Global Voices

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The world is talking, are you listening?

Amical Wikimedia, the association that promotes Viquipedia, the Catalan Wikipedia, has got a chapter of its own within the international structure of the Wikimedia Foundation. This recognition comes after a five-year-long discussion to be recognized as representative of a unique language and culture, as previous criteria required chapters to represent states. Now they will have the right to share experiences with other countries and access the funds raised through readers’ donations. This announcement arrives at a time when Catalonia is involved in a debate about becoming independent from Spain.

A civic statement on Col·lectiu Emma (@CollectiuEmma)'s blog criticizes the way the Spanish government is dealing with the political situation in the region of Catalonia, where 55 % of the population favors independence [ca] from Spain, according to an official poll. The statement explains the “strategy of fear” and other “hostile” arguments, and claims for “a friendly separation, preferably under international supervision and with external support for both parties.” The post is available in English, Spanish, German, French, Arabic, Russian, Portuguese, Italian and Dutch.

The Spanish Constitutional Court just suspended Catalonia's Declaration of Sovereignty, which the regional parliament of Catalonia approved by majority on 23 January, 2013. Amid rising tensions between Spain and Catalonia, the decision has generated strong reactions on offline and online media.

Thanks to a diverse team of collaborators, the online Catalan-language publication Vilaweb [ca] offers the Declaration of Sovereignty in 50 languages.

Every week, a different Catalan citizen or any person who lives or has lived in Catalonia (regardless of her/his nationality or citizenship) will tweet from the account @CatalanVoices to talk about what she or he likes, feels and thinks about Catalonia. What they share will also be published on the project's blog. This is a project launched by the Public Diplomacy Council of Catalonia (DIPLOCAT) and inspired in existing initiatives like @ScotVoices.The project's goal is to “raise awareness about Catalonia” and boost discussion about “the current democratic political process concerning Catalonia’s political status in Europe and Spain”.

‘L'endemà. Respostes per a decidir‘, a documentary project about Catalonia's potential independence from Spain, produced by Isona Passola [ca], earned a record-breaking €150,000 on the crowdfunding platform Verkami on February 15, 2013. Passola, who produced the award-winning film Pa Negre [ca], hoped to reach that amount in 40 days, but reached that goal in just eleven. Previously, the crowdfunding record in Catalonia was €,50,000, according to the Catalan-language journal Diari Ara [ca].
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The Catalan Association for Scientific Communication, the Spanish Association of Scientific Communication and the Society for the Progression of Critical Thinking have started an Internet campaign via online petition platform Change.org asking for scientific accuracy in La Vanguardia, one of the widest circulated Catalan newspapers and part of the Grupo Godó. So far they have collected 826 signatures. The petition, which is in the form of a letter addressed to the editor of La Vanguardia Josep Rovirosa, demands “not only respect for science but above all quality journalism, whether scientific, specialised or of a general nature” [all links lead to Catalan speaking pages].