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Online journalist detained for quoting Cambodian prime minister’s advice on COVID-19 · Global Voices
Mong Palatino

Cambodian journalist Sovann Rithy, wearing a scarf and the only one in the photo without a mask, inside a police office. Source Facebook page of the Phnom Penh Municipal Police
Check out Global Voices’ special coverage of the global impact of COVID-19.
Cambodian journalist Sovann Rithy of the TVFB digital news outlet was arrested on April 7, 2020, for publishing a video report quoting Prime Minister Hun Sen. The report contained Hun Sen’s advice to drivers to sell their motorcycles in order to avoid being bankrupt during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic since the government has no money to help informal workers. The president made the remark while discussing the economic impact of the COVID-19 measures that the government will implement like movement restrictions and reduced business activities.
But the police said the prime minister was joking which means it should not be repeated to avoid causing public confusion. They arrested Rithy under Articles 494 and 495 of the Criminal Code for “incitement to commit a felony” which includes a prison sentence of six months to two years. The Phnom Penh Municipal Court ordered Rithy to be detained the following day.
Authorities accused Rithy of selecting a sensational quote from the prime minister’s press conference instead of reporting other issues related to COVID-19. But a VOA Khmer report noted that while Hun Sen was joking about telling drivers to sell motorcycles, he repeated the same advice during his talk without laughing.
Aside from arresting Rithy, the Ministry of Information revoked TVFB’s media license.
Nop Vy, executive director of the Cambodian Journalist Alliance, urged authorities to review the charge and instead demand correction in the report if there were inaccuracies.
What is the important point, I think, is that his broadcast did not cause any damage the national interest or any discrimination, so I request the government review this issue again.
On Twitter, Sopheap Chak of the Cambodian Center for Human Rights asked authorities to observe due process in handling the case.
TVFB publisher was arrested & questioned over his report quoting the PM’s speech. While the case is now proceeding to the court, he & his media outlet shall be treated as innocent. Why the license is revoked even before the proceeding? Where the model of presumption of innocence? pic.twitter.com/qWPyn4MgSf
— Sopheap Chak (@sopheapfocus) April 8, 2020
Journalist Kevin Doyle wrote that the arrest may be intended as a threat to other media outlets
Persecute one journalist to send a message to all journalists in Cambodia. A method long used by Phnom Penh regime during challenging times. Covid19, collapse in tourism, and impact on garment producing sector from global lockdown are challenges the PM can’t arrest his way out of https://t.co/XGwYI8QJrc
— Kevin J Doyle (@doyle_kevin) April 8, 2020
Daniel Bastard, the Asia-Pacific head of Reporters Without Borders (RSF), described the case against Rithy as absurd:
Imprisoning a journalist for quoting a statement by the prime minister word for word is more than absurd. The Covid-19 crisis must not be used as pretext for getting rid of journalists who do not blindly toe the government line.
Rithy’s father has already asked forgiveness on behalf of his son and requested the police to drop the case. Cambodia has arrested at least 17 individuals for posting misinformation about COVID-19. But human rights groups said the government is using the crisis to detain critics and members of the opposition.

author: Mong Palatino


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Quarantined Argentine women protest spike in femicides from their windows · Global Voices
Romina Navarro

A screenshot from the programme on March 31, 2020, on the YouTube channel Televisión Pública Noticias. Screenshot.
See Global Voices’ special coverage on how women are fighting against gender-based violence in Latin America.
Argentina was 10 days into mandatory quarantine as a preventive measure against COVID-19 when women joined forces to protest against the increase in reports of gender-based violence during the lockdown. On March 30, at 6.p.m, cities nationwide were enveloped by a ruidazo as women made noise from whistles, pots, pans, and other household objects from their windows, porches, and balconies.
Helpline calls increased by 60 percent in the capital Buenos Aires in the first days of the lockdown, according to Estela Díaz, the Minister of Women, Gender Policies and Sexual Diversity of the Province of Buenos Aires, and there have been at least twelve femicides in the country from March 20 until April 2 according to the NGO La Casa del Encuentro. The discovery of the bodies of a woman and her 7-year-old daughter in Lanús (a town to the south of Buenos Aires), who had disappeared on the night of March 25, caused outrage.
In this FiloNews article, all the cases of femicide that have taken place over the first 10 days of quarantine are described in more detail.
#Ruidazo contra los femicidios y la violencia machista
A post shared by  Feb Echeverria (@febecheverria) on
#Ruidazo against femicides and misogynistic violence
Con hija #Ruidazo #cuarentena #YoMeQuedoEnCasa  #ViolenciaDeGénero es #Pandemia #TuMachismoMata
A post shared by  RO Ferrer (@roferrerilustradora) on
With my daughter #Ruidazo #quarantine #I'mStayingAtHome
#GenderViolence is a #Pandemic
#YourMisogynyKills
Faced with this alarming increase in demand for support, and difficulties victims face with reporting over the phone when the abuser is nearby, the National Ministry for Women, Genders, and Diversity has introduced alternative channels on WhatsApp and email. The term “red mask” (barbijo rojo) has also been established as a code word to ask for help in pharmacies across the country.
Feminists are calling for more support and demanding that the government takes action against gender violence. Several unions have, meanwhile, made hotels available to protect women in extreme cases, but vacancies are insufficient.
Es necesario que los hoteles que están cerrados y vacíos se usen para resguardar a las mujeres, niñez y Disidencias que por el aislamiento están obligadxs a convivir con su agresor. #LaIzquierdaReclama #NiUnaMenos #Ruidazo
— Noel Argañaraz (@ArganarazNoel) March 30, 2020
Hotels that are closed and empty need to be used to shelter women, children and nonbinary people who are being forced to isolate themselves with their abuser. #TheLeftDemands #NoMore #Ruidazo
Social media is full of supportive messages, calling out the “pandemic” of misogynistic violence and femicides:
El gran porcentaje de femicidas se encuentra en nuestras casas. Miles de mujeres y niñes viven con quienes les pegan, con quienes las abusan y con quienes las someten a todo tipo de maltrato. NO ESTAS SOLA!! ✊??#Ruidazo #NiUnaMenos
— Fernanda (@ferdecarolis1) March 30, 2020
The vast majority of femicides take place in our homes. Thousands of women and children live with people who hit them, who abuse them and who mistreat them in all sorts of ways. YOU ARE NOT ALONE!! #Ruidazo #NoMore
En los 10 días que llevamos de cuarentena hubo 12 femicidios. Hoy a las 18:00 #ruidazo en las ventanas, balcones y por redes ??? Si sos mujer y estás en una situación de violencia por favor llama gratis al 0-800-888-9898 las 24hs todos los días. SEGUIMOS JUNTAS ?? cuarentena segura para todas  #cuarentenaconderechos #niunamenos #alertafeminista #emergenciaenviolencia
A post shared by  Maca Torres ? (@macattorres) on
During the 10 days we've been under quarantine, there have been 12 femicides. Today at 6 pm #ruidazo from windows, balconies and on social media. If you're a woman and you're in a violent situation, please call 0-800-888-9898 for free 24h a day every day. LET'S GO ON TOGETHER safe quarantine for all #quarantinewithrights #nomore #feministalert #violenceemergency
Hoy desde nuestros balcones, ventanas o terrezas las mujeres nos hacemos escuchar al grito de #NiUnaMenos #Ruidazo pic.twitter.com/IbZJ6wEIA9
— Paulaguala (@Paulaguala1) March 30, 2020
Today from our balconies, windows or porches, us women will be shouting out #NotOneMore #Ruidazo
La deuda es con nosotras.#CuarentenaSinViolenciaDeGénero#Ruidazo #NiUnaMenos pic.twitter.com/CA9Et4ldYw
— FLOR ?✊ (@floor_lagos) March 30, 2020
You owe it to us. #QuarantineWithoutGenderViolence #Ruidazo #NotOneMore
11 mujeres asesinadas en los últimos 10 días durante la cuarentena.
Hoy a las 18hs #Ruidazo, hagámosnos oír! Colgá en tu balcón, ventana o terraza algún cartel contra la violencia machista.#NiUnaMenos #BarbijoRojo #QuedateEnTuCasa pic.twitter.com/5Zz5N06DBa
— Tatiana Goic (@tatyanaale) March 30, 2020
11 women murdered in the last 10 days under quarantine. Today at 18:00 #Ruidazo, let's make ourselves heard! Hang an anti-misogynistic violence poster from your balcony, window or patio.#NotOneMore #RedMask #StayAtHome
Estamos en aislamiento, pero no estamos solas.
Nos sumamos al #RUIDAZO y pedimos #NiUnaMenos ✊#AislamientoEnRed #EstamosCerca pic.twitter.com/zPX1qSyTzo
— Fundación Huésped (@FundHuesped) March 30, 2020
We're in isolation, but we're not alone.
We're joining in the #RUIDAZO and demanding #NotOneMore #IsolationNetwork #We'reClose

source: news-globalvoices

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

author: Romina Navarro


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Tunisia has a disinformation problem, but (further) criminalizing speech won’t solve it · Global Voices
Afef Abrougui

Following the outcry from human rights groups and citizens, a controversial bill that sought to criminalize the spread of ‘’false’’ and ‘’questionable’’ news online in Tunisia has been withdrawn.
A journalist and his cameraman report from a polling centre on Election Day on October 13, 2019. During last year's elections, social media was marred with disinformation. Photo by ISIE, the Tunisian electoral commission [Public Domain].
The bill, initiated by member of parliament (MP) Mabrouk Korchid, from the Tahya Tounes party (a member of the current governing coalition) and endorsed by 46 other MPs, took many Tunisians by surprise as the country is in lockdown because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
It proposes amendments to articles 245 and 247 of the Tunisian penal code to ‘’prevent attacks on reputation and the spoiling of the democratic environment,’’ citing Germany and France as examples of democracies that legislated against ‘’fake news.’’
However, language in the bill is broad and vague, and would violate constitutional guarantees to freedom of expression and international human rights standards. Article 31 of the Tunisian constitution guarantees freedom of opinion, thought, expression and media and publication freedoms and bans any prior censorship on these freedoms, while Article 32 guarantees access to access to information and communication networks. Tunisia is also a state party to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR).
The bill proposes a prison sentence of two years in jail and a fine between 10,000 and 20,000 Tunisian Dinars (around $3,500 to $7, 000 United States dollars) against ‘’users of communication networks and social media platforms,’’ convicted of disclosing ‘’any false or questionable speech…which may be insulting to individuals, groups or institutions.’’
Those who violate this provision during an electoral period or in the six months before elections can risk a double sentence. The punishment may also be doubled for users spreading this content while hiding their identities.
Additionally, the proposed amendments would give the public prosecutor broad powers to ‘’monitor electronic crimes and uncovering those committing them.’’ During electoral periods, the prosecutor is required to ‘’take the necessary preventive measures’’ to prevent the dissemination of such content.
The bill, dated March 12, 2020, was submitted to parliament on March 29. Its proponents requested for it to be reviewed urgently under the pretext that the country’s regional elections are scheduled for 2021. However, as soon as the bill was announced to the public, its supporters received a backlash from human rights groups and angry citizens online.
A day after its submission, the bill’s initiator, Korchid, announced that he will withdraw the bill “for now’’ due to the current health circumstances. Several other MPs also said that they were withdrawing their signatures. Others, like independent MP Safi Said, claimed that they endorsed a different version of the bill from the one that was eventually submitted.
There is no doubt that Tunisia has a mis- and disinformation problem, just like anywhere else in the world. Concerns about the impact of such content on the electoral process and the country’s fragile democracy came to the fore during last year’s presidential and legislative elections. During the electoral period, social media was rife with political rumors and false news — particularly on Facebook.
The elections may have come to an end, but rumors have continued to spread, as the country fights the spread of COVID-19, which has already infected 628 and killed 24 people as of April 7. This has prompted the Ministry of Health to publish a statement on March 29, in which it warned that it would take legal action against those who ‘’spread rumors and misleading information to protect public health.’’
But while countering disinformation is a legitimate purpose, further criminalizing peaceful speech, would only greatly restrict users’ rights to freely and peacefully express their opinions and access information, and as a result, threaten Tunisia’s democratic progress achieved in the past few years following the toppling of the Ben Ali regime in 2011.
In a statement published on March 30, by 24 civil society organizations, human rights and press freedom groups including the Tunisian League for Human Rights (LTDH), The General Union of Tunisian Workers, Tunisian Association for the Defense of Individual Liberties and the National Syndicate of Tunisian Journalists (SNJT), they warned:
ولئن كان التصدي للأخبار الزائفة أمرا مشروعا، إلا أنه لا يجب أن يتحول إلى مطية لضرب الفصلين 31 و32 من الدستور التونسي عبر استعمال عبارات فضفاضة كالتي وردت في المقترح
While countering fake news is legitimate, it should not turn into a pretext to violate articles 31 and 32 of the Tunisian constitution using vague expressions like the ones that appear in the bill.
On the other hand, the country’s independent broadcast regulator (HAICA), called for a multi-stakeholder approach to address mis- and disinformation:
موضوع الأخبار الزائفة يجب أن يطرح في إطار حوار واسع يجمع كافة المتدخلين من مختصين وهياكل مهنية ومؤسسات إعلامية ومكونات مجتمع مدني لإيجاد الحلول الكفيلة بالتصدي لهذه الظاهرة دون المساس من جوهر الحق في حرية التعبير في تناسق تام مع مقتضيات الفصل 49 من الدستور التونسي
The topic of fake news should be addressed within the framework of a broad dialogue that brings together all stakeholders from experts, professional structures, media institutions, and civil society to find solutions to counter this phenomenon without prejudice to the essence of the right to freedom of expression, in complete harmony with the requirements of Article 49 of the Tunisian constitution.
Article 49 states that restrictions on rights and freedom guaranteed in the constitution ‘’can only be put in place for reasons necessary to a civil and democratic state,’’ and limits such restrictions to legitimate reasons such as protection of the rights of others, and requirements of public order or public health etcetera, “provided there is proportionality between these restrictions and the objective sought.’’
This recent attempt to restrict Tunisians’ rights to freedom of expression and information online has been short-lived. However, these rights remain at risk. After all, Korchid said that he was withdrawing the bill ‘’for now,’’ and that he remained ‘’convinced’’ that it does not threaten freedoms. So, it is possible that legislators will attempt to submit it again or a different version in the future.
Additionally, while Tunisia has made commendable progress when it comes to human rights since 2011, several laws that contain restrictions to freedom of expression that violate international standards remain on the books.
Article 86 of the Telecommunication Code stipulates that anyone convicted of “harming others or disrupting their lives through public communication networks” may face up to two years in prison. The Penal Code has provisions that criminalise defamation and the spreading of content “liable to cause harm to public order or good morals.”
Instead of further criminalizing peaceful speech, the Tunisian parliament should instead work to amend and abolish the aforementioned restrictions. Only measures that reinforce government transparency and build citizen trust in its institutions — and a favourable environment to media and press freedoms — can counter disinformation, without harming fundamental rights and freedoms.

author: Afef Abrougui


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Ahead of contentious elections, Burundi faces its first COVID-19 cases · Global Voices
Liam Anderson

Pierre Nkurunziza, president of Burundi, captured during the opening plenary of the World Economic Forum on Africa 2008 in Cape Town, South Africa, June 4, 2008. Photo by Eric Miller/WEF via CC BY 2.0.
Check out Global Voices’ special coverage of the global impact of COVID-19.
The election in Burundi, set for May 20, 2020, has been surrounded by concerns over security and transparency. After the 2015 election crisis and its ongoing fallout, it was widely welcomed that President Pierre Nkurunziza will not run again. His party named a successor candidate — Évariste Ndayishimiye.
However, the United Nation's Commission of Inquiry on Burundi warned in March that “the risk of atrocities remains serious.” Security services and the ruling party's youth group known as Imbonerakure continue to harass critics and opposition parties — especially the party Congrès national pour la Liberté (CNL). Officials reject these reports.
Journalists are also restricted. One of the last independent media, Iwacu, saw four reporters jailed last year, and recently the paper spoke out against a politician’s violent threats against it.
Now, the COVID-19 pandemic poses another public safety concern. On March 31, the government confirmed its first two positive cases — both Burundian nationals returning from abroad. The Health Ministry said they were doing well in the hospital and the government was tracing their contacts. It reported another case on April 2.
When Burundi had no positive cases, a government spokesperson's communique said their zero-case status was because Burundi is protected by “the grace of God”.
Officials support going ahead with elections.
Before the first cases appeared in Burundi, the government had already restricted travel from affected countries, and most international flights were suspended mid-March. Land travel was also limited, slowing cross-border trade. Some goods vehicles coming from Rwanda were blocked at the border, leading Rwanda to complain.
Temperature testing has also been operating at border points since mid-March:
Ici, le poste-frontière de Gatumba vers la #RDC. Les mesures d’hygiène sont en place, les médecins ont été aussi déployés avec du matériel pour la prise de température. La quarantaine est obligatoire pour les voyageurs qui veulent entrer au #Burundi.#COVIDー19 #handwashing pic.twitter.com/q1BM8RGSQL
— Yaga Burundi (@YBurundi) March 26, 2020
Here is Gatumba border-post towards DRC. Health measures are in place, doctors are also deployed with temperature testing material. Quarantine is mandatory for travellers wanting to enter Burundi
Officials have encouraged preventative measures such as social distancing and the use of hand-washing points installed in public such as bus stations.
However, after the first cases appeared, officials said no further measures would be immediately taken. On April 8, the health minister said people should continue with daily activities.
As elsewhere, there is debate over whether the measures are enough. Bars and markets stay open and religious and sporting events continue quite normally — like football matches — which many other countries suspended.
Iwacu reported that many people are worried and some were leaving cities for their original villages, raising concerns for possible contagion. Economist Faustin Ndikumana highlighted that the many self-employed would be hit hardest by any future confinement measures, struggling to afford not to work.
Blogger Apollinaire Nkurunziza worried that not everybody will follow guidelines:
Pour prévenir Coronavirus, l'Université du Burundi a mis des dispositifs de lavage des mains dans tous les campus et dans toutes les Facultés, aux Restaurants Universitaires …. pic.twitter.com/Gclkpakzwf
— Burundi University (@UB_Rumuri) March 30, 2020
To prepare for Coronavirus, the University of Burundi has put hand-washing points in all the campuses and colleges, university restaurants…
On April 4, authorities prevented people with dual Burundian nationality to board a Belgian repatriation flight. Diplomatic relations have been tense since the 2015 crisis was criticized internationally.
Burundi's government has made a point of asserting control  —sometimes apparently arbitrary — over internationally-linked people and institutions. It has restricted media and humanitarian agencies and became the first country to leave the International Criminal Court after it began investigating potential crimes.
On April 8, health minister Thaddée Ndikumana said that 2,936 people had been quarantined so far, with 2,261 already released, after a 14-day state-mandated quarantine. The government diverted individuals with potential exposure to COVID-19 to stay at selected schools and hotels for the two-week period. Police have detained people who attempt to avoid it.
Those in quarantine have complained about overcrowding, a lack of beds, medicine and having to pay costs themselves — raising concerns for increased contamination. Human Rights Watch also highlighted that some humanitarian organizations were denied access to quarantined people.
Refugees — several hundred thousand left after the 2015 crisis — are particularly vulnerable, with crowded camps and poor access to healthcare and food. Cases were reported in the regions of some camps, which have implemented measures such as hand-washing points, but they suffer from underfunding.
Burundi and Tanzania’s governments have been determined to repatriate as many refugees as possible, especially since late 2019. This has continued despite concerns over the pandemic and insecurity, although slower than the authorities hoped.
The UN Refugee Council raised concerns over pressure put on refugees to “voluntarily” return by making living conditions harder. Over 81,000 have returned since 2017, while the UN still registers over 336,000.
Blogger Aimé Rugira raised concerns over malnutrition affecting people’s immune systems during the pandemic. Some are particularly at risk  — such as homeless people and residents of crowded neighborhoods.
Opponents and critics worry that officials minimized risks over COVID-19 to avoid criticism over preparedness and avoid postponing elections — political meetings continue while many other countries have postponed elections.
In 2019, the government avoided declaring a malaria epidemic despite large increases in infections, which the World Health Organization (WHO) said reached epidemic levels. This minimizing undermined an effective response and Human Rights Watch raised concerns it could happen again with the COVID-19 pandemic.
During elections, institutions that show signs of struggle in a crisis may have to pay a price for that perceived weakness at the polls.
Meanwhile, political instability has dented foreign aid and everyday trade, and the pandemic risks more economic strife. The UN’s Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs reported that 1.74 million Burundians needed humanitarian assistance in February, and 112,000 people were internally displaced.
The Health Ministry assured sufficient healthcare capacity and published an action plan. Government spokesperson Prosper Ntahogwamiye warned against “manipulating” public opinion by suggesting a lack of supplies or taking measures beyond the government's recommendations. He criticized the closure of a French school and a Belgian school, while others remain open.
Iwacu, however, reported that Burundi has around 50 ventilators for 12 million people.
SOS Médias Burundi reported a leaked letter, dated March 27, from Bujumbura’s Kira Hospital to the health minister, asking urgently for COVID-19 testing equipment.
It said they had received suspected cases for several weeks, and that while centers have testing machines, they lack the reactive element. The Health Ministry responded that only the National Institute of Public Health is equipped for this testing.
Electoral campaigning officially begins in late April.

author: Liam Anderson


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Azerbaijanis required to send SMS notification before leaving their homes · Global Voices
Aisha Jabbarova

A nearly deserted Nizami Square in central Baku, capital of Azerbaijan, April 2020. The country is currently under quarantine. Photo (c): Akbar Mammadov. Used with permission.
Check out Global Voices’ special coverage of the global impact of COVID-19.
As the coronavirus death toll nears 90,000 across the world, the Azerbaijani authorities have been restricting citizens’ movement to curb the COVID-19 outbreak in the country. Azerbaijan, with a population of approximately ten million, has 926 infection cases and nine coronavirus-related deaths as of April 9 according to the Johns Hopkins University coronavirus map.
On April 5, Azerbaijan tightened the quarantine regime imposed on March 24, in order to stop the further spread of the virus. The new restrictions stipulate that residents must give advance notice before leaving their place of residence via a free SMS message. People are allowed to leave their homes for three reasons or “indexes”: to visit the doctor (index one), to visit a pharmacy, shop, bank, or post office (index 2), or to attend the funeral of a relative (index 3).
The text of the standard approval, as received by the author, reads:
2-ci indeks uzre muracietiniz tesdiqlendi. Artiq 2 saat muddetine yashayish yerinizi terk ede bilersiniz
Your application under Index 2 has been confirmed. You may now leave your place of residence for two hours.
The free SMS message (sent to number 8103) must include residents’ personal identification number as well as their reasons for leaving the house. They will then receive a confirmation message granting them permission, which is valid for two hours and can only be issued at a rate of one a day. The permit requirement also applies to foreign citizens residing in Azerbaijan.
Permit applications can be rejected if residents provide incorrect information. It is not known whether any such applications have been rejected on other grounds.
But can everybody send an SMS? Mobile network coverage across Azerbaijan is generally good, but there have been cases where users’ phone numbers have been locked due to outstanding debts with mobile operators. They must first top up their accounts before being able to send an SMS, which could potentially cause problems for the poorest in Azerbaijani society.
The requirement to send an SMS message does not apply to people over 65 who have been banned from leaving their homes since March 24. Employees of several state agencies are also exempt from the permit; private legal entities and diplomatic missions in Azerbaijan are also granted freedom of movement after registration with a government portal. Furthermore, residents do not need to obtain SMS permits in cases of emergencies which pose a threat to their health and safety. Neither do they require one when summoned to court or by law enforcement agencies.
However, there have been apparently loopholes in the SMS permit system since it entered force on April 5. On April 8, Spokesman for the Council of Ministers Ibrahim Mammadov voiced concerns about violations of the country's quarantine regime even after the introduction of the SMS permit system, saying that there have been “many cases of the illegal issuance of permits.”
“Two people have been arrested for selling permits for journalists… The measures were taken in connection with fake calls, fake messages, and the falsification of permits,” said Mammadov, adding that as of April 7, administrative measures have been taken against 3,037 Azerbaijani citizens for various violations of the quarantine regime, while 12 have been arrested. Mammadov continued that the restrictions could even be tightened as “many people are not meeting the requirements.”
“Some legal entities and individuals who have been authorised to operate are entering the names of foreign nationals on the portal icaze.gov.az, and issuing fake IDs to individuals who are not employed by mass media outlets, thereby creating conditions for their unimpeded movement and grossly violating the requirements of the special quarantine regime,” Mammadov stated.
Mammadov reminded the population that the government has access to residents’ employment details via the state's electronic labour contract notification system, which is managed by the Ministry of Labour and Social Protection. He issued a public warning against entering false information on any government portal, explaining that the issuing or use of any falsified documents to violate the quarantine regime was illegal.
Although there is widespread understanding of the necessity for the quarantine regime, there has been some criticism of the SMS permit system.
Some digital rights defenders have expressed concerns about a possible lack of safeguards. Legal expert Emin Abbasov recently told Az-Netwatch, a portal covering freedom of information in Azerbaijan, that in his opinion much was unclear, including whether an SMS can be used to track a mobile device, how users’ personal information will be protected, and whether this information will be deleted from the database once the quarantine is lifted.
Whatever the concerns, the SMS system is here to stay — at least until the quarantine is lifted on April 20.
The legal framework of the quarantine regime remains obscure; there is no clear information about fines or other consequences for violating it. Some residents have been fined to the tune of 100 Manat ($60) for violating the quarantine regime. Residents are also stopped by police for not wearing protective masks, however, there is no fine for not wearing protective clothing as there is shortage of them in the country.
Nevertheless, the authorities continue to closely monitor and punish non-compliance. On April 5, the Ministry of Internal Affairs announced that 3,796 people had been fined, including 1,881 people in the capital city Baku, for violating the quarantine regime. At the same time, one resident received a warning for spreading untrue information about the coronavirus on social networks, including over the WhatsApp instant messenger.
The government has taken other measures to fight the coronavirus, such as on April 5 suspending the operation of independent taxi drivers who transport customers in their private cars. It earlier unveiled aid package for April and May to cushion social fallout of the pandemic. The following day, President Ilham Aliyev signed a decree on the early release of 176 prisoners over 65 years old, in connection with the spread of the coronavirus. Among the pardoned are employees of the now-defunct National Security Ministry, including Major General Akif Chovdarov and the ministry's former director, General Subahir Gurbanov. Both men were imprisoned in 2015 on corruption charges.
As many in Azerbaijan will struggle financially from the consequences of the lockdown, the government has announced economic support measures. On April 9, Minister of Labour and Social Protection Sahil Babayev revealed that $1.7 billion has been allocated to reduce the negative impact of the coronavirus pandemic on the economy as well as $235.2 million to support social welfare. Informal workers, people registered as unemployed, and micro entrepreneurs each be paid a monthly sum of $210, $111 and $78 respectively. Residents’ electricity allowances have also been extended for two months.
It should be noted that the government has allocated $8.7 million to build six new modular hospitals with 200 beds each for the treatment of coronavirus patients.  Earlier, a new clinic to treat coronavirus patients was opened in Baku.
The most surprising thing of all is that, while the emergency is keenly felt in Baku, the government has not yet officially declared a state of emergency. This is despite the fact that the Operational Headquarters announced on April 2 that an emergency situation may be declared if the infection rate continues to grow.

author: Aisha Jabbarova


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While industry booms, China’s ‘mask diplomacy’ stumbles on quality concerns · Global Voices
Jack Hu

China's face mask production line. Screen capture from China Daily's video via Twitter user China Science.
Check out Global Voices’ special coverage of the global impact of COVID-19.
After implementing a successful social isolation strategy to control the spread of COVID-19, China resumed its economic activities in March. As the desperate need for face masks and other medical products grows around the world, Chinese factories are transforming their assembly lines to meet the demand. As a result of the pandemic, medical products have become more than a catalyst for economic growth but are also at the center of China's plan for “mask diplomacy.”
Face masks, once both cheap and ubiquitous, have become hot commodities as COVID-19 sweeps across the globe. Before the COVID-19 outbreak, a face mask machine was sold for around RMB 100,000-200,000 yuan (US$14,150-28,300 dollars). Now the price of the machine has more than tripled. However, a machine averages around 100,000 to 160,000 masks per day which means that one device can easily earn RMB 100,000 yuan (US$14,150) per day.
In a popular WeChat post, titled “Crazy Mask/Money-Printing Machine: I Became Rich Overnight,” former e-cigarette businessman Mr. Zhou explained the business’ high-profit margin:
用印钞机来形容，真的毫不夸张。到目前为止，哪怕熔喷布价格涨成这样，普通的口罩的成本不超过6毛钱，正常时候就3、4毛，最高峰的时候5、6毛。基本上，现货批发价是两块钱以上…
It would not be too exaggerated to use cash printing machine analogy to describe the business. Although the price of melt blown fiber has surged, the average production cost of an ordinary mask is no more than RMB 60 cents (USB 10 cent). Normally it sells for about RMB 30-40 cents and maximum cost is top at 50-60 cents. Now the wholesale price is more than RMB 2 yuan…
In another post, circulating on Weibo, a Zhejiang businessman reportedly set his profit target to over RMB 100 million yuan (approximately US$14 million) in the month of March.
Both US and Europe have their own set of standards for medical products, and manufacturers have to pass quality tests and obtain credentials in order to get the necessary export permits and licenses. Martin Cun, an investor, evaluated the market and pointed out that the real power for companies is to obtain export quality credentials from the US and Europe:
现在生产口罩就是印钞，当然前提是拿到欧美认证可以出口。现在单单一个法国就向中国下了20亿只口罩的订单，法国6700万人，而美国和欧洲加起来超过10亿人。美欧之后还有南美，南亚，东南亚，非洲……
Producing face masks is like printing money but, of course, you need get the certifications from Europe and the US in order to do export business. Just France, with a population of 67 million, has ordered 2 billion masks from China. The combined population of the US and Europe surpasses 1 billion…
Aside from the economic benefits of this growing business, Beijing has adopted a policy of “mask diplomacy” to strengthen ties with other countries who are in desperate need of medical resources.
However, this diplomacy may not be as effective as planned as many countries are complaining about the poor quality of Chinese medical products. So far, the Netherlands recalled 60 million face masks and Spain recalled 58,000 inaccurate rapid COVID-19 test kits manufactured in China in March.
In an online magazine, Mr. Chen, an export trader, revealed that 60 percent of face mask assembly lines in China are not operating in dust-free rooms — the necessary environment for the production of medical products. He also pointed out that some factories with export licenses are buying face masks from other factories to meet the market demand.
Twitter user @gan_run shared a video of a mask production line:
国内所谓的印钞机，工人手随便可以摸口罩，没有无尘车间，这就是卖给我们的高价口罩？ pic.twitter.com/LWFntqldUo
— run gan (@gan_run) March 25, 2020
This is the so-called cash printing machine in China. Workers can touch the mask and the room is not dust-free. So these are the expensive face masks they sold to us?
While many countries are unhappy with the quality of these medical products, Chinese citizens are also complaining that the factories are selling them for too little:
出口一个月，才102亿元，看来很多是捐赠出去的
The total export value is just RMB 10.2 billion yuan (USD 1.5 billion), it seems that majority of the export is gift.
我们不仅要卖，而且要高价卖给美国！ ！ ！
We have to sell the product, mark the price higher for the U.S!
Chinese customs reported that between March 1 to April 4, the country's exports included: 3.86 billion face masks, 37.5 million protective outfits, 2.4 million infrared thermometers, 16,000 sets of ventilators, 2.84 million sets of COVID-19 testers, and 8.41 million sets of protective goggles.

author: Jack Hu


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Philippine police dismantle anti-mining barricade amid COVID-19 lockdown · Global Voices
Mong Palatino

Barricade protest at the entrance of OceanaGold's mining site in Nueva Vizcaya. Source: Facebook page of Alyansa ng Novo Vizcayano para sa Kalikasan. Used with permission.
On April 6, 2020, around 100 police personnel escorted fuel tankers owned by OceanaGold (OGPI) into the company’s mining site in Nueva Vizcaya province in the Philippines. The police dismantled a ‘people’s barricade’ at the entrance of the mining area to allow the entry of the fuel tankers. The barricade was set up by community residents, environmental activists, and indigenous peoples in the province as a protest to the extension of OGPI’s mining operation. OGPI's head office is in Australia but it also has corporate offices in North America.
Local leaders said that police in riot gear used excessive violence to disperse the protest, but police officials said their troops exercised maximum tolerance to carry out the order issued by the country’s office of the president.
ALERT: Around 100 PNP personnel are escorting OceanaGold's fuel tank into the mine site in Brgy. Didipio, Nueva Vizcaya. The mining company's permit expired last June 2019 and should have stopped its operations. #OceanaGoldOutNow
See full story here: https://t.co/T45r4yM5dW pic.twitter.com/uBIwmLaVaD
— CEC – Philippines (@CEC_Phils) April 6, 2020
In 1994, a 25-year Financial or Technical Assistance Agreement (FTAA) was issued by the Philippine government to explore 27,000 hectares in the Nueva Vizcaya town of Dipidio, which is believed to hold 1.41 million ounces of gold and 169,400 tons of copper. This project was acquired by OGPI in 2006. In the past 25 years, many local residents complained about the adverse impact of mining operations on the environment and the displacement of indigenous peoples from their ancestral lands.
Residents gaze at a denuded mountain caused by OceanaGold's mining operation in Nueva Vizcaya. Source: Facebook page of Alyansa ng Novo Vizcayano para sa Kalikasan
On June 20, 2019, the FTAA expired but OGPI applied for a renewal of the mining license.
The provincial governor said the expiration of the license means OGPI cannot continue its operations. In support of the stance taken by the governor and other provincial officials, local residents placed a barricade in Dipidio to stop OGPI from continuing its operation on July 1. The barricade succeeded in forcing OGPI to suspend operations until the barricade was dismantled by the police on April 6.
OGPI described the governor’s directive in support of the barricade as ‘unlawful’. It insisted that it operates ‘one of the safest gold mining operations in the world, and over the past two years, the Company has implemented state-of-art automated and digital underground mining technology.’
OGPI has been actively lobbying for the renewal of its license. It reminded the governor and other local officials that it is the national government that has the authority to approve or reject mining applications.
The Mines and Geosciences Bureau, a national government agency, recommended the ‘interim renewal’ of OGPI’s mining license while waiting for the decision of President Rodrigo Duterte.
On January 21, 2020, the president’s executive secretary informed the Department of Environment and Natural Resources that it has granted OGPI the authority to bring fuel into the mine site for dewatering activities.
Since then, OGPI has been using this order from the office of the president to take down the barricade. It has repeatedly failed but succeeded on April 6 when there were only 29 protesters guarding the barricade.
Community tribal dance during a protest action at the barricade of OceanaGold's mining operation in Nueva Vizcaya. Source: Facebook page of Alyansa ng Novo Vizcayano para sa Kalikasan. Used with permission.
The police and OGPI are accused of attacking the barricade at a time when the county is dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic. Even those at the barricade were reportedly practicing social distancing measures to avoid crowding in one place. Hence, it became easy for the police to disperse the protesters and break the barricade.
The Alyansa ng Novo Vizcayano para sa Kalikasan (Alliance of Nueva Vizcayans for the Environment) condemned the police for siding with big miners:
In that heartbreaking afternoon, the elements of the Philippine National Police (PNP) sided with the foreign large-scale mine than with the indigenous people living in Didipio. PNP elements protected the right of Oceanagold than those of the people of Didipio who have been resisting the operation of the foreign mining giant for over 25 years.
Nueva Vizcaya Governor Carlos M. Padilla saluted those who joined the barricade and the opposition to large-scale mining:
My heart bleeds for our brave men and women of Didipio who had to suffer and be arrested for expressing their resistance against mining, a great menace to Mother Earth. I salute them for their bravery and being steadfast for the protection of the environment to ensure the survival of all living things and of our planet.
He has a message to the national government:
Instead of providing protection to OceanaGold whose FTAA had expired nine (9) months ago, the national government should tell OGPI TO PACK UP AND GO HOME
The Commission on Human Rights, an independent government body, said the action of the police and OGPI endangered the lives of local residents:
While people are trying to flatten the curve by complying with the enhanced community quarantine, such action by OGPI and the police increases the danger of losing the lives of the involved communities. Furthermore, the intensified presence of the military and the police nationwide heightens the fear of crackdown and attacks against indigenous peoples’ rights defenders given the restrictions of movement.
Kalikasan echoed the demand of various environmental groups in the country:
We demand that all activities of Oceanagold be immediately locked down. We demand that the mining corporation be held accountable for repeatedly inciting social conflict on the ground during these perilous times.
Meanwhile, the provincial police clarified that it has no intent to either support or go against any mining activity because it stands on ‘neutral grounds’. It added that the ‘incident took place emanating from the implementation of a legal order.’
The barricade has been destroyed but not the spirit of resistance against OGPI mining and police violence. The Philippine government also has yet to decide whether it will allow the renewal of OGPI’s mining license.
Nueva Vizcaya residents opposed to mining march towards the entrance of OceanaGold's mining operation in February 2020. Source: Facebook page of Alyansa ng Novo Vizcayano para sa Kalikasan. Used with permission.


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Police violently break up protest by healthcare workers in Balochistan, Pakistan · Global Voices
R Umaima Ahmed

Image by Fernando Zhiminaicela from Pixabay. Used under a Pixabay License.
Check out Global Voices’ special coverage of the global impact of COVID-19.
On 6 April 2020, health care workers staged a protest in, Quetta, capital of the Balochistan province, to demand more personal protective equipment (PPE). The police resorted to baton charging the protesters and arrested about 150 medical workers.
There are over 4000 coronavirus patients in Pakistan, and healthcare professionals are working with limited resources at their disposal. While doctors working directly with coronavirus infected patients are provided with PPE, medical staff who are seeing patients suffering from other ailments claim they are being forced to work without sufficient protection. So far 18 doctors have been infected in the province while performing their duties.
The whole world is saluting the doctors for their contribution & fight against corona. In Quetta, Pakistan, they r tortured, arrested & humiliated jst 4 demanding protection kits. #Sharmnak@mazdaki @GulBukhari pic.twitter.com/TD0YO4FAW5
— Zarak khan (@zarak_khaan) April 6, 2020
During a devastating pandemic, only Pakistan can be the country imprisoning doctors because they were demanding protective equipment for their safety. pic.twitter.com/KlP8zLktkk
— Aliza Ansari (@aliza__ansari) April 6, 2020
Journalist Aroosa Shaukat tweeted:
What a sorry display of governance in Balochistan right now. Doctors being arrested for protesting over government's failure to provide them PPEs to treat Covid-19 patients. So very sad images coming from Quetta
— Aroosa Shaukat (@AroosaShaukat) April 6, 2020
In response to the arrests, the Balochistan Young Doctors Association announced a strike in non-critical care wards across the province. Under pressure, the arrested doctors were released on Monday evening and only left the police station when officials assured them that PPE would be made available. On 7 April, doctors called off their strike after the provincial government agreed to provide PPE kits and extend contracts for 533 doctors
The Special Assistant to Prime Minister on National Health Services Dr. Zafar Mirza condemned the treatment of the doctors and assured the public that protecting medical personnel was the government's top priority.
As part of Pakistani government efforts to procure supplies and equipment, China agreed to provide relief assistance to Sindh, Gilgit-Baltistan and Islamabad. The Japanese government has also agreed to assist with health supplies.
The Pakistan National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) is continuing to procure medical supplies — PPE and testing kits — some of which have already arrived from China. On 7 April, the Pakistani Army also dispatched emergency medical supplies to Baluchistan for direct distribution in health facilities.
Emergency supplies of medical equipment including PPEs being despatched to Quetta on orders of COAS to help medical staff fight Covid-19 effectively in Balochistan. “Doctors & paramedics are the frontline soldiers in this war…” (1/2)
— DG ISPR (@OfficialDGISPR) April 7, 2020
Medical staff are at the frontline of the fight against COVID-19, putting them at considerable risk of infection. This is true across the country and, so far, two doctors have died in Pakistan. Global Voices spoke with Dr. Nauman, an anesthesiologist at District Head Quarter Hospital in the city of Dera Ghazi Khan, after he was diagnosed with the virus:
We have been working with insufficient kits, inappropriate quarantine facilities, and the kits are not up to WHO standards. There are about fourteen staff members including doctors, effected by the virus. The Government was responding to our needs, however, in the last two days there seems to be some communication gap between the hospital and Government officials.
Social media has been awash with tributes to the country's doctors and healthcare workers; however many people also pointed out that they didn't need tribute but rather PPE kits and proper facilities to battle the virus.
Ministers’ children play with corona relief kits while doctors and nurses perform duty without kits.
One Not Two Pakistan…
?? pic.twitter.com/PwWnW5Z0fl
— Dr.Arooba TariQ (@Official_Arooba) April 7, 2020

author: R Umaima Ahmed


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Stay-at-home orders accompanied by rise in domestic violence in Trinidad & Tobago · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

Trinidad and Tobago's Commissioner of Police, Gary Griffith, speaking at the launch of the Trinidad and Tobago Police Service's Gender-Based Violence Unit on January 21, 2020. Screenshot taken from a YouTube video of the event uploaded on the TTPoliceService channel.
Check out Global Voices’ special coverage of the worldwide impact of COVID-19.
Around the globe, many countries that have instituted lockdowns in an effort to contain the spread of COVID-19 are also reporting an increased incidence of domestic violence.
Trinidad and Tobago is, unfortunately, no exception. In a press conference on April 9, 2020, the country's commissioner of police, Captain Gary Griffith, shared data confirming that such crimes have been on the rise.
In February 2019, the Trinidad and Tobago Police Service (TTPS) had received 39 reports of “assaults by beating”; in February 2020, that figure had climbed to 73. Similarly, in March 2019, reports of domestic violence numbered 42; in March 2020, there were 96.
All told, Griffith reported a rise in domestic violence cases from 232 in 2019 to 558 in 2020. He did admit, however, that the increased number of reports may also be partially linked to the January 2020 launch of the TTPS’ Gender-Based Violence Unit (GBVU).
The unit is staffed with police personnel who have been specially trained in using proper procedures for handling sensitive cases. In the past, victims of sexual and other forms of gender-based violence have complained of ill-treatment by police officers, doctors and lawyers who may voice disbelief in victims’ stories, deal insensitively with them and magnify the trauma by asking inappropriate and humiliating questions.
At the end of March, after the Trinidad and Tobago government announced the implementation of stay-at-home measures for everyone but members of “essential services”, the TTPS’ Victim and Witness Support Unit (VWSU) prepared itself for a rise in domestic abuse.
As of March 30, the unit has helped 48 domestic violence victims and dealt with several sexual offences against minors.
Only a month before, on February 28, activists delivered a petition — signed by 1,700 citizens — to the Office of the Prime Minister. It called for amendments to the country's Domestic Violence Act, asking that special funding be set aside to ensure that shelters for abused women and children can continue to operate.
As many as six women were murdered in domestic violence incidents in Trinidad and Tobago within the first two months of 2020. The country has a population of just under 1.4 million, of which about half are female.
Gabrielle Hosein, head of the Institute for Gender and Development Studies at The University of the West Indies’ St. Augustine campus, noted in a column for Trinidad and Tobago Newsday that “behind our closed doors has become more complex than ever” in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic:
Some are beginning to feel trapped or out of control. In response, they may turn to threatening and controlling behaviours as part of expressing frustration. Cases of abuse and the severity of violence in families might increase while options for running to family or friends are closed. […]
As with any crisis, women remain particularly vulnerable, whether because they dominate the service and retail industry as workers, and are at risk of losing those jobs, or because they predominate as nurses, and are taking risks that leave them distanced from their families, or because there is deepening isolation for those already being separated from friends and family by abusive partners, or who have been isolating themselves because of shame.
As far as sexual abuse goes, Hosein added:
Girls’ risk of sexual abuse is especially high now that uncles, stepfathers, cousins and other men are more present and difficult to escape. The vulnerability we are all feeling right now can make victims feel even less able to report or leave, particularly if they are also women and girls with mental or physical disabilities.
The TTPS’ new reporting parameters governing gender-based crimes make it possible for reports to be made without victims having to physically enter a police station. Instead, they can make reports through the TTPS app, or by calling the national emergency number, 999.
The unit also works closely with the TTPS’ Child Protection Unit, as well as non-governmental organisations and agencies like the Children's Authority, which protects minors who also suffer at the hands of abusers.

author: Janine Mendes-Franco


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COVID-19 revives grim history of medical experimentation in Africa · Global Voices
Amanda Lichtenstein

Sgt. 1st Class Marites Cabreza, a nurse with 354th Civil Affairs Brigade, Special Functioning Team, Combined Joint Task Force-Horn of Africa, tends to a patient March 29, 2008, during a medical civil action project in Goubetto, Djibouti. Photo by US Air Force Tech. Sgt. Jeremy T. Lock. Public Domain.
Check out Global Voices’ special coverage of the global impact of COVID-19.
The mad rush by scientists and researchers to test potential treatments for COVID-19 in scientific trials has revived a heated debate over the use of humans in critical drug trials in Africa.
On April 1, two French researchers, Dr. Jean-Paul Mira and Camille Locht, suggested on a live television broadcast that trials of a potential vaccine should first take place in Africa, according to Al Jazeera. Dr. Mira, head of the intensive care unit at Cochin Hospital in Paris, compared the current situation to “certain AIDS studies, where among prostitutes, we try things because we know that they are highly exposed and don't protect themselves.”
The two researchers made these comments in the context of a discussion of trials in Europe and Australia to see if the BCG tuberculosis vaccine could be effective against the novel coronavirus. In Australia, trials are being conducted on at least 4,000 health care workers.
The attitude of these researchers echoes a long, grim history of medical experimentation and exploitation in Africa, where African leaders have colluded with pharmaceutical companies — often based in Europe or the United States — to conduct trials on the most vulnerable people in society.
The researchers’ remarks immediately sparked condemnation and outrage, with the trending hashtag phrase, “Africans are not guinea pigs.”
Ivorian football star Didier Drogba tweeted:
It is totally inconceivable we keep on cautioning this.
Africa isn’t a testing lab.
I would like to vividly denounce those demeaning, false and most of all deeply racists words.
Helps us save Africa with the current ongoing Covid 19 and flatten the curve. pic.twitter.com/41GIpXaIYv
— Didier Drogba (@didierdrogba) April 2, 2020
By April 3, Dr. Mira had apologized for his comments, but only after major pushback and pressure from the France-based anti-racism group SOS Racisme. Dr. Locht’s employer, however, dismissed the outrage on Twitter as “fake news,” saying that the remarks had been taken out of context.
That same week, Congolese virologist Jean-Jacque Muyembe, who worked on the frontlines of the Ebola epidemic in Democratic Republic of Congo, announced that DR Congo “is prepared to take part in testing of any future vaccine against the coronavirus,” according to News 24.
Muyembe, the head of the nation’s pandemic task force and national health institute, told a news conference:
We've been chosen to conduct these tests … The vaccine will be produced in the United States, or in Canada, or in China. We're candidates for doing the testing here.
Once again, the remarks drew ire from Congolese citizens and netizens around the world condemning Dr. Muyembe’s openness to hosting clinical trials in DR Congo, where the rates of infection for COVID-19 are still relatively low.
Within hours, Dr. Muyembe clarified his statements in a video message, confirming that the vaccine would only be trialed in DR Congo after it had been done in countries such as the US and China:
Yesterday Dr Jean-Jacques Muyembe announced that DRC was among Countries where Covid-19 vaccine wld be trialled.
He has now clarified saying ‘vaccine wld only be tried in the DRC after trials in Countries like US & China’ & that he wldnt allow Congolese ppl to be ‘Guinea pigs’ pic.twitter.com/EZ3TLoxs2A
— Samira Sawlani (@samirasawlani) April 3, 2020
Medical experimentation in Africa — often conducted under the guise of the “greater good” and of finding cures for deadly diseases like meningitis and HIV/AIDS — has sounded ethical and moral alarm bells for years — particularly over informed consent and forced medical procedures.
These trials are often funded by leading health organizations like the World Health Organization, the United States’ Centers for Disease Control and the National Institute of Health.
In Zimbabwe, in the 1990s, over 17,000 HIV-positive women were tested without informed consent in trials for the anti-retroviral drug AZT funded by the CDC, WHO and the NIH.
In the 1990s, the pharmaceutical giant Pfizer tested an experimental drug called Trovan on 200 children in Kano, Nigeria, during an epidemic of bacterial meningitis. Several families filed and won a lawsuit against Pfizer on the basis of violation of informed consent.
Medical experimentation is not only entrenched in the history of racism and colonialism — it also sets a dangerous precedent by eroding the critical trust between citizens and health authorities.
“Both European colonialism and biomedicine reciprocally extended and strengthened the reach of the other,” writes Patrick Malloy in an academic paper entitled, “Research Material and Necromancy: Imagining the Political-Economy of Biomedicine in Colonial Tanganyika.”
From malaria to other “plague-like” conditions, colonial authorities often subjected African subjects to the non-consensual practice of specimen-sample collection and “…African blood was appropriated to feed colonial-era medical research,” Malloy writes. He continues:
In Tanganyika as well as other African colonies, this meant that colonial subjects could be called upon to surrender tissue samples, literally portions of themselves, to the medical authorities.
These practices overlapped with horrifying rumors in East Africa about “gangs” of people employed by Europeans who would kidnap Africans to withdraw their blood to make a gum-like medicine known as mumiani. The Swahili term invokes the image of the “vampire” or “bloodletter” — which has also become synonymous with “exploitation.”
This grim history has sown seeds of deep mistrust in vaccinations, medical trials and experiments in Africa, and continues to haunt decisions made by health authorities working in sync with government officials and global pharmaceutical companies.
That 1990s meningitis trial debacle in Kano, Nigeria, sowed so much distrust that it later made it very difficult to promote critical polio testing. Anti-polio vaccine rumors flourished. Those rumors got disseminated as news and eventually translated into a regional policy banning the polio vaccine in Nigeria in 2003.
So, what does this all mean for potential COVID-19 trials in Africa? Netizens and activists have resoundingly expressed the view that “Africans are not guinea pigs.”
WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus has labeled the attitude of the two French doctors a “hangover” from a “colonial mentality” and declared:
Africa can't and won't be a testing ground for any vaccine.
However, deep-seated fear and distrust of medical experimentation has also turned contact tracing and testing to stem the spread of the highly contagious coronavirus into an uphill battle for health care workers.
In Côte d'Ivoire on April 6, protesters burned down a COVID-19 testing center, claiming its location in a crowded area was not appropriate. The attack was “reminiscent of attitudes during Ebola outbreaks in West and Central Africa when some people attacked health workers, suspicious that they were bringing the disease to their communities, rather than offering crucial medical care,” BBC reported.
Yet, in the throes of the 2018 Ebola outbreak in DR Congo, critical human trials administered to Ebola patients “under an ethical framework” — under the medical guidance of Dr. Muyembe and the government of DR Congo — ultimately saved lives. By November 2019, a vaccine had been approved after thousands of Congolese with Ebola were tested.
WHO was expected to declare the DR Congo Ebola-free on April 12, but after more than 50 days without a single case, a 26-year-old man contracted Ebola and died on April 10.
Now, in addition to Ebola and an ongoing humanitarian crisis, DR Congo must turn its attention to mitigating the spread of the coronavirus.
There are currently 62 efforts underway to find a vaccine for COVID-19. Responsible, ethical vaccine trials take time and attention. Will big pharmaceutical companies maintain the same ethical standards in Africa that they usually adhere to in trials conducted in the West?

author: Amanda Lichtenstein


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COVID-19 diaries from Wuhan: Waiting for the lifting of the lockdown · Global Voices
Winston Chiu

Vegetables from group buying. (Photo credit: Guo Jing)
The following post is the sixth in a series of diaries written by independent filmmaker and feminist scholar Ai Xiaoming and feminist activist Guo Jing. Both are living in Wuhan at the center of the COVID-19 pandemic. Here are the links to the first, second, third, fourth, and fifth part of the series.
Check out Global Voices’ special coverage of the global impact of COVID-19.
This installment was written between February 20-27, 2020. The original Chinese diaries are published on Matter News.
有人说到在家做了焦糖奶茶，大家纷纷表示羡慕。朋友来了兴致，给大家示范了她的自制奶茶，她先在铁勺里放了白糖，加了少许水，把铁勺放到炉子上用小火烧。看着白糖慢慢变成焦糖，隔着屏幕，大家都在尖叫。然后，朋友用锅煮奶，直接把铁勺放进去搅拌。奶盛出来后加红茶就有了焦糖奶茶。
有个很爱吃甜食的朋友说：“我打开淘宝，把购物车加满，看着解馋。”
有住户在群里发了一个捂汗“解封”的条件：每日新增感染人数（包括疑似感染人数）持续14天为0是必要条件。具体如下：
看来小区至少还要封锁半个月。
A friend mentioned that she was making caramel milk tea at home. We were so envious. She was delighted and demoed how she made it. She put some sugar in a spoon and added some water. She then put the spoon on the stove and heated it slowly. We were all screaming when we saw the sugar turned into caramel. After that, she used a pot to warm the milk and stirred the milk with the spoon of caramel. After she added tea in the milk, she had the caramel milk tea. A friend with a sweet tooth said, ‘I have to go to [online shopping platform] Taobao to fill up my cart to distract me from the desire [for a sweet treat].’
Someone in our community group sent us a message about the criteria for lifting the lockdown: Zero new cases [confirmed or suspected] for 14 days. Details as follows:
It seems to me that we will be locked inside our community for at least another 14 days.
我们和过去的关系是什么？昨天写完日记，我停下来休息，突然有种难以名状的悲伤。
当有人问我现在的状态，我总是说：“就这样的处境中而言，我还算比较好。”而我试图回想风尘以来的经历，昨天都很遥远。有时候我在讲这段时间的经历和变化，却没有丝毫情绪，像是那些事情与我无关。
这是一种试图逃离、回避的机制，可以暂时起到保护作用。可是，我们无法通过遗忘、逃避的方式来治愈自己。很庆幸我通过写日记来记下了这段时间的感受。我要尝试面对，讲出自己的感受是第一步，然后尝试理解自己在封锁的经历以及那些强烈的感情。
What is the relationship between us and our past? Yesterday, after I finished writing in my diary, I took a nap. At that moment, an unspeakable sadness hit me.
When people ask me how I am, I always say, ‘I am relatively fine under this kind of situation.’ When I try to recall what has happened after Wuhan was locked down, even yesterday feels like a long time ago. Sometimes, when I talk to people about what I have experienced and what has been changed, I do not carry any emotion in my words — as if what has happened has nothing to do with me.
This is a protective mechanism that helps me to escape from and avoid what might hurt me. However, we cannot heal ourselves by forgetting or escaping from what has happened. I am happy that I keep a record of how I felt during this time by writing in this diary. I will learn how to face it, and telling people about my feelings is the first step. Then I can try to understand my experience and the strong feelings I've been having during the lockdown.
总有人会有门路，我的小区有个人一开始组织大家团购水果，今天又像是变戏法一样，不知在哪里抢了6袋盐、6瓶醋、6箱酸奶、还搞了很多鸡蛋，问有没有人要，盐一袋4元，醋一瓶7元，酸奶一箱50元，鸡蛋25个30元。
There are always some people with special connections. Someone in our community initiated group-buying for fruit and somehow, like a magician, s/he managed to get six packs of salt, six bottles of vinegar, six boxes of yogurt, and a lot of eggs today.
S/he asked whether we want to buy: a pack of salt for RMB 4 yuan, a bottle of vinegar for RMB 7 yuan, a box of yogurt for RMB 50 yuan, and 25 eggs for RMB 30 yuan. [RMB 1 yuan is equivalent to 14 United States cents.]
People played within the community. (Photo credit: Guo Jing)
很多下楼晒太阳的人可能跟我一样，在家里憋不住。下楼的人大都会戴口罩，跟别人讲话也都保持着一些距离。每天被困在家里，不知何时会解封，我很心焦，也会感到绝望。
这几天，身体也开始感到疲惫。我没有发烧，食欲也还好，所以应该不是感染肺炎，只是身体对无力感的一种反应。
小区的蓝色围栏有两处被暴风雨打破。今天有三四个人从旁边的工地上搬了一些围栏来修补。我下楼跟他们聊了一下。原来是物业让他们来修的，为了防止有人跳墙。
他们是地铁公司的工人，也是因为封城被困在了武汉，住在旁边的临时房，和他们一样困在这里的一共有9个人。
他们也曾去修建过火神山，有一天11点多临时接到通知，公司派车把他们接了过去，第二天早上才回来。他们一共去了4天。他们说，修建火神山的工人都是两班倒。结束了在火神山的工作，他们也在家隔离了15天。
现在很多社区会找他们帮忙做一些类似维修的工作，他们几个是技术工，有个人说“现在硬是把技术工当作劳动工。”公司会发口罩给他们，他们去火神山有补贴，封城期间也还是有工资。
Those who go downstairs to enjoy sunbathing probably cannot stand staying at home all day long, like me. When we go downstairs, most of us will wear masks, and we talk to others from a distance. I feel anxiety and despair because I have been trapped at home for a long time, and no one knows when the lockdown will be lifted.
My body is getting heavy these days. I do not have a fever, and my appetite is fine, so I do not think I am infected. I think this is just my body reacting to the feeling of being powerless.
Our community is surrounded by a blue fence and there are two spots with storm damage. Today, three or four people brought some materials from the construction site next to our community to fix the fence. I went downstairs to talk to them. They told me the property manager asked them to fix the fence to prevent people from jumping out. They used to be workers for the subway company, but they are stranded in Wuhan because of the lockdown. They live in the temporary housing nearby, nine of them in total.
They also went to help build the Huoshenshan Hospital, a field hospital for COVID-19. They received a notice at 11 o’clock on one day, and the company drove them to the construction site. They worked until morning the following day. Altogether, they worked on that project for four days. They told me all the workers helping build the field hospital worked in two shifts. After they finished their job there, they were quarantined for 15 days.
Recently, many communities ask them to help with property maintenance work. They are technicians by trade. One of them says, “They forced the technicians to do odd jobs.” Their company gives them masks, and they received subsidies when they worked in that field hospital project, so have made some income during the lockdown.
现在我很少想到解封，武汉的现存确诊人数3万以上，解封遥遥无期，想也没用。
仔细思考了一下，我觉得解封可能跟封城是两回事。解封是一个过程，不会像封城一样是一个临时性的决定，第二天迅速就能够实施。
现在一些城市的确诊人数的新增为0，现存确诊患者人数已经在下降，很多城市已经在降低封锁的程度。然而，很多人依旧不敢轻易出门。这大概是封锁的后遗症，很难一下子消除。
I seldom think of lifting the lockdown these days. There are more than 30,000 confirmed cases in Wuhan, and we will have to wait for a long time before the lockdown is lifted. Thinking about it does not help.
After pondering it carefully, lifting the lockdown and locking down a city are different kinds of decisions. Lifting the lockdown is a process, and it will not be like the lockdown, which was decided instantly and could be immediately implemented the next day.
Some cities have had zero confirmed cases for a few days. Currently, the number of confirmed cases is decreasing, and many cities have loosened the control [measures]. However, many people are afraid to go outside. I think this is the sequelae of prolonged lockdown, and the sense of fear will not diminish soon.
仙桃的劉文雄醫生走了
1月21日 他看了180位病人
一個月裏 他接診3181人
每天晚上還要接電話問診
一個月只休息了兩天
第三天因為胸痛去了醫院
Dr. Liu Wenxiong in Xiantao city has passed away.
He saw 180 patients on January 21.
He had taken care of 3,181 patients in one month.
He also gave medical advice over the phone every evening.
He only rested for two days in that month.
On the third day, he went to a hospital because of chest pain.

author: Winston Chiu


text:
Africans in China targeted by xenophobia amid fear of second-wave COVID-19 outbreak · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

Baohan Straight Street (facing north), the heart of the African area, Dengfeng Subdistrict, Yuexiu District, Guangzhou, Guangdong, China. Photo by Anna Frodesiak via Public Domain.
Check out Global Voices’ special coverage of the global impact of COVID-19.
As the COVID-19 pandemic epicenter shifts from China to the rest of the world, anti-foreigner sentiment has spread like wildfire on Chinese social media.
In the past few weeks, China has seen a surge in the number of imported COVID-19 infected cases from foreigners and Chinese returning from abroad and the authorities have started targeting foreigners in an attempt to prevent a second-wave COVID-19 outbreak.
The African community in China is not the largest foreign population, but Africans have become the most visible targets of virus control measures and xenophobic sentiments.
In the past few days, a number of media outlets reported that a large number of Africans in Guangzhou are being evicted from their apartments and hotels and were forced to take COVID-19 tests and quarantine for 14 days:
‘We’ve paid our rent, we have legal status in the country and yet we’re being evicted and given an hour to leave’ – the words of members of the #African community in #Guangzhou pic.twitter.com/rqIKmSC70z
— Black Livity China (@BlackLivityCN) April 9, 2020
Most of these evictions have taken place in “Little Africa,” a district near Guangzhou's city center where many Africans have settled for business and education.
The city government said on April 7 that five Nigerians have been infected allegedly from eating at a restaurant in Yuexiu district where Little Africa is located. The small outbreak has led to the shutdown of Little Africa trading activities and left local residents in a panic. Landlords and owners of hotels decided to kick out Africans from their properties.
This Twitter user took a snapshot of the street scene and posted it on Twitter:
This is what African nationals are passing through now in Guangzhou china after coming out from quarantine centers hotels have refused them . This is evil pic.twitter.com/IPHplEfV90
— Fanocean (@Emmanue50088843) April 6, 2020
As hundreds of Africans from Nigeria, Kenya, Ghana and elsewhere were made homeless and forced to sleep in streets, representatives from African countries expressed outrage.
The chairperson of the African Union, Moussa Faki Mahamat, summoned the Chinese consular on April 10 to express concerns about these allegations of maltreatment of Africans in Guangzhou.
On the same night, the Nigerian consular-general in Guangzhou, Anozie Maduabuchi Cyril, confronted law enforcement officers and protested against the discriminatory act of “picking on Africans” in the country’s latest round of virus control measures:
In Nigeria, we have a lot of Chinese, I don’t think you have ever received any information that the Government of Nigeria go to their various houses and pick them for quarantine, so why are Africans and indeed Nigerians being targeted in China?
The latest hostility against Africans rose after an incident related to a Nigerian man who attacked a nurse while attempting to escape from isolation after he tested positive for the coronavirus in Guangzhou on April 1.
As the video of the incident went viral, more rumors about a second-wave outbreak among Africans in Guangzhou triggered a panic in the city.
The rumor suggested that over 300,000 Africans live in Guangzhou but city officials attempted to clarify that approximately 4,000 Africans live in the city. However, many residents stuck to the belief that the majority of Africans live as illegal residents and therefore live off the radar.
As of April 11, the current majority of COVID-19 is through local transmission in Guangzhou with 347 cases. There are 119 imported infections and the majority are Chinese returning from aboard.
On April 10, Guangzhou city government also revealed that there are only 30,768 foreign residents in Guangzhou — the majority are from South Korea (4,600) and Japan (2,987), and the total number of Africans is 4,553. Due to the coronavirus outbreak, a large number of foreigners have left China and the global travel ban has reduced a majority of foreign travelers to China.
While official data shows that the perceived “threat” of the African community is no larger than other communities in Guangzhou, local media has downplayed domestic infection figures and instead highlighted foreign imported cases in the past few weeks.
This has portrayed foreigners as potentially “infectious” and, among the foreign population, Africans are most visible because of their skin color, making them easier targets for harassment.
The outbreak of xenophobic sentiment in Guangzhou has taken place against the backdrop of popular patriotic discourse that labels foreigners as uncooperative and who receive “extra-national treatment” — a popular political term used to describe classes who enjoy more privileges than the average citizen.
In addition to the nurse attack incident in Guangzhou, numerous reports and videos have fueled this xenophobic discourse online. In one report, three foreigners — one of them who has dark-colored skin, jumped a coronavirus testing queue and yelled, “Chinese get out!” after a crowd surrounded them in the Loshan district of Qingdao city. In another report, a Chinese student returning from abroad ran away from an isolation center. In another story, a British man related to a Shanghai family enjoyed the privilege of home quarantine instead of staying in a state-run quarantine center.
A Beijing lawyer called these uncooperative acts “foreign trash” behavior on Weibo:
我不排斥洋人，但我排斥洋垃圾，反对超国民待遇。在地球村里，我们是个法治国家，自然应当是个开放的国家，但对于洋垃圾和超国民待遇，我希望相关行政机关和社区服务组织，依法履职，依法行政，不要自降人格，瞬间丧失权利带来的自信…
I do not reject foreigners, but I reject foreign trash and oppose extra-national treatment. In this global village, we are a country which is ruled by law. It is necessary for us to be open, but I wish for the administration and community service organizations to follow the law and do not lower your dignity and lose your confidence by giving foreign trash extra-national treatment.
On April 10, the China National Immigration Administration issued a statement that foreigners would be expelled if they refused to cooperate with virus-control measures. Expelled foreigners could be banned from entering China for a maximum of 10 years. Chinese Community Party-affiliated media outlet People’s Daily echoed this online populist sentiment:
在华外国人拒绝检疫将承担法律责任，一条红线划在所有人身前。从“中国人出去”到“洋女婿大人”，出的是不逊言行，大的是自以为是。法律面前，不存在肆意妄为，更没有委曲求全。依法依规、合情合理，这是一个开放国家、热情民族的待客之礼，也是一名来华人员、外籍人士的做客之道。
Foreigners who reject quarantine measure will have to bare legal responsibility. The red line is placed in front of everyone. Those Chinese who have left, they bring back misbehavior, those foreign son-in-laws, they act in a self-righteous manner. In front of the law, no one can misbehave and no one should be humiliated to keep the harmony. Acting according to law is the reasonable way. This is an open country and we welcome our guests with hospitality, but the foreign guests should also follow the same rules.
As African leaders such as the Nigerian consular-general speak out against maltreatment and discrimination of Africans in China, commentators have reacted with a mix of patriotism and racism. One typical reaction said:
不谈其他东西，就目前爆出来的视频来说，在中国真的有好多洋垃圾，赶紧全部遣返吧，对于违反中国法律的国外人，国人不能底气十足吗？别跪了，别一扯到国外人就说会有外交争端，违反了中国法律，就该处理
I don’t want to talk about other things, just take a look at the viral videos circulating online. There are so many foreign trash in China, just expel them all. Let’s be confident in punishing those foreigners who had violated Chinese law. Don’t kneel down. Whenever foreigners are involved, someone would jump out to talk about diplomacy. We have to uphold Chinese law.
Similar to extreme, right-wing discourse in other countries, online patriots in China also express concern for racial purity in China. This Weibo user said:
依法驱逐违法长期滞留中国的“洋垃圾”！驱逐广州的违法滞留的黑人！否则广州若干年后第一个肤色被改变城市！星星之火可以燎原之势！为了民族底色！加油广州！
Expel those “foreign trash” left behind in China according to law! Expel illegal black people who overstay in Guangzhou or the city will be the first to change its color! A spark can burn. To protect the color of our nation, Guangzhou keeps it up.
A viral video showing a foreigner with dark skin expressing his “love for China” attracted xenophobic comments like this:
你爱中国？你懂中国历史？你知道中国文化？你能跟中国一起承担灾难？你能和中国一起迎击侵略者？你是爱中国给你提供的种种好处罢了，因为你在西方白人世界是受歧视的，若西方世界给你更大的好处，你立马转投他国，利己者居然敢说自己爱国？别拿脏手碰五星红旗！在我们不兴动不动拿国旗表衷心这一套！
You love China? Do you know Chinese history? Chinese culture? Can you suffer with Chinese people in a time of disaster? Can you fight with China against invaders? You love China because it has given you so many favors — because the whites have discriminated against you. If Western countries give you more interest, you would become one of them. You dare say that you love China. Don’t touch our national flag with your dirty hand. This is not the way how we use our flag.
Most Chinese citizens experienced forced isolation for over two months. However, many foreigners — in particular, the African community— are in vulnerable situations as they don’t have permanent residency in China and many have no working visas.
Just a month ago, draft regulation for foreigners to apply for permanent residency in China resulted in a blacklash from online patriots who criticized foreigners for marrying Chinese women and leaving or betraying China during the COVID-19 outbreak.
Chinese online patriots’ rejection of granting citizenship to foreigners contradicts from the argument about foreigners requiring “extra-national treatment.” Instead of addressing the issue of citizenship in a rational manner, very often, Chinese authorities encourage patriotic discourse against foreigners.

author: Oiwan Lam


text:
#IdentityMatrix: a Twitter conversation on identity and digital rights in Africa · Global Voices
Nwachukwu Egbunike

TEDGlobal Internet Room. A Creative Commons image by Flickr user, Erik (HASH) Hersman, June 3, 2007. (CC BY 2.0)
Global Voices sub-Saharan Africa in conjunction with Rising Voices will host a Twitter campaign as part of the project, “The identity matrix: Platform regulation of online threats to expression in Africa,” from April 20 to May 22, 2020.
Building on “Writing Toward Freedom: Politics and digital rights in Africa,” this five-week social media outreach initiative will involve a curated dialogue on @GVSSAfrica featuring five African language activists who will focus on the intersection of language and digital rights.
The activists will tweet in African languages like Bambara, Igbo, Khoekhoe, N|uu, Swahili, Yorùbá, in addition to French and English.
They will also share their personal experiences and insights using a language lens on challenges and threats to digital rights.
The conversations will interrogate how threats to net neutrality marginalize digital content in African languages; the expansion of mis- and disinformation in African languages on various digital platforms and what companies or civil society are doing about it; the effects of a lack of affordable internet connectivity in places where there are large communities of speakers of an African language; the importance of and challenges for the right to access information in digital spaces in African languages. They will also look at corporate policies, as well as ongoing challenges that may affect how citizens can freely express themselves in their language.
The Twitter conversations will be anchored by Denver Toroxa Breda (Khoekhoe/N|uu/English) from South Africa, Adéṣínà Ghani Ayẹni (Yorùbá/English) from Nigeria, Kpénahi Traoré (Bambara/French) from Burkina Faso, Roseblossom Ozurumba (Igbo/English) from Nigeria and Bonface Witaba (Swahili/English) from Kenya.
Some of the hosts previously participated in the @DigiAfricanLang online campaign in commemoration of the International Year of Indigenous Languages 2019.
Denver Toroxa Breda. Image used with permission.
Breda, Khoe languages and cultural Kuwiri or activist, is a writer advocating for the officialization of Khoekhoe and N|uu, two of South Africa's first languages. Khoekhoe is spoken in Namibia, studied at schools, and yet in South Africa where it originated, only 2,000 people speak the language, it's not official, it's not in school. N|uu has one fluent speaker, not official and in schools, it's a critically endangered language.
Kpénahi Traoré. Image used with permission.
Kpénahi Traoré was born in the Côte d'Ivoire but is from Burkina Faso.
She is the editor-in-chief of RFI mandenkan, the Bambara language newsroom at Radio France Internationale (RFI).
It has been a great experience for Traoré to work on Bambara language. Prior to that, she thought it was impossible to do journalism in Bambara.
Samogo is Traoré's mother tongue, even if she grew up with the language called Dioula in Côte d'Ivoire and Burkina Faso.
Malians call it Bambara, Guineans say Malinke, some people say Mandingo.
Blossom Ozurumba. Image used with permission.
Ozurumba is also known as Asampete, which can be loosely translated from Igbo language to mean “the pretty one.”
Ozurumba is excited about Igbo language and culture and is committed to ensuring that several folks become literate in some or all of speaking, writing and reading.
Ozurumba is a founding member of the Igbo Wikimedians User Group and will most likely start a conversation about the Wikimedia Foundation without prompting.
She lives in Abuja, Nigeria, and loves the calm and unhurried feel of the city.
Adéṣínà Ayẹni. Image used with permission
Adéṣínà Ayẹni, otherwise known as Ọmọ Yoòbá, is a journalist and cultural advocate who took up the socialization function of the media through the preservation, dissemination and transmission of the Yorùbá cultural heritage both online and offline.
As a voice-over artist, he has produced countless Yorùbá advertisements for Nigeria radio campaigns and TVC. He's the founder of Yobamoodua Cultural Heritage, a platform dedicated to the propagation of the Yorùbá language and culture. Ọmọ Yoòbá is also the língua manager for the Global Voices Yorùbá site.
He is a Yorùbá language instructor on tribalingua.com where he tutors students from all over the world. He has also worked with Localization Lab, an international community of volunteer translators and end-users, developers and intermediaries who work together to translate and localize digital security and circumvention tools. Ọmọ Yoòbá has written a book titled: “Ẹ̀yà Ara Ẹ̀dá Ọmọ Ènìyàn,” a compilation of labeled diagrams of the anatomy and morphology of the human body and herbs that work wonders on each part of the body. He is a research fellow with the Firebird Foundation for Anthropological Research.
Bonface Witaba. Image used with permission.
Witaba is a writer, local content developer and advocate, trainer, researcher, and consultant in Internet Governance and policy matters.
He is the pioneer head of ICANNWiki Swahili, an encyclopedic website whose mission is to develop, translate, and localize 10,000 internet governance articles and glossary into Swahili for 150 million Swahili speakers by 2020.
Additionally, Witaba runs a youth internet governance capacity-building initiative aimed at mentoring students, academics, as well as individuals working in the private sector and; or government, through professional courses on internet governance.

author: Nwachukwu Egbunike


text:
A new cross-regional anti-disinformation initiative launches in the Balkans · Global Voices
Metamorphosis Foundation

Satellite photo of most of the Balkans. Source: NASA Visible Earth, Public Domain.
Nine organizations from five Balkan countries, including Metamorphosis Foundation, have joined forces to launch the Anti-Disinformation Network for the Balkans (ADN-Balkans), the first cross-border disinformation initiative in the region.
The network will include members from North Macedonia, Greece, Serbia, Kosovo, and Albania, and will work in cooperation with similar groups from other neighboring countries.
The initiative was launched on April 2, declared International Fact-Checking Day by the International Fact-Checking Network (IFCN).
While some of the initiative's founders are members of the International Fact-Checking Network and signatories of its Code of Principles, ADN-Balkans membership is not limited exclusively to fact-checking organizations, as it hopes to collaborate with civil society organizations, media outlets, schools, and others.
Bridging national and linguistic divides in a region with such troublesome history is no easy feat. The founding organizations have issued a declaration stressing that the situation in the Balkans requires a broader regional lens as disinformation tends to cross borders and mutate to fit the cultural and political landscape of each country.
During the past two years, Global Voices has worked with ADN-Balkans co-founders Metamorphosis Foundation and Istinomer on covering Hungarian-sponsored disinformation campaigns in Greece, Slovenia to North Macedonia, mapping the Russian influence on Serbian media sphere as a gateway to other post-Yugoslav countries, the spread of Russian soft power through alternative health magazines in the region, and numerous related issues. The Balkans served as a testing ground for a pilot investigation of the Civic Media Observatory, a project by Global Voices.
ADN-Balkans developed gradually through bilateral and multilateral cooperation of different organizations, whose collaboration intensified over the last two years. Several of them are founders of media outlets which have also joined the network.
ADN-Balkans founding members include Metamorphosis from North Macedonia, founder of Truthmeter.mk, Portalb.mk and Meta.mk; Istinomer from Serbia; Faktoje.al from Albania; two organizations and their media outlets from Kosovo: Crno beli svet (CBS), and Internews Kosova, the founder of KALLXO portal. Hailing from Greece are JAJ.gr empowered by News Literacy Center, Ellinika Hoaxes, Peace Journalism Lab, and the Digital Communication Network SouthEast Europe Hub.
The founding members of the ADN-Balkans include two Global Voices content partners Metamorphosis Foundation from North Macedonia and Istinomer from Serbia.
Network members from multi-ethnic Kosovo include the leading fact-checking organization Internews Kosova, KALLXO portal that produces news in Albanian, and Crno beli svet (CBS), an organization and online portal in Serbian-language.
Faktoje.al, the leading fact-checking organization from Albania is also a founding member.
ADN-Balkans also includes four members from Greece: Athens-based JAJ.gr (Journalists About Journalism), which focuses on news literacy; Thessalonian Ellinika Hoaxes, the top fact-checking service in the country; the Peace Journalism Lab, a Laboratory of the School of Journalism and Mass Media Communication Aristotle University of Thessaloniki that specializes in news literacy, peace journalism and in the study of journalism; and Digital Communication Network SouthEast Europe Hub, an organization that specializes in digital communication, innovation and research.

author: Metamorphosis Foundation


text:
Fighting COVID-19 goes hand-in-hand with shuttering newspapers across the Middle East · Global Voices
Saoussen Ben Cheikh

A man reads the paper in Morocco on January 11, 2010. Photo by Martijn.Munneke, CC BY 2.0.
Check out Global Voices’ special coverage of the global impact of COVID-19.
In the “war” against COVID-19, a number of governments in the Middle East are banning print journalism “until further notice.”
The media sector and press, in particular, were already in bad shape in the Middle East and North Africa region (MENA). Like elsewhere, years of falling revenues, digitalization, poor quality content and co-option by authorities have led to a decrease both in the number of printed newspapers and readership.
COVID-19 is the latest blow to the print journalism sector. With several governments across the region suspending print newspapers, printed media is a silent victim of the virus:
March 17, 2020: In Jordan, the Jordanian Council of Ministers suspended the publication of all newspapers “because they help the transmission of the pandemic“.
March 22, 2020: In Oman, the Supreme Committee for Dealing with COVID-19 ordered all newspapers, magazines and other publications to cease printing and circulating. In Morocco, the Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sports, suspended all publication and distribution of printed editions because “a large number of people use print paper on a daily basis, this contributes to the spread of the virus, making it necessary to ban the paper to protect the health of citizens.”
March 23, 2020: In Yemen, the minister of communications from the internationally-recognized Hadi government issued a decree suspending print newspapers as a preventive measure to prevent the spread of COVID-19.
March 24, 2020: In the UAE, the National Media Council has stopped the distribution of all print newspapers and magazines.
The succession of prohibitions, across the region, against print newspapers further destabilize further a fragile industry and cause a vacuum in information circulation.
For journalists already battling precarious working conditions, these shutdowns will inflict serious financial repercussions if not redundancy.
The Jordanian Syndicate of Journalists has called on the government to urgently support the sector and save the journalists. “Hundreds of journalists and workers in the print industry are without income and may lose their jobs,” the syndicate said, adding that the government should “find adequates measures that will allow print newspapers to resume [publication].’’
A vendor known as El-Abdi sells books and papers in Rabat, Morocco, May 17, 2017. Photo by Zackariaouad via CC BY-SA 4.0.
For readers, these measures negatively impact their right to access information. The ban in Yemen, for example, has an even deeper impact as internet penetration is low at just 25% in 2019, — and mainly concentrated among youth in urban areas. It is not clear how and if print readership will shift to online media and who will fill in this vacuum.
Having access to reliable fact-based information is essential, especially during a crisis when people turn to the media to understand the situation and get practical information. Yet, most governments in the region — perpetuating old authoritarian practices — have instead attempted to control and restrict freedom of expression.
In reality, there is no evidence or correlation between the circulation of print newspapers and the spread of COVID 19. It has been deemed safe to receive packages such as newspapers, even from areas that have reported high cases of COVID-19.
According to the World Health Organisation (WHO):
The likelihood of an infected person contaminating commercial goods is low and the risk of catching the virus that causes COVID-19 from a package that has been moved, travelled, and exposed to different conditions and temperature is also low.
Therefore, decisions to shut down print papers is possibly politically motivated and not based on scientific evidence.
Other countries affected by the COVID-19 pandemic have chosen a different approach. Even in Italy, the epicenter of the crisis with a death toll nearing 20,000 and quarantine rules strictly enforced, newspapers have continued to publish and print.
In France, also badly hit by the virus, newspaper vendors have been categorised as “essential business” and allowed to stay open. Different sectors, local councils, delivery companies, distributors have allied to ensure print newspapers are available to the public.
In the United Kingdom, the free daily Metro and Evening Standard print newspaper, widely distributed in tube stations to commuters, have lost a large audience with the lockdown. They are now distributing in supermarkets and delivering door-to-door.
These few examples demonstrate collective efforts to keep the public informed. The free flow of information is preserved and contributes to building resilience in a crisis.
The Middle East has not taken this approach.
Their response to major challenges like COVID 19 is a repeated scenario of repression and control. Human Rights and freedom of expression are being crushed without much opposition or outcry.
While in Iraq, protesters continue to defy the lockdown and clash with the police to protest the assassination of anti-government activists, political movements and protests in Algeria and Lebanon were thwarted with the adoption of social distancing and bans on gatherings.
An Algerian activist, who requested to remain anonymous, told Global Voices:
They could not have dreamed of it. This virus is a benediction for the authorities. It gave them the excuse to stop us gathering and protesting for change that in other circumstances we would never have accepted.
Now that print is dead in some countries in the region, there is no guarantee that it will appear again. As there is no timeline or indication of when and if newspapers will be able, one day, to be in kiosks again, could the simple act of picking up a print newspaper or magazine become a distant memory in countries like Jordan, Yemen, Morocco?

author: Saoussen Ben Cheikh