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Beyond the image: How Spanish photographers Albarrán Cabrera formulate experience through pictures · Global Voices
Omid Memarian

“The Mouth of Krishna” series. Pigments, Japanese paper and gold leaf. 2013
For Spanish photographers Anna P. Cabrera and Angel Albarrán, time, memory and beauty constitute the three main pillars of their professional and emotional approaches to art.
Signing their work as “Albarrán Cabrera”, the couple’s bold pieces stand out in today’s competitive photography arena due to their use of a wide range of processes and materials, including platinum, palladium, cyanotype and gelatin silver printing. They have also developed processes that incorporate Japanese gampi paper and gold leaf in their pigment prints.
“All this serves just one single purpose: we want to have far more parameters to play with the viewer’s experience than just the image itself,” they said. “The texture, color, finishing, tones and even the border of a print can give extra information to the viewer.”
Albarrán and Cabrera have exhibited their works in the United States, Spain, Japan, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Lebanon and Italy, among other countries. Their recent exhibition, “Subtle Shadows of Bamboo on Bamboo”, ended on March 10, 2019 in Antwerp, Belgium. In April 2019, Albarrán and Cabrera’s photos will be exhibited at AIPAD Show in New York by IBasho Gallery and also at Art Paris by Esther Woerdehoff Gallery.
In an interview with Global Voices, Albarrán (b. 1969, Barcelona) and Cabrera (b. 1969, Seville) discussed their work processes, worldview and the secrets to working together as a couple.
Omid Memarian: Notions of memory and identity figure prominently in your photography. What's your personal connection with these themes and how are they reflected in your work?
Anna: Everything we are is memory. When dealing with anything related to science, you draw on what scientists have already discovered to understand the world. Regarding identity, you are who you are because of your memories. You are your first anniversary, you are your mother’s memories, you are the memories of your school days. You are all this. Even the way we conceptualize time to understand reality is based on memory. This is more evident in people who suffer from memory loss. For them, time does not exist.
“The Mouth of Krishna” series. Pigments, Japanese paper and gold leaf. 2016
We hope that our photographs trigger subconscious associations in viewers based on their memories. We even prefer that the viewer interpret the photograph in a way totally different from what we had originally imagined. Thus, they will create a new set of ideas for themselves.
Memory is the thread that weaves all of our series. “The Mouth of Krishna” is the core series. It is the result of all our learnings so far. It is related to how our memories keep our reality consistent, how we categorize what we perceive and how we interlink it.
From time to time, we realize that some concepts gain more importance and then this generates a new portfolio. Thus, “This is you here” studies the concept of identity and how it is created based on our memories.
“Kairos” revolves around the idea of how humans perceive time. Time is not something tangible, it’s just a property of the universe. We create the concept of time with the help of our memories, and we divide it into past, present and future.
“The Mouth of Krishna” series. Pigments, Japanese paper and gold leaf. 2016
OM: You have spent a lot of time in Japan. How does this particular geography connect to your worldview of art and culture?
Angel: Japanese culture is very important for us and our work. This culture, as many others, is subject to many stereotypes and enormous misconceptions. At the beginning, you can fall into the trap of its aesthetics and philosophy. But once you study the language, its people and history, you discover the reality about this country: the good, bad and horrible things that any country has. And yet, there is still something fascinating: Japan offers us a completely different interpretation of reality compared to our Western conception. We all live in the same world, but it is interpreted from many, and totally diverse, points of view.
The Western world is obsessed with symmetry and perfection. We understand beauty shaped by universal laws, granting great importance to the perfect and the eternal. Japanese aesthetics are, however, very different. They see beauty in the impermanent, the imperfect, the rustic and the melancholy. They long for what is not eternal, slightly broken, modest and fragile.
OM: The aesthetic aspect of your work is very bold. In a world in which classical depictions of beauty have been pushed aside, how is your work being received in the art world?
Anna: Beauty is a very complex topic. It is not only difficult to define what beauty is, but also to deal with it. Prettiness worries serious people a lot. They are afraid that beauty will make you forget what life is really like. But as the philosopher Alain de Botton stated: “We need pretty things close to us not because we are in danger of forgetting the bad stuff, but because terrible problems weigh so heavily on us, that we’re in danger of slipping into despair and depression…The art a country or a person calls ‘beautiful’ gives you vital clues as to what is missing.”
We do not consciously look for beauty in our work. We search through the mystery of the unknown to experiment with the beauty of discovering.
“The Mouth of Krishna” series. Pigments, Japanese paper and gold leaf. 2016
OM: You have done nature photography in both Europe and Japan. What differences do you see in these two series of works?
Angel: As Westerners, we are surprised and amazed by the aesthetic and philosophical interpretation that the East has developed about the world. It seems very different from ours and yet, both Western and Eastern schools of thought have a simultaneous origin. Reviewing the pre-Socratic Greek thinkers of the Miletus school, we can find in their line of thought a common motivation with the Oriental culture: nature.
Oriental thought, and even more specifically, Japanese thought has not lost this ancestral contact with nature, maintaining it throughout the evolution of its culture. The ideals and concepts of Japanese aesthetics are mainly influenced by religion. In both Shintoism and Buddhism, the Gods are not the creators of nature, but nature is an individual entity. In our Western tradition, the Judeo-Christian concept of a creator or God broke this link and made us separate ourselves from the traditional aesthetic ideals of ancient Greece. The meaning of terms such as Wabi-sabi, Miyabi, Shibui or Yuugen originally existed in our Western culture but they did not evolve as in the Japanese case. We are gladdened by the fact that this common root is present in our work: usually viewers cannot differentiate between the images taken in Japan from those taken in other places.
“The Mouth of Krishna” series. Pigments, Japanese paper and gold leaf. 2018
OM: What are the major elements that influence your work and the way you look at the environment and objects?
Angel: Different kinds of artists belonging to different disciplines such as photographers, painters, writers and scientists have always had a strong influence on us. What shapes our vision of reality is knowledge coming from literature, philosophy, science, linguistics, architecture, music and the arts in general. Our work is driven by learning. Photography helps us understand our reality. Photographs, for us, are like visual notes in a notebook. These visual notes are taken with a specific state of mind and reflect our mental structure towards reality. Little by little over time, we review our work and this gives us new ideas and perspectives, in the same way that you would proceed with a notebook or a diary.
OM: What are the similar concepts or themes that make your audiences from different continents interested in following and enjoying your works?
Anna P. Cabrera and Angel Albarrán. Courtesy of the artists.
Anna: Human beings use their sensory system to go beyond the physical world and into the realm of the mind. We interpret the information we receive and thus we create our perception of the world around us. Space and time are, in fact, concepts created by human beings to understand our own reality. We work with themes and concepts that are universal, that are common to most human beings no matter their origin, culture or religion.
OM: Art is extremely personal and we see both of your signatures in your works. How does your work represent your personal visions and characteristics? How is your collaborative process?
Angel: We can't see each other working separately from the other. We live together and have common interests. We work individually whenever we go out to take pictures. That is, each of us takes their own camera and works independently from the other. We go together to the location with our gear but each of us concentrates on the spot and works in isolation. Once we get home, our images are mixed and we work in the darkroom or with the computer without thinking who actually took the picture.
Anna: We cannot find negative sides to working in collaboration. What’s more, we cannot see each other working individually. From a logistics point of view, working as we do is very convenient. As we are two photographers, we capture more images and from different angles in the same amount of time that just one person would take. If one of us has a problem with the camera, the other can help. If one gets blocked, we can talk to each other, so we can get focused again. These are just some of the advantages to mention a few.
The creative process is highly stressful. Creators have to make decisions all the time about everything. And as we all know, nobody has the right answer for everything. As a creator, you have nobody to turn to for help.

author: Omid Memarian


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How pro-government media in Morocco use “fake news” to target and silence Rif activists · Global Voices
Afef Abrougui

Protesters at a sit-in in Imzouren, 14km from the city of Al-Hoceima in the Rif region. Photo by AlhoceimasOfficiel. Used with permission.
In September 2018, Nasser Zefzafi, imprisoned leader of Morocco’s Hirak protest movement in the Rif region, was nominated for the European Parliament’s prestigious Sakharov Prize For Freedom of Thought. The annual award was established in 1988 to honor ‘’individuals who have made an exceptional contribution to the fight for human rights across the globe.’’
Zefazfi is currently serving a 20-year prison term for his role as a leader in the Hirak protests. The protest movement first took hold after the death of Mohsin Fekri, a fish vendor whose product was seized by authorities in the city of Al Hoceima on October 29, 2016. When Fekri tried to reclaim the fish, he was crushed to death by a garbage truck.
Zefzafi made it to the list of three finalists for the Sakharov Prize, but did not win. It was instead awarded to Ukrainian film director and writer Oleg Sentsov.
Following the announcement of the winner on 25 October, Moroccan news site Cawalisse published a fabricated story alleging that the European Parliament “withdrew Zefzafi’s name from the list of winners’’ because he is a “criminal who has no link to human rights.”
Screenshot of the fabricated Cawalisse story alleging that the European Parliament deemed Zefzafi  a ”criminal’.
The article (which does not list an author) states that “a group of lobbies from within the European Parliament, including those that support Polisario separatists and those hired by drug gangs, pressured the prize’s committee to award it to Zefzafi and give his crimes the label of protecting rights.”
The story is completely false. It is based on fabricated facts and conspiracy theories. The European Parliament never maintained that Zefzafi was a criminal, nor did they withdraw his name “from the list of winners.” He was simply not chosen to win the prize. In fact, there was no “list of winners” in the first place, but only one winner, Oleg Sentsov.
Weekly demonstrations protesting poor socioeconomic conditions and corrupt government officials in the Rif region, long-neglected by the central government, persisted until authorities launched a violent crackdown in June 2017, arresting 400 activists and protesters.
The government ignored protesters’ demands, which included an end to corruption and improved infrastructure. Protesters were instead labelled ‘’separatists’’ and were accused of being foreign agents who were attempting to destabilize Morocco. Documented attempts at censoring them included blocking internet connections during protests.
On June 26, 2018 the Casablanca Court of First Instance convicted 53 protesters, including leaders of the movement, of an array of charges including arson, rebellion, damaging public property, staging unauthorized protests, and harming the state’s internal security. They were sentenced to prison terms ranging from one to 20 years.
In August 2018, King Mohammed VI pardoned 184 Hirak activists, including 11 of those arrested in the June 2017 crackdown. The rest remain behind bars.
This is not the only story that was published by pro-government media to smear Zefzafi, nor is he the only Hirak activist to be targeted in these campaigns. As the movement grew, government-aligned media and supporters launched online smear campaigns to discredit the movement, accusing its leaders of being “traitors,” “corrupt,” or  “terrorists” as a way to deter them from carrying out their protests. The disinformation campaigns continued as the activists were thrown in jail and brought to trial.
Nawal Benaissa, another leader of the Hirak movement, was prosecuted and sentenced to 10 months in jail over comments she posted on her Facebook account between June and August 2017, in which she called on residents of Al Hoceima to join protests. As soon as she joined the movement, fake stories started to appear on local media and social media claiming that she is “an agent who works for embassies” and that she was receiving funds from foreign countries to spread violence and destabilize the region.
A Moroccan journalist who chose to remain anonymous for safety reasons, told Access Now that Moroccan authorities’ use of defamation campaigns to pressure and discredit opponents and independent activists started in 2011 during the Arab uprisings.
“Facts and events may be created as part of a set-up, or in some cases, the facts may be real, but deeply altered and presented with the intent to discredit the target,” he said.
He further explained that the recurring themes in these false stories seeking to “defame organizations and individuals who are not loyal to the existing political system” include sex and morality, and receiving compensation to serve foreign interests. Several fake stories by pro-government media claimed that Zefzafi and his father were receiving funds to destabilize the Rif region and Morocco.
The targeted harassment of the Hirak activists is yet further evidence that while the internet can provide a platform for the marginalized, it can also facilitate their victimization. The potential cost of this rapid spread of disinformation is painfully demonstrated in the silencing of the Hirak activists and the decline of their movement which only fought for basic rights.

source: news-globalvoices

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

author: Afef Abrougui


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Mauritanian bloggers face defamation charges for reporting on corruption · Global Voices
Afef Abrougui

Photo via Nasser Weddady on Twitter
Mauritanian authorities arrested two bloggers, Abderrahmane Weddady and Cheikh Ould Jiddou, for reporting on corruption.
Weddady and Jiddou were arrested on March 22, after they appeared before Mauritania’s Economic Crimes Unit to respond to a summons. Both had investigated and reported on allegations of corruption involving the country’s president, Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz.
Prior to their arrests, they both wrote on Facebook about the alleged ties of Ould Abdel Aziz to a US $2 billion bank account in Dubai. According to media reports, Emirati authorities had frozen the account at the request of the US Department of the Treasury, in its fight against money laundering.
Weddady wrote on his Facebook page that police questioned him about his sources and asked why he did not wait for the state to investigate the matter. He answered that the news of the frozen assets was reported online and by foreign media, and that he has “no faith in a serious investigation into any crime involving the president and those around him”.
In early March, both bloggers were summoned and questioned by the unit about their writings on the alleged assets. Authorities confiscated their passports and national ID cards, and then released them that same day.
Then on March 22, police arrested the two men after the public prosecutor's office concluded that the reports were untrue and pledged to investigate and prosecute those who disseminated them to “harm the country, its institutions, its citizens and its judicial and financial systems.”
The two bloggers stand accused of spreading “false accusations” against Ould Abdel Aziz under Article 348 of Mauritania’s Penal Code. They risk between six months to five years in jail each. They remain in jail pending trial.
In an interview with Global Voices via WhatsApp, Nasser Wedaddy, the brother of Abderrahmane Weddady and a Global Voices community member, said that prosecutors have failed to present actual evidence against Abderrahmane and Ould Jiddou. He also noted that their lawyers have found no actual evidence on file for the case. He said:
The prosecutor alleges that the evidence was ‘lost’. It's his euphemism for “we don't have any evidence to charge them, and we made it all up.”
Since 2016, Abderrahmane Weddady had also been reporting and writing about a real estate scam, in which a man with alleged ties to the president’s family, fraudulently acquired ownership of houses of thousands of Mauritania to resell them, his brother Nasser Weddady said. Jiddou also wrote about the scam on his Facebook page, his wife told Human Rights Watch.
Nasser Wedaddy also commented on this work:
My brother's 39-month investigation into the country's biggest ponzi scheme since its independence has been credited by many as a service to society. He managed to uncover a swindle that ended up costing over 700 families their homes and savings. He even uncovered how the current President is protecting and benefiting from the scam.
Freedom of expression is tightly restricted in Mauritania and the authorities often use criminal defamation laws to silence human rights activists, bloggers and journalists who speak out against the regime or expose government wrongdoing.
In a statement to Global Voices, the family of Abderrahmane Weddady demanded that both men be released and all charges against them dropped:
We demand the immediate and unconditional release of both Abderrahmane Weddady and Cheikh Ould Jiddou. And the formal dismissal of any legal procedures against them, and a formal apology from the Mauritanian government for this gross and arbitrary subversion of the legal system to persecute political opponents.


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‘Opposite Dreams: The Politics of Local’: Art raises awareness around social issues in Nepal · Global Voices
Sanjib Chaudhary

One of the artworks from the exhibition ‘Opposite Dreams: The Politics of Local’. Image by the author. Used with permission.
ArTree Nepal, a group of six Nepali artists, is on a mission to make communities aware of social issues and foster meaningful dialogue through their contemporary art. The group has raised pertinent issues like Dr. Govinda KC’s hunger strike to reform the medical sector, Nepali youth migrating for foreign jobs, discrimination on the basis of caste and ethnicity, and human trafficking among others.
Hitman Gurung and Mekh Limbu's strong Performance art #Protest to support Dr. KC with Artree #IamwithDrKC #SaveDrKC pic.twitter.com/r9fvk8c7T9
— ????? ?????? Ananda K. Maharjan (@aannda) July 23, 2016
In March 2019 and earlier in October-November 2018, they exhibited their work titled ‘Opposite Dreams: The Politics of Local’ showcasing how Nepal’s history has excluded the stories of marginalized, underprivileged, and indigenous peoples.
The group wrote on Facebook:
For hundreds of years, the mainstream historical narrative of Nepal has excluded the stories and experiences of numerous marginalized, underprivileged and indigenous communities. Although there have been sporadic instances of vocal demands and protests for an equal representation of diverse identities, cultures, languages, and religions, the state has consistently and strategically oppressed them.
The exhibition, ‘Opposite Dreams: The Politics of Local’, draws attention to these problematic social hierarchies and invasive international influences. It attempts to highlight the misuse of power and state sponsored violence by focusing on acutely localized situations with an empathetic eye. By using an anthropological perspective and inquiring the socio-physical environments, the exhibition seeks to unfold these deeply entrenched unjust laws.
‘Opposite dreams’ exhibition- it challenges the ‘mainstream Nepali history’ as we know it, as we were taught, as we've been made to believe. Great to see such critical discourses happening in an accessible manner! Convinced, art can do a better job than words! #ArtreeNepal pic.twitter.com/8AnxuFhMOk
— Sangita Thebe Limbu (@Sangita_Thebe) November 18, 2018
Have a look at their artwork:
‘Mahendra Mala’ by Subas Tamang. Image by the author. Used with permission.
Artist Subas Tamang's installation art ‘Mahendra Mala’ delves into the chapters of the Nepali book of the same name that promoted a single religion, a single language, and a single culture. He has minutely carved the chapters on slates used for roofing in rural areas. The slates can be flipped around and they have chapters from the book on one side while the other sides make up the name of the book.
The artist spoke with Global Voices, stating that “One day, a Danphe (Nepal’s national bird Lophophorus) pecked the grains left to dry on the sun by Lamas, the Tamang people.” Explaining one of the stories in the book, he added, “The Lama drove the bird away northwards. In the winter, the Lamas descend to warmer Terai but Danphe, afraid of the Lama, never ventured a journey to the Terai, the southern plains. The information given in the book itself is wrong. While Danphe is a Himalayan bird living in the Himalayas, the Lamas have been presented as cruel in nature.”
‘Death of Civilization’ by Bikash Shrestha. Image by the author. Used with permission.
In ‘Death of Civilization’, Bikash Shrestha has carved the Basantapur Durbar Square on pieces of wood and bulldozed parts of it with huge tire prints.
In ‘How I Forgot My Mother Tongue’, Mekh Limbu showcases a collection of books read by his father. His artwork emphasizes how the curriculum promoted a single language Nepali, thus making others forget their vernaculars.
‘Masinya’ by Lavkant Chaudhary. Image by the author. Used with permission.
The artwork ‘Masinya’ by Lavkant Chaudhary delves into the issue of categorization where the Tharu people were grouped as Masinya Matwali (enslavable alcohol drinkers). Through a set of 13 etched clay pots, the artist explains how the categorization, land reform, spraying of DDT in Terai, and the influx of people from hills took away everything from the Tharus. He told Global Voices, “Among the 13 pots, I’ve etched the contents of the investigative report of Tikapur incident in the three. The Tharus were victimized in the incident and the government has still not made the report public.”
Hit Man Gurung, in his work ‘How Many Times I Have to Burn It’, brought together opinion pieces on different protests and revolutions against the rulers that happened in Nepal, burnt them and photographed them. Through the letters, still legible in the burnt papers, he wants to convey the message that while there are problems and inequalities in the society, there will be grudges that will turn into protests and revolutions.
‘Cultural Colonization’, by Sheelasha Rajbhandari, shows the traditional dresses worn by indigenous Tharus, Newars and Gurungs emblazoned with counterfeit clothing tags of world famous brands. The artwork questions the mentality of the young generation who feel mortified to wear their traditional dresses but readily wear the copies of authentic brands.
Three members of the group, Mekh Limbu, Sheelasha Rajbhandari and Hit Man Gurung’s artworks will be exhibited at Vienna’s Weltmuseum Wien from 11 April – 6 November 2019.

author: Sanjib Chaudhary


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Pope Francis to visit Mozambique in September, during election campaigning · Global Voices
Dércio Tsandzana

Papa Francisco | Gabriel Trujillo – Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0 Generic (CC BY-SA 2.0)
Pope Francis will visit Mozambique in September 2019, just weeks before elections that will choose the new president, members of the Republican Assembly, and provincial governors.
The Pope was invited by Mozambique’s president, Filipe Nyusi, in September 2018. The visit was announced as confirmed on 26 March in a solemn ceremony which involved bodies of the Catholic Church in the country.
President Nyusi said that the Pope’s visit would help to strengthen peace talks with the opposition party RENAMO, which stopped military hostilities with the government in 2017 as part of a process which is still fraught with tensions. He added that it would also be an occasion to reflect on the conflict with paramilitary groups acting in the north of the country, specifically in the province of Cabo Delgado.
John Paul II was the last pope to visit Mozambique, in September 1988.
The confirmation of the Pope’s visit had already been anticipated since mid-February. Mozambique will hold elections this October and it's still recovering from the devastation of Cyclone Idai, which left over 500 dead and more than a million homeless. The Pope has shown solidarity with the victims:
Expresso a minha dor e a minha solidariedade às queridas populações de Moçambique, Zimbábue e Malauí, atingidas pelo ciclone Idai. Confio as inúmeras vítimas e suas famílias à misericórdia de Deus. #PrayForAfrica #cycloneIdai
— Papa Francisco (@Pontifex_pt) 20 mars 2019
I express my pain and my solidarity with the beloved peoples of Mozambique, Zimbabwe, and Malawi, hit by Cyclone Idai. I entrust the countless victims and their families to the mercy of God.
The disaster caused by the cyclone, already considered one of the worst to have ever hit the Southern Hemisphere, struck the city of Beira in central Mozambique on 14 March, and then hit the neighbouring countries of Zimbabwe and Malawi. More than 300 people died in these two countries.
Since then, the country has remained in a state of emergency, which has led the government to review the electoral calendar and postpone the registration period.
In the middle of a disaster, govnt still trying to figure out how to rescue & accommodate thousands of people after #CycloneIdai, president Nyusi gives LIVE tv statement to the nation to announce that the Pope is set to visit Mozambique in September. Bad timing is understatement.
— Zenaida Machado (@zenaidamz)
The fact that the elections will be held soon after the papal visit has raised questions from some citizens, who are concerned that it could have an impact on campaigning:
Eh claro que a vinda do Papa Francisco em Setembro joga a favor da #Frelimo e Filipe #Nyusi. Directa ou indirectamente a visita será politicamente aproveitada. Seria bom que fosse adiada para Novembro, isto eh, depois da confusão das eleições gerais agendadas para 15 de Outubro.
— Alexandre (@AllexandreMZ) 27 mars 2019
It is clear that Pope Francis’ visit in September plays in favour of #Frelimo and Filipe #Nyusi. Directly or indirectly the visit will be politically profited from. It would be good if it was postponed to November, that is, after the confusion of the general elections scheduled for 15 October.

author: Dércio Tsandzana


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Ugandan police shoot and kill man mistaken for a political assassin · Global Voices
James Propa

A Screenshot of ICT Minister Idah Nantaba who survived the assassination attempt, via YouTube video.
On March 24, 2019, news broke that Ugandan Information and Communications Technology Minister of State Hon. Idah Nantaba had survived an assassination attempt. Ugandan police shot and killed one of her assailants in the small town of Nagojje, 53 kilometers east of the capital Kampala.
Over the last five years, numerous cases of assassinations of high-profile political, religious or military people have led to few concrete convictions or clear reports. Ugandan citizens were, therefore, relieved to hear that the police had taken swift action.
However, a more complicated story has emerged regarding mistaken identity. Here's what happened:
Nantaba called the police to inform them that two men on a motorbike had been trailing her for more than 40 kilometers. Police swung into action and intercepted two men on a motorbike near the Nagojje Trading center.
Ronald Ssebulime, 40, a single father of four, was a driving a regular motorcycle and carried a passenger behind him. Police mistook the two men as Nantaba's assailants. A chase ensued and Ssebulime hit a hump. He and his passenger fell off the bike and the two fled on foot. Police fired shots in the air and Ssebulime eventually surrendered. The passenger fled.
Ssebulime pleaded innocent, but police handcuffed and threw him into a police vehicle. They drove for a short distance and then said the “order had changed” before they shot and killed him, according to several eyewitnesses who spoke with NTV Uganda.
One eyewitness said:
[Ssebulime] was picked up from the patrol van [already in] handcuffs and shot.
Another said:
The policeman took two steps back and shot him twice.
In the confusion that followed, police tweeted that the shooting was justified because the men riding on the motorbike refused to surrender:
Several shots were fired in their direction, to cause them to surrender, but all in vain. In the process, Sebbulime Ronald a resident of Nakabugo Village, Nakabugo Parish, Pakiso Sub County, and Busiro County in Wakiso District was shot dead during the pursuit.
— Uganda Police Force (@PoliceUg) March 24, 2019
They added that a second suspect disappeared and fear he is armed and dangerous, although police could not confirm this.
Police is still searching the area with canine dogs for the second suspect, who is feared armed and dangerous. We want to inform the public that the Minister, despite the scare is very safe and was not attacked at any stage as alleged in the media.
— Uganda Police Force (@PoliceUg) March 24, 2019
Police spokesman Fred Enanga said that the minister, witnesses and police officers involved in the pursuit would give statements while they continue to investigate Ssebulime's phone records as well as registration papers belonging to his motorbike.
Irene Nakazibwe, sister of the deceased, insists her brother was at the wrong place at the wrong time.
According to Nakazibwe, Ssebulime was, in fact, heading to St. Andrews Secondary School to visit two of his children studying senior one and senior three classes, in an interview with NTV. They had spoken earlier in the day about the visit. Ssebulime lost his wife back in 2012 and has been taking care of his four children as a single father.
It is unclear why he tried to run from the police when he had a National ID card and a driving permit. Nakazibwe tells her story on NTV Uganda:
On March 27, 2019, the police finally admitted that Ssebulime was mistakenly identified and wrongfully murdered by officers and sent sympathies to the family of the deceased. They also confirmed that Ssebulime was unarmed and only carried a bag full of soda and food intended for his children.
pic.twitter.com/rJwJERWcdZ
— Uganda Police Force (@PoliceUg) March 27, 2019
The death of Ssebulime has stirred mixed emotions among those who use boda-boda, or motorcycle taxi, as a popular form of affordable transport. At least five high profile murders involving military chiefs, members of parliament, religious leaders have occurred in the last three years — all performed by hitmen riding on motorbikes.
This has put both boda-boda drivers and high-level officials on high alert.
Twitter user Ganda Gannyana thinks the reason Ssebulime was killed without substantial proof of intentions to assassinate the minister stems from directives following the murder of Member of Parliament Hon. Ibrahim Abiriga. President Yoweri Museveni said that if a leader suspects someone is trailing them with bad intentions, they should “sort” that person out:
It was a stupid directive from @KagutaMuseveni that if you only suspect anyone trailing you, “sort” them out first and quick and the rest we sort later. Now see!? An innocent #SsebulimeRonald has been slain.
“Shot in handcuffs;” that’s cold blood??
— Ganda♣Gannyana (@IAmSegawa) March 26, 2019
Twitter user Kyeyune Moses contemplates the confusion surrounding the circumstances of Ssebulime's death:
The story of Ronald Ssebulime is bigger than meets the eyes. Different accounts of who shot the “suspected assassin” and how the he was killed.
But most touching is the tell of his kids now at school. They lost their mother, their dad is now gone. Will justice prevail? pic.twitter.com/0Q0fVS8v4Z
— KYEYUNE W. MOSES (@moskyeyune) March 25, 2019
Twitter user Angelo Peter is furious that the police failed to produce any evidence that Ssebulime was dangerous before they shot and killed him:
When @PoliceUg wanted to pin BobiWine for treason they produced guns they found in his hotel room in less than 24hrs.
But they can't produce and show us the gun Ronald ssebulime had before they shot him dead after arrest.
— AngeloPeter© (@nzeAngelo) March 26, 2019
In a press briefing, Nantaba narrates her story and questions who might have given the order to murder Ssebulime. She suggests the whole scenario could have been orchestrated as a cover-up by masterminds of high profile assassinations —  and still believes Ssebulime may have been involved in her assassination attempt:
The masterminds of these assassinations that have been happening in this country and according to what we see will still continue because [Ssebulime] was the one who was supposed to be a witness but the primary witness has been killed!

author: James Propa


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When Algeria makes headlines, French and English media report differently · Global Voices
Rakotomalala

Protesters in Blida, Algeria, on March 10, 2019, by Fethi Hamlati. Used with permission via CC BY-SA 4.0.
Editor's note: Since the original publication of this article, the Algerian president Bouteflika has officially resigned from his post.
Since February 16, 2019, protests have rocked Algeria as citizens fight against President Abdelaziz Bouteflika's candidacy for a fifth presidential term. On March 11, Bouteflika announced that he would not run for office again.
Since then, large-scale protests have continued. In the meantime, the government has announced that a national conference will be held to define a new constitution that would, by the end of 2019, allow Bouteflika to extend his fourth term, set to end on April 27, 2019. This amendment is drawing objections from the country's population in an increasingly tense face-off with uncertain outcomes.
The uncertainty gives rise to various interpretations of the possible scenarios. Western media, alarmed by the unprecedented protests, is trying to decipher the reasons why Algerians have taken to the streets.
Yet English- and French-language media use fundamentally different approaches, seen notably through the use of particular keywords observable on Media Cloud, an open-source platform for analyzing media ecosystems.
Media Cloud makes it possible to quantify, evaluate, and refine journalistic coverage of the protests based on geographical location or linguistic distribution worldwide. Media Cloud confirms the disparity in media coverage of Algeria.
Between February 16 and March 26, 2019, the percentage of articles on the protests in Algeria ranged from 0.1% to 3.4%.
Media coverage of the demonstrations in Algeria in English-language news via Media Cloud
Over the same time period, the percentage of articles in French-language media mentioning the protests ranged from 0.4% to 4.5%. Granted, France's colonial, historical ties to Algeria have played an important role in this disparity. To put the countries’ ties in context, Algeria became a French colony in 1830 with the invasion of Algiers and remained a colony until 1962, under a variety of governmental systems. Algeria obtained Independence following a prolonged, deadly war from 1954 to 1962 that left many scars. Still, the average gap between English- and French-language media on the coverage of the latest Algerian events remains considerable:
Media coverage of the demonstrations in Algeria in French-language news via Media Cloud
Another notable difference is that events in Algeria are considered “less worthy of attention” in English-language media when compared with French.
For example, Google Trend data shows that worldwide, the proportion of searches for the keywords “Algeria protests” is much lower than the proportion of searches for “Manifestations Algérie,” the same term in French — without taking into account the fact that globally, there are more English speakers than French speakers.
Kamel Daoud, a columnist for Point and Le Quotidien d’Oran, or the Oran Daily,  wrote that Algeria must free itself from the judgment of foreign media:
C’est surtout une malheureuse réalité qui s’impose : nous ne sommes pas libres de la France si sa réaction nous importe aussi fort, au point de faire verser dans le délire ou la parade nationaliste (..) Demander, exiger, hurler à l’obligation de reconnaissance ou pour dénoncer une méconnaissance, ne prouve qu’une chose : nous ne sommes pas encore tout à fait libres et capables de liberté. Notre pays ne peut pas se construire par cette dépendance, ni par un enfermement volontaire dans une exigence infantile de « justice » mondiale.
Above all, an unfortunate reality is obvious: we are not free from France if its reaction matters so much to us, to the point of pushing us into a frenzy or nationalist fervor (…) Asking, demanding, shouting about obligations of recognition or denouncing a lack of knowledge only proves one thing: we are still not completely free and capable of freedom. Our country cannot be built by this dependence, nor by voluntary confinement in a childish demand for global “justice.”
Here are the top keywords most often cited in English-language media on the subject of the Algerian protests:
In French, however, the word cloud related to these keywords is significantly different from the word cloud in English:
Word cloud for French-language media on the protests in Algeria via Media Cloud
French-language news sources emphasize the issue of the president's terms and highlight the parallel with the movements in France and law enforcement. The English-language sites, on the other hand, link the events to the upcoming elections, mentioning Trump, Venezuela, and Sudan.
In the New York Times, Adam Nossiter reflected on an insular group's grip on power in Algeria, quoting a protester who described the government as “like a clan.” On Al Jazeera, Youcef Bouandel put Algeria in the context of the Arab Spring in 2010. For the BBC, Ahmed Rouaba chose to focus on the impact of social networks:
The demonstrations are being organised on social media — and while the trigger has been Mr. Bouteflika's re-election bid, anger is also being expressed about perceived deep-rooted corruption among the ruling elite.
French-language newspapers took a different angle.
In the Nouvel Obs, Pierre Haski wrote about the strange silence of the French government during the unrest. For France 24, Marc Daou reviewed the reactions of neighboring countries: in Tunisia, the government believes that the “Algerian people have the right to express themselves,” while in Morocco, according to Daou, “many Moroccans have welcomed with some satisfaction what they consider to be a withdrawal of the Algerian president in the face of the country's youth.”
In short, English-language newspapers seem to be returning to well-established narratives, while the French-language media are trying to adapt to a constantly changing reality that has a definite impact on the region.
This more complex vision in the French-language media is supported by refined analysis and extensive coverage of demonstrations by Algerian journalists who are on site and thus able to give a more diverse perspective.

author: Rakotomalala


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Luis Carlos and Global Voices, 12 years and counting · Global Voices
Romina Navarro

Part of our Global Voices family with Luis Carlos (on the right) during our Summit in Colombo, Sri Lanka. Photo by Jer Clark's public Facebook images, used with permission.
Journalist, online activist, humanist, geek and much more besides, Luis Carlos Díaz Vázquez is a much-loved figure in Venezuelan journalism who, over the course of a decade, has achieved international prominence thanks to his invaluable participation in international human rights and digital rights events.
Other innovative projects have earned him renown for his work in journalism, digital activism and human rights on online platforms such as YouTube, Patreon, Telegram, Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.
Luis Carlos made many headlines and had us glued to social media when he was detained in mid-March 2019. The massive mobilisation in response to his detention demonstrated the magnitude of the digital network he's been weaving over the course of his years of activism, a network he calls the “swarm”.
For members of the Global Voices community, which Luis Carlos joined exactly 12 years ago, Luis Carlos represents certain characteristics and qualities, the most prominent of them being strength,  resilience in the face of obstacles, solidarity and commitment to human rights and—let's not forget—a rather brilliant and idiosyncratic sense of humour.
Luis Carlos with Taisa, our news editor, and Elízabeth, then one of the Latin America editors, at our Summit in Sri Lanka in 2017. Photograph by Romina Navarro, used with permission.
In this space, we would like to share views, anecdotes and reflections about Luis Carlos from the perspective of various members of our community.
Luis Carlos during the talk in Mexico City, 28 February 2019. Photo by Giovanna Salazar, used with permission.
He visited us in Mexico City and performed his talk/stand-up show “Venimos del Futuro” (We Come from the Future). It was a joy. We laughed, we cried and we reflected as a group. A beautiful experience in which Luis Carlos got us to walk us across the multiple bridges that connect Mexico and Venezuela. One of these is solidarity, support and a social commitment to seeing our countries happier, more united and stronger.
- Giovanna Salazar, GV contributor from México.
I met Luis Carlos IRL for the first time at the Budapest GV Summit back in 2008. Venezuela was a name on a continent for me before Luis Carlos and dear roomie Laura Vidal. I remember a deep conversation with him and [Egyptian activist] Alaa in the Budapest hotel lobby. From afar, I had trouble telling who was who with those two. Maybe a common activist DNA? And I remember him rushing off looking for a stable connection for radio items or Skype. Budapest-Caracas. Ten years back, it was still glamorous and adventurous.
Claire Ulrich, former editor of Global Voices in French, France.
I had a conversation with Luis during the last Summit in Colombo. It was one of those group dinners we had in one of those restaurants. I recall asking him why he had not left Venezuela, despite having more than enough opportunity to do so. And his response struck me: his love for his country was so evident. He chose to remain because he is convinced of the greater service he will render staying back at home rather than being a migrant in another country.
This was quite edifying for me. Luis’ decision is heroic and a great lesson for many of us. As activists who labour to see the best for our countries and the world in general, Luis is a model worthy of emulation. Our countries are ours, and we have to take care of them. That's what Luis taught me. A stance that he has made his life project. And his labour shall not be in vain!
Nwachukwu Egbunike, editor of Global Voices for Sub-Saharan Africa, Nigeria.
I met Luis Carlos in person in Colombo, Sri Lanka. I knew of his fame, which I'm sure everyone in Global Voices knows about, but I had never been in communication with him, let alone had a conversation. Until he arrived at the meeting of our community in Colombo. We shared a table for one of the breakfasts or lunches. He offered to accompany Lourdes and I to go shopping and stroll the streets of Colombo. Halfway round, we met a large group of other Global Voices friends. We returned together on the train, as evening of this unforgettable day was falling.
Gabriela García Calderon Orbe, editor of Global Voices in Spanish and contributor to Global Voices Latin America from Peru.
Luis Carlos with Gabriela (left) and Lourdes (right) in the Jami-Ul-Alfar Mosque in Colombo, Sri Lanka. December 2017. Photo: Lourdes Sada, used with permission
Para las ONG de derechos humanos, Luis Carlos ha sido nuestro maestro en redes sociales cuando algunas de ellas apenas se estaban popularizando en Venezuela. En el año 2010 fui detenido en una manifestación en Maracay y fue un mensaje por twitter el que llamó la atención sobre nuestro caso dentro y fuera del país. Luego del percance, fue Luis Carlos el que me explicó, pacientemente, toda la lógica de conectividad de esta red social y su potencialidad para el trabajo en DDHH. Luego se convertiría en un profesor recurrente en los talleres sobre redes sociales que hacíamos las organizaciones de la sociedad civil en Venezuela.
For Human Rights NGOs [in Venezuela] Luis Carlos has been our social media teacher since they started to become popular in Venezuela. In 2010 I was detained during a protest in Maracay and it was a message through Twitter that called the attention to our case nationally and internationally. After this, it was Luis Carlos who explained to me, patiently, the logic behind all this connectivity in social media and its potential for human rights work. He would become our regular visiting teacher for social media workshops organized by Venezuelan civic society.
Rafael Uzcátegui, GV contributor from Venezuela and y director of human rights organization Provea.
Admiro muchísimo la tenacidad de Luis Carlos, su compromiso con el periodismo, su profesionalismo, pero sobre todo su gran corazón. He conocido a Venezuela a través de sus ojos y palabras. Es innegable el amor que tiene a su profesión y país. Siempre listo para una buena conversación, me siento honrada de decir que es mi amigo.
I admire Luis Carlos’ tenacity, his engagement with journalism, his professionalism, but mostly, his big heart. I have get to know Venezuela through his eyes and words. His love for his profession and his country is undeniable. He's always ready for a good conversation, I'm honored to be his friend.
Elízabeth Rivera, collaborator and former editor of Global Voices Latin America.

author: Romina Navarro


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Netizen Report: As water levels rise, Iran’s ban on messaging apps is slowing emergency relief for flood victims · Global Voices
Netizen Report Team

Flooding in Iran's northwest region in 2017. Photo by Tasnim News Agency via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 4.0 international)
The Advox Netizen Report offers an international snapshot of challenges, victories, and emerging trends in technology and human rights around the world. This report covers news and events from  March 28- April 5, 2019.
Since March 19, heavy rains in Iran have led to record levels of flooding in 23 of the country’s 31 provinces. At the time of writing, the state-affiliated FARS news agency reported that health officials had confirmed 62 deaths from the floods so far.
As aid workers mobilize to reach victims — and controversy brews over the effects of economic sanctions on relief efforts — some Iranians, including government officials, are imploring top authorities to lift technical blocks on key communication platforms like Telegram, which has been censored in Iran for roughly one year. Access to communications, as many have pointed out, can be vital for victims seeking help and for anyone organizing rescue operations.
“If filtering was not an obstacle, the rescue operations would have been more effective,” tweeted Alireza Moezi, the secretary of the government’s Information Council, on March 24.
BBC Persian reporter Kayvan Hosseini tweeted that in these circumstances, censorship could be a “deadly phenomenon.”
توییتی با دو بخش مهم که هر دو دلهره‌آورند:
یکی اینکه رانش زمین و ریزش کوه وضعیتی خطرناک درست کرده.
و دیگر اینکه «فیلترشکنم کار نمی‌کنه». سانسور در چنین مواقعی که اطلاع‌رسانی حیاتی است، به راحتی می‌تواند به یک پدیده مرگبار تبدیل شود. https://t.co/QKcSCmYqRt
— Kayvan Hosseini (@Kayvan_Hosseini) April 1, 2019
This tweet has two important aspects both of which are terrifying: One about the dangerous situation caused by landslides and falling mountain rocks and the other about his VPN not working. In situations where sharing information is vital, censorship can turn into a deadly phenomenon.
As if to add insult to injury, Iranian authorities also have warned citizens that they could be prosecuted for their online postings about the floods.
The state’s cyber police force issued a statement on March 27 indicating that police units had been “instructed to monitor social media and take swift action against those who publish images and spread rumors that disturb public opinion and disrupt the peace in society.”
A video has surfaced in Iran showing the arrest of a Telegram channel administrator that took place in Omidieh, Khuzestan province in February 2019. The video shows plainclothes security forces at the home of the administrator, aggressively arresting him on unknown charges.
The Telegram channel (the name of which has not been made public) captured the attention of the government, as they criticized the use and sale of government lands, and pointed to evidence of corruption among the council and government officials, including the public prosecutor, operating in Omidieh.
Tehran’s public prosecutor told IRNA, the official news agency of the government, that all of the channel’s administrators were arrested, but no official charges are known. He also explained Iran’s cyber police force had been monitoring their activities for some time before these arrests.
With India’s election cycle beginning on April 11, Facebook announced on April 1 that the company had taken down 687 pages and accounts promoting the agenda and interests of the Indian National Congress (INC), the country’s dominant opposition political party. The company also reported that it had removed 15 pages associated with the IT firm Silver Touch. But Facebook neglected to mention that Silver Touch is known to have worked on behalf of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and that the pages in question contained pro-BJP material. Some political commentators have taken the company to task on what they see as a glaring omission.
All told, the pages associated with Silver Touch (and by extension the BJP) had approximately 2.6 million followers, while those promoting the opposition INC had roughly 200,000.
Mauritanian police arrested two bloggers who had reported on alleged financial misdeeds of the north African country’s president, Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz. The public prosecutor concluded that their reports were untrue and the bloggers now stand accused of spreading “false accusations” against Ould Abdel Aziz under Article 348 of Mauritania’s Penal Code. They risk between six months to five years in jail each. They remain in jail pending trial.
Five journalists in Pakistan are being investigated by authorities for showing solidarity with Jamal Khashoggi, the Saudi Arabian journalist who was murdered in his country’s embassy in Turkey in October 2018. The journalists replaced their own profile photos on Twitter with photos of the slain journalist when Saudi crown prince Mohamad Bin Salman made an official visit to the country in mid-February 2019. A copy of the Federal Investigation Agency order for the probe has made the rounds on social media, and indicates that the journalists “conveyed a very disrespectful message to the visiting dignitary/ guest.”
Murtaza Solangi, one of the journalists targeted in the probe, tweeted:
So the shameful govt of @ImranKhanPTI has a problem with putting the picture of slain journalist #JamalKhashoggi on your twitter profile and considers it against the law? Come arrest me, you shameless creatures. pic.twitter.com/4YJIirSKgB
— Democrat Murtaza Solangi (@murtazasolangi) March 27, 2019
Russia’s media regulator is pushing 10 VPN providers to block users’ access to “blacklisted” websites in Russia. The agency has demanded that VPN providers plug into the “Federal-State Information System (FGIS)”, a technical system that will signal to their services which websites need to be blocked. This would defeat the purpose of a VPN, a technology used primarily to help people access websites that are blocked in the jurisdiction where they are located. Only one of the companies, the sole service provider based in Russia (Kaspersky Secure Connection), has signaled that it will comply.
Australia’s parliament hastily approved new legislation that obligates hosting and social media platforms to swiftly remove “abhorrent violent material” when they are aware of its existence on their networks. Platforms that fail to comply could face three years in prison (for local employees) and a fine of 10.5 million Australian dollars ($7.5 million), or 10 percent of the platform’s annual turnover, whichever is larger. The law only applies to content, mainly videos and photos, recorded by the perpetrator or an accomplice of an act of “terrorism murder, attempted murder, torture, rape, and kidnapping.” The law does not offer guidance on how platforms should distinguish between videos taken by perpetrators and those taken by witnesses.
The law also requires internet service providers to inform national police if they are aware of such content moving through their networks. Writing for the Nieman Lab blog, Andre Oboler argues that this will turn ISPs into a “national surveillance network”:
As ISPs provide access for consumers to everything on the internet, this seeks to turn ISPs into a national surveillance network. It has the potential to move us from an already problematic metadata retention scheme into an expectation for ISPs to apply deep packet inspection monitoring of everything that is said.
Egyptian blogger and activist Alaa Abd El Fattah was released by authorities late on the night of March 28 after serving five years in prison for defying a protest ban. The news broke on Twitter when his sister, activist Mona Seif, tweeted simply: “Alaa is out.”
The 37-year-old activist was arrested and taken from his family’s home in November 2013. More than one year later, he was finally tried and sentenced to five years in prison for “organizing” a protest under a 2013 law that prohibits unauthorized demonstrations. Alaa has been jailed or investigated under every Egyptian head of state who has served during his lifetime. In 2006, he was arrested for taking part in a peaceful protest. In 2011, he spent two months in prison, missing the birth of his first child, Khaled. In 2013, he was arrested and detained for 115 days without trial.
Supporters around the world posted photos on Twitter with signs reading “Welcome Home Alaa!” Global Voices was among them:
Long-time @globalvoices and @advox friend @alaa is out of jail in #Egypt after five long years behind bars. #freealaa #welcomehomealaa pic.twitter.com/kAF1ifjGMB
— Global Voices (@globalvoices) March 29, 2019
Contributions for this report came from Afef Abrougui, Mahsa Alimardani, Ellery Roberts Biddle Talal Raza, Elizabeth Rivera, Taisa Sganzerla and the Campaign for Human Rights in Iran.

author: Netizen Report Team


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Why are some Czechs claiming Slovakia’s president-elect as their own? · Global Voices
Filip Noubel

Zuzana Čaputová, elected president of Slovakia on March 30, 2019. Campaign photo, media use permitted.
While Slovakia and the Czech Republic officially and amicably split in 1993, their societies still share strong cultural, economic, and political links — to the point that some segments of Czech society are calling Zuzana Čaputová, Slovakia's president-elect, as a “Czech president”.
Čaputová, a 45-year-old pro-EU lawyer and activist, was elected on March 30, 2019, with 58 percent of the total votes. When she takes office in June, she will become Slovakia's first-ever female president.
But why did Czechs react so enthusiastically to her victory?
On paper as well as in many aspects of economic life, both countries have taken rather divergent paths since 1993. Slovakia has faced a more challenging transition to a market economy, enduring high unemployment and low levels of GDP per capita in comparison to its neighbor. And while both countries joined the European Union in 2004, only Slovakia chose to adopt the Euro as its currency (in 2009).
The Czechs’ higher human development levels and abundance of jobs have attracted a steady flow of Slovak migrant workers, who presently amount to over 100,000 people — one percent of the Czech Republic's population and over 10 percent of its foreign workers. Thus, Slovak language is often heard in Prague and other Czech cities, ironically producing a sensation reminiscent of the times of Czechoslovakia when both languages had equal status as official and would be used indiscriminately in both education and the media.
The political connections are even more abundant. The Czech Republic's current Prime Minister Andrej Babiš was born in Bratislava, Slovakia, and as he attended school and university there, he speaks Czech with a slight Slovak accent.
He is also a highly controversial businessman-turned-politician, suspected of having collaborated with communist security services in the past — and of misappropriating European Union funds in the present.
His political line with the ANO party is conservative, often anti-Brussels, openly opposed to take in refugees, and generally supportive of a stronger alliance with Moscow and Beijing. The current Czech President Miloš Zeman, elected in late 2018, shares the same political agenda.
The cover of Czech magazine Respekt featuring an article about Zuzana Čaputová with a headline “The miracle under the Tatra Mountains.” Fair use.
Therefore Slovakia's president-elect Zuzana Čaputová is everything that they're not: she is a lawyer, an environmental activist, a supporter of Brussels’ policies and of the LGBTQ community — and a woman.
This might help explain much of the commentary by leading Czech media and politicians upon the news of Čaputová's unexpected victory.
On March 31, the influential and liberal Czech weekly Respekt headlined an article about Čaputová’s victory as “The Czech President Čaputová.” The editor-in-chief writes:
Na českých sociálních sítích to v sobotu večer vypadalo, jako kdyby Zuzana Čaputová byla zvolena nikoli slovenskou, ale českou prezidentkou. Zavládlo tu naprosté nadšení. Pochopitelně mezi těmi, kdo si před rokem nepřáli úspěch Miloše Zemana. Mohlo by se zdát, že ty oslavy jsou naivní, nesmyslné, ale není tomu tak. Slovensko totiž vyslalo trochu naděje i do Česka.
On Saturday evening, it looked on Czech social media as if Zuzana Čaputová was elected not as Slovak but as a Czech President. People were ecstatic, obviously the ones who didn’t wish for Zeman's victory a year ago. One could think that such celebrations are naive, senseless, but it is not so. Slovakia has indeed provided some hope for the Czech Republic.
Another distinction that was immediately evident to Czech audiences is Zeman's and Čaputová's view of the media. The Czech President is notorious for his inflammatory attacks of journalists, while Čaputová has openly supported a criminal investigation into the murder of Slovak journalist Ján Kuciak.
All ruling Czech politicians, including the president and the prime minister, congratulated Čaputová on her success. In addition, Jiří Pospíšil, head of the opposition TOP 09 party, tweeted:
Zvolení Zuzany Čaputové je dobrou zprávou pro ČR. Věřím, že přátelské vztahy mezi našimi zeměmi budou pokračovat. Paní Čaputové k vítězství gratuluji a doufám, že se i my brzy dočkáme slušného prezidenta, který hledí vpřed a není zatížen minulostí.
— Jiří Pospíšil (@Pospisil_Jiri) March 30, 2019
I believe the friendly relations between our countries will continue. We congratulate Miss Čaputová and hope that we will soon deserve a decent president who looks forward and is not burdened by the past.
In line with both countries’ brotherly relations, Čaputová first visit to a foreign country as president will be to the Czech Republic.

author: Filip Noubel


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New interview with Haruki Murakami looks back on Heisei Japan · Global Voices
Nevin Thompson

Haruki Murakami speaking in Ecuador in November 2018. Image: Ecuador's Minister of Culture and Heritage, public domain.
In a new interview, Japanese novelist Haruki Murakami takes a look back at Japan's Heisei era, which will come to an end on April 30, 2019, when the current emperor of Japan will abdicate the throne.
As a novelist, Murakami is often regarded as representative of Japan's Heisei era, which began on January 8, 1989. Besides experiencing the collapse of the “bubble economy” and a recession in the 1990s, the Heisei era saw a major earthquake in 1995 that destroyed the city of Kobe, as well as the 2011 earthquake and tsunami that killed more than 20,000 and caused a major nuclear accident.
In the interview, Murakami says:
I don’t know why, but my books seem to be read especially when what we had before suddenly collapsed or disappeared. I feel that (my books) began to be essentially accepted in Japan around the time when the Heisei era started with the death of the emperor, the asset-inflated economy collapsed and the Great Hanshin Earthquake and the sarin incident occurred.
Murakami was interviewed after his novel “1Q84” was voted the best book published between 1989 and 2018 by a group of 120 book reviewers in a survey about the Heisei era conducted by the Asahi Shimbun newspaper.
In the interview, Murakami discusses many of his books, including “1Q84″, “After the Quake”, and “Underground: The Tokyo Gas Attack and the Japanese Psyche”.
The full interview with Haruki Murakami can be read on the Asahi Shimbun website.

author: Nevin Thompson


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Young, dreadlocked or tattooed in Nigeria? Police might harass or kill you. · Global Voices
Nwachukwu Egbunike

Screenshot of slain Nigerian youth, Kolade Johnson, with his fiancee Stephanie.
On Sunday, March 31, Kolade Johnson, a 36-year-old father of one, was shot dead by the Special Anti Robbery Squad (SARS) from the Lagos State Command. SARS is one of fifteen sections of the Criminal Investigative Department of the Nigeria Police Force. His “crime”? Getting caught up in a raid on “youths dressed wildly and rocking dreadlocks,” according to Naija News.
Naija News reports that Johnson had gone to watch the English Premier League match between Liverpool and Tottenham in a public bar in Mangoro/Onipetesi within Lagos metropolis when an “unmarked commercial bus” came through seeking unruly youth — when a crowd formed. The report said:
…In an attempt to disperse a crowd which had gathered during the raid, one of the police operatives shot dead Johnson, who was trying to leave the scene after watching English Premier League match between Liverpool and Tottenham.
Editor's note: graphic video, viewer discretion advised:
SARS Shot at people and stray bullet hit this innocent Guy that was watching Football this afternoon ,He has died eventually,He lost too much blood . May it never be well with New inspector General Of Police that brought these animals back into our Society … #ENDSARS pic.twitter.com/3YstXD0abG
— Oluwa Tobi (@TobiDaGreatest) March 31, 2019
An eye witness narrates how Johnson was killed:
A man named kolade Johnson was brutally shot dead by men of the anti cult unit of SARS at Mangoro bus stop Pentecostal filling station pic.twitter.com/NRpxC9L4UE
— Ayo Taylor FCA FCIB (@ayorinde_taylor) March 31, 2019
Taylor also told Naija News that everything happened in a flash:
F-SARS had come to arrest one of the boys of a major music producer who was wears (sic) dreads… We all came out from the bar and kept explaining to the policemen that they were arresting a wrong person. In an attempt to disperse the crowd, a first shot was fired to the ground. Seeing this, I and the others quickly turned back to avoid trouble but because Kunle [Kolade] was probably the last person in the crowd, he was shot point-blank from behind. He didn’t even know he was shot till we had trekked some few meters before we all saw he was bleeding, he died on his way to the hospital at Ikeja [administrative capital of Lagos State].
The SARS unit of the Nigerian Police Force is known for their impunity and flagrant violation of human rights of Nigerian citizens. A 2016 report by Amnesty International described SARS as a “police squad operating outside the law” that has turned torture into “a means of extracting confessions and lucrative bribes.”
In Nigeria @PoliceNG being posted to SARS is often regarded as a “juicy” posting and is preceded by intense lobbying by potential officers. Officers sometimes pay superior officers responsible for transfers as much as N300,000 to influence their posting to SARS. #EndSARS
— Amnesty Int. Nigeria (@AmnestyNigeria) April 1, 2019
The government's failure to punish human rights violations of this kind has led to an entrenchment of abuses as the norm.
Twitter mourned the loss of young Kolade as a family man.
My Kaylo Boy is gone! My ‘Lion’ … my chef… my precious Kolade Johnson… I'm so sorry it ended this way… I'm sorry i wasn't there to stop the bleeding… I'm sorry the government failed you… I'm sorry ?#EndSARS pic.twitter.com/N0wsMQrYUK
— Stephañy (@stefanygeorge) March 31, 2019
RIP Kolade Johnson aka KayLow #KLOW aka Don Styles. Just this morning we still spoke about how you want to send money for your Son Jason. Gentle warrior, funny Somebody and a great friend. Your killers won’t go free. #Endsars #EndSARS #EndSACS #EndSAKS #Justice4Kola pic.twitter.com/nfnZo2AeTF
— Yungest godfada (@YGodfada) April 1, 2019
Twitter users also lamented the fact that being young and wearing dreadlocks is not a crime:
Being young is NOT a crime. Having dreadlocks is NOT a crime.
Sagging your jeans is NOT a crime.
Having tattoos and piercings is NOT a crime.
The big crime is the police harassing and killing the innocent youth they are paid to protect, and nobody stopping them. #EndSARS
— Dr. Joe Abah (@DrJoeAbah) April 1, 2019
Fulani woman with traditional Zani tattoo marks at the market, Serti, Nigeria. Photo by Rosemary Lodge, November 20, 2009, via Flickr, CC BY-NC-SA 2.0.
SARS officers raided the bar on Sunday with the intent to arrests “cultists” identified by tattoos or dreadlocks. The Nigeria police for Lagos state believe that “young people wearing dreadlocks and tattoo on their body” must be arrested because “body art is connected to cultism” and is “strange to [Nigerian] culture.”
Yet, Johnson was neither wearing tattoos nor dreadlocks.
And tattoos — or facial scarification — is a common form of cultural expression that predates colonialism in some parts of Africa. Nigerian scholar, Taiye Aluko, asserts “tattoo and incision as important features of the Yoruba culture” in southwestern Nigeria. Similarly, the Igbo in the southeast performs Ichi body tattooing by ranking elders and Uli which scholars describe as “indigo dye used to draw cosmetically on the human body.” Among the Hausa of northern Nigeria, tribal marks are called Zani cuts with blue pigmentation and rubbed charcoal. Igbo and Yoruba also have dada, children born with natural dreadlocks.
Therefore, SARS who target citizens for their tattoos or dreadlocks actually works against Nigerian culture and turns cultural body arts into a crime.
Activist Segun Awosanya initiated the #EndSARS campaign because he was livid with the continued torture, extortion and killing of youth:
If we sanitize the system people need not bother about being apprehensive when they see security agents. The police are meant to protect lives and property not abduct, torture, extort and kill our youth. The punishment for this need to be capital. It must become a state crime!
— SEGA L’éveilleur®? (@segalink) April 1, 2019
A screenshot of Segun Awosanya, convener of #EndSAR, a movement against human rights abuses perpetrated by the Nigerian police.
End SARS grew from the hashtag  #EndSARS into a social movement and advocacy group that continues to use Twitter to follow SARS abuses. Young Nigerians harassed by police usually reach out to Awosanya through his Twitter handle (@segelink) and in practically all the cases, Awosanya's advocacy group steps in and offers support.
The social media clamor created by his campaign precipitated Nigeria's President Muhammadu Buhari to order a “nationwide re-organization of the squad, and the police's top leaders reacted with a superficial re-organization of SARS.
With Kolade Johnson's murder, much more must be done to end police abuse, torture, and extortion of Nigerians.

author: Nwachukwu Egbunike


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In France, police violence escalates to quell yellow vests protests · Global Voices
Manuel Alaver

Yellow Vests demonstration in Paris, France, March 16, 2019. Photo by the author, used with permission.
Des violences policières, il y en a tous les samedis. Les gens qui sont blessés et mutilés ne sont pas des casseurs, mais des manifestants.
Police violence is a regular Saturday occurrence. The guys who get hurt and injured aren't hooligans, but protesters.
These are the words of David Dufresne, an independent journalist who is angry about the excessive use of force by French police since the start of the yellow vests (gilets jaunes) movement. Dufresne has kept a tally of the injured victims of police violence and he describes his motivation:
Je m’y suis intéressé, tout début décembre, quand j’ai vu que circulaient sur les réseaux sociaux des images épouvantables de mutilés. Parce que c’est bien de mutilés que l’on parle : je recense 23 personnes qui ont perdu un œil, cinq qui ont perdu une main.
I got involved, right at the start of December, when I saw these horrendous images of the maimed circulating on social media. And I mean maimed: I've counted 23 people who've lost an eye, five who've lost a hand.
To call out the violence, David Dufresne set up a website, in partnership with Mediapart, an independent newspaper. Ironically named “Hello Home Office, Justice Department” (referencing a Twitter expression to flag illegal or offensive content to the police), his platform itemizes casualties since the beginning of the yellow vest movement.
The site details injuries reported by category. Of the 550 reports cataloged, more than 222 concern head injuries, with at least 20 with cases of eye loss and five reported arm loss. Of the victims, 419 were demonstrators, 57 journalists, 37 minors, 19 bystanders and 18 medical personnel.
Yellow Vests protester with eye injury following one demonstration via @alloplacebeauveau (with their permission)
On Twitter, Dufresne shares photos of injuries sent by the victims.  At times extreme, images show grave injuries sustained at the hands of law enforcement officers during protests.
Violences policières: on est à au moins 260 signalements de @davduf. @CheckNewsfr recense 93 blessés graves dont 13 qui ont perdu un œil. Un gilet jaune est annoncé dans le coma. De nombreux journalistes ont aussi été blessés. Une constante : le silence du gouvernement pic.twitter.com/D7ZNHoAURZ
— David Perrotin (@davidperrotin) 14 janvier 2019
Police violence: We now have at least 260 reports from @davduf. @CheckNewsfr calculates 93 seriously injured, 13 of whom have lost an eye. A Gilet Jaune is reportedly in a coma. Many journalists have also been wounded. One thing remains constant: the government's silence. pic.twitter.com/D7ZNHoAURZ
— David Perrotin (@davidperrotin) 14 January 2019
The violence and repression raise questions. Why are so many protesters losing an eye or a hand in these demonstrations?
French law enforcement has been using a particular weapon referred to as ‘less-lethal rubber bullet gun‘ (lanceur de balle de défense, or LBD, in French). Made in Switzerland, originally designed to prevent killing or seriously wounding a target, this projectile launcher is controversial. Detractors say this weapon is entirely unsafe.
Between 2004 and 2013, serious injuries of around 30 people were attributed to LBDs — the same number since the start of the yellow vests movement in November 2018 to present.
In January, medical practitioners launched a petition to ban the use of LBDs. Laurent Thines, neurosurgeon and chief clinician at Besançon teaching hospital said:
Un projectile de type LBD4O, par exemple, lancé à plus de 90m/sec (324 km/h) a une force d’impact de 200 joules: c’est comme si on vous lâchait un parpaing de 20kg sur le visage ou la tête d’une hauteur de 1m !
A projectile of the LBD40 type, for example, launched at over 90 meters/second (324 kilometers per hour) has an impact force of 200 joules [rate of energy aborption]: that's like having a 20 kilograms of concrete block thrown on to your face or head from one meter's height!
In principle, LBD should only be used in the area of the “torso, upper or lower limbs,” according to Eric Morvan, director general of the national police.
Unfortunately, accuracy is haphazard, inflicting numerous injuries.
Thines said:
Amputation of a limb, disfigurement for life, facial or dental trauma, ocular laceration or loss, skull fracture, brain haemorrhage, leading to doubtful survival prognosis, and leading to neurological damage — all these mutilations recalling the destroyed faces of First World War shelling victims…  So many lives have been sacrificed this way…
French police have also used sting-ball grenades to enforce the order. Loaded with explosive trinitrotoluene (TNT), their detonation propels metallic fragments with a blast effect that can wound and deafen.
France is one of the last countries in Europe to employ LBD, along with Poland, Hungary, Turkey, and Greece.
The scene after a yellow vest protest that turned violent. Photo taken on March 18, 2019, in Paris, France. Photo by the author, used with permission.
Yellow vest protests kicked off in France as a reaction to fuel tax increases but rapidly transformed into weekly protests. Every Saturday, protesters take to the streets to campaign for new tax policies, greater purchasing power, a citizen's referendum, and the resignation of President Emmanuel Macron.
Since November, the demonstrations have led to numerous instances of damage to property in several towns. Ten people have lost their lives “indirectly” in road accidents connected to the demonstrations. In Marseille, a woman died after being hit by an exploding grenade.
Although the Ministry of the Interior acknowledges 2,200 injured, including ten with “irreparable eye damage,” the government presses on with its strategy of maintaining order. Questioned by journalists during a visit in January 2019 to Aude, in southwest France, over the police violence, Minister of the Interior Christophe Castaner asserted that “no officer or constable” had “attacked any Gilets Jaunes.”
In February, Castaner returned to the argument, justifying the use of force, saying that hooligans have regularly infiltrated the demonstrators’ ranks. The law enforcers’ aggressive response, according to the minister, were reactions to this violence:
La violence, toujours.
Les exactions commises en marge des rassemblements de Clermont-Ferrand, Rouen, Montpellier… sont intolérables.
Je salue l’action de nos forces de l’ordre, intervenues avec sang-froid et détermination alors même qu’elles étaient violemment prises à partie.
— Christophe Castaner (@CCastaner) 23 février 2019
Violence. Again.
The outrages committed at the periphery of the protests at Clermont-Ferrand, Rouen, Montpeller… are intolerable.
I salute the action of our law enforcement agencies, who intervened with cool headed determination while subject to violent attack.
— Christophe Castaner (@CCastaner) 23 February 2019
S'il n'y avait pas de magasins pillés, de barricades érigées.
S'il n'y avait pas de voitures brûlées, de bâtiments publics saccagés.
S'il n'y avait pas de forces de l'ordre lynchées.
En somme si la loi était respectée, il n'y aurait pas de blessés. pic.twitter.com/C3wQQq2fVv
— Christophe Castaner (@CCastaner) 1 février 2019
If there were no shops being looted, barricades being put up.
If there were no cars being set alight, public buildings being sacked.
If there were no law enforcement officers being mobbed.
In other words, if the law was being respected, no one would be getting hurt. pic.twitter.com/C3wQQq2fVv
— Christophe Castaner (@CCastaner)1 février 2019
Alexis Kraland, an independent journalist, instantly responded on Twitter, drawing attention to the injured without any direct connection to the demonstrations.
Propagande d'État mensongère tant de nombreux blessés l'ont été bien loin de barricades ou voitures enflammées, de bâtiments publics et agences bancaires ou immobilières saccagées, des magasins pillés ou de forces de l'ordres affrontées
— Alexis Kraland (@akraland) 2 février 2019
Lying, state propaganda!  There are so many who have been hurt when nowhere near barricades, burning vehicles, sacked public buildings, banks or apartment blocks, looted shops embattled officers
— Alexis Kraland (@akraland) 2 February 2019
Since November, when the movement began, 243 complaints have been submitted to the General Inspectorate of the National Police Service, whose mission is to ensure police follow correct procedures.
It has a total of 174 active investigations, according to Castaner, the Minister of the Interior. These investigations will establish whether officers have applied “proportionate” force. “Abuses will be punished,” announced the minister.
Defender of Rights, France's official human rights ombudsman, Jacques Toubon, expressed concern in his annual report over the “routine use of rubber bullet launchers,” and urged a ban on them as well as explosive grenades.
United Nations’ Michelle Bachelet of the High Commissioner of Human Rights, has also called for an “in-depth inquiry” into incidences of police violence in France.
In a debate organized March 7, Macron rejected the term “police violence,” declaring:
Do not speak of ‘repression’ or ‘police violence’ — these words are unacceptable in a state under the rule of law.
In the town of Nice, during the yellow vests’ “Act 19,” which stands for the 19th consecutive weekend of protest by the Yellow Vests,  a 73-year-old demonstrator sustained a head injury in a fall.
Before the investigation was over, Macron assured the newspaper Nice-Matin that the demonstrator had not been “in contact with the law enforcement agencies.”
Ten days later, this version was disproved by the examining magistrate of Nice, who ruled that an individual police officer had in fact been the cause of the senior citizen's fall.

author: Manuel Alaver


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Morocco’s Hirak movement has gone quiet, but the crackdown on independent media continues · Global Voices
Afef Abrougui

A protest in Al Hoceima in the Rif region in the summer of 2017. Photo by Mohamed Mouha via Wikimedia (CC BY-SA 4.0)
The Hirak protest movement in Morocco first took hold after the death of Mohsin Fekri, a fish vendor whose product was seized by authorities in the city of Al Hoceima on October 29, 2016. When Fekri tried to reclaim the fish, he was crushed to death by a garbage truck.
From then until well into 2017, Moroccans in the Rif region held weekly demonstrations protesting poor socio-economic conditions and corrupt government officials, long-neglected by the central government, and they persisted until authorities launched a violent crackdown in June 2017, arresting 400 activists and protesters.
The movement also triggered a backlash for independent journalists and people who wanted to document the protests and ensuing crackdown. At least seven independent journalists were arrested while covering the protests. According to the Committee to Protect Journalists, three are currently behind bars over their coverage of the Hirak.
Hamid El Mahdaoui, who ran the news site Badil.info prior to his arrest, is serving three years in jail after he was convicted by the court of appeals of Casablanca in June 2018 of “failure to report a crime threatening national security,’’ due to a phone conversation (an official recording of which was obtained via wiretap) between himself and a Moroccan anti-monarchy activist based in the Netherlands, in which the activist described a plan to bring weapons into the country.
El Mahdaoui speaking in a video about the crackdown on protesters in El Hoceima. Source: Screenshot from a video uploaded on the journalist's YouTube channel on June 28, 2017.
El Mahdaoui had already served a one-year jail sentence for “inciting” protest. He was arrested on July 20, 2017 in the city of Al-Hoceima where he traveled to cover the Hirak protests.
Citizen journalist Mohamed El Asrihi, the editor and director of Rif24.com, a local citizen media website that provided extensive coverage of the protests in Al Hoceima and other cities, is serving five years in prison. The same court found him guilty in June 2018 of “undermining Morocco's internal security by receiving donations and funds for activities and propaganda undermining the Kingdom of Morocco's unity and sovereignty, and the loyalty of its citizens,” as well as “participating in unauthorized demonstrations,” “inciting against the unity of the kingdom,” “insulting government officials,” and “claiming to be a journalist without having acquired the necessary accreditation.”
Journalists who do not obtain accreditation — the “professional journalist’s card” issued by the National Council of the Press, which oversees the industry — are not given the same protections as those considered “professional journalists.” To obtain accreditation, journalists need a university diploma. Journalism should be their primary profession and their main source of income, and they should not have been convicted of a crime in the past. The card must be renewed every year. These requirements exclude citizen journalists who may not be practicing journalism as a source of income, along with journalists who did not graduate or attend university.
But even for those journalists who are considered “professional,” legal protections are limited. While in 2016, the Moroccan parliament adopted a new press code that eliminated prison time as punishment, journalists and media can still be fined for “defaming” government ministers (article 81), foreign diplomats (article 82), and state institutions and public officials (article 84). In addition, journalists are still prosecuted and jailed under the penal code which includes provisions punishing by prison and/or fines those convicted of “causing harm” to Islam, the monarchy, or inciting activities that go against the country's territorial integrity.
All these conditions make it difficult for independent media to counter rampant disinformation campaigns, particularly those targeting people who are under threat for their activism and their work covering the Hirak and other events of importance to the public.


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Moscow human rights activists sue a Russian far eastern republic over ban on migrant workers · Global Voices
RuNet Echo

Head of the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia), Yasen Nikolayev, who signed the order banning all migrants from working in the republic on March 27, 2019. Photo: kremlin.ru, CC 4.0
A Moscow-based human rights organization is taking the provincial government of Yakutia to Russia's Constitutional Court over a recent local directive that bans foreign migrants from working in the republic.
Yakutia, one of Russia’s 22 constituent republics, is a remote and sparsely populated region in Russia’s far east. Earlier this year, the locals in Yakutsk, the republic’s capital, staged anti-migrant rallies following a rape case involving a Yakut victim and a perpetrator from Kyrgyzstan, a former Soviet republic which today is among the biggest contributors to Russia’s foreign labor force.
In late March 2019, the republic’s governor, Yasen Nikolayev, signed a controversial order banning all foreign migrant workers from employment in a range of local industries, as well as forcing these industries to fire all already employed migrants within three months.
The Moscow organization, named “The Land Without Racism and Xenophobia,” announced on April on their Facebook page that they'd be filing a case against the province:
Мы считаем, что Глава Республики Саха (Якутия) Николаев А.С., злоупотребил правом, приняв решение, не основанное на региональных объективных особенностях рынка труда и необходимости в приоритетном порядке трудоустройства граждан Российской Федерации.
We thus conclude that the Head of the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia) Yasen Nikolayev has abused his rights in making a decision not based on objective labor conditions and the need for priority employment for citizens of the Russian Federation.
Experts diverge over the legality of the ban, but it appears that Nikolayev was indeed within his legal rights to introduce it. Russia’s republics have their own constitution and legislative bodies, and this is far from the first such attempt to regulate local labor markets.
In any case, Yakutia’s ban on foreign migrants is unlikely to achieve anything besides quelling the heated protests.
Russia and Kyrgyzstan are both members of the Eurasian Economic Union, which is an integrated single market with free movement of labor. That renders the 640,000 Kyrgyz workers currently living in Russia — according to Kyrgyzstan’s own statistics — exempt from any laws regulating foreign labor.
Besides appealing to the humanitarian aspect of laws and acts that summarily affect hundreds of thousands of people for the crime of one, Russian human rights activists such as “The Land Without Racism and Xenophobia” will have to fight Yasen Nikolayev’s act on purely legalistic grounds, arguing that regulating the local labor market in Yakutia is not actually necessary.

author: RuNet Echo


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Unexplained Wealth Bill in Trinidad & Tobago ruffles some feathers · Global Voices
Flora Thomas

Screenshot of Trinidad and Tobago's Attorney General Faris Al Rawi taken from a YouTube video entitled “FACTS: Unexplained Wealth Legislation.”
On April 5, 2019, Trinidad and Tobago's attorney general, Faris al Rawi, finished up the parliamentary debate over the Civil Asset Recovery and Management and Unexplained Wealth Bill, 2019. The legislation targets corruption as part of a larger aim to establish an agency responsible for recovering criminal property and restricting ill-gotten assets.
But the bill has come under fire by the country's opposition, as well as some social media users. Al Rawi has firmly defended the bill, however, saying that “innocent people” with nothing to hide should not be concerned.
This is not the first time that such legislation has been proposed. Prior to elections in 2015, when the current opposition party was in government, the then-national security minister, Gary Griffith (now the country's commissioner of police), brought a civil asset forfeiture document to the cabinet. Because the legislation was not passed back then, Al Rawi said he was not surprised by the opposition's reaction to the current bill, which they called “draconian” and “unconstitutional.”
Meanwhile, CoP Griffith maintained that passing the bill would help police tackle white-collar crime, which is rampant in Trinidad and Tobago. He added that it would help to block “gang leaders and criminal elements” from getting state contracts, a fairly common occurrence.
Because the bill is intended to combat crime, it only needed a simple majority to pass, which some on social media, including Facebook user Suzette Louwe, took issue with, saying:
The Opposition represents approximately 350,000 voters in this country who now will have no voice in the passing of this bill at parliamentary level.
Netizens are also concerned about the grounds for conviction that the bill lays out. Facebook user Kuarlal Rampersad acknowledged that it was a “very good law to combat criminal activities, money laundering, corruption and terrorist financing,” but was under the impression that the standard of proof for conviction was no longer based on “reasonable doubt,” but “reasonable suspicion.”
Attorney Jonathan Walker, however, posted this public Facebook status update:
There is A LOT of misinformation being spread about the Unexplained Wealth legislation. It does NOT allow the government to seize and take your property [merely] on the basis of suspicion. To the contrary, seizure is dependent upon the court concluding that the property is criminal property, and was not acquired by its owner for value and without notice of the criminality.
Other concerns include the fact that the law will be retroactive, and there seems to be little confidence in how the state agency will carry out its remit. There have been several online discussions about the potential for abuse of power and some local business chambers have spoken out against the bill, saying that in its current form, it could adversely affect citizens and needed further clarification.
But in a video widely shared on social media, the attorney general explained:
There is no government involved in this. There is no police involved in this. This is the director of public prosecutions telling a handpicked by the president and by the Judicial Legal Services Commission agency — who are insulated away from politicians — that they, the agency, must approach the court and the court must decide […]
There can be no forfeiture unless a court says so. […] That means the high court has to say yes. The court of appeal has to say yes. The privy council has to say yes on the recommendation of the director of public prosecutions acting through independent agents […] Only after all of that can your asset be forfeited.
That hasn't stopped the circulation, via unsolicited emails, of a petition against the bill.
Interestingly, much of the official discourse around the bill has focused on targeting the “gold-chain-wearing men that don’t have a job, all day long driving Mercedes Benz and BMWs,” but attorney Justin Phelps made the point that “Unexplained Wealth legislation passed by parliamentarians in Trinidad and Tobago is like Satan outlawing the Devil”:
Because of a docile population, a fraudulent civil society willing to be bought and a plethora of ‘activists’ who are really applying for a wuk [work], being a parliamentarian IS the most profitable game in town. It’s where you go to get rich. Now they want to know how people got rich.
Perhaps there also needs to be stronger legislation preventing the acquisition of such ill-gotten gains in the first place.
Update: To the surprise of many netizens, the Civil Asset Recovery and Management and Unexplained Wealth Bill, 2019 was unanimously passed in parliament — with a few amendments — on the evening of April 8.

author: Flora Thomas


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All you need to know about India’s 2019 general elections · Global Voices
Rezwan

A man wearing a Narendra Modi mask at an election rally in Gujarat. Image via Wikimedia Commons. CC BY-SA 2.0
The week from April 11 to May 19 is election season in India, and the largest democracy in the world is bracing itself for the days ahead.
Voting will be held in all of India's 29 states and seven additional small union territories, with the final results announced on May 23.
India has an asymmetric federal government, with elected officials at the federal, state, and local levels.
The prime minister is the head of government and they're elected by the members of Lok Sabha, the lower house of parliament.
An estimated 900 million people, including 432 million women, will cast their votes to elect 543 members of parliament from single-member constituencies. More than 8,000 contestants will fight for these seats.
There will be 10 million election officials at work and the total election cost is stipulated to be an unprecedented Indian 500 billion Indian rupees (7,22 billion USD).
This year, the election will see intense competition as incumbent Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is hoping for re-election after a landslide victory in 2014.
He will be challenged by Rahul Gandhi and his party, the Indian National Congress, the main national opposition party which ruled India for most of the period since its independence in 1947. Rahul's grandmother Indira Gandhi was a long-time Prime Minister, and his grandfather, Jawaharlal Nehru, was the country's founding Prime Minister.
BJP leads the National Democratic Alliance (a pre-poll alliance) consisting of around 20 parties, including right-wing Shiv Shena, AIADMK, Janata Dal, and Shiromani Akali Dal.
On the other hand, the United Progressive Alliance, led by Rahul Gandhi's Indian National Congress, consists of more than 25 parties including DMK, Nationalist Congress Party, and Rashtriya Janata Dal.
Other regional parties like Samajwadi Party from Uttar Pradesh, Aam Admi Party from Delhi, Trinamool Congress from West Bengal and Bahujan Samaj Party may be crucial in forming a proposed United Opposition Alliance to stop Bharatiya Janata Party's reelection.
Recent opinion polls put Modi-led National Democratic Alliance ahead of the competition; however, a lot can change during the election season.
Election time in India. #IncredibleIndia #2019LokSabhaElections # pic.twitter.com/4SF91AI7jL
— Brij Singh (@brijmgmt01) April 6, 2019
In 2014, Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party relied heavily on social media to clinch a landslide victory. Two years ago, Modi predicted that the battleground of the 2019 elections would be on mobile phones.
This year, as expected, the campaigns are using social media, with a battle of hashtags employed to malign the competitors.
According to a report by Scroll.in, BJP has spent heavily on advertisements on Google and Facebook. Another report in the Huffington Post suggests that BJP has used non-profits to run sophisticated misinformation campaigns to spread fake news and false claims on social media and WhatsApp.
Popular FB page, My First Vote For Modi recently offered NaMo merchandise in exchange for a vote for PM Modi. After HuffPost's story revealed this page is run by BJP's secretive consultancy firm, question is, who paid for these ads? @Maha_Shoonya asks. https://t.co/WI2bL9fFUT
— The Quint (@TheQuint) April 5, 2019
The release of a biopic on Narendra Modi’s life has raised concerns over a possible breach of the election code of conduct which states that any political advertisement needs to be pre-certified by the Media Certification and Monitoring Committee:
‘PM Narendra Modi’ Biopic Cleared For Release on India’s Election Day https://t.co/o7FVLqVZeO pic.twitter.com/MfT8UvdyN3
— sdwahine78 (@sdwahine78) April 7, 2019
According to reports, Vivek Oberoi, the lead actor of Modi biopic, is most likely to campaign for BJP even though producers denied having any connections with BJP.
Also, a campaign song of the Indian National Congress was flagged by the Elections Commission.
The #Congress had to remove one stanza from its campaign theme song, which was an apparent jibe at Prime Minister @narendramodi , after the Election Commission objected to it, sources said. #LokSabhaElections2019 #BJP
— Sachin Kumar (@SachinKrIndia) April 7, 2019
Many political activists have demanded close monitoring of social media regarding unlawful election campaigns and the spread of disinformation.
The government has taken a number of steps to tackle these issues:
Election Commission of India: Do not politicize the Indian Army.
Also Election Commission of India: The powerful weapon is not only the gun we hold. It's also the button we press. pic.twitter.com/BoNKW7EDbx
— Manish Mohan (@manishmo) April 7, 2019
A range of mobile apps has been launched by the Election Commission:
To facilitate voters and candidates in making the #Elections2019 a grand success, Election commission of India is enabling stakeholders with best technology.
✔For voters: Voter helpline,PwD & cVIGIL Apps
✔Candidates: Suvidha App
✔Officials: Sugam App#PollsWithAIR@ECISVEEP pic.twitter.com/ZxhH8KzRH5
— All India Radio News (@airnewsalerts) March 31, 2019
A recent BBC report suggests that WhatsApp has become a vehicle for misinformation and propaganda in the upcoming election. With over 250 million users, it is India's most popular messaging platform.
In response to pressure from the Indian government, WhatsApp has taken a series of steps such as deploying a technical change to the app which reduces the number of users a message can be forwarded to at one time and by undertaking awareness campaigns through newspaper ads and workshops.
According to Facebook’s Director of Public Policy in India and South Asia, Shivnath Thukral, the company has also taken a number of key steps to ensure election integrity.
Facebook has taken down 2 billion fake accounts and it relies on its largest fact checking partner program in India. It has also launched ad transparency tools and vowed to set up a war room comprising of nearly 40 teams across the company in New Delhi to tackle the information flow during the election.
However, people still have high hopes for this election.
My SandArt for #voter awareness with message “Your vote, Your Voice & Vote for Better India” , at Puri beach in Odisha pic.twitter.com/JWsKBbibIV
— Sudarsan Pattnaik (@sudarsansand) April 7, 2019

author: Rezwan