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Facebook draws furious response for blocking news stories in Australia · Global Voices
Kevin Rennie

News blocked by Facebook: Screenshot from ABC TV News video of an interview with Jeff Jarvis of the City University of New York.
Facebook users have been outraged by the social networking giant's blocking of news stories in Australia. The ongoing dispute between Facebook and the Australian government came to a head on February 18, 2021, when the platform blocked news over a draft code of conduct concerning payment for news content.
The legislation drafted by the Australian government “would force tech giants Facebook and Google to negotiate with media companies over payment for linking to their news stories.” BBC News has a useful summary of the dispute so far.
#DeleteFacebook and #BoycottZuckerberg were just two of the trending hashtags on Twitter. “Paul” might have only 25 followers but he summed up a common reaction:
You know Facebook … Our little thumb has the ultimate power …. It’s pretty easy to just #DeleteFacebook ❤from Australia x
— Paul (@Paul31607029) February 18, 2021
The Facebook ban was far-reaching. Australian publishers could not share or post news. International publishers could not be viewed or shared Down Under. The Aussie community could not view or share Australian or international news content or pages. The international community could not view or share Australian news content on Facebook or content from Australian news pages.
As might be expected, the mainstream media were very displeased. The Age newspaper’s front page was typical:
The Age front page for Friday, February 19, 2021. Read more online: https://t.co/jI69MmqQE4 pic.twitter.com/TfirqaMQVz
— The Age (@theage) February 18, 2021
Facebook raised the stakes when it “inadvertently” blocked non-news sites such as The Bureau of Meteorology, emergency services, health pages and a host of other community services. The response was stinging:
The Bureau of Meteorology reported that its “Facebook page has been impacted by the broader Facebook changes.” This on a day when there is a “catastrophic danger” of bushfires in Western Australia & warnings of possible flooding in the state of Queensland. Thanks #facebooknewsban https://t.co/02SJbIaqW7
— Lissa Johnson (@LissaKJohnson) February 18, 2021
So Facebook has decided that bushfire warning notifications for people who are potentially in direct harm shouldn’t be alerted to them because the platoform won’t make a cent for them is the right way forward then? #DeleteFacebook #BoycottFacebook #BoycottZuckerberg
— Daniel (@danofage) February 18, 2021
Many brought into the discussion the impact on the already marginalised, such as indigenous communities:
Shutting down women’s anti violence, carers, migrant and other orgs as well as small independent op-ed sites and really sticking it into a large number of indigenous organisations.#FacebookAustralia #facebooknewsban #facebook pic.twitter.com/SuvbsjsSy2
— Armagny (@armagny) February 18, 2021
Facebook blamed the Australian government’s definition of news content for the bungle and started reversing these “inadvertent” blocks. Some Aussies agreed:
Um @breakfastnews when discussing community groups blocked too, it is “dishonest” to not include in your chat “why” this happened, as was in response to vague wording in legislation as to what “news” is.
FB removed every account that met the definition.
That is on Government! pic.twitter.com/NQ915massL
— Noely ⚡? (@YaThinkN) February 18, 2021
Despite the strident attacks on Facebook by his government, the Australian federal treasurer, Josh Frydenberg, maintained that negotiations were continuing on the implementation of its draft code. Perhaps he could follow the lead of the United Kingdom, where Facebook News began rolling out last month.
One source of “news” that has not been blocked is the satirical website The Chaser, which has several stories about the policy brawl including this one:
Facebook finally crack down on racism by banning all Aussie media https://t.co/hvW3EuetgC
— The Chaser (@chaser) February 18, 2021
Some online believe that the government is more than happy to have a major dispute to take attention away from the scandal revolving around an alleged rape in parliament house:
Brittany Higgins’ rape should be the continued focus. Facebook is the distraction set up by the govt. #IBelieveBrittany https://t.co/xSWbEF4z6F
— SkiCat (@SkiCat10) February 18, 2021
Another concern has been that the absence of reputable news stories may lead to the dominance misinformation and disinformation on the platform:
‘Attack on democracy': Experts fear misinformation will thrive on Facebook under news banhttps://t.co/NuW5hfuvKB via @skinnergj
— Gary Skinner (@skinnergj) February 19, 2021
Some see large media organisations as the source of much of the misinformation:
Facebook is much improved with no links to Newscorp misinformation
— Karen Free Zone (@GreatGasScam) February 18, 2021
At Techdirt, Mike Masnick has a detailed defence of Facebook's position on the code:
This fight was not “Facebook v. Australia.” Or “Facebook v. journalism” even though some ignorant or dishonest people are making it out to be the case. This was always “Rupert Murdoch v. the open web.” We may not like Facebook in the role of the defender of the open web (and it's far from the best representative for the open web).
Jeff Jarvis from the City University of New York made similar arguments on Buzzmachine. It includes this interview with ABC TV News Australia:
Meanwhile, Google has made considerable progress in its response to the proposed legislation. The threatened removal of its search engine in Australia is increasingly unlikely. A number of deals have been made, including one with Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp, to pay for content in its Google News Showcase.
In a fitting twist they, apparently briefly, blocked their own page.
Perhaps Facebook should take a warning from the fact that the issue was no longer trending on Twitter the next day.

author: Kevin Rennie


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Prominent Harvard professor pilloried for peddling revisionist history about wartime ‘comfort women’ · Global Voices
Nevin Thompson

Image caption: “Comfort women (comfort girls) captured by U.S. Army, August 14 1944, Myitkyina.” Image source: Wikimedia Commons, public domain.
A noted American professor at Harvard Law School has been denounced both at home and internationally after publishing an academic paper arguing that claims about Korean women enslaved by Japanese military forces as “comfort women” during the second world war are historically untrue.
Critics of the professor, J. Mark Ramseyer, who is the Mitsubishi Professor of Japanese Legal Studies at Harvard Law School, argue the paper ignores standard research methods, existing scholarship, and primary sources, and is full of inaccuracies and intentional misrepresentations.
Ramseyer's paper, which is titled “Contracting for sex in the Pacific War,” will be published in the March 2021 print issue of the International Review of Law and Economics (IRLE), but is already available online to academic audiences.
In the paper, Ramseyer characterizes the organized, methodical sexual slavery of approximately 200,000 women — so-called “comfort women” or ianfu (慰安婦) — by Japanese Imperial forces during the Second World War as a legitimate, contractual, economic exchange between willing participants.
Ramseyer's paper repeats common tropes typically employed by historical revisionists who seek to minimize or erase sexual slavery practiced by Japan during the war. His conclusions contradict rigorous, established scholarship, including a comprehensive 1996 United Nations report on the issue.
Ramseyer summarized the key points of the paper in a column published in late January in Japan Forward, an English-language opinion site for English as a Foreign Language (EFL) learners run by Sankei Shimbun, a hard-right Japanese daily.
In his Japan Forward opinion column, Ramseyer states:
…the claims about enslaved Korean comfort women are historically untrue. The Japanese army did not dragoon Korean women to work in its brothels. It did not use Korean women as sex slaves. The claims to the contrary are simply ー factually ー false.
In the Japan Forward opinion piece, Ramseyer also argues that Korean women (in fact, women from more than ten occupied countries in Asia were forcibly conscripted) entered into a mutually agreeable contractual agreement with brothel operators that protected the rights of both parties.
Following the publication of Ramseyer's Japan Forward column in late January, attention turned to the online version of his IRLE journal article, which was released in December 2020. Besides generating headlines in Korean media, the article sparked condemnation by students and faculty at Harvard University, where Ramseyer works.
The Korean Association of Harvard Law School, a student group, issued a statement in response to Ramseyer's article, stating:
Without any convincing evidence, Professor Ramseyer argues that no government “forced women into prostitution,” a contention he also makes in his editorial. Decades’ worth of Korean scholarship, primary sources, and third-party reports challenge this characterization. None are mentioned, cited, or considered in his arguments.
Ramseyer was also publicly criticized by colleagues. In a Twitter thread, Jeannie Suk Gersen, a legal scholar and the first Asian woman and first Korean professor to teach at Harvard Law School, said:
4: I disagree with my colleague as deeply as it’s possible to disagree. For now, I’ll say I disagree with his interpretations of his sources, his wrong legal analysis, and even applying his own disciplinary terms, his reasoning fails. We talked, and he knows I disagree with him.
— Jeannie Suk Gersen (@JeannieSGersen) February 7, 2021
In other public comments, Gersen called into question Ramseyer's interpretation of contract law, stating, “No legal system would recognize or justly enforce contract of this nature,” where people forced into sex in the context of Japanese military occupation in wartime were not free agents exercising agency.
In the IRLE paper, for instance, Ramseyer argues a ten-year-old girl entered into a contract with full knowledge of what sex work entailed:
When Osaki turned ten, a recruiter stopped by and offered her 300 yen upfront if she would agree to go abroad. The recruiter did not try to trick her; even at age 10, she knew what the job entailed.
The critique of Ramseyer's interpretation of contract law is notable, since Ramseyer, as Mitsubishi Professor of Japanese Legal Studies at Harvard Law School, is widely regarded as an expert on Japanese law and economics. In spite of his long connection to Japan, however, Ramseyer's curriculum vitae indicates no apparent expertise on the topic of wartime sexual slavery or East Asia.
The child of Christian missionaries, Ramseyer attended elementary school in rural Japan before returning to the United States to attend college. While he would eventually attend and teach at top-ranked Japanese universities after completing a master's thesis on the merchants of early-modern Japan, his scholastic focus has always been law, and never Japanese or Korean wartime history.
Indeed, in a February interview, Ramseyer also admitted that he neither speaks nor reads Korean, indicating he cannot, for example, evaluate or even understand testimony by Korean victims of sexual slavery:
Asked why he did not cite any Korean sources in the paper, Ramseyer said he is “very upfront” about the fact that he does not read Korean.
Historians familiar with wartime sexual slavery perpetrated by Japanese armed forces also point out that Ramseyer has long championed historical inaccuracies and revisionism. Nick Kapur, a historian of modern Japan and East Asia notes multiple instances in the past where Ramseyer has promoted racist or questionable narratives:
Ramseyer finally went too far, but he has been a right-wing academic troll for decades.
Here is an article in which he claims Japan's discriminated burakumin minority is A) fake and B) deserves discrimination because they are basically all criminalshttps://t.co/WYz5xWH1a3 pic.twitter.com/tF1zw0l42N
— Nick Kapur (@nick_kapur) February 16, 2021
A transnational team of five professional historians of Japan and its empire published an open letter that focuses on the academic integrity of Ramseyer's recent IRLE article.
The five historians who reviewed Ramseyer's IRLE journal article, interviewed on Korean televison. Screencap from MBC website.
Their letter, at 33 pages, is four times as long as Ramseyer's eight-page IRLE article, and carefully examines every aspect of Ramseyer's article, with particular focus on his sources.
Asserting that Ramseyer mischaracterized, distorted and misrepresented sources, the historians questioned the fundamental academic integrity of the journal article, and called on IRLE to retract it:
Its inaccuracies are more than superficial errors; they completely undermine the article's claims. […] We believe that an article containing this level of academic misconduct should not have passed peer review, or have been published in an academic journal.
Miki Dezaki, a documentary filmmaker who explored the competing historical narratives about the “comfort women” issue in his film “Shusenjo,” notes that Ramseyer did receive a letter of support signed so far by six individuals, all of who are affiliated with a far-right nationalist group in Japan:
This open letter in support of Ramseyer's paper on the comfort women is signed by a whopping 6 people, who call themselves historians, but only one, Jason Morgan, has a degree in history. pic.twitter.com/44Xt7MUAQv
— Miki Dezaki (@MikiDezaki) February 17, 2021
In an interview with Global Voices, Dezaki also notes that in another academic paper discrediting the claims of “comfort women,” Ramseyer cites an individual named “Texas Daddy,” an American retiree with his own YouTube channel who is considered a mouthpiece for Japanese nationalists.
Dezaki says that like Texas Daddy and other foreign peddlers of historical revisionism, Ramseyer repeats common talking points:
There are three big Japanese right-wing talking points and Ramseyer has parroted them all. He claims the women were just well paid prostitutes, he claims that Asahi Shimbun’s retraction of a false testimony proves that the comfort women issue is a lie, and he claims, most despicably, that the victims’ testimonies are inconsistent, which suggests that they are lying.
Regarding what motivates Ramseyer and others, Dezaki suggests that:
It really boils down to fame, money and staying relevant. That isn’t to say that these people don’t believe in what they are writing or saying, but doing so in the public arena gets them praise, speaking engagements and book deals in Japan.
An editor for the academic publisher behind IRLE has been quoted as saying that the article is “considered final,” though IRLE has appended an expression of concern to the online version of the piece to inform readers that concerns have been raised regarding the article's historical evidence.
The March 2021 print issue in which the paper is to appear is also being temporarily held so that comments on the paper can be published in the same issue.

source: news-globalvoices

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

author: Nevin Thompson


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Updating Uyghur: The power of online discussions for language preservation · Global Voices
Filip Noubel

Screenshot from YouTube video of Eliyar Tursun channel explaining how Uyghur is written when using the Arabic script
Languages need to adapt to the modern world to catch-up with new technology and concepts if they want to remain competitive, particularly among younger speakers. This is particularly true for Uyghur, a Turkic language spoken in Western China that is under threat due to targeted discrimination conducted by Chinese authorities in the hope that Chinese may appear more attractive and technology-friendly among Uyghur youth.
Uyghur linguists have long been aware of the fact that Uyghur, a Turkic language with an estimated 10 million speakers, written in the Arabic alphabet in China, and with a rich tradition of intricate poetry, philosophy and songs written in that language, needs to include elements of modern life to serve the needs of the younger generation, as well as of social media where more and more conversations are taking place.
Screenshot of the WeChat group Tilchilar that discussed new terms and their Uyghur equivalent, provided by Elise Anderson, used with permission
To have a rare insight into those efforts, Global Voices spoke to Elise Anderson, an expert on Uyghur language and music who spent years in Xinjiang, and now works as a Senior Program Officer with the Uyghur Human Rights Project. Anderson, who spent most of her time in Xinjiang from 2012 to 2016, was invited in January 2014 by an Uyghur linguist friend to join their WeChat group called “Tilchilar” (Linguists) as she was herself studying the language in-depth as part of her doctoral research on Uyghur music and songs. Here is how she describes the group hosted on China's most popular social media platform, WeChat:
The group had around 100 members at any given moment, most of whom were highly educated native speakers, including academics, translators, bureaucrats, and even a few officials from regional-level institutions. We discussed persistent “problems” in the language, including spelling, grammar, translation. Most often, our conversations centered on terminology and whether we could replace Chinese loanwords to preserve the “purity” (sapliq) of Uyghur. A group member might say, “I noticed teenagers are using [Mandarin word]. What could we say instead?” We would then cycle through possibilities: Was there a word to “resurrect” from pre-modern Uyghur? No? What about “borrowing” from other Turkic languages? No? What about “importing” from a more distant language? And so on. In a few cases, we settled on terms, which more influential group members then attempted to lexicalize. But discussions of single words could last days and often went unresolved.
As Anderson explains, the group was also trading examples of bad translations, some of which were comical, but also raised an uncomfortable questions such as why would there be unedited translations in Uyghur in a territory inhabited by millions of native speakers of the language.
For languages that do not have a dominating position in a country, are have a small number of speakers, their digital footprint is often an indicator of their chances for long-term survival. For Uyghur language, WeChat offered a unique opportunity with its voice messaging feature. As Anderson explains, the platform became so popular it was given an Uyghur name, “Ündidar”, a portmanteau word made of the Turkic word “ün” which means voice, and the Persian term “didar” which refers to encounter. The poetic term was coined by the poet and intellectual Abduqadir Jalaliddin, who disappeared from his Ürümqi home in 2018 and is currently incarcerated.
According to Anderson, allowing texting in Uyghur came much later:
Uyghur was still not a fully phone-compatible language when I lived in the region. The incompatibility stemmed from the 1990s, when the resource-strapped regional government chose to fund cultural projects (music, dance) over computing initiatives. By the time smartphone use really took off, sometime around 2012, no phone had an OS in Uyghur, and Arabic-script keyboards for the language were only available through third-party apps many people were unaware of. What this meant was that many users, particularly those with low reading facilities in Mandarin, were using phones they barely knew how to operate with no way to type in the language and script they preferred. But the fact that an app like WeChat could make spoken discussion, often in large groups, possible was significant.
Today the Uyghur diaspora living outside a Beijing-censored internet is probably the most active user of Uyghur language over social media. Microsoft has offered full operating systems in Uyghur since 2016, and most smartphones allow Uyghur on their keyboard. In February 2020, Google also added Uyghur on its free translation platform, expanding the space for Uyghur online.
In China, the opposite is happening, according to Anderson:
The Uyghur web, most of which was hosted inside the borders of China, used to be a vibrant space, where popular message boards gave users space to discuss everything under the sun (or at least everything under the sun that made it through the censors) and even to publish new literary work. Since 2016, authorities in the Uyghur region have managed to scrub that web nearly completely, such that today there are very few Uyghur-language sites left. Henryk Szadziewski and Greg Fay refer to an earlier scrubbing of the Uyghur web, that which occurred in the aftermath of the Ürümqi Uprising in July 2009, as a “digital book burning,” which seems apt when you consider how much has been lost in the destruction.
The situation inside China does not allow for any optimism in the context of the massive internment and imprisonment of at least over a million ethnic Uyghurs. Indeed part of this program of ethnic and cultural genocide, tens if not hundreds of thousands of Uyghur children are forcibly taken away from their parents and extended family and placed in orphanages and boarding schools where the only language allowed and spoken is Mandarin Chinese.
As Anderson concludes:
The way to keep anything alive, including a language, is to create space for it to live and provide material support so it can thrive. The Uyghur language will survive if it is put it on equal footing with other languages, if it “counts” in professional and formal settings, if it has support as a language of literary and scientific production, and so on. Current Chinese government policies allow no such space for the language. Should these policies continue, younger generations of Uyghurs might never know how the world looks and sounds in their mother tongue.

author: Filip Noubel


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Algeria releases dozens of pro-democracy prisoners ahead of Hirak anniversary · Global Voices
Dahlia Kholaif

Screenshot of Berbere TV interview with Rachid Nekkaz following his release. He appears here holding back tears as he spoke of his disease.
Algerian authorities released on February 19 at least 33 political detainees linked to the Hirak protests as part of an amnesty that came ahead of the uprising's second anniversary, which was marked by thousands of protesters returning to the streets.
The Associated Press reported on Monday that thousands of demonstrators paid heed to calls for people to take to the streets, in protest to the unmet political, social, and economic reforms demanded in the 2019 uprising that came to be known as Hirak. Rallies took place in the capital Algiers and other parts of the North African country.
The presidential amnesty announced on February 18, accompanied by a parliament dissolution and a pending cabinet reshuffle, was not sufficient to appease the masses.
Among those released is political activist Rachid Nekkaz, who was jailed without trial since December 2019, and whose health had seen a sharp decline in recent weeks as a result of prostate cancer and liver disease.
Talking to local Berber TV following his release, Nekkaz said he had lost 14 kg because of his illness, and has been unable to sleep because of the frequent visits to the bathroom. Holding back tears, he recalled how his father died of the same illness in 2011.
Prominent journalist Khalid Drareni, 40, was also among those pardoned after almost a year of being held in prison over his reporting on the Hirak protests.
Il fallait absolument le voir avant qu'un jour nouveau se lève ! @khaleddrareni is back. #Algérie libre et démocratique. الشعب لا یسلم فی احرارہ pic.twitter.com/ocy27E2JRm
— El kadi Ihsane (@ElkadiIhsane) February 19, 2021
A crowd of supporters awaited Drareni at his home to celebrate his release.
Le journaliste Khaled Drareni arrive chez lui. Un comité d’accueil composé de ses soutiens l’attend. #Algerie pic.twitter.com/8uK8TjwcJ8
— Zahra Rahmouni (@ZahraaRhm) February 19, 2021
Journalist Khaled Drareni arrives at his home. A welcoming group made up of his supporters awaits him.
Speaking to AFP, Drareni's lawyer Abdelghani Badi said that the release was “provisional.” The news agency quoted lawyer and rights activists Mostefa Bouchachi as saying that Drareni still awaits a Supreme Court ruling on this appeal on February 25. He was sentenced in August to three years in prison, which was reduced by a September ruling to a year — a verdict still seen as unjust by his supporters.
Another prominent Hirak activist, Dalila Touat, who had been on hunger strike in prison since January 3, was also among those released on Friday.
The Hirak protests, which broke out in February 2019, uprooted the decades-long rule of strongman President Abdelaziz Bouteflika and continued until its suspension in March 2020 because of the COVID-19. Discontent, however, brewed among the masses over slow tangible political, economic and social change, as the pandemic weighed on the oil-rich country.
The presidential pardon, announced on Thursday, is seen as an attempt to mitigate the crowds amidst growing momentum for protests to resume in the next couple of days. More prisoners are expected to be released, as President Abdelmajdid Tebboune was quoted by AFP as saying that around 55 to 60 Hirak members would benefit from the amnesty.
According to the National Committee for the Liberation of Prisoners (CNLD), over 70 people have been arrested in the past two years over their links to the Hirak protests.
Statement of #Algeria-n Ministry of Justice:
– All 21 detainees with final verdict have been released.
– Detainees without final verdict are being released.
– Total number of those released so far is 33.
– Procedures are ongoing for the remaining detainees.
— G.Zine (@GheZinou) February 19, 2021
Aside from the pardon, President Tebboune also ordered a cabinet reshuffle and the dissolving of the parliament, other attempts by the state to mitigate the population.
The partial government reshuffle in #Algeria is seemingly postponed until tomorrow. This essentially means:
1/ Negotiations are ongoing
with neutral, less-provocative figures.
2/ The system is struggling to convince technocrats to join a crisis-management cabinet.
— G.Zine (@GheZinou) February 20, 2021
According to the BBC, protests had already begun on February 16 with thousands gathering in Kherrata, to the east of the capital, and chants of “Algeria, free, democratic” being heard on the streets, amidst heightened security presence.
Social media platforms have been peppered with posts encouraging protesters to join the protests, with some sharing precautionary measures to reduce COVID-19 spread.

author: Dahlia Kholaif


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Despite claims of authoritarianism, President Bukele’s popularity continues to be strong in El Salvador · Global Voices
Eddie Galdamez

President Nayib Bukele speaking to Salvadoran armed forces. Photo by @PresidenciaSV
On February 6, 2021, CID Gallup released its first poll of the year regarding Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele and his job managing the COVID-19 pandemic. According to the survey, 91 per cent of Salvadorans approve of Bukele's performance in managing the crisis.
The February 6 CID Gallup survey is not the only one that shows how popular Nayib Bukele is in El Salvador. Since January 2020, 13 studies were conducted on the subject of the president's job approval or how he managed the COVID-19 pandemic; all of them gave Bukele an approval rating of over 75 per cent.
Yet, Bukele's actions have been criticized by human rights organizations and the Organization of American States (OAS) for increasing authoritarianism, such as his undermining of the country's democratic institutions and verbally attacking the press. For example, on February 9, 2020, Bukele entered El Salvador's legislative assembly flanked by soldiers, a move that was seen by some commentators as an attempt at a militarized coup. Bukele, meanwhile, sought to justify the intrusion, which had been carried out to pressure legislators to approve funds for his security plan.
In El Salvador – President Bukele called for an extraordinary legislative session to vote for a $109 million loan. Congress refused and now the El Salvador Military has taken over control of the legislative assembly#ElSalvador pic.twitter.com/kRhRDYO7aC
— CNW (@ConflictsW) February 9, 2020
After an attack on January 31 that left two opposition party supporters dead, Bukele suggested that the political violence was a false-flag operation. In the following days, US Congressman Albio Sires and Congresswoman Norma J. Torres sent a letter to Bukele, expressing their concern and urging him “to convey messages of peace and to avoid stoking divisions and unrest.”
Psychological studies have shown that “insecurity is linked to the rise of autocrats and the erosion of democracy,” as reported by The Guardian:
“When people experience threat – whether actual or imagined – they begin to “tighten”. In physical terms, they tense their muscles, ready to defend themselves. In political terms, they begin to crave security and order in a community that seems to be collapsing. Authoritarian leaders satiate this need by promising quick, simple solutions – and, above all, a return to the tighter social order of yesteryear.”
In El Salvador, which has been one of the world's most violent countries, insecurity is common. Other studies have shown that people who face economic insecurity tend to favor authoritarian leaders; this hypothesis could apply to El Salvador, where one-third of the population is poor.
Experts also point out that Bukele uses social media to his advantage and thereby controls the narrative. Furthermore, he has the benefit of public funds for marketing and promoting himself and his projects—in 2019, he requested 22 million USD for publicity.
According to polls, Bukele had remained popular thanks to strictly managing the COVID-19 pandemic, lowering the homicide rate, and pointing out a weak political opposition.
Although deemed authoritarian in nature by some, Bukele took decisive actions early on that helped delay the virus from entering the country. For instance, even before El Salvador had a single case of COVID-19, Bukele ordered the shutdown of its borders, the international airport, and public transportation. He also ordered several mandatory quarantines. Even though these early actions have affected the country's economy, 95.7 per cent of Salvadorans approved Bukele's decisions to stall COVID-19, according to a poll released by local press in May 2020
Also, the Salvadoran homicide rate under the Bukele administration is the lowest since the end of the civil war which tore the country apart in the 1980s. In 2020, the country's number of homicides fell by 44.9 per cent compared to 2019. This is also reflected in polls.
El año 2020 cierra con todos los indicadores de inseguridad a la baja; los 12 delitos que más afectan a los salvadoreños se mantienen con reducciones considerables. Gracias al trabajo de @PNCSV y el #PlanControlTerritorial el país salió de la lista de países violentos del mundo. pic.twitter.com/eLfzwA0xWu
— Ministerio de Seguridad (@SeguridadSV) January 1, 2021
The year 2020 closes with all insecurity indicators down; the 12 crimes that most affect Salvadorans continue to be considerably reduced. Thanks to the work of @PNCSV and the #PlanControlTerritorial the country is now off the list of violent countries in the world.
Lastly, a weak political opposition is helping President Bukele's popularity. The two other major political parties, FMLN and ARENA, which have governed the country for the last 30 years, are perceived by most Salvadorans as corrupt.
For example, three previous Salvadoran presidents from these two parties have been charged with corruption. Paco Flores died while under house arrest awaiting trial while Tony Saca is in jail serving a 10-year sentence for stealing public funds. Mauricio Funes is in political asylum in Nicaragua, thereby avoiding Salvadoran extradition; he faces multiple money laundering charges in El Salvador and Guatemala.
Marvin Aguilar, a renowned political analyst contrasted Bukele's popularity with his predecessors’ fall from fame on national TV:
Nayib Bukele es el artefacto que construye el pueblo para desquitarse, para castigar a la derecha y la izquierda que nos gobernaron 30 años. El Problema no es Nayib Bukele o el Bukelismo o Nuevas Ideas. El Problema es que seguis teniendo en la derecha y en la izquierda a los mismos líderes representantes que fracasaron en 30 años y que es a ellos a quien el pueblo culpa de los males que tenemos ahorita.
Nayib Bukele is the artifact that the people built to retaliate, to punish the right and the left that ruled us for 30 years. The problem [for the opposition] is not Nayib Bukele, the Bukelism, or New Ideas [Nayib Bukele's political party]. The problem is that they continue to have, on the right and on the left, the same representative leaders who failed for 30 years. It is them that the Salvadoran people blame for the bad things we have right now.
According to a poll released by the University Institute of Public Opinion (IUDOP) of the Central American University Jose Simeon Cañas on February 12, Nuevas Ideas, the political party created by Bukele, will win over the Legislative Assembly in the next elections. This will give him better control over the parliament. This is good news for those who approve of Bukele and bad news for those who see him as authoritarian.

author: Eddie Galdamez


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Greece #metoo: Rape accusations against prominent actor and National Theater director finally lead to arrest · Global Voices
Veroniki Bacharidi-Krikoni

The building of the Greek National Theatre in central Athens. Image by George E. Koronaios via Wikimedia, CC0 1.0.
A prominent figure of the Greek cultural establishment, Dimitris Lignadis, was arrested on February 20 on charges of rape, as Greek society learns to challenge the traditional acceptance of impunity for perpetrators of sexual abuse of women and children.
The 56-year-old Greek actor and director, who also headed the country's prestigious National Theatre, was arrested in Athens on February 20, and on February 22 appeared in front of an investigator for a hearing on the details of the charge. Two lawsuits have been brought against Lignadis, with three individuals accusing him of rape. Two witnesses have already testified.
Lignadis resigned from his position on February 6, citing “a toxic climate of rumours,” and has since denied all accusations.
On February 21, Lignadis presented himself at police headquarters in Athens with his lawyer, inquired whether a warrant had been issued against him, then left. Later that day a warrant was issued and he was arrested. Some people have claimed his actions were based on inside knowledge about the arrest and a desire to order to avoid being labelled a fugitive suspect in the event of arrest and pre-trial detention. According to journalist Kostas Vaxevanis, for example:
Ο Λιγναδης πήγε αυτοβούλως στη ΓΑΔΑ γνωρίζοντας φυσικά πως δεν υπάρχει (ακόμη) ένταλμα σύλληψης. Διασκεδάζει τις εντυπώσεις και εμφανίζει ταυτοχρόνως καλή συμπεριφορά όταν στο μέλλον αντιμετωπίσει κατηγορία πως είναι ύποπτος φυγής. Νομικά κόλπα που προβλέπουν σε φτηνές εντυπώσεις pic.twitter.com/fDRir0kwqO
— Kostas.Vaxevanis (@KostasVaxevanis) February 20, 2021
Lignadis went to GADA [Police HQ] voluntarily, knowing of course that there is no warrant (yet). He both saves face and shows good behavior, when he is accused as a fugitive suspect in the future. Legal tricks that seek cheap impressions
One of the first accusations of sexual abuse leveled publicly against Lignadis was published in an interview on with a young man published on February 6, in which the man claimed to have been raped by Lignadis when he was a minor. The case is statute-barred, but the man said that his goal in speaking out now was to motivate other victims to come forward.
After Lignadis’ resignation on the same day, other, older accusations resurfaced.
On February 18, another man claimed he was raped by Lignadis at the age of 15, and said that he had filed a lawsuit against the actor on February 8. Reports also emerged that as early as May 2012, the authorities had investigated a case of alleged sexual abuse that had possible links to a pedophile ring.
Lignadis, who also taught acting, had been been expelled from another theater school in 2016, after a delegation of students asked the school's authorities to stop Lignadis from holding discussions about “sexual pursuits and experiences” in his classes.
These revelations prompted several members of the theatre community to publicly denounce the culture of silence around powerful figures on the cultural scene, and to reveal that they had known about Lignadis’ abusive behaviour, either as fact or rumor, for years.  Greek director Dimitris Karantzas observed that:
Μεγαλώσαμε στο χώρο που όταν αναφερόμασταν στον -γνωστό σε όλους – παιδεραστή,  μας κάναν σουτ με το δάχτυλο , να μην…
Posted by Dimitris Karantzas on Monday, February 1, 2021
We grew up in a field, where, when we were referring to the – known to everyone – pedophile, we were “shushed” […] and when we spontaneously asked “why?”, the answers were “yes but we do not say it”, “yes but not a nostril will bleed [Greek expression meaning nothing will happen] because he has an in with people”, “yes but he came through so many trials”, “yes but he will say you're crazy” etc. […]
Δεν είναι παιδεραστής,  είναι παιδοβιαστης, είναι κακοποιητής ανηλίκων.   Δεν υπάρχει 'έρωτας' στην σεξουαλική…
Posted by Esra Dogan on Sunday, February 21, 2021
He is not a pedophile, he is a pedo-raper, he is a juvenile molester.
There is no “love” in sexual abuse, there is no “philia” (friendship) in rape.
Let's not  legitimize sexual violence verbally.
On February 19, furious netizens also uncovered an old photo on Lignadis’ Instagram account,  showing him making inappropriate gestures and comments during a theatre rehearsal.
Όταν η διαστροφή προβάλλεται … όταν ο θύτης διαφημίζει τα κατορθώματα του …Όταν τα θύματα είναι ανήλικα …Τότε η σιωπή κ η ´ διακριτικότητα ´ είναι απλά συνενοχή .
Posted by Rena Kouvelioti on Friday, February 19, 2021
The case has ignited a firestorm of indignation and bitter recrimination both offline and online, with people accusing the Greek government of failing to follow up on complaints. Hashtags trending online include #λιγναδης (Lignadis), #μενδωνη_παραιτησου ([Culture Minister Mrs.] Mendoni, resign], and #μητσοτακη_παραιτησου ([PM] Mitsotaki, resign).
Since the initial, early-February lawsuit, the Prosecutor has failed to order any warrant or search the defendant's apartment, which netizens say could have given Lignadis to destroy incriminating evidence. As this netizen points out:
Πόσα format να έχει κάνει στους υπολογιστές του ο “γνωστός σκηνοθέτης” τις τελευταίες μέρες; Φυσικά η αστυνομία δεν έκρινε σκόπιμο να τους ερευνήσει αφού ο άνθρωπος απλά βίαζε παιδιά δεν έκανε ας πούμε κατάληψη να κατασχεθούν και τα πιρούνια του για DNA.
— adiasistos (@adiasistos) February 19, 2021
How many times has the “famous director” formatted his computers in the last few days? Of course, the police did not consider it appropriate to investigate them, since the man was just raping children, he wasn't managing a squat, let's say, so that even his forks would be confiscated for DNA evidence.
In a press conference on February 19, Minister of Culture Lina Mendoni called Lignadis a “dangerous man” who had “deceived the PM and her with his acting ability.” Mendoni also insisted that neither she nor the Greek prime minister, Kyriakos Mitsotakis, knew Lignadis personally.
A month after having won the 2019 general elections, however, the New Democracy government, through the Minister of Culture, annulled a public competition for the position of National Theatre director and Mendoni appointed Lignadis personally to the position and defended his ethos and character in parliament, causing a public stir.
And a video posted in May 2020 on the Greek PM's Facebook and YouTube accounts shows Mitsotakis (at 01:09) talking with considerable familiarity to Lignadis, using the latter's first name.
The Culture Minister's statement further infuriated the theatre community. The Panhellenic Spectacle Federation declared that:
Η σύνδεση της Υποκριτικής Τέχνης με την υποκρισία και την εξαπάτηση και η στοχοποίηση του σπουδαίου επαγγέλματος του Ηθοποιού είναι αδιανόητη για οποιονδήποτε πολιτισμένο άνθρωπο, αλλά όταν προέρχεται από την ίδια την Υπουργό Πολιτισμού, τότε μετατρέπεται σε μείζον πολιτικό θέμα.
The connection of the Art of Acting with hypocrisy and deception and the targeting of the great profession of the Actor is inconceivable for any civilized person, but when it comes from the Minister of Culture herself, then it becomes a major political issue.
Others pointed out while that the names of other distinguished cultural figures accused in recent times of sexual misconduct were eventually revealed in the press, major Greek media outlets appeared hesitant to name Lignadis, and only began reporting on the matter following the outrage expressed on social media.
More and more rumours appear to be true as the people involved speak publicly. The Greek government along with the corrupted media are trying to cover it up. In any other country governments resign for a lot less. @nytimes @Reuters #μητσοτακη_παραιτησου #ΝΔ_παιδεραστες #νδ_μαφια https://t.co/ZzToC9A3R8
— dikaios_kritis (@DikaiosK) February 20, 2021
As prominent journalist Elena Akrita observed:
Για να καλύπτει η κυβερνηση με τόσο ζήλο μια υπόθεση παιδεραστίας, αναρωτιέται κανείς αν το ψαρι βρωμάει από το κεφάλι. Μήπως το σκάνδαλο με τα κυκλώματα φτάνει στα υψηλά κλιμάκια;
Posted by Elena Akrita on Thursday, February 18, 2021
If the government so ardently covers up a pedophilia case, one wonders if the fish stinks from the head.
Does the scandal with the rings reach the high levels?
Mini-event outside the Ministry of Culture. Protesters put a fishhead in the entrance. Photo from a tweet of @ThePressProject.
Credit for these events, and for the rise of the #metoo movement in Greece, largely belongs to the Olympic gold medalist Sofia Bekatorou, who earlier this year revealed that she was raped by a Greek Sailing Federation official—who since resigned—in 1998. Although the offense was statute-barred, Bekatorou said she spoke out to encourage other women and victims to raise their voices.
Since then, a landslide of revelations has shaken the conservative Greek society, as many women and men from the fields of sports, education and the artists field have come forward to accuse well-known figures of sexual misconduct, and become the targets of both public sympathy and victim-blaming.
Lignadis is the first of these to be arrested, and surely, as one satirical “God” reminds us, in such situations there is always more than one person involved:
Συγκρατήστε τους χορούς και τα χαρμόσυνα ποστ για τη σύλληψη Λιγνάδη. Ένα κύκλωμα trafficking δεν αποτελείται ποτέ από έναν μόνο άνθρωπο. Ο Λιγνάδης ήταν πελάτης, να χαρούμε όταν βρεθεί κι ο μαγαζάτορας.
Posted by Ο Θεός. on Saturday, February 20, 2021
Save the dances and the joyful posts for Lignadis’ arrest. A trafficking ring never consists of a single person. Lignadis was a customer, let's get happy when the shopkeeper is found.

author: Veroniki Bacharidi-Krikoni


text:
Mozambique’s President pardons young men who insulted him in viral video · Global Voices
Dércio Tsandzana

Meeting between the president and the pardoned young men – screenshot TVM – 16 February  2021, by the author.
Mozambique's President Filipe Nyusi pardoned on February 16 two individuals who had appeared in a video insulting him after the case became widely discussed in the country.
In the video, two men who were stuck in a traffic jam in Maputo minutes before the start of the curfew — which was put in place in the Mozambican capital on February 4 — complain about the restrictive measures linked to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Using insults, the two criticize the curfew given the chaotic traffic situation and place the blame on the president.
STV screenshot –  police arrest citizen accused of defaming the Mozambican president – 12 February 2020, by the author.
The video went viral on social media and was even broadcast by the STV television channel. Subsequently, the National Criminal Investigation Service (SERNIC) opened an investigation against the two men for the crime of slander, leading to the arrest of one of them, Betelson J., on February 12.
Three days later, according to the outlet Notícias, Betelson was released after a judge accepted a request from the Mozambican Bar Association (OAM) arguing that the crime of slander requires a complaint filed by the offended party, which in this case would be the Mozambican president. OAM also pointed out that the preventive detention should have been made in flagrante delicto.
The next day, and to everybody's great surprise, the president invited the two men to his office for a private audience. Journalist Omardine Omar reported:
O Presidente da República, Filipe Nyusi, recebeu hoje os dois jovens que há dias proferiram palavras ofensivas contra o Chefe do Estado, através de um vídeo posto a circular nas redes sociais. Refira-se que o Presidente Nyusi decidiu convidar os dois jovens para um diálogo, onde na ocasião manifestou o seu perdão perante a atitude pública dos referidos jovens.
Após serem recebidos pelo estadista, estes afirmaram-se arrependidos e que agradecem o gesto do Chefe do Estado, explicando que a medida emanada no Decreto do Conselho de Ministros visa proteger a população das áreas abrangidas pelo recolher obrigatório, visto que a Região do Grande Maputo apresenta um quadro preocupante de contaminações por COVID-19.
Today, the President of the Republic, Filipe Nyusi, received the two young men who a few days ago made offensive remarks about the head of state in a video that was shared on social media. President Nyusi decided to invite the two young men for a discussion, where he expressed his forgiveness for their public behaviour.
After being received by the president, they said they were sorry and that they were grateful for the head of state's gesture, explaining that the measure taken in the Council of Ministers’ Decree aims to protect the population of the areas covered by the curfew, given that the Greater Maputo Region is presenting a worrying situation regarding contamination by COVID-19.
É ofensa ou crime contra a segurança do Estado chamar um presidente corrupto de ladrão?
Só num regime dictatorial.
Is it an offence or crime against state security to call a corrupt president a thief?
Only in a dictatorial regime.
The economist Roberto Tibana, on the other hand, said that the two men's behaviour should have been subject to criminal conviction:
As pessoas que se indignam com a detenção do jovem que insultou o Chefe de Estado, ou não viram o vídeo todo (a Stv sanitizou-o demais!), ou são hipócritas, ou são populistas demains para a saúde da sociedade!
É totalmente inadmissível o que foi dito e postado por aqueles jovens, seja em termos de princípios morais, seja por lei. O Chefe de Estado, o Presidente Nyusi, merece o nosso respeito como pessoa e como personificação da soberania do Estado Moçambicano.
Uma coisa é criticar, outra coisa é insultar. Não pode haver desculpas para obscenidades atiradas daquela maneira contra o Chefe de Estado. Que a moral e a lei prevaleçam. Que haja pudor!
People who are indignant about the arrest of the young man who insulted the head of state have either not seen the whole video (STV sanitized it too much!), or are hypocrites, or are too populist for a healthy society!
What was said and posted by those young men is totally unacceptable, either in terms of moral principles or the law. The head of state, President Nyusi, deserves our respect as a person and as an embodiment of the Mozambican state's sovereignty.
It is one thing to criticize, but another to insult. There can be no excuse for obscenities directed in that way at the head of state. May morality and the law prevail. May there be modesty!
The decision to release Betelson was praised by Bitone Viage, who at the same time called for the justice system to take action in other more pressing cases:
Parabéns aos advogados da Causa, Dr Ericino de Salema e Dr Benny Matchole Khossa, excelente e oportuna intervenção.
O país precisa tanto de figuras dessa natureza, sobretudo num contexto em que assistimos diariamente violações dos nossos direitos, e a justiça tem se comportado como uma serpente que simplesmente pica aos pés descalços.
Não consigo entender com tantos casos que mexem diretamente com a vida econômica do país, as nossas instituições de justiça não conseguem resolver os mesmo, contudo quando se trata de um inocente esfarrapado, um indivíduo não ofensivo ao Estado, as nossas instituições são funcionais e com uma celeridade de abrandar os céus.
Que tal termos o mesmo nível de celeridade com o processo das dívidas ocultas, um processo que até hoje os seus impactos são notáveis?
Congratulations to the plaintiffs’ lawyers, Dr Ericino de Salema and Dr Benny Matchole Khossa, excellent and timely contribution.
The country really needs figures like this, especially in a context where we are witnessing violations of our rights on a daily basis, and the justice system has behaved like a snake that simply snaps at people's bare feet.
I cannot understand how, with so many cases that directly affect the country's economic life, our institutions of justice cannot resolve them, but when it’s a case of a ragged-clothed innocent, an individual who is not offensive to the state, our institutions are functional and [act] with a swiftness that would calm the heavens.
How about having the same level of swiftness for the trial of the hidden debts, a trial that to this day still has a significant impact?
Oficialmente perdoados pelo Presidente da República.
Bem- haja o gesto, o SERNIC deveria emitir um comunicado a fazer o mesmo, se querem mostrar trabalho existe muitos casos por aí que carecem de investigação. Que os meios do Estado sejam usados para coisas sérias.
Officially pardoned by the president of the republic.
Thanks for the gesture, SERNIC [National Criminal Investigation Service] should issue a statement doing the same, if they want to show that they are working, there are many cases out there that are lacking investigation. May state resources be used for serious matters.

author: Dércio Tsandzana


text:
Myanmar citizens continue strong opposition to military junta with ‘22222’ general strike · Global Voices
Mong Palatino

A community protest during the “22222” general strike in Myanmar. Photo by a citizen journalist shared with Global Voices, used with permission
On Monday February 22, thousands joined a general strike across Myanmar organized to express opposition to the military government.
Dubbed “22222” or “Five Twos” in reference to the date (22/2/21), the strike mobilized the biggest protests since the military grabbed power on February 1.
Reports compared the strike action to the nationwide uprising held in defiance of the junta on August 8, 1988 (Four Eights) .
The military staged the coup on February 1 following claims of massive fraud in the 2020 election, a charge disputed both by the ruling National League for Democracy (NLD) and the electoral commission. Parliament members and top NLD officials, including State Counselor Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, were arrested during the first day of the coup.
Citizens launched a civil disobedience movement in response to the coup. The campaign has gathered support and gained in momentum despite a ban on protests, the intermittent disruption of the internet, and the use of violence by security forces to suppress anti-coup activities.
Monday's strike reflected the scale of public indignation over the coup, the continuing detention of elected leaders, and the recent shooting of protesters by the police.
Journalist Wa Lone posted an overview of Monday's events:
Businesses shut in Myanmar on Monday in a general strike called to oppose the military coup and thousands of protesters gathered in towns and cities despite a chilling message from the junta that confrontation would cost more lives.
The “chilling message” pertains to a statement by the authorities demonizing the strike and threatening those who participated, a move that was quickly condemned by a United Nations human rights expert.
A strike participant spoke to Frontier magazine about the workers’ commitment to fighting the military dictatorship:
If we oppose the dictatorship, they might shoot us. Everyone knows it. But we have to oppose dictatorship. It’s our duty. That’s why so many people are coming out today against them.
Many businesses closed operations in anticipation of the strike.
Photos of massive protests in different cities were shared on social media:
The “Two Five” general strike against the military rule on 22.2.2021 are growing hour by hour in the downtown Yangon marked by ancient Sule Pagoda. #2Fivegeneralstrike #WhatIsHappeningInMyanmar pic.twitter.com/ClwDvxk36q
— Myanmar Now (@Myanmar_Now_Eng) February 22, 2021
Taunggyi – 19th day of protests on February 22
Taunggyi protestors comes out in force for the ‘22222’ day.#WhatsHappeningInMyanmar https://t.co/cmHhzSGT87 pic.twitter.com/hONG5sMTEv
— ElevenMyanmar (@ElevenMyanmar) February 22, 2021
Nationwide ‘22222’ General Strike: Mandalay residents take part in a huge sit-in protest against the military regime on Monday morning, marking Myanmar’s “22222” general strike. (Photo: The Irrawaddy) pic.twitter.com/1qwpEJq07f
— The Irrawaddy (Eng) (@IrrawaddyNews) February 22, 2021
Today Myanmar (Mandalay)#WhatsHapppeningInMyanmar #Feb22Coup pic.twitter.com/JdSvZftMLf
— paing_takhon_Intel_fanpage❤ (@takhon_intel) February 22, 2021
Among those consistently providing support to the civil disobedience movement are many Buddhist monks.
Monks were among those who joined the “22222” general strike in Myanmar. Photo by a citizen journalist shared with Global Voices, used with permission

author: Mong Palatino


text:
Rising Voices’ Activismo Lenguas initiative receives International Mother Language Award · Global Voices
Global Voices

Screenshot from the public video by Shahedul Khabir Chowdhury of the International Mother Language Award ceremony held in Dhaka, Bangladesh on February 21, 2021.
The International Mother Language Institute (IMLI) of Bangladesh has awarded Rising Voices’ Activismo Lenguas (Language Digital Activism) initiative the prestigious International Mother Language Award 2021, in recognition of the project's “outstanding contribution towards the protection, promotion and revitalization of indigenous language(s).”
Sheikh Hasina, Prime Minister of the People's Republic of Bangladesh and the Chief Patron of IMLI, presented the awards at a small ceremony held in Dhaka, Bangladesh on February 21, 2021.
This is the first year the IMLI has recognized four individuals and organizations, both national and international, for their language-related work. The awards are given in commemoration of International Mother Language Day, which has been observed worldwide on February 21 since its proclamation in 1999. Criteria for the biennial award include “special contributions towards the innovation of digital technology with regard to the preservation, protection and revitalization of mother language.”
Rising Voices, Global Voices’ outreach and digital inclusion section, launched the Latin America-focused Activismo Lenguas initiative in 2014, following the First Gathering of Indigenous Language Digital Activism held in Oaxaca, Mexico, of which Rising Voices was a co-organizer. Since that initial meeting, similar gatherings have been held in Colombia, Peru, Bolivia, Ecuador, Guatemala and Chile, with the aim of creating spaces and networks for peer learning and exchange.
In addition to these events, Rising Voices has supported small-scale digital activism projects in four countries, conducted two participatory research projects, created an online directory of digital projects, convened a Network of Indigenous Language Digital Activists, and created the ongoing @ActLenguas social media campaign, where indigenous language activists take turns recounting their experiences with the use of technology for language preservation.
“This award is a testament to the impact that language digital activists are having across Latin America and the great potential of their work,” said Rising Voices’ Director Eddie Avila.
“By leveraging the power of the internet and digital technology, these activists are demonstrating the power of these tools to attract new generations of speakers and for their languages to have a greater presence online. We accept this award on behalf of the hundreds of indigenous language activists and their communities, who have shared their vast knowledge and experience with others and made this movement possible. We look forward to continuing to support them as we head into the International Decade of Indigenous Languages in 2022.”
Other 2021 winners include Professor Mohammad Rafiqul Islam and Mathura Bikash Tripura of the Jabrang Welfare Association of Bangladesh. The other international awardee was Islaimov Gulom Mirzaevich, recognized for his work on the Uzbek language.

author: Global Voices


text:
Are Istanbul’s Boğaziçi University protests an expression of exceptionalism?  · Global Voices
Sinan Ciddi

“Election Campaign” by Travel Aficionado licensed under CC BY-NC 2.0
Turkey has been rocked by renewed protests since January when President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan appointed a less than qualified individual as the rector of Istanbul's Boğaziçi University.
Considered to be the “Harvard of Turkey,” Boğaziçi University has long-standing traditions of academic excellence and world-class research, and the “political” appointment of Melih Bulu, an alleged plagiarist, was ill-received. The administration, faculty and student body of the university were not consulted in the appointment decision, and they opposed the imposition of what they considered to be an illegitimate and unacceptable appointment, and this lead to the protests.
From the protesters’ perspective, the appointment of Bulu represents the denigration of academic standards, liberal thought, and a long tradition of the university coming to a consensus of who the rector should be. Many members of the university believe that this is precisely what President Erdoğan was aiming to accomplish: supplanting the leadership of one of the few remaining bastions of critical thinking, an institution that takes pride in developing Turkey’s liberal and globally aware intelligentsia—two traits that Erdogan has been wrestling to quash since the onset of the Gezi Park protests of 2013.
In December 2015, Erdoğan stated that despite his government’s numerous achievements in the economic and political realms, it had failed to replicate these achievements in the cultural and educational arenas. The move to appoint a blatantly unsuitable person to lead Boğaziçi University is a clear signal that he is ready to browbeat the remnants of Turkey’s remaining pluralist and liberal minds. What does this say about where Erdoğan is taking his home-grown brand of authoritarianism?
The short answer is, nowhere good. President Erdoğan has largely achieved his conquest of the educational and cultural realms he so desired. Boğaziçi University was an outlier where Erdoğan’s prerogative to determine whom he wants to lead which state organization was largely left untouched, until now.
Throughout the 2010s, under Erdoğan’s leadership as Prime Minister, the Justice and Development Party (AKP) governments assaulted the cause of education in Turkey, altering fundamental aspects of the primary education system, including removing the teaching of and references to evolution theory. This has been compounded by interfering in the appointment of university administrators across public universities. From faculty members, deans, vice-rectors, all the way to rectors, Erdoğan has made a point of personally appointing those he deems fit to lead close to 200 public institutions throughout the country. Even the conditions under which a scholar is granted tenure and promotion have been tampered with, so as to facilitate the academic appointment of individuals sympathetic to Erdoğan, who under normal circumstances would not be appointed.
One is left wondering, why, when these assaults on the educational system have been taking place, stronger voices have not been raised? Another way to put this: is it the case that what is happening to Boğaziçi University now is more protest-worthy? Is Boğaziçi University more special than the remainder of Turkey’s public educational establishments which have been brutalized by the AKP?
On February 15, a panel of former and current Boğaziçi University faculty members was convened to inform wider domestic and international audiences about what is happening on the university's grounds. Listening to the panelists reflect on the turmoil befalling their university, one could be forgiven for leveling the charge of exceptionalism. The online discussion, three and a half hours long, overwhelmingly focused on what the implications of Bulu were for Boğaziçi and what could and should be done by those inside and outside of Turkey to help the institution overcome this tragedy.
As the discussion wore on, one could not help but think this is exactly where Erdoğan wants Boğaziçi and its supporters: focused on the institution and fighting to overcome an illiberal and draconian imposition. He is a mastermind of manipulating dissident groups such as academics and journalists to dwell upon individual and case-specific grievances that befall them in the immediate moment. This narrows the scope of opponents that Erdoğan and the AKP have to delegitimize and swiftly eliminate. In the case of the Boğaziçi protestors, he has already achieved this by referring to the student and faculty protestors as “terrorists” and filling the campus with an overwhelming police presence. In days and months to come, many of these protesting individuals will likely be prosecuted, lose their jobs, livelihoods and dismissed as students from the university. Is their cause just and the right path to pursue?
After nearly 20 years of AKP rule, having the right answers is hard to claim. Their cause is just but possibly mistakenly channeled. Perhaps, when confronting the curtailment of academic freedoms, a concerted effort would make more of an impact. What would make Erdoğan's life increasingly difficult would be for academia as a whole in Turkey to unify around a single platform and pursue vociferously a rigorous set of demands focused on academic freedoms.
This should not be a pursuit of one institution’s rights and privileges, and a means to rectify the ways in which Boğaziçi University has been wronged. As in many forms of popular uprising, focusing on boutique causes siphons strength and momentum from the larger goal. It may, however, be too late. Erdoğan's mission to re-structure primary and secondary education is largely complete, having co-opted the lion’s share of public university administrations to implement his vision. Boğaziçi University was simply a castle waiting to be toppled.
In approaching the Boğaziçi University affair as a singular problem to overcome, the future may be bleak for Turkey’s democratic and pluralist movements. Erdoğan may have come to the realization that the current protests, unlike those for Gezi Park, are too singular and narrow, likely allowing him to neutralize them.
For academic freedoms to survive in Turkey, it will take more voices to deter Erdoğan than those bent on saving their one, beloved institution. It has to be bigger than one university and be embraced by academia nationwide. This is made all the more difficult by the fact that events such as the Boğaziçi University protests quickly spiral out of the original issue and immediately become “X aggrieved group” vs. Erdoğan. In such a case, and once the protest begins to focus on Erdoğan, this is when all resources of the state are mobilized to disproportionately eliminate the threat posed. Erdoğan cannot and will not countenance another countrywide protest movement such as Gezi Park. That presents an existential threat to his incumbency, which he has learned to thwart.
Erdoğan's regime has morphed into a cancer for the country, the region and the cause of democracy around the world. For it to be challenged and ultimately defeated, the need for concerted action is more important now than at any point in Turkey’s history as a republic.

author: Sinan Ciddi


text:
Beijing official signals changes to Hong Kong’s electoral system · Global Voices
Hong Kong Free Press

Xia Baolong. Image from Chinese government's official site.
This story was written by Kelly Ho and was originally published by Hong Kong Free Press. An edited version is republished here under a content partnership agreement.
A Beijing official in charge of Hong Kong affairs has signaled that Hong Kong will undergo a set of electoral reforms under the leadership of the Chinese authorities, with an aim to block “anti-China” opposition forces from the city’s governing bodies.
The Director of the Hong Kong and Macao Affairs Office (HKMAO) Xia Baolong outlined a sort of code of conduct for Hong Kong “patriots” a conference held by the Chinese Association of Hong Kong and Macao Studies in Beijing on February 22.
Xia said the power to govern the semi-autonomous region must “lie in the hands of patriots,” as it was the “fundamental principle” of fulfilling the One Country, Two Systems. He said people in almost all countries and regions will demonstrate patriotism when running for public office, except from Hong Kong:
Only in Hong Kong would some people show off their rebellion against their motherland… or even use their opposition to the country, the rejection of the [Central Government] and the demonization of their own ethnic group as election slogans, and make an extremely ugly political performance when they swear into office.
The HKMAO head described patriots as individuals who genuinely uphold Chinese sovereignty and respect the constitutional order of the HKSAR. He said people who “smear” the country and city and those “begging” for foreign sanctions would not be seen as patriots.
Violators of the national security law would also be against the expected conduct of a patriot, said the senior Chinese official in Hong Kong. The sweeping legislation promulgated on June 30 last year criminalizes secession, subversion, collusion with foreign forces, and terrorist acts.
Xia labelled the opposition camp in Hong Kong as “anti-China” and pro-independence. He said “radical separatist forces” had entered the HKSAR’s governance framework via different elections, holding positions in the Legislative Council, the Election Committee of the chief executive, and the District Council, and thus harmed the country:
In our country that adopts socialist democracy, different political opinions are allowed. But there is a red line, that is [people] are definitely not allowed to harm the country’s fundamental system.
In November, Beijing’s top legislative body passed a resolution that enabled the Hong Kong government to oust four “unpatriotic” lawmakers from the pro-democracy camp. It prompted a mass resignation of democrats, leaving the LegCo with mostly pro-establishment legislators and no effective opposition.
Xia said the most important and urgent move for Hong Kong was to “perfect” the city’s electoral system, to ensure the loyalists of China could “firmly hold” the its governing power.
The HKMAO director warned that the local authorities must not allow individuals who are pro-independence, or supporters of “mutual destruction” and “black violence” – referencing the black-clad protesters in the 2019 anti-extradition bill movement – to become part of the SAR regime. He said:
The electoral system in Hong Kong should achieve these effects: fully respect the democratic rights of the public, practically safeguard national sovereignty and security… guarantee all kinds of elections are just, fair and open and effectively prevent the proxies of anti-China members who disrupt Hong Kong and international anti-China forces to enter SAR’s organs of power.
“The reforms must be executed under the leadership of Beijing”, Xia said, adding the authorities must devise policies to ensure the people who make up the city’s executive, legislative and judicial branches, as well as the person-in-charge of important statutory organisations, are patriots. And warned:
Important positions, under any circumstances, cannot be taken up by anti-China forces that disrupt Hong Kong.
The Hong Kong government has indicated plans to amend the existing legislation on oath-taking for people in public office to cover district councilors. Critics slammed the move as an attempt to further eliminate opposition in the city, after the pro-democracy camp won a historic landslide victory against pro-establishment candidates in the 2019 District Council election.
Last December, local media reported that Beijing has plans to crack down on the district councils and reform the chief executive’s election committee. Currently, district councilors vote among themselves to fill 117 seats out of the total 1,200 seats in the election committee and the next chief executive election would be hold in 2022.

author: Hong Kong Free Press


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Guatemala’s ‘La Llorona’ fuses horror and politics to tell a haunting tale of the civil war · Global Voices
Melissa Vida

Screen capture from scenes of the film “La Llorona” on YouTube.
In Latin America, la llorona (the “weeping woman”) is a popular oral legend about a woman who drowned her children and then, repentant and cursed, searches for them at night through rivers, frightening those who see or hear her cries.
La llorona has been represented in different cultural works, such as in Disney's “Coco” (2017), but also in Hollywood horror movies such as “The Curse of La Llorona” (2019) and the many different interpretations of the Mexican song “Llorona“. According to Foreign Policy, 10 films have alluded to the legend.
In 2019, Guatemalan director Jayro Bustamante reimagined his country's recent history through the tale to produce the highly political horror film “La Llorona.” In this story, the ghosts of the thousands murdered during Guatemala's civil war come back to haunt an aging dictator and his family in their aristocratic home.
“La Llorona” is the first Central American film to ever be shortlisted as Best International Feature Film at the Golden Globes, which will be held on February 28.
Here is the trailer of the film:
Against the backdrop of the Cold War, Guatemala's civil war lasted from the 1960s to the 1990s, with different United States-backed governments intended to quash any form of critical opposition and leftist guerrillas. Indigenous peoples have endured genocide at the hands of the Guatemalan state, which was responsible for more than 90 percent of deaths, disappearances, and other human rights violations during this time.
“[The] raging civil war claimed the lives of some 200,000 people, most of whom were indigenous. Across the country, 626 massacre sites have been identified,” reported The Conversation in 2018. Villages were bombed, victims impaled or burnt alive, pregnant women and children savagely killed. The late dictator Efraín Ríos Montt was sentenced to 80 years in 2013 for the genocide and crimes against humanity for the killing of at least 1,771 Ixil people during his rule in 1982-83. Yet, less than two weeks later, Guatemala's courts canceled the conviction on technical grounds.
Bustamante brought the popular legend to life to link Guatemala's bloody past and the current fight for justice. Foreign Policy writes:
The antagonist is not the woman who has lost everything, as we have come to expect. The antagonist is instead the broken human personification of the force of genocidal actions that took everything from her.
The film received a 97 percent rating on Rotten Tomatoes, and reactions to the film's nomination have been overwhelmingly positive.
Just watched #LaLlorona on Amazon Prime produced by Jayro Bustamante and it is a must watch for all Central Americans, especially those from Guatemala. We need more stories that shed light on Indigenous genocide in Latin America.
— Aracely (@SalviNicoyaaa) February 9, 2021
Guatemalan Maya singer Sara Curruchich interviewed lead actress María Mercedes Coroy, who is Kaqchikel Mayan, on Zoom. Coroy encourages women and girls to follow their dreams.
This is the message from @MaMercedesCoroy, actress of Ixcanul and La Llorona, for the girls, adolescents and women of Guatemala. Este es el mensaje de @MaMercedesCoroy, actriz de Ixcanul y La Llorona, para las niñas, adolescente y mujeres de Guatemala. #Tzijonik #TejiendoPalabras
Pueden ver la entrevista completa en ?? https://t.co/jiRc5373Mg pic.twitter.com/KE62NUHU4h
— Sara (@SaraCurruchich) February 8, 2021
This is the message from @MaMercedesCoroy, actress of Ixcanul and La Llorona, for the girls, adolescents and women of Guatemala. #Tzijonik #WeavingWords
You can watch the full interview at ?? https://t.co/jiRc5373Mg pic.twitter.com/KE62NUHU4h
Although criticism is hard to find online, there have been voices that point out how the film has been filmed with white and ladino (person of mixed ancestry in Central America) perspectives. Dichos de un Bicho, a Salvadoran illustrator living in the United States, writes that:
The narrative is constructed from the white/ladino point of view, and ultimately places the white/ladino Guatemalan characters at the center, leaving the indigenous characters on the periphery.
A similar critique has been made for Bustamante's former film, Ixcanul (2015), by Maya Kaqchikel commentator Sandra Xinico Batz:
En un país como Guatemala, hablar, escribir, proyectar, escenificar, (etc.) la vida indígena (ahora) dota de beneficios, claro, cuando no son los indígenas (mismos) quienes con sus demandas estructurales (…). Cuando los pueblos indígenas con su propia voz y a su forma se pronuncian sobre su situación son severamente juzgados, pero cuando se habla sobre ellos con la voz de un no indígena la cosa se transforma, ya no es igual (entonces sí escuchamos).
In a country like Guatemala, to speak, to write, to project, to dramatize, etc., indigenous life (today) has some clear benefits, as long as it is not indigenous peoples themselves with their structural demands (…) When indigenous peoples speak with their own voices and in their own manner about their own situation, they are severely judged, but when they are spoken of by a non-indigenous voice, the issue is transformed, it is no longer the same (and then we do listen).
For now, Guatemalan indigenous peoples have not yet commented much on Bustamante's La Llorona, nor on its international recognition. Online, many Central Americans are hoping to see their talent shine on the big screen.

author: Melissa Vida


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Trinidad & Tobago’s problem with gender-based violence · Global Voices
Jada Steuart

Photo by Mika Baumeister on Unsplash
Twenty-three-year-old Andrea Bharatt went missing on January 29, last seen alive as she and a friend got into a taxi after work. The friend made it home; when Bharatt didn't, her father called her mobile. Eventually, a man answered and demanded money, though a ransom amount was never specified. On February 4, despite the efforts of law enforcement and civilians alike, Bharatt's body was found at the base of a precipice in northeast Trinidad.
Her murder prompted a national outcry, especially as it came just two months after the abduction of teenager Ashanti Riley, who herself took “public” transportation and ended up dead. (The car in which Bharatt was abducted bore a false hired car license plate.)
The Bharatt case, however, has been plagued by controversy. Two of the suspects have died since being detained by police. The first, Andrew Morris—according to a media release from the Commissioner of Police—died because of co-morbidities after having fallen off a chair. A private autopsy subsequently revealed he was beaten to death. Furthermore, doubt has been cast as to his involvement in the crime, as he told police he was only in the business of renting cars.
The second, Joel Balcon (aka Devon Charles), who had 70 charges against him including rape and “grievous” sexual assault, died in the intensive care unit of a public hospital. As many as 45 of the cases against him were pending at the time of his detention by police.
Such glaring missteps have focused the spotlight on the country's inept criminal justice system as well as its culture of misogyny and gender-based violence. For some, it has also revealed how citizens struggle to effect real change and the ways in which government processes often lag behind, despite protests and petitions:
National protest in #TrinidadandTobago to end violence against women was ignited following the death of #JusticeforAndreaBharatt and #justiceforashantiriley. There is power in numbers. pic.twitter.com/9Nfkhtmm6X
— ttwomenmovement (@ttwomenmovement) February 9, 2021
A 2002 United Nations (UN) report by the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women found that as far back as the 1990s, gender-based violence, including sexual attacks on women and young girls, was “pervasive” and had “long been a matter of grave concern for the Government.”
At the time, the government implemented a robust and comprehensive programme to specifically tackle domestic violence, but decades later, rates of gender-based violence are still predominant in the country.
In 2020 alone, 45 women and two girls were murdered.
Day by day, year after year, women are under attack. In 2014, senior counsel Dana Seetahal was gunned down in her car, the victim of an execution-style killing. In 2015, television presenter Marcia Henville was murdered in her home, reportedly the victim of domestic violence.
In 2016, after the body of Asami Nagakiya, a steelpan player from Japan who was visiting Trinidad and Tobago for Carnival, was found under a tree in the Queen’s Park Savannah on Ash Wednesday morning, then mayor of Port of Spain, Raymond Tim Kee, added insult to injury by saying “women have a responsibility to ensure they are not abused during the Carnival season.” Protests over victim-blaming ensued and the mayor eventually resigned.
Women are harassed on the street and in their places of work. By the close of 2016, when 20-year-old bank employee Shannon Banfield went missing and was later found in the storeroom of a variety store in Port of Spain, people said, “Enough is enough.”
Yet, 2017 had barely begun when the first female murder of that year occurred, that of a schoolgirl. Then, after the murder of Jamilia Derevenax, whose throat was slit by an assailant she knew, in the parking garage of a popular cineplex, Prime Minister Keith Rowley suggested that women should choose their partners wisely to avoid violence, demonstrating how well entrenched the victim-blaming response is, even as women continued to be killed.
A 2017 Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) National Women's Health Survey for Trinidad and Tobago showed relatively high statistics for emotional, physical and sexual abuse against women, both in relationships and with “non-partners,” from a survey field of 1,079 interviewees.
More than 30 per cent of women, for instance, reported having experienced either physical or sexual partner violence or both, at least once. Close to one in three women experienced sexual violence, including rape, attempted rape, unwanted touching, and reported sexual violence. For many, this happened before the age of 18. The report also found that at 21.3 per cent, cases of non-partner sexual violence were almost four times higher than acts of sexual violence perpetrated by a partner (5 per cent).
A post shared by ????? ???????????? ?????????? (@yhfoundation.tt)
The National Women's Health Survey laid out several recommendations for ways in which gender-based violence could be combated in Trinidad and Tobago—suggestions which echo those of many social media users—including more adequate spaces and services for women leaving violent domestic situations, procedural review, mandatory human rights, gender sensitivity, and on-the-job training for police officers (though there is a Gender-Based Violence Unit in the Trinidad and Tobago Police Service), educational campaigns that “deconstruct some of the gendered perceptions that fuel male violence,” and trustworthy health services.
Some, however, realised that the root of the problem goes much deeper. After Bharatt’s abduction, activist “Tillah Willah” shared a video of the calypsonian Scrunter's 1979 song “Take The Number,” which advised women to make a note of the license plate of any car they get into, commenting:
Scrunter sing this in 1979. 2021 come and allyuh still blaming women if they can't figure out what a predator looks like instead of changing the way we raise boys to think women's bodies are property.
Writer Debbie Jacob, who runs an educational programme for prisoners, feels change needs to start at the top:
Police and prisons are not functioning anywhere near the level they should be functioning. We choose to perpetuate irrelevant education and throw people — innocent and guilty — into prison, which is basically a school for crime. We don't have enough educational programmes, skill-based programmes and rehabilitation programmes are virutally nonexististent in prisons. We don't have any rehabilitation programmes for sexual offenders in our prisons. We are not holding anyone accountable in this country. We don't care about people being in prison to study the craft of crime for over a decade before the courts that can't hear cases fast enough throw the case out. And those of us who are trying to address the crime problem and offer solutions can't get traction or consistency to function. Dysfunction and apathy prevail in this country with periodic outbursts of anger and disgust when a crime occurs. Victims deserve better than this. Start asking questions at the top. What is being done?
Since Bharatt's murder, parliament has passed the Evidence Bill, which will introduce more modern mechanisms for evidence gathering in criminal trials. More controversially, pepper spray has been approved as a self-defense tool, though anyone who wants to purchase the product will require a permit to do so.
Citizens understand that it is time for immense change, but with the above measures not really addressing the causes of the problem, the question remains: will those with the power to effect change make the necessary moves to protect women?

author: Jada Steuart


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Bloggers, journalists and creatives in the crosshairs of the Belarusian state · Global Voices
Tanya Lokot

Belarusian journalists under pressure (left to right): Katsiaryna Andreyeva, Darya Chultsova and Katsiaryna Barysevich. Image courtesy of Human Rights Center “Viasna”.
Belarusian authorities have now fixed their sights on bloggers, journalists, and the creative class amid the ongoing repression of the 2020 protests against long-time President Alyaksandr Lukashenka.
Since last August, thousands of protesters have been detained, many of whom have received fines and even criminal sentences for “breaching public order,” and among them are those who have received harsh punishment for online posts and media coverage of the rallies.
The wave of public discontent against Lukashenka erupted in August after the president attempted to secure his sixth consecutive term in office, and has since continued with varying intensity. Exiled opposition candidate Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya continues to demand Lukashenka's resignation and a re-run of the election which she is widely believed to have won, but Lukashenka himself hasn't budged, instead offering constitutional reforms and other half-measures.
Meanwhile, the state has continued its crackdown on street rallies and criminalization of expressions of public outrage. On February 18, multiple Telegram channels leaked what is allegedly a draft bill proposing an expansion of the legal definition of “extremism,” Radio Free Europe reported.
Under the proposed changes, Belarusian state security services would maintain a roster of individuals and organizations deemed “extremist.” Those blacklisted could be prevented from holding their job, performing large financial transactions without government approval, or engaging in medical, educational, or publishing activities.
On February 5, a Minsk court sentenced local blogger Pavel Spirin to 4.5 years in prison for two vlogs critical of Lukashenka's regime. One of the videos reported on drug trafficking in Belarus, while the other one commented on the August 2020 protests and police brutality against participants.
The prosecutor charged the 36-year-old blogger with “intentional actions aimed at inciting racial, national or other social hatred” (per part 1, Article 130 of the Criminal Code of the Republic of Belarus).
The blogger, who has spent more than five months in pre-trial detention since September 2020 and hasn't been allowed family visits, says he has been subjected to “maximum humiliation.” Speaking in court on February 5, Spirin said that his vlogs were “mere criticism, however harsh:”
Например, газета администрации Александра Лукашенко тиражом 300 тысяч экземпляров критикует гораздо более жестко, чем я, призывая отбирать детей у протестующих, сравнивая их с фашистами. И никто не обвиняет этих журналистов и редакторов в разжигании ненависти, это просто резкая критика.
For instance, the [state-owned–ed.] newspaper of Alyaksandr Lukashenka's administration publishes 300,000 copies and criticizes much more harshly then I do, by calling for taking children away from protesters and comparing them to fascists. And no one is accusing these journalists and editors of inciting hatred, it's just harsh criticism.
Journalists Daria Chultsova and Katsiaryna Andreyeva were sentenced to two years in a penal colony by a Minsk court on February 18. The women were detained while broadcasting live a violent dispersal of a rally on November 15, 2020. Chultsova and Andreyeva, both of whom work for independent TV channel Belsat, were charged with “organizing actions that grossly violate public order, and actively participating therein” according to part 1, Article 342 of the Criminal Code of the Republic of Belarus.
Fellow journalist Hanna Liubakova tweeted that she expected more repressions against members of the press to follow.
#Belarus Brilliant professionals and talented journalists Daria Chultsova and Kaciaryna Andreeva have been sentenced to 2 years of imprisonment. In November,they were detained for live streaming from a rally in #Minsk. If no response from the West follows, there will be more pic.twitter.com/dFtH4ugAYt
— Hanna Liubakova (@HannaLiubakova) February 18, 2021
Christian Mihr, head of the Berlin office of media freedom organization Reporters Without Borders, called the sentence “monstrous” and told Deutsche Welle that it signified a “new stage of escalating repressions”:
В прошедшие недели и месяцы с начала протестов после президентских выборов в августе мы наблюдали многочисленные аресты журналистов, однако во всех случаях речь шла о кратковременном заключении под стражу, например, на 14 дней. Сегодня же, впервые с момента августовских выборов, речь идет о приговоре, срок которого исчисляется годами.
During the weeks and months since the start of the protests after the August presidential elections we saw multiple journalists arrested, but in all cases these were short-term detentions of up to 14 days, for instance. But today for the first time since August, we're talking about a sentence whose length is measured in years.
The Belarusian Association of Journalists (BAJ), a local organization tracking press freedom violations in Belarus, reports that a total of 10 media workers are currently detained and awaiting trial or serving sentences for their work. Among them is Katsiaryna Barysevich, a journalist with independent website Tut.by, whose trial began on February 19 and is ongoing. Barysevich, along with Artyom Sorokin, a doctor, stand accused of “disclosing a medical secret” (per part 3,  Article 178 of the Criminal Code of the Republic of Belarus), and face a potential sentence of up to three years behind bars.
According to the prosecution, Sorokin provided medical assistance to protester Raman Bandarenka, who died in police custody during the protests. Law enforcement officials initially said Bandarenka was drunk, but in her reporting of his death, Barysevich presented medical records (allegedly provided by Sorokin) that show there was no alcohol found in Bandarenka's blood at the time of his death, which human rights activists suspect was the result of a brutal beating by riot police.
Along with journalists and online influencers facing increasing pressure from the authorities, artists and other creatives who have voiced support for the protests are also feeling the heat, according to a new briefing by Amnesty International.
Some, like Pavel Latushka, the former director of Yanka Kupala National Academic Theatre, have had their contracts terminated. Others have faced worse. Folk singer and dancer from Mahilyov Vola Semchanka told Amnesty she has faced multiple arrests and fines since October 2020 for participation in “unauthorized” meetings, and continues to endure workplace harassment. The first time, Semchanka was arrested when riding her bike and spent seven days in detention. The second time, she was detained for three days and charged for “protesting with a song” while standing on the side of the road singing a lyrical Belarusian folk song during a peaceful protest.
“After my first detention I felt scared to come home, I slept at friends’ houses most nights. Now I’m used to living with this constant sense of danger. We are all ready to become victims of state persecution at any moment,” Semchaka has told Amnesty.
According to Aisha Jung, Amnesty's Senior Campaigner on Belarus, the authorities are “methodically destroying Belarus’s spirited cultural life and its most creative members, in an effort to suppress all vestiges of free expression and dissent.”
Despite continued pressure from the state that has seen many of them fined, detained or exiled, journalists, artists, musicians and online influencers continue to express their support for the protest and the opposition movement challenging Lukashenka.
Read Global Voices’ special coverage on Belarus’ protests.

author: Tanya Lokot


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Myanmar’s ‘civil disobedience movement’ has produced many inventive ways of protesting · Global Voices
Global Voices South East Asia

Protesters in Myanmar display huge banners with messages rejecting the military government. Photo supplied to Global Voices by a citizen journalist, used with permission
Myanmar’s military authorities have banned public assemblies but this has only encouraged protesters to devise new ways of expressing opposition to the coup.
After the military grabbed power on February 1, a civil disobedience movement was launched which encouraged the public to stop going to work, boycott businesses owned by generals, and join anti-coup protests.
Medical health workers were among the first to support the civil disobedience movement by resigning from their posts. Many continued to work at hospitals but they wore red ribbons as a sign of protest against the military government.
This was followed by community protests which featured the banging of pots and pans to create noise and symbolically cast away evil spirits. A resident explained the popularity of this form of protest:
Banging pots and pans has continued until today, and it lasts about 15 minutes from 8:00 pm to 8:15 pm. Though this mode of campaign may seem insignificant, it ensures that all citizens can participate and express their voices peacefully and safely without having to leave their houses.
Many have observed the active participation of civil servants such as teachers, health workers and forestry officers in protests across Myanmar. Protesters have used ingenious methods to stop traffic and prevent government personnel from reporting for work. Kyaw Zwa Moe, editor of the English edition of The Irrawaddy, writes about this:
At the Myaynigone intersection, just a few miles from Sule, protesters helped pick up onions and gains of rice from the asphalt road, where someone had “dropped” them. Dozens of protesters picked up each onion and grain of rice, one at a time, while police watched over them. The purpose was to stop the traffic—as they had during the “car breakdown protest” and the “slow-motion drive protest” to create traffic jams in support of the Civil Disobedience Movement (CDM), which is aimed at preventing government staff from going to work.
‘Broken down’ cars in Myanmar’s biggest city Yangon block streets and confound police in the latest tactic by protesters opposed to a military coup. #WhatsHappeningInMyanmar pic.twitter.com/tvIXgjc50l
— Matthew Tostevin (@TostevinM) February 17, 2021
Even trishaws (three-wheeled vehicles) have been deployed in the campaign:
In an act of disobedience, drivers across Yangon left their cars in the middle of roads with the hoods up and joked that their engines had broken down.
This morning, some trishaw drivers are launching “trishaw breakdown campaign” in Yangon to block the movement of troops. pic.twitter.com/awMoLkTVCC
— Myanmar Now (@Myanmar_Now_Eng) February 19, 2021
Protesters also rode on boats:
Nyaung Shwe – 18th day of protests on February 21
For the third time, boats joined in the Inle Lake to do a water-protest column on February 21. Around 400 boats joined in the protests. #WhatsHappeningInMyanmar https://t.co/6ql6PrquCU pic.twitter.com/Rc112wPrSQ
— ElevenMyanmar (@ElevenMyanmar) February 21, 2021
A resident added more details about the “Onion Pick-up” campaign:
Basically, protesters intentionally drop onions in the middle of busy roads, and everyone helps pick up the onions, and put them in the (broken/bottomless) bags. This way, the police cannot claim that protesters are illegally blocking the roads.
Demonstrators pretend to pick up onions dropped on the street in an attempt to slow traffic and block roads during a protest against the #militarycoup, in #Yangon, #Myanmar, 19 February 2021. EPA-EFE/NYEIN CHAN NAING pic.twitter.com/URK5NQuoZ3
— Mizzima News (@MizzimaNews) February 19, 2021
Slowing down traffic is also done through the “Tying Shoelaces” campaign:
World's first crosswalk protest in Yangon??
Protesters are crossing through crosswalks in Circle lawfully at Myay-Ni-Kone Junction and slowing down the traffic
But literally they are obeying laws
Literally,this is Civil obedience movement?#WhatsHappeningInMyanmar #Feb18Coup pic.twitter.com/FVLDbLULgu
— Thu Yein Ye Htut Zaw (@GmYein) February 18, 2021
Street performances can also gather people and block traffic:
Poetry recitation against military coup#OpposeMilitaryCoup #Myanmarprotests pic.twitter.com/JmBCFCMZbm
— Maung Saungkha (@maung_saungkha) February 8, 2021
Artists and activists have joined forces in producing large anti-coup banners and street graffiti:
#Myanmar anti-#military government protesters made their mark in #Mandalay wanting all to see their opposition against the #militarycoup since Feb 1. Am told this is seen on 73rd street in Mandalay. Pics by @tonywumm #WhatsHappeninglnMyanmar pic.twitter.com/jw3iT0B2LC
— May Wong (@MayWongCNA) February 17, 2021
Organised, peaceful and creative. A selection of some of the banners, street art and slogans which have cropped up as part of the anti-coup protests in Myanmar. So much effort has gone into some of these pieces and now the message they hold are being projected around the world. pic.twitter.com/erRFafSHvw
— Freya Cole (@freya_cole) February 17, 2021
Protesters have also initiated actions aimed at undermining the military-controlled bureaucracy. One of these is the “Lottery boycott” campaign.
The incomes from lottery directly go into government funds just like other taxes. So we stop buying lottery tickets to prevent our taxes from going to the military.
The “anti-press conference” campaign is done by journalists boycotting the press conferences organized by the military. Some journalists from a local state media were forced to attend one of the press conferences which led to their resignation.
The “curse campaigns” are done to name and shame generals, especially Commander-in-Chief Min Aung Hlaing. Related to this, the “supernatural campaign” involves fortune-tellers and spiritual leaders who cast spells on superstitious military generals.
The “Lets’ report pro-military Facebook pages” is an online campaign that encourages Facebook users to report dubious pages spreading misinformation in support of the coup.
Only three weeks have passed since the coup but protesters have already used various creative methods to express dissent. Military authorities have recently resorted to violence but this has only encouraged more people to join the protests, as seen in the February 22 general strike, which mobilized the biggest anti-coup protests across Myanmar.
*With additional reporting from Global Voices’ Civic Media Observatory project

author: Global Voices South East Asia