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Quechua-Speaking Bolivian Woman, Denied an Interpreter for Years, Sentenced to Life in Prison in Argentina · Global Voices
Mary Aviles

Outside the Criminal Court in Quilmes, Argentina, where Reina Maraz was sentenced to life imprisonment. Photo by Andar Agency used with authorization.
Reina Maraz was sentenced on Tuesday, 28 October 2014, in Argentina to life in prison for the murder of her husband, after three years in jail without being allowed to appear before a judge.
“Why do they condemn me if I didn't do anything?”, Maraz asked her Quechua interpreter, Frida Rojas, after she had translated the Spanish version of the oral trial of the Criminal Court (TCO) of Quilmes, according to journalist Horacio Cecchi in his chronicle for the newspaper Página 12.
The TCO, presided over by the judges Silvia Etchemendi, Marcela Vissio and Florencia Butierrez, unanimously condemned the 26-year-old woman, who was convicted of aggravated homicide of her husband Limber Santos in November of 2010.
A few days before her arrest, Maraz had reported the disappearance of her husband. She was imprisoned while pregnant and without knowing the reasons for the criminal prosecution against her. She barely understands or speaks Spanish.
She was not allowed to see the details of her case until 2012, when she received the assistance of the Provincial Commission for Memory (CPM), a human rights NGO that demanded the help of an interpreter for the young woman.
CPM pressured the Supreme Court to officially accept the presence of an interpreter. The courts of the province of Buenos Aires lack an official registry of interpreters of indigenous languages, despite the fact that thousands of indigenous immigrants live in the area.
Through the interpreter, Maraz was able to tell her version of the story for the first time. She recounted her status as a migrant, coming from a remote village in the Bolivian Altiplano, and the domestic and sexual violence primarily at the hands of her husband Limber Santos and “Tito” Vilca, a neighbor pointed out as her accomplice. Vilca died months ago in prison of cirrhosis, according to CPM's blog.
Maraz said her neighbor had abused her when her husband offered her as currency to repay debts owed to Vilca.
In mid-October, the prosecutor demanded life imprisonment on the basis of a statement by Maraz's eldest son, who was five years old when he was interrogated by the camera system Gesell Dome, a one-way mirror under which children could be observed or interrogated without being disturbed
The Director of Strategic Litigation for the CPM, Margarita Jarque, said she regrets that the sentence reproduced the prosecutor's indictment without showing its shortcomings. Website 8300 reported:
El tribunal no ha escuchado ni incorporado la voz de Reina, su relato. Resulta inexplicable una sentencia basada exclusivamente en una cámara Gesell que durante el debate oral tres peritos especialistas cuestionaron de manera fundada y la consideraron como una prueba no válida.
The court did not listen to Reina's voice or to her story. Inexplicably, the judgment was based solely on a Gesell camera, which during the oral debate three experts declared to be an invalid test.”
The case has generated outrage in social networks. On her Twitter account, Irene Valiente expressed the following:
Vergonzoso caso de Reina Maraz: quechua, víctima de #violenciamachista, sin intérprete en 3años, condenada a perpetua http://t.co/fiGvbejXMI
— Irene Valiente (@Irevali) October 29, 2014
Shameful case of Reina Maraz: Quechua, a victim of #violenciamachista, without an interpreter for 3 years, sentenced to life imprisonment.
The CPM republished a statement from artist and human rights activist Adolfo Perez Esquivel, who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1980:
“Parece q ser mujer indígena y pobre es una maldición, y este es un tribunal q ha discriminado” Perez Esquivel sobre condena a Reina Maraz
— Comisionporlamemoria (@CPMemoria) October 29, 2014
“It seems that to be a poor and indigenous woman is a curse, and this court has discriminated against them,” said Perez Esquivel on the sentence against Reina Maraz.
Cesar Javier Garzón commented on his Twitter account:
Justicia sorda y ciega: cadena perpetua para Reina Maraz: http://t.co/Ddrylpo3FF
— Cesar Javier Garzon (@Cesargarzon80) October 29, 2014
Deaf and blind justice: life imprisonment for Reina Maraz.
The legal obstacles that Maraz faced did not escape commentary. The author of the blog General Ramos and other herbs said:
Quiero imaginar el interrogatorio de la justicia a Reina Maraz y me doy cuenta que ni siquiera han indagado en lo mínimo, ni las circunstancias o contexto.
Sus Señorías no son solo ciegas, huelen a podrido.
I want to imagine the judges’ interrogation of Reina Maraz and I realize that they haven’t even inquired into the basics [of the case], neither the circumstances nor context.
Your Honors are not only blind, they smell rotten.
José María Mastronardi, Maraz's attorney, has vowed to appeal the judgment.

author: Mary Aviles


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The Journey of Award-Winning Hong Kong Citizen Photojournalist Rayman · Global Voices
inmediahk.net

Rayman's photo of a protest incident on 8 December 2013 won the Best Online Photojournalism Award. A female protester dashed out into the road to attempt to stop the Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying's vehicle from leaving a district-level consultation meeting on the government annual budgetary report. The police carried her away and dropped her on the ground in the process. CC: AT-NC
Hong Kong In-Media, a NGO advocates citizen journalism, has organized E-Citizen Awards to promote original reporting, political comics, photography and commentary online. Contributing reporters from inmediahk.net, a online media sponsored by Hong Kong In-Media, have interviewed some of the award winners. Below is an interview with Rayman, the winner of the Best Online Photojournalism award. The Chinese article was written by Au-yong Lyun-faat, a contributing reporter from inmediahk.net, and published in Mingpao, a local printed newspapers on October 26. The English version below is translated by Jennifer Cheung.
The interview took place in a bookstore in Mongkok, just one street away from one of the pro-democracy sit-in sites, a “high-risk” place as described by Hong Kong police. A few hours before the interview, another group of masked men carrying cutters among other metal tools came to remove the blockades set up by protesters. Text messages kept arriving with alerts during the interview that the “blue ribbons,” a group of police supporters, were likely to start trouble that evening. Conflicts between pro-Occupy and anti-Occupy groups seem to erupt anytime since October 3, when a group of pro-Beijing thugs attacked pro-democracy protesters in Mongkok.
As the Chinese saying goes, “People born in troubled times carry responsibilities.” The on-going Umbrella Movement relies on every protester's persistence. Rayman, a volunteer reporter at United Social Press (USP), an online media platform, believes it is his responsibility to record what's happening at the Mongkok protest site through his lens.
Rayman has won Best Photojournalism of Hong Kong In-Media’s E-Citzen Awards. Before the interview, Rayman joked, “It is great to have this interview in Mongkok, because after we finish the interview, I can go directly to the street to take photos!” Since Occupy Mongkok began on September 29, Rayman went there almost everyday to shoot photos after he finished his day job. He usually stayed till late at night and then went home, took a short rest and returned to work.
Although his did not make any money from taking photos, Rayman was very satisfied with his work. “I feel honored to cover this movement as a citizen reporter, filing in the gaps left by the other media and presenting a full picture of the protest.”
All the frontline newspaper photojournalists know or have heard of USP, as USP’s volunteer reporters are present at nearly every protest. Rayman and another ten volunteers, with no salary nor insurance, formed the USP team in Hong Kong in the hope of helping the public understand the situation with their real-time news photos. Rayman believes, “The lens of the camera are the eyes of a reporter. The subject, the angle and even the light of a photograph reflect the view of the reporter.”
Rayman started his journey to photojournalism with “street snaps.” “Two years ago, I was a typical Hong Konger working in the retail sector. Every day I worked long hours and didn’t care about society. Honestly speaking, back then I didn’t even know who [current Hong Kong Chief Executive] Xi Jinping was or who [current Chinese Premier] Li Keqiang was. My ‘street snaps’ were just empty displays of photographic skill.”
One day, Rayman became fed up with his mundane life and quit his job to study commercial photography for a year. Incidentally, he joined USP as a citizen reporter.
Placing people at the center
What is the difference between photojournalism and street snaps? Rayman pondered for a moment and replied in a philosophical tone, “The difference lies in my completely different values and perspectives. The change in my life has given substance to the subjects I shoot.”
He likes the style of the war correspondent James Nachtwey. What Nachtwey has captured throughout his career are the most shocking scenes of conflict. Nachtwey’s bio goes like this: “I have been a witness, and these pictures are. my testimony. The events I have recorded should. not be forgotten and must not be repeated.” Nachtwey says his documentary photographs are able to change the world. Rayman shares the belief that at the interplay of light and shadow, if a photographer doesn’t care about people and society, what he captures is just an empty shell, no matter how good the light and the angle are. People are the center of photography.
Perhaps because of Rayman’s strong curiosity about people and his journalistic spirit, one year after he joined USP, he volunteered to go to Thailand to interview the anti-government protests at his own expense. Shortly afterwards, he went to Taiwan to interview the Sunflower Student Movement and the anti-nuclear march. Both are big events that have changed history.
As Rayman approaches his 30s, why doesn’t he find a better job and stop traveling to the frontline of protests?
Rayman believes there are people who like the beauty of cherry blossoms, and so they would take holiday leave to shoot the flowers in Japan. But for him, he prefers to see the world. “Frankly speaking, my previous job at retail paid me well, but I also spent more. It is like a vicious cycle. In the end I had no idea what my life was for. I didn’t have any clue why I took those pictures.” Rayman concluded his view on photography in one sentence: “If you aren't solid [in your beliefs], then how can your photos be solid?”
Rayman traveled abroad several times to report. Although he had no insurance and was not as well equipped as other journalists, he managed to enter the field quickly because in those “dangerous places” the story developed quickly, and there was no distinction between citizen reporters and mainstream reporters. In Hong Kong, the government only considers registered printed publications to be legitimate media; all online media are excluded from the government’s press list.
During the Sunflower Student Movement in Taiwan, Rayman managed to enter the Legislative Yuan with the simple step of obtaining a provincial press card.
Professional ethics
It is obvious that the government is belittling the status of citizen reporters. At the same time, professional reporters often look down on citizen reporters. Rayman addressed the issue by stressing the need to uphold journalism ethics: “I’m a citizen reporter, but that doesn’t mean I have no professional ethics. Citizen reporters don’t have any privileges. They need to follow certain rules as well. It is the same that we expect police not to wear blue ribbons when they are on duty. Citizen reporters are required to hold a neutral stance to avoid being accused of having murky boundaries in their coverage. As other mainstream journalists believe, once we lose credibility it is difficult to get it back.”
“Secondly, no matter if you are a citizen reporter or an onlooker, you are not supposed to obstruct other photojournalists from doing their job. Photojournalists earn a living by shooting on the spot. It really matters to photojournalists whether they can get good photos. In Taiwan, although a lot of onlookers took photos of the news onsite, once they finish they try their best to leave room for others to take photos. In contrast, in Hong Kong, some people are using iPads to take photos and only stop when being shouted at by others. I don’t mind onlookers taking photos, but if you want to become citizen reporters, you have to understand when you conduct interviews, you shouldn’t be obstructing others. For instance, when I was shooting at the protest spot, I left room to others as soon as I finished taking one or two photos.”
Beyond attracting “likes”
After the interview, Rayman went in the front of the road barricade in Mongkok’s protest site, put on his yellow helmet with a “press” sticker on it, and started taking photos for the evening. Photo taken by Ip Iam-Chong inmediahk.net.
Rayman still suffers from heel strain due to the long periods of standing when he was a salesman. Today, it is very difficult for him to carry heavy photo equipment. He is passionate about photojournalism, but his physical condition doesn’t allow him to become a full-time photojournalist. That said, he really enjoys the freedom of being a citizen photographer. “If you work at a newspaper, whether your photos will be published is at the discretion of your photo editors. The photojournalists have no say. Do photo editors have different considerations? To what extent shall these photos be cropped? The newspaper’s political stance will also impact the photo selection. Also, the audience may be only interested in the moment when the police fired pepper spray towards protesters, but seldom notice a few officers also helped protesters rinse out their eyes after the clash.”
Rayman pointed out that the information consumption culture in cyberspace makes citizen journalists focus too much on violent conflict scenes. “Simply because photos of those clashes can instantly win ‘likes’ when uploaded onto Facebook… If citizens can cover the underreported stories which are often ignored by ‘mainstream media’, they can present a richer story. The responsibility of a citizen reporter is not necessarily to compete with other mainstream media for a single shot, but to fill in the gap left by the mainstream media.”
Apart from reporting from the scene of news, Rayman also engages in photo-documentary. He started a project to document a youngster’s rehabilitation after taking drugs six month ago. So far he has only taken three photographs for this project because he spent most of the time hanging out with the youngster. “If we can establish mutual trust, you can tell a lot by capturing just one glance of the interviewee.”
After the interview, Rayman picked up his backpack and helmet, and set off to shoot the 26th day of the Occupy Mongkok sit-in protest.

source: news-globalvoices

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


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The Politics of President’s Health in Zambia · Global Voices
Ndesanjo Macha

Pan African Vision's Ajong Mbapndah talks to Gershom Ndhlovu about the politics around the sickness and death of Zambia's president Michael Sata:
President Michael Sata recently passed away in London and it appears his health and medical condition where shrouded in secrecy, why were Zambians not notified of the Presidents failing health?
[Gershom Ndhlovu]: An online publication, Zambian Watchdog, alerted the nation to President Michael Sata’s failing health more than two years before he passed on. It is the same publication that could expose the secretive treatments abroad that he used to take. Both senior government officials and ruling party cadres were not happy with the publication for keenly following and exposing Mr Sata’s condition and there were many attempts to shut down the online publication which was at times blocked for access to people in Zambia.
On the question of why, obviously the government and the party wanted to show that the President was healthy and discharging his functions. They probably did not want to admit the fact because of a constitutional clause which calls for the removal of the office holder, once declared unfit by a medical board if called by Cabinet. In fact, one citizen attempted to compel Cabinet to call for such a board through the High Court but his application was dismissed.

author: Ndesanjo Macha


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Are Employee Transportation Allowances the Cause of Japan’s Commuter Hell? · Global Voices
Sayuri Ishiwata

Rush hour in Shinjuku. Image by Chris73. CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons
The image of squished passengers being pushed into overcrowded trains is an iconic image of Japan, especially Tokyo.
A recent article in the Japan Times’ Yen for Living blog suggests that Japan's employee transportation allowance system may be in fact be responsible for the country's infamous “commuter hell.”
For a variety of reasons, many employers in Japan's affluent and densely populated Pacific Seaboard axis stretching between Tokyo and Osaka subsidize the substantial cost of train and bus tickets for regular, full-time employees.
Tokyo region's massive transportation network has created dense rings of commuter towns that are home to millions of office workers who must travel into the urban core at the same time each morning. The 32.5 million residents of the Greater Tokyo Metropolitan area rely overwhelmingly on public transportation: almost 57 percent of all travel in Tokyo is done on trains and buses, and during peak rush hours metro lines can reach 200 percent capacity.
For full-time workers, at least the cost of commuting to work is bearable. According to a 2009 report by Japan's Ministry of Health, Labour, and Welfare, 86 percent of Japanese companies provide employees with a travel allowance.
The ministry report explains that the practice of employers subsidizing employee transportation costs was adopted during Japan's postwar economic boom. As the suburbs expanded ever outward from downtown Tokyo, commutes became longer and train fares more expensive — too expensive for employees to shoulder on their own (unlike in North America where employees are expected to subsidize commuting costs through vehicle ownership).
By the 1960s as Japan entered its era of rapid economic growth and affluence, paying for travel costs was one way companies were able to enhance employee compensation. Travel allowances were a way of distributing economic gains equally without necessarily dramatically increasing pay.
As a result, today many Japanese employers cover commuting costs for full-time employees, many of whom have daily commutes of two hours or more. Travel allowances have come to be expected. These days, most job seekers want to know whether or not a potential employer offers a transportation allowance.
Employers are not legally compelled to provide a travel allowance for employees, but offering a travel allowance has a powerful effect on whether or not an employer can attract talent.
Evening rush hour, Tsuruhashi Station, Osaka. Image by T. Hara. CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons
According to the Yen for Living article, the postwar adoption of the employee transportation allowance system (tsukin teate) has led to the dense urbanization that in turn has created “commuter hell”:
But inadvertently or not, the tsukin teate system has contributed directly to the concentration of businesses in major cities, thus exacerbating the problem of long commutes and over-crowded public transportation […] But while transportation expenses are not legally mandated, they are regulated. Companies can write them off as business expenses, but only up to 100,000 [yen] a month per employee (equivalent to US$1,000). If an employee’s commuting costs exceed 100,000 [yen] in a month, the excess is subject to tax as if it were income.
According to the Ministry of Health, Labour, and Welfare survey of 211 companies, about half of 77 companies in the survey with less than 300 employees capped the employee travel allowance at 100,000 per month.
Another 30 percent of companies in this cohort cap the amount a 50,000 yen per month. The report doesn't mention what the remainder of the 211 companies surveyed pay for employee transportation allowances.
There are approximately 4.2 million small, medium, and large companies registered in Japan. Just 0.3 percent of these companies — about 120,0000 — are considered to be large or “enterprise” businesses.
The ministry's report on travel allowances (by relying reporting on the practices of 77 companies of 300 or fewer employees) omits a great deal of data. It's possible that conditions have changed since the boom times of rapid economic growth.
The Yen for Living article questions just how many employees across the country are actually receiving 100,000 yen to cover commuting expenses. Instead, it's the relatively cash-flush companies clustered along the main transportation and industrial artery stretching between Tokyo and Osaka that can afford to subsidize travel.
Rural companies cannot keep up, leading to increasing migration to Tokyo and the cramped cities of the industrialized Pacific Seaboard. The sheer density this migration has caused over the past 50 years has led to Japan's infamous “commuter hell.”
Non-Japanese commenters on the Yen for Living blog article also questioned the wisdom of providing employee transportation allowances:
If employees had to pay their own transportation expenses, which is the case in most developed countries, they would naturally find work that is as close to their homes as possible or move their residence to within a comfortable commuting distance of their work place.
However, on the Japan Times’ Facebook page, a Japanese commenter responded to these comments by saying:
This person has not lived in Japan obviously, for most of people the allowance is approx $100-$200, which is not that much considering how expensive housing costs can be.
Another Facebook commenter asked:
Why don’t more people live closer to their jobs? Because Japan’s cities are already pretty crowded and the rent is ridiculous. Why live closer to work when the tradeoff is a higher rent for a smaller place?
Other commenters expressed doubts that the employee travel allowance was solely responsible for Japan's infamous overcrowded commutes, and that Japan's “commuter hell” might not even be all that unique. On Facebook, Saku Takakusaki wrote:
I don’t know if that commuting allowance is causing the problems mentioned in the article. Large American and Canadian cities are crowded on weekdays and almost dead on weekends because of people coming to work from outside of those central areas.
On the Japan Times’ website, user “rolento” commented:
I guess the writer has never been to china or other asian countries. millions of asians are not paid travel allowances and STILL lives at least 1 hour from their office.
Carol Ruth Kimmel compared the situation to transportation in New York:
Americans don’t get compensation for commuting, but we still have “commuter hell” in New York.
Other commenters pointed out that a commuter allowance is the only way for some employees to be able to afford to work in Tokyo, unless there is a change in thinking about how people work. Shikibu Watanabe argued:
Commuter allowance is necessary for those who live on an average annual salary of JPY 4m and are forced to live in suburbs because they can’t afford the rents in Minato-Ku or Marunouchi. What’s the alternative? Commute by car? Great idea. More congested roads, more pollution. I don’t see the point of this article.
Kelvin Hui wrote:
It goes against the work culture in this country but the concept of “work from home” needs to be introduced here.
Danny de Meyer echoed Hui's comment:
Why don’t companies allow remote working? Home working? Why always ask the employees to adapt?
Based on these responses, employee transportation allowances seem indispensable to working in Japan. And, with the 2020 Tokyo Olympics on the horizon, it appears as though more and more people will continue to cram into Tokyo. Some thought must be put into relieving the subsequent “commuter hell.”

author: Sayuri Ishiwata


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Druze Leader Walid Joumbulatt Takes to Twitter · Global Voices
Amira Al Hussaini

Lebanese politician and Druze leader  Walid Joumblatt is on Twitter – and had a hard time proving it really was him.
The account set up on October 27 has attracted about 17,000 followers so far — and a confirmation from the man himself.
Yes it is me
— Walid Joumblatt (@walidjoumblatt) October 27, 2014
Lebanese blogger Mustapha Hamoui quips:
They dispute the authenticity of the @walidjoumblatt account because it's quirky and unconventional… Think of that for a moment — Mustapha Hamoui (@Beirutspring) October 30, 2014
After a three day hiatus after starting the account, the man went on a Twitter storm. To date, he has amassed 666 tweets, all in English, discussing Lebanese and regional politics and other tidbits.

author: Amira Al Hussaini


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The Internet Economy In Russia Is Slowing Down, Hampered by Crisis and Hostile Laws · Global Voices
Sergey Kozlovsky

The RuNet economy is being stunted by government restrictions and a poor economic climate. Images mixed by Tetyana Lokot.
Although Russia’s Internet economy may appear to be growing, a close look at recent trends suggests that it is slowing down under the weight of the country’s economic crisis and draconian web legislation.
A study on the performance of the Russian Internet business conducted by the Russian Association of Electronic Communications (RAEC) and the Higher School of Economics found the size of the RuNet business segment (online payments, content providers and other services) had increased by 31% in 2013 in comparison to 2012.
The current value of the web economy in Russia is around 1.1 trillion rubles (a little over $25 billion), which accounted for 1.6% of country’s GDP ($2.1 trillion in total) in 2013. The data becomes even more spectacular when the study refers to “Internet-dependent businesses,” which includes all the companies using the Internet for sales, marketing, and communications, not just dedicated online businesses. The value of this larger sector is an astonishing 10% of the GDP.
The growth trend will likely continue: Experts predict that in 2014 the RuNet economy will grow by another 30 percent. For reference, Russia’s economy itself this year is expected to be stagnant, plagued by international sanctions and other troubles.
Though the growth prospects seem optimistic, things are actually not as great as the figures seem to indicate. The cumulative Russian Internet business value actually showed less growth in 2013 compared to 2012 (when the web economy grew by 39%). Given that the Internet economy in Russia (and the economy as a whole) is still developing, such a slow down presents a serious issue.
It's also worth noting that the RuNet economy growth in 2014 was in many respects the result of higher prices, which are rising because of the ruble’s devaluation brought on by the developing economic crisis. That is, the aggregate value of goods and services produced by Internet companies rises mainly because of the growth in price and not due to any increase in quantity.
In January-October of this year the dollar rate exchange in Russia soared by 20%, and the Euro rose by 30%. Some experts doubt that optimistic forecasts in a market strongly dependent on imports make any sense. Herman Klimenko, head of The E-commerce Development Association says making predictions about the fate of the web business segment is difficult.
Но мы не знаем, что нас ждёт в следующем году в экономике вообще. Пока же спрос на импорт продолжает падать, то есть ожидать роста рынка в целом можно с большой долей оптимизма.
We don’t know at all what to expect from the economy next year. Meanwhile the demand on imports is falling, so we can only expect an increase in the market’s size with a great deal of optimism.
As the study's authors note, there is another issue that plagues the Russian Internet economy: copyright infringement and piracy. A year ago 40% of Internet users weren’t prepared to pay for content available online at cost (many RuNet users are used to downloading movies, music and games from torrent websites for free). Now this number is 50%. Only 22% of the RuNet users have any experience of buying content online. Experts conclude that with the failing health of the economy overall, many buyers will become ‘freeloaders’ who don’t care about the content’s legality as long as they can get it for free.
RAEC and HSE imply that copywright enforcement will benefit the Internet industry, but that is far from a proven fact. There have been reports that file-sharing culture, in fact, does not kill the entertainment industry and offers several benefits. The position of the study's authors here is clear: HSE is a university funded by the government, which vehemently fights against piracy, and RAEC is a national association of content producers and industry lobbyists, none of whom favor ‘freeloading’ users.
An interesting point in the RAEC/HSE study is that in 2013 the RuNet economy was developing under an innovative scenario and this year it is not. By the end of 2014, experts predict that the market will slow down, while advertising revenue and consumers’ purchasing power will decrease.
There is no clear indication in the study that experts connect the slower growth and lack of innovation to prohibitive regulations on the Internet industry, but much has been said about the harsh new Internet laws that, among other things, require keeping Russian user data on servers inside Russia and demand greater government access to metadata and communications logs stored by the Internet services. However difficult it may be to measure the direct impact of legislation on the ease of doing online business in Russia, the remark about the changing trends speaks volumes.
Is there a light at the end of this tunnel for Russian Internet businesses? The study's authors think it best for the e-commerce companies to take the initiative if they want to revert the shrinking and slowing trend. There is hope for the Russian Internet industry as, according to the study, it starts to understand that it should move ahead on its own terms and attempt to change the Internet legislative trends in Russia from prohibitive to innovative ones.

author: Sergey Kozlovsky


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Mayor and Wife Suspected in Missing Students Case Arrested in Mexico City · Global Voices
J. Tadeo

“They were taken alive, we want them back alive!” Mexico City. October 8, 2014. Photo by
Débora Poo Soto, Demotix.
José Luis Abarca, former mayor of Iguala and his wife María de los Ángeles Pineda were arrested by federal forces in Mexico City, the capital of Mexico, in the early hours of Tuesday, November 4, 2014.
Both have been identified by the government and the media as the alleged masterminds behind  the September 26 ambush by police and criminal gangs on students from the Raúl Isidro Burgos Rural School in Ayotzinapa, Guerrero, which killed six, injured 20 and left 43 missing.
Global Voices has been providing in-depth coverage of Ayotzinapa's 43 missing students.
Abarca and Pineda make up the so-called “imperial couple” and are active members of the Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD), self-proclaimed as a party with a left-wing ideology. Social media has dubbed Pineda #LadyIguala for the eccentricity and despotism that drove her and her husband before the student disappearances. The city of Iguala is close to Ayotzinapa, the base of the school the students belonged to.
Meanwhile, 39 days have passed since the students from Ayotzinapa were illegally deprived of freedom and their whereabouts unknown. The Argentinian Forensic Anthropology team, in coordination with Mexican authorities, has undertaken work in the many mass graves that have been found near Iguala, in the state of Guerrero, located in the southwestern part of the country. To date, the federal government has supported the version of the story that the human remains found in the graves do not correspond to the missing students, but fails to clarify the origins of the dozens of bodies lying there.
Several Twitter users have commented on the arrest of Abarca and his wife. José Adolfo Murat M. said:
Empieza la novela político policíaca. Lo que declaren #Abarca y su esposa permitirá profundizar en líneas de investigación por #Ayotzinapa
— José Adolfo Murat M. (@JAMurat) noviembre 4, 2014
And so begins the political police story. That which Abarca and his wife declare will allow for the deepening of research lines for Ayotzinapa.
Playing on Abarca's last name and the Spanish saying “El que mucho abarca, poco aprieta” (“He who pushes a lot encompasses little”), Marilú Herrera took the opportunity to reminisce about the frequent cases in which offenders are released by the judiciary, including Florence Cassez:
El que mucho aprieta poco Abarca…esperemos q integren bien el expediente y algún juez no los deje libres por algún tecnisismo #Ayotzinapa
— Marilú Herrera (@MariluHerrera) noviembre 4, 2014
He who pushes a lot encompasses little… hopefully they integrate the proceedings well and that some judge doesn't let them go free on some technicality.
Other users like Jan_Herzog have recalled that a few days ago it was mentioned that Abarca had been arrested, but this was later denied:
Ya quedó el montaje de #Iztapalapa? A #Abarca #Ayotzinapa #Iguala lo tenían desde hace 10 días! https://t.co/Iyy2XUxWK3 urge RT!
— @Jan_Herzog (@Jan_Herzog) noviembre 4, 2014
Is the Iztapalapa set up done? They had Abarca 10 days ago! RT urgently!
Anaid Villanueva shared the following message:
#PRD exige a PGR aplicar todo el peso de la ley contra los #Abarca pic.twitter.com/YCa8bdkSX6
— Anaid Villanueva (@AnaisVillanue) November 4, 2014
The PRD demands that General Attorney's Office applies the full weight of the law against Abarca.
On his part, demian coco noted that there was an overriding interest lying in the media frenzy over the arrest of the “imperial couple”: returning the 43 disappeared students alive:
Detuvieron a #Abarca pero falta lo mas importante, la aparición de los 43 normalistas. Vivos se los llevaron, vivos los queremos.
— demian coco (@axkana_cv) November 4, 2014
They arrested Abarca but the most important thing is still missing, the appearance of the 43 students. They took them alive, we want them back alive.
With the arrest of the alleged perpetrators, the prosecutor will have to join the preliminary investigation and, where appropriate, remand it to the judiciary so that it can give the criminal process the formal go-ahead.

author: J. Tadeo


text:
Thai Coup Leader Wants Reporters to Forget the Former Prime Minister · Global Voices
Moui

Former Thailand Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra (left) with her brother, ousted Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra (center). Photo from Facebook of Yingluck.
It's hard to escape Yingluck Shinawatra and Thaksin Shinawatra in the news these days. Both singlings are former prime ministers of Thailand, where a military coup took power earlier this year. The Shinawatras recently met in Japan and flew together to China on a sightseeing trip. Wherever the two former leaders go, reporters seem to follow, cataloging their travels like paparazzi.
Thailand's new prime minister isn't amused, however. The leader of the coup that followed Yingluck's resignation this year, General Prayuth Chan-ocha is asking the media not to report about the movements of Thailand's erstwhile heads of state.
Everyone is entitled to freedom of the press, freedom of the people. But if these freedoms lead to conflicts or violate other people's rights, they become inappropriate. Therefore, please don't make me use laws or power or force. I ask you to engage in conversations and find solutions for the problems that have been building up in the past.
The army says it grabbed power last May to end hostilities between the country's warring political factions. Despite his ouster, Thaksin Shinawatra remains a major political figure in Thai politics. A wealthy businessman and a successful politician, Thaksin was prime minister from 2001 until 2006, when he was overthrown by a coup. Since then, he has lived in self-imposed exile, avoiding various likely criminal charges. Thaksin's political party, nevertheless, has continued to win elections—even propelling his younger sister to the prime minister's office.
Prayuth's “request” to the journalists has provoked some resistance, as many in the media view the plea as a gag order on the press.
Suravitch Veerawan of ASTV says Prayuth shouldn't fear the media, which Veerawan argues must be free to express itself. Pichate Yingkiattikun, project manager at Siam Intelligence Unit, a think tank, questions why Thailand's prime minster has decided to “quarrel with journalists,” spreading fears among the country's local media that Prayuth is unhappy with them.
The Executive Director of Southeast Asian Press Alliance wrote on Twitter:
RT @forestmat Avoid reporting on Thaksin, PM tells media – The Nation http://t.co/u5HgWe3Afs more ‘guidelines’ for the press #Thailand
— Gayathry V (@gayathry) November 3, 2014
Twitter user @iiDudes sarcastically asked reporters to reject Prayuth's request and instead don masks bearing Thaksin's face:
อยากได้หน้ากากทักษิณ เอาไว้ใส่กวนตีนท่านผู้นำ pic.twitter.com/LjYUrl1icU
— นป.นักดมกาวในตำนาน (@iiDudes) November 3, 2014
I wish I had the face mask so that I can annoy the leader.
Last May, Thailand's military government announced reforms that have limited free speech. The Committee to Protect Journalists condemned the censorship effort, calling for an immediate and unconditional restoration of the country's press freedoms.
Indeed, Thai journalism has struggled since Prayuth took power. A sizable faction of pro-junta reporters, moreover, makes resistance to the media crackdown even more difficult. How journalists move forward in Thailand's current atmosphere largely remains a mystery.

author: Moui


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Tunisian Election Paves the Way for a Brave New Future of Plural Democracy · Global Voices
Ahmed Medien

Tunisia: current and future voters. Photo: Myriam Ben Ghazi, used with permission.
On October 26 2014, 3.2 million Tunisians headed to the polls to choose a new parliament under the new constitution adopted in January 2014. 69% of eligible voters turned out for what was the second democratic election since the ousting of president Zine Al Abidine Ben Ali in 2011, defying the expectations raised by western skeptic polls that predicted a low turnout. Four parties emerged as the major winners of these elections, and all parties and candidates accepted the results—proof that Tunisia is maturing as a democracy.
In the previous election in 2011, the Ennahda party, running on a platform that stressed Islamic identity and their dissident past, came in first, gaining 43% of the 217-seat interim legislature, a  majority in the assembly and leadership of the government until the end of 2013. Ennahda relinquished power to a non-partisan in 2014, after a troubled year and two political assassinations. The party had also failed to alleviate the dire social and economic situation in the country, after having made grandiose promises.
Unemployment in Tunisia remains stubbornly high at 16%, and averages 40% among youth. There’s been a “security vacuum” in the country for more than two years. More than 30 national guards have perished in skirmishes along the Algerian border. A recent standoff in a suburb of Tunis, the capital city, resulted in seven deaths, including five women and a baby. Tunisians voted for a change in this and other aspects of the current status quo.
On Wednesday, official results from Tunisia's legislative elections confirmed the expected win for the secular Nidaa Tounes (Call for Tunisia), a coalition party only two years old headed by Beji Caed Essebsi, an 87-year-old veteran who served under Tunisia’s first president, Habib Bourguiba, and later under Ben Ali. Disillusioned voters pushed three other major parties— Ettakatl, Al Jomhouri and Congress for the Republic—out of parliament. These three parties, two of which served in previous Ennahda-led governments, held on to only 4 of the 63 seats they won in 2011. The parties have pledged to respect the elections results and are now contesting the presidential elections, set for November 23.
In a international election observers press conference, Kenneth Wollack, president of the National Democratic Institute, which monitored the elections in Tunisia, said that the “Tunisian elections showed dialogue and an inclusive approach to politics, reflecting the spirit of the Tunisian people.”
Nidaa Tounes brings together former regime officials and new politicians committed to curbing the rise of Islamic extremism in the country. The party's rallying slogan during the campaign was, “Not voting for Nidaa is a vote for Ennahda.” They ended up splitting the vote: together, Nidaa Tounes’ 85 seats and Ennahda’s 69 amount to 70% of the voting power in the new legislature.
Yet, labeling the political contentions in Tunisia as secular vs. Islamist is a limited interpretation of the status quo, or even the status quo ante. Three new political parties have emerged in the wake of the recent elections, representing the radical left, center and liberal right-wing. They compete on economic programs and strategies to secure development and wealth for the country’s population. Islamists still have a say in the politics of the country, and will for at least five more years, but perhaps Tunisians didn’t cast their votes in order to isolate one political power or another. It’s possible they were more focused on exercising their right to change governments peacefully through elections.
The elections in Tunisia were messy (ar). The committee in charge of organizing the elections and several observer groups recorded violations by several political parties, including Nidaa Tounes, who lost a seat in Kasserine. However, these elections are not the end goal per se, only mechanisms to reinstate and reinforce plurality. The challenge that remains in Tunisia is to work within the pluralistic democratic framework now in place, with the new constitution as the safeguard of rights and liberties during the next five years of governance.
Despite fears that Nidaa Tounes, with their relative majority, might install a new form of oligarchic regime, diverse political actors have vowed to continue the work of their parties. The leader and president of center-left Ettakatol, Mustafa Ben Jaafer, which retained only one seat of the 20 they won in 2011, thinks Tunisians “punished” centrist parties like his, and urged the centrist parties to form a new coalition.
“Social-democratic forces stayed scattered and did not take the responsibility to unite,” Ben Jaafer said in a press conference after the results of the elections were announced. Because of polarization, in order for pluralism to take root in Tunisia, new alternatives must emerge to maintain the balance that has saved Tunisia from the conflicts and wars the rest of the region has experienced.
“An election is not democracy in and of itself,” stressed IRI representative Scott Mastic at the same press conference where Ben Jaafer spoke. And it is true is that the situation in the country is still uncertain. An exceptionally large number of candidates—27—will contest the presidential elections at the end of this month, and some Tunisians fear a consolidation of power if Beji Caid Essebsi, Nidaa’s pretender to presidency, wins the majority of votes. Other voters have concerns over new coalitions that might divide the country into a new set of secularists and Islamists—that long-standing tension many political parties are only too willing to put aside in favor of a national unity government.
Ahmed Medien was a local observer in Tunisia's recent elections. Follow him on twitter at @ahmedmedien.

author: Ahmed Medien


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Uzbekistan’s Controversial Cotton Harvest ‘Feeds the Regime, not Citizens’ · Global Voices
Zukhra Iakupbaeva

Buses take children and adults alike to pick cotton in Uzbekistan's fields. Screenshot taken from video uploaded by Kudrat Babadjanov.
The cotton-picking season in Uzbekistan has officially finished, but according to reports, teachers and schoolchildren continue to labor in the fields. Provincial leaders are known to apply physical force against farmers failing to meet cotton targets, while a recent report suggests that income from cotton production may bypass the state budget. Few people associated with the authoritarian republic are surprised by the report's findings.
Uzbekistan is famous for forced labor and child labor in particular. In 2009 a publication by The School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) in London claimed that at least 86% of schools in the districts encountered by the study during the 2008 cotton season were subjected to compulsory recruitment requests from the government. Recruits were children between the ages of 11 and 14, who were expected to gather between 15-70 kilograms of cotton per day depending on their age and the stage of the harvest. Six years later, despite the relative success of an ongoing campaign to force manufacturers to boycott Uzbek cotton, little has changed inside the country. Uzbekistan was the sixth biggest producer in the world last harvest, and kids are still contributing to the cause.
A report produced last month reveals that income from the harvest goes into an opaque extra-budgetary sovereign wealth fund called Selkhozfond, about which almost nothing is known. The authors of the Soros working paper Uzbekistan's Cotton Sector: Financial Flows and Distribution of Resources, who cooperated with a former government official in producing the report, had to make full use of their sources just to learn the full name of Selkhozfond director Shukrullo Umurov.
[Uzbek President Islam] Karimov shamelessly violates the criminal code under articles such as “fraud,” “appropriation of state property” etc. The entire economy is built like a mafia economy. Stolen money goes into Western banks. These “white and fluffy” bankers bear the guilt for all the country's ills.
Should we not reform an industry that is constantly experiencing stress and increasingly destroys the  environment? In Uzbekistan's climatic conditions, it is much more profitable and environmentally friendly to grow and process fruits and vegetables, and cotton is risky for the farming culture of the country.
Karimov's regime is unable to reform the cotton sector (moreover, to cut it down or reduce cotton production) because, as correctly pointed out in the article [report], cotton feeds the political regime, not citizens of the country.
Article 37 of the Constitution of the Republic of Uzbekistan as well as article 7 of the Labor Code  prohibit forced labor. But what if an order [to collect cotton] is given by the Prime-Minister or even by the President, and many millions are obeying? And what if the same people who wrote these laws, the prosecutors, the police, the security services and the army are turned on you in order to force you to collect cotton – what will you do then?
“Why do I have to collect cotton?” Because it was planted. We need to abandon cotton cultivation in Uzbekistan completely. The cotton crop is a plantation crop that requires constant care and water. All plantations require slaves and a colonial system of management. Uzbekistan should be growing food to feed its large population instead. But then the colonial regime would collapse. Can you imagine Uzbekistan without cotton?

author: Zukhra Iakupbaeva


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‘When I Think of Trinidad, I See It in Technicolor’: A New Music-Theatre Work Takes the Stage · Global Voices
Janine Mendes-Franco

Roger Roberts as title character Jab Molassie; photo by Maria Nunes, used with permission.
Jab Molassie, a new work of music-theatre that is a modern, Caribbean take on Stravinsky's nearly century-old The Soldier's Tale, premieres this Thursday in Trinidad's capital city.
The play's titular character, Jab Jab, is one of the most enduring characters of Trinidad and Tobago Carnival, portraying what is known as “devil mas”. Jab Jab's costumes are typically very simple: the horns and tail are sculpted out of wire and covered with fabric or plaster of paris. Most Jab Molassies carry chains and a pitchfork and douse themselves with grease, mud, or red and blue paint. They produce a frighteningly commanding rhythm with tin pans and whistles, while dancing suggestively (or “wining” in local parlance) in a hypnotic performance — usually on the streets of the city during the annual Carnival celebrations.
The Little Carib Theatre in Port of Spain, Trinidad. Photo by Maria Nunes, used with permission.
Now, thanks to the Calabash Foundation for the Arts, a non-profit created to provide both funding and developmental support for new and original theatrical works in the twin island republic, the Jab Molassie will take to the stage at The Little Carib Theatre, a long-standing bastion of artistic integrity in the country. It is not the first time a Jab Jab will grace the Little Carib's stage, but it is the first time that it will do so as one of the main characters in a music-theatre production, with an entirely original score created by a Trinidadian composer.
What is also unique about this new work is the level of global collaboration it has received from some of the best creative talent in the industry. Inspired by the poetic parlance and vibrant culture of Trinidad and Tobago, American Double Bassist Caitlyn Kamminga wrote the libretto. Award-winning, London-based playwright and director Patricia Cumper, who has Jamaican roots, is directing the production. British conductor Ian Shaw is on board as musical director. A group of exceptionally accomplished musicians from all over the world comprise the Jab Molassie orchestra, while the cast boasts some of the best local performers whose strengths include everything you would expect in a work of music-theatre: singing, dancing, and acting.
Jab Molassie's librettist, Caitlyn Kamminga. Photo by Maria Nunes, used with permission.
In this post, Global Voices continues its conversation with the librettist, Caitlyn Kamminga, and the composer, Dominique Le Gendre.
Global Voices (GV): How do both of you think this indigenous stage production benefitted from international collaboration?
Caitlyn Kamminga (CK): I would turn this question around and say how has this American author and double bassist benefitted from collaborating with local artists…my best answer is when my father asked me why on earth would I want to leave London for Trinidad I said, ‘When I think of London I see it in black and white and sepia tones and when I think of Trinidad I see it in technicolor.’
Dominique Le Gendre (DLG): This production has only been strengthened by the collaborations: the musicians who played for the workshop were of the highest calibre possible and some of them were way beyond our expectations. The piece itself makes demands of everybody, taking both the performers and the musicians out of their comfort zones, so that everyone involved has to go beyond themselves. To do this, the singers need help with their singing from someone who can combine the best that a classical training has to offer with our own performers’ talents. The professionalism and generosity of all of these collaborators can only be a bonus because of what they add to the performance. Ian Shaw as conductor and Pat Cumper as director both bring skills and expertise that we do not have here in Trinidad. If we are to really achieve our fullest potential in any realm, we must collaborate with the best people so that we learn from them and raise our own professional standards.
GV: Tell us more about the choice of Patricia Cumper as director. What has she brought to Jab Molassie?
CK: Pat is a very fine writer, as well as a director with over 30 years’ experience. She has been wonderfully supportive in allowing me to have a voice in the workshops and rehearsals for the premiere. I am incredibly grateful for her generous spirit…not all directors take kindly to writers’ notes!
DLG: I have worked with Pat for over 15 years in London. I know what sort of results we can expect from our working relationship and more importantly, how she empowers performers to give of their absolute best, while maintaining an absolute handle on everything that is going on in the rehearsal room. We also have a shorthand language [when it comes to] our ideas of staging and perspective on performance, which comes from a shared Caribbean culture and artistic tastes that were shaped at a vibrant and flourishing time in the '60s and '70s.
Dancing with the Devil? Nickolai Salcedo plays the role of Starboy in Jab Molassie. Photo by Maria Nunes, used with permission.
GV: What have been some of the challenges — and successes — of taking Jab from an idea to a full stage production?
CK: The original plan was to perform my adapted libretto with Stravinsky's music, but for a myriad of reasons this did not happen and for this I am truly grateful, because it allowed the relationship I had already established with Dominque to blossom. This meant that we were going to have to raise funds to properly commission Dominque. The seemingly universal respect that Maria Nunes [the founder of Calabash Foundation for the Arts, which helped develop the work] carries within the artistic and corporate communities of Trinidad paved the way to Calabash raising the funds for the workshops and the premiere. This was both a major challenge and huge success. The really lovely, natural collaboration between local and and international artists has made a delicious callaloo, both familiar and fresh.
DLG: The great thing about a happy creative process is that I never remember the challenges because what matters is the piece that has evolved into existence. For anything to grow healthily, it has to undergo change and transformation. In the case of Jab, this has very much been a process of steady growth and change supported at all levels — and not necessarily with what is considered the standard level of financial or administrative support.
Caitlyn and I always maintained the faith that this piece would be realised. Ever since Maria Nunes came on board and created Calabash Foundation as a vehicle for realising the music commission, development and production of the piece, work has been more or less non-stop and we have all had to move forward in the dark without confirmations or assurances that our expectations would be met. Happily, they have and continue to be supported by extended families of supporters and well-wishers and collaborations between numerous people and organisations. We are all learning as we go along, since realising a project of these demands in Trinidad is far from obvious.
GV: What should patrons expect when they attend the premiere and what do you think they will take away from the experience?
CK: The audience can expect to be entertained by some of Trinidad's finest performers. It's a wonderful collaboration on stage of extremely high caliber national and international artists. And the beautiful thing about a piece of art is that once it leaves the hands of its creators, the audience takes charge of what happens next. What we hope is that they leave the theatre completely engaged with the characters, with tunes running through their head for days on end and spontaneous conversations about their experience in the theatre.
DLG: I don't want to spoil the surprises, but in the main what Jab Molassie does for an audience is that it brings to vivid life so many aspects of our Carnival characters and features of our built and natural landscape through the beautifully simple and poetic set on which the performers relate the story of Starboy. They will see and hear all of Trinidad brought together in a way that I don't think anyone could have imagined through the words, music, movement, costumes and set. I think that this piece, while it is a fable, can help us to appreciate the mythology with which we live daily and the way that our traditions are integrated into our lives. Above all, it is a great piece of entertainment with some of our best performers and creatives.
Belorussian-born American conductor, clarinettist and saxophonist Yevgeny Dokshansky in rehearsals. Photo by Maria Nunes, used with permission.
GV: What are the future plans for the production? Will it be staged elsewhere in the world?
CK: We are currently exploring possibilities of touring the work. I don't want to jinx the premiere by saying this has a life after November 9th…but I think there are a lot of people that are going to want to see this on the stage!
DLG: The desire is there and for the time being all of our efforts are concentrated on making the Trinidad premiere and performance an absolute knockout.

author: Janine Mendes-Franco


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Chinese Are Seeing Red Over Government’s ‘APEC Blue’ Anti-Pollution Efforts · Global Voices
Oiwan Lam

Two photos of the same street in Beijing, one taken on a clear, sunny day and the other on a smoggy day. Photo uploaded to Flickr by user Locksley McPherson Jnr on October 26, 2014. CC BY-NC-SA 2.0
Chinese authorities have rolled out a special set of anti-pollution regulations — from restricting the use of cars to banning the funeral tradition of burning a dead loved one's clothing — in order to put Beijing's best face forward as it hosts officials from around the world at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum (APEC).
Specifically, officials are worried about the color of the sky overhead. Smog has often blanketed Beijing and other parts of China in recent years, obscuring the sun and sky during the day.
The sky was really blue for the opening of APEC on November 5, but mainland Chinese social media users, who have dubbed the effort “APEC blue” (APEC 藍 in Chinese), were not so excited about the color.
There is a kind of color in Beijing is called APEC Blue, specially tailored for foreign officials attend APEC meeting pic.twitter.com/Reo2yzK4tG
— Fish Sun (@papersushi) November 5, 2014
Silent snow (@靜靜的雪) explained the meaning of “APEC blue” on Twitter-like Sina Weibo:
【APEC蓝】一个APEC会，全网哗然：限制百姓的出行、取暖、看病，甚至出殡；国外也愕然：一个普通会议，怎么会让学校和政府机关都关门，连死人都要等几天？如此不尊重人权，批评声四起必然。评：天的确很蓝，但不是为我们而蓝！悲哀…
APEC Blue. An APEC meeting has blown up the Web: Regulations are imposed to restrict people from moving around and having access to heating, medical care and even funerals. It has shocked the foreign world. It is just a regular meeting, but we have to close our schools and government services. Even the dead have to wait for a proper burial. Such disrespect for human rights, of course, would attract criticism. The sky is really blue, but it isn't for us! How sad…
To prepare for the APEC meeting, thousands of factories in nearby provinces have been ordered to shut down. Construction projects have been suspended. Tens of thousands of civil servants, teachers and workers at state-owned enterprises have been given a week-long holiday to stay at home. The number of vehicles on the street has been cut in half by regulations permitting people to drive only an odd or even day, depending on the last digit of their license plate number.
All subway passengers have to go through airport-level security checks and a number of subway stations have been shut down to ease subway congestion.
The special traffic arrangement has hit delivery services hard, forcing them to suspend business. Dali_Yang posted a notice from a dairy company, which said their milk delivery service will be suspended for nine days because of the APEC meeting:
No milk deliveries during APEC meeting in Beijing. http://t.co/kOpnrZtvL9 pic.twitter.com/qFNjXo3BqD
— Dali L. Yang (@Dali_Yang) November 2, 2014
Since there is a long holiday, people can, of course, choose to rest at home. However, some may find their houses too cold to stay, given Beijing's cold winter days. The city's temperature has fallen to near 0 degrees Celsius at night. During the APEC meeting, people living within five kilometers of the venue are forbidden to burn coal for cooking and heating to reduce smoke emissions. The same rule applies to small businesses such as restaurants. Jeremy Goldkorn from DANWEI, a China observer blog, reported on Twitter:
All small restaurants near my Beijing office building ordered shut for APEC to reduce kitchen smoke
— Jeremy Goldkorn 金玉米 (@goldkorn) November 4, 2014
While people are making sacrifices to make sure the sky be blue, the authorities were unwilling to give up APEC's welcoming fireworks show and its rehearsal. Jiang Han, a music editor, expressed his frustration on Weibo:
APEC主会场方圆5公里内禁烧柴火，八宝山不让烧逝者衣服，然而昨晚姹紫嫣红的各色烟花在鸟巢上空绽放，迎接APEC会议。只许州官放火，不许百姓做饭。车不让开了，地铁限站了。民生大事竟然因一个会而让百姓普受折腾。
Within five kilometers of APEC's main venue, people are forbidden from burning coal and wood. Offering of clothing to the dead in Babaoshan is also forbidden. But last night, we could see different styles of fireworks staining the sky in reddish colors near the Olympic Bird's Nest building. It was the APEC welcoming rehearsal. The authorities can burn wherever they like and ordinary people can't even cook. We can't drive our cars and the subways have to skip many stations. People have to suffer for a meeting.
Criticism of “APEC blue” have flooded Chinese social media, but most negative comments have been scrubbed from the sites almost immediately. Alternatively, people have “expressed their support” sarcastically like Zhang Hanbing did on Weibo:
支持APEC！我们一定确保不买菜不做饭不洗衣不供暖不生病不公交不地铁不开车不出门不上班不上学……必须的时候，我自愿：三十秒以内不呼吸
Support APEC! We will make sure we won't go to the market, won't cook, won't wash our clothes, won't warm up our houses, won't get sick, won't take the bus, won't take the subway, won't drive, won't leave our homes, won't go to work, won't go to sleep… if it is necessary, I volunteer to not breathing for 30 seconds.
Despite the restrictions, the APEC blue is unlikely to last long. The latest weather forecast predicts smog will likely to return in the next few days. Will Beijing be jealous of North Korea's forever “APEC blue” sky, like writer Choi Seongho said?:
朝鲜的天空，每天都是APEC蓝，太容易被人嫉妒了
The sky of North Korea is APEC blue everyday. It is so easy for others to get jealous.

author: Oiwan Lam


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Dominican Republic Found Guilty of Discrimination Against Haitians · Global Voices
Ángel Carrión

According to reports from Spanish newspaper El País, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (CIDH) found the government of the Dominican Republic guilty of discriminating against Haitians and descendants of Haitians born in the country in a ruling issued on Wednesday, October 22.
The CIDH, based in San José, Costa Rica, understood that the Dominican government had violated the right to nationality of hundreds of thousands of descendants of foreigners following the 2013 decision by the Constitutional Court of the Dominican Republic declaring that all people born to immigrants who entered the country illegally since 1929 are foreigners, which affected several generations.
The CIDH ordered the Dominican government to make reparations and rescind any regulations that arbitrarily deprive a person of his or her right to a nationality.

author: Ángel Carrión


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GV Face: Voting After the Revolution in Tunisia and Ukraine · Global Voices
Sahar Habib Ghazi

Tunisia and Ukraine recently held elections, a challenging feat in a post-revolutionary time. In both countries cutting-edge online platforms were deployed to raise awareness and help monitor voting but the election process itself was marred with logistical difficulties and other circumstances, like the ongoing conflict with pro-Russian forces in Ukraine and an electoral boycott in Tunisia by voters dissatisfied with political performance during the last three years.
GV's Tunisia author Ahmed Medien and our Runet Echo editor Tetyana Lokot  discuss the outcome of the elections, as well as the role the Internet and social media has played in the electoral process in this episode of GV Face.
Also read:

author: Sahar Habib Ghazi


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Hackers Unite to Create Apps and Sensors to Monitor Water Quality · Global Voices
InfoAmazônia

The meetings happened at Garoa Hacker Clube in São Paulo in September. Image by Bruno Fernandes/InfoAmazônia, published with permission.
This post was originally published on the blog for InfoAmazônia, a data and mapping platform focused on the largest tropical forest in the world, and is republished by Global Voices under a content partnership.
Concerned with the current water crisis in Brazil, professionals from several different fields of study met at the event “Hackathon: Data and Sensors to Measure Water Quality”, promoted by a Rede InfoAmazônia team. The purpose of the two meetings, which took place in São Paulo on September 5 and 15, was to discuss alternative ways to monitor water quality (like low-cost sensors) and to disseminate that data efficiently and reliably.
The first meeting was focused on the Amazon and the second on São Paulo's diminishing water reserves. In total, 60 people participated, among them researchers, water resources consultants, programmers, journalists and activists. They have split themselves in two research paths: free hardware development and public data.
The hardware initiative was led by researcher and free hardware developer Ricardo Guima. For Guima, the creation of low-cost sensors is a challenge in face of the copyrighted equipment currently used for environmental monitoring. He believes developing those sensors guarantees data reliability from gathering to publishing.
Ricardo Guima, hardware developer of Rede InfoAmazônia project, coordinated the research path on free hardware. Image by Bruno Fernandes/InfoAmazônia, published with permission.
The public data initiative was lead by journalist Gustavo Faleiros, project coordinator at InfoAmazônia. The group worked on combining public databases on health and sanitation in order to publish analysis through maps and infographics on the Internet. Such work has generated portals Visaguas and mananciais.tk, two applications that broadcast data about the quality and availability of water in the Amazon and in São Paulo, respectively.
Activists Rodrigo de Luna and Maru Whately presented the platform “Cidade Democrática” as an example of citizen involvement in public policies, like those related to the water crisis in São Paulo. They also showed how data visualization might be a key factor in articulation and encouragement of proposals.
At the meetings, participants talked about water analysis methodologies that use larger sample rates than those currently employed by official institutions in the “Amazônia Legal,” the largest Brazilian socio-geographic division in the Amazon Basin.
The discussion was lead by experts in water quality monitoring. Participants also relied on citizen science literature available online, which describes similar projects that have faced well-known obstacles to those who work with sensors.
Testing arduino plates to future prototypes of water quality sensors. Image by Bruno Fernandes/InfoAmazônia, published with permission.
Some participants concluded that systems of autonomous sensors, since they remain exposed to weather, may face some difficulties when meeting strict standards of data gathering. For instance, the fact that the chemical electrode needs to remain in the water for about a month increases significantly the inaccuracy of the data acquired. Ricardo Guima suggested some alternatives presented by the group to solve the issue:
Foi sugerido um sistema capaz de bombear um volume de água em uma câmara interna da caixa do sensor e decidimos investigar tecnologias que solucionem a leitura de dados a partir de técnicas in vitro. O projeto ganhou cara de um microlaboratório de espectrometria (técnica que utiliza a luz para medir concentrações em soluções por meio da interação da luz com a matéria). Para muitos dos colaboradores de São Paulo, que desejavam um sistema para análise da própria água em casa, a solução é viável, mas colocar um microlaboratório de espectrometria à deriva em um rio, lago ou reservatório, é um desafio. O sistema precisaria de uma colaboração mínima da comunidade local.
A system capable of pumping a volume of water in an internal chamber in the sensor’s box was suggested, and we decided to investigate technologies that could read data through in vitro techniques. The project has gained the flair of a spectrometry micro-laboratory (a technique that uses light to measure concentrations in solutions through interactions of light with matter). For many collaborators from São Paulo who wanted a system to analyze their own water at home, this solution is feasible, but to put a spectrometry micro-lab adrift in a river, lake or reservoir is definitely a challenge. The system would need minimum collaboration with the local community.
InfoAmazônia has designed hardware, to be launched in the end of this year, that uses simpler sensors that could meet the minimum requirements of data gathering. This way, it will be possible to articulate with the local communities a group to analyze the water using sensors as those from spectrometry built with free hardware.

author: InfoAmazônia


text:
Protesters Descend on Mexico City to Demand Action for Missing Ayotzinapa Students · Global Voices
Elizabeth Rivera

Parents of missing 43 student teachers from Ayotzinapa marched in Mexico City accompanied by thousands of students and citizens. November 5, 2014. Photo by LUIS RAMON BARRON TINAJERO. Copyright Demotix
Tens of thousands of people marched from the presidential palace to Mexico City's main plaza to demand the safe return of 43 missing education students and protest the regional government's role in their disappearance along with the president's inefficient response to the crime.
Organizers said 120,000 people participated in the Global Day of Action for Ayotzinapa in the city, organized by various Mexican student groups, while police counted 60,000. Protesters’ cries for justice reached every corner of Mexico and the world; news site Revolucion 3.0 described the demonstration as possibly “the largest condemnation march in history” and shared an audiovisual gallery with minute-to-minute updates of the movement.
The protests occurred a day after José Luis Abarca, former mayor of Iguala and his wife María de los Ángeles Pineda, were arrested by federal forces in Mexico City in the early hours of Tuesday, November 4, 2014. Both have been identified by the government and the media as the alleged masterminds behind the initial attack against the students, which left six dead, and the subsequent disappearance of the 43 in Ayotzinapa.
Social media users shared messages in support of the march and images from the scene:
Al grito de “Estado farsante que matas Estudiantes’ #AccionGlobalporAyotzinapa#43×43pic.twitter.com/CseN04mfcB
— Ari Telch (@aritelch) November 5, 2014
With the cry of “deceitful state that kills students”
Fue el estado, fue el gobierno, fuimos todos, ¡NO más impunidad en #México! #AccionglobalporAyotzinapa
— Rosa Mondragón (@rosemondragon) November 6, 2014
It was the state, it was the government, it was all of them, no more impunity in Mexico!
Soy (SOMOS) la voz de los que hicieron callar sin razon, por el solo hecho de pensar distinto. #AccionGlobalporAyotzinapa
— DW (@danielaaweasley) November 6, 2014
I am (WE ARE) the voice of the ones silenced for no reason, because of the mere fact of thinking differently.
Ni error, ni caso aislado, #Ayotzinapa es un crimen de Estado. #AccionGlobalPorAyotzinapa #RexisteMX #FueElEstado pic.twitter.com/n9XBe9qKQ1 — Valeria Hamel (@valehamel) November 6, 2014
Not a mistake, nor an isolated case, Ayotzinapa is a state crime.
Duro hashtag el de la #AccionGlobalporAyotzinapa: nada menos que #FueElEstado — Katia D'Artigues (@kdartigues) November 6, 2014
Difficult hashtag, the Global Action for Ayotzinapa: nothing less than it was the state
El Zócalo lleno de voces en protesta “Nosomos solo la Normal, somos toda la sociedad” #Ayotzinapa #DiaDeAccionGlobal pic.twitter.com/2I7soOl9aZ — Revista Hashtag (@RHashtag) November 6, 2014
The Zocalo plaza filled with voices protesting, “We are not only the college, we are the whole of society”
Many Twitter users addressed Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto, some criticizing his plan to embark on an international tour throughout Asia and Oceania in the critical moment:
“Y cuando el presidente no preside y se achica, deja al país a la deriva.”#AccionGlobalporAyotzinapa #sirenunciapeña #noalagiradepeña — Rene Reyes (@CPC_RReyes) November 6, 2014
When the president doesn't preside and diminishes himself, he leaves the country adrift
“Se va de gira Peña Nieto, con la cara llena de vergüenza, a seguir vendiendo el país”, dice el orador. “¡Justicia, justicia!”, responden. — AlejandroPáezVarela (@paezvarela) November 6, 2014
“Peña Nieto embarks on a tour, with a face full of shame, to continue selling the country”, said the speaker. “Justice, justice!” they answer.
So many others echoed the demand that has circulated online and offline for the president's resignation:
#AlMinuto. Crece el grito de “¡Fuera Peña!” en marcha al Zócalo #AcciónGlobalporAyotzinapa http://t.co/LzEWfFoZJ1 pic.twitter.com/opBs59WNqR — La Jornada (@lajornadaonline) November 6, 2014
Latest news. The cries of “Peña out” are growing at the Zócalo march
#AlMinuto: MÉXICO En el Zócalo, corean “¡Fuera, Peña!” #AcciónGlobalporAyotzinapa pic.twitter.com/nEN7b97q8b
— Edison B. Urbano (@ElPayanes) November 6, 2014
Latest news: MEXICO In Zócalo plaza, they sing “Peña out”
On Instagram and Twitter, users shared photos of the protests. The Miguel Agustín Pro Juárez Center for Human Rights published a snapshot taken in downtown Mexico City.
November 5 wasn't the first time that the Ayotzinapa tragedy has sparked protests. Instagram user pariscervantes uploaded a collage of photos titled “A message for @EPN [Enrique Peña Nieto] from Beaux Arts” two weeks earlier.
Meanwhile, people throughout the country shared pictures of the latest protests from their locations:
#AccionGlobalporAyotzinapa en #Querétaropic.twitter.com/dBPXik4GyA
— Maria Jose Lazcano (@MJLazcanoVM) November 6, 2014
Global Action for Ayotzinapa in Queretaro
Elocuentes imágenes de la protesta estudiantil en Mérida pidiendo justicia por Ayotzinapa pic.twitter.com/RrohWy3Vo9
— YUCATAN AL MINUTO (@YUCATANALMINUTO) November 6, 2014
Eloquent images of the student protest in Merida asking for justice for Ayotzinapa
Social media users also shared their reflections on Mexico's political and social realities:
¿Sabes quién va a salir a defender nuestros derechos?,nadie. Todos son parte del show. #AccionGlobalporAyotzinapa pic.twitter.com/s8IdcfErD5
— Clío (@mcliomm) November 6, 2014
Do you know who is going to defend our rights? No one. Everybody is part of the show
Mexicano, ¿cuando piensas arder? ¿Cuando del desaparecido salga de tu casa? #AccionGlobalporAyotzinapa #FueElEstado pic.twitter.com/rPObokGBqu
— 132Global (@Global132) November 5, 2014
Mexicans, when are you going to react? When the missing people come from your home?
Some remembered the thousand of lives lost in the war on drugs and crime in general, in addition to the 43 missing students:
We miss 43 students, and 22,000 more than have disappeared in Mexico! #RememberAyotzi #AccionGlobalporAyotzinapa pic.twitter.com/Gkse5z6wRj
— 132Global (@Global132) November 5, 2014
There were also voices against the march:
¿Cuándo sus marchan han servido de algo ?sólo buscan pretextos para vandalizar la ciudad. #AccionGlobalporAyotzinapa
— Nathalia Kuz (@Nathaliakuz) November 6, 2014
How many marches have been useful? They are only pretext to vandalize the city
Among all the protests were apologies and hope that this case should not be forgotten
Disculpa las molestias #EPN estamos moviendo a Mexico #AccionGlobalporAyotzinapa
— Marlene (@_lolalatrailera) November 6, 2014
Sorry for the inconvenience, Enrique Peña Nieto, we are moving Mexico
México vibra alrededor del mundo, que la llama nunca muera. #AccionGlobalporAyotzinapa
— Daniela Aedo Santana (@Daniaedosantana) November 6, 2014
Mexico is shaking the world, let the flame never die
#AccionGlobalporAyotzinapa Esperemos que esto no se transforme en solo una moda más, el país no nos puede perdonar mas esas cosas.
— Francisco Agares (@agarescatus) November 6, 2014
I hope this does not end in another trend, the country cannot forgive more of these things
While the parents of the 43 missing students declared during the protest:
“A quien lo tenga, le doy mi tierra y siembras a cambio de q me lo devuelvan vivo”: Padre normalista #Ayotzinapa#AccionGlobalporAyotzinapa
— solociudadanos (@solociudadanos) November 6, 2014
“Whoever has him I'll give them my land in return for my son being brought back alive.” Father of student teacher
“El gobierno anunciará la muerte de nuestros hijos, no nos dejen solos” #AcciónGlobalporAyotzinapa http://t.co/vyrrFdKOvO
— Sopitas (@sopitas) November 6, 2014
The government will announce the deaths of our children, don't leave us alone
At 7 p.m. Mexico time the hashtags  #AccionGlobalPorAyotzinapa (Global Action for Ayotzinapa), #SiRenunciaPeña (If Peña Steps Down) and #Abarca (the former mayor of Iguala and one of the main suspects) were among the top 10 trending topics on Twitter.
Follow our in-depth coverage: Bring Back Mexico's Missing #Ayotzinapa Students

author: Elizabeth Rivera


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Residents of Tbilisi, Georgia Are Out to Reclaim the Sidewalks From Selfish Drivers · Global Voices
Joseph A. Smith

Cars frequently infringe on pavement space in Tbilisi, Georgia. Photo from the Transparency International Georgia blog.
Residents of the Georgian capital Tbilisi have been waging an online campaign to rid their sidewalks of cars, in response to worsening pedestrian conditions in the city.
In a recent blog-post, Transparency International Georgia summed up the problem in the city thus:
One will often come across a situation in Tbilisi where it is virtually impossible to walk on the city’s sidewalks because of the cars parked there. While this situation makes walking in Tbilisi inconvenient for everyone, it creates particularly difficult problems for the disabled individuals moving in wheelchairs as well as for the people carrying children in strollers.
According to Gela Kvashilava, Chairman of the Board of the Georgian NGO ‘Partnership for Road Safety”, who spoke to the author in July of this year, the problem is exacerbated by poor urban planning:
One fundamental issue in Georgia is planning. Even new cities in Georgia are planned around cars. We have few green spaces, an underdeveloped public transport system and no cycle lanes.
Parking in Tbilisi is currently managed by a private company, C.T. Park, which is contracted by the municipal government to implement article 37 of the Georgian Law on Road Traffic and issue fines to offenders. According to the law, parking is prohibited on sidewalks except where there are parking signs and appropriate white markings.
However, several Facebook groups set up to tackle the issue have posted pictures of clear violations of these regulations. A picture posted recently on one such group, Gaitsanit Samartskhvino Mdzgholebi (‘Introducing Shameless Drivers’), shows a car parked in the middle of a sidewalk, inviting the following exchange:
Batoni Kacho:
gzaze ar gaacheros trotuarzec ar daayenos aba sad waiyvano.
If you can’t park on the road and can’t park on the pavement, where are you supposed to take [your car]?
Introducing Shameless Drivers:
რამოდენიმე წრე დაარტყას და მოძებნოს, ან ცოტა მოშორებით გააჩეროს – სიარული რომ ეზარება ყველას. და თუ ეჩქარება – ცოტა ადრე უნდა გამოვიდეს. მაგრამ თუ დანიშნულების ადგილთან უშუალოდ 5 მეტრში ცარიელი ადგილი არ არის – ითვლება რომ ადგილი არ არის და მივაგდოთ მანქანა სადაც მოგვიხერხდება
Batoni Kacho, go round the block a few times and look, or stop a bit further away, [though] everyone’s too lazy to walk, and if you’re rushed, leave [the house] a bit earlier…If there isn’t an empty space approximately 5 metres from the final destination, then people think there’s no space and we can park the car wherever we want.
In the absence of a unified campaign, some Facebook users have taken matters into their own hands, producing stickers to slap on offending vehicles with slogans such as “I’ve parked my car on the pavement” and this one, which provides the number for C.T. Park and the police, reading:
“I’m blocking the way and forcing children, the elderly, people with limited mobility and anyone on foot to have to walk around me!”
There is even a website, Ruli.ge, which is collecting information about serious violations of parking and traffic laws and naming and shaming bad parkers in online articles. The website's leadership confirmed to this author that they do not contact police in connection with the violations.
So far, there has been no public response from the Mayor of Tbilisi on the issue of illegal parking, despite the fact that the recently-elected incumbent, Davit Narmania, has spoken publically about revising the contract with C.T. Park. Although the city authorities seem to want to ‘park’ the issue for now, Tbilisi’s frustrated pedestrians clearly do not.

author: Joseph A. Smith


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Thailand’s Coup Regime Is Meddling With Education to Teach ‘Correct Democracy’ · Global Voices
Khun Somchai

Former Thailand Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra. Photo from Facebook page of Yingluck Shinawatra
Since acquiring power in a coup on 22 May 2014, the Thai military junta has tried to make its mark on the nation's educational system, prompting significant criticism from students and educators.
Most recently the junta required the recitation and memorization of the “12 Values”, a series of statements that promote respect for authority and place national interest over personal interest. The values first appeared in a statement on 11 July 2014 from then-General Prayuth Chan-ocha as part of the junta's “Return Happiness to the People Programme.” The broad statement also included several political promises such as poverty reduction.
In addition to what students must say, the junta has also decreed what students must not say: anything that criticizes the junta. The new rule also prohibits teachers from participating in or holding political demonstrations or discussions. The official decree from the Office of Basic Education of Thailand is reportedly intended to “foster reconciliation.”
The mandatory recitation of the values and the banning of critical speech is part of a larger goal of teaching “correct democracy,” by the junta. The programme mandates using a history textbook that has removed the name of a democratically elected Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra. Thaksin is seen as a controversial figure in the country. His opponents accuse him of corruption while in office, while his supporters point to his halving Thailand's poverty rate and reducing the income gap — goals the junta now claim as their own. In coming to power, the junta ousted another democratically elected leader: Thaksin's younger sister, Yingluck Shinawatra.
Despite the risks of public dissent, Thai citizens have taken to social media to express their concerns. Activists from the group Education Liberation of Siam have started a petition on Change.org asking the government to lift the mandate on reciting the 12 Values. The petition has been promoted on Twitter:
ร่วมกันลงชื่อ ยกเลิก ค่านิยม 12 ประการ http://t.co/Lio0cDdlBS
— Abang Yeed (@AbdulMayeed) October 21, 2014
Join the petition to stop the 12 values
The banning of criticism on campus has received condemnation from several Thai correspondents, such as Bangkok Pundit, who recently placed his blog on hiatus due in part to political pressure. The editing of textbooks received scrutiny from The New York Times as well as Thailand's Prachtatai in September, prompting the junta to announce there is no official policy to remove Thaksin's name, but offering no explanation as to why the edit was made. The move continues to receive criticism from human rights groups such as Amnesty International.
#Thailand‘s ruling junta erases all mentions of ex-PM Thaksin from school textbooks http://t.co/bPwq2b5JZl
— amnestypress (@amnestypress) September 16, 2014

author: Khun Somchai


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Ekho Moskvy Journalist Fired Over “Insensitive” Tweet, Radio Station’s Fate In Limbo · Global Voices
Tanya Lokot

Aleksandr Plushev and Ekho Moskvy are facing pressure from their owner, Gazprom-Media. Images mixed by Tetyana Lokot.
TheRuNet is in uproar over a new scandal that threatens the fate of one of the few arguably independent media outlets in Russia. A comment made on Twitter by a veteran Ekho Moskvy journalist has caused him trouble with the radio station's owners and possibly cost him his job. But is this really about a tweet?
Aleksandr Plushev, a journalist and radio host for Ekho Moskvy, one of Russia's most venerable media institutions, was informed he was being fired by the station and its main shareholder, Gazprom-Media. This news came soon after Plushev posted a tweet commenting on the death of the son of Sergey Ivanov, Putin's chief of staff. Some found the tweet provocative, and others, like municipal deputy and activist Maxim Katz, complained directly to Aleksey Venediktov, Plushev's chief editor.
@aavst Алексей Алексеевич, это нормально что сотрудники Эха ведут себя таким образом в паблике? Будут последствия? pic.twitter.com/j0aMOnjoyN
— Максим Кац (@max_katz) November 5, 2014
Plushev: Do you think the death of Ivanov's son, who once ran over an old woman with his car and later sued her son-in-law, to be proof of the existence of God or some cosmic justice?
Katz: @aavst Aleksey Alekseevich, is it normal for Ekho employees to behave themselves like this in public? Will there be repercussions?
While there's no hard evidence, it seems that Katz's tweet and complaint called a critical amount of attention to Plushev's comments, as shortly after Plushev found out he was being dismissed.
Меня вызвала гендиректор и сообщила, что я уволен. С приказом я не ознакомлен. @aavst узнал об этом от меня.
— Plushev (@plushev) November 6, 2014
The CEO called me in and said I was fired. I did not get to see the decree. @aavst (Venediktov) found out about this from me.
Venediktov confirmed he did not sign any documents as the chief editor, and that Plushev was fired without his knowledge, which was against the station's statute and so, illegal.
Я не подписывал приказ об увольнении Александра Плющева. Он остается журналистом «Эха Москвы».
I did not sign the decree about Aleksandr Plushev's dismissal. He remains a journalist at Ekho Moskvy.
Venediktov also said he did not approve of the tweet, but noted that social networks were a personal space not controlled by the newsroom or the editors. Some Twitter users, like opposition activist Leonid Volkov, applauded Venediktov's position.
Никогда не думал, что это напишу, но Венедиктов прямо молодец. А также п.5. ст. 29 Конституции РФ гласит: "Цензура запрещается".
— Leonid Volkov (@leonidvolkov) November 6, 2014
I never thought I'd say this, but Venediktov did pretty well. Also, section 5 of article 29 of the Constitution of the Russian Federation says: “Censorship is forbidden.”
Plushev eventually deleted the tweet and apologized to anyone who found it offensive, but claimed Katz had criticized him out of spite. Katz, in turn, defended his public criticism in a LiveJournal post, and said this was not at all about freedom of speech, but rather about common decency and journalistic responsibility. He also said he did not expect or want Plushev to be fired: a few days of suspension would have sufficed. Gazprom-Media, it seems, had a different opinion.
Mikhail Lesin, Head of Gazprom-Media, allegedly made the decision to fire Plushev himself and said his dismissal was “a question of morals,” rather than specifically about the tweet.
Это их право, писать такие вещи в «твиттере». На мой взгляд, когда дело касается моральных принципов, на первом месте должны быть они, а не формальные принципы устава. Я на их месте постеснялся бы.
It's their right to write things like this on Twitter. In my opinion, when it comes to moral principles, they should take precedence over the formal principles of the [media's] statute. I would be ashamed if I were them.
Ekho Moskvy's CEO Yekaterina Pavlova spoke to the doubts about the legality of Plushev's dismissal and said “only the court could decide” whether firing him was illegal or not. “We are prepared to go to court on this issue,” she added.
Gazprom-Media's Lesin also insinuated that Venediktov himself could “quite possibly” be fired as well if he did not agree with Plushev's dismissal. Venediktov's assistant immediately quoted his reaction to the threat on Twitter.
Венедиктов: К отставке я готов всегда. К смерти готов с рождения. Но это место медом не намазано.
— Леся Рябцева (@gdekak) November 6, 2014
Venediktov: I'm always prepared to resign. I've been prepared for death since I was born. But this place [the chief editor's chair] is not such a hot number.
Plushev, who has worked at Ekho Moskvy for almost 20 years, has been in the Kremlin's crosshairs before: just over a week ago, on October 31, Russian communications watchdog Roskomnadzor issued a warning to Ekho Moskvy for publishing the transcript of a radio interview Plushev did with journalist Timur Olevsky of TV Rain and journalist/photographer Sergey Loyko of Los Angeles Times on their website. The interview discussed the journalists’ experiences at Donetsk airport, where they witnessed the struggle of Ukrainian forces and rebel fighters. Some journalists have speculated that Plushev's dismissal was tied to this incident, and that the tweet was just a reason to cause trouble for Ekho Moskvy.
Hilariously, Gazprom-Media's Lesin was himself dismissed over a breach of “state official ethics and systematic disciplinary violations” in 2009, when he was an advisor to president Medvedev and already a fairly influential figure in the Russian media market.
Whether Plushev's dismissal is really a “question of morals” or just a convenient pretext to crush one of Russia's few remaining independent media will become clear as the situation progresses. There is already rampant speculation about how likely it is that Venediktov will really lose his post at Ekho Moskvy, as well as why the Kremlin might want to put pressure on a media outlet that is owned by Putin-frendly Gazprom, and what this says about Kremlin's relationship with Russian media in general.
Regardless of how serious the repercussions of a single tweet will be for Ekho Moskvy, for now Aleksandr Plushev has handed in his security pass and is not allowed back in the studio. In the end, it seems, the story is very much about freedom of speech and about what Russian journalists can get away with saying in public. Leonid Bershidsky, a former chief editor of the Russian news site Slon.ru, who himself emigrated to Berlin citing an unfavorable media climate in Russia as his reason, sees dark times ahead for free media in Russia, as evidenced by his rather ruthless comment on the Plushev-Katz-Ekho Moskvy debacle:
If you don't want them to mess with you, work for the LA Times, not for Gazprom.

author: Tanya Lokot


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Japanese TV Debate on Anti-Korean Hate Speech Turns Nasty · Global Voices
Nevin Thompson

Screenshot of confrontation between Osaka Mayor Toru Hashimoto and Zaitokukai leader Makoto Sakurai, via YouTube user 2020 Tokyo.
A shouting match between the controversial mayor of Osaka and the leader of a Japanese “uyoku dantai” far-right group generated a firestorm of social media commentary earlier in October.
The controversy erupted after Osaka Mayor Toru Hashimoto agreed to allow his meeting with Makoto Sakurai to be recorded for broadcast. Sakurai leads the Zaitokukai, an ultra-right-wing group that has repeatedly engaged in what in many Western countries would be regarded as hate speech.
The Zaitokukai's target? Ethnic Koreans residing in Japan. Osaka, Japan's second city, is home to many permanent ethnic Korean residents of Japan, and Osaka mayor Hashimoto had come to refute many of the Zaitokukai’s crazy and inflammatory claims about them.
The meeting between Hashimoto and Sakurai went off the tracks after only 10 minutes when both men started shouting at each other.
TBSの全国ニュースでも、橋下vsヘイト豚 pic.twitter.com/5UlsHFhisD
— pinball (@flipperpinball) October 20, 2014
Hashimoto vs. Hateful Slimeball makes the TBS national news.
The consensus seems to be that Sakurai provoked the shouting match by refusing to use respectful language when addressing the Osaka mayor.
However, Hashimoto was quick to give as good as got from Sakurai, addressing his debate opponent in the most impolite way possible:
橋下「お前なぁ」 桜井「お前って言うなよ」 橋下「うるせぇ！おめぇ」 何度聞いても吹き出すｗ(ﾉｼ＾ω＾)ﾉｼ☆ﾊﾞﾝﾊﾞﾝ pic.twitter.com/NcB4Q9y3WN
— ＼ｷｬｵｰﾝ／ﾄﾎﾎ団安静中 (@tohohodan) October 20, 2014
Hashimoto: Well, an asshole like you…
Sakurai: Hey, don't call me an asshole.
Hashimoto: Oh, just shut up, you asshole.
@tohohodan: No matter how many times I hear it, I always burst out laughing! ｗ(ﾉｼ＾ω＾)ﾉｼ☆
One of the most upvoted comments accompanying the YouTube video is disdainful of Sakurai:
何で民族を一括りにして罵倒するのかの理由が「日本人がひとくくりにされて罵倒されたからやり返してるだけ」とか、高校生かチンピラかヤクザかなんかか？在特会は暴力団かなんかですか？消えろよ桜井もろとも。ていうかこの世から去れよクズが。
Sakurai says that he's not singling out Koreans for abuse but is instead “paying them back for all of the abuse Japan has been subjected to by Koreans.” Is he trying to act like a high school bully or a mafia thug? The Zaitokukai sure seems like an organized crime outfit. Go away, Sakurai and company. I hope the world will soon be rid of your human trash.
Another YouTube commenter says:
こうゆうネットに感化されて、間違った歴史認識をしたり、人間的に欠落してる人たちを正すのも我々日本人の役目。本当に日本が好きで、日本人なら、絶対橋下さん派になるはず。こうゆうやつら踏み外してる日本。
It's our role as Japanese citizens to correct the lies and distorted history that are being spread by the Zaitokukai members, who seem to lack any humanity whatsoever. If you really love Japan and you are Japanese you will do whatever it takes to stand with Hashimoto. The Zaitokukai are truly trampling on Japan.
It's a little unusual for Hashimoto to come across as the the good guy. As one commenter on Twitter noted:
橋下が大人に見えた(笑) 橋下徹vs在特会・桜井誠 【全】10/20: http://t.co/z8A7ebHIUK
— 三田光 (@mita0306) October 20, 2014
For once Hashimoto comes across looking like an adult, LOL
Originally a lawyer and television personality, Osaka mayor Toru Hashimoto has been a polarizing figure in Japanese politics since 2008, when he became governor of Osaka Prefecture. Besides taking on teacher unions during his time as governor, Hashimoto went on to help found a populist political party that is roughly equivalent to the Tea Party in the United States, or UKIP in Britain.
Along the way Hashimoto has made controversial statements about comfort women, calling the thousands of World War II sex slaves kept by the Japanese imperial military “necessary.” He has also waded into international disputes.
His downfall was set in motion when Hashimoto stepped down as governor of Osaka Prefecture to successfully campaign to become mayor of the Osaka City. The unusual downward move was all in hope of merging the various cities of Osaka Prefecture into one large metropolitan region. This masterplan was rejected by Osaka Prefecture voters, and Hashimoto has receded from the national spotlight.
Hashimoto is still considered to be a wild card by Japanese standards. Sakurai's parting shot at Hashimoto was “Go back to Tobita Shinchi.” Tobita Shinchi is a red-light district in Osaka, and Sakurai's insult is a reference to Hashimoto's stint providing legal counsel to brothels in the district, and the perception that Hashimoto has a laissez-faire attitude towards prostitution, forcible or not.
Besides his controversial approach to politics, Hashimoto's notoriety also comes from his family background. It's generally recognized that Hashimoto has roots in Japan's dowa community, a caste of “untouchables” concentrated in the Osaka region. It's notable that someone with Hashimoto's alleged background has risen so far in life.
Traditionally, many dowa communities were established in western Japan in and around Osaka. Ethnic Koreans who, like the dowa, have also traditionally been discriminated against in Japan also often reside in dowa neighbourhoods.
Prior to the confrontation between Hashimoto and Sakurai, the Zaitokukai was fined and ordered to stop harassing staff and students at a Korean school in nearby Kyoto Prefecture.
The Zaitokukai is not a fringe group, but in some ways acts as a proxy for prominent national politicians. Several members of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s cabinet have been forced to deny their far-right links after photographs surfaced of them posing with far-right figures, including the Zaitokukai.
Other members of Prime Minister Abe's cabinet have been photographed with Nazi leaders, and there has been a rising awareness in Japan about the issue of hate speech.
While ultra-right “uyoku” groups and their sound trucks equipped with loudspeakers blasting their messages have long been a fixture of Japanese cities, social media combined with thorny relations between Japan and its neighbors have allowed these groups to become more prominent in recent years.

author: Nevin Thompson