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Iranian News Agency Publishes ‘Fabricated’ Story Accusing UN Special Rapporteur of Misdeeds With Saudi Arabia · Global Voices
Mahsa Alimardani

Asma Jahangir speaks at the 2012 Oslo Freedom Forum in a talk called “Building a Free Pakistan.” Photo from Oslo Freedom Forum and published with the intent to share.
Iranian authorities seemingly haven't given up their decades-long efforts to discredit the office of the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Human Rights Situation in Iran, which is tasked with reporting and highlighting the human rights abuses that the government denies are a problem.
The latest attempt came in the form of an article published on 15 March 2017 by state-owned Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA). Citing an unreliable source, it alleged current Special Rapporteur Asma Jahangir would soon secretly travel to Saudi Arabia — a country whose relationship with Iran is strained at best — where she would be offered bribes to adopt anti-Iran stances.
Jahangir, who has held her office for less than a year, has denied the allegations and called the report “fabricated.”
The article in question read:
خالد محمد الشریف کنسول عربستان در نیویورک به طور محرمانه از ‘عاصمه جهانگیر’ گزارشگر ویژه سازمان ملل برای انجام سفر یک سفر غیر رسمی و غیر علنی نه به ریاض دعوت به عمل آورد.
گزارشگر ویژه سازمان ملل به طور غیر علنی از عربستان دیدن می کند
تارنمای الوعی نیوز روز دوشنبه به نقل از یک مقام امنیتی ضمن اعلام این مطلب افزود: جهانگیر در آینده نزدیک با انجام این سفر محرمانه با مقامات و مسئولان سیاسی و نظامی عربستان دیدار کرده و در خصوص مسائل منطقه ای و بین المللی به بحث و گفت وگو خواهد پرداخت.
مقام مزبور که خواست نامش فاش نشود، گفت: مقامات سعودی در نظر دارند از جهانگیر بخواهند تا درباره برخی موضوعات مربوط به ایران و نیز اعلام حمایت از سازمان منافقین و قاچاقچیان مواد مخدر در مقابل دریافت 200 هزار دلار به عنوان پاداش علیه ایران موضعگیری کند.
عاصمه جهانگیر گزارشگر جدید سازمان ملل در اولین گزارش خود ادعاهای بی پایه و اساس
‘احمد شهید’ گزارشگر سابق علیه ایران را تکرار کرد.
جهانگیر پیشتر در گزارشی درباره اعدام قاچاقچیان مواد مخدر و غیرقانونی بودن همجنس بازی در ایران به شدت ابراز نگرانی کرده است.
لازم به یادآوری است سفارت عربستان در کویت یک میلیون دلار به عنوان رشوه به احمد شهید گزارشگر سابق سازمان ملل پرداخت کرد . وی نیز ضمن تشکر و قدردانی از وزیر خارجه عربستان قول داد تا تمام تلاش خود را برای شدت بخشیدن به اقدامات علیه ایران به کار ببرد.
Khalid bin Mohammed Al-Shareef, the Saudi consul [general] in New York, secretly invited Asma Jahangir, the UN special rapporteur, for an unofficial and private visit to Riadh.
According to a report on Alwaie News Agency website on Monday, quoting a security official, “Jahangir will make this secret trip in the near future to meet with Saudi officials and political and military authorities, and will discuss regional and international issues with them.”
The official, who requested anonymity, said: “Saudi authorities intend to ask Jahangir to assume stances against Iran about certain Iran-related issues, as well as announcing her support for the Hypocrites Organization [a reference to MEK, a banned Iranian group that advocates the overthrow of the current Iranian government] and drug traffickers, in return for $200,000 as a reward.”
In her first report, Asma Jahangir, the UN special rapporteur, repeated the baseless and unfounded claims of Ahmed Shaheed, the former special rapporteur, against Iran.
In an earlier report, Jahangir had expressed her extreme concern about the execution of drug traffickers and the illegality of homosexuality in Iran.
It is worth noting that the Saudi Embassy in Kuwait paid $1 million in bribes to former UN Rapporteur Ahmed Shaheed. [For his part], thanking the Saudi Foreign Minister, he promised to make every effort to intensify actions against Iran.
In the article, IRNA says its source for the information is Alwaie News Agency, an Arabic-language news source with an editorial line that often sympathizes with Shiite-majority countries in the Middle East, including Iran and Iraq, as well as the Bashar Al-Assad regime in Syria. It is unclear who the source for Alwaie is, nor who the anonymous official is.
It's not the first time that there's been a case of an Iranian news organization citing Alwaie to attack the UN special rapporteur on the human rights situation in Iran. During her predecessor Ahmed Shaheed's mandate (2011-2016), a similar accusation of cooperation with Saudi Arabia was leveled against him. Iran Front Page, a news site the translates Iranian media sources into English, claimed that documents leaked from the Saudi Arabian Foreign Ministry, released by Wikileaks as the “Saudi Cables,” contained evidence of Shaheed being bribed by Saudi Arabia to report the way he does on Iran's human right situation.
#WikiLeaks : #Riyadh bribed UN rapporteur to report against #Iran >>http://t.co/Uj8noUi5Jk#Saudi pic.twitter.com/BeaJchf6zG
— Iran Front Page (@IranFrontPage) July 27, 2015
Wikileaks was quick to request a link to the cable in which such information allegedly appeared:
@IranFrontPage Please show which cable this claim is based on. You fail to link to one of our cables in the article.
— WikiLeaks (@wikileaks) July 27, 2015
Which lead Iran Front Page to signal Alwaie as the source of the information, which in this case was proven to be a forgery.
@wikileaks The main source of the item which has been translated is the following website page: http://t.co/RBZELk10I9
— Iran Front Page (@IranFrontPage) July 28, 2015
The Guardian revealed last year that the forged document had been fabricated with help from a computer technique that merged two sets of different real diplomatic Saudi letterheads to create a new letterhead which does not exist elsewhere. It was then put on Alwaie's website and awdnews.com, another news agency with a bias similar to Alwaie.
Jahangir responded to IRNA's accusations in a press release denouncing them as a way to undermine her work highlighting issues the Iranian government would rather hide and suppress:
I am appalled by this fabricated and malicious news story which is clearly aimed at compromising my integrity and independence, both of which are recognized internationally. Anyone who has a substantive disagreement with a Special Rapporteur’s assessment can always express their doubts. However, it is unacceptable for mandate holders to be subjected to defamation campaigns when discharging their duties, which are established by the United Nations Human Rights Council. These accusations unfortunately reinforce the assessment I made in my first report to the UN Human Rights Council about the climate of fear which exists in Iran, where similar methods are used to silence those expressing dissenting opinions.
Ever since the Pakistani human rights activist took up the post in August 2016, she has experienced hostility from Iranian officials. The Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman, Bahram Qassemi, reacted to the appointment in September by stating:
We have been principally opposed to the appointment of (UN) rapporteur on Iran.The historical irony is that the human rights rapporteur on Iran is appointed with the endorsement of Saudi Arabia, which is a child-murderer regime.
The state-owned broadcaster, the Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcaster (IRIB), claimed Jahangir was a heretic and called her “Qadiani”, a derogatory term used for members of the Ahmadiyya Islamic movement. IRIB further accused Jahangir of being a follower of Ahmadiyya, which it said is a “misguided cult created by the British, just like the Baha’i.” The accusations stemmed from a 2010 campaign to discredit Jahangir as she fought for the rights of minorities and the destitute in Pakistan. The Ahmadiyya are considered to be heretics by many Muslims and face severe persecution in Pakistan.
Jahangir's March 2017 report to the 34th session of the United Nations Human Rights Council was summarily rejected by Iran. Tehran then asked the council to put an end to Jahangir's mission altogether, calling her report on the situation of human rights in Iran “politically motivated”.
“Given the noticeable human rights progress made in the Islamic Republic of Iran and its extensive and constructive interactions with the international human rights mechanisms, it is now time to end the special rapporteur’s mission in an appropriate way,” Kazem Gharibabadi, the Iran Human Rights Council director for international affairs, told its UN counterpart.
He also warned that the UN Human Rights Council’s “selective” and “politically tainted approach” towards certain countries would make cooperation between the two sides difficult.
Jahangir's March report highlighted many shortcomings in Iran's human rights situation despite the government's many positive declarations of changes. It outlined the state of many activists, journalists, trade unionists, lawyers, artists, women and ethnic and religious minorities who are increasingly being harassed and intimidated, arbitrarily detained under draconian laws, and subjected to torture and inhumane and degrading treatment for exercising or demanding their rights.
Jahangir is the fifth such special rapporteur, who succeeded Ahmed Shaheed, a Maldivian diplomat and politician. Shaheed was given the mandate in June 2011, after the position lay vacant for nine years following the mandate of Maurice Copithorne.
All past rapporteurs expressed concerns about human rights violations in Iran but received little cooperation from the Iranian government. Copithorne, for example, was allowed in Iran only once at the beginning of his term.
In a 2011 interview , Copithorne, a Canadian diplomat and legal scholar, explained that accusations leveled at him while he served the mandate were commonplace:
I think they have to have a pretty thick skin because they will be attacked by various groups, including, of course, the government of Iran. A number of things circulated about me, personally and otherwise, during my time. You have to just take these in your stride and keep writing what you believe are accurate reports on the state of human rights. So you have to be prepared for a degree of this sort of activity — that is to say, the Iranian government's attempting to justify itself in various forms. It just comes with the mandate.

author: Mahsa Alimardani


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Netizen Report: Vietnam Says Facebook Will Cooperate With Censorship Requests on Offensive and ‘Fake’ Content · Global Voices
Netizen Report Team

Internet cafe in Vietnam. Photo by Ivan Lian via Flickr (CC BY_NC-ND 2.0)
Vietnamese government officials said on April 26 that Facebook has committed to help local law enforcement prevent and remove from Facebook content that violates the country’s laws against “offensive” and anti-government messages.
According to a government statement, Facebook’s Head of Global Policy Management Monika Bickert and Vietnamese Information and Communication Minister Truong Minh Tuan met in Hanoi and formed an agreement to establish a special channel to coordinate monitoring and removal of content from the platform. The statement also indicated that Facebook had agreed to help remove fake accounts and “fake content”, a designation that could be used to label unflattering news or opinions about government policies or officials.
Facebook’s most recent transparency report says that the company did not restrict any content at the behest of the Vietnamese government between July 2015 and June 2016. If the agreement holds, this will likely change soon.
The agreement could mark a shift in Vietnam’s rocky relationship with Facebook. The US-based social media platform was wholly blocked in Vietnam between 2009 and 2010, and has been briefly blocked in various moments of heightened political tension ever since. While an improved relationship with the company may help prevent wholesale blocking of the platform, the prospect of government entities having close cooperation with Facebook on issues ranging from messages critical of the government to the ill-defined category of “fake content” is concerning in a country where free speech and media rights are systematically suppressed.
One recent example of Vietnam’s intolerance for critical media coverage is the arrest of Nguyen Van Hoa, a journalist, security trainer and contributor to Radio Free Asia who has been in state custody since January for “abusing democratic freedoms to infringe upon the interests of the state.” Hoa covered stories about environmental disaster in Vietnam, including capturing video of a peaceful protest attended by over 10,000 people last October. Digital and human rights advocacy groups have called on the Vietnamese government to release Hoa immediately.
According to Reporters Without Borders 2017 World Press Freedom Index, released in late April, Vietnam ranks just ahead of China on a global scale and falls below countries including Cuba, Saudi Arabia and Iran.
Chinese blogger Wu Bin was arrested by Shenzhen national security police for comments he made online. Wu Bin has been a target for police harassment over the past few years, for allegedly “picking quarrels” online, participating in a public gathering about the death of a Chinese citizen while in police detention, and “spreading rumors” about protests in Wukan village. It is unclear what triggered his arrest, though it is increasingly common for netizens critical of the government to be summoned or detained by the police under recent “stability control” measures.
Human rights defender Bondita Acharya received death threats on social media after condemning the arrests of three Bangladeshi refugees in the state of Assam, India for the possession of beef on April 4. Acharya was critical of the arrests, pointing out that while Assam’s Cattle Preservation Act outlaws the slaughter of cows, the law does not criminalize possessing or consuming beef. Acharya filed a complaint with the Criminal Investigation Department in Assam, but continues to receive posts threatening violence against her.
Russian authorities are considering increased regulations on the Internet in coming years, including requiring ISPs to “decode” all Internet traffic and store it for at least six months after it is generated. Officials say this would include forced decryption of Internet traffic (though it is unlikely that they can actually do this), blocking access to circumvention tools that allow Russian users to visit to blacklisted websites, and even potentially regulating Internet exchange points with other countries and the .ru and .рф domain names. Many of these proposals are technologically complex if not untenable, prohibitively expensive and strongly opposed by businesses. But they nevertheless are an indication of possible restrictions to come.
Eighteen NGOs filed legal submissions before France’s Council of State opposing a ruling by France’s data protection authority (the Commission nationale de l’informatique et des libertés, or CNIL) that would require “right to be forgotten” rulings to have worldwide effect. This would affect Internet content that a court orders removed from the network, on grounds that it is either harmful (to its subject) or out of date and not relevant to the public interest. While the policy currently applies only to content online as it is seen in the European Union (and generally recommends that it be geo-blocked), the ruling would necessitate full removal of said content from the global Internet.
According to the letter, “The order of the CNIL sets a dangerous precedent, by opening the door for national authorities in other countries to impose global restrictions on freedom of expression through remedies grounded solely in their own domestic law. The possible race to the bottom is of the utmost concern to the interveners.”
Telecom industry advocates in Africa are considering a proposal that would deny Internet resources — such as domain names and bandwidth — to African governments that shut down the Internet. As described by a member of the African Network Information Centre (AFRINIC), which is considering the proposal, the group would be “shutting down the Internet for governments that shut down the Internet”. The proposal raises questions about the role of Internet governance organizations in relation to state actors amid a rising trend of politically motivated Internet blackouts. In 2016 alone, there were 18 shutdowns in 11 countries, while the country of Cameroon shut down the Internet for over four months in English-speaking regions.
Days after new US Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai said he would start proceedings to repeal the country’s net neutrality rules, a federal appeals court struck back by rejecting a request to review its decision to uphold the rules. The trade group behind the request, USTelecom, could take its appeal to the Supreme Court. Meanwhile, the FCC will vote on starting the proceedings to get rid of the rules on May 18.
The group Security Without Borders launched FlexiKiller, a tool to identify whether someone has placed the stalkerware FlexiSPY on your computer and remove it from your system. Motherboard reported on FlexiSPY last month, describing the cheap, powerful and widely available software that enables invasive surveillance of consumer devices.
Ellery Roberts Biddle, Leila Nachawati, Mong Palatino and Sarah Myers West contributed to this report.

source: news-globalvoices

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

author: Netizen Report Team


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Nigeria’s President Has Disappeared Again, and Nigerians Demand to Know Why · Global Voices
Nwachukwu Egbunike

Nigerian president, Muhammadu Buhari. Creative Commons photo by e Tasnim News Agency.
Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari has been ill lately and he's missed several public functions. In March, Buhari returned from the United Kingdom after seven weeks of medical leave, but questions about the health of the leader of Africa's most populous nation resurfaced when he skipped a federal executive meeting on April 12.
According to the newspaper ThisDay, Buhari's “conspicuous absence” even raised concerns that he'd been flown abroad again, though the government denied these rumors.
Speculation continued, however, when Buhari missed a cabinet meeting, the following week. His information minister, Lai Mohammed, tried to calm the public, saying that the president was “working from home.”
The explanation only led to more questions about Buhari's location and health.
#WhereisBuhari?? Another FEC meeting without the President… What is d excuse now?? pic.twitter.com/x0IShcdugL
— Ferox (@Feroxmentis) April 26, 2017
Then, the following Friday, the president failed to attend the Friday Jumat prayers in Aso Rock Presidential Villa.
Buhari hasn't been at Friday prayers today – which I think it's fair to say suggests he is quite ill.
— Stephanie Hegarty (@stephhegarty) April 28, 2017
As the absences piled up, so did public demands for honest information about Buhari's status. Professor Wole Soyinka, winner of the 1986 Nobel Prize in Literature, asked, “Why is the president hiding his state of health?”
President Buhari (@MBuhari) should make his health status public – Wole Soyinka
Watch Full Video Here: https://t.co/KEAQOCnxsO pic.twitter.com/oRUfXhav9T
— Sahara Reporters (@SaharaReporters) April 28, 2017
Next, Chief Bisi Akande, former chairman of Buhari's party, warned that some government officials were “feasting” on the president's health situation, saying his disappearance from public “could drag the entire country into avoidable doom,” and admonishing “those who wish to harvest political gains out of the health of the president.”
Meanwhile, Nigerian Internet users have been using the hashtag #WhereisBuhari, demanding to see their president:
A national embarrassment for Nigerians to be trending hashtags just to see their President or have information about him.
— Yomi | #OtodoGbame (@akintonmide) May 2, 2017
It is May 2017, we don't have a budget, we are not normal people..
we are also looking for our President..
— Khaleesi!!! (@AbangMercy) May 2, 2017
If @MBuhari is very sick, let him proceed for medical leave. Good health is more important than any possession #WhereIsBuhari
— Obinna Chukwuezie (@obinnachukwuzie) May 2, 2017
“Nigerians should know the state of health of Buhari,his age and health cannot stand the rigours of office”- Ayo Fayose(Jan 15,2015).
— . (@Tomyboiz) May 2, 2017
Some Twitter users, like the one below, have expressed specific dissatisfaction with the claim that Buhari is merely “working from home.”
Nigeria is not an online company that you can run from home #WhereIsBuhari
— ©$Iπ∆, CON (@EZENAIGBUZOR) May 2, 2017
Others have called for a national protest:
Where are all the lovers of Nigeria? In 2010 WE MARCHED. Boys, girls, men, women, Muslims, Christians… WE MARCHED! #WhereIsBuhari pic.twitter.com/zfsOIEGru8
— Ohimai Godwin Amaize (@MrFixNigeria) May 1, 2017
You marched when Yar'Adua was sick, railed at Hero, but your man doesn't have to chair FEC? Or appear in public? #WhereIsBuhari
— Editi Effiòng (@EditiEffiong) May 1, 2017
Twitter user Tmak reminded the ruling party of its stance during the illness of late President Umaru Musa Yar'Adua:
Nigerian opposition demands proof of Yar'Adua's health https://t.co/plf4QRISTu via @Reuters @APCNigeria now over to you? #WhereIsBuhari
— Tmak (@tmacbond) April 26, 2017
All our political saints have refused to speak the truth about the president's health. But were marching on Yar'Adua's head ?
— Editi Effiòng (@EditiEffiong) May 1, 2017
President Umaru Musa Yar'Adua died in 2010 after battling a heart condition for months. The secrecy surrounding his illness led to a power vacuum and a subsequent political crisis. Despite constitutional provisions for the transfer of power when the president becomes incapacitated, Yar'Adua's advisors prevented him from stepping down. Instead, the “cabal” spread disinformation about his health.
The then opposition party through its spokesman, Lai Mohammed, asked the government to produce “concrete evidence” through a video recording of the sick Mr Yar'Adua from his hospital bed. Mr Lai Mohammed, who is now the government spokesman seems to have forgotten the solution he advanced in similar circumstances seven years ago.
Of course, some Twitter users are finding the humor in the disappearance of Nigeria's latest leader:
#WhereIsBuhari
when you tell Nigerians that Buhari is hale and hearty
Nigerians pic.twitter.com/qOUoFXmL3A
— Tobi Dave (@mhiztadave) May 2, 2017
I had mild chest pain when I saw this #WhereIsBuhari pic.twitter.com/iO1GTBZ5RI
— Beats by Maxxie (@BeatsByMaxxie) May 2, 2017
Blogging on Medium, Nigerian writer Tunde Leye warned that catastrophic consequences could result from further obfuscation about the president's health, saying that some Muslim clergy are already blaming Christians for “poisoning” Buhari. “A policeman was even reported to publicly declare that he would kill 200 people if President Buhari dies,” Leye wrote.

author: Nwachukwu Egbunike


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Draft Law Would Require Egyptian Social Media Users to Register With Government · Global Voices
Afef Abrougui

Image via Pixabay and altered by Global Voices. Released to public domain under CC0.
Sixty Egyptian members of parliament recently approved a draft law on “the regulations of using and exploiting social media networks.” If adopted by the parliament, the law would require social media users in Egypt to register with a government authority in order to use social media websites including Facebook and Twitter.
The law would establish a department tasked with granting citizens permission to use social media. Within six months of the law's adoption, users would have to register on the department's website with their real names and state ID numbers to be able to use social media networks. Failure to do so could bring punishment of up to six months in jail and a fine.
The six-article draft law, which was circulated by local media including Youm7 and Egypt Independent, defines social media as “any application that works via the internet and is used to communicate with others via voice, video messages and text.”
It is unclear how the law would be enforced once adopted, as the draft does not indicate how Egyptian authorities could impose registration on users or to detect those who do not register, give that the Egyptian government does not currently have the ability to regulate social media companies at this level. But the bill's sponsor MP Riyad Abdul Sattar told Al-Monitor that registered users will get a username and a password from the telecommunication ministry “to get through the firewall blocking Facebook.”
This could mean that Egypt plans to create a national-level firewall around Facebook, through which they could then require Egyptians to submit identity information in order to access the network. But no such plans are known to exist, as of yet.
Local experts are skeptical about the technical feasibility of the proposal. Ramy Raoof, senior research technologist at the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights (EIPR), told Global Voices:
I highly doubt the technical capabilities and understanding of any authority in Egypt towards tech-related matters. In my opinion, the same way they think of controlling physical public and private spaces by force is how they imagine it could be done online. If I will take them seriously, this means they are going to deploy a strong monitoring system to filter out citizens who apply for an approval or don't, and this means a crazy system to monitor people's activities and also referring them to trial. It is not realistic at all technically — but in Egypt everything is possible
To become law, the bill will first need to be discussed by the parliament's legislative and constitutional committees before it is referred for plenary debate. Whether its adoption and enforcement are successful or not, the bill is “consistent with the pro-military mindset in the parliament that is set maximize control and make sure no different narrations are present on the scene,” Raoof said.
Last year, MP Tamer El-Shahawy proposed an anti-cyber-crime bill which would prescribe a life prison sentence for those convicted of “threatening public order” and “incitement to protest”.

author: Afef Abrougui


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Is India’s Aadhaar System an Instrument For Surveillance? · Global Voices
Rohith Jyothish

Taking fingerprints for Aadhaar, photo via Wikimedia Commons, by Kannanshanmugham. CC BY 3.0
The first part of this report talked about the background and the security concerns with Aadhaar, the unique ID database of India, the largest of its kind in the world.
As questions emerge around flawed security measures being used to protect India's digital ID database, government authorities are defending the system — and even taking action against those who are revealing its flaws.
Developed by the Union government of India in 2009, the plan called for the creation a Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) that would issue Unique Identity numbers (UIDs) to all residents of India. Under this scheme, now known as Aadhaar (which means “foundation” or “base” in Hindi), the UID number ties together several pieces of a person's demographic and biometric information, including their photograph, ten fingerprints and an image of their iris. This information is all stored in a centralized database. According to the UIDAI, a UID is meant to be “robust enough to eliminate duplicate and fake identities, and can be verified and authenticated in an easy, cost-effective way.”
The scheme has so far enrolled 1.13 billion Indians and residents of India, making it the largest biometric database in the world.
In a 2016 report entitled Digital Dividends, the World Bank included “digital identity” among the four so-called digital enablers for development. With strong identification systems, the report's authors argue, it is possible to “deliver vital services to people, govern effectively, eliminate duplicative or inefficient programs, make efficient use of limited resources, and produce statistics accurately.”
But thus far, India's Aadhaar system has not achieved these aims and has in some cases increased obstacles for citizens seeking to take advantage of basic public services, such as food subsidies. The system also has not actually reached all Indians: A Right to Information (RTI) application filed by Ujjainee Sharma and Trishna Senapaty revealed that as of June 2015, 0.03 per cent of all Aadhaar numbers issued were to people without any pre-existing identification documents. The applicants suspect that the total number of residents of India who do not possess ID numbers is much higher.
Apart from challenges of outreach, data mismanagement and machine errors, recent events have proven that Aadhaar numbers can be easily disclosed, posted online and used for malicious purposes. On May 1, researchers at the Centre for Internet and Society in Bangalore reported that an estimated 135 million Aadhaar numbers had been leaked online from four separate government databases.
While the government has warned that publishing UID data on portals can lead to three years imprisonment, a rule that likely deters some from posting UID numbers online, those reporting security flaws have also faced consequences.
When Skoch Group chairperson Sameer Kocchar showed in a February 2017 video blog post how the UID can be hacked, the UIDAI responded by accusing him of violating Section 37 of the Aadhaar Act.
Section 37 says,”Whoever, intentionally discloses, transmits, copies or otherwise disseminates any identity information collected in the course of enrollment or authentication to any person not authorized under this Act or regulations made thereunder or in contravention of any agreement or arrangement entered into pursuant to the provisions of this Act, shall be punishable with imprisonment for a term which may extend to three years or with a fine which may extend to ten thousand rupees or, in the case of a company, with a fine which may extend to one lakh rupees, or with both.”
In another incident, a case was filed against a journalist who showed on television how it was possible to obtain two separate UID numbers. To further complicate the issue, one may never know if their data has been breached, as the UIDAI refuses to disclose this type of information through Right to Information requests.
On Twitter, multiple users have tagged the @ceo_uidai and @uidai on relevant tweets, raising alarms against potential misuse of biometrics and leaks of UID data. But the Twitter handles of some of those who voiced the criticism have been blocked by government accounts. In responding to a subsequent RTI application asking the UIDAI whether they have banned anyone from their Twitter accounts, officials claimed otherwise.
Another concern of privacy and security experts is that UID can be used as a tool for mass surveillance by government or other actors.
Various government spokespersons maintain that UIDAI collects minimal information. While that is true, services based on UID collect more than minimal information. @kingslyj provides an example of two state government entities that do precisely that:
@pranesh Look at the difference in Aadhaar application forms between Karnataka – https://t.co/XxiXeUF61A and Kerala – https://t.co/QMsP1nOkHp
— @kingslyj (@kingslyj) April 26, 2017
The tool may also be further developed to collect more information in the future. Revelations by legislative researcher Meghnad from a debate in the Lower House of the Parliament earlier in 2017 indicated that DNA data might one day be included:
Fun Fact: when asked whether DNA would be a part of Biometric data collection in #Aadhaar, the FM said they might do so in the future. pic.twitter.com/NnAYnYII42
— Meghnad (@Memeghnad) January 11, 2017
Centre for Internet and Society Executive Director Sunil Abraham has openly described Aadhaar as a surveillance tool:
Repeat after me: Aadhaar is surveillance technology masquerading as secure authentication technology.
— Sunil Abraham (@sunil_abraham) February 24, 2017
Multiple national experts on law, privacy and technology have raised concern about the program's fraud and surveillance implications. New Delhi lawyer Apar Gupta, who has argued multiple privacy-related cases before the Supreme Court, explained in an interview with BuzzFeed News:
If your data is compromised in any way, there is absolutely nowhere that you as a citizen can turn to. There are no judicial remedies built into the Aadhaar program in case of identity theft.
Some of the worst fears of Aadhaar's critics were confirmed when a private company tweeted out a picture of what they could do with UID. The tweet has been deleted, but the original image has continued to circulate online:
If you don’t understand the full import of the phrase “the road to hell is paved with good intentions”, take a good look at @India_Stack pic.twitter.com/4ZpHZqVeO9
— Raj S (@raj_s) February 3, 2017
In one of seven open letters to the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Finance that was scrutinizing what was then known as the National Identification Authority of India Bill, the Centre for Internet and Society laid down the inherent problems and pitfalls of using biometrics as an instrument of authentication, offering technical recommendations intended to help avoid exploitation of the system.
Billionaire Nandan Nilekani, who is UID's main architect and the co-founder of IT company Infosys, has acknowledged that privacy regulation is an “afterthought” of innovation and that India needs strong privacy laws after claiming for years that the scheme had built-in privacy and security features. Upper House MP Rajeev Chandrasekhar did not fail to miss Nilekani's change of heart.
Views “evolve” ??
2015 – #Aadhaar ensures privacy by desgn ;
2016-2017 massve data leaks n breaches ;
2017 – Need a data privacy law pic.twitter.com/PSJBihD3O5
— Rajeev Chandrasekhar (@rajeev_mp) April 29, 2017
In the background of this ongoing debate, the Attorney General of India has argued in court that ‘privacy is not a fundamental right’ and has even referred to it as a concern of the elite or the corrupt.
It is worrying to see the government not respond adequately to concerns raised by the citizens, and even to punish those who have shed light on Aadhaar's flaws. This combined with a broad-based denial of privacy as a fundamental right gives the impression that they do not have plans to stop or even address the problems with the system.

author: Rohith Jyothish


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Jamaica Furthers Its Missing Child Prevention and Recovery Efforts With Facebook Alert System · Global Voices
Emma Lewis

Children's Rights; photo by Robert Schrader, CC BY-NC-ND 2.0.
The month of May is Child Month in Jamaica — an official designation that has been embraced over the years by non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and the public in general. In light of ongoing concerns over the welfare of children in Jamaican society, the National Child Month Committee (which dates back to 1953) chose this year's theme as ‘Take Action! Break the Chain of Abuse Against Children’.
On May 1, the Jamaican government and Facebook embarked on a partnership to broaden the reach of missing children alerts on the island — the first time that Jamaica has harnessed social media for this purpose. Although Jamaicans and others have often used social media informally to post pictures of missing adults and children, there are inherent dangers, including possible legal problems, associated with this. Jamaica is working on creating a more efficient system that will include the more than 1.2 million Jamaicans currently using Facebook.
The issue of missing children is far more complex than one might think. In Jamaica, as in other countries, the factors that lead to a child's disappearance may include human trafficking, border security and parental custody issues. However, according to the Global Missing Children's Network (GMCN) — which has 25 member countries, including Jamaica — there are few reliable statistics on missing children around the world. In many countries, such statistics are not available at all, and neither are missing child alert protocols. The GMCN suggests the issue is further complicated by the lack of a clear, universal definition of “missing children”.
At least in Jamaica, there has been a documented decline in the number of missing children largely due to the initiation of the Ananda Alert (similar to the Amber Alert system in the United States). Still, around 10% of them are not found each year. According to the Missing Person Monitoring Unit of the Jamaica Constabulary Force, 1,725 children went missing in 2016, 269 of whom were not found. The Jamaican alert system is named after 11-year-old Ananda Dean, who was abducted on her way home from school in 2008 and her body found days later. The alert program was established the following year.
Under the new arrangement, Facebook's Director of Trust and Safety Emily Vacher, who attended the program's May 1 launch in Kingston, noted that Jamaica and the Office of the Children's Registry (OCR) are leaders in this area:
When Facebook receives an alert from OCR, within 15 minutes that alert will be prepared and disseminated to the public. When you see this missing child alert it pops up as [an] Active Ananda Alert that will have the picture of the missing child and a brief description. When you click ‘Learn More’ it will take you off Facebook to the page prepared by the Global Missing Children Network (GMCN), where you will see the age, height, weight, last clothing seen in, and a description of the vehicle or licence plate number if all that was witnessed.
She further explained that there will be a share button for users to post to their Facebook timelines and monitor developments there. Vacher pointed out that the omission of the ‘Like’ or ‘Comment’ buttons was deliberate, in order to prevent people from giving tips on recovering the child in a place that might not be monitored.
Vacher said, too, that the alerts that currently exist in traditional media will not be replaced; rather, they will be enhanced using Facebook.
Jamaica's Office of the Children's Registry, which receives the alerts and runs a child abuse hotline, tweeted proudly:
Jamaica is the 1st Caribbean country to have a response system and the 1st to have the Ananda Alert on #Facebook initiative. pic.twitter.com/eTW6IxRksX
— Children's Registry (@OCRJA) May 1, 2017
Young activist Neville Charlton shared:
Awesome work @facebook partnering with Jamaican Authorities to help in the fight for missing children @floydgreenja @OCRJA #AnandaAlert
— The Positive One (@Nevpositivemeds) May 1, 2017
Children's rights activist Betty Anne Blaine, whose non-governmental organisation Hear the Children's Cry has been active in the GMCN for some years, added:
Betty Ann Blaine: if only we had this when Ananda Dean went missing, maybe she would be alive today! #AnandaAlert Facebook-OCR partnership pic.twitter.com/WQP30HQh9T
— UNICEF Jamaica (@UNICEFJamaica) May 1, 2017
Richard Dean, Ananda's father, had the last word:
Richard Dean, father of Ananda: “Be vigilant, be aware & just think of it as your own child – you will be helping someone out.” #AnandaAlert pic.twitter.com/7XDhcKlWzk
— UNICEF Jamaica (@UNICEFJamaica) May 2, 2017

author: Emma Lewis


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Nyetflix and Dill: Putin Signs Law Regulating Foreign Online Streaming Services · Global Voices
Isaac Webb

Source: @Nyet_flix, Twitter.
Vladimir Putin signed into law on Monday a bill that will severely restrict foreign streaming services’ access to the Russian market, a move experts say is the culmination of an intense lobbying campaign waged by domestic providers.
The law, which was approved by Russia's two legislative bodies, the Federative Council and the State Duma, in April, is designed to support Russian streaming services by squeezing foreign providers like Netflix, Apple TV, and Google Play: it stipulates that online audio-visual services can only be registered to Russians who do not have dual citizenship and that foreigners can own more than 20 percent of a service only if less than 50 percent of its users are located in Russia and a government commission approves it.
Audio-visual services are broadly defined as websites or programs attracting more than 100,000 users per day that distribute audio or video content and make their money using advertisements targeted at Russian audiences or through subscription-based models. Websites that fit this description will be added to a state register that will be monitored by Roskomnadzor, the Russian Internet regulator.
Netflix has come under pressure from the Kremlin since it began operations in Russia in January 2016. Even before it entered the market, industry advocates expressed concern that the American company would put domestic streaming services like ivi and Okko out of business. In response, lawmakers introduced a law in March of last year that aimed to make foreign video providers translate 80 percent of their material into Russian and produce at least 30 percent of their content on Russian soil. Netflix has also been targeted by separate legislation that caps foreign owners’ stake in media at 20 percent.
Netflix's domestic competitors have lauded the new legislation, which they say will not negatively impact them. Mikhail Platov, the deputy director general of ivi, said the new restrictions were “acceptable” and that they would “not affect our company's activities.” Okko General Director Ivan Grodetsky, meanwhile, went further, saying his company is “happy that market players’ opinions were taken into account,” according to a Gazeta.ru report.
Image edited by Kevin Rothrock.
Industry insiders consider the bill redundant, as it duplicates many regulations that are already on the books—including the bill on foreign media ownership. The legislation also duplicates earlier Kremlin efforts to curtail “extremist” material online, obliging online video services to prevent their content from being used to “commit criminal acts,” including the “distribution of material that includes public calls for terrorist acts to be committed” and “publicly justifying terrorism.” Public calls for terrorism are punishable by fines ranging from 50,000 rubles for individuals to one million rubles for legal entities.
Beyond protecting the domestic streaming industry, experts say certain provisions of the law are the product of lobbying from another Internet interest group: The law requires streaming services to measure Internet traffic, a business that is monopolized by the company LiveInternet, which is owned by German Klimenko, Putin's internet advisor.
Industry analysts have criticized the bill for helping one Kremlin insider consolidate monopolistic control over Internet traffic monitoring. According to a source interviewed by the activist Internet monitor rublacklist.net, using LiveInternet's counters is “the first step towards the monopolization of big data by players who will be selected by representatives of state power, which is fundamentally wrong.”
Meanwhile, state media authorities have welcomed the bill, which will enter into force on July 1, 2017, for strengthening state security. Ekaterina Larina, the head of the department of state policy for mass media, noted that “The information space is an important part of protecting state security, which is all the more important in the context of the globalization of online spaces and its influence on audiences.”

author: Isaac Webb


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Omani Authorities Block Access to Online Magazine Mowatin · Global Voices
Afef Abrougui

Censorship graffiti image via Pixabay. CC0, public domain.
On 3 May, Omani authorities blocked access to the independent online magazine Mowatin (Arabic for ‘citizen’).
#مجلة_مواطن| تنبيه: قبل قليل وصلتنا ملاحظات عدة تؤكد على عدم إمكانية تصفح موقع المجلة من داخل سلطنة عمان، ويحتمل أن السلطة قامت بحجب الموقع.
— مجلة مواطن (@MowatinOman) May 3, 2017
attention: a bit earlier, we have received reports that it is not possible to access the magazine's website from inside the Sultanate of Oman, and it is probable that the authority had blocked the site
#مجلة_مواطن| تنبيه: بسبب حجب موقع المجلة داخل سلطنة عمان، ننصح قراء المجلة في عمان استخدام VPN قبل التصفح ليمكنهم من دخول الموقع.
— مجلة مواطن (@MowatinOman) May 3, 2017
attention: because of the blocking of the magazine's website inside the Omani Sultanate, we advise our readers to use a VPN to be able to access the website
Launched in June 2013, Mowatin is an independent Omani magazine that covers a variety of topics in Oman and the Arabian Gulf including politics, human rights and the economy. In January 2016, the magazine announced a suspension of its activities due to “circumstances beyond its control”, in particular its desire to “guarantee the safety” of its journalists and writers. The magazine's journalists were subjected to pressures and harassment from Omani authorities, in particular the Internal Security Services (ISS), the country's national security intelligence agency.
In a video published on 25 April, the magazine announced that it would resume publishing from London, on 3 May on the occasion of World Press Freedom Day. However, hours after resuming publication, the magazine and human rights groups reported that the website was blocked inside Oman.
The blocking decision is the latest in a series of repressive measures taken by Omani authorities as part of the country's broader crackdown on independent media. Last year in August, the ministry of information ordered the shutdown of the independent Azamn newspaper over a report government interference with the judiciary. Three of Azamn's journalists, including its editor in-chief, were detained and sentenced to jail for charges that included “disturbing public order” and “undermining the prestige of the State”. While in October, another independent newspaper Albalad, put an end to its operations, due to government pressures.


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Venezuela’s Protests Arrive in Lebanon · Global Voices
Laura Vidal

“We're being killed”. Screenshot of video shared by Vine Venezuela on YouTube showing the two protesters in front of Tarek William Saad.
The presence of Venezuela's ombudsman, Tarek William Saab, in Beirut was not met kindly by Venezuelans in Lebanon, who organized protests to denounce violence in ongoing demonstrations in the Latin American country.
The ombudsman, whose official title is Public Defender of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela (Defensoría del Pueblo de la República Bolivariana de Venezuela), was supposedly giving a speech on human rights in Beirut. Critics denounced his trip to Lebanon in the middle of the political crisis that has seen weeks of protests, in which 30 people have been reported killed as of May 4, 2017.
The most recent protests in a country that has seen political turmoil for years started when the Supreme Court of Justice effectively nullified the National Assembly on March 30. Despite the decision being short-lived, the widely unpopular government of Maduro, which has overseen a three-year-long economic crisis and record levels of violent crime and poverty, has inspired a growing opposition to his policies.
Two Lebanese-Venezuelan women interrupted Saab's speech while holding the Venezuelan flag upside down (one of the main symbols within the current protests) and yelling “My people are dying! We're being killed! Where are [those human] rights, Tarek?”
Martyrs’ Square in Beirut, a highly symbolic location where, for example, Lebanon's YouStink movement gathered to protest in the summer of 2015, saw a concentration of people banging on pots (a common way of protesting in Latin America).
The following video shows protesters outside the hotel where Saab was residing, near Martyrs’ Square.
VIDEO | Venezolanos continúan protestando contra Tarek Wiliam Saab a las afueras del hotel donde se hospeda en Beirut, Líbano #4May pic.twitter.com/M6skNMYMSu
— Alberto Rodríguez (@AlbertoRT51) 4 May 2017
VIDEO. Venezuelans keep protesting against Tarek William Saab outside the hotel where he's staying in Beirut, Lebanon.
The video of the two women quickly went viral and made #Líbano (#Lebanon) a trending topic in Venezuela. Some users took the opportunity to spotlight the crackdown taking place in Venezuela at the same time that he was in Beirut:
Mira @TarekWiliamSaab… mientras comes hummus en el Líbano. pic.twitter.com/dYcpp0M9sX
— Jesús M. Yánez M. (@jyanezm) May 4, 2017
Look, Tarek William Saab, [this is going on] while you're eating hummus in Lebanon
Quien non práctica Los Derechos Humanos #Venezuela ,no puede hablar de ellos ni representar a la Nación #Libano
— Patricia Mata.M. (@patriteacher) May 4, 2017
Those who don't practice Human Rights #Venezuela, can't talk about them or represent the nation in #Lebanon
@TarekWiliamSaab que se siente que ni al Líbano puede ud ir sin que le persiga la realidad que tanto pretende bloquear en Twitter?
— MV Daniel Rinzivillo (@darn7891) May 4, 2017
How does it feel not even being able to go to Lebanon without being dogged by the reality that you're so badly trying to block on Twitter?
Es un DESCARO, que @TarekWiliamSaab , quien DEBE velar por los DDHH de los Venezolanos y no lo hace, vaya a hablar en #Libano sobre éstos.
— AD Cabimas (@ADCabimas) May 4, 2017
What nerve. Tarek WIlliam Saab, who should ensure the Human Rights of Venezuelans and doesn't do it, goes and talks about Human Rights in #Lebanon.
@cristiancrespoj No smque me asombra más, que ese sinverguanza hable de derechos humanos en un país como Líbano o el enorme valor de esas mujeres #Dictadura
— Vichoyer (@vichoyer) May 4, 2017
I don't know what amazes me more, that scoundrel talking about human rights in a country like Lebanon or the incredible courage of those women #Dictatorship
There are an estimated 400,000 to 800,000 Venezuelans of Lebanese descent, the largest population of Lebanese in Latin America outside of Brazil and Argentina. Venezuela's current vice president, Tareck El Aissami, is of Syrian-Lebanese origins.

author: Laura Vidal


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Wanna Share News on Social Media? With China’s New Rules, You’ll Need a Permit For That. · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

Images remixed by Oiwan Lam.
China’s State Council Information Office released updated regulations on 2 May that will restrict individuals from writing and reading news stories from individual blogs and social media, including Sina Weibo and WeChat. Under the news rules, users will be required to obtain a permit before writing or distributing news on social media.
The updated version of the “Provisions for the Administration of Internet News Information Service” will take effect on June 1, 2017.
Along with restrictions on news reporting, the rules will also require individuals to submit real identity information when subscribing to a news information service.
The original provisions were introduced in September 2005 to restrict online news outlets from writing and publishing original news stories from “illegitimate” sources, in an effort to force all online portals to distribute news only from news agencies licensed by Internet News Information Service Work Units.
Despite the many layers of censorship that China is so well known for, the digital media environment has given rise to a robust industry of individuals doing serious news reporting online. The country's various social media platforms have enabled more and more independent writers to use blogs, Weibo and WeChat public platforms to write news features or news commentary. Some independent journalists or commercial media outlets have even managed to support their work with readers’ cash tips and commercial ads.
Individual bloggers who publish politically sensitive stories are subject to heavy censorship by the authorities and the community abuse reporting system on the public platforms of social media. Yet many have learned how to write reports that share important information with the public without violating political and community rules. Live-streaming mobile apps have made it even more difficult for the censors to stop live reports on time.
The newly announced provisions may curb this trend by extending previous restrictions from web portals and news outlets to all social communication platforms.
Prominent tech blogger William Long explained the impact of the new provisions on individual social media users by highlighting the amended articles in the regulations in a recent post:
第五条 通过互联网站、应用程序、论坛、博客、微博客、公众账号、即时通信工具、网络直播等形式向社会公众提供互联网新闻信息服务，应当取得互联网新闻信息服务许可，禁止未经许可或超越许可范围开展互联网新闻信息服务活动。
Article 5: Internet news information services that make use of websites, apps, forums, blogs, microblogs, mobile public platforms (e.g Wechat), instant message and livecast should obtain permits from Internet News Information Services work unit. Any Internet news Information services that are not granted by the permits are forbidden.
Long compared the old and new regulations, pointing to the broadening of these rules to all of social media:
之前原《规定》里，主要是针对网站进行监管，即网站提供新闻信息服务，需要取得互联网新闻信息服务许可，新《规定》将范围扩大到新媒体、自媒体、社交网站等，也就是说，在微信、微博里转发门户网站的新闻，需取得互联网新闻信息服务许可，否则将处一万元以上三万元以下罚款，新媒体不再是“自由世界”了。
In the old version of the provisions, the restrictions are confined to websites that provide news information services with an Internet News Service permit system. The new regulations have extended the restrictions to new media, me-media and social media. Which means, users of Weibo and Wechat have to acquire a permit for distributing news information, or else they could be subject to a RMB10,000 to 30,000 fine (approximately US1,400 to 4,300 dollars). New media is no longer a free world.
According to the provision, news information is defined as reports, comments on social and public affairs including politics, economics, military, diplomacy and breaking news. The term “Internet news service” is defined as reporting, editing, distributing and redistributing of news and the operating of distributing platforms.
In an interview with Voice of America, Wen Yunchao, a Chinese political dissident based in the US, pointed out that it would be almost impossible for ordinary individuals and websites to obtain news information permits:
所以一般個人乃至普通的網站想申請新聞信息服務許可證，我想都是一個不可能的任務。我想在這個條例下，所有跟新聞時政相關的，包括評論，包括論壇，包括內容的話，我想都會受到極大的限制。
I think it is an impossible mission for ordinary people and websites to obtain a news information permit. Under such regulations, all contents, reports and comments about current affairs and policies would be restricted.
The set of new regulations also require readers to provide real identity information when subscribing to Internet News Information Service:
第十三条 ：互联网新闻信息服务提供者为用户提供互联网新闻信息传播平台服务，应当按照《中华人民共和国网络安全法》的规定，要求用户提供真实身份信息。用户不提供真实身份信息的，互联网新闻信息服务提供者不得为其提供相关服务。
Article 13: Internet news information providers when providing internet news information platform service to individuals must follow the regulations under the “Cybersecurity Laws of the PRC”, requiring their users to provide real identity registration. Internet news information providers should not provide service to users who have not provided real identity information.
Long believes the new requirement is intended to reduce anonymous comments in news-related conversations on social media.
这条新《规定》主要是针对网民，也就是新闻的读者，对于网民的最大影响是，看新闻需要实名了，如果用户不向新闻平台提供真实身份，新闻平台不得为之提供相关服务，据我推测，这项规定主要是为了预防用户在新闻里匿名发布评论，实名之后，用户再发“违法”评论就容易抓了。
The new regulations are targeting ordinary netizens, which means news readers. The biggest impact is that real name restriction is needed for reading news. If users do not provide real identity information, the news platforms cannot provide service to them. My guess is that the measure is to prevent users from making anonymous comments in the news thread. With real name registration, it is easier to catch those making “illegal” comments.
Chang Ping, exiled Chinese journalist based in Germany agreed that the real name registration is to stop anonymous comments on social media news threads:
雖然它可能很難操作，它可能最終能管住的就是，你實名登記了，你就不能匿名發評論，而不是真正的實名看新聞…
It is difficult to implement [the real name registration of news readers], the most likely result is to make sure the readers cannot comment anonymously.
The regulations also require Internet News Information Service Providers to hire professional editors and journalists with licensed press cards for processing news stories (Article 11) and to ensure that private capital investors do not intervene into the operation of the news room.
Since 2013, Chinese authorities have mainly used China's Rumor Law to stop individual netizens from distributing unverified news information on social media. Under the law, any piece of news or information that has not been released by official government channels can be considered a rumor.
The new regulations provide additional legal ground to curb individual netizens’ rights to free speech by forbidding them from writing original witness reports, distributing news information from illegitimate sources and commenting on news anonymously.
While the regulations will be enforced on 1 June, many doubt that authorities and the social media platforms will be able to implement all the requirements:
真正实施的话，新浪微博要死，或者卖给国家，腾讯说说也不会有了，各大公众号也不会有了，朋友圈也许不算是公众，还可以幸免
If the provisions were to be fully implemented, Sina Weibo would have to be shut down or sold to the state. Tecent would be the same. All the WeChat public platforms could not be operated. Friend circles are not public, so they could survive…
等于说，大家直接把所有通讯软件都卸载就行了，否则，只要你说话，就犯法！扼杀创新，真是悲哀
It is like asking us to uninstall all the communication tools or else whenever you speak, you could violate the law. [Such regulations] is curbing innovation. So sad.
也就是说我到街上录一段视频或者直接打开直播软件就是违规了？另外将新浪科技的这条微博转发到qq、微信、或者我自己的微博也是违规的？因为我没有许可证啊，这是规定明令禁止的转载服务啊，话说现在有几个人没有往微信、qq、自己的微博转发过新闻链接或者新闻图片的？
Does this mean that whenever I record a video in the street or turn on livecast apps, I could violate the law? Or if I cross post this news to QQ, Wechat or my own blog, I could violate the law? Because I don't have permission to do so. I don't have permission, and this law states that redistributing [news information without a permit] would be banned. Who on earth has never distributed news or news photos via one's WeChat, QQ and blog?
As the implementation of the regulation would almost be impossible, one netizen believes that it is inevitable that law enforcement or social media platforms will end up enforcing the regulations selectively:
这个立法还是普遍违法选择执法了
The regulations will outlaw all kinds of online activities and will only result in selective enforcement.
It is too soon to know exactly how the regulations be implemented after June 1. But what we can anticipate is that the space for independent journalistic activities on social media will be further restrained.

author: Oiwan Lam


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Wikipedia Is Turkey’s First Major Censorship Target, Post-Referendum. What Will Be Next? · Global Voices
Arzu Geybullayeva

Screenshot from Wikipedia's English-language page on Turkey.
Just two weeks after a referendum in which voters narrowly approved far-reaching constitutional amendments that will increase the power of the presidency, a Turkish court ruled that the volunteer-driven international online encyclopedia Wikipedia should be blocked in Turkey.
Amid growing tension between the pro and anti-government camps, the decision provided citizens with yet another snapshot of their future under President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his ruling AKP party as they adjust to growing political upheaval and the extension of emergency rule in the country by a further three months.
Hurriyet Daily News reported that the website ban was ordered by an Ankara court on April 29 “after the site’s administration refused to remove two English language pages which claimed that Turkey channeled support to jihadists in Syria”.
The Ministry of Transport, Maritime Affairs and Communications appeared to confirm this viewpoint when it said the site was blocked for “becoming an information source with acting with groups conducting a smear campaign against Turkey in the international arena.”
These are the lines that got #Wikipedia blocked in Turkey. All about the illegal weapons transfer of the Turkish Intelligence though Syria. https://t.co/GlDKZnmnWR
— Can Dündar (@candundaradasi) May 2, 2017
As a result, Turkey joined China as one of the few countries in the world to order a complete block on Wikipedia, rather than simply censoring individual pages. The sledgehammer attack on the resource echoes the zeal with which the government seemingly blocked Twitter after Erdogan promised to “wipe out” the social media service in 2014.
According to a Wikipedia page on the topic of the website's censorship by countries across the world, previous censorship attempts by Turkey had only been partial, and apparently focused on Turkish-language articles about human genitalia.
The block comes at a time of deepening political schism in Turkey, after Erdogan lashed out against OSCE/ODIHR observers and their reports of vote fraud in the country's tightly contested referendum.
President Erdogan, Turkey's leading politician for the last 14 years, publicly told them as well as other international actors and critics of the government to “know your place”.
The Turkish vote has been tainted by alleged widespread fraud. Here we outline the claims https://t.co/uQEWG6yGo4
— Patrick Kingsley (@PatrickKingsley) April 18, 2017
Turkey post-election: OSCE said “unlevel playing field”; Pres Erdogan told OSCE to go away; emergency rule extended; protests breaking out.. https://t.co/5ZVnMYf9ZN
— Zeynep Tufekci (@zeynep) April 18, 2017
The AKP government's strong aversion to the Internet can be traced back at least as far as the Gezi park protests in 2013 in which social networks helped mobilize opposition to the government in one of the first major tests of Erdogan's enduring leadership.
Just months later, they had reason to hate it some more after recordings allegedly capturing Erdogan and his son discussing illicit financial schemes went viral across YouTube and Twitter, triggering the Turkish leader's now infamous broadside against the micro-blogging service Twitter.
Turkey has blocked both YouTube and Twitter in the past, the latter on multiple occasions. According to EngelliWeb (a platform no longer available online that tracked websites blocked since 2006) there are over 100,000 blocked websites in Turkey today.
Internet speeds have slowed considerably, meanwhile, and are especially sluggish during anti-government rallies, counter-extremism operations or elections, pointing to likely interference by state actors.
In November 2016, the government shut down the internet in the Kurdish-populated south-east of the country for 10 days.
Turkish netizens were quick to turn to Twitter to channel their frustrations with the court decision blocking Wikipedia.
Dünyanın en yoğun kullandığı bilgi kaynağı @Wikipedia Türkiye'de yasaklanmış. Amaç ne cahil kalmak mı? https://t.co/XiIGJUelvL
— basketvole (@basketvole) 29 апреля 2017 г.
World's most heavily used information source Wikipedia blocked in Turkey. Whats the aim, to stay uninformed?
Yasaklandım. Hep saklandım. Günaydın, gittm ben.. https://t.co/SVm3V5y08E
— Yiğit Kalafatoğlu (@yicit) 29 апреля 2017 г.
I have been banned. I have been in hiding all the time. Good morning, I am leaving (play on the words of a popular pop song)
Wikipedia engelleten karanlık…https://t.co/0HgUXYzvke
— Berkin Bozdoğan (@zuhuratbaba) 29 апреля 2017 г.
The darkness that blocked Wikipedia…
Wikipedia engellendi, evlilik programları kapatıldı. Bugünkü blokları James Harden bile yapamazdı.
— Tayfur Aksoy (@Tayfuraksy) 29 апреля 2017 г.
Wikipedia blocked, marriage TV shows shut down. Even James Harden would not have been able to do all these blocks.
The marriage programs mentioned in this tweet refer to a court order also on April 29 that blocked reality dating programs which are popular in Turkey, citing these TV shows as unfit for Turkish traditions and customs.
On the same day, another 3,900 people were dismissed from their jobs, including more than 400 academics for alleged ties to Erdogan's arch-nemesis Fethullah Gulen, who Ankara accuses of engineering a bloody coup attempt in the country last year.
Since the coup took place 120,000 people have been sacked from both public and private sector jobs, and as many as 40,000 arrested, mostly on the basis of suspected affiliations to Gulen, an Islamic preacher and educator that once wielded formidable behind-the-scenes influence in Turkey.
The fact that Erdogan's “Yes’ campaign secured 51.41% of the vote indicates that a large part of the country is supportive of what amounts to a giant social engineering project to permanently change the face of the Turkish republic.
For the 48.59% who voted “No”, cue disillusion, alienation and a world in which circumvention tools are needed to access the internet's largest, crowd-sourced educational resource.

author: Arzu Geybullayeva


text:
Young Girl Quits Malaysian Chess Tournament After Organizers Call Her Knee-Length Skirt ‘Seductive’ · Global Voices
Mong Palatino

This dress was allegedly deemed seductive by the organizers of the chess tournament. Photo from the Facebook page of Kaushal Kal
A 12-year-old girl withdrew from a national chess competition in Malaysia after some of the organizers said her knee-length skirt was “improper” and violated the tournament’s dress code.
This was revealed by the girl’s coach through a Facebook post which quickly went viral. Kaushal Khandhar wrote that during the tournament, an organizer approached the girl and her mother about the “seductive” dress which is deemed a “temptation from a certain angle far, far away.”
The dress code in Malaysia’s chess tournaments simply states that a player must have a “dignified appearance”.
The mother tried to buy a new dress but stores in the area were already closed. Embarrassed about the accusation of wearing an “improper” dress, the girl withdrew from the tournament.
Kaushal Khandhar uploaded a photo of the girl’s skirt to prove that it was not improper. He added that the girl’s family is demanding an apology from the National Scholastic Chess Championship:
This incident has left her extremely disturbed, and embarrassed.
We are absolutely DISGUSTED by the treatment of Tournament Director to a 12-year-old girl and her mother. This incident has resulted in loss of time and money which was invested before, during and after the tournament on coaching, registration fees, travelling, accommodation and other incurred cost.
I have been playing chess in Malaysia for almost 2 decades and I have never heard this type of issue ever in any tournaments in Malaysia. This should be the first and last time this kind of issue ever appears, I or anyone of us should never accept this in our Chess Community.
The Facebook post sparked public outrage against the organizers of the chess tournament. Some believe it reflects the rising influence of conservative forces and religious hardliners in Malaysia.
The tournament’s director denied that he forced the girl to withdraw from the tournament. He filed a case in the police headquarters after receiving numerous online hate messages and death threats. During a press conference, he said he was being “slandered” because of the issue:
I received abusive messages and threats on Facebook and via email. People used terms like ‘paedophile’ and ‘pervert’. I even looked for messages of support but there were none.
After initially probing the incident, the Malaysian Chess Federation said that the girl was not disqualified because of her dress. It refused to continue the investigation after learning that a case has already been filed in the police.
Based on news reports, the organizers of the chess tournament are denying that they disqualified the girl — which is true because the girl withdrew from the tournament. But they were silent as to whether they called the attention of the girl and her mother about the “improper” dress.
The Women, Family and Community Development Ministry issued a statement urging the Malaysian Chess Federation to look deeper into the issue:
The opportunity for children to participate in this activity is not only a mental stimulus to children but also the chance to mix, exchange ideas, share experience and interact among themselves, from different races, sex, background, economic status and religious belief.
Peter Long of the Institute of Chess Excellence, which is also the Malaysian Chess Federation's National Chess Academy, advised the organizers to apologize to the girl and her family:
Just apologise to the girl, make it right. It’s okay to make a mistake, to be wrong. But it is not okay to cover up, or worst to shift blame, and collectively pretend it is the solution. Do not victimise the girl, her mother or the whistleblowing coach.
Do I have to remind us all that we are talking here about a 12-year-old girl here? I really want to believe that we understand the welfare of the child is of utmost importance.
Writer Terence Fernandez insisted that “the police should not only be looking into the claims of the breach of dress code but the fact that a child was possibly sexualised by an adult.”

author: Mong Palatino


text:
A Bus Crash Claims the Lives of Dozens of Children in Northern Tanzania · Global Voices
Omar Mohammed

Bus ride to Arusha, in Tanzania. Photo by Jerry Michalski, CC BY-SA 2.0.
A bus carrying 40 people, majority of them primary school children and their teachers, plunged into a river in Arusha, northern Tanzania, killing at least 31 people, according to news reports.
The Associated Press later reported that a total of 35 people had died, including 32 children, citing statements from police officials.
The students were on a field trip, visiting a school in Karatu, a district in the region, and were later scheduled to travel to one of the natural wonders of the world, the Ngorongoro Crater, the Daily News, a local newspaper, said.
They never made it. Eyewitness accounts describe a harrowing scene. When the bus went past the Rhotia Hill Township, speeding downhill to the road section known as ‘Kwa-Karani’, eyewitnesses saw the vehicle being catapulted into the air and nose dive into the gorge adjacent to River Marera, in Karatu, according to the Daily News. Social media circulated gruesome images of the upturned vehicle.
Grief as over 30 kids feared to have perished in road accident https://t.co/yIHXzYWCM5 pic.twitter.com/2b5dE2tNpe
— The Citizen Tanzania (@TheCitizenTZ) May 6, 2017
“Many, many school children have been killed,” Theresia Mahongo, Karatu's District Commissioner, told The Citizen, a local newspaper.
President John Magufuli said he was “shocked” and “saddened” by the news. The accident has cut short the dreams of children who were preparing themselves to serve their nation, he said in a statement:
“Muhimu kwa sasa tuwaombee marehemu wote wapumzishwe mahali pema, majeruhi wapone haraka na wote walioguswa na msiba huu wawe na moyo wa subira, ustahimilivu na uvumilivu katika kipindi hiki kigumu” Amesema Mhe. Rais Magufuli.
The most important thing right now is to pray for those killed, may they rest in peace, pray for those injured to heal quickly and to everyone affected by this tragedy, may their hearts have patience and perseverance in this difficult time.
There were reports that Kenya's president, Uhuru Kenyatta, had also sent his condolences to those hit by the tragedy:
Pres Kenyatta calls for a moment of silence in honour of 30 students who have perished in a road accident in Tanzania, sends his condolences
— Samuel Chege Maina (@SamCMaina) May 6, 2017
Many netizens shared their grief via Twitter:
Awful to hear about the bus crash in Tanzania which killed teachers and children #Tanzania
— Matt Atkinson (@Runner_Akie) May 6, 2017
Tanzania has one of the highest road fatality rates in Africa, according to the 2015 World Health Organisation's (WHO) global status report on road safety:

author: Omar Mohammed


text:
Jordan’s Magic Sorcerers Continue to Be Sought After · Global Voices
Maggie Nazer

Amman, Jordan. Taken by Alice Bonfatti. Used with permission.
The demonological conception of Islam regards the “jinn” (الجن), anglicized as “genie”, as a servant of Allah, similar to the human. What makes the subject of magic practices and beliefs in Jordan all the more fascinating is the conflicting relationship of simultaneous opposition and tolerance between religion and “the Occult”. Indeed, Islam does not reject the existence of magic; quite the contrary: several Quranic verses refer to magic-doing, if only to condemn the practice.
When asked by Global Voices whether he believed in magic, Amman-based taxi driver Ibrahim Othman said, “Every Muslim should believe in magic because of the story of Prophet Musa in the Quran”. According to the Chapter of al-A‘raf in the Quran, upon arrival in front of the Pharaoh, Moses had a confrontation with the Pharaoh’s sorcerers, who used black magic to turn their rods into snakes. With God’s approval, Moses turned his rod into a serpent, forcing the sorcerers to kneel before him and accept his prophecies, stunned by the miracle observed.
This episode illuminates the Quranic distinction between magic and miracle, whereby in the words of Ibn Khaldun, one of the most prominent Muslim historians, “a miracle is a divine power that arouses in the soul [the ability] to exercise influence. The [worker of miracles] is supported in his activity by the spirit of God. The sorcerer, on the other hand, does his work by himself and with the help of his own psychic power, and, under certain conditions, with the support of devils”.
In Jordan, the acceptance of the existence of “jinn” and its believed ability to possess people is one of many commonplace magic beliefs, such as the greedy “evil eye”, amulets and Al-matuom — the practice of using the deemed “dirty” menstrual blood to ensure someone’s love towards you.
But from a religious perspective, magic is frowned upon, to say the least. The Imam of Masjed Al-Edlbe in Na’ur, Hashem Ali Osman, summarized religion’s attitude towards magic by explaining that “magic is the deed of the Sheitan (Devil) and teaching, learning, and practicing magic is haram (sin)”.
However, although magic is strictly forbidden, in his concurrent role as the mosque’s sheikh, Ali Osman gets called to dispel magic at least twice a week on average. Because Al-Masjed is perceived as the home of God who has the ultimate power over all creatures, individuals possessed by “jinn” avoid setting foot in the mosque, thus requiring the sheikh to visit their homes.
The last case Sheikh Ali Osman recounted for Global Voices involved a 22-year old woman “of exceptional beauty”:
Over forty men had asked for her hand and yet each engagement had broken off right before becoming official. Desperate, her family invited me to their house to read to her Quranic verses, thought to be the best way to dispel magic. I then began conversing with the ‘jinn’ who possessed the woman and learned that the magical creature had fallen in love with her. Thus, whenever someone came to offer her marriage, the genie would cause her face to temporarily deform. Upon the unpleasant sight of her suddenly ‘monstrous’ face, all candidates would run away with no intention to come back. Yet, once I finished reading the Quran, the jinn left the woman’s body and soon after she got married.
Although religious leaders are unanimous in their view that casting spells on others is an utmost sin, being a sheikh al-sihr (magic sorcerer) is a profitable occupation not without demand. A simple Google search lands pages of results, featuring advertisements of Amman-based sorcerers who profess to “break magic”, “cast magic”, or do both.
Screenshot sample of a Google search for “Magic sorcerer in Amman, Jordan”.
Global Voices got in touch with someone who offers wizardry and learned that the cost of casting black magic depends on its “kind” and ranges from 200 (US $282) to 100,000 (US $141,014) Jordanian dinars.
Financial well-being, marriage and maledictions against others are amongst the biggest motivators for people to seek sorcerers. Animal sacrifice, casting spells over objects belonging to the intended victim, and preparing “bags” with cryptic codes to be left at the cemetery are some of the tools magic spellers use to practice their art.
Interestingly, in contrast to other Muslim-majority countries, Jordan does not have an enforced legislation against the practice of magic. Sheikh Ali Osman explains:
While technically individuals could be fined for practicing sorcery in Jordan, such cases are rare, because if someone complains against magic, he will himself get implicated.
While magic beliefs are popular in Jordan, there are certainly many who disassociate themselves from such thinking. Sammy Abdelrahim, a Jordanian student at Middlebury College, said that he didn’t believe in magic because his “religion will protect (him)”, while University of Jordan student Lubna Mohammad told Global Voices that when it comes to believing in magic, there are great generational differences:
People in the past tried to justify weird events, saying they were caused by magic, because they had no explanation for them. Magic suits my grandmother, while science suits me.
Controversial as they are, magic beliefs hold great importance for many communities in Jordan. Belal Mustafa, a psychotherapist and clinical behavioral analyst at Doctors Without Borders in Jordan, warned that magical beliefs can have significant impact on one’s likelihood to seek psychological interventions when in need:
From the point of view of religion, as well as most people, these beliefs are true. Since psychological problems are so-to-say ‘unobservable’, they are considered as related to these spiritual beliefs.
According to him, explaining that religion and treatment are not in conflict can be challenging:
Many believe that mental health problems are related to faith defects in the person. The problem that psychologists confront is the tendency of people suffering from psychological disorders to attribute magical interpretations to psychological and behavioral problems and to refuse to be psychologically diagnosed or treated.
To Dr. Mustafa, the key lies in raising awareness:
Our job as psychologists isn't to change patients’ minds, but instead to help them live better. We have the responsibility to inform people about mental health — particularly when the symptoms of magical beliefs resemble psychological disorders like psychosomatic disorders or panic attacks.
So, how can we make sense of magic beliefs and their societal impact? The complex nature of magic beliefs positions them in the intersection of religion, superstition and the human desire to define and overcome the unknown. Tayseer Abu Odeh, PhD in Comparative Literature at Indiana University of Pennsylvania, pushes us to rethink our assumptions about magic:
The concept of magic in the Islamic world is a problematic issue, leading to ready-made cultural exclusion. Magic is easily portrayed as uncanny, exotic, inconceivable, and mysterious. One of the central problems that arises emanates from the deeply-rooted discrepancy between the imaginative history of the East, as stretched epistemologically and ontologically within the narrative of Orientalism, and the scientific paradigm of the West, as introduced in tandem with the superior image of the Eurocentric discourse of rationalism and modernism. In a nutshell, addressing magic through the lenses of such dogmatic and essentialist ‘style of thought’ mystifies the microcosmic narrative of magic. It reduces it to a mere form of an Orientalist and Islamic fantasy, or a sentimental pattern of metaphysical interpretation.
Yet, can one escape Orientalism while analyzing the societal, cultural, and psychological interpretation of magic in the Middle East? According to Abu Odeh, treating magic as a cultural and anthropological phenomenon “demystifies and dismantles the fixed misinterpretations and semi-religious myths that have reduced magic to one category of cultural defeatism and atavism”.
In a similar vein, Muslim writer Michael Muhammad Knight argues that the exploration of magic beliefs is critical to understanding the complexity of the Middle East:
Looking at what we might call magic today or throughout Muslim traditions, in many cases it seems to expand the possibilities of what is thinkably ‘Islamic’.
To him, this is a positive social consequence.

author: Maggie Nazer


text:
Photographer Chronicles Day-to-Day Life in Tokyo · Global Voices
Nevin Thompson

Fish market worker, Tokyo, Japan (uncaptioned photo). Photo by Lee Chapman / Tokyo Times. Used with permission.
Lee Chapman is a street photographer who prolifically documents life in Tokyo. While Chapman, a professional photographer who shoots for the Guardian, the Economist, the Daily Mail and other publications, maintains a portfolio, his blog Tokyo Times is updated three times a week.
Tokyo: A daily struggle https://t.co/9jv7OXMgT7 pic.twitter.com/H31Clwwvs4
— Lee Chapman (@tokyotimes) April 24, 2017
Chapman has lived in Japan since 1998. He originally intended to stay for a year or two, but now he says Japan is his home. According to a recent interview available online, Chapman says using a Leica M8 Rangefinder — the relatively small camera allows him to approach his subjects — has influenced his work.
While Chapman documents life in and around Tokyo, recent blog posts have also captures haikyo, a genre of photography that documents the slow decline of abandoned buildings in Japan and elsewhere.
New photos: The silence of an abandoned Japanese village https://t.co/HCWfrLARdF
— Lee Chapman (@tokyotimes) April 25, 2017
Finally got round to adding an Abandoned Japan section to my portfolio: https://t.co/BH5MxppXnk pic.twitter.com/7hNNz8qLjy
— Lee Chapman (@tokyotimes) April 6, 2017
Old, crumbling and abandoned Tokyo: https://t.co/vjf37ELoR6 pic.twitter.com/Du9EwJ2c6E
— Lee Chapman (@tokyotimes) May 3, 2017
There is something for almost every interest on Chapman's blog, include more formal portraits:
Shinto priest: A colour portrait https://t.co/nYR7SsmfdJ pic.twitter.com/CESIb2ITZY
— Lee Chapman (@tokyotimes) May 1, 2017
At its best, Chapman's blog captures scenes of everyday life in Japan, some of which may not be around for much longer:
A traditional Tokyo rice cracker shop: https://t.co/fGPuzZ1W0B pic.twitter.com/IYli8P6Epb
— Lee Chapman (@tokyotimes) March 27, 2017
Since Chapman is so prolific, it can be challenging to figure out how to start exploring his images. Luckily, Chapman has listed his “favourite images of 2016“, which provide a good introduction to his street photography.
If you're interested in some of the more technical details of how Chapman approaches photography, there is an excellent interview with yet another Japan-based photographer, nature and wildlife photographer Martin Bailey.
I just released a video interview with Tokyo street photographer Lee Chapman AKA @tokyotimes. Video and links: https://t.co/Vrb5CksKT6 pic.twitter.com/MxJTeR7NCo
— Martin Bailey (@MartinBailey) April 17, 2017
Besides Chapman's blog and portfolio, his photographs can be found on his Tokyo Times Instagram and Twitter accounts.

author: Nevin Thompson


text:
The Objectification of Women in the Sri Lankan Press · Global Voices
GroundViews

Woman at Bus Stop – Anuradhapura – Sri Lanka. Image from Flickr by Adam Jones. CC BY 2.0
This post by Deepanjalie Abeywardana originally appeared on Groundviews, an award-winning citizen journalism website in Sri Lanka. An edited version is published below as part of a content-sharing agreement with Global Voices.
Sri Lanka’s media continues to deviate from established standards of ethical journalism. This includes graphic pictures, misleading photos and commentary of events, racial labels used selectively against ethnic groups, factual errors and the denial of “right of response” in reporting. Accordingly, the representation of women in Sri Lankan media over the years has breached many ethical standards, resulting in the reinforcement of negative stereotypes. This stereotyping can directly influence how women are perceived in society.
In this context, this article offers observations on the portrayal of women in the Sinhala language print media, based on data from Ethics Eye — a Facebook-based platform that monitors and flags violations of media ethics in seven Sinhala newspapers — the Dinamina, the Divaina, the Lankadeepa, the Mawbima, Sunday Divaina, Sunday Lankadeepa and the Sunday Mawbima.
Some mainstream Sinhala newspapers in Sri Lanka violate this ethical guideline by portraying women as sex objects. Women are frequently objectified in the press with the use of sexist references and pictures. These references are often ones that expose semi-nudity, which is irrelevant to the context of the article. For example, one Sinhala newspaper referred to a woman as “baduwa” (object) in one of their columns, insinuating that women are sex objects. The same newspaper identified all actresses in Sri Lanka as engaging in “the oldest profession in the world”, depicting them all as sex workers.
Further, a series of articles published in one of the mainstream Sinhala newspapers carried images of foreign women in bikinis, which were irrelevant to the story they were reporting. The series did not carry a disclaimer to indicate that the photographs — taken with long-lens cameras — were taken without consent. As stated in the Code of Professional Practice published by the Editor’s Guild of Sri Lanka, the use of long-lens or other cameras to photograph people without consent, on private or public property where there is a reasonable expectation of privacy, is unacceptable — unless in the public interest.
Via Ethics Eye
At the same time, the same newspaper that referred to all actresses as sex workers also upheld women as the “guardians of cultural and moral values” in another article. This comment was in criticism of the gazette notification issued by the Ministry of Education, banning the imposition of dress codes for women entering public and private schools.
Reductionist terms such as “beautiful” are used in the press, especially when referring to rape victims and survivors. The physical appearance of female victims and survivors of rape, accidents or other incidents is referred to in many articles in the Sinhala press. The reporting of unconnected, unnecessary details (such as physical appearance), when they are not directly related to the story, is a common occurrence in Sinhala newspapers. For example, when two female students died as a result of a train accident in Dehiwela last year, six out of seven Sinhala newspapers referred to their physical appearance when reporting the incident.
Via Ethics Eye
The use of such terms, which are both irrelevant and sexist, raise serious questions on the extent to which the media in Sri Lanka fulfill their ethical obligations.
The objectification of women in the press reinforces stereotyping of women. Moreover, the sexual objectification and damaging representation of women in the media lead to the trivialisation of violence against women. The Guardian recently found that the sexualisation and objectification of women and girls in the media are linked to the development of sexist attitudes in society and the acceptance of masculine ideologies that objectify women.
In dealing with social issues of a particularly shocking or emotionally painful nature — such as violence and drug abuse — the Code of Professional Practice states that the press should take special care to present facts, opinions, photographs and graphics with due sensitivity and discretion, subject to its duty to publish in the public interest. However, some Sinhala newspapers violate this guideline by sensationalising and romanticising news when reporting on acts of violence against women, such as rape and sexual abuse. For example, some papers refer to the suspects or perpetrators of sex crimes as “Cupids”, a term which romanticises them. At the same time, victims and survivors of rape are often blamed for the attire they wore, or for being at the wrong place at the wrong time.
When newspapers hold women accountable for rape, it not only adversely affects the way society views women, but also promotes the impunity of perpetrators of violence against women.
In their attempt to sensationalise a story to make it more enticing to an audience, the media neglect the important role they play in creating awareness about sex crimes. Rape, domestic abuse and other forms of violence are a taboo subject in society, and go unreported in many cases. Sensationalising these acts in reportages takes attention away from important aspects, such as the prevention and mitigation of such crimes. This includes awareness about helplines for victims of sexual abuse, as well as the existence of organisations dedicated to helping women who have experienced sex crimes.
The first step towards fixing this issue is creating awareness about the ethical violations committed by newspapers in reporting on women. On International Women’s Day 2017, Ethics Eye released a video highlighting some of the ethical guidelines violated by Sinhala newspapers in this regard. Furthermore, triggering a discussion around ethical violations in the media and spreading awareness around them give the public the information it needs to hold journalists and editors answerable to their mistakes, and the damage caused by harmful reporting. Moreover, training journalists on media ethics — including reporting about women in a manner that is not discriminatory and sexist — is urgently needed in Sri Lanka.

author: GroundViews


text:
There Is a Wall Along the Mexico-U.S.A. Border and I Want To Show What It Really Looks Like · Global Voices
Rodrigo Borges Delfim

Alejandra Vallejo visits her husband Daniel Armendariz at the border wall at Friendship Park in Tijuana, Mexico on May 15, 2016. The couple has been meeting at the border every Saturday and Sunday for the previous 2 months. Armendariz cannot leave the United States because he is on probation and Vallejo does not have the documents to legally cross the border into the United States. Photo by Griselda San Martin. Used with permission.
This story by Rodrigo Borges Delfim originally appeared on MigraMundo on January 31, 2017. It is republished here as part of a partnership between MigraMundo and Global Voices.
Contrary to what Donald Trump says, there is already a Mexico-U.S. wall. It covers about 1,000 km of the 3,200 km border between the two countries and its construction began during Bill Clinton’s administration (1993-2000).
There is an area along this border that is covered by a binational park — Friendship Park (or Parque de la Amistad, in Spanish) — where people from both sides can interact with each other, despite severe restrictions by the Border Patrol.
Showing the existence of this physical barrier — but also a psychological and social one — and raising awareness of its effects is the goal of a project called “The Wall”, developed by Spanish photojournalist Griselda San Martín between 2015 and 2016 in the Friendship Park area.
In an exclusive interview for MigraMundo, Griselda talks about the development of the project and shows that Trump, in fact, has already managed to build a kind of wall that divides U.S. society.
Pastor Guillermo Navarrete of the Methodist Church of Mexico stands at the border fence at Friendship Park during the weekly meeting of the Border Church in Tijuana, Mexico, on May 22, 2016. The binational service is conducted simultaneously on both sides of the border fence in English and Spanish. Photo by Griselda San Martin. Used with permission.
MigraMundo (MM): How did you start working with migration issues?
Griselda San Martin (GSM): It was at the School of Journalism (2011-2013) that I started to approach the subjects that would awaken my interest in immigration issues. Focusing on the issues of cultural identities and ethnic minorities, I became familiar with the human consequences of immigration policies during a first research trip to the border region of Tijuana-San Diego in 2013.
MM: How much time have you spent developing “The Wall”?
GSM: After graduating from the International Center of Photography in New York in 2015, I went back to the border and spent a year working on social documentary, finding stories of deportation, separation, displacement, and human rights violations. ‘The Wall’ was one of the long-term projects that I developed from September 2015 until August 2016.
MM: Did you have some kind of sponsor to create the project?
GSM: No. Self-funded project.
MM: What is your opinion about the new president of the U.S.A., Donald Trump?
GSM: The new political climate in the United States is worrisome.
President Donald J. Trump is showing clear signs that he plans to do what he promised during his campaign. During his first week as president, he has signed several executive orders that might greatly affect several minority groups. In terms of immigration issues, he wants to deport millions of undocumented immigrants, renegotiate the NAFTA [North American Free Trade Agreement], ban refugees from specific countries, and make a wall along the southern border and make Mexico pay for it. Some of these things are not new. Obama deported 2.5 million immigrants and there already is a wall along one-third of the border between the U.S. and Mexico.
He might or might not construct or extend that wall, but he has already built a wall that has divided American people. And he only seems to care about the ones who voted for him. Somehow it is evident that immigration has been wrongly blamed for the economic troubles of this country. Some minorities will feel the consequences of this perception.
MM: What kind of difficulties have you found during the project?
GSM: Friendship Park, which is the section of the border wall that I have been photographing (where the families meet), is only open on Saturday and Sunday for a few hours. That means it’s only a few hours a week that I was able to work on this project and I had to go back many many times.
Sometimes the weather conditions were not favorable. Sometimes people did not want to be photographed, but I have to say that most of the time they were okay with it.
On the Mexican side of the wall, the park is open. But on the U.S. side, there is a second fence and the area is controlled by the Border Patrol. I was not allowed to use microphones on the U.S. side and the time allowed to photograph and film was very limited. I had to ask for permission in advance.
MM: In your opinion, what kind of legacy might a project like “The Wall” create?
GSM: My goal is to show the human consequences of immigration policies. The separation of families. There are people in this country who ignore that there already is a wall. I want to show them what the wall looks like, and what it means for the individuals affected by it.
MM: Do you have plans for another project related to migration?
GSM: Yes. I am already working on a project on Hispanic immigrants who live in the United States and how their lives are now, and how they will be affected by the new government.
MM: Talking about migration, what does migration mean for you?
GSM: Migration, to me, is sacrifice. People who leave everything behind in search of a better future for themselves and their children.
Carmen Morales, with two of her grandchildren, Christian (8) and Sofia (4), meet, for the first time, Morales’ daughter-in-law and grandchildren — Jessi (15) and Crystal (11), who came to visit from San Bernardino, California. In this area, the iron bars are separated enough that families would be able to easily hug, but it is strictly prohibited to approach from the U.S. side. Photo by Griselda San Martin. Used with permission.
“The Wall” documents families who meet on both sides of the Tijuana-San Diego border fence at Friendship Park, at a time of rising xenophobic political tensions. The park is the only binational meeting place along the 2,000-mile border dividing the United States and Mexico.
When the park was founded in 1971, the fence was just a strand of barbed wire. Today, a massive metal wall, which has been reinforced multiple times, separates the two nations. It extends down to the beach, stretching out 300 feet into the Pacific Ocean. Access to physically touch the wall on the U.S. side is limited to a small area, and families lean against the fence trying to catch a glimpse of their loved ones through the steel mesh, which is so tightly woven they can barely touch fingertips. In a small area of the park, the space between the metal bars would allow for families to hug, but the Border Patrol on the U.S. side is always vigilant and visitors must stand a few feet away from the fence, as any kind of physical contact is strictly prohibited.
Besides serving as a meeting place for families, and because of the historical meaning and strategical location of the park, social events (such as weddings, sweet sixteens, and binational gatherings) are held periodically, and activists gather to demonstrate and raise awareness for social causes.
“The Wall” examines these border interactions against the backdrop of a xenophobic political climate, where border enforcement practices have reshaped public spaces through detention and containment. The big and “beautiful” wall that some politicians have promised to build already exists. But despite the massive metal fences and militarized checkpoints, love has no borders.
Pastor Jonathan Ibarra and wife Gladys Lopez at their wedding photoshoot in front of the the U.S.-Mexico border fence in Playas de Tijuana, Mexico, on December 12, 2015. The border is a symbolic place for Ibarra and Lopez, who both grew up in California but now live in Tijuana, separated from their whole family. Ibarra was deported and Lopez doesn’t have papers to legally reside in the United States. She tried to cross over three times, but was caught by the Border Patrol and returned to Mexico. Photo by Griselda San Martin. Used with permission.

author: Rodrigo Borges Delfim