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Taking Russia’s Troll Factories to Court · Global Voices
Kevin Rothrock

Images edited by Kevin Rothrock.
Russian journalists have been writing about them for almost two years. Western reporters joined the party last summer. By now, just about anyone who keeps an eye on the Russian Internet is familiar with the concept of Russian “troll factories”: whole offices of paid staff posing as ordinary citizens online, leaving phony comments on news stories and blogs, trying to drown out voices that criticize the Kremlin.
Last week, calling herself a freelance investigative reporter and a civic activist, a woman named Lyudmila Savchuk announced that she is suing Russia’s most famous “troll factory,” the Internet Research Agency, located in St. Petersburg. Savchuk says she worked for this office from January 2015 to March 2015 as an undercover reporter.
With help from the Team 29 legal firm, Savchuk says she is taking the Internet Research Agency to court over a labor dispute: illegal hiring and salary practices. In the unlikely event that she wins the case, Savchuk promises to donate her court award to charity. The real purpose of her suit, however, is forcing the firm to appear publicly before the law, where more people will learn about its scandalous work, she hopes.
On June 1, however, the day Savchuk’s trial was scheduled to begin, no one from Internet Research Agency showed up, and the judge postponed the hearing until June 23. (As it turns out, Savchuk’s passport documents weren’t in proper order, either.)
Lawyers from “Team 29,” Evgeny Smirnov (left) and Daria Sukhikh (right) with Lyudmila Savchuk (center). June 2, 2015, in Moscow. Photo: Facebook.
Despite this setback in trying to out the people behind Russia’s biggest “troll factory,” Savchuk has succeeded in giving several interviews to liberal media outlets like TV Rain, Echo of Moscow, Novaya Gazeta, and Snob. She also spoke to RuNet Echo, saying that her encounters with the foreign press have not always gone smoothly:
И еще очень неприятно читать моих коллег-журналистов, которые извращают мои слова и приписывают мне слова, мысли и чувства, которых я не говорила и не имела. Так было с Франц Пресс и другими СМИ. У них своя информационная война и задача представить меня как зарвавшегося тролля. И они это делают. Поэтому общаться с журналистами мне трудно.
It’s very unpleasant to read my journalist-colleagues who distort my words and credit me with thoughts and feelings that I never expressed or had. It was like this with Agence France-Presse and other media outlets. They have their own information war to fight, and it’s their job to present me as a troll who got in over her head. And that’s what they’re doing, and that’s why it’s hard for me to talk to journalists.
Savchuk is referring to an April 5, 2015, article in Agence France-Presse that begins, “Lyudmila Savchuk says it was money that wooed her into the ranks of the Kremlin's online army.” Savchuk told RuNet Echo that this is a lie. “I said clearly to Agence France-Presse’s correspondent, Marina Koreneva, that I went [to the troll factory] to investigate,” Savchuk explained, saying she’d have joined up even without pay, just to learn more about the operation. “They spread this lie across the whole world,” she says dismayed.
Savchuk says she is convinced that the funding for Russia’s troll factories comes from the government and somehow fits into the state’s propaganda efforts:
Это действительно огромная трата денег в пустоту, вы правы. Нам неизвестно их происхождение, но, судя по всему, они из того же источника, что и деньги, питающие российское тв и кремлевские СМИ. Так как повестка одна и та же. Те же тезисы, подача, тематика. Так что есть все основания подозревать, что финансирование пропаганды в интернете идет из денег налогоплательщиков.
It really is a waste of an enormous amount of money. We don’t know the funding’s source, but it apparently comes from the same place as the money feeding Russian state television and the pro-Kremlin mass media. And the agendas are one in the same—the same main ideas, the same delivery, and the same themes. So there is every reason to suspect that the funding for Internet propaganda is taxpayers’ money.
Savchuk strongly disagrees, moreover, with those who say this spending is merely wasteful. She argues that it’s downright dangerous:
Я не думаю, что это только “безобидное” распиливание бюджета. Я всегда спорю с людьми, которые недооценивают серьезность проблемы. Это не только распил но и растление молодежи. И вообще разжигание национальной и любой другой розни. Боюсь, что скоро начнут люди бить друг друга на улицах потому что у них разные взгляды. Они насаждают какое-то странное раздвоение.
I don’t think this is just “harmless” skimming off the state budget. I always argue with people who underestimate the seriousness of this problem. This isn’t just graft; it’s also the corruption of the youth. Generally speaking, we’re talking about the incitement of ethnic hatred and other tensions. I’m afraid that soon people will start fighting each other in the streets because of different political views. [The trolls] are cultivating a strange social dichotomy [between patriots and traitors].
Lyudmila Savchuk. Photo: VKontakte.
Savchuk insists that this sense of agitation is palpable in the streets, saying the “same intonation” that’s spread online is finding its way into ordinary conversations.
In March, after she leaked reports to Novaya Gazeta and another newspaper, Savchuk’s troll-factory bosses discovered her sabotage and fired her immediately. Shortly later, she founded an online community called Information Peace (a play on the phrase “information war”), seeking to undermine and raise awareness about Russia’s troll factories.
Though most people would likely assume that Savchuk’s activism is strongly anti-Putin, she says some of her group’s members are in fact supporters of the President:
Я не оппозиционер в данном случае. В нашем движении есть и любители Путина. Нас возмущает информационная война в принципе, и моя известность причиняет мне больше беспокойств, чем радостей. Я журналист и гражданский активист уже давно.
I’m not an oppositionist in this case. Our movement also has Putin supporters. We are outraged on principle by the information war, and my own personal public visibility brings me more anxiety than joy. I’ve been a journalist and a civic activist for a long time already.
So far, the only outlets that have really reported Savchuk’s story are the foreign media, which no one in Russia reads, and the domestic liberal publications, whose audiences are already largely familiar with the evils of troll factories. This doesn’t make Savchuk a traitor or even a liberal, though, in her eyes. “We have a tendency to accuse everyone who demands justice and respect for the law of being a liberal oppositionist,” she says.


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Tor Use in Russia Spiking in Response to Kremlin’s Censorship Efforts · Global Voices
Lawrence Alexander

Data from search engines mirrors Tor's own statistics: more and more Russian users show interest. Images mixed by Tetyana Lokot.
As a new United Nations report recognizes encryption software and anonymizing tools as “essential to free speech,” the Russian authorities are toughening their stance on anonymity software. Lawrence Alexander uses open data to examine the rapid growth in Tor use on the RuNet—and to ask what might be driving this trend.
The Tor browser is one of the most popular anonymizing tools used globally to access content that might be blocked or blacklisted, as well as to preserve user privacy. Initially a research project funded by the U.S. Navy, Tor is now run by a nonprofit group, though it continues to receive federal funding. The Tor browser anonymizes Internet traffic by sending it through a unique configuration of nodes known as an onion routing system. The network boasts over 4 million users worldwide (as of November 2013), including many tech activists in countries where online censorship and surveillance are common.
The Tor Project provides public statistics on user connections, and the results can be narrowed down to a specific country, which allows us to get an estimate of how many users in Russia use the Tor network.
Tor connections from Russia, 2013-15.
There is a significant, clear increase in Tor connections from Russia over the past two years; however, the initial spike in 2013 may be misleading. Worldwide Tor data for the same period shows an almost identical trend, which has been attributed to malware activity on the network.
Worldwide Tor connections during 2013-2015.
But while the number of global connections tapered off following the malware attack, in Russia they continued to climb instead, reaching an all-time high in the summer of 2014.
Rapid surge in Russian Tor usage can be seen in mid-2014.
What caused this sudden leap of over 60%? Can these figures be attributed to real users, or a second botnet outbreak?
The data on what and how often Russians are searching for on Google.ru and Yandex—two of the country's most popular search engines—may provide a clue.
Over the same two-year period (2013-2015), there was a major increase in searches for “tor browser скачать” (“tor browser download”) from Russia. This phrase was listed by Yandex Wordstat as a popular query related to Tor, and I chose it because it suggests an intention to use the software, rather then simply to research it or to get information about it.
Yandex searches for phrase “tor browser скачать” (“tor browser download”) from Russia, 2013-15.
The Google Trends data for Russia shows a similar increase in search volume, with big peaks in the summer of 2014 and a high concentration of activity in the first half of 2015.
Google searches for phrase “tor browser скачать” (“tor browser download”) from Russia, 2013-15.
In both cases, the search data tends to mirror that of the Tor Metrics, with only moderate activity prior to the 2013 spike.
Yandex's global statistics for “tor browser скачать” confirm that the majority of searchers are based in Russia, residing in the major cities and urban areas. Moscow strongly dominates the list, just as it did in Google Trends. This is probably a reflection of population density and internet penetration, but a younger urban demographic, which tends to be more savvy and curious about circumvention tools, may have also influenced the trend.
Top 20 cities of users searching for “tor browser скачать” on Yandex.
What is driving this ongoing three-year increase in Russian anonymizer adoption and usage? As RuNet Echo has extensively documented throughout the period, the Russian government has been steadily tightening its grip on Internet freedom—and the increase in censorship closely mirrors the upward trend in interest towards Tor.
After initially introducing blocks on content related to self-harm and drug use, the Kremlin then instituted its own take on SOPA in the summer of 2013, and later that year made moves to prevent access to websites promoting unsanctioned public protests.
Increasingly draconian crackdowns on opposition media websites and Internet activists followed in the spring of 2014—accompanied by a huge surge in Tor searches on Google.ru.
As government regulations become more restrictive, more Russian citizens are adopting online circumvention tools to preserve their access to information, freedom of expression, and anonymity. In response, the Kremlin seems to be eager to curtail the use of the very software that facilitates them. Although Tor and other anonymizers are not officially banned in Russia, it is increasingly clear they're viewed as a threat to the tight control Russia seeks to retain over its mainstream media as well as the online information and communication spheres.

source: news-globalvoices

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

author: Lawrence Alexander


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What a ‘Mischievous Blonde Woman’ Dalai Lama Could Look Like · Global Voices
I-fan Lin

This work ‘Free Tibet’ by Dollydraw is licensed under CC BY-NC.
The Dalai Lama has inspired comic artists in Taiwan and Hong Kong with his recent comments that he may be reincarnated as a “mischievous blonde woman” with an attractive face or “nobody pay much attention”.
More seriously, the Buddhist figure reaffirmed his stance since 2004 to the UK newspaper The Sunday Times that he may not even be reincarnated at all, given the Beijing government's plan to meddle with the reincarnation of the 15th Dalai Lama.
Tibetan Buddhism believes that the soul, after biological death, can begin a new life in a new body. The current Dalai Lama, who turns 80 this year, is considered the political and spiritual leader of Tibet, as have all other previous Dalai Lamas stretching back 369 years to 1642. The reincarnation of religious leaders in Tibet, which has been under China's repressive rule for 60 years, is a sensitive process, one that Beijing has manipulated in order to exercise its control over Tibetans.
To address the controversy and express support for him, comic artists in Taiwan and Hong Kong started a Facebook page, the Blonde Dalai Lama. They drew a number of images and wrote stories of the future 15th Dalai Lama as a blonde woman. The premise of their stories is usually that “one day, it was revealed to me that my sister/my neighbor/the new student was the 15th Dalai Lama.”
This work ‘My neighbor is a Lama’ by Usagihime is licensed under CC BY-NC.
This work ‘My little sister was a Lama’ by Dollydraw is licensed under CC BY-NC.
This work by ‘bumping into a wall when walking’ is licensed under CC BY-NC.
This work ‘I am a Lama…anything strange?’ by LISianthus is licensed under CC BY-NC.
This work ‘The new student is the Dalai Lama!’ by Nana (koadenium) is licensed under CC BY-NC.
This work ‘How could my sister be the Lama!’ by bigGoldfishbowl is licensed under CC BY-NC.
This work by Mincelot is licensed under CC BY-NC.
The current Dalai Lama, Tenzin Gyatso, who has lived in exile in India since 1959, has repeatedly hinted that he might not be reincarnated. Beijing claims that “the Dalai Lama had, essentially, no say over whether he was reincarnated” and that the ultimate decision lies in the hand of the Chinese government, while the Karmapa Lama, Tibetan Buddhism's third highest religious leader in exile, said that “it is up to the Dalai Lama to decide whether he will be reborn.”
China is officially atheist, but that hasn't stopped Beijing from intervening in Tibet's religious matters before. The reincarnation of the 11th Panchen Lama, the second most important leader in Tibetan Buddhism, is one such example. In 1995, the Dalai Lama recognized the reincarnation of the Panchen Lama, and then Beijing detained him and replaced him with a boy of their choosing.
Judging from Beijing government's track record in manipulating the reincarnation process, comic lovers at least just might prefer the “mischievous blonde woman” to any other candidate.
Related GV articles:

author: I-fan Lin


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What You Need to Know About Growing Opposition to Peru’s Tia Maria Mining Project (Part II) · Global Voices
Juan Arellano

One of the many demonstrations against the Tia Maria mining project in Perú, closely watched by Peruvian law enforcement. Photo taken from the website of Peruvian politician Rosa Maria Palacios.
This post is part of a series on the Tia Maria mining project in Peru. See also: What you need to know about the growing opposition to Peru's Tia Maria mining project (Part I).
The protests by farmers against the government-approved Tia Maria mining project in Peru have already taken five lives in more than 60 days of regional strikes. On May 23 the state proclaimed a state of emergency for Islay province, in the south of the country. Farmers fear the project will contaminate the River Tambo vital for their rice crops.
While violence has been shared out across both sides, supporters of the mining project have capitalised on the anarchy resulting from the protests, labelling protesters “anti-mining terrorists“. The use of the term “terrorist” strikes a chord with a public that still remembers Peru's time of terrorism, when rebel groups such as the Shining Path attacked government targets as well as commercial projects seeking to fulfil political goals.
Demonstrators protest against the Southern mining company in Arequipa, Peru. Image obtained from congress member Manuel Dammert's web site, used under Creative Commons.
As Peruvian congress memeber Verónika Mendoza, points out on her blog, such terms are counterproductive in setting up genuine dialogue around the project:
“si esos que protestan son ‘terroristas’ entonces poco valen sus vidas, menos sus opiniones”, ese parece ser el mensaje final. “Escalamos” así de la desciudadanización [sic] a la deshumanización del otro. Quienes han hecho uso de estos términos públicamente saben muy bien de todas estas implicancias. Por eso resulta preocupante que desde el Estado, supuesto garante neutral de derechos, no se haya deslindado o exigido rectificación como correspondía sino más bien se haya refrendado tácitamente.
If those who protest are ‘terrorists’ then their lives have little value, let alone their opinions. That seems to be the final message.”We climb” from the uncivilized through the dehumanization of others. Those who publicly use these  terms know full well what they imply. That's why it is worrying that the State, supposedly a neutral guarantor of rights […] has not demanded rectification as befitted, but rather has tactically endorsed [labelling].
Digital publication Lampadia disagrees. They claim that many of the demonstrators’ protest actions instill terror into the local population, justifying the terrorism classification.
Moreover, the publication argues, the protests have become part of an “Anti-mining manual” applied across various parts of the country:
El proceso para detener un proyecto minero es siempre el mismo: miente; búscate un publicista, juega con la ignorancia de la población, a la que nadie explica las cosas; juega con sus miedos y sentimientos; amenaza; demuestra tu poder haciendo daños físicos a determinadas personas; organiza marchas; toma carreteras; destruye la propiedad pública y privada y trata de conseguir la muerte de un inocente para “demostrar la brutalidad” de la represión.
The process to stop a mining project is always the same: lie, look for a publicist, play on the ignorance of the population, to whom no one explains anything, play on their fears and feelings; threaten; show your power by physically damaging certain people; organize marches; block roads; destroy public and private property and try to use the death of an innocent to “prove the cruelty” of the repression.
But the protesters’ credibility was damaged by a more concrete allegation. On April 26 an audio recording appeared in which the leader of the Front for the Defense of the Tambo Valley, Pepe Julio Gutiérrez, apparently demanded money to put a stop to the demonstrations.
Gutiérrez denied it was his voice, claiming a plot against him, but was detained for 24 hours on May 15, a detention later extended to seven days. Four days later the prosecution said they had received confirmation that the voice of the audio was indeed that of Gutiérrez.
Critics of the company, including former priest Marco Arana who leads the political group Tierra y Libertad (Land and Freedom), say the Southern Copper Corporation should also be investigated as part of the corruption case, noting that wherever there is a “corrupted”, there is always a “corruptor”.
Also on May 15 the government belatedly announced that Peru's president Ollanta Humala would address the nation on Tia Maria, but the appearance of the president on TV was delayed for several hours, triggering jokes and memes.
Finally Humala moved to reject calls to suspend the project, leaving the decision with the Southern Copper Corporation, who chose to stop work for 60 days in order to “socialize the project and clear all doubts”.
Protestors were not completely convinced, however and the same day a peaceful march turned into a confrontation with police in Cocachacra, Arequipa. A video spread by the Facebook Revolution News page shows police fired at the protestors. Interior minister, José Luis Pérez Guadalupe said police officials are allowed to “make use of arms if necessary”, adding that the shooting justified itself as a policeman being beaten by the protesters was subsequently released.
On May 22, new confrontations in Cocachacra ended with a protestor dead and the local police station attacked with a firecracker, supposedly thrown by demonstrators angered by the the death of their colleague (although some say it was the police themselves who detonated the firecracker), triggering the declaration of an emergency situation in the region that is still in effect.
Soon after the declaration police began arresting citizens for allegedly extorting money from drivers passing through the area, as well as the huaraqueros or espartambos; people that pelt stones at police during confrontations with the help of the huaracas, a local sling.
The Farmers Federation of Arequipa region then announced that they would come out to march in protest and support the strike of the Islay province farmers on May 27 and 28. The march also involved solidarity walkouts by unions and housing associations across several regions in the country. While mostly peaceful, there were incidents of  tire-burning, as police used tear gas and rubber bullets to disperse protesters from strategic objects including airports and bridges.
Some believe the Southern Copper Corporation has not stopped work at all and the blog Servindi published by the weekly Hilderbrandt shows why it does not make sense for them to do so:
Según un reporte de la propia empresa, de los 5.787 millones de dólares recaudados el año pasado por Southern, 2.482 millones fueron producto de sus operaciones en el Perú.
La ganancia obtenida en suelo nacional tiene su explicación en la cantidad de mineral concentrado que se encuentra en las rocas.
En Cuajone y Toquepala la concentración es de 0.68%, mientras que en el yacimiento mexicano de Buenavista, la mina más importante que tiene el Grupo México -dueño de Southern-, la concentración es de 0.58% …
además, la diferencia en los volúmenes de producción. Mientras que el año pasado en México la empresa produjo 568 millones de libras de cobre, en el Perú este volumen llegó a los 670 millones.
According to a company report, of the 5.787 million dollars raised last year by Southern, 2.482 million were the result of their operations in Peru.
The proceeds can be explained by the concentration of mineral found in the rocks.
In Cuajone and Toquepala [in Peru] the concentration is 0.68%, while in the Mexican deposit of Buenavista, the most important mine of Grupo Mexico — owner of Southern — the concentration is 0.58%…
Moreover, there is a difference in the volume of production. While last year in Mexico the company produced 568 million pounds of cooper, in Peru this volume reached 670 million pounds.
Another thorny matter connected to Tia Maria is the 2014 Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) contracted to Geoservice Ingeniería, which critics say is inadequate. Convoca, an investigative journalism team, analyzed the 10,000 plus pages of the EIA with the help of environmental engineers and found “serious inconsistencies in water management and monitoring of impacts”:
Southern presentó el nuevo EIA incluyendo apenas diez carillas para explicar cómo se construiría la planta desalinizadora para tratar el agua de mar y no captar agua del río Tambo, del que dependen los pobladores de la zona. Los ingenieros entrevistados señalaron que una planta de esta dimensión, que además es el tema más sensible del conflicto, requiere que la empresa presente como parte de los anexos del EIA, un Estudio de Factibilidad que especifique cómo se procesará el agua de mar. Este documento es clave para que los evaluadores del ministerio determinen que la planta tendrá la capacidad para procesar el mineral que se explotará sin que luego la minera use al agua del río.
Southern introduced the new EIA including barely ten lines to explain how the desalination plant would be built to treat seawater in order not to extract water from the Tambo River, upon which the residents of the area depend. The engineers interviewed pointed out that a plant of such dimensions requires the company to include in the annexes a Viability Study specifying how the seawater will be processed. This document is key for the ministry assessors to determine the capacity of the plant to process minerals without using water from the river.
Further reading on the subject :
Are Peruvian Police and Press Conspiring to Criminalise the Tia María Protests?

author: Juan Arellano


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Ahead of Turkey’s Critical General Election, a Fact-Checking Website Analyses Political Statements · Global Voices
Erkan Saka

Elections are will take place in Turkey on June 7 and candidates will say anything to get heard. But how can citizens know what and what not to believe?
Doğruluk Payı remains the only surviving and extensive website to function as a fact-checking service in Turkey.
Funded by the Istanbul-based ideas group Dialogue For Common Future Association, the website has a five-level rating system that helps users sort political statements in terms of their truthfulness.
The rankings are determined as follows:
a) The statement is true b) Mostly true c) Partially true d) Mostly not true e) No truth
Public statements are monitored by a large pool of volunteers while five editors provide their evaluations. Data-based statements are analysed and the editors determine their truth  according to the scale above.
In addition to continually analysing the utterances of political leaders, the website keeps a tab on government promises. According to their analysis, the ruling party, AKP (Justice and Development) kept only 30% of the promises it made in the 2011 elections.
The website recently released an election report which determines how accurate leaders’ pre-election statements were. Based on 408 statements made by 159 figures from the four major parties and a few others the general accuracy rate is 5.7/10, meaning that candidates are lying fairly often.
According to the report officials from the pro-Kurdish HDP speak the truth most often.
While the ruling AKP party patronised by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is below par and Turkey's oldest political party, the Kemalist CHP does somewhat better.
Whether truth will play a role in the campaign is another matter. The AKP party can count on swathes of the Turkish media to push its message as Erdogan seeks a majority to bolster his position and possibly move the country closer to a presidentialist, authoritarian system. The stakes are high, and the seemingly truthful HDP are the only party capable of causing an upset to the political order.
This post is the third in a series looking at how online tools are making a contribution to the electoral process in Turkey. For further reading, please see: Covering Turkey's General Election, One Tool at a Time and Data Set Demonstrates Attacks on Turkish Opposition Party's Campaign Offices Are Systematic.

author: Erkan Saka


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China’s Internet Police Launch ‘Speech Inspections’, Chill Critical Voices · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

Image from Flickr user: Isriya Paireepairit (CC: AT-NC)
Chinese Internet Police Units from 50 municipal governments began conducting “speech inspections” on social media platforms on June 1.
According to a statement from the Ministry of Public Security, the Internet Police will be patrolling major social media platforms including Weibo and WeChat round the clock to prevent illegal information from spreading under a shared username and account “Internet Police Inspection and Law Enforcement” (网警巡查执法). The Internet police teams are meant to detect “illegal and harmful information,” prevent improper words and deeds, publish case reports, and guard against cyber criminals. They will “educate and warn” those who misbehave and crack down on those who violate the law.
The first generation of Internet police patrol units has been deployed mainly in big cities like Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou, as well as cities where ethnic minorities reside. Second and third-tier cities will start patrolling online at a later stage.
Since 2008, when Weibo became popular in China, a large number of police units have created their own social media accounts to receive complaints and crime reports from ordinary citizens. But until now, they were not responsible for monitoring online speech. Social media censorship is mainly executed by platform administrators who receive instructions from various government and party authorities to filter politically sensitive words or delete  the accounts of problematic users. Most social media platforms have also set up community reporting systems to prevent rumors and libel from spreading online.
For years, police have been interrogating and arresting netizens for “spreading rumors” or “picking quarrels and provoking troubles”. The most recent cases are human rights lawyer Pu Zhiqiang's speech incrimination. But the launch of the “Internet Police Inspection and Law Enforcement” program thus implies a more coordinated effort in the incrimination of online speech.
The ministry statement has also highlighted that fact that in 2015, Internet Police Units have already deleted approximately 758,000 pieces of “criminal information” and handled 70,000 “cybercrime” cases. “The stepping into light” of Internet police may further the chilling effects of their actions on critical voices.
Independent writer Ye Du told Radio Free Asia:
这个体制把互联网视为意识形态成败的关键部分。微博、微信现在是新媒体社交时代网民主要运用的工具。在微博上面已经清理得差不多了，
Image from Flickr user: Isriya Paireepairit (CC: AT-NC)
而在微信上面现在也加紧清理，这全部是网络警察的功劳。但是我们看到，现在整个在互联网来说，还是相当活跃的。在庆安事件里面我们看到网民纷纷表态，对这个体制形成相当大的压力，这让他们意识到单靠以前一些打击网络大V，清理公信号，或者实名制，不一定能应付得了目前来自民众的压力。[…] 所以这次我们看到网络警察大规模上线，这是对网民赤裸裸的恐吓，希望从心理上面让网民产生恐惧，从而在互联网各种关键问题上面自我审查，这才是这种高调最真实的目的。
The state sees Internet as the battlefield of ideological control. Weibo and WeChat are major tools for advocating democracy in the social media era. Weibo has been cleaned up and more efforts have been put on WeChat thanks to the Internet police. However, the Internet is still active. In the recent Qing'an police shooting incident, many netizens spoke up and generated huge pressure for the authorities. They became aware that the crackdown on opinion leaders, strict control on WeChat public platform or real name system could not stop people from expressing their opinions. […] That's why the Internet police now have to make themselves visible. This is a threat to netizens intending to generate fear so that netizens will self-censor their speech. This is the real intention behind the move.
Ordinary netizens are not happy about the speech inspection, but many reacted with a sense of humor. In a Weibo thread where “Chengdu Internet police inspection and law enforcement” introduced themselves and their work, Chinese netizens commented with dark humor, mocking at the authorities overt control over people's speech while neglecting food security and real criminal acts that affect people's daily life:
地沟油煎炒、苏丹红禽蛋、镉大米、污染水、塑化剂水酒、膨大剂果蔬、石蜡油火锅、滑石粉豆干、硫磺熏银耳、PM2.5空气、地痞、流氓、小偷、强盗原来都他妈的是安全的。只有这网络不安全。
Gutter oil deep fried food, Sudan I tainted eggs, Cadmium tainted rice, polluted water, plasticizer drinks, explosive fruits, Paraffin oil hotpot, Tofu made with talcum powder, white fungus processed with sulphur, PM2.5 dust in air, thugs and goons, thieves and robbers, they are all fxxking safe. Only the Internet is unsafe.
网络不是法外之地，这个说法根本就不是事实，网络上发表言论惹恼政府的人抓得还不够多？老爷们喜欢睁眼说瞎话。
The Internet is not outside the rule of law – this saying is inaccurate. So many people have already been arrested for their critical speech online. Is this not enough? You guys like to lie without blinking your eyes.
我被世纪佳缘酒托骗钱，你来管？ 我一夜情（合法的吧？）没搞成，手机还掉了，你来管？ 我淘宝花正品的钱买到山寨货，你来管？ 管不了就别吹牛逼，行不？
I was cheated by an online matching platform, you want to handle this? I failed in my one night stand (this is legal right?), lost my mobile, can you handle this? I got counterfeiting goods from Taobao, can you handle that? If you can't take care of these problems, don't boasting around.

author: Oiwan Lam


text:
Football Fans See a Chance for Change in FIFA President Joseph Blatter’s Resignation · Global Voices
Fernanda Canofre

Joseph Blatter speaking about the 2014 World Cup. Image: Agencia Brasil. Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Brazil License
On May 29, Joseph Blatter celebrated being re-elected for his fifth term as FIFA’s president. Two days earlier, 14 FIFA officials had been arrested in Zurich, Switzerland, for money laundering, bribery and tax evasion in a US-led operation, but he was “the man who wouldn’t give up”, as pointed by The Economist.
After defeating his opponent, Jordan’s Prince Ali bin al-Hussein with 133 votes to 73, Blatter proclaimed himself as “the president of everybody” and declared in an interview he wouldn’t be stepping down because “that would mean I recognize that I did wrong.”
Four days later on June 2, he decided to leave his seat.
The announcement took the world of sports by surprise. The Swiss football administrator held the president’s title for 17 years. In his speech, Blatter himself claimed the motivation of his decision was his “deep care for FIFA and its interests, which I hold very dear”.
While, some newspapers named this “a great day for football”, former footballers such as Portugal’s Luis Figo (who may have a chance on taking Blatter’s seat) and England’s Gary Lineker went to Twitter to express their thoughts:
Blatter has resigned. Can't quite believe it. FIFA always appeared to be such a fine upstanding organisation.
— Gary Lineker (@GaryLineker) junio 2, 2015
Change is finally coming. Let’s find a solution to start a new era of transparency and democracy in FIFA. http://t.co/XXYt1NfooH
— Luís Figo (@LuisFigo) junio 2, 2015
In Brazil, 1994 world champion and current congressman Romário Faria credited Blatter’s announcement as “the best news in a very long time” and the dawn of a “new era to football worldwide”. The player, who launched an investigation into the Brazilian Football Confederation following last week’s arrests, wrote in his Facebook page:
A saída de Battler abre uma enorme lacuna, é hora de darmos as mãos. Agora sim, podemos dizer que abrimos caminho para uma mudança efetiva no futebol mundial. Nas últimas décadas, a FIFA se transformou apenas em uma máquina de ganhar dinheiro. Interesse que ficou acima da missão do futebol de unir os povos, derrubar barreiras sociais, despertar paixões. É hora de retomarmos essa missão social.
Blatter’s exit opens a huge breach, it is time for us to hold hands. Now, we can say that we paved the way to an effective change in football worldwide. In the last decades, FIFA transformed itself in only a money-making machine. Greed prevailed over football’s mission of uniting people, taking down social barriers, waking passions. It is time for us to retake this social mission.
Just the night before of the announcement, British comedian John Oliver held a segment on his US TV show “Last Week Tonight” about the FIFA arrests. After calling out on the entity’s official sponsors to take down Joseph Blatter, he stated:
The problem is all the arrests in the world will change nothing as long as Blatter is still there, because to truly kill a snake you must cut off its head.
As published by The Guardian, when Blatter joined FIFA in 1975, the institution:
[…] had just 12 employees, he created the model of kickbacks, patronage and pork barrel politics over a period in which Fifa’s revenues have soared – and turned a blind eye to the staggering greed among those afforded a piece of it.
After being elected president for the first time in 1998, coupled with the 23-year experience working within the federation, Blatter came to expand FIFA’s activities including million dollar championships for Futsal and Beach Soccer in his “portfolio”. Amidst storms, he reigned supreme and steadily established a ‘Blatter’s way of rule’ till this latest scandal. Andrew Jennings, an investigative reporter who authored three books breaking FIFA’s secrets and delivered documents that helped the FBI investigation, defined the system run by Blatter as “an organized crime family”. So, resigning the presidency doesn’t mean Blatter’s will cut ties with FIFA. Actually, in his resignation speech — after explaining he was leaving because he did not “have a mandate from the entire world of football — the fans, the players, the clubs, the people who live, breathe and love football” — he seemed to be launching a crusade to clean his beloved entity's soul:
Since I shall not be a candidate, and am therefore now free from the constraints that elections inevitably impose, I shall be able to focus on driving far-reaching, fundamental reforms that transcend our previous efforts. For years, we have worked hard to put in place administrative reforms, but it is plain to me that while these must continue, they are not enough.
Something he allegedly was “blocked” from doing so in the past decades.
Image: Rashid Ali Garcia/Twitter
In his announcement, Blatter also stated he would be asking for an extraordinary executive committee meeting to vote for his successor, since the next ordinary congress is set to happen only in May 2016. A new election is likely to take place between December and March. Till then, Blatter continues on the throne. The bets for who will be replacing Blatter favor French former footballer Michel Platini, currently president of UEFA, followed by Prince Ali bin Al-Hussein — the candidate defeated by Blatter last week — and Luis Figo (who stepped down a few weeks before last week's FIFA Congress).
UEFA President Michel Platini has the best odds to become next FIFA President. pic.twitter.com/YkR7bupaMy
— SportsCenter (@SportsCenter) junio 2, 2015
But there may be a few surprises along the way. On Tuesday night, former Brazilian footballer Zico (who also coached national teams of Japan and Iraq) also announced he would be interested in running. According to FIFA rules, anyone who works with football for at least five years and has the support from five of the 209 national federations can present his or her candidacy.
Many questions will need to be addressed in the next months. As progressive US news website Think Progress points:
The most pertinent question might be what happens in Qatar. Last week, Burrow called for an “immediate re-run of the votes” for the 2022 World Cup in the wake of the corruption allegations. The Qatari bid has long been the subject of criticism amid corruption allegations and major human rights concerns, from the country’s treatment of LGBT people to working conditions that could claim the lives of an estimated 4,000 workers before the World Cup there even kicks off.
The main question however is if Blatter’s exit will be enough to change the rotten system supporting FIFA’s wrongdoings. Open Data Institute suggests that transparency is the only way to go:
It could show a detailed breakdown of outgoings, which totalled around $5.4bn between 2011 – 2014. These could include the operational costs associated with the World Cup and other tournaments, the payments it makes to member associations and confederations, and the costs of maintaining committees and congress. Access to this type of open data would enable citizens throughout the 209 nations Fifa represents to understand the financial decisions it makes and hold its leaders to account.

author: Fernanda Canofre


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Hope and Introspection in Neighboring Cameroon as Nigeria Swears in New President · Global Voices
Dibussi Tande

Former Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan with newly sworn-in President Muhammadu Buhari during his inauguration ceremony on May 29, 2015. Public Domain photo from the US State Department.
Cameroon and Nigeria share a long, tangled and sometimes tumultuous history going back to the era of British colonial rule when the British Cameroons was governed as part of the Nigerian Federation. During a 1961 plebiscite organized by the United Nations, British Southern Cameroons voted to gain independence by uniting with the French Cameroun while British Northern Cameroons voted to integrate the Nigerian federation. Today, Southern Cameroons has become the northwest and southwest regions of Cameroon, while Northern Cameroons has been absorbed into parts of the Borno, Adamawa and Tabara states of Nigeria.
Cameroon and Nigeria also share a long 2,000-kilometer border with the same ethnic groups straddling both sides. Both countries have been involved in longstanding border disputes, the most significant being the dispute over the oil-rich Bakassi peninsular, which was finally resolved when the International Court of Justice ruled in Cameroon’s favor in 2002.
Today, Nigeria is Cameroon’s leading trading partner, overtaking France, a former colonial power. Furthermore, at least two million Nigerians live in Cameroon (some put that figure as high as six million) while about one million Cameroonians live in Nigeria. Government-daily Cameroon Tribune describes both countries as “collés, dos à dos comme des frères siamois”, that is, “joined at the hip like conjoined twins.”
Given Cameroon’s proximity to and tangled history with Nigeria, it is no surprise that major socio-political events in Nigeria usually have an impact in Cameroon. For example, the conflict in Nigeria’s Delta region regularly spills into Cameroon with kidnappings and attacks on Cameroonian military outposts and border villages.
The Boko Haram insurgency is the most patent example of Cameroon literally catching a cold when Nigeria sneezes. What initially began as a local rebellion against the Nigerian government morphed into a full-fledged regional insurgency. As a result, Cameroon has had to deploy about 6,500 troops to northern Cameroon to stave off the jihadist group’s repeated attacks Cameroonian territory, the most violent being the February 2015 attack on Fotokol, which resulted in the massacre of about 100 civilians.
Relations between Cameroon and Nigeria were strained in the months leading up to the presidential election due to Cameroonian frustration with what was perceived as the Nigerian government’s passive and lackluster response to the Islamist insurgency; passivity which was the catalyst for increased Boko Haram attacks on Cameroon, resulting in large scale population displacement, economic disruption, severe food shortages, widespread insecurity and an unprecedented refugee crisis in Northern Cameroon. As Cameroon’s army spokesperson Colonel Didier Badjeck complained earlier this year:
We're getting fed up with the situation. Nigeria has to take its responsibilities. We cannot continue to support the weight of a war which we don't even know the whys and wherefores.
The widespread anger at President Goodluck Jonathan was clearly captured in this January 11 tweet by an irate Cameroonian:
L'armée camerounaise se retrouve à se battre
toute seule contre Boko Haram aux frontières Nigéria/Cameroun. On remercie Badluck
Jonathan.
— Biggs (@Docta_RO) January 11,
2015
The Cameroonian army is fighting all alone against Boko Haram on the Nigeria/Cameroon border. Thanks Badluck Jonathan.
It was therefore with unprecedented interest that Cameroonians followed the Nigerian presidential elections. Expectedly, the majority supported the opposition candidate, retired General Muhammadu Buhari, because of his uncompromising rhetoric against Boko Haram, his unequivocal promise to obliterate the group if he became president, and his willingness, unlike President Jonathan, to recognize and welcome the role that neighboring countries were playing in degrading the Boko Haram war machine. As he stated in a pre-election jibe at the Jonathan administration:
It’s a big disgrace for Nigeria. It is now Cameroon and Chad fighting the insurgency more than Nigeria. We will build the capacity and Nigeria should be able to secure its territorial integrity
To claim that Cameroonians were simply “pleased” with the outcome of Nigeria's presidential polls is an understatement. Eye witnesses described:
Des scènes de liesse populaire… dans certaines villes du nord du Cameroun, à l'instar de Kousseri ou Mokolo après l'annonce de la victoire de Muhammadu Buhari.
Scenes of popular jubilation in some towns of Northern Cameroon such as Kousseri or Mokolo following the announcement of Muhammadu Buhari’s victory.
As a cab driver in Kousseri explained:
c’est normal que nous soyons joyeux ! Boko Haram et Goodluck Jonathan sont l’origine de l’insécurité dans l’extrême-nord du Cameroun. Donc, qu’il soit battu aux élections
rend les populations de la partie septentrionale du Cameroun heureuses n’est que justice
It is natural that we should happy! Boko Haram and Goodluck Jonathan are the cause of insecurity in the far north region of Cameroon. The people of northern Cameroon are happy because thanks to his defeat, justice has been done.
Cameroonian satisfaction with the outcome of the election was also demonstrated by the speed with which president Biya of Cameroon sent a message congratulating his “dear brother,” Buhari, for his “brilliant election,” and assuring the president-elect of “my constant readiness to work with you towards maintaining and consolidating the excellent multifarious relations existing between Cameroon and Nigeria, as well as between our brotherly peoples.” As journalist Annie Payep sarcastically observed:
#Biya a donc félicité #Buhari. Pour quelqu'un qui aime
prendre son temps…il faut y lire l'amour fou qu'il éprouvait pour #JONATHAN
— Annie Payep
(@AnniePayep) April 1,
2015
So Biya has [already] congratulated Buhari. For someone who likes to take his time… this shows the insane love that he felt for Jonathan.
In his post-election declarations, Buhari reiterated his commitment to a regional approach in the fight against Boko Haram.
#BUHARI: “With the cooperation of
our neighbours CHAD,CAMEROON NIGER Boko Haram will be defeated”.
— Albashir
#GMB15 (@ItsBashirr) April 2,
2015
Exactly what Cameroonian wanted to hear. As Cameroon Tribune stated:
La détermination du chef de l’Etat nigerian de faire de l’éradication de Boko Haram une priorité absolue est un motif d’espoir.
The Nigerian head of state’s determination to make the destruction of Boko Haram a priority is reason for hope.
In spite of the near unanimous belief among Cameroonians that their country became entangled in a “proxy war” primarily due to President Goodluck Jonathan’s incompetence, they nonetheless hailed him for the dignified and graceful manner in which he conceded defeat. For example, Henry Junior wrote in a Facebook comment:
Jonathan has distinguished himself in a land reputed for its production of men inebriated with power; men who would write scripts of election results and hold on to power zealously and jealously!!!
Scribbles from the Den replied in the same thread that:
Whatever his failures as a President, and they are legion, Goodluck Jonathan's singular act of conceding defeat defused a time bomb and saved Nigeria from a headache it did not need and could not afford. On that score alone, he is one for the history books.
Nkwebo Denis, the deputy editor-in-chief of Le Jour daily newspaper, simply tweeted:
I praise Goodluck Jonathan. God bless
Nigeria!
— NKWEBO DENIS (@DENISNKWEBO) April 1,
2015
For Cameroonians, the joy and pride in the outcome of the Nigerian election was tinged with melancholy and introspection about the political situation in their own country which has been governed by the same president for 33 years:
Buhari sworn in as president of
Nigeria whereas Paul Biya of Cameroon sworn in as oldest dictator of Cameroon http://t.co/IxWZZjwCHZ
— Transparency (@funton08)
May 29, 2015
Lema Abeng-Nsah, publisher of Dunia magazine, tweeted:
With 30 s'thing yrs of power
under his belt, I wonder what my President P Biya is thinking of our neighbor's example: http://t.co/4CTESKACT3
— Lema Abeng-Nsah
(@LemaNsah) April 1,
2015
In the same vein, Nutella Machiri tweeted:
Nigeria has a new president! If it
can happen for them it can happen for Cameroon too right 😩
— Nutella Machiri™
(@_HurdleFloww) March
31, 2015
And on inauguration day, KF Wakai asked the question on the minds of millions of Cameroonians:
Would Cameroonians ever get to
say these words to our King? Goodbye Goodluck… | Sahara Reporters http://t.co/xfyISyjuxV”
— KF Wakai (@KfWakai) May 29, 2015
Muhammadu Buhari is now in office and Cameroonians hope that that a new era of cooperation is at hand especially in the war against Boko Haram:
As @MBuhari takes over, hopes for increased coop. b/w #Nigeria-#Cameroon troops seen here in Kerawa
#cmr #BokoHaram pic.twitter.com/rsLrfn3MmA
— Dibussi Tande
(@dibussi) May 29,
2015
The expectation is that the cooperation will also expand to other areas. As a Cameroon Tribune editorial stated:
Au total, l’ouverture d’une nouvelle ère au Nigeria, suite à l’accession au pouvoir du général Muhammadu Buhari est une nouvelle opportunité à saisir par le Cameroun et le Nigeria pour donner un souffle nouveau à la coopération bilatérale. Condamnés à vivre ensemble, les deux pays doivent regarder dans la même direction et savoir saisir les opportunités qui s’offrent de part et d’autre. Ils ont l’avenir en partage.
All told, the beginning of a new era in Nigeria, following the ascension to power of General Muhammadu Buhari, is an opportunity for Cameroon and Nigeria to give new momentum to their bilateral cooperation. Condemned to live together, the two countries must look in the same direction and learn to seize the opportunities that present themselves. They share a common future.

author: Dibussi Tande


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How Ukrainian Activists Are Fighting Corruption in Courts Using YouTube · Global Voices
Anna Poludenko-Young

“Open Court” co-founder wearing a t-shirt that says “I am the law.” The slogan implies that every citizen, including lawmakers, is subject to the same laws. Image edited by Anna Poludenko-Young.
A group of Ukrainian activists got tired of waiting for the government to fight corruption in the court system and decided to take matters into their own hands. Their main weapons? YouTube, live streams, and legal expertise.
“The logic is pretty simple. Judges should not have anything to hide if they are not corrupt,” Stanislav Batryn, co-founder of the “Open Court” project, told Global Voices. If the courts claim to be transparent, the project's founders reason, then they won't mind if the proceedings are broadcast live on the Internet. “Because the hearing is open and millions of people can watch it online, judges must obey all the requirements and procedures, instead of just imitating the whole process.”
“Open Court” is a grassroots project launched by Stanislav Batryn and Oleksandr Korol, cofounders of the “Open Ukraine” human rights NGO, to combat corruption and lack of transparency in Ukrainian courts. Together with a group volunteers, they intend to attend court hearings in Kyiv, capture the proceedings on camera, stream them live online when possible, and upload the archived videos to YouTube. The activists hope that footage of especially controversial cases will go viral, and will then be picked up by the media and discussed by civil society. Once the courts start feeling the brunt of the attention and pressure from the public, they believe judges notorious for their abuse of power would have to answer for their unlawful actions.
The front page of the “Open Court” website, with a live stream from a court hearing about Euromaidan protester killings on June 3. Screenshot from sud.openua.tv.
The project is already underway with several videos available on the website. How do they pick which court hearings to attend? “Before we pick up a case, we discuss its legal and social value. Also, if there are already some red flags about a certain judge, we try to frequent his or her hearings,” Batryn says. On June 3, for instance, “Open Court” live streamed the hearing of a high-profile case of several riot police officers accused of killing 39 protesters during one of the bloodiest moments of Euromaidan protests in 2014.
Currently online video is the main tool for “Open Court.” Although the activists stream videos via UStream, they post the archived videos of court hearings to their YouTube channel to preserve them for posterity and further analysis. They also spread the word about the cases they are following through the project’s Facebook group and on the “Open Court” web-site.
Ukrainian laws allow anyone to capture audio and video of court proceedings without having to obtain special court permission in advance, however, this is permitted only for portable audio and video capturing devices. For this reason activists rely heavily on their smartphones and portable cameras to record the hearings.
“If the judge knows the laws, they will not protest us filming the hearing,” Oleksandr Korol says. “If the judge tries to kick us out, we will conclude that they don't know the laws. If that is the case, they can not fulfill their judicial duty, so we’ll report such a judge [to the authorities].”
The “Open Court” activists are planning to expand the project and to eventually follow cases around the country. One thing they are doubtful about in terms of the success of the project is the potential reaction (or lack thereof) of the parliament, the president, and other authorities. How willingly will they intercede and fire corrupt judges when those are exposed? This remains the main hurdle, as both Korol and Batryn say they are perfectly aware of a very strong judicial lobby in the country, one that will try to protect its status quo and the jobs of the judges who are members of the lobby. At the same time, the activists are confident that there are still honest legal servants in Ukraine who are willing to play by the rules of law. And if any of them need a little push towards transparency, “Open Court” promises to be there with a camera trained on them to provide it.

author: Anna Poludenko-Young


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Iran Sentences Atena Faraghdani to 12.5 Years for Cartoons · Global Voices
Center for Human Rights in Iran

Atena Farghadani stands trial on Tuesday, May 18, for charges that include insulting members of parliament and spreading propaganda against the government. Photo: Free Atena's Facebook page.
This post first appeared on iranhumanrights.org and is published here in collaboration with the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran.
A Revolutionary Court in Tehran has sentenced artist and civil rights activist Atena Faraghdani to 12.5 years in prison for drawings and content critical of the government that the young activist posted on her Facebook page.
Faraghdani’s lawyer, Mohammad Moghimi, stated in an interview with the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran that the sentence should be reduced to 7.5 years, under Article 134 of the country's New Islamic Penal Code. This article stipulates that sentencing will be limited to the maximum punishment for the crime with the heaviest sentence when an individual faces multiple charges.
Moghimi noted that the ruling issued by the judge stated that Article 134 should be “considered.” The lawyer added that a 7.5-year prison sentence was “the maximum punishment for the charge of ‘assembly and collusion against national security’” (the severest of the charges against her).
“The peaceful expression of dissent remains a red line in Iran,” said Hadi Ghaemi, Executive Director of the Campaign. “Cross it and you risk prison time.”
Ghaemi added that the authorities particularly fear social media networks, which have become hugely popular in Iran, especially among the young. Officials have clamped down especially hard on any online content deemed even remotely critical of state policies.
“The court ruling was served to her and myself today [June 1, 2015]. We have 20 days to appeal, and we hope this ruling will be overturned by the Appeals Court,” said Moghimi, Faraghdani’s lawyer.
The activist’s charges are “assembly and collusion against national security,” “propaganda against the state,” and “insulting the Supreme Leader, the President, Members of the Parliament, and the IRGC [Revolutionary Guards] Ward 2-A agents [who interrogated her].”
Following five months inside Gharchak and Evin Prisons, Faraghdani was tried at Branch 15 of the Tehran Revolutionary Court under Judge Salavati, a notorious judge who is consistently handpicked to preside over “national security” cases that security and intelligence organizations bring against political and civil activists, because of the harsh and maximum sentences he imposes. Salavati is the judge presiding over the trial of the Washington Post reporter Jason Rezaian.
Moghimi noted that one of the pieces of evidence used against his client was the fact that she shared on her Facebook page a cartoon depicting members of the Iranian Parliament as animals. Other evidence included Faraghdani’s critical writings, also published on Facebook, and her visits to the families of political prisoners and protesters who were killed at the Kharizak Police Detention Center in 2009, in the aftermath of Iran's disputed presidential election.
“According to our laws, activities on social networks on the Internet are not recognized as crimes. In democratic countries, drawing cartoons to criticize those in power is an accepted practice. My client is an artist who expresses her thoughts through drawing cartoons, and she meant to criticize those in power,” Mohammad Moghimi told the Campaign.
“Additionally, Article 8 of the Iranian Constitution expresses that it is upon everyone to ‘prevent vice and promote virtue,’ and this is a two-way responsibility both the nation and the state have  vis-à-vis each other. Expressing criticism is also a part of freedom of opinion and expression,” Moghimi said.
Security agents arrested the painter and civil activist Atena Faraghdani on August 24, 2014, and transferred her to IRGC’s Ward 2-A inside Evin Prison. She was released on bail on November 2, 2014. Later, she published a video of herself, where she described being aggressively strip-searched by female prison guards inside a solitary cell at Evin Prison. She was ordered to remove her clothes, she says, which she had refused to do. The video was widely viewed and discussed on social networks.
After the video was published, Faraghdani was summoned to Branch 15 of Tehran Revolutionary Court on January 10, 2015, arrested, and transferred to Gharchak Prison in Varamin, outside Tehran.
Atena Faraghdani embarked on a hunger strike to protest her transfer to the deplorable Gharchak Prison, where political prisoners are not separated from hardened criminals, in violation of the principle of the separation of prisoners.
After her health deteriorated severely and she was transferred to a hospital on February 26, 2015, judicial authorities ordered her transfer back to Evin Prison on March 2, where she has been ever since.

author: Center for Human Rights in Iran


text:
Why the Numbers 64, 89 and 535 Are Missing From the Chinese Internet · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

Today is June 4, the 26th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square pro-democracy protests of 1989.
In recent years, some numbers have gone missing on the Chinese Internet because of censorship. These numbers are 64, 89 and 535 — which stands for May 35, a popular way to refer to June 4. They are all unsearchable on mainland Chinese search engines and cannot appear in public timelines on social media.
Political cartoonist Biantailajiao highlighted such ridiculous way of erasing history on Twitter:
如果可以做到，他們會毫不猶豫讓這一天從日曆上徹底消失 pic.twitter.com/5ERnYBn63o
— 变态辣椒 (@remonwangxt) June 3, 2015
If possible, they would delete this particular date from the calendar.


text:
An 8-Year-Old Schoolgirl’s Murder Has Taiwan Debating the Death Penalty · Global Voices
Sophie Hsu

A sign in Taiwan's airport warns that drug trafficking is punishable by death in Taiwan. Photo by Flickr user Eddie Gustavsson. CC BY-NC 2.0
The murder of an 8-year-old girl has recently sparked a heated debate about capital punishment in Taiwan.
The schoolgirl, called “Little Girl Liu” by local media outlets, was killed by an intruder in her elementary school. The suspected attacker, later identified by Taipei police as 29-year-old Kung Chung-an, randomly picked her as his victim when she went alone to use the restroom. He told the police that he did it because she seemed to be the easiest target he could tackle and that the voices in his head, which he says have spoken to him for a long period of time, told him to do it.
The death penalty was similarly put under the spotlight last year when a 21-year-old thrill seeker killed four innocent people in the city's metro and was sentenced to death for the act of violence.
The majority of Taiwanese are in favor of the death penalty and that strongly influences their decision on who they vote for at the polls. According to a recent online poll, 81% of those that voted did not want to abolish capital punishment. Hence, despite having ratified the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, the government continues to allow capital punishment be an option for crimes such as murder, treason and kidnapping (in practice, however, the majority of crimes that receive the death penalty are murders). The state's current execution method is by shooting.
This latest murder poses a great challenge to the movement to abolish the death penalty advocated by many local human rights groups. As a result of the renewed public debate, human rights activists have taken to the Internet to remind the public that the death penalty would likely not have prevented another killing like this from happening.
As the Taiwan Alliance to End the Death Penalty expressed in a recent press statement:
「當我們凝視暴力，我們必須停止以施暴者的邏輯來回應暴力。冷靜下來，把多餘的標籤撕下，才能阻止任何人成為不在乎一死而施暴的人。 」…在這樣令人心痛的時候，台灣人民別無選擇，只能一起面對，共同找出度過這些社會危機的方式。
Once we are faced with violence, we must cease using violent responses to respond to an aggressor. We need to calmly remove the labels in order to stop individuals from becoming careless about death and violence… In this painful moment, the Taiwanese people have no choice but to come together and face this crisis collectively, finding ways to overcome it.
On the other hand, “Object to Abolition of Death Penalty”, a pro-death penalty group on Facebook, called for rallies in front of the country’s legislative body for continuing capital punishment and to urge stricter regulation against offenders. Some believe all those convicted of killing children or committing mass murder should receive death penalty.
Amid fierce online debate between the pro- and anti-capital punishment clan, many choose to remain neutral on the topic. An online user surnamed Huang commented:
對廢不廢死這個問題還沒有深思過，但是看了贊成廢死和反對廢死的說法，感覺廢死聯盟的想的比較深，邏輯性比較強；反廢死的想法比較淺，比較情緒性。不過怎麼作比較好，我想是沒有定論的
In regards to the topic of abolishing or not the death penalty, I personally have not thought about it deeply, but reading both sides’ perspectives, I feel that the Alliance to End the Death Penalty seems to have a more profound and logical explanation and the pro-death penalty thinking seems to be more superficial and emotional. Yet, I have not made up my mind yet as to what is the best way to do it.

author: Sophie Hsu


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German Online University Aims to Bring Higher Education to Refugees · Global Voices
Anne Hemeda

“He who opens a school door, closes a prison.” Banner of Wings University.
Founded in December 2014 by the Berlin-based university student Markus Kreßler, Wings University is a non-profit online school that appeals to refugees wishing to continue or begin their higher education. According to the organization's website, it offers:
World-class higher education. Internationally accredited degrees. For everyone, everywhere. Regardless of gender, nationality, ethnicity, religion, age, financial or social status. But tailor-made for the needs and requirements of refugees worldwide.
Students can enroll in classes without proof of identity or graduation certificates, and tuition is entirely free. The only time a student must verify their identity with the university is upon graduation, in order to receive a formal diploma. Until Wings University acquires official status as a university, the degrees will be provided by partner institutions.
All courses are held in English and can therefore be offered worldwide to an English-speaking student body. In cooperation with partner universities, including several top-ranking schools, participating professors design the courses.
Beginning this coming autumn, Wings University will offer courses in engineering, economics, and computer science. The choices are based on a survey of 617 people, 80 percent of whom self-identified as refugees. Subjects were asked about previous university degrees, coursework, and their desired study programs.
Despite its global focus, Kreßler's organization is rooted firmly in Germany, where the school works to reverse a trend where refugees often struggle in adult education programs:
Go out on the streets, talk to people living in refuge, their goals, their former studies and visions. You will be surprised how many of them started studying programs like engineering, almost finished their degrees but do not have the opportunity to continue at universities today.
According to federal laws on higher education and most school regulations, refugees are permitted to enroll in a study program, but only with the consent of the local foreigners’ registration office, which can raise legal obstacles for refugee students. Before enrollment, students must prove the validity of their university entrance qualification, which requires documents that refugees are often missing
Due to regulations during the examination of an asylum application, refugees often have to change residence several times and are normally accommodated at remote locations, making it very difficult for these people to access a permanent place to study. Refugees in Germany also face great uncertainty about the duration of their stay, not to mention significant language barriers.
Unlike refugees who have completed their asylum procedures and gained protected status, other refugees cannot apply for federal subsidies or other state support, unless they have been in the country for more than four years. Unsurprisingly, Wings University's survey showed that more than half of the respondents were unable to attend college due to insufficient financial resources.
The only things students at Wings University need are Internet access, a laptop, and the time and space to study. It remains to be seen if a school model like this can succeed with a student body working remotely in circumstances of dislocation.
Whatever the success or failure of this new experiment, alternative education models in immigrant countries are no replacement for a functioning school system in refugees’ homes, as well as better mechanisms for ensuring graduation and integration in international university networks.

author: Anne Hemeda


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Israel Launches Multiple Airstrikes in Gaza · Global Voices
Elia J. Ayoub

MORE: Explosions rock Gaza strip after locals report ‘Israeli planes flying low’ in the area http://t.co/mHOnTHJTR3 pic.twitter.com/uuojO7rltj
— RT (@RT_com) June 4, 2015
Three blasts were heard across the Gaza strip as Israel launched multiple airstrikes in response to rockets launched by a Hamas rival, an ISIS-linked group called the “Omar Brigades”. The Brigades’ rockets landed in open areas in the Sdot Negev area and resulted in no damage, according to Israeli media. The Israeli Air Force's official statement declares that it struck three “terror infrastructures” without releasing details of the strikes. Hamas later confirmed that one of its military training grounds was hit by a missile.
According to RT, Hamas had reportedly killed a Salafist leader just a few days before and has accused the Omar Brigade of wanting to provoke an all-out conflict with Israel. While Israel has admitted that Hamas was not behind the rockets, it did not explain why Hamas infrastructures were targeted in the strikes. According to Reuters: “Witnesses and medics said the predawn attacks on two camps belonging to Hamas, which dominates the Gaza Strip, and to the smaller Palestinian group Islamic Jihad caused some damage but no casualties.”
IDF spokesperson confirms in statement Israeli Airforce targeted 3 "terror infrastructures" in Gaza Strip. pic.twitter.com/5EehnyOfsy
— Israel News Flash (@ILNewsFlash) June 4, 2015
Thankfully, no one was injured in the strikes. As usual, Gazans reported feelings of fear and anxiety as the bombs fell on their city. The following are tweets posted by Shaima Ziara, Omar Ghraieb, Mohammed Omer and ‘Farah Gazan‘.
HUGE explosions in #Gaza right now!I can hear F16s so this is probably by israel2:32 am#GazaUnderAttack
— Shaima' Ziara (@ShaimaZiara) June 3, 2015
My body is still shaking.. F16s are back!#Gaza
— Shaima' Ziara (@ShaimaZiara) June 3, 2015
#Israel warplanes bombed near Al maqousi highly populated residential area western #Gaza #GazaUnderAttack
— Omar Ghraieb (@Omar_Gaza) June 3, 2015
My name is #Gaza I am being bombed. Can anybody hear me?
— Mohammed Omer  (@Mogaza) June 4, 2015
3:19 am local time Gaza is being bombed now!
— Mohammed Omer  (@Mogaza) June 4, 2015
f16s are flying intensively over #Gaza and just shelled! I could even hear the rocket falling
— Guess What (@Farah_Gazan) June 3, 2015
But some of them decided to end their live-tweeting with a touch of optimism:
Despite airstrikes and trauma, but people still smile and ready to start a new day! Good morning world! My name is #Gaza.
— Mohammed Omer  (@Mogaza) June 4, 2015
The sun is slowly making its way up, its a new day & birds r chirping forgetting the horrible night that ended a little while ago. #Gaza
— Omar Ghraieb (@Omar_Gaza) June 4, 2015
Since Palestinian violations of the ceasefire are always breaking news, while Israeli violations rarely get reported, let alone make the front page, it's important to mention them in the name of fair coverage.
As Gaza-based reporter Dan Cohen wrote in a recent piece for Mondoweiss, “for Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, the period since last summer’s war has been a one-way ceasefire.” There has been as many as 67 shootings, six military incursions, 16 injuries and one fatality caused by Israeli violations of the ceasefire between January and March of 2015 alone. The Middle East Monitor and Maan News have been documenting major incidents by month and by type. Of notable emphasis are the routine targeting of Gazan fishermen, farmers and demonstrators.
Furthermore, as Visualizing Palestine documented in an info-graphic published by the Electronic Intifada, there have been 191 Israeli violations between 22 November 2012 (previous Egyptian-brokered ceasefire) until 7 July 2014 (beginning of Israel's latest war in Gaza) compared to 75 Palestinian violations. Of these 191 violations, 10 per cent resulted in death and 42pc in injuries or detentions while out of the 75 Palestinian violations, 4pc resulted in injuries and none in death. The info-graphic complemented a previous one published by Al Jazeera.
Israel's violations & attacks are routine – even when, like during Jan-March, there are no rockets. #GazaUnderAttack pic.twitter.com/RNXDdoY0RV
— Ben White (@benabyad) May 27, 2015
Following the recent war in Gaza in 2014, Israel and Palestinian factions had agreed to an indefinite ceasefire on August 26, following an agreement by both sides to follow the ceasefire demands. As we had previously reported, 72pc of Palestinians killed in the offensive were civilians, according to the United Nations, and about a third of the wounded children, will be forced to live with permanent disabilities. One-third of Gaza's total population, over 520,000 people, have been displaced of whom 279,389 were taking shelter in 83 UN-run schools. The total number of victims on each sides were around 2,137 for Palestinians, of whom 72% were civilians and over 500 children, and 72 on the Israeli side, of whom 8pc were civilians.
Infographic done by the Euro-Mid Observer for Human Rights
As to the demands of the peace deal, they were as follows:
“The immediate demands of the peace deal include: the end of hostilities on both sides; opening of the Rafah border between Egypt and Gaza; handing over administration of Gaza's borders from Hamas to the PA, reconstruction of Gaza in coordination with the PA and international donors, including the EU; narrowing the security barrier along the inside of the Gaza border from 300 to 100m, easing restrictions on fishing in Gaza from 3 miles (4.8km) to 6 miles (9.6km). The international allowance is 12 miles (19.3 km.)
The long-term demands to be negotiated are: the release of hundreds of Palestinian prisoners kidnapped by Israel in June after the killing of three Jewish teenagers in the West Bank; the release of long-serving Palestinian prisoners as demanded by the Palestinian Authority; Israel wants all body parts and personal effects of Israeli soldiers killed in Gaza; Hamas wants a sea port built in Gaza in order to allow goods and people to move freely; Hamas wants the un-freezing of funds to allow it to pay 40,000 police, government workers and other administrative staff who haven't had any salary since last year; Palestinians are asking for Gaza's airport, built in 1998 and destroyed in 2000 by Israel, to be rebuilt.”
It's hard to properly estimate the ‘success’ of the peace deal since most of the ‘immediate’ demands were never met, let alone the ‘long-term’ ones. Indeed, as former US president Jimmy Carter said on a recent trip to the area: “The situation in Gaza is intolerable. Eight months after a devastating war, not one destroyed house has been rebuilt and people cannot live with the respect and dignity they deserve,” referring to the lack of any viable reconstruction in Gaza. Furthermore, Egypt's border with Gaza was only opened for a few days since last summer. The International Coalition for Freedoms and Rights (ICFR) reported that 10 Gazans have died while waiting for Egypt to open its border with Gaza.
Also Read on Global Voices Checkdesk (a joint project between Global Voices Online and Meedan, which aims at verifying news):
Tensions Rise in Gaza Amid Israeli Ceasefire Violations, Hamas-ISIS Struggle
To join our Checkdesk team, please contact our Middle East and North Africa editor Amira Al Hussaini, Faten Bushehri or myself.

author: Elia J. Ayoub


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On Assisted Dying Ruling By a South African Court · Global Voices
Ndesanjo Macha

Professor Pierre de Vos weighs in on the debate about assisted dying in South Africa after a South African High Court ruled that a dying person is entitled to be assisted by a qualified medical doctor to end his or her life:
It is important to note that the ruling does not force any person to end his or her life or to assist anyone else to do so. It remains a personal choice. The judgment thus confirms that the criminal law (or, I would add, the ethical rules of the HPCSA [the Health Professions Council of South Africa]) cannot be used to enforce the moral, religious or ethical beliefs of some on everyone. However, this does not force those who hold such moral, religious or ethical beliefs to act in breach of their beliefs.
Moreover, if the Constitutional Court confirms the judgment it would be desirable for Parliament to pass legislation to establish a system with minimum safeguards in order to protect patients. In the absence of such legislation a patient would have to approach a court for permission to be legally assisted to die.

author: Ndesanjo Macha


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Selfie Campaign Promotes Interfaith Tolerance and Ethnic Diversity in Myanmar · Global Voices
Juan Cebu

Photo from the Facebook Page of #myfriend campaign.
A selfie campaign in Myanmar promotes tolerance and friendship amid rising cases of hate speech, discrimination, and communal violence accross the country.
The Facebook campaign is led by young people from Yangon, the country's biggest city, and it launched last April by asking the public to pose for selfies with their friends who belong to a different ethnic groups or religions.
The campaign uses the hashtags #myfriend and #friendship_has_no_boundaries.
Since 2012, there have been intermittent clashes between some Buddhists and minority Muslims in central, western, and northern areas of Myanmar, including in Meikhtila in central Myanmar, where the houses of both Buddhist and Muslim communities were burned down and thousands of people were displaced. The most serious communal violence took place in October 2012 in the Rakhine state of western Myanmar, where Rohingya Muslims have been living in refugee camps near the city of Sittwe. The Myanmar government considers the Rohingya to be illegal immigrants.
At the same time, online hate speech and harassment has been widespread on Myanmar's social media, creating an atmosphere intolerance and racism.
Below are some photos from the #MyFriend campaign to prove that people in Myanmar, especially the young, are determined to end hate by showing respect and friendship.
Han Seth Lu, a Buddhist, uploads a photo with his Muslim friend:
I'm a Buddhist and My Friend is a Muslim.
I'm a Boy and She is a Girl.
We are different but we accept each other.
Life is not permanent, enjoy yourself right now.
Because friendship has no boundaries.
#MyFriend
#Friendship_has_no_boundaries – looking for peace with May Khin
Rody Din, a Christian, shares a photo with his Buddhist friend from Thailand:
Su Yadanar Myint, a Muslim, is proud of her friendship with a Sikh:
“I am [Christian/Chin_Myanmar] and my friend is [Buddhist/ Thai”
He is a Sikh and I'm a Muslim.
But we are friends.
Although we have diversities,we
share our own opinions and beliefs,
we accept and respect  our different identities. #Myfriend #Friendship_has_no_boundaries

author: Juan Cebu


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The Singapore Government Pulled the Funding for This Comic Book, and Now Readers Only Want It More · Global Voices
Kirsten Han

From the Facebook page of Sonny Liew
A new graphic novel sold out its first print run last weekend, after news broke that Singapore's National Arts Council (NAC) withdrew its publishing grant worth S$8,000 (about US $6,000).
The Art of Charlie Chan Hock Chye is a graphic novel by Sonny Liew, an established artist and illustrator who has done work for DC Vertigo and Marvel Comics. Liew also won NAC's Young Artist Award in 2010.
Although NAC had reviewed and approved the grant application for the book project, it later withdrew the grant because the book allegedly breached “funding guidelines”.
“The retelling of Singapore’s history in the book potentially undermines the authority or legitimacy of the government and its public institutions, and thus breaches our funding guidelines.” Khor Kok Wah, senior director of NAC’s literary arts sector, told the press. “The council’s funding guidelines are published online and well known among the arts community.”
The graphic novel follows the protagonist, a comic-book artist named Charlie Chan, through the founding years of Singapore's history. Singapore's first prime minister Lee Kuan Yew, as well as Lim Chin Siong (Lee's political rival who was later detained without trial), also appear in the book. The story also mentions the detentions of lawyers, social workers, and activists in a 1987 sweep known as Operation Spectrum.
Examinations of Singapore's history can be a touchy subject, especially when someone contradicts the country's official narrative. While historians and commentators have asserted that the detentions were politically motivated, the ruling People's Action Party—which has led the government since 1959—insists that the grant was withdrawn for reasons of national security and stability.
Taking back the grant inadvertently generated more media and public attention for Liew's book. About 270 copies were bought when it launched last Saturday, and the first print run of 1,000 copies has since sold out completely.
Awesome turnout at launch of The Art of Charlie Chan Hock Chye today in Singapore kinokuniya !… https://t.co/KUsoTkC6Au
— Cheryl Liew (@cherylliew) May 30, 2015
Writing on Facebook, Sonny Liew thanked people for their support, and drew attention to questions about the role of public money in the arts:
What remains are questions over the role of a national arts organization, the role of public money, who decides how and why they're spent. Should the NAC be more focused on artistic considerations and be less bound by political constraints? What is the criteria for deciding if a work crosses unacceptable boundaries? Why shouldn't good art be commerically self-sustainable anyway?
Singaporeans also questioned the possibility of a graphic novel's ability to undermine the state:
Bryan Chan Yin Seng If a little satire can undermine the authority and its legitimacy, then the government should really really question themselves how weak this government authority and legitimacy is at the first place.
Chee Hoe Siew It is a comic book using Singapore's history as its background. How is this required to have an accurate portray of history? If this is the case, the government should move forward to band every single story book.
On social media, many observed that the NAC's withdrawal has actually been beneficial to book sales:
.@kixes surely the only thing better than an arts grant in Singapore is the govt withdrawing an arts grant.
— Rob O'Brien (@robwriting) June 3, 2015
Go buy & support @sonnyliew ‘s new book the Art of Charlie Chan Hock Chye to counter this self censorship nonsense! http://t.co/SFTv8byJtn
— Cheryl Liew (@cherylliew) May 29, 2015
The book's publisher, Epigram Books, had to return the S$6,400 (USD $4,700) that it had already spent, and print stickers to cover up the NAC's logo in the book.

author: Kirsten Han


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Trials of Being an African Musician in New York · Global Voices
Ndesanjo Macha

Osekre, the leader of New York based Afro-punk band Osekre and The Lucky Bastards, reveals the trials and tribulations of being an African musician in New York:
I wish I received a heads up by friends in the real world about the reality of being a musician in New York City. It is no joke! I had decided to pursue music full time, some time in 2010. I had just graduated from Columbia University, and I saw this as my time to break away from certain kinds of responsibilities, expectations and deadlines set by college, my family, my friends, and the burden of “being a migrant in Rome.” I just wanted to pause, to live, and breathe easier. The only thing on my agenda was to get my band, Osekre and The Lucky Bastards going once again.
At the time, I was inspired by an increased interest in African music in New York in general. Columbia alumni, Vampire Weekend, were heroes on campus, and had sparked debates in the world and indie music communities with their song “Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa” as they fused what they felt were soukous licks with indie sounds. The spirit of Fela Kuti’s work was being reinvigorated in the underground music spaces, where DJs and hip hop artists were finally spinning and sampling Afrobeat. K’naan was making waves with incredibly poignant stories through rap, wit and lyricism; introducing the world to the struggles of Somalis on his album Dusty foot Philosopher. Nneka had released her song “Kangpe”, which was all over EA Sports’ FIFA soccer games, and was about to debut on Letterman in New York. I had enough sources and stories to keep me motivated about the opportunities and possibilities for young African cats doing their music thing in NYC. What no one explained was exactly how much work that was going to involve and what it meant to start from the scratch, or scratch the start.


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‘We’re Here for Our Families’: Filipino Workers on Strike Share Hopes for Tomorrow · Global Voices
Karlo Mongaya

“We are fighting for regularization so that we will not lose our livelihood. This is for all the workers abused by the company.” Ronald | 4-year contractual worker in Tanduay
Workers in a distillery plant owned by the Philippines’ second richest man have continued their strike for the second week in spite of harassment from security personnel and violent thugs.
In brief statements collected and shared on Facebook by the multimedia group ST Exposure, workers at the Tanduay Distillers Inc. describe their struggles in the past and hopes for the future.
About 90 percent of workers in Tanduay are “contractuals,” who produce some of the most popular alcoholic beverages in the Philippines. Contractuals are temporary workers deprived of standard labor benefits. Contractualization is a common practice among many companies in the Philippines—used to lower the cost of production.
Exactly 397 of Tanduay's contractual workers were not rehired last month, after the workers filed a complaint at the Department of Labor and Employment.
The testimonies below capture the aspirations of the contractuals, who want reliable jobs and better working conditions.
“Because of the mass dismissal, our families will be affected. Because we are already old, it is hard for us to get a new job.” – Antonio | 6-year contractual worker in Tanduay.
“We’ve been here for 7 years, but we’re still contractual. According to the law, we should be regulars already. I think they’re swindling us.” – Raffy | 7-year contractual worker in Tanduay.
“I like to have job security.” – Rodel | 9-month contractual worker in Tanduay
“We’ve been in Tanduay for so long and suddenly we’re sacked from work. We went on strike for our families.” – Jarvie | 4-year contractual worker in Tanduay.
“It’s hard for us always being contractual. We demand to have benefits because our wages are not enough. Even as we give wealth to the nation.” – Gary, 1-year contractual worker in Tanduay.
“Even if we don’t join the strike, we will still be removed from work. This is our right.” – Jan Erish, 1-year contractual worker in Tanduay.
“The strike is important so the demands of us contractual workers for regularization of work will be heard.” – Lester, 12-year contractual worker in Tanduay.

author: Karlo Mongaya


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‘Writing Code Is Not a Crime’: Jailed Iranian Web Developer Saeed Malekpour Turns 40 · Global Voices
Mahsa Alimardani

Photo from @malekpourm on Twitter.
Iranian programmer Saeed Malekpour will be celebrating his 40th birthday Friday from behind bars, where he's completing his seventh year in prison for creating an open source software program that others used to upload pornographic images to the Internet.
His story is an example of the fear Iranian authorities use to control the nation's Internet space. Saeed was arrested in 2008 on charges of threatening the nation's Islamic ideals and national security via propaganda against the system, but evidence against him was scant. He spent time in solitary confinement and gave forced confessions — widely publicized on national television in 2010 — that were extracted under torture. The context of these confessions included electrocution and threats of rape.
He was originally sentenced to death, until what some activists believed was the influence of global attention and internal pressure convinced Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei to call off his death sentence.
Saeed's arrest, which was widely seen as a way to spread fear, coincided with the start of strict Internet control policies after a cyber crimes law was ratified in Iran in 2008.
This week, many Iranians from both inside the country and the diaspora are convening in Berlin for iBridges to celebrate the burgeoning technology scene for start-ups and entrepreneurs. While IT development and the expansion of opportunities for Iran's population is something to be applauded, the victims of Iran's Internet policy should not be forgotten.
Exactly a year ago, many in the Internet freedom community took a strong stance to advocate for the release of jailed technology bloggers known as Narenji. There was a small victory when they were released this past October.
But Saeed is amongst a handful of developers still serving indefinite prison sentences. Amongst whom are Vahid Asghari, an Iranian blogger and information and technology student, as well as Hassan Siskati, another programmer and cyber activist.
In an email from Saeed's sister, Maryam Malekpour, who is now based in Canada, told Global Voices that she and a group of activists are launching a campaign for him using the hashtags #FreeSaeedMalekpour #HBDSaeed and #LifesNotFair.
Global Voices got in touch with a few IT technologists and Internet activists to comment on Saeed's 40th birthday in jail.
Mehdi Yahyanejad, founder of the Persian language social and political website Balatarin, had this to say about Saeed's continued imprisonment:
It is not justice to keep a talented software engineer in jail just because the software he developed was used by others for reasons deemed illegal by the Iranian government. With that logic, every time a hacker uses Gmail to defraud someone, a Google engineer should also be arrested.
I hope Saeed's birthday's can be celebrated as a free man.
Amir Rashidi, an Iranian internet researcher and activist, told Global Voices the following in an email:
A piece of open source code can be used in any system. Just like many of the nation's software programs, such as as the Saina application and national search engines. A open source programmer who releases his code publicly is no longer responsible for the use of his code after it is published. With Saeed's open source code, you could have built a program to either upload pornographic photos or religious ones. Unfortunately, in our country the lack of understanding about the work done by individuals such as Saeed is not the only problem. In our country there is no clear law about cyber crimes. Saeed was a victim of a lack of understanding from the regime about his work and the absence of clear and transparent rules of cyberspace.
A happy birthday to Saeed in computer language (Binary):
01001000 01100001 01110000 01110000 01111001 00100000 01100010 01101001 01110010 01110100 01101000 01100100 01100001 01111001
Nima Fatemi, an Iranian Tor and free software developer, told Global Voices the following:
A very happy birthday to Saeed whose story is a good lesson on why writing free software and expanding its culture is so important. Writing code is not a crime and no one in this world should be prosecuted for it. Everyone, including governments benefit from free software and such actions hurt us all as a community. The first and most important value of this [free software] community is ‘freedom’, and we should work together, strongly, to protect it.
Mohamed Hassan, a Bahraini activist, IT blogger, and Global Voices author previously imprisoned in Bahrain for his writing, told us:
Having been in a similar position I feel connected to Saeed, prison is about being robbed of your dreams, it's about fear, fear for the ones we leave behind, fear of the world that will re-enter. A guy in prison told me that you should stop adding the years you spend in prison to your age, because years are measured by the progress we make and in prison you're not progressing.
Nariman Gharib, an Iranian Internet researcher and activist, told Global Voices through Twitter direct message:
سعید رو خیلی از ماها میشناسیم، خیلی از ماها که کارمون طراحی و توسعه وب سایت هست.
خیلی ناراحت کننده است که آدم های باهوش جاشون تو زندان های ایران است. سعید جان تولدت مبارک
A lot of us know Saeed; those of us whose work involves the construction and understanding of web design. I am saddened by the fact that intelligent individuals find their place in the prisons of Iran. Saeed dear, I wish you a very happy birthday.

author: Mahsa Alimardani


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Befeqadu Hailu: An Ethiopian Writer Who Refused to Remain Silent · Global Voices
Nwachukwu Egbunike

Asmamaw, Befeqadu (middle) and Edom participating in a race organized in Addis Ababa. Photo courtesy of family.
In April 2014, nine bloggers and journalists were arrested in Ethiopia. Several of these men and women had worked with Zone9, a collective blog that covered social and political issues in Ethiopia and promoted human rights and government accountability. And four of them were Global Voices authors. In July 2014, they were charged under the country’s Anti-Terrorism Proclamation. They have been behind bars ever since, their trial postponed time and again.
This marks the fourth post in our series – “They Have Names” – that seeks to highlight the individual bloggers who are currently in jail. We wish to humanize them, to tell their particular and peculiar stories. This story comes from Nwachukwu Egbunike, a Nigerian poet, writer, and blogger who has worked with Global Voices since 2011.
Befeqadu Hailu is an Ethiopian writer who could not quiet his conscience in the face of brutality and human rights violations in his country. For this, he is currently in behind bars.
His novel, Children of Their Parents won the 2012 Burt Award for African Literature. He also writes poetry. It seemed only natural that his passion found visible expression in blogging, and that he became a co-founder of the Zone9 bloggers collective.
Using the Internet, Befeqadu personified those eternal words of the grandfather of African literature, Chinua Achebe: “an artist, in my understanding of the word, should side with the people against the Emperor that oppresses his or her people.” For doing this, Befequadu was deprived of his freedom.
Befeqadu and eight others have been charged with terrorism and incarcerated since April 2014.  But the real wrongdoers are his jailers: a repressive government that forbids critical dissent. That is indeed the great crime of Befeqadu and his colleagues. They refused to conform to the norm of silence. This trait is obviously innate in any writer, that compulsion not to keep quiet. The poetry in Befequadu’s veins could not be bottled by state intimidation or stifled with the bars in a jail.
Writing from prison, Befeqadu's strong and unbending will to stand for the truth remains unbroken. In a letter describing his experiences over the first few months of his incarceration, he described repeated interrogations that he underwent in which authorities asked him, “so what do you think is your crime?” He mediated on this question:
“So what do you think is your crime?”
The question is intriguing. It sheds light on our innocence, on our refusal to acknowledge whatever crimes our captors suspect us of committing. Yes, they probed us severely, but each session ended with same question. The investigation was not meant to prove or disprove our offenses. It was meant simply to make us plead guilty.
After two years of writing and working to engage citizens in political debate, we have been apprehended and investigated. Blame is being laid upon us for committing criminal acts, for supposedly being members and “accepting the missions” of [opposition political parties]…
[…]
No matter what, boundaries exist in this country. People who write about Ethiopia’s political reality will face the threat of incarceration as long as they live here.
We believe that everyone who experiences this reality, dreading the consequences of expressing their views, lives in the outer ring of the prison – the nation itself. That is why we call our blog Zone9.
The weight of that question: “so what do you think is your crime?” and the corresponding response shed light on the irony of the jailer (held captive only by fear) and the jailed (who possesses interior freedom). In the words of Wole Soyinka, “books and all forms of writing are terror to those who wish to suppress the truth.”
Befequadu is in jail because he writes.
Weaving stories untold
Lauding stories unheard
Shouting for gagged voices
Serving rising voices
Digital drawing of Befeqadu Hailu by Melody Sundberg
From the four compass points
From sun's rising to its setting
From the Atlantic to the Sahara
Let a mighty echo arise, #FreeZone9Bloggers!

author: Nwachukwu Egbunike