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Meet the ‘Jewish National Fund’ and Its Role in Israel and Palestine · Global Voices
Maya Schkolne

Iconic “blue boxes” used for JNF fundraising worldwide. Photo credit: Alan English, CC license.
On Jan. 18, 2017, Israel's Yoav police unit, specifically set up in 2012 for tasks related to “Bedouin resettlement,” faced off against residents and activists when it tried to demolish the Bedouin village of Umm el-Hiran in the Negev region.
This pre-dawn evacuation and destruction involved the use of extreme physical force, stun grenades, pepper spray and rubber and copper bullets. Following the fierce onslaught, resident schoolteacher Yaqub Abu Qi'an and police officer Erez Levy were killed.
The conflict didn't begin or end in demolition and bloodshed, either. This Bedouin community had already experienced forcible relocation from Khirbet Zubaleh in 1948 with the establishment of the State of Israel, which Palestinians refer to as the “Nakba” (Arabic for catastrophe), and which saw more than 700,000 Palestinians expelled from their homes.
With this history of “catastrophe” in the region, media outlets regularly find fault with the policies of the Israeli government, but journalists rarely have much to say about the Keren Kayemeth LeIsrael Jewish National Fund (KKL-JNF), better known as the JNF.
According to the “Nakba Files,” a joint project launched by Adalah, the Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel (a Palestinian-run NGO based in Haifa), and the Center for Palestine Studies at Columbia University:
The JNF is a worldwide network of Zionist charities dedicated to acquiring and settling land on behalf of the Jewish people. The JNF’s Israeli branch is a parastatal organization that enjoys special status under Israeli law in the management of land.
As one of the key entities designed to ensure the Jewish demographic majority necessary for the solidification of a Jewish state, the roots of the JNF go back to the World Zionist Organization conference in 1901, which envisioned a fund to purchase land in Palestine for transfer to Jews. This ambition turned reality six years later through the official formulation and incorporation of the JNF into a company in Britain. After receiving chartered status to assist Israeli governmental functions in 1953, it obtained sizable swathes of Palestinian land from the Israeli Knesset.
The JNF currently has direct access to approximately 13 percent of pre-1967 land, mainly in the Negev and the Galilee, as it transferred urban land to the state for privatization. Moreover, though the Israeli Land Administration (ILA) administers 93 percent of Israel’s land, the JNF has considerable sway over its programs and policies with representation through 6 of the 14 members (43 percent) of its governing board.
In other words, as the Nakba Files reiterates:
The JNF ceded management of its own land to the state in exchange for a major share in decision-making power over all state-controlled lands. The petition recently filed by Adalah and its partners challenges the constitutionality of this arrangement.
The JNF’s role on the ILA Council affords it enormous influence over the allocation and use of lands. Israel has one of the highest proportions of state control of land in the world; most of that land is held in long-term leases. A considerable portion of state lands were expropriated from Palestinians — refugees of the 1948 Nakba as well as Palestinians who were displaced from their homes but nevertheless became citizens of Israel.
In the 2016 film “Junction48” by Israeli-American filmmaker Udi Aloni, a lawyer from Adalah points out the role the JNF plays in displacing Palestinian families from their lands:
Director Udi Aloni's film @Junction48 features Adalah lawyer explaining role JNF plays in displacing Palestinian families from their lands pic.twitter.com/BPfpRK5h40
— Adalah (@AdalahEnglish) 19 décembre 2016
Indeed, over the rubble and dust that the bulldozers will leave in the wake of Umm al-Hiran, fresh layers of brick and mortar funded by the JNF will construct the town of “Hiran” for Jewish residents.
In response, deputy editor and blogger at 972mag Edo Konrad tweeted:
When people tell you that the term “ethnic cleansing” offends them, tell them about Umm al-Hiran. Tell them it's happening now, in 2017.
— Edo Konrad (@edokonrad) 18 janvier 2017
The neighboring village of Atir faces a similar fate, and its ruins will be cleared to make way for a JNF-sponsored forest called Yatir.
Once Palestinian Bedouin citizens of Israel are expelled from their homes, they are cast off to consistently under-resourced township areas such as Hura. Speaking to The Jerusalem Post, Yossi Maimon, an assistant to the director of the “authority for the settlement and development of the Bedouin,” confirmed on Jan, 16 that “the state is pressing for all the approximately 400 residents of the village to relocate to the nearby township of Hura.”
Atwa Abu al-Kaeean, a 62-year-old resident of Umm Al-Hiran told The Jerusalem Post that police called him five times in the course of 10 days to tell him he must “conclude matters with the authority because we will demolish your home.”
According to the Association for Civil Rights in Israel, the state currently refuses to recognize villages that are home to more than half of the 160,000 people in the Negev Bedouin population. As a result, they suffer under the constant threat of demolitions, which is enforced by the Unit for Enforcement in Open Spaces, or the “Green Patrol,” that works in conjunction with the ILA, the JNF, and the Israeli Defence Forces. The Negev Coexistence Forum for Civil Equality lists more than 70 cases of home demolitions and crop destruction that occurred in the Negev in 2016 alone.
The Israeli government insists that these villages are ‘illegal’ and justifies its actions on the basis of “restoring the law.” However, as Ron Dudai, an associate editor of The Journal of Human Rights Practice, who previously worked at B’Tselem and Amnesty International, explained his objections to the government's position:
Let me emphasize what makes it so appalling is the open, internally legal way in which it is done … an independent and competent supreme court with judges who teach at Yale, which sits calmly and declares those actions to be legal, and eloquent spokespersons who wholly admit to and justify the demolitions, which take place in broad daylight and in front of the media’s cameras. In a sense, it is this constrained character that makes them so distressing.
Various commentators have discussed the ideological background of such practices. Some have pointed out that much of the logic surrounding current Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's politics can be traced to the political philosophy of early revisionist Zionist thinker Ze'ev Jabotinsky, whose essay, “The Iron Wall (We and the Arabs),” praised the “virtue” of driving Palestinians to such a state until they lose hope, compelling them to make concessions and accept their oppression:
My readers have a general idea of the history of colonization in other countries. I suggest that they… see whether there is one solitary instance of any colonization being carried on with the consent of the native population. There is no such precedent.
To the wider public, the practices of the Jewish National Fund aren't well-known. But you can't understand Israel's colonization of Palestinian land without knowing the JNF.

author: Maya Schkolne


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Protesters Say Jordanian Law Encourages ‘Honour Killings’ and Must Be Changed · Global Voices
Nora B

Peaceful protest outside of the Parliament in Amman to repeal Article 340 from the Penal Code. Photo by Nora B.
On February 1, 2017, a group of around 25-30 protesters peacefully gathered in front of the Jordanian parliament in Amman’s Abdali district to call for the repeal of Article 340 of the Jordanian Penal Code, which allows for perpetrators of “honour killing” to benefit from mitigation. Global Voices’ Nora B attended the protest.
So-called honour killings are acts of deadly vengeance committed by male family members against female family members who are perceived to have tainted the family name. In 2016, there were 26 cases of honour killings in Jordan, nine more than in 2015. Reasons for such murders could be premarital sex or as arbitrary as having a secret phone that the family does not know about.
Articles 340 and 98 of the Penal Code allow for reduced sentences for honour killings, with the text of the former stating that whoever finds his wife or one of his female relatives in an act of adultery benefits from mitigation if he murders her and/or her partner.
Article 98 also allows perpetrators of honour killings to have a less severe sentence, with its text stating, “Whoever commits a crime while in a state of rage which is the result of an unjustifiable and dangerous act committed by the victim, benefits from a mitigating excuse.” Sentences could be as light as six months or less if the victim’s family decides to drop the charges, as seen in the case of a pregnant woman suffocated to death in 2007 by her own brother after confessing to him that she was five months pregnant with her ex-husband's child, or the case of a brother murdering his divorced sister in 2003 for being absent from the family home for one week.

There have been previous attempts to repeal the article in parliament, but none succeeded; instead, it was amended in 2001 to give the right of a mitigated sentence to women as well. However, the amendment only applies in cases of assault or murder of husbands, and does not extend to women’s brothers or family members, whereas the article states that men can benefit from mitigation if they murder their wives or female relatives. To date, reported honour killing victims in Jordan have always been women.
A protestor holding a sign that reads, “Reform begins with the repeal of Article 340.” Photo by Nora B.
The protest was organised by 17-year-old Esraa Tayseer Kudair on behalf of a group called “I Change.” Esraa is a high-school student passionate about advancing women’s status in the country, starting with the repeal of the Article 340. “There are women that are being killed without doing anything wrong, and people are using this law to justify the killing these women,” she told Global Voices.
Esraa Kudair, organiser of the peaceful protest, calling for the repeal of Article 340. Her poster says, “Article 340 allows for murder and encourages it.” Photo by Nora B.
Some of the slogans on posters in the protest read: “Article 340 allows for murder and encourages it,” “Kill her, you will be protected,” “Justifying crime is a crime,” “There is no honour in killing,” and “Reform begins with repealing Article 340 from the Jordanian Penal Code.”
Feras Awad, a master’s student of Women’s Studies at the University of Jordan who was present at the protest, addressed the members of parliament as they were exiting the parliamentary building: “This article represents a license to kill, and allows for the murder of women just because they are women,” he said through a loudspeaker. “Times and circumstances have changed: it wasn’t suitable then, and it isn’t suitable now.”
Two members of parliament, Nawaf al-Nuaimat and Suleiman Huwailah al-Zabn, approached the activists at different points. Al-Zabn addressed the crowd and answered questions, saying “We must hold killers accountable, we are with you. I am with you as a member of parliament, as are my peers. We are working towards this direction.” The members of parliament gave their contact details to the organisers of the protest and encouraged them to get in touch and follow up, with al-Nuaimat suggesting that two representatives from the group attend a future session.
Member of parliament Suleiman Huwailah al-Zabn addressing activists. Photo by Nora B.
Fighting the law is one thing, but cultural attitudes towards honour killings are worrying still. In 2013, a survey of around 850 ninth grade students in the capital Amman revealed that about 40% of boys and 20% of girls believe that honour killings can be justified. “I Change” is trying to change these attitudes as well as the laws. “I Change is a group of people that are gathered for a reason: to protect women from honour crimes and to educate people on this matter,” Esraa told Global Voices. She says that if this campaign succeeds, I Change might work on other reform projects in the kingdom.

source: news-globalvoices

license: Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

author: Nora B


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Soldiers Outnumber Residents in Angola’s Oil-Rich Cabinda, Says Activist Marcos Mavungo · Global Voices
Manuel Ribeiro

Activism in Africa International Conference, organized by the Center for International Studies of the Instituto Universitário de Lisboa (CEI-IUL), took place at ISCTE-IUL on January 11-13, 2017. Photo by Hugo Alexandre Cruz. Published with permission.
“There’s no water, no light. There is hunger.” This was how the civic activist José Marcos Mavungo described during a conference in Lisbon in January the harsh reality of living in Cabinda, an exclave of Angola, separated from the country by a narrow strip of territory belonging to the Democratic Republic of Congo.
The region of Cabinda was a Portuguese protectorate from 1885 until 1956 when the colonial rulers decided to transfer its government to Angola, a much older colony located south of the Congo river. Rebellion began immediately and continued after the Portuguese empire fell in 1975, after which Angola, as a new independent state, kept sovereignty over Cabinda.
Created in the 1960s, a group called the Front for the Liberation of the Enclave of Cabinda (FLEC) still strives for the region's independence through armed struggle, although in recent years it has broken up in multiple rivaling factions. The war waged between them and the Angolan state has taken a toll on Cabinda's population.
At the core of the conflict, however, is the territory's immense riches: Cabinda holds one of the largest off-shore oil fields in the world and accounts for about half of Angola's oil exports, says news agency Reuters, which in turn accounts for more than 95% of the country's total exports, according to data from the World Bank. As Mavungo himself put it:
Cabinda é um território escandalosamente rico, um dos raros países onde Deus abriu a mão para tudo, petróleo, diamantes, ouro, madeira, café. [Por esta razão] o regime angolano depositou o seu poder militar na região. Atualmente existem mais militares do que população em Cabinda.
Cabinda is a scandalously rich territory, one of the rare countries where God opened his hand with everything, oil, diamonds, gold, wood, coffee. [That's why] the Angolan government has put its military power in the region. Now there are more soldiers in Cabinda than its population.
In this context, in 2003 Mavungo founded Mpalabanda, a civic association from Cabinda with the objective of peacefully resist to war, oppression and corruption in the region. But Cabinda's first human rights organization was short-lived: three years later, Mpalabanda was made illegal by the Provincial Court of Cabinda.
In 2015, Mavungo was imprisoned by Angolan authorities, accused of “inciting rebellion and violence.” He was sentenced to six years in prison, but in May of the following year was acquitted by the Angolan Supreme Court due to lack of evidence. He spent a year in prison.
The activist was recently in Portugal to participate in the “Congresso Ativismos em África” (Activism Congress for Africa) held by the Centre for International Studies of ISCTE-the Lisbon University Institute, where he discussed the current situation in Cabinda, remembered his time in prison and shared thoughts on the future of Angola.
When Angola gained independence from Portugal in 1975, Cabinda began a period of “despotic feudalism resulting from a disastrous decolonization process,” he said:
Após a independência, Angola entrou num conflito que desarticulou as mentes e onde o político acabou por escorregar numa governação criminosa que legítima o crime como os acontecimentos de 27 de Maio (1977), a sexta-feira sangrenta (1993), os assassinatos de Cassule e Kamulingue (2012) e a experiência trágica vivida por Filomeno Vieira Lopes que não cometeu outro crime senão contestar.
[Desde então, cidadãos vivem em] ambiente hostil, onde os detentores do poder se apoderaram de tudo que é recurso nacional em especial o petróleo e os diamantes e depois criaram um gueto económico onde é notório os propósitos de rapina – que vem debicar tudo que é recurso, apanham tudo – é nesse contexto que aparece a governação corrupta onde os governantes em vez de governarem aparecem como comerciantes e as próprias politicas são estruturadas para enviar a riqueza para eles próprios e a tirar do pais. Todo o mundo fala que Angola investiu em Portugal, França e Inglaterra, mas em Angola não [há investimento]. Está na pobreza.
After independence, Angola fell into a long conflict which disturbed people’s minds, where politics slid into criminal governance that legitimized crime such as the events of 27 May (1977), “bloody Friday” (1993), the killings of Cassule and Kamulingue (2012) and the tragic experience of Filomeno Vieira Lopes who committed no other crime than dissenting.
Since then citizens have lived in a hostile environment where those who hold power appropriated all national resources, especially oil and diamonds, and then created an economic ghetto notorious for robbery – they come to take all resources, acquiring everything – it is in this context that corrupt governance appeared where the rulers, instead of governing, seemed more like merchants and their politics were structured to send the wealth to themselves and take it from the country. Everyone says that Angola invested in Portugal, France, and the UK, but in Angola no [there is no investment]. It is in poverty.
Activism in Africa International Conference, organized by the Center for International Studies of the Instituto Universitário de Lisboa (CEI-IUL), took place at ISCTE-IUL on January 11-13, 2017. Photo by Hugo Alexandre Cruz.. Published with permission.
As a result of exploiting the “black gold,” Cabinda is an extremely polluted region. “The waters are polluted, illnesses spread, especially among the children,” Mavungo explained.
Also reflecting on the oil production, he added:
Produz-se muito petróleo, mas não investimento de fundo. Há investimento para o mundo ver, bons escritórios e carros de luxo, enquanto a indústria e a agricultura é ignorada. Há uma hipertrofia da classe política dominante que fica com o grosso dos recursos. Estamos perante um feudalismo despótico, uma ditadura dos verdadeiros adoradores do Deus Mamon [riqueza, cobiça], adorado em Angola. É nesse contexto que se desenrola a nossa luta cívica.
It produces a lot of oil, but no in-depth investment. There is investment for the world to see, nice offices and luxury cars, while industry and agriculture are ignored. There is an excessive growth of the dominant political class that keeps the bulk of the resources. We are faced with a despotic feudalism, a dictatorship of the true worshipers of the God Mammon [of wealth and greed], adored in Angola. This is the context that our civic struggle is happening in.
The lack of investment in areas like health and agriculture have led to an increased mortality rate, he said:
A crise é tão grande, a fome é tanta, a doença é tanta que as pessoas morrem como galinhas. Já não há lugar para tantos mortos. Os cemitérios ocupam tanto espaço como a própria cidade.
The crisis is so big, hunger is so bad, illness is so bad that people die like chickens. Already there is not enough room for so many dead. The cemeteries occupy as much space as the actual city.
During the presentation, the activist also recalled the time he was imprisoned:
No dia 14 de março de 2015, pensamos em fazer uma manifestação [de protesto contra a falta de recursos para a população] então enviamos uma carta ao governador para informar da ação. Para informar a polícia que íamos fazer uma ação pacífica [de protesto] na rua. Mas, fui preso. A carta foi assinada por cinco de nós, mas apenas eu fui preso. Acusado de posse de explosivos.
On 14 March 2015, we thought of and held a demonstration [protesting the lack of resources for the population] and then sent a letter to inform the governor of the event. To inform the police that we were going to hold a peaceful protest in the street. But I was detained. The letter was signed by five of us, but only I was detained. Accused of possessing explosives.
Mavungo initially faced 12 years in prison, proposed by the prosecutor, but the judge reduced the sentence to six. The activist says he became even stronger during his detention thanks to international pressure and support. During the year he was imprisoned, Mavungo became ill, and saw his income cut, leaving him unable to support his family. He said his wife was threatened by security agents and he was also threatened inside prison. However, Mavungo said he had never lost his faith due to the “strength of God.”
At the closing of the congress, Mavungo said Angola is facing a big challenge in its democratization:
O autoritarismo da classe política dominante é um entrave à participação eficiente do cidadão na gestão pública. Esse feudalismo despótico impede a implementação de instituições estáveis e da erradicação da pobreza.
The authoritarianism of the dominant political class is a hindrance to the efficient participation of citizens in political management. This despotic feudalism impedes the “implementation of stable institutions and the eradication of poverty.
For this reason, Mavungo and his peers are very uneasy about Angola’s future, and he believes that there will need to be “a great explosion” [of change] in the country. The activist ended by saying:
As pessoas precisam de sentir que o Estado funciona, porque os seus fundamentos estão destruídos. A justiça, liberdade e fraternidade, que se resume à dignidade humana não existe em Angola.
People need to feel that the state functions, because now its foundations are destroyed. Justice, liberty, and brotherhood, which comprise human dignity, do not exist in Angola.

author: Manuel Ribeiro


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The Unofficial Mascot for Russia’s Government Censor Is an Erotic Anime Character · Global Voices
Aliide Naylor

“RKN-chan.” Flick the Thief / Vkontakte
The dominatrix anime figure “Roskomnadzor-chan,” named after a federal government agency and known for her role in an erotic online comic, has somehow become the unofficial mascot for Russia's state censor.
The character recently appeared in a short cartoon shared by Roskomnadzor on social media, after a Russian court banned a video showing a snake falling out of a car because the footage supposedly contained instructions on how to kill oneself, reported the news site TJournal.
The ruling apparently surprised even the officials working at Roskomnadzor, who said they were knocked “into a stupor” after hearing about the verdict. On Vkontakte, the agency posted a comic depicting itself as a confused Roskomnadzor-chan with doubts about the court's logic.
Vadim Ampelonsky, the agency's spokesperson, confirmed to TJournal that Roskomnadzor had consciously depicted itself as the popular anime character.
The censors’ decision to adopt the meme surprised many Russian Internet users, who often call the character “RKN-chan,” for short. Many Vkontakte users seemed to have trouble believing that a federal agency has embraced their sexualized cartoon creation.
The dominatrix-type figure originally belongs to artist Dmitry Serebryakov, who publishes art work under the name “Flick the Thief.” In his comic strips, Roskomnadzor-chan is generally depicted from a low angle, occasionally wielding a thin whip. Her hair is tied in bunches bearing the Roskomnadzor logo, and she frequently stares out of computer screens like a ghost in the machine. She also appears often as a superhero.
Flick the Thief / Vkontakte
Perhaps joking, Serebryakov has said he created RKN-chan to improve the agency's public image among Internet users.
RKN-chan is modeled on an anime meme that emerged three years ago in honor of Crimean Attorney General Natalia Poklonskaya, whose alternatingly cutesy and sexualized anime character was known as “Nyash Myash.” In fact, Flick the Thief even illustrated a crossover episode.
Like Nyash Myash, RKN-chan appears in both adorable and menacing poses.
Flick the Thief / Vkontakte
In one picture, you see her holding a pair of pink handcuffs with a triumphant grin on her face, declaring playfully, “Я ТУТАЧКИ” (“I'm here'sies!”).
Another comic shows her having an erotic dream about Snegurochka (who assists Father Frost during the winter holidays). She seductively asks RKN-chan if she's been good this year, as she removes her clothes. When exposed, RKN-chan's underwear are also emblazoned with the Roskomnadzor logo.
In other episodes, she explores fantasies about sex toys and various adult themes that clearly appeal to Flick the Thief's 8,200 subscribers on Vkontakte.
In recent months, Roskomnadzor has been ridiculed for adding several popular pornography websites to Russia's Internet blacklist. So far, the list includes sites like PornHub, YouPorn, and Brazzers.
Part of the joke about RKN-chan is that she hunts down Internet pornography, leading an army of masked goons, but she is herself an enormously attractive women with a healthy, albeit reluctant, libido.

author: Aliide Naylor


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Iranians Make ‘Love’ Between Iran and America Go Viral with #LoveBeyondFlags · Global Voices
Mahsa Alimardani

An Iranian man dances in a public gathering wearing a “I heart America” T-shirt. Image shared on Twitter.
Tension between Iran and the United States have been on the rise since President Donald Trump signed an executive order banning travel from seven Muslim-majority countries, including Iran.
To counter the hateful rhetoric between their governments and to show their gratitude towards American protesters who stood against Trump's travel ban, Iranians made #LoveBeyondFlags trend on Twitter.
Along with people from the other banned countries, and with people who protested the ban across America, Iranians are sharing posters, phrases, and images of solidarity between different countries, especially between Iran and the United States.
Let Trump and Mullahs fight in the ring if they wish.
But we are the PEOPLE.
Let us make peace. #LoveBeyondFlags pic.twitter.com/YvpY2OvDJQ
— Cafe (@_Cafe) February 8, 2017
The campaign started Wednesday afternoon in Iran and Europe. By 7:30 pm in Tehran, the hashtag had become a national trend (although this cannot be confirmed since Twitter does not enable trend analysis in Iran due to the filtering of the platform). The International Campaign for Human Rights monitored the hashtag, and noted that through the day there were about 32,000 tweets, with almost 70% of them coming from inside Iran.
Within a week of Trump's inauguration, airports and hundreds of Iranian lives (amongst the seven other countries) were thrown into chaos with the travel ban. A few days later, the Trump administration announced they were officially putting Iran “on notice.”
Iran has been formally PUT ON NOTICE for firing a ballistic missile.Should have been thankful for the terrible deal the U.S. made with them!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 2, 2017
With the growing antagonism to the Iranian government, and the discriminatory treatment of Iranian nationals at the border, the Supreme Leader of Iran was quick to pick up on this and fire back with his own admonishments of Trump's government.
We appreciate Trump! Because he largely did the job for us in revealing true face of America.
— Khamenei.ir (@khamenei_ir) February 7, 2017
Iran-US antagonism has been a long-standing hallmark of Iran's history since the 1979 Islamic Revolution, but the past eight years had seen a thaw between the two countries under the Nuclear Deal, led in large part by the Obama administration.
The idea for the campaign originated with a popular social media account amongst Iranians, both inside and outside of the country, called Mamlekate (which translates into nation). On @mamlekate‘s Telegram channel, a post urging Iranians not to burn the American flag managed to reach almost 1 million Iranians.
The popular social media account @mamlekate posted about the wrong in burning the American flag in Iran. The post went viral, prior to the launch of the #LoveBeyondFlags campaign.
The account asked Iranians not to show hatred to the United States by burning the American flag.
قراره ۲۲ بهمن پرچم کشوری رو آتش بزنیم که بخاطر لغو ورود ایرانیها پرچم ما رو تو آمریکا نشون میدن. نکنیم؛ آتیش زدن پرچم توهین به ملته نه دولت
It’s been planned that on 22 Bahman (10 February) the flag of the country that refuses entry to iranians will be burned, disrespecting our own flag in America. Don’t do this. Setting fire to the flag is a offence to the people of the country, not the government.
Burning the American flag, and chants of “death to America” have been a tradition of the Iranian regime's self-proclaimed resistance to American imperialism, a tradition that started with the 1979 hostage takings at the US embassy. Mamlekate's post generated discussions amongst Iranians who were touched by the numerous Americans who took a stand to show solidarity and support to Iranians, and the other nations. This campaign brought fruition a desire by a lot of Iranians to counter this narrative of hatred between the governments of the countries, which often don't reflect the sentiments between the people.

author: Mahsa Alimardani


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Trinidad & Tobago’s Carnival 2017 Playlist: Part 1 · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

Soca star Machel Montano in concert; photo by Daniel Heaf, CC BY-NC-ND 2.0
Trinidad and Tobago Carnival has been a part of me for as long as I can remember. As a kid, I competed every year for the venerated title of “Junior Queen of Carnival”. Of all my portrayals—and I was everything from a Mexican volcano to Hans Christian Andersen's ugly duckling turned beautiful swan—it was the costume “Storyteller of the Water Babies” that won me that title and the prestige of crossing the stage at the Queen's Park Savannah (the mecca of the country's Carnival celebrations) on Dimanche Gras night.
To a seven-year-old, owning that stage in the “Big Yard” alongside the adult King and Queen contenders and the calypsonians was pure magic, encapsulating the energy, spectacle and unity of the two-day street festival. According to soca star Faye Ann Lyons, “dat [that] is Carnival”—and while the costumes are amazing, none of it could happen without the music.
Sure, some years suffer a dearth of good calypsoes or soca tunes, but other years more than make up for it. 2017, in my opinion, is one of those years: with just a few exceptions, the music is glorious, energetic, clever, life-affirming. So in no particular order, here's a sampling of ten of this year's best offerings (this post will highlight the first five) and why I think they add value to Trinidad and Tobago's C2K17.
A relative newcomer, Aaron St Louis (better known as Voice) took home the coveted International Soca Monarch title in 2016, so he's established himself as a force to be reckoned with. What's great about this song —quite apart from the groovy hook and his buttery, melodic voice—is the message. He says he came from nothing, but his family encouraged his dreams and ensured that he did the hard work necessary to make them come true. The song honours strong family ties, faith in a higher power and a positive attitude. In a country where young, black men are often stereotyped, I love that Voice is challenging the narrative.
Carnival has traditionally been a time to flout the rules, especially when it comes to gender relations. It's viewed as perfectly acceptable to “take a wine” (a suggestively gyrating type of dance) on anyone or anything: men, women, police officers, light poles, music trucks are all fair game. And here's the thing: you don't need permission. It's like a “get out of jail free” card.
Sometimes this is harmless and in a spirit of fun, but we also happen to live in a region rife with domestic violence and sexual harassment: not long ago #LifeinLeggings—a hashtag through which women share their stories of sexual abuse—went viral. Every woman has a story. And most women have a Carnival story. I remember one J'ouvert morning being doused with paint by a Blue Devil who thought that a good place to smear the concoction was on my breasts. By the time I protested, he was gone. That same J'ouvert, a stranger came to “take a wine”—to his credit, when it was obvious that I didn't welcome the dance, he apologised. That gave me hope, just like this song does. In this duet by stars Destra and Farmer Nappy, each of the singers grants the other “full permission to wine on meh, full permission to grind on meh, full permission to call me when you're down.” Consent: there's a concept that'll lift every woman right up.
“Even though the road is long, no matter what come, ah know ah go make it.” In these despairing times, those words glow like fireflies on a still Caribbean night. The tune's uplifting African rhythms and chants of “ring de bell” have a Spiritual Baptist vibe that takes the Carnival experience to a devotional level in much the same way that David Rudder's “High Mas” did years ago. The song is so compelling that radio announcers have joked about partygoers “catching the power” when it is played in fetes. Jokes aside, Carnival's origins were always intricately intertwined with spirituality. “Carne vale” literally translates to “farewell to flesh”, time for a last binge before the Lenten season begins. This song takes Carnival right back to its roots and reclaims it in the bold, defiant spirit of Canboulay that is at the heart of the festival.
This one has all the ingredients for a perfect soca tune, and it does not disappoint. The collaboration between calypso and soca royalty—the grand dame Calypso Rose and the young king of soca, Machel Montano—works beautifully to bridge the generation gap. Suddenly, the old-time, “ay yi yi” kaiso has a modern sensibility and the soca element is more measured, almost reverent. You can see yourself “chipping” at a leisurely pace down the road to this song, as opposed to the usual frenetic, power-aerobics pace of most soca fare these days. If you listen very carefully, you can hear a bass line reminiscent of Lord Kitchener's “Sugar Bum Bum”. This song is a nod to calypso's roots even as it opens the door to new and inventive musical directions. A wonderful update: Calypso Rose has allowed the song to be used in a campaign to bring attention to gender-based violence in Trinidad and Tobago. Through the #leavemealone and #leaveshealone hashtags, women share their stories and men are encouraged to hold themselves and their peers accountable.
If there's an artist that consistently has his finger on the pulse of what makes Trinidad so totally itself it's David Rudder, who always manages to seamlessly blend smart lyrics with melodies you can move to. In this clever ditty, he calls out the country's preoccupation with race (meaning ethnicity) by juxtaposing it with all the things Trinidadians race (meaning hurry) to, “the rum shop…the mas camp, racing to pelt some waist”. In four simple words—funk, fire, doom, and desire—Rudder explicates the complexities of “lawless La Trinity”. He never sugar coats the country's shortcomings. Instead, he succinctly expresses why Trinidadians stay here despite the challenges: “Raise yuh hand, but never surrender…this is Trinidad…put up yuh hand, but never surrender…how we love it bad.”
Stay tuned for my five other picks in a follow-up post.

author: Janine Mendes-Franco


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Women in Nepal Are Taking the #RedTikaChallenge to Protest Discrimination Against Widows · Global Voices
Sanjib Chaudhary

Lady wearing red Tika. Image from Flickr by Kendra Farrell. CC BY-NC 2.0
Red is a color that's associated with energy, strength, power, determination, passion, desire and love. In Hindu culture, a woman wearing a red tika (bindi) means she is married, and the red color signifies true love and prosperity.
In Nepal and India, widows generally do not wear red tika, however, and society doesn’t accept them wearing red, either.
To defy this notion, Women for Human Rights (WHR), an advocacy group for single women, created a social media campaign called #RedTikaChallenge at the end of January that asks supporters to post a photo of themselves wearing a red tika and nominate three friends and relatives to take the challenge.
#RedTikaChallenge
I Accept the Challenge WHR Nepal
While the color#widows are barred from wearing #RED. This is not right. THIS IS OUR RIGHT pic.twitter.com/N4iLo28j9Q
— उमा (@simranmagar) January 31, 2017
#RedTikaChallenge! ? pic.twitter.com/P6tbgYIobd
— Filosoofer (@Mayouree) February 2, 2017
The organizers started with the goal of reaching 500 participants in a three-month period, but within a few days of its launch the campaign already garnered thousands of supporters on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
WHR explained their reasoning for the campaign on Facebook:
RED TIKA CHALLENGE
#RedTika #WHR
Colors have their own significance and are believed to be the right of every person to inherit since birth. When talking about the colors that single women (WIDOWS) can involve with, we can see mass of people giving their prejudice opinion. They are the only ones that are refrained from using bright colors, especially “Red Tika” and “Red Attires”.
While, the color Red symbolizes the color of life and of passion. Girls wear bright colors even before they are married, so why not after they are categorized into single women (widow). Let us not be judgmental and, all have the privilege of empowering colors according to one’s personal choice. Let not gender nor orthodox, be a hindrance to embrace colors.
One of the supporters of the campaign, Swarnima Shrestha, wrote:
Colours are what makes our lives bright and I believe everyone should have a right to choose the colours of their lives. It should not be compulsory that a married woman should always put on a red tika, likewise a single woman should not a restricted to put it on – it should always always be a matter of choice. […]
While the color #RED symbolizes the color of life and passion, widows are barred from wearing RED. This is not right. THIS IS OUR RIGHT! I would like to strongly protest against this primitive thought.
On Twitter, the Nepal correspondent for China's state-run news organization Xinhua News Agency, Shrishti Kafle, joined in the challenge:
While Red symbolizes color of life & passion,widows are barred from wearing RED. Against this primitive thought, here is #RedTikaChallenge pic.twitter.com/gJ2oHlItzr
— Shristi Kafle (@KafleShristi) February 1, 2017
Here are Instagram posts from some select supporters.
#RedTikaChallenge Thank You @gaumaya didi for tagging me ❤ “While the color #RED symbolizes the color of life and passion, widows in Nepal are barred from wearing RED. This is not right. THIS IS OUR RIGHT! I would like to strongly protest against this primitive thought. If you are with me and with all single-women (widows), PLEASE participate by wearing a RED TIKA and sharing your picture with the hashtag #RedTikaChallenge Also nominate a few of your friends / family to do the same. “
A photo posted by ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀?Miruna Lisara Magar (@mirumgr) on
#RedTikaChallenge #Challengeaccepted In solidarity with the Single Women Red Colour Movement by Women for Human Rights (WHR Nepal). Old customs still prevalent in some parts of our society considers widows as inauspicious. Widows are barred from participating in festivals and poojas. They are forbidden from wearing RED and encouraged to wear white or pale colours. I find myself deeply angered by these notions, these expectations our society foist. I refuse to believe this is tradition, instead it is simply a form of subjugation and a discriminatory practice against widows and women. Marital status should not decide which colour you should or should not wear. If I am married I should not be forced to wear red attire or red tika likewise if I am a widow, I should not be denied to wear RED. “Colour is a choice not a compulsion given by a society.” Please challenge this ancient belief and help raise awareness by joining this challenge. I would like to nominate everyone reading this irrespective of their gender to participate in this challenge by sharing a photo wearing a ‘RED TIKA’ with the hashtag #RedTikaChallenge or by simply sharing this post! Women's rights, is not a stand-alone battle, with an only female army so it would be amazing to see guys stepping up to support this too, therefore I personally nominate @lexlimbu,@iambijaygautam @chrischettri, @asishsyangden @omex @gavin.kshetri @nepalimunche @becomingsanjay @kailashz @ayzrim @bryanraiofficial @shishi.kyou embrace the challenge. Thank you Gaumaya Yatri for the nomination x #theredtikachallenge #embracecolors #empowerwomen #jointhechallenge.
A photo posted by Sarala Thapa Nepali (@alaras28) on
Some men have expressed their support for the campaign too. Others are keen to participate:
अब मोबाइलको ग्यालरीमा रातो टीका लाको फोटो खोज्नु पर्यो । ;-) #RedTikaChallenge
— साहिबा (@Wakil_Sahiba) February 2, 2017
Now [I] need to search for a photo [of me] wearing red tika in my mobile’s gallery.

author: Sanjib Chaudhary


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Is Tunisia Rolling Back Freedom of Information? · Global Voices
Afef Abrougui

Tunisian Prime Minister Youssef Chahed speaking to the media during the 2016 World Telecommunication Standardization Assembly which took place in Tunisia. Photo by the ITU, shared on Flickr under a Creative Commons License.
The Tunisian government is facing accusations of rolling back access to information and media freedom, through its regulation of information and communication units in ministries, state agencies and other government institutions.
Last month, Prime Minister Youssef Chahed issued circular n°4 of 15 January 2017 asking civil servants not to speak to the press and not to reveal official information unless they get the authorization of their hierarchy:
Out of respect to the duties of civil servants in their relation with media outlets, as outlined in the code of conduct and ethics of the public servant, they [civil servants] are refrained from making statements or interventions, or disclosing official information or documents in the press or by any other means, related to their functions or to the public structures they work for without the preliminary and explicit authorization of their hierarchy
The circular further bans civil servants from making statements that “breach professional secrecy and the preservation of the state's high interests”, preventing “the disclosure of official information and documents that should or can be made available to the public”, and making “misleading or false statements” in relation to their work and the institution they serve.
The circular is, in fact, in line with existing regulations that organize the relation of public servants to the media. Government decree n°4030 of 4 October 2014 on the code of conduct and ethics of the public servants, in section 2 of its third chapter, already bans public servants from making statements to the media and disclosing public information without the authorization of their hierarchical superiors or the directors of the public institutions they work at.
The circular's publication was not only slammed by civil society organizations in the country, but also revived criticism of the public servants’ code of conduct, more specifically those provisions that regulate the operation of communication and information units at public institutions, agencies and ministries.
On 9 February, fifteen local and international organizations, including the National Syndicate of Tunisian Journalists, the Tunisian League for Human Rights, the International Federation for Human Rights and the free-speech NGO Article 19, released a statement calling on the government to “review decree 4030 and immediately withdraw circular n°4″. The organizations condemned what they describe as “increased restrictions on journalists, civil society organizations and citizens [seeking] to access information from public institutions”.
As part of its democratic reforms, Tunisia has made progress when it comes to access to information. In 2016, the constitutional right to access information was reinforced by the parliament's adoption of a freedom of information law (Law n°22 of 24 March 2016 on access to information). The law guarantees access to information held by government bodies including ministries, the presidency, publicly funded NGOs, the parliament, local municipalities, the central bank and constitutional bodies. The law prescribes fines against those who obstruct access to information, and establishes an access to information commission tasked with deciding on appeals for access to information requests.
However, the law's implementation remains limited and the commission on access to information has not been established yet. It is no surprise that the government's issuing of circular 4 was slammed by journalists and civil society organizations, who are already unhappy with the slow translation of these legal reforms into action.

author: Afef Abrougui


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Netizen Report: Internet Shutdowns Return to Iraq, Persist in Cameroon · Global Voices
Netizen Report Team

Baghdad commercial street, 2013. Photo by Chatham House via Wikimedia (CC BY 2.0)
Citizens in both Cameroon and Iraq are growing ever-more accustomed to Internet shutdowns. Cameroon instituted restrictions on Internet access on January 17, after months of protests concerning the economic and cultural marginalization of English speakers in the predominantly French-speaking West African country. Protests have led to mass arrests and what the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights has called “excessive force” used by Cameroonian law enforcement against protesters. Meanwhile, the Internet has been inaccessible in these regions for over three weeks. The shutdown is having detrimental effects on businesses, technology companies and day-to-day life. According to digital rights advocacy groups Internet Sans Frontières and Access Now, the first 15 days of the shutdown cost Cameroon the equivalent of USD $723,000.
Iraq’s outages were more sporadic, with four one-hour outages observed between February 1-6. The outages coincided with 6th grade placement exams, and mark the third year in a row in which authorities used Internet shutdowns to prevent students from cheating on their tests. This year’s one-hour shutdowns were shorter in duration than last year’s, which occurred ten times over the month of May and lasted three hours each time.
The UN Human Rights Council passed a non-binding resolution in June 2016 condemning such measures, saying that “the same rights that people have offline must also be protected online, in particular freedom of expression.”
Although Trump’s executive order on immigration technically applies only to non-US residents from seven countries in the Middle East and North Africa, travelers from other countries are reporting that they are being questioned about their faith and asked to hand over their mobile phones to border patrol agents. On February 4, a Moroccan-born Canadian citizen, who is Muslim and wears a hijab, was turned away at the US-Canada border after agents searched her mobile phone and found videos of people saying daily prayers in Arabic. “You're not allowed to go to the United States because we found videos on your phone that are against us,” the woman was told.
The new US Secretary for Homeland Security John Kelly says that border patrol agents may begin asking travelers from the seven countries affected by the order to hand over their email and social media credentials as part of security procedures. In an interview on National Public Radio, Kelly said this could be expanded to travelers from other countries as well.
Lawyers in Tlemcen, Algeria can now face suspension and “correctional” measures if they use social media, according to a statement released by the head of the Tlemcen Bar Association. The decision follows criticism by the president of the Algiers Bar Association, Abdelmadjid Sellini, of lawyers’ “abusive” use of Facebook in the city. Sellini also said he intended to take “necessary” measures against lawyers who he believes could harm the profession by their use of social media.
Chinese police are arresting netizens who insult law enforcement officials on social media. At least six people have already been detained, according to Radio Free Asia, and at least one them has been accused of violating China’s Public Security Administrative Punishments Law for posts on Weibo criticizing a police officer who was killed in the line of duty. The law, which took effect in 2006, creates a category of offenses can be punished with administrative penalties and issued by police without judicial review.
Two Ukrainian men were sentenced to five years in prison for “supporting separatism” in posts written on VKontakte. The men were arrested in April 2015 and found guilty this week of organizing groups that supported separatist activity in February 2014, shortly after the EuroMaidan Revolution. They follow at least two other cases in which social media users were prosecuted for online speech supporting separatism.
Detained Jordanian Journalist Tayseer al-Najjar appeared before the UAE’s State Security Court on accusations of insulting the Emirati State on Facebook. Al-Najjar allegedly published posts on Facebook criticizing the Emirati position in the 2014 Israeli War in Gaza, but he did this while living in Jordan. Global Voices’ Afef Abrougui writes, “What is troubling about Najjar’s case is not only that he is being prosecuted for merely expressing his opinions, which is not uncommon in the UAE, but also for statements he made before he moved to the country.” He was detained in December 2015, held incommunicado for nearly two months, and remained in pre-trial detention for over a year.
The free and open source software communities in India built a campaign to increase public understanding of online privacy issues, including the launch of January Privacy Month and a hashtag #PrivacyAware campaign to engage with participants. The effort is particularly critical given the dearth of online content in dominant languages of India such as Hindi, Bengali and Tamil, which leave Indians particularly vulnerable to online security threats.
The Open Observatory of Network Interference has built a mobile app for iOS and Android that allows any user to monitor blocked websites and network performance and publishes data collected by users for its open data archive.
Afef Abrougui, Ellery Roberts Biddle, Oiwan Lam, Weiping Li, Leila Nachawati Rego and Sarah Myers West contributed to this report.

author: Netizen Report Team


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Some Hong Kong Parents Are Worried That Their Sons Like Disney Princesses · Global Voices
Ryan Kam

Image remixed from Flickr user Amy's photo (CC: AT)
Parenting issues have always been a hot topic on Hong Kong social media. Recently, a video interview clip in which Cantopop diva Miriam Yeung touched upon her parenting experience has gone viral online and sparked another round of debates.
The interview was conducted in 2015, but reappeared online as a short clip about two weeks ago. In the video, Yeung described how she stopped her son from developing tastes that are considered stereotypically girlish, including liking Elsa, a character in the Disney hit “Frozen”:
「有陣時佢鍾意Elsa我鬧到佢死」
「咁佢男仔嚟㗎嘛，攞隻Elsa做乜鬼嘢啫？」
「我將佢張相key落白色（Elsa）度，跟住我個仔即刻話『No, mammy no!』」
「佢好鍾意玩廚房嘢，咁我就好奇怪啦，喂！咁樣會唔會變乸型㗎？」
「我成日驚佢鍾意粉紅色嘢，我就話『NO，Mammy唔鍾意呢啲嘢，唔准睇』」
Whenever he expresses his liking of Elsa, I scold him.
He is a boy, why play with an Elsa toy?
I pasted his face on Elsa's image and my boy immediately said, “No, mommy, no.”
He likes playing with kitchen toys, I find that strange. Won't such play turn him into a sissy?
I am worried that he will start liking the color pink, so I told him “No, mommy doesn't like it. Don't watch that.”
Her words attracted criticism for her parenting style and for playing into gender stereotypes.
King Jer, a popular Facebook-based entertainment news channel, highlighted the video clip and commented:
其實2020年都嚟緊，好難想像社會仲有「女仔先鍾意粉紅色」呢啲咁老土嘅 stereotype，更難想像係楊千嬅身邊不乏同性戀朋友和粉絲[…]，居然有呢啲想法……
2020 is approaching, it is difficult to imagine that only girls can like the color pink. Such stereotypes are so outdated. More difficult to imagine is that Miriam Yeung has so many LGBT friends and fans […] Yet she still carries such an idea…
A LBGT group, Action Q HK, commented on Facebook about the interview:
鍾意廚房會變乸型，咁謝霆鋒一定好乸
鍾意Elsa會變女仔，咁講千嬅係羞辱過億Elsa支持者
If a liking of cookery means a tendency to become sissy, then [male pop-star] Nicolas Tse must be sissy. If a liking of Elsa means a tendency to become a girl, then Miriam Yeung is insulting thousands who like Elsa.
Yeung finally wrote a long apologetic post on Facebook and clarified that she had changed her mind over the past two years since the interview was originally conducted:
[…]還是忠於他的選擇，更嘗試投入他的世界，終於因為他喜歡Elsa，認識了所有公主系列，培養了閲讀興趣，因為煮飯仔，他學懂造Brownie，今年吃到他親手做給我的蛋糕。 其實最終不用想太多，路是他們自己走出來的。今天大家在網上的留言是正是負也好，都是一種提醒，陳年訪問，抱歉引起不安。父母這條路，絕對不容易，一輩子，我也學習中，但是快樂的，感恩的，讓我們一起努力，互相打氣
[…] eventually I allowed him to choose and tried to understand his world. And because he likes Elsa, he gets to know all the stories about princesses and develops an interest in reading. Because he likes cooking, he learns how to make brownies. This year, he baked me a homemade cake. We don't have to worry too much. They eventually have their own ways. Whether comments are positive or negative, they are all reminders. Sorry that this old interview have upset many. Being a parent is not easy, it is a life-long endeavor and I am still learning. It is a happy experience and I am thankful. Let's support each other and work this out together.
Yeung may have changed her attitude, but her previous parenting style is still the mainstream. On social media, many parents feel there is nothing wrong with stopping boys from playing with toys marketed to girls. For example, here are some comments from the Stand News Facebook:
為人父母亦好難怪佢，因為踏上呢條同志路，一定受盡歧視可能親戚朋友都遠離你唔會開心，人生道路崎嶇難行
We should not blame the parents. If your kids becomes gay, they would be discriminated against and your friends and family would stay away from you. You won't be happy. Life becomes difficult.
父母都有對子女嘅期望，好正常吖，點解要鬧佢地唔應該有嗰個期望呢?
It is natural for parents to have expectations for their children, why should we criticize them for that?
Stereotype個個家長都有架啦
只不過佢咁啱做左岀黎 俾你地見到啫
我總唔信 個個人都會叫自己小朋友接觸並嘗試每項新事物
All parents have stereotypes.
But Yeung lets you see what she did.
I don't believe others will encourage kids to explore new things.
Moreover, it is common to see parents in Hong Kong worrying about whether their kids “perform” their gender correctly. For example, on Baby Kingdom, a well-known parenting forum, you can see parents discussing issues such as “How do we know a boy is sissy?” Most of the answers end up labeling certain bodily gestures or tones of voice as “sissy.”
Even if the parents are liberal, they might be pressured by friends or extensive family members to make sure their children conform to gender norms. A parent wrote on Baby Kingdom:
阿囝就快4歲，自小就鐘意玩女仔玩具，例如鐘意Disney princess, Elsa Anna , 曾經都有玩過車之類，但去買襯玩具就會揀公主或女仔d嘅玩具，由始至終我都冇刻意迫佢玩男仔玩具，我覺得玩具唔應該分性別，亦唔應該強迫佢玩d咩玩具，所以每次佢要買d女仔玩具或公仔我都照買俾佢，當然屋企或朋友會有反對，話我會令個囝第時變乸型，會變基佬 -.-
My son is turning four. He likes playing with girls’ toys, such as Disney princess characters, Elsa and Anna. He has tried to play with toy cars before but whenever he chooses toys, he choose princesses and other girls’ toys. I have never forced him to play with boys’ toys because I think toys should not be viewed in terms of gender and that we should not force him to choose a particular kind of toy. Certainly my family and friends will always disagree and say I am making my son sissy and gay -.-
Elsewhere in the world, people are challenging gender stereotypes for children more and more. In Britain, activists have launched a campaign called “Let toys be toys” to appeal to toy companies to ditch overt gender labels on their products. And online shopping giant Amazon has also scrapped the boy/girl category in the toy department's search engine. It seems Hong Kong might have a ways to go if it wants to keep up.

author: Ryan Kam


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Thai Media Groups Say Proposed Law Could Bring Total Government Control of the Press · Global Voices
Mong Palatino

This photo was circulated by Thai journalists on social media about the repressive provisions in the draft media bill. Photo from the Facebook page of SEAPA
In a rare display of unity, various media organizations in Thailand have joined ranks in opposing a government bill that threatens to further undermine press freedom in the country.
The proposed “Protection of Media Rights and Freedom, Ethics and Professional Standards” bill is drafted by the National Reform Steering Assembly. But after analyzing the content of the bill, media groups and activists have warned that it could lead to total government control of the press in the country.
The bill requires journalists to get accreditation as licensed professional media workers. A National Professional Media Council will also be established to regulate the media and receive complaints against the media. The proposed council consists of 13 members including four permanent secretaries from the finance, culture and digital economy ministries plus a representative from the office of the prime minister.
Supporters of the bill said it will promote responsible journalism, but critics denounced it for in their view institutionalizing government censorship.
The Thai army grabbed power in 2014. It vowed to restore civilian rule after it drafted a constitution which guaranteed military influence in the bureaucracy. Despite the lifting of martial law, Thai media is closely monitored by the army.
Around 30 media groups signed a statement rejecting the bill:
This goes against the intent of Constitution (passed in the referendum last August) which promotes media self-regulation without state interference. The bill in its present form will directly impact the media duty to scrutinize state power and the public right to know.
Chakkrit Permpool, former chairman of the National Press Council of Thailand, is worried that the bill could entrench dictatorship in society:
This kind of thing exists only under dictatorship governments. This is against the new constitution backed by the referendum that ensures media freedom and people's freedom of expression.
The Bangkok Post published an editorial questioning the presence of government officials in a press panel:
Government presence on a press panel and licensing of journalists are never part of a free press. The media and the public it serves are capable of continuing to reform the press, which has never stopped.
New media, changing public perception and an ever-evolving society ensure that press reform will continue, and government control can in no way make it better.
Thai journalists are urging the government to reconsider the bill. They also invited the public to support the campaign on social media by posting the photo of a chained dove (see photo at the top of the post) which symbolizes the muzzling of the press.
The Southeast Asian Press Alliance also issued a statement in solidarity to the protest organized by Thai journalists:
The so-called media reform bill may effect a total control of the Thai press – not only of the media outlets but also of journalists in the country. It is also a major step backward of more than 20 years of the media reform process that the Thai journalist community fought for to democratize media space from state monopoly, and toward diversity and access to information.

author: Mong Palatino


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Travel Blogger Faces Eight Years in Azerbaijan Prison Over Nagorno-Karabakh Visits and Posts · Global Voices
Akhal-Tech Collective

Nagorno-Karabakh map. Creative commons.
A relatively well-known Russian-Israeli travel blogger who is also a Ukrainian passport holder has been extradited from Belarus to Azerbaijan for visiting a territory that fell under the de facto control of Azerbaijan's neighbour, Armenia, following a war between the two countries that began while they were both part of the Soviet Union. He faces eight years in jail.
If it isn't already clear, it should be said now that this is a story that gets very complicated, very quickly.
In drafting this report Global Voices owes a debt to another, better-known Russian blogger: Ilya Varlamov, who put together a fantastic ‘What Do We Know?’ type-piece when Aleksandr Lapshin, a travel blogger who claims to have visited 122 different countries, was still in detention in Belarus in January.
Given the complexities of the case, it makes sense to proceed in the same vein as Varlamov did, by answering the immediate questions raised by the case.
According to the Azeri state prosecutor, Lapshin faces up to eight years under charges of “making public calls against the state” and “illegally crossing the state borders of Azerbaijan”. Moreover, the Russian agency Sputnik cites the prosecutor:
Он пропагандировал незаконный режим, действующий на оккупированной территории Азербайджана, на своей странице, где представлял Нагорный Карабах как независимое государство. 6 апреля и 29 июня 2016 года Лапшин публиковал на своей странице обращение, в котором призывал поддержать “независимость” незаконного режима на захваченной Арменией территории Азербайджана, территориальная целостность которого признана на международном уровне.
[Lapshin] propagated the illegal regime acting on occupied Azerbaijani territory on his [Facebook] page, where he presented Nagorno-Karabakh as an independent state. On April 6, and June 29, 2016, Lapshin published on his page an appeal wherein he called for support for the “independence’ of the illegal regime acting on the territory seized by Armenia, whose [ownership by Azerbaijan] is internationally acknowledged.
Regarding the first charge, “making public calls” against the Azerbaijani state, which is a charge that opponents of authoritarian governments in countries across the world face, Varlamov notes that this is difficult to verify. A trusted friend has been updating Lapshin's regular blog since his detention in Belarus began, but the entries neither deny nor confirm that these posts were written.
It is likely that Lapshin subsequently deleted the Facebook posts referred to by the Azerbaijan prosecutor, but it is perhaps worth noting that Lapshin does not list Nagorno-Karabakh among the “countries” he has visited on his blog, as a serious advocate of the territory's independence might.
It is, at any rate, very bizarre that Lapshin has been extradited to face charges for making a “call” against a state where he was not born and has not held citizenship and most likely was not located when he made that “call”.
Thus it seems more likely that the official legal justification for extradition was the second charge, “illegally crossing the state borders of Azerbaijan”, which he is technically guilty of.
As Azerbaijan still claims jurisdiction over Nagorno-Karabakh (and indeed, the UN is on its side on this point) the Azerbaijani government demands that anyone wishing to visit the country applies for permission first.
Lapshin appears not to have done this prior to trips there in 2011 and 2012, and subsequently got added to a blacklist preventing him from entering Azerbaijan proper. However, he flaunted this ban by entering on his Ukrainian passport in which he is called Oleksandr rather than Aleksandr, thus avoiding detection by Azerbaijani border guards. He then boasted of this feat in a post since taken down, which led Russian blogger Ilya Varlamov to conclude that the moral of Lapshin's detention was “don't be a moron”. Varlamov later reversed this judgement when readers of his blog argued that it was overly harsh.
For those unfamiliar with the complexities of Caucasus travel, Lapshin himself wrote in a post just before the 2011 trip to Karabakh that is still online:
Прилетаю в Ереван, но сразу же выдвигаюсь в Азербайджан через Грузию. Такой расклад не случаен, ибо, как известно, азербайджанские пограничники крайне ревностно относятся к теме армян и Карабаха. Очень многие туристы задержитвались азербайджанским ГБ при въезде в страну и досконально обыскивались и допрашивались, едва лишь у них находили армянские печати в паспортах. При этом для отказа во въезде в страну (и даже задержании на сутки-двое) вполне достаточно что бы у них возникло подозрение, что вы посетили Карабах, который они считают своей, но незаконно оккупированной территорией. Из этого мораль – зачем рисковать и прятать карту памяти из фотоаппарата, где будут явные свидетельства посещения Карабаха? Ведь при желании – найдут в два счета и будут неприятности. Таким образом, проще переиграть все наоборот и начать с Азербайджана, потом Грузия, и завершить вновь в Армении.
I will fly into Yerevan, but will immediately move onto Azerbaijan via Georgia. […] As you know, Azerbaijani border guards are extremely sensitive to the topic of Nagorno-Karabakh and Armenia. Many tourists have been detained by Azerbaijani security services when entering the country and thoroughly frisked and interrogated, purely because they found an Armenian stamp in their passports. They may refuse you entry to the country (and even detain you for a day or two) if they have any reason to suspect that you visited Nagorno-Karabakh, which they consider an illegally occupied territory [of Azerbaijan]. So, why risk [crossing] and hiding the memory card of the camera, which would clearly show evidence of visits to Nagorno-Karabakh? It is much easier for me to start with Azerbaijan, then move onto Georgia, and finish again in Armenia [in order to visit Nagorno-Karabakh].
Lapshin was detained on December 13 by Belarusian authorities on the basis of an Interpol warrant requested by Azerbaijan. He was held for almost two months before being extradited to Azerbaijan on February 7.
Interpol often honours the requests of authoritarian governments to place their political enemies on its list, often only removing them from the list when third party countries hold them before releasing them. So, no surprises that Lapshin was put on the list and subsequently detained by Belarus.
Belarus’ decision to hold for such a length of time — Lapshin's friend has claimed mistreatment during the detention but not torture — before extraditing is far more curious, and international affairs may have played a role.
Officially, Belarusian President Aleksandr Lukashenko has said the decision to extradite was carried out “in accordance with the law”. But it seems unlikely that this was a result of due process. Belarus has held individuals placed on the Interpol list by friendly countries before — sometimes for long periods of time — and later released them.
The key in this instance might be the objection of Russia to both the detention and extradition of its citizen Lapshin. Belarus and Russia's up-and-down relationship was in a trough at the time of Lapshin's detention, and has only gotten worse since.
Russia's foreign ministry said on February 8 that it was “deeply disappointed” with the decision to extradite, which went against “the spirit of friendly ties between allies — Russia and Belarus”. But anyone that watched snippets of Lukashenka's recent press conference lasting over seven hours and packed with anti-Kremlin vitriol would hardly describe those ties as friendly at present.
Israel also opposed the extradition, while Ukraine, which needs all the international support it can get in the face of aggression from Moscow (especially from other ex-Soviet states like Belarus and Azerbaijan) has chosen not to say anything.
Probably not. Worth noting is an interview given by pro-government Azerbaijani national security expert Kyamil Salimov to the local arm of Russian government-owned media outlet Sputnik on February 8. In it he said:
Поэтому я здесь вижу только то, что лидеры Азербайджана и Беларуси продемонстрировали политическую уверенность в урегулировании процесса. Не думаю, что в отношении Лапшина назначат чрезмерно жесткое наказание. Скорее всего, президент Азербайджана проявит гуманизм в отношении него.
I see only that the leaders of Azerbaijan and Belarus displayed political confidence in regulating this question. I don't think that in the case of Lapshin there will be some kind of strict punishment. Probably, the president of Azerbaijan will show him mercy.
Judging by the on-message nature of Salimov's other interviews, it is likely his thinking and the Azerbaijan government's own thinking are probably in harmony. A heavy sentence would dramatically raise the international profile of a case that has so far only skimmed the surface of the international media's attention, and draw sharp criticism from the West. More pressingly, Azerbaijan has good reasons to keep long-time ally Israel on side, as well as Russia, which has armed both parties in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.
Unquestionably though, it will be a nervy wait for Lapshin, a travel blogger whose naive dabbling in politics has already seen him held in confinement by two of the world's worst rights abusers.
Lapshin's arrest is proof — if any was needed — that Azerbaijan is in no hurry to soften its stance on Nagorno-Karabakh, which was part of its territory in Soviet times, despite ethnic Armenians there outnumbering ethnic Azeris by about 4 to 1 prior to the bloc's break up.
Last year saw some of the worst fighting over the territory since the conflict formally ended in 1994 and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev (or one of his staffers) has in the past taken to Twitter to threaten an all-out invasion.
Armenia, in turn, has few incentives to hand the beautiful but landlocked would-be-state back to Azerbaijan given a lack of significant pressure to do so, notably from Russia, which is widely seen as an arbiter in the conflict.
The risk of war between the two countries remains real, and this passage from the Accidental Geographer blog on their standoff as depressingly relevant as ever:
This. pic.twitter.com/qOxesobIWt
— Karena Avedissian (@KarenaAv) April 2, 2016

author: Akhal-Tech Collective


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Ukrainian Anti-Corruption Watchdog Catches MPs Casting Multiple Votes, Again · Global Voices
Isaac Webb

Source: Chesno, YouTube
On Thursday, the Ukrainian anti-corruption watchdog Chesno recorded five instances of MPs casting multiple votes through parliament's electronic voting system, marking 161 documented cases of such fraud since the organization began keeping count in December 2014. Videos uploaded to YouTube by Centre UA, an organization that advocates transparency and government accountability in Ukraine and partners with Chesno, show five MPs from three political parties casting ballots on their absent colleagues’ electronic voting machines.
Knopkodavstvo, or button pushing, as the tactic is known, has plagued voting in Ukraine's parliament, the Verkhovna Rada, for years: MPs use other deputies’ identification cards and surreptitiously press the “for” or “against” buttons on their absent colleagues’ voting machines in order to help approve or reject a piece of legislation. Though defenders say voting by proxy helps parliament make quorum when attendance is low, knopkodavstvo clearly violates the constitution, which mandates that deputies vote in person.
Knopkodavstvo is widespread: only two parties represented in the current Rada, former Prime Minister Yluliya Tymoshenko's Fatherland party and Lviv Mayor Andriy Sadoviy's Self Reliance party, have not had deputies found to be engaged in the tactic. Chesno, which means “honestly,” maintains a database of button pushers (knopkodavi) and has called for the practice to be abandoned: since December 2014, 76 MPs have used the tactic, with many having done so multiple times. The most egregious case is that of Oleksandr Urbansky, a member of President Petro Poroshenko's eponymous parliamentary bloc (BPP), who has engaged in knopkodavstvo ten times.
Chesno broke down the recent button pushing incidents in a series of posts on its website. Yevhen Heller, an MP from the Revival party, which is largely composed of members of ousted President Viktor Yanukovych's Party of Regions, was seen walking towards the back of parliament to vote in a colleague's stead on a bill on the authorities given to village, town, and city mayors. The legislation was adopted in its second reading, with 238 votes in favor—12 more than the minimum for a bill to be passed.
Yaroslav Edakov of the People's Front party (led by former Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk), meanwhile, used another MP's voting machine to vote for a bill (No. 5610) that have would amended the country's criminal code to facilitate the prosecution of former officials during—including those accused of shooting protesters during the climax of Ukraine's EuroMaidan Revolution. The bill was one vote shy of the 226-vote minimum.
As the vote is taking place, Edakov and a colleague can be seen looking up at the camera, seemingly recognizing that they've been caught.
Another member of People's Front, Andrei Ivanchuk, also engaged in knopkodavstvo during the vote: the following video shows that three votes were cast in support of the bill in Ivanchuk's vicinity despite only two deputies being there.
A representative from BPP also “button-pushed” in the vote on bill No. 5610: the following video shows MP Borys Kozyr passing another BPP member Gleb Zagory what looks to be an identification card; later, a screen with the voting breakdown shows that a vote was cast from the empty seat next to Zagory.
Finally, another People's Front deputy, Oleksandr Romanovsky, tried to hide his double voting on a separate bill (No. 4742) about village leadership by using a briefcase.

author: Isaac Webb


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Here’s What Refugees Do While They’re Waiting to Get Into the US · Global Voices
PRI/PRX's The World

Sita Adhikari in the International Organization for Migration transit center in Kathmandu. Credit: Danielle Preiss
This story by Danielle Preiss originally appeared on PRI.org on February 8, 2017. It is republished here as part of a partnership between PRI and Global Voices.
Sita Adhikari left a refugee camp in eastern Nepal at the end of January. She was set to join relatives already in Rochester, New York on Jan. 31, less than a week after US President Donald Trump ordered a four-month hold on refugee resettlement.
As a tense immigration battle played out in the US, Adhikari was attending orientation classes on the practicalities of her future life.
“First day we are taught about diaper class, how to use diaper for children, for other, for sick people, et cetera. And uses of diaper and its importance. Because we do not use diapers in the camp because we have economic problem. We have grown up children without diaper, so we are taught about diapers,” Adhikari reads from the notes she took during her crash course on life in the US.
She was at a transitional housing center in Kathmandu run by the International Organization for Migration (IOM) until her flight. On one wall behind her was a vista of the Himalayan Mountains; on another, a poster with scenes from the US, including the Statue of Liberty.
Adhikhari, who is Bhutanese, says her orientation also covered refugee status and the pathway to citizenship, and taught her about the rights and duties of American legal residents. “Right to speech, right to work, all sorts of rights and our responsibilities,” she explains.
People waiting to travel to countries like the US, Canada and Australia stay in these dorms in Nepal while finishing their orientation classes and health checks. The visiting rules are strict: Visitors can only meet with the refugees for 10 minutes, and have to stay in the guard station.
Adhikari has already adopted more of an American look: She has traded her flowy floral outfits for a plaid shirt, and cut her long hair into a shiny bob. Our talk naturally turns to the immigration ban. I ask Adhikari if she knows why refugees have been told resettlement will be put on hold.
“Because new president came in US, I think he will do verification, he will verify the illegal places I think, so yeah, stopped for some time,” she says. “It is good, because genuine [refugees] must be taken, fraud must not be taken, I think they must be punished.”
But while Adhikari prepares to fly, her family in Rochester is in panic mode wondering if she’ll be let into the US.
“From Friday night when the order was signed by Trump, I … couldn’t sleep,” says Adhikari’s brother, Yogesh Adhikari. “I emailed everyone: I emailed IOM, I emailed UNHCR [the UN refugee agency], I emailed the White House, I was just doing my thing. I even called ACLU [American Civil Liberties Union]!”
Yogesh Adhikari moved to Rochester, New York, in 2008 and is now a US citizen. He says he never got any answers after Trump's ban was first implemented on whether his sister could still come, so he prepared a room in his house for her and her two kids, and hoped.
“Those are really heartbreaking questions to not have the answer to,” says Jen Smyers, the advocacy director for Church World Service (CWS). CWS works with the State Department to place refugees in US cities. Smyers says most people — even refugees themselves — don’t realize how much vetting and verifying is actually going on before refugees are given clearance to travel to the US.
“You get name and biographical checks and those are only valid for 15 months; you get medical tests and those are only valid depending on your country for three to six months. You get a security screening that’s valid for 15 months. You get a DHS interview that’s only valid for 24 months, you get assurances that are valid for 12 months, fingerprints are only valid for 15 months,” Smyers explains.
These clearances are only simultaneously valid for about two overlapping months. So, a 120-day ban would mean most refugees on the verge of resettling would have to start the whole process over again in the future. (The executive order bars Syrian refugees indefinitely.)
But the Adhikari family was very lucky.
The State Department allowed refugees who are not from seven Muslim-majority countries named in Trump’s order to fly into the country through Feb. 2. Smyers says 875 refugees made it through during that window.
Sita Adhikari was one of them.
Her brother Yogesh went to greet her at the Rochester airport. From there, by phone, he says he's still a little shocked that she had arrived.
“We didn’t know she was coming, like we had no contact with her, she had no phone and we just hoped she was here today when we came here,” he laughs.
The resettlement agency that welcomed Adhikari and her kids to Rochester, Catholic Family Center, thought her group would be the last for a while. But the very next day, a federal judge in Seattle ruled in favor of a temporary nationwide halt on the travel ban.
The US Court of Appeals has so far stuck to that decision, and Catholic Family Center is now scheduling arrivals again through Feb. 17. Refugee agencies overseas are scrambling to get flights rebooked before travel documents expire, or a new decision comes out.

author: PRI/PRX's The World


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Morgan Freeman Makes Surprise Cameo in Uzbek Film. Oh, Wait. No, He Doesn’t. · Global Voices
Akhal-Tech Collective

Promotion for Uzbek film. Image taken from Kloop.kg.
One of Kyrgyzstan's leading news websites Kloop.kg reported February 11 on what might be described as a ‘fake trailer’ scandal in neighbouring Uzbekistan, that involves Hollywood actor Morgan Freeman.
The film that is the object of the scandal, whose title translates as ‘vagrant’, does not feature Freeman, but for some reason used his image from the Hollywood film Last Knights for promotion purposes.
Uzbekkino, the local film industry's zealous regulator, subsequently prevented sales of the film produced by the film studio Timur Film and held back the film's premiere in the capital Tashkent.
Authoritarian Uzbekistan had over 700 film studios as of 2012, according to a report by RFE/RL, and has been the Central Asian region's biggest film producer since Soviet times.
But pervasive censorship — more often due to erotic, violent or political content than infringements of copyright — has held back diversity in the industry, just as it has in the local music business.
Last year, as pop stars were censored for overly-sensuous performances, a top official famously told parliament that Uzbekistan was “not Robinson [Crusoe's] island…where people can do whatever they want.”
Indeed, the jail in Shawshank Redemption might be a more accurate analogy for the landlocked Central Asian country of over 30 million people, whose human rights record is regularly cited as one of the worst in the world.


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Protecting Georgia’s Ancient Alphabet in a Digital Age · Global Voices
Eurasianet

Georgian alphabet. An entry in the ‘Write in Georgian Contest’. Photo from official website of ‘Write in Georgian’.
The following is a partner post from EurasiaNet.org by Monica Ellena. Republished with permission.
Dato Dolidze’s fingers move slowly on the old handset as he writes a text message to his son.
“My phone only has the Latin alphabet, so every time I text I need to translate the Georgian letters into the Latin. It’s a pain,” says the 50-something orange vendor at a Tbilisi vegetable market.
While newer smartphones enable the use of the Georgian alphabet, many in Georgia – where the average wage is $333 a month – are, like Dolidze, stuck with cheaper, older phones.
Georgia’s unique alphabet is one of the unintended casualties of such digital compromises.
The curvy Georgian alphabet has seduced scholars and calligraphers for centuries, most recently the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization. Last December, UNESCO included the Georgian alphabet in the organization’s register of the intangible cultural heritage of humanity
Georgian in fact features three scripts – the mkhedruli, the one commonly used today, and the ancient asomtavruli and nushkhuri, used mainly in religious scripts, and in most ancient documents. The three scripts, UNESCO wrote in its citation, “coexist thanks to their different functions, reflecting an aspect of Georgia’s diverse cultural identity.”
The Georgian alphabet is hardly in imminent danger. But it is a linguistic underdog, used only for Georgian and related languages in Georgia like Mingrelian and Svan, spoken by about 3.7 million people, or 0.06 percent of the world population. And with minor languages around the world dying at the rate of one every 14 days, some in Georgia are trying to make sure their language or alphabet is preserved for the long haul.
“Minor languages are particularly vulnerable today thus need protection,” says Nino Doborjginidze, who heads the Institute of Linguistic Studies at Tbilisi’s Ilia Chavchavadze State University. “A lack of technology development for such languages, including Georgian, in turn, impedes international dissemination of valuable Georgian-language data surviving in different media, oral, manuscript and printed.”
Of the 7,100 languages currently in use worldwide, only 500 are used online while only 348 are supported by Google, the world’s leading search engine, according to a UNESCO report published in 2015. And even many of those languages that do make it on the Internet have limitations: Georgian, for example, is represented by only a single font on Microsoft Word.
As a result of Georgia’s limited online reach, Latin script is often used instead. Retail companies as well as service providers, for example, tend to use the Latin alphabet in their promotional texts. “25% p’asdaklebas akhal ch’amosvlis” instead of “25% ფასდაკლებას ახალ ჩამოსვლის” (25% off on new arrivals).
Private initiatives have emerged to bolster Georgia’s web presence. In 2015, industrial designer Zviad Tsikolia teamed up with Georgia’s largest lender, TBC Bank, and launched the contest #WriteinGeorgian, calling on volunteers’ creativity to create new styles for the alphabetic characters. Georgians responded enthusiastically, with 160 new fonts submitted in five weeks.
“Our language and our alphabet is our heritage; it is a treasure that needs to be not only protected but also kept alive and updated,” explains Tsikolia, 45, a staunch advocate of using the Georgian script in day-to-day digital communication. “The world is becoming increasingly digital, and our characters must be able to evolve and adapt to a reality that is no longer just on paper.”
By March, all the fonts will be available on the contest’s website for open-source download, Tsikolia said. “The future is glocal, global citizens who value national traditions,” notes Tsikolia. “Switching to the Georgian keyboard takes two seconds, but many people cannot be bothered even to do that,” Tsikolia says.
Neighboring Armenia faces similar challenges, as it also has a unique language with an alphabet used solely for Armenian.
“Transliteration is common, especially among the vast diaspora, but not only,” explains Gegham Vardanyan, editor-in-chief of the media discussion platform media.am. “It is not only the Latin script, Armenians in Russia will communicate in Armenian using the Cyrillic script. The result is just bizarre, often you just cannot understand it.”
As in Georgia, enthusiasts have taken the initiative. Zohrab Yeganyan, press officer at Armenia’s human rights ombudsman, grew tired of seeing Armenian ill-treated on the web and vented on his Facebook page. “Let’s make February 7 the day to write Armenian on the Internet,” he wrote in a 2012 post. The response was overwhelming, both in Armenia and among the diaspora.
“There were people who only spoke Armenian and decided to learn how to write in Armenian, starting with posts on social networks,” Yeganyan told EurasiaNet from Yerevan. Yeganyan said that while the Armenian government has been relatively inactive in supporting the alphabet, there are signs that the private sphere is increasingly embracing it. “Recently one mobile company started sending texts to its customers in the Armenian script, switching from the Latin alphabet,” he said.
The popular push has supported the national scripts to become fashionable again, Yeganyan argues, as people have grown to realize that their particular alphabets are uniquely suited to represent the sounds of their language.
“Transliteration is no longer trendy,” says Yeganyan. Nowadays, he says, “it is often used to ridicule something or someone.”

author: Eurasianet


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Russian Censor’s Warning to Radio Station Raises Alarm, Briefly · Global Voices
Ben Cohen

Echo of Moscow Editor-in-Chief Alexei Venediktov. Source: Kremlin.ru
Alarm about another crackdown on media in Russia spread quickly—and briefly—yesterday when news broke that state media watchdog Roskomnadzor had warned the radio station Ekho Moskvy (Echo of Moscow) that it could be shut down if it does not comply with a law governing foreign investment in media.
While the tabloid website Life News initially reported that Ekho could be shuttered within five days, Roskomnadzor officials quickly clarified that their letter addressed technical concerns—including about the timely submission of certain documents—quieting fears about the suppression of another Russian media outlet.
Roskomnadzor's letter stipulates that Ekho must comply with a 2014 law stating that no more than 20 percent of a Russian media company may be held by a foreign investor. The law came into effect on January 1, 2016 and gave media companies until February 1 of this year to change their ownership structure to come into compliance.
Alexey Venediktov, the editor-in-chief of the station, reported last year that the station had already taken steps to operate within the law: the American company EM-Holding, headed by Russian media magnate Vladimir Gusinsky, reduced its share in the company from 34 to 19.9 percent in order to come into compliance. Gazprom Media, a subsidiary of the state owned energy giant Gazprom, owns 66% of the station.
Venediktov responded to the letter on Twitter, saying Ekho would do everything in its power to comply with Russian law.
Мы, безусловно, выполним эти требования Роскомнадзора, хотя подобная трактовка закона для нас неожиданна. Юристы работают
— Алексей Венедиктов (@aavst) February 10, 2017
We will absolutely fulfill Roskomnadzor's demands, although such an interpretation of the law is unexpected for us. The lawyers are working on it.
Though the law does not specify that shareholding companies cannot be registered in the United States, some initially expressed concern that Roskomnadzor had interpreted the law to mean that foreign ownership of shares in media companies was totally forbidden.
Echo of Moscow Editor-in-Chief Alexei Venediktov. Source: archive.govern,ent.ru
But officials from Roskomnadzor claimed that the letter had nothing to do with possible closure of the radio station. A representative from the agency, Vadim Apelonsky, told Life News that it was merely “a technical, informational letter, reminding about the necessity to follow legal provisions on foreign ownership of Russian media.” Leonid Levin, the head of the communications committee in the Russian State Duma further explained that the letter was “not about breaking the law in terms of the shares of foreign owners but about the need for timely processing of documents” detailing said ownership.
This is not the first time Ekho Moskvy has received special attention from the Russian government. In October 2014, the station received a warning from Roskomnadzor over its coverage of the war in Ukraine. Just weeks earlier, the Russian Ministry of Emergency Services announced it would conduct a snap inspection of the radio station’s facilities, a tactic commonly used to shut down businesses and agencies that have fallen out of favor with the Kremlin.
The station is known for presenting a wide range of viewpoints, including those of opposition activists. Among its regular hosts is outspoken Putin critic Vladimir Kara-Murza, who recently fell seriously ill for the second time in two years, possibly due to intentional poisoning. Anti-corruption activist and opposition leader Alexey Navalny is also a regular contributor; a Russian court found him guilty of embezzlement last week, preventing him from mounting a campaign against Putin in the 2018 presidential election.
And it's no secret that Ekho often rubs Putin the wrong way. At an infamous 2012 meeting of media officials, he told Venediktov, “You pour diarrhea on me day and night.”

author: Ben Cohen