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Arab World: Questions and Closure Follow Bin Laden’s Death  · Global Voices
Amira Al Hussaini

This post is part of our special coverage The Death of Osama Bin Laden.
Saudi terror mastermind Osama bin Laden was killed in a United States’ CIA operation in Abbottabad, Pakistan, yesterday. Netizens from around the Arab world have reacted to the news.
On Twitter, reactions flowed all day, with some cheering his death and others mourning the demise of the Al Qaeda's 54-year-old head, whom they called a martyr.
Questions
Many questions were also raised following the announcement and here are some of them:
From the United Arab Emirates, Sultan Al Qassemi asks:
I wonder if Arab & world leaders will send Obama cables congratulating the US on killing OBL…
Egyptian Rania Hafez adds:
So are they going to prove to us that they killed him or should we take their word for it?!!
NPR‘s social media specialist Andy Carvin, who has been actively tweeting Arab revolutions and news, too has a similar question:
Surprised to hear the actual op was today. Wonder how they're absolutely sure. Fingerprints? Fast DNA kit of some sort?
And Lebanese Antoun Issa wonders:
Are we to assume Al-Qaida never came up with a contingency should Osama Bin Laden die? Plenty of radicals to take his spot. #notoveryet
Hopes
Back in Egypt, Mahmood Salem, aka Sandmonkey, tweets:
If only they had taken out Ghaddafi yesterday and then OBL today, then it would've been a twofer!
and taunts Saudi Arabia saying:
Dear Saudi, we feel bad about taking control of the Region & AlQaeda both at the same year. You can have AlQaeda back! #WeAreSoGenerous
Libyan Ibn Omar hopes that the death of Bin Laden will bring closure to the families of all his victims. He writes:
hopefully the death of binladin will bring closure to all of the victims all over the world of his terrorist attacks
And Brian Conley, who tweets at @BaghdadBrian, notes:
Does this mean we withdraw troops and forget #afghanistan existed again? Is it 2011 or 1991? Still a lot of reconciliation etc needed
Obama
United States President Barack Obama got both praise and ridicule from tweeps for the statement he made in which he announced the operation, which killed Bin Laden.
Sarah Raslan praised the speech saying:
Nice speech, #Obama . Major respect for pointing out that #OBL was not a #Muslim leader and killed Muslims as well as non-Muslims
While Eman Hashim, from Egypt, notes:
Obama: America never chose to go to war! Are you kidding me? Let me remind of something called.. hmmm ….IRAQ!!! #Obama #OBL #Iraq
British Prime Minister David Cameron too was not spared some ridicule, when Arab-American group blog KABOBfest’s Twitter account took a stab:
Actually, no one's problems are gone. (MT @AJELive) British PM Cameron: Osama death “will bring great relief” to world http://aje.me/jlqOzi
Correcting mistakes
Meanwhile, Egyptian columnist Mona El Tahawi sees the killing of Bin Laden as a mistake which took 31 years to rectify. She tweets:
It was a huge mistake for the US to side w #OBL and his money to defeat Soviets in Afghanistan. It's taken 31 yrs to correct that mistake.
Stay tuned for more reactions on the death of Bin Laden from across  the Arab world.
This post is part of our special coverage The Death of Osama Bin Laden.


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Azerbaijan: Calls for an international campaign for press freedom · Global Voices
Onnik Krikorian

Speaking at the UNESCO World Press Freedom Day event over Skype, Adnan Hajizade and Emin Milli call for an international campaign involving celebrities to draw attention to those harassed and imprisoned by authoritarian regimes. The two recently released video blogging youth activists also note that online tools are ineffective without people and that they can also be used by governments to monitor and identify activists and dissidents.

source: news-globalvoices

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

author: Onnik Krikorian


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Cape Verde: Unheard Stories from Marginalized Youth · Global Voices
Sara Moreira

The website For CV introduces a theatre and film project in Cape Verde called Mim’delo [pt]. According to the non-profit association behind it, 10 pt, Mim'delo aims to involve marginalized youth who “[struggle] to find their identity, space and voice under the pressure of poverty, the lack of job opportunities, crime, and drug addiction” .

author: Sara Moreira


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China: Chinese Netizen Reactions on bin Laden’s Death · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

Fauna from ChinaSMACK translated Chinese netizens’ reactions on Osama bin Laden's death.

author: Oiwan Lam


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Colombia: Following the ‘Lleras’ Law · Global Voices
Juan Arellano

Anonymous Colombia: No a la Ley Lleras
The bill to regulate infractions on authors’ rights on the Internet, known as the “Lleras” Law, has continued generating reactions and debate in the Colombian Internet sphere, as recently covered on Global Voices. This topic has become vital for those who use the Internet, share and post content. The people behind the Red pa todos (Internet for all) initiative, explain [es] the proceedings for the removal and reestablishment of content proposed in the aforementioned bill and conclude by making their doubts about it quite clear:
En este procedimiento es la ISP la que tiene la responsabilidad  inicial de decidir sobre el bloqueo o el mantenimiento del acceso y no  un juez. El juez aparece al final del procedimiento … Surgen muchas preguntas, por ejemplo ¿Debemos confiar en un  procedimiento administrativo de una empresa que tiene comprometida su  responsabilidad para decidir algo que evidentemente es de competencia judicial como lo reconoce la propia ley que al final es a él a quien  otorga la responsabilidad? ¿Podemos esperar que la ISP estudie y decida  sobre otros derechos como libertad de expresión, límites al derecho de  autor, competencia desleal, etc? ¿Si en un estado de derecho el garante  para su aplicación es el juez (después de siglos de construcción del  concepto), porqué debemos aceptar algo diferente cuando se comprometen  derechos de todos en la sociedad?
To give similar powers of jurisdiction to the ISP, or Internet Service Providers, under the pretext of content piracy sounds quite risky, even more so when the definition and attributions of an ISP are not even clear in the bill, as the author of Maestroviejo's blog relates [es], and also cites points where he noticed a group of previous work [es] that should have announced the opinion of those interested in a public discussion of the project, something that later was never brought to fruition. Maestroviejo mentions later that possible penalties could reach anywhere between 4 to 8 years in prison and fines of 26.66 to 1000 minimum salaries for the crimes of violating author's rights and related rights (the minimum salary in Colombia is 535.600 pesos, appx. 300 USD) and later emphasizes that the proceedings plan to establish:
Una ley que otorga poderes a Telmex o Telefónica para  eliminar contenidos de la red cuando reciba la denuncia del “dueño de los derechos” presuntamente inculcados. Los ISP tendrán que limitarse a informar a quien publicó los contenidos antes de retirarlos o inhabilitar la dirección donde se alojó ese contenido. El proveedor tendrá 72 horas para hacer este trámite. Al presunto infractor que considere injusta la censura de los contenidos de su página le queda entonces, una vez que la telefónica de turno ya ha retirado los contenidos, recurrir a la Justicia.
On Twitter, through the #LeyLleras hashtag and the @contraleylleras account, one can find a lot of information and opinions with respect to this. Initiatives like the Colombia contra la Ley Lleras [es] (Colombia against the Lleras law) blog or HackBo: Hacker Space Bogotá [es], that have implemented a special page on their websites to bring together information, are functioning as hubs for spreading the topic. Although people from Anonymous Colombia [es] are not hackers precisely, this collective has had an active participation against the bill.  On April 7, they opened their Twitter account and one of the first tweets [es] was:
Anonymous se une a la lucha contra la #leylleras, enterate de como puedes ayudar en nuestro chat http://irc.lc/anonops/opcolombia.
Later they published a press release [es] and announced [es] their first objective for a DDoS attack, the website [es] for the Colombian Ministry of the Interior and Justice System, which was successfully carried out [es] on April 12. In prior days, they continued the attacks [es] on other government websites such as that of the Senate and the online Government [es], as well as the Presidency of the Republic. At the time of writing this post they find themselves preparing the Paper Storm Operation of Colombia (Operación Tormenta de Papel Colombia) [es] for April 29.
In a similar manner, various pages [es] have been created on Facebook social network to bring widespread coverage of the aforementioned law, the most popular of which [es] has 6757 fans at the time this post was written. Nevertheless, it is curious that in its description it states: “it is worth clarifying that this page does NOT support the subjects that call themselves ‘Anonymous'; for me it is NOT necessary to attack pages. I believe that by getting a dialogue going, as Minister Germán Vargas says, things will fix themselves. As such, this May 4th, a public dialogue was opened.” This other Facebook page has 5724 fans at the moment.
On YouTube one can find a good number of videos [es] about this topic as well. The one that follows, for example, I recorded over the course of one of the Labsurlab [es] sessions in Medellín on April 11. In it, I talk about the activism against the Lleras Law with Elkin Botero [es], who describes himself on Twitter as “Web Developer, Expert on ITCs and Free Software, Musician and lover of life. Member of the Colombian Piracy Party. Without Presumption of Innocence: IAmAPirate”:
Later, at the same event, I was able to chat with Isaac Hacksimov [es], a face visible with what is defined as “a collective identity, the assembly of bodies and machines of the HamLab hacktivist laboratory, a narration of many voices and a single name,” who gave us an interesting and ample vision of things related to the intents to regulate the use of content on the Internet from his experience in Spain:
The next day, I was able to briefly ask journalist Natalia Estefanía Botero [es], in charge of the technology section for newspaper El Colombiano [es], about her impressions regarding this topic:
Finally, the following articles are additional reading material for those interested in researching the topic more thoroughly: “The pros and cons of the Lleras law” [es] and “Lleras law on the table” [es] from Semana.com, the article “¿Copyright or authors with rights?” [es] from Lapizlázuli Periódico and the blog post “11 controversial aspects of the Lleras law” [es] by journalist Camilo A. García.
Similarly, the articles on the law commented on [es] one by one in the aforementioned site Red pa Todos. Additionally, the official blog: Derechodeautor's weblog [es] of the Special Administrative Unit of the National Direction of Author's Rights, with many interesting comments from users.
¿En qué terminará este asunto? Presenciamos un evidente reto de la  comunidad virtual colombiana, pues en este país, hasta ahora, Facebook,  Twitter y los blogs son redes ‘asociales’ que parecen unir a las  personas, pero a sus computadores. Es hora de demostrar que el activismo  y la participación virtuales pueden ir más allá de hacer clic en el  botón de “Me gusta”.
Ley Lleras – Derechos de Autor, Tomáz Garzía (CC BY-NC 2.5)

author: Juan Arellano


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Cuba: Information & the Internet · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

Uncommon Sense says that the Cuban authorities continue to try to contain free expression, “extend[ing] its blockade on information…by limiting access to the Internet.”

author: Janine Mendes-Franco


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Haiti, U.S.A.: Bin Laden & Blindness  · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

“When I heard the news, I wasn't sure whether I should exhale or hold my breath”: CURRENTS BETWEEN SHORES suggests that the killing of Osama Bin Laden is tantamount to a “powerful symbolic victory”.


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India: Bangalore Police Has A Facebook Page · Global Voices
Rezwan

Anupam Saxena at Medianama reports that the Bangalore Traffic police has launched a Facebook page, for connecting with citizens as a department.

author: Rezwan


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Pakistan: Osama’s Death – Different Perspectives · Global Voices
Aamir Raz Soomro

This post is part of our special coverage The Death of Osama Bin Laden.
Osama Bin Laden, the iconic figure of religious extremism-based terrorism, is dead – finally! Operation Geronimo ended his life yesterday, in an event which will surely leave its marks on history of the world, and politics, in general. The news literally gripped the world media so much that it was hard to find other news being reported on television channels.
In the wake of Bin Laden's presence in Pakistan, Pakistan's image as a haven for terrorists has, perhaps, been reinforced. However, the liberal class of urban Pakistanis have always welcomed any move to eradicate extremist elements from the country. And the province of Sindh, which has been home to great Sufis who devoted their lives in spreading peace and religious coexistence, has always repelled extremism from its grounds. That is why, Sindh has always had a distinct identity as compared to other units of Pakistan, as has been observed by William Dalrymple who visited Pakistan earlier.
Abbottabad is a city in the Hazara region (Khyber Pakhtunkhwa) which attracts tourists every year with its scenic mountains and valleys. In the recent years of religious extremism resulting in terrorist activities, Abbotabad has also been one of the very few peaceful cities of province.
Picture shows a house where it is believed al-Qaida leader Osama Bin Laden lived in Abbottabad. Image by Sniperphotoagency, copyright Demotix (02/05/11).
Pakistani reactions
Osama’s presence, and now death, in the city has taken people aback; here is how a senior journalist and policy advisor, @razarumi, reacted to it:
I still cant believe that #OBL was in Abbottabad 4 yrs-a small, sleepy town 1 has visited sevrl times 4 recreation.#Pakistan needs a clean-up
As always, social media including Facebook, Twitter and blogs, have been publishing stories about Bin Laden’s death with varied perspectives: the dominant sentiment is one of satisfaction – and happiness – on the death of the embodiment of global terrorism.
@guldaar tweeted:
Damned when he was alive, damned now that he is dead. Not really looking forward to the backlash & the city bombings. #OsamabinLaden
My own Facebook status reads in Sindhi:
All those peace- and humanity-loving, and the supporters of religious coexistence, congratulations on the death of the icon of the terrorism, Osama bin Laden. Rest in Hell, Osama!
During the last decade, religious extremism could not penetrate in the mostly underdeveloped province of Sindh. This has always been attributed to the teachings and preaching of Sufi saints of the land especially, Shah Abdul Latif, Sachal Sarmast, Sami, Shah Inayat and others who not only strongly supported religious coexistence, but also condemned the way a typical Mullah would interpret Islam.
That is the reason why the Sindhis have always welcomed the United States of America and its war on terror; the reaction to Osama’s death is also not different. They have acclaimed and, in fact, congratulated each other on the death of the terrorist on Twitter and Facebook.
The following update from Sindhi resident Xafar’s profile would support the aforementioned:
W[h]ether it’s Bin Qasim who was Osama’s spiritual father or Tughluq; he tried to justify his acts in the name of Islam or humanity, if his hands are dirtied in the blood of the innocent people, his logical end could only be the same as that of Saddam Hossein. I feel happy to see the secular nationalists congratulating each other and the supporters of the terrorists being sad on this news. [Translated from Sindhi]
Akhtar Shaikh wrote on his wall:
Congratulations to all the peace-loving [people on earth] and the Sindhi nation… Now, this is crystal clear before the world that this attitude of Punjabis (Read: Pakistani Establishment) has become a great danger for Sindh and the rest of the world.
Let’s come out in the streets and participate in this global celebration as this is a great victory over fundamentalism. [Translated from Sindhi]
Another open comment came from Sikanderhayat Hayat:
thank you America and president obama you killed (the) enemy of mankind
@sanasaleem tweets:
Alqaeda was never a one man army to begin with claiming that US will wrap up the war now is really foolish.
A while before that I tweeted:
Death of #osama may be a milestone, but not the destination; extremist mentality has to be gunned down to make peace, and justice #pakistan
However, does this really means that the reason for the US to stay in Pakistan is no more? Will America officially leave the Afghan-Pakistani territories? This is the question that has been rotating around social media.
Famous singer, Salman Ahmed (@sufisal) asks:
Will Pakistan finally breathe a sigh of peace after Osama's death? 7,873 innocent Pakistanis have died as a result of terrorism
@mehreenkasana also poses the same question to Barack Obama, the president of the United States:
Will this stop the US regime from drone attacking civilians in tribal areas, Mr. @BarackObama? Justice has been served, after all.
And @SadamMahessar tweets:
America, now that you have served your purpose! Please get out of of my country and let us live in Peace and watch some Cricket here!!
As final words, where Pakistan will have the direct impact of death of Bin Laden in its borders, over the seas in the United States of America, President Obama has made his position strong by this act. Against or for, we all are here to face the music of his death; and, satirically, Osama goes on to his promised ‘virgins’ in heaven. In @BinaShah’s words:
72 virgins preparing for OBL's imminent arrival with lots of ice and tylenol.
This post is part of our special coverage The Death of Osama Bin Laden.

author: Aamir Raz Soomro


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Portugal: Adrift, With a Bailout in the Works · Global Voices
Sara Moreira

The same week that Portugal celebrated the 25 of April (the day on which in 1974 it put an end to the 41 year dictatorship to make way for neoliberal democracy) and the 1 of May – Worker’s Day – an appeal is made to the ideals of liberty, justice and equality with the backdrop of prolonged economic crisis which contaminates social and political life.
The fall of the Government in mid March and the opening to the doors of the “troika” formed by the International Monetary Fund (IMF), European Central Bank and the European Commission (EC) for a international financial bailout, have triggered an even greater state of alert by Portuguese people to issues that will determine living conditions for years to come.
Blogs and social networks mete out judgement on a poorly-governed and adrift Portugal, a country that is not able to satisfy the complex macro-economic model [pt] it committed to, under the protection of the idea of an open Europe, one of solidarity [pt].
"Proposal to update the Portuguese flag, together with the increase of the length of the national anthem to two times, reducing the speed to half, institutionalizing in video with a loop editing, first backwards and then forwards. This intention in keeping with the reality of our country." Photograph by Miguel Januário from the site maismenos.net, used with permission
More or less development
Even though since Portugal’s joining the then “European Economic Community” (EEC, today the European Union, EU) in 1986, hundreds of millions of Euros have been injected in structural and membership funds for the development of the country, recent studies have concluded that “economic growth in Portugal was adversely affected by joining the Economic and Monetary Union”  [pdf, pt].
On Quintus’ blog, a post signed with the pseudonym Clavis Prophetarum, explains [pt]:
pagaram para que destruíssemos o nosso tecido produtivo: a frota abatida em troca de subsídios de “modernização da frota” que não exigiam que as embarcações abatidas fossem substituídas por novas (…), com o abandono dos mares e a abertura escancarada dos nossos mares às frotas europeias e com idênticas acções na agricultura e na indústria, tornamo-nos num estéril “país de serviços”.
Two Euro coins of Portugal, Italy, Ireland, Greece and Spain (the “PIGS” of Europe), before those of Germany. Photo by Flickr user Landahlauts (Creative Commons 2.0 BY-NC-SA).
With the adoption of the Euro since 1999 and its entry into sole circulation in 2002, Portugal committed itself to the “Euro Convergence Criteria” established by the countries of the Euro Zone, that require responsible fiscal policies, with public debt below 60% of GDP and a budget deficit of less than 3%. According to  data released by the Instituto Nacional de Estatística (National Statistics Institute) [pt], in March 2011 the value of the Portuguese deficit rose 0.6% from 2010, to 9.1%, and public debt rose from 92.4 to 93% of GDP.
Austerity with ostentation
From since the end of 2007 the words “crisis”, “deficit” and public “debt” [pt] have been staples of Portuguese conversation. In power for six years, the government of José Socrates has looked for solutions to balance out the deficit, and since March 2010 it presented four proposals for “Pacto de Estabilidade e Crescimento” (Stability and Growth Pacts), or PEC, with austerity measures on public spending that caused controversy in cutting various social services.
The year 2011 started with cuts in salaries to public servants, which led to  widespread discontentment [pt] given the government’s inability to find constitutional means to contain spending in a more “just” way.
Another austerity measure with immediate impact on Portuguese pockets since the beginning of the year was the increase in the EU VAT tax [called the IVA in Portugal], applied by the EU on consumption. With a 2% increase in the VAT, a 23% tax is levied on all economic transactions in Portugal. When the government announced that golf (with a contribution of 500 million euros to the GDP) would only be taxed at 6% maximum, the wave of indignation was immediate. The goal would be to promote the economic recovery of the country through tourism, but as it is considered by most a “sport of the rich” [pt], the reduction of the tax on golf sparked a huge controversy in the face of new proposals to cut social services.
The Protest of the Scraping-By Generation on March 12 brought at least 200,000 people to the streets who demonstrated their discontent with increasing unemployment and precarious work. In response to the strong adhesion to the protest, a coalition of blogs formed called Já Basta! (Enough Already!) [pt], demanding the fall of the government.
On March 23, when the Parliament rejected the fourth “Stability and Growth Pact” proposed by Prime Minister Socrates, he presented his resignation to President Cavaco Silva. On the same day, a creative intervention by artist and activist Miguel Januário on the steps of Parliament, marked the day with a golf swing and with ostentation:
“± EGO SUM PANIS VIVUS ±”  (I am live bread) by ± on Vimeo
Contradicting what Socrates had claimed [pt] would not happen earlier in the year, in April a request was sent to the troika of the IMF, EC, and ECB to bailout the country from its debts. The conditions for an “inevitable” loan of 80 billion euros [pt] are being assessed.
Is the inevitable viable?
There are a number of “online social movements” that question, and cause one to question, if that which the Government and its bailout agents propose is in fact the best solution.
"The inevitable is unviable" by Gui Castro Felga of "O Blog ou a Vida" (The blog or a life). Image used with permission
The anti-austerity collective  Portugal Uncut takes actions daily against the announcements of cuts of public services around the country.
A manifesto signed by 74 citizens born after 1974 [pt] appeals for a rethink of the changes that are seen in labor markets – with the “regression of labor rights together with a growing precariousness that invades all aspects of life” — as well as changes to the State – highlighting increasing privatization of health and education. They go on to criticize the “new vocabulary” that has implanted itself in the country:
transformando em «credores» aqueles que lucram com a dívida, em «resgate financeiro» a imposição ainda mais acentuada de políticas de austeridade e em «consenso alargado» a vontade de ditar a priori as soluções governativas.
Launched on April 15, the transparency portal Despesa Pública (Public Spending) [pt] promises to make Portuguese citizens understand how their government spends public monies. The site allows users to search contract documents between state and public and private entities, responding to the lack of information accessible on how and where tax monies are spend, and by whom.
Legislative elections are scheduled for June 5. But before this, let’s see what May brings.


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Russia: Who is Restricting the Russian Internet? · Global Voices
Marina Litvinovich

On 18 April, 2011, American non-profit organisation Freedom House issued a report on Internet freedom in the world. The report, “Freedom on the Net 2011” analyses freedom of access to the Internet in 2009-2010 in 37 countries.
In the report (authored by Global Voices’ Alexey Sidorenko, editor of RuNet Echo), Russia is rated among those countries with “partial freedom” of Internet access. Compared with the organisation's previous report, published in 2009, Russia's position in the ratings has dropped.
Among Russia's neighbours on the list of “partly free” countries are Rwanda, Zimbabwe and Egypt. Of the republics of the former USSR, Freedom House experts identified Georgia, Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan, along with Russia, as “partly free.” Belarus appears on the “not free” list, while Estonia is on the “free” list – in fact, Estonia tops the rankings for all countries mentioned in the report. Russia's other former Soviet neighbours are absent from the rankings.
Trailing the field on Freedom House's list are Cuba, Burma and Iran, where experts registered the worst situation regarding Internet freedom.
A map representing internet freedom, from Freedom House
One cannot argue with the facts listed in the report about Russia. All the same, questions arise about their analysis and interpretation.
The first important question: What aspects of this ranking really originate with the authorities or state structures? What exactly is the Russian authorities’ contribution to “Internet unfreedom?” After all, it is generally accepted that the restriction of freedom be considered in terms of its usefulness to the authorities’ policies and functioning of legislation.
If we look carefully at the list, we will see two obvious types of actions emanating from state structures:
“E-Centres” to prosecute extremists
1. The activities of law enforcement agencies and units within the fight against extremism (so-called “E-Centres”), which actually direct the prosecution of bloggers (and not only bloggers) for expressing opinions on the Internet. More often than not, cases are brought according to Article 282 of the Penal Code; specifically according to Part 1, which includes penalties for “activities, carried out in public or via media, aimed at the incitement of hatred or hostility or the degradation of a person or group of persons on grounds of gender, race, nationality, language, origin, religious inclination, or membership in a particular social group.”
I have explained more than once how this mechanism works. E-Centres are the operational units of the Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA) in every Russian region. They carry out the functions of the MIA in the area of counter-extremism. These units have a “top-down” plan for the fight against extremism: a certain number of citizens over a certain period of time must be held accountable for extremist activity.
Where do E-Centres look for extremists? Seeking out those who are plotting “the formation of extremist organisations” or some other kind of extremist activity is difficult: for that you need to have informants to carry out quality surveillance over a long period and collect information and evidence. That's difficult. It is easier to find “extremists” on the Internet while sitting at a computer in your office, reading blogs and forums and looking for sharp, critical opinions of authorities or some social group or other.
It's a cushy job: find a statement and, if its author is somehow identified, turn your attention toward the Internet service provider to find out whose computer the message was sent from. That's it. An extremist is rooted out, the task is carried out, the question is closed, the bosses are happy, a report on the “fight against extremism” is dispatched to Moscow, and the bill for its foot soldiers continues to be paid from the state budget.
That is precisely why the Russian Internet community and human rights activists must fight for the abolition of Article 282 of the Penal Code of the Russian Federation. As law enforcement practices demonstrate, just about anybody can fall into the category of “extremist:” bloggers, Internet users, writers, community activists, religious figures, whoever you like, only to justify the existence of E-Centres, which previously, by the way, were “Units for the Fight Against Organised Crime” and have retained their practice of meeting quotas. It is also necessary, in my opinion, that Centres for the Fight Against Extremism close, since they are involved in activities that are beyond their remit: in reality, they prosecute the free expression of opinions, be they political or religious views.
As regards the prosecution of bloggers, the real reason behind it is often not a statement by a given person on a blog or on the Internet, but instead his or her other activities (social, political or commercial). The expression of an opinion on the Internet acts only as a convenient pretext for the initiation of pressure or prosecution.
Blocking Internet resources
2. The second action emanating from the state and directed “against the Internet” involves the judicial system, which, at the instigation of the public prosecutor's office, can decide to block Internet resources. Yes, indeed, the court in Komsomolsk-na-Amur city made an utterly illogical  legal decision to shut off users’ access to  YouTube because the site allegedly hosts extremist materials. Later on, the court of appeal overturned this decision, identifying specific pages on the site to which access must be blocked by Internet service providers. Well-known Russian internet activist Anton Nosik then wrote on his blog [ru]:
By the level of its crudeness, the court's verdict is typical of all domestic legal proceedings concerning the Internet.” These happenings are, in Nosik's opinion, “All in all, only an amusing legal episode that is of no practical consequence for tens of millions of Internet users in Russia.
The number of ignorant decisions taken by Russian courts is well known to all, and they do not only concern the Internet. This area is one the majority of judges and prosecutors do not understand; they tend to confuse sites maintained by their owners with services or sites based on user-generated content (UGC).
Ignorance in relation to the realities of the Internet, however, is not particular to the activities of judges and prosecutors alone. Not long ago, a businessman asked a friend who the “editor-in-chief of Twitter” was, and whether it would be possible to meet him. People's general ignorance regarding the realities of the Internet leads to such episodes.
The conclusion here is simple: a movement focused on rectifying this lack of awareness is required, so that rulings about “YouTube shutdown” provoke not only the indignation of users but also the hearty laughter of the Internet community that believes an actual YouTube shutdown will not come to pass.
Untraceable control
As for the remaining facts contained in the Freedom House report, they may bear no relation whatsoever to the state and the authorities’ actions – or may, indirectly. DDoS (Distributed Denial-of-Service) attacks, which in recent times threatened LiveJournal.com and the Novaya Gazeta website cannot be linked to the state but result from either commercial orders or the unauthorised activities of certain individuals. The same goes for the hacking of certain sites by the “Hell Brigade.”
Activity in the blogosphere by “pro-Kremlin youth organisations” is more a positive than a negative fact, reflecting real freedom of expression by political forces of different stripes. There is evidence of both liberal and nationalist activity in the blogosphere: those for Putin, and those against him; those for Stalin, and those against him; those for Khodorkovsky, and those against him.
The means of conducting the discussion are, admittedly, not always good: there are trolling and spamming and ad hominem attacks. But these complaints can be laid against anybody, not just against “pro-Kremlin forces.” The thing is, depending on the topic, distinct groups are mobilised differently, so that in certain discussions (indeed, those that have to do with topics such as Stalin, Yeltsin, Khodorkovsky, the Russian Orthodox church and others) the better mobilised groups take part in discussions with greater aggression and fury.
Of course, the purchase of successful services and websites by businessmen close to the Kremlin can, to a certain extent, be put down to “state influence.” But it seems to me that we are dealing in these cases with the usual desire in business to acquire a commercially successful venture.
Moreover, it is difficult to cite an example of owners influencing the editorial line of Lenta.ru or the ‘editorial’ policy of LiveJournal. Blogs on  LiveJournal are completely free, and a recent period when the site was down could be attributable not only to a DDoS attack, but also to unresolved technical problems on the part of the service itself. Another important factor is a statement by President Medvedev, who drew attention to the attacks on the popular blog hosting service and condemned them. The president coming to the defence of a popular blog hosting service has no precedent in any country.
Yet it is still worth remembering the Kremlin's tough position regarding the Federal Security Service's (FSB) initiative to ban access to Skype, Gmail and Hotmail, about which  I have written in a previous article.  The truth is, yet another initiative of the Russian government came to light a few days later: a tender to carry out research into the foreign experience of regulating responsibility for Internet networks. The research should analyse the legislation of the USA, Germany, France, the UK and Canada, as well as China, Belarus and Kazakhstan where, as we know, the Internet is blocked.
On the whole, my conclusion regarding the situation of the Internet in Russia, as described in the report “Freedom on the Net 2011,” is as follows: yes, Russia can be included among those countries with “partly free” Internet access. At the same time, this particular lack of freedom is not due to the deliberate policies of the federal authorities. At least for the time being, the authorities are not seeking to limit Internet freedom, and Medvedev's position on this matter is clear enough. Only Article 282 of the Penal Code and the activities of the “Centres for the Fight against Extremism” raise a real concern.
Notwithstanding this, not only Internet users but human rights defenders, political activists, historians, religious figures and other “troublemakers” suffer. The Internet here is but a pretext for accusation. Ignorant judges and prosecutors are trouble too – not only in terms of the Internet but sometimes in terms of legislation in general, which they themselves do not understand or interpret terribly. Yet another real problem is that in Russia we are dealing with a multitude of actors who may engage in violence against bloggers and activists. This multitude can appear to be an integrated instrument of the authoritarian state but, if we look closely, it reveals itself as a vector resulting from the actions of various security agents, bureaucrats and bandits.
Therefore, to “liberate” the Internet and raise Russia's position in Freedom House's ratings, the Russian community must turn its attention to Article 282 and start a campaign to have it repealed. This is well within the power of the Russian Internet community.

author: Marina Litvinovich


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St. Lucia, Trinidad & Tobago: Walcott Wins Bocas Prize  · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

Caribbean Book Blog reports that Nobel Laureate Derek Walcott has won the OCM Bocas Prize for Caribbean Literature for his “seemingly effortless flow of language and imagery.”


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Taiwan:Osama bin Laden’s mansion…and bad “Feng shui”? · Global Voices
Portnoy Zheng

Don't be surprised to learn that Taiwan TV news always try hard to decode global issues with “Feng shui“,  and this time it is the death of Osama bin Laden and his mansion being decoded. While “Feng sui Master” in the news says that any leader stay in that kind of mansion will get killed, tweeps, sarcastically, are suggesting that such “creative” news coverage should be on CNN and Al Jazeera, too.

author: Portnoy Zheng


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Trinidad & Tobago: Knowledge-Based Region  · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

Gerard Best suggests that “the Trinidad and Tobago media [must] go beyond the discussion of Press Freedom and begin to re-examine its role in advancing the development of this small, complex and culturally rich society.”


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Trinidad & Tobago, U.S.A.: Politics, Osama & Obama · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

Diaspora blogger Jumbie's Watch calls the death of Osama Bin Laden “a political coup…political survival at its best, and apparently it has worked…”


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Tunisia: Habib Bourguiba Avenue, Post Revolution · Global Voices
Suzanne Lehn

On Bondy Blog, Widad Kefti portrays [fr] the capital “Tunis’ main road, stripped clean of Benalism”.

author: Suzanne Lehn


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Tunisia: Illegal Tunisian Migrants in France · Global Voices
Suzanne Lehn

Illegal Tunisian migrants, who arrived in Paris via the Italian island Lampedusa and were rescued by a grass-root organization tell the Bondy Blog [fr] about their feelings of “regrets, anger, honor, and a little shame too”.


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Tweeting Bin Laden: Have US Journalists Become Citizen Reporters?  · Global Voices
Asteris Masouras

This post is part of our special coverage The Death of Osama Bin Laden.
When news of Osama Bin Laden's death broke on May 2, 2011, journalists in the United States (US) were tweeting and using social media just like other citizens to report their feelings and what they saw on the streets and even airplanes. It marks an interesting contrast to how 9/11 itself was reported in 2001, when social media was still only a nascent technology, especially in the world of professional journalism. Have journalists finally become citizen reporters?
Ed Henry from CNN tweeted from celebrations in front of the White House in Washington D.C.:
@edhenrycnn: the cheers of joy behind me outside WH making me want to cry. wow. #binladen
Journalist and photographer Thomas Cain, from national community news company Main Street Connect tweeted the moment he landed at John F. Kennedy Airport in New York City on May 2:
@ThomasCain: Just landed in JFK and the pilot came over speakers to inform us of bin laden's death. The whole plane just erupted in applause!
@ThomasCain: Photo: Passengers in the baggage claim area of JFK glued to Obama's speech about Bin Laden's death.http://t.co/SXDhq0K
Jim Forman from the KING 5 Night Team in Western Washington also tweeted an airplane experience:
@jimformanKING5: 9/11 widow on my flight. In tears. Comforted by entire cabin. Life altering event to see.
@jimformanKING5: For my bosses. The lovely lady who lost her husband has declined to be on tv tonight lovely mother of two. From me she gets space.
Not all experiences in US airports were jubilant, as security levels were raised:
@tmsruge: OBL's death = extra level of security at checkin.. By “level” I mean 7 extra check points within 100ft radius + extra rude passport stamper
In New York at the “Ground Zero” site of the former World Trade Center, journalists reported on jubilant crowds.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iPNx_E0Q7Jo
New York Times social media editor, Lexi Mainland tweeted:
@lexinyt: Just arrived at ground zero, where sirens are blaring and clapping and cheers are erupting.
@lexinyt: The guys whose pic I just tweeted experienced 9/11 in NYC on their first day of high school, in Manhattan.
Matthew Bishop, the New York bureau chief of The Economist also tweeted from here:
@mattbish: Man with vuvuzela is here, as are hundreds of citizen journalists!
@mattbish: I keep looking up and remembering those people falling from the sky right where I am standing. The memory is still raw
Writer and New York Times employee Jennifer Mascia said:
@jennifermascia: Seriously cannot believe how young this crowd is. 9/11 must have been the defining moment of their childhood.
On the following morning in New York, Jeff Jarvis, an early blogger and one of the first journalists to report on the aftermath of the World Trade Center attacks, retraced his steps to Ground Zero:
@jeffjarvis: I've retraced my steps here on 9/11. I see an augmented reality from my memory over the city.
In his blog Buzz Machine, he wrote a moving reminiscence on how 9/11 defined both his career as a fierce advocate of citizen journalism, as well as the medium itself:
As soon as I saw the news, I turned by reflex to Twitter. Twitter is our Times Square on this victory day. A reporter asked me tonight whether this would be a defining moment for Twitter. Another one, I said. Today, our grand shared experience around news is no longer defined as all of us watching TV. Now, TV is in the background. Twitter is where many of us come to find out the news and share our thoughts and feelings.
This post is part of our special coverage The Death of Osama Bin Laden.

author: Asteris Masouras


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Ukraine: World Press Freedom Day Sparks Discussions on the State of the Media · Global Voices
Tetyana Bohdanova

May 3 has been declared World Press Freedom Day by the United Nations, in order to raise awareness of the importance of media freedom around the globe.
As in many other countries, in Ukraine on this day journalists traditionally announce the results of an anti-rating “Enemies of the Free Press.” This year, the Institute for Mass Information and the Ukrainian Independent Media Trade Union have included the Ukrainian President Victor Yanukovych and Prime Minister Mykola Azarov at the top of the “black list.” Among the incidents [uk] that prompted the inclusion of President Yanukovych on the list were the disappearance of criticism of the regime from the “1+1” TV channel's story on his 100 days in office, a ban on photographing the presidential motorcade by journalists of Vechirni Visti newspaper, and reporters not being allowed to ask questions during his joint press conference with the Russian President Dmitry Medvedev.
World Press Freedom Day has also provoked many online discussions about the state of the media in Ukraine and the possible reasons behind the shrinking of press freedom in the country.
On his blog on Ukrayinska Pravda, journalist Serhiy Leshchenko wrote [uk] about the difference between Ukraine’s official Journalist Day and World Press Freedom Day:
An [artificial] holiday – Journalist Day – exists in Ukraine, and is celebrated on June 6. This holiday has been initiated by state officials and declared by the Presidential decree. […] It is especially cynical, how ahead of the official June 6 Journalist Day different MPs and state officials attempt to greet editorial offices with their “professional holiday.” A culmination of such absurdity is a picture of the government awarding various honors to loyal media representatives for their “merit.”
It can be compared to, let’s say, a butcher greeting a cow on a Beef Day.
The real Journalist Day around the normal world is May 3 – World Press Freedom Day. It is a day when journalists do not celebrate anything, but remember their murdered colleagues, politicians who interfere with their work, and governments that institute censorship.
Zoryana Byndas, the executive editor of an Internet newspaper Pohlyad, shared [uk] her experience with skeptical attitudes toward press freedom that prevail in the Ukrainian media industry:
I have recently attended a meeting with a potential advertiser. We discussed his services and how they could be best presented to our readers, clarifying details. At the end of the meeting, this man asked me about the owner of the Internet newspaper Pohlyad. I responded that everything was stated on our website. Potential advertiser smirked and said, “Well, alright, you are in charge there, but whose property is it, who funds you, what political party.” I explained again. The man started getting nervous and told me how this newspaper was funded by this guy, who also owned a TV channel. And how that newspaper kept covering activities of a certain party, which meant it owned the outlet. The man was convinced that a small group of enthusiasts, like my friends and I, would not run an Internet newspaper, since such outlets were only created to [elevate some and discredit others in the public eyes].
“Well,” I thought to myself, “the man is right.” Independent press today is [unprecedented]. Even if it still exists somewhere, one is tempted to ask, What’s the catch?
On the Ukrainian political social network Politiko.ua, user Serhiy Trehubenko criticized [uk] the Ukrainian media, stating that press freedom itself was not enough for Ukraine:
Ukrainian press carries on the functions of the Soviet press – on paper, it supports development, but the outcomes demonstrate that it is worse than the communist plague.
In civilized countries some things are granted, but in post-Soviet states they have to be discussed. Freedom of the press is not enough for us, we also need to create an intelligent and responsible press that would be able to explain things as they are and suggest ways for improvement.
On Vikna.if.ua, blogger Viktoriya Yadoshchuk wrote [uk] about why World Press Freedom Day cannot be dismissed as a simple formality in Ukraine:
Of course, since the Orange Revolution, the Ukrainian society has democratized because of the press. But it is not enough because the full freedom of expression in Ukraine [has not been achieved]. Moreover, since [President] Yanukovych came to power, according to the watchdog Freedom House, freedom of expression has actually declined.  […]
As we can see, the situation is critical: Ukrainians are once again afraid to speak the truth, because of fear for the lives. I think the society itself must address this problem. If the nation unites in speaking the truth, it would shake up the government and prompt them to [reconsider their actions]. Let’s put fear and doubts aside, let’s stay honest and not allow those in power to destroy the biggest value – freedom, freedom of choice, freedom of thought, and freedom of expression!
Ahead of the World Press Freedom Day, Freedom House released a report highlighting [ru] the continuous decline of press freedom in Ukraine – a piece of news that has been shared extensively by Ukrainian bloggers and Twitterers. Earlier this year, the organization also lowered [en] Ukraine’s freedom rating from “free” to “partly free.”

author: Tetyana Bohdanova


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Zimbabwe: Mixed Reactions to Osama Bin Laden’s Death  · Global Voices
Madalitso Mwando

This post is part of our special coverage The Death of Osama Bin Laden.
The news of the death of “the world's most wanted man” was received by Zimbabwean netizens with mixed reactions. Perhaps the reactions were somewhat to be expected as Osama was killed by the American government, which some Zimbabweans say is responsible for their country's economic hardships, sanctions, imperialism and everything else in between.
Gift Phiri posted on his Facebook wall:
Cheers to Obama for finally killing that terrorist with a long overdue gun shot to the head. Families of those killed in that senseless September 11 murder orchestrated by Osama — including families of journalists who died at Ground Zero I had the honour to meet last year in NY — can finally get some closure.
George Mhembere chipped in with a post on his Facebook wall:
US is just killing everybody looking the same like Osama bin Laden only to contact DNA test.
Reader forums at New Zimbabwe were also awash with reactions. Bishop Tshepanga Mokoena commented:
May 1st 2011…Osama dead. May 1st, 1945 was day they found Hitler dead. MAY..WILL BE A MONTH OF MIRACLES.
Mokoena further warned that:
Please Do Not Let Your Guard Down, By Forgetting Bin Laden Has Thousands Of Followers~ #Pray
Commenting using the local Shona language, Ancestor wrote:
Vatanga imwe hondo mabharanzi aya… [they have just begun another war these idiots].
In a reader forum feed titled “Obama kills Osama Now he'll be re-elected“, Rufus said:
You may hate Obama but one thing for sure, he does get the job done. Now, I hate violence but Osama is a man of violence who has come to the end violently and you have to give the US kudos for a patient, if somewhat frustrating, pursuit of a psychopath. The Americans do not, and I repeat, do make good enemies!
El Joto Mutasa had a strong warning for “despots and terrorists.” He left this message on The Zimbabwe Mail website:
This should be a message to all despots, terrorists, murderers and dictators that they will eventually be held accountable for their crimes. Now focus will move towards the next layer of killers and looters. The Grim Reaper is now looking at Africa. In the end, real justice will prevail.
However, the are skeptical Zimbabweans who want more convincing evidence of Osama's death.
For example, Tsano Tsano was not so impressed by the “evidence” in front of his computer screen. He made his views clear in the comment section of this article:
OK OK OK. If he was really dead why are tthey not showing us the pictures not even vedio . Remember these are the same guys who showed us everything when Saddam was captured up to his time of death. Even Gbagbo they showed his capture pics. Even Jonas Savimbi we got to see his dead body. This is just a publicity stunt. Capture Bin Laden in the wee hours of the morning, barely five hours later America buries him at sea in accordance with Islamic practices. Holy Lord. Come on guys. Pamwe ndini ndiri kupenga. Lets wait maybe we will get to see em pictures.
With so much anger in Zimbabwe because of issues of good governance, human rights, and the crackdown on political opponents, some netizens have for long imagined death as the ultimate equaliser, with a bishop being accused a few years ago of praying for the death of the Zimbabwean president.
Tinotenda Kwaramba tweeted:
breakingnews on Z~TV [Zimbabwe's national television broadcaster] news Osama Bin Laden seen having coffee with President Mugabe n Gadaffi @ a hotel in Harare…
The coming days no doubt will see a deluge of sentiments about the death of “the world's most wanted man” from this part of the world as netizens join in this global conversation.
This post is part of our special coverage The Death of Osama Bin Laden.

author: Madalitso Mwando


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Bahamas: Safer Prisoner Transport · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

“We should not have our lives or property put at risk to accommodate the prisoners”: Weblog Bahamas‘ Jerome Pinder thinks that “the current practice [of transporting prisioners] remains a dangerous one for the public.”


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Bermuda: Paying for Past Policies · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

“The Bermuda Government should be sitting on several hundred million  dollars of surpluses…instead we're incurring expensive debt which could  take more than 10 years to retire”: Bermudian bloggers think the economic and social forecast looks grim.


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China: Mainstream Report on Bin Laden’s Death · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

David Bandurski from China Media Project looks into the front page report of major newspapers in China on the death of Bin Laden.


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China: One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

The past week has seen a real-life version of film “One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest”  reenacted in China. The Chinese protagonist, Xu Wu, has been detained  in a psychiatric hospital for four years over a labour dispute against a  state-run enterprise in Wuhan, Hubei province.
He escaped from the hospital and told his story to a television station in Guangzhou,  Guangdong province. Having traveled to Guangzhou, police from Wuhan  then forced their way into the station building and abducted Xu,  remanding him back to the psychiatric ward.
The story of Xu Wu
Xu Wu was once a firefighter in a large state-owned company in Hubei  province – the Wuhan Iron and Steel Group. In 2000, as a workers’  representative, he started a legal battle with the factory, which  offered to settle the case with RMB 30,000 in compensation.
Xu rejected the offer and chose to petition his way to Beijing in December 2006. His local district government then  forced Xu's family to sign a document which declared him insane. Xu has  been detained in a psychiatric hospital ever since.
On April 19, 2011, Xu escaped from the psychiatric hospital and  traveled to Guangzhou where he testified to the Southern television  station that he had been illegally detained in a hospital for the  mentally ill for four years. During his stay in Guangzhou, he visited  the Guangzhou Psychiatric Hospital for a second diagnosis.
However, before the test results were issued, a group of unidentified  men claiming to be Wuhan police officers abducted Xu while still inside  the station campus and escorted him back to Wuhan. Read a translation of a news piece telling Xu's story at the Ministry of Tofu blog.
Both the police and the hospital refused to let Xu's parents see  their son. Below is a video showing Xu Wu's mother yelling outside the  hospital, telling her son not to be scared:
The clip was deleted from Sina Video and other main video sharing  websites in China before this post was published, however can still be  viewed on YouTube.
There were [zh] more than 121 comments under the video, including:
2011-05-02 15:44:37 这是个黑暗的社会
2011-05-02 15:43:01 该关进精神病院里的应该是武汉警方，他们把法律给践踏了。
2011-05-01 23:14:35 我们都是徐武
2011-05-01 00:27:28 阳光下的丑恶~！！！ 纸包不住火的。。。
2011-04-30 19:44:29 徐武，顶住，我们一定要来救你。这帮猪狗不如的东西
2011-05-02 15:43:01 The Wuhan police should be locked up, they have trampled upon the law.
2011-05-01 23:14:35 We are all Xu Wu.
2011-05-01 00:27:28 Evil under the sun!!! Paper cannot hold back fire…
2011-04-30 19:44:29 Xu Wu, hold on, we will save you. They are worse than dogs and pigs.
Politically mentally ill
It is not the first time that a petitioner has being diagnosed as mentally ill. A Weibo user searched around the Internet and discovered that in Wuhan city alone there are currently 18 petitioners who have been locked up in psychiatric hospitals [zh]. From the discussion thread:
小文zheng: 作为一个武汉人我震惊了，转发不会被神经病吧？虽然害怕，还是要转发，请大家关注。(59分鐘前)
李一樊: 访民肯定都是精神病。被强奸时都不会享受精神肯定有问题。(今天 10:49)
林昭的灵魂: 前苏联也干过类似的事，看来凡事法西斯国家都很相似。(今天 10:49)
Xiao Wen zheng: As a Wuhan resident, I am totally shocked. Will I be  diagnosed as mentally ill for reposting this? Although I am scared, I  have to repost it. Please pay attention.
Li Yifan: Petitioners are mentally ill because they don't enjoy being raped.
Lin Zhao's soul: Similar things used to happen in the Soviet Union. All fascist countries are similar.
Blogger Yu Ge points out that such social governance tactics [zh] have a long history:
这背后，则是一种历久弥新的治理术，即  权力机器热衷于将那些严重扰乱了其正常运转的反对者，以及那些变了形的齿轮、溢出了正轨的螺丝钉，在政法领域，自然要除恶务尽；而在道德、智识领域，同样  要极尽打击、贬低之能事，譬如诬蔑他们为败类、渣滓、寄生虫、黑五类……精神病人只是省略号里一个微乎其微的点。
判定徐武们为精神病人，一来  可以解释此前他们破坏社会稳定的“反常”行为，二来，假如能对徐武们明正典刑，我相信有司绝不会手软，无奈连株连、罗织都不得其法，那只能暗度陈仓，将他   们投入密不透风的精神病院。在此，精神病院扮演了一个十分尴尬的政法角色，它不是看守所和监狱，却被迫发挥后者的功用。这无疑是对医学与真正的精神病人的  惨重伤害。…
This is a governance tactic with a long history that has never become  outdated: the power machine wants to, through legal and political  means, eradicate opponents – damaged gears and screws – who affect its  normal function. In terms of moral and intellectual domains, it has to  debase them as scum, parasites, the five black categories, etc. Mentally ill is just one of the labels.
To diagnose Xu Wu as a psychiatric patient can explain away his  “abnormal” behavior which might disrupt social stability. If they could  prosecute Xu through legal means, they could have done so. However,  authorities clearly could not have put a case up against him without  exposing their own problems, which is why they had to lock him up in the  psychiatric ward. Thus the mental hospital plays the very awkward role  and function of both a prison house and detention center here. This  damages the entire psychiatric profession.
Local government, state-run corporations, and the media
China.com forum writer balusw digs further into the political implications [zh] and predicts the potential consequences of Xu Wu's treatment:
1、[…] 我们围观徐武，是对公权践踏人权的强烈谴责，是对“被精神病”患者徐武的深深同情，是对坚守正义的记者的良好祝愿；[…]
2、…徐武事件的背后利益集团，是“共和国钢铁长子”的武汉钢铁集团公司，这个中央企业一贯宣称是国有老企业，身上的包  袱重，因此在处理内部劳资纠纷时，往往都是一副高高在上的姿态，让P民没有发言权。若P民不服上访、上告，武钢就会仗着和政府千丝万缕的联系，动用公权，  让P民往往没有好下场。…由于武钢的产值占据武汉市的半壁江山，所以，只要副部级单位武钢 一打喷嚏，武汉市的公权部门很快就“指哪打哪” […]
3、…在全国媒体和人民积极关注徐武事态进展的同时，武汉媒体集体选择了失声和沉默。按照常理，武汉媒体在采访这一事  件中应该具备天时地利人和的优势，结果，陪伴徐武70多岁父母身边的是外地媒体；[…]  武汉步伐优秀的新闻专业人才，相信他们对这一事件不关注，不会没有自己 的想法，唯一的解释是，他们被下了“封口令”。
4、…事件至此，尚没有从利益相关方武钢和武汉警方获得任何有价值的说法与解释 […]
5、徐武会一直“被精神病”下去吗？会，可能性80%。如果警方出面解释，他们只有将徐武定性为“妨碍公共安全的精神病人”，也只有这条理 由，才能让他们的跨省追捕、媒体院内抢人、抢手机、殴打媒体记者等等不合理的行为站得住脚。[…]
1. […] Through our concern over Xu Wu, we condemn the authorities for  treading upon human rights, and express our sympathy towards those who  have been forcibly and wrongly diagnosed as psychiatric patients, and  praise our media workers who defend social justice[…]
2. […] The interest group behind Xu Wu's incident is the “first son” of China's national steel industry,  the Wuhan Iron and Steel Group (WISG). It is an old state-run  corporation with a strong political background. Whenever there is a  labour dispute, WISG doesn't allow people to have any say in the  settlement. When people decide to take legal action or begin the process  of petitioning, WISG uses its government connections and power to stop  people's actions… Since WISG contributes a large portion of Wuhan's GDP,  all a unit leader has to do is sneeze and the Wuhan government will act  accordingly…
3. […] As people and media from throughout the entire country are  paying attention to Xu Wu's case, media in Wuhan have chosen to remain  silent. Wuhan media should have a social and geographical advantage in  reporting the incident, but only media from outside the province are  following Xu's 70-something year old parents. […] Wuhan has so many  professional media workers. I believe that they are also concerned about  the incident, thus the only explanation for their silence is a “shut up  order”.
4. […] Up until now, there hasn't been any valid explanation about the incident from either WISG or police […]
5. Will Xu Wu be diagnosed as a “mental patient” again? The  probability is 80%. The only valid reason Wuhan police could possibly  give to justify such action beyond their jurisdiction and violence  during the arrest would be to label Xu Wu as a “mental patient who  endangers public security”. […]
Meanwhile Beijing lawyer Huang Xuetao has offered legal assistance to  Xu Wu's parent and netizens continue to pressure the Wuhan authorities  by means of online public outcries.


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Costa Rica: Historical Firsts in May Day Crisis of Headless Congress · Global Voices
Juliana Rincón Parra

On the first of May, for the first time since 1949, the Costa Rican  congress was unable to elect new representatives to lead them. And also  for the first time in 75 years, because of the headless congress,  President Laura Chinchilla was unable to give her yearly review in the May Day speech.
Blogger Cristian Cambronero, nominated earlier this year for the Best  of Blogs awards, explained how the situation got to this point in his  blog post “1st of disMay” [es]. Basically, the opposition parties had agreed to ally themselves  to create an opposition directory for the Legislative Assembly or  Congress and had already wrangled enough votes to make it possible  to take the power from the ruling party Partido de Liberación Nacional (PLN) on the May Day elections. Then, the ruling party reacted:
Como jinetes apocalípticos, los agoreros anunciaron el  fin de los tiempos conocidos si el Directorio no quedaba en manos del  oficialismo. “…la alianza opositora (…) asumirá una grave  responsabilidad cuyos costos son hoy inestimables”, publicó La Nación en un primer editorial la semana pasada. “El peligro de la victoria”, tituló el periódico hace 3 días, en un segundo editorial sobre el tema, mucho menos sutil y mucho más nervioso. Otros sacaron del baúl al fantasma de la ingobernabilidad y lo pasearon por los pasillos de Cuesta de Moras como a un cadejo  arrastrando cadenas de calamidad. “La amenaza se cierne sobre la  Asamblea Legislativa”, dijo la Presidenta Chinchilla, seguramente al borde de un ataque de nervios.
The opposition alliance had agreed that everyone would vote for their  candidate since they had barely enough votes to make it happen, and  that any member who voted for the ruling party would get expelled from  their own party.
But, how would they know who voted which way? The alliance insisted  on seeing their members’ votes and on having votes made public as  insurance against members who might have been “bought” by the ruling  party PLN. And PLN demanded for the vote to be secret. According to El Chamuko [es], an anonymous blogger who blogs extensively on politics and ever  so often unearths dirty secrets of the Costa Rican ruling class, this is  where the session fell apart:
El PLN varió las reglas del juego de la votación, si  ellos querían defender la pureza del sufragio, debían dedicar más tiempo  desde días anteriores, para ponerse de acuerdo con la oposición en la  forma en que se iba a votar, no venir a cambiar las reglas a última  hora,  lo que hicieron fue tenderle una emboscada a Alianza y de paso  provocarlos para que hicieran el show de pedir boletas a gritos y de llamar a la violencia en las calles.
"Welcome to Costa Rica's Congress" by El Chamuko.
According to Juan Carlos Hidalgo who writes the political analysis blog Por la Libre [es] elections within Congress have never been secret: in past  elections representatives have voted on their desks, they've shown their  ballots to their candidates, and party leaders have picked up other  representatives’ votes to make sure they are all voting for the same  candidate. Yet now PLN insisted on the sanctity of the secret vote  supported by Legislative Assembly “rule book”. The opposition had a  different interpretation of the rule in question and decided to break  quorum, trusting that elections wouldn't take place if they departed,  since a minimum of 38 representatives was needed for any election:
La oposición justamente protestó el cambio de reglas, y  abandonó el recinto legislativo. Y ahí vendría el acabose. Siguiendo el  manual electoral de Robert Mugabe y Daniel Ortega, el PLN llevó a cabo  la elección sin que hubiera quorum (los diputados de oposición se  encontraban en el Salón de Expresidentes) y eligió a Luis Gerardo  Villanueva con tan solo 26 votos. Rápidamente los liberacionistas  salieron a justificar dicha movida, e incluso la presidenta Chinchilla  corrió a felicitar a Villanueva. La oposición pegó el grito al cielo y  acusó al PLN de atestar un “golpe de Estado institucional”.
In the comments [es], Alejandro Jenkins tries to make sense of the rules cited during the Congressional Elections:
Es un poco irónico que ahora el PLN defienda tan  vehementemente el secreto de ese voto, cuando en 1999 había exigido al  presidente del Congreso que entregara las papeletas para revisar la  letra de cada una. Creo que eso indica que lo que estaba de por medio el  domingo pasado no era un asunto de principio.
So what do the PLN sympathizers have to say about what took place on Sunday? Political analyst  Federico Ruiz W. [es] agrees that it was a childlike tantrum, but considers that the  opposition was the one who didn't act appropriately. He analyzed Article  201 of the Legislative Assembly Code and concluded:
La elección para Presidente del Directorio inició con el  quórum debido. Se llamó a los diputados a retirar las papeltas,  escribieran el nombre del diputado de su preferencia y la depositaran en  una urna. Este artículo, al señalar que las papeletas no deben ir  firmadas por los votantes, indica que la votación es secreta. Ahí queda  resuelto el primer misterio sobre si el acto debe ser o no secreto.
He also goes on to explain the rationale behind the actions of the  PLN on Sunday's elections which resulted in Villanueva being appointed  President of the Directory. He backs all examples with interpretations  of the code which prompted the decisions to continue regardless of the  opposition's exit from the voting venue, and how they added their votes  to the candidate with most votes because according to the rules they  cite, breaking quorum is not a possibility during elections, and when it  happens votes of representatives who excuse themselves get reassigned.
However we look at it, it was a shameful show that will have  repercussions. President Laura Chinchilla first congratulated  Villanueva, but then had to take it back when the Alliance declared the  proceedings were invalid. And sadly it seems that even if there is PLN  or Alliance control over Congress, the President who couldn't even give  her yearly report due to the conflict in Congress will still be left on  her own, as Julio Córdoba writes in his blog post “Check Mate to the 1st of May” [es]:
Mejor no le pudo salir al PLN antilaurista (aunque  reconozco de no ubico a un solo chinchillista) ya que colocaron a la  mandataria en el peor de los mundos: con un oficialismo partido,  enemistada de la cúpula partidaria y con la relación con la oposición al  mínimo.
Finally on Monday, Villanueva decided he wasn't going to preside over Congress [es], the elections took place, PLN removed their candidate and the Alliance got their opposition candidate Juan Carlos Mendoza from the PAC elected [es] as the new president of Congress –the first time the opposition wins in 41 years.

author: Juliana Rincón Parra


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Côte d’Ivoire: New Videos Detail Capture of Former President · Global Voices
Julie Owono

This post is part of our special coverage Côte d'Ivoire Unrest 2011.
After the arrest in the city of Abidjan on April 11, 2011, of Laurent Gbagbo, former  president of Cote d'Ivoire, and his wife Simone, some confusion remains  regarding the process that led to his capture.
Website Abidjan.net [fr] has published a series of videos [fr] entitled, “The film of Laurent Gbagbo's arrest: New elements” (”Le  Film de l'arrestation de Laurent Gbagbo: De nouveaux Éléments”),  divided into four videos of 10-14 minutes each. The videos show the  sequence of events of the Gbagbos’ arrest, from the bombing of their  residence by French Special Forces, to the transfer of the Gbagbo family  to the Hotel du Golf.
New elements
The first video [fr] of the series shows what happened in the room just after the  capture of the Gbagbos. Simone Gbagbo, the former first lady, even says a  few words to the camera; on the armed soldiers and Liberian mercenaries  who were still fighting in Abidjan at the time, she says:
Les tirs ce n'est pas bon.
She is asked to speak louder, but replies:
I cannot, I am out of breath.
The couple seem to be quite well treated, and Simone is even called  “Maman” (Mother), a mark of respect in most African societies. This  confirms that instructions given by Alassane Ouattara, now official  president of the Republic of Côte d'Ivoire, were respected.
In the last video, one of the Ivorian militaries who took part in the  arrest of the former President explains what happened in the “bunker”:
Désiré Tagro a appelé pour dire qu'il va sortir avec un  drapeau blanc, (…) de ne pas tirer. (…) On a arrêté de tirer, et ils  sont tous sortis en rang comme des rats. Gbagbo en tête dans un gilet  pare-balle français. Nous avons pris Gbagbo seul, on l'a mis dans la  voiture du Gal Wattao, direction le Golf
The same video also shows family members, who were arrested with the presidential couple, gathered in another room of the hotel:
Alleged Gbagbo interview
Following his arrest, Laurent Gbagbo was transferred  [fr] to Korhogo, in the north of the Côte d'Ivoire, where he is now  living under house arrest. He still has some support, especially among  the Ivorian, and African diaspora [fr].
News even spread about an alleged interview [fr] that Laurent Gbagbo secretly gave to a journalist in Geneva.The  journalist in question has explained that he received a text message  from the former president, who used a mobile phone one of his jailers  had forgotten.
Ivorian netizens reacted to news of the alleged interview with irony. Yopougon10, who comments under a blog post [fr] about this interview says:
mdr !!! Gbagbo a certainement autant gagné ces élections qu'il a réalisé cette interview !!
According to @Woizo_SP on social network Twitter:
Lol le sms de gbagbo pour interview: “c'est Laurent  Gbagbo. Appelez-moi si vous pouvez, c'est pas une blague” mdrr ça sent  le faux
The authentification of the interview hasn't been confirmed, and  according to specialists, it is almost sure that the interview never  took place.
A well treated former president
On Monday May 2, 2011, Laurent Gbagbo received a visit from three members of “The Elders” group: Koffi Anan, Desmond Tutu and Mary Robinson. He said he wants the country to “return to normal”.
John James, BBC correspondent in Côte d'Ivoire posted a few pictures of the visit on his Facebook profile.
Lauren Gbagbo and Koffi Anan in Korhogo, Côte d'Ivoire. Image by John James, posted on Facebook.
The preliminary hearing of Laurent Gbagbo is scheduled [fr] to happen on May 4, 2011, but according to journalist Théophile Kouamouo on his blog [fr], the date has been postponed to May 6.
This post is part of our special coverage Côte d'Ivoire Unrest 2011.

author: Julie Owono


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Guatemala: Rigoberta Menchú to Run for President · Global Voices
Silvia Viñas

Nobel Peace Prize and indigenous activist Rigoberta Menchú will be nominated as the Frente Amplio de Izquierda presidential candidate, according to recent reports [es]. Mike in Central American Politics thinks that “even with the rejuvenated Guatemalan left, it's unlikely  that Manchu (or any other left candidate) will impact the outcome of the  presidential elections.”

author: Silvia Viñas


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Indonesia: Kartini Day · Global Voices
Mong Palatino

Tikno blogs about Raden Ajeng Kartini, a pioneer of women's rights in Indonesia. Kartini Day, which is being celebrated in Indonesia every April, is similar to Mother's Day in Western countries.

author: Mong Palatino


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Indonesia: National Education Day · Global Voices
Mong Palatino

Multibrand blogs about the decline of Indonesian education during the National Education Day celebration last May 2.


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Indonesia: Reaction to Osama bin Laden’s death · Global Voices
Mong Palatino

nrg07 from Indonesia reacts to the news about the death of Osama bin Laden: “I wouldn’t be relieved  that Osama bin Laden has died, if the spread of radicalism, hatred and  intolerance is still there.”


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Jamaica, U.S.A.: News & Children · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

“While the US government ponders what pictures to release, I ponder what pictures to try to censor”: Grasshopper Eyes The Potomac blogs about how to explain Osama Bin Laden's death in age-appropriate terms to children.


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Mexico: Netizens Put Death of Osama Bin Laden in Context · Global Voices
Deborah Esch

This post is part of our special coverage The Death of Osama Bin Laden.
As news of United States (US) Special Forces’ targeted killing of Osama Bin Laden  was broadcast around the world, netizens in Mexico tweeted and blogged  their responses to this signal event in the “war on terror.”  Tellingly,  in the vast majority of cases their language invoked the “war on drugs”  that has been imposed on them by their own government since 2006.
With  the tactical deployment of analysis, analogies, irony and hashtags,  Mexicans put their own indelible stamp on an event with global  ramifications.
On Twitter, users based in Mexico telegraphed the relevance of Bin  Laden and the US-led “war on terror” to their own  troubled circumstances.  Abraham SC (@abraham_360), for example, drew a crisp analogy with  Joaquín Guzmán Loera, head of the Sinaloa drug cartel:
#OsamaBinLaden es para USA lo que para #Mexico lo es el #ChapoGuzman
Speculating on the temporal horizons involved, Victor Girón (@victor_giron) posed an open question:
Si #EUA se tardo 10 anos en capturar a #OsamabinLaden,  Cuanto tiempo tardara #Mexico en capturar a los mas buscados traficantes  de #mx
Photo from the set "Mexico Drug Wars" by Nick Morris, copyright Demotix (05/03/2009).
Pilar Munoz (@mari3_1416) struck a tone both wistful and ironic:
Es oficial, #osamabinladen esta muerto!  Ojala y en #Mexico tuvieramos un objetivo tan claro.
A lawyer from Campeche, Victor Valencia (@ViCoValEnCiA),  [http://twitter.com/#!/ViCoValEnCiA] wrote skeptically – and with some  apprehension – about the timing of the US strike on Abbottabad:
Que coincidencia que matan a #OsamaBinLaden cuando #Obama inicia su campana de reeleccion y en #Mexico a quien matarian!!!????
A tweet by Alex Alan (@alan_weasley), saturated in black humor, made tacit reference to the mass graves recently unearthed in Tamaulipas state:
A #OsamaBinLaden lo encontraron descuartizado en una fosa  en San Fernando, eso de la mansion en Pakistan es puro pedo!  ;)   #mexico  #tampico
With more characters at their disposal, bloggers were in a position  to expand on the complex sentiments briefly signaled on Twitter. Writing  for The Mex Files,  Richard Grabman (a US-born resident of Mazatlan) posted under the  title “‘We are the champions'…and now? On Osama Bin Ladin and Mexico”:
The government here, at the behest of the United States,  targeted – and killed – any number of supposedly indispensable men in  generic evil-doing business. While there's a tendency to give these  groups inappropriate names like “cartels,” or ridiculously inflated  bureaucratic terms like “Transnational Criminal Organizations,” the  Mexican fight has been against a known – and not all that complicated –  an enemy:  gangsters.
Every time some “drug king-pin” has been blown away we're told it's  an incredible victory for the government and the “war on drugs”… and the  result is more violence, more mayhem. […]
The U.S. has supposedly been waging not a war on Al Qaida, but a “war  on terror” – the abstract noun that may have on[c]e referred  specifically to Bin Laden's organization, and by extension similar armed  ideological movements, but has proven elastic enough to cover nearly  any organized violent resistance to the status quo.[…]
What frankly scares quite a number of people here is not that the  criminals might “win,” but that the state will lose legitimacy. Or, that  in its infinite expansion of the “war on terror,” the United States  will drop the pretense of “cooperation” and simply intervene directly in  this country. Which, of course, would lead to resistance, which would  be labeled “terrorism,” which would require more intervention….
A day after news of Bin Laden's death was broadcast, Blog El 5antuario [es] published the post “En Mexico se le presta mas atencion al  asesinato de osama bin laden que a cualquier asesinato en mexico”  (”In  Mexico more attention is paid to the murder of Osama Bin Laden than to  any murder in Mexico”). Writing anonymously, the blogger began with an  anecdote, and wound up with an argument for the singularity of the  Mexican instance:
Hoy paso la peor estupidez en la television mexicana, en  Televisa transmitian el programa pequenos gigantes todo iba bien era una  transmision normal cuando interrumpen transmisiones (me imagino que  todas las televisoras paso lo mismo) para decir “Osama Bin Ladin ha  muerto.”  OK ustedes diran, “bueno pues es Bin Laden.”  pero  sinceramente, cuantas personas mueren a diario en Mexico?  sinceramente  yo quisiera que cada vez que asesinan a un mexicano, ya sea sicario,  narco, violador, soldado, policia federal, policia municipal, o  simplemente una persona que simplemente iba pasando por la calle y le  toco fuego cruzado (ya ven como pasan las cosas aqui en Mexico) quisiera  que cada vez que muere un mexicano interrumpieran la programacion de  Televisa, TV azteca y dijeran “hoy asesinaron a 10 mexicanos” y  dedicaran por lo menos 1 minuto de atencion en los noticieros, pero  lamentablemente todos sabemos que eso nunca va a pasar, gracias a  iniciativa [Merida] es mas importante la muerte de una persona que la  muerte de 10, 20, 30 o hasta 100 Mexicanos, lamentablemente esto pasa  solo en Mexico.  Por eso es mas recomendable buscar la verdadera  informacion en Internet.
This post is part of our special coverage The Death of Osama Bin Laden.

author: Deborah Esch


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Monitoring Singapore elections via Twitter · Global Voices
Mong Palatino

As Election Day nears, Singapore netizens are using the #sgelections and #ge2011 hashtags to monitor election updates.


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Nigeria: Social Media and the 2011 Elections · Global Voices
Nwachukwu Egbunike

This post is part of our special coverage Nigeria Elections 2011.
Global Voices: Who is Tolu Ogunlesi? (@toluogunlesi) (Apart from being the one whose words spices the pages of NEXT newspaper)
Tolu Ogunlesi: Pharmacist, journalist, photographer, social networker,  poet and fiction writer. Not sure there’s much more I can say about  myself, beyond listing those dry facts. I guess other people should be  the judge.
GV: How come it suddenly became a fad to tweet, chat or share  insight and information on Facebook about the 2011 elections in Nigeria?
TO: I  think that since social networking has become a  significant part of the lives of a steadily increasing numbers  of  Nigerians (an estimated two million Nigerians are on Facebook;  admittedly a  tiny number when compared to the total population), there  was no way  elections were going to take place without the process  playing out on Facebook and Twitter. Also, a move like President  Jonathan’s decision to join Facebook helped in the  ‘faddification’ of social networking. In a country long  ruled by inaccessible Big Men,  it was a startling revelation to realise  we could ‘interact’ with the President  on Facebook.
GV: Did social media break any new grounds during the campaigns?
Tolu Ogunlesi. Photo courtesy of Ifeyinwa Uzowulu.
TO: Definitely.  President Jonathan took the shine off the IBB [Ibrahim Babangida] presidential declaration in Abuja by choosing that  morning to announce his own bid on Facebook. Ibrahim Babangida launched a YouTube campaign video, and had an aide boast that he had become an avid Facebooker.
GV: What was its role in the making voters choose a candidate? Specific reference to the numerous online polls for the presidential contenders?
TO: We must acknowledge that only a limited population of  Nigeria uses social networking. While I’m not trying to limit the  efficacy of social networking to the online population, what this means  is that online polls may not be a fair measure of elective potential,  considering that the online polls audience is very likely to be young,  reasonably educated and middle-class – characteristics that are not very  accurately representative of the total voting population.
GV: Most Nigerians still rely on traditional media  (especially radio) for election news. Do you think social media can  ever beat old media as the primary source of information for  elections in Nigeria?
TO: I refuse to see it as a contest between traditional and  new media. I’m more interested in seeing the ways in which old and new  converge and connect and reinforce one another. I’m interested in  studying how tweets and Blackberry messages make it onto radio and  become potential news sources (e.g. traffic reports). Piers Morgan  recently tweeted that he learnt about Osama’s death from Twitter (a  “random tweeter” in his words). He then raised an interesting question  about the concept of “primary” news sources.
GV: Opinion leaders are also major agents of voting behavior in  Nigeria. Does new media have any chance of ever influencing the  voters at the grassroots?
TO: Well, on the one hand we need a more literate and better  educated population before we can begin to see that kind of real direct  influence. On the other hand, new media can influence grassroots voters  through the mediation of traditional media  (radio, television), as I  explained earlier with the case of traffic reports.
GV: Which of the numerous new media had the most influence on  online Nigeria Decides 2011? – Twitter, Facebook, Blogs, LinkedIn, etc.  and why?
TO: I have no statistics at hand, so its hard to tell.  Secondly, I have a Twitter-bias, so I may not be the most objective  judge of this. But then, I think that Twitter manages to avoid a lot of  the clutter of Facebook, and characteristics like #hashtags and Trending  Topics make it easier to isolate trends and aggregate/isolate valuable  information.
GV: Do you foresee any future for the cyber-warriors of Nigeria Decides: RSVP (Register, Select, Vote, Protect Campaign), Reclaim Naija, EiE Nigeria etc.
TO: Definitely. The work has just started. It’d be a mistake  to think #NigeriaDecided. The truth is that Nigeria is still deciding.  We need to move into the next phase, which will involve holding our  elected and appointed officials accountable, as well as fine-tuning the  strategies that have been deployed during the just-concluded elections,  so that the 2015 engagement can be even more successful.
GV: Finally, do you think that social media really influenced the Nigerian elections? Or was it mere hype?
TO: It played a part. It helped to fire up a significant  number of young(er) Nigerians. It made electoral awareness seem cool,  just like it did in the United States in 2008.
This post is part of our special coverage Nigeria Elections 2011.

author: Nwachukwu Egbunike


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North Korea: Images Reveal Scale of Political Prison Camps · Global Voices
Lee Yoo Eun

Amnesty International posted rare photos of North Korean political prison camps. It is believed that an estimated 200,000 people are held in the prison camp and living under unspeakably harsh conditions.

author: Lee Yoo Eun


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Pakistan: Probing Questions After Bin Laden · Global Voices
Sana Saleem

This post is part of our special coverage The Death of Osama Bin Laden.
Three days after the assassination of Osama Bin Laden in a compound  less than 2 kilometers away from the country's premier military academy,  a lot of questions remain unanswered. The statement released by the  Pakistan foreign office yesterday, claiming that the military and  intelligence had no knowledge of the operation or the whereabouts of  Osama has baffled many.It has also triggered a debate about the  competency of Pakistan's government and intelligence services.
As the world media  continues to criticize and demand answers from Pakistani authorities,  Pakistanis have also raised similar questions and continue to discuss possible scenarios.
Blogger Saad,  who writes about military technology, aircraft and asymmetric warfare,  was amongst the first to share pictures of Choppers involved in the  operation that killed Bin Laden:
@kursed: Chopper tail and wreckage. @aem76us @galrahn http://twitpic.com/4srmkd http://twitpic.com/4srmlj http://twitpic.com/4srmoq #pakistan
@kursed: About the US choppers performing aerial refueling on their own in Pak, would like to see how they evaded radar at such altitude.
@kursed: I  don't believe you can do nape of the earth flying ‘and’ air to air  refueling as well. Either one or the other explanation should be false?
@Samadk: Can  confirm that the fallen helicopter was indeed a modified Sikorsky UH-60  Black Hawk based on the numbers on one of the recovered parts.
These are some valid questions bearing in mind the speculations  around the fact that Pakistan had no role to play in the operation  itself.
@Kaalakawaa:How many people that you've spoken to in Pakistan buy the official line that the ISI didn't know OBL was in Abbottabad?
@samadk: @cyalm I am starting to believe they really didn't know.
@saadbinshams: I think PK: & #US both knew about #OBL, wanted to use it for polictical gains but recent #conflict b/w #ISI & #CIA resultd in covert US op.
Reporting from outside Bin Laden's compound, Samad Khurram shared  some valuable insights that clarifies a lot of misinterpretations by  some journalists of mainstream media:
@samadk:  Osama's den wasn't in the most accessible of places: very narrow,  virtually single-laned, unpaved, unleveled zig-zagging roads.
@samadk: The absence of census markers is important. Every house in a  neighborhood is marked to indicate whether residents took the forms or  not.
@samadk: The land around Osama's compound was all ploughed farmland. Playing cricket there would be kinda impossible#FailJournalism
On my own blog I raised similar questions with possible scenarios:
Unsurprisingly, not many fell for the explanation. The fact that the Pakistani military – who have been fighting the war on terror for the past decade – were  unaware of the world’s most dangerous man living right under their nose  could only suggest two things: incompetence or malice.  Neither of which  are in anyway favorable to the country’s image or future. Fortunately,  it became increasingly evident that the military was probably trying to  do some damage control in an attempt to neutralize possible backlash.  Even if we were to go by the statement that the Pakistani military did  not take part in the operation itself, the fact that the operation was a  collective effort is undeniable.  There is no way a 40-minute gun  battle went unnoticed just round the corner from the Kakul Military  Academy.
In a post titled Osama raid: ISI and Pakistani military could be just THAT stupid, Blogger Ahsan Butt expressed his opinion on the situation:
Look, if the mil-ISI knew everything there is to know  about everything, there’d never be another terrorist attack in Pakistan  (they’d just be restricted to Afghanistan and India). Clearly this is  not the case. They are evidently caught off guard time and again. Just a  couple months ago, there was a suicide bombing inside an army compound in Mardan. More relevantly, less than two years ago was the raid and hostage-taking attack at the army’s headquarters! The headquarters! And this is leaving aside  all the terrorist attacks on civilians targets throughout the country  that these brilliant and resourceful organizations should ostensibly  have intimate knowledge of.
Sepoy on Chapati Mystery wrote  a profound post reflecting on the endless criticism and hue cry over  Pakistan being incompetent and therefore a dangerous country.
Salman Rushdie wants Pakistan to be declared a terrorist nation and expelled from the “comity of nations”. To Rushdie a 6 ft 4in man  wandering around a country of 5 ft 8in plebeians without getting noticed  is inconceivable and, hence, the entire 180 million must pay the price.  They were all in the know. Keeping mum even as drones kept killing  their lots; even as the Taliban kept blowing up hotels, police  compounds, intelligence agency offices, shrines and hospitals; even as  the US kept endorsing and supporting dictatorial power over them; even  as the US kept funding their military to the tune of tens of billions  while “non-humanitarian aid” was pegged to a billion or so; even as an  earthquake and a flood shook their geography loose.The millions of  Pakistan kept their quiet, maybe giggling in anticipation of whenever  Uncle Sam would catch them in the act. Now they have been caught! The  ISI knew! This validates all the drones missiles! It means MORE DRONE  MISSILES! Yeah. That is what it means. They were all in it, Rushdie.  Every stinking lying one of them.
In the coming weeks there will be more analysis on this situation. Some questions will be answered while others might be ignored. A lot  more will be said and the Global Media & it's political pundits will  dissect the situation in every way possible. Meanwhile, here is a quick  reminder from my blog:
Lest the world forgets: “As many as 12,580 people were killed across Pakistan in 2010 alone,  as per (HRCP)  report. 1,159 people were killed in 67 suicide attacks  whereas US drones strikes were responsible for 957 extra-legal  killings.”
As the facts about the operation that killed bin Laden unravel, we  must brace ourselves to stand united against violence. No redemption  here; not yet.
This post is part of our special coverage The Death of Osama Bin Laden.

author: Sana Saleem


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Palestine: Gaza Celebrates Hamas/Fatah Reconciliation · Global Voices
Amira Al Hussaini

Palestinian rival factions Fatah and Hamas ended their bitter feud today, in a reconciliation deal brokered in Cairo, Egypt.
News of the deal, which will unite the Gaza Strip, which had been  under Hamas’ control, and the West Bank, which was under the grip of the  Fatah movement, was welcomed with celebrations in Gaza.
Palestinians attend a rally celebrating the planned signing of a reconciliation agreement between Fatah and Hamas, in Gaza City. Image by Nayef Hashlamoun – ALWATAN Center, copyright Demotix (04/05/2011).
Here are some reactions from Twitter.
Omar Gaza reports:
Fire works in broad day light and till now sparkling in #Gaza sky celebrating the unity & #reconciliation
Lina, from Live from Gaza tweets:
Gaza is living the reconciliation euphoria #Hamas #fatah #Palestine
Mahmoud Al Kahlout, from Al Nasr City, Gaza, adds:
Division should go to hell forever #Gaza #WestBank #Fateh #Hamas #Palestine #PalUnity
Gaza medical student Fatma F.Q. says:
Congratulations to ALL PALESTINIAN for our UNITY :) #Mosala7a
and asks [ar]:
And Asmaa Al Ghoul reminds [ar] us:
She continues:
But it seems that not everyone is happy.
On Hamas, Sam Halaby notes:
#Hamas: you're a headache. Maybe if you stopped giving #Israel every  excuse to blockade you, like firing rockets, maybe you'd have peace.
Sarah, who tweets as @Jnobiyeh, adds:
Hamas didn't just sign a “unity” deal with collaborationist Fatah today,  it signed the death certificate of its resistance to #Israel.

author: Amira Al Hussaini


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Philippines: Performance of local governments · Global Voices
Mong Palatino

LGPMS provides online reports and other performance indicators of local governments in the Philippines.


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Russia: Anti-Corruption Donor Details Leaked · Global Voices
Ashley Cleek

In the middle of April 2011, donors to the Russian anti-corruption, whistle-blowing website Rospil.info [ru] began to report that they had received strange calls and emails  from unknown people, some claiming to be journalists, asking about their  donations to Rospil and why they support the website’s founder, popular Russian blogger Alexey Navalny.
Suspiciously well-informed calls
Donors had made contributions to Rospil through their personal  Yandex.Money [electronic transfer system] accounts, the financial  service arm of Yandex, Russia’s largest and most popular search engine.
On April 20, blogger fezeev [ru] recalled a strange phone call he had received from a woman calling  herself Yulia Ivashova and claiming to be a reporter with the newspaper  Our Time:
Russian five rouble coins. Image by Flickr user Waltie (CC BY 2.0).
ЮИ – Скажите, почему вы поддерживаете Алексея Навального?
Я – Не понял вопроса
ЮИ – Почему вы поддерживаете Алексея Навального?
Я – Я услышал вопрос, я его не понял.
ЮИ – С Вашего Яндекс-кошелька были отправлены деньги в поддержку Алексея Навального, это так?
Я – (слегка охреневая от осведомленности барышни) А откуда у вас такая информация?
ЮИ – У нас свои источники, это открытая информация
Я – (охренев еще больше от слов “открытая информация”) Не поделитесь со мной этими источниками, если это открытая информация?
ЮИ – Нет, не поделюсь, но вы не отвечаете на мой вопрос, почему вы поддерживаете Алексея Навального?
Я – Ну давайте обменяемся информацией, вы мне расскажете, откуда вы  узнали про движения на моем Я-кошельке, я расскажу, почему я поддерживаю  Алексея Навального
ЮИ – Кто Вам перечислил деньги на поддержку Алексея Навального?
Я – Снял с зарплаты и перечислил
ЮИ – Неправда, за девять минут до вашего перечисления эти деньги  поступили на ваш кошелек с банкомата московского кредитного банка. В  окрестностях Яндекса, откуда вы перечисляли платеж нет ни одного  банкомата МКБ.
After searching the internet for the phone number by which the woman had called him, fezeev found that another Yandex.Money user and Rospil supporter had posted in the comments section of Navalny’s blog [ru] that he had been called by the same number on March 18, 2011.
Another blogger gunlinux [ru] wrote on April 13 that he had received an email from a Yulia Ivashova, who claimed to be from the online journal Saltt, asking questions about his support for Rospil and Navalny:
Здравствуйте. Вас беспокоит корреспондент издания «Соль»  Юлия Ивашова. Подскажите, пожалуйста, кому пренадлежит электронный  кошелек Яндекс.денег 41001653061014, опубликованный на странице  http://cs.net03.ru/donate . Я бы хотела задать несколько вопросов  владельцу кошелька. Заранее спасибо за помощь. С уважением, Юлия  Ивашова.
Blogger Nikolayich posted on April 30 [ru] that he had found the mystery caller’s profile on the Russian social networking site Vkontakte and posted a screenshot of the profile. In the profile “Yulia Pantera  Dikhtyar” lists that she is a member of the pro-Kremlin youth movement  “Nashi.”
Source of the leak
On May 2, 2011, BBC Russian reported that Yandex.Money had released Rospil donors’ financial and personal information [ru] to Russia’s secret service agency, the Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation (FSB).
In an interview with the radio station Echo Moskvy [ru], Yandex's Head Editor Elena Kolmanovskaya said that according to  Russian law, Yandex was required to supply the FSB with the donors’  account information, though she stressed that she found the disclosure  of such information objectionable. Private data on “about 100″ donors  was released to the FSB:
Мы сами очень недовольны сложившейся ситуацией и  разделяем негодование пользователей. После того, как наши юристы ее  рассмотрят, мы поймем, что можем сделать по этому поводу.
While it has not yet been explained how this information was leaked, Russian bloggers have begun to speculate.
Blogger edrofob intimated [ru] that the FSB had handed the information over to Nashi:
Эти гниды имеют доступ к государственным ресурсам и пользуются ими на своё благо, как собственными карманными шпоргалками.
mudryi_vvp, whose account has now been deleted, spoke out [ru] against Navalny and approved of the unknown caller’s questions:
Ну ведь общеизвестно, что Навальный играет против России.  Зачем же Вы тогда его поддерживаете? Почитал Ваш блог: вроде обычный,  гражданский. А ведете сейчас себя как последний оппозиционер. Разве не  понимаете, что сейчас наступает то время, когда надо определиться на  какой Вы стороне: за Великую Россию или против нее. А Юля задала вполне  конкретные вопросы – почему не отвечали?
In an interview with the Moscow Times, Navalny said that he too believed the FSB had handed over information to Nashi.
Nashi has officially denied [ru] the accusations, saying that Yulia Dikhtyar is working for Nashi  but she had never called anyone asking the details of contributions to Rospil.  Dikhtyar, however, did not comment on the topic. The Federal Security  Service that allegedly leaked the information to “Nashi” has also  refrained from commenting.
Consequences of the leak
Many aspects of the story remain unclear: firstly, the role of the  FSB. The case indicated the permissiveness and complete lack of  transparency that the FSB enjoys. In the case of Navalny this lack of  restraint is amplified by the fact that there has been no public  investigation against Navalny (and if there was to be one, what would  the charges be?).
Secondly, the motive. The main version expressed by many bloggers was  that the aim of the leak was to intimidate Navalny's supporters  via intermediary censorship. Blogger Rusanalit however, suggested [ru] that the scandal might be connected with Yandex's Initial Public Offering,  which is currently being developed; Yandex's market price is estimated  as much as of 6-7 billion US dollars. He recalled a similar ‘attack’ on  private Domodedovo airport in 2008.
Some have suggested that Yandex itself was interested in publicity  before the Initial Public Offering and could be the beneficiary of the  scandal, although who would be interested in this kind of publicity?
Thirdly, did the leak negatively influence online crowd funding? It  has definitely shown the weak basis of Russian crowd funding. E-money  systems are only viable as long as they can turn electronic money into  real money, and cooperation with the government is of extreme importance  here.
But that's technology. Did the leak intimidate the bloggers or  influence their motivations? On the contrary, it had the opposite effect  – as Anton Nossik has shown [ru], the number of donations has increased after the leak.
It seems that if the government continues its pressure on the Internet (despite President Medvedev's declarations “not to put a hand on it“ [ru]), bloggers might turn to more traditional offline funding models, using the Internet simply as a coordination tool.
Where there's a will, there's a way.

author: Ashley Cleek