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26 April 2012

Brazil: Activists Protest in Memory of Military Dictatorship

Written by Raphael Tsavkko Garcia · Translated by Melissa Mann · Latin America

A number of cities throughout Brazil held both real and virtual events to remember Brazil's Military Dictatorship (1964-1985). Activists held protests to push for punishing the Dictatorship's criminals and to fully open the still classified files.

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25 April 2012

Cuba: Resorting to Hunger Strike

Written by Janine Mendes-Franco · Caribbean

Cuban netizens, primarily from the diaspora, are once again blogging about instances of police abuse in the country and how the island's justice system routinely makes hunger-strikers out of prisoners of conscience.

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24 April 2012

Sri Lanka: Monks Demand Demolition of a Mosque

Written by Rezwan · South Asia

Last Friday around 2,000 Buddhist monks and local residents staged a violent protest in Dambulla town in Sri Lanka demanding that a mosque along with a Hindu temple situated in an area designated as a Buddhist sacred zone be demolished.

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Brazil: Journalist and Blogger Executed in São Luís, Maranhão

Written by Raphael Tsavkko Garcia · Latin America

On the night of April 23, Brazilian journalist and blogger Décio Sá was shot dead in a bar in the most crowded avenue of the city of São Luis, in the northeastern state of Maranhão. He had ties with political figures of Maranhão and his blog was the most accessed in the state.

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Malaysia Prepares for Bersih 3.0 Sit-Down Protest

Written by Mong Palatino · East Asia

The Malaysia election reform movement Bersih (Clean) has organized a Bersih 3.0 Duduk Bantah (sit-in protest) on April 28 at Dataran Merdeka. It's the same group which gathered more than 50,000 people in Kuala Lumpur last year in protest against the 'undemocratic' electoral exercise in the country

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22 April 2012

France: #RadioLondres, Election Day Fun and Dissidence on Twitter

Written by Claire Ulrich · Western Europe

After a gloomy presidential election campaign, French voters are finally having fun on voting day, with hashtag #RadioLondres, to oppose the ban on publication of early results.

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21 April 2012

Russia: Liberal Democrats Join Opposition to Ulyanovsk NATO Hub

Written by Kevin Rothrock · Eastern & Central Europe

In the last week, Vladislav Naganov and Aleksei Navalny, two of Russia's most prominent liberal democrat bloggers, entered the debate about a proposed NATO transit hub in Ulyanovsk. The transit hub (or "military base," as critics call it) is unlike most Russian political issues that involve the North Atlantic Alliance, as the Kremlin in this instance has agreed to cooperate with (rather than resist) the West.

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This Week in the Caribbean Blogosphere

Written by Janine Mendes-Franco · Caribbean

In last week's summary of the regional blogosphere, a young comtemporary artist from Barbados made the observation that the region is “more than the beach and coconuts.” Here's a round-up of what Caribbean netizens were talking about this week, with not one mention of beaches or coconuts...

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20 April 2012

Bolivia: Questions Over Murder of Indigenous Female Council Member

Written by Pablo Andres Rivero · Latin America

The murder of Juana Quispe, an indigenous woman and Municipal Council Member, has boosted the demand for the Plurinational Assembly (Bolivia's Parliament) to pass the Law "Against Political Violence and Harassment based on Gender". Civil society and different organisations also demand appropriate and timely investigation of the unfortunate crime.

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17 April 2012

Cuba: Diaspora Blogs About Dissidents

Written by Janine Mendes-Franco · Caribbean

The plight of prisoners of conscience is a front-burner issue with Cuban diaspora bloggers. This week, they are talking about two in particular: Jose Daniel Ferrer Garcia, a former member of the Black Spring “Group of 75″ and Andres Carrion Alvarez, the man who was detained after shouting, “Down with Communism!” prior to the start of a mass during Pope Benedict XVI's recent visit to the island.

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Updates about Law

24 April 2012

Slovakia

On April 18, 200-250 [sk] people attended a protest against illegal construction near Bratislava Castle, organized by Bratislava Openly [sk]. The west side of a new white house (a continuation of a historical building, photo here) had to consist of just the ground floor and a minimal attic, but the builder - architect Dušan Fischer - discovered a 2.5-meter [sk] mistake in the measurements of height above sea level and decided to use it to increase the building's height illegally (photo). Such violations are widespread in Slovakia; to set a precedent and prevent this from happening again, the protesters demanded demolishing at least part of the building.

• Tibor Blazko

23 April 2012

Sri Lanka

“The growing number of abductions and disappearances in Sri Lanka is not getting the amount of publicity the issue deserves,” comments Sanjana Hattotuwa.

• Rezwan

22 April 2012

Colombia

The “Lleras Law 2.0”, which was hastily approved to fit requirements for a Free Trade Agreement with the United States, was taken before the Constitutional Court on April 18 by Senator Camilo Romero [es], who argued it contains parts that threaten rights enshrined in the Constitution. Netizens [es] are invited [es] to support the demand before the court with signatures [es] and peaceful marches [es].

• Lully Posada

21 April 2012

Slovakia

Radovan Bránik highlights an instance of child abuse in his photo report, Slavery in the streets of Bratislava, 21st century [sk]. His pictures show a girl from Romania who, instead of being at school, is playing accordion for money in Bratislava's Old Town. A few older kids stand nearby, permanently checking for police presence and quickly taking the money earned by the girl. An adult woman, probably the kids' mother, is enjoying coffee and sandwiches, while the girl often has to run away from the police. A solution offered by the blog's readers: do not give them money.

• Tibor Blazko

Bulgaria

Blogger Nikolay Delchev condemned [bg] the reaction of the Bulgarian interior minister Tsvetan Tsvetanov to the recent student protests against construction at the National Sports Academy's Black Sea training facility: “[…] Interior Minister almost regrets that ‘the whole repressive apparatus that they (the police) have by law has not always been used.' This was said by a minister of a democratically elected government in a European country in the early 21st century. Please leave comments, because I have no words. […]” A video of Tsvetanov's controversial statement is here [bg].

• Ruslan Trad

19 April 2012

Macedonia

Greenbox blog reports [mk] that Toni Dimitrievski, director of Мetrudhem, the corporation that intends to restart the lead smelting factory in the city of Veles, has filed a lawsuit against environmental activist Igor Smilev for “endangering security,” “unauthorized recording,” “slander” and “insult,” requesting EUR 20,000 in damages. So far, only one political party, DOM, a junior “green” member of the vast ruling coalition, has protested [mk] against this “immoral” form of pressure. Before moving into the private sector, Mr. Dimitrievski had served as head of the Public Revenue Office and as an appointed manager [mk] of the state-owned Tobacco Company in Prilep.

• Filip Stojanovski

18 April 2012

Macedonia

At TOL's East of Center, Barbara Frye writes about the situation in Macedonia, following the recent murder of five men outside the capital Skopje.

• Veronica Khokhlova

17 April 2012

Serbia

Bill Kralovec posts a short roundup on the upcoming parliamentary elections in Serbia, scheduled for May 6, and shares his “political platform,” asking Serbian readers to help him “match which party most resonates with [his] opinions.”

• Veronica Khokhlova

Russia

At OpenDemocracy.net, a translation [en] of Svetlana Reiter's Esquire.ru interviews [ru] with two activists who have spent the past month hungerstriking in Astrakhan, protesting the results of the disputed mayoral election together with ex-candidate Oleg Shein. (An earlier GV text is here.)

• Veronica Khokhlova

16 April 2012

India

Soumalya Ray at Medica-India explains the recent Supreme Court judgement which upheld the Right to Education and mandated 25% reservation in private as well as government-aided minority schools for children from the weaker sections of society.

• Aparna Ray