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On Pakistani Activist Raza Khan, Four Months After His Disappearance · Global Voices
Guest Contributor

Pakistani activist Raza Khan with his students. (PHOTO by Aaghaz-e-Dosti, used with permission)
By Tulika Bathija
For the past four months, I have been unable find the words to express my grief over the disappearance of my dear friend, Raza Khan.
When I received the message that Raza was missing, it shook me to the fibre of my being. How was that possible? How could a man who never raises his voice, hardly argues, politely manages disagreements, and has not hurt any living being pose any threat? What would anyone gain from his disappearance?
I am unable to imagine what he might be going through now. Is he cold? Has he eaten? Has he slept? Is he hurt or in any kind of physical pain? I don’t know where he is, but it is important that we all know who Raza is and move heaven and earth to bring him back. If only I could walk across the Wagha border to look for him. If we abandon him at this hour, there is no coming back from that place of darkness.
Raza Khan is the Pakistan Convener of Aaghaz-e-Dosti (AED) and the Coordinator of Hum Sub Aik Hain, a registered organization in Pakistan that provides a platform for people to share their dreams and hopes for a peaceful Pakistan across classes and religions. He comes from a humble background and decided to pursue an education in gender studies in his 30s. Social activism, peacebuilding through education and interfaith harmony was his life’s work.
I have known Raza since 2014. We met when I was teaching at an international school in Mumbai. I reached out to AED to connect me with an individual who could put me in touch with educators and schools in Lahore, Pakistan. The person with whom AED's India convener Devika Mittal connected me was Raza. A cross-border letter exchange blossomed into a lifelong friendship. However, it is a deep regret that Raza and I have never met in person. I don’t wish to sound as though I never will, but soon I will, if not beyond the meshed wires, then in another land, one that does not prevent us from meeting, because we are supposed to be enemies and not friends.
I vividly remember the day I sent the Independence Day cards to Lahore through AED. Devika had sent me the contact details of a man named Raza Khan. The address did not have the area code. The school courier person was going to arrive any minute and I was running out of time. I got his number and made an international call to Lahore. He was in a crowded place. Later he told me he had stepped out of his class to take my phone call. I thanked him immensely for working with me on the greeting card exchange project, and he replied, “We are not doing a favour to each other. Both of us are working toward this project because we are passionate about building peace between the two countries.” That was the beginning not of a cross-border alliance to fill our Facebook wall, but a new friendship.
In March 2016, Lahore bled in the aftermath of the Gulshan-e-Iqbal blast, which had killed hundreds, mostly innocent children and their mothers. I contacted Raza to ask if my students could send solidarity cards to their peers in Lahore. Not only did he find a school where the majority of students were from the Christian community that was attacked in this blast, but he also ensured that the cards reached students who had lost siblings and friends in the horrific incident. Raza lauded my efforts, even though he was the one who did the groundwork. He had to seek contacts, build networks, and organize the delivery and distribution of the letters. He would go with his jhola bag, wearing a simple kurta and pajama. He was like Santa Claus but bringing not presents but a bagful of love, hopes and dreams.
It brings him immense joy to move hearts, to provide an education to children that taught them to question and challenge the systems that advocate for hate and animosity. He strongly believes that all children have a right to an education that gives them the freedom to meet new people, bridge barriers and break stereotypes.
As a full time, teacher, I was often very busy and even though I tried my best to make India-Pakistan networking the soul of my career in education, I was never able to do enough. The rigmarole of exams, tests, assessments and unit planning did not allow for many opportunities. It was Raza who ended up steering our future collaborations, who travelled across cities, met all my requests, initiated Skype talks, people-to-people contacts, and sometimes chased me to finalize dates. I have interacted with armchair activists who use oratory and elitist writing to promote peace. But Raza is different. From a humble Urdu/Punjabi speaking background, he rarely focuses on his own accomplishments, instead bringing to fore the voices and faces of Pakistani children, facilitating dialogue from behind the scenes and capturing their stories of friendship.
As Raza and I connected over these projects, we started discussing the role of interfaith harmony. He expressed the belief that if we cannot find a way to restore harmony in our own countries, how could we ever strengthen the ties between India and Pakistan? We discussed the possibility of creating a peace education programme. Raza, ever the visionary, saw the opportunity to construct a platform to facilitate intersecting conversations on interfaith relationships, violence, patriarchy, environmental issues and the role of arts in peace-making. His idea grew into a vibrant space called Lowkey Lokai.
After I moved to Japan we didn’t have the opportunity to work with each other again, but Raza kept the letters alive, exhibited them at influential places in Pakistan, cared for and preserved them. These letters will forever be symbolic of our friendship. He frequently asked about my well-being, my diet and about adjusting to a new country. I had shared with him the loneliness and anxiety of adjusting to a new environment, and he had offered words of comfort. I knew I was never alone, that far away in Lahore this friend would take my phone calls, even in the middle of the night. Whenever I would call him or receive a call, he would, “Good Evening, Kaise hain aap?”, the conversation beginning with his warm Lahori tehzeeb. He sent me wishes on Diwali, inquired after my parents, conveyed his best to my family, and always listened with empathy and compassion. If ever he was unable to take a call he was profusely apologetic. Eating alone at a restaurant in Japan on my birthday, I listened to a beautiful voice message from him.
If something ever happened to me this man would stand with a placard in the streets of Lahore. He would stand up for you if you had a different viewpoint from his.
Raza believes in the power of humanity; loves and cares deeply for people beyond caste, sect, creed, gender, faith and religion. The State, the people of Pakistan, and also the people of India who believe in humanity must fight for Raza’s return from wherever he has been taken. Let us bring him back.

author: Guest Contributor


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Tensions Run High in Kashmir Following Deaths of Protesters, Soldiers and Suspected Militants · Global Voices
Ieshan Wani

Group of women wait outside a shrine to see the dead body of a local militant commander killed during the gunfight with government forces in Jammu and Kashmir. Image via Instagram by author.
Indian-administered Kashmir, where a movement for self-determination has bubbled for decades, is on edge again after a string of deadly violence.
Thirteen suspected militants died in three separate gunfights with government forces during anti-militancy operations in the conflict-torn region on Sunday, April 1, 2018. Three Indian soldiers were also killed during the battles.
At the time, clashes broke out near two of the sites as locals tried to disrupt the Indian army operations and help rebels escape. Soon after the news broke about the deaths of the 13, protesters, mainly youth, took to streets. Four civilians were then killed after the Indian army opened fire on them in the Dialgam and Kachidoora villages of south Kashmir.
This is how newspapers appeared after the bloodbath.. #Kashmir pic.twitter.com/Mxv3rSCm0m
— Wasim Khalid (@WasemKhalid) April 3, 2018
Another civilian died later in Gandarbal district during clashes with local police after the protests spread there. Local police initially claimed that he had been hit by some object during clashes, but doctors have ruled out the possibility, as he had a firearm injury to his head.
Murdered by Indian occupation forces. Gowhar Rather, 22, breathes his last at SKIMS. A whole metal pellet cartridge in his skull. Another dream nipped in the bud. Another family devastated. #Kashmir mourns. pic.twitter.com/4VqLp2xhQf
— Burhan Gilani (@Katar_Koshur) April 3, 2018
One of the civilians killed in Shopian leaves behind this 17 months old child. The tragedy called Kashmir. pic.twitter.com/1IAkvq3wtP
— Shuja-ul-haq (@ShujaUH) April 2, 2018
And according to family, Mushtaq Ahmad Thakur, a civilian, was also killed during the firefight after the Indian Army had asked him to lead them toward a nearby house where suspected militants were hiding.
During a press conference, the Indian army characterized the deaths of the suspected rebels as a “special day for counter-terror operations” to avenge the killing of Lieutenant Ummar Fayaz Parry, whose bullet-ridden body was found in the village of Herman Shopian in May 2017. Army officials said two of the alleged militants killed in an encounter on April 1, 2018 were involved in his death.
Read more: The Kashmiri People Versus the Indian State
Over the past three decades, the people of the Kashmir Valley have demanded the right to hold a referendum on their independence. In that time, more than 68,000 people have been killed in sporadic uprisings and subsequent crackdowns. The Indian military has been accused of numerous human rights violations, including the enforced disappearances of over 8,000 people.
Reflection of a Kashmiri woman raising slogans is seen on a window as mourners wait outside the house of a militant, who was killed during a gun-battle with government forces in south Kashmir. Image via Instagram by author.
Reports say security forces used pellet guns on the protesters; more than 150 people have suffered injuries, with many of them hit by the pellets, some in their eyes. In the 2016 uprising, hundreds of young boys and girls either lost their eyesight completely or partially due to the pellets fired by government forces.
Kashmiri resistance leaders called for a widespread shutdown in the Kashmir valley on April 2; following that call, authorities shut down mobile internet and imposed a curfew. The government also ordered schools and colleges to remain closed and canceled or postponed several exams as the situation remains tense.

source: news-globalvoices

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

author: Ieshan Wani


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Indian Government Threatens to Revoke Media Accreditation Over ‘Fake News’ · Global Voices
Subhashish Panigrahi

Screenshot of PostCard News editor Mahesh Vikram Hegde via YouTube
The Indian Government released a statement that says that a journalist's accreditation can be cancelled if they are found to propagate “fake” or “uncomfortable” news.
The announcement came just a week after the arrest of Mahesh Vikram Hegde in Karnataka state. Hegde is the founder of PostCard News, a site that that is known for publishing unverified rumors that show a strong bias in favor of India's ruling BJP party.
The Information and Broadcasting Ministry of the Indian government, led by minister Smriti Irani, released a statement on April 2 suggesting that the Press Council of India (PCI) and the News Broadcasters Association (NBA) — the first being a quasi-judicial body and the second being a private association of news channels in the country— should be charged with determining whether news reports are “fake”.
Guidelines published by India's Ministry of Information and Broadcasting. Image under fair use.
The next day, after a huge backlash from many media houses, Indian prime minister Narendra Modi advised the Ministry to withdraw the press release, and let PCI regulate such issues.
Numerous Indian media workers openly opposed the regulation:
The sheer chutzpah of Modi sarkar. Serial promoters of #FakeNews on an industrial scale, funding shady propaganda sites, huge troll army & fake degrees galore & trying to muscle the free press
— Swati Chaturvedi (@bainjal) April 3, 2018
Both the news about the regulation and the prime minister's intervention has given rise to politically satirical tweets:
#SmritiIrani climbs down on #FakeNews order as PM #Modi steps in after outcry. My #cartoon for @firstpost #fakenewsbill
Details: https://t.co/3jshSUiIMJ pic.twitter.com/qnkHqNXcnw
— MANJUL (@MANJULtoons) April 3, 2018
Sensing mounting anger on the “fake news” notification, the PM orders a U-Turn on his own order.
One can clearly see a loss of control and panic setting in now. #BasEkAurSaal
— Rahul Gandhi (@RahulGandhi) April 3, 2018
When journalist forums like the Editors Guild of India acknowledged the prime minister's intervention, it strongly condemned the regulation in the first place and released a statement:
…The Editors Guild of India strongly condemns the arbitrary manner contemplated by the Union Information and Broadcasting (I &B) Ministry ostensibly to penalise any journalist or media organisation publishing fake news. By notifying that the I & B Ministry will initiate such proceedings, the Government was arrogating for itself the role of policing the media. It would have opened the door for frivolous complaints to harass journalists and organisations to fall in line…
The incident also raises questions about the lack of transparency around processes at PCI and the Central Press Accreditation Committee, a federal body that provides accreditation to news media representatives. If these entities became the sole decision-makers about what is — and is not — “fake news” they might fail to deliver justice.
The risks of political power holders influencing or even forcing them to behave in a certain way are great, and without transparency in their processes, it would be difficult for media workers or watchdogs to determine whether or not they were acting in the best interests of the public.
Censorship and soft power over mainstream media in India have become larger issues in the right-wing Bharatiya Janata Party's rule. Siddharth Varadharajan, Founding Editor of Indian online news portal the Wire, made reference to this in an op-ed:
[..]if implemented, [the guidelines] will place media organisations at the mercy of trolls, bureaucrats, and politicians and strengthen the already visible trend of self-censorship when it comes to politically sensitive stories[..]

author: Subhashish Panigrahi


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Tracking Russian Online Interference Teaches Valuable Lessons on Improving News Quality · Global Voices
Ivan Sigal

Profile pictures from a large network of pro-Kremlin Twitter accounts. Image by Lawrence Alexander.
With the Federal Bureau of Investigation (F.B.I.) indictment of 13 Russians for interfering in 2016 United States (U.S.) presidential elections, Global Voices (GV) revisited its extensive research into Russian online interference, underscoring the importance of open-source data and research to understand its impact.
RuNet Echo, a Global Voices initiative, began covering Russian automated bots, trolls and paid bloggers seeking to influence online news, conversations, and political campaigns as early as 2011. RuNet Echo's main purpose is to “expand and deepen understanding of the Russian Internet (RuNet) and related online communities.”
GV was the first to publish evidence of the existence of networked trolls and bot farms operating in a coordinated fashion to distort public discourse, setting the frame for much of the reporting that followed.
Through the research of Lawrence Alexander, GV was the first to demonstrate, using open source tools like NodeXL and Gephi, that specific bot networks existed on Twitter linked to the Russian troll farm run by the Internet Research Agency (I.R.A.) operating in a coordinated fashion to and from a specific location, and tied to specific accounts to disrupt and influence online discourse.
This insight put the research data and tools into the public eye and gave other researchers a trail to pursue the story further.
A December 2017 Washington Post story revisited Alexander’s research and its impact on the U.S. State Department’s understanding of Russian activities:
Frustrated U.S. officials concluded that the best information on Russia’s social media campaign in Ukraine wasn’t coming from U.S. intelligence agencies, but from independent researchers [like Alexander].
Department of State Chief Digital Officer Macon Phillips even visited Alexander in Brighton, United Kingdom (U.K.) in June 2015 to gain a full explanation of his methods.
Global Voices’ work occurred years before the story landed on the front page of the New York Times and other mainstream media outlets. Our reporting led to further research by many reporters and investigators, and eventually helped make the case about Russian activities around the 2016 U.S. presidential elections. We hope Silicon Valley companies also took advantage of this material to pursue their own investigations into the I.R.A’s manipulations on their platforms.
In 2011, GV focused on Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks against LiveJournal. Stories such as Alexey Sidorenko's “Russia: Distributed Denial of LiveJournal,” note that DDoS attacks against platforms used for political speech had been occurring since at least 2007.
The topic became an ongoing subject of research at GV, expanding from DDoS attacks to investigations into data-leak wars waged by the Kremlin, attacks on popular web forums, and the phenomenon of fake Twitter accounts in January 2012.
Sidorenko notes:
The first Russian fake Twitter users appeared long before other well known faux accounts…have developed their own particular ironic styles and have become integrated into the socio-political landscape of the Russian blogosphere.
While these fake accounts were a counter-attack by independent writers, they demonstrate the scale and impact of false identities in the Russian online space.
In February 2012, GV witnessed payoff schemes to popular bloggers to shape Russian public opinion. RuNet Echo continued to track and write about waves of DDoS attacks, spoofs, and the emerging world of fake Twitter accounts, coordinated false information campaigns, and the appearance of bot networks to influence public information at social scale.
GV tracked these attacks as they shifted targets, first against Russian opposition and activists, then against Ukrainians after the 2014 invasion, and then to attacks against Western and U.S. media, personalities, politicians, and systems, also in 2014.
By 2014, RuNet Echo editors Kevin Rothrock and Andrey Tselikov were reporting persistent attacks on Twitter of U.S. politicians and spokespeople, documenting collectives of leakers such as Shaltay Boltay (Anonymous International). At the same time, we tracked Russia's ongoing efforts to restrict access to Twitter and other social media networks and to regulate bloggers.
Journalist Max Seddon's June 2014 Buzzfeed story that discusses how a Russian troll army attacked America used Global Voices’ Alexey Sidorenko as a source.
In November 2014, GV contributor Aric Toler was the first to report in English about the existence, identity and physical location of the I.R.A. building at 55 Savushkina Street in St. Petersburg that became the focus of the 2018 FBI indictment. Location details of Russian troll farms were published in the Russian media as early as September 2013 by Novaya Gazeta, as well as by Delovoi Petersburg in November 2014.
In April 2015, Alexander published the first social network analysis to definitively reveal the scale of the Kremlin's Twitter bot campaign. In these stories, originally commissioned by Global Voices contributor Tetyana Lokot, Alexander gathered evidence of a network of at least 20,500 Twitter accounts, synchronizing their activity in a concerted effort to spread misinformation. He demonstrated that these accounts were composed chiefly of bots, and tied to a specific location and agency. Alexander's findings were also widely reported in Russian-language news outlets such as Tjournal.
Because of this work, reporters and investigators have the tools, methods and data points to identify where Twitter accounts are located and to whom they belong. Alexander's open-source data investigation means that these accounts are easier to fingerprint on the internet. His reverse-engineering of the Google Analytics code also helped identify fake news websites meant to flood news aggregators in Russia for Russian audiences.
These research techniques revealed that Russians were buying ads on Google to influence and misinform on topics ranging from the war in eastern Ukraine to U.S. and European politics.
Other reporters and researchers built on this work, looking more closely into Russian trolling. In June 2015 Adrian Chen wrote the first story on the topic in the mainstream U.S. media, in the Sunday magazine of the New York Times. His work did not include open-source techniques or data analysis but provided an in-person investigation of the I.R.A. building.
Two years later, this work provides the framework for further investigations into Russian activity. GV continues to cover the topic with dozens of related stories.
Had this research by reporters and legal investigators been better supported and investigated earlier, the evidence provided may have led to a reduction in harm or at least a greater awareness of the efforts by the Russians to disrupt democratic processes on a grand scale.

author: Ivan Sigal


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A European Union-Supported Rap Video Tries to Persuade Young Guineans Against Migrating · Global Voices
Gæsteskribent

Below is a translation by Ida Sophie Skriver Olsen of her original Danish-language report for Globalnyt, a Denmark-based international news agency. It is edited and published with the author's permission.
“Do not go, it’ll be okay.” That is the message of a recent European Union-supported music video that seeks to keep young Guineans from traveling to Europe as undocumented migrants.
In the video which has trended on YouTube, the popular Guinean rap group Degg J Force 3 target young people with the repeated message: “Do not go, it’ll be okay”. The song is titled “Falé,” which means “bridge” in Susu, a local Guinean language, and aims to discourage youth from risking the perilous journey as undocumented migrants through the North African desert and across the Mediterranean Sea.
In the last four years, an influx of people fleeing conflict and economic insecurity have arrived to Europe by sea. About 16,000 have perished or went missing in the attempt to cross the Mediterranean, according to the United Nations. Since January 2017, Guinea has ranked the third most common country of origin for arrivals, behind Syria and Nigeria.
Guinea is currently facing many political and social challenges that make it difficult for the country to retain its youth. The urban infrastructure in many cities is crumbling under the pressure of a growing population and climate change. Epidemic threats such as Ebola are never totally rid of in the region and the healthcare system is still fragile.
The “Falé” video shows two men leaving their homes, heading towards Europe in the hopes of finding prosperity in order to provide for their families. The young men meet up in the desert and a discussion unfolds about whether to go.
One of them decides to stay and upon his return to his hometown he kneels and kisses the ground. The other decides to persevere, and the video ends with a shot of his jacket washed ashore on a beach along the Mediterranean Sea.
“Do not go. The sea is killing you, death will wait for you,” the song pleads, discouraging potential migrants from making the journey northwards. This highly emotional approach is combined with a message invoking civic duty: “Undertake and succeed at home.”
The video is funded by the EU and distributed by the local department of the UN migration organization, the IOM. The February 16 launch of the video also marked the start of music group Degg J Force 3's tour through Guinea, which is being undertaken in collaboration with the IOM with the purpose of raising awareness amongst Guinean youth of the risk of migrating to Europe without a visa.
“We need a change of mentality among the youth. We have to stress that they can do anything at home and succeed,” Ablaye Mbaye, one of the singers of the rap group, states in an IOM press release on the tour.
Of course, the following question arises: Will this have an impact? Will this video clip make fewer young people leave Guinea? Two Danish migration researchers say the answer is probably not.
“I find it hard to see how this video should have a profound impact,” says Line Richter, a Ph.D. student in anthropology at the University of Copenhagen, who is doing research on the Europe-bound migration of young Malians.
Her statement is supported by Nauja Kleist, a senior researcher on migration at the Danish Institute for International Studies (DIIS): “The video will easily get attention, but I don’t think it will keep anybody from migrating”.
According to the two researchers, there are several reasons as to why the video will not have any profound impact on the choices of the young Guineans.
If those behind the video thought that creating a rap song about migration and the deadly journey to Europe was new, they are wrong. “These are topics that already play a big role in West African popular culture,” says Richter.
Young people use music to discuss matters that affect them, and since migration is a part of everyday life, the topic is already reflected in popular culture.
An example of this is the song by Malian group Van Baxy, “Tounka,” dating back as far as 2011:
“Tounka” is Bambara for strange or unknown place. Bambara is the most widely spoken language in Mali. The video shows three young men leaving their family, including their crying mother, in order to seek unknown places.
The clip has more than 250,000 views on YouTube, and young people still leave comments about their experiences on the video. A year ago, a young woman wrote: “It reminds me of the hell I lived through in Libya.” To this a young man replied: “Thank God that you are finally a European.”
In just three weeks, the version of “Falé” that was uploaded to YouTube by the Degg J group reached more than 190,000 views. The version that was uploaded by IOM and the EU had only 234 views after the same three weeks. It is thus questionable whether the young viewers even recognize that the IOM and the EU are involved in the creation of the video.
The comments below the video also show how young people use music to share and come to terms with their experiences. A young man wrote: “You guys are the best. I cried when I saw the clip and I remembered the suffering I experienced in Libya. 22 people died. May your souls rest in peace. Now I am in Italy.”
A second reason that the video will most likely have limited effect is that the images shown in the clip, of corpses in the desert and a jacket washed ashore, are not new to young West Africans.
Because of the use of the internet and social media, young people have already seen real footage of what has met other migrants who undertook the journey. As Richter says, “The real world is filmed with cell phones and it is not pretty. You can find documentary clips from the desert with dying people lying around.”
Contrary to this, “Falé” is very well produced and polished, almost Hollywood-like. It contains dramatic acting and aesthetic pictures. “It is almost aesthetics of suffering,” says Richter.
The young people choosing to migrate are to a large extent well informed about the conditions of their future journey. “Everyone is aware of the risks associated with the journey,” says Richter, continuing:
People are not naïve. They keep themselves updated through different kinds of media and social platforms and they navigate according to their information. This is reflected in the declining number of people migrating through Libya because of the circumstances (migrants sold as slaves). Young people will not think, “Oh, I learned something new,” when they see the video. They already know.
A third reason that the video might be redundant is that campaigns such as these are not seen as credible enough to change young people’s risk tolerance.
The EU’s campaigns against undocumented immigration in Europe often focus on informing the audience of the dangers associated with this type of migration. But studies show that these campaigns do not change the risk assessment and risk tolerance of the migrants, according to the DIIS statement “Migration Risk Warning Campaigns Are Based On Wrong Assumptions” from 2015.
This is, among other things, due to the lack of credibility attributed to the campaigns.
“The question is not whether migrants have access to information but rather whether they trust the information given,” says the statement. “To the extent that information campaigns are perceived as part of a larger plan to prevent migrants from reaching Europe, their credibility may be limited.”
This notion should be considered in relation to the high risk experienced when staying at home.
“If local living conditions are hopeless and insecure, risk information may be perceived as irrelevant. […] With few open channels for regular migration, information campaigns focusing only on risks tend to be little credible to an audience considering themselves already disadvantaged and at risk in their countries of origin,” the statement concludes.
Richter's research in Mali shows the same tendencies, so she doesn't think that “Falé” will have an impact, noting:
You have to take into account why people leave in the first place. It’s about poverty, the lack of opportunities for the youth and the lack of trust for change where they are within the measurable future. Most of the young people have informal jobs. This means that even though they might have a job today, they can never be sure that this is also the case tomorrow. That is why young people find it more risky to stay at home. They say: “I would rather die on the sea than stay here. If there are 100 people on a boat that sinks in the Mediterranean Sea, and one person survives, why would that not be me?’
The final reason that the video might not have a great effect is that migration – despite the dangers involved – is an established strategy for survival. In other words, an emotional rap video is not enough to change an already established practice that ensures the survival of a families.
The general opinion on migration in Europe is often that young West Africans are determined to come specifically to Europe. But that is not how it looks from the view of young West Africans themselves. In various places, especially in West Africa, migration is established as what Kleist calls “a livelihood strategy.”
For many, migration is considered a normal strategy for finding a job, “whether it is internal migration to other places in the country, migration to neighboring countries – which is the most frequent migration form, especially in West Africa – or if one travels even further away,” Kleist explains.
Thus, Europe is not always the destination for migrants. Kleist says:
Often these travels don’t have a specific place as the end goal. You might get partway and then stay there for some time to work and save some money. Then you continue and maybe stay at another place for some time. Or maybe you get deported from the country you arrive in. It is more of a movement back and forth than the clear lines towards Europe that we often see depicted.
With no jobs or income opportunities in their local communities, it is considered the most responsible choice to leave home in search of better prospects. And especially as a young person, the choice of leaving is also a choice of dignity. “There is a hope of being able to do what an adult, responsible person does: to take care of themselves and their family. It is often expected of young people that they provide for their parents and other family members,” Kleist says.
Richter agrees: “This is about bettering the situation at home. Among the youth in Mali there exists a narrative about doing something for your country. There is a fundamental mistrust that the political system will help the youth.”
For the young people to do what is expected from them and live up to the responsibilities of an adult, they seek hope outside their country. As long as the situations of their home countries don’t change, the young will head towards other places, towards “tounka.”
In “Falé,” young Guineans are encouraged to stay at home via the message: “It’ll be okay”. But in the light of the above mentioned, who can guarantee that the present situation will turn out okay?
The video – like many other campaigns from the EU – only focuses on the dangers associated with migration and is not specific about the opportunities offered to the young people at home. As Kleist states: “If they wanted to emphasize the message of staying at home, they should have shown some of the opportunities to find there.”

author: Gæsteskribent


text:
India’s Data Security Dilemma Continues With Cambridge Analytica · Global Voices
Rohith Jyothish

Image by Geralt via Pixabay. CC0 Creative Commons.
The fallout from revelations of data exploitation by Facebook and Cambridge Analytica has taken hold in India, where political leaders are accusing one another of using similar means to manipulate local elections.
The two technology companies dominated headlines for days after former Cambridge Analytica employee-turned-whistleblower Christopher Wylie revealed to the New York Times and the Observer that the UK-based data mining firm had exploited approximately tens of millions of Facebook users’ data — drawn mainly from a personality quiz — as part of their work on behalf of Donald Trump's presidential campaign. Facebook now estimates that the incident affected data from at least 87 million users.
At present, the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) party of PM Narendra Modi and its primary opponent, the Indian National Congress party, are accusing each other of using Cambridge Analytica's services while denying their own involvement with the firm.
Senior BJP Leader and Minister for Information Technology, Ravi Shankar Prasad:
What link does Cambridge Analytica have with social media management of Rahul Gandhi and Congress Party? Asks @rsprasad
— RSPrasad Office (@OfficeOfRSP) March 21, 2018
INC President, Rahul Gandhi:
BJP lying factory at work:
Journalist set to break big story on how Cambridge Analytica (CA) was paid to infiltrate and sabotage the Congress in 2012.
BJP rushes Cabinet Minister to lie and spin fake news:Congress worked with CA!
Real story vanishes.https://t.co/zMX7VJAAfa
— Rahul Gandhi (@RahulGandhi) March 23, 2018
According to the prominent tech and policy blog Medianama, the Election Commission of India partnered with Facebook on at least three occasions in 2017 to encourage young people to vote. Even though chief election commissioner O.P. Rawat has stated that they will continue the partnership with Facebook with “safeguards”, the Commission is reviewing the possibility of misuse of the association.
While Mark Zuckerberg outlined some measures on tackling the data “spillage” in a Facebook post, experts such as Chinmayi Arun, Research Director at the Centre for Communication Governance in New Delhi are not convinced:
Mark Zuckerberg is doing the gracious thing after the event has occurred. Apology isn't going to change anything. If he couldn't fathom the possibility of data leak, then, he was really negligent. 'oops, I am sorry will not work at this point of time': @chinmayiarun@AvanneDubash pic.twitter.com/Aq4kectmto
— ET NOW (@ETNOWlive) April 5, 2018
In response to the Indian government's notice to Facebook over the data breach, the company said that 335 people had accessed the personality quiz app and a total of 562,120 people in India who were friends of these people were also affected.
An investigative piece by journalist Shivam Vij links the activities of Cambridge Analytica (and its parent company, SCL Group) in India to Amrish Tyagi and Avneesh Rai, who were partners in a business venture called Ovleno Business Intelligence, a data analysis firm.
In an interview, Avneesh Rai, co-founder of the Indian counterpart to Cambridge Analytica, said that they had registered SCL India for election management by preparing an Indian voter database. Rai also told NDTV that Alexander Nix (the disgraced co-founder of SCL Group) designed survey modules with questions that Rai says cast the Indian National Congress (INC) party in a critical light, in what may have been a plot to defeat them on behalf of other political actors. Rai says that when the folly came to the fore, the project collapsed. Nix reportedly moved the elections branch of SCL Group which later became Cambridge Analytica and then left India altogether.
The Ovleno website claimed to have worked for the BJP in the Bihar Assembly elections in 2010. The LinkedIn page of one of the directors of OBI stated that he “managed 4 election campaigns successfully for the ruling party Bharatiya Janata Party”.
Amid these revelations, the Supreme Court of India is hearing a landmark case on the constitutionality of India's controversial biometrics identification programme and the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology appointed Justice Srikrishna Committee to submit its a report on data protection which will serve as the basis for India's data protection law.
This comes after a nine-judge constitution bench unanimously declared in August 2017 that Indian citizens have a fundamental right to privacy in response to the government's argument to the contrary. As a noted internet policy expert Sunil Abraham points out, if what Cambridge Analytica did in the USA pans out in India, it will not be illegal under the country's current laws.

author: Rohith Jyothish


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Netizen Report: Malaysia Outlaws ‘Fake News’ — Will Singapore Be Next? · Global Voices
Netizen Report Team

Photo by Cory Doctorow. (CC BY-SA 2.0)
With elections fast approaching, Malaysia’s parliament approved the “Anti-Fake News Law” on April 3, despite public concern that it will undermine media freedom.
On April 6, Prime Minister Najib Razak dissolved the parliament, in another move seen as part of a strategy for securing his own re-election.
The law covers text, graphic and multimedia content, and define “fake news” as “news, information, data and reports which is or are wholly or partly false.”
Violators who are found guilty of distributing such content will be subject to fines of up to 500,000 ringgit (123,000 US dollars) and a maximum sentence of six years in prison. The law also would place additional obligations on internet platforms such as Facebook, requiring them to take down false information in accordance with content removal orders, or face steep fines. An infographic by the South East Asia Press Alliance offers more detail on the law and its implications for free speech.
Meanwhile in Singapore, a parliamentary committee is considering legislation that would criminalize the spread of “deliberate online falsehoods” on the internet and social media. The committee has conducted eight days of public hearings on the matter, which included testimony from academic and cybersecurity experts from a wide range of countries, local civil society advocates, and staff of major Silicon Valley companies.
In a written submission to the committee, freelance journalist and Global Voices author Kirsten Han argued:
[the country] should be careful not to trade important principles of justice and due process for speed….Hasty measures carry the danger of according too much power to the authorities, at the expense of freedom of expression and open debate in Singapore.
Facebook and WhatsApp have been inaccessible for four days in the Chadian capital, N’Djamena. Journal du Cameroun reported that authorities have given no official reason for the block, but citizens suspect that it was triggered by clashes between young people in two neighboring cities, one of which generally supports the ruling party, while the other opposes it. Shortly before the block, a series of angry videos aimed at the ruling party were posted on Facebook.
In a recent radio interview, Alaeddin Boroujerdi, chairman of Iran's Parliament National Security and Foreign Policy Commission, said top officials had agreed on plans to block Telegram, a popular mobile messaging app. Founded in Russia, but now registered in the US and the UK, Telegram does not have offices or servers in Iran.
Boroujerdi said the decision was based on national security concerns, and that a local version of the app would be launched and promoted in its place. However, President Hassan Rouhani has publicly opposed the move, arguing in an interview with Tasnim News that “the goal of creating and enhancing Iranian software and messaging apps should not be blocking access [to other apps], but [the goal] should be the elimination of monopolies.”
With more than 40 million users in Iran — out of a total internet user population of 50 million — Telegram is far and away the most commonly used messaging app in the country. The app was blocked in Iran during protests that began in the final days of 2017 and lasted until mid-January 2018. On the heels of this controversy, Russia's telecom regulator has asked a court to block Telegram in Russia, on the grounds that the company refused to hand its encryption keys to state authorities.
The governor of Chiang Mai, a city in northern Thailand, filed a criminal complaint against English-language magazine Citylife Chiang Mai over an image posted on the magazine’s Facebook page. Created by a local teenager, the image depicts a famous local statue of three ancient Thai kings with gas masks superimposed on their faces. It was intended to support the “Right to Breathe” protest in Chiang Mai, where pollution levels have risen dramatically in recent years. The governor claims the magazine is in violation of Thailand’s Computer Crime Act.
Ugandan President Yoweri Musveni is promoting a controversial plan to charge social media users a daily fee for their use of platforms such as WhatsApp, Skype, Viber and Twitter. The proposed tax scheme makes ample reference to the fact that these applications provide “over-the-top” or OTT communication services that allow users to make calls over the internet, rather than paying local telecommunication service fees to make calls. Multiple members of parliament, companies including MTN, Uganda’s largest telecom company, and civil society groups oppose the legislation.
Senior officials in Zimbabwe’s ICT Ministry have announced the impending launch of a new national communications surveillance infrastructure that they are comparing to the likes of the National Security Agency in the United States. Although details of how the system works and the extent of its deployment have not been released, Spotlight Zimbabwe reported that security experts from the Chinese, Russian and Iranian governments assisted in its development.
An investigation by the Norwegian non-profit research group SINTEF revealed that Grindr, the popular LGBTQ dating app, shared sensitive health data, including users’ HIV statuses and “last tested” date, with at least two third-party companies. The two companies, Apptimize and Localytics, were under contract with Grindr to help them improve their services.
A Tumblr post by Grindr Chief Technology Officer Scott Chen explained the company “…restricted data shared to that which was appropriate for the services they are providing and encrypted it when providing it to the contractors. This data from HIV status fields was used to test and support development of a new features, like our recently released HIV Test Reminders.” Three days after the report was made public, Grindr pledged to discontinue all sharing of HIV-related user data with third parties.
During a recent interview with Vox, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg touted Facebook’s efforts to curb mass messaging efforts intended to incite violence between Buddhists and Muslims, at the peak of the conflict in Myanmar’s Rakhine state in late 2017. In response, a coalition of civil society and digital rights groups in Myanmar wrote an open letter to Zuckerberg, telling their side of the story and demonstrating how the incident showed flaws — not efficiencies — in Facebook’s system. They wrote:
From where we stand, this case exemplifies the very opposite of effective moderation: it reveals an over-reliance on third parties, a lack of a proper mechanism for emergency escalation, a reticence to engage local stakeholders around systemic solutions and a lack of transparency.
Afef Abrougui, Ellery Roberts Biddle, Rohith Jyothish, Weiping Li, Leila Nachawati, Mong Palatino, Karolle Rabarison, Juke Carolina Rumuat and Sarah Myers West contributed to this report.

author: Netizen Report Team


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Singapore’s Economic Success ‘Comes at the Sacrifice of Humans Rights,’ Says Activist Han Hui Hui · Global Voices
Loa

Screenshot of Han Hui Hui from her YouTube account.
This article by Kathy Triệu is from Loa, a news website and online radio project of Việt Tân that broadcasts stories about Việt Nam. It is republished by Global Voices as part of a content-sharing agreement.
Han Hui Hui is a 26-year-old activist in Singapore. Though young, she has inspired the ire of Singaporean officials over the last four years for her efforts to raise awareness of the stifling political environment in Singapore and restrictions on speech and assembly.
In 2017, Hui Hui was scheduled to attend a human rights conference in Malaysia, but when she arrived she was deported upon the demands of the Singaporean authorities.
She continues to resist the government’s attempts to suppress her right to free expression, by speaking at international forums such as the Internet Freedom Festival in Spain, which she attended for the first time in March 2018.
Kathy Triệu (KT): This is Kathy Triệu reporting from the Internet Freedom Festival in Valencia, Spain. I’m here with Han Hui Hui from Singapore, who is an activist, and who led a session on our first day here. What would you like to tell people about Singapore?
Han Hui Hui (HHH): I think the only thing that Singapore has is [this] so-called “economic success”, and we do not have any human rights at all. This economic success is actually at the sacrifice of Singaporeans, especially in the public housing, public healthcare, as well as employment. Singapore has an economic success that is being admired by countries all around the world. But, it comes at the sacrifice of humans rights in Singapore. The first thing is public housing. Singapore is the only country in this world that doesn’t spend a single cent from a cash-flow perspective on public housing. Second, is public healthcare. We actually have [a] compulsory insurance scheme, the government forces people to buy, on top of private insurance. With this insurance scheme, the total premium that the government collects is actually more than the total amount of claims that the government actually have to pay out every year. The third thing is the right to retirement. In this scheme the government forces people to set aside about 30 to 40 percent of their salary.
KT: When I was at your session, I found it very interesting the way that the government has created laws in response to your activities. Could you tell me about some of those laws?
HHH: In Singapore, you can only protest in a park. It’s a very sad scene in Singapore. Just imagine, the government says that you can protest, but it’s only in a park. It’s as good as asking you not to protest at all. You want to protest outside government agencies. You want to be able to express your freedom of assembly anywhere you want, but in Singapore, it’s only at this park.
On September 27, 2014, through a lot of effort that we put in through 2013 all the way to 2014, we managed to get more than 6,000 Singaporeans to protest at this park. On that day, the government actually sent a minister there, and tried to set up all kind[s] of entrapments against us. They provoked the protesters into doing a lot of things. We are thankful the international community spoke up against it and supported us. But, ever since that incident on September 27, 2014, scenes of protest in Singapore actually disappeared. Nobody gathered at this park anymore, lest to say there are any protests. That was the biggest protest ever, since in the 21st century for Singapore. Since this protest, the government investigated about 20 people, and charged six of us. I was one of them. They disqualified me from standing for parliamentary elections because of this protest. Which means in the next elections, I won’t have the ability to stand.
KT: How were they able to ban you from participating in that election?
HHH: In Singapore, there is this law that says that if you have ever been fined more than 2,000 Singaporian dollars [1,520 US dollars], you would not be able to stand for election. In Singapore before you can protest, you have to tell the government you are going to protest. On their protest website, they have three options. You have to either give a speech, or you’re holding a protest, or you’re singing, which is performance. You can only click one of the options. I always click speech; all of us click speech. But, if you click speech, you will be charged for demonstration. And if you click demonstration and give a speech, you will be charged for giving a speech. Because of this glitch in the government website, the government [was able to] fine me 3,100 Singaporian dollars [2,360 US dollars] for giving a speech and protesting at the same time. It is more than the 2,000 benchmark. For that, I won’t be able to stand for election. This is the first time the government charged a person for protesting at the park; it has never ever happened before.
I’m not sure why they target me. Last year, in June, I went to Malaysia for a human rights event. I stopped posting online for about three months. I did not respond to anyone through my phones or email because I know they’re being surveilled. It was strange because for the first time in Singapore’s history they told the Malaysian government to deport me back to Singapore to stop me from attending the event. They said, “I’m a national threat, and if were to go in I would affect their bilateral relationship.” With that, Malaysian immigration deported me back to Singapore.
KT: How has the government responded to your creative ways of going about expressing your thoughts?
HHH: I think the government responds by creating more laws. The reason why I even started protesting was they sent me a letter to sue me for defamation in 2013. That was when I realized something was wrong so I tried to question it. I did some research, and I realized in Singapore there’s this park where you can protest. That was when we actually held our first protest.
They also created a lot of different laws. Last year I was imprisoned. After my imprisonment, I came out and I talked about how inhumane the treatments were towards the inmates.
KT: In Việt Nam, we face also very stark conditions for activists, journalists, bloggers. The way the government represses speech is very different. We have three penal codes often used to convict activists, such as Article 79 that talks about “conducting activities aiming to overthrow the government.” The case in Singapore is very different. It seems over the past few years more laws have been created to repress speech. What are some ways in which you are trying to approach this problem? How will you continue to organize even with the creation of all these laws?
HHH: The other thing is, I think a lot of Việt Nam government officials are being trained in Singapore now, and they [may] bring a lot of laws back to Việt Nam. Even though we are so-called “have a lot of laws,” they all stem down to criticizing the government and asking for transparency and accountability. I think as a region, we need to support each other because Singapore is seen as the leader right now, and all other countries are following these laws. By having so many laws that they are trying to suppress the citizens. They can say, “everyone is being charged with different laws, so they are not against [anyone specifically].” But the fact is all this is being used against the people. If the government would just care for the people and [protect] fundamental rights to housing, healthcare, education, nobody would be criticizing them. Nobody would even believe in us.
On the last day of the Internet Freedom Festival, Kathy Triệu caught up with Hui Hui once more to ask her how her week went.
HHH: I think this is a very interesting week for me because it’s the first time Singapore is here. I realized a lot of people were really shocked when I tried to share about what’s happening in Singapore with the numerous laws that have come out against freedom of expression. I also learned a lot from other people in other countries. In my country we have a lot of propaganda telling us we are the best and other countries are bad. But actually I realized there’s a lot we can learn from each other.
KT: Do you have any other words you want to share?
HHH: I hope that countries around the world don’t follow the Singapore model. Advocate and have your independent labor unions and student unions because we don’t have that in Singapore. Appreciate everybody who is fighting for you because in Singapore, everybody has left for asylum or is in exile. It’s very lonely when you’re fighting alone in Singapore.
This is part of Loa's special coverage of the 2018 Internet Freedom Festival. Listen to the interview which starts at 6:11.

author: Loa


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Why Spring Brings Both Joy and Pain to Afghanistan · Global Voices
Ezzatullah Mehrdad

Photo Courtesy: Hazara World. People in Daikundi province of Afghanistan attend a ceremony on the occasion of Nawruz.
For many living in the part of Eurasia where Persian and Turkic languages dominate, the festivities of Nawruz beginning March 21 mark not just the start of spring, but New Year itself.
In Afghanistan, however, the occasion is not universally celebrated, and the holiday's pagan roots are a point of conjecture between different groups.
Moreover, the warmer weather also brings with it a traditional uptick insurgent violence.
This year, Afghan President Ashraf Ghani has attempted to check the onslaught with a renewed and emboldened offer of peace to the Taliban. But there is no sign yet that the group is ready to sign up for talks.
Social media timelines were flooded with good wishes and hopes for peace and stability as Nawruz (also spelled Nowruz and Noruz) arrived last month. Celebrations of the spring equinox observed by the ancient Zoroastrians continue well into April.
So great to see fellow citizens coming all the way from south of the country for #nowruz, dancing & playing traditional sports at the city squares in #Mazar (at 10pm) with others flying sky lanterns. May the new year shower this country with peace, security, empathy & solidarity pic.twitter.com/lhS1j4WcBc
— Tahir Qadiry (@tahirqadiry) March 20, 2018
May the coming year take you on the path to glory where all your endeavors become glorious and your life becomes a success story. Happy #Nowruz pic.twitter.com/dxeglm5zdi
— Saleha Soadat (@SalehaSoadat) March 20, 2018
NawRuz Mubarak, NawRuz Peroz. Happy New Year to all those who celebrate the first day of Spring as the first day of New Year. #Afghanistan #Kurdistan #Iran #Tajikistan
— Zalmay Khalilzad (@realZalmayMK) March 20, 2018
This is the Afghanistan that could be – an Afghanistan of color, music, and smiles.
This is a village in Daikundi, celebrating Nawruz.
(Pics by Hazara World, via . @dailyetilaatroz ) pic.twitter.com/d0FcOWoS33
— Mujib Mashal (@MujMash) April 1, 2018
However, religious hardliners have little time for the holiday, and Facebook was once again a platform to witness the country's divides, as much as its togetherness.
In one popular post, conservative public figure Hiatu Adden Sahebi implored residents of Mazar-i-Sharif in the strongest terms not to mark Sizadabar, the 13th day of Nawruz, on April 2.
سنت سیزده به‌در همان کار گوسفندان در چراگاه است. دشت شادیان مزار را به مکان فحشا و شراب‌خوری مبدل نسازید تا در غضب الهی گرفتار نشوید. از مولویان شهر خواهش می کنم بیاید دست به دست هم داده از فحشا جلوگیری کنیم
Observing Sizdabadar is like being a sheep that roams wild in the grasslands. Do not turn the Shadyan desert of Mazar into a hub of depravity and entangle oneself with divine wrath. I ask the Mullahs of [Mazar-i-Sharif] city to prevent such depravity.
As usual, however, the day saw families take advantage of the warming weather by camping out in the hills and holding feasts.
This year Nawruz was marred by tragedy, after a suicide bomber blew up himself near a Shiite shrine in Kabul March 21, claiming at least 32 lives and wounding scores of others.
Even on #Nowruz, innocent celebrating #Afghans are targeted 4 trying to live a basic, normal life, despite so much chaos, violence & poverty imposed on them. #Casualties higher than reported here, thanks to #Taliban 4 their direct or indirect role in this & so many other attacks. https://t.co/3iGHNaEudT
— M. Ashraf Haidari (@MAshrafHaidari) March 21, 201
The militant group ISIS claimed responsibility for the bombing, saying the attack targeted Shi’ites.
Spring is also the period that sees the Taliban intensify its attacks on the Western-backed government, with civillians typically caught in the crossfire.
At the end of February Afghan President Ashraf Ghani reached out to the Taliban with an unprecedented offer of peace that included the possibility of the group being able to form its own political party.
The peace offer was made “without preconditions” and pledged security for the Taliban and their families if the group disarmed.
Taliban members would also have their names removed from blacklists maintained by the United Nations and the United States under the proposed agreement.
However, the group that has swathes of Afghanistan under its control despite splintering has yet to provide an official response to Ghani's offer.

author: Ezzatullah Mehrdad


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With Elections Approaching and Parliament Dissolved, Will Malaysia’s Anti-Fake News Law Become a ‘Political Weapon’? · Global Voices
Mong Palatino

Journalists, activists, and politicians protest the suspension of a magazine which published a corruption expose involving top government officials in 2015. Flickr photo by Sham Hardy (CC BY-SA 2.0)
Malaysia's parliament passed the “Anti-Fake News Law” on April 3, 2018 amid concerns that the law will be used to silence the opposition and critics ahead of the General Election (GE14), which will take place in the near term.
On the heels of the law's approval, Prime Minister Najib Razak dissolved the parliament on April 6, in another move seen as part of a strategy for securing his own re-election.
Malaysia’s ruling coalition has held power since the 1950s, but recent events have cast doubt over its staying power. The PM has been linked to several corruption cases which could undermine the electoral chances of his party. These include accusations that he channeled more than two billion Malaysian Ringgit (nearly USD $700 million) from the 1MDB government economic development company to his personal bank account, a story that was widely reported by local media and denounced by the ruling party.
Malaysia is the first Asian country to pass an anti-fake news law, though similar policies have been considered in the Philippines and Cambodia. More than 11,000 people signed online petitions opposing the Malaysian law.
The government insists that the new law is necessary to combat fake news and protect the reputation of innocent people. But various groups argue that the law could undermine free speech and other civil liberties.
The law defines fake news as “any news, information, data and reports, which is or wholly or partly false, whether in the form of features, visuals or audio recordings or in any other form capable of suggesting words or ideas”.
For critics of the law, this definition is too vague and can be easily abused by authorities.
Those found guilty of publishing fake news content could serve a prison term of up to six years and be ordered to pay a fine of up to 500,000 Malaysian Ringgit (UDS $129,000).
Third-party apps, website administrators, and online forum moderators are also held liable if they do not swiftly remove fake news content that is uploaded and distributed via their platforms.
The law allows any person to petition a local court for the removal of a fake news content. If the court decides in favor of the petitioner, the order can be served by sending it to the social media accounts of the accused.
The government can expedite the application for the removal of a fake news content if it involves public order or national security.
Abetting and funding the publication of fake news are also criminalized under the law. The wording of this part of the law could be subject to broad interpretation, to include subscription to news websites or even crowd-sourcing initiatives.
The law also intends to prosecute persons and companies promoting fake news about Malaysia, even if the accused is living or operating outside the country.
Eric Paulsen of the local Lawyers for Liberty group described the law as the “death knell for freedom of speech and the press in Malaysia”:
It is an extremely vague Bill: it does not clearly define the malicious falsehood required for the offence, the severity of the ‘fake news’ required before attracting criminal culpability, or the defences that are open to persons accused of publishing ‘fake news’.
He is concerned that the overly broad definition of fake news as stipulated in the law could outright criminalize the work of journalists and researchers:
This Bill threatens to make a mockery of this cornerstone of our democratic rights by declaring all news regardless of the content, whether it is serious or trivial, that are wholly or partly false as a crime, unless of course the authorities determine otherwise.
George Varughese of the Malaysian Bar compares the broad scope of the law to terrorism-related laws and labels it as “legislative overkill”:
Sensitivities about the reputation of Malaysia by way of negative comments and criticisms can now be attacked through an extremely wide extra-territorial application of the proposed legislation, putting this in the same category as international terrorism, cross-border corruption, money-laundering, and trafficking in persons. While this issue should not be ignored, the proposed broad-based law to criminalise the dissemination of news amounts to legislative overkill.
Several analysts also argued that the government can address the fake news problem by reviewing the country’s laws on slander, libel and defamation.
Maria Chin Abdullah, the former chairperson of the Bersih (“reform”) movement and an independent candidate in the upcoming general election, warned that the law could be used as a “political weapon” of the ruling party against the opposition:
With GE14 looming, the passing of the bill becomes even more harmful as it aims to put fear into members of the opposition whose role in politics is to question the government on issues of policy and governance.
[…]
It does appear however that the Anti-Fake News Bill is yet another dressed-up political weapon to pacify dissenting voices and it should be retracted if Malaysia is ever to become a model of a democratic nation.
Malaysian NGO Suaram believes that the rush in passing the law reflects the desperation of the ruling party:
The ruling party was rendered powerless to defend itself against legitimate criticism and news detrimental to its political survival and seek to have a new law with arbitrary reach to clamp down on freedom of expression with the guise of criminalizing ‘fake news’.
Civil society groups bemoaned the lack of public participation in drafting the law:
Any efforts to genuinely tackle the spread of misinformation online must be approached in a transparent, consultative manner and avoid broad criminal restrictions on speech.
The Center to Combat Corruption & Cronyism reminded the government that promoting transparency is an important factor in defeating fake news:
…the bedrock that dispels disinformation is government transparency. If the government operates on an information framework, instead of one premised on secrecy, and produces information proactively according to open data principles, fake news itself will be greatly mitigated.
The Southeast Asian Press Alliance said the law targets both mainstream media and independent journalism
It’s a bit sad that the issue of fake news is now being used by politicians in the region against the media to target independent journalism. At its core, ‘fake news’ is a governance problem, as these are produced to mislead the public by pretending to be real news. Real journalists do not produce fake news. They do, however, make mistakes, and they correct these mistakes as part of responsible journalism.
But not all are worried about the passage of the law.
Salleh Said Keruak, Malaysia’s Minister of Communications and Multimedia, wrote on his blog about the importance of the law. He also clarified that it is not the government but the courts which will decide via an independent legal process if a particular content is fake news. He urged the people not be afraid of the law:
To be properly informed is the very least that the Malaysian people deserve. The opposition and some of the media outlets that support them seem to disagree. They may prefer, spin, smears and outright lies – but the Government will continue to fight for the truth.
The only people who need to be afraid of our Anti-Fake News Bill 2018 are not those who convey honest opinions, and report conscientiously and truthfully according to proper journalistic protocols. No, the only people that need to be afraid are those that broadcast or pass on fake news – or lies, to you and me.
Azalina Othman Said, a Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department, maintains that the law will not curb free speech. She also explained the reason for providing a long prison term for those convicted of violating the law:
The bill is of a deterrent nature, to give a clear message that each individual should be responsible for the sharing of true and healthy information…The bill will also give a clear message that the government will not compromise in the matter of dissemination of fake news that can undermine public order or national security, and will continue to ensure that national security is preserved.
Blogger Rocky's Bru wants the government to review some aspects of the law but he also believes it will benefit journalists:
If anyone were to benefit, it will be these media organisations, whose job it is to always verify the news that it sends out. I believe that fake news has, to quite a great extent, damaged the credibility of traditionally-trained journalists.
With elections on the horizon, time will soon tell if these guarantees of government officials hold, or if civil society's concerns prove valid.

author: Mong Palatino


text:
How ‘Power Harassment’ and ‘Karoshi’ Continue to Cause Serious Problems for Japanese Workers · Global Voices
Michael Peckitt

The sign reads, ” Please recognize the death of a 20-year-old youth who was worked to death due to ‘power harassment’ as a work-related death.” Photo by Global Voices contributor.
In March 2018, three activists handed out leaflets and tried to collect signatures at the JR Rokkomichi railway station, in the Nada ward of the city of Kobe. The trio wore blue bibs over their jackets with a message written in Japanese that read:
パワハラ長時間労働による20歳の若者の死を労災であると認めでください
Please recognize the suicide of a 20-year-old youth due to ‘power harassment’ as a work-related death.
The leafleters were attempting to focus public attention on the death of Maeda Hayato, which the protesters claim was as a result of “power harassment“, or workplace bullying. Before he committed suicide, Maeda worked at Goncharoff Chocolate, a popular regional confectioner with a sales outlet in the Kobe railway station.
According to a December 2017 Sankei Shimbun story about his suicide, Maeda joined the Goncharoff team when he was just 20 years old and worked at one of their plants to the east of Kobe. The article noted that Maeda's scheduled work hours quickly increased which meant that, on top of being ignored or yelled at by his boss, he would often rack up as much as 109 hours of overtime per month. Maeda eventually committed suicide by throwing himself on to train tracks at JR Settsu-Motoyama train station in Kobe on June 24, 2016.
“Power harassment” in the Japanese context includes scheduling work hours at odd times, forcing employees to work overtime with no pay, verbal intimidation, and emotional abuse. The country's approach to management philosophy (known as the “emperor system”) is very hierarchical, which makes the power harassment phenomenon more common.
While “power harassment” is being cited as one contributing factor to the suicide, Maeda's death after his incredibly long overtime hours resembles “karoshi“, or “death from overwork”. As workers in countries that are part of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) struggle with achieving a work-life balance, “karoshi” has been recognized for nearly forty years as a serious problem in Japanese working culture. A recent white paper published by the Japanese government reported that at one in five companies, employees risk seriously damaging their health by putting in 80-plus hours of overtime each month.
While generally used as a colloquialism (and not actually defined when referring to working conditions), Japanese doctors often ascribe the word “karoshi” to sudden death due to heart failure or stroke — as well as suicide — following excessive work. While labor laws in Japan are supposed to limit working hours, employers will often force employees to work off the clock without pay. There are other labor laws that allow employees to formally consent to work overtime if needed.
There are approximately 200 deaths from overwork each year in Japan, but perhaps the most high-profile incident in recent times was the suicide of Takahashi Matsuri, an employee at the prestigious Japanese advertising firm, Dentsu. Takahashi worked 105 hours of overtime at Dentsu the month before she committed suicide and tweeted that she only slept two hours a night.
Japanese courts ruled that Takahashi's death was caused by overwork, and after some pressure from the media, the president of Dentsu resigned in December 2016. A subsequent investigation found that Dentsu violated labor regulations, and the advertising company was fined 500,000 yen (US$4,400). No managers were prosecuted.
電通事件、検審に申し立て　高橋まつりさん母　元上司の不起訴不服｜東京新聞 https://t.co/tEZ1z9Zqs4 pic.twitter.com/oDRNeEZFdd
— ⛵motty⛵ (@novtnerico) January 26, 2018
Mother of Dentsu's Takahashi Matsuri unhappy with inquest decision not to indict supervisors.
While Dentsu has promised to reduce working hours by 20% in the coming years, as well as encourage remote working, “karoshi” still remains a social problem in Japan. In 2016, an employee at a power plant died — as well as a second worker at Dentsu — allegedly due to overwork. More recently, a man in northern Japan died after regularly working more than 80 hours of overtime per month.
Even as “karoshi” is recognized as a social problem, the Japanese government is doing little to discourage the practice. In order to deal with labor shortages and low productivity, the Abe government recently planned to loosen Japan's laws regulating overtime, making it easier for employees to work more. Due to faulty data, the government has shelved this idea for the time being.
Meanwhile, apart from a Sankei Shimbun interview with his mother, Kazumi, Maeda Hayato's death has received little attention in the Japanese press. But Maeda Kazumi is resolute and is seeking compensation from his former employer for her son's untimely death. While Goncharoff waits for the local labor bureau's decision, a mother is still without her child. As Maeda Kazumi told the Sankei Shimbun, “I feel sad that I lost my bright and gentle son.”

author: Michael Peckitt


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With the Election of Its First Afro-Descendant Vice President, Costa Rica Takes a Step Forward in the Fight Against Racism · Global Voices
Shirley Campbell Barr

Epsy Campbell Barr during her campaign in the 2018 elections as candidate for the vice presidency of the Republic of Costa Rica. Photograph by MadriCR, shared under a Creative Commons license (Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International).
The final weeks before the Costa Rican presidential elections kept many on the edge of their seats. In the second round of votes there were two candidates with a gulf of differences: Carlos Alvarado of the Citizen Action Party (a party already in power) and Fabricio Alvarado of the National Restoration Party.
Of the two candidates, Fabricio Alvarado alarmed human rights activists and the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer and intersex (LGBTQI) community by rejecting to defend the rights of sexual and gender minorities and promising a government that would support the “fundamental values of Costa Rica” which included a traditional vision of the family and the ideals of evangelical Christianity.
However, Carlos Alvarado came out on top. His victory caused celebrations that extended beyond Costa Rica because his vice presidential running mate was Epsy Campbell Barr, an economist by profession and activist for the rights of the Afro-descendant people.
That means Campbell Barr is now the first Afro-descendant woman vice president in not only Costa Rica, but the Americas.
The demonstrations of support have been massive, especially from Latin American Afro-descendant movements, who see Campbell Barr as an important triumph in the fight to access spaces of power and create policies of inclusion for people of African descent, who make up about 30% of the population on the continent.
Racism is prevalent in Latin America, but the ways in which it is structured have evolved over the years and aren't always obvious. Creating awareness of these systems and their consequences is part of the work of a large number of activist groups and human rights defense associations.
In this regard, Argentine media organization Emergentes highlighted the importance of Afro-descendant communities having government representation and discussed Campbell Barr's victory in relation to the death of Winnie Mandela, a well-known South African anti-apartheid activist.
Emergentes reported testimonies from different figures (including one of the authors of this article) as well as recent incidents of racism that have been given coverage by the media, to emphasize the global and complex nature of the problem:
…flagelos como la segregación, racismo y discriminación si bien no se muestran en las formas antiguamente conocidas, ahora mutaron y se diversificaron, adoptando posturas modernas que no distinguen entre sus practicantes a grandes o chicos.
… scourges such as segregation, racism and discrimination, although they are not visible in the old-fashioned ways, have now mutated and diversified, adopting modern positionings that do not distinguish between their practitioners, big or small.
In the article, Jenniffer Mayren Urrutia Briñez, an international publicist and the founder of A-fro, a news and lifestyle site aimed at Afro-descendant readers, pointed out the great impact that Campbell Barr's election as vice president has had:
Ha sido un camino difícil para la comunidad afrolatinoamericana para abrirse espacio en la política, así que el hecho de que una mujer afrodescendiente llegue a ocupar este cargo, se ha convertido hoy en día en un hecho inolvidable
It has been a difficult path for the Afro-Latin American community to open up space in politics, so the fact that a woman of African descent reached this position, has now become an unforgettable event.
She continued:
Este momento lo estamos esperando hace mucho, ya que es una forma de reivindicar no sólo a la comunidad negra costarricense, sino a toda la comunidad negra de América Latina. Es la forma de visibilizar nuestra existencia, las raíces afrodescendientes, la multietnicidad y multiculturalidad que existe en nuestros países, además de la importancia de la valoración a nuestra contribución en este continente.
We have been waiting for this moment for a long time, since it is a way of reclaiming not only the Costa Rican black community, but the entire black community of Latin America. It is the way to make visible our existence, the Afro-descendant roots, the multiethnicity and multiculturalism that exist in our countries, besides the importance of valuing our contribution on this continent.
On Twitter, academic Cristina Burneo agreed with the importance of linking Campbell Barr's election with other places in the region in which activism, public service and the struggle for people of African descent have had tragic losses, such as in Brazil and Ecuador:
En Brasil, asesinaron a Marielle Franco. En Ecuador, asesinaron a Gavis Moreno. En Costa Rica, gana Epsy Campbell Barr. Las mujeres afro vivas hoy honran la memoria de las mujeres asesinadas.
— ? cristina burneo s. (@cristinaburneos) April 2, 2018
In Brazil, they murdered [human rights activist] Marielle Franco. In Ecuador, they murdered [women's prison director] Gavis Moreno. In Costa Rica, Epsy Campbell Barr wins. Afro-descendant women living today honor the memory of the murdered women.

author: Shirley Campbell Barr


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A Rural-Born Peace Movement Turns Heads Amid the Carnage of the Afghan War · Global Voices
Ezzatullah Mehrdad

Photo Courtesy: Mohmmad Omar Lemar. Used with permission. Residents of southern Helmand province launch a peace march.
Car bombings in Afghanistan's flash point Helmand province are sadly ordinary events, but one particularly devestating blast that took place recently has had surprising consequences.
In Lashkar Gah, the administrative capital of Helmand, which is known as a Taliban group political heartland and a centre of opium production, a car bomb went off at a wrestling match, killing 14 people and wounding dozens.
One day after the March 23 blast, hundreds of Helmand residents began a sit-in camp, demanding a two-day cease-fire between the Taliban group and the Afghan government, with around 30 activists going on hunger strike.
Both the government and the Taliban group rejected the two-day ceasefire demand.
In an interview given to the New York Times, one striker, Qais Hashimi, blasted both the Taliban and the Afghan government as “foreign puppets”, before adding:
Our blood is finished, our tears have dried. We will not say another word. We will not eat.
Six hunger strikers were hospitalized during the action.
Eventually members of the province's Ulema Council (religious scholars council) intervened and pushed the strikers to end the hunger strike. The council, however, promised to work jointly with the protesters to lobby for peace.
Women, who are rarely visible outside homes in the conservative province, also launched their own sit-in camps in a defiant show of anti-war solidarity that comes as the Taliban stall on proposed peace talks.
The Helmandi mother who lost her 18 years old son on fridays attack, call on Taleban for a peace deal.#Helmand #peace #tent pic.twitter.com/r3OHagRh9e
— Sharif Amiry (@sharifamiry1) April 5, 2018
The protesters, who have called themselves a “People’s Movement”, also vowed to carry out a peace march to the Taliban-controlled town of Musa Qala.
The movement cannot easily be depicted as controlled by “outside forces” or “elites”, a point made succinctly by Twitter user Sayed Madadi.
The protest in #Helmand may succeed, it may not. But there is something that sets it aside from the rest: it isn't an elite movement by western educated youth in #Kabul. It is one led by rural Afghans from whom the #Taliban allegedly derive their legitimacy, if there is any.
— Sayed Madadi (@MadadiSaeid) March 31, 2018
The peace camp soon expanded to other parts of Helmand before residents of Herat and Farah provinces in western Afghanistan joined up too. Then the movement reached Afghans in eastern Paktia province, where a small group established their own sit-in.
Price of civic protest again war is much less than the price of silence. #Afghanistan have lost more because of indifference of majority not rising against war mongers, national & intl. criminal mafia network & dug dealers in the last 4 decades. Proud of #Helmand civic protest.
— Shahmahmood Miakhel (@S_MIAKHEL) March 30, 2018
While avowedly neutral, the sit-in camps put fresh pressure on the Taliban after Afghan President Ashraf Ghani reached out to the group with a generous peace offer at the end of February.
The offer on the table included recognition of the Taliban group as a political party, the release of Taliban prisoners and efforts to remove the Taliban’s leaders from international sanctions lists.
But the Taliban group has yet to provide an official response to Ghani’s offer.


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Amid Crackdown on Dissent, Six Vietnamese Human Rights Activists Are Dealt Long Prison Sentences · Global Voices
Loa

Cấn Thị Thêu, a prominent land rights activist, leads the march with her son, Trịnh Bá Tư. The placard reads: “Justice for the Brotherhood for Democracy.” Photo: Facebook screen grab/Trịnh Bá Tư
This article by Kathy Triệu is from Loa, a news website and podcast of Viet Tan that broadcasts stories about Vietnam. It is republished by Global Voices as part of a content-sharing agreement.
Six activists were sentenced to between seven and 15 years in prison on charges of subversion after a one-day trial in Hanoi. These are the harshest punishments to be issued by Vietnam's one-party state in years.
Human rights lawyer Nguyễn Văn Đài, 48, received the longest sentence of 15 years in prison and five years of house arrest.
According to attorney Luân Lê, who represented some of the defendants, Nguyễn Văn Đài said while inside the heavily secured courtroom that “leniency for political dissidents today is really an act of leniency for yourself in the future.”
Trương Minh Đức shared similar sentiments, saying, “I have no regrets. Today you put me on trial but tomorrow it may be you on trial.”
Nguyễn Văn Đài's legal assistant Lê Thu Hà, who was arrested with him in December 2015, received nine years in prison. Lutheran pastor Nguyễn Trung Tôn and Trương Minh Đức both received 12 years. Nguyễn Bắc Truyển and Phạm Văn Trội received sentences of 11 and seven years in prison, respectively. All besides Lê Thu Hà are bloggers and citizen journalists who have been jailed before.
All six are members of the Brotherhood for Democracy (BFD), an organization that promotes civic engagement and provides training in human rights. The group began in 2013, with Nguyễn Văn Đài as one of the founding members.
The trial of 6 Vietnamese activists is over.
Nguyen Van Dai 15 years
Nguyen Van Troi 7 years
Nguyen Trung Ton 12 years
Nguyen Bac Truyen 11 years
Truong Minh Duc 12 years
Le Thu Ha 9 years pic.twitter.com/S5bUmjofvi
— Grace Bui (@gracebui2016) April 5, 2018
Commenting on the trial, Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokeswoman Lê Thị Thu Hằng said, “In Vietnam there is no such thing as a ‘prisoner of conscience’, and there’s no such thing as people being arrested for ‘freely expressing opinion’.”
People were quick to react on Twitter.
This is such a joke. Thanks to those who dared asking the question in the first place though. Foreign delegations in #Vietnam should not let the authorities get away so easily from their international obligations regarding human rights. https://t.co/uJdAFNvxmr
— Jade Dussart (@JadeDussart) April 5, 2018
A sad day for #PressFreedom: Only one day of trial to seal the fate of 6 #Vietnam bloggers and activists, including blogger Nguyen Van Dai, sentenced to 15 years of jail, and veteran journalist Truong Minh Duc, sentenced to 12 years. #StopTheCrackdownVN https://t.co/EeD0UPdMXj
— RSF_Asia-Pacific (@RSF_AsiaPacific) April 5, 2018
The latest research from Amnesty International shows there are currently close to 100 prisoners of conscience in Vietnam. In 2017 alone, more than 40 activists were arrested, issued warrants or exiled in an ongoing crackdown on freedom of expression.
The European Union also condemned the convictions. An EU spokesperson for the European External Action Service (EEAS) said the development “continues the negative trend of prosecuting and sentencing human rights activists and bloggers” in Vietnam.
Nguyễn Trung Trọng Nghĩa, who is the son of pastor Nguyễn Trung Tôn, told Loa that he and his family are heartbroken with the sentence. Nghĩa, also known as Effy, had been traveling the world to advocate for his father and other members of the BFD:
It’s really horrible because my grandmother is already 90 years old. I don't think she’s going to last the next 12 years,” he said. “I don't think my father will get the chance to see her again. [We are] a family who has a member dedicating their lives to society and this is what we get from the government.”
Before the trial, supporters marched the roughly two kilometers from Thái Hà Church to the courthouse in Hanoi in solidarity with the six activists. A Facebook live video showed how the mobilization was followed and eventually broken up by security and plainclothes police. According to international news agency AFP, at least two participants were taken into unmarked vans by security police, and several others were taken into buses.
In the days leading up to the trial, hundreds of people around the world showed support for the activists by sharing photos with signs reading “Democracy is not a crime” along with the hashtag #HAEDC, which stands for the Brotherhood for Democracy.
“Democracy is not a crime. #HAEDC” Activist Héctor Castañón and his family in Mexico. Photo: Facebook Việt Tân
International rights organizations and family members have raised these activists’ cases for nearly two years, even garnering the attention of a United Nations body. Family members of the activists met with seven embassies before the trial to plead for support and intervention.
Political officers from the US, UK, French, German, Swedish, Norwegian, and Australian embassies with family members. Facebook Huyen Trang.
As the trial closed, despite facing more than a decade behind bars, Nguyễn Bắc Truyển stated: “I will continue the struggle and if I must sit in jail, others on the outside will fight on for me and they will never stop.”


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By Attempting to Curb Disinformation on Slain Politician Marielle Franco, a Brazilian Judge Hands Facebook Censorship Powers · Global Voices
Taisa Sganzerla

In the aftermath of her death, activist Marielle Franco was the subject of an online disinformation campaign in Brazil. Photo: Daniel Arrhakis/Flickr, CC-BY-NC 2.0
A Brazilian judge has ordered Facebook to remove all current posts that offend the “image, honor and privacy” of slain politician Marielle Franco — and all future posts of the same nature.  This could set a dangerous precedent for freedom of speech online in the country.
Rio de Janeiro city councilor Marielle Franco and her driver Anderson Gomes were killed in a drive-by shooting on the night of the March 14. Franco, 38, was a vocal critic of local police violence. Soon after her murder, false reports claiming she had been married to a drug lord and that she was elected with the support of a criminal group began circulating online, among other unqualified rumors.
Marielle's widow and sister filed separate libel claims against Facebook and Google in an effort to get the stories removed from search results and social media. In both cases, the courts ruled in their favor.
Facebook was ordered to not only remove published posts, which were identified by the plaintiffs, but also any future posts that offend Franco's “image, honor and privacy.”
If the company fails to comply, Facebook could face a penalty of 500,000 Brazilian reais (USD $150,000) and a country-wide block of its services.
Facebook Brazil declared that it will remove “the specific content identified in the court records,” and didn't acknowledge what it would do about posts made after the ruling. At the time of writing, there were still several false or distorted stories about Franco from ultra-partisan websites circulating on Facebook.
The ruling also orders Facebook to provide the authorities with the names and IP addresses of users who shared the false stories, even if those users had subsequently deleted the posts, so that Marielle's family could take legal actions against them.
It is unclear how the ruling will be enforced. A blanket prohibition on all content offensive to Marielle Franco would effectively grant the social network censorship powers by demanding it to commit to monitoring its users’ posts indefinitely.
It would also go against Brazil's Marco Civil, the internationally acclaimed bill of rights for the internet passed in 2014.
In his decision, appeals court judge Jansen Novelle acknowledged that the ruling crosses the lines drawn by Marco Civil, writing that “given the abundance of proof, it will not observe Marco Civil's rules on content removal.”
Under Marco Civil, websites like Facebook can be held liable for content published by third parties — i.e. users — if they fail to comply with a court order for content removal.
But for this type of court order to be considered valid and actionable, it must include a specific, live link or URL to the content in question. This effectively means that the law does not provide for removal of duplicated versions of outlawed content, or for “future” postings, as indicated in Judge Nouvelle's ruling.
In February, Brazil's Superior Court of Justice reversed a court decision ordering Google to suppress offensive videos that had been scraped from YouTube, based on the limitations provided by the Marco Civil.
For Paulo Rená, a researcher at the Beta Institute for Internet and Democracy who helped draft the Marco Civil, the current ruling will be virtually impossible to comply with.
Speaking with Global Voices, he said: “The safest way for Facebook to comply with such a ruling is to remove any content with the name of Marielle, and this is what scares us.”
In Rená's opinion, Marco Civil's objective was never to “clean up the internet”, but to enshrine rights and duties for internet users and service and application providers.
“While it's important to take measures preserve's Marielle's memory, it isn't by removing content that this will be achieved,” he said. He continued: “What could be done is, after determining who created the content, for her family to take legal action against them, not the platform. We can't keep pretending that the people who create this content are nameless and invisible.”
He added that Novelle's decision could set a dangerous precedent for freedom of speech in Brazil, particularly with looming elections in October, in which the country will vote for president, state governors and legislative seats at federal and state level.
“If every opinion that offends the official image of a candidate is removed, we risk having the most one-dimensional elections of all time. It would be a shame if Marielle, a rights advocate, were to become the precursor of this.”

author: Taisa Sganzerla


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How Nationalism Played a Role in Preserving Orthodox Christian Cultural Heritage During the Soviet Union Era · Global Voices
Filip Stojanovski

Two Easter-themed works by Andrei Rublev and Daniil: Harrowing of Hell and Ascension (1408-10), from State Tretyakov Gallery in Moscow. Public Domain photos via Wikipedia.
Communist rule was not always detrimental to art related to the Orthodox Christian religion, as attested by three examples of masterpieces that have found new life on the Internet.
A common misconception in the West is that in the countries ruled by Communist parties in the second half of the 20th century, the regimes enforced atheism on the whole population. The actual situation was much more complex; in practice, Communist authorities were not always opposed to religious institutions as long as they didn't challenge the dominance of the ruling party.
For example, while they promoted secularism and nationalized the properties of the church, Communist parties in Europe usually demanded atheism only from party members, who in turn obtained access to privileges and opportunities to become part of the ruling elite.
One of the programs of the Soviet Union was to establish state atheism since it viewed the religious institution as an integral element of the Russian Empire it replaced. But in 1941, Soviet leader Stalin stopped the anti-religious crackdown which started in 1926 in order to enlist the support of the Russian Orthodox Church as an ally to arouse Russian patriotism against Nazi aggression. This led to the revival of Russian Orthodox religious life and the influence of the church.
After the Second World War, most Central and Eastern European Communist regimes steered the national Orthodox churches into a docile state, often infiltrating the hierarchy with secret service agents. Such regimes also cultivated a milder form of nationalism, which included recognition of the historical role of the church in the nation-building process.
(One exception was Albania under totalitarian dictator Enver Hoxha (1946–1992), who led a violent campaign to eliminate religious life by closing down all places of worship to create “the first atheist nation in the world.”)
Religious art with high aesthetic value was also sort-of-nationalized, i.e. declared national treasure and managed by the state. This included turning churches and mosques into museums and re-interpreting religious music as part of the classical cultural heritage.
For instance, this 1986 recording of Tchaikovsky's Hymn of the Cherubim by the USSR Ministry Of Culture Chamber Choir (active from 1971 to 1991) has attracted over three million views on YouTube and has been widely shared ahead of this year's Orthodox Easter.
But more than any other form of artistic achievements made in religious context, the church architecture and visual arts were better regarded as examples of patriotic pride by most Communist regimes.
This inspired the creation of new works of art like the cinematic masterpiece Andrei Rublev (Russian: Андрей Рублёв). This 1966 historical drama film was directed by Andrei Tarkovsky and co-written with Andrei Konchalovsky, and is loosely based on the life of Andrei Rublev, the 15th-century Russian icon painter.
Besides the life of the painter, the film deals with the issues of ruling class corruption and treason, contrasting it with the resilience of the common people in the event of a foreign invasion. It was subjected to censorship allegedly due to its graphic description of violence, including cruelty to animals and actual killing of horses on camera. While it won international awards, Soviet authorities delayed its release within the country for several years. Tarkovsky claimed that in the end his final cut was based on his own decisions, reducing overly long scenes “with no significance” to shorten its length to 3 hours and 15 minutes.
In 2011, the Russian studio Mosfilm uploaded it as part of a collection of free classical films on YouTube.
Tarkovsky's film is available on YouTube in two parts, with subtitles in English, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Spanish and Turkish:
The third example involves a mashup of the traditional with the new. The 1971 animated film The Bloody Battle of Kerzhenets (Russian: Се́ча при Ке́рженце) directed by Ivan Ivanov-Vano and Yuriy Norshteyn was set to music by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov and it used Russian frescoes and paintings from the 14th to 16th centuries. These images from the church walls are animated using two-dimensional stop motion animation.
The film also reflected the patriotic theme of surviving and overcoming foreign invasion (from the Pechenegs to Napoleon to Hitler). In this case it refers to the invasion of the Mongols-Tartars in the 13th century (who then ruled for 300 years), and the legend of City of Kitezh which mysteriously hid under water after the slaughter of the army.
In the film, religious imagery is used to inspire patriotic feelings. For example, the Virgin Mary with Baby Jesus appears side by side with Russian defenders. In 1971 and 1972 this animation won several awards at festivals, mainly in Central and Eastern Europe.
The misconception that religion was absolutely banned under Communist rule was not limited in the West. After the collapse of Communism in the late 1980s, this notion became part of the right-leaning mainstream narratives in most post-communist countries. Rising political influence of clericalism in these societies made the rumored collusion of state and religious institutions during the previous system a taboo topic for most historians and journalists.
Communist regimes indeed promoted an ideology that suppressed the freedom of religion in varying degrees, but their implementation lacked consistency. The actual practice was based on rational calculations whether it helps them stay in power. Populists today who undermine democracy across the world use a similar approach although many do not focus on promoting the artistic achievements of the church.
Instead of highlighting a black and white picture of ‘oppression vs martyrdom’, it is crucial to examine the complex relationship between the communist state and the church to better understand the mechanisms of authoritarianism.

author: Filip Stojanovski