It’s been an interesting weekend, politically speaking, in South Africa. I had been away travelling for a week and came back on Saturday to find out that the President of South Africa - Thabo Mbeki - had been deposed. He had been ‘asked’ by the ANC to resign. He did.

Welcome to the new look Why Democracy? website. As the project moves through its different stages, the website has become a valuable resource of film, opinion and discussion.

Accompanying the re-design is the Democracy Blog that is regularly updated by a number of contributors ranging from the film-makers to the Steps International team. We encourage you to make yourself heard in our discussion forums and create a dialogue about democracy across the globe.