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Agitated debate revives over the destiny of Mexico’s protected waters · Global Voices
Elvira Herrera

Agua Azul (Blue Water) Waterfalls, Mexico. Photograph by Donar Reiskoffer. Published under Creative Commons license (Attribution 3.0 Unported)
In the days leading up to Mexico's presidential election, the nation is once again debating the destiny of its water ressources after a news article warned about the supposed privatization of the national water reserves. According to the article, the political move had taken advantage of people's attentions being distracted by Mexico's first World Cup 2018 game.
After the online news site Sin Embargo published the story, a dozen national media channels reproduced it. This follows the signing of ten presidential decrees on June 5 #DíaMundialDelMedioAmbiente (World Environment Day) that modifies the legal status of protected water reserves.
With hashtags #PrivatizacionAgua (water privatization) and #ReservasDeAgua (water reserves), a polarized online debate continues. On one side, netizens claim the story is ‘fake news’ since the decrees were not signed on the day the report said it had happened (the day Mexico's game at the World Cup). They also point out the fact that these decrees do not constitute privatization. On the other side, those who question the move say the emitted decrees make it possible to carry out improper exploitation, increasing the possibilities for future environmental and social damage:
Legiones digitales además de los sitios Regeneración y Sin Embargo difundieron (aún lo hacen) que el agua fue privatizada mientras veíamos el partido México vs Alemania. No es verdad. Esa Fake News intenta mantener el enojo como el principal impulso para votar por ya saben quien.
— Arouet (@Arouet_V) June 18, 2018
Digital armies, in addition to news sties Regeneración and Sin Embargo news sites diffused (and still do) that the water had been privatized while we were watching the Mexico vs Germany game. This is not true. That Fake News is trying to using anger as the principal impulse to vote for “you know who”.
The Secretary of Environment and Natural Resources under the National Water Commission issued a statement claiming that the decrees in question are to supply the public with water fit for human consumption and that environmental conservation will adhere to international recommendations. Meanwhile, the World Wide Fund (WWF) for Nature qualified the decision to change the “closed area” to “reserves” as positive and “historical“.
¿#PrivatizacionDelAgua? Todo lo contrario: agua suficiente, para el ambiente y para la gente. Esta es nuestra posición sobre los decretos de Reservas de Agua.https://t.co/MCzaNv6Mba
— WWF México (@WWF_Mexico) 19 de junio de 2018
Privatization of the water? On the contrary: enough water, for the environment and for the people. This is our position on the Agua Reserves decrees .https://t.co/MCzaNv6Mba
Inside the tweet: About the water reserves. WWF's position on the water reserves. Water reserves do not represent the privatization of any ressource, or the extintion of any current right to access to water.
Water for All, a network that unites villages, communities, and water defense organizations and also authored the Citizen Initiative of the General Law of Water, started an online petition to reverse the presidential order and the Autonomous University of Mexico recently held a press conference about the issue.
Leer te hará darte cuenta que no es puro pedo chairo lo de la #PrivatizacionDelAgua ?
— C'est Charlie (@CarlaHrtg) 19 de junio de 2018
Reading will make you realize that Water Privatization is not just some slacktivist bullshit.
Between the qualifications of “excellent” and “terrible”, and silence from key actors such as the Coalition of Mexican Organizations for the Human Right to Water and the Mexican Center of Environmental Law, different media have tried to find data to clarify if the new decrees jeopardize the human right to water and ecosystems or not. The newspaper El País obtained opinions from seven academics, some of whom promoted the 2012 reform to Article 4 of the constitution that recognized the human right to water:
El tema de las #ReservaDeAguas no es nuevo. Los decretos son continuidad de anotaciones que ya habían hecho OSC y @CNDH, recabadas en una investigación de @PdPagina Aquí algunos antecedentes útiles para entender el contexto de #PrivatizacionDelAgua https://t.co/JA4UXS7xd9
— Viraviendo (@Viraviendo) 19 de junio de 2018
The issue of the #ReservaDeAguas (Water Reserves) is not new. The decrees are a continuation of annotations already made by the OSC and @CNDH, collected in an investigation by @PdPagina. Here is some useful background information to understand the context of  #PrivatizacionDelAgua https://t.co/JA4UXS7xd9
The article's headline reads: 55 percent of national waters in risk due to lifting of closure.
Because the content and scope of the recently published decrees lack clarity, many internet users participating in the debate are asking those who usually do not follow this issue to thoroughly review all of the sources and contexts of the discussions. The main concern is to avoid reducing this issue as an election matter and instead, recognize that the debate should include all the elements contributing to conflicts linked to water ressources in Mexico. With this in mind, Twitter users have taken their online spaces to explain through threads some of the complexities surrounding the discussion.
Efforts to appropriate water for private exploitation has been a theme in Mexico that the outgoing government has continued. Examples of these attempts can be found in the #LeyKorenfeld case in 2015 and the #LeyPichardo case in 2018.
In this current context, the reach of the legal definition of “public utility”, as well as the location and availability of 55 percent of the water reserves in the Mexican territory, will be of paramount importance. The prime concern of those who denounce these decrees is that the government is trying to do through executive privilege what it was not able to accomplish legislatively because of widespread rejection from the public.

author: Elvira Herrera


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‘Internet is not for the Tajik language’? A crowdsourced soccer blog marks 10 years · Global Voices
Abdulfattoh Shafiev

Tajik stamp commemorating the 2006 World Cup in Germany, for which Tajikistan did not qualify. CC2.0.
When I founded the first ever online platform covering Tajik football in the Tajik language in 2008, no football club had any official online presence. Local media in my former Soviet Central Asian country, whether Russian language or Tajik language, covered the results of the games in the local league only sporadically. At that time, if you had looked for the Tajik football league table online, you might not have found it anywhere.
Ten years on, “Football of Tajikistan” continues to serve my country and my people as a reliable source of information and space for discussion about the beautiful game. Moreover, this rare online initiative has now reached a new level thanks to its followers on social media.
The hunger for information on Tajik football and especially in the Tajik language was immediately obvious— less than two weeks after coming online on May 12, 2008, the blog celebrated its 1,000th visit. While that might not seem like much, in Tajikistan, where Internet connections are slow and expensive, it's significant. Even today, privately funded news websites struggle to get similar numbers of visitors.
The blog's success was rooted in the fact that it was providing information online that even the Tajik league's clubs were not offering. As far as I know, the first football club with an online presence in Tajikistan was FC Vakhsh in April 2010. The club website was administered by someone I taught how to use WordPress. Incredibly, up until March 2012, the Tajik Football Federation itself had no website.
“Football of Tajikistan” provided a full table after each match day, including information on goal scorers; documented the progress of Tajikistan's national and club sides at different Asian competitions; pioneered polls and brought BBC-style live text from matches between the football world's powerhouses to a local audience through translations into Tajik.
Football is popular across Tajikistan. Photo by Steve Evans. CC 2.0.
The main challenge the blog faced in the early days was publishing accurate, timely information about games that were not covered anywhere else. That is where I have a confession to make—I had volunteers. Many of them!
Professional sports reporters writing for local newspapers and ordinary football fans-turned-citizen journalists were my ears and eyes at stadiums across the country. Every weekend, as soon as the referee's whistle ended a match, thousands of interested readers would know where to go to see the result, especially as the newspapers would sometimes only go to print the following Thursday.
Gradually, the blog added in-demand analytical products to its bread-and-butter match reports. The “Futboldon” (“football connoisseur”) section that allowed readers to compete on predictions of outcomes of domestic and foreign games was especially popular. The site also offered a glossary of key football terms translated into Tajik. During the Soviet period, these terms were mostly rendered in the Union's lingua franca, Russian.
After five years of hyperactive blogging, however, I found that I had a shrinking amount of free time to commit to updates. With family and other work commitments, I needed others to shoulder the data entry burden.
Luckily, the rising popularity of Facebook in Tajikistan at the time provided a readymade solution to the problem. I created a group, which is now administered by Daler Fayzov. Although I have never met Daler in person, I have watched him gradually grow into our community's most important voice. Somehow finding time outside his day job as an accountant at a local hospital, Daler added new administrators to the group, raised engagement rates with group posts to 1,000 people a day and represented our group on television talk shows covering local sports. He is one prominent example of how the blog turned into an incubator for fresh football journalism talent. Two other former administrators used the blog as a platform to launch themselves as professional sports journalists.
The Tajik language is the state language of Tajikistan. Prior to 1917 and the Bolshevik revolution, the language was rendered in a version of the Persian alphabet used for fellow Indo-Iranian languages spoken in Iran and Afghanistan. The conversion of the language to Cyrillic from 1930, after a brief period where the Latin alphabet was used, distanced Tajik speakers from the rest of the Indo-Iranian world.
As my blog's “About” page explained, “Football of Tajikistan” had only two goals: “To contribute to the promotion of Tajik language online, and to contribute to raising awareness about football in Tajikistan.”
At the time my blog was born, the number of Tajik-language websites could be counted on two hands. Most local websites preferred Russian, since a large part of the Internet-using population was urban and had attended Russian schools. That language also made online content accessible to readerships in other ex-Soviet countries.
Tajik keyboard in the Cyrillic alphabet. CC 2.0.
During its early days, my blog would sometimes receive comments like this one, from a Tajik-speaker confused at seeing a website in his native language.
интернет барои забони точики нест!
Internet is not for the Tajik language!
But a decade on, no one finds it so unusual anymore. “Football of Tajikistan” has become a well-established space not just for information about the local game, but for discussions about the global game in our local language.
I'd like to take this opportunity to thank every single person who contributed to “Football of Tajikistan” during these ten years and made a dream come true. While it did not bring a single cent to anyone, its contribution to the Tajik language and Tajik football has been invaluable. Hopefully, one day those in charge of Tajik football will do justice to it, as many fans and followers have already done.

source: news-globalvoices

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

author: Abdulfattoh Shafiev


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Netizen Report: Who will be next? Venezuela’s political crisis sees a new wave of censorship, media repression · Global Voices
Netizen Report Team

A student demonstrator speaks to National Guard members in Venezuela, during protests in 2014. Photo by Jamez42 via Wikimedia Commons (CC0)
Online censorship and repression of social media users are reaching new heights in Venezuela, where citizens continue to protest dire economic and public health conditions wrought by the country’s ongoing political crisis.
It has become extraordinarily difficult for journalists to report the news, as they face regular accusations of “disturbing public order” or “threatening the revolution”. Social media users who actively engage with a broad public on various civic issues are also being targeted.
In mid-May, popular Twitter user Pedro Jaimes, who offered climate, meteorological and air traffic reports to nearly 80,000 followers, went missing. Shortly before his disappearance, Jaimes had tweeted about the pathway of an airplane carrying Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, information that is available to the public through online news outlet Efecto Cocuyo.
On June 15, more than a month after he went missing, Jaimes called family members to inform them that he had been detained inside El Helicoide, the military facility turned prison belonging to the Bolivarian National Intelligence Service (SEBIN).
Meanwhile, accessing basic information and communication platforms online is becoming ever-more difficult. With electrical grids faltering for lack of maintenance and periodically deactivated in an effort to ration energy, internet access is never a guarantee. Yet web-based news and communication systems are increasingly the only way that Venezuelans can exchange and obtain information independent of the state.
In early June, the websites of two major news outlets, La Patilla and El Nacional, were blocked, along with access points for the Tor Network, which enables internet users to circumvent online censorship. Major pornography websites have been blocked as well, in what may be an attempt to test the country’s online censorship capacity. In some countries, these types of measures have been a precursor to efforts to increase online censorship.
Journalists covering a labor rights protest in Gaza on June 19 reported to MADA (the Palestinian Center for Development and Media Freedom) that they were assaulted and had their mobile phones and cameras either confiscated or destroyed by uniformed people associated with the Hamas movement, which rules the Gaza Strip.
At a June 15 protest in the West Bank city of Ramallah, journalists reported that Palestinian Authority security forces used similar tactics in an effort to stop them from filming and reporting on the protest.
Kunle Adebajo, a law student at Nigeria’s University of Ibadan, was suspended for two semesters for writing an article that was deemed critical of the university administration. On April 20, Kunle Adebajo wrote an opinion article, “UI: The irony of fashionable rooftops and awful interiors”, which described the deplorable state of infrastructure in student residences in his university. University administrators then summoned Adebajo to a disciplinary panel, which described Adebayo's article as “rude, defamatory and insubordinate” and issued his suspension.
In an article for Sahara Reporters, Fisayo Soyombo, an award-winning investigative journalist and an alumnus of University of Ibadan, described the disciplinary action against Adebajo as “a clear uppercut on press freedom.”
Veteran blogger and former BBC correspondent Fernando Ravsberg, an Uruguayan journalist who has made his home in Cuba since the late 1990s, was denied press credentials by Cuban media regulators for the first time. Ravsberg had long used earnings from his work as an accredited foreign journalist to support his popular blog “Cartas desde Cuba” (Letters from Cuba), where he writes critical commentary about public life and politics in Cuba, and where a single post regularly garners hundreds of comments from readers. Ravsberg reflected on the move in his own words:
Over these past 10 years, they have tried to tame me with kind words of advice, hidden threats, with breaking my teeth, demanding that I be expelled from the country, and ‘warnings’ directed at my children. None of this has worked until now, but removing my foreign media credentials has allowed them to give Cartas a coup de grace.
With anti-government protests still raging in Nicaragua, hundreds of people reported in mid-June that their SSID (their Wi-Fi network names) had spontaneously changed in the middle of the night. All of those reporting the change were subscribers to Claro, a subsidiary of the Mexican telecommunications giant América Móvil.
WiFi networks were renamed “QuitenLosTranques,” which means “StopTheBarricades” — a reference to a common local protest tactic of blocking roadways. This message has been used consistently, and as a social media hashtag, by government actors and supporters online. Barricades have been popping around the country in an effort to pressure President Daniel Ortega to leave power and protect communities from state violence.
A mobile phone access initiative is offering free mobile phones to female heads of household living below the poverty line in the northeast Indian state of Chhattisgarh. Although the phones come free of any monetary charge, people who join the program must provide their national ID numbers — associated with India’s controversial Aadhaar national ID scheme — and sign a document giving the government “consent to use those Aadhaar numbers.” An investigation by independent news site Scroll.in showed that participants have not been told how the government might use their Aadhaar numbers.
Ellery Roberts Biddle, Marianne Diaz, L. Finch, Oiwan Lam, Laura Vidal and Sarah Myers West contributed to this report.

author: Netizen Report Team


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The Nepali “sausage vine” evergreen plant is famous in the United Kingdom, yet remains unknown in Nepal · Global Voices
Sanjib Chaudhary

Holboellia latifolia known as the “sausage vine” plant. Image by Flickr user peganum. (CC BY-SA 2.0)
The sausage vine plant, a huge hit among gardeners in the United Kingdom (U.K.), originates from the jungles of Nepal, yet it remains in relative obscurity there due to lack of awareness and proper promotion. Nepali and Indian botanists are now trying to shed some light on the aromatic but long-forgotten sausage vine through research and advocacy.
Nepal boasts botanical records of 6,000 species of flowering plants (about four times as many as the U.K.), and botanical experts anticipate that the number will reach 6,600 species when more remote regions are fully explored. Nepal possesses 2.8 percent of the total number of global plant species and its share of flowering plant species is also nearly 2.8 percent of the global total.
Called “Gufala” in Nepal, the sausage vine is native to the Himalayas and its name derives from its reddish-purple sausage-shaped edible fruits. Its sweetly scented purplish, bell-shaped flowers also make this plant alluring to gardeners everywhere. The vine is found in the forests, shrubberies and shady ravines of the Himalayas ranging from Pakistan to southwest China at an altitude of 1,500-4,000 meters.
Traditionally, the vine is thought to be effective for treating rheumatism (Sikkim, India) and its stem, when bent into bangles, is believed to cure orthopedic problems (Darjeeling, India).
The Frustrated Gardener, a gardening blog by Dan Cooper, explains the unique wonders of this fragrant ‘evergreen climber’:
Holboellia latifolia is a fantastic evergreen climber if you want to cover a wall or pergola quickly. … What makes Holboellia especially desirable is the insignificant but deliciously scented flowers which appear in early spring and last for many weeks. The greenish male flowers and the pink female flowers appear in clusters along the twining stems. They fill the garden with a scent of gardenias, especially strong during warmer spells. All it requires in return is a bit of shelter from the worst gales, a moist soil and a feed with blood, fish and bone every spring.
Gardners and botanists on Twitter have also raved about the virtues of the sausage vine:
Interesting description of the fruits of Holboellia latifolia seen @ArchiPlants last week. pic.twitter.com/mgw4ssnWwt
— Lynda Harris (@LyndaPaysagiste) June 11, 2017
My holboellia latifolia looks pretty happy – male and female flowers a-plenty pic.twitter.com/LcqhyjcUVp
— Andrew Radgick (@ARadgick) April 22, 2017
Holboellia latifolia ‘sausage’ fruit growing in Manipur, India..delicious! pic.twitter.com/npFGveAeQR
— Paul Barney (@PaulEdulis) January 2, 2014
Roy Lancaster, a British plantsman, gardener, author, and broadcaster, traveled to Nepal in 1971 and left with 400 plant seeds including the sausage vine, according to his book A Plantsman in Nepal.
Sausage vine studies date further back to the mid-1800s, at the height of British rule in India. Nepali botanist Kamal Maden says that Danish surgeon and botanist Nathaniel Wallich was the first to study the sausage vine species while working in India to establish the Calcutta Botanical Garden and named the plant after his ornithologist friend Carl Peter Holboell.
Screenshot of a page from Nathaniel Wallich's notebook, #4950 details the Holbeoellia latifolia plant, 1821, used with permission.
However, plant expert Robbie Blackhall-Miles writes recently in the Guardian that ‘Holboellia’ is named after Fred Louis Holboell, the superintendent of the Copenhagen Botanic Garden.
Talking to Global Voices, Uttam Babu Shrestha, who worked on Indian flora for five years and was assigned to search literature and validate plant names at Harvard University confirmed:
I don't know much about how it was named (species epithet). It was first published as Holboellia latifolia by Wallich in his Book ‘Tentamen Florae Napalensis Illustratae’ volume 1, section 24, page 16, 1824, and later, Wallich transferred it to Stauntonia latifolia in his catalogue (the name of the book is A Numerical List of Dried Specimens of Plants in the East India Company's Museum: Collected Under the Superintendence of Dr. Wallich of the Company's Botanical Garden at Calcutta)…Stauntonia latifolia is accepted name and Holboellia latifolia is basionym (synonym) and both are same species according to Wallich.
Maden writes about the irony of the sausage vine:
यो वनस्पतिबारे नेपालबाट प्रकाशित पुस्तक तथा अनुसन्धानात्मक लेखमा कम र विदेशमा बढी जानकारी पाइन्छ । नर्सरी उद्यम गर्नेहरूले गोफालालाई सदाबहार वनस्पतिका रूपमा लिई एउटा राम्रो लहरे फूलको रूपमा पहाडी शहरहरूमा भित्र्याउन सक्छन् । स्वादिष्ट फलको लागि पनि यसको व्यवसाय गर्न सकिन्छ ।
हामी विदेशी मूलका एभोकाडो, किवी जस्ता वनस्पति रोप्छौं, महँगो दाममा किनेर खान्छौं । तर, विदेशीले हाम्रै वनबाट स्वादिष्ट फल लगेर व्यापार गरिरहेका छन्, यसबारे पत्तोसम्म पाउँदैनौं ।
Not much can be found about this plant in research articles and books published in Nepal but more information is found in foreign countries. Nursery entrepreneurs can promote Gufala as an evergreen plant and a climber with beautiful flowers in the hilly cities. Its delicious fruits can be traded.
We plant and eat fruits of foreign origin like avocado and kiwi, purchasing them at expensive prices. However, we don’t even know that the foreigners are trading delicious fruits taken from our own jungles.

author: Sanjib Chaudhary


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Freedom segregated: China to set up open internet zone on tourist island · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

Haikou, capital of Hainan province. Public domain photo via Wikipedia.
Netizens in mainland China are expressing outrage over a  proposal of the Hainan government that would enable access to overseas social media platforms that are otherwise censored in China.
The policy was met with firm criticism when it was released on June 21, on the provincial government website. Some described it as being “unfair” to other provinces, charging that it gives special privileges to the Hainan, an island province in the South China Sea that is popular among foreign tourists. Others called the policy a form of “information apartheid.”
A day later, the document was withdrawn from the site and all online criticisms were removed.
On the list of 25 measures included in the provincial government's “Three year action plan to boost international tourism in Hainan” is a plan to create special zones where visitors (foreign tourists and business people) would have open access to popular foreign social media platforms including Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. The document stresses that the action plan was in alignment with Chinese President Xi Jinping’s decision to transform the touristic island into a free-trade port by 2020.
China has strict control over its domestic internet and does not allow its citizens to access the majority of websites hosted outside the country.
The Hainan government’s plan to grant tourists access to popular social media sites seems like a step toward openness for outsiders. But many mainland Chinese netizens have responded with concern  over what appears to be a double standard.
Tellingly, most of the critical comments about the action plan have been deleted from social media platforms. Below are some collected by Radio France Internationale:
完全是卑鄙无耻下流贱格的逆向种族歧视，垃圾!
This plan is the most shameless kind of reverse discrimination. Piece of trash!
抵抗歧视性待遇!
Resist the discriminatory measure.
如果上推特、脸书是正当的、无害的，凭什么只让外国人上、不让中国人上？
If visiting Twitter, Facebook is appropriate and harmless, why [are they] only granting foreigners access but not Chinese?
半封建半殖民地社会又回来了
Back to the semi-feudal and semi-colonial stage.
Though the Hainan government has taken down the document, the policy is likely to remain as is, given that Haninan has been designated as a special economic region by the country's top leader.
In April 2018, President Xi declared that the central authority of the Chinese Communist Party had decided to support the Hainan plan to set up a free trade harbour and would create space to experiment with economic development.
Twitter user @yjpc1989 said he had anticipated this development a year prior:
去年跟朋友说过：海南会成为国中国。果然：“海南省计划为外国游客开辟网络绿洲，可正常使用外网”。包子不傻！这是为了加强对内陆控制：内陆文革化，海南香港化。毛时代为啥不收回香港？因为需要窗口，不然江青连色情电影都难搞。香港化的海南，是权贵和外国文明接触的冒险乐园 https://t.co/kXNOMLP02r
— 一剑飘尘 (@yjpc1989) June 23, 2018
Last year, I told my friend that Hainan would become a country within a country. Now it has come true.
“Hainan province has plans to construct an internet oasis for tourists and let them use the internet in a normal way.”
Baozi [“the Bun,” a nickname for President Xi] is no fool. The measure is intended to strengthen inland control — to create a Cultural Revolution on the continent while turning Hainan into Hong Kong.
Why do you think Mao [Zedong] did not take Hong Kong back? Because they needed a window [steam valve]? Otherwise Jiang Qing could not have produced so many movies. The Hong Kong-ization of Hainan will create an adventure land where the privileged can connect with western culture.
Hong Kong is a special administrative region of China with a high degree of autonomy. Chung Kin Wah, a professor in Hong Kong, agreed that such “special freedoms” are a theme in Chinese history. He wrote on citizen news outlet inmediahk.net:
三十多年前。當年，有一些特許店，只容許外國人或訪客進入，必須以外幣或「外匯券」付帳。當時還沒有互聯網可以上，但資訊流通也不是同樣受限制，同樣是內外有別？當年，只能在對外開放的大型酒店賓館，例如廣州的白天鵝及東方賓館，或北京的北京飯店，才可以買到 Newsweek, Time 及Economists。如果在海南這個特中之特的特區，只許外國人可以自由正常上網，又有什麼值得大驚小怪之處？必須一分為二，所謂「正常」，只對某些人是，對其他人便是「不正常」。所謂「自由」，也只是有選擇的，還得看永遠正確的共產黨如何為國民的自由下定義設界線。
About 30 years ago [in mainland China], there were some special shops set up for foreigners or visitors. They had to pay with “foreign exchange coupons.” At that time, there was no internet, yet the control over the flow of information was the same. At that time, people could only buy Newsweek, Time and the Economist in big hotels or guest houses like the White Swan or Dongfang Guesthouse in Guangzhou or the Beijing Guesthouse in Beijing.
So the plan to allow foreigners to go online freely in Hainan, a distinctive special region, is not such a big deal. Things have to be segregated. For some people, [open internet access] is normal, for others, it is abnormal. This so-called “freedom” is a line drawn by the forever-correct Chinese Communist Party for its people.
Hong Kong and Macau are thus far the only two cities which enjoy open internet access. The freedom of the two ex-colonial cities was written into their mini-constitutions under the principle of “One Country, Two Systems” when their sovereignty were transferred back to China in 1997 and 1999 respectively.

author: Oiwan Lam


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Iranian lawyer Nasrin Sotoudeh jailed on national security charges for representing hijab protesters · Global Voices
Center for Human Rights in Iran

Nasrin Sotoudeh, a well-known human rights lawyer, is imprisoned for defending hijab protesters in Iran.
Below is an edited version of an article that first appeared on the Centre for Human Rights in Iran website.
Authorities have charged Iranian human rights lawyer Nasrin Sotoudeh with two national security crimes over her work representing women who face prison time in Iran for peacefully protesting against the Islamic Republic’s compulsory hijab law.
Sotoudeh was arrested on June 13 in her home and told without further explanation that she was being taken to Evin Prison in Tehran to serve a five-year sentence that she was unaware had been issued, having been convicted in absentia.
“During the interrogation, she was told that the charges against her are ‘propaganda against the state’ and ‘assembly and collusion’ because she colluded with Ms. Shaparak [Shajarizadeh] in the courthouse in Kashan,” Sotoudeh’s husband, Reza Khandan, told the Center for Human Rights in Iran (CHRI).
“It’s the most laughable thing to say a lawyer met and colluded with her client,” he added. “Meeting a client is a basic part of a lawyer’s job. But the more interesting thing is that Shaparak was arrested in Kashan (152 miles south of Tehran) and Nasrin was not able to go there and therefore no meeting took place in the Kashan courthouse.”
Since December 2017, Iranian women including Shajarizadeh have been arrested for peacefully protesting the Islamic Republic’s compulsory hijab law by removing and waving their headscarves on busy streets. Known on social media as the “Girls of Revolution Street,” at least three of the women have been officially charged for their acts of civil disobedience.
According to Article 638 of Iran’s Islamic Penal Code, “Women, who appear in public places and roads without wearing an Islamic hijab, shall be sentenced to 10 days to two months’ imprisonment or a fine of 500 to 50,000 rials.”
It adds: “Anyone in public places and roads who openly commits a harām [sinful] act, in addition to the punishment provided for the act shall be sentenced to two months’ imprisonment or up to 74 lashes; and if they commit an act that is not punishable but violates public prudency, they shall only be sentenced to 10 days to two months’ imprisonment or up to 74 lashes.”
Sotoudeh’s husband continued: “If you ask me what the authorities are thinking deep inside, I will tell they just want Nasrin to sit at home and avoid cases like the Girls of Revolution Street and stop defending civil and political activists and not give interviews to the media.”
“I really think they are confused,” he added. “They have detained her and now they are fabricating a case against her.”
Khandan said Sotoudeh is contemplating joining Iran’s hijab protesters to protest against her own arrest.
“Nasrin told me during visitation today [June 17] that she has worked hard on the cases against her three clients—the Girls of Revolution Street—and believes the compulsory hijab is inhumane and against human rights and if her detention continues, she, too, will remove her headscarf in prison,” he said.
Khandan also told CHRI that Sotoudeh has refused to hire a defense attorney in protest against the judiciary’s recent introduction of a list of 20 state-vetted lawyers exclusively allowed to defend detainees held on politically motivated charges in Iran.
On June 17, Khandan and defense lawyers Arash Keykhosravi and Payam Derafshan as well as several civil rights activists gathered outside the gates of Evin Prison to demonstrate against her arrest.
Keykhosravi and Derafshan are representing the family of Kavous Seyed-Emami, an Iranian Canadian academic and environmentalist who died under suspicious circumstances in Evin Prison in February 2018.
Security agents beat the protesters and detained nine of them for several hours, Khandan said. Keykhosravi and Derafshan, as well as two other protesters, “received a lot of injuries,” he added.
“We gathered in front of Evin at around 10 in the morning today [June 17] but agents pushed us away and the gathering actually took place under the bridge near Evin,” said Khandan. “As soon as our friends started to chant slogans and raise their banners, agents attacked us with fists and kicks and arrested nine of us.”
“We were inside a police van for an hour and then we were transferred to a courthouse and eventually we were freed after a couple of hours,” he added. “Then I immediately went to Evin Prison to see Nasrin because visitation hours with prisoners was today.”
After he was released, Derafshan told the reformist news site Etemad Online that a judicial official at Evin apologized for the rough treatment.
“Following the inappropriate confrontation by the security forces, the judiciary’s representative in Evin Courthouse apologized for their mistakes and said he would meticulously investigate the incident for the sake of security and proper crisis management,” Derafshan said.

author: Center for Human Rights in Iran


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Rising star footballer is among more than a million Uyghurs sent to Chinese ‘re-education’ camps · Global Voices
Guest Contributor

Football player Erfan Hezim took a selfie with Lionel Messi weeks before he was detained in a re-education center. Image via FifPro.
With World Cup 2018 underway, all eyes are focused on the game. But many people are unaware of what — or who — is missing on the field.
The Fédération Internationale des Associations de Footballeurs Professionnels (FIFPro), the worldwide professional football players’ union, issued a statement on June 13, 2018 calling for the release of Erfan Hezim, a 19-year-old Uyghur football player who has reportedly been detained in a “political re-education camp” in China's western Xinjiang province since February 2018.
Hezim was detained soon after he returned home from a football trip to Spain and Dubai.
Despite his status as a rising star in local football, Hezim's fame did not exempt him being sent to a re-education camp. According to local sources for Radio Free Asia, Hezim was detained for “visiting foreign countries”, though his trip was mainly for football training and matches.
Hezim is among the estimated one million Uyghurs in Xinjiang who have been sent to re-education camps for unlearning and correcting their religious and political views.
What happens at re-education camps in Xinjiang is not widely known, but testimonies from ex-internees reveal that the camps — which are operated at county, township and village levels — are secured with barbed wire, surveillance systems and armed police. Ex-internees said they were sent to the camps without trial and while there, were forced to convert their beliefs and pledge loyalty to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).
Shawn Zhang, a law student, used satellite imagery to visualize the scale of the camps, shedding some additional light on the issue.
Re-education Camp in Shufu county (Kashgar Konasheher), Xinjiang. Image by Shawn Zhang, via Medium.
There have also been claims that Muslim internees were forced to eat pork and drink alcohol in order to prove they are no longer “extremists”.
Uyghurs with overseas connections appear to be among the top targets of this type of political detention. In March 2018, just one month after Hezim's detention, Ablajan Awut Ayup, a prominent Uyghur musician who bridges Uyghur and Chinese audiences with his bilingual songs, went missing too. His fame, in this case as a cultural icon, also failed to save him.
Guligeina Tashimaimaiti, a Chinese-Uyghur PhD student at the University of Technology in Malaysia (UTM), has been missing since January 2018. According to the Scholars at Risk network, Tashimaimaiti returned to her home city of Ghulja in December 2017, in order to search for her missing parents. Her sister, who is also studying in Malaysia, confirmed that Tashimaimaiti was sent to a re-education camp.
Ugyhurs who reside overseas use Twitter to advocate for the release their relatives back home.
Halmurat Harri, a Ugyhur-Finnish medical doctor who was born in the Turpan city of Xinjiang, called for his parents’ release:
My parents always taught me to love. They are in China’s re-education camps. I hope that good will win over the evil, I hope that all this suffering will end. I don’t seek revenge, but justice. Love what is Good, hate is evil; cling to what is good. Please pray for us! #FreeMyParents pic.twitter.com/r92R66K0wX
— Halmurat Harri Uyghur (@HalmuratU) June 20, 2018
@Uyghurspeaker, who has been keeping track of the detention of Ugyhurs in Xinjiang, recently translated a Uyghur-Canadian's post about his mother’s death in a re-education camp:
Uyghur-Canadian Abdulaziz learned today that his mother Adalet (from Pichan) died in chinese concentration camp/prison on Mar. Her body wasn't returned to the family (believe to be cremated). She was taken on Aug,2016 right after her trip to turkey. pic.twitter.com/sqUbFYi5BP
— Uyghur from E.T☪ (@Uyghurspeaker) June 23, 2018
Some Uyghurs from Western countries have taken action, calling for public attention to be placed on these Chinese concentration camps:
About 100 Uyghurs demonstrated in front of ?? ambassador in Nederland for demanding USA ?? to put pressure on China to close the concentrations camp where one million Uyghurs has been detained. pic.twitter.com/EvmKU3lvqF
— Nijat Turghun (@NijatTurkistan) June 22, 2018
Beijing has mostly avoided commenting on the re-education camps to the outside world — but internally, state and party news outlets say the camps are part of a battle against Muslim extremism.
During the Lunar New Year in February 2018, Zhang Chunlin, the Party Deputy Secretary of Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, had an exchange with university students in Yarkant county. When Zhang asked one university student to comment on his family members being sent to the re-education camp, the student answered:
这是党和政府治病救人的举措，是为了挽救我的家人免于处罚法律，我完全理解，也希望他们早日改正，做一个有益于社会的人
This is a party and government policy to cure the sick and save my relatives from being punished by law. I completely understand the measure and hope that they will be converted into people who are good for society.
Outside of the official discourse, one seldom sees comments or discussions about the issue on Chinese social media.

author: Guest Contributor


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Vietnam’s new Cybersecurity Law could further undermine free speech and disrupt businesses · Global Voices
Mong Palatino

An Internet Cafe in Vietnam. Flickr photo by toyohara (CC BY-NC 2.0)
A new cybersecurity law in Vietnam may usher in a new era of increased online censorship, privacy-invasive data processing methods, and deprivation of internet connections for organizations and individuals who publish “prohibited” content.
Critics say the law could worsen attacks on freedom of expression and negatively affect the business prospects of technology companies.
Drafted by the country’s Ministry of Public Security, the law was passed by the National Assembly on June 12, 2018 despite the rare public opposition expressed by some lawyers and netizens. The legislation goes into effect on January 1, 2019.
The law also places significant regulatory requirements on foreign technology companies. Similar to China’s Cybersecurity Law passed in 2017, Vietnam’s new law requires Internet companies to store data locally and establish headquarters or representative offices in Vietnam.
Article 26 of the law obliges foreign tech companies to:
“establish mechanisms to verify information when users register their digital accounts”;
“provide user information to the specialized task force for cyber security protection under the Ministry of Public Security upon receiving written requests”;
“erase information, prevent the sharing of information that has content” prohibited by the Vietnamese government “within 24 hours of receiving a request” from the Ministry of Information and Communications or Ministry of Public Security; and
“not provide or stop providing services on telecommunication networks, Internet, and value-added services for organizations and individuals that publish on cyberspace” content prohibited by the Vietnamese government.
Human Rights Watch identified some of the broad provisions that could be used by authorities to arrest and detain activists and critics of the state:
Prohibiting “the use of cyberspace” to “prepare, post, and spread information” that “has the content of propaganda opposing the State of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam,” or “offends the nation, the national flag, the national emblem, the national anthem, great people, leaders, notable people, and national heroes” (Articles 8 and 15);
Prohibiting the use of cyberspace “to organize, carry out, collude, urge, buy off, dupe, entice, train, or coach people to oppose the State of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam,” or “to distort history, deny revolutionary achievements, [or] undermine national solidarity” (Article 8);
Prohibiting propaganda against the Socialist Republic of Vietnam, including “psychological warfare,” “defamatory propaganda against the people’s administration,” “false information intended to seriously harm human dignity or honor or cause damage” – but no requirement that the person putting forward the information has to know it is false;
“…information that propagandizes, urges, campaigns, incites, threatens, causes division, [or] entices people to gather and cause disruption” (Articles 8 and 15).
Nguyen Phu Trong, General Secretary of the ruling Communist Party of Vietnam, explained why the law is necessary for the country:
There are people who take advantage of the Internet to instigate protests and disruptive behavior aimed at overthrowing the government. We need this law to protect this regime.
The government also argued that the law will create tech jobs and enhance the digital economy. But Asia Internet Coalition has a different view:
…these provisions will result in severe limitations on Vietnam’s digital economy, dampening the foreign investment climate and hurting opportunities for local businesses and SMEs to flourish inside and beyond Vietnam.
Authorities said foreign companies including Google and Facebook say they intend to comply with the new law. Amnesty International responded, reminding the companies of their commitments to human rights:
Your company has a responsibility to respect the right to privacy and freedom of expression. This responsibility exists over and above domestic legal requirements.
Amnesty International calls on your company to challenge the draft law and make known to the Vietnamese government your company’s principled opposition to implementing any requests or directives which violate fundamental human rights.
The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights in Asia also expressed concern about the law:
#VIETNAM: @OHCHRASIA is concerned that this law may be used to further crack down on dissenting voices in the country. We encourage the Government of Viet Nam to provide an enabling environment where freedom of expression, both online and offline, is protected.
— UN Human Rights Asia (@OHCHRAsia) June 14, 2018
On June 10, tens of thousands of Vietnamese rallied across the country to protest the two bills — the cybersecurity bill (which was then still in draft) and a law on Special Economic Zones (SEZ), a proposed regulatory scheme that would loosen market, investment and communications restrictions in areas of the country where foreign businesses are located, in an effort to boost the economy.
Demonstrators were focused primarily on SEZs, which many believe will allow China to exploit the country’s resources.
But activists also mobilized support for the campaign against the passage of the proposed Cybersecurity bill.
Mass protests have taken place in Ho Chi Minh City, Nha Trang and Hanoi against the draft laws on special admin-econ zones and on cyber security. Soon dispersed by police, some reported arrests #Vietnam #protest #politics pic.twitter.com/rMRIn6Zrqt
— Nga Pham (@ngaphambbc) June 10, 2018
Activists estimated that more than one hundred people were arrested at the protests, among them a US citizen, William Nguyen.
On June 11, 74 lawyers submitted a petition to the parliament criticizing the loopholes in the cybersecurity bill which they said violate the human rights provisions enshrined in the country’s Constitution. They attached an online petition signed by more than 40,000 citizens calling on the Parliament to reject the bill.
Despite this rare public display of dissent, the National Assembly deliberated on the Cybersecurity bill on June 12 and passed it with 423 votes of approval and 15 objections while 28 had no opinion on the measure.
Legislator Nguyen Lan Hieu wanted authorities to specify the agency responsible for deciding whether a piece of online content is deemed illegal and suggested that this should be left in the hands of the courts.
Vietnam Right Now noted that the emergence of legislative opposition to the bill proves that the measure is divisive and controversial:
The sign of some dissent in the National Assembly is an indication of how controversial the new law is seen.
Even such limited opposition is extremely rare in a body normally seen as a rubber stamp legislature that is selected, directed and manipulated by the Communist party and its affiliate organisations.
ASEAN Today published an editorial underscoring the real intent of the Vietnamese government:
Despite the government’s claims, control is at the heart of the new legislation.
With Vietnamese offices, the government could pressure companies to administer stricter censorship. They could also pressure them into revealing individual dissident identities.
Data localisation will erode user anonymity and pose a threat to government critics.
Before the passage of the Cybersecurity Law, Vietnam is notorious for using vague laws to persecute individuals accused of conducting “anti-state propaganda”. The new law, once it takes effect next year, could legitimize an intensified crackdown on groups and individuals who have been using the Internet to promote religious freedom, environment protection, democratic reforms, civil liberties, and peaceful activism.

author: Mong Palatino


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During the World Cup, Mexico gets in trouble when their fans’ chants are called ‘foul’ · Global Voices
J. Tadeo

Detail from an infographic describing the Mexican team's possible consequences for violating FIFA's rules regarding the homophobic language used by their fans during the World Cup. Used with permission by Pictoline.
As Russia hosts the final days of the FIFA World Cup 2018, Mexico's team has drawn the attention of the Federation of International Football Association (FIFA) organizers and the press, but it's not for their stellar skills, but rather their fans’ foul calls. Did Mexican fans violate FIFA rules, or were they just celebrating their favorite team?
After the Mexico national team (known as “El Tri” because of their tricolor uniform that mirrors the colors of the national flag) played their first game against Germany, FIFA announced the opening of a disciplinary case against chants used by their fans during the game.
El Tri fans customarily scream the word ‘puto’ (Mexican Spanish for ‘faggot’) in unison every time the rival goalkeeper restarts a play by putting the ball in motion (especially through a goal kick).
Deutsche Welle, the German media outlet with a global presence, reported the offenses by Mexican fans in this way:
Miles de hinchas mexicanos insultaron a Neuer [portero del equipo Alemán] el domingo durante la victoria de México por 1-0 sobre Alemania.
Thousands of Mexican fans insulted Neuer [goal keeper of the German team] last Sunday during Mexico's 1-0 victory over Germany.
The term ‘puto’ is essentially pejorative, vulgar and degrading. In daily language (in every social class in Mexico) it is also used as an insult to describe a gay male or a female perceived as promiscuous or engaged in sex work. This is consistent with definitions provided by Fundéu, the regulatory authority on Spanish language in mainstream media, and the Royal Spanish Academy of Language. The Mexican Federation of Football, however, maintains the opposite position, denying that the expression is insulting.
It is not the first time that the Mexico national team finds itself embroiled in this controversy. Four years ago in Brazil, Mexican fans also shouted this chant on several occasions. The same happened in 2017, also in Russia, during the Confederations Cup organized by FIFA.
The website Reporte Índigo has gathered opinions from different Mexican personalities (all male) about the controversial chant. Global Voices selected two as an example:
Daniel Giménez Cacho (actor):
No, ‘puto’ no es discriminatorio, ‘puto’ es una palabra de un prefijo náhuatl, que es putotzin y que significa ‘el que lo lea’… es un chiste (risas). Por supuesto que es discriminatorio, yo tenía problemas con eso desde la canción tan popular del grupo Molotov (la canción ‘Puto’), a mí esa canción no me gustaba, no me gusta; creo que hay que cuidar el lenguaje, los discursos de odio. La violencia contra la mujer, por ejemplo, eso no lo va acabar ningún tipo de ley si no modificamos la cultura nuestra, y la cultura empieza por cómo nos relacionamos, cómo hablamos, qué palabras usamos, y hay que ser conscientes de ellas. Yo creo.
No, ‘puto’ is not discriminatory, ‘puto’ is a word from the Nahuatl language, which is ‘putozin’ and it means ‘the one who reads it'…it is a joke (laughs) [Referring to a common joke seen online saying ‘the one who reads this is ‘puto’]. Of course it is discriminatory. I have had problems with that word since the very popular song by the group Molotov (the song ‘Puto’). I didn't like that song, I don't like it, I think we have to take care of the language we use, hate speech. For example, violence against women won't end with any kind of law if we don't change our culture and culture begins with how relate to each other, how we speak, what words we use, and we have to be aware of them. I believe.
Paco Ignacio Taibo II (writer):
Gritarle ‘puto’ al portero del enemigo yo creo que no tiene connotaciones homofóbicas, es simplemente una injuria, un insulto para desestabilizar al enemigo. Yo espero que se practique los 16 de septiembre [día en que los mexicanos celebran la independencia] frente a Palacio también ¿no? Me parece que está siendo demasiada bronca de muy poca cosa, lo políticamente correcto rara vez corresponde con lo políticamente justo y real.
I don't think screaming ‘puto’ to the enemy's goal keeper has homophobic connotations, it is simply a slur, an insult to destabilize the enemy. I hope that it is also chanted on September 16 [the day that Mexicans celebrate independence] in front of the governmental palace, no? It seems to me that this is being blown out of proportion, the politically correct rarely corresponds to the politically fair and real.
According to Andoni Bello, head of the Gay Football Selection (Or Tri Gay, an organization defending LGBTIQ rights), the screaming ‘puto’ is offensive, and suggested that fans should find other ways of giving a hard time to rival teams.
According to FIFA rules, as shown in the infographic created by Pictoline (a visual graphics company), sanctions relating to the use of homophobic or racist expressions can affect El Tri's outcome in the World Cup, either by accrediting defeat, subtracting points obtained, or in the worst case, expelling them from the competition:
Infographic regarding homophobic expressions chanted by Mexican fans at the FIFA World Cup in Russia 2018, shared by Pictoline, used with permission.
In addition to being considered a homophobic scream, the “EEEEEH P…” could cause serious problems for the Mexican National Team. This is what the FIFA rules state:
1. The association or the club will be sanctioned with fine of no less than 26,000 euros [$30,275 United States Dollars] FINED: (this has already happened).
2. In the case of serious violations, supplemental sanctions could be levied such as:
a. Bar fans from entering the stadiums.
b. A defeat of three goals to zero.
c. The subtraction of points.
d. Or even exclusion from the competition (and we were doing so well!).
Through Twitter, fans have been asked not to repeat this insult in subsequent El Tri games:
Incondicionales en Rusia, demostremos que somos capaces de comportarnos. #NoGritesPuto ??
Chequen las Reglas de Civilidad del Mundial. ➡ https://t.co/WYGqPDpoAZ #NadaNosDetiene  | #Rusia2018  pic.twitter.com/TAKEpBWJ5w
— Selección Nacional (@miseleccionmx) 21 de junio de 2018
Unconditional in Russia, let's show that we are can behave ourselves.  #NoShoutPuto ??Check the Rules of Global Civility. ➡ https://t.co/WYGqPDpoAZ #NadaNosDetiene  | #Rusia2018  pic.twitter.com/TAKEpBWJ5w
— National Teaml (@miseleccionmx)  June 21, 2018
Influential Twitter user Gabriel Guerra who has more than 92,000 followers commented:
Atento mensaje a los aficionados mexicanos en Rusia:
Puto el que grite puto.
— Gabriel Guerra C (@gabrielguerrac) 21 de junio de 2018
Pay attention to the message to the message to the Mexican fans in Russia: ‘Puto’ he who screams ‘puto’.
— Gabriel Guerra C (@gabrielguerrac) June 21, 2018
Of the eight groups marked by letters between A through H, Mexico classified in Group F, competing against South Korea, Sweden, and Germany. The team that earns first place in Group F will face off in round eight of the finals against the team that occupies second place in Group E comprised of Brazil, Costa Rica, Serbia and Switzerland. At the same time, the team that occupies second place in Group F will compete against the team that won first place in Group E.
Before the start of the worldwide joust, El Tri had achieved 15th place out of 209 positions in the FIFA global ranking. Mexico has a good chance of winning as long as their fans can “show that [they] can behave [themselves].”

author: J. Tadeo


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No paper, no electricity, no news: Information controls keep coming in Venezuela · Global Voices
Marianne Díaz Hernández

Detail of illustrator Eduardo Sanabria's image alluding to media censorship and self-censorship in Venezuela. Used with permission.
Amid widespread protests in response to Venezuela's social, political and economic crises, state control over information has reached new heights.
In June 2018, Venezuelans have seen online newspapers, pornography sites, and the Tor network blocked, in what appears to be the latest move in an ever-evolving strategy to limit access to information for the general public.
The road has been long and steady. What began with limitations on access to radio and television spectrum during the administration of deceased former president Hugo Chávez has since expanded, under president Nicolás Maduro, with many once-privately run broadcast and press outlets having transitioned toward a model wherein the state has either explicit or soft power over editorial and commercial activities.
Also, in 2017, Venezuela's National Constituent Assembly (ANC) – which had assumed all legislative powers that had previously come under the purview of the National Legislative Assembly- passed a controversial law that would regulate social media and sanction or pull out of the air any outlet “promoting hate”. The measure seemed to had been already in practice, given the cases of people that have been put behind bars because of a tweet.
Since 2014, the ongoing crisis has generated chronic shortages of basic goods and services, like paper, electricity and broadband internet. These shortages combined with political efforts to limit public access to information and news have created a tense and highly controlled landscape for communication and the sharing of information.
With the cost of newsprint rising rapidly and the paper itself almost non-existent, local newspapers (especially those critical of the government) were forced to close down or move online, where they had no guarantee of maintaining an audience. In early 2018, one journalist tweeted:
Reportan que el portal de El Nacional fue bloqueado en varios lugares de Venezuela. pic.twitter.com/q0yqUHZ8Ij
— Maibort Petit (@maibortpetit) January 15, 2018
There are reports of newspaper El Nacional being blocked in many areas of Venezuela
Observo que hoy está bloqueado en mi computadora el acceso a El Nacional, La Patilla y otros sitios venezolanos “molestos” para la dictadura. ¿Otros tienen el mismo problema? Para hacer las denuncias del casos.
— TamaraAdrian (@TamaraAdrian) January 15, 2018
I'm seeing now that [daily newspapers] El Nacional, La Patilla and other “annoying” sites for the dictatorship are blocked in my computer. Are others having the same problem? We should report the cases.
Months later, in early June, El Nacional, one of the most important newspapers in the country, was reported to be blocked again both by journalists on Twitter and in other news outlets:
Así está El Nacional en servidores cantv: Bloqueado pic.twitter.com/PeGyfuXgPM
— Beatriz Adrián (@Beadrian) June 8, 2018
This how El Nacional looks like in CANTV (the most important Internet provider) servers
Espacio Público, an organization defending free speech and access to information reported through their Twitter account that public internet provider CANTV had blocked the access to sites with sexual content like Pornhub and Youporn.
The measure caught the attention of the public and the press, inside and outside the country. Media workers shared their impressions of authoritarian views on morals and decency:
La pregunta a hacerse aquí es, ¿cómo es que se llegó a este punto? Cualquiera por lógica diría que el chavismo es un régimen que lento pero seguro, se mete con todos los sectores de la sociedad. Así no sean numerosos, los quita del camino para completar su dominación social.
The question here is: how did we get to this point? Anyone being logical would say that chavismo is a system that, slowly but surely, meddles with every aspect of society. Even if some of these aspects are not big in number, they put them away to complete their social domination.
Other users have been quick to analyze the actual reach of the move and its close link with online censorship, a concern present not only in Venezuela:
El problema central que yo veo, no es solo el bloqueo a páginas pronográficas, que de por sí ya es una catástrofe, sino que este bloqueo se va a extender a otras páginas.
¿Qué ganaban bloqueando páginas porno? ensayar el bloqueo a otras páginas, de repente la próxima es youtube.
— Su Alteza Real (@rhL_93) June 16, 2018
The problem here is not the fact that they're blocking porn webpages -which is already a disaster-, the problem es that it will go further to other pages. What do they gain from blocking porn webpages? Try blocking pages, maybe Youtube will come next.
However, other users suspect that is neither about porn, nor censorship. For them, the problem is bandwidth, and the impossibility of paying for it:
El bloqueo de #CANTV a páginas web de #porno, no es por mojigatería, no es porque el gobierno quiera proteger a los niños. Es básicamente porque #Venezuela no tiene dinero para pagar el ancho de banda que se consume en esas páginas cobrando $0.30 por una conexión de internet.
— Maxx (@simbiosisgroup) June 17, 2018
CANTV's [Venezuela's national internet and phone provider] blockade to porn webpages is not about being prudish, or about the government wanting to protect the children. It's basically because Venezuela doesn't have money to pay the for bandwidth that those pages need charging $0.30 for an internet connection.
Tor, the free software used to surf the web anonymously that has allowed many to use internet safely has also been blocked, according to different reports online.
The blockages of different nodes in the Tor network seems to be happening intermittently, and are thus not completely effective. Nevertheless, organizations like Acceso Libre or VE Sin filtro have confirmed Tor being blocked and proposed solutions to curb the limitations:
Podemos confirmar Tor está bloqueado (en conexión directa) @torproject, se puede usar con el bridge (pluggable transport) Meek #keepiton #bloqueos #internetVE pic.twitter.com/AOm2Ov8t60
— VE sin Filtro (@vesinfiltro) June 20, 2018
We can confirm Tor as blocked (in direct connection). You can use @torproject with the bridge (pluggable transport).
Se reportan bloqueos a la red de @torproject en Venezuela. Aquí, cómo sortear la censura al configurar Tor para usar puentes: pic.twitter.com/9K2egK6XsK
— Acceso Libre (@AccesoLibreRed) June 20, 2018
Blocks to @torproject network are being reported in Venezuela. Here's how you can bend it configuring Tor to use bridges.
Given the context and the background, the prognosis for freedom of speech and access of information in the country looks grim. Many Venezuelans are wondering which media space or communication tool will be censored next…and what they can do to outsmart the government's efforts.

author: Marianne Díaz Hernández


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Protesting Polish students stall controversial bill that would clamp down on academic freedom · Global Voices
Juliette Bretan

“Occupation strike.” Photo by Pamela Gąsiorowski, used with permission.
Student protests in Poland have succeeded in delaying a bill that opponents say could threaten the autonomy of universities.
Known as Bill 2.0, the act includes proposals to reduce funding and research opportunities for regional universities, and aims to diminish the control held by the University Senate — a body of students, academics and other university employees who organise the day-to-day running of the institution– in favor of a University Council, consisting of individuals from outside universities.
Another clause, recently added, requires female researchers employed at academic institutions to retire from their careers at the age of 60, five years before their male colleagues.
Poland's ruling right-wing nationalist party, Law and Justice, has increased governmental control over many facets of society since it took power in 2015. Critics feared this draft law was another glimpse of authoritarianism.
For almost two weeks, fences, balconies and walls in universities across the country were peppered with handmade banners, painted cardboard and fluttering pamphlets, as students occupied spaces and voiced their disapproval of the planned reforms. The protests marked the first nationwide occupation strike of students since 1989.
The bill is being pushed by Jarosław Gowin, Minister of Science and Higher Education. Earlier this month, after over 100 amendments by Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki, it was sent for a second reading in the Sejm, the lower house of the Polish parliament.
The assumption was that it would come into force around October 2018. This was not to be the case.
The first protest against it was announced on Facebook, a 5 June event titled “Wolne Dni Akademii” (“Free Academic Days”). Students from the University of Warsaw occupied the Kazimierz Palace balcony, which juts over the fashionable Krakowskie Przedmieście street.
Under the slogan “Nauka Niepodległa” (“Independent Learning”), resistance grew. Participants hosted panels and events, gaining the support of institutions from Poland and abroad.
As some politicians, like possible presidential candidate Robert Biedroń, flocked to Twitter to congratulate the students, others physically supported the protests, bringing food and sleeping bags.
Studentki i studenci UW, protestują w obronie spraw, w które reforma Gowina uderza najmocniej: mniejszych uczelni. Okazując solidarność z mniejszymi ośrodkami bronią autonomii i demokracji, które na uczelniach są tak samo ważne jak w państwie i polityce. Dziękuję Wam! ????
— Robert Biedroń (@RobertBiedron) June 6, 2018
College students at the University of Warsaw are protesting in defense of the cases for which Gowin's reforms strike the hardest: smaller universities. Showing solidarity with the smaller centers of autonomy and democracy, which are as important in universities as in state and politics. Thank you!
Pictures circulating online depict make-do tents erected in the center of the balcony, with students propped up against the balustrades surrounded by cups of coffee or boxes of produce.
Studenci UW zapowiadają, że w Pałacu Kazimierzowskim (rektorat) zostaną conajmniej do jutra. Proszą tylko o merytoryczny dialogu ws Ustawy 2.0 i mają 11 postulatów. pic.twitter.com/3PKqf4txyt
— Bartłomiej Bublewicz (@bbublewicz) June 5, 2018
University of Warsaw students announce that they will stay at the Kazimierzowski Palace (Rector's Office) until tomorrow at least. They are only asking for substantive dialogue on Bill 2.0 and have 11 demands.
Meanwhile, supporters of the draft law or of the Law and Justice party tried to discredit the protesters, suggesting their actions were foolhardy and not representative of the majority.
To nie żaden protest studentów tylko kilka czerwonych świń a raczej ich pomiot. Nie nazywajcie tego protestem studentów bo normalni studenci się od tego stanowczo odcinają
— Rychu peja (@RychuGkm) June 10, 2018
It's not a student protest, just a few red swine, or rather their spawn. Do not say this protest is staged by students because normal students distance themselves from this.
Students in Warsaw remained on the balcony for 10 days, until work on the measure was postponed. In that time, however, they were far from being the only ones mobilising.
At institutions across the country, students and their supporters young and old held marches and discussions and hung banners against the draft law. One poster asked quite simply, “What is Gowin on?”
A balcony with protest banners with the hashtag #naukaniepodległa and names of cities where protests had been taking place. Photo by Pamela Gąsiorowski, used with permission.
Students also occupied university spaces. On 9 June, at the AGH University of Science and Technology in Krakow, a struggle ensued when a doorman entered a room occupied by students, claiming that they had pretended to be lecturers to gain access and demanding the return of the key to the room. The students complied with his demand, but refused to leave.
The protest group based there posted on Facebook three days later, saying they had recently been threatened by police who believed they wanted to “break in” to university buildings. Another post later explained that they were organising around issues that go beyond the draft law:
W trakcie debat i wykładów prowadzonych w trakcie Strajku Okupacyjnego poruszono znacznie więcej kwestii niż tylko te wynikające z projektu reformy polskich uczelni wyższych. W ten sposób wyrażamy sprzeciw nie tylko wobec ustawy 2.0, ale również obecnego kształtu Uniwersytetu, jako przestrzeni niedemokratycznej, wewnętrznie podzielonej i hierarchicznej.
During the debates and lectures conducted during the occupation strike, much more issues were raised than just the reforms of Polish universities. In this way, we express our opposition not only to the Bill 2.0, but also to the current shape of the university as an undemocratic, internally divided and hierarchical space.
In Poznań, protests began on 12 June, with students occupying the Rectorate. Here they remained adamant that their quarrel was not with the rector or university authorities, discouraging disruption of the rector’s work by ensuring only 20 people were on active protest during the day, and seven at night.
After the Polish parliament postponed the vote until July, with the ministry claiming it would submit a changed proposal, students across the country ended their protests.
Throughout, Minister Gowin remained adamant that the act would improve university education – according to the newspaper Wiadomości, he claimed he did not understand the protests, explaining that he had consulted “all academic groups” about the bill over the last years.
However, one anonymous participant of the protest in Warsaw told OkoPress that students decided to react because “the consultations were conducted only with people supporting the law.”
Another, Mateusz Burzawa, who sang in the revolutionary choir during the Kraków protests, hinted to Global Voices that issues with the bill were founded in Gowin's own attitude:
[The protest] does not mean that higher education does not need reforms, and how that everything in this bill is bad, only [that] the faith of the minister that “the market will solve all problems” is an ideological approach.
Not all students thought the protests were the right approach. On Facebook, Kacper Aleksander Czechowicz dubbed the action at the University of Warsaw a “farce,” suggesting that the organisers had sabotaged the work of the Student Parliament. Appointed representatives to the Student Parliament in Poland are equal partners to negotiations on the national level, with aims to lobby for student rights through representing the student body in negotiations with the government.
“Konstytucja” (Constitution). Protest poster by Dawid Czajkowski, used with permission.
But graphic designer and activist Dawid Czajkowski countered in a separate post that the Student Parliament does not stick up for students as it should (in his words: it is “as soft as butter on a hot day”).
This why he used his company, Posters Involved, to support the students, whom he thinks are the most threatened by the draft law. Czajkowski's protest posters included a representation of a vulnerable white block, painted red with the word “Autonomia” (‘Autonomy’), and a disembodied saw emblazoned with “Gowin 2.0″ slicing through its middle.
He told Global Voices:
In the meantime, the Academic Protest Committee, which organised the original demonstrations, plans to host a congress to bring together all of the protests groups from around the country to decide the next course of action.
The fight is not over yet.

author: Juliette Bretan


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Did Syrians really have a choice? Final days in Ghouta: Caught between an immediate death and a delayed one · Global Voices
Act For Ghouta

A Syrian man walks amid destroyed buildings in Jobar neighborhood in the suburbs of the Syrian capital Damascus on March 9, 2016. Photo by Sameer Al Doumy, used with permission.
Did people in Ghouta, Syria, really have any choice or agency over their fate in their last days there? Given the horrific and harrowing conditions they faced under stifling besiegement for five years, Ghouta residents came to realize that they were limited to just three options: heading to other regime-controlled areas, staying in a regime-controlled Ghouta, or entering into forced displacement.
Following the besiegement and continuous shelling that paralyzed life and transformed it to one lived underground, the Syrian regime, supported by Russian forces, started an offensive to break into Ghouta in order to gain full control over the area. During this time, residents were subjected to unrestrained shelling by multiple kinds of weapons including chemical, forcing them to live in basements where they shielded their children with the faith that their frail bodies could protect them. None of this was their choice.
Ghouta survivors recount waiting for a moment of quiet between two air raids to exit their basements and look for an internet connection so that they could connect with the world outside the besieged areas and get news.
In unbesieged areas, the regime waged a psychological war through its media apparatus. A general feeling of defeat, helplessness, and abandonment prevailed over opposition circles on social media.
In February 2018, the regime launched a massive military offensive on Ghouta, backed by heavy Russian airstrikes that targeted residential areas and field hospitals. Regime forces split the area into three sectors and then shelled each of these areas heavily and continuously. Simultaneously, special passages out of Ghouta and into shelters were opened, and civilians were allowed to leave Ghouta exclusively to these shelters.
These shelters were more like detention camps. People were allowed in only after their personal data was recorded and their names cleared against the blacklists of the various security branches of the Syrian regime. Residents of these shelters were not allowed out without a guarantor. Many of the young men who left Ghouta to these shelters were forcibly taken to military service in the regime's army. In addition, residents received food allocations in a humiliating manner evidenced in leaked videos on the internet.
Official news outlets attempted to reflect a contrary image, where videos were aired showing startled civilians repeating dictated chants and slogans hailing the president and the Syrian army who saved them from the “terrorists”.
Ahmad, 23, speaks of how he convinced his family (mother, father and three young siblings) to leave through these secure passages:
My father is a peasant. He owns a farmland in Beit Sawa. The offensive started with heavy and non-stop shelling, and the regime started penetrating the area from the side of Beit Sawa. My father got entrapped in the farm and we lost contact with him. When he finally managed to return to us he told us that he hid, along with a neighbor, in a hole under ground. When the shelling halted briefly, they got out of hiding and saw the Syrian army closing in, so they decided to flee, across the fields, back to Hamouriya.
The army advanced towards Hamouriya, but we were not able to flee to Irbeen, not with my little siblings, since the road was being heavily shelled and therefore there were no vehicles for crossing that long distance. That's when I started convincing my family to exit to the regime controlled areas. They opposed at first, but the regime was advancing steadily and my ability to protect my siblings and provide food was decreasing. After long arguments, accompanied by the sounds of heavy shelling closing in, I decided to walk all the way to Irbeen, while my family would exit through the passages to the shelters.
Many families were separated, taking similar decisions. Men stayed in Ghouta in fear of arrest or forced recruitment in the Syrian army, while many women and children fled to the shelters in fear of summary executions when the army would raid their neighborhoods.
A 35-year-old woman who now stays in a shelter says:
My husband, brother and I got separated. I came here with my mother and children, while the men stayed behind and later left to Idlib. I don't know if my decision to exit through the passages was right, and I don't know if I am going to regret it, but I was escaping a certain death. I don't know if I will ever be reunited with the rest of my family members, or when and where.
Many Ghouta residents chose to stay in their homes and “settle their political status” as the Syrian army took control of the area, fearing that going to Idlib would mean being subjected to shelling and besiegement all over again. Residents who made this choice included peasants who did not want to leave their land, the elderly and the poor.
Regime forces resorted to “settlement” as an alternative to a negotiations-based holistic political approach to the conflict.
The tactic is for regime forces to launch a massive military offensive on a rebel-held area. With excessive bombing, strategically targeting key facilities such as schools and hospitals and enforcing a stifling siege, rebels are left with one of two choices: continue a futile fight until death, or agree on a settlement with the regime, often reinforced by Russian support.
Settlement conditions vary slightly between the various rebel-held held areas but share the same key points. Apart from certain military and field-related details, rebels must surrender their weapons in exchange for a cease-fire and a guaranteed exit to the northern parts of Syria (Idlib). This choice was made by those who did not want to live under the regime, fearing arrest or murder. The regime applied this scenario in tens of rebel-held areas.
Safaa, a 30-year-old teacher, talks about that choice:
My decision depended on my parents and siblings. My brothers could not stay here because the regime will force all men into either military service or imprisonment. Both my parents are old, they cannot leave their hometown after spending 70 years here. My brother was martyred and left behind a wife and two little kids who are the center of our lives, but also our responsibility. Therefore my brothers left and I stayed behind with my parents and the family of my martyred brother.
I don't know what the future will be like. Maybe there will no longer be a stifling siege, maybe there will be no more shelling, but what about my brothers? Will we stay here? Will they force us to leave at some point? Will they allow me to keep on teaching? How will my parents be able to endure living away from my three brothers?
There are no guarantees of safety from the regime and its security forces for those who choose to “settle”. Remaining men are forced into mandatory recruitment in the army and sent to the front lines, making accomplices out of the victims of shelling in shelling others. Whoever is left may also face incarceration and torture. The most recent victim of these settlements in Eastern neighborhoods of Aleppo is lawyer Mahmoud Mihyo, who was arrested and later killed under torture.
Almost 66,000 residents left Ghouta toward Idlib or rural northern Aleppo to preserve their lives. Maher, a 26-year-old man, explains his decision:
I cannot trust this regime enough to live under its rule. I know that there are people who actually settled with the regime in rural Damascus, but many of them were imprisoned, killed or dragged to forced recruitment in Assad army.
Muhannad talks about choosing to leave Douma, the last rebel-held area in Ghouta, while his family remained there:
The question is should we stay in our land, under the pretext of settlement and reconciliation, but also under the control of a regime that has been killing us for seven years using all kinds of military, civil and social weapons? Should we leave the land of our childhood, where we grew up and had children of our own; where we built relationships with our neighbors and where we witnessed happiness and sadness? Should we leave it all behind and leave? How can I take my wife and four kids from a dark reality to an unknown one? Would we be living in a camp waiting for food aid boxes? Many questions and no definitive answers.
I took the bus of the forced displacement, alone. As the bus moved, I kept looking at my wife and children. I promised them that I will be reunited with them soon wherever I will be, maybe within a month, maybe within a year. Maybe I will not be able to see them ever again. I left them with enough means to help them survive and my prayers to stay safe. I bid my final goodbyes to my parents at their graves, then to my family, and I got on the bus of forced displacement and left.
People who face forced displacement live through the hardships of starting over in light of the scarcity of resources in the areas that host the forcibly displaced, mainly in northern Syria. This is amplified by the lack of international response to their humanitarian needs.
Hassan, an 18-year-old who spent his entire adolescence under siege, talks about his dreams:
“I want to continue my studies, but I also have to work to make a living. Until this moment I haven't been able to find a good job; neither did I get the chance to continue my studies. This is because I still haven't settled well. I am trying to focus on my new life, and to live through my longing to my family, friends and neighborhood.
Ahmad describes his new beginning in Idlib:
With the money that I had, I started to sell vegetables on the street, which is my current occupation. I dream of growing my business to eventually own a supermarket so that I can make money and support my parents. There is nothing more bitter than living away from your loved ones, but I try not to think about it much so that I don't fall in depression. I try to fool myself by pretending that I am just like any traveler and that I will return home one day. Every night before I go to bed I flip through the photos of my parents, my brothers and sisters and my friends who were martyred in Hamouriya. I wipe my tears in hope that I will wake up in the morning to knowing that I can finally go home and be reunited with my family.
The international community continues to fail to find a way to stop the fatal violence in Syria. Hundreds of thousands have died from torture, hunger, and cold in refugee camps, extreme shelling or on the front lines alongside the regime forces.
Rafeef, a young woman in her 20s who left Ghouta, proclaims:
Now that I am out of Ghouta, I will make it my life purpose to tell the world the story of our displacement, of who did this to us, why he did it and what he did to us before sending us to exile.

author: Act For Ghouta


text:
In long-awaited victory, Angola’s only LGBT association receives legal recognition · Global Voices
Dércio Tsandzana

Supporters of the Iris Angola Association. Photo: Iris Angola, used with permission.
Iris Angola, one of the few associations in Africa for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) communities and the only one in Angola, has had its registration accepted by the country's Ministry of Justice after a five-year wait.
The registration was announced on Iris Angola's Facebook page on June 12, 2018, during the same month that the association celebrates its five-year anniversary. In some western countries, June also marks Pride Month for people of diverse sexualities and gender identities.
In Angola, where the law is silent regarding homosexual activity, the LGBT community lives anonymously and faces discrimination when it comes to access to healthcare and education.
The executive director of Iris Angola, Carlos Fernandes, considers this to be a historic moment for the country:
Trata-se de um momento histórico e significa um virar da página para todos os cidadãos homossexuais, que passam a ter uma entidade reconhecida pelo estado, o que dá ainda maior legitimidade às suas intervenções desta organização no quadro do trabalho que desenvolve na defesa e promoção dos direitos LGBT.
This is a historic moment and it signifies turning a page to a new chapter for all homosexual citizens, who now have a state-recognized entity, which lends even greater legitimacy to this organization and their working framework to develop interventions to defend and promote LGBT rights.
The news was also applauded by the executive director of Human Rights Watch, Ian Levine, who shared the registry document:
Boa notícia. “Angola Iris,” grupo LGBT Angolano reconhecido como associação pelo governo Angolano pic.twitter.com/QtgbkdQb60
— Iain Levine (@iainlevine) 13 juin 2018
Good news. “Angola Iris”, Angolan LGBT group, recognized as an association by the Angolan government.
The feat did not go unnoticed, receiving accolades and appreciation. In the comments under the Iris Angola post, Eridson Rudinauro wrote:
Glória a Deus… Deus no comando… Tens que enviar uma cópia autenticada para nós chefia… Agora estamos legais e podemos falar com propriedades e sem medo de nada, fazer e seguir nossas actividades legalmente, porque passaremos a pagar quota ao estado. Viva.
Glory to God… God is in charge… You need to send a certified copy to us, boss… Now we are legal and we can speak with property owners without any fear, we can conduct and continue our activities legally, because we will pay the state's quota. Hurrah.
Supporters of Iris Angola. Photo: Iris Angola, used with permission.
Meanwhile in Mozambique, the only LGBT rights association in the country, Lambda, has been waiting for more than 10 years to be registered with the Mozambican Ministry of Justice. In November 2017, a ruling from the Constitutional Council of Mozambique — equivalent to the country's Supreme Court — declared that a clause used to previously deny Lambda's registration was unconstitutional, but the Mozambican Ministry of Justice continues to leave the bid for registration unprocessed.
Iris Angola's registration, besides representing a milestone in the recognition of the rights of sexual and gender minorities in Angola, may inspire Mozambique to do the same.
The issue was raised by the United Kingdom High Commissioner in Mozambique on Twitter, noting that a new justice minister had been appointed the same week:
Perhaps the new Justice Minister of #Mozambique will finally do what could have been done some time in the last decade? #registerlambdamoz https://t.co/IoYTPF6rai
— Joanna Kuenssberg (@HCJKuenssberg) 13 juin 2018
Lambda itself also did not miss out on rejoicing over the feat achieved by their counterpart from their neighboring country:
Good news from angola! Govt registeres its first LGBTQ organization. Meanwhile, moz govt's been pushing the “cultural card” for 10yrs! #humanrightsforall, #angolahttps://t.co/UChFrCUh9c
— Lambda (@lambdaMoz) 13 juin 2018
Berta Maria Samuel, a Mozambican youth, congratulated the accomplishment of Iris Angola in the comments of the Lambda Mozambique Facebook page and expressed her wish that such an action would also happen in Mozambique:
Não sou contra, muito pelo contrário, cada um tem direito de viver como melhor se sente, hoje foi Angola e amanhã Moçambique, Força LGBT. Parabéns Angola. Gostaria mesmo de ter amigos LGBT.
I am not opposed, quite the contrary, that everyone has the right to live as they feel best, today was Angola and tomorrow Mozambique, LGBT power. Congratulations Angola. I would really like to have LGBT friends.

author: Dércio Tsandzana


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What were Global Voices’ readers up to last week? · Global Voices
L. Finch

Photo by Flickr user Hermann Kaser. CC BY-SA 2.0
At Global Voices, our community researches, writes, edits, and translates stories with a mission to support human rights and build bridges of understanding across countries, cultures, and languages.
We don't publish just to grab clicks or follow a news trend. We do, however, like to keep track of the ways in which our hard work has impact around the world.
To that end, one useful metric is how readers respond to our stories and translations. So let's take a look at who our readers were and what caught their attention during the week of June 18-24, 2018.
Last week, our stories and translations attracted readers from 201 countries! The top 20 countries represented across all of Global Voices’ sites were:
1. United States
2. Iraq
3. Saudi Arabia
4. Brazil
5. Japan
6. Turkey
7. France
8. Argentina
9. Philippines
10. Mexico
11. Spain
12. Peru
13. Syria
14. Taiwan
15. Jordan
16. Lebanon
17. Italy
18. Colombia
19. Germany
20. Bangladesh
But that's only a small slice of the diversity of our readership. Let's use the True Random Number Generator from Random.org and take a look at a few other countries on the list:
95. Ireland
158. Maldives
93. Hungary
100. Kyrgyzstan
23. United Kingdom
The English-language site is where the majority of original content is first published at Global Voices. The top five most-read stories of last week were:
1. Gangs and trade wars: What kind of Mexico awaits the new president?
2. The Nepali “sausage vine” evergreen plant is famous in the United Kingdom, yet remains unknown in Nepal
3. Guyana’s LGBT community hosts its first ever gay pride parade
4. Russians thrilled by World Cup’s kick off, despite looming pension and tax reforms
5. Can the United States connect Cubans to the internet? A historical review from the Cuban perspective
Lingua is a project that translates Global Voices stories into languages other than English. There are about 30 active Lingua sites. Below is last week's most-read story or translation on each active language site.

author: L. Finch


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Will Trinidad and Tobago’s cybercrime bill stifle media freedom? · Global Voices
Jada Steuart

“3D Data Security” photo by Chris Potter, ccPixs.com, CC BY 2.0.
Legislators in Trinidad and Tobago are taking aim at a spate of pernicious issues online — ranging from hate to phishing and fraud — with a draft cybercrime law, following in the footsteps of many governments around the world that have passed comprehensive legislation addressing online crimes.
But both journalists and users of social media networks have raised concerns over specific sections of the recently amended bill that could have a chilling effect on journalism and online speech.
First introduced in March 2014, the bill covers various cyber offences, including revenge porn, child pornography, blackmailing, hate speech, and protection of national secrets, but it originally faced criticism by the media over Clause 8, which criminalises “illegally acquiring computer data” and “receiving or gaining access to data knowing that it is obtained illegally”.
Similar to Jamaica's Data Protection Act, Trinidad and Tobago's bill has been heavily criticised for its vagueness and the severity of its penalties to journalists and whistleblowers.
Under the draft law, anyone who is found guilty of leaking “illegal” files can be subject to face up to TT $500,000 (roughly US $75,000) in fines and/or three years’ imprisonment.
While these may sound like purely criminal offenses, they could extend to things like leaks of government documents that can be instrumental for journalists and activists seeking to hold their government to account. The current version of the bill still criminalises these acts.
Such heavy penalties have the Media Association of Trinidad and Tobago (MATT) duly concerned about what it calls the “#shutuplegislation”. Multiple members of the group spoke at a recent session of the parliamentary joint select committee that is reviewing the bill.
Representing the Media Association of Trinidad & Tobago before a Parliamentary Joint Select Committee on Trinidad's proposed #Cybercrime Bill later today. The Bill threatens to undermine #pressfreedom & criminalize the work of journalists. @MediaAssocTT
— Dr. Emir Crowne (@SportsLaws) May 29, 2018
At the committee meeting, Dr. Sheila Rampersad, chair of MATT's steering committee on the issue, urged legislators to include a public interest exemption clause in the cybercrime bill. As she put it:
[a public interest exemption would] retain criminal accountability for mischief and malice, while pre-emptively protecting the constitutional rights of all citizens, organisations and institutions engaged in nation-building through greater transparency.
In an interview with Global Voices, Dr. Rampersad stressed that MATT's proposed exemption clause would “cover journalists and all other organisations and individuals working in the public interest”.
Calling the still un-proclaimed Data Protection Act “problematic and outdated”, Rampersad said that journalism would also remain vulnerable to criminal liability for defamation and libel under Section 8 of the 167-year-old Libel and Defamation Act, and that “widely divergent interpretations threaten to neutralise the best intentions of the Freedom of Information Act“.
Dr. Emir Crowne, MATT's pro bono legal counsel on the matter, added that “trade unions have traditionally been formed over surreptitiously obtained data” and that “without an exemption for matters of public interest, trade unionism is directly impacted”.
MATT first suggested the exemption clause back in 2016, during a consultation with the Office of the Attorney General, which deemed the proposal “too broad”.
Journalists are worried about the future of their profession, should the bill be passed. In one of his many pieces about the issue, Mark Lyndersay noted:
Other restrictions that are likely to cause a chilling effect show up buried in clauses like the one covering the disclosure of details of a (court) order, which restricts someone placed under an order to reveal contested information from disclosing either the fact that the order has been made or the details of the order.
Which means that a media house which has been subject to such an order cannot report on the situation.
MATT's expectation is that having itemised and analysed the undemocratic provisions and constitutional infringements in the bill, parliament's joint select committee — which comprises independent senators and opposition members — will either withdraw the bill entirely for proper review, or insert the media association's proposed public interest exemption clause.

author: Jada Steuart