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Civic Law Initiative Propels Fight Against Political Corruption in Mexico · Global Voices
Giovanna Salazar

3of3 Civic Law Initiative's Facebook banner.
A diverse group of citizens, in collaboration with civic organizations and academic institutions, are looking to address the serious problem of corruption and impunity in Mexico through the 3of3 Civic Law Initiative. The project aims to create legislation drafted directly by civil society that would provide tools to inhibit and punish corrupt practices committed by public servants.
According to the information presented in the group's video:
Los mexicanos estamos hartos de la corrupción. Pero pedirle a los políticos que resuelvan el problema, es como pedirle a un futbolista que sea el árbitro de su propio partido. La solución tiene que venir de los ciudadanos.
Mexicans are tired of corruption. But asking politicians to solve the problem is like asking a footballer to be the referee for his own match. The solution has to come from the citizens.
Therefore, those who joined and began promoting the project took upon themselves the task of drafting a General Law on Administrative Responsibilities initiative, which extends the current law's range of action that calls on public officials to submit statements of financial circumstance, among other obligations. The 3of3 Civic Law Initiative, which activists hope will be discussed and approved by the Congress, establishes the following:
[…] la obligación de todos los funcionarios públicos de hacer públicas tres declaraciones: declaración patrimonial, de intereses, y fiscal. Además, define reglas claras de conducta para los servidores públicos y actores privados, así como sanciones para los corruptos.
[…] The obligation of all public officials to publish three declarations: a declaration of assets, interest, and taxes paid. Additionally, it defines clear rules of conduct for public servants and private actors, as well as penalties for corruption.
Article 71 of the Mexican Constitution offers citizens the ability to propose laws directly to Congress, provided that the initiatives have the support of at least 0.13 percent of the voters list. In other words, civic initiatives must be supported by at least 120,000 people to be admitted for discussion in the Congress.
As such, the 3of3 Civic Law Initiative has dedicated itself to promoting civic activism and participation, using social networks like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube to spread awareness about the initiative, and also inviting people to join in and share information about where they're working to collect signatures.
33 mil tuits, 16 mil likes en FB ¡160 mil veces se ha visto el video de la #Ley3de3! Necesitamos firmas. No al #EfectoEspectador. #YoYaFirmé
— Viridiana Rios (@Viri_Rios) 26 de febrero de 2016
33,000 tweets, 16,000 likes on Facebook, 160,000 views of the #Ley3de3 [3of3 Law] video! We need signatures. No to the #SpectatorEffect. #IAlreadySigned
Similarly, a network of organizations called Civic Action Against Poverty announced that it will observe a National Day Against Corruption on March 13, during which tables will be placed in public spaces to gather signatures for the initiative.
Los organizadores informaron que hasta ahora el formato para reunir firmas a favor de la iniciativa, ya se ha descargado más de 40 mil veces del sitio web de la Ley, y señalaron que en la jornada del día 13 de Marzo esperan que se puedan repartir hasta 10 mil formatos más, en alrededor de 200 mesas, que se instalarán en las principales ciudades del país.
The organizers reported that, so far, the form for collecting signatures for the initiative has already been downloaded over 40,000 times from the legislation's website. They also noted that they expect to distribute 10,000 more forms on March 13 from about 200 tables placed in major cities throughout the country.
Mexico struggles with an extremely high level of corruption. According to the latest research by Transparency International, in collaboration with Transparency Mexico, Mexico ranks 95 out of 168 countries on the Corruption Perceptions Index and holds last place among the 34 member countries of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.
The news agency El País summarized the situation as follows:
El análisis elaborado por Transparencia Mexicana resalta que a pesar de que en 2014 y en 2015 el Congreso de la Unión aprobó las reformas constitucionales que crearon los Sistemas Nacionales de Transparencia y Anticorrupción, ha sido imposible que dichos cambios tengan un efecto positivo en el Índice de Percepción de la Corrupción. Esto debido a los escándalos en los que se ha visto envuelto el gobierno federal y los mandatarios de los Estados. […]
La organización dedicada al combate de la corrupción apunta que para reducir los niveles de impunidad y corrupción, México debe avanzar en una agenda legislativa que vaya más allá de la ley del Sistema Nacional Anticorrupción.
The analysis prepared by Transparency Mexico notes that—although in 2014 and 2015 the Congress approved constitutional reforms that created the National System of Transparency and Anti-Corruption—it has been impossible for these changes to have a positive effect on the Corruption Perceptions Index. This comes as a result of the scandals that the federal government and leaders of the states have been involved in. […]
The organization dedicated to the fight against corruption notes that in order to reduce levels of impunity and corruption, Mexico must advance a legislative agenda that goes beyond the the law of the National System of Anti-Corruption.
With the battle against corruption far from over, Mexico today faces scandals of embezzlement and diverted resources, as well as countless other practices of political corruption. Meanwhile, constitutional reforms designed to combat corruption require secondary legislation to be implemented effectively.
The 3of3 civic initiative therefore is intended to complement and strengthen the National System of Anti-Corruption. On this score, political and academic columnist María Amparo Casar highlights the following:
La iniciativa ciudadana [Ley 3de3] tiene dos vías para prosperar: que algún partido o partidos la hagan suya o que sea dictaminada como tal. Lo que es claro es que las organizaciones y ciudadanos que la apoyamos hemos dado, en los hechos, un paso más en el compromiso no sólo de denunciar y quejarnos de los altos niveles de corrupción e impunidad que prevalecen en el país, sino de ponernos manos a la obra a través de propuestas concretas.
The [3of3] civic initiative has two ways of thriving: a party or parties make it their own or it is ruled as such. What is clear is that organizations and citizens that support it have in fact taken a step towards the commitment to not only report and complain about the high levels of corruption and impunity prevailing in this country, but to get to work through concrete proposals.
Herein lies the importance of supporting projects that seek to channel social discontent and go #FromComplainingtoActing (#DeLaQuejaALaAcción).
#Ley3de3 es la voz de muchos mexicanos que piden un cambio a favor de México y en contra de la corrupción. pic.twitter.com/gc8SmfHXHL
— Transparencia México (@IntegridadMx) 28 de febrero de 2016
#Ley3de3 [3of3 Law] is the voice of many Mexicans asking for a change in favor of Mexico and against corruption.
Expertos que participaron en la elaboración de #ley3de3 Enrique Cárdenas, María Amparo Casar, José Roldán Xopa, Juan Pardinas recolectaron firmas de apoyo a en #ParqueMéxico ley3de3.mx
Una foto publicada por Iniciativa ciudadana Ley 3de3 (@ley3de3) el
Experts that participated in the development of 3of3 Law: Enrique Cárdenas, María Amparo Casar, José Roldán Xopa, Juan Pardinas collecting supporting signatures in Parque México.

author: Giovanna Salazar


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Malaysia’s Prime Minister Scored a Trending Hashtag, But Not For the Reasons He Hoped · Global Voices
Mong Palatino

Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak poses with a group of young people for selfies. Photo: Facebook.
Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak is battling corruption charges at home, but online he's basking in the glow of a new hashtag campaign. Except the #RespectMyPM movement didn't trend on March 7 for the reasons Najib probably hoped. Instead of promoting “respect,” many Internet users used the hashtag to attack the prime minister's record as leader. Critics also promoted the rival hashtag #SuspectMyPM as a countermove.
Najib is accused of receiving more than 600 million US dollars from a state-run investment firm. He says the money deposited in his personal bank accounts was a political donation from the royal family in Saudi Arabia. The issue sparked large nationwide protests and even some of Najib’s allies are calling for his resignation.
Last January, the attorney general cleared Najib of any wrongdoing, but the movement calling for his resignation has continued to gather strength. Last week, various civil society leaders, including former Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad, signed a declaration demanding Najib’s removal from office.
It's possible that this declaration is what prompted Najib's supporters to try to garner support online with the #RespectMyPM campaign. Malaysian activists didn't invent this hashtag, however. (That feat belongs to supporters of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, following his election in 2014.) In Malaysia, Internet users revived the hashtag after a Facebook page called “Pertahan Negara Kita” (Defend Our Country) used it to encourage Najib supporters to rally behind their beleaguered prime minister.
Criticism is fine But don't damage own country. We are all Malaysians. It's our country!#RespectMyPM @NajibRazak pic.twitter.com/yitsTNfcA5
— Tan Keng Liang (@tankengliang) March 7, 2016
The hashtag gained more appeal when Cabinet Minister Azalina Othman used it in a tweet.
I am from #Johor, and I #respectmyPM pic.twitter.com/ECTqjPlUT9
— Azalina Othman Said (@YBAOS63) March 6, 2016
As the hashtag gained popularity, however, it attracted the attention of Najib's critics, who soon subverted it with posts mocking the prime minister.
I will #RespectMyPM if he decided to resign.
— Syahmi Asmari (@shamiebledsoe) March 7, 2016
Internet users cited various scandals involving Najib to popularize another hashtag, #SuspectMyPM.
I can't find a good reason to #RespectMyPM , but I have many reasons to #SuspectMyPM. pic.twitter.com/GSxWnvDJpH
— Adrian Lim Chee En (@adrianlimcheeen) March 8, 2016
A champion student debater lists the reasons why Najib should step down:
Respect cannot be forced,
Respect must be EARNED.#RespectMalaysia, not #RespectMyPM pic.twitter.com/K8HaXgwUkD
— Saddiq (@SyedSaddiq) March 7, 2016
Perhaps this tweet, by Syahredzan Johan, best sums up the story of #RespectMyPM:
#RespectMyPM is trending, but for all the wrong reasons hahahaha
— Syahredzan Johan (@syahredzan) March 6, 2016

source: news-globalvoices

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

author: Mong Palatino


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When Is an Autonomous Territory Not Autonomous? When Tajik State Media Says so? · Global Voices
The Echo of Central Asia

Gorno-Badakhshan Autonomous Oblast (GBAO) marked in red. Tajikistan borders Afghanistan to the South, China to the East, Kyrgyzstan to the North and Uzbekistan to the West. Wikipedia image.
In recent months, ex-Soviet Tajikistan's state media has stopped calling the Gorno-Badakhshan Autonomous Region (GBAO) autonomous, a trend that has caused irritation among the fiercely independent minority population that inhabits the restive territory.
GBAO — defined topographically by the soaring Pamir mountain range and culturally by the Pamiri Ismailis that make up most of its 200,000 plus population — was first formed according to a decree of the Soviet Union's Central Executive Committee on January 2, 1925.
The territory retained its autonomy throughout the Soviet Union and into the Central Asian state's independence, even after a ruinous five-year civil war that saw many of the region's people fight against the government in the ranks of the failed United Tajik Opposition (UTO).
Recent years have showed an increasing intolerance for the region's otherness on the part of the central government in Dushanbe, however.
In the independence period, tensions between the region and the regime peaked in 2012, when a high-ranking security official close to the regime was assassinated by other government officers with pasts linked to the dissolved UTO.
The Tajik government's response was a disproportionate if clumsily executed show of force.
While people still dispute who “won” the standoff between government troops and local residents that claimed several dozen lives, it is certain the government control over the region is shaky at best.
On February 19, Ato Mirhodzha, a poet and deputy chairman of the Writers’ Union of Tajikistan addressed a letter on Facebook to Mahmadsaid Pirzoda, Chairman of the State Committee for Television and Radio protesting state media's references to GBAO simply as ‘Badakhshsan province’.
He argued the apparent policy “can lead to misunderstandings between Badakhshsanis, becoming a reason for the rise of artificial contradictions.”
“Neither the Chairman of the Radio and Television, nor anyone else has the right to ignore the Constitution of Tajikistan, in which the region is officially listed as ‘Gorno-Badakhshan Autonomous Region’,” Ato Mirhodzha told RFE/RL's Tajik service, complaining weather forecasters and newsreaders in particular were systematically referring to the territory without its ‘autonomous’ designation.
On social networks GBAO locals reacted emotionally to the new tendency, with many fearing that the territory's status could could be threatened in a forthcoming constitutional referendum.
Badakhshan native Ramzess Shogunov launched a flash mob on Facebook, in which he called for a continuation of Badakhshan's autonomy.
Друзья бытует мнение , что в марте этого года планируется проведение референдума , в честь аннулирование статуса автономии БАДАХШАНА . В связи с этим предлагаю , всем кому не безразлична судьба нашей Родины , и кто хочет МИР в Таджикистане , ( Мы народ Бадахшана миролюбивы , но свою автономию мы просто так не отдадим ) сменить ” фото обложки ” на следующую фото
ведь от этого зависит судьба целого Таджикистана ..
Friends, there is an opinion that a referendum on the cancellation of Badakhshan autonomous status will take place in March this year. In connection with this we call on all those who are not indifferent to the fate of our homeland, and who want PEACE in Tajikistan […] to change their cover photo to the following photo, because this affects the fate of the whole of Tajikistan.
Gorno-Badakhshan Autonomous Oblast (GBAO)
Hundreds signed up to the initiative to use GBAO's full title as their cover photo, although some pointed out the very futility of the central government trying to assert symbolic control over the distant and geographically isolated region:
Спокойствие!!!! И это наша территория. Территория Памира. И так продали без ведома народа половину земли. Они видят, что все молча на это реагируют. А после, что будет??????
Ни он нам дал эту автономию, не ему отнять.
В 2012 году хотели за три часа, поставить на колени Бадахшан, не получилось, теперь хотят одним пером всех заткнуть и поставить…
Keep calm !!!!
This is our territory. The territory of the Pamirs. They have already sold half of this territory [to neighbouring China] without informing local people. [The government] understands we are peaceful and that is why it acts in this way. What would happen after a referendum? It was not [Rakhmon] who gave us this autonomy, so it is not his right to repeal it. They tried to bring Badakhshan to its knees in 2012, but they could not.
Eventually, the issue of GBAO's status did not appear in the text of proposed constitutional amendments that will be put before a vote in May.
Those amendments mostly relate to Tajikistan's strongman President Emomali Rakhmon, who will be allowed to stand for office an unlimited number of times if the referendum passes, and his son Rustam Emomali, who will be able to succeed him at the next election thanks to a change in the age limit for presidential candidates.
Nevertheless, ongoing tensions surrounding the region's legal status have shown that a place's name can carry a lot of weight in a part of the country where people are used to defending their independence the hard way.
Unfortunately, an even more recent development proves the government in Dushanbe is not getting the message:
The Tajik president #Rahmon agreed to rename a village in #GBAO to #Rahmonobod https://t.co/S5xaqqVJWt
— Anahita (@Anahita_SD) February 25, 2016

author: The Echo of Central Asia


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Women Fight Skin Color Prejudice With #UnfairAndLovely Campaign · Global Voices
Rezwan

Screenshot from the Instagram account @unfairandlovely_
In many parts of Africa and Asia, the mainstream concept of beauty is often associated with lighter-skinned woman. Skin-whitening cosmetics are a multi-billion dollar industry, and their products support the idea that lightening dark skin is both achievable and preferable.
The #UnfairAndLovely campaign is challenging that. The hashtag gained momentum on different social media like Twitter, Instagram and Tumblr, inspiring women to celebrate their darker skin. It began in the United States with a photo shoot, Pax Jones behind the camera and sisters Mirusha and Yanusha Yogarajah, whose parents are from Sri Lanka, modelling. All three are University of Texas students.
They shared the photos online with the hashtag #UnfairAndLovely to challenge the idea that “fair” (as seen in the name of the popular Fair and Lovely skin-lightening cream) means more beautiful.
The campaign then took off. Jones, who is black, said in an interview, “I wanted to explore how overly colorism translates into a global phenomenon, and how that impacted others from ethnic backgrounds different from my own.”
My friend's mom used to do this and it made me so sad. There's beauty in all shades #unfairandlovely⚡https://t.co/UYCSI8p40U
— Count VanDerMattson (@VanDerMattson) February 28, 2016
There have been other movements in the past against colorism. In India, a petition against Indian cosmetics company Emami called on them to withdraw a particularly discriminatory advert for Fair and Handsome cream. Another campaign called Dark is Beautiful (see Global Voices report) in 2013 pushed back against the idea that dark skin is somehow uglier or inferior. The following year, the Advertising Standards Council of India banned discriminatory commercials for skin-whitening products.
The African nation Côte d'Ivoire also banned skin-whitening creams, citing concern over lasting damage to health.
For #UnfairAndLovely, many women shared selfies on Twitter with the hashtag:
when people pick on girls w/darker skin but fail to realize our glo provides light for this society #UNFAIRANDLOVELY pic.twitter.com/5U6qgUwu56
— Tina Elaine (@sipstina) February 28, 2016
I'm #brown or bust. Love ur skin, ur hair, all of it. #brownandunbothered #unfairandlovely #stayunfair pic.twitter.com/UTqNbyw4mO
— Sangeetha (@fallenvirgo) February 29, 2016
be comfortable in your skin, dont let the media tell u the definition of beauty #unfairandlovely pic.twitter.com/pTOW0qMrLt
— rosie (@myboyjimin) February 28, 2016
No matter what shade of brown you are, you're beautiful. S/O to the #UNFAIRANDLOVELY! I love myself. 👍🏾🙌🏾 pic.twitter.com/7oppsjjJFl
— Davika (@DavikaStaar) February 28, 2016
#unfairandlovely: lankans, bangladeshis, s. indians who never fit hegemonic n.indian + colonized concepts of beauty pic.twitter.com/8KkYf008wL
— Ushka (Thanu) (@ty_ushka) March 9, 2016
Hashtag humour: #UnfairAndLovely
A sarcastic reaction to the colourism experienced by S.E. Asian women. pic.twitter.com/SFfIDdiQJi
— Femi Oke (@FemiOke) February 28, 2016
Some men joined in, as well:
I was always told it was better to be lighter, but no this is my skin and I love it #unfairandlovely pic.twitter.com/R3Cr8c3TAD
— S. Casanova (@LuchadorChris) February 27, 2016
I learnt to love myself too☺ #UNFAIRANDLOVELY #BROWNANDUNBOTHERED pic.twitter.com/tZ1wuv4WZ5
— Aqib (@Tumharaabbu) February 27, 2016
Indian YouTube star The Techy Tantrika uploaded this video in support of the campaign, sharing some of her own struggles.
In the video, she criticizes the Eurocentric idea of beauty: “I don't understand this concept of wanting to look like a different race. It doesn't make sense to me.”
Pax Jones told the Huffington Post that the campaign is “meant to be an inclusive space”:
It is for the dark-skinned queer, trans, genderqueer, non-binary, poor, fat, differently abled people of colour.
#UnfairAndLovely has teamed up with an existing campaign #ReclaimTheBindi to encourage South Asians to take pride in their culture and bring attention to the issue of colorism. The Reclaim the Bindi Week is taking place between March 8 to 14.

author: Rezwan


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Are There Happy Places in Ukraine? Use This Map to Find Out · Global Voices
Anna Poludenko-Young

The Kyiv Sahara sands on the outskirts of the city are a happy place for sure. Screenshot from Map Me Happy.
Economic crises, hunger strikes, and military attacks—this is what Google News will return if you type in “Ukraine” in the news search field. Such sombre descriptions can hardly convince anyone to pack a suitcase and come to vacation in Ukraine. Sometimes even locals question whether it is worth doing some sightseeing in the capital city of Kyiv or planning a weekend getaway to another major Ukrainian city.
But now an international group of volunteers is creating an online map of places in Ukraine where people can feel happiness in the air.
The idea behind Map Me Happy is to help both locals and tourists fall in love with the country all over again and also learn about interesting architectural objects and landscapes in Ukraine.
The creators of the new interactive map are convinced things in Ukraine are not as bad as the news headlines might suggest. While the eastern provinces are indeed embroiled in a simmering military conflict with Russia, the country is so big (Ukraine is the second largest country in Europe) that one can hardly feel the tension traveling in its western or central regions. So, to give travelers and locals some ideas of where to relax and feel a good vibe, the Map Me Happy map sprang into existence.
Map Me Happy currently maps 15 cities in Ukraine. Screenshot from the project website.
“Map Me Happy blends the interests of geographers and architects. We share a great interest in the built environment and the social reactions it provokes… To us, cities are far more than just real estate, buildings, infrastructure, land, factories or architectural designs. They are made up of the thousands of unique meanings people assign to it and by the way they use it,” explain the creators of the Map Me Happy project.
The map is essentially a crowdsourcing platform that lets any registered user mark “positive” places around the country. Currently there are 328 spots marked on the map, and the number is growing every day. Users can also search for places using filters like “positive thinking,” “positive hearing,” “positive visual,” “positive smelling” and “positive touching.” This allows to find “happy spaces” according to whichever of the six senses a user wants to engage.
For example, if you want to get inspired by some positive thinking places over the weekend, the map offers to visit Trukhaniv Island, located close to downtown Kyiv, and go for a bike ride there. Another option would be to meditate in the Kyiv Sahara sands on the outskirts of the city or just visit the spot to take some breathtaking pictures.
A bike ride on a Trykhaniv island not far from downtown Kyiv. Screenshot from Map Me Happy.
The map was launched only a month ago, so the creators are actively encouraging everyone to join the initiative and add more happy places to the map. To do that, users have to fill out a short registration form or log in with their Facebook accounts.
The collaborative project was created by Ukrainian urbanist Nastya Ponomaryova and geographers from Romania, Germany, and the Netherlands under the auspices of the Cultural Managers Exchange program.

author: Anna Poludenko-Young


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Chinese Journalists Need a Press Law for Protection · Global Voices
Patrick Wong

China press freedom was at the lowest level in Reporters Without Borders’ 2015 index. Screen capture.
“In China, a journalist is an occupation for being mocked and menaced,” a former journalist in Beijing once told this author.
From reporters derided by the public for their subservience to the party, to investigative muckrakers intimidated for exposing the darker sides of China’s economic miracle, all journalists in China are hobbled by the absence of a media law defining their rights and responsibilities.
A March 10 press conference for the 14th National People’s Congress (NPC), an annual session of China's main legislative body held in Beijing, threw the debate about China's lack of a comprehensive media law into the public spotlight once again.
A Chinese-American journalist from The China Press of the United States hit delegates at the congress with a barrage of questions:
我的问题是：新闻法已经说了几年，但是请问目前是否有时间表？如果有的话，可以公布一下吗？没有时间表，是为什么？ 为什么中国的新闻法出台这么难？
My questions: the press law has been in discussion for many years, I am wondering if there is any timetable for [developing legislation]? If there is one, could you publish it? If not, what is the reason? Why is it so hard to create a press law for China?
A NPC delegate swiftly brushed the questions aside, however: “Does any foreign journalist want to question our legislature's work? If not, today’s news conference ends now.”
A clip of the exchange broadcasted live on state-owned Chinese Central Television (CCTV) sparked a flurry of commentary on China's Twitter equivalent Weibo.
Wang Zhijun, an investigative journalist, was disappointed by the NPC delegate’s response:
从我2000年做新闻记者起，我们就呼吁出台《新闻法》，保障记者采访权益不受肮脏官员侵犯。现在16年过去了，我的师弟师妹们仍在呼吁《新闻法》，我看到这里，心中一阵悲凉。
Since I became a journalist in 2000, we have been calling for a press law that can protect journalists and their [right to] interview from pernicious officials. After sixteen years, my younger colleagues are also fighting the same battle. I felt much woe when watching [this clip].
Before posing those questions at the congress, the same journalist raised the case of reporter Zhang Yongsheng, as an example of the deteriorating environment for Chinese journalists.
Zhang Yongsheng, who worked for the Lanzhou Morning Newspaper based in Gansu province, northwestern China, was well-known to locals for his years of investigative reporting.
Zhang was detained by police when reporting a fire accident in Wuwei, a city near the capital of Lanzhou in January.
Despite receiving a warning not to report on the fire, he still set off for the scene, where police were waiting to arrest him.
The Gansu provincial judicial department subsequently ordered Zhang's detention on sex trafficking and extortion charges dating back to 2009.
Wuwei police finally released Zhang on probation after a month in jail, with the provincial judicial department dismissing his sex trafficking charge but insisting on the extortion charge. Zhang was asked to keep silent thereafter.
The provincial judicial department has not offered any evidence of Zhang's alleged attempts to extort or defraud officials to the tune of 5,000 Yuan (nearly $800), despite calls from journalists and lawyers to do so.
The Chinese judicial system is famous for its ambiguity. Defendants are often coerced into accepting their charge as a condition of release or probation.
One of Zhang’s friends said Zhang was tortured physically and psychologically by police during the interrogation.
The news arm of Tencent, one of China's best-known online portals, noted after his arrest that Zhang’s tenacious reporting had in the past ruffled the feathers of a number of local officials.
At the NPC delegate conference in Beijing, Tu Zhonghang, a journalist with the Beijing News, asked for information about how Zhang's case was developing, but this question was also ignored.
The Committee to Protect Journalists, a non-profit organization based in New York, pointed out in its 2015 annual report that there are 49 journalists in jail in China, a quarter of the known global figure of 200.
In a 2009 People’s Daily interview, Zhan Jiang, a professor at the International Journalism and Communication School of Beijing Foreign Studies University, explained some of the factors that have stymied the development of a press law.
The Chinese government, Zhan noted, has been drafting a press law since the 1980s.
After the bloodshed following the 1989 Tiananmen Square protest, however, and the collapse of the Soviet Union, drafting work came to a halt over concerns about potential social instability.
Professor Zhan supports the development of a press law:
我国宪法规定，公民有言论、集会、结社和出版等自由。这是很好的原则和规定，但是这些原则具体实施起来很难，这样，《新闻法》的价值就体现出来了，它是体现宪法精神、落实宪法原则的法律。……新闻立法的重要价值在于，可以通过这样一部法律管理新闻界和与新闻界相关的社会领域，赋予新闻界以采访、报道、评论等权利，也让新闻界承担一定的义务，防止它对社会和公民个人造成损害。
The Constitution rules that citizens have freedom of speech, for gatherings, association and publishing etc., which are good principles and rules but difficult to implement [in practice]. The values inherent in a press law can embody the sprit of the constitution and help implement it […] This law can help manage journalism and related social spheres and bestow rights on journalists to interview, report, remark and so on. It also lets journalists take some responsibilities, limiting the damage [immoral or irresponsible journalism] can sometimes inflict on society and citizens.
The huge banner says: “CCTV is sticking to the party line. We welcome your review with absolute loyalty.” (Image from Weibo)
But party hardliners see things differently.
Earlier in February, Chinese president Xi Jinping visited three state-owned media outlets—Xinhua News Agency, the People’s Daily and Chinese Central Television (CCTV), signalling the party's new policy of more stringent control over state media.
Meanwhile, Chen Yun, a former top leader of the Communist Party, believes there is no need to legislate a press law, as it “might allow others to take advantage of us”:
在国民党统治时期，制定了一个新闻法，我们共产党人仔细研究它的字句，抓它的辫子，钻它的空子。现在我们当权，我看还是不要新闻法好，免得人家钻我们空子。没有法，我们主动，想怎样控制就怎样控制。
Under the [pre-communist] Kuomintang’s domination, it legislated a press law, we communist party members carefully studied its wording, seized on it and took advantage of it [to gain the control over China by waging information campaigns]. Now we are in power, I think it is better not to allow for the development of a press law that might allow others to take advantage of us. If there is no law, we take the initiative and can control [media] as we want.

author: Patrick Wong


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Ex-South African President Mbeki Still Has His ‘Bizarre’ Beliefs on HIV and AIDS · Global Voices
Ndesanjo Macha

Former South Africa's president Thabo Mbeki says a virus cannot cause a syndrome. Image released under Creative Commons by Antônio Milena/ABr.
Former South African president Thabo Mbeki has reignited AIDS denialism controversy after writing an article titled “A Brief Commentary on The Question of HIV and AIDS.“
While in office, Mbeki and his former Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang, nicknamed “Dr. Beetroot,” were accused of denying that the HIV virus causes acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS), despite conclusive scientific evidence on the matter. Manto Tshabalala-Msimang promoted the use of lemon, beetroot, garlic and olive oil to treat AIDS.
During his presidency from 1999 to 2008, Mbeki accused scientists who linked HIV to AIDS of racism. He argued that accepting Western conventional wisdom on AIDS would be absurd and illogical. He opposed the use of antiretroviral drugs (ARVs), saying that they were “poisons” and products of greed by Western pharmaceutical companies.
He organized a Presidential Advisory Panel regarding HIV/AIDS in 2000, which attracted scientists such as Peter Duesberg and Harvey Bialy, who deny that HIV causes AIDS.
In his March 7, 2016 article, Mbeli refutes claims that he ever said that HIV does not cause AIDS. What he believes, he says, is that a virus cannot cause a syndrome:
I must also mention that I never said “HIV does not cause AIDS”. This false accusation was made by people who benefitted from trumpeting the slogan “HIV causes AIDS” as though this was a religious edict. What I said is that “a virus cannot cause a syndrome”.
As you know, AIDS is an acronym for “Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome” – therefore AIDS is a syndrome, i.e. a collection of well-known diseases, with well-known causes. They are not, together, caused and cannot be caused by one virus! I said that HIV might be a contributory cause of immune deficiency – the ID in AIDS!
‘Red Ribbon’ symbol of solidarity of people living with HIV/AIDS. Image by Flickr user Andy McCarthy UK (CC BY-NC 2.0).
It is estimated that Mbeki's views and his opposition to the use of ARVs during his presidency lead to up to 365,000 deaths from AIDS.
Responding to criticisms that his denial contributed to the number of deaths in his country, he shared data from Statistics South Africa (Statssa) showing ten leading underlying natural causes of death in 2006 in which HIV was number 9 and directed a number of questions to his critics:
As you will have seen from the above [see his full article for the figure he is referring to], what Statssa recorded as deaths from “HIV disease” came 9th in terms of the leading causes of death in South Africa in 2006, as indeed it did also in the preceding years.
I am convinced that it would be perfectly understandable that the normal, thinking African would ask the questions:
Why did it come about that so much noise was made internationally about the 9th leading cause of death in our country, with not even so much as a whimper about the 1st leading cause of death, tuberculosis?
Why would the South African Government, knowing the health condition of its own population very well, have been expected so to focus on the 9th leading cause of death as virtually to treat as less urgent and important the first eight (8) leading causes of death, even taken together?
Did this have to do with the fact that South Africa could be a lucrative market for the sale of ARVs, as it now is?
Responding to Mbeki's article, Katherine Furman, a PhD candidate in philosophy at the London School of Economics and Political Science, theorized what influenced Mbeki to take the actions that he did while president:
The international scientific community made its disagreement with him explicit in the form of the Durban Declaration, a petition signed by more than 5000 scientists that endorsed the mainstream scientific view on HIV and AIDS.
It is clear that Mbeki should have taken the objections from scientists seriously, given that they are the experts. But part of what went wrong in the Mbeki case was that he was confused about who exactly the real scientific experts were. He believed that the denialist scientists he supported were an oppressed minority group who had been unfairly treated by the scientific community – a feeling that was all too familiar to him emerging from the struggle against apartheid.
We could concede, albeit grudgingly, that maybe Mbeki’s confusion was understandable under the circumstances. But even when presented with the Durban Declaration, Mbeki didn’t step back and re-examine his views. This is an astonishing response.
Following the publication of Mbeki's article, Kerry Cullinan, managing editor for health news site Health-e.org, said Mbeki made it clear he has no remorse for his policies:
I have often wondered whether former president Thabo Mbeki has regretted his stance on HIV and AIDS, given the remarkable increase in our life expectancy since he was bundled out of power.
But today, I wondered no more as Mbeki reiterated many of his bizarre beliefs on AIDS on his website as part of a series of letters he has been writing in an attempt to reframe his presidency.
While every year under Mbeki saw a decrease in our life expectancy by a year, once he was ousted and the new government adopted an aggressive approach to combatting HIV including widespread access to antiretroviral (ARV) medicine, life expectancy has grown each year by a year.
Sanele Sano Ngcobo, a University of Pretoria junior lecturer, challenged Mbeki on the ARVs question:
Your article is indirectly denying the proven facts that antiretrovirals (ARVs) have saved lives of many South Africans.
I would like to share few ARV success stories with you.
In 2005, life expectancy in South Africa was 51 years and today it is 61 years. Zimbabwe’s life expectancy in 2000 was 44 years and today it is 60 years. Both South Africa and Zimbabwe introduced massive ARV programmes.
Due to ARVs, HIV-related deaths went down by:
All these countries started massive ARV programmes. What more proof do we need that ARVs are saving lives of our people?
You have argued that the US pharmaceutical companies wanted to benefits from provision of ARVs, however on 19 April 2001 your government successfully protected a law allowing the domestic production of cheaper, generic medicines – including ARVs – against a lawsuit filed by transnational pharmaceutical companies.
Why didn’t you invest in domestic companies to produce ARVs?
Commenting on the issue on Twitter, Africa is a Country simply said:
We're going to pretend we did not see former South African President Thabo Mbeki recycle his HIV/AIDS denialism again.
— AFRICA IS A COUNTRY (@AfricasaCountry) March 7, 2016
While Muzi Maseko advised the former president to apologise:
A simple apology from former President Mbeki, on his denialism about HIV causing AIDS which to 300 000 deaths, would have sufficed.
— Muzi_Maseko (@liNgcamane) March 9, 2016
However, Mbeki has got supporters as well. Nande N tried to explain Mbeki's position to his critics:
Mbeki's dissidents wasn't centered on the denial of AIDS existence but rather what were the causative stages & linkages between HIV & AIDS.
— Nande N (@nandnz) March 3, 2016
Msizi James wanted discussions about the former president to be about his other good leadership qualities:
Let's talk about how good Mbeki was. Apart from not believing AIDS was a real problem #SONA2016
— I'm Msizi James (@msizijames) February 11, 2016
Another user seemed to suggest that it is difficult for AIDS experts to challenge Mbeki's claim:
All these pedestrian HIV/Aids ‘experts’ who scream “Aids denialist” will find it difficult to refute what Mbeki is saying on the matter.
— #ConceptSixty5 (@Sentletse) March 7, 2016
Two independent AIDS researchers, Anthony Brink and Chris Rawiins, who also dispute the scientific consensus on the link between HIV and AIDS, have come out in support of Mbeki's article.

author: Ndesanjo Macha


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Lebanese ‘You Stink’ Protesters Are Back on the Streets · Global Voices
Amira Al Hussaini

Lebanese protesters are back on the streets of Beirut calling for a solution to the country's mounting garbage problem. Photo credit @monajem via Twitter
Thousands of Lebanese protesters are back on the streets of Beirut today calling for a solution to the country's mounting garbage problem.
Eight months ago, Tol3et Re7atkom (You Stink), a secular movement which has been demanding a “sustainable solution to Lebanon's waste disposal problem”, started protests that were attended by thousands of people across the country. On July 17, the country's largest landfill was closed and trash started overflowing across Beirut as officials continued to mishandle the refuse problem. Rubbish and summer did not go hand in hand, and as the waste bags continued to pile up along the streets of Beirut, the appalling stench poisoned the air, rubbing Lebanese people in the nose.
On their Facebook page, the group posted this parody video poking fun at Lebanon's tourism drive, showing the country's stunning nature against a backdrop of rubbish. Global Voices contributor Joey Ayoub tweets the video:
Parody video released by #YouStink activists in #Beirut, #Lebanon sending a final warming to the gov. (First 30 sec) pic.twitter.com/lmYK0IGFff
— Joey Ayoub جووي أيوب (@joeyayoub) March 12, 2016
In a comment on the video, the You Stink movement comments:
The big scandal video.. A harsh parody of the Lebanese Ministry of Tourism recent online campaign “rise above lebanon”. A video showing the brutal reality those corrupt who are in power don't want us to see.. “The last warning” Saturday 12th of March, at 4pm Sassine Square, You_stink and you are killing us..
And it was a final warning. Thousands of Lebanese from all walks of life joined protesters to make their voices heard, not only protesting against the way the government has (not) dealt with the rubbish problem but also against the government's corruption. Global Voices contributor Mohamad Najem shares this video from today's protest:
Lack of gov in finding solution for garbage issue for 8 months led to more protests in #Beirut. Thousands r here pic.twitter.com/xeWEQ9hSy1
— Mohamad محمد (@monajem) March 12, 2016
Rima Moussaoui shares this photograph:
Live in #Beirut #AntiCorruptionMovement pic.twitter.com/pTMWn1Njug
— Rima Moussaoui (@rima_moussaoui) March 12, 2016
And Bassem Mroue says the protest is continuing until nightfall:
#Beirut protest continues after sunset #Lebanon pic.twitter.com/KzHEvJlesb
— Bassem Mroue (@bmroue) March 12, 2016
Habib Battah shares this photograph by Nabih Bulos which shows that the protesters mean business:
You know they are staying late when the ice cream man shows up. #Beirut #Youstink #dessert #activism https://t.co/2GYdGJMeQK
— Habib Battah (@habib_b) March 12, 2016
Bulos adds that the protesters are calling for a general strike starting Monday:
#YouStink #طلعت_ريحتكم movement calls for general strike starting Monday #Lebanon parliament.
— Nabih (@nabihbulos) March 12, 2016
Stay tuned for more coverage from Lebanon as this story evolves.

author: Amira Al Hussaini


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#OccupyTheSquare Protest Wins a Victory Against Moral Policing in Sri Lanka · Global Voices
Rezwan

Screenshot from Instagram #OccupyTheSquare – Click on the image to see more photos
On 6 March, hundreds of people gathered at the Independence Square in the Sri Lankan capital Colombo holding placards against hostility from security guards towards men and women being together in the square.
The #OccupyTheSquare efforts paid off. After the protest, authorities canceled the contract with the government-owned security company and reiterated that people should be able to go to the square without being harassed.
It all started a day before, when Mirshad Buckman from Colombo posted a video on Facebook which went viral (seen more than 182,000 times). The video showed two security officers attempting to shoo Mirshad and his girlfriend out of Independence Square, mentioning that the Cultural Affairs Ministry ordered them to do so:
Me and my girlfriend were just sitting and chilling at Independence square and these idiots came and said that it was culturally wrong for a male and female to sit together at a public space. According to these idiots we have to have a child with us to sit together at independence square. I urge all you lovers or couples to go there and do the same. Lets see what these idiots do again.
As the video started making the rounds, someone created a Facebook event, which attracted more than a thousand people to say they would participate, for a protest at the Independence Square, a symbol of Sri Lanka’s freedom.
Vox Populi! #OccupyTheSquare #CelebrateLove #lka pic.twitter.com/Lct1Cz9aDB
— Aman Ashraff (@amanashraff) March 5, 2016
As per the Occupy Sri Lanka Facebook page, the event was organised by independent, like-minded individuals without any political alignments or organizations behind them.
Maryam Azwer wrote about the significance of the protest for the online portal Roar.lk:
Although Sri Lanka has a reputation for evicting couples from public places such as Independence Square and Vihara Maha Devi Park, this is probably the first time people chose to openly question such actions on the part of authorities, and raise their voices against it.
People also reacted on social media.
Freedom to be Free !! #OccupytheSquare https://t.co/beohIqvpID pic.twitter.com/xQoUfbpfqr
— DailyMirror (@DMbreakingnews) March 7, 2016
It is crazy on how the power of social media, can influence a dozen people to silently protest for human rights. #lka #occupythesquare
— Rehan Fernando (@MrRehanFernando) March 7, 2016
Iam going with my imagination girlfriend #occupythesquare https://t.co/ngXk6sMEx4
— Mithun Dhananjaya (@031mith) March 5, 2016
Occupy The Square! #protest #occupythesquare #Colombo #srilanka #missionaccomplished #06033016
A photo posted by @devakaperera on
We're here. #occupythesquare
A video posted by *imaad majeed (@imimaad) on
Chamara Sumanapala said on Facebook:
Some seven years ago, the cultural police goons at Independence Square did the same thing to me. They have not grown up, but we have. Tomorrow I will be at Independence Square to stop this idiocy once and for all. #OccupytheSquare #Kuliyapitiya #TalibanRulesInLanka
Blogger Malinda Seneviratne called the protests a celebration:
Today, March 6, 2016, there was a protest of sorts. Well, we could also call it a celebration. It was in a sense a questioning of the meaning of ‘freedom’ that intangible something that's often associated or confused with ‘independence’. It was about, let's say, the right to be, the right to love, the right to show affection and about objecting to those who interpret vague guidelines as per their own understanding of propriety. It's all grey. Anyway, there was quite a crowd.
Some also questioned the campaign:
#lka government tend to ignore real issues and concentrate hard on trending topics on #socialmedia
first the bra now #occupythesquare
— Thilan වික්‍රමසිංහ (@thila794) March 7, 2016
@thila794 was referring to President Maithripala Sirisena's public call for singer Enrique Iglesias to be punished over the behavior of some of his fans at his concert in December, which including someone throwing a bra at the musician while he was on stage.
However, the blogger at Icaruswept explained:
But it is an issue that people were willing to stand up for. This country faces tons of issues. People stand up for what they can. Some protest education. Some protest medicine. We all do what we can and what we can do with mininimum deviation to our usual lifestyles.
Opinions were divided on whether the security guards in question should be punished or sacked. Mihiri Lakshini Weerasena opined on Facebook not to go hard on those two guards:
The blame is on whoever INSTRUCTED the guards, most probably verbally. […] They shouldn't be sacked, scapegoated, or reprimanded. Their behaviour is just a result of an attitude adopted by their higher-ups. The apathy of victims before this, who failed to correct this sort of thing when it first turned up probably only strengthened the ministry's conviction that these sort of orders are ok to give out.
Go to the root of the problem, which is probably with some stone-age man sitting behind a desk at the cultural ministry!
Sri Lankan Deputy Foreign Affairs Minister Dr. Harsha de Silva visited the Independence Square monument on 6 March to inquire about the allegations that security guards were driving away unmarried couples. He reportedly spoke with Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe about it, who then ordered the Culture Ministry to cancel the contract with the government-owned company responsible for security at the Independence Square.
Dr. Silva posted on Facebook that the prime minister has also instructed to remove the director of operations of the security company. He wrote:
This whole episode seem to be divided in some agreeing and others disagreeing with me. However what the whole country sees is that at least there is healthy debate and the government is listening.
The government said in a statement that Independence Square is a public property and the general public can go there and see the monument without any harassment. This is indeed a victory for protesters and all those who supported it.
Jon well done! Hats off to those who initiated #OccupyTheSquare and who took part. Pics: #OccupySL #SriLanka pic.twitter.com/4SoFv47hny
— Sri Lanka (@SriLanka) March 6, 2016
The battle isn't over, however, Maryam Azwer warned:
While it appears that couples can now stay at Independence Square without being harassed by authorities, it is yet to be seen whether or not they will be granted equal freedom in other public areas like Vihara Maha Devi Park.


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A Nigerian Start-Up Is Creating a New World of African Superheroes · Global Voices
PRI/PRX's The World

Comic Republic. Credit: Photo courtesy of Comic Republic.
This article by Kenny Sokan originally appeared on PRI.org on February 26, 2016, and is republished here as part of a content-sharing agreement.
In the world of superheroes, characters of color are few. Even worse, the incorporation of their ethnic cultures, if identified, is subpar.
But Comic Republic, a Nigerian startup based in Lagos, is creating a world of genuine and uniquely African superheroes.
Debuting in 2013, Comic Republic's flagship character is Guardian Prime, the protector of the human race.
“He’s really just based on faith in self. Faith in self. Basically we’re trying to say, look, if you believe that you can do anything, then you can,” said CEO Jide Martin. “The only limit there is, is that which you set for yourself … which is the premise of his power. He’s like the fifth element. We call him the hand of God. And he’s only as strong, or as fast or as invulnerable as he believes he is.”
All of Martin's characters are rooted in morality, something the Comic Republic did hoping to get back to the basics of heroism.
He is the Guardian born to the human race as is customary every 2000 years. Credit: Photo courtesy of Comic Republic
“We are starting to forget what it means to be human, or we don’t value being good, being just. … And it’s because our orientation has changed,” says Martin. “Even comics nowadays, from the main producers, are starting to lose that sense.”
“In general we try to make sure that all our heroes end up with a good moral ending that says do good, be good and life will be good to you.”
Unlike Marvel's Storm from its X-Men series and Black Panther, who both hail from the fictional country of Wakanda in Africa, Martin’s characters are truly African born and bred.
Bound by oath to haunt the night as a force of retribution, the people of this city have called him many names, but one echoes the loudest. ERU, fear itself, walks among us. Credit: Photo courtesy of Comic Republic
Eric Kukoyi is a lecturer at the University of Lagos who also works part time as a psychiatrist and parapsychologist. At night he fights crime, becoming Eru, short for iberu, which means fear in Yoruba.
“[He is] the essense of fear of fear trapped in a man,” says Martin.
Ireti, which mean hope in Yoruba, is the product of a deal between a Yoruba king and a deity. She grows up to be a great warrior with superhuman powers, leading armies, conquering enemy kingdoms, serving as protector of her tribe.
Ireti: Her tale is one not told without the heart to stomach it, her legend is one not carried by cowards and her might is one no evil dares question. Credit: Photo courtesy of Comic Republic
Hoping to increase comic reading in Nigeria, Comic Republic made its comics available for free download on its website.
The company started with 100 downloads for its first issue and went up to 300 after the first month. A recent count showed 38,000 downloads for the last issue. But Martin believes the number of people who have read the comics could be higher because people can share them.
“For the past one year, our fan base has been increasing steadily. … This year we just suddenly hit the media and the world just loves us. It’s been amazing, actually,” says Martin.
Readership is about 40 percent from the US, 30 percent from Nigeria, 20 percent from Europe and the rest of the world shares the remaining 10 percent.
To make money, Comic Republic takes on side projects with various organizations. In 2015, it worked with the organizers of the African Future awards, drawing all 55 nominees as superheroes. It has an ongoing project with an NGO dealing in Malaria education, making a special comic of Superheroes that go from town to town, battling malaria, teaching people what to do. The startup has done similar work for a pharmacy and trading website.
Fans have dubbed Comic Republic’s cast of characters “Africa’s Avengers” and Martin hopes one day the they’ll be just as big as the Marvel team.
“I’m hoping that we become a household name like the big two. I mean, I’m hoping that when people want to talk about comics, they go ‘Comic Republic, DC and Marvel,’” says Martin. “I’m hoping kids will be able to say, ‘what would Guardian Prime do?’”

author: PRI/PRX's The World


text:
Tumeremo Cries Out for Its 28 Missing Miners on the Only Road That Connects It to the Rest of Venezuela · Global Voices
Morelia Morillo

Photos of the missing miners from Tumeremo, Venezuela. Photo: Courtesy.
This article is a version of the texts originally published by Morelia Morillo on her blog Las Crónicas de la Frontera. The original versions were published under the titles Tumeremo vela sus 28 sobre la Troncal 10 and Un volteo y mucho dolor. This version is published by Global Voices with permission.
At five o'clock on the morning of Saturday, March 5, 2016, the men and women in Tumeremo (a town in Bolivar state, near the border with Guyana and Brazil) woke up to confront the pain from the previous night.
Without identifying themselves, because here everyone is afraid of the destructive power of “El Topo”, they say they will close the Troncal 10 road until the 28 persons who disappeared in the Atenas mine will come back. At least four of the missing are women.
Hendry Norberto Bonalde, aka “El Topo”, is the leader of one of the four criminal gangs that control the mines in Bolivar state. About six years ago his gang, and other gangs, moved to the South of the state to seize control of the deposits. The Fundo Atenas is a rural area of grassland and savannah where recently there was an unexpected and prolific discovery of gold. Trocal 10 is the only road that links the deep South of Venezuela to the rest of the country.
At dawn, the mourners began to walk through the town on the narrow streets, filled with houses and stores close to each other, until they reached the public transportation terminal. Then, they stretched a rope between the ends of the road to block the traffic. It is a vigil in the middle of the street. With coffee, tears, hugs and condolences. An Evangelical Christian prays through a megaphone.
Waiting in line there are primarily heavy transport vehicles: gasoline and gas tankers, trucks with timber, with gas, with various types of merchandise, and just a few personal vehicles; given the blockade, most of them returned to their departure point or passed through during those few minutes when the mourners lift the barrier, early in the morning or at dawn, out of consideration for the users of the Troncal 10 road.
“People are not to be blamed, a woman gave birth inside a bus,” one woman told me.
The people do not demand justice or compensation, but simply plead for the remains of their neighbors, their friends, their brothers, their husbands to be returned. A woman had her three children killed. They want to give them a Christian burial.
After six days of civic protests, the authorities forcibly cleared Troncal 10. According to the deputy in the National Assembly, Americo de Grazia:
Hay un soldado en cada esquina, pero sin rastro de los 28 desaparecidos
There's a soldier on every corner, but no trace of the 28 missing
The massacre had happened during the early hours of Saturday, March 5. Those who managed to get out of Atenas, halfway between Guasipati and Tumeremo, described the massacre from which they miraculously escaped.
Desperate, dirty, with ragged clothes, sweaty, in tears, carrying their shovels and pans, they recounted how the men of El Topo's gang put up several checkpoints between El Frío and Atenas, stopped those who wanted to pass, took their gold and shot those who resisted.
After the killing, El Topo's crew would have butchered the bodies with a chainsaw and then put the remains on a dump truck's platform so they could take them to Hoja de Lata, the mine of “El Topo” (located in the area disputed by Guyana and Venezuela).
In Tumeremo few people are willing to give statements. Those who agree to speak out do so in groups and without identifying themselves. A neighbor explains:
Cuando uno se pone a hablar, viene uno de los que trabaja para él y manda a callar a uno inmediatamente. Ese, El Topo es un colombiano, paramilitar, dueño de aquellos lados de Hoja de Lata.
When someone starts talking, a person who works for El Topo comes and shuts the person up immediately. This individual, El Topo, is a Colombian paramilitary who owns those sides of Hoja de Lata.
Francisco Rangel Gómez, the governor of Bolivar state, denied that these events happened. He said that this was a media campaign from the opposition which intends to make “invisible” the three years of “legacy of Chavez“, the three years that have passed since his death.
Francisco Sucre and Ligia Delfín, deputies for Bolivar state, requested that the Governor Rangel Gomez be questioned for his “irresponsible” attitude:
El sur de Bolívar se ha convertido en una especie de “tierra de nadie” bajo la complacencia de Rangel y de funcionarios policiales
The South of Bolivar has become a kind of “no man's land” under the indulgence of Rangel and police officials.
Meanwhile, at a checkpoint of the Bolívar State Police (PEB), a policeman explains to a citizen who requests information:
Si usted es venezolano, debe saber que toda esta zona está tomada por los llamados sindicatos.
If you are Venezuelan, you should know that this whole area is taken by so called unions.
This is how the armed gangs who demand money or gold for one's life are called here.
The people do not demand justice or compensation, but simply plead for the bodies of their neighbors, their friends, their brothers, their husbands, to be returned. A woman had her three children killed. The people want to give them a Christian burial. Photo: Courtesy.
In front of the terminal, the families, friends and neighbors of those 28 men and women who left for work on Friday, March 4, 2016 and haven't returned since are still there. Under the saman tree, the bereaved spread a white banner were they have been placing photos of the missing: José Armando, José Ángel and Néstor de José Ruiz; José Gregorio and Junior Romero; Mary Dalia and Marielis Ruiz; Luis Díaz; Javier Cáceres; Cristóbal Heredia, Carlos Carvajal, Ángel Trejo, José Nieves; Gustavo Guevara; Róger Romero and Jairo, without surname. Right there, a girl with a gold tooth laments that some people believe what's going on at Tumeremo is a political act:
Solamente somos un pueblo herido por la desaparición de sus familiares y aquí estamos libres de presión, el que quiere acompañarnos, puede acompañarnos”.
We are just people hurt by the disappearance of our relatives and we are here free from pressure, anyone who wants to join us can do so.”
However, there are those who, for fear of reprisals, prefer to stay locked in their homes.
She admitted that it was not the first time this happened, although in the past there were not so many victims or people from the town.
Se sabía que existía, gente de afuera que venía a arriesgarse la vida en una mina, pero estos son hijos de Tumeremo.
It was known it happened, outsiders who came to risk their lives in a mine, but this time they are the sons and daughters of Tumeremo.
After days of waiting, she just wants those responsible for her family's tragedy to bring back the bodies of the victims:
Así sea un montón de arena al cual abrazarse
Even if it's just a pile of sand to embrace

author: Morelia Morillo


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A Belgian University Puts Out a Welcome Mat for Refugees · Global Voices
PRI/PRX's The World

The VUB/Free University of Brussels campus in Etterbeek Credit: Big Apple/Creative Commons
This article by Jeb Sharp originally appeared on PRI.org on March 7, 2016, and is republished here as part of a content-sharing agreement.
When Mohammad Salman moved to Belgium to pursue a Ph.D. in political science back in 2010, he had every intention of returning home to Syria. He was on a full scholarship from the Syrian government, after all.
But then the war broke out. And as sanctions kicked in against the Syrian government, Salman's money dried up.
“Financially, it was a really bad time for me,” he says. He's talking about 2013 and 2014. At one point, his bank account was down to 80 euros (about $90).
But his professors at VUB, the Free University of Brussels, weren't willing to abandon him.  They scrounged up some grant money, gave him some teaching work and encouraged him to finish his thesis within six to nine months.
He did it. And because he'd been in Belgium for five years by the time he finished, he was eligible to apply for citizenship, which he received.
Mohammad Salman Credit: Courtesy Mohammad Salman/VUB
Now he’s ready to give back. He’s been hired to start a new program at VUB to welcome between 100 and 200 refugees come fall. They must have asylum papers and they must be eligible for higher education. He’s had 800 applications so far.
“I am so happy to support this program,” he says. “I see myself in each of them.”
It's up to Salman to verify applicants’ diplomas and other documents from back home. And it's also up to him to vet them for the kind of openmindedness and freedom of thought the Free University is known for.
“We will quickly feel whether it's people who fit,” says Koen Van den Abeele, who coordinates a university task force on refugees.
Van den Abeele did the initial research to see what sort of demand there might be for the program and he had a hard time getting data from government officials.
“They were very reluctant to give that data because it's interview information, which is quite confidential,” says Van Den Abeele. But eventually he found someone willing to give him some inside information. About 23 percent of the people who applied for asylum in Belgium last year reported that they were studying before they fled their countries of origin.
Van den Abeele was amazed.
“It's people between 18 and 25,” he says. “You cannot just let them live for the rest of their days on social welfare! They have ambition, they want to do something, they want to feel part of this society.”
Not everyone thinks the way he does. Europe, just like the US, has its share of anti-immigrant, anti-refugee sentiment. But countries like Belgium are also desperate for skilled workers.
“We see people with engineering diplomas,” Van Den Abeele says. “We see architect engineers, civil engineers, we see industrial engineers, mathematicians, scientific highly-skilled people. Those people are valuable for the Belgian economic situation. At this time there are vacancies for engineers which are open for the last six months. They don't find anybody!”
And even without the economic argument, there's another reason to care about educating newcomers, according to Van den Abeele.
He says Belgium failed to integrate the children of its North African immigrants, leading to the ghettos and segregation blamed for helping to create terrorists.
“If we don't want to reproduce the same issue I think we have to focus on integrating those people,” says Van den Abeele. “And for us, studying is still the best way of integrating people into a society.”
It's certainly a way to make people feel grateful. Van den Abeele's Syrian colleague Mohammad Salman is passionate about his homeland, but also about his new country, Belgium. And he knows that he too might have been trapped inside Syria as it disintegrated. He too might have had to make that treacherous journey across Europe. Which is why he's only too happy to spend his days sifting through applications from refugees hoping to enroll on his campus.  He hopes other universities in Belgium will follow suit.


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How Cambodian Politics Became a Battle for Facebook ‘Likes’ · Global Voices
Mong Palatino

Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen. Photo: Facebook
Cambodia’s opposition leader, Sam Rainsy, faces a defamation suit after he claimed in a Facebook post that the government is creating and buying fake accounts to boost “artificially” Prime Minister Hun Sen's support on the website.
On March 6, 2016, the number of likes of Hun Sen’s Facebook page reached 3 million—a remarkable development, given that Hun Sen only endorsed the page six months ago. Meanwhile, Sam Rainsy’s page has 2 million likes
The newspaper Phnom Penh Post published an analysis of Hun Sen’s recent Facebook likes, finding that 779,000 Facebook accounts liked Hun Sen's page in the past month, but only 157,331 were located in Cambodia. Most of the accounts were based in India (255,692) and the Philippines (98,256). Despite having a million fewer followers, Sam Rainsy has more Facebook likes from accounts located in Cambodia, the newspaper's investigation found.
PM #HunSen has 1.73 Cambodian Likes while #SamRainsy has 1.83 Cambodian Likes #PoliticsKhhttps://t.co/06kuYgOZ2Z pic.twitter.com/9Jf59eGy2O
— OU RITTHY (@ritthyou) March 9, 2016
This prompted Sam Rainsy to accuse the government of promoting Hun Sen's  Facebook page by “hiring poor and jobless” Internet users in India and the Philippines.
A significant number of those “likes” were obtained by hiring poor and jobless people to create fake Facebook accounts so as to provide artificial “likes” to Hun Sen. Most of the people hired to do so are living in India and the Philippines.
He uploaded a photo containing instructions from a government minister on how civil servants should maximize support on Facebook for Hun Sen. Members of the ruling Cambodian People's Party have also reportedly been urged to unlike the Facebook page of Sam Rainsy:
- Get into SR (Sam Rainsy)'s Page to “Unlike” it so as to reduce the number of “Likes” for this page.
- Executives at all party (CPP) levels must constantly monitor the execution, at the grassroots levels, of the above tasks that are part of a vast campaign to secure victory at the forthcoming elections.
Sam Rainsy said the instructions prove how the government is manipulating the surge in popularity of Hun Sen’s Facebook page:
These instructions clearly show that the ruling CPP is pushing — on a large scale — its officials, supporters and networks — including civil servants, policemen and soldiers — to create fake Facebook accounts in order to provide artificial “likes” to Hun Sen's Facebook page.
A minister mentioned by Sam Rainsy confirmed that the government is aggressively endorsing Hun Sen's Facebook page, but denied that it is creating fake accounts. He accused Sam Rainsy of twisting the truth and maligning the reputation of the country’s leader.
Regardless of the authenticity of the accounts liking the Facebook page of Hun Sen, the social media strategy of the prime minister seems to be working. He was cited by the Burston-Marsteller PR firm for having the second-highest “engagement rate” in terms of Facebook usage of world leaders. The study covered 512 Facebook pages representing 169 governments around the world.
Who are the most engaged world leaders on #Facebook? https://t.co/iQXYKP0TV3 pic.twitter.com/plXm3bUJXW
— Burson-Marsteller (@B_M) January 18, 2016
The study examines Hun Sen’s active promotion of Facebook to address the people’s concerns. Last January, he instructed government ministries to monitor the suggestions and grievances posted by citizens on Facebook.
Many are amused by Hun Sen's Facebook posts, but his critics believe it is a strategy to soften the image of a leader who has clung to power for three decades now. Some groups also observed that Internet-related arrests have been rising over the past year, which undermines the country’s commitment to free speech.


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Social Media’s impact on the 2016 general election in Niger · Global Voices
Fatima Alher

A post of all top-tier candidates in Niger – by the author
The first round of the Nigerien 2016 general elections took place Sunday, February 21, 2016. The second round will take place on March 20, 2016 to elect the president and national assembly members.
In Niger, the electoral system consists of two rounds of first-past-the-post voting. A candidate is elected if he or she receives more than 50% of the vote. If not, the two candidates having received the most votes compete in the second round, which takes place three weeks later.  The winner of the second round becomes president.
The outgoing president, 63 year-old Issoufou Mahamadou, is seeking a second-five year term. According to results published this Friday, February 26th by the National Independent Electoral Commission (CENI), he is credited with nearly 48.41%, forcing him to confront his main opponent in the second round- Hama Amadou, who has received on his part 17.41% of the vote. The opposition has already accused authorities of fraud and announced they would not recognize the results. But the opposition is not the only one making accusations : a number of observers are questioning the CENI's operations. Even in the front-runner's camp, some find polling carried out in haste, with polling station members named and trained at the last minute.
It's as if the operation was too heavy for the officials’ shoulders
confided a member of the government. The second round is gearing up between Amadou and Issoufou, which opens Tuesday, March 8, 2016 at midnight, and will close Friday, March 18, 2016 at midnight.
Mapping of the first-round of elections in Niger via G. Luton
The use of social media by Nigerien youth during these elections is very promising. Between various discussions on the electoral process, young people and supporters of the different candidates and political parties are expressing themselves in order to give their views on the elections via Facebook, Twitter, and Whatsapp; easily conveying information from around the country. We are are also expecting to monitor the vote live in different corners of the country, and the subsequent announcement of the results via social media. The youth are no longer interested in radio or TV, because a smartphone is more than enough to follow events live.  Therefore, the result of everything that is happening in the country is posted on Twitter with the hashtags : #présidentielles #team223 #jevote  #jevote #pourlastabilité #Takara2016 #NigerVote #niger.
For the first time in the democratic history of the country, social media has played an important role in the campaigns of the different candidates and parties.  For journalists and media figures, the various publications have been a truth wealth of information. These new means of communication have allowed high-level dialogue; on the one hand to be debated and documented between Nigeriens of diverse backgrounds, and on the other between political adversaries. As well they've allowed our leaders an insight into what the international press in particular think of our elections.  Moreover, we can see that social media allows our policy makers, who are becoming more and more present on social media, to listen to the concerns of a conscious generation and possibly address those concerns once in power.
Finally, it's important to note that the most important problems in Niger which are election fraud, civil disorder, corruption, misappropriation of funds, unemployment, and the looming threat of the armed group Boko Haram, have been discussed extensively on social media.

author: Fatima Alher


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Why China’s Clampdown on Ren Zhiqiang Matters · Global Voices
Jack Hu

Ren Zhiqiang. Photo: Beijing Tsinghua University CIDEG Center
Many Chinese online opinion leaders and celebrities were silenced following the ‘crackdown on rumors’ in 2013 and netizens have became less vocal in speaking out against the disappearance of dissenters on social media, seeing the repression of dissidents as a part of the new political order under President Xi Jinping.
Yet the recent suppression of property mogul Ren Zhiqiang has caught many by surprise as Ren is “a second generation red”, whose father was a recognised communist, and is considered both a patriot and a Chinese Communist Party (CCP) loyalist.
Ren had earned the nickname “the Cannon” or “China’s Donald Trump” for his provocative opinions and blunt criticism of government policies.
His Weibo account, which had more than 37 million followers, was shut down at the end of February after he dared to comment on Xi's media policy that demanded party loyalty from all state media.
The case has thus become a political thermometer on Xi's attitudes towards internal ideological differences inside the party, with the silencing of Ren raising the question of whether anyone can truly be deemed safe from future political purges.
Before the Cyberspace Administration of China ordered major social media portals including Sina and Tencent to delete Ren's account, Ren had already become the target of a smear campaign directed by Qianlong, a news outlet working under the direct supervision of the propaganda department of the Beijing CCP committee.
One article, headlined “Who gave Ren the confidence to oppose the Party?”, labelled the businessman as anti-party and accused him of making capitalist arguments and pursuing Western constitutionalism.
Another scolded him for failing to defend the interests of the Communist Party and warned that “any attempt to provoke a disturbance and stir up hate will encounter the people’s opposition, and netizens’ teaching him a lesson in Communism is the best proof.”
Yet another top-level party magazine, Red Flag Manuscript, accused Ren and two others of spreading “anti-party” speech via Weibo.
Political labels such as “anti-party”, coupled with the threat that people would “teach him a lesson” are eerily evocative of the political purges during the Cultural Revolution that began in 1966 and raged for a decade before Chairman Mao Zedong's death.
Born in 1951, Ren Zhiqiang is different from most dissenters in 21st century China.
Like Xi Jinping, his parents are first generation CCP members.
His father Ren Quansheng was China's Vice Minister of Commerce in 1970s, while Ren Zhiqiang served as a platoon leader in the People’s Liberation Army from 1969 to 1981 before going into construction with the state.
From 1993-2014 he was president of the important real estate-focussed Huayuan Group Corporation.
As a property tycoon, Ren enjoyed making comment about the real estate market on social media.
In 2009, his comment that “anyone who can’t afford a house in the city should go back to the countryside” attracted significant criticism, and he had shoes lobbed in his direction at a real estate association meeting in 2010.
In recent years, he has branched out into politics.
When delivering a speech at Beijing University in 2013, he urged students to push down the wall and rebuild a democratic socialist system. The comment saw him labelled a western constitutionalist by party mouthpieces.
Last year, when he attended the annual meeting of the top 50 Chinese economists, he warned the party against strong-arm policies on dissent and western values and expressed concerns over the potential return of the Cultural Revolution.
In September Ren wrote articles on his Weibo to denounce the communist slogan “Being Ready for Communist Successors” issued by the Communist Youth League, accusing the League of having cheated him for decades and continuing to fool youth.
On October 1, Chinese National Day, he said on Weibo that the date did not mark the birth of a nation but a new communist government, which was formed on that date back in 1949.
Although technically correct, his comment was interpreted as a gesture to separate the party and the state, a recipe for political trouble.
Ren's criticism of Xi's media policy appears to have been the final straw.
There is no secret that within the CCP, there are significant disagreements on the political transformations affecting China.
Some are constitutionalists, advocating more internal party-democracy, while others believe in Maoist centralisation of power.
To prevent inner party struggle, a new set of CCP member disciplinary rules was announced on October 22, 2015, which specifies that the “improper discussion of central government policy” could result in members being expelled from the party.
Some anticipate that Ren will be expelled from the CCP for his critical remarks.
However, such a decision would not be welcomed by all.
Tsai Xia, a professor from the Central Party School pointed out the handling of Ren's case would have a bearing on over 80 million party members:
对任志强的发表意见如何处置，不仅是任志强的事，更和8000多万党员的权利能否得到保护直接相连。 […]营造8000多万党员都能大胆讲真话讲心里话的党内民主氛围，是真正的爱党护党，而扣帽子堵塞言路，对党则有百害而无一利。就此，我们的党网、党刊该怎么做，是否需要再想想了?
How to handle Ren Zhiqiang's comment affects not only Ren. It is directly linked to whether the rights of more than 80 million members can be properly protected […] To create a democratic atmosphere where 80 million plus members can voice their thoughts is the right way to love and protect the party. Political labels obstruct free speech and harm the party. Shouldn't party-affiliated websites and magazines be reflecting upon what it is doing now?
Tsai Xia has since been advised not to make further comment on Ren while top authorities have reportedly ordered the West District Party Commission of Beijing to take further action against Ren.
There has been no official confirmation of the property magnate's fate, however.

author: Jack Hu


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Bahrain Arrests Activist Zainab Al Khawaja Along With Her One-Year-Old Baby · Global Voices
Amira Al Hussaini

Zainab Al Khawaja with her 15-month-old son Abdul-Hadi were arrested in Bahrain on March 14. Photo source: Gulf Centre for Human Rights
Bahrain arrested activist Zainab Al Khawaja, along with her 15-month-old son, Abdul-Hadi, on March 14. The arrest comes on the fifth anniversary of the arrival of troops from Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates to crush pro-democracy protests that have gripped the nation since February 14, 2011.
Known as Angry Arabia on Twitter for her fiery and emotional reactions to what was happening around her during the harsh security crackdown on dissidents, the 33-year-old's last tweets date from 2015. It is not known what triggered her arrest, particularly since she has sentences totaling three years and a month in prison pending last year —  sentences which are being commuted only today.
According to the Gulf Human Rights Centre (GHRC):
On 02 June 2015, WHRD Zainab Al-Khawaja was sentenced to nine months in prison after trying to visit her father human rights defender and co-founder of the Gulf Centre for Human Rights (GCHR) Abdulhadi Al-Khawaja in Jaw prison in August 2014 when he was on hunger-strike. That sentence was upheld on 2 February 2016 in absentia.
On 03 December 2015, Al-Khawaja also lost her right to appeal in three other cases that were heard in court. Two charges of two-month sentences were first handed down on 09 December 2014 for “destroying public property” when she ripped a picture of the King at Budaiyah police station, as well as a charge of allegedly “insulting a public official” (a police officer), for which she was sentenced to one year in prison. On her birthday which is, 21 October 2015, the court reduced a three-year sentence to one year for ripping up a picture of Bahrain’s monarch during a court hearing in October 2014.
She is sentenced to a total of three years and one month in prison, on a variety of charges including two sentences for ripping a picture of Bahrain’s monarch and one year in prison for allegedly “insulting” a police officer. Furthermore, her one-year-old son is being denied a birth certificate and documentation and her own passport has not been renewed.
The centre further adds that Zainab may have been arrested to pressure her sister Maryam Al Khawaja, a human rights activist also, from pursuing her work:
The GCHR believes that the timing for this house raid and arrest are likely to be in response to the work of Zainab Al-Khawaja’s sister and GCHR Co-Director Maryam Al-Khawaja. Maryam just attended the Human Rights Council 31st session, and was also currently in Zurich for the FIFA elections during which (member of the Bahrain ruling family) Shaikh Salman Alkhalifa lost his presidential bid.
Maryam is also the co-director of the GHRC.
Maryam, who has 102K followers on Twitter, tweeted her sister's arrest as soon as it happened, generating reactions from far and wide condemning the arrest:
URGENT: #Bahrain: Zainab Al-Khawaja Arrested with 15 month old son after her home was raided by police: https://t.co/iK76Sn6Ju0
— Maryam Alkhawaja (@MARYAMALKHAWAJA) March 14, 2016
Maryam also describes how 15 police jeeps blocked off the road to arrest the young woman and her toddler:
URGENT: #Bahrain: Zainab Al-Khawaja Arrested with 15 month old son after her home was raided by police: https://t.co/iK76Sn6Ju0
— Maryam Alkhawaja (@MARYAMALKHAWAJA) March 14, 2016
#PT there were riot police, police in civilian clothing and female police. They shut down the entire street in front of the apt #Bahrain
— Maryam Alkhawaja (@MARYAMALKHAWAJA) March 14, 2016
#PT there were 15 police jeeps there to arrest her #Bahrain
— Maryam Alkhawaja (@MARYAMALKHAWAJA) March 14, 2016
And she further explains:
All of Zainab Alkhawaja’s charges are related to freedom of expression and association. #UK training going great #Bahrain
— Maryam Alkhawaja (@MARYAMALKHAWAJA) March 14, 2016
While the arrest of Zainab is expected in a country that now has imprisoned (and released) thousands of people on politically motivated charges, the online world was appalled at the arrest of her one-year-old son.
From Dublin, Elaine Masons tweets:
Is it not enough that they Jail the Elderly, the Sick, The Youth, Women & Children … Now it's 1yr Olds Aswell. #Bahrain
— FREE BH DETAINEES (@ElaineMasons) March 14, 2016
And British-Kurdish blogger Ruwayda Mustafah wonders:
#Bahrain seems to be tightening noose on dissidents, just don’t understand why one-year-old child is arrested. https://t.co/LLFpjz7cxB
— Ruwayda Mustafah (@RuwaydaMustafah) March 14, 2016


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Between Hashtags and Memes, Bolivian Leaders Push for Social Media Regulation · Global Voices
Mariana Leyton Escobar

Evo Morales after his election in 2006. Photo by Jorgeuzon via Wikimedia Commons. Released to public domain.
Bolivian Internet users are debating the political value of social media in response to president Evo Morales’ proposal to “regulate the social networks.”
Morales publicly described social networks as “instruments of imperialism” that can “bring down governments” last month. He compared them to a “garbage collector,” suggesting that the networks are used only for defamation and slander.
Morales made these declarations during the week of February 22, 2016, following a public referendum on Bolivia's constitution that could have enabled him to run for a fourth term as president. A carefully monitored vote count concluded that 51.27% of Bolivians rejected the constitutional reform, thus barring Morales from seeking reelection.
The former coca leaf farmer and union leader originally took office in 2006 and is Bolivia's first president of indigenous origin. His third and final term will end in 2019.
This isn't the first time that the Morales government has expressed its disapproval of social media.  On previous occasions, vice president Alvaro García Linera stated that social networks should be monitored, and also noted the names of individuals who had insulted the president on social networks.
But the topic of regulating social networks didn't take concrete form until a February 2016 press conference in which Víctor Borda, vice president of the Chamber of Representatives, described a draft bill codifying three crimes that would sanction social network users that “commit irregularities”: violation of personal information; negatively affecting another individual's honour (i.e. defamation) on social network sites; and the creation of fake accounts with the objective of stealing information to commit crimes. Borda also mentioned the prohibition of anonymity and the establishment of a national council that would control social networks.
The lead up to the referendum took an unexpected turn for both Morales’ party (Movement towards Socialism, known as MAS in Spanish) supporters and the opposition during the month of February. A series of surprising revelations spread across networks including Facebook, Twitter, and WhatsApp, giving rise to intensely negative confrontations between MAS party supporters and citizens opposing constitutional reforms.
First, critics of MAS expressed concern about a corruption scandal involving Bolivia's Indigenous Fund. Then, frustration intensified when a Bolivian journalist exposed a previously unknown relationship between president Morales and a woman with a senior position in a Chinese company which happened to have contracts with the state worth millions of dollars. It was also revealed that Morales and the woman had a child together in 2007.
Only days after these revelations, six municipal employees in the city of El Alto died of smoke inhalation while trapped inside a building set ablaze amid violent protests. Protesters denounced infiltrators in their midst who they said were responsible for setting the fire. The lack of police response, and conflicting versions of events regarding the motivations of supposed infiltrators, caused even more indignation, all of which could be seen in messages and posts that quickly spread through social networks.
Government representatives and MAS supporters have since decried a ‘dirty war’ on social media against the “Yes” campaign for the referendum, in which fake news, defamatory publications, and personal information about the president, his ex-girlfriend, and his son, were spread by users opposing constitutional reform.
The proposed social media regulation as outlined by Representative Borda, has yet to be published in its entirety. The three types of crimes outlined by Borda are the only proposed articles known at present. Vague language and overly broad scope used in these alone has left citizens concerned about the law's implications for free expression.
The draft bill mentions that violations of “personal information” can be punished with a prison sentence. The draft explains that violation of personal information can take place when a person “steals, exchanges, sends, divulges, or modifies personal information with data found in spaces such as social networks and similar mediums.” It does not clarify under which conditions a user may use personal information, and therefore does not expressly permit everyday interactions using personal information on the Internet.
The second crime included in the law proposal refers to negatively effecting the honour of an “individual, or public or private collective.” Javier Pallero, an Argentina-based public policy expert writing for digital rights group Access Now, expressed his concern in a document analyzing this legislative proposal, stating that such a definition of a crime is too similar to the crime of contempt, or defamation of a public servant performing their duties, particularly given the political context in which the bill is being proposed.
The last crime is also problematic. Instead of resolving the problem which it intends to address — the crime of registering fake profiles with malicious intent — it creates additional legal ambiguities regarding daily interactions in Internet usage. The proposal suggests that individuals who “design, develop, traffic, sell, carry out, program, or send a webpage, links, or emerging pages with the aim of contacting or obtaining information” could be subject to jail time. As Pallero notes however, if the intention of the bill is to punish crimes such as fraud or human trafficking (which are already included in the country's criminal code), then it would be more effective to train police or public servants to investigate cases that involve the digital transfer of information.
Borda also announced that, upon approval of the bill, Bolivia would establish a national council with the authority to “control” social networks, and that all network users would be obliged under national law to identify themselves. Without access to the actual text of the bill explaining how this would work, Pallero worries that the policy would endanger the right to anonymity.
Public response to the proposed regulation was swift. News of the president's declarations on social networks and Borda's draft bill spread quickly, online and through the media, together with commentaries condemning the move and reflections on the inexorability of the right to freedom of expression in the digital age.
GIF of the caricature of the minister of government, created by Joaquín Cuevas.
At least two government representatives have already voiced disagreement with the measure to curtail freedom of expression on social networks, the Ombudsman and the vice president of the Supreme Electoral Tribunal, stating that instead of limiting expression it is more important that the public is well-informed about proper usage that doesn't put in danger the individual rights of citizens.
Nevertheless, recently two cases of government backlash against social network usage attracted public attention. One centered around allegations that military officials had sought to limit use of social media within the armed forces. In another instance, a Bolivian caricaturist received a phone call from the government to inform him that “they had not liked” a GIF which he had published (see graphic above) which featured the minister of government.
Users of Facebook proposed creating spaces for debate within a group already known for their cyberactivism activities. The group began to share information about the regulation of social networks and launched the hashtag #RedesLibresBO [FreeNetworksBolivia] to promote debate surrounding the principle of free expression. The group has already organized three public debates on the matter: one online, one in person in La Paz, and another in the city of Cochabamba. The goal is to stimulate discussion about what it would mean to regulate social networks and to debate the necessity to draw up a citizens’ proposal for such regulation.
A couple of days after the bill was proposed, the president declared that he “would respect” social networks because they are a “right of communication”, while reiterating his concerns about the way that they are used. The following day, the Ministry of Communication shared two images on Twitter which show president Morales with this message:
#RedesSociales en #Bolivia, Presidente #EvoMorales pic.twitter.com/miqgfdfgJl
— Min. de Comunicacion (@mincombolivia) February 27, 2016
We will respect social networks, communication is a right, but it not correct to send whatever kind of message against any other person, this is very harmful. #SocialNetworks in #Bolivia, President #EvoMorales
The second image includes the statement:
Presidente #EvoMorales, #RedesSociales en #Bolivia. pic.twitter.com/argCVNgsSP
— Min. de Comunicacion (@mincombolivia) February 27, 2016
We respect social networks, communication is a right; we should debate how to avoid defamation and slander. President #EvoMorales, #SocialNetworks in #Bolivia.
The same day, the Minister of Education declared that they would start a campaign throughout the school system to promote “values and good writing skills” for social networks.
Despite the momentary relief that Morales’ statements brought to social network users, it is important to monitor this situation carefully and to analyze the final draft of the bill, if it does end up being formally presented. Perhaps even more interesting will be the ensuing public debate, given the declarations made by the president against social networks and what they have revealed about Bolivian Internet users’ values when it comes to online speech.
In this light, users involved in the #RedesLibresBO [FreeNetworksBolivia] campaign have proposed that citizens move ahead with discussions of self-regulation, anonymity and the regulation in general.
“In the game of the social networks, the rule is knowing how to play”.  A GIF by the movement #RedesLibresBO
It is also worth pointing out that laws are not the only mechanism through which online behavior can be regulated. If the Bolivian government were truly worried about misuse of the web for the spreading of “lies”, a more productive proposal might be a policy to equip citizens in the proper use of these technologies. This training could be based around the abilities to search for, organize, understand, evaluate, and analyze information online (digital literacy); as well as the abilities to access, analyze, evaluate, and create communications content (media literacy).
In this way, the behaviour of social network users could be influenced without having to resort to punitive legislation, a likely result of which would be the clamping down on freedom of expression. In addition, it would also be beneficial to establish a series of principles, rights, and responsibilities that must be respected under any legislation which might regulate the flow of information on the Internet. An example of this is the Brazilian Civil Internet Framework, an initiative created for the purpose of avoiding acts of oppression.
“Anonymity is important for the liberty of expression and is an internationally recognized right. In order to create a well-conceived law, there needs to be public debate about social networks in Bolivia. – Alliance for the Debate of the Proposal for Regulation of Social Networks” #RedesLibresBO [FreeNetworksBolivia] #IgualesAnteLaRed [EqualBeforeTheNetwork]. A graphic by the movement #RedesLibresBO, posted on Facebook.

author: Mariana Leyton Escobar