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Hong Kongers Say Beijing and Police ‘Incited’ the 2014 Pro-Democracy Movement, Not Protest Leaders · Global Voices
Hong Kong Free Press

“I am willing to be a defense witness” social media posts. Photo: Jordi Tsang/我願意當證人, via Facebook.
This post was originally written by Ellie Ng and published on Hong Kong Free Press on March 29, 2017. The version below is published on Global Voices as part of a partnership agreement.
A social media campaign titled “As a witness, I was incited by…” has launched to support Hong Kong activists who are facing the charge of inciting others to create a public nuisance over their leadership roles in the 2014 pro-democracy Occupy protests.
The campaign is urging Hong Kongers who participated in the 2014 movement to post a photo or written message on social media saying they are willing to testify in court about why they took to the streets. Many have pointed to police actions for inciting the mass mobilization. One wrote:
I am one of the Occupy protesters and I was incited by the police’s decision to fire 87 rounds of tear gas [at demonstrators].
The nine protest leaders are student activist Tommy Cheung; Raphael Wong, the vice chairman of political group the League of Social Democrats; Reverend Chu Yiu-ming; law professor Benny Tai; sociology professor Chan Kin-man; Democratic Party member Lee Wing-tat; Eason Chung, a standing committee member of the Hong Kong Federation of Students; lawmaker Shiu Ka-chun; and Tanya Chan.
All of them will be charged with inciting others to create a public nuisance under common law and some will face two additional charges for conspiring to create a public nuisance and inciting others to incite others to commit public nuisance. Each charge carries a maximum penalty of seven years in prison.
The pro-democracy protests began on September 27, 2014 and transformed into a massive sit-in in downtown Hong Kong that lasted for 79 days. It was in response to China's National People's Congress determination on August 31, 2014 that only a 1,200-member nominating committee should be able to nominate candidates for Hong Kong's top leader, known as the chief executive. Protesters believed a nominating committee was undemocratic and that the Hong Kong people should have the right to choose their leaders.
One of those charged, Chan Kin-man, said on a Commercial Radio show on March 29, 2017 that he will not plead guilty to the incitement charges.
He said the protest leaders are prepared to accept some charges – such as illegal assembly – if the prosecutor’s case is factually accurate, as a guilty plea would be in keeping with the principle of civil disobedience. He stressed:
But we don’t accept the incitement charge. The UK has abolished the common law offence of incitement, because the law is based on the backward assumption that those incited do not have a free will.
Under the principle of “One Country Two Systems” and “High Degree of Autonomy” written in the Basic Law and Sino-British Joint Declaration, as a former colony of UK, Hong Kong will follow the common law system after handover to China in 1997.
Barrister Chris Ng told HKFP that the common law offense of incitement has been replaced with a statutory offense of “encouraging” the commission of a crime. Under the statute, he said, “encouraging” a crime may be understood as a narrow version of the old offence of incitement.
Many believe that the prosecution is political in nature as the so-called illegal act happened more than two years ago. This is not the first time the police charged 2014 protest organizers for incitement. Last year, student activist Nathan Law Kwun-chung was convicted of inciting others to take part in an unlawful assembly on September 26, 2014 outside the government building. The protest was a key event that sparked the massive pro-democracy sit-in protests. While the court had spared him from jail time, Law is currently appealing his case.
In response to the prosecution, pro-democracy supporters took to social media expressing their willingness to testify about what “incited” them to join the Occupy movement.
Reasons given included tear gas fired by police, Beijing’s August 31 decision to bar open elections in Hong Kong, incumbent Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying’s governance, the undemocratic election of the chief executive, Beijing's intervention into Hong Kong's domestic affairs, undermining the city's autonomy under the “One Country, Two Systems” principle in its constitution, and the suppression of press freedom.
An activist said on Facebook she participated in the protests throughout the 79 days to voice her opposition to alleged abuses of power by police and Beijing’s decision, among other reasons:
2014年9月27日，為了表達不滿831決定，被上述煽惑我的事件煽動而參與和平靜坐要求政府回應巿民訴求；2014年9月28日至12月10日，不定期前往雨傘之地留守繼續要求政府回應巿民訴求；並自願擔當急救員，為非自願被警方噴胡椒噴霧和警棍扑傷的巿民施行急救2014年`12月11日，自願留下等待金鐘被清場而被捕。
以上所有行動，均屬自願參與，沒有人煽惑我，煽動我的是831決定、689施政、洗腦教育、新聞自由受制。進行上述行為，只因希望可以為下一代建設民主、公義、廉潔的社會。
On September 27, 2014, to express my discontent about the decision by the National People's Congress on August 31, I was incited to participate in the peaceful sit-in demanding the government to react to our demand; between September 28 and December 10, I occasionally joined the sit-in at the protest sites demanding the government to respond; I became a volunteer first aid team member offering medical assistance to citizens who were involuntarily sprayed by police with pepper spray or beat with police batons. On December 11, I voluntarily joined the Admiralty sit-in and was arrested.
All the above actions were taken on voluntary basis. No one incited me. What incited me was the August 31 National People's Congress decision, the governance of 689 [a nickname for current Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying), the brain-washing education [referring to the potential implementation of a “national education” curriculum in Hong Kong that would foster Chinese patriotism], the suppression of a free press. All the actions were taken with a hope of constructing a democratic, just and clean society for the next generation.
Meanwhile, blogger and former law clerk Charles Tsang suggested that people testify in court about how the Occupy protests did not create a nuisance for them:
除左 #拉一個人不如拉晒每一個人，另有一款玩法，叫 #人人做證人。
是咁的：普通法「公眾妨擾」與簡易程序「公眾妨擾」罪一大分別，是控方要證明妨擾造成對廣泛公眾的損害 (common injury)，例如反映在道路交通阻塞方面。
我完全樂意做 DW 上證人台證明，佔領期間，從中環寫字樓步行至灣仔區院，大廈落樓起錶計，就算拉埋一車 bundles 著晒西裝都只需廿分鐘，平常道路交通根本冇可能做得到如此速度。
Apart from them arresting everyone of us, another way [to protest against the prosecution] is for everyone be a witness.
According to common law, the term “public nuisance” is different from what is written on Offences Ordinance. The prosecutor has to prove that the nuisance has caused common injury, such as a traffic jam.
I am happy to testify that during Occupy, it took me only 20 minutes to walk from my office in Central to the District Court in Wan Chai – even though I was wearing a suit and carrying a suitcase of legal documents. It would be impossible with normal traffic.
The nine leaders facing charges appeared before the Eastern Magistrates’ Courts on March 30. They will then stand trial at the District Court at a later date.
Local media cited sources as saying that as many as 39 people involved in the Occupy protests will soon face similar charges.
International human rights watchdogs such as Amnesty International Hong Kong and Freedom House have condemned the prosecutions. US Senator Marco Rubio has also urged Chief Executive-elect Carrie Lam to work on political reforms that are consistent with Hong Kongers’ democratic aspirations.


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Kyrgyzstan’s Capital Through the Cracked Windshields of Its Beloved Trolleybuses · Global Voices
Akhal-Tech Collective

Most Kyrgyz trolleybuses are not Salvador Dali-themed. This one was sprayed by the DOXA art group in Bishkek. Image taken from Kloop.kg. Creative commons.
Since their arrival in ex-Soviet Kyrgyzstan's capital Bishkek during the twilight years of Stalinism, trolleybuses have been an important and attractive part of the local cityscape. While over the years they have ceded prominence to the more manoeuvrable but widely despised marshrutka (minibus) they have retained their position as the public transport of the heart, offering residents a slower, cheaper and more pacifying ride between key points in the city of one million people.
Oh, and they reduce carbon emissions, too.
Over the last two or so years, American researcher Ryan Johnson has been providing Twitter with snapshots of life from behind the wheel of Bishkek's trolleybuses. The #stylishtrolleys hashtag highlights the differing interior design preferences of a diverse spread of trolleybus drivers, while simultaneously offering a peek at Bishkek traffic through the vehicles’ cracked windshields.
The trolleybus below, adorned with a drape featuring typical Kyrgyz nomadic patterns, is captured by Johnson looking out at public enemy No.1, the marshrutka.
Kyrgyzstan is one of the few corners of the ex-communist world where minibuses are not ‘seating only’, and the resulting crush of standing bodies in the ubiquitous Mercedes Sprinter marshrutki is a source of great collective resentment. Standing is allowed on trolleybuses, but there is much more space to play with.
#stylishtrolleys #bishkek pic.twitter.com/lKSqf5bidL
— Ryan Johnson (@_Quiet_American) March 28, 2017
The rich blue floral pattern on the hanging framing this next trolleybus is more redolent of Kyrgyzstan's neighbour Uzbekistan, recalling the fabled Silk Road cities of Samarkand, Bukhara and Khiva.
Sunglasses are kept in reserve for brighter weather.
#bishkek #fall #stylishtrolleys pic.twitter.com/fIZEoCHR3I
— Ryan Johnson (@_Quiet_American) November 9, 2015
This trolleybus is big on roses and butterflies.
Unfortunately driving while talking on a mobile phone is not yet taboo in Bishkek, a city where fatal road accidents are commonplace.
#stylishtrolleys #bishkek pic.twitter.com/hZhAwhgP29
— Ryan Johnson (@_Quiet_American) March 24, 2017
Exhibit B:
#bishkek #stylishtrolleys pic.twitter.com/qrQ62BLATU
— Ryan Johnson (@_Quiet_American) March 6, 2017
Some trolleybus drivers trust lucky charms and Islamic scripture to help them navigate their way through the city's perilous thoroughfares, but others believe in the Russian saying “деньги к деньгам”, or ‘money brings money’.
Our next trolleybus proudly displays banknotes from Kyrgyzstan, as well as one from Uzbekistan and another from Turkmenistan. This version of the Turkmen manat banknote (bottom row, furthest right), which has now gone out of circulation, bears the image of the gas-rich country's former dictator Saparmurat Niyazov.
#stylishtrolleys #bishkek pic.twitter.com/Kcix0K6Vyc
— Ryan Johnson (@_Quiet_American) March 27, 2017
Roads in Bishkek are generally in poor condition, much to the chagrin of all drivers.
#stylishtrolleys #bishkek pic.twitter.com/ebEQKxKQoL
— Ryan Johnson (@_Quiet_American) March 12, 2017
Because of the poor roads, cracked windshields are almost universal. Below is an example of a trolleybus windshield in the early stages of disrepair…
#stylishtrolleys #bishkek #winter pic.twitter.com/FKus5iVs4n
— Ryan Johnson (@_Quiet_American) February 15, 2017
…while this windshield is in a more advanced state of destruction.
#bishkek #stylishtrolleys pic.twitter.com/YGGmoFoyQY
— Ryan Johnson (@_Quiet_American) March 30, 2016
At 8 som (12 US cents), the trolleybus is more affordable than the 10 som marshrutka, and ten times as cheap as a taxi across town.
#stylishtrolleys #bishkek #summer pic.twitter.com/89NuGlDDoP
— Ryan Johnson (@_Quiet_American) June 27, 2016
Moreover, they are much better ventilated, a fact generally appreciated when the weather warms up.
Sometimes, the driver makes his rounds with a friend or his wife. This, along with a random vase of fake flowers, adds to the feeling that you are a fly on the wall in someone's living room rather than a customer riding public transport.
#bishkek #summer #stylishtrolleys pic.twitter.com/96p5N3RVw6
— Ryan Johnson (@_Quiet_American) September 18, 2015

source: news-globalvoices

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

author: Akhal-Tech Collective


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With Rhinoplasty on the Rise, Whither the Armenian Nose? · Global Voices
Eurasianet

A statue of the Soviet-era composer Arno Babajanyan, known for his archetypally Armenian nose, against the background of the Armenian flag. Photo: Iris Molenaar for Eurasianet.
The following is a partner post from EurasiaNet.org written by Iris Molenaar. Republished with permission.
The Armenian nose is a source of national pride, sometimes said to be like the country’s impressive mountains: high, proud, and honest.
But what looks good in a landscape painting does not necessarily meet today’s global beauty standards. And increasingly, Armenians – especially young women – are opting for rhinoplasty in an effort to conform to the idealized Western appearance.
“As a country, we try to be Western, and this applies to the beauty standards, too,” said Kristina Grigoryan, who has practiced plastic surgery in Yerevan for 16 years. “We are still proud of being Armenians, but less proud of having such features.”
Armenia does not keep national statistics on it, but anecdotal evidence suggests that the procedure is becoming more popular: Grigoryan’s clinic performs about 500 nose jobs a year, up from 150 to 200 five years ago, she said, and more and more clinics are offering the procedure.
The Armenian nose may be ancient, but the Armenian nose job is a recent innovation. In the Soviet Union, plastic surgery was mostly restricted to reconstructive cases. The massive 1988 earthquake in Armenia boosted the demand for reconstructive plastic surgery, an expertise that doctors later took advantage of to go into the cosmetic surgery business. “This is how plastic surgery started to develop in Armenia,” said Karen Danielyan, a plastic surgeon in Yerevan. “And now rhinoplasty is the most popular and most common plastic surgery in Armenia – three out of four operations are rhinoplasties.”
Danielyan is one of the pioneers of rhinoplasty in Armenia: in 2002, he started the “Most Armenian Nose” competition, with the first prize being a free nose job by the doctor himself. Back then, he said, the contest was a publicity stunt to drum up business. Now, it is no longer necessary to create awareness of the procedure. He estimates that he does about 1,500 rhinoplasties per year, but the number is closely dependent on the cyclical nature of the economy.
“If the [economic] situation is bad, there are fewer operations; if the situation is good, there are many more operations,” he said. The recent economic downturn has hurt, he said, “Now is not a good time for Armenia. The economic situation is not very good, so not many people have operations.”
But it is not only Armenian citizens who get nose jobs in Armenia. A developed infrastructure and low costs (when compared to the West) have facilitated a medical tourism boom, one driven mainly by demand for plastic surgery. Raffi Elliott, CEO and co-founder of a medical package tour company, gettreated.co, said that his clientele among the Armenian Diaspora is disproportionately coming to get rhinoplasties.
For a nation with a strong sense of pride and national identity, the trend to make the “Armenian nose” look less Armenian can seem contradictory. Danielyan, who sports a humble nose himself, says that these days people are more looking to get noses that suit their faces, rather than simply copying the popular small, curved, Slavic noses. However, he does continue to get many requests to recreate Angelina Jolie’s nose, the most popular celebrity example when it comes to rhinoplasty.
With nose surgeries becoming more accessible, accepted, and popular, is there a danger of the “Armenian nose” disappearing? Danielyan laughed and recalled a question he got from one of his patients: “If I get my nose fixed, will my child get my new nose?”
A rhinoplasty does nothing to the genes, of course, so the characteristics are not likely to change, he explained.
Elliott, the medical tourism entrepreneur, also expressed his respect for the emblematic feature: “I like the Armenian nose. It gives character.”
And some Armenian women are bucking the trend: one pop singer, Silva Hakobyan, has shot down tabloid rumors that she plans to reduce her quintessentially Armenian nose, and says she is proud of her natural features.
Many women still worry that typically Armenian features may damage one’s marriage prospects, Danielyan said, noting that the most common rationale stated by his patients is the wish to find a partner. “If you have a big nose, you won’t get married, and if you don’t marry, it’s not good,” he said.
Rouben Abrahamyan, the winner of the inaugural Most Armenian Nose competition – and its only male entrant – says he still feels bad for his runner up. “She was very beautiful, but her big nose damaged her appearance,” said Abrahamyan, a journalist and university lecturer in Yerevan. He entered the contest because he had an injury to his nose that caused difficulty breathing, and is glad to have that cleared up. Still, he said, “I felt like changing places with her so that she could have a better nose. In my case, it was just a medical treatment, but she would look better with a smaller nose.”

author: Eurasianet


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Global Inequality in Your Pocket: How Cheap Smartphones and Lax Policies Leave Us Vulnerable to Hacking · Global Voices
Guest Contributor

Mobile phone shop in Lusaka, Zambia. Photo by Curious Lee via Flickr (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)
Written by Nathalie Maréchal. Nathalie is a Senior Fellow with Ranking Digital Rights.
When it comes to smartphones, not all users are created equal. Low and middle-income people around the world mostly rely on affordable Android devices to communicate and share information, but cheaper phones often leave users more vulnerable to online threats and hacking.
Devices running the Android operating system account for 88% of the global market, with iPhones representing the remaining 12%. But not all Android devices are created equal either: models that are made and controlled directly by Google, like Nexus and Pixel smartphones, have significantly stronger protection against hacking than devices made by manufacturers like Samsung, Huawei, Sony and Xiaomi. They are also much more expensive, about on par with iPhones.
As a result, wealthier users who can afford to purchase new high-end devices every few years are protected from many threats that the majority of users — who use cheaper or used models, and don’t replace them as often — are vulnerable to.
This means that the people who can least afford it are the most vulnerable to fraud, identity theft, predatory scams, cyberstalking and harassment, and other harms a person can suffer when their digital privacy is violated.
This is a serious but poorly understood inequality issue worldwide.
New research from Ranking Digital Rights, a nonprofit research initiative that evaluates the world's most powerful internet, mobile and telecommunications companies’ practices affecting user rights, found that companies fail to communicate basic information about how their smartphones (and the software that powers them) affect users’ safety.
Everything we do on a mobile device creates digital traces that can then be used to paint a very revealing portrait of who we are, what we do, what we buy and even what we think. This data is valuable to marketers but also to governments, criminals, and anyone else who might want to do us harm.
An MTN vehicle in Uganda, November 28, 2005, CC 2.0.
Researchers are always finding new technical flaws in mobile software that attackers (including state-sponsored actors) can exploit, allowing them to install spyware or even take over devices remotely, simply by sending their victim a text message. Global Voices has covered a number of these cases, targeting Iranian activists, Tibetan internet users, and others.
While some users receive security “patches” or updates from the software manufacturer that fix the problem, others do not. And device manufacturers often don’t explain to users why the updates matter.
Many companies run “responsible disclosure” programs to encourage those who discover the bugs or technical problems to tell them about it, so they can then develop solutions and get them out to the devices running the software, usually by way of a software update.
This works fairly well from the perspective of Apple and Google — the two companies that produce the software that powers 99.6 percent of the world’s smartphones. Last summer, when a group of security researchers led by Bill Marczak, then a Berkeley graduate student, discovered that the government of the UAE was using an extremely sophisticated, previously unknown method to attack human rights defenders, with the aim of turning their iPhones into bugs that recorded everything around them. Fortunately, Emirati dissident Ahmed Mansoor didn’t fall for the attack, and instead alerted Macczak and his colleagues, who in turned reported it to Apple. Apple engineers worked overtime to get a patch out to users in less than a month. The Android security team is just as diligent.
The trouble happens with other Android hardware manufacturers like Samsung, HTC, and Xiaomi.
For a variety of reasons, these manufacturers modify the Android open source operating system software in ways that make it more difficult to deliver software updates. The code that Google releases has to be modified to match the changes that were made to the operating system itself. Cell phone companies can also make modifications on top of the ones made by the device maker, adding yet another step to the process and further delaying the delivery of software updates. Apple doesn’t allow such changes to iOS, and Google controls the update process for Nexus and Pixel handsets purchased from the Google Store.
As a result, at any given time there are millions of Android users whose devices are vulnerable to known exploits — attacks that are publicly known to the global IT security community. It’s like locking your front door with a key that hundreds of people have copies of. And because these devices are significantly cheaper than Nexus and Pixel models or iPhones, people who are poor, socially marginalized, and less tech-savvy — the same people who are most likely to access the internet exclusively through smartphones — are the ones most likely to bear the greatest risk of attacks.
The 2017 Index ranks 22 companies on 35 indicators across three categories. The indicators measure if and how well companies disclose policies affecting users’ freedom of expression and privacy. The Index evaluates policies of the parent company, operating company and those of selected services (depending on company structure).
Read about the methodology, research process and how RDR scores each company on their website. Ranking Digital Rights was founded by Global Voices co-founder Rebecca MacKinnon.
According to new data published by Google, only half of all Android devices received a security patch in 2016, and only about 3% of devices worldwide are running the latest version of the operating system, “Nougat.” Recognizing that this as a serious issue, the US Federal Trade Commission and Federal Communications Commission launched a joint investigation into the delivery of mobile security patches specifically, though more than a year later, neither agency has published responses from companies.
Ranking Digital Rights’ 2017 Corporate Accountability Index compares publicly available disclosures and commitments affecting users’ human rights, including freedom of expression and privacy, for 22 global internet and telecommunications companies. It includes Samsung, which holds the largest share of Android devices worldwide, as well as 10 global telecommunications providers. None of the 11 companies involved in distributing Android software updates (other than Google) disclosed any information on the changes they make to the stock version of Android , or how those changes affect the delivery of security updates.
Moreover, of the three smartphone companies examined, only Google specified the date through which different device models were guaranteed to receive updates. Nexus and Pixel devices are guaranteed to receive software updates for at least two years from when the device became available on the Google Store, and to receive security patches for at least three years from when the device first became available, or at least 18 months from when the Google Store last sold the device, whichever is longer.
It would be ideal if Google extended that time period further, but at least they clearly communicate this commitment to users. (Neither Apple nor Samsung provides such a “best by” date). We depend on our smartphones for so much — and low income people without broadband or computers at home depend on them the most.  Rich or poor, we all deserve to know how long they will be safe to use, and what companies are doing to keep us safe.
Nathalie Maréchal is a Senior Fellow with Ranking Digital Rights and a PhD Candidate at the Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism at the University of Southern California. Follow her at @marechalUSC.

author: Guest Contributor


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Netizen Report: India Had 31 Internet Shutdowns in 2016. How Many Did Your Country Have? · Global Voices
Netizen Report Team

Microsoft Bing data center. Photo by Robert Scoble via Flickr (CC BY 2.0)
Since January 1, 2017, there have been seven regional-level Internet shutdowns in India. In 2016, there were 31 such shutdowns. Alongside a growing number of countries around the world, it appears that Internet blackouts are becoming an increasingly common tactic for local and regional authorities when faced with public consternation around politics and elections, ethnic and religious tensions, and incidents of violence.
The Software Freedom Law Centre of New Delhi last month released an online interactive map that shows the location and details of each Internet shutdown in India, along with a short description of public events coinciding with the shutdown.
In a recent blog post, Centre director Mishi Chaudhary argued that the Modi government needs to reconcile its reliance on Internet shutdowns as a means of controlling public speech and activity with its increasing dependency on networked communication technologies for government services, public health, finance and more, all part of the administration’s “Digital India” campaign. “If we are to have the promise of digital empowerment through Digital India,” she wrote, “shutdowns cannot become the new ‘normal’.”
The state of Jammu and Kashmir has been by far the most affected by the tactic, experiencing ten shutdowns in 2016 alone, and five each year since 2014. Jammu and Kashmir is not alone in this—regional-level network shutdowns in outlying, often marginalized states and provinces where political and ethnic tensions run high are so habitual in some parts of the world that Internet shutdowns no longer count as news.
In Tibet and Xinjiang, two predominantly ethnic minority regions of Western China, shutdowns are a routine response to public unrest and even holidays such as Tibetan New Year, and can last for weeks or even months at a time. In Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula, shutdowns of several hours have been a regular feature of military clashes with violent insurgent groups in the north, which abuts Israel and Palestine’s Gaza strip, since 2013.
In 2016, the Brookings Institution estimated that Internet shutdowns incurred a worldwide collective cost of $2.4 billion, based on a measurement of GDP totals against the scope and duration of Internet shutdowns. In tandem, the collateral damage that shutdowns bring upon citizens, leaving them unable to communicate, access information and public services, and make financial transactions (among many other things) is incalculable.
A young Iranian man is facing a death sentence for public messages he posted on the messaging platform LINE that were deemed to be against Islam and the Quran. Sina Deghan was arrested in 2015 at the age of 19 for the posts, and had his sentence confirmed by Iran’s Supreme Court in late January of this year.
Nigerian journalist and blogger Kemi Olunloyo was arrested on March 13 for publishing on Instagram a letter regarding an extramarital affair involving a church pastor and a member of his congregation. Her publisher, Samuel Walson was also arrested, and both have been charged with defamation and “publishing false news.”
After a Paraguayan journalist was threatened with rape online, in what her attacker described as an effort to “correct her sexual orientation”, Paraguayan digital rights organization TEDIC published an article recounting her harassment and the problem of sexual violence online. The article has since become a subject of controversy due to tensions over the need to counter harassment and to protect privacy after an individual named in the piece initiated a legal action demanding the post be taken down. According to TEDIC, the request “seeks to silence a legitimate claim, to limit public debate through censorship and to prevent more women from encouraging further denunciations.”
In the weeks following CNN’s unceremonious ousting from Venezuelan network television, multiple independent news and civil society websites have suffered technical attacks that have left them offline for hours and, in some cases, days at a time. Among those affected were media sites Provea and Caraota Digital.
Japanese legislators will soon review an anti-conspiracy bill that includes controversial provisions that resemble predictive policing methods. The bill covers a wide range of possible crimes (277 in total) and would punish “preparations” for future crimes when undertaken by two or more people, with at least one of them obtaining funds or supplies for the crime, or surveying its potential location. Tokyo Bar Association president Motoji Kobayashi said in a public statement in January: “The conspiracy bill goes against the basic principles of our country’s criminal code and the legal system. It threatens the function of protecting human rights.”
Information smugglers in China work to translate and repackage content from banned overseas websites for Chinese readers across the Great Firewall. The investigative news platform the Initium interviewed several information smugglers, asking them about how they use circumvention tools to access news stories on blocked sites like Buzzfeed and Reddit and rewrite them in Chinese. The sites yield steep profits, the Initium found, but tend to prioritize click rates over public interest journalism.
UK Home Secretary Amber Rudd said that the British government would seek to establish backdoors to encryption. This followed the release of evidence that the Westminster attacker had communicated over WhatsApp prior to his attack. Several British politicians and civil liberties groups expressed concern that the demands were neither proportionate nor effective as a response to the attacks.
Mahsa Alimardani, Ellery Roberts Biddle, Nevin Thompson, Laura Vidal and Sarah Myers West contributed to this report.

author: Netizen Report Team


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The Internet Blackout in English-Speaking Cameroon Continues · Global Voices
Abdoulaye Bah

“Connected in the Developing World” connectivity map by Big Thinking Applied. Labeled for reuse.
In English-speaking regions of Cameroon, the internet has been shut down since January.
This is not unprecedented — when faced with widespread public discontent, some governments respond by blocking access to social networks or the Internet altogether. In Africa, multiple countries have resort to this tactic when threatened by electoral violence, student uprisings, union protests, or political instability following unpopular decisions by the government.
The current unrest in Cameroon's anglophone regions stems from many factors. In a blog post published on courrierdesafriques.net, Bounya Lottin explains why lawyers took to the streets in protest on October 11, 2016.
Au nombre des problèmes qui fâchent les compatriotes anglophones, on retrouve en première place la question du «Common Law» par opposition au «Droit civil». Le premier est en usage chez les Anglophones alors que le second est l’outil des avocats d’expression francophone. L’incompatibilité entre les deux systèmes juridiques débouche sur d’insurmontables complications. En zone anglophone, au nom du Common Law hérité du colon britannique, l’avocat peut au gré des circonstances officier comme «juge», notaire ou huissier de justice. Ce fait a profondément modelé la manière dont les hommes de loi dans la partie anglophone du pays ont été formés. Cela fait forcément problème lorsque le régime dominant francophone veut imposer la norme des Notaires distincts des huissiers et des avocats dans la partie anglophone.
First among the many problems our English-speaking compatriots find irritating is the issue of ‘common law’ versus ‘droit civil’ [French for ‘civil law’]. While the former is used among anglophones, the latter is used by French-speaking lawyers. The incompatibility between these two systems of justice causes insurmountable complications. Under common law, a holdover from British colonialism, attorneys in English-speaking areas may, depending on the circumstances, act as judge, notary, or court bailiff. This has strongly influenced the way in which anglophone lawyers have been trained. Needless to say, problems occur when the francophone government tries to enforce standards for notaries, bailiffs, and lawyers in anglophone regions.
Escalating feelings of marginalization in the English-speaking Northwest and Southwest Regions lie at the heart of this long-lived drama. Anglophones represent approximately 20% of Cameroon's population of 22.5 million.
Teachers, students and unions soon followed suit as they sounded off against the unequal status of the English language in education, business, and institutions. On December 8, 2016, the number of deadly confrontations with police and arrests of protesters quickly escalated in the streets of the Northwest Region capital, Bamenda. There were 4 casualties and serious injuries.
In the face of increasing unrest, access to the internet was cut off in English-speaking areas in mid-January 2017. There have been serious and widespread repercussions since.
Campaign poster for the restoration of internet access in Cameroon – public domain
Access Now, an organization that defends the digital rights of users at risk around the world, has published an open letter on its website addressing the CEOs of Cameroonian telecommunication companies. Twenty civil society organizations from Cameroon, Sub-Saharan Africa and elsewhere have signed the document.
En bloquant l’accès à l’information et aux services, la perturbation de la connectivité empêche l’exercice de droits humains, notamment les libertés d’expression et d’association, et ralenti le développement économique, en portant un coup sérieux aux entreprises innovantes qui dépendent de vos services. Nous estimons que la coupure Internet a déjà coûté 1,39 million de dollars, un chiffre qui ne fait que grimper quotidiennement. Cette estimation ne prend pas en compte les effets à long terme de ce défaut de connectivité, comme la perturbation de la chaine de production, ou encore les importants envois d’argent de la diaspora camerounaise.
By blocking access to information and services, the disruption thwarts the exercise of human rights, including the freedoms of expression and association, and slows economic development, seriously harming the innovative businesses dependent on your services. We estimate the shutdown has already cost more than US$1.39 million and grows daily. However, this conservative estimate does not take into account the long-term effects of factors such as the disruption of supply chains and of the significant amount of remittances that Cameroonians living abroad send to these regions.
Ticmag.net, a website featuring African ITC and telecommunications news, published an article citing a report from the NGO Internet sans frontières.
Notons que pour faire face à cette situation, bon nombre de startups ont été obligés de déménager pour s’installer dans les villes voisines qui bénéficient de connexion Internet. C’est ainsi que bon nombre de jeunes startuppeurs de Buea se sont retrouvés à Douala et ceux de Bamenda à Bafoussam.
Depuis, la mobilisation sur les réseaux sociaux ne faiblit pas en vue d’un retour d’Internet. Un hashtag a même été lancé, #Bringbackourinternet. Pour l’instant, sans grand résultat.
We have noticed that this situation has forced a good number of startups to move to neighboring towns that still have access to the internet. Many young startup entrepreneurs from Buea are now in Douala and some from Bamenda have moved to Bafoussam.
Efforts made through social media to restore internet access have remained strong. The hashtag #bringbackourinternet has been created, but, for the moment, has seen little success.
The blackout continues, despite the fact that as far back as 2012, Alexandre Salque noted on 01net.com, one of France's most visited sites specializing in information technology, that the UN (of which Cameroon is a member) has recognized access to the internet as a basic human right.
Fait historique. Pour la première fois, l’ONU reconnaît qu’accéder à Internet est un droit fondamental, au même titre que d’autres droits de l’homme. Les 47 membres du conseil des droits de l’homme de l’ONU ont signé à l’unanimité la résolution qui établit que chaque individu a le droit de se connecter et de s’exprimer librement sur Internet.
Historic event. For the first time, the UN recognizes that access to the internet is a fundamental right, equivalent to other human rights. The 47 members of the UN Human Rights Council unanimously signed a resolution stating that every individual has the right to internet access and online freedom of expression.
Subsequently, in July 2016, during its 32nd session, the same group adopted by consensus a further resolution on freedom of expression on the internet.
de manière univoque les mesures ayant pour but de volontairement empêcher ou perturber l'accès à ou la diffusion d'information enligne, en violation des Droits humains protégés internationalement, et appelle tous les États à réfréner ou cesser l'usage de telles pratiques.”
The Human Rights Council…also condemns unequivocally measures to intentionally prevent or disrupt access to or dissemination of information online in violation of international human rights law, and calls upon all States to refrain from and cease such measures.
The resolution also encouraged all nations to guarantee freedom of expression in accordance with their international obligations.
aborder les préoccupations de sécurité sur Internet conformément à leurs obligations internationales relatives aux droits de l’homme afin de garantir la protection de la liberté d’expression, de la liberté d’association, du droit à la vie privée et d’autres droits de l’homme en ligne, au moyen notamment d’institutions nationales démocratiques et transparentes, fondées sur les principes du droit, d’une manière qui garantisse la liberté et la sécurité sur Internet afin que celui-ci puisse rester une force dynamique génératrice de développement économique, social et culturel ;
The Human rights Council…calls upon all States to address security concerns on the Internet in accordance with their international human rights obligations to ensure protection of freedom of expression, freedom of association, privacy and other human rights online, including through national democratic, transparent institutions, based on the rule of law, in a way that ensures freedom and security on the Internet so that it can continue to be a vibrant force that generates economic, social and cultural development.
Unfortunately, the Cameroon government has decided to ignore its obligations to such international resolutions and continues to attack freedom of expression as evidenced by threats from the National Communication Council (NCC) on January 20, 2017 to suspend or close several media outlets. The Union of Cameroonian journalists has called  on the Cameroonian authorities to put an end to threats against the media and journalists and to engage in a constructive dialogue with the media on their role in Cameroon's society.

author: Abdoulaye Bah


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What Role Did Brazilian Mainstream Media Play in the Murder of a Teenage Girl? This Filmmaker Wants to Know. · Global Voices
Fernanda Canofre

The image of Eloá by the window, crying while being held by her captor is still imprinted in Brazil's collective memory. Screenshot from ‘Quem Matou Eloá?’
If you ask any Brazilian about “Eloá’s hostage crisis”, they will probably know what you're are talking about. For a whole week in October 2008, the entire country watched on live television the kidnap and murder of 15-year-old Eloá Cristina, who was held hostage and later killed by her ex-boyfriend Lindemberg Alves, who was 22 at the time.
On October 13, 2008, Eloá was doing homework with three classmates in her home, a small flat in a housing estate in the city of Santo André, in São Paulo's metropolitan region, when Lindemberg broke in armed with a pistol. He didn't accept the end of their relationship. Two of the friends were released immediately, but Eloá's best friend Nayara remained. The police were called, and reporters promptly showed up as well.
While the police negotiated with Lindemberg, two TV stations broadcasted the crisis live. One presenter went so far as interview Eloá and Lindemberg by the same phone line that was being used by the police to negotiate the release of the hostages. Eloá had to answer questions such as, “Do you still love him?” while her social media profile was scrutinized. In one of the TV shows, a so-called expert said he was “hoping for the best” — for Eloá and Lindemberg to settle their differences and get married.
Filmmaker Livia Perez, who is used to tell stories on gender, focused on the case to debate gender violence | Photo: Alf Ribeiro/Used with permission
And although Lidemberg had released Nayara a day into the hostage crisis, the police asked her to go back in and help negotiate with the attacker.
Five days later, on a Friday afternoon, the police finally stormed the apartment. Gunshots were heard. Nayara was seen leaving the flat with an injury to her face. Eloá was carried out by police officers, unconscious — she had been shot in the head. Lindemberg struggled with the police in the building’s open-air staircase, in plain view of the many reporters and onlookers gathered outside.
All this was broadcasted live on TV for millions of people to watch.
The image of Eloá crying by the window while being held by the kidnapper, only days before her death, became the iconic symbol of what was not just the longest hostage crisis in Brazil's history — but the most mishandled and sensationalized one as well.
Eight years later, Brazilian filmmaker Livia Perez decided to chronicle what happened to Eloá. But Perez did not decide to tell the story by interviewing people who knew Eloá. Instead, she set her camera on the journalists and the police, in the hopes of understanding how the media and society romanticize stories of violence against women.
Her award-winning short-documentary “Who Killed Eloá?” which was released in 2016, has been screened in film festivals around the world, from Uruguay and Mexico to France, from schools in South Korea to Brazilian prisons. In an interview with Global Voices, Perez talked about her motivations for the project, the brutal reality Brazilian women face in their everyday lives (13 women are killed in the country every day), and the media's tropes when covering cases of violence against women and girls.
The 24-minute movie is available to watch with English subtitles:
Global Voices (GV): What brought you to tell Eloá’s story?
Livia Perez (LP): O tipo de crime do qual Eloá foi vítima é também o crime que vitima milhares de mulheres brasileiras. A história de Eloá é também a história de muitas brasileiras. O Brasil é o 5º país em que mais se matam mulheres e apesar disso a imprensa não pauta a violência contra a mulher ao noticiar esse tipo de crime. Essa foi minha principal motivação: reconhecermos o crime contra Eloá como feminicídio.
Livia Perez (LP): The type of crime that Eloá was a victim of is the type of crime that affects thousands of Brazilian women. Eloá’s story is the story of many Brazilians. Brazil is the fifth country in the world in terms of the number of women killed and, in spite of that, the press does not shine a light on violence against women when reporting this type of crime. That was my main motivation: to acknowledge the crime committed against Eloá as a femicide.
GV: What was the hardest part to deal with while you were working on this story?
LP:  O maior desafio foi não reproduzir os vícios do jornalismo tradicional nas formas estéticas do filme, ou seja, refletir sobre como contar sobre este crime utilizando imagens produzidas pelos meios de comunicação tradicionais mas também os criticando ou propondo outras perspectivas.
LP: My biggest challenge was not reproducing the vices of traditional journalism in the movie’s aesthetics, or rather, reflecting on how to tell this crime using images broadcasted by mainstream media but also criticizing them or proposing other perspectives on it.
GV: In your movie, there aren't interviews with Eloá’s friend who survived the kidnapping, relatives or even the investigator responsible for the case — something crime documentaries would normally feature. What made you choose this angle?
LP: Justamente porque o filme não é sobre este caso específico ainda que o utilize como base.  É preciso ver o cenário de forma relacional, e não individualizada. Não me interessava utilizar a mesma narrativa da qual lançou mão a imprensa, não me interessava espetacularizar o crime como algo isolado e único. A escolha pela narrativa enfocada na atuação da imprensa permitiu também questionar o posicionamento da polícia e da sociedade perante os feminicídios.
LP: Precisely because the movie is not about this specific case, even though I’m using it as a base. You have to look at the scenario relationally, not individually. I wasn’t interested in using the same narrative of the media, I wasn’t interested in sensationalizing the crime as something isolated and unique. The choice of a narrative focused on the attitude of the media allowed me to question the position of the police and of society when it comes to femicides.
GV: The story about how her murder was broadcasted on live TV and how TV channels tried to downplay the hostage situation seems almost surreal. But is there any part of it that you would highlight from the rest?
LP: Na minha opinião existem muitas irregularidades a começar pela difusão da notícia de sequestro o que no decorrer dos dias só fez com que o sequestrador se sentisse mais poderoso. Entre os absurdos do repórter que se diz ‘amigo da família’ e do advogado que torce para que ‘tudo termine em pizza e num casamento’ entre vítima e sequestrador acho que o fato da imprensa poder falar com o sequestrador pelo telefone é o mais problemático pois ela acaba por mediar uma situação de risco para a qual não tem competência. Também é muito nociva para a construção da narrativa romântica do crime e o enaltecimento da personalidade do criminoso que a mídia faz para tentar ganhar/manter a audiência.
LP: In my opinion there are many irregularities, starting from the spread of the news of the kidnapping, which, as the days went by, made the kidnapper feel more powerful. Among the absurdities, including one reporter who claimed he was a ‘family friend’ and the lawyer hoping that ‘everything would end well and a wedding’ between the victim and the perpetrator, I think the fact that the media was able to talk with the kidnapper through the telephone is the most problematic, because they ended up mediating a risky situation in which they have no expertise. What's also noxious is the construction of a romantic narrative for the crime and the overemphasis on the criminal personality, which the media does to gain/maintain public attention.
GV: The movie questions this narrative of the “nonconformist man” and the “passionate crime”, so often used in journalism to justify femicide. Do you think there had been any changes on that front since 2008?
LP: Quero acreditar que sim, algumas coisas mudaram mas sei que outras nem tanto. Acho que as redes e as fontes de informações alternativas ficaram muito mais viáveis com a internet e levam cada vez mais gente a questionar os meios de comunicação tradicionais e consequentemente a difusão que fazem dos crimes de machismo (feminicídio, estupro, abusos, assédios…)
LP:  I want to believe so, some things have changed, but I know others not so much. I think social media and alternative sources of information became very viable thanks to the internet and they’re taking increasingly more people to question traditional media and consequently how they report on sexist crimes (feminine, rape, assaults, harassment…).
At least three media outlets managed to interview the kidnapper while the hostage crisis was going on, using the same phone line police were using to conduct negotiations. Screenshot from ‘Quem Matou Eloá?’
GV: A recent poll found that 57% of the Brazilian population agrees with the idea that “a good bandit is a dead bandit”. However, in femicide cases, many people seem to empathize with the murderer instead of the victim. Why do you think this happens?
LP: Sou totalmente contra o discurso “bandido bom é bandido morto” e repudio o justiçamento social e o populismo penal. O que acontece nestes crimes que ganham as mídias é que são noticiados de forma machista, ou seja, os autores de feminicídios são mostrados como como dignos de pena, enquanto as verdadeiras vítimas são recriminadas, culpabilizadas e ignoradas. Isso causa uma inversão de valores muito danosa e pior muitas vezes promovidas por empresas e grupos que operam em concessões públicas como é o caso das TVs abertas. Foi assim no sequestro e assassinado de Eloá, no sequestro e assassinato de Eliza Samudio, na repercussão do estupro coletivo de uma adolescente numa favela no Rio de Janeiro…
LP: I’m completely against the discourse that “a good bandit is a dead bandit” and I repudiate vigilantism and penal populism. What happens in those crimes is that they are reported in a sexist way, that is, the perpetrators of femicides are portrayed as someone worthy of pity and the true victims are recriminated, blamed and ignored. Which causes this very harmful inversion in values and even worse is many times promoted by companies and groups who run on public concessions, which is the case of network TV channels. That’s what happened in the kidnapping and murder of Eloá, in the kidnapping and murder of Eliza Samudio, during the reporting of a gang rape of a teenage girl in a favela in Rio de Janeiro…
GV: Since 2015, femicide has been a legal term in the Brazilian Penal Code. So, it’s a crime that's defined in our legislation, but we still continue to be the fifth leading country in murders of women. What's going wrong here?
LP: Acho que falta um esforço coletivo para combatermos essa alta taxa de feminicídio. A meu ver o começo poderia ser pela reforma da mídia ou então pelo cumprimento do artigo 8.º, inciso III, da Lei Maria da Penha que prevê a responsabilidade dos meios de comunicação para a erradicação e prevenção da violência doméstica e familiar.
LP: I think we lack a collective effort to fight this high femicide rate. As I see it, the start could be the reform of mass media or with the enforcing of Article 8, Clause III, from Maria da Penha’s Law, which dictates the responsibility of mass media in eradicating and preventing domestic and family violence.
GV: In this past year, Latin America — one of the regions with the highest rates of femicides on the planet — has risen up in protests against gender violence, with campaigns such as #NiUnaMenos (or “No one left behind” freely translated from Spanish). How do you view this development?
LP: São levantes fundamentais e esperançosos numa América Latina que ainda é muito machista. Agora acho que precisamos integrar o feminismo às pautas políticas e ainda tem uma luta grande por representatividade a ser conquistada.
LP: These uprisings are fundamental and hopeful in a Latin America that is still very sexist. Now, I think we have to integrate feminism into the political debate and we still have a long fight for representativity to conquer.

author: Fernanda Canofre


text:
A Canadian Company Is Set to Construct Brazil’s Largest Open-Pit Gold Mine—in the Heart of the Amazon · Global Voices
ISA

Sunset during the canoada Bye Bye Xingu, activist action promoted by indigenous and riverlands people, with the support of ISA, in Volta Grande do Xingu in 2016. Photo: Lilo Clareto/ISA, published with permission.
Below is compilation of two stories by Instituto Socioambiental, a Brazilian NGO that defends environmental and indigenous rights. It was edited into one and is published on Global Voices with permission.
A Canadian company is planning to build the soon-to-be largest open-pit gold mine in Brazil, located in the heart of the Amazon forest on the banks of the Xingu river. Brazilian activists, NGOs and advocacy groups, however, are waging a legal battle over the land.
Belo Sun Mining Corp., which is headquartered in Toronto, is behind the Volta Grande Gold Project, which plans to extract 600 tons of gold over the course of 12 years. The mine will generate toxic waste two-fold the volume of Rio de Janeiro's Sugarloaf mountain. A community of 300 families, who live off the land in Vila da Ressaca, Galo and Ouro Verde villages, will have to be relocated should the project go forward.
The company, which began researching the area in 2008, secured permission in early February from the Pará state government to begin construction, but on February 22 a state court suspended that permission for 180 days by upholding a suit filed by Pará's public defender's office.
In the ruling, judge Álvaro José da Silva Souza says he will refer the case to the federal public prosecutor's office to conduct an investigation into whether the company engaged in land grabbing when it purchased federal public lands. The lands in question, Vila da Ressaca, Galo and Ouro Verde, make up an area called Ituna, which was destined in the 1980s by the federal government for the use of rural people in the context of agrarian reform.
The ruling also states that in the last three years, from the issuing of a preliminary permit in 2014 and up through the recent granting of a construction permit, the company did nothing to relocate the affected riverland peoples in a dignified way. “I understand it to be completely absurd and unjustifiable that currently the families are still at the mercy of their own luck,” the judge's decision reads. The ruling gave the company 180 days to devise a plan to relocate the families and requires the company in the meantime to ensure the families’ access to the lands in question.
The location of the proposed mine has already been severely affected by an unrelated development project, the Belo Monte hydropower dam, which started its testing phase in late 2015. The dam has reduced the water flow of a 100-kilometer stretch of the Xingu River by 80%, in addition to having killed off fish, worsened water quality and drastically changed the way of life of many indigenous and riverland populations since its construction began in 2011.
Environmental fears surround the Belo Sun's gold-mining project, given the recent tragedy near Mariana in the state of Minas Gerais. In November 2015, a dam burst at a mine belonging to Samarco — a joint venture of mining companies BHP and Vale — and poured billions of liters of waste in the Doce River, killing 19 people and leaving 700 homeless.
A technical note issued by Belo Sun in 2012, which addressed concerns brought about in a public hearing, was conducted by the same engineer who had attested to the safety of the Mariana dam four months before it burst. In November 2016, he, along with 20 other executives, was indicted for homicide by a federal court.
The indigenous communities directly affected by the Volta Grande Gold Project have not been consulted as is provided for in the 169 Convention of the International Labor Organization, of which Brazil is a signatory.
Six days after the issuing of the construction permit in early February, the mining company published on its website, only in English, a detailed exploration plan that encompasses 120 kilometres throughout the Xingu River. If the company were to implement the plan, at least four officially designated Indigenous Lands (Terras Indígenas) would be affected: Paquiçamba, of the Juruna people; Ituna/Itata, where isolated indigenous peoples live; Arara da Volta Grande, of the Arara; and Trincheira Bacajá, of the Xicrin peoples. Brazilian legislation states that constructions permits in this area should be done at the federal level (rather than by Pará state government) because it directly affects indigenous lands.
Belo Sun published on their website a map with their planned activities, without showing the adjacent indigenous lands. Instituto Socioambiental produced this map that does.
As of now, there hasn't been any consultation of the peoples that could be impacted if the project moves forward. “From the way it is on the map, it looks like there are no indigenous peoples there. For Belo Sun there is no one there,” says Mukuka Xicrin, a leader of the Xincrin people.
The permit granted by Pará state in February also bypassed a motion issued by Brazil's public authority on indigenous matters (the National Indigenous Foundation, or FUNAI), which demands reassessment of the impact on indigenous peoples and considers a study presented by Belo Sun to be insufficient.
Both federal and state public defender's offices filed a suit to halt the permit, with the latter's suit being upheld by the state court. The federal prosecutor's office also filed a motion directed at Pará's environmental agency recommending against the permit. The prosecutor's office had already filed two other suits against the project in the past.

author: ISA


text:
Back in the USSR?: Critics Say Draft Legislation Puts State Above Rights in Kazakhstan · Global Voices
Dina Baidildayeva

Josef Stalin and Kliment Voroshilov in 1935. Public domain.
Social media in ex-Soviet Kazakhstan was shaken up this week by news the Ministry of Justice is working on a draft bill according to which Kazakhs could receive life imprisonment, the death penalty or be deprived of their citizenship for “harming vital national interests and stability of the state and society”.
Following a backlash, the government appeared to withdraw the bill, but other amendments to the criminal code do little to inspire confidence that Kazakhstan is moving in a democratic direction.
According to recent constitutional changes, any citizen involved in terrorism or armed conflict can be deprived of citizenship. Domestic criminal law is now undergoing an update to fit in with the new constitution.
The most controversial aspect of amendments to the criminal code proposed by the justice ministry was article 184-1, which stated that “infliction of grave harm to the  vital interests of the state and threatening the stability of the state and society” would be punishable by death, life imprisonment and deprivation of citizenship.
А можно ли признать врагами интересов государства и лишать гражданства тех, кто мусор не выносит, а выставляет у дверей на площадке?
— Ринат Балгабаев (@Rinat_Balgabaev) March 30, 2017
Can we designate people that leave their rubbish bags lying around outside their apartment doors enemies of state interests and remove their citizenships?
A public backlash emerged after Kazakh lawyer Jokhar Utebekov posted the draft bill on Facebook.
Utebekov also made fun of the Ministry of Justice employee who said that those deprived of citizenship can no longer enjoy “social benefits” as Kazakh citizens.
“What social benefits is he talking about? Are you scared of being deprived of ‘all the benefits of being a Kazakh citizen?'” he wrote on his page, hinting at the limited rights enjoyed by ordinary Kazakhstanis in the authoritarian Central Asian state.
Many drew attention to the Soviet-style formulation of article 184-1, similar to the “Enemy of the Nation” (Враг народа) formulation during the Stalinist terror that saw mass shootings carried out to silence dissent .
Other Facebook users assumed that the changes were specifically targeting Mukhtar Ablyazov, a bitter opponent-in-exile of long-reigning President Nursultan Nazarbayev, who is accused of embezzlement and is presently being tried in Kazakhstan in absentia.
The French Council of State (Conseil d'Etat) blocked Ablyazov's extradition to Russia in December 2016, stating that the case is politically motivated.
Kazakh activist Bakhytzhan Toregozhina wrote on Facebook:
What is grave harm? What are vital interests? How to measure the harm to those interests? Is criticism of the government grave harm to stability?
Long-time oppositionist Sergey Duvanov argued that imprisoning, executing and depriving citizens of citizenship represented a drift back towards Soviet-era totalitarianism:
Article 184-1 suggested by the Ministry of Justice reminds me of Stalinist article 58 according to which, more than half a million people were shot dead during Soviet rule.
After the reaction on social media, the Ministry of Justice removed the draft bill from their website and organised a press briefing with reporters. During the briefing on March 28, the deputy justice minister pointed out that the amendments to the criminal code would be subject to revisions.
Since then, it appears that the scandalous article 184-1 has been removed, following a recent trend whereby Kazakh authorities back down in the face of public uproar.
However, a stipulation allowing deprivation of citizenship was added to the existing Article 174 (“incitement of social, religious and national discord”), whose wording many have argued is just as dangerously vague as “harming vital national interests and the stability of the state and society”.
After all, Article 174 has already been used by authorities to silence and prosecute opposition activists in Kazakhstan. In one such case, the leader of the unregistered opposition party Alga! was jailed for seven-and-a-half years for “inciting social discord”. No real opposition party has existed in Kazakhstan since then.
The final version of the amended criminal code should be made publicly available after April 4 and sent to President Nazarbayev for his signature after approval by the country's rubber stamp parliament.

author: Dina Baidildayeva


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Emirati Hardline Nationalists Target Human Rights Defenders on Twitter · Global Voices
Amin Jobran

Behind the UAE's glitzy skycrapers, there is a persistent trend of human rights violations. Photo by L Constantino via Wikimedia (CC BY-SA 4.0)
When his supporters began tweeting about the arrest of Emirati human rights advocate Ahmed Mansoor last week, many of them were swiftly named and shamed on Twitter for defending a “traitor that deserves to die.”
These replies came from accounts of what seem to belong to Emirati nationals, most of them with typically female usernames. Their accounts have no self-identifying photos and their Twitter walls are composed of hardline-nationalist, anti-Muslim Brotherhood, and anti-Iranian tweets and retweets, along with some religious quotes and recitations.
The online discussion about Mansoor and the people participating — on both civil society and pro-government sides — reveals a great deal about ongoing conflict between human rights defenders and hardline nationalists in the UAE.
One wrote: “Have some respect and keep quiet. A traitor and a dog like him deserves to get tortured and die…”
“Don’t bother defending traitors like him, it won’t benefit you,” said another.*
In 2011, Ahmed Mansoor was jailed for insulting UAE leaders. Photo Credit: Martin Ennals Foundation, via Citizen Lab.
Ahmed Mansoor is a human rights defender from United Arabs Emirates (UAE) and the 2015 winner of the Martin Ennals Award for Human Rights Defenders. Following the “Arab Spring” Mansoor campaigned for democratic reforms in UAE and signed a pro-democracy petition for which he was jailed with 4 other people in what became to be known as the”UAE Five” case. After his release, Mansoor became the target of online and offline attacks. On March 20 Mansoor tweeted about the illegal imprisonment of Oussama Najjar, another human rights advocate who is in police custody, despite having served out his prison sentence.
Emirati police raided Ahmed’s house at 1am on March 20 and conducted a search until the early morning hours, when they arrested him. WAM, the official Emirati news agency, quoted the public prosecutor saying that they have detained Mansoor “pending further investigation.” Mansoor’s whereabouts have been unknown ever since.
Mansoor’s friends shared the news of his arrest on social media, and various online media and human rights groups reported on the incident. In the days that followed, there was an ongoing spat between supporters of Mansoor and those of the government.
Global Voices volunteers analyzed those online interactions on Twitter using Mecodify, an open source social media analysis tool. The findings, presented below, illustrate the power and influence of pro-government online commentators in shaping the narrative in their favour.
We analyzed tweets from pro-Mansoor and pro-government accounts following the arrest from March 20-23, in both English and Arabic.
Here are the most popular hashtags from both sides and the results of their reach and impact followed by an analysis for each of them:
The below hashtag has been dominated by pro-government supporters and propagates the narrative that Ahmed Mansoor is a traitor because he criticizes the UAE, especially outside hi country. Some of the tweets wish death upon Mansoor. Many of the most influential tweets come from accounts that seem to belong to government employees or affiliates. The others are hardline government supporters.
One of the most influential accounts using the hashtag belongs to Dr. Ali Al Noaimi. In his Twitter bio he presents himself as an academic, a civil society activist, the editor-in-chief of Al-Ain news network, chairman of Hedayah, a UAE based counter-terrorism and violent extremism forum, and director of the Abu Dhabi board of education.
Screenshot from Twitter. Tweet reads: “While UAE prides itself with its achievements on regional and international levels, some have specialized in manacturing lies about it.”
The #Ahmed_Mansoor hashtag was used by some news outlets that wanted to seem impartial. It was also used to share the news of the arrest by human rights organizations and activists in combination with other hashtags condemning the arrest. Pro-government commentators also combined this hashtag with others to condemn Mansoor and applaud the arrest.
The #Where_is_Ahmed hashtag translates to “where is Ahmed” and is used by friends and activists asking about Ahmed's whereabouts. Some pro-government supporters used it to make fun of Ahmed and his supporters by trying to guess his whereabouts using guess work, videos and memes.
The top ten accounts that got the most retweets appear to belong to hardline nationalist Emiratis that either work as civil servants with the government or with its affiliates.
The analysis illustrates clearly who is dominating the online narrative in UAE. State and non-state actors use the technique of drowning and poisoning hashtags to bolster pro-government messages and divert attention from serious human rights issues. By dominating this discussion, they project strength and popularity of their narrative, making it easier to manufacture the consent of Emiratis and non-Emiratis alike around their views. However, it is worth noting that in the case of UAE, pro-government commentators are very active on social media and many seem to be doing it out of conviction and sheer will.
The UAE is not unique in this regard. It is no longer unusual for governments to maintain a robust online presence — just as civil society actors do, they understand the power of the internet in forming public opinion and manipulating political discourse. The techniques used vary and include spam campaigns, fake identities and accounts joining pro-government grassroots supporters, traditional propaganda, fabricated media materials, naming and shaming, and others.
The United States has used these techniques in its Operation Earnest Voice to spread pro-American propaganda abroad. The British surveillance agency GCHQ has developed covert tools to spread propaganda and disinformation and to target activists online. Russia’s troll armies have also pushed pro-government narrative and targeted dissidents. The same goes for China’s Fifty-Cent Party.
Countries in the Middle East do not fall far behind. These practices have been identified in Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Syria. The Syrian Electronic Army is infamous for cyber attacks against states and non-state actors opposed to the Syrian regime. They combine tactics that target activists online but they also rely heavily on offline attacks like arrests, torture, and physical harm which leads to a strong self-censorship culture for dissidents in these countries.
Often aided by western entities and vast resources, Gulf countries are attempting to shape the narrative in their favour through advanced techniques combining public and private messaging, along with technical surveillance. The independent research group Bahrain Watch compiled an extensive list of PR firms (most of which are British) that work to enhance the government’s image, gather intelligence about activists online, and create fake personas to infiltrate activists circles. There is also evidence that the UAE is looking to build an in-house surveillance system with the help of Darkmatter, a cyber security firm.
Ahmed Mansoor’s ongoing ordeal perfectly embodies this online conflict. The massive resources spent to keep an online presence coupled with offline techniques of intimidation and persecution have proven to be effective in marginalizing civil society’s presence in the digital space. This digital space is much needed amidst the shrinking of physical spaces in those countries. But it remains to be seen if MENA civil society can amplify their voices to bypass these obstacles and reclaim digital spaces.
* Editor's note: In an effort to minimize further harassment of those most affected by these Twitter campaigns, we elected to remove the names and account URLs for some of the users referenced.

author: Amin Jobran


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For Many Venezuelans, ‘Self-Inflicted Coup’ Spells the End of Their Country’s Democracy · Global Voices
Luis Carlos Diaz

A cartoon of the National Assembly of Venezuela, by Eduardo Sanabria. Used with permission.
Venezuela seemed to be holding its breath expectantly at what will happen after the Supreme Court of Justice assumed the role of the National Assembly and permitted President Nicolas Maduro to take over some of the functions of the legislature.
For the outpouring of voices online who made the issue a worldwide trending topic, what happened is nothing short of a self-inflicted coup d'état, the final step in the progression of authoritarianism stemming from the last few years of political and institutional crises in Venezuela. In fact, that is exactly how Luis Almagro, secretary General of the Organization of American States (OAS), described it:
I denounce the self-inflicted coup d’état perpetrated by the Venezuelan regime against National Assembly #Venezuelahttps://t.co/uxZMNaqz9u
— Luis Almagro (@Almagro_OEA2015) March 30, 2017
Others, like Spanish journalist Antonio Maestre, accused the Venezuelan opposition of demanding a coup:
Yo diría que el golpe de estado es lo que está pidiendo la oposición. Se me ocurre. https://t.co/dXJCoSm8AG
— Antonio Maestre (@AntonioMaestre) March 30, 2017
I would say that the coup d'état is what the opposition is asking for. Just saying.
The situation continues to rapidly evolve. Venezuelan Attorney General Luisa Ortega has since declared that the annulment of the National Assembly was unconstitutional, going head to head with the government. State television cut off the broadcast while she was making her announcement.
The parliamentary annulment was the latest in a series of restrictions that have limited the powers of the National Assembly since Venezuela's political opposition won two-thirds of the seats in the December 2015 elections.
Just before the opposition assumed control of the National Assembly on January 6, 2015, the outgoing chavista legislators managed to change the judges of the Supreme Court of Justice. Journalist Eugenio Martinez reminded his followers that the majority of the newly appointed judges did not meet the requirements for the position.
21 de los 32 magistrados del TSJ no cumplen con los requisitos
constitucionales y legales para ocupar estos cargos #EnNúmeros
— Eugenio G. Martínez (@puzkas) March 30, 2017
21 of the 32 judges of the Supreme Court of Justice did not fulfill the constitutional and legal requisites to take up these positions #InNumbers
Before assuming their new roles, several of the judges in the highest tribunal of the land were previously members of the ruling United Socialist Party of Venezuela. Thus, there's no guarantee of impartiality on the court.
For this reason, when the chavista ruling government lost control of the National Assembly on January 6, they were able to freeze the National Assembly’s power from their stronghold in the Supreme Court. One of its first orders was to declare the Assembly “in contempt” in order to disregard their legislation and avoid questioning and investigations. It even blocked the investigation of corruption for the disappearance of more than 11 billion dollars, which was spearheaded by Congressman Freddy Guerrera.
As part of the siege carried out against the National Assembly, the Supreme Court abruptly diminished the Assembly’s budget so members wouldn't receive their salaries. Legislators were left barely compensated for their work for more than 10 months, with a salary as little as $38 dollars monthly.
While Venezuelans had the challenges of everyday life to contend with, social media users didn’t fail to comment on the actions committed by the executive and judicial powers against the legislative.
According to lawyer and Twitter user Emilia Lobo, this move did not represent a coup d'état, but rather was confirmation of a process that took its first shaky steps the day the opposition became the majority in the country:
La sentencia #156 del TSJ no es un Golpe de Estado, es la declaratoria formal del golpe q tiene 4 años en ejecución.
— Emilia Lobo Quintero (@emilialoboq) March 30, 2017
The #156 sentence of the Supreme Court of Justice sentence is not a coup, it’s a formal declaration of a coup that’s been in progress for four years.
Congressman Luis Florido argued that it was a desperate and hasty move by President Maduro’s weakened government:
Dictadura de Maduro lanza Golpe de Estado porque sabe que se encuentra en sus momentos finales y no puede rehusarse a una salida electoral
— Luis Florido (@LuisFlorido) March 30, 2017
Maduro’s dictatorship paved the way for the coup with an understanding that it had reached its final moments and can't refuse to be voted out.
For Nathaly Quiroga, there was no doubt that the “coup” was carried out by Venezuelans:
El que dude que en Venezuela se produjo hoy un golpe de Estado es muy ignorante, desconocedor de la constitución de nuestro país!!!
— Nathaly G Quiroga C (@NathyGQuirogaC) March 30, 2017
Anyone who doubts that Venezuela today produced a coup is very ignorant and uninformed of the constitution of our very own country!
University professor Victora Marquez recalled other Latin American dictatorships that eradicated their parliaments:
Stroessner en Paraguay, Costa e Silva en Brasil, Fujimori en Perú y Maduro han disuelto parlamento Amanecimos con un Golpe de Estado!
— Victor Marquez Corao (@marquezcvm) March 30, 2017
Stroessner in Paraguay, Costa e Silva in Brazil, Fujimori in Peru, and Maduro have all dissolved their parliaments with a coup!
While Nakira used the meme of the month to explain why it was clever to stage a “coup” on a pay day:
Si das golpe de estado un fin de semana de quincena, la gente se bebe los reales y ya el lunes nadie se acuerda de nada. pic.twitter.com/Nw9T9PL8d2
— Nakira Bozickovic? (@nakirab) March 30, 2017
If you stage a coup on pay day before the weekend, the people will drink the money and by Monday, no one will remember a thing.
On the other hand, there were those who were surprised at the apparent passivity with which the country offline accepted the political news that was swirling around them:
Sigo sin creer que estemos frente a un golpe de estado y el país simplemente este en calma y los políticos echándose aire en las bolas
— Riccardo Polito (@rspolito) March 30, 2017
It’s still hard to believe that here we are, faced with a coup, and the country is in a perfect calm, with politicians just hanging out and killing time
Nunca en mi vida llegué a pensar que un Golpe de Estado tuviera la quietud y la calma de éste que vivimos actualmente en Vzla,
— JOSE LUIS RODRIGUEZ (@joseluisrocas) March 30, 2017
Never in my life did I think that a coup d'état like the one we are living today in Venezuela would be so calm and at ease.
Meanwhile, others like historian and editor of El Nacional (The National) journal Elías Pino Iturrieta criticized the tranquil state of the country:
Pareciera que vamos a contemplar en silencio la clausura de la AN. Deplorable, si así sucede.
— Elías Pino Iturrieta (@eliaspino) March 30, 2017
It seems like we’re going to contemplate the closure of the National Assembly in utter silence. If that’s what happens, it’s completely deplorable.
The Supreme Court of Justice made two consequential decisions: the first was to grant President Nicolas Maduro the power to legislate in various scopes, including punitive justice, in order to avoid a “state of commotion” in Venezuela. The second was to bestow on itself all the powers previously held by the National Assembly, under the pretense of the branch being held “in contempt”.
Naky Soto, in her daily summary for the Caracas Chronicles, referred to Maduro’s new responsibilities as follows:
The [Supreme Court of Justice] also ruled that Nicolás [Maduro] should review several laws to prevent the risks that threaten the country’s stability and governance, including evaluating the performance of international organizations of which Venezuela is a member.
This means the possibility of scaling back Venezuela’s involvement in international treaties and organizations; it's important to note that decisions or criticisms against Venezuela in global forums are often considered an attack and are labelled by Maduro as foreign interference. In this manner, Venezuela has slowly became isolated in international spaces where it was criticized for continual human rights violations, such as the suspension of the 2016 elections, the dozens of political prisoners, and the 14-plus months of Venezuela languishing in a “state of emergency” that permitted Maduro to entirely manage the budget without consulting the National Assembly.
All of this doesn’t mean that Venezuela stands alone. In certain spaces, such as the Organization of American States (OAS), there is still support for Venezuela by countries that benefit from its petroleum-centered politics and gifts given by the late President Hugo Chavez and Maduro himself. Other countries, on the other hand, are simply indifferent or unwilling to get involved in regional conflicts. That's why there's doubt over whether the Inter-American Democratic Charter of the OAS could be applied to Venezuela, which would disqualify the country from participating in the regional organization. In March 29’s extraordinary session, 20 countries were in favor of considering Venezuela's case (24 votes are needed to move forward with it).
Meanwhile Peru, which was the first country in the region to condemn Venezuela’s recent actions, decided to retract their Venezuelan ambassador as a form of protest.
In addition, human rights organizations such as PROVEA have not hesitated to label Venezuela as a dictatorship since October 2016 when the government curtailed its elections. Even before the annulment of the National Assembly, PROVEA promptly classified the situation as a compromise of democracy in favor of a state of dictatorship.
TSJ extingue definitivamente Estado de Derecho y consolida #DictaduraEnVenezuela al despojar de facultades a AN https://t.co/FEHpBy3DSB
— PROVEA (@_Provea) March 30, 2017
The Supreme Court of Justice definitely extinguished the rule of law and consolidated #DictatorshipInVenezuela by stripping away the powers of the National Assembly.
On a similar note, the Center of Human Rights at the Universidad Catolica Andres Bello, the human rights group Espacio Publico, and other non-government organizations qualify the actions of the executive and judicial branch as a vast rupture in constitutional law.

author: Luis Carlos Diaz


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Homeless Filipino Families Occupy 6,000 Vacant Public Housing Units · Global Voices
Karlo Mongaya

#OccupyBulacan. Photo by Paula Sabrine Janer. Used with permission.
Thousands of homeless families have occupied over 6,000 abandoned and empty housing units in six public housing sites in Bulacan province north of Metro Manila since March 8, 2017, International Working Women's Day.
Led by the Kalipunan ng Damayang Mahihirap (Kadamay), an urban poor organization, and supported by various activist groups, those who taking part in the occupation have put up barricades and held their ground for almost a month already in the face of harassment and threats of eviction by housing authorities and police forces.
Early into the occupation, President Rodrigo Duterte accused the movement of sowing “anarchy” and vowed to use force to evict them from the mass housing units. “If you want to ignore the law, you cannot do that. I will force the issue with eviction,” he said.
“Hold Duterte accountable for his crimes against the poor!” Photo by Paula Sabrine Janer. Used with permission.
Insisting that the occupied households have been vacant and left to rot for years while thousands remain homeless, Kadamay did not back down from their assertion of the right of the poor to avail of free public housing.
After a dialogue by housing officials with Kadamay, the Duterte government backed off from the planned forced eviction of the families, which was scheduled to begin last March 27. Kadamay called this an important victory of the collective struggle of the poor.
Below are some testimonies of the #OccupyBulacan participants in their own words as documented by youth activist group Anakbayan:
“Renter ako ng 20 yrs. Dahil hindi ako makabayad, nagkautang ako P2500. Pinagtatadyakan ako nung may ari. May pasa pa ako. Anong ebidensya pa ang kailangan nila para makita na mahirap kami?”
I was a renter for 20 years. Because I cannot pay, I accumulated a debt of P2,500 (50 US dollars). I was kicked by the owner. I still have bruises. What more evidence do they need to prove that we are poor?
“Yung mga bahay ayan o, tiwangwang. Ang mga talahib ang tataas, ang bahay kinakain na ng lupa. Bakit di nila patirhan sa walang bahay? Anong proseso pa ang gusto nila?”
Look at those houses, they are idle. The grasses have grown tall, the houses are being invaded by soil. Why don't they let the homeless live there? What process do they want?
“Dala dala ko itong anak ko (babae, nasa 5 yo) sa lahat ng laban. Nung may nagpaputok (ng baril) doon sa Muzon takot na takot po ako. Pero para lang may mauwian siya, kasi kung hindi sa kalsada talaga kami.”
I always bring my child (female, 5 years old) in every struggle. When gun shots were fired at us back in Muzon I was really afraid. But we are doing this so she has somewhere to go home, because otherwise we'll just be in the streets.
“Dapat sama-sama tayo, wag panghihinaan ng loob sa mga paninira. Ang bahay ng isa ipagtatanggol ng lahat. Hindi tayo aatras. Yung mga wala pang bahay titiyakin natin na makakuha din. Ang kaayusan at kalusugan dapat tiyakin din.”
We should stay together, don't lose heart amidst the black propaganda. The house of one, everyone defends. We will not retreat. Those who still don't have a home, we will ensure that they can have one too. We should also ensure order and health.
“Bakit tayo sasabihan na kriminal, magnanakaw? Hindi ba ang krimen ay ang pagkaitan at nakawan ng karapatan ang maralita?”
Why are we called criminals, thieves? Is it not that what is criminal is for the poor to be deprived and stolen of rights?
Other sectors express solidarity to #OccupyBulacan movement. Photo by Paula Sabrine Janer. Used with permission.
Activist researcher Arnold Padilla questioned Duterte's description of the occupation as “anarchy”, retorting that what is “anarchic” is the fact that 52,341 public housing units have remained unoccupied nationwide while thousands continue to be deprived of decent homes:
These housing units have been unused not because of lack of demand. According to the Housing and Urban Development Coordinating Council (HUDCC), the housing backlog as of December 2016 is pegged at 2.02 million units. From this backlog, the total housing needs is expected to swell to almost 6.80 million units by 2022, growing annually by more than 796,000. Meanwhile, there are more than 1.5 million informal settler families (ISFs) nationwide, of whom 39% are concentrated in Metro Manila, based on government’s latest data.
Independent research group Ibon said the housing crisis in the country has been spawned by a profit-oriented approach that has meant contracting out “socialized” housing to private business rather than providing them free to the homeless:
Despite government and private sector claims, these “socialized” housing units remain unaffordable and unattainable for many informal settlers, said the group. A Bistekville unit, for example, does not require a down payment, but still has an amortization of Php2,273.84 (49 US dollars) per month over a period of 30 years. Many informal settlers are struggling to meet their families’ daily basic needs, and are also ineligible for housing loans from the Home Mutual Development Fund (HMDF) and Pag-IBIG.
Aside from enduring homelessness, poverty, and hunger, the country's urban poor have also bore the brunt of Duterte's “war on drugs” which has victimized and indiscriminately killed without trial more than 7,000 small-time drug users and dealers in the country's sprawling slums.
Kadamay has vowed to continue the fight against an unjust system that has allowed thousands of public houses to be vacant, even as thousands of poor families continue to remain homeless.

author: Karlo Mongaya


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Russian Web Censor Cracks Down Ahead of Next Anti-Corruption Protests · Global Voices
Isaac Webb

Protesters rally at an anti-corruption demonstration in Nizhny Novgorod on March 26, 2017.
Russia's prosecutor general requested on Friday that Roskomnadzor, the state agency responsible for censoring media, block websites it said are inciting public disorder by inviting people to join a rally scheduled be held in central Moscow on Sunday.
In a written request, Deputy Prosecutor General Viktor Grin asked Roskomnadzor to block five websites “calling for participation in mass (public) events on April 2, 2017 on Red Square in Moscow and in all other major cities of the Russian Federation.”
The request comes in the wake of the largest opposition demonstrations held in Russia since 2011-12, when protesters rallied against the results of the allegedly fraudulent 2011 parliamentary elections and President Vladimir Putin's decision to run for a third term in 2012. Sixty thousand people gathered in cities across Russia last Sunday to protest state corruption, with many fixing their ire on Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev, whose vast assets opposition leader and anti-corruption activist Alexei Navalny revealed in an investigation released at the beginning of March.
Генпрокуратура потребовала РКН заблокировать несколько ресурсов, посвящённых акции 2 апреля. Скан требования: pic.twitter.com/vchZEGCRF0
— Vladislav (@unkn0wnerror) March 31, 2017
The General Prosecutor's Office has requested that Roskomnadzor block several resources devoted to the April 2 protests. A scan of the request.
Police arrested Navalny, who remains in detention, and around 1,000 protesters at the rally in Moscow, and scores of protestors were detained at demonstrations in 82 Russian cities, including in Siberia and the Far East.
Volunteers from Alexei Navalny's Anti-Corruption Foundation and employees of the media outlet NewscasterTV were arrested at protests held in Moscow on March 26, 2017. Source: Twitter, CC 4.0
The VKontakte group “We Demand Systemic Changes in the Country,” one of the five websites the General Prosecutor's Office asked Roskomnadzor to block, initially called on protesters to join a demonstration on Red Square, though the location of the protests has since been moved to the adjacent Manezhnaya Square. More than 2,000 protesters have said they will join the demonstration, which will begin at noon on Sunday.
Many observers remarked on the number of Russian youth who participated in the March 26 protests, and the next round of demonstrations appear to be largely organized by young people: the organizer of “We Demand Systemic Changes in the Country” is Viktoria Potapova, a 21-year old from Moscow, whose VKontakte page, which the prosecutor's office also asked Roskomnadzor to block, states that she is employed by”Economics LTD.”
“We Demand Systemic Changes in the Country” is calling for Medvedev's resignation; the creation of structures designed to facilitate dialogue between protestors and government authorities; the reduction of state defense expenditures; the repeal of a draconian set of anti-terror laws that severely circumscribe civic activism and the freedom of expression online; an official investigation into officials accused of corruption by Navalny's Anti-Corruption Fund, including Rosneft President Igor Sechin and General Prosecutor Yury Chaika; and a review of the Platon truck tax system that has been heavily criticized by Russian long-haul truckers.
The prosecutor's office also requested that a YouTube video entitled “‘Young people of Moscow’ Are Gathering for a Rally on Red Square to Demand that Medvedev Resign” and a Live Journal post promoting the video be blocked. The video has been viewed more than 60,000 times.
Another YouTube video, “Will There Be a Rally or a Picket on Red Square on April 2, 2017?,” which has been viewed less than 3,000 times,  is also on the prosecutor's block list.
Grin's letter to Roskomnadzor cites Russian laws prohibiting the distribution of information intended to incite mass protests, and those banning events on Red Square without the approval of the President. It also instructs Roskomnadzor to block websites that distribute copied or similar information once the aforementioned sites are blocked.

author: Isaac Webb


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Sudden Death of Aqua-Blue-Eyed Model Shocks Maldives · Global Voices
Rezwan

Screenshot from YouTube Video by Vogue India
Raudha Athif, a 20-year-old aqua-blue-eyed Maldivian model, was found hanging inside her dormitory room in Rajshahi, in north Bangladesh on Wednesday, March 29. She was a second-year medical student at the Rajshahi Islami Bank Medical College Hospital, and the death is being treated as a suicide. On social media, surprised Maldivians are mourning the loss of this beautiful woman.
Raudha was last seen at dinner on Tuesday night, before she retired to her room. On Wednesday morning, Raudha’s friends went to look for her when she missed breakfast. Receiving no response outside her room, they broke down the door and found her hanging from the ceiling fan by a long scarf. Police are considering her death to be the result of suicide.
Maldivians reacted to this tragic incident on social media:
Deeply saddened to hear the death of Raudha Athif. I am even sadder to be part of a society that is STILL stigmatising depression.
— Fathimath Nayyifa (@f_nayyifa) March 29, 2017
Raudha was such a beautiful and talented girl. She was humble and sweet. It's so sad to see such a young life being taken away so soon.
— Nashwa Saeed (@nutwa) March 29, 2017
Do saddened by Raudha's death. May she rest in peace :( and let us stop judging from atop our moral high horses for goodness sake.
— Afshan Latheef (@AfshanLatheef) March 29, 2017
Raudha Athif started modelling at the age of 14, posing for an environmental campaign. In 2015, she became a viral sensation online, thanks to a picture by photographer Shifaz (Sotti), titled “Maldivian Girl With Aqua Blue Eyes.” Later, she appeared on the October 2016 ninth anniversary cover of Vogue India magazine — a photo shoot that drew criticism from conservatives for her supposedly risque attire.
In an interview last year, Raudha made it clear that she wasn't choosing modeling as a profession, and wanted instead to become a doctor, in order to help people, she said.
Her Instagram account currently has more than 31,000 followers.
Last day of desert with @tales_of_gaia ? ?: @olgavetrova
A post shared by Rau. Maldivian. ? (@raudhaathif) on
Athif's friend, Aashiq Iqbal, remembered her in a Facebook post:
তুমি যে এত বড় একজন মডেল ছিলে কিন্ত সেটাতে তোমার কোন অহংকারই ছিল না আর বরাবরই সেটা আমাদের বেশ অবাকই করে দিত। তোমার ধূসর সেই চক্ষু দুটি প্রচন্ড মিস করব।
We were surprised by the fact that you never boasted that you are such a famous model. I will miss your striking emerald eyes.
Another classmate, Abeda Hossain, wrote:
জানিনা কেন সুইসাইড করলো, কি এমন কারণ ছিলো যা বয়ে বেড়ানোই বোঝা ছিলো খুব? এতো হাসিখুশির আড়ালে কি লুকিয়ে ছিলো কে জানে….!
I don't know why she committed suicide. What was such a big burden to keep carrying? What sorrow was buried under that smiling face… God knows.
According to some of her classmates, Raudha suffered from depression. The police reportedly found strangulation marks around her neck, which led to some people online to suspect foul play.
Raudha’s death. Murder staged as suicide?  https://t.co/hksWwZNakE pic.twitter.com/OblvbdDyQb
— Muju Naeem (@mujunaeem) March 29, 2017
When a photograph allegedly showing her dead body started circulating online, many of Raudha's supporters asked Internet users to stop sharing the image, out of respect.
I know everyone is curious but please refrain from sharing photos of the deceased.
Rest easy, Raudha.
— Naahy (@naahyrasheed) March 29, 2017
Disrespectful for the family & loved ones of Raudha that people keep speculating. Stop being nosy
إِنَّا لِلّهِ وَإِنَّـا إِلَيْهِ رَاجِعونَ
— Izza Shaheed (@IzzaShaheed) March 30, 2017
Later, the postmortem report officially ruled her death to be a suicide:
Hospital rules Raudha's death a suicide: Bangladeshi Police tells @Raajje_tv https://t.co/jv7f0erLSE
— Raajjemv English (@RaajjeEnglish) March 30, 2017
Last Thursday, Raudha Athif's family flew to Bangladesh to handle necessary arrangements.
Maldives Ambassador in Dhaka has travelled to Rajshahi with family members of late Raudha Athif and is facilitating necessary arrangements
— MFA-Maldives (@MDVForeign) March 30, 2017
Rahath Junaid, a fan of Raudha's work, wrote in Facebook:
Raudha, you were truly a Maldivian icon. The first Maldivian to grace the cover of Vogue. Very few people have the courage to do that. You faced immense backlash after you did and took it in your stride. However none of us realized that even with the picture perfect Instagram stories you suffered in your daily life. Quietly and in silence. To the point where you couldn't bare it anymore.

author: Rezwan