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Blog libel suit in India · Global Voices
Ethan Zuckerman

Mediaah! is no more. The controversial media criticism weblog, run by Pradyuman Maheshwari, editor of the Maharashtra Herald in Pune, promoted itself as a “brutally unbiased” critic of Indian media, especially the  massive Times of India. With the tagline, “The Media's Media. No-holds-barred news and commentary on the Indian media”, Mediaah! has been fiercely critical of the Times, which has responded with a libel suit and a demand to remove 19 posts from the Mediaah! site. Rather than remove the quotes, Maheshwari chose to shut down the site entirely.
Writing for USC Annenberg's Online Journalism Review, Mark Glaser sees the situation as a sad commentary on the state of media criticsm in India. Glaser points out that Maheshwari's recent criticism had been of the Times's ludicrious MediaNet initiative, where individuals and companies can buy “edvertorials” – photos and profile stories on the Times of India's editorial pages.
He points to voices around the Indian blogosphere, including my fellow WorldChanging contributor Rohit Gupta, calling for Indian bloggers to stand up to the Times, warning, “This concerns the freedom of all bloggers from Indian origin, so we will fight the battle for him.” Blogs like Mediaha and Save Mediaah have also taken up the cause.
But not everyone is so sad to see Mediaah! go. Kiran Jonnalagadda is unsympathetic: “When you criticise a publication’s lack of ethics, you do not do it by calling their editor a prostitute, fabricating a story, and excusing yourself with ‘haha, just kidding.'” And Dance With Shadows has an extended post, arguing that Mediaah!'s wounds are self-inflicted.


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Madrid audio posted · Global Voices
Rebecca MacKinnon

Thanks to Gohsuke Tanaka for posting the audio from our Internet track at the International Summit on Democracy, Security and Terrorism.
The audio for the Day 1 workshop leading to our Infrastructure of Democracy document is here. The document makes recommendations to governments about how to avoid destroying free speech on the internet – i.e., avoid throwing the baby out with the bathwater – while fighting terrorism.
(If the wiki document gets spammed a copy can also be found here.)
Audio of our Democracy, Terrorism & the Internet Panel, and the press conference that followed is here.

source: news-globalvoices

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

author: Rebecca MacKinnon


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Chinese protest BBS crackdown · Global Voices
Rebecca MacKinnon

Photos: 2005.3.18 Fete-Day for SMTH BBS on Community.webshots.com
Xiao Qiang reports at China Digital Times that Chinese students have been protesting vigorously online – and more cautiously offline – after Chinese authorities began restricting access to some of China's most influential online bulletin boards . Xiao reports:
From March 16, some of the most influential University BBS (Bulletin Board System) in China, including the one of Tsinghua University (smth.org), Peking University (ytht.org) and Nanjing University (lilybbs.org), have been restricted to users with an IP inside the university only. That means public users, who make remarkable contribution to the conversation, are not able to access these BBS any more. Before, these BBS hosted very active public forums and attracted millions of registered visitors inside and outside the university. Protests have been organized around Chinese universities. People are calling it an insult on the freedom of speech, but soon their posts were deleted and their voice stifled by university administration.
Read his full report for all the details.
Interestingly, there is already a technorati tag UPDATE: A better Technorati tag.
For those of you who can't read Chinese blogs, Danwei is all over the story. Fons Tuinstra is also on the case.
Seems like the press is so busy covering Condi Rice they haven't bothered with this story yet.
UPDATE: Isaac Mao has this reaction:
I wrote on CNBlog that not only BBS is dying in China as a majoy window to watch China's public voice, but also those centralized Blog hosting services. They are all very easy to be blocked or orderred to shut down by gov. I'm happy to see that more and more netcitzen and bloggers realized it and moving to more distributed blogging solutions.
But another funny thing is that China government is commanding all internet web sites to register(including personal web sites)[via zheng]. If you have a web site hosting in China, e.g. abc.com, you should register under China gov central database first. They want to control the whole internet in this way, but I think it's so foolish they didn't understand how huge the web will be and the explosion of internet objects will eventually flood their stupid effort.


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The China situation: Q&A with Isaac Mao · Global Voices
Rebecca MacKinnon

Chinese blogger Isaac Mao has been watching the latest crackdown on internet bulletin boards and website registration with great concern.   I e-mailed him some questions which he was kind enough to answer:
Rebecca: Up until now bulletin boards have remained the number-one way that Chinese communicate on the internet. Will people now switch to blogs? Or to something else?
Isaac: Not only BBS, but all internet sites are tightened by government in these days. Even personal website with independant domain name should be declared before June (see Zheng's post)
Whether it's easy to execute and maintain, the action will affect many of internet sites hosted in China.  Although some guys like Maomy are seeking alternative solution, such as blog, [switching] from BBS. They don't know how long they can live in this form. Zheng even predicts that there will be a  new round of “Silence” in China cyberspace.
Rebecca: You mentioned in your latest post that “centralized blog hosting services” can't work in China either, and that people are “moving to more distributed blogging solutions.” Can you explain what  you mean by that and give some examples of how centralized blog hosting services aren't working, and what the distributed blogging solutions are, and how they work?
Isaac: [Chinese blog hosting services like] Blogbus.com/blogcn.com/blogchina.com are  a centralized hosting service, but student bloggers have to move to these sites with the first reaction when their campus blog community blocked with BBS.
The first reaction of student bloggers in Tsing Hua once their blog community was blocked along with BSS is to move to other blog hosting service providers. The user, Maomy, moved from TsingHua University blog community to blogbus days ago. Just commented on my post at CNBlog, “Seems I should find a safer solution building my own blog site….”.  It shows their concerns on centralized blog hosting service too. …It's still not the ultimate safe solution I want to tell people, neither Maomy and other guys want. Just a temp solution.
The safer and distributed solution means an independent space with an independent domain name. (e.g., rconversation.com, isaacmao.com, etc.), and better they are not attached to one service provider.
As I know, the centralized bloghosting sites will soon add “Shui Mu Qinghua” [The name of the Tsinghua University BBS] as a blocked keyword in their self-policed system.  By searching Grassland(an RSS search engine developed by cnblog.org team), some centralized blog sites has removed their user's posts manually in last days, some links broken already.
Rebecca: So isn't Blogbus [Isaac's blog hosting service] also subject to government requirements that it must block keywords and filter content?
Isaac: In China, there are already serveral thousands of independant blogs linked with independant domain name the blogger like. However, it is only about 1-2% of the total blogosphere size. Most of the blogs still hosted in centralized blog service providers. That's why some said there are only serval ‘blogs’ in China.  What we are trying to do is to help people set up their own blog site with an affordable price.  Actually, many bloggers wants to have such site if he/she blogs over one year.  To those centralized blog hosting services, they have to choose “self-policing” between “free speech” and “self-policing”, no exception.  But in some ways, they are also good to help people to learn what's blog initially.
Although setting up an independant blog site is not easy to common users, I found more and more users seek helps from peers to build their own blog site now, either hosted in China or overseas. I'm talking with some local entrepreneurs here on how to help those bloggers to set up independant blog site without pain.  Although ISPs are also controlled by government for sure, the mass distributed content is more difficult to be blocked once a time like SMTH BBS.
Rebecca: How can people outside China help with this?
Isaac: Good question. I think bloggers do need outside support at this moment. It may even be a turning point to change the direction of online arena, then to the whole society in China.
Andrea Leung, our team member, provided the follwing idea:
=====================================================
The “Adopt a Blog” project started by John @ sinosplice.com may be an
inspiration.  See: http://www.sinosplice.com/adoptablog/
The last I heard of, many people donated blog space, but there were
not that many laowai [non-Chinese] bloggers were interested.
Perhaps what is needed is a Chinese version of it and a fleet of
volunteer blog consultants to help existing bloggers setup a new blog.
It would also help to blog software that is very easy to install on
the server.  MT & WordPress are both too difficult for non-geek users.
Now the problem, as I see it is, if the gov't is really nasty, it can
convict a blogger for posting to an overseas site.
======================================================
Also, we have a team here developing a new tool called “Wego”, which can support bloggers to blog in local machine then publish to multiples sites they like. It can solve the problem that he may lose all content if it's blocked, or hosting crash.  Wego encourages people in China to write more as their habit, and publish it selectively. Hopefully, a prototype can be release in two months. Also we need resource from outside world to support such development and future spreading.
Rebecca: This requirement that all internet websites have to register with the government – does that mean that every single blogger has to register their blog's URL with the government? How many blogs get created every day in China now? Can they possibly keep up with this and is it realistic to enforce?
Isaac: The new regulation is obvious a new way to supress distributed sites since an effective way to control centralized sites has been found.  According to the explaination of the new regulation, if you have a site with independant domain name(www), whehter is blog site or not, you should have to register to local telecom bureaus. However, I don't think the solution of registerring is effective from government side. It's almost impossible to get this done or even half done. You know, the execution of this rule requires not only a huge system, but also unrealistic human resource.  It's a new game of centralized control v.s. distributed chaos. To me, I don't want to register my blog site, until someday one clerk call me. If more and more people seek independant hosting solution, I think it's more difficult to control in a centralized way.
The team in CNBlog.org estimates there are about 3000 new bloggers in those big blog hosting sites(such as blogbus.com, blogcn.com, blogchina.com, etc.), while also 50-100 blog sites with independant domain names. A more accurate results will be published soon next month by CNblog.org team.
Rebecca: Will this information be made available in English for non-Chinese speakers?
Isaac: Soon, some team members will translate the result parallel with Chinese edition and publish it at the same site.
Do you have more questions for Isaac? Post them in the comments section here and we'll invite him to answer. Thanks!!


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Local Voices, Global Visions · Global Voices
Andy Carvin

I'm riding on an Amtrak Acela train through snowbound Connecticut right now on my way to the National Model United Nations conference, where I'll be addressing a group of 500 youth delegates who are conducting a mock World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS). To psych myself up for the talk, I brought along a DVD of TakingITGlobal's new documentary, Local Voices, Global Visions. I got the DVD in the mail just before I left for India a few weeks ago, so this was my first chance to see it.
If I could snap my fingers and burn 100,000 DVDs in a flash, I would send a copy of this documentary to every K-12 school in the United States, then snap my fingers some more until they turned raw so schools and youth groups around the world could have a copy as well. This 45-minute documentary, produced entirely by young people, does an astounding job at capturing what's at stake with WSIS, which will have its second summit this November in Tunisia. And it demonstrates the vital role that youth can play in policymaking, whether related to the digital divide or other important policy goals.
The video profiles groups of young people from around the world — Sierra Leone, Nigeria, India, the Philippines, Canada and Tunisia — as they organize national youth campaigns to mobilize young people into the WSIS policymaking process. The documentary is broken down into segments, each one profiling youth activists and their work in their home country. We get to know Andrew Benson Greene and his colleagues in IEARN Sierra Leone as they teach their peers to use digital technology and create music as part of their country's post-civil war healing process. In Nigeria, ‘Gbenga Sesan leads a national campaign to educate youth about the importance of participating in digital divide policymaking. In India, we meet a young woman who has opened up her home to a local orphanage so she can teach children computer skills. And in Tunisia, we learn about Marouen Mrahi, Rim Nour and their fellow engineering students as they galvanize Tunisian youth to participate in the next WSIS summit, which will take place in their home town of Tunis.
The documentary reaches its climax in Geneva during the first WSIS summit in December 2003. The young people profiled in the video, along with hundreds of other youth activists, organize seminars, participate in summit plenaries, and demonstrate ICT projects to government ministers. The summit is the culmination of more than a year of activities around the world, but it's quite clear that these young people have no plans of wrapping up their activities once they go home. For one thing, they've got another WSIS summit ahead of them in November 2005, but beyond that, you get to see how these young people are laying the groundwork for long-term initiatives to bridge the digital divide in their home countries.
I've met many of the young people profiled in this documentary in person, so it's great getting to see them in the spotlight, but it's not just because I know them personally. (Full disclosure — TakingITGlobal is a strategic partner of the Digital Divide Network, and I donated some photos from the Geneva summit for the documentary.) Watching them speak, organize local campaigns and take action, I couldn't help but think these young people are truly the leaders of tomorrow. In all seriousness, I wouldn't be at all shocked if one of them – or even more – end up becoming heads of state in their home countries. They have charisma, leadership skills, articulateness and a profound grasp of policy issues. Not only does this video document the role of youth in WSIS, it documents national leaders in the making.
Beyond the amazing people profiled in the video, there's the high production quality as well. TakingITGlobal produced it on a Mac laptop running Final Cut Pro editing software (I note with some pride, as these tools are my own documentary weapons of choice), with all the work done by young people. Twenty-one-year-old Jarra McGrath traveled the world shooting the film, with TakingITGlobal's Nick Moraitis collaborating as co-editor and as narrator. Even the music is produced by youth, most notably the songs recorded by IEARN Sierra Leone.  The documentary is a perfect example of how young people can be producers of high-quality content, from video editing to interstitial animations to the Hollywood-quality DVD jewel box packaging.
I do have one complaint, though; the documentary is not available online. If you go to the video's website, there's  a short clip, but otherwise only contact information for purchasing copies. That's a real shame — it would be an enormous public service to make the documentary, or at least  more clips, available for noncommercial and educational use.
Otherwise, I can't say enough about this documentary. I am so inspired. It's reinforcing the creative buzz I felt during my recent trip to India, where I produced two documentary shorts on my laptop.  My mind is racing with ideas, locations, editing tricks: I'm just dying to get out in the field and make more documentaries now.
But my short-term goal may have backfired. I intended to watch this video to get psyched for my speech later today, yet I may have to scrap my entire presentation for the conference. I'm almost – almost – tempted to shut up and let this documentary do the talking. With Local Voices, Global Visions, the youth of TakingITGlobal articulate the importance of WSIS better than I ever could with just an old-fashioned speech…. -andy

author: Andy Carvin


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Malaysian Blogs: Live IRC intervew & chat, Friday 15:00GMT (10:00am EST) · Global Voices
Rebecca MacKinnon

Malaysian bloggers Jeff Ooi and Mack Zulkifli will help me kick off our first LIVE Globalvoices online IRC interview and chat. Join us Friday (tomorrow) at 15:00GMT (10:00am Friday EST, 23:00 Friday China time, etc.)
IRC location: #globalvoices on Freenode. (irc://irc.freenode.net/#globalvoices).
Unfamiliar with IRC chat? For instructions on how to use it and where to download IRC chat clients, please click here.
We will go for about an hour or maybe longer if there's interest. I'll moderate it kind of like a panel. I'll interview the two of them in the chatroom for maybe 20 minutes or so, then we'll open up the floor to questions from everybody who happens to be in the chatroom.  I will save the chat and post it here on Global Voices soon afterwards.
(Apologies to Mack for mispelling his surname in some of the email announcements that went out about this.)


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New “About” page · Global Voices
Ethan Zuckerman

I've written a new About Global Voices page.
If anything is not clear or if you have further questions, please post a comment there.

author: Ethan Zuckerman


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Introducing Peter Tan · Global Voices
Rebecca MacKinnon

In the intro to his blog, The Digital Awakening, Peter Tan writes:
I am a Roman Catholic Malaysian Chinese, born and bred in Penang, late-thirties, suffered spinal cord injury at eighteen, paralysed from chest down and afflicted with chronic kidney failure. This blog chronicles my life, thoughts and opinions.
Chatting on the Global Voices IRC today, Peter said he has been blogging for roughly 2 years. It has changed his life:  “In the past 6 years… i hv made more friends online thn in real life,” he wrote. He says he doesn't know his readership, “maybe 20″ he jokes. But that's not the point.  “I blog for myself… writing is an escape for me.”
Welcome Peter! We hope the Global Voices community can help more people find you, and to take inspiration from what you have to say.


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Revolution, Riots and Digital Photos in Kyrgyzstan · Global Voices
Ethan Zuckerman

President Askar Akayev's administration in Kyrgyzstan has collapsed, in what some are calling “the lemon revolution”, others the “tulip revolution”. Anti-government sentiment had been building since the first round of parliamentary elections on February 27th, and the situation exploded yesterday afternoon, as over 15,000 protesters assembled in Ala-Too square, before seizing control of key government buildings, including Kyrgyzstan's “White House”. Akayev fled the capitol – his whereabouts are unknown, though he is likely heading for Kazakhstan or Moscow. A group of opposition leaders are now in control of the capital. Unfortunately, there has been widespread looting in Bishkek (the capital) and volunteer police are attempting to maintain control.
Many of the first-hand accounts of events in Bishkek are coming from Elnura Osmonalieva, a twenty-three year old woman who has been diligently reporting the events of the past 48 hours. Her amazing photodocumentary is online at ThinkingEast.net, and Registan.net is hosting her narrative of the past days’ events. The account has wonderful details of an amazingly rapid coup:
Excited journalists looked for the President’s Office. When they arrived they found human rights activist Tursunbek Akun in the President’s Chair announcing that he was the first one to enter the room and was there to protect it. Kurmanbek Bakiev arrived to the President’s office in an hour and appealed to all to retain order. He congratulated people with their victory and said “This is people’s property and nobody has the right to take anything. Please have patience, retain order. We must save the White House and this room for our future leadership”.
Eurasianet also has a useful narrative with excellent photos.
Registan, consistently one of the best sources for news and commentary on Central Asia, has a good post on blogosphere reactions to the events in Bishkek. One of the stories Nathan Hamm points to is from Edward at ObsidianWings, whose partner is Kyrgyz and has some insights and reports from family members who are in the capital:
Interestingly, among the protestors who stormed the “White House” were reportedly well-known athletes who were plied with vodka and then encouraged by the opposition leaders to beat up on the president's police. The looters are reportedly the poorer folks from the countryside, not the residents of Bishkek, which bodes well for order once things calm down and they return to their homes. As my partner noted, without a hint of irony, “I mean, who rides a horse in the capital?”
If anyone knows of other people covering the events in Kyrgyzstan, especially people within the country, please let us know.
Update: Righteousbiche, who lives in Kyrgyzstan, blogged a few weeks ago about why she thought a lemon revolution would not happen. As of her last post, she's in Paris – not because she was fleeing revolution, but because she and her partner decided to take a post-election break, because they were sure “nothing exciting would happen”.


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Flashblogs: Occasionally making a point more impactful. Part One. · Global Voices
Mack Zulkifli

The Colours of a Little Part of Asia – A South East Asian blogging story by Mack Zulkifli
The Tsunami Crisis in this region brought bloggers to the forefront of the news, although under less than preferrable circumstances. It was also the first time that the Malaysian mainstream media gave positive attention, albeit in a very tiny portion, to Malaysian bloggers in general. The Star carried this story in their technology section InTech, under the headline, Bloggers fill the void. It was a sense of empathy that drives many bloggers from the region, so close to the disaster, to furiously blog about the disaster, offering services, news of missing loved ones, donation info or just the much appreciated shoulder to lean on, when times required it so very much. It was at this juncture that a ‘Flashblog’ was born.
This was the first, aptly titled Tsunami. The second focused closer to home, and was titled Aceh.
It was a means to try and stand out from the clutter, and plead for funds to help those who are in severe need at that time. The fund collected close to USD7000.00 for the victims and was donated to the Red Cross. Under the circumstances, it was a success.
Flashblogs drew attention. It was much smaller, simpler and less time consuming than a videoblog, but just as effective as an attention pull, sometimes more effective, depending on what was being communicated. For example, this flashblog was about the ethics and morality of blogging, of course within a Malaysian context. It was followed the next day with an interview with Jeff Ooi, Malaysia's most influential and yes, most embattled blogger. The flashblog was simply entitled, Jeff.
These were buggy and served as the experimental, developmental and full of mistakes, stage of what was developing into an extension of my normal blogs. They served to enhance issues which I felt was important, and the response they got was overwhelming, despite all the bugs and cut/paste work. Each of those blogs clocked over one thousand visitors, by far the most successful entries. It also helped that the issues were relevant and sensational at that point in time.
Like an issue that saw, for the first time in Malaysian media history, the mainstream and bloggers went head on and hard to pursue an issue that deals with the environmental damage caused in no small part by the State Government fumbling their administrative duties, which upsetted no less than the Prime Minister of Malaysia. The flashblog was called OK. (Some language in Malay).
In conclusion, Malaysian blogosphere (including readers) revelled in the flashblogs, and issues gained a much higher profile. Of course, the issues were blogged as normal blog entries, the flashblogs served only either as the ‘teaser’ or closure that encapsulated all the factors with the issue concerned. It was successful beyond my imagination, yet very few Malaysian bloggers have adopted it, probably because the complications and software requirements that goes into creating one.
Next: Creating Flashblogs and tips to make them better.

author: Mack Zulkifli


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Hoder drives huge traffic to Iranian presidential candidate’s blog · Global Voices
Rebecca MacKinnon

Hossein Derakhshan (Hoder) says “Mostafa Moeen, the reformist candidate for the next president, has written his second post on his blog, which means he is taking it seriously.”
Unfortunately when I clicked on the link, there is an error message showing that Moeen’s bandwith has been exceeded. The power of Hoder!!
(Picture taken last summer in Toronto.)


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How to set up a free videoblog · Global Voices
Rebecca MacKinnon

(Corrected with more info.)
It looks pretty easy, for anybody from anywhere.  Thanks to these simple instructions created by Michael Verdi and  emailed to GV by Peter Van Dijck.
Peter points to what he says is the most complete video blog directory to date.
It would be great if people would like to translate these instructions into other languages: Chinese, Arabic, Russian, Farsi, Spanish, French, Portugese  would be especially good to have.  If you do a translation on your blog, please post the link to the translation at the bottom of this post, and Global Voices will compile a directory.
(UPDATE: Peter has already done the first translation in Dutch.)
Also note that Boston videoblogger Steve Garfield often puts a lot of technical tips and guidelines on his blog. Check out his guide to promoting your videoblog.  Steve points out that the new site, Ourmedia will be a great resource for videobloggers as well.
Also, if you know of great videoblogging taking place around the world, please let us know.  We should index the world's videobloggers too.


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The Malaysian Blogosphere: chat with Mack Zulkifli and Jeff Ooi · Global Voices
Rebecca MacKinnon

(photo courtesy Jeff Ooi)
Malaysian bloggers  Jeff Ooi and Mack Zulkifli have been blogging up a storm lately about attempts by vested political and business interests in Subang Jaya, who want to build a “food court” in the spot where a badly-needed police station was planned. (The neighborhood where the police station was planned is apparently crime-ridden and badly policed, so local citizens are upset that some officials are more interested in making money than in protecting public order.)  Jeff Ooi has railed against  the people he calls “local warlords” who abuse their power. He says: “They suck to high heaven.”
Both Jeff and Mack attended a meeting on Friday night where local residents expressed their concern and outrage about the food court plans.  Mack has posted video here.  He believes this is the “first videoblog in Malaysia that documents a meeting with an ADUN (State Assemblyman), by residents and residential leadership in addressing a local governance issue.”  Way to go, Mack!
Mack and Jeff talked to me via live IRC chat immediately after the meeting.  Jeff describes it:
“I was amazed that my neighbours were brave and bold enough to speak up… i hope this can take place online, with contextual impulse… i mean in a country like malaysia….
…the massive turn up by the residents – we only had about 24 hours to mobilise people using email, blog, web and emails – i thinl the people who turned up, spoke up. Even the State Assenblyman who convened the meeting called me past midnight a while ago to give credit to the local people for their being bold. He reminds me to givethe grassroots ppl credit. I think that’s a little change for… …opening up the mindset of a cocooned people so silenced in the past 22 years.
…it’s this online/offline push-pull effect Mack and I — if I may say so — try to induce. that may help us to force open the mindset, and with the prime minister tryin to look good wiith moderate and tolerant stance, i thin wecan takeadvantage of the situation to bring in… a new paradigm … the risk is there, always there if we are seen pushing too hard”
It was a fascinating conversation. Some more highlights:
Mack described how in Malaysia the political power as well as control over the media resides almost completely with people over 50 years old.  Thus the blogs speak for the younger generation. This is not unlike the situation in South Korea when online citizens’ media like Ohmynews burst onto the scene, but Mack points out the key difference is that internet penetration in Malaysia is far lower than in South Korea.  Mack says:
“Bloggers in Malaysia are generally ignored by local MSM [mainstream media], which is why we, especially Jeff, and to a lesser extent me, are trying to create a grassroot independant thinking form of nanopublishing which is borderless…. We do not want just another media powerbase, we want grassroot media powerbase, where issues can be brought out for discussion in the open, for the better good of all.”
Both Jeff and Mack have been questioned by police about their blogging. Mack is philosophical about it:
“I believe they aren’t totally bad. I am trying hard to make them see that they too can use bloggers, for example, a neighbourhood watch can have a blog, and a roster of bloggers, working with the police on information gathering and reporting of minor issues, my god the utility of blogging is endless. Imagine, if matters like petty thefts and breakins, car jackings and such are blogged and people know where the crime hot-spots are, I tell you, there is a lot to ‘open source’ research and blogs are a relevant if not one of the most potent ’source’.”
Mack and Jeff have started to co-write a book about their experiences blogging in Malaysia.  Can't wait to read it! Jeff says:
” I am so glad that mack came around to blog so consistently and persisitently… he enriches the malaysian scene… the emergence of the thinking malaysians who throw away the political and genetic differences – and the socio-cultural segregation that comes along. I thin this IS the real true Malaysian… but we happen to be the minor minority. Gotta start breeding such bridge bloggers within…malaysia… we have multi-divides among people… we gotta cross over that bridge. BTW, english happens to be the unifying language… might as well, we talk among malaysians as we talk to the global voices.”
Jeff says the Southeast Asian blogosphere in general is starting to flourish:
“no longer are blogosphere in indonesia monopolised by australians expats… singapre, with its stringent legal framework has nurtured a nother family bloggers who talk about a sanitised lifestyle under Lee Kuan Yew. Philippines, as usual, many MSM columnists are churning out thought-provoking blogs that question governance failures”
Read the transcript of the full IRC chat.
Mack has graciously offered to do regular roundups on the Southeast Asian blogosphere for Global Voices.  Watch this space!


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Iranian weblogs growing up · Global Voices
Hossein Derakhshan

Amazing things are happening in Iranian blogs these days. Now I'm seeing what I was expecting in terms of my third metaphor, blogs as cafes, where a unique, interactive space for public political debate has been created.
First example is about the behind the scenes of the reformist candidate's campaign which is, for the first time, being somehow revealed in some blogs. Javad Rouh and Ali Seyedabadi have separately written about a session in which reforest journalists were invited to meet and talk with campaign officials. Its’ fascinating to see how the journalists had openly criticized the campaign and the candidate himself and how the campaign managers reacted to them. (According to Rouh, Mostafa Tajzadeh has been more receptive to the criticism than Ali Mazrooie.)
Second example is how about a dozen of independent weblogs, either journalist or regular people, have reported and discussed the situation of Azadi stadium after the extremely crowded and emotionally charged soccer game between Japan and Iran, which unfortunately, led to the death of a few people.
I can imagine how all of you, who can't read Persian, wish you could have.
(Cross-posted on Editor: Myself)

author: Hossein Derakhshan


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Bloggers in Malaysia Warn of Earthquake · Global Voices
Mack Zulkifli

A violent tremor was felt in parts of Malaysia, and bloggers, experienced in early detection of crisis when blogging about the Asian Tsunami disaster, came out with warnings. Those who I picked up blogging early on this issue are;
Andreas from AlwaysWOW
Peter Tan from Digital Awakenings
FANTASIZED blog headlined “EARTHQUAKE!”
I blogged about it at 1616 GMT here and followed up with this post.
Jeff Ooi of Screenshots is coordinating with me on finding the latest information, as he is out and about.
you can read more posts as they appear at popular Malaysian blog aggregator, Petaling Street. This is the best place to stay in touch with bloggers who are reporting on the lastest information available to them.
It is now within half-an-hour since the first tremors were felt and reported by Malaysian bloggers. I am trawling for more information regionally.
UPDATE: CNN reports that an 8.2 earthquake occured off the coast of Sumatra at 16:54 GMT. Possible Tsunami warned Don Blakeman from US Geological Survey.
UPDATE 1707 GMT:
We have opened an IRC channel for Asian bloggers and Internet users to share resources and info on the Tsunami.
Server: DALnet
Channel: #quakeblogs
Peter Tan is moderating for now.
Am updating the latest news here and Jeff Ooi is dealing with the media here. We will be posting regular updates. Looks like a long night.
*** End Update
Update 1909 GMT
Initial transcripts from IRC channel #quakeblogs here. Deaths has been reported in Indonesia, where Medan is said to be very hard hit.
How ironic that I was writing about the Tsunami a few days ago. Trust me i find no joy in just realising this fact.
Update 2255 GMT
Tsunami alert in this region has been terminated as of 2200 GMT, and damage seems to be restricted to the earthquake. My report here. God Bless that the earthquake did not create a destructive Tsunami, like the one that ravaged this region. We are still recovering from the last tragedy and another on of similar scale would be devastating beyond imagination. South East Asia is breathing slightly easier. However there is still widespread damage and deaths resulting form the 8.7 Richter earthquake.
I will continue updating the news in this region and will round up with a case study on how bloggers in the region used technology to report the disaster, and how this time arround, bloggers were more effective and efficient in their reporting. There is definately a learning curve.
Update 0322GMT
Up to 2,000 feared dead in Indonesia. Meanwhile, a Japanese Earthquake Alert service, simply called EarthquakeAlert seems to be using blogs to market their products. They pinged me, hence I found their blog. Check out their blog here.


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Global Voices Brainstorm: live webcast & IRC · Global Voices
Rebecca MacKinnon

UPDATE: THE WEBCAST WILL BE AT: rtsp://h2odev.law.harvard.edu:554/global.sdp
The IRC channel is #globalvoices on irc://irc.freenode.net
Ethan Zuckerman and I will hold a brainstorming session about Global Voices here at the Berkman Center tomorrow at 12:30pm Eastern time (17:30 GMT).
If you can't be here in person, please join us remotely.
We are hoping to have a live webcast and IRC chat so that people not in the room can also participate.
The IRC channel is #globalvoices on irc://irc.freenode.net
UPDATE: THE WEBCAST WILL BE AT: rtsp://h2odev.law.harvard.edu:554/global.sdp


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Blogger Profile: “Owukori”, aka Sokari Ekine · Global Voices
Ethan Zuckerman

It's easy to get the impression, reading most popular weblogs, that all bloggers are white American males obsessed with technology. If that's your impression of the blogosphere, you're reading the wrong blogs. A good place to start your re-education is “Black Looks – Musings and Rants by an African Fem”, the afro-centric, informative, passionate, sometimes angry and always fascinating weblog produced by “Owukori” for the past year.
“Owukori” is the nom-du-blog of Sokari Ekine, a Nigerian feminist, human rights activist and scholar who blogs from her organic farm in Almeria, Spain, south of Madrid. (“Owukori” is her grandfather's name.) Sokari and I caught up via SkypeIM last week, talking about women's rights in the Niger delta, the difficulty of convincing activists to blog, and her personal path towards becoming one of Africa's most prominent and widely cited bloggers.
Sokari has recently started a new blog, called Afrotecnik, which focuses on technologies to bridge digital divides in Africa. She's also just published a paper on her Niger Delta research: “Women's Responses to State Violence in the Niger Delta”.
So… who are you? Tell me a little about who you are, where you live and what you do?
I am a Nigerian woman, living in Spain. I moved here two years ago from London where I had lived for about 18 years. My professional background is a real mixture: education, technology, gender issues especially gender violence and human rights.
Were you studying gender issues in the UK?
Yes in some ways. I briefly taught on a gender and technology course at the University of East London but I also studied gender and techology at University where I did a first degree in New Technology – a sort of social-political-economic-gender view of technologies,
especially information and communication technologies. Later I left and went into IT training, as this gave me an income which then allowed me  to do the work I really wanted, which was with the Niger delta and research into women and violence.
In the early 80s I was involved with the Black women's movement in London, and in fact the whole Black movement at that time which centered on women and education and employment. I was part of two organisations: the Camden Black Sisters and Black Parents, both of which were grassroots community type organisations.
It was in the 90s that I began to move towards working with the people of the Niger Delta, which is where I am from.
What town are you from, originally?
I am a Kalabari woman from Abonnema in Rivers state. Kalabari is part of the Ijaw ethnic group which is the 4th largest in the country
though still a minority. There are about 12 million Ijaw, but the whole of Ijaw is broken into three groups, eastern, western and central. Kalabari is part of the eastern group, and is based in the southeastern delta region.
Has there been oil-associated violence in your region of the delta?
There has not been any physical type of violence in Kalabari land as such but we have been affected by what I call “environmental violence”, though again not as badly as other delta areas. However, I would prefer to look at the Niger Delta as a whole, since we are all
working together not just as Ijaw, but all the ethnic groups.
Were you able to spend a lot of time in the Delta while working in the UK?
I visited regularly every year. It was around '96 that things started to happen in terms of the struggle against oil companies and the Nigerian governemnt. Remember, we had Ken Saro Wiwa fighting the Ogoni battle and of course General Abacha and his henchmen.
Did you get to work with Saro Wiwa?
No unfortunately I did not have that priviledge. I was and still am part of an organisation called the Niger Delta Women for Justice, which was created to address specifically women's issues in the region. NDWJ was founded in '98.
While working with NDWJ, I wrote a report titled “Blood and Oil”. (The book, unfortunately, is out of print, but Sokari plans to offer it online sometime soon.) The book was based around interviews that I had with women from different Niger Delta ethnic groups. We discussed the
issue of state violence, multinational corporation violence and environmental violence.
In fact I interviewed the women of Odi, which was a town in Bayelsa state, that was invaded by Obasanjo's troops in November '99. In fact more people have died under Obasanjo in the Niger Delta than under Abacha.
I wasn't aware of that. That's quite incredible. Were you able to interview the women in Odi after the troops invaded?
Yes I did – I have photos of the devastation they left. I visited I think in February, so it was about 2 plus months after the invasion. Few outside Nigeria or even in Nigeria are aware of Obasanjo's crimes in the Niger Delta.
Are you still active with NDWJ?
Yes I am – We all are, but unfortunately two of us are now out of the country and one is in Lagos, so things are lying dormant. One is in the US and has been for the last 4 years. Her name is Annie Brisibe and she is the president. We have run a number of projects around human rights education, micro-credit start ups and related projects.
I think there's an increasing interest in the relationship between oil and politics in Africa – I'm seeing a lot of people ask hard questions about China in the Sudan, and about the Chad-Cameroon pipeline. But the Niger Delta doesn't get as much attention as it did a
few years back…
No, once Ken had left it was hard to get publicity. Not just for NDJW, but for Environmental Rights Action, the Ijaw council for Human rights, the Ijaw youth council, and all the youth organisations that formed and made their independent declarations.  We all worked together in one way or the other
Do you spend most of your time these days on Niger Delta issues and working with these groups?
I am still in regular contact with everyone and keep up to date for blogging purposes but most of my time  is now spent blogging or working on the small holding we have… We are lucky we have the  internet as the world is completely changed. Ike Okonta who writes on my
blog, and who is the author of “Where Vultures Feast” – he worked on that with Oronto Douglas, who is also a colleague of mine. (Oronto Douglas was one of Ken Saro Wiwa's lawyers.) He is now working for Bayelsa state and is actually representing Bayelsa in the National conference going on in Abuja. I had a lot of support from both Ike and
Oronto whilst doing the research (for Blood and Oil).
Travelling in the Niger Delta is very difficult – it is still under occupation by Nigerian troops who man the highways and surround villages in the region.
I always post any events that happen in the Delta on the blog under “Niger Delta”. Only recently some 30 people were killed by Nigerian army personnel in the town of Odioma.
Are any of your colleagues weblogging? Or publishing online?
No, I cannot get anyone to blog, Ethan! I have tried so hard to get a couple of women, one from the NDWJ and a lesbian activist friend from Uganda..
Can I just mention about my other activist passion which is lesbian rights in africa? I haven't worked much on this but I am happy to say that there is a lot going on in that area right now especially in southern Africa. I have an activist friend in Uganda who is one of the
bravest women I know. Her name is Victor Julie Mukassa and the organisation is FAR/UGANDA.
It is not just about being out, but being out and shouting about it and demanding rights. More people are becoming visible – I was happy to discover from your del.icio.us a Ghanaian gay and lesbian site…
So back to blogging: I started a few times and never published as it was a big decision. I don't know, but I think for Black women especially coming out on the internet is very difficult. I don't mean coming out lesbian – just coming out as a person. It's about exposing yourself – being secure and confident to do so as a female and a black female and as an African and then again as a lesbian.
That is why I said Victor Julie was very brave. People get killed in Africa for being gay and lesbian – FannyAnn Eddy was murdered recently in Sierra Leone.  People put their lives at risk.
For example, on international women's day I wrote a poem but in the end I didn't have the nerve to publish it as I felt it was too personal. That is why I try as much as possible not to “personalise” my blog.
You strike an amazing balance between being factually based and letting people know why you think certain issues are important. I admire the way you frame issues a great deal.
It's not in my nature to “expose” myself in this way, and I think that is an African or Black thing. I know many black people do not want to do it because of that and remain anonymous. It is a bit silly as most people that know me know my blog, so it's the ones that don't know me to whom I'm anonymous, which rationally doesn't actually make sense.
But I wanted to blog as I felt there was a need to write about what African women were doing and saying.
Do you have a sense for what percent of the people who read your blog know you personally, and what percent, like me, found you online?
Very few know me personally. I have a couple of friends I know read it regularly, but most don't seem to. I don't think they use the internet much. For example, my kids don't go there much. I guess they are interested in other things like football and music.
Are your kids aware of how widely read and popular you are on the internet?
Not really. They think I am a bit off the wall anyway and this is just another example.
When did the Black Looks blog start?
I think it was June last year that it finally went out, but I had two other starts until I finally got what I wanted. The title comes from a book by bell hooks which I carry around with me. It's in her usual style – essays on race and representation. I think she is an excellent reader of American race politics and cultural critic.
I would say the three most important areas on the blog for me areAfrican women, lesbian issues and the Niger delta. I am also interested in technology for community.
The new blog on tech looks great. Any reason you decided to same it a separate blog?
I haven't publicised it at all, as I'm not sure it will warrant a whole blog of its own. Searching for material has been very difficult. I thought that if I included technology in Black Looks, it would get lost.
I've noticed you don't write about farming. Is that a conscious choice?
Well, I belong to an organisation called Wwoofers, which puts volunteers together with organic farmers all over the world. I did write a diary for them for about a year. However I just thought it didn't fit the blog and would be boring.
I do have a diary category but have not really written anything for ages, and that's where it would go.
How did you end up on an organic farm in Spain?
I can tell you a bit on that: I had breast cancer in 2000 which was actually when I was due to start writing “Blood and Oil”. In fact, I wrote the book during chemo. I did the research for the book travelling extensively in the Niger Delta and seeing some awful sights and hearing very sad and horrendous stories.
Then I had a breast exam and was told to come back to the next week, but I had a conference in Banjul on the Delta so never bothered to go. When I got back they phoned and I had to go in again and then it all went pear shaped.
The cancer had advanced by that point?
Yes, it was quite bad – a mass rather than a lump. Another learning experience.
Anyway, that is really the start of how I ended up here in Spain. I just thought I wanted to get away from London and its madness, filth, pollution and stress of work to change my lifestyle and get the poison out of my system.
Organic farming is a big change from London, I would think….
Yes, absolutely. And we knew nothing when we came. Talk about townies! I never even gardened. Everything I tried to grow indoors died. So this was a biggie. But it has been successful, but very hard for both of us.
Organic farming is one of the few ways farmers in my area are able to make money these days.
Here it is not profitable at all as people are not interested in organic produce and we don't have enough to export. We have olive trees but that is so labour intensive that unless you have a thousand trees, forget it. We compete with the “plasticos” of Almeria where food is very, very cheap and easy to grow.
You seemed to suggest on your blog that you're looking for ways for blogging to become your main job. Is that a direction you're exploring?
Yes, I would say so – I retired from teaching. We are not sure we will stay here. As I said, it is very hard and labour intensive for little reward, except of course we have our own veggies, fruit and olives. We are thinking of moving to nearer Granada and just having a
small plot to feed ourselves and that's it.
One of the problems is we feel we are on our own and that makes it so much harder. You see, here the locals are not interested in farming any more, only the old people. The young people just want to leave and the 30s and 40s have either left or are not interested.
That's a big problem for us as well. When farmers leave, the land gets sold for houses and farming dies out as an industry…
That is exactly what is happening here. I have never seen so much building work – it's as if the whole world wants to eat concrete.
Are you committed to staying in Spain?
Oh yes, very much. Not just Spain but in the country. Though we would move nearer to a city, as we do miss cultural events such as dance and theatre and film. But I couldn't live in Madrid or Barcelona.
Do you have plans to expand Black Looks or start other blogs?
I wanted to start a community blog with an African NGO that would include members based in Africa and in the diaspora. I had the idea that they would write about what was happening in their communities, report on projects, events and just day to day experiences.
This is what I try to do: get my friends at home to tell me what is happening and then write about it. In some ways this has been a sucess with the Niger Delta and also with slavery. But people are always so negative when it comes to technology and Africa. Yes, of course there
are problems, but there are also opportunities.
Thanks for taking the time to talk with me – I'm so glad we were able to meet online.
Igualmente. Adios.
You can contact Sokari at blacklooks@gmail.com


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Freedom to Connect · Global Voices
Rebecca MacKinnon

I'm currently in Washington D.C. at the Freedom to Connect conference. There is a live audio stream and live chat, linked from the top of the conference website.
The conference tagline: "The future of telecommunications is in play. Freedom to Connect will shape the debate."
I'll be speaking on Global Voices in a panel this afternoon. My focus: in order to create a more democratic global media and a more representative global conversation, we must aspire to easy and cheap internet access for all people on the globe. This may be through wireless mobile devices, not through broadband and PC's, but the ability to connect to and engage in the global conversation is key.
Got ideas or opinions about this? Please share them on the live chat or in the comments section here.


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Elina Karakulova in Bishkek · Global Voices
Ethan Zuckerman

The recent events in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, have been somewhat difficult for outside observers to understand. Unlike the Orange revolution in Ukraine, where sustained, widespread opposition protests led to the overturning of fraudulent election results and a new government, a very rapid series of events following parliamentary elections caused Askar Akaev's government to fall in just a few hours. The aftermath of the Kyrgyz revolution/coup involved widespread rioting, a brief period where Kyrgystan had two rival parliaments, and still involves some tension over whether Akaev will attempt to reclaim his presidency from acting president Kurmanbek Bakiyev.
Elina Karakulova, a 21-year old Kyrgyz student at the American University of Central Asia, wrote to us with her thoughts on the March 24th revolution, which took the Akaev government out of power in Kyrgyzstan. Elina reflects on her decision not to join in the revolution, despite her frustration with Akaev's rule and the “family” parliament elected a few weeks ago. Her reflections shed a great deal of light on the complexities of the lemon/almond/pink revolution and the complex prospects for Kyrgyzstan's future.
Thoughts on the Kyrgyz Revolution
By Elina Karakulova
March 24, the day of the Kyrgyz revolution, I was discussing the Soviet ideology in my Political History of the Soviet Union class. We talked about anticommunist revolutions in the late 1980s. No one could imagine that in three hours a new revolution would burst in Kyrgyzstan, one of the former Soviet Union republics.
I learnt about columns of demonstrators coming from three directions to the Ala-Too central square in Bishkek from one of the local news lines. Because my University is very close to the White House and other official buildings, university administration cancelled all classes at 11am, fearing the seizure of the building by demonstrators like it happened the south of Kyrgyzstan two days before March 24. All students were ordered to go home.
And many students, including me, did go home, even though many of them were against the Akaev’s regime and did not support the newly elected ‘family’ parliament. Why did not they join demonstrators? I will answer why I did not.
I came to the Ala-Too square just to observe because I knew that I was witnessing historical momentum in Kyrgyzstan. I did not want to participate in the demonstration due to the following reasons:
First, I did not support the way it started in the south of Kyrgyzstan. The protests began from personal interests of individual candidates who boycotted parliamentary elections results. I agree that elections were not transparent and falsified in many districts. However, very soon the discontented candidates changed their calls for cancellation of the elections’ results to the call for Akaev’s resign. They saw that with the latter call they could gather more people. And they were right. Because impoverished Kyrgyzstani population has been suffering so dreadfully under the Akaev’s regime and feared it would continue for another five years, people mobilized under the motto “Akaev, ket!” – “Akaev, go away!”
Second, I did not support violence with which official buildings were taken over, police stations were set on fire and how militiamen and their families were threatened by an angry crowd in Osh and Jalal-Abad.
Third, I did not and do not support anyone from the current opposition forces merely because all of them are coming from the same Soviet nomenclature as Akaev does. I do not know any of their proposed policies that would differ from those of the previous administration. The fact that most of them were oppressed by Akaev does not make them strong oppositionists.
Finally, I did not identify myself with the crowd of politically unconscious young people on the Ala-Too square who did not know whom they were fighting for, but only knew whom they were fighting against. Such an approach to the change of power does not lead to reasonable actions because one always has to have a strong alternative to what he wants to change so radically.
When I came to the Ala-Too square I already heard about pro-governmental provocateurs in blue ribbons who tried to set off fighting in the initially peaceful demonstration. And after having looked at people who were on the demonstration I understood why they were so easily influenced by provocations and turned violent.
Most of the participants were young males coming from rural areas who were not there for the better politics but who were angry enough to overthrow a loathsome governor. Making such people fight is a piece of cake. However, provocateurs did not probably expect that the frightened in the beginning protesters would get mad so easily and would beat them to death in seconds.
I will never forget a bloody militiaman with a torn forehead and bruised eye who was running into my direction supported by other two men from civilians. When I saw his crippled gory face I started trembling and crying in hysteria I was not able to control. “What are they doing? Why cannot they do it peacefully? Why are they throwing stones at each other? This is WRONG!” – I cried. No one except for my friend nearby listened. The crowed was whistling and roaring oppressed by cordons of militiamen.
Few seconds later I heard something similar to muffled explosion – the crowd broke a 5 meter high iron fence heading to the White House. I wanted to leave immediately. My friend and I set of in a “marshrutka” (a mini bus). People in the marshrutka seemed to be so calm and totally unaware of the revolution unfolding fifty meters away from them. Many looked at my tear-stained face with surprise.
Several men from the crowd entered the marshrutka. They were laughing, entertained with exciting scenario of the “revolution”. It seemed to me that for them it was a game.
Riding in the marshrutka I saw Bishkek living its usual busy life – people walking on the streets, eating in cafes, playing with children in the parks. It was hard to believe that at this very moment in the heart of Bishkek people smashed militia and entered the White House. It was hard to believe that this city of a small and poor Central Asian country was being watched and reported by all the world top news agencies, television and radio stations.
The world saw a very impoverished and angry mass of people who do not know what order and negotiations is, people who cannot solve problems by peaceful means. The whole world saw how violent and barbaric was seizure of the White House. The world saw people crushing everything inside like vandals as if tomorrow their ‘leaders’ were not going to sit in the same building.
The Kyrgyz revolution was not made by progressive young ‘thinkers’ like it was in Georgia and Ukraine. This revolution was made by impoverished and hungry people.
However, I do not blame demonstrators for massive looting that occurred on the first day of revolution. I blame the very nature of people and low morals of some of them.
I did not see marauders with my own eyes, but those who actually saw them said there were all kinds of people involved in looting – rich and poor, Kyrgyz and Russian, young and old, southerners and northerners. It is such a shame that marauders were robbing their countrymen in the times of crucial changes in the country.
Another reason for why Bishkek met the next day of the revolution with the smoke of emptied supermarkets, stores and office buildings was the lack of immediate actions on the part of opposition. It was obvious they did not expect to get power in two hours. They were simply not prepared to govern on March 24th.
Ridiculous hesitations with selection of color and symbol of the revolution (from lemon to almond tree) as well as ridiculous buzz around the old and new parliaments vividly show that opposition was not coherent in its actions from the very beginning and did not have a consistent plan for the country development.
However, I am thankful that the provisional government eventually restored the order with the help of people’s police. Hopefully, it will be able to maintain this order.
I personally do not think that Kyrgyzstan witnessed a revolution, but a rebellion with change of political elites. Revolution implies ideological change. I do not see any ideological difference between the current interim government and the former one. Moreover, I think very soon there will be a clash between political elites, which have very few commonalties between each other, over power. I believe this clash is unavoidable, but I hope it will have a minimum of negative effect on the country in general.
Bishkek has already returned to a normal life. Now, when it calmed down a little bit I started to look at things differently. I just realized that there is so much hope in me and in many other people that March 24 will give us a chance for a better change. Only now I have realized that I did not have this feeling of hope for so long.
Right now I think that March 24's events were probably the only way to bring changes into this country, considering the very nature of the former government, the opposition and the socio-economic situation.
Yes, I am not fully satisfied with the provisional government and how it came to power. But still, I have such a great hope for this new government and for my people. I think at least that if I did not have a chance to voice my civic position on demonstrations with the methods I believe in, I can do something substantial right now to actually fulfill this unsatisfied emotion of mine. I hope that the young people like me will be a driving force of this change further on.


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Sokwanele Blog in Zimbabwe · Global Voices
Ethan Zuckerman

Zimbabwe is preparing for parliamentary elections tomorrow. The outcome is hardly in doubt. Most observers expect Robert Mugabe's ruling Zanu-PF party to win in a landslide, garnering at least 75% of votes. This is not because Zanu-PF is especially popular, but because the election process is believed to be so corrupt that the opposition could not possibly win. Members of the opposition MDC party have been prevented from holding rallies, and activists run the risk of being abducted, imprisoned and tortured.
Voters outside the country – 3.5 million in total, many of them dissidents – have been prevented from voting in the elections. They are participating in a protest “SMS vote” to demonstrate how strong opposition support is outside the country. Voters inside the country are being systematically disenfranchised, being required to show papers from employers or landlords before being allowed to vote… a challenge in a nation with widespread homelessness and 80% unemployment.
Zimbabwean Archbishop Pius Ncube has called for Zimbabweans to rise up in a non-violent revolution against Mugabe. He believes that Mugabe's party has rigged the upcoming vote, registering thousands of dead, fake and duplicate pro-Zanu-PF voters.
Mugabe has systematically dismantled opposition media, forcing opposition newspapers to operate only outside of the country. A report from Abraham McLaughlin in the Christian Science Monitor suggests that radio-jamming devices provided by the Chinese government are being used to prevent independent radio stations from competing with state-controlled radio signals.
In this environment, it's remarkable that anyone would be challenging Zanu-PF with reporting via a weblog… but that's exactly what the brave folks at Sokwanele, a “Civil Action Support Group” are doing. Their weblog includes posts from individual activists as well as from the organization as a whole, and provides voices, views and news from around the nation as Zimbabweans prepare to go to the polls. Recent posts have included rumors about Chinese involvement with possible vote-rigging:
Along the Nyanzane river resettlement area people are so afraid and were told that the Chinese brought boxes for zanu pf to win. The people think that the boxes are somehow already rigged in favour of zanu pf.
Attempts to influence voters with a massive increase in minimum wages:
The government has come up with another panic measure – this time to buy the urban vote. Today, domestic workers’ salaries and wages were increased across the board by a staggering average of 900% backdated to 1st March, 2005.
Does the illegitimate and bankrupt regime really believe that domestic workers are stupid enough to change their allegiance over this last resort measure?
and a moving post by Noktula in Bulawayo, titled “I'll wear my shirt with pride”.
Yesterday I was given an MDC campaign t-shirt. I am not going to use it as a ‘sleep shirt’ in the privacy of my home. I am going to wear it when I go out. I am going to wear it with pride, and no-body is going to stop me! And when I am not wearing my t-shirt, I am not going to hide it deep in the back of my wardrobe, under all my other clothes like I have done in the past. Supporting the peoples party is not a crime. I will not be afraid.


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Malaysian Minister VOWS faster and cheaper broadband · Global Voices
Mack Zulkifli

The Colours of a Little Part of Asia – A South East Asian blogging story by Mack Zulkifli
It appeared shortly after Rebecca MacKinnon interviewed Jeff Ooi and this blogger in IRC. One of the things I had remarked upon was that the rate of infrastructural development for internet services, was slower than the rate of adoption. More people had broadband access in their offices, and returned home to either jurassic dial-up services or not being able to tolerate the poor dial-up services, prefer to wait the next day to surf in their office.
That might change soon. Full story about the Minister and his vow for better broadband here. It is a political anomaly and I would like to think that he has a half decent chance of making it happen, yet it is often not that simple.
More to the point, if he does succeed, it signals and advancement for bloggers and blogging in Malaysia. The fundamental cornerstone of a media, even nanomedia like blogs, is reach. The more people you reach, the higher the likelihood that any change, discourse or conversation becomes more meaningful in terms of the ability to invoke or create a platform for change. A widespread availability of broadband means that the likelihood of adopting the internet as the avenue for added value or different perspective against the mainstream media is enhanced. Blog readers will grow and, eventually, as the readers themselves decide to blog, the number of bloggers itself will rise.
This, under any circumstances, if nothing but a good thing. The free exchange of opinions, positive or otherwise, will lead to a discussion, conversation and even animosities. However, it is these frictional debate that serve as the catalyst to the advancement of several social factors that are key to the individual development of members within that society. Knowledge.
Beyond the obvious commercial/social application of such as mentioned above, there will be problems. Along with the freedom of content in the internet, comes a mixed bag of rotten eggs and candies. Already, politicians are condemning the availability of a cable TV channel that may encourage gambling. Jeff Ooi has a report of it here. The advent of the internet will mean that the beuracratic machinery will have to work overtime in order to not only bridge with one another, in anticipation of problems, but adapt their workforce to be equipped to handle those problems.
No civil service on God's good Earth has been able to do both very effectively. So don't expect teething problems. This one goes right through to the gums. This, however is to be expected in a fast developing country that sees itself in a process of convergence, in terms of economy, social variables and self-restraint and respect in dealing with each other. As it is, blog trolls display neanderthal-like and sour-grapes behaviour even in the US,  I have no doubt whatsoever that Malaysia will see worse. Personally, as I watch the Malaysian blogosphere, it takes a surreal stance as I have to adopt my views from a functionalist social perspective to a more conflict perspective, which I am still learning to cope with. Yet, I must admit that the friction has created some really positive advances, a key one being the ‘stop-work’ order issued by a State Chief Minister in an issue that Jeff Ooi and Rebecca spoke about here. I think that if one has to blog about something, blogging for the better good of a community, and then being part of the success, is one great feeling.  (Thanks Rebecca for the global soapbox)
As far as this blogger can conclude, Malaysian internet users, currently spearheaded by bloggers, are in for major challenges in terms of legislation, self-policing, adaptation to the free-speech concept and respecting one another. Yet, isn't that the challenge of any society on the brink of major advancement. We, my fellow blogging brethrens in Malaysia and the internet community, welcome these challenges.
We are fast becoming, a member of the noise, some good and some bad, that represent humanity and their global voices. That, is all good.


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Global Voices Brainstorm · Global Voices
Ethan Zuckerman

We held a brainstorming session on Global Voices at the Berkman Center Tuesday lunch earlier this week. It was a good chance for Rebecca and me to present some of the thinking we've done about how Harvard can support Global Voices efforts and what our work at Berkman is likely to focus on for the next year. The end result of the brainstorm: a lot of hard questions we don't yet have good answers to, and a much more focused plan for what we'd like Harvard's contribution to Global Voices to be.
(An important reminder: Global Voices is a movement open to participation by anyone working on a project consonant with the manifesto we drafted last December. The project Rebecca and I are leading at Harvard is one of the many efforts in a larger Global Voices movement. When I talk about focus, I'm referring to constraints to the project Rebecca and I are working on, not the Global Voices movement as a whole.)
As for the plan we presented: We're planning on turning the Global Voices blog – including future audio and video blogs – into a hub for individual voices around the world. We're designing a system that uses a web-based, del.icio.us-like service to allow GV allies to identify great posts and feeds and tag them, which automatically adds them to the directory of bridge blogs we're building and to subject, country and language-focused aggregators. We're planning a system that allows users to request translations of documents and volunteers fulfill these requests. And we're planning on producing a rich media blog that individuals and news organizations can use to find creative voices around the world. Our recent efforts to feature international voices on the site are a preview of what we're hoping to do over the next several months.
Three useful clarifications that arose from the GV discussions:
- Our Global Voices work focuses on bridgeblogs – weblogs written to bridge a gap between cultures. Our aim is not to give comprehensive coverage to absolutely everything that comes out of the vast universe of existing weblogs around the world. Our goal is to foster a more democratic and balanced global conversation, and thus our priority emphasis is on blogs that specifically bring two cultures and countries closer together by explaining one culture to the other.
- Berkman's Global Voices project is focused on bridgeblogs that shed light on parts of the world that are poorly covered by mainstream media. Poor coverage refers to quality as well as quantity – we're looking for unheard voices from media dense countries like Iraq, as well as voices from undermediated countries, like Zimbabwe.
- An explicit objective of our GV efforts is to influence the mainstream media. In other words, we're not attempting to set up a rival news network so much as we are looking to “hack” mainstream media. We believe that present an excellent “backchannel” to get mainstream media to consider issues and stories they might otherwise ignore, and that it's easier to turn the blogosphere's attention to undercovered issues and countries than it is to influence mainstream media directly.
Of the many useful suggestions we got, two stood out. David Weinberger reminded us that we need to contextualize the stories we point to and explain “this is why you should care about this”. He observed that, when Rebecca and I talk about our favorite bloggers in other parts of the world, we tend to give a two sentence explanation of what's going on in that country and why we think this person's voice is important. Everyone contributing to Global Voices needs to think seriously about how to contextualize the voices we're introducing to a wider audience. Ejovi Nuwere suggested that we might try a variety of automatic techniques, linking to country profiles, media stories and past posts from the same region of the globe – I'm going to look seriously into a couple of strategies to do this.
Terry Fisher, the faculty director of the Berkman Center, advised us to take the issue of how we categorize blogs very seriously. He advocated the idea of allowing for regional or ethnic groupings – “Kurds”, for instance – as well as the nation-based hierarchy we've introduced to our directory so far. This led to a wide-ranging conversation about whether we create a hierarchy of categories and identities to classify blogs, or whether we attempt a “shared folksonomy”.It's safe to say that we a) realize that these are questions we need to address sooner rather than later and b) have absolutely no idea how to address!
Many thanks to all our Berkman colleagues who participated, as well as special guest stars Ory Okolloh, Atanu Dey, Ejovi Nuwere, Dumi Nyoni, Dorothy Zinberg and our friends who pitched in via IRC.
Photo: Clark Boyd of WGBH in Boston interviews Atanu, Ory and Rebecca after the brainstorm.


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Conflict in the South of Thailand · Global Voices
Jeff Ooi

Fears have heightend as 15 months of unrest is spreading in Thailand's southern provinces.
The region bordering Malaysia has become a delicate flashpoint as  the conflicts involve Muslim secessionist movements revolting against a dominant Buddhist government. (Check Screenshots entries here, here, here and here.)
There is a blog by Sittha Lertphaiboonsiri which provides a vantage point for Thai watchers. It is named Conflict in the South of Thailand and hosted at Bangkok-based ForumAsia. URL:
http://www.forumasia.info/southernthailand
which will be re-routed to:
http://babylon.servershost.net/~forumasi/web/blogs/
Sittha is attached to the Thammasat University. He is conversant in Bahasa Indonesia – complete with the accent – and has adopted an Indonesian name for himself. He is Chinese, Catholic and Thai.
A good candidate for bridge-blogging.

author: Jeff Ooi


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Global Voices on the Radio · Global Voices
Ethan Zuckerman

Clark Boyd of The World – a joint project radio show produced by the BBC and WGBH, Boston – spent a good chunk of time with some of the Global Voices team last Tuesday. The result of his efforts was a feature story on today's edition of the program.
Clark is an avid podcaster, and often posts raw audio from his interviews before or after broadcasting his feature stories. The first half of his conversation with Rebecca, me, Ory and Atanu is part of his Friday post.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Google Podcasts | RSS


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Isaac Mao’s April Fools Joke · Global Voices
Rebecca MacKinnon

Isaac Mao describes his April Fools joke on the Chinese internet police.


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Joi to visit KL · Global Voices
Jeff Ooi

Joi Ito will stop-over in Kuala Lumpur en route to Europe.
Blogger Alex Lam is trying to organise a KL Bloggers’ Meet on the day he arrives, April 18.


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Kenyan Blogosphere round-up · Global Voices
Ory Okolloh

I've been thinking about doing a weekly or bi-monthly highlight of what's going on in Kenyan blogs for a while now, especially since the number of Kenyan blogs has been steadily on the rise over the last few months.  Thanks to some prodding from Ethan, here's my first attempt.
Bankelele  goes on a  working retreat, gets all refreshed, and lets us know why its good to be a Cabinet Minister in Kenya.
Nicholas G.  is looking for a challenge.
Soulsystah is not feeling Michuki's (Minister in charge of internal security) shoot-to-kill order.   Neither am I.   The Kenyan Police have already developed a reputation for shooting first and asking questions later (sometimes killing innocent victims in the process).  How about focusing on clamping down on the entry of small arms into the country, on ensuring the criminals don't get off scot-free due to corruption, on or tracking down the rogue current and former members of the police who seem to be behind many of these high profile crimes?
100 things about Magaidi.
Ashok at his story-telling best.
Guessaurus would like to know what's in a name.  The rapper Kanye West, apparently claims that Kanye means “the only one” in Swahili, I was laughing along with Guessaurus on this one.
Adrian  tries to figure out  what role Kenyans in the diaspora can play when they move back home.
Thinker is on a business trip in Uganda, and is   perplexed  by the large expat community and the fact that his presence seems to perplex them.
4Shezzy reflects on the Pope's passing.

author: Ory Okolloh


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The view from Riyadh – Saudi Jeans · Global Voices
Ethan Zuckerman

Ahmed, a pharmacy student in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, maintains the excellent “Saudi Jeans”, a link blog that looks and feels a little like Scripting News, if only Dave Winer lived in the Middle East and read dozens of Arabic newspapers every morning.
In between posts on everything from the role of SMS in the middle east versus the US and aspirin as an anti-coagulant (he is, after all a pharmacy student), Ahmed has focused on two themes lately: the changing role of women in Saudi society and the increasing tendency of the ISU (Saudi's Internet Service Unit) to block sites he's interested in using.
Recent posts on women in Saudi have featured Ghada al-Idreesi, who was just named manager of DHL's customer support centers in Saudi Arabia, links to articles about the possibility of allowing women to drive, and to an Al-Hayat interview with female author Hildaa Ismail.
In the past week, Ahmed has complained about difficulties accessing numerous websites, including TinyURL, Flickr, and the Internet Archive's wayback machine.
Fortunately, Ahmed's access to his own blog hasn't been blocked… yet. Ahmed's tendency to take sensitive religious and political issues directly head on makes him one of the most exciting voices in the region, but one could imagine that his comments must ruffle some feathers. Here's his take on a recent exhibition of art as his college:
he dean of of College of Pharmacy at KSU have opened an exhibition at the college's main lobby. The exhibition, called “Pulse of the Nation,” is organized by the students’ committees of the college. Please note that when someone says the term “The Nation” in Saudi Arabia, it does not necessary mean the Saudi nation, but it does necessary mean the Islamic nation. Now, one may ask: what an exhibition about Islam has to do with pharmacy?” Here comes the answer: The two have nothing in common. Also, one may thinks College of Pharmacy is filled with atheists, but this is not believable.
The reason for organizing such exhibition at the the college is because the organizers, the students’ committees, are dominated by the Islamists. They have been in control of these committees in the College of Pharmacy, as well as the other colleges of the university, for years. They were behind the banning of musical concerts, plays and other cultural activities. This point was one of the points Dr. Hamza al-Mizeini mentioned in the article that made one of the Islamists in the university sue him.
The administration of the college should consider closing the offices of these committees and shut them down, as they have done with the academic adviser office, because I can't see any real activities in there. Actually, these offices have become a relaxing spot for those Islamists to drink beverages, eat snacks and chit-chatting the latest news of Sheikh Usama Bin Laden.
We've got high hopes that Ahmed might agree to do a roundup of great Arabic blogs in Saudi and the region for Global Voices – we'll keep you posted.


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Community Fabric · Global Voices
Luke Razzell

I've just set up a wiki for a new open-source project called Community Fabric with some friends (from the joiito freenode IRC channel). The idea is to allow people to harness existing social net tools to blog, bookmark, collaborate and post photos from within an easy-to-use and integrated community environment.
I'm really hopeful that this software could scratch some of Global Voices’ itches, empowering people with little knowledge of computers to get published and engage in conversations and online community. But to make it happen, we need techies with the ability and drive to transform the vision into reality!
So if that could be you, come on into the wiki, or accost me (weaverluke) in the joiito IRC channel, and let's talk.

author: Luke Razzell


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Isaacmao.com blocked · Global Voices
Ethan Zuckerman

As some of our readers have pointed out, Isaac Mao's site – isaacmao.com – is being blocked. Isaac gives part of the story on his backup site, helpfully titled “Not isaacmao.com”:
The site of isaacmao.com has been blocked due to it's ‘sensitive’ content. I don't know how long it will take to return. I'm starting emgergency processes now, and will update information in this backup site. Thanks for your attention and kind queries.
(Anyone ever linked to my site for the “sensitive” post about Great Firewall, please kindly trackback here to tell more people what happened)…
Don't worry, it's not so sad thing, it's fun enough~! No experience, no understanding.
The “sensitive content” in question may have been Isaac's very funny April Fools post, where he said that isaacmao.com had been blocked, and suggested people visit other, non-offensive websites, including net memes like “How to Fold A Shirt” – his post read, in part: “Isaac Mao was exiled to Siberia… what do you want to visit now?”
Or, it may been the diagram – hosted on flickr – that Isaac linked to, with his speculations on how
the Chinese firewall operates. (Flickr is becoming an increasingly useful tool to help our Chinese friends evade the firewall. In the event that Isaac's flickr post is blocked, here's a copy of the diagram hosted on our servers.)
Isaac believes his blog is intact, but his ISP was ordered to stop resolving the isaacmao.com domain name. He's now working to get the domain name to resolve to his backup blog. A number of people (Global Voices included) have offered Isaac hosting for his blog outside of China. Isaac's planning on keeping it in China, seeing situations like this as an excellent chance to learn more about internet filtering in China:
To my personal blog, I'm not so eager to move my blog to oversea's hosting. It's so good to study this space with more local experience. (from a recent email from Isaac.)
One issue Isaac's situation raises is the idea of “blogger adoption”. We may want to look into a system that allows bloggers in relatively free countries to “adopt” blogs in relatively unfree countries and keep backup copies of those sites. When a site is blocked, the adoptive blogger could post a mirror of the site based on the backup. If anyone is interested in trading ideas on how we might hack together such a system, please drop me a line at ethanz AT gmail DOT com.


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Reporters Sans Frontieres · Global Voices
Ethan Zuckerman

Our friends at Reporters Sans Frontieres are running a contest to honor blogs defending freedom of expression. Contest finalists were posted yesterday, and the Global Voices community is well represented.
Jeff Ooi's Screenshots, and Rebecca Mackinnon's NKZone are both nominated in the “Asia” category. Hoder's Editor:Myself is one of the nominees in the (huge, rich) Iranian blogger category.  Allies Dan Gillmor and Jay Rosen are two-thirds of the “Americas” category, and yours truly was nominated in the International category, alongside our friends at the Committee to Protect Bloggers.
While we at Global Voices encourage you to vote for your favorite bloggers, we encourage you even more strongly to explore all the fantastic blogs featured by RSF. We'll be profiling many of these excellent blogs between now and the close of voting on June 1st. Many thanks to RSF and Julien Pain for administering this contest and featuring so many amazing blogs.


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Neila Charchour Hachicha: Blogging for Tunisian freedoms · Global Voices
Rebecca MacKinnon

As the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) prepares to hold its second summit in Tunis this coming November, some Tunisian bloggers are doing what they can to call attention to the lack of freedom of speech in Tunisia.  Global Voices received the following email from Tunisian political activist Neila Charchour Hachicha:
I am still trying to create the PLM which is the Mediterranean Liberal Party to help promote democracy in my country. My unique tools are the PLM’s website  and a personal blog  both censored in Tunisia.
Over here we live under a very invisible dictatorship, first because our economy is based for a big part on tourism and the regime needs to promote the best image possible of the country, and second because since independence the regime became expert on repressing its own citizens and cheating the International community.
So if you visit Tunisia, or even for any ordinary Tunisian citizen, you will see a very nice country where it is nice to live and where economical progress is visible. It needs to get involved in politics to discover what is really going on behind the scenes and which most of people are not even aware of.
After several amendments our constitution became a tailored constitution at the exclusive service of the ruling party and it’s President who is at the same time the President of the Republic with all powers a presidential regime can offer him. They depend on each other and of course serve each other through corruption.
We have all kind of restrictive and abusive laws that just can’t allow any democratic process to grow fairly and freely. More over laws are not respected by the regime itself. Repression is the regime’s favourite tool for any dissident independent voice either it is radical, moderate or even part of the legal and recognized opposition that the regime built itself to show the International community that it is doing it best to promote democracy.
In fact we have no freedom of association and any association or political party is submitted to the regime’s authorization. This authorization is not a simple right you can freely practice; it is a favour from the regime that gives it only to its supporters. A gathering of more then three persons needs the regime’s authorization.
Of course information is totally controlled by the regime and freedom of speech is inexistent and severely punished when it happens to be. Any punishment does not only concern the activist himself but it can also concern members of his family. The punishments are never directly linked to the act itself but to any illegal situation they can find. These illegal situations are of course very easy to find since laws are often abusive in this intention.
Actually our unique windows of liberty are foreign Medias when they give us access, or Internet, although all political and Tunisian human rights website are censored in Tunisia. So we can be read from abroad or through proxies.
All these facts explain why the Tunisian people are very uncomfortable with any political activity and silence is the main rule. This political silence is used both by the regime and by the activists but in both cases silence is not the right solution. We ought to express ourselves and encourage people to do the same in order to establish a public debate and help every one build his own opinions and convictions instead of being their mind masters.
I am sorry that all my websites are in French, but technology will help you translate and I would like you to visit in particular this page “Tunisian Citizen Wake Up” where you can know more about the Tunisian political reality.
Also a group of Tunisian political activists living abroad created very recently an Association for the defence of the Tunisian Internet activists and the defence of the Tunisian Cyberspace Freedom.
We are worried that the WSIS, which will be held in Tunisia, will bring even more censorship and restrictions to freedom of speech.
Neila will be providing English-language updates to Global Voices about the Tunisian blogosphere and freedom of speech issues.


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Blogging Safely · Global Voices
Rebecca MacKinnon

Thanks to Curt Hopkins of the Committee to Protect Bloggers for pointing out that the Electronic Frontier Foundation has released a guide: How to Blog Safely.
While many of the suggestions focus on how to avoid getting fired in the American or Western European context, the document also addresses the question of how to blog from countries where this could get you in a lot of trouble.
Useful links include the EFF's Tor website where you can learn about “onion routing.” The Tor site has a technical Wiki where users can help each other use this tool.
Got further ideas or suggestions for safe blogging? Please hit the comments section under this post and share them.


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Banned Iranian Reporter Turns to Weblogs · Global Voices
Hossein Derakhshan

Iranian regime is the best promoter of weblogs.
The latest example is Massih (Masoumeh) Alinejad, the parliament correspondent for reformist newspapers who was banned from the parliament building last week because of the troubles she had made for hardliner MPs.
It took 80 signs to oust her who had revealed financial interests the supposedly God-fearing and people-serving had secretly received as new year gifts and other occasions. Although they said she was banned for being “rude and intrusive”.
But now she has a weblog in which she continues to reveal more about the hypocrite MPs.