Michael Schmidt is a veteran African participatory democracy, artistic freedoms and human rights activist, researcher, investigative journalist, media consultant, and the bestselling author of six non-fiction books. Michael worked in the field in 47 countries across six continents, from Mexico to Mali, Brazil to Bangladesh, and Sri Lanka to the Solomon Islands. He is the strategic relations and research director of Johannesburg-based human rights non-profit Hammerl Arts Rights Transfer (HART), a founding organisation of the Amani: Africa Creative Defence Network, and of Safe Havens – Freedom Talks (SH|FT).
