Ensaf Haidar, the wife of jailed Saudi Arabian blogger Raif Badawi, is to speak about the role of social media in efforts to free her husband at this year’s Festival of Media Global.

Festival of Media Global 2015 will take place at the Waldorf Astoria Rome Cavalieri on 10 to 12 May, with the event exploring how media is impacting on consumers’ lives and driving global business.

The plight of Badawi, sentenced to 10 years in prison and 1000 lashes in 2012 for promoting free speech in his blog, has made headlines across the word. Last month, he was publicly flogged 50 times, to widespread international condemnation.

Badawi’s official spokesperson Dr Elham Manea will take to the stage, with Haidar speaking via video link from her new home in Canada, to discuss how they together with Amnesty International have harnessed the power of social media to spread the campaign to free the blogger.

Haidar and Manea join a growing list of influential industry leaders signed up to speak in Rome.

Last week, M&M Global reported that Joe Rospars, the social media guru behind Barack Obama’s successful 2008 and 2012 presidential campaigns, is to talk about the future of social media at this year’s event.

Previously confirmed speakers for Festival of Media Global 2015 include Huffington Post CEO Jimmy Maymann and Guardian Newspapers deputy CEO David Pemsel, as well as Initiative global CEO Jim Elms.

See the latest list of speakers here, with many more to be confirmed soon