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Is Censorship Coming Back to Tunisia? Court Order Bans ‘Blue Whale’ Online Game · Global Voices
Dhouha Ben Youssef

The investigation of mysterious groups on VKontakte full of images of whales and butterflies that Novaya Gazeta claims drive teenagers to take their own lives has met with public criticism. Image from VKontakte.
A Tunisian court has ordered authorities to censor two online games that allegedly lead teenagers down a path to suicide. The issue has raised public concerns about self-harm — but also about arbitrary internet censorship.
The ruling calls on the Tunisian Internet Agency (known by its French acronym ATI) to block access to the Blue Whale Challenge and Mariam games, even though ATI has no legal mandate to block online content.
The Blue Whale Challenge is a decentralized online game where players are instructed to carry out specific tasks that include self-harm. After fifty days — in some documented cases — they are told to commit suicide. Mariam is a Saudi-developed horror-game that revolves around a lost girl, whom players help guide back home.
Apart from the fact that this would take ATI beyond the bounds of its legal mandate, the court order to “block” Blue Whale Challenge also fails to acknowledge the decentralized nature of the game. Blue Whale is not hosted on a single platform, but is instead orchestrated by various anonymous administrators interacting with players in private social media chat groups.
The game first came to prominence in Russia in mid-2016 after it allegedly resulted in cases of suicide and attempted suicide across a number of countries. Through a variety of legal measures, authorities in Russia, Kazakhstan and Kyrgystan have all attempted to reduce children's access to the game by shutting down VKontakte groups where the game is hosted, alongside other groups that are seen as promoting self-harm.
In 2017, when the game became popular in China, major social media platforms like Baidu and Sina Weibo began shutting down all the forum discussions with keywords like “Blue Whale” or “Blue Whale game”.
Only recently has the game risen to prominence in Tunisia. Last December, the National Agency for Computer Security (known by its French acronym ANSI) warned parents against the Blue Whale Challenge. While recalling that it cannot block any online content as it is not part of its mission, the agency advised parents to use parental control software, despite the limitations of this solution, given the game's decentralized nature.
In March, five Tunisian teenagers who are believed to have played Blue Whale committed suicide. Their parents, who found their children hanged in their rooms, say they died because of their addiction to these online games. Three others attempted suicide but were saved in extremis.
In February, the parents’ association of a local school and the delegate for child protection in the city of Sousse filed a lawsuit to order the Tunisian Internet Agency to block access to the two games.
In a verdict issued on 6 March 2018, the Court of First Instance (primary court) of Sousse ordered the ATI to block access to the two games, arguing that they represent a danger to youth in the country.
The implications of this decision, if upheld on appeal, would set a new precedent for internet censorship in Tunisia. If the final judgment is in the plaintiffs’ favor, it will obligate the agency to censor the two games. Even though this might be technically impossible in the case of Blue Whale, it would constitute a jurisprudence on which other requests for content censorship — that could be much more clearly detrimental to the public interest — could be based.
The ATI was once known as the censorship body of the dictatorship of ousted president Zine el Abidine Ben Ali. Established in March 1996, the agency’s official mandate was to develop the internet in Tunisia beyond being the only gateway for international connectivity as an internet exchange point. But at the same time, and until the revolution, the ATI had orders from the presidency and government to control all online information, even though it had no legal mandate to censor content or spy on users.
After the public uprisings and consequent ousting of Ben Ali in January 2011, interim authorities ended internet censorship practices and the ATI adopted reforms to cut ties with its image as an internet censor by focusing only on the legal mandate it was first established to fulfill. Lawsuits like these would undermine such reforms, potentially sending ATI back to a position of censor.
And this month’s court decision is not the first attempt to bring back online censorship, in post-revolutionary Tunisia. In May 2011, a group of plaintiffs represented by three lawyers prosecuted the ATI to ban access to online pornographic content, also on the grounds of child protection.
ATI appealed the court decision, which they lost in August of the same year. But in February 2012 they won a second appeal and the Court of Cassation referred the case back to the Court of Appeal. In June 2013, the Court of Appeal ruled in favour of the agency.
In response to the recent court ruling on the games, ATI chief Jawher Ferjaoui reiterated his agency’s commitment to respecting users’ constitutional rights and internet freedom and pledged to appeal the verdict.
In an interview with Shems FM radio,* he said:
Although we do respect the court’s order and the parents’ demand, it is not our mission to censor the internet. Since the protection of the rights and freedoms is our top priority, we will challenge the censorship decision as soon as we receive the official order paper. We will explain why it is nonsense to ask for such a solution.
[Translation of audio by author]
Ferjaoui added that the ATI will soon offer a new parental control service called “Ammar Kids” which is an “at source” filtered internet connection. With this new service, parents will be able to subscribe to a filtered internet plan, rather than first subscribe to an internet plan and then buy the commercial software for parental control to be installed and activated.
Despite Tunisia’s progress in freedom of expression and internet freedom including its 2014 constitution that guarantees the right to access information and communication networks in article 32, it seems that the public is not uniformly convinced of the values that these rights uphold.
And while the content of the Blue Whale game is deeply disturbing, it is important for the public debate on this issue to acknowledge that online games are but one factor in trends of teen self-harm and suicide. There has been an alarming increase in the general suicide rate among young people in recent years. According to the ministry of health's report published in December 2017, there were 49 documented cases of suicide among those aged between 10 and 19 years old in 2016. These acts were attributed to violence, poverty, pressure and bullying in school.
Experts have also weighed in on the issue. On Facebook, journalist and activist H. El Mekki commented on the need for parents — no matter what is or isn't accessible online — to help their kids navigate the internet:
…to protect your children from Blue Whale, do the same thing you do to protect them for adult content and pedophilia, and violence or obscenity: watch what they are doing online, talk to them about what the see and hear online, install parental controls software in their phones….Just like the world, the internet has places that are not for kids and places that even adults should rather not go to. If you cannot protect your own children, no one is going to be able to so, not the judiciary, not the police and not the ATI.
Attempts to limit access to these two games may help keep some children from interacting with such material, but it will not wholly prevent Tunisian children and teens from inflicting self-harm. Parents and families will always have a vital role in helping their children navigate online content and their own emotional struggles.
What is certain is that the court decision, if upheld, would mark the return of arbitrary censorship in a country that was once a testing lab for filtering and surveillance technologies. For Tunisian users who experienced internet censorship before the revolution — and its dire consequences — the recent court order represents a step in the wrong direction.
The number one cause for suicide is untreated depression. Depression is treatable and suicide is preventable. You can get help from confidential support lines for the suicidal and those in emotional crisis. Visit Befrienders.org to find a suicide prevention helpline in your country.

author: Dhouha Ben Youssef


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City Councillor and Leading Rights Activist Shot Dead in Downtown Rio de Janeiro · Global Voices
Fernanda Canofre

Marielle Franco speaking at a campaign rally in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil in 2016. Photo: Mídia Ninja/Flickr CC BY-SA 2.0
Less than two hours before she was murdered on the evening of March 14, Rio de Janeiro city councillor Marielle Franco was speaking at a roundtable of black women activists about “young black women moving the structures”.
As Franco was leaving the site, a car pulled up to the side of her own vehicle and fired nine shots into it. Franco and her driver, Anderson Pedro Gomes, were killed on the spot. The councillor's press officer, who was in the backseat, was hit by glass fragments and injured but survived.
Bearing all the hallmarks of an execution, the attack has sent shockwaves through Brazil including social media. Nationwide protests have been scheduled for the next couple of days. More than 70,000 people and organisations have confirmed their presence in the demonstration in Rio de Janeiro.
Marielle Franco was elected with the leftist Socialist and Freedom Party (PSOL) in 2016 as the fifth most voted councillor in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil's second-largest city with a population of over six million.
As a young, black, favela-bred lesbian woman activist, she championed several underrepresented demographics in Brazil's institutional politics and was beloved by activists across the country.
Marielle Franco was born and raised in the Maré favela, the largest complex in Rio and home to 130,000 people. In 2005, Franco's best friend was killed there during a confrontation between police officers and drug dealers. That episode drove her into human rights advocacy and activism against police violence.
A fierce critic of Rio's deadly police, she had been appointed in late February 2018 as the main rapporteur for the commission of Brazil's municipal assembly to monitor the ongoing army intervention in Rio de Janeiro.
Brazil's army took over the city's public security in early February in response to gang violence despite criticism from local non-governmental organizations and the United Nations’ Human Rights Council.
She had openly criticized the intervention and compared it to a similar operation in her native Maré favela during the 2014 World Cup.
Franco consistently spoke out, both from the pulpit and on her social media pages, against extrajudicial killings of Rio's poor and mostly black favela residents.
Just this week, she made a series of posts on Facebook about the ongoing violence in the Acari favela:
This week, two young men were killed and dumped at a hole.

 Today, the police were walking through the streets threatening residents.
Franco called attention to a news story that reported five shoot-outs in the favela over the course of seven days:
Marielle last Facebook post was about the ongoing police violence in Acari favela. Photo: Screenshot/Facebook
Police lethality in Brazil is staggering. In 2016, 920 killings by police were documented in Rio de Janeiro alone, up from 419 in 2012, according to Amnesty International. A report by Public Security Forum, a national research institution, counted 4,224 killings by police officers in the whole country in 2016, with 99 percent of them being men and 76 percent black. Many of those homicides may amount to extrajudicial killings, a crime under international law.
On social media, organisations, political parties and civil profiles used hashtags asking for a throughout the investigation of Franco's murder.
The Feminist Network of Jurists stated on Facebook:
Sua importância política, porém, extrapola as ações diretas de combate às violências sofridas pelas pessoas negras cariocas. Marielle, enquanto mulher negra, representava milhões de mulheres sem voz política no Estado, quebrando o pacto de exclusão das pessoas negras cristalizado pela história de segregação brasileira, mascarada pelo mito da democracia racial.
Her political importance goes beyond the direct actions to combat violence suffered by black people from Rio. Marielle, while a black woman, represented millions of women without a political voice within the State, breaking a pact of exclusion of black people crystalized by the history of segregation in Brazil, masked by the myth of racial democracy.
Amnesty International‘s Brazil chapter also demanded an investigation:
There should not be any doubts about the context, motivation, and authorship of Marielle Franco's murder.
Her party PSOL issued an official statement saying that the hypothesis of a “political crime” could not be discarded, since “she had just denounced a brutal action” by the police.
Marielle Franco grew up at Maré Complex, the largest favela in Rio de Janeiro. Photo: Mídia Ninja CC BY-SA 2.0
Sociologist and public security specialist Luiz Eduardo Soares, a close friend to Franco, remembered how the attack echoes that of Judge Patricia Acioli, also killed in a drive-by shooting in 2011. Accioli had been overseeing a number of cases involving paramilitary groups (called ‘militias’ in Rio).
Quando, meu Deus, quando a população vai despertar e entender que a insegurança pública começa nos segmentos corruptos e brutais das polícias, e que não podemos conviver mais com esse legado macabro da ditadura. Vamos continuar falando em “desvios de conduta individuais”? O que fazer, agora, além de chorar?
When, my god, will the people awake and understand that public unsafety starts at the most corrupt and brutal segments inside police forces, and that we cannot live with this haunting legacy from the dictatorship period anymore. Will we continue to talk about ‘individual misconduct'? What can we do now, besides crying?
During the black activists’ roundtable that Franco had joined hours before being killed, she said:
We have a movement pushing for more women in politics, in power positions, more women occupying decision making spots, because that is the only way of getting more qualified public policies.
Franco remembered two black women politicians who had come before her, ten years apart from each other, urging:
We cannot wait another 10 years or think that I will be there for another 10.

source: news-globalvoices

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

author: Fernanda Canofre


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Ugandans Call for the Resignation of Parliamentarian Who Made Pro-Domestic Violence Comments · Global Voices
Prudence Nyamishana

Screenshot of Ugandan parliamentarian Onesimus Twinamasiko, who said on Ugandan television that “as a man, you need to discipline your wife.”
Onesmus Twinamasiko, a member of Uganda's parliament, sparked national outrage by stating in a television interview that men should beat their wives.
Twinamasiko was being interviewed on local television network NTV in response to the Ugandan president Yoweri Museveni admonition in a speech marking the International Women's Day observances on March 8. Museveni said in his speech that “a man who batters a woman is foolish and a coward.”
“As a man, you need to discipline your wife…touch her a bit, tackle her and beat her to streamline her”- Onesmus Twinamasiko, MP, Bugangaizi East following comments by Museveni that men who beat women are cowards and should face the full wrath of the law pic.twitter.com/yhoEVRk212
— Patu™ (@AyamPatra) March 11, 2018
That a legislator like Twinamasiko should express support for domestic violence is particularly unproductive, as Uganda continues to struggle with gender-based violence. Nor is it the first time a politician has made such statements. In 2013, the then Minister of Youth Affairs, Ronald Kibuule, said that women who are dress “indecently” were asking to be raped, and that men convicted for raping such women should be released. More recently, in January 2018, the US State Department asked Uganda's deputy ambassador to the US, Dickson Ogwang, to leave the country after he had reportedly beaten his wife.
Recently, a female journalist recently broke the silence about being battered by her husband; the case caused an uproar on social media. Stories about domestic violence are also common fare in the country's dailies.
The latest data from UN women reports that 51% of women in Uganda have experience “intimate partner physical and/or sexual violence at least once in their lifetime.” A police report quoted last year in The Daily Monitor showed a marked increase in deaths of women due to gender-based violence, from 109 in 2010 to 163 in 2016.
Twinamasiko's statements are also surprising in light of the Domestic Violence Act that was passed in 2010 “to provide for protection and relief of victims of domestic violence; to provide for the punishment of perpetrators of domestic violence…” The act received massive support from politicians of both the ruling and opposition parties, religious leaders and civil society.
The online commentary from Ugandans highlighted the backwardness and wrong-headedness of Twinamasiko's thinking:
#OnesmusTwinamasikoMustResign an idiot in power promoting violence against women. We must get rid of these cavemen mentality wannabe politicians from power. There is no place for them in our society and we want to make it clear that women deserve respect.
— Nubian Queen (@AfricanQueen2) March 12, 2018
Womyn continue to be disposable in this country. Time and time again, your silence, words and actions have proven that you care nothing for the safety and humanity of womyn. Onsemus Twinamasiko saying what he said represents majority of the society. #OnesmusTwinamasikoMustResign
— Tяıċıa (@triciatwasiima) March 12, 2018
And many have called upon the Member of parliament to resign:
#OnesmusTwinamasikoMustResign #OnesmusTwinamasikoMustResign #OnesmusTwinamasikoMustResign #OnesmusTwinamasikoMustResign #OnesmusTwinamasikoMustResign #OnesmusTwinamasikoMustResign #OnesmusTwinamasikoMustResign #OnesmusTwinamasikoMustResign #OnesmusTwinamasikoMustResign
— Nkojo’s Princess (@Call_The_Popo) March 11, 2018
This situation will prove a true test for the speaker of Parliament, Rebecca Kadaga, who is currently in New York attending the 62nd UN session Commission on the Status of Women at the United Nations. Kadaga has said that the parliamentary Committee on Rules, Discipline and Privileges will investigateTwinamasiko's comments and give a report to the House.

author: Prudence Nyamishana


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Guyanese Literary Giant Sir Wilson Harris Leaves Behind a ‘Literacy of the Imagination’ · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

The Trinidad and Tobago literary arts booth at Carifesta XI, held in Suriname, which has proudly co-opted Guyanese-born Wilson Harris. His “Carnival Trilogy” is second from the right. Photo by Georgia Popplewell, CC BY-NC-SA 2.0.
Sir Wilson Harris, the innovative Guyanese writer who categorised his work as “quantum fiction”, died on March 8, 2018 at his home in England, at the age of 96.
Widely considered to be a pioneering voice in English literature, with a beguiling intellect and masterful grasp of language, Harris began his career in Guyana as a land surveyor. The job took him on jaunts to the country's fascinating interior, where he grew close the indigenous people who lived there. The knowledge they shared with him and the majestic backdrop of the Amazon rainforest would go on to feature in many of his novels. He explained, “I look to create a kind of community that has a literacy of the imagination in it, that can unlock polarisations and fanaticisms that bedevil us.”
Beginning in the mid 1940s, Harris’ poetry was published — alongside that of other important poets like Martin Carter — in Kyk-Over-Al, one of the region's definitive publications of the post-World War II era. Harris soon transitioned his metaphorical skill to other literary genres, expanding his writing to include essays and novels.
Perhaps Harris’ best known titles include his “Guyana Quartet” — “Palace of the Peacock” (1960), “The Far Journey of Oudin” (1961), “The Whole Armour” (1962) and “The Secret Ladder” (1963) — landmark post-colonial work that experiments with mythology, time and space.
He also penned the “Carnival Trilogy” — “Carnival” (1985), “The Infinite Rehearsal” (1987), and “The Four Banks of the River of Space” (1990) — Carnival-themed re-imaginings of Dante’s “Paradiso”, Goethe’s “Faust”, and Homer’s “Odyssey”, quite fitting given the festival's rebellious beginnings which mimicked colonial traditions and gave them its own spin.
In 1993, Harris authored “Resurrection at Sorrow Hill”, which talks about the surveillance carried out by mental asylums on their charges, and which he cleverly juxtaposes against the insanity of real life. On the heels of this novel came “Jonestown” (1996), which delves into the mass-suicide and murder of the followers of cult leader Jim Jones. Such themes could be interpreted as ripple effects of colonialism — Harris never stopped investigating the modern-day structures that continued to enforce similar types of control. Harris’ last novel was “The Ghost of Memory”, which was published in 2006.
As news of his death broke, tributes poured in on social media, with bibliophiles thanking Harris for taking them on journeys of imagination:
The Caribbean lost an icon today… #WilsonHarris #Guyana #GuyaneseLiterature #WestIndianLiterature #Caribbean #Literaturehttps://t.co/vhQaySiZ9s
— Subraj Singh (@SubrajSingh1) March 8, 2018
Rest in Peace, Sir Wilson Harris (March 24, 1921-March 8, 2018). An incredible loss. If you haven’t read his work, please, do yourself a favor check it out. His essays are a special delight. Start there, and then explore his novels. #WilsonHarris#RIPhttps://t.co/MKpetcrkoI
— Joseph (@josephsdsu) March 9, 2018
My favourite book Palace of the Peacocks I still have my copy used for A Level 1982 RIP Sir #WilsonHarris https://t.co/riQKU8fQos
— Sharon Hay Webster (@reggaesharon) March 10, 2018
Many noted that despite the fact that his books could be “difficult” reads, they were well worth it:
“Difficult” often denotes a radical break with the syntax and grammar of market-driven, neo-colonial narrative. #WilsonHarris
— The Public Archive (@public_archive) March 9, 2018
Sir #WilsonHarris – a challenging writer – but once you got him, Eureka – genius! #RIP https://t.co/H1M4YDUYho
— Jean Lowrie-Chin (@JLowrieChin) March 10, 2018
On Facebook, Annan Boodram called Harris a “giant”, saying:
[…] As a teenager I struggled to understand his writings because they were so nuanced, so layered, so connotative, so associative and so symbolic.
One Facebook user called Harris “an extraordinary, inimitable visionary”, Barbadian Annalee Davis noted that “the Caribbean and the UK have lost one of their finest writers”, and while young Guyanese writer Ruel Johnson “never bought into the legend of Harris’ work”, he “begrudgingly concede[d] that the legend was not unwarranted”.
Meanwhile, Gerardo Manuel Polanco shared:
I will forever be indebted to Wilson Harris. I owe my academic career to him. He was the cornerstone, the foundation of my Graduate thesis. I used his ideas, essays, and novels in every other paragraph I wrote. The indigenous people of the Caribbean, the landscape, alternative modes of worship like Voodoo, and native myth were revived and given new meaning because of him. He changed the way Caribbean literature is written and read. Rest in power, Sir Harris, an entire region will forever mourn and celebrate you.
Yet, some contended that Harris was not given his due within the Caribbean. In 2014, there was a Twitter debate over who that year's Nobel Laureate in Literature should be, and one fan suggested it should to go a “visionary” like Harris, especially because he was “up there in yrs & you cannot win a posthumous @Nobelprize_org Prize.” But while Harris was honoured during his lifetime — including winning the Guyana Prize for Literature on two separate occasions and being knighted in 2010 — the Nobel was not to be.
On a public Facebook thread, Trinidad-based writer and librarian Debbie Jacob mused:
He never received the recognition he deserved. I loved his work and his theory of fossil memories.
Michelene Adams added:
Way ahead of his time. He made my students quake but I insisted on including palace in my Caribbean Prose course
Facebook user Frank Anthony was grateful for Harris’ “tremendous contribution to Guyanese literature” and from the United States, Louis Chude-Sokei wrote:
Very few thinkers have had an influence on me as great as his. He is one of the most innovative and radical writers and thinkers (in his style and in his approach to politics) of the last two centuries. The very idea that in all oppositions and differences we can find a ‘half blind groping’ towards new modes of community or being or art that can devour and reinvent those oppositions and differences…that's where everything I do started to make sense.
RIP, Sir Wilson. Thanks for the incredible and exhausting novels (though clearly all of them were mere iterations of one long densely poetic vision). […]
Harris, who once said that “only a dialogue with the past can produce originality”, has left behind a body of work that will no doubt bequeath that legacy onto younger writers, some of whom weighed in on his passing.
In the words of Facebook user Subraj Akash Singh:
Saddened to hear of the passing of one of the greatest Caribbean writers who ever lived… ‘Palace of the Peacock’ changed my life because it changed my mind about what a novel could be. Harris has died, but his oeuvre will certainly live on forever.

author: Janine Mendes-Franco


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How a Viral Eye Roll Broke the Silence on China’s Heavily Censored Web · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

Screen capture from CCTV.
For the past two weeks, China's National People's Congress (NPC) has worked to abolish the country's two-term limit for the presidency.
In conjunction with this move, Chinese internet censors have imposed strict measures to stop netizens from commenting on the sweeping change to the constitution and thus maintain harmony — at least at a superficial level.
But that forced silence was broken with virtual laughter after live camera footage at a congressional press conference caught reporter Liang Xiangyi rolling her eyes and making a face at another reporter, Zhang Huijun, who had posed a long-winded question concerning China’s One Belt One Road project. The conference aired on the Nation’s Central Television on March 13, 2018.
Later, a chatroom conversation between Liang and another colleague was leaked online. In it, Liang said she thought “the woman next to me was being an idiot.”
Almost immediately, clips and screen captures of Liang's skeptical facial expression went viral on social media and tens of thousands of users quickly followed Liang’s Weibo account, praising her for being spontaneous. Memes of rolling eyes spread like wildfire — until internet censorship authorities handed out notices banning discussions online of the eye roll.
What actually has been censored? Here are some of the expressions on Weibo that fell afoul of internet authorities, as circulated by @Yorkson on Twitter:
“黑夜给了我黑色的眼珠，但我却只能翻个白眼。”
“一个白眼倾倒了全国，征服了世界。”
“不给我言论自由，古人尚可道路以目，新时代我们总有翻白眼的自由吧！”
“其实所有人都在翻白眼，只是镜头没够着。”
“浓妆白眼最相宜，翻出一群没脸皮。” pic.twitter.com/82wvLZWvxD
— 鄭若舜Yorkson (@4OONHMEmTtmuKGP) March 14, 2018
“The darkness of night has given me dark eyeballs, but all I can do is to roll my eyes.”
“The whiteness of my eyes has the country collapsed and the whole world conquered.”
“Deprived of free speech, ancient people blink their eyes as secret codes. In the new era, we have the freedom to roll our eyes.”
“Everyone has rolled their eyes, but there are not enough cameras to capture all the rolling eyes.”
“White eyes look most pretty on a made-up face, the eyes expose a bunch of shamelessness that doesn’t have a face.”
All the above expressions showed discontent with the censorship of the incident. Since the news broke  concerning China's constitutional amendment on presidential term limits, all words and phrases related to the amendment have been censored online.
Since early March, propaganda authorities have been issuing instructions to make sure that no critical opinions are given space, in both conventional newspapers and on the internet during the “Two-Sessions” — the annual meetings of the NPC and the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) in Beijing.
As anticipated, the NPC passed the constitutional amendment that will pave the way for current President Xi Jinping to rule the country indefinitely. Everything looked harmonious during the Two-Sessions, until Liang's rolling eyes aired on CCTV on March 13.
An unverified report circulated by Apple Daily said that Liang's journalist license was suspended and she was banned from attending press conferences during Two-Sessions.
Despite her absence, the pair of eyes keep on rolling, at least online. @changhan327 praised the rolling eyes for unveiling a moment of truth:
划时代的白眼 ～
苦心经营的神圣庙堂，因为一个白眼引发了无数吃瓜群众的燃点笑点。这个白眼像一把锥子在这个时代的屁股上扎了一个针眼。
一个白眼让一个盛会抱头鼠窜。这个白眼将不朽，而许多号称不朽的在此刻已腐烂。
一个白眼像一道闪电，枪毙了一万首颂歌，胜过一百万脑残的扯淡。
时代会感谢铭 pic.twitter.com/jQPBW6IAew
— 常邗✊ (@changhan327) March 15, 2018
The pair of rolling eyes is epic. It has triggered people’s laughter and ruined the sacred temple of carefully prepared and staged material. It is like a pin stabbing into the butt of the era, a rat running around in a banquet hall. This pair of rolling eyes will become an epic, while other self-designated epics are rotting away. The rolling eyes are like a bolt of lightening that destroys tens of thousands expressions of praise and outshines speeches made by hundreds of thousands of brain-dead people. History will praise it.
The rolling eyes have done more than just inspire some laughs. In recent days, people have begun digging into the identity and background of Zhang Huijun, the reporter to whom Liang was reacting. Zhang presented herself as director of American Multimedia Television Station (AMTV) and enjoyed the rare 45-second question time aired by CCTV in the press conference.
It appears that Zhang has represented several foreign media outlets in the Two-Sessions since 2011. Netizens looking into the origins of the station have come to a conclusion that AMTV is very likely an overseas branch of China's publicity apparatus. A petition has been launched on the US White House petition website calling for further investigation into the news outlet:
We believe AMTV is most likely an unregistered agency of the Publicity Department of the Communist Party of China and secret branch of China Central Television (CCTV).
AMTV reporters cooperate with Chinese officials who would respond to their approved questions with propagandist materials while avoiding real questions from free media. Its programs convey the Chinese government’s lies and anti-American views to the Mandarin-speaking population on American soil.
Based on the Foreign Agents Registration Act, we ask to investigate its fund sources and cooperation with the CPC and shut it down if it is found to have violated the law.
In fact, AMTV’s current president is Jason Quin, whose LinkedIn profile says that he is the president of the Confucius Institute of Education — a Chinese government-funded initiative directly linked to its United Front Department.
Still, all terms related to the reporter's eye roll are still being censored online. But from now on, rolling one’s eyes will carry an extra layer of meaning among politically savvy journalists and netizens in China.

author: Oiwan Lam


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Iranian Detainees Face Privacy Violations, Public Smear Campaigns · Global Voices
Article 19

Tehran's Evin prison is notorious for housing prisoners detained unlawfully, interrogated, sometimes under torture. Image from Flickr: Sabzphoto, CC BY-SA 2.0.
A version of this post was written by Mahsa Alimardani for ARTICLE19 and republished here under a content partnership.
Imagine you’re about to board a flight home with your infant daughter when you are both seized and taken into custody by a group of Iran’s notorious revolutionary guards. They detain you without charge and place you in solitary confinement.
Overcome with fear, you want more than anything to be released and reunited with your family. You are willing to do anything that you think could help you in the short-term. Under pressure from authorities, you hand over the passwords to your email accounts.
Soon thereafter, your work contracts, financial documents and even family photos are used in a smear campaign against you.
This is the situation of Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, a British-Iranian dual citizen and charity worker who was a project manager for the Thomson Reuters Foundation while living in London at the time of her arrest. She had traveled to Iran to visit family when she and her young daughter were detained in April 2016. Her daughter remains in the custody of her maternal grandparents, also in Iran, while her mother remains detained.
While issues of persecution and unjust prosecution are not new in Iran, there are new signs of violations of due process in how people are detained and prosecuted, and in how devices are seized and the right to privacy is violated.
Public concern on these issues has also mounted around the case of Canadian-Iranian environmentalist and academic Kavous Seyed-Emami, another dual citizen who was detained in January 2018, and who died in custody at Evin Prison on 9 February 2018.
As in the case of Zaghari-Ratcliffe, Iran’s national broadcasters publicised personal information, emails, and photos confiscated by authorities from Seyed-Emami, to accuse him of being a foreign agent.
Public smear campaigns based on confiscated digital and physical documents such as those made against Zaghari-Ratcliffe and Seyed-Emami are rare. But confiscations of personal documents are not; and while they are not normally used for media purposes, they are often used by authorities to further prosecute detainees or prosecute other individuals. ARTICLE 19 previously documented this trend in its 2015 “Computer Crimes” report, whereby authorities used intimidation methods to extract information from detainees.
These cases bear witness to a judicial system that allows flagrant violations of its own laws, undertakes illegal interrogations that border on torture, and violates fundamental rights to privacy.
ARTICLE 19 has called on Iran to cease these measures, release prisoners such as Zaghari-Ratcliffe, and conduct a full investigation into the death of Seyed-Emami, and return the passport and ability for his wife, Maryam Mombeini, to leave Iran.
On 7 December 2017 Press TV, an English language branch of the Iranian state broadcaster IRIB, released a documentary on Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe’s alleged work encouraging “sedition” in Iran.
Aired on the eve of a new court case suddenly created to prosecute Zaghari-Ratcliffe a second time, this documentary in English and Persian appears to confirm that Iran’s security officials extracted invoices and contracts from her emails.
In the documentary, authorities misrepresented these as monthly salaries paid by the BBC in an effort to smear her. It had not been a secret by either Zaghari-Ratcliffe or the BBC that she used to work for the BBC World Service Trust (now BBC Media Action) in the capacity of a “training assistant” as a “junior and purely administrative” role on programs designed to train Iranian journalists from February 2009 to October 2010.  Photos showing Zaghari-Ratcliffe without a headscarf were spread to denounce her as an agent of the west in Iranian media before her court appearance. This false propaganda was created to block initiatives for her release and justify the violations she endured through her detention.
The following is an extract from the Press TV documentary narration:
Iran’s information apparatus was studying the Zaghari case before her arrest. […] A security organisation in Iran has given PressTV documents contrary to claims that she is just a mother in Iran. The said evidence shows she was a recruiter for BBC Persian service, targeting youngsters dissatisfied with the Iranian ruling body…
Image: Press TV images of documents that PressTV claim sto have acquired through security agencies.
Kavous Seyed-Emami, a sociology professor and environmentalist at the Persian Wildlife Heritage Foundation, was arrested in January 2018 amid what Tehran’s prosecutor justified as arrests of people who had been gathering classified information under the guise of “scientific and environmental projects.” Seyed-Emami’s death on 9 February 2018 was one in a series of suspicious deaths of detainees in custody. Tehran prosecutor Abbas Jafari-Dolatabadi alleged with no proof that he committed suicide in a statement to ILNA news agency:
He was one of the defendants in a spying case and unfortunately he committed suicide in prison since he knew that many had made confessions against him and because of his own confessions.
According to the Seyed-Emami family and lawyers representing them, there has been no medical report to verify his cause of death. Authorities have denied the family an independent autopsy.
Meanwhile, the Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting Corporation (IRIB) aired a documentary based on evidence that appears to have been extracted from Seyed-Emami’s devices, online accounts, and physical raids of his family’s home, including private family photos and benign communications with friends and contacts.
One email between Seyed-Emami and a US friend was used in the documentary to conclude that Seyed-Emami had ties with US intelligence arms, with no supporting evidence.
Photo: IRIB’s 20:30 show airs a documentary smearing Seyed-Emami put forth a seemingly benign correspondence between him and a contact named “David” as evidence of Seyed-Emami’s role as a foreign spy.
These two cases underline deeply worrying trends for the protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms in Iran, in particular the presumption of innocence, the right to due process and a fair trial, and the right to privacy, as recognised under international human rights obligations.
The readiness of Iran’s judiciary and the IRIB to accept false narratives of “espionage” and evidence extracted from private communications and devices of detainees undermines the legality under which evidence is obtained and used.
Moreover, stipulations in both Iran’s Criminal Code and Computer Crimes Law on the rights of the prosecutor to access defendants’ personal data violate international standards on privacy.
The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, ratified by Iran, provides that “no one shall be subjected to arbitrary or unlawful interference with his or her privacy, family, home or correspondence, nor to unlawful attacks on his or her honour and reputation.” It further states that, “Everyone has the right to the protection of the law against such interference or attacks.”
Iran’s Criminal Code provides powers for electronic accounts and data to be seized in Article 104, with a similar provision within Article 48 of the Computer Crimes Law. Although Article 103 of the Criminal Code states that only documents relating to the crime may be secured, this was clearly not the case for Zaghari-Ratcliffe. The prosecution accessed all of her private and personal data in pursuit of its vague, broad charges.
The illegal detainment and ill-treatment of Zaghari-Ratcliffe and Seyed-Emami, and forcible extraction of their information via illegal interrogations further violate international law.
According to her family, Zaghari-Ratcliffe was detained without charge at the airport, taken to Kerman province, placed into solitary confinement and refused legal counsel when her accounts were seized and searched.
This contradicts Iran’s own protection of criminal procedures in the Penal Code under Article 12 and 13.  Furthermore, the case against Zaghari-Ratcliffe, built on long, gruelling interrogations, is also illegal under Iran’s Penal Code (Article 106) which stipulates that any confessions  “taken under coercion, force, torture, or mental or physical abuses, shall not be given any validity and weight and the court is obliged to interrogate the accused again.”
Iran’s legal procedures for accessing the devices and accounts of these two prisoners remain unclear. But evidence used in media narratives and adjudications against Zaghari-Ratcliffe and Seyed-Emami prove that the actions of Iran’s intelligence agencies, namely the revolutionary guards, have dictated these cases, as opposed to any criminal procedures, laws and regulations.
It is more important than ever that Iranian authorities acknowledge protections provided under national laws and the international obligations they are party to, and stop its blanket use of “national security” concerns to target individuals and assert power.

author: Article 19


text:
Netizen Report: Internet Censorship Bill Looms Large Over Egypt · Global Voices
Netizen Report Team

Protesters outside the Egyptian Embassy in London, 2015. A Facebook user who posted the featured image of President El-Sisi with superimposed Mickey Mouse ears was arrested and sentenced to three years in prison that same year. Photo by Alisdare Hickson via Flickr (CC BY-SA 2.0)
Egyptian parliamentarians will soon review a draft anti-cybercrime law that could codify internet censorship practices into national law.
While the Egyptian government is notorious for censoring websites and platforms on national security grounds, there are no laws in force that explicitly dictate what is and is not permissible in the realm of online censorship. But if the draft law is approved, that will soon change.
Article 7 of the anti-cybercrime law would give investigative authorities the right to “order the censorship of websites” whenever “evidence arises that a website broadcasting from inside or outside the state has published any phrases, photos or films, or any promotional material or the like which constitute a crime, as set forth in this law, and poses a threat to national security or compromises national security or the national economy.” Orders issued under Article 7 would need to be approved by a judge within 72 hours of being filed.
Article 31 of the law holds internet service providers responsible for enacting court-approved censorship orders. ISP personnel that fail to comply with orders can face criminal punishment, including steep fines (a minimum of 3 million Egyptian pounds, or 170,000 US dollars) and even imprisonment, if it is determined that their refusal to comply with censorship orders “results in damage to national security or the death of one or more persons.”
In an interview with independent Cairo-based media outlet Mada Masr, Association of Freedom of Thought and Expression legal director Hassan al-Azhari argued that this would be impossible to prove in practice.
The law also addresses issues of personal data privacy, fraud, hacking, and communications that authorities fear are “spreading terrorist and extremist ideologies.”
Writing for Access Now about the rising quantity of blocked websites in Egypt — which is now at 500, by popular count — Emna Sayadi points out that the law could contravene Egypt’s Constitution. She cites Article 57:
…the State undertakes to protect the right of citizens to use public means of communication in all its forms. It shall not ban, block or deprive citizens of such rights in an abusive manner and this shall be regulated by the law.
Authorities in Ethiopia arrested and detained Seyoum Teshome, author and publisher of the blog Ethiothinktank, on March 9. Teshome, who is a lecturer at Ambo University, had written critically about the government response to massive protests concerning land rights and other issues of public import. His whereabouts are currently unknown.
Officials in the Indonesian island of Bali have ordered internet service providers to block multiple online media and messaging platforms — including Facebook, YouTube, Netflix and WhatsApp — for the duration of Nyepi, the Balinese Hindu new year.
On March 6, South Africa’s parliament approved a draft amendment to the country’s Films and Publications law, which extends the bill’s application to online space. Once in force, the amendment — colloquially known as the “internet censorship” bill — will allow the country’s Films and Publications Board to scrutinize and order censorship of online material, including user-generated content on social media platforms. The law will also re-classify online platforms like YouTube and Netflix as “content distributors” and require them to pay an annual fee.
The Feminist Voices account on Sina Weibo, one of China’s most popular social media platforms, received a notice on March 8 — International Women’s Day — saying it was suspended due to “irregularities”.
The account, which has more than 180,000 followers, had launched a campaign on March 6 asking users to post photos and a pledge to combat sexual harassment. Sina Weibo has told the account admin, Lu Pin, that it cannot be re-activated. She is appealing the decision.
After cameras caught reporter Liang Xiangyi rolling her eyes at a fellow reporter during a state press conference, footage of the interaction went viral on Chinese social media. In short order, Liang’s name was censored on Sina Weibo, and all state media houses received the following instructions from the government censor:
Urgent notice: all media personnel are prohibited from discussing the Two Sessions blue-clothed reporter incident on social media. Anything already posted must be deleted. Without exception, websites must not hype the episode.
A French cybersecurity researcher has been publicly reporting on vulnerabilities he has found in various websites that contain personal data from India’s national digital ID system, known as Aadhaar. This marks the latest in a long series of revelations about the system’s security flaws, which have led to massive leaks of sensitive citizen data. Public writing and advocacy about the flaws have also triggered condemnation from UIDAI, the government agency that administers Aadhaar.
Indian tech blog Medianama points out that this situation is a bit different, due in part to the fact that the researcher “is not under Indian jurisdiction and not intimidated by the typical tactics of the UIDAI in silencing reports of security issues.” UIDAI has nevertheless sought to discredit the researcher’s claims, mainly via Twitter.
On March 14, IP-based messaging service WhatsApp, which is owned by Facebook, signed an “undertaking” with UK Information Commissioner Elizabeth Denham, pledging not to share user data with any other “companies in the Facebook family” until it is able to do so in compliance with the EU General Data Protection Regulation, which will enter force in May 2018. Denham’s office had investigated the company after civil society groups and media cast doubt on the privacy implications of recent updates to WhatsApp’s Terms of Use.
At the 37th session of the UN Human Rights Council, the Ramallah-based NGO 7amleh and the Association for Progressive Communications issued a statement concerning rising censorship of Palestinian voices online:
Recent years have witnessed a sharp rise in attacks on the right to free speech and privacy online for Palestinians. Digital rights violations are perpetrated at the hands of all three governments: the Israeli government, the Palestinian Authority (PA) and the de-facto government of Hamas in Gaza. In addition, social media companies, whose policies have called into question their neutrality, are complying with Israel in censoring Palestinian voices.
Afef Abrougui, Ellery Roberts Biddle Mohamed ElGohary, Rohith Jyothish, Leila Nachawati, Karolle Rabarison, Juke Carolina Rumuat and Sarah Myers West contributed to this report.

author: Netizen Report Team


text:
Why Did Women Journalists Strike in Spain? · Global Voices
Maria Luz Moraleda

Photograph of the march shared publicly by journalist Elisa Piñeiro, used with permission. Sign reads “Journalists on strike.”
Some 8,000 women journalists from Spain, among them the author of this post, recently signed a manifesto called “Journalists On Strike,” which was read during the “Feminist Strike” that took place on March 8 in a dozen cities in Spain.
Neither the manifesto nor the strike were initiated by a union, political party, or media source, as is often the case. For the first time, women television show hosts, radio presenters, and newscasters decided to turn off their microphones in the studio and take their voices to the streets.
#LasPeriodistasParamoshttps://t.co/IyIJBV00cO
— Ana Pastor (@_anapastor_) March 8, 2018
#WeWomenJournalistsStrike
En la información parlamentaria trabajan muchas, muchas, muchas mujeres. Aquí algunas #LasPeriodistas paramos, también contra la #miradaparacialpic.twitter.com/Z6NmYSWwOF
— Sonia Sánchez (@sanchez_sonia) March 7, 2018
Many, many women work in parliamentary information. Here are some of the #WomenJournalists on strike and standing up against discrimination.
#Madrid 18:20 #LasPeriodistasParamos#WomensDay pic.twitter.com/bB1e3tTMEH
— Carmela Ríos (@CarmelaRios) March 8, 2018
#Madrid 18:20 #WeWomenJournalistsStrike #WomensDay
First of all, talking about change doesn't always translate into action. According to a study published in El profesional de la información, men hold three-fourths of the highest management positions and two-thirds of editorial positions. Overall, 75 percent of Spanish executives are men.
Secondly, the wage gap continues to exist in the field. Eighty-five percent of Spanish journalists earning less than 1,000 euros (about 1,200 US dollars) are women.
#HuelgaFeminista#8M#lasperiodistasparamospic.twitter.com/eWvis1R7DM
— Elsa García de Blas (@ElsaGarciad) March 8, 2018
Tweet reads: #FeministStrike #8March #WeWomenJournalistsStrike
Sign in image reads: We are the granddaughters of the women who weren't allowed to write.
Beyond economic demands, another key point in the manifesto was workplace harassment, following the wave of protests like #MeToo and #TimeIsUp. Women journalists run an extra risk: In addition to harassment by superiors and colleagues, they may also be harassed by sources. Furthermore, many Spanish publications have a culture of condescension and paternalism, as well as other types of microaggressions.
Hola, Paco: Recuerdas cuando me entrevistaste para trabajar (sin contrato) y me preguntaste si tenía novio para añadir que en La Razón no nos podíamos quedar embarazadas porque “esto no es como TV3”? Eso es discriminación. Hoy #lasperiodistasparamos para que no se repita. Saludos
— Noelia Ramírez (@NoeliaRMontes) March 8, 2018
Francisco Marhuenda's tweet: This strike is a little petty. It's a lot of women who have never had a serious problem in their life. I've never seen a publication discriminate because you're a man or a woman.
Noelia Ramírez's tweet: Hello, Paco: Remember when you interviewed me for a job (without a contract) and asked me if I had a boyfriend, then added that we couldn’t get pregnant at La Razón newspaper because “this isn't like TV3”? That’s discrimination. Today journalists are on strike so that doesn’t happen again. Cheers.
Finally, the journalists demonstrated against biases in news coverage. Opinion segments and talk shows are male-centric. According to the Global Media Monitoring Project, 91 percent of experts and 82 percent of media spokespeople are men.
#LasPeriodistasParamospic.twitter.com/z0GvJbrXcL
— RadioQHDN (@RadioQHDN) March 8, 2018
Tweet reads: #WeWomenJournalistsStrike
Sign in image reads: I can talk about politics and the economy – stop mansplaining!
The movement grew thanks to a group on the instant messaging service Telegram, which, in the days before the strike, facilitated discussions about the mobilization as well as the organization of the online manifesto campaign. It also focused on vetting new members of the group itself, given that one in particular, dedicated to receiving videos, was overrun by trolls who tried (unsuccessfully) to undermine the protest.
Several of the protest's organizers spoke with Global Voices about the defining characteristics of this protest and the elements that may have contributed to its success. We also asked what makes this occasion unique–why is now the time that people are getting out on the street to fight for these demands?
Lucía Gómez – Lobato: Las periodistas nos hemos conseguido organizar por primera vez, con lo que ello supone de arrastre de medios de comunicación de todos los colores. La repercusión inevitable ha conseguido doblegar incluso a políticos y con todo, la sociedad entera ha reaccionado. Efecto contagio y efecto bola de nieve, mucho.
Lucía Gómez – Lobato: Women journalists have succeeded in organizing for the first time, with an accompanying slowdown in media of all types. The repercussions have even had an impact on politicians. All of society reacted. It’s contagious, a snowball effect.
María José Romero: Solo hemos necesitado una chispa para salir a la calle a reivindicar. Los asesinatos del año pasado, la manada (el caso de la violación en grupo a una joven), el #metoo, el goteo continuo de actitudes machistas… Todo ha llenado el vaso de nuestra paciencia y en el caso de las periodistas sólo ha bastado que unas pocas iniciaran el movimiento para acabar todas metiéndonos de lleno, porque nuestras desigualdades son las mismas.
María José Romero: All we needed was a spark to get out in the street and make demands. The murders that took place last year, the gang rape of a young girl, the #metoo movement, the continuous trickle of sexist attitudes… All of that has exceeded the limits of our patience. In the case of the journalists, it only took a few women initiating the movement for all of us to dive in headfirst, because the inequalities we face are the same.
Rocío Ibarra Arias: Uff creo que ha sido la chispa, como en otras ocasiones. Bajo mi punto de vista, creo que hoy ha sido el resultado de un cúmulo de injusticias y la necesidad de decir a una de ellas básica: ¡BASTA YA! Pero no sé, creo que también hay una parte de necesidad de la gente de salir a la calle y mediante la unión demostrar que tenemos fuerza y tenemos el poder de cambiar las cosas. Y creo que las Periodistas Paramos ha sido un impulso.
Rocío Ibarra Arias: I think that was the spark, like other occasions. From my point of view, I think today was the result of an accumulation of injustices and the need to say to one basic one: NO MORE! But I don’t know, I also think part of it was people's need to get out in the street and use the power of numbers to demonstrate that we are strong and we have the power to change things. And I think the journalists’ strike was one of those urges.
Ana de la Pena: Desde mi punto de vista, nosotras cubrimos la actualidad y aquí este [año] se han difundido más los casos de violencia machista. También hemos ido quitando la etiqueta “tabú” durante estos meses, tocando estos temas una y otra vez.
Ana de la Pena: From my point of view, we report the news, and cases of violence against women have been reported more this year. We’ve also been eliminating the “taboo” label as we've touched on these topics over and over again during these past months.
María Grijelmo: No lo sé, pero en el último año el número de noticias sobre machismo y feminismo ha sido exponencial respecto a años anteriores. Un caldo de cultivo de muchos años de movilización feminista que ha ido calando en los medios y en las calles hasta conseguir vivir lo que hemos vivido hoy. Hemos hecho historia pero el movimiento es eso. Seguir caminando.
María Grijelmo: I don't know, but in the last year, there’s been an exponential increase in the amount of news reporting on sexism and feminism compared to previous years. It's taken many years of feminist mobilization in the media and in the streets to get to where we are today. We've made history. That’s the movement. Keep going.
Mariona Sòria: Creo que el éxito de hoy es que por primera vez se han encontrado la primera generación de mujeres feministas con las que se acaban de incorporar, que ven que la situación que les toca vivir e tan nefasta como la de nuestras madres, precariedad, falta de oportunidades, patriarcado latente.
Mariona Sòria: I think today's success is that the first generation of feminists has united with the newest wave, who are seeing that the situation they live in–precarity, lack of opportunity, and the patriarchy–is just as toxic as that of our mothers.
Kristina Zorita: La cifra de mujeres asesinadas, la manada, una crisis que ha golpeado más a las mujeres, pueden ser parte de la causa.
Kristina Zorita: The number of murdered women, the gang rape, the economic crisis that hit women the hardest–that could all be part of the cause.
Claudia Morán: Yo creo que los casos mediáticos de asesinatos machistas como [el de] Diana Quer y el intento de violación en Boiro tuvieron mucho que ver. Este año se mezcló con el movimiento #metoo en EEUU y un presidente diciendo sobre legislar contra la brecha salarial.
Claudia Morán: I think the media coverage of cases of violence against women, like the Diana Quer case and the rape attempt in Boiro, have a lot to do with it. This year there’s also the #metoo movement in Europe and a president talking about making laws to close the wage gap.
The economic crisis that hit Spanish media in 2007-2008 caused a spectacular increase in unemployment among journalists, and the worst affected were women. Unemployment among women in journalism is higher than among men–63.8%, to be exact, according to official data.
However, more and more women are studying journalism. Six of every 10 students in the field are women, according to the Madrid Press Association’s report on data from the past four years.
The historic demonstrations that took place on March 8 open the debate not only on decision-making in the media in Spain, but also on social and economic policies in other job sectors. Fifty years after the feminist slogan, “The personal is political,” and the civil unrest that took place in May 1968 in France, the new generation of women seems to understand that the cause still needs them.

author: Maria Luz Moraleda


text:
Women Reporters Accuse a Prominent Russian Lawmaker of Sexual Harassment, but His Colleagues Stand by Him · Global Voices
Marina Solovyova

Leonid Slutsky, a prominent Russian lawmaker, accused of sexual harassment by several women reporters. Photo by A. Savin, Wikicommons CC BY-SA 3.0
Just days before March 8, International Women's Day, at least three Russian women reporters accused Leonid Slutsky (pronounced as Sloo-tski), a populist parliament member, of sexual harassment. Yet, most of his political colleagues, including some women, are rallying behind him.
Leonid Slutsky, a member of the State Duma (the lower chamber of Russia’s parliament), is a veteran legislator, currently serving his fifth consecutive term in the Duma as a member of the rightwing populist Liberal Democratic Party of Russia (LDPR).
Slutsky currently chairs the parliament’s international affairs committee and served as deputy head of Russia’s delegation to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) until Russia’s membership in the assembly was revoked in 2016.
Daria Zhuk of the independent TV Dozhd, Ekaterina Kotrikadze of RTVi, and Farida Rustamova (BBC Russian) have all come out publicly as Slutsky’s victims:
Журналистка русской службы BBC обвинила депутата Слуцкого в домогательствах
Корреспондентка Русской службы BBC Фарида Рустамова открыто заявила о сексуальных домогательствах со стороны депутата от ЛДПР, главы комитета по международным делам Леонида Слуцкого. pic.twitter.com/o3TRy4GZgt
— Политринг (@politringby) 7 марта 2018 г.
BBC Russia's reporter Farida Rustamova openly accused Liberal Democratic Party of Russia's Leonid Slutsky, the head of international relations committee, of sexual harassment.
Slutsky allegedly invited reporters into his office in the Duma under the pretext of giving an interview and instead made inappropriate remarks or physical contact. BBC Russian’s Farida Rustamova published a transcript of her interview with Slutsky during which, she says, he put his hand on her groin, against her panicked protests which were captured on record.
Slutsky initially dismissed the accusations against him as an “orchestrated smear campaign and a provocation.” Yet, he posted what appears to be an apology in references to the accusations without mentioning names or specific details:
Дорогие женщины!
От всей души поздравляю вас с Международным женским днем! Желаю крепкого здоровья, душевных сил и простого человеческого счастья!
Пользуясь случаем, хотел бы попросить прощения у тех из вас, кому когда-либо вольно или невольно причинил любые переживания. Поверьте, не по злому умыслу.
Удачи и любви вам и вашим близким!
Искренне ваш,
Леонид Слуцкий
Dear women!
From my heart I congratulate you on the International Women's Day! I wish you good health, spiritual strength, and simple human happiness!
I would also like to use this opportunity to apologize to those of you whom I have ever intentionally or unintentionally caused any distress. Believe me, I wasn’t acting out of malice.
Good luck and love to you and your loved ones!
Yours sincerely,
Leonid Slutsky
Duma chairman Vyacheslav Volodin publicly supported Slutsky and chastised women reporters at a meeting with them:
«Вам в думе опасно работать?Если вам опасно, меняйте профессию, меняйте место работы. Понимаете?» – Володин о догомательставах депутата Слуцкого к журналисткам. Стыдно, что такой человек возглавляет российский парламент. Может нам лучше поменять Володина? https://t.co/vQvnlqWjos pic.twitter.com/v3to9YKcWw
— Alexander Vinokurov (@Vinokurov12) 8 марта 2018 г.
‘So the Duma is a dangerous workplace for you? If it is, change your profession, look for another job. Understand?’ That’s what Volodin said about [Duma member] Slutsky’s harassment of women reporters. It’s a shame that such a person heads the Russian parliament. Maybe we should change Volodin instead?
Duma vice chairman Igor Lebedev, son of LDPR's leader Vladimir Zhirinovsky, publicly threatened the reporters:
Вчерашние обвиннния от журналистов Дождя в адрес депутата ГД Леонида Слуцкого в домогательствах считаю грубым нарушением этики, уголовного законодательства и оскорблением. Будем от имени фракции ставить вопрос о лишении аккредитации в ГД для этих журналистов.
— Игорь Лебедев (@Russian1972) 23 февраля 2018 г.
Yesterday's allegations by TV Dozhd's reporters against State Duma lawmaker Slutsky is a gross violation of ethics, criminal law and simply an insult. Our party will raise the issue of stripping these journalists of their Duma credentials.
In Duma, where 70 out of 450 seats are occupied by women, only Oksana Pushkina explicitly condemned his actions. If his guilt is proved, she said, Slutsky’s accusers should push for a resolution. She also lamented the lack of anti-harassment laws in Russia and promised to propose a bill to address that.
Maria Zakharova, the foreign ministry spokeswoman known for her outspoken and sometimes brash style, recalled in an interview with NTV how Slutsky made inappropriate remarks in her presence and she asked him to tone it down, which he did, according to her testimony. Zakharova added that none of the men in the room came to her defense.
She also vocally dismissed allegations that Slutsky’s accusers were ‘spinning yarns’ or dressing improperly:
Я категорически не согласна с теми, которые говорят: да ладно, это им показалось, да какая-то там девочка, да она не так оделась, да это все ее выдумки. Ничего подобного.
I categorically disagree with those who are saying — come on, they were just seeing things, or some girl was dressed the way she shouldn’t have been, or she’s making things up. Nothing like that.
Many Russian reporters threw their full support behind their colleagues. On International Women’s Day, many picketed Duma with demands to strip Slutsky of his seat:
У стен Госдумы прошли одиночные пикеты против депутата Слуцкого https://t.co/wOGcZCDhdU pic.twitter.com/eXmhNn1yUu
— The New Times (@the_newtimes) 8 марта 2018 г.
Several pickets took place by the Duma’s walls [with slogans] condemning Slutsky.
[Sign says: ‘HANDS OFF WOMEN REPORTERS’]
Other journalists took to social media to demand Slutsky’s resignation. Tatyana Felgengauer, a radio host at the independent Echo of Moscow station who was stabbed in the neck in October 2017, declared:
Слуцкий должен уйти. Но перед этим – извиниться. https://t.co/KxFq5c2aVf
— Tania Felgengauer (@t_felg) 7 марта 2018 г.
Slutsky must go. But first he is expected to apologize.
Yet, Pavel Gusev, editor in chief of Moskovsky Komsomolets (a national tabloid) and the head of the Moscow Union of Journalists, said in an interview with RTVi that he promised to investigate ‘any wrongdoing on the part of the women reporters.’
RTVi's Tikhon Dzyadko, who interviewed Gusev on air, vented his frustration:
Гусев не перестает радовать: в интервью RTVI он сказал, что они на Союзе журналистов Москвы обсудят не только вину Слуцкого, но и нарушение журналистской этики журналистками, которые столько лет молчали про домогательства Слуцкого.
Gusev never fails to please: in an interview with RTVi he said that the Moscow Union of Journalists will debate not only Slutsky’s possible guilt but also whether the women reporters accusing him trespassed professional ethics by keeping silent for so long about his harassment.
When the student action group at the Lomonosov Moscow State University (MSU) discovered that Slutsky headed their international relations department, they demanded to remove him:
Студенты потребовали уволить Слуцкого, потому что никто не может гарантировать, что его «практики общения с журналистками» не распространится на студенток и сотрудниц МГУ https://t.co/wLzaSVoboM
— Медиазона (@mediazzzona) 9 марта 2018 г.
Students demand to fire Slutsky because no one can guarantee that his ‘habits of behaving in the company of women reporters’ will not spill over to MSU’s students and professors.
The student group added in a statement:
Неподобающее поведение Слуцкого бросает тень на Московский университет. Мы считаем, что публичных извинений недостаточно и что Слуцкий должен покинуть пост заведующего кафедрой.
Slutsky’s inappropriate behavior casts a shadow on Moscow University. We believe that public apologies are not enough and that Slutsky must leave the position of the head of the department.
However, Slutsky has not yet faced consequences for his alleged actions, apart from mild public embarrassment. For now, he has the Russian political elite’s full support. The Duma’s ethics committee will not convene until after the presidential elections on March 18.

author: Marina Solovyova


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What Japan’s 2020 Olympic and Paralympic Mascots Say About Attitudes Toward Disability · Global Voices
Michael Peckitt

Tokyo 2020 Olympic and Paralympic Mascots “Olympic Mascot” (L) and “Paralympic Mascot” (R). Screencap from Tokyo 2020 official YouTube channel.
Japan loves a mascot. Perhaps the most famous is Kumamon (くまモン), the bear that is Kumamoto Prefecture’s mascot, who became even more popular after the series of earthquakes that beset the prefecture in April 2016. Mascots such as these are useful, if not crucial, when creating a brand, and they’re essential to ‘Cool Japan’, the project to popularize Japanese culture to an international audience. Mascots of course, can also be very cute and fun. My personal favorite is Domo-kun, the mascot of Japan’s public broadcaster NHK.
In late February 2018, Japan unveiled its mascots for the Tokyo 2020 Olympic and Paralympic Games. These mascots don’t have cool names—they’re known simply as ‘Olympic Mascot’ and ‘Paralympic Mascot’—but they look like anime or manga heroes and have superpowers and character descriptions.
Meet the Cute Official Mascots of the 2020 Olympic and Paralympic Games in Tokyo! https://t.co/orj9UJwYJy #Tokyo2020 #OlympicGames #Paralympics #mascot pic.twitter.com/QgbF1Ixuss
— Japan Info (@Japan_Info_) March 8, 2018
Here is how Olympic mascot is described in English on the official website of the Tokyo 2020 Olympics:
The Olympic Mascot is a character that embodies both old tradition and new innovation. While cherishing tradition, it is always up to date with the latest news and information. The Mascot has a strong sense of justice and is very athletic. The Mascot also has a special power allowing it to move anywhere instantaneously. The Olympic Mascot was born from a traditional chequered pattern and a futuristic vision of the world.”
The Olympic mascot with its ability to move “anywhere instantaneously” sounds really cool. It’s a superpower I myself would definitely want, and by embodying both the traditional and the new, this mascot represents the best of Japan, a nation that appreciates the past but also looks forward to the new and embraces the future.
However, as a disabled person, I was more curious about the mascot for the Tokyo 2020 Paralympics, which is described as follows:
The Paralympic Mascot is a cool character with cherry tactile sense [i.e., shaped like a cherry blossom] and a supernatural power. The Mascot is usually calm; however, it gets very powerful when needed. It has a dignified inner strength and a kind heart that loves nature. It can talk with stones and the wind. It can also move things just by looking at them. The Paralympic Mascot was born from a traditional chequered pattern and cherry blossom flowers.
As a disabled person, I am very much in favor of having supernatural powers, and would be eager to have power over the wind—imagine all the typhoons I could prevent—and I am most definitely looking forward to hearing what stories stones have to tell me. A love for nature is also a very typically Japanese trait, one that is further highlighted by the Paralympic mascot’s ‘cherry tactile sense’, as there’s nothing more Japanese than sakura, the cherry blossom.
Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Mascot. Screencap from Tokyo 2020 official YouTube channel.
So I really like the Paralympic mascot.
On a careful reading of its character description, however, you will notice that unlike its Olympic counterpart, the Paralympic mascot is not explicitly described as “athletic”. As a disabled person I wonder why that is the case, as it could suggest that Paralympians are not “athletic”. The same careful reader might also note that while the mascots are intended to be genderless – hence the generic names – the Olympic mascot is blue, a color often associated with boys, and the Paralympic one is pink, a color that is associated with girls in Japan and elsewhere in the world. The Paralympic Mascot also has stereotypically “feminine” traits such as ‘a ‘kind heart’.
These qualities did not go unnoticed by Dennis Frost, an associate professor at Kalamazoo College in Michigan who does research on the Paralympics in Japan.
“There. . . seems to be some implicit gendering going on here,” Frost told me during a Facebook private message chat. “I’m really struck by the way they are described. I also checked the Japanese language descriptions, too, just to make sure it wasn't an issue with odd translations. If anything, the distinctions are even more stark in the Japanese, with the Olympic Mascot characterized as strong and active, while the Paralympic one is characterized as almost entirely passive and soft.”
It is possible of course to read too much into such things, and nobody likes a pessimist. If physical versions of the mascots are sold as souvenirs, I shall certainly buy a Paralympic Mascot teddy bear to go alongside my Domo-kun. But in closing, I thought I would share the words of Grace Ohashi, a former Judo athlete who now lives with MS and is a frequent contributor to the NHK TV disability show ‘Barrier Free Variety’.
“When I read the explanation on the paper I thought its old image of people with disabilities,” said Ohashi. “However, I am not sure how many people read the explanation.”

author: Michael Peckitt


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Despite Resignation of Slovakian Prime Minister, Thousands of Protesters Continue to Demand Justice for Murdered Journalist · Global Voices
Tibor Blazko

Protest in Bratislava on 9 March, 2018. Photo by Wikipedia user Wizzard, CC BY-SA 4.0.
The resignation of several Slovakian government officials, including the country's prime minister, has failed to appease the public who are seeking justice for the Mafia-style assassination of an anti-corruption journalist. Some even consider the resignation as a cynical ploy intended to allow the ruling party to remain in power.
After the murder of journalist Ján Kuciak on Februrary 25, the front pages of Slovak media were filled by a series of accusations of corruption and links to organized crime against powerful politicians which included top police officials and some appointed members of the government’s prosecution office.
On March 3, Prosecutor Vasiľ Špirko filed criminal charges against the Interior Minister Robert Kaliňák, Police President Tibor Gašpar, Chief of National Criminal Agency Petar Hraško and Chief of Anti-Corruption Unit Róbert Krajmer. The charges involved embezzlement of public funds and involvement in bribery.
A  petition signed by 145 publicly known persons demanded that the police president and special prosecutor leave their offices to avoid conflict of interest in pursuing justice:
Jánova práca siahala príliš blízko k politickým špičkám. Mnohé vyšetrovacie verzie môžu ohrozovať ich povesť a kariéru, čo vytvára neudržateľný konflikt záujmov. Vládni predstavitelia preto musia vytvoriť pre orgány činné v trestnom konaní nezávislý priestor, ktorý umožní preveriť akúkoľvek potrebnú stopu bez tlakov a neformálnych vplyvov.
Ján's work ran too close to political leaders. Investigative efforts could jeopardize the reputation and career of many officials creating an untenable conflict of interest. Government officials must therefore create an independent room for law enforcement authorities to examine all necessary leads without pressure and informal influences.
After President Andrej Kiska asked for wider governmental reforms, Prime Minister Róbert Fico accused Kiska that his speech “was not written in Slovakia” and that in September 2017 he had a meeting with a “person who has a dubious name”, George Soros, “without any representative of Slovak Ministry of Foreign Affairs”. Newspapers quickly debunked this claim by showing photos from the  ‘secret’ meeting which also included the Minister of Foreign Affairs in Fico's government, Miroslav Lajčák.
[Editor's note: Global Voices is a grantee of the Open Society Foundations which is funded by George Soros ]
The killing of Kuciak and the political crisis it generated led to massive protests across the country. An estimated 100,000 people joined the protests “for decent Slovakia”. The size of recent protests is being compared to the 1989 Velvet Revolution which ended the four-decade rule of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia and led to the subsequent transition to democracy.
The protests were peaceful even though Prime Minister Fico warned of “high probability of attacks on public buildings” after he showed images of pavement stone cubes in front of the government office. In fact, it was the citizens who quickly reported the presence of about ten pavement stones left in the shrubbery after the reconstruction of a square near the government office.
On March 15, Fico bowed to public pressure and resigned his post. He placed his ally Peter Pellegrini in the role of prime minister. Slovaks widely considered this as an insincere move and warned that the Fico-Pellegrini tandem might be similar to the deal between Russian President Putin and his Prime Minister Medvedev, who changed roles several times while Putin held the real power all the time. In fact, Fico noted explicitly  with a wide grin that he “is not leaving anywhere” and his “task is to shield the back of the new prime minister”.
“When they force you to resign because of the suspicion that you know the Italian Mafia. And you instead appoint a guy who's named Pellegrini.” Meme by the blog Cynická obluda (Cynical monster), used with permission.
Fico's resignation did not calm down the situation. On March 16, an estimated 65,000 protesters demanding early elections gathered in the capital city of Bratislava while thousands more rallied in the streets of other cities.
Thousands rally in Slovakia for third week in a row, including another huge crowd in Bratislava chanting and calling for for new elections pic.twitter.com/Cr9yvexfwp
— James Shotter (@JamesShotter) March 16, 2018
At the protest, actor Richard Stanke addressed Fico in a widely quoted speech:
Váš arogantný úsmev pri včerajšom odovzdávaní vašej „akože“ demisie hovorí za všetko! Vy neodchádzate, ale naďalej chcete v úzadí ťahať za nitky vašich poslušných straníckych lokajov … Ani jeden z nich si pri triumfálnom oznámení výsledku dohody nespomenul na vraždu Jána Kuciaka a Martiny Kušnírovej. Ani jeden. A my sme išli na námestia preto, aby sme si uctili ich pamiatku a zabránili nevyšetreniu tejto ohavnej vraždy.
Your arrogant smile at yesterday's handing out of your “quasi” resignation says it all! You are not going away, but you still want to pull the strings of your obedient party lackeys … Neither of them [governmental parties leaders] in a triumphant announcement of the outcome of the agreement, mentioned the murder of Ján Kuciak and Martina Kušnírová. Not one. And we went to the squares in order to honor their memory and prevent the cover up in the investigation of this abominable murder.
Not everyone was pleased by protests. Writer Gustáv Murín filed a criminal complaint against the organizers.
Je smutné, keď občan nemá pokoj na svoju prácu a život, pretože cvičení organizátori prevratov začnú svoju rozvratnú činnosť. … To sa naozaj nenájde nikto kto by zastavil tento notorický „dúhový scenár“ z dielne diverzných centrál z obnovenej Studenej vojny? … Ak nie, tak považujem za svoju povinnosť urobiť to osobne.
It is sad when a citizen does not have peace of mind for his work and life, because the organizers of coups will begin their disruptive activity. … Isn't there anyone out there who would stop this notorious “rainbow scenario” from the workshop of diversions from the renewed Cold War? … If not, then I consider my duty to do it personally.
Student of political science Oliver Andrejčák opined:
… pri súčasnej situácií by si Slovensko mohlo vybrať iba dve možnosti:
1. Okamžité predčasné voľby, ktoré by skutočne mohli viesť k politickej nestabilite, a vôbec by vyšetrovanie vraždy nemuseli zlahčiť tak, ako sa zdá
2. Rekonštrukciu vlády, ktorá by ešte 2 roky predstavovala mafiánsky oligarchistický štát, avšak s vidinou úplnej porážky SMeru v roku 2020
… in the current situation, Slovakia could choose only two options:
1. Immediate early elections, which could in fact lead to political instability, and that the murder investigation would not have to be made as smooth as it looks like;
2. Reconstruction of the government, which would represent a Mafia-based oligarchic state for two more years, but with the vision of total defeat of [Fico's party] SMER in 2020
Student of journalism Jakub Prok argued against early elections with another reason:
Ak by aj poslanci pristúpili k predčasným voľbám, kým by sa do kresla dostal nezávislý človek, mohlo by to trvať mesiace. Pri dostatočnom spoločenskom tlaku by to v Pellegriniho vláde mohlo byť už budúci týždeň. … Predčasné voľby by mohli v konečnom dôsledku dostať do parlamentu iba viac extrémizmu.
If Members of Parliament were to take early elections, it could take months for an independent person to get into that position [of Minister of Interior]. With sufficient social pressure, in Pellegrini's government it could be [changed] next week. … Early elections could ultimately bring only more extremism into Parliament.
Blogger Peter Straka announced that he already made a pivotal decision:
Ak áno, som s rodinou rozhodnutý z tejto prehnitej krajiny, kde sa nedá už ani nadýchnuť, kde ľudia nielenže neveria vláde, polícii, ale ani jeden druhému, … Ak nebudú predčasné voľby a nebudeme mať novú vládu, a nezačne sa poriadne vyšetrovanie káuz, aby boli páchatelia obvinení a potrestaní, potom odchádzam.
If so, I have decided with my family to get out from this rotten country where it is not possible even breathe, where people not only don't trust the government, the police, but neither each other … If there is no early election, and if we don't get a new government, as well as a thorough investigation including the  root causes, so that the offenders are accused and punishment, then I leave.

author: Tibor Blazko


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When Indigenous Girls are Raped and Assaulted in Bangladesh, a Queen Rises Up in Solidarity · Global Voices
পান্থ রহমান রেজা (Pantha)

Indigenous Marma women playing in water during Sangrai, the Marma new year. Image by Aye Mang via Wikimedia Commons.
On January 22, 2018, two sisters aged 19 and 14 from the indigenous Marma community were allegedly raped by members of security forces in the Rangamati district within the Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT) region in southeast Bangladesh.
Reportedly, a joint security team consisting of the Bangladesh Army and Bangladesh Ansar (paramilitary auxiliary force) personnel were raiding the indigenous Marma village of Orachari in Rangamati District's Belaichari Upazila on January 22.
During the raid, two stray members of the team entered a Marma home early in the morning and allegedly raped a 19-year-old girl in front of her 14-year-old sister, who was also sexually assaulted, while their parents and the little brother remained detained.
The sisters were admitted to the Rangamati Sadar Hospital on January 23 for treatment and kept under close watch by security forces for several weeks while waiting for a medical report as proof of the rape and sexual assault.
Queen Yan Yan of the Chakma Circle, the Royal House of Chakmas (the largest ethnic people in Rangamati) began visiting the girls to help build their case in partnership with local human rights activists.
Security officials first denied the allegations. Later, they said that a particular Ansar member has been withdrawn [from service] and an investigation is ongoing.
Queen Yan Yan described in an interview with the Daily Star that the sisters’ parents wanted to take them home but were waiting for the medical reports. According to the Queen's account, the girls did not want to leave, fearing their parents were being coerced to keep silent. They remained in the hospital for the following weeks.
Following a writ petition by their father, a High Court bench on February 13 ordered the authorities to hand over the girls to their father. However, a custody battle ensued as human rights groups filed a stay order claiming that the girls refused to leave with their father, demanding instead to leave under the custody of Chakma Circle Chief Raja Debashish Roy, fearing for their safety.
On February 15, the sisters were forcibly removed from the hospital and handed over to her parents against their wishes.
The Bangladesh Indigenous Women's Network reported on the chaotic situation that ensued, including an alleged assault on Queen Yan Yan herself by state forces:
Acting on a directive issued from the High Court on 15 February 2018 to take the Bilaichari victims of rape and sexual assault to the custody of their parents under police protection, police took the parents to Rangamati General Hospital. Considering their security, the victims refused to go along with their parents again. The parents even slapped the victims to make them agree. Despite that, they kept begging to go under the custody of the Chakma Circle. During that time Chakma Rani Yan Yan arrived in the hospital and the victims embraced her. The Rangamati General Hospital compound, all of a sudden, was crammed with members of the police and special branch, and plainclothes security men.
In the evening, at about 7:30 pm, members of the armed forces disconnected the electricity of the hospital. Then suddenly the members of state forces covered their faces with masks, encircled Chakma Rani Yan Yan and shoved her down on the floor. When the victims were being dragged out of the hospital, she tried to resist. Then forces men slapped and punched her and shoved her down on the floor again. Considering her security, she immediately fled the hospital compound, jumping over the hospital wall.
Meanwhile, the victim sisters were handed over to their parents under police custody and taken to an unknown place. Their whereabouts have not been revealed yet.
In a Facebook post, Queen Yan Yan revealed that she knew about her attackers’ intentions:
শেষ করতে হলে এখানে করা যাবে না, করলে হাসপাতালের বাইরে করতে হবে
If you want to finish them don't do it inside the hospital, do it outside.
On February 19, in a public speech during a rally comprised of traditional leaders and common people at Rajbari (King's House) premises, Queen Yan Yan spoke about the events surrounding the detention and abduction of the two Marma sisters:
She declared that despite suffering threats and physical abuse, she refuses to back down from demanding justice for the Marma sisters. Queen Yan Yan also assured that she will continue to fight for the rights of the indigenous people to free them from oppression.
The Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT) is an extensive hilly area covered with forests bordering India and Myanmar and is home to several tribal populations include the Chakma, Marma, Tripura, Bom, Chak, Mro, Murung, Pankho, and Khumi.
These indigenous people differ markedly from the Bengali majority of Bangladesh with respect to language, culture, physical appearance, and religion.
The three Districts of the Chittagong Hill Tracts. Image via Wikimedia Commons. CC – BY 4.0
During the 1970s and 80s, the government of Bangladesh started to populate the area with Bengali people from the rest of the country, displacing local inhabitants who had lived there for centuries and threatening their way of life.
The local tribes resisted by forming resistance groups, the most notable of them being Shanti Bahini, which started attacking the Bangladesh army and carrying out civilian kidnappings and extortion. They took up arms to fight the Bengali presence in tribal areas and successive Bangladeshi governments turned the region into a militarised zone to fight insurgencies.
Numerous conflicts between the indigenous people and the Bengali settlers over the decades have resulted in several mass killings of indigenous people. Many allegations of human rights abuses surfaced over the decades against the Shanti Bahini who attacked settlers. Security forces have allegedly taken extrajudicial measures against local ethnic people, deeming them insurgents and acting with impunity.
An indigenous human rights activist John Tripura states in his blog:
The cases point to growing culture of impunity within the security services as it appears reluctant to take on their own.The blatant disregard for human rights by the Bangladeshi armed forces in CHT is evil.
A 1997 Peace Accord was signed between the Bangladesh government and the Parbatya Chattagram Jana Samhati Samiti (Party of the Tribal Peoples), which opposition parties, as well as a fraction of tribal rebel groups, had opposed. Yet, tensions persist.
Rapes frequently occur in the Chittagong Hill Tracts. Local Sayem Chakma writes:
Oh yeah lol on the topic of discrimination against indigenous people and women, a young indigenous girl was raped a while back. This is the sort of news I had to hear growing up. I always felt unsafe even in my own village because of the sort of stuff I saw whenever I followed my mother to wherever she went for work.
Kapaeeng Foundation is working for human rights of indigenous people in the CHT since 2004. In a research report, they laid down statistics of violence against indigenous women in the past few years.
২০১৩ সাল থেকে ২০১৭ সালের জুন পর্যন্ত ৩৬৪ জন আদিবাসী নারীর মানবাধিকার লঙ্ঘিত হয়েছে৷ তার মধ্যে ১০৬ জন শারীরিক নিপীড়নের শিকার হয়েছেন, ১০০ জন নারী ধর্ষণের শিকার হয়েছেন এবং ৬৬ জনকে ধর্ষণের চেষ্টা করা হয়েছে৷ চলতি বছরের কেবল জানুয়ারি মাসের মধ্যেই ১০ জন ধর্ষণের শিকার হয়েছেন তার মধ্যে তিনজনকে ধর্ষণের পর হত্যা করা হয়েছে৷
From 2013 to 2017, violence was committed against 364 indigenous women and girls. Out of them, 106 suffered physical abuse, 100 were raped and there were 66 attempted cases of rape. In January this year, 10 women and girls were raped and three of them were killed after rape.
Abuse cases are often suppressed with intimidation or by offering victims’ families meager settlements. In the case of the two Marma sisters, Hritwik-Chakma reports that security forces attempted to settle with the family for only 50 Bangladesh Taka, the equivalent of .62 cents in USD.
ভোররাত আনুমানিক ৩.৩০ ঘটিকার সময় দলছুট দুজন সেনাসদস্য অস্ত্রের মুখে বাবা, মা আর ছোটভাইকে জিম্মি করে এবং বড় বোনকে ধষর্ণ এবং ছোটবোনকে ধষর্ণের চেষ্টা ও যৌন হয়রানী করে!…তাদের চিৎকারে আশেপাশের গ্রামবাসী ও বাকী সেনাসদস্যরা ছুটে আসে!
এসময় আপোষে দফা করার জন্যে সাধা হয় মাথাপিছু ৫০ টাকা করে সর্বমোট মাত্র ১০০ টাকা!
In the early morning, at around 3:30 AM two stray members of security forces came to the house and detained the father, mother and the little brother at gunpoint. They raped the elder sister and tried to rape the younger one. ..Hearing their screams, their neighbors and the rest of the security forces members came running.
They tried to settle this quietly, offering the victims BDT 50 each!
Sexual assault and rape are stigmatized in Bangladesh. The superintendent of police in Rangamati allegedly shared the photos of the two Marma rape and sexual assault victims and reportedly took down those images only after criticism on social media.
Chittagong Hill Tracts International Network For Human Rights has posted an open letter to the Prime Minister of Bangladesh demanding justice for the abuse and abduction of the two Marma sisters:
You are requested to ensure the followings:
1. Immediate punishment for Bangladesh military servicemen involved in raping two indigenous girls of Bilaichari Upazilla of Rangamati Hill District on 22 January 2018;
2. Justice for the victims; and
3. Uphold the people's trust and respect in Bangladesh and its constitution.
While an online petition has also been raised, Bangladeshi netizens allege that the mainstream media is not properly reporting adequately about the case.
Indigenous blogger and activist Kung Thang writes:
ইশ্বর থাকেন অনেক দুরের মিডিয়াপল্লীতে, পাহাড়ের আর্তনাদ তাহার কর্ণকুহরে পৌঁছায় না৷
The God lives in a distant media village. The cries of the mountain do not reach him.
Raped, terrorized, kidnapped by agencies that are supposed to enforce the law while the media watches silently
Marma sisters picked up from hospital https://t.co/EmDaeHsspV
— অদ্বিতীয় (@_auditio_) February 16, 2018
Blogger Paichimong Marma blames the silence on a media blackout allegedly sponsored by the armed forces in an interview with the Deutsche Welle:
প্রায় প্রতি বছরই পাহাড়ি জনপদে সেটলারদের দ্বারা হামলা-অগ্নিসংযোগ-ভূমি বেদখলের ঘটনা ঘটে৷ ধর্ষণ, জাতিগত হামলা, সেমারিক-বেসামরিক বাহিনীর রেইড, আতংক ছড়ানো-হয়রানী পাহাড়ের নিত্য দিনের ঘটনা৷ মিডিয়া ব্ল্যাকআউট আর মিলিটারি সেন্সরশিপের কারণে অনেক খবর মূলধারার সংবাদমাধ্যমে প্রকাশ পায় না৷ ঘটনা যখন বড় আকারে দেখা দেয় তখন মেইনস্ট্রিম মিডিয়াতে খবর প্রকাশ করা হয়৷ খুব সতর্ক শব্দ প্রয়োগে সংক্ষিপ্ত আকারে ছাপানো সেই নিউজ পড়ে তেমন কিছুই জানা যায় না, কেবল জানা যায় একটা কিছু ঘটেছে! কিন্তু কে ঘটিয়েছে, কেন ঘটিয়েছে, কী তার বৃত্তান্ত, কী তার ইতিহাস,সামনে কে, পেছনে কোন কুশীলব আছে, সামনের দিনে কী ঘটতে যাচ্ছে– এসবের কোনো ধারণা পাওয়া যায় না৷
Each year many incidents of land grab-arson-abuse by settlers and there are numerous armed forces raids, ethnic clashes happen. These do not reach the mainstream media due to military sensorship and media blackout in this region. When any case turns big then the mainstream media pubishes the news in small scale. You can't know enough from that small article – only something has happened. But who made it happen, why, the details, the history and context, hidden actors and what is going to happen next — you won't ever know.
Widespread protests were triggered when news of the sisters’ rape and sexual assault went viral on social media, with Queen Yan Yan first breaking the news. Protestors demanded the arrest of the perpetrators and the harshest punishment after a proper trial:
Protest at National Press Club against #rape of #Marma sisters https://t.co/K3dWJTDesf In the month of February, when we celebrate mother #language day, rights of citizens who speak other languages, are brutally suppressed #Bangladesh #CHT pic.twitter.com/Vce574Tn0c
— Shahidul Alam (@shahidul) February 25, 2018
As per the latest reports, the two sisters and their parents were kept at the house of Abhilash Tanchangya, a political leader, at Patharghata area in Rangamati town under tight police security. Nobody is allowed to meet them.
According to Al Jazeera, the parents have been threatened by members of the armed forces to abide by their commands and the entire family faces ‘grave danger’.
NHRC body finds evidecne of law enforcer's intrusion into Marma sisters’ home https://t.co/BJ6Tnjh1F1
— emran hossain (@emranon) March 5, 2018
On February 23, the Supreme Court of Bangladesh asked the High Court to hear and settle the case of the custody of the Marma sisters within six weeks. As of now, an official case has not yet been filed.

author: পান্থ রহমান রেজা (Pantha)