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Chinese mobile phone cameras are not-so-secretly recording users’ activities · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

Graffiti art of surveillance camera. Published and labeled for reuse on Pixabay.
It has been widely reported that software and web applications made in China are often built with a “backdoor” feature, allowing the manufacturer or the government to monitor and collect data from the user's device.
But how exactly does the backdoor feature work? Recent discussion among mobile phone users in mainland China has shed some light on the question.
Last month, users of Vivo NEX, a Chinese Android phone, found that when they opened certain applications on the phone, including Chinese internet giant QQ browser and travel booking app Ctrip, the mobile device’s camera would self-activate.
Different from most mobile phones, where a camera can be activated without giving the user any signal, the Vivo NEX has a tiny retractable camera that physically pops out from the top of the device when it is turned on.
Vivo NEX retractable camera. Photo by Vivo NEX, via We Chaat.
Though perhaps unintentionally, this design feature has given Chinese mobile users a tangible sense of exactly when and how they are being monitored.
One Weibo user observed that the retractable camera self-activates whenever he opens a new chat on Telegram, a messaging application designed for secured and encrypted communication.
While Telegram reacted quickly to reports of the issue and fixed the camera bug, Chinese internet giant Tencent instead defended the feature, arguing that its QQ browser needs the camera activated to prepare for scanning QR codes and insisted that the camera would not take photos or audio recordings unless the user told it to do so.
This explanation was not reassuring for users, as it only revealed the degree to which the QQ browser could record users’ activities.
After the news of the self-activated camera bug spread, users started testing the issue on other applications and found that Baidu’s voice input application has access to both the camera and voice recording function, which can be launched without users’ authorization.
A Vivo NEX user found that once she had installed Baidu's voice input system, it would activate the phone’s camera and sound recording function whenever the user opened any application — including chat apps, browsers — that allows the user to input text.
Baidu says that the self-activated recording is not a backdoor but a “frontdoor” application that allows the company collect and adjust to background noise so as to prepare for and optimize its voice input function. This was not reassuring for users — any microphone collecting background noise would also unquestionably capture the voices and conversations of a user and whomever she speaks with face-to-face.
How does camera snooping affect people outside China?
These snooping features have not just affected people from mainland China, but all of those from outside the country who want to communicate with friends in China.
As the Chinese government has blocked most leading foreign social media technologies, anyone who wants to communicate with people in China has little choice but to install applications made in China, such as WeChat.
One strategy for increasing one's mobile privacy when using Chinese-made applications is to keep all insecure applications on one device and assume that these communications will be recorded or spied upon, and to keep a second device for more secure or “clean” applications. When using an encrypted communication application like Telegram to communicate with friends in China, one also has to make sure that their friends’ mobile devices are clean.
Baidu has been notorious for snooping into users’ private data and activities. In January 2018, a government-affiliated consumer association in Jiangsu province filed a lawsuit against Baidu’s search application and mobile browser for snooping on users’ phone conversations and accessing their geo-location data without user consent. But the case was dropped in March after Baidu updated its applications by securing users’ consent for control over their mobile camera, voice recording, geo-location data, even though these controls are not essential to the application's functionality.
In response to public concern about these backdoor features, Baidu and other Chinese internet giants may defend themselves simply by arguing that users have consented to having their cameras activated. But given the monopolistic nature of Chinese Internet giants in the country, do ordinary users have the power — or the choice — to say no?

author: Oiwan Lam


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Kashmiris are once again in mourning after Indian army fires on protesters, killing three · Global Voices
GV South Asia

Indian Army on duty in Jammu and Kashmir. Image from Flickr by Kris Liao. CC BY-NC-ND 2.0
Three civilians were killed after Indian forces opened fire on protesters in the latest instance of violence in the south of Indian-administered Kashmir, where a movement for self-determination has intensified over the last few years.
The army had entered Redwani village in the south of the state to conduct a search operation for suspected militants who have taken up arms against the Indian rule in the Kashmir valley. Witnesses said the troops began to beat up people. Angered, residents gathered in the streets, some pelting stones at the soldiers.
In response, the army fired into the gathered crowd. Among the killed was a teenage girl, who has been identified as Andleeb Jan. The other deceased were Shakir Ahmad Khanday, 22, and Irshad Ahmad, 20.
Journalist Umar Meraj posted a video of the funeral of those killed:
Emotional scenes at the #funeral of civilians killed after #army fired at protesters on Saturday in south #Kashmir’s kulgam.#Father’s last good bye to her slain #daughter – he is hugging and kissing her and #Brother affectionately pats the hair of his slain brother. pic.twitter.com/TcpdVvyRgs
— Umar Meraj ⚡ (@umarmeraj) July 8, 2018
Three other civilians were injured in the firing and were rushed to a local hospital where they are undergoing treatment.
After the killings, protests erupted in the area. Leaders of the resistance movement to Indian rule also called for protests against the detention of separatist leader Asiya Andrabi by the Indian investigation agency, National Investigation Agency (NIA). Authorities accuse her of waging war against the country and delivering hate speeches.
The government suspended mobile internet service in the valley, and imposed curfew-like restrictions in several areas to thwart more demonstrations.
Read more: The Kashmiri People Versus the Indian State
Kashmir has seen renewed unrest since July 8, 2016, when Burhan Muzaffar Wani, the commander of a separatist militant group, was killed by Indian security forces in a counterinsurgency operation.
Wani was popular on social media, and had been featured three years earlier in an article by the UK's The Guardian newspaper alongside several young boys who were picking up weapons against Indian rule in the conflict-torn state.
The years since his death have seen dozens and dozens of civilians killed; online news portal The Kashmir Walla has compiled a list of all civilians slain in the state of Jammu and Kashmir since 2015.
Human rights groups say security forces have committed grave abuses in their attempt to quash the insurgency, including killings, abductions and torture, all largely with impunity.

source: news-globalvoices

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

author: GV South Asia


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Uganda’s tax on social media will widen the digital gender gap · Global Voices
Prudence Nyamishana

June 2018 Women’s Protest Working Group march in Kampala, Uganda. Photo by Katumba Badru, used with permission.
On July 1, Uganda implemented a new daily tax on the use of social media and messaging platforms, on the grounds that — in the words of President Museveni — social media is a “luxury good”.
This tax will unquestionably widen the digital divide for all Ugandans of lesser means. But the results may be worst for women, who already face high barriers in accessing and using the internet.
According to a scorecard by the World Wide Web Foundation, in Uganda, the cost of 1GB data comprises 22% of the average monthly income. Countries that have expensive internet such as Uganda and Mozambique have the lowest numbers of women online. Regionally, only one in nine women in Africa has access to the internet. Only about 37 percent of women surveyed in ten selected cities in the world, including Kampala, were found to be using the internet compared to 59 percent men.
Research conducted by the Women of Uganda Network and the Web Foundation indicates that as a result of feminised poverty, many Ugandan women who are dependent on subsistence agriculture cannot afford to buy a smartphone or data bundles. Those who can afford mobile devices and services often face barriers of language and low literacy.
Culture and society play a role in the digital gender gap too. In Ugandan society, there are entrenched norms of negative thinking towards women’s participation and engagement in public spaces. This extends to spaces like cafes and telecentres, where internet access is often available. Patterns of gender inequality, as reflected in political participation and representation in decision-making structures, along with disparities in economic opportunities, access to education (and thus literacy), and division of labour within the economy all contribute to the digital gender gap.
Yet still, some Ugandan women have come online. The digital revolution gave Ugandan women a voice online to politically engage, speak truth to power, dismantle the patriarchy, seek counsel from their friends, access information, connect with clients, market their products, start charities, form psychosocial support groups, coordinate savings groups, organize neighborhood supervision for kids when they are away, and so much more. President Museveni is missing something when he says that social media is for gossip. And even if it was, communication is a basic human need.
The tax also ignores a critical lack of digital literacy, particularly among poor Ugandans. When I interviewed women living in Bwaise, a slum in Kampala, I learned that for them, WhatsApp and Facebook are the internet. These are the only platforms they know how to use. So with the new tax, they will be cut off altogether.
If only the government of Uganda adhered to the 2016 UN Human Rights Council resolution on the promotion, protection and enjoyment of human rights on the Internet, they would know that the internet should be open. Article 6 seeks to “bridge the gender digital divide and enhance the use of enabling technology, in particular information and communications technology, to promote the empowerment of all women and girls.” And article 10 condemns “measures to intentionally prevent or disrupt access to or dissemination of information online in violation of international human rights law, and calls upon all States to refrain from and cease such measures.”
Museveni says that social media is a luxury good and that people have a choice to use it or not. Listening to him say these things really hurts. This is 2018. While the rest of the world moves towards artificial intelligence, innovation around the internet of things and free internet access in public places, Uganda is marching in the opposite direction.
If only the members of parliament, the president’s many advisers and the Ministry of ICT would stop for just a moment to listen to the outcry of the Ugandan people — which has been loud and clear since the tax came into effect on July 1 — they would repeal the tax.

author: Prudence Nyamishana


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Former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and his daughter set to return to Pakistan to appeal corruption convictions · Global Voices
Anushe Noor

Pakistan's former prime minister Mian Muhammad Nawaz Sharif at the United Nations, September 27, 2015. Image from Flickr by United Nations Women. CC: BY-NC-ND 2.0
Pakistan's former Prime Minister Mian Muhammad Nawaz Sharif is set to return to Pakistan from the United Kingdom (U.K.) after a Pakistani Accountability Court has sentenced him to ten years in prison for impropriety in the ownership of certain properties in the U.K.
Sharif's daughter Maryam Nawaz announced in London, England that she and her father will return to Islamabad, Pakistan on July 13, 2018, just a few weeks before Pakistan's general elections on July 25. They plan to file an appeal against the corruption verdict announced on Friday, July 6.
Sharif and his daughter had been in London tending to Sharif's wife Kulsoom Nawaz who is currently receiving cancer treatment and is in a coma.
In a case known as the Avenfield Reference Verdict tried under Pakistan's anti-corruption focused agency, the National Accountability Bureau, Sharif was accused of buying apartments in London by illegally siphoning money from Pakistan. He was sentenced to a total of 11 years in prison with a fine of 8 million British Pounds, GBP (1.3 billion Pakistan Rupees, PKR).
His daughter Maryam was sentenced to eight years with a fine of 2 million GBP (335 million PKR). Additionally, her husband Captain (Rtd) Safdar received a one-year prison sentence.
Safdar surrendered at the National Accountability Bureau in Islamabad on July 9:
Captain Safdar finally arrested from Rawalpindi while Imran Khan addresses a rally in Haripur warning Nawaz Sharif that he must not pretend to be Nelson Mandela. Nawaz Sharif & @MaryamNSharif determined to return to face arrest. A cloud of doom hangs over this election.
— Munizae Jahangir (@MunizaeJahangir) July 8, 2018
Journalist Mohammad Taqi suggests that the case against Sharif was a way for the Supreme Court of Pakistan to “stack the legal deck against [him]” by linking the verdict with the Panama Papers scandal, in which “his children were named in the leaked information.” Taqi explains:
The present case was a lucky break for the army aided by the release of the so-called Panama Papers. The former PM’s children were named in the leaked information for holding off-shore companies to manage their businesses and properties, but he himself wasn’t mentioned. The Supreme Court of Pakistan (SCP), shelving the due process, turned itself into a trial court and took up the Panama Papers against Sharif.
Despite its aggressive witch-hunt, the SCP did not find any evidence of wrong-doing but nailed Sharif nonetheless on a flimsy charge of not declaring a potential income. However, what the SCP – acting in all probability on a nod from the army—had done was to stack the legal deck against Sharif. A year ago, the SCP had declared him guilty of being dishonest and therefore unable to hold a public office.
Following the Supreme Court verdict in July 2017, Sharif was forced to vacate the prime minister's office. Maryam and Safdar have been disqualified from the upcoming general elections in July 2018.
Many see the Sharif family's recent trial and verdict as a political move to deter them from contesting in the upcoming election. The Sharifs are members of the Pakistan Muslim League (N) (PML-N) and many expected daughter Maryam Sharif to follow in her father's footsteps:
.@MaryamNSharif can’t contest general election 2018. She got convicted in #AvenfieldCase and sentenced to 7 years in Jail also she has to pay 2 million pounds fine. #Avenfieldverdict
— Raza Zaidi (@Razaazaidi) July 6, 2018
Former president SC Bar Association, Ali Ahmad Kurd says, everyone knows how NS was ousted, and sentenced with @MaryamNSharif the Designers in Establishment must stop playing with the fate of nation, if the election is turned into selection, people won’t accept. @Dawn_News https://t.co/DqzJGvjOt7
— umar zaman (@umarzaman45) July 10, 2018
PML-N picks replacement election candidates for Maryam Nawaz https://t.co/3EL5O9E97O
— Twanya (@twanya) July 10, 2018
Meanwhile, four Avenfield Apartments in London were confiscated by the Federal Government of Pakistan. Supporters of the rival political party Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf (PTI) gathered outside Avenfield in support of the verdict.
Social media activist Hamza Khan tweeted:
Protest Outside Avenfield Apartments#AvenfieldReference ??#FallOfGodFatherpic.twitter.com/uKaRMspxwC
— Hamza Khan (@HamzaAminPTI) July 7, 2018
PTI supporters allegedly tried to break into Sharif's London flats. Journalist Murtaza Ali Shah tweeted:
Footage shows attempt being made by PTI activists to break the entrance of Hasan nawaz Sharif’s flat. Metropolitan police sources says police has obtained footage of the attackers and will take action for attempted assault and damage to property #AvenfieldApartments pic.twitter.com/XnBsXSBNHv
— Murtaza Ali Shah (@MurtazaViews) July 8, 2018
The National Accountability Bureau plans to arrest the Sharifs upon arrival at the airport.
However, PML-N supporters announced their plans to welcome their leader in Islamabad. Security is on high alert. PML-N continue their election campaigns across the country with determination.
The verdict is being celebrated by some as a step toward a corruption-free country. Politician, Dr. Tahir ul Qadri tweeted:
Judgment of Ehtesab Court is first drop of rain, soon there will be heavy rain followed by hailstorm. This judgment is major development in war against corruption, and every corrupt must be brought to the book who has robbed the country۔#AvenfieldReference
— Dr Tahir-ul-Qadri (@TahirulQadri) July 7, 2018
Actor and activist Hamza Ali Abbassi sees the verdict as a proud moment for Pakistan:
Insha Allah these headlines will soon make us more proud as Pakistanis: Ex Pakistani PM Nawaz Sharif jailed for corruption!
— Hamza Ali Abbasi (@iamhamzaabbasi) July 5, 2018
Yet, PML-N political workers motivated people to support their party against the verdict. PML-N worker Imran Khalid Butt tweeted:
Public meeting in UC-30 of #Gujranwala. All these people were supporting another party but joined @pmln_org after the #AvenfieldReference verdict.#SherAaRahaHai #PP54 pic.twitter.com/Z8H3gQns4r
— Imran Khalid Butt (@ImranKButt) July 8, 2018
According to the Corruption Perceptions Index released by Transparency International (TI), Pakistan is ranked number 116 of 176 countries included in 2016, indicating high levels of corruption in the country.
The Sharifs are the first to be convicted under the accountability laws of Pakistan.
The Avenfield Reference was one of the three corruption references filed against the family after the conviction and removal of Nawaz Sharif from the office of the prime minister in July. Two other cases are still on trial in Pakistan's accountability courts.
Former Pakistani president and army general Pervez Musharraf has also been called to the courts over corruption charges.

author: Anushe Noor


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What were Global Voices’ readers up to last week? · Global Voices
L. Finch

Be 'bout sumthin’. Photo by Flickr user carnagenyc. CC BY-NC 2.0
At Global Voices, our community researches, writes, edits, and translates stories with a mission to support human rights and build bridges of understanding across countries, cultures, and languages.
We don't publish just to grab clicks or follow a news trend. We do, however, like to keep track of the ways in which our hard work has impact around the world.
To that end, one useful metric is how readers respond to our stories and translations. So let's take a look at who our readers were and what caught their attention during the week of July 2-8, 2018.
Last week, our stories and translations attracted readers from 203 countries! The top 20 countries represented across all of Global Voices’ sites were:
1. United States
2. France
3. Japan
4. Brazil
5. Philippines
6. Mexico
7. Argentina
8. Spain
9. Peru
10. Taiwan
11. Bangladesh
12. Colombia
13. Russia
14. Italy
15. India
16. Germany
17. United Kingdom
18. Indonesia
19. Madagascar
20. Ecuador
But that's only a small slice of the diversity of our readership. Let's use the True Random Number Generator from Random.org and take a look at a few other countries on the list:
39. Switzerland
149. Mauritius
57. Uruguay
70. Côte d’Ivoire
114. Timor-Leste
The English-language site is where the majority of original content is first published at Global Voices. The top five most-read stories of last week were:
1. Rising star footballer is among more than a million Uyghurs sent to Chinese ‘re-education’ camps
2. Tired of murders targeting women, Ugandans take to the streets in peaceful protest
3. First comprehensive study on child abuse in Madagascar points to alarming level of violence
4. In the face of nation-wide violent deaths, Nigerians seek a better deal
5. The women behind Armenia’s “Velvet Revolution”
Lingua is a project that translates Global Voices stories into languages other than English. There are about 30 active Lingua sites. Below is last week's most-read story or translation on each active language site.

author: L. Finch


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Iranian authorities arrest ‘Instagram celebrities’, in effort to assert control over social media · Global Voices
Article 19

A screenshot of the Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB)'s documentary that aired the forced confessions of the detainees they called “Instagram celebrities,” including the 18 year old Maedeh Hojabri.
This article was written by Mahsa Alimardani for ARTICLE19. You can see the original ARTICLE19 statement here.
When the high-profile Iranian Instagram users Maedeh Hojabri, Elnar Ghasemi, Shadab Shakib and Kami Yousefi were arrested in May 2018, it signaled a new phase in state efforts to control expression on Instagram.
The arrests of these high profile Instagram users sparked a worldwide outcry after the government forced the 18-year-old Hojabri to confess to the “crime” of posting videos of herself dancing.
We hit the #London pavement today, dancing in solidarity with #MaedehHojabri who has been sentenced to prison for dancing. Maedeh is one of so many brave Iranians fighting for their human rights. #DancingIsNotACrime, #برقص_تا_برقصیم. Dance with us!???? pic.twitter.com/DR2EyaOOt1
— Yasamin Alttahir (@YasaminAlttahir) July 9, 2018
Tension around Instagram has been mounting since the start of 2018, when protests spread across the country and Iranian authorities temporarily blocked online platforms Instagram along with Telegram. Both sites are extremely popular in Iran.
By the end of April, Telegram was fully blocked — but Instagram remained open. Instead of blocking the platform, it appears that authorities are instead using it to track the activities of Iranians, and control Instagram content by arresting those who are not following the laws of the land.
The judiciary began threatening to filter Instagram at the beginning of July 2018, arguing that it has enabled the “illicit activities” of so-called Instagram celebrities.
Hojabri had been inactive on social media since May — but her fate was unknown until 9 July, when the Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB) TV network aired a forced confession video that included several of the detained Instagram users, including Hojabri.
Although these videos did not air until July, it appears that the detainees were forced to give their confessions shortly after their arrest. A male detainee identified as Kami Yousefi indicates that it is the month of June throughout his confessions. In one moment, a person behind the camera asks a female detainee if her family knew she was arrested. She responds, telling the camera: “they realized when they came to our house to arrest me this morning.”
A silhouette image of Maedeh Hojabri crying and confessing to posting videos of herself dancing on Instagram on the national broadcaster.
On 3 July 2018, the deputy Prosecutor General Hajatoleslam Mohamad Mosadegh indicated to semi-official Fars News that there had been “activities under the title of celebrities in cyberspace and fraudulent profiteering.” The deputy prosecutor said that because of these concerns, the Prosecutor's office had to “cut off the hands of these people [from Instagram] and bring confidence back to society.”
Officially, no charges have been filed against the detainees. However on the day of the broadcast, the head of Tehran’s cyber-police (known as FATA), Touraj Kazemi, told the Iranian Labour News Agency (ILNA) that the administrators of multiple “criminal” Instagram pages had been detained, largely in Tehran, and that “appropriate measures” were being taken. Kazemi indicated that these arrests were associated with various “celebrities of Instagram pages.” Psychologist Dr. Hagh Ranjbar, interviewed by IRIB in their 9 July broadcast, referred to the issue as “the societal ills of the celebrities of Instagram pages who try to promote themselves.”
Video of IRIB documentary on Instagram arrests in Persian.
According to Article 638 of Iran’s Islamic Penal Code, dancing is considered a “sinful act” and can be punished with two months imprisonment and 74 lashes (see the full details of Article 638 below). Similar charges were brought in May 2014 against several Iranians who made and shared a fan-video for the Pharrell Williams song “Happy” on social media.
The forced confessions contribute to long-standing concerns regarding violations of due process in the country’s judicial system, and the use of the state broadcasting system to promote government narratives on arrested human rights defenders, journalists, academics and social media users. IRIB broadcasts have previously been used to promote conspiracy theories against dual nationals Nazanin Zaghari Ratcliffe and Seyed Kavous-Emami.
In a 2014 report, the Center for Human Rights in Iran demonstrated how forced “confessions” are often extracted under the threat torture, and then broadcast by the state-run IRIB media to justify politically motivated prosecutions.
Since December, Iranians have faced new hurdles to accessing the internet and engaging in online speech — there have been shutdowns of foreign traffic, censorship of the widely used Telegram messaging platform, and many arrests of social media users, journalists, activists and human rights defenders.
In reaction to the judiciary’s statement that Instagram would be filtered, Rouhani’s Minister of Information Communications and Technology tweeted that these were false rumors. Instead, he said the unfiltering of Twitter, which has been blocked in Iran since 2009, is the real consideration.
موضوع پیگیری برخی برای “فیلتر” سرویسهای مختلف اینترنتی تازگی ندارد. “رفع فیلتر” توئیتر در صف انتظار جلسه کارگروه تعیین مصادیق قرار دارد. آنچه تازگی دارد طرح یک موضوع قدیمی توسط برخی رسانه‌ها برای انحراف افکار عمومی از مطالبه‌گری #شفاف_سازی سوءاستفاده کنندگان ارزی اخیر است
— MJ Azari Jahromi (@azarijahromi) July 4, 2018
The issue that’s been followed for the filtering of various Internet services is not new. The unfiltering of of Twitter is in line to be discussed in the next meeting of the working group to determine offensive content. What’s new in this is the discussion of this irrelevant news by certain media to distract public opinion from the issue of transparency in the matter of currency devaluation.
Similar statements were made by this Minister in the weeks before the Judiciary blocked Telegram in late April.
Rhetorically, the Rouhani administration has long argued for greater freedoms of online. But the events of recent months make these promise ring hollow.
Further information
Article 638 of the Iranian Islamic Penal Code:
Anyone in public places and roads who openly commits a harām (sinful) act, in addition to the punishment provided for the act, shall be sentenced to two months’ imprisonment or up to 74 lashes; and if they commit an act that is not punishable but violates public prudency, they shall only be sentenced to ten days to two months’ imprisonment or up to 74 lashes.
Note – Women, who appear in public places and roads without wearing an Islamic hijab, shall be sentenced to ten days to two months’ imprisonment or a fine of fifty thousand to five hundred Rials.

author: Article 19


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Natural resources surrounded by terror: What is behind the attacks in northern Mozambique? · Global Voices
Alexandre Nhampossa

Survivors who lost relatives and houses rest outside following the June 5 attack in the village of Naunde, Macomia District, Cabo Delgado province, Mozambique. Photo: Borges Nhamire. Used with permission.
When the Australian company Triton Minerals announced in late 2014 that it had found the world’s largest known graphite deposits in northern Mozambique, the news came as a relief as the country struggles to restructure its external debt. Graphite, a key component in the development of lithium-ion batteries used for electric and hybrid vehicles, has been highly sought after around the world in recent years.
The 115.9 million tonnes of graphite add to the impressive mineral reserves of Mozambique's Cabo Delgado province including 40 percent of the world’s known ruby reserves, discovered in 2009, and gas and oil that, according to government projections, will make the country the third largest exporter of natural gas in the world after Qatar and Australia from 2022.
However, the promise of wealth could be threatened by episodes of extreme violence by armed groups whose motives still remain unclear to local authorities.
The violence started in October 2017 when a group of 30 masked men launched attacks over three days against police posts in Mocímboa da Praia, a city of around 30,000 residents located 100 kilometers south of the border with the United Republic of Tanzania. According to the police, the attack left 16 dead, including 14 from the armed group and two police officers.
This was the first episode in a series of similar attacks suffered in the region over the following months. Since then, 27 attacks have been recorded in the province, leaving at least 95 dead, among officials and civilians, according to research undertaken by local news outlet Zitamar News. Another list of attacks compiled by English-language Wikipedia users using local media reports recorded 103 deaths up to the present.
According to the Zitamar research, 16 of these attacks took place between May and June of 2018 alone in which 650 houses were burned and 62 people killed. While earlier attacks focused on public institutions and commercial establishments, in the last two months there have been mass decapitations using machetes.
Zitamar has been gathering data on these attacks since October 2017 and also created an interactive map with the location and details of each incident.
The violence has caused panic among regional residents, forcing many to abandon their houses and take refuge in neighboring cities. The Quirimbas archipelago has received the highest number of internally displaced persons although the exact number is unknown. According to a report by Agência Lusa, the islands of Ibo and Matemo alone reached 1,500 displaced people in the first half of June 2018.
An attack on June 23 took place only five kilometers from one of the natural gas operations. Although the government says that the attacks are not affecting investments in the province, two oil and gas companies announced the suspension of their activities until the situation is normalized.
The attacks in Cabo Delgado province have prompted strong suspicions of faith-based terrorism. Since the first attack in October 2017, the local population has referred to the armed groups as “Al-Shabaab”, although there is no proven link with the Somali extremist Islamic group.
The majority of Mozambique’s population is Christian, with around 18 percent identifying as Muslim who live predominantly in the northern part of the country.
In fact, none of the attacks have been publicly claimed which has further worried the public and the government. It remains inconclusive as to how these attacks are funded, the types of military training used, and the real interests of the attackers.
Houses destroyed after an attack on the Naunde village on June 5, Macomia District, Cabo Delgado, Mozambique. Photo by Borges Nhamire. Used with permission.
While local authorities continue to search for motives, a key study published in May 2018 by researchers from the Institute of Social and Economic Studies (IESE) and the Civil Society Support Mechanism Foundation (MASC) provides a few clues. Researchers from the study made three visits to Cabo Delgado between November 2017 and February 2018 and interviewed religious leaders, relatives of youth who had joined the groups, and local authorities, among other relevant actors.
The research claims that the armed groups have origins in Cabo Delgado province with a group initially known as “Ahlu Sunnah Wa-Jamma,” an Arabic term meaning “followers of the prophetic tradition and the [religious] community.” They are known to reject the local communities’ Sufi tradition, a more mystical side of Islam. Sufis tend to be opposed by the scripturalist Muslims, such as the Wahhabi, who accuse them of deviating from the Koran.
But the research also shows that the Mozambican group's objectives are not defined by Islamic fundamentalism.
Ahlu Sunnah Wa-Jamma's membership is reportedly composed of socially marginalized youths who lack formal employment and schooling. While it has religious roots and produces propaganda based on recovering traditional Islamic values, it does not intend to occupy the Cabo Delgado province or create an Islamic state in the region.
Although the exact date of the group's beginnings is unclear, the study notes their incorporation of military cells in 2015. It also reveals that the members were trained by former agents of Mozambique’s police force who were expelled from its ranks for inappropriate behavior and attitudes, and also by militia members from Tanzania and Kenya.
The study suggests that the group's true objective is to create opportunities for trafficking wood, ivory, charcoal, and rubies in the resource-rich province. The researchers explained that the group illegally cuts 50,000 planks of wood per week, at a loss of three million United States Dollars (USD) per week to the government.
Their analysis is supported by accounts from two individuals detained by the police who said they agreed to join Ahlu Sunna Wa-Jammah after receiving promises that they would become millionaires.
When the central government launched “Operation Log” in 2017 to combat the illegal timber trade, this threatened the group's alleged source of illegal income, possibly further provoking animosity.
There is also speculation that some insurgents had been expelled from the ruby mines of Montepuez in southern Cabo Delgado province, where they conducted illegal mining before the politically-linked Montepuez Ruby Mining Partnership entered the area on a license to operate gained in 2012.
In February 2017, the central government gave orders to security forces to expel all remaining illegal miners from the area. At the time, claims of torture by soldiers were widely reported in local media and triggered a still-unresolved criminal investigation.
Montepuez Ruby Mining Partnership is a joint-venture between by London-based Gemfields, which holds 75 percent of its capital, and the Mozambican Mwiriti Limitada, formed by high-ranking members of FRELIMO, the political party which has governed Mozambique since independence in 1975. Samora Machel Junior, son of the revolutionary and ex-president Samora Machel, is the president of the company’s board. In a single auction in Singapore in 2018, Montepuez’s rubies yielded a record 72 million United States Dollars.
According to the study, the region’s poor socioeconomic conditions, including unemployment and lack of education and healthcare services, have led to increased recruitment with Ahlu Sunna Wa-Jammah. Central government data from 2016 shows that Cabo Delgado province has around 1.8 million inhabitants and 16.2 percent are unemployed, a rate rising to 24 percent among youth between the ages of 15 and 24.
Human Rights Watch researcher Zenaida Machado visited Naunde village after the attack on June 5 and tweeted about what she witnessed:
This woman and hundreds of her neighbors had their homes burned down during a night terrorist attack, in Naunde, northern Mozambican province of Cabo Delgado. She stayed there because she had nowhere else to go. As I tried to chat with her, she kept asking me: “Why, why, why…” pic.twitter.com/pi40Ka6DzW
— Zenaida Machado (@zenaidamz) June 19, 2018
Vulnerable villages in the region often lack access to electricity and the houses, made from weak materials such as sticks, clay, and straw facilitates the spread of fire. Fleeing women and children were seen carrying their precious objects and small animals.
Faced with fear and uncertainty, the government of Cabo Delgado suspended all nocturnal travel on public transport. The United States, the United Kingdom, and Portugal have released warnings to their citizens against traveling in the province. Neighbouring Malawi stated that it was on alert.

author: Alexandre Nhampossa


text:
The importance of having an Afro-feminist activist in Costa Rica’s government · Global Voices
Shirley Campbell Barr

Epsy Campbell Barr, vice president of Costa Rica 2018-2022. Photograph by MadriCR, published under Creative Commons license (Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International – CC BY-SA 4.0).
Epsy Campbell Barr recently made history as the first black female vice president to be elected in Costa Rica — and in all of Latin America. Following the vote, her sister, Shirley Campbell Barr, reflected on the significance of a woman like Epsy being present in government in an email exchange with a Global Voices’ editor. Below is an edited and translated version of that email, published with Shirley's permission.
Now that the presidential race in Costa Rica has ended and the media frenzy has died down, it is worthwhile to go beyond the headlines and examine what makes Epsy Campbell's election as vice president such an important hallmark in the political life of the country and the region.
Epsy's win was a reason to celebrate for many communities of African descent throughout the Americas. In Costa Rica, the significance of her election was not really explored in depth at the time of the vote, becoming a topic of discussion rather belatedly. Nevertheless, her rise was the result of the continuous work she undertook within and on behalf of communities of Afro-descendant people, especially women.
Epsy's arrival to the political scene took place in a country with a great democratic tradition, one of the oldest and most stable in Latin America — but at a moment when another candidate running for office threatened to erase years of democratic progress.
The first article in Constitution of the Republic of which Epsy is now vice president may recognize Costa Rica as a multiethnic and pluricultural republic, but that's only a recent development (the previous government amended the text). Costa Rica is a country that has presented and continues to present itself as “white”, the whitest of the Central American region, and that has made the full recognition of its multiculturalism and diversity difficult.
Thus, in Costa Rica, there are several unresolved issues affecting minorities, such as those related to representation and visibility. Even with a National Policy against xenophobia, everyday racism — largely related to educational programs and social interactions in school — remains a problem.
There is still a long way to go, for example, in terms of recognizing how people of African descent participated throughout Costa Rica's history and helped shape its national identity. The school curriculum is supposed to address these issues, but actual didactic material is scarce. In addition, continuous awareness building and training for teaching staff are needed. Intentions may be good, but without concrete plans and measurable results it is difficult to make achievements in the mid- and long-term. This training is necessary because, in many cases, teachers continue to reproduce the stereotypes that limit the possibilities of true intercultural education.
Everyday racism manifests itself in a series of stereotypes about the Afro-Costa Rican population and the areas of the country where there is a concentration of people of African descent, such as Limón province, which is often associated with violence and drug trafficking.
I think the core element of Epsy's political activity, in light of the deep mistrust that exists between people and their governmental representatives, is that she remains very attached to her work as an activist and to her own personal experience. Her party certainly capitalizes on her image and the number of people in the sectors she represents.
However, the fact that she now is one of the people's elected political representatives crystallizes the long-standing struggle for Afro-descendant presence in decision-making circles.
For this community, Epsy represents an Afro-descendant consciousness. People of African descent in the Americas know of her not because of her participation in Costa Rica's partisan politics, but because of her work for the rights of the region's Afro-descendant population. Along with several other leaders, Epsy has contributed much to the idea of a black Latin American movement and also a black and Latin American feminist movement.
On that last issue, the struggle has also been internal — confronting white feminists’ resistance when raising issues pertaining to black women. The Latin American feminist movement, like that of other regions, has been rocked by the need to question its precepts in order to incorporate, or at least to consider, the existence of other types of feminism.
The mobilization of black women in the region has brought with it the need to understand that women are not homogeneous. On the contrary, the historical and social conditions of black women undermine the foundations of a movement envisaged according to the same colonial logic that excludes those considered to be the “other.”
Currently in most of our countries, the political representation of people of African descent is very limited. Afro-descendant communities continue to have lower health and education indices and face major obstacles in accessing acceptable levels of education and health. Therefore, in order to make a tangible difference, it has been vitally important to understand ourselves as a movement, and not only a Costa Rican one, but also one that operates at a Latin American and global level.
One part of the struggle is the presence of Afro-descendant communities in the census. I had the opportunity to work with a group campaigning to incorporate a question about ethnicity in official surveys of population. The process included collaboration with other experts of African descent in several Latin American countries. It's been hard work, and it's not over — some countries still don't include this question because the responsible agencies refuse to recognize the importance of quantification.
If they don't count us, we don't exist.
We know this because, until now, people of African descent haven't had a voice in decision-making institutions when these institutions proclaim what's happening in our own communities. We are not a priority when policies meant to deal with these populations in an adequate manner are formulated.
Only with representation of people from these communities will it be possible to implement coherent public policies and affirmative actions that gradually dismantle inequalities that have existed for centuries.
In these elections, we fought to protect the fundamental rights upon which we have built this country. One of the winning candidates in the first round of the presidential vote was an evangelical Christian pastor and singer whose campaign was based on opposition to the rights of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer and intersex (LGBTQI) community. He also promised to transform the National Institute of Women into the “National Institute of Family” — a very concerning prospect in a country where femicides reach alarming figures.
Although we understand that Epsy is vice president of a small country like Costa Rica, I still think it is a significant fact. It is a step, an example, and an impetus. While Marielle Franco was assassinated in Brazil for being a black, feminist and dissenting voice in politics, Epsy Campbell, a recognized leader of the Afro-Latin American movement, was elected vice president in Costa Rica.
Epsy represents a movement that is growing. People of African descent in Colombia, Brazil, Peru, Ecuador, Uruguay and other countries feel represented. And not because she represents them directly (after all, she is only the vice president of Costa Rica). It's because representativeness matters. Seeing a black woman who comes from this community, and is active in it, is very important.
It is a mirror in which black boys and girls can see and identify themselves.

author: Shirley Campbell Barr


text:
What’s happened to digital rights over the past seven years? 300 editions of the Netizen Report will tell you · Global Voices
Ellery Roberts Biddle

Protests in Budapest, October 2014. Photo by Marietta Le, used with permission.
When we first launched the Netizen Report in 2011, we set out to create weekly record of how people around the world were exercising free expression through technology — and the barriers and threats they faced.
We have covered the digital rights ramifications of social movements from Hong Kong to Ukraine to Venezuela, attacks on digital activism from Cuba to Bahrain to Tanzania, and internet-focused legislation in more than 100 countries on every continent.
The term first came into use in mainland China, where online communities began to refer to themselves as wǎngmín (网民, literally “net-citizen”) and wǎngyǒu (网友, literally “net-friend”).
Beyond the clever wordplay, these communities built spaces where people could speak up, criticize and debate in a way that was not possible in Chinese society. Netizens intentionally identified themselves as active citizens on the internet, in sharp contrast to their existence in real life.
In countries like Ethiopia, Morocco and Syria our team has followed the trials and prison terms of bloggers and online activists whose work sparked widespread change for their communities and triggered enduring legal threats from their own governments.
We are not writing about digital rights in principle or in theory — we are writing about how they play out for real people. Week after week, our team of volunteers work to show how online expression has become a formidable force in public life and how this empowers communities and political movements alongside state and other powerful actors.
Over time, our reports have tracked how one sweeping event — an environmental disaster, a refugee crisis, a violent attack — can trigger a wave of reaction that results in threats to online rights around the world. And we have followed the remarkably global trends in legal repression of speech that affect so many people around the world, but don’t always make the headlines.
Here are some of our all-time favorite editions of the Netizen Report, showing the range and depth of our work since 2011.
The rights of an individual speaking truth to power lie at the core of Global Voices’ advocacy work. Week after week, we have covered threats against freedom of speech, ranging from arrests of the #Istanbul10 activists in Turkey to prosecution of the Zone9 bloggers in Ethiopia to multiple years of fatal attacks on bloggers in Bangladesh.
Demonstrators call for capital punishment for war criminals in Bangladesh, 2013. Photo by Mehdi Hasan Khan via Wikimedia (CC BY-SA 3.0)
The Charlie Hebdo attack in Paris sparked critical debate over the importance of free expression, and led several governments in the EU and beyond to restrict free speech and increase their surveillance powers. This  is just one of many instances where governments have used the threat of violent extremism as a justification for limiting free speech and other fundamental rights — an enduring theme for the Netizen Report.
“I am Charlie … and I am Muslim.”
Political upheaval and public protest in many countries has triggered a “state of emergency”, justifying the suspension of many fundamental rights and enduring internet shutdowns. This edition focused on Ethiopia and Venezuela, just two of the many countries where shutdowns have occurred. We've also covered internet and social media shutdowns in China, Syria, Pakistan, Cameroon, Iran, Togo, India, Iraq, Egypt, Gabon, D. R. Congo, Somalia, and Sudan.
A student demonstrator speaks to National Guard members in Venezuela, during protests in 2014. Photo by Jamez42 via Wikimedia Commons (CC0)
A massive leak of internal documents from the Italian surveillance software firm Hacking Team proved that governments were spying on journalists, human rights advocates, and political opposition groups — this confirmed years of suspicion and evidence of malware targeting that we documented in the Netizen Report. Our community covered the impact of these events in Bahrain, Ecuador, Egypt, Lebanon, Mexico and Serbia.
Cartoon by Doaa Eladl via Flickr, Web We Want ( CC BY-SA 2.0)
As a community of writers and activists, we’ve faced censorship, harassment and direct threats because of our activism on Facebook since the early days of the platform. The Netizen Report archive shows countless examples of discrimination and harassment on the platform, highlights our in-depth research on Free Basics (Facebook’s project to create an “internet on ramp” for people in developing countries), and has documented the uproar from activists demanding answers from the platform following the Cambridge Analytica revelations.
A protester near the Teacher Students Centre (TSC) of Dhaka University. The poster reads “How many excuses more? Open Viber, Messenger, WhatsApp and Facebook NOW.” Photo by Zaid Islam, under copyright. Used with permission.
With an ever-evolving team of writers, researchers, activists and human rights experts from 41 countries (full list below) and the steadfast support of Global Voices editors, we’ve produced 300 editions of the Netizen Report since 2011.
This week on Twitter, join us in raising a virtual glass to our collective efforts. Here’s to many more years of capturing the global story of human rights and internet!
Yours truly,
The Netizen Report Team
Abir Ghattas, Afef Abrougui, Alex Laverty, Alexey Kovalev, Amira Al Hussaini, Angel Carrión, Arzu Geybullayeva, Asteris Masouras, Bojan Perkov, Corey Abramson, Diego Casaes, Dragan Kucirov, Elaine Díaz, Elizabeth Rivera, Ellery Roberts Biddle, Endalk Chala, Filip Stojanovski, Firuzeh Shokooh Valle, Georgia Popplewell, Hae-in Lim, Hisham Almiraat, Inji Pennu, Ivan Sigal, J. Tadeo, James Losey, Janine Mendes-Franco, Jessica Dheere, Jillian York, Joey Ayoub, Juan Arellano, Juke Carolina, Karolle Rabarison, Kevin Rothrock, Kofi Yeboah, L. Finch, Laura Vidal, Leila Nachawati, Lisa Ferguson, Lova Rakotomalala, Don Le, Marietta Le, Mahsa Alimardani, Marianne Díaz, Mohamad Najem, Mohamed ElGohary, Mong Palatino, Nevin Thompson, Nwachukwu Egbunike, Oiwan Lam, Pauline Ratze, Rayna St, Rebecca MacKinnon, Renata Avila, Rezwan, Rohith Jyothish, Sadaf Khan, Sahar Habib Ghazi, Salma Essam, Sarah Myers West, Silvia Viñas, Solana Larsen, Suzanna Lehn, Taisa Sganzerla, Talal Raza, Tanya Lokot, Tetyana Bohdanova, Tom Risen, Torie Bosch, Weiping Li and Yuqi Chen have contributed to one or multiple Netizen Reports since 2011.
Netizen Report contributors come from Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Brazil, Bulgaria, China, Egypt, Ethiopia, France, Ghana, Greece, Guatemala, Hong Kong, Hungary, India, Indonesia, Japan, Iran, Kenya, Lebanon, Macedonia, Madagascar, Mexico, Morocco, Nigeria, Pakistan, Peru, Philippines, Puerto Rico, Russia, Serbia, South Korea, Spain, Switzerland, Syria, Taiwan, Tunisia, Turkey, Ukraine, United States, Venezuela and Vietnam.

author: Ellery Roberts Biddle


text:
Questions swirl over Japanese government’s response to deadly, unprecedented rains · Global Voices
Nevin Thompson

Flooding in Kurashiki, Okayama in western Japan. Screencap from NHK World-Japan.
At least 178 people have died and more than 60 others are missing after much of western Japan was hit by torrential rainfall, the most in recorded history.
Flooding has affected much of western Honshu, particularly the neighboring prefectures of Okayama and Hiroshima. As local authorities struggle to rescue stranded residents and restore basic services such as municipal water supplies, Japanese are increasingly demanding answers as to why the death toll is so high and why the central government seemingly reacted so slowly to the disaster.
Record-breaking rains had already been falling for days as part of the annual Japanese rainy season when an even stronger rain front prompted Japan's meteorological authority to predict there would be widespread flooding on Thursday, July 5, especially in western Japan.
By Thursday evening it was reported that some regions had already received more than 400 mm of precipitation over the previous 72 hours, or double the annual rainfall. But more was on the way.
July 5 rainfall western Japan. Caption: “Precipitation over 72 hours… Only Tokyo region spared from disastrous rains.” Screencap from ANN official YouTube channel.
Over the weekend, the rain did not let up. For the first time in its history, the Japanese Meteorological Agency issued flooding disaster warnings for eight prefectures (eventually it would be 11) at the same time.
Kurashiki, a well-preserved tourist town in Okayama, received some of the worst flooding, with nearly 30 percent of the municipality affected.
https://t.co/q8WI2MWjPM
【大雨】午前8時51分に上空から撮影した岡山県倉敷市真備町箭田付近です。住宅の屋根付近まで水につかっています。（達）#大雨 #岡山 #倉敷 pic.twitter.com/q5hqaL7QXq
— 朝日新聞 映像報道部 (@asahi_photo) July 7, 2018
Torrential rains: Footage taken at 8:51 AM [on Saturday, July 7] in the vicinity of Yata, in Makibi in the city of Kurashiki in Okayama. Houses are flooded to their rooftops.
Hiroshima, another mountainous prefecture that neighbors Okayama to the west, made headlines due to numerous landslides that buried dozens of people alive.
‘Why didn’t I tell her to evacuate?’ asks newlywed, after losing wife of three weeks in Hiroshima landslide https://t.co/ErU4sP9ajY
— The Japan Times (@japantimes) July 10, 2018
The rains affected almost every prefecture in Japan to the west of Mount Fuji. While on the east side of the city there were fears a dam might fail, the normally placid Kamo River that runs through western Kyoto became a raging torrent and threatened to flood the city's central shopping district.
鴨川氾濫してる… pic.twitter.com/6dehUA828H
— jerry. (@SeorehMot) July 5, 2018
The Kamo River is flooding.
Due to the size and scope of the rainfall, flooding and landslides, it was difficult to grasp the sheer scale of multiple disasters occurring simultaneously all over western Japan. Over the weekend, mapping researcher Hidenori Watanave created an interactive tool that used Google Earth to identify damaged infrastructure across the region. Watanave said the tool will soon be online and available for use by the public.
先ほど紹介されたコンテンツです。Google Earthの地形に写真をオーバレイして表示しています。 pic.twitter.com/sHbDuqIxOq
— 渡邉英徳 (@hwtnv) July 9, 2018
As mentioned in a previous tweet, [photos of damaged areas] are shown as an overlay on Google Earth.
By Monday, July 9, the multitude of disasters had been given an official name by the Japanese Meteorological Agency (JMA):
【報道発表】(H30.7.9)気象庁は、今般の豪雨について、その名称を「平成30年７月豪雨」と定めました。https://t.co/prbTqe6UCx
— 気象庁 (@JMA_kishou) July 9, 2018
News release (July 9, 2018): The JMA has officially named the disaster the “July 2018 Torrential Rains.”
Prime Minister Abe Shinzo and his cabinet started to receive criticism for failing to take action.
Media coverage treated the ongoing deluge as a major crisis as early Thursday, July 5. Meanwhile on that Thursday, Abe and senior members of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party spent a festive evening at a private event in Tokyo, toasting their efforts to secure Abe an unprecedented third term as head of the party and prime minister of Japan.
時計は20:30過ぎを指している。この頃にはもう被害の状況がけっこう明らかになっていたのではなかろうか。#赤坂自民亭 pic.twitter.com/o7u1qVZ0Nm
— 背中まで45分 (@senakamade_45) July 10, 2018
The clock points past 8:30 PM [on Thursday, July 5]. By this time wouldn't it have been clear just how much devastation there was?
Publications such as left-leaning Asahi newspaper and tabloid Nikkan Gendai spent several days attacking the prime minister:
日刊ゲンダイ
【何が「国民の生命が第一」だ】
『人が豪雨にのまれている中、この政権は何をしていたのか』
「総裁選対策の飲み会や地方回り、政権延命めくらましにかまけて、全ての対応が後手後手で被害拡大」
「官邸は7日まで何もやらず、非常災害対策本部、大雨特別警報の遅れに囂々の非難…」 pic.twitter.com/zuhuwBUwmn
— 但馬問屋 (@wanpakutenshi) July 9, 2018
From Nikkan Gendai tabloid:
[Headline from first image] “While people were being engulfed by water, what was this government actually doing?”
[Headline and copy from second image]: “What do you mean ‘the people's lives come first?'”
“They were at a drinking party, planning their own political strategy or out visiting their cronies, preoccupied with keeping their regime alive. Reacting to the flooding crisis was pushed back as an afterthought, intensifying the damage.”
“Cabinet did nothing until July 7″ […]
Prime Minister Abe managed to visit flood-stricken areas by Wednesday, July 11, nearly a week after it was apparent Japan was experiencing a major natural disaster. Besides a likely death toll surpassing 200, 70,000 homes across western Japan had been flooded and 2 million people had been forced to evacuate their homes.
Thick mud, damaged transportation infrastructure and the continuing risk of collapsing dams have also made it hard to deliver aid, especially drinking water and food, to the evacuees. A mountain of trash from destroyed homes is straining local authorities as they try to figure out what to do with it.
Increasingly, people are wondering why, in a country used to sudden torrential rains, the death toll has been so high. In Okayama Prefecture, which has so far experienced the highest number of deaths over the past week, the risk of flooding is said to have been known in advance.
Linda Sieg, reporting for Reuters news agency, noted that one reason was that many people did not know where to go following evacuation alerts. As well, Japan has traditionally prepared for earthquakes rather than large-scale flooding, while many homes are built in landslide-prone locations due to lack of available land for housing.
In the end, Mainichi newspaper observed, the sheer volume of water may have overwhelmed existing flood defenses.
In the aftermath, questions are also being asked about how climate change may have contributed the disaster. The rise in average surface temperatures on Earth is forecasted to fuel an increase in the frequency and intensity of extreme weather events, such as heavy rain, particularly in western Japan.
While media in Western and English-speaking countries largely reported the heavy rains and flooding as a story about Japan, Japanese wire service Kyodo pointed out the disaster was just one of several weather events occurring at the same time around the world:
世界気象機関（ＷＭＯ）は10日、７月には日本が豪雨に見舞われた一方、北アフリカや米西海岸で記録的な高温となるなど世界各地で異常気象が観測されていると発表した。
The [Geneva-based] World Meteorological Organization (WMO) announced on July 10 that, as Japan experienced torrential rains in July, North Africa and the west coast of North America observed recorded-breaking heat, while every part the world saw unusual climate patterns.
Nishinippon Shimbun, a major daily based in Fukuoka that serves western Japan, also noted:
西日本を中心に甚大な被害をもたらした記録的豪雨で、気象庁は過去最多となる１１府県に大雨特別警報を出した。「５０年に１度」の異常気象を基準に発表される大雨特別警報だが、昨年の九州豪雨に続いて福岡県では２年連続で発表されたことになる。「異常」が「日常」になりつつある中、どうすれば命を守れるのか。
As record-breaking torrential rains delivered enormous damage to western Japan, the Japan Meteorological Agency issued weather warnings to 11 prefectures, the greatest number of warnings at one time ever.
While [the rainfall and floods] were described as a “once in 50 years” special weather warning, following the rainfall and floods in 2017, this is the second year in a row Fukuoka Prefecture has been issued this special warning.
As unusual weather becomes the new normal, how are we to protect ourselves?

author: Nevin Thompson


text:
First Malaria World Congress explores ways forward as elimination efforts stall · Global Voices
Kevin Rennie

Maelle Ba from Senegal introduces Zero Malaria Starts With Me: a movement for a malaria free Africa – Author's photo from Malaria World Congress
The 1st Malaria World Congress has warned that the ‘fight to eliminate malaria is at a crossroads’. The global ‘declining trend’ has stalled according to the World Health Organisation. Funding has also plateaued:
We're at a crossroads. We neglect #malaria at our peril. Momentum has gained in past months since @JulieBishopMP & @DrTedros shared #CHOGUM stage. @WHO message to @MalariaCongress this week: https://t.co/IDaicEUBQw
— Pedro Alonso (@PAlonsoMalaria) July 2, 2018
Melbourne seemed an unlikely venue to hold this congress. It is a long way from the countries that accounted for most of the estimated 216 million cases and 445,000 deaths globally in 2016.
However, there are real problem areas on Australia’s doorstep such as the Mekong region and Papua New Guinea:
In Papua New Guinea #malaria is resurging – Estimated 1.4m malaria cases in #PNG in 2016 – a 400% increase according to WHO – 3000 people died.
In Greater Mekong Subregion, malaria parasites developing resistance to anti-malaria drugs. #publichealth https://t.co/OppSfvaeqh
— I Sea (@RiffRaffBriz) July 1, 2018
A keynote speech by Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop included a welcome funding announcement:
The Hon Julie Bishop MP, Minister for Foreign Affairs, gives a keynote malaria elimination in the Indo-Pacific. Great to see such important support at the 1st @MalariaCongress pic.twitter.com/O8mfIwkjjD
— Prof. Simon I. Hay (@simonihay) July 2, 2018
However, not everyone was impressed given the cuts in overseas aid by her government during the last five years:
With respect, Australia has many excellent global health & medical researchers and institutions but our gov’t currently punches far below our weight when it comes to funding health (and broader) foreign aid https://t.co/Pmv88gbDjU #MalariaCongress #AustralianAid
— Camilla Burkot (@CamillaBurkot) July 5, 2018
There were 1000 participants from 60 countries with diverse backgrounds including: drug and vector researchers and developers; non-government organisations, government agencies and policy planners; academics; private sector companies; and community representatives.
So it was no surprise that a lot of interest was generated on social media. In fact, the organisers had produced a guide, 8 tips for using Twitter, with the help of Inis Communication. They were suitably pleased that the official twitter hashtag #malariacongress trended several times during the five days.
There was lots of good eradication news, with prime examples coming from Sri Lanka and the Philippines. Professor Sir Richard Feachem underlined these successes in his address:
Remembering Sri Lankan malaria elimination success by Sir Richard Feachem @MalariaCongress pic.twitter.com/ib31IIH7vq
— Maxine Whittaker (@maxinewhittaker) July 3, 2018
Sir Richard Feachem shows the shrinking #malaria #map of the #Philippines, which targets elimination by 2030 #MalariaCongress #EndMalaria pic.twitter.com/HbUCDdpuJd
— Chris Mercado (@cegmercado) July 4, 2018
There were also positive stories from Africa such as the new campaign Zero Malaria Starts with Me.
Many future challenges were discussed during the gathering. These included: vector [mosquito] control, drug and insecticide resistance, diagnosis and treatment, community engagement, and financing. Professor Feachem looked at five of these and was least confident about vaccine development:
Professor Sir Richard Feacham #malariacongress – what do we need to #eradicatemalaria ? management management management pic.twitter.com/qLdPYu2DXf
— Indo-Pacific Centre for Health Security (@CentreHealthSec) July 4, 2018
Philip Welkhoff, from the Gates Foundation, brought experience of tackling other diseases:
Fantastic talk from Dr Philip Welkhoff @gatesfoundation this afternoon. ? We need to focus on delivering a tailored mix of targeted interventions. Genetic surveillance gives insight into where, when and how to deploy them @MalariaCongress #MalariaCongress #endmalaria pic.twitter.com/hd2H7q78kL
— Brittany Gilchrist (@Britt_Gil1) July 3, 2018
Shaz Sivanesan listed a variety of factors that she believes need to be addressed:
Malaria, Gender and Human Rights, we need to understand the links. its a disease of poverty. We need to look at social exclusion, language, gender, age, legal status and physical barriers #EndMalaria #MalariaCongress
— Shaz Sivanesan (@aremyresultsok) July 3, 2018
Scarce funding was a major concern. The economic case for greater investment was strongly argued:
Dr @RimaShretta lays out the global investment case to #EndMalaria: Socioeconomic benefits of US$ 4.1 trillion, offering a 40:1 return on investment and 4.5 million lives saved. Fundamentally a no-brainer! pic.twitter.com/w7JO4isbAg
— Malaria Congress (@MalariaCongress) July 4, 2018
Headlines we'd love to see one day! @rimashretta‘s presentation on the investment case for malaria elimination and eradication – and how we can make malaria history #MalariaCongress pic.twitter.com/he65YaApnL
— MEI (@MEIatUCSF) July 4, 2018
Should we make a different kind of case for investing in malaria? Yes
Engage with community and civil society. Educate parliament. Rephrase the argument to speak their language #MalariaCongress
— Julie Healer (@HealerJulie) July 2, 2018
The importance of community engagement was a recurring theme. The role of volunteering was highlighted but this has issues of its own including financing:
Prof Manderson points out that community volunteering efforts to #EndMalaria assumes that time and availability are elastic and falls disproportionately on #women. But this in unsustainable for the women involved, they need financial support. #MalariaCongress @MalariaCongress
— Samantha Nixon (@SamNScience) July 4, 2018
The quest for new drugs to treat infected patients remains a high priority. For example, Tafenoquine is being hailed as the latest breakthrough for its cost effectiveness and ease of use:
If the new #malaria drug tafenoquine gets positive review, it will drastically cut treatment costs and reduce infection rates, says Isabelle Borghini of @MedsforMalaria: https://t.co/hxs8Pr6DXR #ReadyToBeatMalaria #MFAP2030
— Asia Pacific Leaders Malaria Alliance (@APLMA_Malaria) July 9, 2018
However, it is one of the drugs at the centre of a controversy concerning drug trials on members of the Australian Defence Force. The Quinoline Veterans and Families Association (QVFA) is a grassroots veteran community group:
Many of the veterans who were given Tafenoquine during drug trials now suffer from serious, chronic illnesses including bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, major depression and anxiety, seizures, hallucinations and psychosis.
QVFA member Stuart McCarthy and others members and supporters tweeted throughout the congress about the issue but received very few responses:
For #MalariaCongress attendees; tafenoquine:
“I believe that if a royal commission was conducted tomorrow it would likely find that the @AustralianArmy drug trials killed or permanently injured more Australian soldiers than the Taliban …”#TafenoquineRC
https://t.co/9IrUU4tpwm
— Stuart McCarthy (@StuartMcCarthy_) July 3, 2018
The linked news item in this tweet concerns recent calls for an inquiry from two Federal members of the Australian parliament.
Hidden among all the science and policy were a couple of creative solutions concerning programs on the ground.
Sibo is an educational initiative of the University of Pretoria Institute for Sustainable Malaria Control.
Sibo spreads her malaria knowledge at the @MalariaCongress in Melbourne.
Read her story online: https://t.co/TmVEl7u2c4 #Sibofightsmalaria #MalariaCongress #EndMalaria #readytobeatmalaria #malariamustfall pic.twitter.com/TaG52EkqqB
— UP End Malaria (@UPEndMalaria) July 4, 2018
Camilla Burkot tried some lateral thinking. LLINs are Long Lasting Insecticidal Nets (Just one example of countless and often obscure initials washing around the congress):
Am struck by how example of mozzie nets being diverted for use in fishing comes up again and again…. curious if anyone has ever trialed distribution of actual fishing nets alongside LLINs as combined livelihoods + malaria prevention strategy?? #genuinequestion #MalariaCongress
— Camilla Burkot (@CamillaBurkot) July 3, 2018
A couple of researchers from the co-host Burnet Institute shared their impressions:
As the #MalariaCongress draws to a close, two Burnet researchers share the ideas they’ll take home. @philippe_boeuf @h_opi pic.twitter.com/PIHPxUWLKH
— Burnet Institute (@BurnetInstitute) July 5, 2018
The congress concluded with a Statement of Action. Its key priorities are:
1. Think creatively outside existing solutions and promote scientific and social innovation.
2. Engage vulnerable communities and civil society.
3. Listen, then act collaboratively.
4. Hold ourselves to account. Facilitate cross-sector conversations and relationships.
5. Commit to mobilizing increased and sustained financing.
If you would like to see more of the 4000 tweets, health journalist Alistair Quaile @aliquaile created a Twitter Moments that brings together some of the highlights.

author: Kevin Rennie


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‘In a lot of the post-colonial world, so much of what really drives us is suppressed’ · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

Ghanaian born, South Africa-based architect, novelist and educator Lesley Lokko, during her visit to Trinidad, June 2018. Photo by Mark Raymond, used with permission.
This is the second instalment in our interview series with Professor Lesley Lokko, head of the Graduate School of Architecture at the University of Johannesburg in South Africa. You can read the first post here.
When you think of the role of an architect in society, you might think about the importance of creating a physical environment that's a snapshot of human civilisation. Or about organising space based on needs, aspirations and hopes of a particular culture.
But in societies like the Caribbean, not everyone uses an architect's services — often to their detriment. Why? Lesley Lokko, an architect and writer who recently visited Trinidad and Tobago on the invitation of the Trinidad and Tobago Institute of Architects and Bocas Lit Fest, has an idea.
She thinks this might have something to do with how people perceive the purpose of an architect. Many people do not realise that purpose extends way beyond design and plans — it is connected to a great many other things, including technology and human relationships.
Global Voices (GV): So what is the role of an architect in modern-day society?
Lesley Lokko (LL): I’m always drawn to Spain as a model because I believe it takes in more architecture students per capita than any other country. However, although record numbers of people study architecture there, Spain graduates the smallest number — in relation to the number that its schools take in — who go on to work as practising architects. So architecture is seen as a really interesting, fundamental degree, and even if people go through the full five years, they often go into many other fields that may have something to do with the built environment but not necessarily architecture or design. The mayor of a small village, for instance, might have studied architecture and therefore understands the power and value of a really good piece of civic architecture — so big cities like Madrid and Barcelona are not the only places where projects are happening. Spain is quite democratic in the way in which good architecture or civic space is commissioned.
In the post-colonial world, there's an insecurity around our relationship with education and training that’s just part and parcel of our thinking — so, the attitude generally is, if you start studying architecture, by God you’re going to finish, and then work for a big practice, earn a good living and so on, which perpetuates the idea that architecture is a professional discipline for those who can afford it. I think that’s the complete wrong way to think about it. I run an architecture school now in Johannesburg. It’s the biggest postgraduate school in South Africa, we are now into our third cycle of graduates, and it’s been quite a radical curriculum change. We’ve got graduates now who go off into multimedia, theatre design, web design…things that are sort of spatial, alternative forms of practice. Architecture is a much more lateral, broader, much more diffuse discipline than the way it has conventionally been taught. To make the point more clearly, unlike medical students, for example, who practice on the body of a patient; unlike lawyers, who train with language and rhetoric, students of architecture never build buildings — only representations of them.
Students of Johannesburg's Graduate School of Architecture during the school's 2017 Summer Show. Photo courtesy Lesley Lokko, used with permission.
Lesley Lokko (LL): Representation, in effect, is almost its own discipline. It’s their language, whether that’s in film, multimedia, photography, collage, montage — the range of visual tools available to students today is almost endless. The historical tools — plans, sections, and elevations — are absolutely vital in terms of instructing someone how to build. But they’re not the only means by which a project can be drawn or represented. To add to the complexity, modern construction methods are their own speciality. If you were to look at the façade of a building today, even as an architect at the top of your game, you’d be hard-pressed to explain how it ‘works’. But just because something is new or modern doesn’t mean it’s without complications and challenges.
Where new means of communication have been very successful — and it goes back to this issue of social media — is in disguising themselves in the language of the old. Facebook uses terms like “Like” and “Friend” — but you are not my friend in the conventional sense of the word. Young people today have less and less sense of the conventional or traditional meaning of words and as a result, their understanding of the world has shifted. When I talk to my students about things like scale and distance and proximity and adjacency, all the architectural terms of my own training, they understand them completely differently. Distance means little to them because they can be friends with someone they've never actually seen who’s 6,000 miles away. They’re used to seeing things on a screen, not in three-dimensions. Their worlds are networked, fluid, mobile, where mine was fixed, grounded, solid. And these terms are still the fundamental terms of our trade. You have to be able to understand things in scale, but if you don’t understand what scale is, because your world has no scale… We’re being altered, somehow slowly, without us even noticing it.
Students of Johannesburg's Graduate School of Architecture during the school's 2017 Summer Show. Photo courtesy Lesley Lokko, used with permission.
GV: How does that affect how you teach the discipline?
LL: The one luxury of education is that it gives you time and freedom to reflect…very different from when you have deadlines and budgets. But I find that very few people are talking really about those things, certainly in Africa. We’re still talking about productivity and efficiency and employability and test results — we’re not really talking about the deep things that I think matter. We operate at such a speed now that those opportunities to reflect critically on what’s happening to us in scale and time and distance and taste are important.
GV: So how does architecture host that relationship between people and environment in a world where technology is such an influence and is changing so fast?
LL: I travel a lot. So when I was packing for this trip [to Trinidad], I left Joburg, went to Paris, Venice, London, Miami, Santo Domingo, here, going to Chicago, back to London, then to Madrid and then I go home. Everything fits in a fairly small suitcase because I know most of the hotels I stay at I can launder a clean shirt; I stick to a palate of mostly black and white because that’ll go everywhere; my clothes are neither too heavy nor too light — so in a sense, my environment is elastic — it’s moving with me. And I'd put on Instagram that I’ve been to Santo Domingo, I’ve been to Trinidad, but I could just as easily cut and paste those images from the internet and no one would ever know. So in a weird way, it’s strange to me that I’m going to travel halfway round the world, but at another level, it’s almost as if I didn’t go. In that construct, my relationships with people become really important. So it’s less my relationship with the environment or even the architecture. I’m looking for more meaningful connections with people that I meet.
We run a very different programme in the graduate school which involves what’s sometimes referred to as ‘cracking’ students open. In a less brutal sense, I’m really interested in what drives them. In a post-colonial context, the majority of students are black — and for me, it’s not so much a skin colour as the fact that they come with emotional relationships to the rest of the world that are different from the white students — through things like history, class, privilege, etc. I don’t want those students to miss the opportunity of being honest. So students need to tell me what really drives them, what they are really interested in, and I will find a way to facilitate that interest. In a lot of the post-colonial world, I would argue that what’s required is a kind of creative therapy because so much of what really drives us is suppressed.
The cover of one of Lesley Lokko's novels. Image courtesy Lokko, used with permission.
GV: What about synergies between writing and architecture?
LL: Architects are narrators. They tell a story through the way in which they manipulate space. That story might be subliminal, but all architecture is storytelling — even more so at the level of student architecture, because you don’t build the building, so whatever representation of it that you have is its own narrative.
For me, writing — because architecture was so resistant to these issues around race, identity, gender, power — writing was actually an easy discipline to deal with because it’s more forgiving. If you think about English literature as a body, it has been so enriched by the post-colonial world. You can’t really think of English literature without that influence — it’s impossible. Architecture is different. It’s historically been really resistant to the idea of ‘difference’ — perhaps less so now than 30 years ago — but when I was studying, if you wanted to talk about race or identity, people would say, ‘Go study sociology, not architecture!’
But I don’t see them as different at all. Someone once suggested to me that I must have an affinity for situations that are neither one thing nor the other and that is connected to childhood. Being half-Scottish, half-Ghanaian, there was a comfort in things that can’t quite be reconciled. When I finished studying sociology, I decided I wanted to be an architect and then I wanted to be a writer, so there’s always been an instinct to move out of something just because I like that tension. And probably now, after so long, I understand that tension is productive. It’s not problematic. But the same impetus is there to tell a story.
GV: You've turned that tension into a tool.
LL: Yes, and I use it in writing and in teaching. To me, my novels were always didactic — all about crossing racial barriers and political histories — and half of the people reading would think it’s a love story. I realised that what you think you’re doing and what other people read into it…you’ve got no control over that.
And I think it’s the same in teaching now — there’s a lot I want to say and I’m saying it through students’ work. And in much the same way that the books go off and do their own thing, so do the students and that’s really satisfying, that there are no conclusions.
In the third and final instalment in this series, we talk about literature, culture and identity.

author: Janine Mendes-Franco


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In India, regulators are deciding the fate of sensitive data behind closed doors · Global Voices
Rohith Jyothish

A biometric data collection center in India. Photo by Bishwarup Ganguly via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 3.0)
On August 2017, a nine-judge bench of the Supreme Court of India unanimously upheld the privacy of Indian citizens as a fundamental right.
Since that time, a series of campaigns, petitions and legal battles citing this ruling have ensued, many of them arguing against India’s biometric identification programme, known as Aadhaar. They charge that Aadhaar runs afoul of the court verdict.
These critiques have made it clear that India needs a stronger definition of “data”, personal, sensitive and otherwise. This has been known for some time, and there have been numerous privacy bills and legislative efforts to address personal data privacy in India, from the IT Act of 2000 (which guarded individuals from privacy breach from the corporate sector), to a 2011 Personal Data Bill (which was proposed but never passed), to a 2012 committee report proposing criteria for a privacy protection law.
Despite all these efforts, the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology formed a new committee in August 2017, that also intended to draft a data protection law.
Headed by former Supreme Court judge Justice B.N. Srikrishna (and thus titled Srikrishna Committee), the committee's job is to “ensure the growth of the digital economy while keeping personal data of citizens secure and protected.”
Although it has existed for nearly a year's time, the Committee has yet to release meeting minutes or a draft of the bill that they are developing.
On June 23, 2018, online media outlet The Print reported on a leaked copy that the outlet had obtained, along with a report from the committee stating that the bill will “not apply to any processing activity that has been completed prior to this law coming into effect.” This triggered consternation among civil society and privacy advocates, as it indicates that the data protection act will have no bearing on the Aadhaar system.
The only official document released by the committee has been a November 2017 white paper on data protection which left many citizens with more questions than answers. It reflected uncertainty regarding the level of control over how much data can be stored and limited to the country itself, and failed to describe what rights individuals hold over their own data.
Along with the Srikrishna Committee’s output, leading scholars and lawyers have criticized the committee for demonstrating a lack of transparency, over-representing the interests of people who are in favor of — or stand to gain from — Aadhaar, and lacking representation from civil society.
A group of lawyers in India wrote a letter to the Committee, putting forth their concerns regarding the bill and emphasizing the need to review the Aadhaar data processing scheme in its entirety. The letter explicitly states that Aadhaar stands in conflict with data privacy and argues that the data protection law that could be citizen-centric.
Noted researcher and expert on law and poverty Dr. Usha Ramanathan spoke about this at a consultation held by the Committee in Bengaluru, as tweeted by civil engineer and internet researcher Srinivas Kodali:
Usha Ramanathan asking for the expansion of data protection committee and how there is no civil society representation plus individuals in committee having a conflict of interest by supporting #Aadhaar
Usha Ramanathan asking for the expansion of data protection committee and how there is no civil society representation plus individuals in committee having conflict of interest by supporting #Aadhaar pic.twitter.com/OHZE3oviNq
— Srinivas Kodali | శ్రీనివాస్ కొడాలి (@digitaldutta) January 5, 2018
Letter to Justice Srikrishna regarding the lack of transparency in functioning of the committee of experts examining the data protection framework. Minutes of meeting illegally denied under RTI stating“This information currently is not in public domain”. pic.twitter.com/ILNMxM1GJJ
— Anjali Bhardwaj (@AnjaliB_) January 3, 2018
Others have charged that consultations have been too short or lacking sufficient structure to accomplish the task at hand.
The composition of the committee has also been at issue. Vidhi Centre of Legal Policy, a team of lawyers, headed by Arghya Sengupta is currently working on the Data protection Bill, even when they contributed in the drafting of Aadhaar Act and later defended it in court as well.
Here is Bangalore-based lawyer Malavika Prasad's thread on the role of Vidhi Centre for Legal Policy:
Some thoughts on @Vidhi_India handling Government's legal/policy work for pay & the response pictured below:
1. The government, no doubt, has freedom to contract. A contract with Vidhi is a government contract for services. However, government never has unfettered discretion. 1/5 pic.twitter.com/aoDmJWBSC9
— Malavika (@MaLawdy) March 27, 2018
Researcher Malavika Raghavan published a thread on Data Protection:
Tweetstorm coming up on the 9 distinguishing points of our thinking on #DataProtection ☔ @dvararesearch @benichugh @julupani @binduananth 1/n https://t.co/Ia7zAPHEiI
— Malavika Raghavan (@teninthemorning) February 7, 2018
The committee is expected to release a draft of the bill in late July 2018, just as the Aadhaar verdict is also awaited.
As the Supreme Court edges closer to a final judgment on the constitutional validity of its biometric scheme, all eyes will be on the terms set by the Sri Krishna Committee which will define the contours of data protection and privacy in India for the foreseeable future.

author: Rohith Jyothish


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Nauru bans the Australian Broadcasting Corporation from the Pacific Islands Forum · Global Voices
Mong Palatino

Pacific Island Forum delegates at Marshall islands in 2013. Photo from Facebook page of Pacific Islands Forum Secretariat
The Nauru government has banned Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) from entering the country to cover the Pacific Islands Forum Leaders’ Summit in September. Nauru accused ABC, which is Australia’s public broadcaster, of biased and false reporting.
The summit is an annual gathering of Oceania’s heads of state, where important matters concerning the region are addressed.
On July 2, 2018, the Nauru government issued a statement restricting the number of people who can attend the summit because of “very limited accommodation.” But it singled out ABC and explained why it banned the broadcaster:
…no representative from the Australian Broadcasting Corporation will be granted a visa to enter Nauru under any circumstances, due to this organisation’s blatant interference in Nauru’s domestic politics prior to the 2016 election, harassment of and lack of respect towards our President in Australia, false and defamatory allegations against members of our Government, and continued biased and false reporting about our country. It is our right, as it is the right of every nation, to choose who is allowed to enter.
ABC aired a documentary in 2016 alleging torture and child abuse linked to Australian government's offshore asylum-seeker processing centers, which are managed by Nauru. It also published a report which alleged that Nauru's president and some of his ministers received bribery from an Australian phosphate dealer. Nauru condemned both reports as ‘racist’ and ‘biased political propaganda’.
The small island nation was a mining site for several decades until phosphate deposits were exhausted in the 1980s. It received aid from Australia and hosted an Australian immigration detention facility.
ABC News Director Gaven Morris criticized the decision of Nauru:
The Nauruan Government should not be allowed to dictate who fills the positions in an Australian media pool.
It can hardly claim it is ‘welcoming the media’ if it dictates who that media will be and bans Australia's public broadcaster.
The Nauru government quickly responded by describing the ABC statement as “arrogant, disrespectful and a further example of the sense of entitlement shown by this activist media organisation.” It added:
We remind the ABC that we – like Australia – have every right to refuse a visa to any person or organisation that we believe is not of good character, and that entry into our country is a privilege not a right. The Australian media do not decide who enters Nauru.
Australia’s prime minister said Nauru’s decision was “regrettable” but refused to intervene on behalf of ABC.
The Media, Entertainment & Arts Alliance, an Australian network of media workers, said the government should pursue the issue with Nauru officials:
This is an attack on press freedom that our government needs to condemn in the strongest possible terms. Recognising the sovereignty of another nation does not extend to accepting they have the right to prevent free and open reporting.
Australia’s Federal Parliamentary Press Gallery threatened to boycott the event in Nauru:
If the ban is not reversed, the media pool will be disbanded. If one cannot go, none will go.
We oppose the Nauru edict because it is wrong in this instance and because it sets a dangerous precedent. What other Australians might be banned from a similar group by another government in future? We stand for a free press, not a banned one.
Red Ink of Australia’s Nine Network expressed support to ABC:
ABC is our competitor, and a tough one at that, but there is something bigger at stake here than beating a rival.
The ABC ban was also denounced by other media groups in the region. The New Zealand Parliamentary Press Gallery said:
This decision follows already restrictive conditions, limiting the number of journalists who can attend this important regional summit. While infrastructure constrains play a role in limited pooling numbers, we are appalled by this attempt to control media coverage.
Dan McGarry, the media director of Vanuatu Daily Post, explained why the newspaper will not be sending a delegate to Nauru in September:
I instructed the Daily Post’s editor to withdraw our reporter from the Vanuatu media delegation allotted to covering this event.
This isn’t a self-righteous, moralising action. It’s a survival tactic. If we allow ourselves to get into a situation where our ability to report is predicated on how positive our coverage is, then we can’t do our job.
Pacific Island News Association urged Nauru to reconsider its decision to promote media diversity:
The Pacific is on display and can be proud of its media diversity and efforts to strengthen our communities through dialogue and communication.
The International Federation of Journalists said Nauru has set a dangerous precedent:
Governments, leaders and politicians must remember the role of the media, and not use their powers to control and stifle press freedom. The Nauru Government is setting a dangerous precedent by barring ABC journalists’ from covering the Pacific Island Forum.
The September event hosted by Nauru is the 49th Pacific Islands Forum.

author: Mong Palatino


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These were some of the controversies dominating Mexico’s online space during the presidential race · Global Voices
Global Voices Latin America

“People voting in the Mexico General Election, July 1st, 2018. Mexico City, Mexico.” Photography by ProtoplasmaKid, shared under licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license.
This is the final installment in a series of four pieces dedicated to providing perspective on the context surrounding the recent elections in Mexico. The winner – by a very large margin – was the populist Andrés M. López.
We previously posted about the history of the incipient Mexican democracy, as well as a very short description of the candidates at the time that they registered to run for office. We also discussed some issues that would be faced by the future president. We now address the issue from the perspective of freedom of expression, the questionable use of social networks, and so-called fake news.
Elections fuel emotions in countries all over the world, and naturally, Mexico is no exception to the rule. On social media networks, the presidential election process has left a string of controversies in its wake. Journalist Ricardo Alemán, who was fired from media like Televisa (the dominant Mexican television company) and Milenio (a newspaper with national circulation) for using an expression on Twitter that disgusted the followers of elected president Andrés M. López Obrador, is one glaring example of this. Alemán had shared a tweet that allegedly incited violence against presidential candidate, but said little after that it was actually a warning. The tweet has been deleted since and Alemán issued a public apology.
The dismissal of Ricardo Alemán in May 2018 was widely discussed by local opinion leaders, including columnists Gabriel Guerra and Julio Hernández of “Astillero,” and reported by international media outlets.
Televisa despide a un periodista por “incitar a la violencia” contra candidato presidencial. La cadena mexicana cesó a Ricardo Alemán, que aduce haber sido malinterpretado, por un tuit que parecía incitar al asesinato del candidato López Obrador, que lidera los sondeos para las presidenciales del 1 de julio.
Televisa dismisses journalist for “inciting violence” against presidential candidate. The Mexican channel dismissed Ricardo Alemán, who claims to have been misunderstood, for a tweet that appeared to call for the murder of candidate López Obrador, who leads the polls for the presidential elections on July 1.
In Mexico, a country where constant threats to freedom of expression prompted special coverage by Global Voices, it is not uncommon for journalists to be dismissed from their workplaces for making comments that make powerful people uncomfortable. A notable example is the case of Carmen Aristegui, who was fired for publicly questioning the alleged alcoholism of the president during Felipe Calderón's administration.
Social media sites like Twitter were also fertile ground for the proliferation of bots during this election cycle, and the portal ADNpolítico reported on various mentions of the candidate López Obrador by accounts originating in Russia. The bots in question were sharing messages in favor of this candidate and against the others. Moreover, there were reports of cyber attacks against a debate webpage run by opposing party PAN (National Action Party) in which Juan Manuel López Obrador was accused of corruption. The local news source El Diario de Yucatán reported in the same vein:
Según Manuel Cossío, cuya empresa Radar Digital realiza análisis de redes sociales para políticos y empresarios, el candidato por Morena, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, es el más mencionado por los bots rusos.
According to Manuel Cossío, whose company Radio Digital does social media analyses for politicians and businesses, the Morena party candidate, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, was the most mentioned by Russian bots.
But the use of bots wasn't exclusive to the winning candidate. According to data published by El Economista, other candidates used fake accounts on social networks during their respective campaigns:
Un ejército de bots domina el discurso público en México. Estos programas automatizados que ayudan a amplificar o a silenciar mensajes en redes sociales como Twitter se han convertido en la plaga que infesta buena parte de la comunicación digital de todos los candidatos a la Presidencia de la República.
An army of bots dominates public discourse in Mexico. These automated programs that help amplify or silence messages on social networks like Twitter have become a widespread infestation in the digital communication of all the Mexican presidential candidates.
A notable player in the election was VerificadoMx, an initiative created after the earthquake on September 19, 2017. VerificadoMx seeks to combat the spread of fake news and verify data put out by politicians. NGOs (including Article 19), traditional media sources (like El Universal), and think tanks (SocialTIC and Cencos) joined forces to implement these projects. This link shows various examples of the fake news that were refuted as part of these efforts. Sopitas, a portal that also participated in VerificadoMx, compiled a collection of what it considered the most ridiculous fake news pieces from the elections.
The appearance of tools like VerificadoMx came at a good time, as the Mexican electoral authorities had announced the signing of an agreement with Facebook in February aimed at avoiding the proliferation of so-called fake news. This is something that concerned many who believed it would open up different avenues for censorship. However, when the actual agreement was revealed, it was found to be ambiguous and did not bind Facebook to take any action against users.
In statements collected by the portal Expansión, the work done by VerificadoMx will end in July 2018, but it should be seen as the beginning of an enormous task:
Más allá de ser un movimiento que pueda parecer activismo, VerificadoMX es periodismo y más bien lo que dejará de tarea a los medios existentes es una parte fundamental que se ha perdido en el sector: la verificación de datos.
Beyond being a movement that may seem like activism, VerificadoMX is journalism, and, furthermore, the work it leaves to existing media is a fundamental element that has been lost in the sector: the verification of data.
This concludes the Global Voices series dedicated to providing a general panorama of the Mexican presidential race. On December 1, 2018, Andrés M. López will take office and, in the coming months, we will learn more about his landslide victory and hear from Mexicans who say they are eager for reconciliation after the hectic electoral campaigns.

author: Global Voices Latin America