Egyptian web activist freed after protests tells TV station: 'I am no hero'

Google executive's emotional interview after his release hailed as a landmark moment in Egypt revolt

Ben Quinn
The Guardian, Tuesday 8 February 2011

"An emotional television interview given by a young Egyptian Google executive who was arrested after playing a key role in using the internet to spark the uprising against Hosni Mubarak is being hailed as a landmark moment in the ongoing revolt after it struck a chord across Egypt and beyond.

Wael Ghonim, a marketing manager who became a hero to anti-government protestors after he went missing on 27 January, confirmed in the interview following his release that he was behind a highly influential Facebook page that helped lead to what he described as "the revolution of the youth of the internet."

Before his appearance on Monday on a privately owned Egyptian television channel, the father-of-two was held in repute by many who believed that he was the anonymous activist behind a Facebook page named after a young Egyptian businessman whose death at the hands of police in June set off months of protests.

The page, "We are all Khaled Said", became one of the main tools for organising the demonstrations that started the revolt in earnest on 25 January.

However, Ghonim's stature across the country now appears destined to rise dramatically if the

post-interview reaction on the internet is anything to go by. Calls are being made for him to stand as president. Others predicted that his performance, which was being acclaimed as a tour de force of calm but explosive political passion, would inevitably boost the numbers of those attending the latest mass demonstration in Cairo's Tahrir square and elsewhere this morning.

"I am not a hero. I only used the keyboard, the real heroes are the ones on the ground. Those I can't name," said Ghonim, who sobbed throughout the interview, which ended with him being overcome with emotion as he was shown images of some of those who died in the uprising......"