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State escalates attacks on media freedom and civil society in Belarus · Global Voices
Tanya Lokot

Law enforcement officer confiscates equipment from a NGO office. Screenshot from July 15 news report by Svaboda Radio.
Since the start of the protests against rigged presidential elections in August 2020, Belarusian authorities have been steadily targeting not only protesters, but also independent news outlets and civil society organisations. There are currently over 570 political prisoners in Belarus, according to Vyasna human rights group. But mid-way through 2021, Aliaksandr Lukashenka's crackdown seems to have escalated, reaching an unprecedented scale.
After Tut.by, Belarus’ top independent news website, was blocked in May 2021, the authorities have targeted other media outlets. According to multiple reports by the Belarusian Association of Journalists, between July 6 and 19, at least 63 searches were conducted by law enforcement officers at journalists’ homes and newsrooms. Thirty-three news media staff are currently behind bars.
On July 8, 2021, law enforcement raided the newsroom of Nasha Niva, an independent newspaper and website. According to the publication's Telegram channel, police detained chief editor Yahor Martsinovich, editor Andrey Skurko, and Andrey Dynko, chief editor of Nasha Niva’s magazine Nasha Istoriya. Chief accountant Volha Rakovich was also detained. Martsinovich was reportedly beaten in detention, according to BAJ.
Police also searched the homes of several other Nasha Niva employees. The Belarusian Ministry of Information said in a statement released the same day that it had blocked Nasha Niva's website after prosecutors accused the news outlet of distributing unlawful information.
Also on July 8, authorities detained or searched the offices and homes of a number of other independent reporters.
Alesia Latsinskaya, correspondent for the independent news website Bobr.by in Babruysk, was briefly detained after her house was searched, but was released after signing a non-disclosure agreement.
The homes of Zmitser Kazakevich and Vitaly Skryl, freelance correspondents for the independent broadcaster Belsat TV in Vitsebsk, were also searched. Skryl was later detained and accused of insulting a government official.
Police officers also detained Zmitser Lupach, a freelance correspondent for Belsat TV, while he was being treated at a medical facility in the town of Plisa, and searched his home in his absence.
In the city of Orsha, law enforcement searched the homes of Ihar Kazmierczak, a correspondent with the independent news website Orsha.eu, and Denis Dubkov, a photographer for the same outlet. Dubkov was questioned and released, while Kazmierczak remained in detention for three days.
In Brest region, on the same day, state security services raided the offices of the independent news websites Brestskaya Gazeta, Media-Polesye.by and Intex-Press in the town of Baranovichi. Earlier, on July 6, police detained Aleh Suprunyuk, editor of the Brest-based news website Pershiy Region, for alleged “distribution of extremist materials”.
As reported by BAJ, on July 7 a Minsk court upheld its previous decision to recognize materials published by the independent news outlet Tut.by as “extremist”. Thirteen Tut.by employees remain in custody since arrests in May for alleged tax evasion.
On July 9, police raided the homes of the staff of popular Homiel online publication Silnyye Novosti, including chief editor Hanna Jakstas and journalists Dzianis Jakstas, Iryna Volskaja and Jauhienija Krascyk.
On July 16, five more journalists were detained by Belarusian law enforcement. After a raid by police of the headquarters of the Belarusian service of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty where computers were confiscated, Alieh Hruzdzilovich, Alies Dascynski and Inesa Studzinskaja were arrested and their homes searched. Journalists Valiancin Zdanko and Maryna Arcybasava also had their homes searched.
Reporters Ihar Iljas and Hanna Haliota with Belsat TV were also detained on the same day after a search at their homes. Police also searched the homes of other reporters and freelancers cooperating with Belsat TV: Jauhien Mierkis, Hlieb Labadzienka, Halina Abakuncyk, Paviel Mazejka, Aliaksiej Kajrys, Aliaksandr Sajenka, Chryscina Carniauskaja, Alies Liaucuk, Milana Charytonava, Viktar Jarasuk, Andrej Jakimus, and Liubou Luniova.
Franak Viachorka, an adviser to opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya and an ex-journalist, expressed his dismay at the mass detentions on Twitter:
At least 12 journalists faced searches or detentions today – and it’s only 10 am. Lukashenka’s thugs continued their manhunt on the independent media. Some believe the total destroy of media and NGOs is designed to be a ‘present’ to Lukashenka from his cronies ahead of August 9. pic.twitter.com/Z1NlPrUqVX
— Franak Viačorka (@franakviacorka) July 16, 2021
At least 19 civil society organisations and human rights NGOs also faced raids, searches and detentions in July 2021.
On July 14, police officers broke into the offices of multiple human rights organisations, detaining over a dozen staff and conducting searches, including targeting some of the employees’ homes.
Raids targeted the Vyasna human rights center and the Belarusian Helsinki Committee, prominent civic rights and prisoner rights groups. Vyasna Chairman Ales Byalyatski stopped responding to calls, while Board chairman Valiantsin Stefanovich, and activists Siarhei Sys and Alena Laptsionak were reportedly detained. Vyasna's lawyer Uladzimer Labkovich's home was searched, and he and his wife Nina also detained.
Police also raided the Minsk headquarters of the Belarusian Association of Journalists (BAJ), the key media rights organisation in the country.
According to human rights activists, other organisations whose offices were targeted in the July 14 raids included the Lawtrend rights group, Human Constanta, the Association of the World's Belarusians Batslaushchyna (Fatherland), the Territory of Rights group, the Gender Perspectives human rights organization, the Names project, the Union of Belarusian Writers, the Belarusian Popular Front, the For Freedom movement, and the BEROC Center of Economic Investigations.
On July 16, law enforcement conducted searches at the homes of Maryna Dubina, director of an environmental group Ecodom, and of Halina Uscinava, a member of the board of Pravavaja Inicyjatyva, a legal defense and human rights group.
Mary Lawlor, UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights Defenders, condemned the crackdown on Belarusian civil society and said that “peacefully defending human rights is legitimate & should never be persecuted”. Marie Struthers, Amnesty International’s Director for Eastern Europe and Central Asia, also criticised the latest crackdown, and said all those detained “must be released immediately, and this campaign against civil society must end”.

author: Tanya Lokot


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These African animators are saving their native languages using cartoons · Global Voices
Njeri Wangari

A YouTube screenshot of CMR KIDS TV, a TV channel on YouTube that teaches young Cameroonian children about their culture and history as well as languages such as Ewondo and Dioula.
Disney+ and Cartoon Network, two major US animation platforms, announced last month they will air four productions by African creators. This comes on the heels of similar announcements by streaming giants like Netflix and Youtube Originals, indicating a demand for representation and homegrown narratives among African audiences amidst a global market boom for animated content.
The first new production is “Kizazi Moto” (which means Generation Fire in Swahili), an animated 10-part collection of Afro-futurist anthology films that explores Africa’s future. It will include stories by creators from six African countries.  The second, “Kiya and the Kimoja Heroes” is a pre-school series that centers on a 7-year-old African girl who loves ballet and martial arts. When she and her two best friends put on their magical crystal headbands they become superheroes ready to defend their community. “Kiff,” a 2D-animated comedy from South African creators is about an optimistic squirrel and a laidback bunny. Finally, “Garbage Boy and Trash Can,” Cartoon Network Africa's newest superhero-comedy series is about a boy with imaginary superpowers who fights for justice with his trusty sidekick.
#KizaziMotoGenerationFire, an all-new Original Series, is bringing dazzling sci-fi animation to #DisneyPlus in 2022. pic.twitter.com/QrngmfUbLg
— Disney+ (@disneyplus) June 17, 2021
While this representation is a huge victory, many African animators’ quest for representation goes beyond just having characters who look like them. Animation has also become a tool for preserving endangered African languages. Through entertainment, these creators are hoping to use animation as a vehicle for African mythologies, philosophies, rich traditions, cultural expressions, and languages.
The African continent hosts roughly one-third of the world’s approximately 7,000 living languages.Due to the relentless dominance of international languages such as English and French, native languages are increasingly coming under threat.
In 2018, UNESCO reported that over 300 African languages are endangered and more than 52 have become extinct.  The report also stated that, if young people are not taught these languages, even more are likely to go extinct. Of the 230 languages around the world that have gone extinct since 1950, 37 were in Africa.
According to an article by Quartz discussing Yakunte — a dying language in Kenya that is now only spoken by seven people, all over 70 years old — African languages are especially vulnerable as governments adopt official languages while discouraging local ones, in hopes of forging a more unified national identity.
Despite its high linguistic diversity, English and French, both International languages, are the predominant official languages for most African states.  Somali, Berber, Wolof, Oromo, Igbo, Swahili, Hausa, Manding, Fulani, and Yoruba are African languages which though spoken by tens of millions of people are considered as local and only a few are official at the national level.
Can African animators change this tide?
While English is still the dominating language in the global animation market, largely due to Disney’s ubiquity,  Kiswahili has been gaining status as an alternative language for African audiences.
Disney’s 1994 animated feature “The Lion King” is perhaps the most popular Western film featuring Kiswahili according to an article titled “The (Mis)Use of Kiswahili in Western popular culture“ by ThisisAfrica. A Disney spin-off series titled “Lion Guard” (premiered in 2015) has since elevated the status of Kiswahili as the go-to African language in animations.
Since then, African animators have gone on to successfully incorporate Kiswahili into their production dialogue, animated films, or series titles. Some of these include: “Super Sema” — Africa's first children's superhero animated series co-produced by Kenyan Lupita Nyong’o; “Akili & Me“ produced by  Ubongo Kids; and “My Better World.”
#SuperSema launched in March 2021 and is really inspiring, educational, fun content for all children.
Episodes are available on #YouTube featuring @lupitanyongo as Mama Dunia .#youtubeoriginals #superhero #africandiasporakids #africandiaspora #blackstories #africananimation pic.twitter.com/DaAoU3f0sL
— Mbifebooks (@mbifebooks) July 18, 2021
During an interview with litnet.co.za, Chris Morgan, founder and creative director of Fundi Films, and the series producer of “My Better World” had this to say:
Despite the scarcity of formal training opportunities, locally-made productions are already starting to take off.  It was important to have real diversity in our characters so that the series could work in different parts of our continent. We reviewed each stage of development with teams in Ghana, Nigeria and Kenya – these same reviewers guided our script-writing process.
Animation is an effective way to teach young Africans life skills and languages that are often not taught in schools. There are a number of animation shows hoping to fill this gap.
From Western Africa, there is “Bino and Fino“ — an educational children’s cartoon created by Nigerian Animator Adamu Waziri which launched in 2010. The characters — Bino and Fino are a brother and sister who learn African history and culture with Zeena a magical Butterfly. The cartoon is broadcast across 15 countries in English, Twi, Yoruba, German, Dutch, Portuguese, Hausa, Igbo, French, and Swahili and is also available on YouTube. The Anilingo Series by “IyinCreative” is also another animation from Nigeria promoting and preserving the African cultural heritage.
Meet Bino and Fino, a brother and sister who go on adventures with their magical butterfly Zeena and learn all about Africa and the World! Watch at https://t.co/xESBCQtYFa and on batteryPOP’s FREE Cartoon Roku Channel. #binoandfino pic.twitter.com/tWBmCbEBiR
— batteryPOP (@batterypop) June 16, 2020
“Ẹbí Fọ́lọ́runṣọ́“ is another animation series that teaches the Yoruba language commonly spoken in Nigeria created by Finland-based, Nigerian born Kayode Oloko. The show campaigns to raise awareness of the culture, tradition, language, and identity of all Yoruba kids from Nigeria  He discussed his initiative and the inspiration in an interview with Pan-Africa.net.
In Nigeria today, many parents prefer their offspring to speak the English language over their own native language. It’s a sad reality that future generations could lose their identity and purpose, a heavy price to pay for living in a host country.
From Central Africa, there is CMR KIDS TV, a TV channel on YouTube that teaches young Cameroonian children about their culture and history as well as languages such as Ewondo and Dioula.
In Eastern Africa, Tsehai Loves learning is another animation worthy of note.  The Ethiopian children’s education platform is available in seven local languages and focuses on providing critical information on literacy, health, and social and emotional learning to young children.
In Southen Africa, YouTube features shows such as Zulu Kids songs and Xhosa kids. Unlike other African countries where only one local language is recognized as a national language, South Africa has 11 official languages — 10 of which are indigenous to the country.
As Africa jostles, for a place at the global animation table, it is also on the cusp of becoming the next animation hotspot through ongoing efforts to create an original voice and look. But support and ownership by African governments are still elusive. According to The Association for the Development of Education in Africa (ADEA)
The need for government interventions and support for comics and cartoons becomes necessary since these are strategic media to relate with younger generations in this millennium.

source: news-globalvoices

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

author: Njeri Wangari


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Will an award-winning animated film about a Czech woman in Kabul change how Czechs perceive Afghanistan? · Global Voices
Filip Noubel

Screenshot from the YouTube trailer of “My sunny Maad”
A Czech animation movie has won a major award for its depiction of an unusual story inspired by true facts between a Czech woman and an Afghan man. But can this movie change perceptions about Afghanistan that is mostly reduced in Czech politics to a source of terrorism and refugees, as the last Czech soldiers have just left Kabul?
On June 19, the long-form Czech animation movie “My Sunny Maad” (in Czech, the animation is called “Moje slunce Mad”, which means literally “My sun Mad”) won the top Jury Award at the Annecy Animation Festival, one of the most prestigious festivals for animated films that takes place every year in France.
The animation, which mixes dialogues and narration in Czech and Dari, is an adaptation of the book “Frišta” by one of the top Czech journalists, Petra Procházoková, in which she describes the love story between a Russian female student and a male Afghan student who met in Moscow. Procházoková herself has covered Afghanistan extensively and is married to an Afghan man. Her novel “Frišta” is largely inspired by her own experience of living in Afghanistan and in Afghan culture.
The movie, co-produced by Michaela Pavlátová, with Slovak and French partners, describes the life of a young Czech woman, called Helena, who falls in love with Afghan student Nazir in Prague, marries him and moves to Kabul. The animation is full of humorous scenes and paints cross-cultural situations in happy colors, as can be seen in its trailer:
But will the award – a first for a Czech movie – improve the views most Czechs have about Afghanistan? When the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan in 1979, then-Socialist Czechoslovakia officially endorsed Moscow’s policy and hosted the first wave of Afghan students. Afghanistan was then portrayed in media as a brotherly country on its way to Socialism.
A new chapter in Czech-Afghan relations was opened in 2002 when Czech soldiers joined NATO military operations. Since then, close to 12,000 Czech soldiers have served in Afghanistan, yet as other missions, they left the country in late June 2021 after 19 years of presence. A few dozen Afghan families will also move to the Czech Republic as their lives could be at risk if they stayed in Afghanistan, because some of their members worked for the Czech contingent of NATO forces.
During this period, Afghanistan became portrayed as a source of terrorism and religious extremism. This negative image was reinforced by statements of the current Czech President Miloš Zeman whose government has repeatedly refused to take in any refugees from Muslim countries in breach of European Union obligations. Zeman himself has multiplied anti-Muslim and anti-migrant statements over the years, saying for example in 2016 that “Muslims don't want to work, they like to claim social benefits.”
Earlier in 2015, he also stated that:
Obávám se, aby žili ze sociálních dávek, a nikoliv aby pracovali – tak tu zemi vracíte zpátky do propasti chudoby. Dá se pravdivě říci, že uprchlíci škodí své vlastní zemi.
I am concerned that they [refugees] would live off social benefits, and not work. This pushes back their own county into poverty. In truth, migrants harm their own country.
Ironically, Zeman accepted over 4,000 Muslim refugees from Kosovo in 1999 when he was serving as Prime Minister.
A 2019 poll indicates that the first source of threat Czech identify is “Islam and refugees”. As the country is gearing up for legislative elections to take place on October 8 and 9, the anti-Muslim rhetoric is being used by several parties to lure conservative votes.
Given that cinemas remain largely empty due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and show very few movies, it seems there will be little chance for Czech viewers to catch a viewing of “My sunny Maad” and, for some of them, to alter their opinions about Afghan culture.

author: Filip Noubel


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‘Courage is accumulative,’ said director of Hong Kong protest documentary at 2021 Cannes Festival · Global Voices
The Stand News

Kiwi Chow. Image from the Stand News.
The following post is the English version of a series of Chinese reports and interviews published on the Stand News between July 9–16, 2021. It is published on Global Voices under a content partnership agreement.
The special screening arrangement of the Hong Kong protest documentary ‘Revolution of Our Times’ at the 2021 Cannes Film Festival on July 16 caught the world by surprise. In Hong Kong, more were startled that director Kiwi Chow Kwun-wai kept his name attached to the film, a gesture which many lauded as a courageous decision in light of the escalating political risk under the newly enacted National Security Law (NSL).
The first person charged under the NSL was accused of inciting secession and is still facing trial for displaying the protest slogan ‘Liberate Hong Kong, Revolution of Our Times’.
Kiwi Chow's documentary presents a chronology and overview of the 2019 anti-China extradition protests and a close-up look into seven groups of protesters including frontline protesters, elders, first-aid responders, journalists, parents and more.
In his interview with the Wall Street Journal on June 30, Kiwi Chow revealed that he had spent two years producing the film in secret. All members of the production team had either left the crew or kept their identity anonymous. His friends had urged him to either leave Hong Kong, or use an anonymous identity and change the title of the film, but he refused to do so.
‘I don’t want to speculate where the red line is. Only then can I be free’, he said.
Though he has taken some risk control measures. All the raw footage and materials of the film were destroyed in order to protect the other members of his production crew and interviewees. Chow also transferred the copyright of ‘Revolution of Our Times’ to a friend who is based in the U.K. to protect himself from potential legal repercussions.
Chow told the Stand News that he was approached by an investor to produce a documentary on the 2019 anti-China extradition protests two years ago. He accepted the offer right away as he wanted to contribute to the movement.
At first, there were many experienced documentary filmmakers at the protest sites and he didn’t anticipate his work would make an impact. Yet, as the protests continued and more street confrontation took place, many filmmakers gave up their work and Chow felt that he had a duty to finish the documentary. After the enactment of the NSL last year, even more gave up due to the security risks, and one filmmaker even handed over all his raw footage to Chow.
The footage used in the 152-minute film came from a variety of sources including independent journalists and online media outlets, in addition to those taken by Chow's production team. Some gave their footage to him for free. That’s why he added the tagline “A film by Hongkongers” to the documentary's title. He said:
有很多人好多攝影師做記錄。我只是去到最後剪接、負責把關的人
Many individuals and cameramen took part in recording the protests, I put them together in the final cut. I am the gatekeeper so to speak…
Chow handed over the final edition of ‘Revolution of Our Times’ to the organizer of the 2021 Cannes Festival on June 29, one week after the pro-democracy Apple Daily News was forced to shut down.
Between June 13–28, 2021 the Hong Kong police suspended Apple Daily’s assets and arrested 5 of its senior staff members and 2 editorial writers for conspiring to collude with foreign forces under the NSL, shaking Hong Kong society.
Kiwi Chow said he has psychologically prepared to face the consequences of releasing the film. But he stressed:
不想去幻想自己去到甚麼危險的程度…我只是一個拍紀錄片的導演，暫時未有先例…我不需要，也不願意，將一些無發生、只是想像出來的恐懼去控制我的決定
I don’t want to fathom the depth of my risk. I am just a documentary director, there hasn’t been any [arrest] case that involves [documentary filmmaker]. I don’t need to and I don’t want to be determined by something that has not happened or the fear that generates from my imagination.
Chow explained that his family have no plan to migrate out of Hong Kong because he doesn’t want to be overwhelmed by fear:
（如果）離開香港，我相信我會好痛苦、好恐懼。所以我是『被恐懼』到我暫時不離開。弔詭地，我留在香港才會得到自由，『不在恐懼裡面』的自由…自由公義是我信仰的追求。我想做一個『我信我就要做』的人，而現在好像上天有個機會讓我去做。我就堅持住。
If I left Hong Kong, I believe I would live in pain and in fear. I don’t want to be overwhelmed by fear and that’s why I don’t want to leave Hong Kong at this stage. This is a paradox, only if I stay in Hong Kong I can enjoy freedom, a freedom to overcome fear. … Freedom and justice is my belief and career. I want to be someone who sticks to his or her belief. I consider heaven has given me an opportunity to live out my belief and hence I have to be resolute.
His family has not given up hope of making Hong Kong a better place, Chow recounted a conversation with his son in another interview with the SCMP:
Director Kiwi Chow asked his 6yo son: what if daddy faces arrest because of the docu?
??: HK gov will become a good gov again after seeing papa’s film.
Chow: should we leave HK tgt?
??: Dont leave HK. We stay in HK tgt to make HK beautiful again.
?#NSL https://t.co/DU07p2MHth
— Kanis Leung (@kanis_leung) July 16, 2021
In a recent radio interview, he explained that his courage originates from his Christian faith and was strengthened through his involvement in the controversial dystopian fictional film ‘Ten Years‘ (2015).
The award-winning movie is composed of 6 short stories envisioning Hong Kong in 2025 under the shadow of China’s political encroachment.  Chow directed the episode ‘Self-immolator’ which depicts an act of ‘self-immolation’ committed by an unknown individual amidst a crackdown on pro-Hong Kong independent protests. The dystopian film was banned in China soon after its release.
With the amendment of the Film Censorship Ordinance in June 2021, Hong Kong has banned the public screening of films that ‘endorse, support, promote, glorify or incite’ acts of subversion, secession, terrorism or collusion with foreign forces. Both ‘Ten Years’ and another documentary on the 2019 protests ‘Inside the Red Brick Wall‘, which was produced anonymously, were included on the ban list.
Chow described his involvement in the production of ‘Ten Years’ as a ‘courage-pass’. Frontline protesters had trust in him and in return, he took up the duty to record what he had witnessed. He believes that courage is accumulative and can inspire others.
有些事情做過會累積出勇氣，慢慢，愈行愈前。勇氣需要學習，一步一步來，但你要去行、去學習。
Once you have gone through a certain experience, you will accumulate more courage. Step by step, you move forward. It is a learning process, the precondition is that you need to move on and keep learning.
Chow was glad that many netizens have overcome their fear and shared the news, posters and trailer of the film.
But the price of Chow’s courage and conviction is not small. His career as a commercial film director had started to take off after his director romantic movie ‘Beyond the Dream’ hit the box office in July 2020. However, due to the release of ‘Revolution of Our Times’, commercial investors have withdrawn their support for new productions.
In face of surging political risk, Chow threw the question back to the government:
反省一下，為何（民間）會有那麼大的恐懼…我拍紀錄片而已，不構成生命危險，不需要那麼快後退。
[The government] has to reflect why people are so overwhelmed by fear. … I just produced a documentary, I don’t think my life is in danger and I don’t have to step back so soon.

author: The Stand News


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Hong Kong will pass a tough anti-doxxing law that may curb freedom of information · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

Some are worried that the anti-doxxing law will become a legal tool for the blocking of LIGHK and Telegram in Hong Kong. Image from the Stand News.
The Hong Kong government will soon pass a set of tough amendments to the Personal Data (Privacy) Ordinance (PDPO) against doxxing, which is commonly known as the act of publishing or disclosing a person's personal information, such as a phone number or address, without the person's consent and with malicious intent.
The bill, once passed, will give the Privacy Commissioner the power to conduct criminal investigations, prosecute violators, access the electronic devices of technology companies without a warrant in urgent circumstances and issue requests to remove content and block websites if they refuse to comply.
While the internet sector has raised concerns over the vague definition of doxxing and the rise in content-blocking in recent weeks, the government escalated its hardline approach and gazetted the bill on July 16. The first reading and debate were on July 21. Given that the Legislative Council has zero opposition currently, the bill will likely soon be passed without much amendment.
The current bill, which is slightly different from the original proposal introduced in May, creates two tiers of offences to curb doxxing.
The threshold of the first tier states that anyone who leaks an individual’s personal information ‘without consent’ with the intent to harm the person or their family could face two years of jail time and a maximum fine of 100,000 HK dollars (12,900 US dollars). The second tier, which includes psychological harm from data disclosure without consent, establishes a penalty of up to five years in jail with a maximum fine of 1 million HK dollars (129,000 US dollars).
Administrators of both local and overseas websites and service providers who are responsible for the platforms’ operations could also face up to two years imprisonment and a 100,000 HK dollar (12,900 US dollar) fine if they fail to remove content after receiving a notification from the Privacy Commissioner.
The proposed anti-doxxing legislation has raised grave concerns from the internet sector as reflected in a letter issued by the Asia Internet Coalition on June 25.
The letter criticized the amendments for vaguely defining doxxing as actions that are ‘intrusive to personal data privacy and in effect weaponise personal data,’ which they say could result in ‘an overly broad interpretation such that even innocent acts of sharing of information online could be deemed unlawful under the PDPO’.
The letter also pointed out that the amendments have not taken freedom of speech into consideration. For example, they do not exempt liability in ‘situations where information (including personal data) is disclosed by a person to establish/defend his or her legal rights, or where there is a public interest to know.’
The Coalition also described the power given to the Privacy Commissioner as ‘excessive':
[The amendments] would effectively empower an independent statutory authority to a level akin to the Hong Kong Police Force itself, and in a manner that is highly unusual and out of step with international privacy developments. There are, to our knowledge, no other jurisdictions in Asia-Pacific which have introduced equivalent powers to statutory authorities.
The letter expressed deep concern about the Privacy Commissioner's ability to conduct a search without a court warrant. The current bill specifies that the power to search without a warrant will be confined to ‘urgent circumstances’.
The coalition also found the extension of criminal liability to intermediaries from the scope of ‘persons’ (employees) and its extraterritorial implication under the amendments most unreasonable.
In current practice, overseas online platforms which have no legal entities in Hong Kong could neglect Hong Kong government authorities’ content removal requests without legal liability. But as the bill have extended the liability to their employees, these individuals may face criminal prosecutions if they are residing or in the worst scenario when they are travelling in Hong Kong.
In response to this specific concern, the latest version of the bill specifies that only executives or managers in a position to process content removal requests would be liable.
International tech giants including Facebook, Google, Amazon and Twitter, among others, are members of the Singapore-based Asia Internet Coalition.
According to a report from The Wall Street Journal, Facebook, Google and Twitter are considering leaving Hong Kong to prevent legal risk to their employees under the new legislation. Soon after the enactment of Hong Kong's national security law in July 2020, multiple social media and content hosting platforms including Telegram, Facebook, Google, LinkedIn and Twitter refused to respond to the Hong Kong government’s user data requests.
Even in the second draft, the Hong Kong government has not addressed other issues raised by the internet sector. In an interview with RTHK, Ada Chung Lai-ling, the current Privacy Commissioner, stressed that if an online platform does not cooperate and comply with the content removal requests, the Commissioner could request the ISPs to shut down or block the entire site.
Chung stated that majority of 70 percent of service and platform providers is cooperative in removing the problematic contents upon receiving the Commissioner's requests and she expected more will comply with the request after the passage of the amendment as it toughens the punishment and criminalizes non-compliance.
She highlighted the difficulties in enforcing the law if the platform is hosted overseas or if the company director is not in Hong Kong. To address this problem, the law extends criminal liability to local employees who are in a position to remove the content. Chung stressed:
“Local staff of these platforms won't be held responsible if they have nothing to do with the operation of the sites…We will only ask the [platforms] to remove the doxxing content… If they refuse to cooperate, we will consider removing the entire website. This is the last step if other approaches don't work.”
The pro-democracy sector in Hong Kong fears that the amendments would provide another legal basis, in addition to the NSL, for cutting off access to websites and tools such as LIHKG or Telegram, which are hosted overseas and used by dissidents to share protest-related information.
Law Ho Lam, president of the Internet Society Hong Kong (ISOCHK) agreed with the letter issued by the Asia Internet Coalition that the bill gives the Privacy Commission ‘excessive and disproportionate powers‘ and was worried that the vague definition of doxxing may lead to speech incrimination.
Wong Ho-wa, an open data activist, also feared that platform administrators would over-monitor and block unsure content to prevent legal liability, which would eventually undermine the freedom of information in Hong Kong.
In addition to the anti-doxxing law, the Hong Kong government also plans to introduce an anti-fake news law to strengthen its grip on digital news and the information flow.

author: Oiwan Lam


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Instagram question on the intersectionality of Pride and religion in Trinidad & Tobago raises issue of gender ideology · Global Voices
Flora Thomas

Male and female signs. Photo by Marco Verch Professional Photographer on Flickr, CC BY 2.0.
Trinidad and Tobago's Roman Catholic archbishop, Jason Gordon, recently raised the ire of some LGBTQ+ activists when he dismissed the concept of gender ideology as a “diabolical” social construct and “neo-colonial tool.”
In the June instalment of the diocese's #askthearchbishop sessions on Instagram, a member of the country's LGBTQ+ community asked how was the church creating safe spaces for members of that community (scroll to 48:40 on the timeline), which is holding Pride-month celebrations from June 25 to July 25.
The archbishop prefaced his response by saying that Pride encompassed two things—social justice and gender ideology—and the church had to make a distinction:
No one should be bullied, no one should be discriminated against […] On the social justice side, we have to 100 percent work towards an inclusive world where everyone is a child of God […] and has a space, a place, an identity. and is safe.
The multiple gender theory […] is a little more complicated because for us, [God] made them male and female, and no matter what you do to the body by operations, you don't change your sex because you will remain either XX or XY […] the chromosomes in your body don't change […] and the body doesn't lie.
Explaining that the more “modern notion” of multiple genders stems from a philosophy that “is not in keeping with our understanding of the human person,” the archbishop maintained that there are “fundamental differences between the philosophy and anthropology undergirding Pride and [those] undergirding the Catholic church:
You're not defined by your desire, which is what the gender ideology is saying. […] The problem with that is that the core identity of the Christian has to be Jesus Christ. […] You are replacing what is substantial, which is Christ, for that which is passing. And you can see that: we started with LGBT…LGBTQ…LGBTQIA…and now we have another set of letters. Your sexual desire cannot be your identity. Your identity comes from another place; it comes from being a child of God—and that does not deny your sexual desire, but that can't be your core identity.
Archbishop Gordon's stance on the issue echoes the Vatican's position that gender theory “denies the difference and reciprocity in nature of a man and a woman,” rendering them as “merely the product of historical and cultural conditioning.” As a result, it believes, identity would then “become the choice of the individual, one which can also change over time.”
As such, there was no distinction made between sex and gender, which scientists have established are different concepts and that determining biological sex on the basis of chromosomes alone is simplistic. The United Nations has also recognised intersex people—defined as those “with sex characteristics (including genitals, gonads and chromosome patterns) that do not fit typical binary notions of male or female bodies”—as being at the crossroads of sex and gender, with many of them being vulnerable to human rights abuses.
The Facebook page JONES v TnT, established when the gay man it is named for, Jason Jones, took the government of Trinidad and Tobago to court over laws that criminalised homosexual acts, commented:
The Catholic Church is riddled with serious issues of sexual improprieties, but still involve themselves with denying human rights & equality to LGBTQ+ people. CLEAN UP YOUR OWN HOUSE […] & LEAVE MINE ALONE!
On April 12, 2018, Trinidad and Tobago's High Court ruled that Sections 13 and 16 of the country's Sexual Offences Act Chapter 11:28, which criminalise anal sex between consenting adults, were “unconstitutional.”
Jones wrote a guest column in the Trinidad and Tobago Newsday on July 21 this year in which he said that the archbishop can't have it both ways:
How on earth can Gordon uphold the dignity of all human beings while also calling our diverse gender identities ‘diabolical?’
This is religious hypocrisy at its worst, and Gordon also conveniently ignores the beliefs and values of other civilisations and religious beliefs dating back thousands of years.
Are Hindus ‘diabolical’ for worshipping multiple gods that have diverse genders beyond the binary male or female?
Are people in India, Hawaii, Indonesia, Pakistan, Samoa, Tonga ‘diabolical’ for giving legal recognition to their third-gender citizens?
Are Americans, British, German, French people ‘diabolical’ for protecting trans and intersex people’s human rights?
Jones also called the archbishop's assessment of gender ideology as a form of neo-colonisation a “red herring”:
Archbishop Gordon stated that ‘gender theory’ was being used as a ‘neo-colonial tool’ in order to suppress freedom of speech and freedom of religion, yet here he is speaking freely in our media on the subject, and as far as I am aware no one in the LGBTQ+ equality movement is calling for an end to religious freedom. […]
We are a secular nation and everyone deserves an equal place in TT. The separation of Church and State is a vital function of our democracy.
Writer Andre Bagoo weighed in:
Imagine: Churches and religious officials in TT decline to see LGBT+ people as equal human beings, while a bank—yes, a bank—has done the right thing and taken the lead in helping to end discrimination here in TT. Wonders never cease.
Bagoo was referring to Scotiabank Trinidad and Tobago's April 14 announcement that it would extend its health benefits to the partners of employees in same-sex relationships.
Accusing the archbishop of using the vulnerable LGBTQ+ community “as a scapegoat,” Jones concluded:
LGBTQ+ Trinidadians/Tobagonians are not the enemy. Stop making us that.
Jones has previously thanked Archbishop Gordon for his messages of support during Trinidad and Tobago's first Pride month in July 2018.

author: Flora Thomas


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Street art protest in Kazakhstan becomes routine · Global Voices
Paolo Sorbello

The latest iteration of the mural before it was removed. Screenshot from Radio Azattyk YouTube channel.
A stencil of old photos of the former president, rendered into a mural, raised questions among the authorities in Kazakhstan. When the writing on the wall became politically sensitive, however, they were swift in painting over it. The ‘mural war’ between street art activists and the government seems to be centered around the legacy of the most influential man of independent Kazakhstan, Nursultan Nazarbayev.
Nazarbayev left office in March 2019, in a carefully managed power transition that handed the presidency to Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, a former diplomat and loyal head of the Senate.
In the aftermath of both the resignation and the election that cemented Tokayev’s position, the people of Kazakhstan have taken to the streets, protesting the continuation of a regime that has long repressed dissenting views.
Street demonstrations, however, have gone hand in hand with flash mobs and artistic displays that have become viral across the social media networks in the country.
Because of its designation of ‘cultural and business capital,’ most of these actions have taken place in Almaty, the country’s largest city.
One particular street corner in Almaty, the intersection between Zharokov and Mynbayev street, was targeted by street artists who chose to depict Nazarbayev in stylized pictures, which were quickly modified to add satirical features to his iconic portraits.
Originally the utility hut had hosted a mural in honor of XXXTentacion, a US rapper who died at 20 in 2018. Dane One, a graffiti artist from Almaty, stylized the rapper’s portrait and added a line from his song: “What is real will prosper.”
The wall had been whitened out and the mural had fallen out of the memory of Almatians when in 2021 it became the target of street artists and authorities alike.
On May 4, a portrait of Nazarbayev appeared, tagged with the ‘01’ nickname that Kazakhstanis use to refer to him, ‘Elbasy’ or ‘leader of the nation,’ the title that was given to him in a 2010 law, and ‘Forever Young,’ an ironic comment on his staying power.
On May 19, Nazarbayev’s forehead in the mural was sprayed on with the word ‘Cancel’, a common internet term for highlighting something or someone that one disagrees with and wants to stop seeing.
Courts are prone to sentence activists who insult Nazarbayev, who officially became ‘Leader of the Nation’ with a 2010 law that protects him from prosecution.
Faced with a public insult to Elbasy, the authorities proceeded to whiten out the mural.
Days later, the wall was once again in the news because street artists had written ‘I’ll be back…’ on it, again tagging ‘01.’
Weeks later, on July 8, two days after Nazarbayev’s birthday, the wall received yet another artistic makeover.
This time, a portrait of young Nazarbayev, inspired by a series of archival photos from the 1960s when he was working as operator in a blast furnace in central Kazakhstan, appeared.
The ‘01’ tag, the ‘Elbasy’ description, and the ‘Forever Young’ ironic comment accompanied the mural, hinting that the artist or collective behind the second mural had masterminded the first one as well.
Quickly, however, the second mural was subject to modifications: the ‘Forever Young’ writing was crossed over with spray paint, the ‘Elbasy’ description was preceded once again by the word ‘Cancel’, the face of Nazarbayev was re-painted in the guise of The Joker from DC Comics’ Batman.
Perhaps as a final insult, the street artists finished off their additions with the wordplay: “Uly dala URY.” In yet another Kazakh-language description of Nazarbayev, ‘uly dala uly’ is used to depict him as ‘the son of the great steppe.’ By changing one consonant, the graffiti now described him as ‘the thief (ury) of the great steppe.’
A tweet by journalist Assem Zhapisheva summarized, graphically, the chronology of the Nazarbayev murals on the wall of the Almaty utility hut.
Хроники мурала с Назарбаевым. pic.twitter.com/4PqI4zpe0B
— Assem Zhapisheva (@zhapisheva) July 8, 2021
The mural was removed just hours after its latest modifications, in compliance with the zero tolerance policy that the authorities have administered to satire, irony, or insults towards Nazarbayev.
Instead, the government has continued to honor the former president. For his birthday this year, two bronze statues were unveiled, one in the capital Nur-Sultan and the other in the southern city of Turkistan.
The Qazaq Koktemi or ‘Kazakh Spring’ movement, which claimed to be behind the idea of the murals, seems determined to continue to demand that Nazarbayev be brought to justice.
A post shared by ⚡RUKH (@rukh2k19)
Nursultan,
Everyone is equal before the law and you are responsible for all your actions.
No matter how many monuments are erected in your honor, the people will remember you only with disapproval.
The changes are already here and we say that you are not the son of the great steppe, but a great thief!
#qazaqkoktemi

author: Paolo Sorbello


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Team 29, Russia’s most prominent legal defense group, shuts down under state pressure · Global Voices
Tanya Lokot

“Team 29 is no more”. Image shared by the Team 29 Telegram channel on July 18.
For almost seven years, Team 29 (Komanda 29), a group of independent lawyers, attorneys, advocacy experts and journalists, has fought for the rights of Russian activists, political prisoners, and other citizens. On July 19, the group announced it was shutting down its operations in order to protect its staff and clients from possible criminal prosecution.
The decision to suspend their work comes after Russia's internet regulator Roskomnadzor blocked Team 29's website—allegedly, for publishing content produced by Spolecnost Svobody Informace (Freedom of Information Society), a Prague-based non-profit organisation which the Russian state had labelled as an “undesirable organisation” earlier in June 2021.
In a July 18 post on their Telegram channel, Team 29 said the Russian prosecutors had “conflated” the group with the Czech NGO (implying they were the same organisation), a charge that Team 29 denies.
While its lawyers plan to appeal the allegations as “arbitrary and contrived”, the group decided to act swiftly out of an abundance of caution to prevent further criminal charges against its staff, collaborators and supporters.
В этих условиях продолжение деятельности Команды 29 создаёт прямую и явную угрозу безопасности большого числа людей, и мы не можем игнорировать этот риск. . Адвокаты и юристы продолжат работать в делах своих подзащитных исключительно в личном качестве, если подзащитные не откажутся от их помощи в создавшейся ситуации.
Мы закрываем все медиапроекты Команды 29 и удаляем архив: все (!) тексты, памятки, репортажи, расследования, разъяснения законов, истории политических заключённых, судебные документы, интервью, подкасты, литературный проект, посты в соцсетях — существование этого контента в интернете может быть квалифицировано как «распространение материалов нежелательной организации» согласно той же логике, по которой был заблокирован наш сайт.
Under these circumstances, the continued activity of Team 29 poses a direct and obvious threat to the safety of many people, and we cannot ignore this risk. We are making the difficult decision to suspend the activity of Team 29. The attorneys and lawyers will continue to work on their client's cases in a purely private capacity, unless the defendants refuse their services given the current situation.
We are closing all of the Team 29 media projects and purging the archive: all (!) texts, guides, reports, investigations, legal explainers, stories of political prisoners, court documents, interviews, podcasts, our literary project, our social media posts—the existence of this content online can be construed as “disseminating materials of an undesirable organisation” according to the logic that was used to block our website.
In their Telegram statement, the group also implored its supporters to delete any direct links or reposts of their content, as these could be interpreted as participating in the activity of an “undesirable organisation”. However, mentioning the organisation or sharing opinions about the situation was not illegal, according to the team.
Additionally, Team 29 said it was shutting down its crowdfunding efforts, and would refund subscribers for any funds that were unspent.
The founder of Team 29, Saint Petersburg-based lawyer Ivan Pavlov, is himself currently under investigation and facing felony charges for his work defending Russian journalist Ivan Safronov who is accused of treason. Though he now heads Team 29, Pavlov was previously the inaugural president of the Czech NGO, but hasn't been involved with the Freedom of Information Society in any official capacity for the past five years.
Though it's their digital footprint that is facing pressure from the authorities, Team 29 is best known for their legal support and human rights work in Russia. Writing on his own Telegram channel, Ivan Pavlov argued that it was this work on the ground, defending Russian citizens, that got Team 29 in trouble:
Наши власти сделали все чтобы криминализировать деятельность и даже само название Команда 29. Это своеобразное признание эффективности нашей работы и комплимент от наших процессуальных оппонентов, которые не первый раз были замечены в неспортивном поведении.
Our authorities have done everything to criminalize the activity and even our very name, Team 29. This is a peculiar sort of recognition of the effectiveness of our work and a compliment from our procedural opponents, who once again have been exhibiting unsportsmanlike behavior.
Founded in 2014 by Ivan Pavlov, a lawyer and freedom of information advocate, Team 29 has long been a thorn in Kremlin's side. After authorities blacklisted Pavlov's previous organisation, Institute for the Development of the Freedom of Information, as a “foreign agent”, Team 29 was born.
Since then, the group of defense lawyers, attorneys and reporters has taken on some of the most high-profile political cases in the country, including the trial of scientist Viktor Kudryavtsev on treason charges, the court battle around the designation of Alexey Navalny’s political movement and anti-corruption organisation as “extremist,” and the case of Karina Tsurkan, a former energy executive who was sentenced to 15 years in prison on espionage charges in December 2020.
Apart from defending political prisoners and activist groups in court, Team 29 has also published legal advice guides (archival link), spearheaded creative anti-corruption investigations, and even provided legal representation for a whistleblower from the infamous “troll factories” who took their Internet Research Agency to court in a labour dispute.
In an interview to independent Russian news website Meduza, Evgeny Smirnov, a lawyer formerly with Team 29, said that the latest events were likely “a cumulative effect” of all of their high-profile work. He said both he and Pavlov have received threats implying they were “like a bone in the throat not only for investigators, but also other people and state agencies”, so “that is why the decision was made to bomb us with everything they have”.
Despite the closure of their website, the group said its individual group members would continue their ongoing legal defense work as private individuals. According to Ivan Pavlov‘s Telegram post, Team 29 was “never a formal organisation, but rather a collective of like-minded people” and that “as long as there are people, there will be new ideas and new projects”.


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Thousands of flamingos found dead in Central Anatolia · Global Voices
Doga Celik

A dead flamingo in Lake Tuz. The screenshot was taken from The Independent's video, “Mass flamingo deaths at drying Turkey lake filmed by drone.”
Lake Tuz (Salt Lake), a closed basin lake in the Central Anatolian province of Konya, is the second largest lake in Turkey. It houses many endemic species ranging from birds, bugs, mammals, and plant species. In 2000 the lake was declared a protected biodiverse area. It is also a temporary home for many migratory birds — including flamingos. The lake is suitable for incubation and feeding and also allows flamingos to nurse their offspring without threat from predators. The smaller lakes nearby are a source of food and nutrition for these birds.
Because of this, every year in March, thousands of flamingos migrate to the south of Lake Tuz, earning it the moniker “flamingo paradise.” According to the Ministry of Environment and Urbanisation, in 2018 a total of 12,746 flamingos hatched here and by 2019 this number reached 20,381 flamingos. Each year, at least 10,000 flaminglets are born here. But this year's migration season faced an unexpected obstacle — some 5,000 baby flamingos were found dead.
Some attributed the deaths to a drought that has been plaguing Central Anatolia — a particularly dry area that has been further pressured by global warming. This year, Lake Tuz waters receded by almost 10 kilometers. Some flamingos who hatched weren’t able to reach the water and died of malnutrition. Mehmet Emin Öztürk, a wildlife photographer,  told TRT:
This province resembled a paradise for birds. When I came this year, I saw hell instead. Hundreds, if not thousands of flamingos were dead, and the bird population drastically decreased. When I came to this area before, it was a wetland, but now, it is dusty. Almost 10 kilometers of water has receded. This is a great alarm.
Others have cited the country's agricultural practices as the reason for this year's tragedy. The dams placed on nearby canals divert water away from the lake, and underground water sources are often overexploited. Speaking to Demirören Haber Ajansı, the Aksaray Photographers Association’s vice president Fahri Tunç said:
It is said that there is no water left in the water canals in the area, but that is not the case. Rather, they are blocked by erected sets, and through them, waters are redirected to the crop fields. Thus, no water reaches Lake Tuz, and the animals don’t have access to food or water. I am calling on authorities: we should be sensitive to this topic.
Tunç described the death of birds a massacre not only for flamingos but other species too.
A post shared by Fahri Tunc (@fahri.tunc)
In an interview with Hurriyet Daily News, Turkey’s Nature Association President Dicle Kılıç agreed that it is the “wrong agricultural and irrigation policies,” to blame, rather than the drought.
Gölü besleyen kanallarda su bittiği için diyorlarmış. ANLIK GÖRÜNTÜ. Kanallarda su var. Sadece önüne set çekilip göle gitmesi engellenmiş durumda. Videoda görünüyor. Yukarıdaki bütün görüntüler ve bu, arkadaşımız Fahri Tunç tarafından kaydedilmiş ve bizlere ulaştırılmıştır. pic.twitter.com/gPC49a944c
— Emin Yoğurtcuoğlu (@birddetectiveTR) July 13, 2021
It is not because the canals feeding the lake have dried out. This is from the scene. There is water in the canals. It is just this water is being blocked from reaching the lake. You can see in the video. All this footage was sent to us by our friend Fahri Tunç.
The Minister of Agriculture and Forestry, Bekir Pakdemirli dismissed any links to the dams in the area. Speaking at an event held in Istanbul,  the minister said:
According to the analysis conducted by the veterinary school of Selcuk University (Konya), there is no sign of poisoning. With less water and increased concentration ratio in the water, we observe deaths of flamingos which are unable to fly. I want to stress that there is no direct or indirect connection between this incident and the wells in the area or the agricultural irrigation.
The Governorship of Konya published a statement on its website, saying that the governorship created a commission for investigating the mass death of flamingos, and promised to find solutions.
Eski Yeni pic.twitter.com/OWBfCZV7ZU
— Gönenç Gürkaynak (@GurkaynakGonenc) July 16, 2021
Old and new.

author: Doga Celik


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CARICOM bristles at international community’s slight as Haiti installs a new prime minister · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

Claude Joseph, who was then Minister of Foreign Affairs and Worship of Haiti, at a May 20, 2020 Virtual Special Meeting of the Permanent Council. A portrait of former president Jovenel Moïse hangs in the background. Joseph has stepped down as interim prime minister, allowing Ariel Henry to be sworn in. Photo by OEA – OAS on Flickr, CC BY-NC-ND 2.0.
Ever since the July 7 assassination of Haitian president Jovenel Moïse, his former ad interim prime minister, Claude Joseph, had been the de facto leader of the country. It was Joseph who first confirmed that Moïse was dead, stepping into an ad hoc leadership position at a time when it was unclear who was in charge. Two days before his murder, however, Moïse had nominated Ariel Henry as his seventh prime minister. Henry had not yet been sworn in when Moïse was killed, but in an announcement on July 20, was introduced as the country's new prime minister after Joseph confirmed he would step down.
The move follows a July 17 push by certain international diplomats—the self-appointed Core Group—for Henry, as the “designated” prime minister, to form a “consensual and inclusive government.” The group comprises representatives from Brazil and Canada, France, Germany, Spain and other members of the European Union, the United States, the Organisation of American States (OAS) and the United Nations (UN). It was a call that did not go down well with the Caribbean Community (CARICOM), of which Haiti is a part.
The following day, on July 18, prime minister of Trinidad and Tobago, Keith Rowley, said on his Facebook page:
This is not just about a snub for Joseph. The real snub and outright INSULT is the absence of even a mention (far less recognition in any form) of CARICOM. Haiti is a full MEMBER of CARICOM, its largest member, and this lack of recognition and involvement combined is an insult to all of us, coming from those who designate themselves the ‘Core Group’.
He continued:
By our own actions of kowtowing and genuflecting to those who see us as unworthy and irrelevant, we have continuously contributed to our own demise.
We are either a respectable CARICOM or we are fawning vassals deserving of such disrespect.
I maintain, to my colleagues and brothers and sisters, that we might be small but ought never to accept being insignificant and inconsequential.
Other Caribbean leaders, most notably Antigua and Barbuda's Gaston Browne, who is the current chair of CARICOM, felt that CARICOM should “take the lead with the support of the international community to help the Haitian people to come up with an indigenous solution.”
CARICOM's position was echoed in newspaper editorials and on social media platforms. Both the Trinidad Express newspaper and regional diplomat Sir Ronald Sanders suggested that CARICOM is one of the few external organisations that elicit trust and confidence in the Haitian people, while writer and university lecturer Amilcar Sanatan noted on Facebook:
CARICOM has been monitoring the situation and we will see the extent to which the regional bloc can help, if that help is wanted at this time. What we don't want is further instability and more political violence.
It is believed that prior to Moïse's assassination, CARICOM, being concerned about the ongoing social unrest and political instability in Haiti, had hoped to mediate, but according to regional journalist Wesley Gibbings, although the dynamics between the two have been awkward, “[CARICOM]’s credibility when attending to the problem of a family member cannot be ignored in the crafting of a resolution, however temporal.” He continued:
[…] while the prime minister is quite right about the ‘Core Group’s’ disrespect it is not entirely accurate to give the impression of Haiti’s wholesome engagement of the Caricom agenda. That country has absolutely not been a reliable ally on the troublesome question of Venezuela, among other foreign policy dilemmas [and] Haiti is also a ‘de jure’ but not ‘de facto’ participant in the CSME [CARICOM Single Market and Economy], and its nationals continue to require visas to enter a majority of Caricom countries […]
In the wake of Moïse's death, the situation is even more complex. Quite apart from the fact that the Haitian diaspora is having a hard time separating fact from fiction when it comes to the assassination itself, the fact remains that Moïse's presidency was tumultuous—plagued by corruption allegations, social unrest, and calls for his resignation. The country's political turmoil has led to Moïse ruling by decree for over a year before his death; Haiti has not yet held legislative elections.
On Facebook, Jamaica-based writer Annie Paul quoted an excerpt from an opinion piece in The Haitian Times, in which Garry Pierre-Pierre linked Haiti's deeply ingrained caste system to its political, economic and social woes. Meanwhile, the Haitian opposition appears to regard Henry as a continuation of Moïse's fraught legacy, writing him off as a puppet of the international community even as Henry himself has been pushing an agenda of unity.
Jovenel Moïse's state funeral will be held on July 23. His wife Martine, who was injured in the attack and was airlifted to Florida for medical care, has returned home to attend the service. Investigations into his assassination are ongoing.

author: Janine Mendes-Franco


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Devices of journalists, government officials in Kazakhstan hacked and spied on · Global Voices
Paolo Sorbello

Serikzhan Mauletbai's phone, among thousands of others, was targeted by the Pegasus surveillance software. Photo by Paolo Sorbello, used with permission.
When an investigation revealed that Kazakhstan's security services could have spied on journalists and human rights defenders this week, few were surprised, as the country shows an abysmal human rights and freedom of the press record.
More surprising was the revelation on July 21 that the president, the prime minister, and the mayor of the largest city were all targets of the spyware that the NSO Group, an Israeli software company, sold to the government.
As the news broke at the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP), a consortium of investigative journalists, Kazakhstan's government-sponsored media was covering the story of Askar Mamin, the country's prime minister, visiting the western Mangistau region, where he instructed the local government to help farmers and breeders to cope with the recent drought.
Independent local media, meanwhile, reported heavily on the findings of dozens of investigative journalists, who called their dossier ‘The Pegasus Project,‘ after the name of the virtual Trojan-horse that the Israeli-made software installed on the phones of the government's targets.
The software intruded into the mobile devices of the government's targets unnoticed and could have allowed security services to eavesdrop on private conversations and check personal messages and photos.
Observers noted that each client must have spent around US$ 2.5 million to buy the software, although this is unconfirmed by the NSO Group.
Signs that Kazakhstan's government apparatus might be using the Pegasus spyware had already been detected in 2018.
At that time, Kassym-Jomart Tokayev was the head of the Senate, Bakhytzhan Sagintayev was prime minister, and Askar Mamin was CEO of the state-owned railway company, the country's largest employer. Then, in early 2019, then-President Nursultan Nazarbayev decided it was time for a reshuffle. In February, he named Mamin prime minister and moved Sagintayev to Almaty, the country's largest city, where he became a mayor. In March 2019, Nazarbayev unexpectedly announced his resignation after three decades in power, effectively handing the reins to Tokayev.
Until July 21, these high-profile figures were likely unaware that their phones were being targeted by the Pegasus spyware.
Sadyk Akezhan, a government spokesperson, was puzzled by the news. When interviewed by Radio Azattyk, he said:
Я думаю, что это из мира фантастики, абсурдно. Вы не считаете абсурдным то, что само правительство делает заказ и прослушивает телефоны президента и самого премьер-министра?
I think this is from the world of fantasy, absurd. But this is my opinion. Don't you think it would be absurd that the government buys [spyware] and bugs the phones of its own president and the prime minister?
At the time of writing, the government has not commented on the issue.
Out of the tens of thousand phone numbers found in the Pegasus Project investigation, it is impossible to now determine just how many were effectively spied on and for how long. The list, which spans over 50,000 phone numbers across nearly 50 countries, shows those that were ‘selected for targeting.’ In other words, the spyware users could have read anything and listened to anything in the target's phone, yet there is no proof that they did it or when they did it.
Crucially, the professional phone numbers of journalists and activists were often also their private numbers, implying a potentially pervasive privacy breach.
Serikzhan Mauletbai, 30, worked in journalism for eight years in Almaty and was the first journalist to appear on the list of people targeted by the Pegasus spyware in Kazakhstan.
Serikzhan Mauletbai, in a park next to his office in Almaty. Photo by Paolo Sorbello, used with permission.
In an interview with Global Voices, Mauletbai described the feeling of being spied on and his plans for further engagement with the profession of journalism.
Global Voices (GV): You mentioned in a Facebook post that you expected to be surveilled. What will change now that you know you were a target of this snooping software?
Serikzhan Mauletbai (SM): Для меня ничего не поменялось, как я боролся за свободу слова, за комфортную работу журналистов в стране так и буду продолжать.
Serikzhan Mauletbai (SM): For me nothing has changed, just as I was fighting for freedom of expression, for journalists to work in comfortable conditions in this country, I will continue to do all of that.
GV: In Kazakhstan, freedom of the press is constantly under threat. Do you think other journalists were a target of this surveillance just like you?
SM: Я уверен, в том что любой журналист в Казахстане, более и менее активно работающий, находится под надзором. Я думаю, что как минимум на них собранны досье, это моё мнение и те же самые спецслужбы знают, хотя бы минимальную информацию об этом человеке.
SM: I am sure that any more-or-less active journalist in Kazakhstan is under surveillance. I think that there is at least a dossier on each and that the security services know something about us, even just a little.
GV: Do you think that something will change or that the government will open an investigation after these revelations?
SM: Нет, ничего не поменяется. Я думаю, что власти проигнорируют эту ситуацию.
SM: No, nothing will change. I think that the government will ignore this situation.
Mauletbai told local media that he intends to write a letter to the government to understand if, when, and why they spied on him.
The struggle for freedom of the press continues, Mauletbai said. The League of Court Journalists, of which Mauletbai is part, has fought against restrictive measures that the government intended to implement.
In 2019, then-minister of information Dauren Abayev tried to pass a new regulation on the accreditation of journalists, which would have severely limited access to most press conferences for journalists, especially those from independent media.
The League, together with the Guild of Courtroom Reporters, also worked on the “opening of the courts,” Mauletbai highlighted. The relentless lobbying of the journalist group has led to more transparent trials. For the past few years, instances of banning or expelling journalists from the courtroom have become rare and exceptional. Before the campaign, judges and courtroom officials treated journalists in an arbitrary way.


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Digital education lags behind as Kyrgyzstan’s schools lack access · Global Voices
Aigerim Turgunbaeva

“Online teaching. Little girl working on the laptop.” by shixart1985 is licensed under CC BY 2.0
Students of all schools in Kyrgyzstan have been studying from home since the beginning of April 2020. However, they and their parents face hardship with distance education, as many schoolchildren across the country have limited access to the internet, do not have the appropriate devices, or do not know how to use the necessary mobile applications.
Teachers were also not ready to transition to digital education when the authorities suddenly decided to transfer all learning online without conducting the adequate tools and training to avoid disruptions.
Most teachers received a one-week training course to familiarize themselves with the new software and methods. Upon completion of the course, they had to start working immediately with their now virtual class.
Globally, the COVID-19 pandemic has caused massive disruptions to the educational process and has already had an almost universal impact on students and teachers worldwide.
According to a UN report, the closure of schools and other educational institutions affected as much as 94 percent of the global student population, which went as high as 99 percent in low-income and lower-middle-income countries.
The World Bank predicts that the coronavirus pandemic will deliver a “devastating blow” to the education system, the consequences of which will be “felt for decades to come.”
Since March 2020, 85,164 people have been infected with COVID-19 in Kyrgyzstan, according to official statistics, and 2,186 people have died (data as of July 20, 2021).
The first stage of vaccination against the virus started in March 2021, targeting specific categories of workers, especially in the medical and emergency sectors. The minister of health and social development and his deputies were the first to be vaccinated, in an effort to reassure the population that the vaccine was harmless and necessary. Kyrgyzstan received a first batch of vaccines from China, and the government will have to negotiate further supplies to increase vaccination numbers in the coming months.
Meanwhile, in March and April 2021, the virus continued to spread, at a higher rate. Deaths were reported almost daily. Yet, rules for wearing masks, maintaining distance, and banning mass events were not observed.
The worsening epidemiological situation in the country will further delay the opening of schools, given that children could be highly effective vectors for the virus.
Sholpanbai uulu Melis, research assistant of infectious diseases at the Akhunbayev State Medical University, however, advised caution. In an interview with Global Voices he said that, at the beginning of the pandemic, “the transition to online education had an impact on reducing the risk of transmission,” because children could have spread the virus among themselves and on to their families.
Statistically, children fall ill at lower rates than adults, in Kyrgyzstan and across the world. It is more likely that children carry the infection in an asymptomatic form and the percentage of children with such complications is low.
A paper published by researchers of the Data School, part of a global network of organizations that work to improve data literacy, and City Initiatives, a foundation that explores changes in the urban environment and communities, surveyed 338 teachers and 1,324 students in Kyrgyzstan, finding that:
Dogdurgul Kendirbayeva, adviser to the minister of education and science of the Kyrgyz Republic, highlighted the digital divide between urban and rural populations in an interview for the “Voices of Kyrgyzstan in the time of COVID-19” project at the University of Central Asia:
Teachers [across the world and in Kyrgyzstan] said that they urgently had to switch to the use of digital educational technologies. Especially in remote places, there was no access to high-quality internet connection, as well as electronic devices, laptops, and phones.
In March 2020, the Government of Kyrgyzstan proposed various formats of distance learning. The lessons were broadcast on state TV channels. Around 1,700 video tutorials were filmed for the end of the 2020 school year. For the 2020-2021 academic year, the ministry of education and science prepared 7,022 video tutorials.
However, students and their parents were — and still are — faced with the fact that the distance education program from the department is not suitable for everyone: many schoolchildren in Kyrgyzstan have limited access to the internet, do not have mobile devices or a TV, or do not know how to use the necessary mobile applications.
Last year, a study by Lawyers for Human Rights, an NGO focusing on issues of equality and justice, demonstrated that the ministry of education did not monitor or analyze the quality of distance education services provided. Also, the study found that the state failed to provide the necessary devices for online education to those who could not afford them.
The government's approach to education during the pandemic has been patchy. Students of the second, third, and fourth grades returned to traditional, in-person education on March 9, 2021. A few weeks later, though, the Bishkek mayor's office decided to make the educational process in schools and kindergartens remote from April 12 until the epidemic situation improved. Gradually, during April and May, schools in Kyrgyzstan’s major cities were being quarantined. Universities continued lectures and exams in a mixed format, online and offline.
Due to the precarious status of health in the country during the pandemic, it is unclear whether education will continue fully offline in the next academic year, starting in September. So far, however, the government has been unable to adapt the educational processes to the new reality.

author: Aigerim Turgunbaeva


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Global investigation reveals Pegasus Project identified in Azerbaijan and elsewhere · Global Voices
Arzu Geybullayeva

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Code_on_computer_monitor_(Unsplash).jpg
Days after a global investigation titled the Pegasus Project exposed how an intrusive software, called Pegasus, was used to target journalists, rights defenders, activists, and political leaders across the world, one country that utilized this technology has remained quiet. Authorities in Azerbaijan have so far refrained from making any statements about its surveillance policies or ties to the Israeli surveillance company that sells Pegasus software, NSO Group. According to leaked data, around 1,000 phone numbers belonging to users in Azerbaijan were identified — among them, prominent journalists, editors, rights defenders, lawyers, and political activists, as well as their friends and family members.
A successful Pegasus infection gives NSO customers access to all data stored on the device. An attack on a journalist could expose a reporter’s confidential sources as well as allowing NSO’s government client to read their chat messages, harvest their address book, listen to their calls, track their precise movements and even record their conversations by activating the device’s microphone.
Pegasus infections can be achieved through so-called “zero-click” attacks, which do not require any interaction from the phone’s owner in order to succeed.
For months Paris-based journalism non-profit Forbidden Stories, Amnesty International Security Lab, and more than 80 journalists from 17 media outlets collaborated to establish the identities of those targeted by the intrusive NSO software after leaked data revealed that some 50,000 phone numbers across 50 countries were potentially targeted. So far, the groups have established where Pegasus was put to use: Bahrain, Hungary, India, Kazakhstan, Mexico, Morocco, Rwanda, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates; and have identified 14 world leaders plus 180 journalists, editors, and freelancers who were targeted.
Not all of the 50,000 numbers were subject to an attempted or successful hack. And in the absence of a forensic examination, it is impossible to tell whether a device was hacked. Amnesty International Security Lab was able to carry out forensic examinations on 67 phones so far, out of which 37 showed signs of Pegasus.
This interactive presentation lets you explore the dozens journalists, activists, and others who were selected for targeting sophisticated Israeli spyware.https://t.co/IbMYYoDsBI
— Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (@OCCRP) July 22, 2021
NSO Group insists that it sells its software only to governments, suggesting that the clients in these countries represent intelligence services, law enforcement agencies, or other official bodies.
NSO Group was set up in Israel in 2010 by Niv Carmi, Shalev Hulio, and Omri Lavie. On its website, the company claims to develop technology “to prevent and investigate terror and crime” but the surveillance technology appears to have been used against dissidents, journalists, and activists across the world. Citizen Lab investigations reveal that NSO's Pegasus was used against dissidents at least since 2016 in numerous countries.
In 2019, the company came under fire when accusations emerged that it was infecting users’ devices with malware by hacking WhatsApp. In response, WhatsApp and its parent company Facebook sued the NSO Group. In July 2020, a U.S. federal court judge ruled that the lawsuit against NSO Group can proceed despite the company's defense that “its business dealings with foreign governments, granted it immunity from lawsuits filed in U.S. courts under the Foreign Sovereign Immunity Act (FSIA).” In December 2020, Microsoft, Google, Internet Association, GitHub, and LinkedIn joined as parties in Facebook's ongoing legal battle against NSO. The most recent hearing took place in April 2021 and according to Politico the NSO Group appeared “unlikely to prevail.” Josh Gerstein, Politico's Senior Legal Affairs Reporter noted:
Even if the firm’s effort to head off the suit fails, it could continue to fight the case in the trial court, but will likely be forced to turn over documents about its development of Pegasus and make executives available for depositions.
In April of this year, nine international human rights and press freedom organizations penned a letter to Chaim Gelfand, Vice-President for Compliance at NSO Group, asking the company “to deliver on its commitments to improve transparency about sales of its advanced spyware, and due diligence to protect human rights.” The letter also rejected the NSO Group's claims “of their unverified compliance with human rights standards.”
Ron Deibert, Director of the Citizen Lab at the University of Toronto, considers NSO's claims that they adhere to human rights standards as “pure theater.”
The spectacle might be a mildly entertaining farce were it not for the very real and gruesome way in which its spyware is abused by the world’s worst autocrats. NSO’s irresponsible actions have proven their words are nothing more than hand-waving distractions from the harsh reality of the unregulated marketplace in which they, and their owners, thrive and profit.
Two years ago, the then-UN special rapporteur on freedom of expression, David Kaye, called for a moratorium on the sale of NSO-style spyware to governments until viable export controls could be put in place. Despite his warnings, the sale of surveillance software continued without any transparency or accountability.
The most recent investigation not only brings the company to the spotlight but also highlights the importance of control mechanisms imposed on spyware companies.
According to the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP), which was among the 17 media partners involved in the global Pegasus investigation, out of the 1,000 phone numbers from Azerbaijan, the project researchers were so far able to identify 245 phone numbers that were targeted, a fifth of which belonged to reporters, editors, or media company owners. The list also includes activists and their family members.
Meydan TV, a Berlin-based online news platform, spoke with some of the targeted community members. “Anyone who is engaged in civil society work in Azerbaijan is aware they are under surveillance. But this program is a spyware. And its capabilities such as turning on microphone and camera, while in an intimate setting with friends or family members, without the owner's awareness, is a direct violation of privacy,” said Bakhtiyar Hajiyev, a political activist.
Among the dissident family members targeted by the spyware is Shura Amiraslanova, the mother of former political prisoner Giyas Ibrahimov, known as one of the “graffiti prisoners” who was jailed after spraying graffiti on the statue of the former Azerbaijan President Heydar Aliyev and later sentenced to ten years in jail on questionable drug possession charges. “I guess they thought that if I fully stand behind my son, I should be watched too. But why? What can I do?” said Amiraslanova in an interview with Meydan TV.
Speaking to Azerbaijan Service for Radio Free Europe, Elshad Hajiyev, the spokesperson for the Ministry of Interior Affairs, dismissed the investigation as “baseless” assuring that “the ministry is willing to investigate any allegations upon request.”
In the meantime, the NSO Group denies all of the accusations, “the report by Forbidden Stories is full of wrong assumptions and uncorroborated theories that raise serious doubts about the reliability and interests of the sources,” read a company statement published on its website. In another statement issued on July 21, 2021, the group said, “enough was enough,” and that it will no longer respond to media queries, participating in “the vicious and slanderous campaign.”

author: Arzu Geybullayeva


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‘Maohi Lives Matter’: Tahiti protesters condemn French nuclear testing legacy · Global Voices
Mong Palatino

This is the third picture of a series of the Licorne thermonuclear test in French Polynesia. This is a scan of a (digitally restored) hard copy of a picture taken by the French army. Photo and caption by Flickr user Pierre J. (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)
More than 1,000 people gathered in the Tahiti capital of Papeete to condemn the failure of the French government to take full accountability for its nuclear testing program in the South Pacific.
France conducted 193 nuclear tests from 1966–1996 in Mā’ohi Nui (French Polynesia). France's 41st nuclear experiment in the Pacific led to catastrophe on July 17, 1974, when France tested a nuclear bomb codenamed “Centaure.” Because of weather conditions that day, the test caused an atmospheric radioactive fallout which affected all of French Polynesia. Inhabitants of Tahiti and the surrounding islands of the Windward group were reportedly subjected to significant amounts of ionizing radiation 42 hours after the test, which can cause significant long-term health problems.
The July 17, 2021 protest was organized under the banner of #MaohiLivesMatter to highlight the continuing fight for nuclear justice. Campaigners said that despite the statement of former French President François Hollande in 2016 recognizing the negative environmental and health impact of the nuclear tests, the French government has done little to provide compensation or rehabilitation to French Polynesia.
In Tahiti, the Tavini Huiraatira no Te Ao Maohi party joins church and community organisations to rally for “#MaohiLivesMatter!” French President #Macron will make a long-delayed visit to Tahiti between 24-27 July and many want him to address legacies of 193 French nuclear tests. pic.twitter.com/93UJgGhUtz
— Nic Maclellan (@MaclellanNic) July 17, 2021
After analyzing 2,000 pages of declassified French military documents about the nuclear tests, in March 2021 a group of researchers and investigative journalists from INTERPRT and Disclose released their findings on the health implications of the experiments.
According to our calculations, based on a scientific reassessment of the doses received, approximately 110,000 people were infected, almost the entire Polynesian population at the time.
The report has revived public awareness in France about the impact of their nuclear testing program. The French government held a roundtable discussion about the issue in Paris in early July. Though some criticized the French government for their alleged lack of transparency around the clean-up efforts in French Polynesia, officials denied these claims.
Protesters in Tahiti insisted that the French government should do more to address the demands of French Polynesian residents. Some noted that if French President Emmanuel Macron was able to seek forgiveness for the role of France in enabling the Rwanda genocide in 1994, he should at least make a similar apology for the harmful legacy of the nuclear tests in the Pacific.
The #MaohiLivesMatter protest has inspired solidarity in the Pacific.
We stand in solidarity with the 1000s of people who marched in French Polynesia to commemorate the day when fallout from a nuclear test covered their islands, and demand ?? accept responsibility for the damage caused ?https://t.co/fH1F8seNPp (1/2)#nuclearban #MaohiLivesMatter pic.twitter.com/Azt64zri63
— ICAN (@nuclearban) July 19, 2021
#PacificSolidarity with Maohi Nui.
Today we join our Maohi brothers and sisters in calling on #France that #MaohiLivesMatter.
PIANGO ED @EmelineIlolahia.#MaohiLivesMatter #NuclearJustice #NuclearFreeandIndependentPacific #NewClearWays pic.twitter.com/QWnv3Mr4bp
— PIANGO Pacific 2030 (@Pacific_2030) July 19, 2021
Community leaders of West Papua expressed their support for the protest:
#Westpapua leaders in solidarity with #maohi. Remembering the 50+ years of nuclear testing in Maohi, West Papuan leaders are calling for a free and nuclear free Pacific. #Pacificsolidarity #Maohilivesmatter #nuclearfreeandindependent @ronnykareni @YoungsolwaraP pic.twitter.com/7kAivyfAl2
— Dr. Siobhan McDonnell (@SiobhanADM) July 18, 2021
Youth activists from Pacific island nations also took part in the protest:
Écoutez, FRANCE! Maohi Lives Matter!
Nuclear testing, Crimes against Humanity!
Nuclear Free and Independent Pacific NOW!
50 years + 193 tests = France the Perpetrator!#MaohiLivesMatter #NuclearJustice #PacificSolidarity #NewClearWays #nuclearfreeandindependentpacific pic.twitter.com/wpC9NHbo2W
— Youngsolwara Pacific (@YoungsolwaraP) July 17, 2021
The International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear weapons (ICAN) Australia issued this statement of support:
As you gather in Maohi Nui on the 17th July we offer our deep respects to your leaders and community members who have long spoken out against the harms imposed by these weapons. We have heard your calls for nuclear justice. We continue to listen closely when you speak of the lived experience of the testing years and the on–going harms.
French President Emmanuel Macron is expected to tackle the legacy of nuclear testing during his visit to Tahiti this month.

author: Mong Palatino


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Pegasus spyware revelation indicates Indian state snooping on journalists, activists and politicians · Global Voices
Subhashish Panigrahi

A watchtower in the US area of the special ammunition depot in the Dernekamp hamlet, Kirchspiel, Dülmen, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany (Dietmar Rabich, CC BY-SA 4.0)
The Pegasus Project, a collaboration of 17 media organisations, released a report on July 18 detailing the potential hacking and illegal surveillance of 50,000 phone numbers, mostly in countries with authoritarian regimes, through the use of the Israeli-made spyware Pegasus. The targets of this alleged espionage include human rights defenders, activists, journalists, politicians, high-ranking public officials and business people. Reportedly, more than 1,000 phone numbers from India are a part of this list.
Pegasus users can access unencrypted content stored on a phone (messages, emails, photos, videos, etc.), record phone calls, track geo-locations and activate microphones and cameras without the user's authorization.
The leaked list of Pegasus targets includes two phone numbers of Rahul Gandhi, a member of the Indian Parliament and the former President of the Indian National Congress (INC), who was unsuccessful in his election campaign against the incumbent Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi in 2019. The Guardian noted that the selection of Indian phone numbers coincided with Modi's 2017 visit to Israel that led to significant growth in the relationship between India and Israel. INC, the main opposition party in the Indian parliament, has accused Modi of ‘treason’ and compromising the country's national security.
Also included on this list is the phone number of former bureaucrat Ashok Lavasa, who was an election commissioner in 2019. As commissioner, he argued for imposing sanctions on Modi for his heated political speeches, which were linked to increased attacks on Indian Muslims.
Ashwini Vaishnaw, India's Minister of Railways, Communications and Electronics and Information Technology and Prahlad Singh Patel, the Minister of State for Jal Shakti (the water ministry), are two recently sworn-in ministers whose numbers have also been found on the list. Incidentally, Vaishnaw's ministry oversees India's digital surveillance regulations.
Pegasus is a type of spyware — a software that allows users to secretly gather and receive data in someone's phone, computer or electronic device — made by Israeli tech firm NSO Group.
The Pegasus Project includes 80 journalists from 17 media organizations from 10 countries, with Paris-based media not-for-profit Forbidden Stories coordinating and the human rights not-for-profit Amnesty International overseeing forensic tests. Siddharth Varadarajan and M.K. Venu, the two founding editors of the Wire, an independent Indian media organisation that is assisting in the investigations, both had devices infected with Pegasus. One other editor from the Wire and three regular contributors also had their phone numbers on the list.
Amnesty's Security Lab produced a detailed technical report after analyzing the leaked list. So far they have analysed 67 phones and found traces of Pegasus in 37 of them. Citizen Lab, an interdisciplinary research lab based at the University of Toronto, Canada has independently reviewed and approved Amnesty's forensic examination methods.
BREAKING: massive, global leak of the targets of NSO Group's Pegasus spyware. *huge deal.*
Forensic investigation by @AmnestyTech
in collaboration with @FbdnStories reporters.
We @citizenlab conducted peer review.
Here's an explainer THREAD.https://t.co/TasFCy5EGW pic.twitter.com/rGGKAkfSry
— John Scott-Railton (@jsrailton) July 18, 2021
While having a phone number on this list does not necessarily confirm that the phone has been infected with Pegasus, the users of these phones can theoretically be targetted by one of the NSO Group's clients. The Amnesty Security Lab has also published the Mobile Verification Toolkit (MVT), an open-source mobile forensic tool to simplify the process of gathering and analysing data from potentially compromised Android and iOS devices.
Reporters Without Border calls India ‘one of the world’s most dangerous countries for journalists trying to do their job properly’, while placing the country's Press Freedom Index at 140 out of 180 ranked countries. Journalists like Nitin Sethi cited conscious efforts to not report about the Pegasus Project in mainstream Indian media outlets.
Lesson for journalists: A controlled way to kill a story in the headline and by prioritizing down information in the main text. pic.twitter.com/YvXgEZuA19
— Nitin Sethi (@nit_set) July 20, 2021
The range of potential Pegasus victims is huge. It includes political activists who have been accused of Maoist links who were arrested in 2018 to those who opposed the National Register of Citizens (NRC) and Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA). Eight of the arrested activists were arrested based on evidence planted on their devices before their arrests. Both CAA and NRC are controversial for their alleged role in the probable displacement of more than 1.9 million residents — mostly minority Muslims — in the state of Assam.
Media outlets that are critical of Modi's ruling Bharatiya Janata Party are seeing a retaliation in the form of tax raids. The noted Hindi-language newspaper Dainik Bhaskar was raided by tax officials on July 22. Dainik Bhaskar not only reported on Pegasus but has persistently questioned the government's choice to downplay COVID-19 related deaths.
Under Prime Minister Modi several critical media outlets have found themselves in tax investigators’ cross-hairs, raising fears about the health of the independent press in the world’s largest democracy. With @gerryshih #DainikBhaskar https://t.co/DJovrPBVta
— Niha Masih (@NihaMasih) July 22, 2021
The Indian government has largely avoided addressing the issue, not confirming whether they purchased and or used Pegasus. An official response claimed that the recent report is based on conjecture:
The allegations regarding government surveillance on specific people has no concrete basis or truth associated with it whatsoever.
Speaking in Rajya Sabha (the upper house of the Indian parliament), Vaishnaw termed the media reports on the government's link to Pegasus a ‘sensational story’.
In the past, similar claims were made regarding the use of Pegasus on WhatsApp. Those reports had no factual basis and were categorically denied by all parties, including in the Supreme Court. pic.twitter.com/tDhNsLc8p0
— Ashwini Vaishnaw (@AshwiniVaishnaw) July 22, 2021
Journalist Barkha Dutta commented on the situation through Twitter:
I never thought I’d write the following : India’s IT Minister revealed to be on Pegasus list of surveillance targets on day he denied the charge of unauthorised surveillance.
— barkha dutt (@BDUTT) July 19, 2021
On July 22, 2021, public interest litigation was filed in the Indian supreme court, seeking a court-monitored probe by a Special Investigation Team into the reports about Pegasus’ intrusion in India.
Hacking devices for surveillance remains illegal in India. Other forms of interception and monitoring are permitted to authorised agencies via the Rule 419A of the Indian Telegraph Rules, 1951, Section 92 in the 1973 Code of Criminal Procedure, Section 69 and 69 B in the 2000 Information Technology Act of the Indian Constitution.
However, as Indian lawyer and co-founder of tech and policy nonprofit the Centre for Internet and Society Pranesh Prakash highlights, there is no clarity about when these rules apply. The Center for Public Interest Litigation and Software Freedom Law Center in Delhi each filed a petition in December 2020 looking to stop several state-run surveillance agencies. But many forms of rampant surveillance continue in India today. Indian society is currently grappling with the tensions between government surveillance and citizens’ right to privacy — a guaranteed constitutional right under Article 21 of the Indian Constitution.

author: Subhashish Panigrahi