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Egypt Kills 12 People, Including Eight Mexican Tourists, and Then Makes Excuses for It · Global Voices
Amira Al Hussaini

“Here is the circulating permit reportedly acquired by Windows Of Egypt Tours for the Mexican Tourists,” tweets Sarah El Sirgany (@Ssirgany).
Twelve people, including eight Mexican tourists, were killed when a tourist convoy was attacked by “a plane and helicopters” in the Western Desert, close to the Libyan border. Another 10 people, including more Mexican tourists, were injured in the attack.
Egyptian officials excused the attack saying that the tourists ventured into an off-limits area and were killed by mistake. Claims that the tourists did not have a permit to travel in the region were refuted, when netizens circulated the permit on social media.
According to journalist Louisa Loveluck:
Mexican foreign minister says attack on tourist convoy in Egypt's Western Desert involved “bombs launched by a plane and helicopters.”
— Louisa Loveluck (@leloveluck) September 14, 2015
DC-based analyst Shadi Hamid adds:
Today, Egyptian authorities killed 12 tourists & guides, mistaking them for ISIS, then basically blamed the victims for being in wrong area.
— Shadi Hamid (@shadihamid) September 14, 2015
Information on the incident, which took place last night, remain sketchy, with most of the details coming from Mexican officials. Egyptian Tamer El-Ghobashy notes:
It is telling that the details on the killing of tourists in Egypt are coming from Mexican officials rather than Egyptian authorities
— Tamer El-Ghobashy (@TamerELG) September 14, 2015
Egyptian security forces have been embroiled in fighting militants, some affiliated to ISIS, for years. Hundreds of people, including security and army personnel, have been killed in “anti-terror” operations.
This does not excuse the killing of tourists, while having a picnic, in a popular tourist spot. And understandably, Mexican officials are livid. Mexican President Peña Nieto condemned the attack, and called for an investigation.
Mexican President Peña Nieto condemns what happened in Egypt, calls for a thorough investigation https://t.co/AMdYcN7fQp
— Basil El-Dabh الضبع (@basildabh) September 14, 2015
Mexico's Secretary of Foreign Affairs Claudia Ruiz Massieu makes a similar call:
Mexico's Secretary of Foreign Affairs demands full investigation,explanation from Egypt into deaths of 12 citizens https://t.co/JeU9O81JgA
— Bel Trew – بل ترو (@Beltrew) September 14, 2015
Netizens shook their heads in disbelieve at the excuses made by Egyptian government with regards to the incident.
Journalist Bel Trew tweets:
#Egypt tourism min says Mexican tourists army shot dead were in “unapproved” Safari.Police said their actions were “illegal”.Unbelievable
— Bel Trew – بل ترو (@Beltrew) September 14, 2015
She explains:
Western Desert &Siwa near #Libya border-where #Egypt shot dead 12 tourists includ.Mexicans-is popular holiday spot for safaris #FYI
— Bel Trew – بل ترو (@Beltrew) September 14, 2015
Bahraini Salma Says reacts:
Surreal! A country desperately trying to revive tourism kills 10 tourists and makes excuses for it. Not right, Egypt! http://t.co/Y1VM0UsmQj
— salma (@salmasays) September 14, 2015
And journalist Rawya Rageh concludes that this incident is “a direct outcome of a culture of absolute impunity”:
This can only been seen as a direct outcome of a culture of absolute impunity. #Egypt
— Rawya Rageh (@RawyaRageh) September 14, 2015
Meanwhile, the shooting of tourists leaves Egyptian journalist Mohamed El Dahshan wondering:
THINK: we heard about this botched army raid because some victims were foreigners. How many Egyptians are killed this way in raids in Sinai?
— Mohamed El Dahshan (@eldahshan) September 14, 2015
The pressing question now is why were the tourists killed, in a country which prides as being a mecca for tourists.

author: Amira Al Hussaini


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Learn To Speak English With a ‘Pershian’ Accent · Global Voices
Mahsa Alimardani

A new series is resulting in a lot of laughs across social media.
I can't stop laughing. This is brilliant! – Persian Accent Word Pronounciation https://t.co/dw8HzjsfgJ #Iran #Persian
— Reza H. Akbari (@rezahakbari) September 11, 2015
These eight-to-ten-second videos teach viewers how to pronounce words with a thick and delectable Iranian accent. Learn to pronounce English words in a mock Iranian accent, and say things like “eskool” (school), or “eyes ceream” (ice cream).
And in case you didn't get it the first time, the instructional teacher will repeat the word for you three times with various degrees of emphasis on the Iranian pronunciation of the words’ consonants, vowels and syllables.
The core of the video celebrates just how well Iranians can take a joke, especially about themselves.
The group behind the comedic instructional series is called Accent Cards. Based in Canada, the Iranian member of their collective of five said they wished to remain anonymous because, as they said in an email to Global Voices, “it's not about us, it's about the accents.”
The group consists of what one member explained to be “a Persian, a Russian, an Indian, an Italian, and an Iraqi.”
I love accents, in fact I go out of my way to watch videos of people talking with different accents. The major inspirations for my idea were this video and this one.
That's when I realised how diversely English language is pronounced. This made think about coming up with a way to celebrate all the different ways English is spoken and sharing it. Kind of like a video wikipedia of accents with a hint of comedy.
As a Persian living outside of Iran, I miss speaking Farsi. Whenever I hear someone speak with a Persian accent it makes my day. The Persian accent is beautiful, passionate and funny all at the same time. I love how Persians can take a joke, we can laugh at our own accent and at the same time be proud of it.
I live in Canada and have a very diverse group of friends, so I pitched my idea and formed our team.
Our goal is to upload 1 video a day and expand to other accents (Arabic, Indian, Russian, Italians, French,…) as we go on.
Follow the series and you'll quickly learn ‘Iranian’ is pronounced “Per-shian”

source: news-globalvoices

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

author: Mahsa Alimardani


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Shayloo-Jayloo: A Film Straight from the Heart of Kyrgyz Life · Global Voices
Akhal-Tech Collective

Photo from the filming of Shayloo-Jayloo. Used with permission.
A group of citizens in Kyrgyzstan, the only country in Central Asia where the democratic process still has a home, have created their own film about the crossovers between village life and politics.
Now they want crowd-funded help to hold screenings in the furthest-flung corners of the predominantly rural country.
Shayloo-Jayloo, whose title draws on two notions central to the Kyrgyz experience — ‘elections’ and ‘mountain pastures’ — will premiere on September 24 in the country's two biggest cities, Bishkek and Osh.
Elections to the parliament take place just over a week later on October 4, and the timing of the film's release is not coincidental. Shayloo-Jayloo, which is entirely self-funded, is a film with a message: cast your vote and make it the right one.
Now the film's producers wants to make sure that message is heard in the same place their story is set — the typical Kyrgyz village. To that end they have started a crowd-funding campaign on Indiegogo mostly to cover transport and screening costs in rural locations.
Plot
The comedy-satire is set in a fictional Kyrgyz village. Its plot, according to the makers of the film, is as follows:
The main character of the film returns to his former village after 20 years of living abroad. He and his family left the country at the dawn of perestroika [economic restructuring during the Gorbachev period of the Soviet Union]. After the death of his parents, he wants to say his final goodbye to Kyrgyzstan by selling his parents’ house. In the first few minutes, the young man learns that everything has changed: for one, his village has been renamed, so taxi drivers do not know the old name of his village and cannot understand where our hero wants to go.
After arriving in the village, he learns that his house is inhabited by another family and he must go through a huge amount of bureaucratic pain to restore his right to his property. At the same time he also meets his old friends, who stayed in the village after their graduation from high school. He finds that the carefree youth he enjoyed with them as a child is in sharp contrast to the struggles the village now faces. Nonetheless, the young man falls in love with his village and its people again, and decides to take part in the forthcoming election to the aiyl kenesh (village council) in order to contribute to the struggle for a just society in this small settlement.
A new political party is thus born and the hero begins to wage battle with the powerful aiyl okmotu (village administration), whose chairman creates barriers for him by intimidating, manipulating and trying to bribe his candidates.
But the new party begins to gather unexpected popularity and candidates suddenly find themselves having to prove their “professional competence” to the villagers. Amid a chain of comic and and more serious events, our heroes manage to win the trust of the electorate and become a symbol of the struggle for democracy in a small village. And, of course, the protagonist is persuaded to stay in his village due to a certain love interest…
The trailer of the film can be watched here:
Fundraising goals
Casting for Shayloo-Jayloo began in April and shooting started in May. Filming in mostly rural locations went on for ten weeks and now the group are in post-production.
So far the group has raised $705, just more than enough to cover a screening in one rural location. Only Osh and Bishkek have traditional cinemas, so the screenings will take place in regional ‘culture houses’ of variable capacity.
Photo from the filming of Shayloo-Jayloo. Used with permission.
The ambitious fundraising target is $20,000. While screenings take priority, the group have identified other potential areas for expenditure involving improvements in post-production.
Photo from the filming of Shayloo-Jayloo. Used with permission.
Is Kyrgyzstan really a democracy anyway?
Yes and no. To the uninformed, Kyrgyzstan is just another authoritarian country with a -stan suffix; a perception that has rightfully caused its citizens and leadership offence.
Unlike Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan, whose leaders have ruled over their countries for a combined total of more than 70 years, Kyrgyzstan's fourth president since independence in 1991 has committed to a single six-year term in office which ends in 2017. In contrast to Turkmenistan's president, he has not yet built a golden statue to himself.
Photo from the filming of Shayloo-Jayloo. Used with permission.
But while the country boasts the region's only independent parliament and its freest media, it has numerous other problems. The judiciary comes under pressure from the executive, graft is widespread and state institutions are generally unresponsive to citizens.
Civil society, while vibrant, is in a difficult moment as the parliament debates laws that would label foreign-funded organisations ‘foreign agents’, as in strategic partner Russia. Ethnic and sexual minorities have complained of unfair treatment.
For this reason, it seems important to support grassroots initiatives such as Shayloo-Jayloo that remind citizens what democracy is really about: the people, and their power to create a system that caters to all their needs.
Photo from the filming of Shayloo-Jayloo. Used with permission.

author: Akhal-Tech Collective


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A Hong Kong Business Magnate ‘Runs Away’. Chinese Netizens Ask, Why Shouldn’t He? · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

Li Ka Shing took photo with former Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping in 1990. Screen capture from YouTube.
Top Hong Kong tycoon Li Ka Shing has been slowly relocating his business away from mainland China and Hong Kong since 2013, one year after Henry Tang, a candidate supported by the business sector, lost the city's chief executive election to Leung Chun-ying.
His latest move involves selling off a Shanghai complex for 20 billion yuan (about US $3.14 billion dollars) and offshore company Cheung Kong Infrastructure proposing to take over his Hong Kong-based electric utility Power Assets Holdings, described by South China Morning Post as “the final episode of his well-planned exit from the city.”
Soon after the shuffling was announced, the Chinese government-affiliated policy research organization Outlook Think Tank published an article, “Don't let Li Ka Shing run away”, that criticized the city's business giants for taking benefits from China without fulfilling their social responsibilities, such as leading the business sector to maintain stability in Hong Kong, building economic housing and investing in social enterprises.
Though the article was quickly removed from the site, “Don't let Li Ka Shing run away” has become a hot topic in Chinese social media — but with a twist. The majority of the comments have thrown the question back, asking why Li Ka Shing shouldn't run away.
The self-censored piece pointed out:
众所周知，在中国，地产行业与权力走的很近，没有权力资源，是无法做地产生意的。由此，地产的财富，并非完全来自彻底的市场经济。恐怕不宜想走就走。[…] 低买高卖，确实是市场经济，但是，地产、港口等产业，恰恰是中国最不市场化的产业，没有权力的扶助，哪里来的机会？合作时借权力，卖出时说市场，似乎双重标准，让人难以淡定。
Everyone knows that in China, property developers work with the authorities. Without political resources, they can't do property development. That's why the wealth generated by property development is not from the free market. It is inappropriate for them to leave the country at will […] In the market economy, the logic is to buy at a low price and sell at a high price. However, for property and harbor businesses, these sectors are the least marketed, and without the help of authorities, there won't be any opportunities. You borrow the power in the name of cooperation. But when you sell it, you talk about market. This is double standard and it is not acceptable.
The article further blamed the idea of “Hong Kong people ruling Hong Kong,” included in the Sino-British Joint Declaration that stipulated the terms of the UK handing over its former colony Hong Kong to China in 1997, for creating a super-rich class:
香港四十大家族占据全港三分之二的财富，集中程度非常吓人。[…] “港人治港”的政策，客观上造就了豪族，而在回归之后，这种势力则更是有增无减[…] 为今之计，为争取民心，推动改革 […] 中央政府应权衡利弊，果断抛弃不再有利用价值的香港豪族，平抑豪族，扶持农工，在政治上，推动社会阶层的扁平化，在经济上，发展多元产业，防止一业独大。
Forty families in Hong Kong are in possession of two-thirds of the city's wealth. The level of concentration is appalling. […] “Hong Kong people ruling Hong Kong” has created a super-rich class and such a trend has become more obvious after reunification with China. […] The only solution is to win the people's support with reform […] The central government should evaluate the situation and abandon the super-rich class, suppress their power and give benefits to ordinary people. Politically speaking, society has to be equalized, and economically speaking, the city has to be diversified and prevent the monopoly of a single industry.
This is not the first time Chinese state-affiliated organs have criticized Li Ka Shing. In early January, Global Times ran an editorial urging the public not to be intimidated by Li's plan to withdraw capital investment from China.
As a top leader in the business sector, Li has been a key person in the Chinese Communist Party's United Front Work and he has many personal connections with the party's executives, including the late Deng Xiaoping, the engineer of China's liberal economic reforms. The open criticism of Li hence signifies a change to state policy in Hong Kong.
Though the article is right to point out the wealth disparity problem in Hong Kong and traces its roots to the collusion of government and business, many have found the prescription of “suppressing the rich, buying the support of the ordinary people, strengthening party-state legitimacy” (打压富豪，收买底层，扩大政权根基) reminiscent of the class-struggle campaigns during the anti-rightist movement in China and the Cultural Revolution.
In the headline news of China's Twitter-like Weibo, the majority of Chinese netizens gave a thumbs down to the think tank's article. Below is a selective translation of some typical comments in the news thread:
冬江水冷鸭先知。意识形态左转，香港政改泡汤，李先生感到不踏实。36计，走为上
The ducks are the first animals to feel the cold temperature in a winter river. Ideological left-turn, the failure of Hong Kong electoral reform. Mr. Li feels unease about all these and has to go.
再不撤资 就要被共产了….
If he doesn't leave [China], his money will be confiscated by the communists…
没几年马云都会跑
In a couple of years, [China's biggest online shopping platform Alibaba founder] Jack Ma will run away as well.
不是说好了依法治国吗？李嘉诚的公司如果在大陆经营过程中如果有行贿逃税等违法行为，依法查处就是了，既不敢查怕牵扯出某些得罪不起的大人物，又不爽老李在老李在内地捞了那么多拍拍屁股就走的行为，只能喊两句早已过时惹人笑话的口号了！
Where has the rule of law gone? If Li Ka Shing has committed tax evasion or corruption while doing business in China, just use the law. You just dare not dig up [the corruption committed by] those big brothers affiliated with Li, but at the same time frustrated by Li's running away with that much gain. The political slogans sound more like jokes.
这些文章确实代表的是官方的意思。只看这文章，就说明李跑对了！还有很多人要跑
This article represents the official view. Upon reading it, Li is making the right decision to run away. Many have to run away too.

author: Oiwan Lam


text:
As Japan’s Largest Volcano Erupts, Tourists Upload Snapshots to Instagram · Global Voices
Nevin Thompson

Caption: “Ash launched 2,000 meters into the atmosphere. Eruptions expected to continue, with volcanic projectiles expected to be ejected at least 1 kilometer.” Screencap from ANN News official YouTube channel.
Mount Aso, Japan's largest volcano, suddenly erupted at approximately 9:40 a.m. on Monday, September 14. This is the first time in 36 years that it has erupted.
Video of the eruption was captured by cameras installed in the parking lot of an observation area overlooking the volcano.
Located on the western island of Kyushu about 1,200 km from Tokyo, Mount Aso boasts one of the largest calderas in the world. The 120-kilometer circumference of its caldera is home to towns, farms and resort areas frequented by tourists from all over the world.
The eruptions forced tourists to evacuate, but not before they posted some spectacular photos to Instagram.
We are safe!!! Dont worry!! Thanks to   #mountaso #onceinalifetime #activevolcano #emergency #volcanoerupted #ash #fullofash #darksky #run #activevolcano #volcano
A photo posted by Lex (@lex_lexxie) on
The eruption could be seen from all over the lowlands surrounding Mount Aso's volcanic cone.
#mountaso #kumamoto #japan
A photo posted by Oui Xiah (@oui115) on
Ash also drifted over the communities that reside within the caldera.
灰がぽとぽと音を立て降って来たよ
A photo posted by なんくる裕一 (@usotukiyu1) on
Ash fell like raindrops [all over my car]. Gulp!
Many visitors from other countries uploaded photos to Instagram of the eruption, including this tour group from Taiwan:
見證奇蹟的時刻！
A video posted by Penrod Hong (@poohhong) on
This is like witnessing a miracle.
Instagram user aokaeru made a number of posts to Instagram featuring spectacular video of the eruption:
#volcano #japan #kyushu #eructation #eruption #explosion #selfie #earth #angry #阿蘇山 #火山 #熊本 #噴火 #mountain #yesweather
A video posted by Yasutoshi Tomita (@aokaeru) on
aokaeru quickly became an Instagram hit, and was approached by several different news organizations wanting to know if they could use his video.
#volcano #japan #kyushu #eructation #eruption #explosion #selfie #earth #angry #阿蘇山 #火山 #熊本 #噴火 #mountain #yesweather
A video posted by Yasutoshi Tomita (@aokaeru) on
Photos of the eruption were uploaded in real time.
#阿蘇山#爆発#阿蘇中岳#火山#噴火#活火山#火山灰#噴發#今天早上#activevolcano #kumamoto#aso#explosion#MtAso#volcano#今朝#thismorning#20150914 撮影した従弟もびっくり
A photo posted by taka t (@umaoi) on
My cousin was also freaked out when he saw the eruption.
While an area measuring 4 kilometers around the eruption has been declared off-limits, the people that live within the caldera have no easy way to protect their homes in the event of a larger eruption.
熊本到着 阿蘇噴火して…る？
A photo posted by momoko noguchi (@nogmomo) on
I just arrived in Kumamoto, and Mount Aso seems to be… erupting?
Locals will have to learn to live with clouds of ash for the foreseeable future.
1979年9月以来36年ぶりの火砕流らしい
A photo posted by なんくる裕一 (@usotukiyu1) on
This is the first time Mount Aso has erupted since 1979.
This aerial view shows just how large Mount Aso's caldera is.
Mt.Aso 2012/12/13 #aso #volcano #JAPAN #Kumamoto #kyusyu #DHC8 #DHC8Q400 #JAL #FUK #KMI #mountain
A photo posted by rei (@sekinerei) on
Oiwan Lam contributed to this article.

author: Nevin Thompson


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‘Beyond a Simple Solidarity’: Portugal’s New Donation Drive for Syrian Refugees in Hungary · Global Voices
Manuel Ribeiro

Screenshot from Facebook
Following the tragic discovery of Alan Kurdi, the refugee boy found dead on a beach, people in Lisbon have organized a campaign to collect goods for the thousands of refugees now held in Hungary. On the campaign's Facebook page, visitors find this introduction to the project:
A imagem de Aylan Kurdi despertou o mundo para esta crise.
Esta iniciativa tem o nome dele e deve-lhe grande parte da inspiração.
Esta caravana de vários veículos é uma iniciativa da sociedade civil e pretende levar aos refugiados na Hungria, comida, roupa, brinquedos, produtos de higiene pessoal e vários bens de primeira necessidade.
Será uma sólida demonstração da solidariedade do Povo Português.
Alan Kurdi's image awaked the world to this humanitarian crisis. This initiative has this boy's name and owes its inspiration to him. The convoy with several cars its an initiative of civil society wishing to take food, clothes, toys, and essentials to the refugees now held in Hungary. It is a demonstration of the Portuguese people's solidarity.
The campaign's popularity has spread quickly in Portugal, even gaining the attention of the country's mainstream media, which expanded the project's visibility and helped bring in more donations.
Campaign organizers in the media. Photo: Facebook (used with permission).
The donations drive started spontaneously, organizers say. Storage and delivery have been settled along the way, as various businesses have stepped up to shoulder some of the costs. “It started with five vans and it's already reached 15,” organizers have told the Portuguese media, saying they also managed to get one big truck to drive to Hungary. The convoy is scheduled to set out by September 18 and arrive in Hungary by September 20.
Currently, organizers are focusing on coordinating the logistics of arranging collection points for the convoy, on its way to the refugees. The trucks will pass through cities like Porto, in the north of the country, Leiria centre, and Lisbon, where the warehouses are. The goods being collected are clothes, toys, food, and first aid.
Organizers are also asking for volunteers to help with the logistics and volunteer as drivers. They're also receiving help from private companies, which are providing logistical support:
Ponto de situação: Podem continuar a recepção das doações em vossas casas e nos vossos locais de trabalho.
. Várias IPSS, empresas e organizações estão a receber as doações.
. A partir de segunda temos carrinhas ligeiras para iniciar a recolha, basta enviarem morada e descrição da mercadoria com fotos de preferência.
. Já temos o apoio de várias grandes empresas Portuguesas, tanto para doar bens como para a logística de armazenamento e transporte.
. Vamos ter 3 armazéns, Porto, Leiria e Lisboa onde vamos concentrar os bens.
. Mantemos o prazo de partida para Sexta 18.
Mais uma vez obrigado a todos.
Situation status: Keep collecting donations at your home and work. Several companies and institutions are collecting donations too. Starting from Monday [September 14] we start collecting it with the vans, please sen the addresses for us to collect it. We also have now the support of big Portuguese companies either for donations and to help with the logistics like storing and transport. We will have 3 warehouses in Porto, Leiria, and Lisbon where everything will be stored. We keep the deadline to leave next Friday the 18th. Once again, thank you all.
Global Voices spoke to Maria Miguel Ferreira, who volunteers with the project. Maria says the campaign's current plans might change at the very last moment, once these vans and trucks arrive in Hungary:
Estamos em contacto com várias ONG na Hungria, estamos a identificar zonas de passagem nas fronteiras com outros países, mas as ONG actualizam-nos numa base diária sobre onde se pode aceder e aquilo de que precisam. Por esse motivo, a decisão das zonas dentro da Hungria onde nos vamos dirigir e das ONG com que vamos interagir só será tomada mais próximo da data de chegada.
We are in contact with several NGOs in Hungary, identifying passage ways at the border with neighboring countries. The NGOs at the region are sending us daily updates about where we can pass through and also what they need the most. For that reason, we can only decide where the caravan will end closest to the arrival date and according to the NGOs’ indication.
When asked what the campaign's plans are for the future, after this first convoy, Maria said organizers are “focusing on this caravan for the time being.”
In the meantime, donors are taking photos of their donations before delivering the goods to the collection points. The image below, left by a mother named Xana Alves, includes the following message:
Tudo empacotado! Agora vamos passar num dos pontos de recolha Aylan Kurdi Caravan.
Pode não parecer muito, mas achamos que este gesto faz com que os nossos filhos cresçam a perceber que fazer pelos outros vai muito para além do “post solidário” nas redes sociais. Sem querer ser moralista. Só para partilhar convosco.
All packed! Now we are going to take it to one of the collecting points of Alan Kurdi Caravan. It might not be much, but we want our kids to see it and grow their understanding that helping others goes beyond a simple solidarity post on social network. I don't want to be a moralist, though. Only to share with all of you.
Photo: Xana Alves / Facebook
Earlier this month, the bodies of refugees Alan Kurdi, 3, and his brother Galip, 5, washed up on the beach of the Turkish holiday resort of Bodrum. Images of their remains made global headlines and prompted an outpouring of sympathy for the Syrian refugees now pouring into Europe.
Este es el homenaje de arena al pequeño #AylanKurdi en la playa http://t.co/TbdLYRYTav pic.twitter.com/UvmWgGyIDU
— El Popular (@elpopular_pe) September 8, 2015
This is a sand sculpture to honor toddler Alan Kurdi on the beach.

author: Manuel Ribeiro


text:
Iran’s Hardline Supreme Council on Cyberspace Consolidates Power Over Internet Policymaking · Global Voices
Center for Human Rights in Iran

On September 5, 2015, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei re-appointed the members of the Supreme Council of Cyberspace for another four-year term. Image from ICHRI.
This post originally appeared on iranhumanrights.org and is published here in collaboration with the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran.
Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei has elected to shift authority over national Internet policy to the country’s Supreme Cyberspace Council, a move that will consolidate Internet policy decision-making power under the government's most conservative branch.
Previously, multiple state bodies were involved in making Internet policy, allowing for diverse power centers—including those controlled by the more moderate Rouhani administration—to weigh in on Internet decisions.
The decision may bode poorly for digital rights in Iran: the Council, while chaired by President Rouhani, reports directly to Khamenei. A majority of its members are appointed by the Supreme Leader, who has said he believes the Internet is “used by the enemy to target Islamic thinking.” The Supreme Council of Cyberspace directs the filtering of the Internet in Iran and determines which websites should be blocked. At present, Iran is second only to China in the number of sites it has blocked.
“This decision will give a free pass to security agencies to block any site—or go after any individual—that challenges the official line,” said Hadi Ghaemi, executive director of the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran.
The decision to consolidate Internet policy making power in the Supreme Cyberspace Council comes within the context of a growing struggle between hardliners who want to severely restrict Internet access, and moderates who argue greater Internet access is necessary for modern commercial, academic, and professional activities.
Membership of the Council is comprised of either individuals directly appointed by Khamenei or members of relevant government ministries and organizations. The combined number of individuals who are directly appointed by Khamenei, as opposed to members of the elected government, gives the Supreme Leader an unbreakable majority over the council.
In a re-appointment letter on Khamenei’s website, he also announced three new members to the Supreme Cyberspace Council, of which two, Reza Taghipour and Seyed Ezatollah Zarghami have been sanctioned by both the US and the EU for human rights violations.
The change, introduced via an announcement posted on Khamenei’s website on September 5, 2015, will effectively cut the Rouhani administration out of Internet policy making.
Since Rouhani's election in 2013, the Ministry of Information and Communications has played an important role trying to advance Internet access in Iran and has at times pushed back against hardliners. In June 2014, Rouhani refused to implement orders by the Working Group to Determine Instances of Criminal Content, another state body that has been involved in Internet filtering decisions and which works under the Supreme Council, to block the instant messaging service WhatsApp.
The country's approach to Internet filtering has also been a source of tension between moderates and hardliners, who have consistently advocated blanket blocking of sites with objectionable content. The Rouhani administration has argued that a more selective style of “smart filtering,” in which only objectionable content is blocked, would be sufficient to weed out offensive material, allowing sites to otherwise operate as usual. Despite technical challenges that this presented, Rouhani's position on the matter reflected a greater degree of flexibility regarding online content than his more conservative counterparts.
On September 6, 2015, one day after Khamenei’s letter was posted, the Deputy Prosecutor for Cyberspace Affairs Abdolsamad Khorramabadi told Fars News Agency:
Foreign cell phone messaging networks such as WhatsApp, Viber, and Telegram…[provide] grounds for widespread espionage by foreign states on the citizens’ communications [and] have turned into a safe bed for cultural invasion and organized crime.
Khorramabadi argued that all social networks “affiliated…to hostile states and foreign intelligence services” should be completely blocked.
He and other officials have also argued that only those social networks that agree to locate their servers inside Iran be allowed to operate. So far no global company has agreed to this proposal. Such a move could bring severe reputational costs to any company, as placing servers inside Iran would allow state authorities access to content flowing across them and potentially endanger user security and privacy.
Khorramabadi also told Fars that Iran’s domestic social networks should be strengthened so that the country’s users would migrate to them. Duplicating global Internet services and applications with government-produced versions that covertly provide the authorities with backdoor access to the accounts has been central to state efforts to covertly monitor online content, and to identify and prosecute online activists.
Hardliners and moderates also clash over providing access to high speed Internet. For years, the authorities slowed the Internet to render it effectively unusable, particularly for mobile phone use. Rouhani’s decision to approve the granting of licenses for 3G and 4G networks in April 2014 was seen as a major advance for mobile Internet access. However, the state broadcasting agency, Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB), has refused to grant the frequency necessary for nationwide access to 3G and 4G services, limiting their coverage. The head of IRIB is appointed by Khamenei and reports directly to him.
Meanwhile, the authorities’ assault on Internet users continues unabated. On August 30, 2015, Judiciary spokesperson Gholamhossein Mohseni-Ejei reported the imprisonment of four individuals who posted “insulting” content in cyberspace, the latest in a long line of arrests and prosecution of Internet professionals and social media users.
In addition, the Tehran Police Commander Hossein Sajedinia told the official Iranian Student News Agency (ISNA) on September 6, 2015, that over the last five months, Iran’s Fata Cyber police had closed 272 Internet cafes and issued warnings to another 847.
“Khamenei believes if he can maintain control over the Internet, he can maintain control over the citizenry. But with more than half of Iran’s 80 million people online, that train has already left the station.” Ghaemi said.

author: Center for Human Rights in Iran


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Saudi King Pays a Short Visit to an Iranian Victim of the Mecca Crane Incident · Global Voices
Mahsa Alimardani

The Saudi King visited an Iranian victim of the Mecca crane incident in hospital. Screenshot of video from Zaid Benjamin's Twitter.
Saudi Arabia and Iran are known regional rivals. Many antagonisms exist between the two countries, both between their governments and their citizens. Despite this, Saudi King Salman paid a visit to one of the Iranian victims of this past weekend's Mecca crane incident, which killed 107 people and injured 238 others on Friday.
According to journalist Zaid Benjamin:
#Saudi King Salman visits an Iranian woman wounded in the towering crane incident in #Mecca pic.twitter.com/7wTNJMQJV7
— Zaid Benjamin (@zaidbenjamin) September 12, 2015
Eight Iranian pilgrims were killed in the incident, including space scientist Dr Ahmad Hatami, and 38 others were injured, reported the Fars News Agency.
In recent months, tensions have significantly arisen between Iran and Saudi Arabia in light of the Saudi campaign against the Houthi rebels in Yemen. Saudi Arabia accuses Iran of arming the rebels, while Iran firmly denies this. In the midst of these tensions, two Iranian teenagers travelling home through the Jeddah airport were sexually assaulted by members of the airport staff this past April.
In reaction, Iran temporarily halted all pilgrimages between Iran and Saudi Arabia, while protesters gathered outside the Saudi Embassy in Tehran demanding the executions of the airport staff in protest.
Each year about 500,000 Iranian pilgrims make the Umra to Mecca. Pilgrimages from Iran to Mecca resumed shortly after the April sexual assault incident.
Reactions on social media to the King's visit to the Iranian woman have been mixed, from criticism of how short the visit was, to praise of the King's human gesture.
Iranian Maria Afsharian comments:
@zaidbenjamin That was kinda of a short visit. — Maria Afsharian (@MariaAfsharian) September 13, 2015
Persian Steel snaps:
@zaidbenjamin im sure he then orderd his officers to rape them as the saudi officers did in jeddah airport to 2 boys!
— Persian Steel (@PersianSteel) September 14, 2015
And Bou_CA describes the visit as a PR exercise:
@zaidbenjamin @green_lemonnn A well prepared PR…
— Bou_CA (@bou_ca) September 12, 2015
For others, including Nouf Al Abdullah, from Jordan, the visit showed the Saudi king as “real man”:
@zaidbenjamin @Aljbreen this king is a real man❤ — Mrs.Aldawood (@NoufAlabdullah3) September 13, 2015
Shahir Al-Othman, from Jordan, also shares some praise:
@zaidbenjamin This king is an honest brave man. Jordanian bedouins love him. — Shahir Al-Othman (@shahir_alothman) September 12, 2015


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Why the Start-Up Pitch in Zimbabwe Is a ‘Waste of Time’ · Global Voices
Ndesanjo Macha

Chief K.Masimba Biriwasha, a communications officer for HIVOS (full disclosure: HIVOS is one of Global Voices’ sponsors) explains why Zimbabwe must ditch the start-up pitch:
The start-up pitch, which involves making a rapid fire presentation of an idea followed by a question and answer session involving selected judges, is increasingly a waste of time and non-efficient in propagating the tech start up ecosystem in Zimbabwe.
The start-up pitch is based on the traditional business planning methodology and ignores the fact that start-ups are in essence an exercise in exploration, that cannot in an way provide full proof answers. One of the most mundane questions asked at start up pitches is: how will you make money? Really? Not all ideas are geared at making dollar bills from word go. The right question is how is your idea of service and how are you planning to grow it in that manner.
Understandably, tech entrepreneurship is a hit-or-miss proposition but using pitching as a determinant of entrepreneurial success especially in a tech deficient context like Zimbabwe is simply a wastage of time, passions and resources.
The reason why the pitch model is favoured is that it allows for the evaluation of a large number of ideas in a short period of time. But in sifting through many ideas in a short time, a lot is missed that is key to making an entrepreneurial idea succeed particularly in the Zimbabwean context where a lot of data that is key to the tech ideas is missing.

author: Ndesanjo Macha


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Turkey’s ‘Kurdish Question’ on Fire Again · Global Voices
Ruwayda Mustafah

Aerial shot of Cizre, Turkey. Wiki image.
In the last two weeks Turkish authorities have imposed, lifted, reimposed and lifted once more a curfew on the Kurdish-populated town of Cizre on the Syrian border, close to where the brutal ISIS group has conquered swathes of Middle Eastern territory.
The curfews were introduced to combat the activities of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), that Ankara once declared a tenuous truce with, but which has re-emerged as an enemy in recent months.
During the imposed curfew on Cizre town, at least 21 civilians were killed according to the Pro-Kurdish People's Democratic Party (HDP).
A curfew has been in place in the province of #Cizre last week where 21 civilians have been killed #CizreUnderAttack pic.twitter.com/5WewE2LvQ5
— HDP English (@HDPenglish) September 10, 2015
The government says all the dead were militants fighting for the PKK.
In a General Election in June, HDP passed the parliamentary threshold, taking over 13% of the vote and stripping the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) of its precious parliamentary majority.
The parties remaining in the parliament could not secure a coalition agreement and, as a result, snap elections were scheduled for November 1.
Shortly after the June elections, a suicide-bomb attack on July 20 killed 32 people in the town of Suruc, most of them young Kurdish activists coordinating efforts to deliver aid to the people of the Kurdish-populated Syrian town of Kobane, who have been battered by fighting between local militias and ISIS.
This caused outrage and strengthened accusations that AKP was at best a passive force in the struggle against ISIS, who are believed to have been behind the Suruc attack.
Collage of Suruc victims, tweeted by @SarkawtShams on July 22nd.
Following the bombing, the PKK reacted by killing two Turkish soldiers.
In response, the Turkish government bombed both ISIS and PKK strongholds in Iraq. The attacks on the PKK were the first since late 2012, when a peace-process was in place.
Inside Turkey, political tensions have continued to escalate, with reports of widespread attacks on the offices of HDP.
The party's headquarters in Ankara were set ablaze, as were several other offices throughout the country.
VIDEO – Turkey: Nationalist protesters destroy pro-Kurdish HDP headquarters in Ankara http://t.co/1MfqLSni9T pic.twitter.com/xcooHcTDdn
— FRANCE 24 English (@France24_en) September 9, 2015
Despite this, a delegation from HDP headed towards Cizre, attempting to bring an end to the curfew.
Here are some photos from the march: pic.twitter.com/CXMEL4MYcw
— HDP English (@HDPenglish) September 9, 2015
During this period of instability and conflict, several journalists have been deported, including the Dutch freelance journalist Frederike Geerdink, for reporting on Kurdish issues.

author: Ruwayda Mustafah


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Veteran Thai Journalist Detained After ‘Attitude-Adjustment’ · Global Voices
Mong Palatino

Thai journalist Pravit Rojanaphruk speaking at the 2015 Oslo Freedom Forum. He is also featured in the background photo, taken during an anti-Junta protest demanding free speech protections in Thailand. Photo by Julia Reinhart, copyright @Demotix (5/26/2015)
Thailand’s army detained veteran journalist and Junta critic Pravit Rojanapruk last Sunday for allegedly posting information online that “disturbed peace and order” in the country.
Pravit is a senior reporter for The Nation, a leading English language daily in Thailand. He is also a known critic of the National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO), the civilian government established by the army which took power through a coup in May 2014.
This is the second time that Pravit has been held incommunicado by the army. With his first “invitation” to visit an army camp, in June 2014, he spent seven days in detention.
On Twitter, Pravit informed the public that an army officer visited his house last Saturday:
At 12.35 two military officers visited my resident while I was away. Junta have my # so they can always call. Not running away. #Thailand
— Pravit Rojanaphruk (@PravitR) September 12, 2015
Before his detention, Pravit tweeted the need to defend freedom in the country:
Freedom can't be maintained if we're not willing to defend it. #Thailand #ป
— Pravit Rojanaphruk (@PravitR) September 13, 2015
Junta spokesman Col. Winthai Suvaree confirmed that Pravit is being questioned for “presentation of information that does not comply with our measures for maintaining peace and order.” He added:
Right now, he is being processed by security officers. How long it’s going to take depends on the result of the interrogation and his cooperation.
The army’s term for this process is “attitude adjustment” which aims to persuade the accused to understand the role the army plays in preserving stability in society. In another news report, the army insisted that Pravit is being detained not as a journalist but as an individual who posted misleading information about the government on his Facebook page.
Pravit's detention marks yet another instance in which the current government has sought to limit public criticism by journalists and human rights workers in the wake of the 2014 coup. In April of 2015, legislators passed a national security law that appoints “peace and order maintenance officers” from the ranks of the military who possess sweeping powers to defend the security of the state. These army personnel can search homes, summon and arrest troublemakers, confiscate properties, and detain suspected individuals in special premises for up to seven days even without judicial authority. The law also directly affects free speech. Article 5 reads:
Peacekeeping Officers are empowered to issue orders prohibiting the propagation of any item of news or the sale or distribution of any book or publication or material likely to cause public alarm or which contains false information likely to cause public misunderstanding to the detriment of national security or public order. (Unofficial translation by iLaw, the Freedom of Expression Documentation Center)
A coalition of local media associations publicly condemned the law, calling it a “greater threat to press freedom and freedom of expression” than Martial Law, which was imposed from May 2014 – April 2015.
Pravit’s friends and free speech advocates are urgently demanding his release. The Nation’s Editor-in-Chief Thepchai Yong submitted a letter to the NCPO:
There is no justification whatsoever for his detention. If the military believes he has done something wrong, there are normal legal channels to deal with it.
Thai Lawyers for Human Rights noted that aside from Pravit, two other critics of the junta were arrested by the army. The group said this practice is unlawful:
Stop summoning a person to report themselves and stop detaining a person simply because of their political criticisms or their criticisms of the performance of the government. It is an act of persecution against political dissents and an unlawful act indeed.
The Thai Journalists Association reminded the government that its actions are already undermining the people’s rights:
As a journalist, Pravit Rojanaphruk, who is being detained, must have examined and criticised the work of the government. Keeping him in detention without any formal charge or clarification was against the principles of freedom of the press and the people's basic rights according to the Article 4 of the Interim Constitution.
Foreign Correspondents’ Club of Thailand also supports the call for Pravit’s release:
The detention of journalists or anyone else for the peaceful expression of their views violates Thailand's obligations under international human rights law. We urge the NCPO to release Pravit Rojanapruk immediately. His place of detention should also be immediately made public.
And Reporters Without Borders warned that Pravit’s detention could lead to media self-censorship:
If the National Council for Peace and Order thinks he has committed a crime, it must refer the matter to the judicial authorities, who will announce what he is charged with and not hold him incommunicado without a valid reason. This is the behaviour of a dictatorship that is trying to intimidate independent journalists and encourage media self-censorship.

author: Mong Palatino


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What Does ISIS Want From Central Asia? · Global Voices
Zukhra Iakupbaeva

ISIS graffiti. Photo by Thierry Ehrmann. Photo taken in France. Used for representational purposes only. Flickr.
The radical group ISIS is a buzzword in Central Asia, where local governments portray it as an imminent security threat, despite the organisation's central command rarely making reference to the ex-Soviet, majority-Muslim region.
Estimates of the number of citizens from Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan currently fighting for ISIS, a brutal Al Qaeda off-shoot which now controls half of Syria and giant swathes of Iraq, vary from several hundred to several thousand.
Since news of citizens leaving their country to fight there first became known after the onset of the Syrian civil war, ISIS rapidly displaced Hizb ut-Tahrir and the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU) as the most talked-up extremist organisation in Central Asia.
But just as analysts are divided as to the reasons Central Asians join ISIS, there is little evidence of an overall game plan towards the region on the part of the group.
While scribes argue and regional officials muddy the water by grouping all threats under the ISIS umbrella, what few clues there are lie with videos attributed to the radical group featuring citizens from the region.
Phoning home?
On July 25, Furat media, an ISIS media wing centred on the countries of the former Soviet Union, released ‘Message to the People of Kyrgyzstan’, a video with a man speaking in the Kyrgyz language and calling Kyrgyz to join ISIS. The man was later identified as a resident of the southern region of Jalalabad who left for a country presumed to be Syria by way of Moscow.
In the video he decried democracy as “law made by humans” and called on fellow citizens to “move from the country of infidels to the land of the Islamic State.”
An anonymous source who later contacted the local media outlet Kloop.kg identified the speaker in the video as “Ulan”, a man in his late 20s, who was “not very communicative” when they went to school together. The source said that he had spent time in Egypt and had spoken Arabic — a language unknown to most Kyrgyz — from a young age.
While the now-deleted footage bears the Furat logo, it lacks the special effects and violence of other some ISIS videos produced via the channel. The question remains as to whether all of the channel's output is tightly controlled by ISIS’ PR team, or whether it is something of an ‘open mic’ for fighters looking to preach jihad back to their home audiences.
John Heathershaw, a British academic who has cautioned against sensationalising the ISIS threat towards Central Asia, told Kloop:
Presumably, the people behind the message are Kyrgyz, who are led to believe that they will be able to spread the [so-called] caliphate as far as Kyrgyzstan.
The relationship between the state and religion in Tajikistan remains one of the most fractious in the region. Praying in the streets is banned, the government is waging war against the hijab and local police officers occasionally stop observant Muslims in the street to shave their beards.
On May 28, Furat released a video featuring a Tajik police chief, Gulmurod Halimov, who defected from the country to join ISIS. In the 12-minute long video-message, Halimov railed against the state's anti-religious policies and called on Tajiks working as migrants in Russia — “slaves” — to join ISIS in the Middle East.
A blogger, Akmal Rustami, commented on the popular Tajik blog-platform, Blogiston.tj:
Целевая аудитория Видео — обращения направлена на трудовых мигрантов которые работают в Российской Федерации а также на обычных молодых неграмотных людей Таджикистана.
The target audience of this video is migrant workers who work in the Russian Federation as well as ordinary, young, uneducated people in Tajikistan.
Given Halimov's high rank, his defection represented a great PR opportunity for the group. Clearly on this occasion, Furat made sure production was tight:
This is the most well-made film of a Tajik IS fighter. Unsurprisingly, they have quickly used Halimov for recruitment purposes
— Edward Lemon (@EdwardLemon3) May 28, 2015
ISIS’ first official video referencing citizens of Central Asia was in November 2014, when a boy that appears to be a young teenager speaking in Kazakh and referring himself to Abdullah threatens to kill non-believers.
In a follow up video in January, the same boy seemingly shoots two alleged Russian spies. Kloop, which bucked the general trend among regional media by covering both videos, was blocked in Kazakhstan and briefly de-hosted in Kyrgyzstan.
Like the Gulmurod Halimov clip, Abdullah the child soldier was picked up by media across the world, and was clearly intended for an audience beyond Central Asia. The same cannot be said about a second clip featuring Halimov, which one analyst notes has a much more personal feel and “lacks the high-tech editing and graphics seen in his first clip”.
Specifically, Halimov threatens to cut off his brother's head for siding with the Tajik government rather than joining ISIS.
Surplus labour
ISIS has made comparatively limited inroads into the region in terms of recruitment — proportionally a Kyrgyz citizen is no more likely to fight for ISIS than a French one and several times less likely than a Lebanese — but with a fast growing population the region has strong potential to supply the organisation.
Most Central Asians who do leave to join ISIS in Syria do so by way of Russia and Turkey. On July 30, for instance, Russia's Federal Security Bureau FSB announced they had stopped a Kyrgyz citizen leaving the country to join ISIS. Many more have slipped through the net.
To Central Asians the journey to Russia is a habit. According to statistics from the Federal Migration Service over 2.5 million citizens of Uzbekistan work there, more than a million from Tajikistan and over half a million Kyrgyzstanis. Illegal migrants are not included in the figure.
For years, citizens from the region have been filling gaps in the Russian economy, which suffers a top-heavy demographic pyramid and a shortage of labour. In their home republics unemployment and underemployment are widespread.
All of this makes the region an untapped mine for recruitment. Even if the caliphate never gets near Central Asia, Central Asian fighters could play a growing role expanding its boundaries in the Middle East.

author: Zukhra Iakupbaeva


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Refugees Met with Generosity and Suspicion in France · Global Voices
Rakotomalala

Demonstrations in large European cities in favor of refugees (various sources)
Hundreds of thousands of Europeans took to the streets in the continent's urban centers on 12 September 2015 to show their solidarity with the steady stream of refugees who cross the Mediterranean on makeshift boats.
The reception of the refugees, fleeing conflict in Syria, Afghanistan and other countries in Africa and the Middle East, is organized in different ways throughout Europe. National policies vary by country among politicians as well as among volunteer organizations. Despite harmonization efforts between countries of the European Union, the disparity in welcoming measures between the countries is obvious: Germany anticipates welcoming 98,700 Syrian refugees in 2015 (and 500,000 per year over the next few years), while France anticipates 6,700 in 2015 (and 24,000 over the next two years), and the United Kingdom 7,000 (20,000 over the next five years).
Data on the refugees in Europe. Red dots indicate asylum applications from 2011 to 2014 (sources: The Economist and The Independent)
Citizens’ initiatives are also increasing in all countries committed to solidarity with the refugees. In Iceland, 10,000 Icelanders created a Facebook page and launched a petition to welcome the refugees. In Germany, a group of citizens launched the platform “Refugees Welcome” that consolidates households wishing to share their homes with refugees. Many fundraisers were set up to bring food to the migrants.
In France, one of the initiatives is that of SINGA, which describes itself as a “community of human beings hoping to better know and better understand each other.” SINGA launched project CALM (Comme à La Maison, or “Like at home”) that consists of a platform connecting all households wishing to welcome refugees in France. SINGA also explains that:
“Bedroom available at your place? Host a refugee.” Project CALM's logo
Ce réseau permet la mise en relation entre des réfugiés mal logés ou sans domicile fixe et des particuliers. Pour cela, il s’appuie sur une communauté grandissante de citoyens souhaitant s’engager sur l’accueil des réfugiés et, à terme, sur une plateforme web qui permettra un impact plus important. Ce dispositif doit répondre, au-delà de l’hébergement, au besoin important et grandissant d’inclusion socio-professionnelle.
This network makes partnerships between homeless refugees or those living in substandard accommodations and private individuals possible. It relies on a growing community of citizens wishing to commit to hosting refugees and on an online platform that will allow for a more important impact. This plan must respond, beyond accommodations, to the important and growing need of socio-professional inclusion.
To do this, the association created an online form for people to register as potential hosts.
The site's online release consolidated a map of all the associations assisting refugees in France, allowing them to work locally throughout the territory.
Associations assisting refugees in France via the online release
A large part of the population, however, at one point viewed the arrival of refugees with suspicion. An Odoxa survey conducted 5 September showed that 55% of French people were against France “following Germany's lead in ignoring European Union refugee rules (i.e. deport them back to their port of entry) for Syrians specifically and relaxing the conditions for granting refugee status to asylum-seekers” (This is the exact terms that  the Odoxa survey used to pose the question). This percentage has allegedly changed over the last few days, as now more than 50% of French citizens are in favor of more lax policies, probably because of heightened awareness of the plight refugees and rising number of children's deaths at sea.
Isabelle, a Paris resident, explains that she does not always understand the difference in terminology:
Migrants”, “réfugiés”, “immigrés”, la distinction n'est pas toujours évidente. Il faudrait d'abord qu'on nous explique clairement la différence.
“Migrants”, “refugees,” “immigrants,” the distinction is not always evident. First of all, it is necessary that they clearly explain the difference to us.
Fabien, also living the Paris area, thinks that it is necessary to first deal with the problem at its source:
Je comprends ces gens, ils n'ont pas d'autre choix que de fuir les combats. Le problème est que nous ne occupons que des conséquences de ces guerres, pas de leurs causes. Nous sommes pourtant pleinement responsables de la situation en Syrie et en Libye.
I understand these people, they don't have a choice other than to run away from the fighting. The problem is that we only worry about the consequences of these wars, not their causes. We are, however, fully responsible for the situation in Syria and in Libya.
Sylvain Attal, a French reporter and columnist, explains that these misgivings are not justified:
À défaut d’avoir pu et su intervenir il y a quatre ans, si nous voulons rester cohérents avec nous-mêmes, notre devoir est d’organiser dignement l’accueil de ces réfugiés. On enverra alors un message aux futures recrues de l’EI tentées de commettre des attentats sur notre sol  : nous ne sommes pas contre les musulmans. [..] Aucun dispositif sécuritaire ne dissuadera jamais ceux qui veulent fuir la guerre pour donner un avenir à leurs enfants de venir le chercher en Europe. Ils ne sont pas attirés, comme on l’entend souvent, par la générosité de notre système d’aides sociales mais souhaitent trouver ici des opportunités de gagner dignement leur vie. Si ce n’était pas le cas, ils ne choisiraient pas d’abord l’Allemagne ou le Royaume-Uni mais plutôt… la France ! [..] En Allemagne, Angela Merkel ne pense d’ailleurs pas que les réfugiés vont voler le travail des Allemands mais au contraire qu’ils peuvent contribuer à changer le pays, pour le meilleur. Elle pense qu’elle fait un investissement. Et en cela elle donne une leçon au reste de l’Europe qui n’est pas seulement morale, mais aussi économique.
For a lack of being able to and knowing how to intervene for four years, if we want to remain true to ourselves, our duty is to organize the reception of these refugees with dignity. We will then send a message to future ISIS recruits tempted to perpetrate attacks on our soil: we are not against Muslims. […] No security measures will ever dissuade those who want to escape war in order to give their children a better future to come and search for that future in Europe. They are not attracted to, as we so often hear, the generosity of our social systems. They hope to find opportunities here to earn a good living in a dignified way. If this was not the case, they would not first choose Germany or the United Kingdom, but rather…France! In Germany, Angela Merkel does not think that the refugees will steal German jobs. On the contrary, they will contribute to changing the country for the better. She thinks that she is making an investment. In doing so, she is giving a lesson to the rest of Europe that is not only moral, but also economic.
While certain people show signs of mistrust, a French diplomat revealed an exacerbated cynicism in the face of the refugees’ tragedy. The honorary French consul in Turkey, Françoise Olcay, confessed to taking advantage of their despondency in wishing to reach Europe by selling inflatable rafts and life jackets to migrants and refugees trying to get to Greece at the risk of their life:
When asked why she did not stop this business, she responded that if she stops, others will follow in her place. Olcay was suspended from her duties 12 September. Erika Colognon Hajaji, a journalist and blogger from Madagascar, thinks that the honorary consul's actions reflect the global failure of diplomacy in the management of current crises:
La diplomatie est bien le chainon manquant à tous nos dérapages et qui ont engendré toutes ces guerres préventives et ouvertures de voies de circulation des migrants, mais aussi des intégristes qui ont pris la Libye dès que Sarkozy l'a… libérée. L'échec premier est de la responsabilité de cette diplomatie. Notre diplomatie en général, celle de l'Afrique, de l'Asie, de la France, de l'Europe, doit mieux œuvrer a être apte à endosser les responsabilités qui sont les siennes [..] Rien ne saura redonner le calme d'hier aux terres ensanglantées d'aujourd'hui.
Diplomacy is the missing safeguard to all of the misdeeds that have been at the source of all of these preventative wars and the surge of migrant trafficking, as well as the rise of fundamentalists who took Libya when [former French President] Sarkozy “liberated” it. The first failure is the responsibility of this diplomacy. In general, our diplomacy in Africa, Asia, France, and Europe must work better in order to take on its responsibility. […] Nothing can bring back its former peace to all the bloodied lands today.

author: Rakotomalala


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This Is How Chechnya Deals With ISIS Recruiters · Global Voices
Kevin Rothrock

Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov playing with a tiger in his private zoo. May 27, 2008. Photo by Sergei L. Loiko. CC 2.0.
As Moscow appears to be expanding its military presence in Syria, many around the world have been busy debating Russia’s agenda in that country, asking if the Kremlin’s support for President Bashar al-Assad is compatible with the West’s campaign against ISIS, which includes efforts to remove Assad from power. While some question Moscow’s commitment to defeating ISIS in Syria, Russia’s campaign against the extremist group at home is undeniable. Earlier this week, Ramzan Kadyrov, the ruler of the Russian Republic of Chechnya, reminded everyone what this war looks like.
In a post on Vkontakte (Russia’s most popular online social network), Kadyrov shared a short video featuring roughly half a dozen men standing in a row with their heads bowed in shame. Speaking Chechen, Kadyrov gestures to the men disapprovingly. Next an old man and then an old woman speaks to the men with anger and tears. They point. They shout. They bury their faces in their hands.
The video features Chechen men caught recruiting for ISIS on social networks, and the elderly people shouting at them are their relatives and local community leaders. Kadyrov also implies that these individuals were reported to the police by their own families.
Я встретился с родственниками молодых людей, выступавших в соцсетях в поддержку Иблисского государства. Также пригласил имамов и глав населённых пунктов. У всех заблудших, уважаемые и глубоко религиозные родители, которые искренне осуждают поступки сыновей. Родители однозначно заявили, что растили сыновей в надежде на то, что они станут опорой в семье, будут истинными мусульманами и достойными гражданами. Они подчеркнули, что им не нужны такие сыновья, предавшие семьи, родных, близких, ислам и народ. Один из юношей искал слабохарактерных, слабоумных ровесников и агитировал выехать в Сирию. Он рассылал сообщения, в которых содержались угрозы представителям власти и их семьям. Я еще раз заявил, что в Чечне нет места тем, кто даже смотрит в сторону Иблисского государства. Самое главное, что родители тесно сотрудничают с духовенством и органами власти. При подозрительном поведении сыновей, они сразу же ставят в известность полицию и глав администраций. Это позволяет предотвратить худшие последствия.
I met with the relatives of the young men who promoted ISIS on social networks. I also invited several imams and community leaders. All these misguided men have parents who are honest, deeply religious people who sincerely condemn their sons’ actions. These parents repeatedly told them that they raised their sons to become the backbone of their families, to be true Muslims, and good citizens. They also said they had no need of sons who betrayed their family, their relatives, their loved ones, Islam, and their people.
One of these young men sought out weak-minded peers and tried to convince them to go to Syria. He circulated messages containing threats against the authorities and their families.
I told them again: there’s no place in Chechnya for anyone who even glances in the direction of ISIS. The most important thing is that parents are working closely with the clergy and the police. At the first sign of suspicious behavior, they immediately notify the police and local officials. This helps prevent even worse consequences.
Kadyrov is well known for his social media presence. He has 1.2 million followers on Instagram (where his account is now hidden to users without a subscription) and more than 235,800 subscribers on Vkontakte. Kadyrov not infrequently films men accused of Islamic extremism facing their parents and community leaders. In June 2015, for instance, he similarly assembled before angry parents roughly a dozen young men guilty of insisting that women wear burqas. (Chechen women customarily wear headscarves, but not full veils.)

author: Kevin Rothrock


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Russian Court Fines Google for ‘Reading Private Correspondence’ on Gmail · Global Voices
Tanya Lokot

A Russian court has decided that Google's targeted ads violate users’ right to private correspondence. Images: Email by Martha Ormiston and video surveillance by Ji Lee from the Noun Project. Mixed by Tetyana Lokot.
Moscow city court has decreed that Google is to pay a fine of 50 thousand rubles ($765) for ‘violating correspondence secrecy‘ by way of using targeted online ads that the court found to be based on the content of emails in a user's Gmail account.
Anton Burkov, a Yekaterinburg resident, decided to sue the Google corporation at the beginning of 2015 after he first suspected that the company was reading his private correspondence. Burkov, deputy head of European law department at the Yekaterinburg Humanitarian University, was emailing with friends about his planned trip to the European court of human rights when he noticed the ads offering him hotel deals in Strasbourg and visa services.
Я обнаружил это совершенно случайно, с правой стороны всех моих писем я увидел рекламу и понял, что она содержит данные из моих писем. То есть, их роботы запрограммированы так, чтобы собирать информацию о пользователях и выдавать контекстную рекламу.
I discovered this completely by accident, I saw that to the right of all my emails there were ads and I realized that they contained data from my letters. So their robots are programmed to gather information about users and deliver contextual ads.
On April 21, 2015, a district court in Moscow declined Burkov's lawsuit, but the user later went to a higher court for appeal, claiming that Google violated his constitutional right to secrecy of correspondence. Now the Moscow city court has ruled in Burkov's favor, however the court's press-service only mentioned the 50 thousand ruble fine, and did not specify whether the court also ruled to enforce Burkov's other initial demand: that Google be forbidden from using information from its users’ correspondence.
Gmail's terms of service and privacy policy provide a detailed explanation of the kinds of user data and information the service collects. These include personal information the users provide upon registering for a Google Account, as well as the log information such as search queries, device information (its model, operating system, etc.) and other data, such as location. On the other hand, in a section about “Ads in Gmail” on its Support website, Google notes: “Ad targeting in Gmail is fully automated, and no humans read your email or Google Account information in order to show you advertisements or related information.”
Google has not yet commented on how it plans to react to the Russian court decree or the fine. In April, a spokesperson for the Russian Google office (ООО “Гугл”) told RIA “Novosti” that the Russian company wasn't responsible for the Gmail service, and that any complaints had to be addressed to Google Inc in the US.

author: Tanya Lokot


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Netizen Report: Refugee Crisis Inspires Both Love and Hate Online · Global Voices
Netizen Report Team

Refugees at Keleti train station in Budapest, September 2015. Photo by Mstyslav Chernov via Flickr (CC BY-SA 4.0)
Stories of refugees moving en masse to Western Europe from Syria and other conflict-ridden countries have moved into digital rights territory, as access to communications networks has become vital for those navigating unfamiliar terrain on foot while facing increasing pressure from border authorities in Southern and Central Europe. Alongside mapping and GPS applications, messaging services and social networks are critical tools for people to communicate and strategize among themselves.
In Hungary, Serbia, and Germany, local volunteers have responded by providing refugees with mobile phones, phone credit, and WiFi access by whatever means necessary. Kate Coyer, a professor of communications studies at Central European University in Budapest, has worked with colleagues and friends to bring portable WiFi hotspots to crowded areas, along with power strips and backup batteries for mobile phones. In an interview with New Scientist, Coyer said, “I don’t ever want to pit humanitarian needs in a crisis against each other, because it’s not an either-or, but the communication needs are obviously very vital and need to be available at a moment’s notice.”
Online discussions about the mass influx of people into Western Europe have turned hateful in some social media circles, with multiple local German politicians receiving threats of violence and even death in response to their work to help welcome newcomers to their communities. German MP Ozcan Mutlu, who is of Turkish origin, reported that he received a message telling him: “it's time to get Auschwitz, Buchenwald, etc working again – that's where you filthy Turks belong!”
Similar tensions are playing out on Facebook, and have provoked criticism from users and political leaders who say the company is not doing enough to curb or respond to hate speech targeting refugees. The company this week announced plans to work with the German government to limit hate speech and xenophobia on their networks, after German Justice Minister Heiko Maas spoke about the matter directly with Facebook executives. Maas announced a task force including Facebook, the Ministry of Justice, Internet service providers and other social networks that will aim to identify hateful content and remove it more quickly from the platform.
Ecuadorian media freedom group Fundamedios is facing closure over allegations that it has become politically partisan. Ecuador’s Communications Secretariat has begun proceedings to shut down the NGO, giving the group ten days to defend itself before a final ruling. Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa has been engaged in a battle with media critics over the past several years, and in 2013 passed a restrictive Communications Law deemed by many to be the most draconian in the region. “Not content with persecuting, harassing, fining and verbally abusing critics in the privately owned press, the Ecuadorian government is now threatening to dissolve the leading press freedom organization”, said the Committee to Protect Journalists’ Carlos Lauria in response to the news.
Iranian Facebook activist Shahsavandi Shirazi was among eight Facebook activists arrested in 2013. In 2014, Shirazi was convicted of insultingt he Supreme Leader Khamenei and late founder of the Islamic Republic Ayatollah Khomeini, conspiring against the state, and publishing pornographic images. Last week Shirazi told the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran that in judicial proceedings she was denied access to a lawyer, interrogated about private matters and charged with crimes she never committed. Shirazi says the pages she managed on the social networking site were non-political and closer in nature to citizen journalism.
Veteran journalist Pravit Rojanapruk was detained by the Thai army for allegedly posting information online that “disturbed peace and order”. This is the second time Pravit, a senior reporter for the leading English-language daily The Nation, has been detained by authorities in Thailand.
In mid-October the Austrian parliament will vote on the controversial “Staatsschutzgesetz,” or State Protection Act, which would establish ten new surveillance agencies (one federal, nine provincial) and grant them far-reaching powers to monitor citizens with little judicial oversight. The law dictates that all data collected through the program must be kept for a minimum of five years in a central database. The law also explicitly encourages cooperation with foreign intelligence agencies. The legislation was drafted following terrorist attacks in Paris and Copenhagen earlier this year, and is attracting vehement criticism from many Austrian institutions, as well as the public. An online petition against the Staatsschutzgesetz, organized by Austrian privacy group AK Vorrat, has already garnered over 12,000 signatures.
Libraries have long been ardent supporters of free access to information and privacy, and have at times stood to defend their patrons’ rights to protecting the privacy of their reading habits. That battle took on new form recently, when a library in the US state of New Hampshire, the first in the world to participate in the anonymous web browsing network Tor and allow patrons to use the networks via its relay technology, were contacted by the Department of Homeland Security through their local police department. Following a meeting between local police and city officials, the library consulted its board of trustees on the matter. The library trustees agreed to reinstate its participation with Tor.
The Internet Engineering Task Force and Internet Assigned Numbers Authority granted .onion websites “Special Use Domain” status, enabling administrators for sites on Tor Hidden Services to apply for SSL and TLS certificates. The move should result in a substantial improvement in the security of .onion websites.
The Washington Post released a new video series, “Global Threats to a Free Press,” which includes video testimony from thirty journalists, bloggers, photographers and activists worldwide who have faced direct threats because of their work. Global Voices authors Endalk Chala (Ethiopia) and Ali Abdulemam (Bahrain) are among those featured.
Juan Arellano, Mary Aviles, Ellery Roberts Biddle, Sam Kellogg, Hae-in Lim and Sarah Myers West contributed to this report.

author: Netizen Report Team


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Resentment Against Hungary Grows After Serbia Border Clashes Injure Refugees and Journalists · Global Voices
Danica Radisic

Horgoš, Serbia. 16 September 2015 — A scene from the “Horgos 2″ border crossing into Hungary, after the Hungarian police spread water on migrants. Hungarian riot police used tear gas and water cannons on migrants who tried to break through a razor wire fence and enter Hungary from the Serbian border in Horgos. Photo by Art Widak. Copyright Demotix
Hungary formally closed its border with Serbia just after midnight on September 15, sending special police forces, military units and humvees to guard its walled-off southern crossing against a steady stream of refugees trying to enter the European Union.
Authorities declared a state of emergency in two counties and announced the border would remain shut for at least the next 30 days. Drone footage of the Hungarian-Serbian border on the morning of September 15 shows a large group of refugees waiting at the border, with more arriving.
The following day, clashes between refugees and police left over 300 people injured, according to Serbian media, among them at least 30 children and minors. Police, who said the crowds threw stones and bottles at officers, used tear gas and water cannons against the refugees.
#Refugee #children hurt by tear gas used by Hungarian police are carried away from border crossing at Horgos, Serbia. pic.twitter.com/j7SZXRus1o
— Gulf News (@gulf_news) September 16, 2015
Mondo.rs portal reported that the clashes began when Hungarian police opened one of the several layers of protective fences, at which point the refugees, thinking that they would be let through into Hungary after all, began trying to pass the border in a large hoard.
Live-streamed video provided by Russian media outlet RT captured police throwing smoke bombs into the crowd by police and ambulances arriving to provide medical aid to the injured, as well as video footage of how the clashes between the refugees and police began.
At least one group of Polish and one group of Serbian journalists covering the events were injured.
Polish TV crew also hurt at #Roszke. Much of policing is about PR and self-fulfilling expectations. #Hungary losing. http://t.co/kB8rx0PsMA
— László Sándor (@laszloecon) September 16, 2015
The Independent Journalists’ Association of Serbia (IJAS) called on the Hungarian government for a formal apology, claiming that the team of field journalists of the national RTS network had been beaten by Hungarian police and that this was “a blatant violation of the elementary rights and freedoms of journalists that are guaranteed by international conventions.”
Slovak TA3 network has also reported that a Slovak journalist was beaten and then detained by Hungarian police at the Horgoš border.
Na maďarských hraniciach zbili a zadržali slovenskú novinárku http://t.co/AVWmxXBCDr
— TA3 (@tvTA3) September 17, 2015
On the Hungarian border [police] beat and detained a Slovak journalist http://t.co/AVWmxXBCDr
— TA3 (@tvTA3) September 17, 2015
People across the globe expressed outrage regarding the police brutality displayed by Hungarian police. Several journalists at the Horgoš border crossing said that it is becoming increasingly difficult to report on the events, while those following the events from around the world remarked at the disturbing scenes unfolding.
Not great for a journalist but I simply can't watch scenes from Hungary. World, UN, EU…..talk, act. #refugeescrisis #migration
— Shelagh Fogarty (@ShelaghFogarty) September 16, 2015
War in Syria and violence and instability elsewhere in the Middle East, South Asia and Africa have driven a record number of refugees to make the often dangerous journey to Europe in search of safety. Many first arrive in the European Union countries of Greece and Italy with the intention of travelling on to Germany, already home to many of their family or friends and considered to hold more economic promise.
Röszke, Hungary. 15 September 2015 — Borders along Hungary and Serbia, including an official motorway crossing border in Roszke, Hungary, were closed, and the Hungarian government declared a state of emergency. Photo by Beata Zawrzel. Copyright Demotix
Until now, they have travelled via the Balkan route, passing through Macedonia and Serbia (which are not members of the EU) in order to enter Hungary, which belongs to the EU and the Schengen zone, an agreement allowing for passport-free movement among member countries.
According to EU rules, asylum-seekers must register in whatever European country they first arrive and risk being deported back to that country if they move around Europe. Even though Germany has stopped applying this protocol to Syrian refugees, many of the refugees are therefore trying to put Eastern Europe behind them as quick as possible without being identified en route.
On social media throughout Eastern Europe, many expressed anger at the seemingly unilateral decision on the part of either Hungary or the EU in handling the refugee crisis, without consulting their non-EU neighbors. Popular Serbian actress Bojana Maljević, who has been calling for aid for the refugees in Serbia for the past several weeks, implied that the decision could have future diplomatic repercussions among countries in southeastern Europe.
Naravno da ovo nije samo politika Madjarske. Što će uskoro biti jasnije. — Skerletna (@BojanaMaljevic) September 17, 2015
Of course this isn't the politics of Hungary alone. Which will be clearer soon.
In Belgrade coffee shops and Serbian social media, it's a commonly held belief that “someone is telling Hungary what to do” — that the EU simply does not want to take in most of those fleeing from Syria across the Balkan route.
Twitter user Goran Damnjanović summed it up well, implying that Serbia and other non-EU Balkan countries are expected to handle the refugee crisis in their own countries:
Balkan, poslednja granica.
— Goran Damnjanović (@coachgoran) September 17, 2015
Balkans, the last border.
A day after the closing of the Hungarian-Serbian border, Hungary's Prime Minister Viktor Orban announced that the government was considering closing its border with Romania as well, as Serbia will “obviously no longer be a point of entry” for the refugees. An Economist article explains that the quarrel between Hungary and Romania “may be more about politics than about refugees,” diving into the historical and political connotations that might be harbored behind Orban's recent decisions.
Croatia is the youngest Eastern European EU country that has found itself embroiled in the crisis. On September 16, Serbian news agency Tanjug reported that Croatia's government had announced that it was considering “opening a corridor” for refugees to pass to other EU countries and that Brussels had responded negatively to this idea, saying that such a decision would be “against EU laws and the obligations of EU members.”
In the current crisis, Croatian President Kolinda Grabar-Kitarović announced that Croatia would be monitoring its borders with non-EU countries more strictly due to a “large number of refugees already having entered the country on the first day” of the Hungarian-Serbian border closure. Grabar-Kitarović said that the safety of Croatian citizens and the country's borders must come first, but the country's prime minister also added later in the day that Croatia would not be closing its borders and is not considering the option.
Other Central and Eastern European countries and their citizens have been weighing in on the story as it unfolds. A user on the satirical user-generated section of Slovak SME.sk portal, Gulas, posted an image of founder and former head of the Slovak National Party Ján Slota that reads, “Who do we keep our fingers crossed for now? Hungary or the immigrants?”
“Who do we keep our fingers crossed for now? Hungary or the immigrants?”

author: Danica Radisic


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Truth Is Not a Crime: Ukraine Honors Fallen Journalist Gongadze · Global Voices
Tanya Lokot

An activist holds a candle at a rally in memory of murdered journalist Georgiy Gongadze on September 16, 2013 in Kyiv. Photo by Christopher Miller on Twitter.
On the evening of September 16, 2000, Georgiy Gongadze, a prominent Ukrainian independent journalist and founder of the website Ukrainska Pravda (Ukrainian Truth) disappeared after he left his house in Kyiv and was never seen again. On November 2 that year, his headless body was found in the Tarashansky forest not far from Ukraine's capital.
Gongadze's widow, Myroslava, also a journalist, recalled the day's events in a Facebook post.
15 років тому сьогодні була субота. Я прокинулась рано, треба було збиратись на конференцію в Пущі. День був гарний, вирішила взяти з собою дітей. Він ще спав, поки я збирала дітей. Перед виходом я його розбудила, щоб попрощатись. Він прокинувся і сказав, що ми не підемо поки він не проведе з дітьми урок англійської і грузинської. Діти нили, бо налаштувалися іти. Але він настояв. Ми вийшли лише через годину і домовившись, що повернемось десь біля 10. Коли ми повернутись , двері в квартиру були зачинені, він ніколи не повернувся додому…… Є дні , які пам'ятаєш по хвилинах, сьогодні, 15 річної давнини, саме такий день. Серце розривається.
15 years ago today was a Saturday. I woke up early, had to go to a conference in Pushcha. It was a good day, so I decided to take the kids with me. He was still asleep while I got the kids ready. Before leaving, I woke him up to say goodbye. He woke and said that we couldn't leave until he had an English and Georgian language with the kids. The children complained, since they were all ready to go. But he insisted. We left only an hour later and said we'd be back around 10. When we returned, the door to the apartment was closed, and he never came back… There are days which you remember every minute of, and today, a day 15 years in the past, is one of those. My heart is breaking.
15 years after his murder, those who ordered Gongadze's killing have still not been identified or found by the investigators, though there have been many theories. The person who performed the crime—Oleksiy Pukach, former head of external surveillance of the Ministry of Interior—has been found guilty and sentenced to life in prison by the court, but is disputing his sentence.
Gongadze's life and death have become a symbol of how unprotected independent journalism remains in Ukraine. According to Ukrainian media non-profit IMI, 64 Ukrainian journalists have lost their lives during the years of Ukraine's independence since 1991. This year, among the seven journalists killed in Ukraine overall (mostly in the conflict zone in eastern Ukraine) there was one Ukrainian, photo reporter Serhiy Nikolayev, who died from a shrapnel wound.
Every year on September 16, the day of Gongadze's disappearance, Ukrainian journalists stage public memorial events to raise awareness of his case and other lives lost by media workers. This year, they chose to rally under the slogan “Arm yourselves with the truth” and called on Internet users to post about Gongadze and other fallen reporters with the hashtag #truthisnotacrime.
In a short video, prominent Ukrainian journalists called on citizens to honor the memory of Gongadze and other fallen reporters and to campaign for justice on their behalf. “The law only protects us on paper, but in reality we're the only ones who can protect ourselves and each other. Never forget that.”
Public memorials were held in Kyiv and other Ukrainian cities, with people gathering downtown, lighting candles, and giving speeches, recognizing Gongadze and reciting the names of other Ukrainian journalists who perished in the field or suffered for their work.
У Києві вшанували пам’ять журналіста Гонґадзе http://t.co/HID7iNkcb5 pic.twitter.com/2zFf5gD00s
— Hromadske.TV (@HromadskeTV) September 16, 2015
Kyiv honors the memory of journalist Gongadze.
#Харьков #Гонгадзе #журналист pic.twitter.com/iBn9LUPSOc
— Корень в квадрате (@korenvkvadrate) September 16, 2015
#Kharkov #Gongadze #journalist
Активісти вивісили банер на вулиці Інститутській#Gongadze #Гонгадзе #Ukraine #truthisnotacrime pic.twitter.com/MSRZQeyvFp
— Hromadske.TV (@HromadskeTV) September 16, 2015
Activists put up a banner on Instytutska street. “Georgiy, we haven't forgotten.”
Ukrainian reporters and supporters in other countries also honored Gongadze's memory.
Class of @JSKstanford fellows support the memory of Ukr journalist Georgiy #Gongadze #Ukraine #truthisnotacrime pic.twitter.com/zuQ8EioteM
— Oleksandr Akymenko (@akymenko_o) September 16, 2015
Many journalists and other Ukrainians joined the action on social media, including a Twitter-storm around the hashtag #truthisnotacrime, meant to raise awareness of the dangers of independent journalism in Ukraine.
Ми не забудемо #truthisnotacrime#Gongadze #Гонгадзе #Ukraine #truthisnotacrime pic.twitter.com/uDRKnhmA2p
— Natalie Sedletska (@natasedletska) September 16, 2015
We won't forget.
#ЦейДень 16.9.2000 Г.Гонгадзе востаннє бачили живим. Він змінив українську журналістику,а його смерть змінила Україну pic.twitter.com/ePKkkhld6E
— Yevgen Perebyinis (@YPerebyinis) September 16, 2015
#ThisDay On September 16, 2000 Georgiy Gongadze was last seen alive. He changed Ukrainian journalism, his death changed Ukraine.
#Гонгадзе є символом боротьби українських журналістів за свободу слова. Пам'ятаємо. #Gongadze #truthisnotacrime pic.twitter.com/YwAxT1PgoR
— Анастасия Руденко (@afrudenko) September 16, 2015
Gongadze is a symbol of Ukrainian journalists’ fight for freedom of speech. We remember.
Друг, коханий, чоловік, батько наших дітей, журналіст,патріот, активіст #Gongadze#Гонгадзе #Ukraine#truthisnotacrime pic.twitter.com/aWYBDB24A9
— Myroslava Gongadze (@MGongadze) September 16, 2015
Friend, loved one, husband, our children's father, journalist, patriot, activist.


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Unlivable Conditions in Macedonian Student Dorms Worsen · Global Voices
Filip Stojanovski

The Student Plenum, a grassroots movement fighting for the rights of university students in Macedonia, published new photos of the unlivable conditions that students in Macedonia's capital of Skopje live in. The movement has steadily been following the situation in the state-owned student dorms and has called on the state several times to improve basic hygiene and safety conditions in the student living quarters. Student Plenum recently informed the public that the living conditions and structural safety of at least one of the largest student dormitories in Skopje has worsened since and has reminded that the government promised to fully reconstruct the dorms more than a year ago, after being shamed in international media.
In the accompanying text, Student Plenum indirectly address the new institution of special public prosecutor, which is supposed to handle corruption cases that the regular public prosecutor in Macedonia actively ignores.
Домовите се распаѓаат исто како и системот во државата, но ние сè уште немаме добиено нов специјален студентски дом за да се спасат студентите живи од бедата во која живеат и која се руши околу нив.
Ова е блокот В во студентскиот дом “Гоце Делчев”, во кој пред некој ден како што може да се види на сликите се срушил дел од кровот во еден од ходниците.
Овојпат немало повредени. Дали и наредниот пат нашите колеги ќе бидат еднакво среќни или пак до тогаш ќе добијат нов (специјален) студентски дом?
Student dorms are falling apart just like the state system and we have not received a new special student dorm to save the students’ lives from the misery in which they live and which crumbles around them.
This is the Block V of the “Goce Delchev” student dorm. The ceiling fell in one of the hallways a few days ago.
This time no one was injured. Will our colleagues be so lucky the next time or by then will they get a new, (special) student dorm?

author: Filip Stojanovski


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#DearMrPresident: South Africans Write to President Zuma on Twitter · Global Voices
Ndesanjo Macha

A screenshot of video footage showing Vuyo Mvoko, a South African TV reporter, being robbed at gunpoint seconds before going live on air in South Africa.
Yusuf Abramjee, the head of Crime Line South Africa, an independent initiative aimed at getting criminals off the streets, has written an open letter to South Africa's President Jacob Zuma expressing his concern about the rising levels of crime in the country.
“Dear Mr President,I am taking off all my professional hats and writing to you in desperation as a South African citizen deeply concerned about the levels of crime in our country. I write as one of the countless citizens who have fallen victim to crime with the shadow of fear following our every step.I write to you with a heavy heart for the many men, women and children whose lives are lost or destroyed by crime,” Ambrajee's open letter to South Africa's president begins.
He went on to advise the president to leave politics out of key appointments and stop “patting mediocrity, uselessness and corruption on the back, sending their servants on their way with a golden handshake.”
According to Abramjee, some 47 South Africans are murdered on average every day. South Africa has one of the highest rates of murders, assaults, and rapes in the world.
Ambramjee himself is a victim of crime. His house was invaded by two armed robbers two years ago. He also narrowly escaped hijacking in Johannesburg in August this year.
After Abramjee's open letter went viral, South Africans from all walks of life took to Twitter to tell President Zuma what they thought about his governance of the country using the hashtag #DearMrPresident. President Zuma himself is a Twitter user.
Referring to Zuma's recent foreign policy speech in which he blamed the West for European refugee crisis, Gord Laws wrote:
You are an irremovable stain on the fabric of this country that is becoming as bad as those others you pathetically blame. #DearMrPresident
— Gord Laws (@GordLaws) September 18, 2015
ALETTAHA was happy for having voted for the opposition's Democratic Alliance:
#DearMrPresident #zuma I cannot begin 2 explain how wonderful it is 2 #VoteDA. They do not embarrass us like u do. @MmusiMaimane
— ALETTAHA☺♥☀ (@ALETTAHA) September 18, 2015
Johan provided Zuma with some statistics on drug addiction in Johannesburg (Jozi):
#DearMrPresident tonight over 1000 + youth aged between 16-25 will use chrystal meth(tik) or #Nyaope in the dark corners of Jozi #addiction
— Johan (@johanrobyn) September 18, 2015
Ntombi Nzimande tweeted:
#DearMrPresident  please encourage environmental awareness in our country.
— Ntombi Nzimande (@CrayKiddNtombii) September 18, 2015
Shaka Zulu complained about pervasive greed and selfishness:
#DearMrPresident I'm starting to think we only have this deep concern for our own desires and totally don't give a toss about masses. Do we?
— SHAKA ZULU (@SAKSYSAKS) September 18, 2015
The Rugby World Cup is taking place in the United Kingdom at the moment. South Africa previously won the cup in 1995 and 2007 under former president Nelson Mandela and Thabo Mbeki. Maseko Goodwill expected Zuma to keep up:
Come to think about it… #DearMrPresident you currently the only President that hasn't lifted the trophy with #Boks since the New RSA…😂
— #FruitfulFriday (@Maseko_Goodwill) September 18, 2015
Codename D.U.S raised the issue of inequality:
#DearMrPresident why do some children have the right to Quality Education while others are taught Basic Education..? Who are we preparing?
— Codename D.U.S (@IamFrankTalk) September 18, 2015
A report by South Africa's Public Protector Thuli Madonsela found that President Jacob Zuma unduly benefited from security upgrades to his Nkandla homestead, which cost tax payers about 250 million rands, or US $25 million. The upgrades included a fire pool. User Diederick Stopforth thought it pertinent to ask Zuma for suggestions:
@RediTlhabi #DearMrPresident , I am thinking of upgrading my fire pool. What do you suggest,  marbelit or fibre glass?
— Diederick Stopforth (@DWStopforth) September 18, 2015
Brandon noted the distinct rise in public criticism:
#DearMrPresident never in the history of SA, have citizens across all races/class/status so publicly stated discontent with the leadership.
— ▎ Brandon ™▕ (@BrandonDee) September 16, 2015
Sihle Ngobese also seemed disappointed with Zuma's governance style:
#DearMrPresident,We're tired of you molesting our pockets to fund your lifestyle and finance your family & friends! pic.twitter.com/y2ZQxOFR96
— Sihle Ngobese (@SihleDLK) September 16, 2015
Sipho Kubheka joked about Zuma's lack of reaction to the open letter (it is widely known that President Zuma has had no formal schooling):
#DearMrPresident Are you still reading the letter? We all know that you are a bit slow when it comes to reading.
— Sipho Kubheka (@U_Siphoz) September 18, 2015
Finally, Mdu asked President Zuma to at least acknowledge the people's voices:
#DearMrPresident Pls @ least acknowledge our pledge! or are you gonna say "I have not heard anything about #DearMrPresident" @PresidencyZA
— Mdu (@MduShalomNdlovu) September 18, 2015
Although President Zuma is a Twitter user, he is not know for responding to questions or criticism from social media users.