Stories from and

Non-Japanese Who Stayed in Sendai After 3.11 Earthquake Walk for Recovery

  26 September 2014

Despite being uncertain of what the future might bring, dozens of non-Japanese people decided to remain in their adopted home of Sendai, a coastal city located in the north of Japan hit by massive tsunami triggered by the earthquake of March 11, 2011. Sharing the footsteps to recovery, those standing together...

European Citizens Call for the Protection of Media Pluralism

  20 January 2014

“European institutions should safeguard the right to free, independent and pluralistic information”. The quote, from the Media Initiative website, summarizes the main idea behind a pan-European campaign that aims at urging the European Commission to draft a Directive to protect Media Pluralism and Press Freedom. The Media Initiative is running a European Citizens’ Initiative – a tool...

Europe: Entropa

  23 January 2009

Belatedly, links to some posts on Entropa: Margarete of The Foreigner's Guide to Living in Slovakia believes “it should be taken down”; Kosmopolito thinks that “the debate around the project is also part of the installation”; BBC's Mark Mardell writes that “the fact that it is a hoax does not...

Slovenia: Janez Janša and Magnus Berglund

  11 September 2008

Borut Peterlin thinks that Finnish journalist Magnus Berglund should be awarded “a Slovenian national medal of honor” for making public PM Janez Janša's graft allegations. There's even a Facebook group (with 662 members so far) devoted to Berglund and the story he broke.

Finnish voice on death of Ingushetian publisher

  2 September 2008

Istori posts a speech by and publishes a statement about the Ingushetian publisher Magomed Yevloev, who was killed by Russian police in the weekend. Together with Anna Politkovskaya, Yevloev – the publisher of closed-down news site ingushetiya.ru – was a frequent guest at the Finnish-Russian Civic Forum.

Japan: Filtering going global

  15 February 2008

Blogger and social activist Sakiyama Nobuo [ja] (see earlier coverage) picks up a number of recent news stories and predicts that it may not be long before Chinese filtering policy is no longer thought of as “another country's problem” [ja]. He points to the launch of the Mobile Alliance against...

Armenia: Scandinavian Invasion

  2 November 2007

Armenia and me posts an account and photographs of what is a rare sight indeed — 150 Scandinavian running through Yerevan's Victory Park as part of a World Wide Orienteering Promotion. Arriving in the country from Iran, the blog reports that local onlookers were at first shocked to see so...

Estonia: International Relations

“But why waste so much energy on that relationship with diminishing returns?” writes Itching for Eestimaa about Estonia's relations with Russia, and continues with an overview of Estonia's relations with other countries.