On the night between February 10 and 11, an airplane of the Czech airline CSA first circled for 40 minutes trying to get the dysfunctional flaps to work, and then performed an emergency landing. The pilot managed to stop the plane at the end of the recently extended runway.

Among the passengers were the British Member of the European Parliament Richard Howitt, and the Macedonian Minister of Foreign Affairs Nikola Popovski. Within the EP Foreign Affairs Committee, Mr. Howitt serves as the Rapporteur on Macedonia - and he is also an avid Twitterer. He tweeted immediately after the incident:

All now fine but just had emergency landing at Skopje on aircraft whose flaps failed. Told take brace position. Thought could be the end.

Richard Howitt MEP tweeted immediately after touching ground.

…and added some more details:

Emergency landing. Snow on runway. Fire engines lined up. Stewardess said: “pray, pray, pray.” #Czech Airline staff heroes. All OK now.

A report by MIA (a Macedonian state news agency) provided more details:

As the plane was landing, smoke appeared from the tires and the captain managed to stop the aircraft right at the end of the runway.

Howitt later commented:

…I didn't know at time about smoke. Told Foreign Minister: give pilot medal for stopping plane

Quite a few people re-tweeted Howitt's info and wrote to express support and relief. Mallen Baker wrote:

Glad it ended well - nightmare situation that anyone flying would prefer to avoid! Great that everyone safe

Extension of the runway was a part of the deal with the Turkish company TAV, which renovated and manages the airports in Macedonia through a 20-year lease contract.

While the cited flaps malfunction might have nothing to do with the weather, the ongoing Balkan snow storm does affect the air traffic in the region. A few days ago, the Macedonian Army helicopters that were supposed to carry supplies to the cut-off mountain villages could not take off [mk] due to continuous snowfall.

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Kris Haamer summed up the Lisbon event:

‎”ACTA is censorship, a return to dictatorship” was what the group, many in Guy Fawkes masks, were shouting in an Anti-ACTA march in Lisbon center. I would describe it as small and unorganized (perhaps 200 people) with little structure and focus on coherent messaging. Very few people with laptops or iPads, iPhones, etc to share the message and only 1 tv station takin an interest..

"ACTA seems to be a marginal concern in Portugal. Few people mostly the youth". Photo by Kris Haamer on Foursquare (used with permission).

In Porto, although more than one thousand netizens had confirmed on Facebook their intention to participate in the protest, only a few dozen actually concentrated in the Aliados Avenue, in front of the City Hall. Some of the demonstrators came from Braga, as they decided to join forces in just one city in the North, due to low participation there.

Protest in Porto. Photo by Nuno Gomes on G+ (used with permission).

The protest, which was livestreamed on the blog of #AnonymousPortugal, then moved to the entrance of the newspaper Jornal de Notícias, in order to capture the attention of mainstream media, with success.

Protest in Porto. Photo by Nuno Gomes on G+ (used with permission).

In Coimbra, out of 154 confirmations on Facebook, only 21 people joined the demonstration.

Protest in Coimbra. Photo sent by an anonymous (used with permission).

"I had a motto but it was censored." Photo from Coimbra sent by an anonymous (used with permission).

In Viseu only 7 people joined. A new demonstration is scheduled for February 18 in Évora.

Activist on intellectual property issues Maria João Nogueira, wrote on her blog an open letter [pt] to the Prime Minister Pedro Passos Coelho where she mentions some of the countries that have stepped back from signing the agreement, recalling that:

o Embaixador Português no Japão já assinou a ACTA em nome de Portugal (e ainda não vi o pedido de desculpas), embora, curiosamente, não haja notícia desta assinatura, nem da posição do Governo Português acerca deste “tratado”.

On a different post she mentions a statement from 2010 that was signed by some of the members of the Parliament who “had reservations about the transparency of the process and have expressed doubts regarding the contents of this treaty”. Nogueira shares [pt] a list of the representatives, as well as their emails addresses, and invites readers “to ask the ones who signed if they have already clarified their doubts, and to those who didn't sign it, why they didn't do it, and what's their opinion/position about the subject”.

While the treaty is open for signature until March 31, 2012, Avaaz's world wide petition has already gathered more than 2.1 million signatures in just two weeks.

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They call themselves “the children” of 15M despite the fact that the majority of them far exceed the age of 60, they are retired, they are “iaios” (grandparents, in Catalan) and they are veterans of long-term activism.

Celestino Sánchez, Antonia Jover, Adrián Rísquez, and Rosario Cunillera are some of the members of the the “Iaioflautas,” a collective that emerged in Barcelona last October alongside the camping grounds in Plaza Catalunya.  Its objective is to support the youth in their own way. But the fight, they assert, is the same: “for a dignified democracy by name and social justice against conspiratorial bankers and politicians.”

The “iaioflautas,” whose name was invented in solidarity with the “perroflautas” (gutter punks) — a derrogatory term with which the president of Madrid used to refer to the young occupiers — combine some of the methods they used in the anti-Franco, labor union, local or leftist fights with their learning about new technologies. To summarize, they organize a “direct action” in the street once a month, almost in secret, and do not announce it on their Twitter account, @iaioflautas, or blog [es] until it has already begun. That way, they avoid problems with the police.

The first event took place in November, when they occupied a Santander Bank office in Barcelona.  The most recent one, called “Operation #RebelionBus,” occurred on Wednesday, February 1. Some 70 “yayos” (grandparents) arranged to meet in the very center of the Catalan capital and “hijacked” a bus in protest of the abusive increase in public transportation fares.

They chose Line 47, in reference to the missing bus driver and syndicalist Manuel Vital [es] that hijacked a bus on this line in May of 1978 to demonstrate that he could get to his neighborhood. The following is part of a series of tweets that they started writing a few days before with the help of young activists:

January 30:

@iaioflautas: #eldía1F los @iaioflautas vamos a hacer algo muy loco. (puenting…como que no). Filosofía #occupy 99% ¿Le dais un meneito? Gracias!

@celescolorado: Miércoles 1 por la mañana nueva travesura de @iaioflautas, síguenos

January 31:

@iaioflautas: Tic-tac, tic-tac…cuenta atrás para una travesura más. Será #eldia1f ¡especuladores, os vais a enterar! Somos el 99%. No olvidamos.

February 1:

@iaioflautas:  En marcha! Hoy será un día largo. No olvidéis el bocadillo, medicaciones varias… Hoy entramos en acción. ¡Atentos!

@iaioflautas: Calentando motores, q frío que hace!

@iaioflautas: Hemos ocupado un autobús, el 47, en pl. Catalunya. Somos más de 70 @iaioflautas, la acción ha empezado, seguidnos en #rebelionbus

@iaioflautas: [Calle] Industria con Sardenya. Que se escuche: rechazamos las reducciones de tarifas y el plan de recortes salariales #rebelionbus

@iaioflautas: Aquí podéis ver algunas fotos de #rebelionbus. Vamos por Ronda Guineueta. Estamos ocupando el bus 47 http://www.iaioflautas.org/2012/02/operacio-rebelionbus/

@iaioflautas: Bueno, el trayecto de ida ha acabado. Ahora, volviendo para la Plaza Catalunya. Sobre las 12:30 haremos una asamblea allí #rebelionbus

@iaioflautas: Final del trayecto mañanero de la #rebelionbus. La lucha continúa con #yonopago esta tarde. pic.twitter.com/8GaRmzSw

@celescolorado: En la asamblea final en pz. Catalunya @iaioflautas hemos cantado el cumpleaños feliz a un compañero, Manolo González cumplía 80 años

And here is the video that @15Mbc_tv recorded and edited:

The #RebeliónBus operation had been prepared a week before, during a meeting I attended.  I had been following the Iaioflautas for some time online, and I wanted to get to know them.  There they finalized the details of the action and began planning the “prank” that they will carry out in March.  This is part of what some of them told me:

Celestino Sánchez, 61 years old:  

Celestino. (Screen shot taken by the author)

El 15M representó para gente como nosotros una especie de aire fresco. La situación ha cambiado y hay un nuevo escenario y tenemos que volver a aprender. Eso no quiere decir que nuestro pasado no sirva, pero las cosas son diferentes. Por ejemplo, hace diez años era impensable que se convocara a través de las redes sociales la ocupación de la plaza Catalunya. Se decía que la gente joven no hacía nada, y hace, hace mucho. La gente de las generaciones futuras vivirá peor que la del pasado, ese es otro cambio. Lo que creo que no ha cambiado son los objetivos: una sociedad en las que las personas podamos vivir libremente, que tengamos vivienda, transporte, que estudiemos. Eso lo queríamos hace treinta años y ahora también, sigue siendo vigente. 

Antonia Jover, 72 years old:

Antonia. (Screen shot taken by the author)

Me gusta mucho esta forma de lucha, porque pienso que es una forma directa y, además, responde a la concepción que siempre he tenido de la democracia. La democracia es poder del pueblo, ningún gobierno puede ser democrático, porque los gobiernos son represivos. La verdadera democracia está en el pueblo y en la vigilancia del pueblo de que los gobiernos cumplan lo que prometen. Los iaioflautas podemos aprovechar las experiencias que teníamos del franquismo. Entonces los que queríamos una sociedad democrática teníamos un enemigo común, el franquismo, un sistema bárbaro y represivo. Y ahora, ¿por qué no hacer una misma experiencia de la unidad contra los especuladores y los financieros? Nos afecta al 99% de la población y sólo es el 1% el que se beneficia. Ésta es la idea.”

Adrián Rísquez, 77 years old:

Adrián. (Screen shot taken by the author)

En los iaioflautas me siento muy bien. Llevo cinco años encerrado en la Federación de Asociaciones de vecinos hablando de la sanidad sin salir a la calle y como nuestra trayectoria fue en la calle, dentro de los locales no me aguantaba. Con los iaios hacemos lo que me gusta, en la calle, porque lo hicimos en aquellos tiempos y lo estábamos echando en falta. Decíamos que era necesario que la juventud saliera a la calle, pues ya está en la calle y ahora lo que tenemos que hacer es estar con ellos, que ellos aprendan de nosotros y nosotros de ellos. No se puede estar en casa porque las cosas que tenemos no las hemos conseguido en casa. La sanidad pública se consiguió en la calle y tenemos que conseguir en la calle para que no nos la quiten.

Rosario Cunillera, 66 years old:

Rosario. (Screen shot taken by the author)

Todo empezó cuando fuimos a la plaza Catalunya a ver a los jóvenes y saber qué pensaban. No entramos en su lucha, porque, para mí, era totalmente diferente a cuando vine a Barcelona, a los 18 años, a luchar contra Franco. Pero fue un impulso nuevo. Ellos van a encontrar su forma de luchar, pensé, con el Twitter y todo esto. Y me apunté a los iaioflautas y cada vez que hay algo de los jóvenes, procuramos ir. Los jóvenes del 15M nos han dado un poco de ilusión y eso es algo que nos faltaba a la gente mayor.

This post is part of our special coverage Europe in Crisis.

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The many protest movements that followed the implementation of austerity measures in a number of European countries dealing with the sovereign debt crisis, should have taught us that when a national economy is left at the mercy of interest rates and financial markets, sooner or later you can expect its people to express their discontent. Especially in a country, like Italy, already strained by years of government mismanagement, and where to the budget and democratic deficits, an information deficit needs to be added to the equation.

Since mid-January, Italy has been swept by a wave of protests, which began in Sicily with the mobilisation of farmers, truck drivers and fishermen, mostly small business owners, later joined by the Sicilian population at large, including waged workers, students and the unemployed. The movement goes by the name of Forza d'Urto [it] (”shock force”), better known as “the Pitchforks Movement”.

The Pitchforks Movement, image from Facebook.

From January 16, trucks brought the island's roads and motorways to a standstillfor six days through at least 26 blockades, disrupting the circulation of goods and bringing business to a halt, with long cues for petrol and empty supermarket shelves.

The protests later spread to other regions [it], with strikes and blockades all over Italy. In Rome, during a fishermen demonstration in front of the Chamber of Deputies, three demonstrators were reported injured. A mass mobilisation against the austerity package implemented by Prime Minister Mario Monti and his cabinet, lamenting especially the steep rise in the price of petrol. However, during the first few days of the protests, the Italian media was largely silent, except for a few local newspapers, as Marco Cedolin points out in his blog Il Corrosivo [it]:

I media mainstream in queste stesse ore tacciono, reputando (e lasciando intendere) che in Sicilia non stia accadendo nulla che meriti attenzione, tutto tranquillo e nessun problema.
Davvero la protesta in questione è una vicenda d’importanza ed incidenza così minimale da non meritare neppure un servizietto di 50 secondi, di quelli che comunemente vengono dedicati perfino al nuovo tatuaggio sfoggiato dal vip di turno?

The sectors on strike are protesting against the government liberalisation package, but are also united by a sense of disenfranchisement from the whole of the “political caste”: fishermen who claim to be no longer able to sustain the costs of running their business because of excise tax; truckers who can't afford to transport goods at the low fee determined by open market competition because of rising petrol costs. Because of this, the mobilisation was met with a lot of skepticism and accusations that it merely represents a set of narrow interests.

On Fuori Onda Blog [it] David Incamicia reflects this position, which tends to criticise the movement for putting all the blame on the current government, which last November inherited from Berlusconi a country with a broken economy and a shattered international reputation:

Le piazze in rivolta avevano certamente motivo d'essere fino a qualche settimana fa, quando l'irresponsabilità di “un sol uomo al comando” e la sua ostinata resistenza al potere hanno finito per rendere ancor più dura e di difficile risoluzione la pesante situazione sociale del Paese (…)

Ma oggi, proprio per evitare il tracollo definitivo, occorre che tutti giochino nella stessa squadra (…) Gli egoismi vanno rimossi senza se e senza ma. Così come l'ancora poderosa demagogia che arringa a destra e a manca.

While those keen to seize the opportunity to voice criticism of the current government (like the far-right party Lega Nord, now at the opposition) seem to ignore that the farmers movement (or Pitchforks Movement) was actually born last summer [it], and that fishermen have been organising strikes since 2008, there persists an inability (or lack of willpower?) to define the nature of the movement, which paves the way to confusion and exploitation for different political ends.

During the strikes, mainstream media focused on alleged mafia infiltrations [it] and the death of a trucker in Asti [it], while on Facebook the pages devoted to or associated with the movement proliferated, revealing, among other things, a number of links [it] with the neofascist movement Forza Nuova, which supports the Pitchforks. Commonly used hash tags on Twitter were #fermosicilia, #forzadurto e #forconi.

The following comment by Veneti stufi [it] on what labels itself the movement's official Facebook page [it] is representative of this confusion:

Non capisco più nulla, pagine colme di rabbia e non di vera indignazione/protesta, ma quali sono i VERI FORCONI? Il sito non è attivo, ognuno in rete dice tutto ed il contrario di tutto, USATE la rete e coinvolgete le persone, non date modo di strumentalizzarvi.

However, at the various marches organised in various cities around Sicily, including Gela (in the video) and Palermo, there were students, the unemployed and young people with all kinds of political affiliations, as demonstrated by the following press release [it] signed by the Studentato Autogestito Anomalia [it] (Anomaly autonomous student centre) e dal Laboratorio Vittorio Arrigoni [it] (Workshop Vittorio Arrigoni), two of the city's main social centres:

La protesta popolare che si sta diffondendo in Sicilia come tutte le proteste di questo tipo sono complesse, di massa e contradditorie, ma di sicuro parlano il linguaggio della lotta contro la globalizzazione, contro equitalia e lo strozzinaggio legalizzato che sta mettendo in miseria larghe fasce della societa' siciliana , contro la casta politica di destra e di sinistra (…)
Noi, militanti di centri sociali e di spazi occupati della citta' di Palermo, sosterremo la lotta di “forconi” e autotrasportatori perchè frutto di una giusta battaglia e perchè ricca di positive e “incompatibili” energie; per questo, come sempre, saremo al fianco di chi lotta contro la crisi e questo intollerabile sistema.

According to Marco Cedolin [it], the protest deserves attention because it tries to go beyond the ideological divide:

Non so quanta “fortuna” avrà la protesta dei Forconi che sta paralizzando la Sicilia, così come non conosco le prospettive di una movimentazione che sembra manifestarsi (per la prima volta in Italia) realmente trasversale, abiurando i partiti e tentando di mettere nel cassetto le divisioni settarie fra “rossi e neri” che da sempre minano alla radice qualsiasi battaglia in questo disgraziato paese, conducendola ogni volta sul binario morto della diffidenza e dei distinguo.

The failure of public opinion to comprehend the nature of the protests is also, and perhaps especially, the failure of the mass media to tell the story, another legacy of the Berlusconi years (Italy is 61st in Reporters Without Borders' world press freedom index 2011-12, and one which politicians still hesitate dealing with [it]. For Davide Grasso, writing on the blog Quiete o Tempesta [it], the Pitchfork protest was:

l’ennesimo successo a metà del sistema italiano dell’informazione. Successo nel combattere le aspirazioni dei soggetti sociali che scelgono la strada della protesta ma fallimento (opposto e speculare) nel comprendere e riportare un rilevante fenomeno sociale.

Lastly, Nicola Spinella writes on Agoravox [it]:

Il celebre motto “divide et impera” rivela ancora oggi, dopo due millenni, la propria immortalità: è bastato agitare davanti al popolo il fantasma della mafia infiltrata nelle fila degli autotrasportatori, assimilarli a sigle dell'estrema destra, per ridurre la protesta ad un fuoco di paglia. Difficile pronosticare uno scenario futuro per tutta un'Italia scossa dal salasso Monti e da un ventennio di malgoverno berlusconiano.

The dialogue between the government and the movement appears to have reached a standstill, and a new wave of protests was due to start on Monday 6 February, with sit-ins in a number of sicilian towns and cities. A few of these have been reported, but it looks like the planned occupation of seaports and oil refineries has been postponed. Long queues at petrol stations in Messina were reported on Saturday 4 February, allegedly in preparation for the strikes.

This post is part of our special coverage Europe in Crisis.

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Hello World!

Welcome to another edition of the Global Voices podcast. In this episode we talk through some of the ideas and issues surrounding the global Occupy movement and protests, as we listen to recordings from our team in different parts of the world.

My Greek Co-Host

In this edition, I “occupy” the podcast with Asteris Masouras, Global Voices author and Global Voices in Greek editor.

Asteris has been monitoring the global #Occupy movement online since it all began. Who better to accompany us through this edition of the podcast?

We got together on Skype and discussed Greece, Europe, and the Occupy world, especially in regards to how the movement communicates with itself and others.

Occupy Denmark

Global Voices in Danish co-editor, Maria Grabowski Kjær in Denmark, visits the Occupation there to find out what their methods and messages are. Though many seem to think the protesters are hippies, Thomas, who helped organise the movement in Denmark, aims to prove that this stereotype is not true at all.

Thomas of Occupy Denmark talked to Maria Grabowski Kjier about the movement

London papers

Here in London, the Occupy movement at St Paul’s Cathedral is presented with a newspaper called The Occupied Times of London. I met with Steve Maclean, the editor of the paper, to find out how it works.

Occupy London, Steve Maclean, editor of The Occupied Times

A Camp in Maine

Frances Harlow is an independent radio producer, and friend of Global Voices. In Portland, Maine in the United States, she recorded at a local Occupy camp during her studies at the Salt Institute, after graduating from Brown University.

Frances’ report shows that it’s not always easy to consolidate a message among such passionate people. You can listen to more of Frances' brilliant audio work here.

What do you make of the global Occupy movement? Is there a camp near you or do you participate?

It’s not easy to fit the entire movement into a short podcast but it has been interesting to highlight the similarities and differences across borders. There’s a whole lot more you can read up on at the special coverage page about the global Occupy movement on Global Voices.

Music Credits
In the podcast you can hear lots of lovely Creative Commons music. Thanks to Mark Cotton for his fantastic creations and thanks also to all of the wonderful voice over performances and clips that help to glue the podcast together.

The Global Voices Podcast, the world is talking, we hope you’re listening!

This post is part of our special coverage #Occupy Worldwide.

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The hashtags #CensuramestaTwitter and #TwitterCensored were used on a massive scale by Twitter users to show their disagreement with the website's decision, and #CensuramestaTwitter became a trending topic in various countries in the region as well as in other parts of the world.

Just as the hashtags indicate, the first reaction to Twitter's decision was to cry censorship. One of the first bloggers to argue the point was Colombian blogger Víctor Solano, who characterized the day as “one of the saddest days in the history of social networking freedom,” and among other things said [es]:

Image by Andreas Eldh, under Creative Commons Generic Attribution 2.0 license (CC BY 2.0)

Así las cosas, si esto hubiese ocurrido hace un año, no sabemos cómo habría sido el desarrollo de la ‘Primavera árabe’, el fenómeno que sacudió gobiernos como los de Túnez, gracias a la participación muy activa de los ciudadanos inconformes a través de las redes sociales. Con esta decisión, muchas de las ideas se convierten potencialmente en subversivas si llegan a incomodar a cualquier gobierno, sin que este tenga que ser necesariamente una dictadura.

Afterwards he reflected on how this new measure would be implemented:

Cuando un tweet alerte que hay una irregularidad en el día de las elecciones en un país que esté regentado por un gobierno que lleve, digamos, ocho años en el poder, ¿El gobierno podría solicitar que lo borre porque altera la tranquilidad y el orden? Casos como este y muchos más manipulan la puerta giratoria entre la libertad y la represión a la perseguida libertad de expresión.

From Spain, we hear from Rodaimos, who writes for the blog Mi mar conceptual, apart from aggregating other microblogging alternatives such as StatusNet [en] and the own well-known platform, identi.ca [en], speculated [es]:

No hace falta decir, que esto atenta no solo contra la libertad de expresión, sino también contra la libertad de prensa. Además, nos deja ante una inquietante pregunta: Si Twitter es capaz de hacer esto públicamente, ¿Qué es lo que hará a escondidas? ¿Pasará Twitter un listado de infractores a las autoridades de cada país?

On the Spanish technology website Bitelia, JJ Velasco commented [es] along the same lines:

Creo que la nota de Twitter es muy desafortunada ya que intentar vestir la censura como una herramienta para cumplir la legislación francesa o alemana es una excusa muy pobre que apenas se sostiene pero, por muchas vueltas que se le de, la censura seguirá siendo censura y, con este anuncio, Twitter le brinda a muchos gobiernos la posibilidad de ejercer dicha censura a nivel local. Un movimiento bastante triste.

From Mexico, Sophiegadget of SweetieGeeks.com gave [es] a practical example of what could potentially happen with Twitter's actions:

En México, ¿Qué pasa si al gobierno se le ocurre que este es un país seguro, que no hay balaceras ni narcotráfico? ¿Twitter censuraría todos los tweets con este tipo de contenido? Si así fuera, comenzaríamos a vivir en la mentira, y no solo en un país de mentiras, en un mundo de mentiras

Twitter, for its part, has declared [es] through a spokesperson that “our announcement has nothing to do with censorship,” adding that the announcement “absolutely does not imply any type of change” in its policy or philosophy on freedom of expression. Eduardo Arcos of Ecuador agreed with Twitter's declarations, and said on ALT1040 that “Twitter will not censor” [es]:

Twitter ha eliminado contenido y hasta eliminado cuentas desde hace años. No es nada nuevo. Es normal, y además ¡es necesario! ¿Les parece bien que si un gobierno hace una demanda formal a Twitter para que se retire contenido publicado por una persona a páginas de pornografía infantil, estas no se eliminen? La libertad de expresión no solo es un derecho, es una responsabilidad y Twitter como plataforma tiene que mantener esos principios, tanto ofreciendo el servicio sin costo a cualquier persona que desee usarla para expresarse como también ejerciendo control hacia aquellos que intentan aprovecharse para cometer delitos.

To this he added later:

Por último Twitter busca hacer todo esto de la forma más transparente posible y junto a Chilling Effects ha creado una sección donde detallará cada caso en que un gobierno pida que se censure un contenido particular. De tal forma que nosotros sepamos exactamente quien y por qué pide que un contenido no se muestre. […] Entonces tranquilos, nadie los está censurando y el poder de publicar en esta plataforma no está en peligro.

Claudio Ruiz, of Chile, on FayerWayer agreed with this opinion, reflecting that [es]:

Antes de hablar de censura y abuso en los nuevos términos de uso hay que tomar en cuenta que hoy se bajan contenidos de redes sociales. Todos los días. Y todos lo hacen, algunos con mayor transparencia (Twitter, Google), otros con menos (Facebook). Y esto, por lo demás, es razonable que ocurra. Es un derecho vinculado a la protección de la privacidad poder solicitar la bajada de ciertos contenido bajo las circunstancias que la ley local establezca para la protección de cierta información personal. Esto no va a cambiar con las nuevas políticas. La diferencia entre lo que sucede hoy y las nuevas políticas es que ahora dicho bloqueo sólo tendrá efectos locales. De censura poco puede haber si las bajadas de contenido se hacen 1) Localmente; y 2) bajo las reglas establecidas en las leyes locales y no de manera arbitraria.

However, this is not the opinion of the majority and a TwitterBlackout was organized on Jan. 28, in which users stayed away from the platform for the entire day. The Twitter activity under the hashtags #TwitterBlackout and #j28 were going strong, and #TwitterBlackout became a Trending Topic worldwide. Manuel Moreno on Trecebits pointed out: [es]

Twitter ha conseguido enfadar a sus usuarios. A lo grande. Su anuncio de que ha desarrollado un sistema que permitirá eliminar los mensajes de los usuarios que no cumplan con la legalidad en algunos países ha sido considerado por muchos como censura. […] Veremos si mañana desciende el número de tweets en protesta por la medida… y si Twitter escucha a sus usuarios esta vez.

Finally, Enzo Abbagliati, on El Quinto Poder in Childe, reflected [es] on the motivations for protest:

Los ciudadanos debemos exigirles a nuestros estados una defensa sin ambigüedades del estándar democrático. Y ese estándar incluye en su base la libertad de expresión. Pero en el mundo en red, ese estándar también debemos exigírselo a las empresas de la red, a esas que bajo las lógicas de la Sociedad de la Información, hacen de nosotros y nuestros contenidos, la fuente de su prosperidad. Twitter debe cumplir las leyes que rigen en todos los países donde opera o espera funcionar. Eso está fuera de toda duda, pero si para aumentar su penetración mundial cierra los ojos a las restricciones de libertad de expresión que en muchos casos existen, en lo personal no me gusta. Si lo aceptamos, estaríamos dando por perdida la batalla que entre libertad y control está teniendo lugar por estos días en las redes.

Other articles on the topic:

Technosociology - Why Twitter’s new policy is helpful for free-speech advocates
Global Voices Advocacy - What Does Twitter’s Country-by-Country Takedown System Mean for Freedom of Expression?
Mashable - Relax: Twitter’s New Censorship Policy Is Actually Good for Activists
Thenextweb - Worried about possible restrictions on Twitter? Here’s how to get around them.
HuffingtonPost - Twitter Censorship Policy Ignites Global Outrage

Written by Juan Arellano · Translated by L. Finch · View original post [es] · comments (0)
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The event, which was followed through the #KSMG (Kurdish Social Media Gathering) tag, was live streamed and joined in via Skype and YouTube by those who could not be there physically, although there were participants who had traveled from as far as Australia to participate. It was held on January 21, 2012.

@xoshink: @TaraFatehi speaking at the #KSMG in London! She travelled all the way from Australia! #Bijî!#TwitterKurds

One of the organizers, @kurdishblogger, tweeted a photo of @TaraFatehi speaking to the participants:

@TaraFatehi is here from Australia to talk about Kurdish issues&Kurds in Australia #Twitterkurds#KSMG12 #Kurdistan pic.twitter.com/wVTqS0k3

A Kurdish Twitter user @TaraFatehi flew in from Australia to attend the KSMG in London. Photo shared by @kurdishblogger on Twitter

Others who were not physically there joined in the conversation with how they use the #TwitterKurds tag to communicate.

@xoshink: Social media connected me to amazing people around the globe; helped me find Kurds locally with ambitions to make a change.

@Vexhevxwaz: I totally agree with @apogeeculture1.#TwitterKurds inspired me to organize actions in my local Kurdish community.

Participants focused on social media strategies, Twitter in particular, to attract attention to a given news story, as well as carry out a campaign.

@Shakawan: Q: where do we go from here ? should trending kurdish issues be the top priority?

@B9AcE: Tactics should be chosen from a strategic goal. TT reaches mainly new mainstream. Directed campaigns a #TwitterKurds

@B9AcE: Need new, high impact topic. Send it to large noise makers, asking for it to be spread starting at same time.

@WRyaM: social media tools are also podcasts, Events, collective bookmarking wikis… so let us use them all

Organizers then showed a video sent from Diyarbakır, “sent to them for this gathering by Abdullah Demirbaş, who is the mayor of Sur Municipality in Diyarbakır.” The presenter also noted it was

“worth making a mention at this moment of a very important agency in Amed (Diyarbakır) called @AjansAmed - it's a new social media organization website, a group of social media activists who have put together these videos that you are seeing tonight. Abdullah Demirbaş was part of a campaign to get people tweeting. Every Thursday we were tweeting #abdullahdemirbas, because he has a medical condition he needs to leave America for but he can't travel, because he was taken to court and now he has a travel ban.”

Xende Biradostî tweets:

@Wekhevxwaz Thank you, #KSMG for raising awareness of the plight of #AbdullahDemirbas. #TwitterKurds

Image shared by Halkevi Media on Twitter of the event

One of the speakers was Mehmet, from Halkevi Media, in London. His presentation also included strategies to use social media towards what he saw was beneficial to the Kurdish communities:

This gathering to me is one of the most important events of 2012. I work for Halkevi, the social media part at @halkevimedia, so social media is very important to me. I think we have been lacking in the social media area for quite a while and our numbers are not maximized, there are more Kurds on the internet but they are using it more for their personal stuff, but (social media can also be used) to create awareness and consciousness of Kurdish issues and democratic struggle of Kurdish people and people in the region. I want to talk about the importance of social media in diplomacy - we need to increase the social media effect in diplomatic spheres. We need to determine the agenda rather than having our agenda formed by outside events, such as arrests, operations, etc. We need to have our agenda and initiate to lead rather than be led by political developments that constantly change. Also, we constantly tweet the same thing, it's not getting outside. We need to target certain individuals, for example Middle East correspondents of every single international media organization and MPs. Social media needs to be not separate from grassroots, there are 200,000 Kurds in this country, we needed to have more people here. We need to use different strategies to engage them.

Next, @quzzulqurt from Turkey joined in via Skype. He noted that “this (social media) is a big chance for us around the world to come together. Before there was only Roj TV but now we have this chance and must use it to create awareness, for non-Kurds and Kurds in the region.”

@Zurdosh: @Kurdishblogger has just asked @quzzulqurtabout reporting in English more in North Kurdistan (turkey) #TwitterKurds#KSMG

@PerwinBerdizi: #KSMG#TwitterKurds it is our job, we kurds who can speak ceveral language to translate to the diasporan people

Participants elaborated more on reaching out to professional journalists during breaking news events.

@kurdishblogger: in order to attract the attention of international media, it is extremely important to have a photo, video or witness who can testify. Say, a BBC journalist needs at least 2 witnesses. They don't have that much time, you have to help them. You need to have a photo and you need to give context. People post photos on facebook without any explanation, I am Kurdish and I might know but you can't expect an international journalist to know (what the context is).

@PerwinBerdizi: #KSMG#TwitterKurds unfortunately today's journalism is about copy+paste therefore, do half of their job and contribute with throughout news!

@B9AcE: @AbsoIuteBanana Nowadays activists must basically write journos articles with pictures & quotes for them. Complete work. #KSMG#TwitterKurds

Tweeps deemed the gathering an overall success, with many people asking if there will be similar events in the future.

@apogeeculture1: We have now had participants from all parts of Kurdistan and Australia, Japan, Turkey, Israel! Kurds go International! #ksmg #twitterkurds

@kurdishblogger: “Tweets are more powerful than bullets” Quote of the day at first Kurdish Social Media gathering#Twitterkurds who said this? #Kurdistan

Further reading:

More reactions are available on this Storify compilation by Nigar Hacizade.

Written by Nigar Hacizade · comments (4)
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A week after the broadcast of an opinion piece by the journalist and renowned writer Pedro Rosa Mendes, on public radio Antena 1, the RDP (Portuguese Radio Broadcast) [en] announced the end of the show “Este Tempo” (This Time). The piece in question criticized the “coarse exercise of propaganda and mystification” which was broadcast live from Angola in a public TV (RTP) show with the participation of several politicians, governors and business men, including Minister Miguel Relvas.

A new report published on January 24, points to the reason for the end of the program according to Rosa Mendes, “the administration didn't like the last piece about RTP and Angola”. In the blogosphere and on social networks it did not take long for reactions to the “axing of freedom of expression in Portugal”.

Journalist Helena Ferro de Gouveia, on her blog Domadora de Camaleões, sums up the content of the piece:

Free information. Photo of a stencil in Lisbon by Graffiti Land on Flickr (CC BY-NC 2.0)

um retrato em que ninguém fica bem ao espelho, nem a elite portuguesa, nem os engravatados angolanos – incomodaram o “baton da ditadura” e alguns serviçais lusos que vendem princípios a preço de saldo. (…)

A verdade sobre a “oleocracia” angolana, país onde a cornucópia da riqueza é restrita a alguns e mais de metade da população vive na mais abjecta pobreza, é uma fronteira que não se atravessa.

Mozambican blog Ma-schamba describes the episode as a “detailing of the cue-taking by Portuguese power from Angolan capital”. Angola is better known in Portugal as a destination for those who cannot find jobs in face of the economic crisis, than for the political, economical and social ins and outs pointed out by Rosa Mendes. Moreover, in December 2011, the Portuguese Prime Minister Pedro Passos Coelho recommended the unemployed to migrate to Angola (among other Portuguese speaking destinations).

A week before the news, the politician and scholar José Pacheco Pereira revealed his worries with “the progressive control over the Portuguese media by Angolan economic groups who, wherever they touch and enter, end the possibility of saying what was said before.” Even before the announcement on the radio program was made, on his blog Abrupto, he wondered “what is the ‘Information' of RTP for?”:

o que leva a RTP em aperto financeiro a enviar uma equipa à cidade mais cara do mundo, gastar tempo de satélite, deslocar pessoas e bens para acabar por fazer um pífio exercício de propaganda centrado nos estereótipos sobre a relação entre Portugal e Angola, bem longe de qualquer realidade? O que leva a tão deprimente e caro exercício de banalidade absoluta, a não ser dar tempo de antena a um ministro, por singular coincidência o mesmo que tutela a RTP, acolitado pelos mesmos de sempre (…)?

More questions about the current state of public broadcasting services were also raised by Raquel Freire, another journalist from “Este Tempo”, who stated in her farewell piece (transcribed on Facebook):

Numa democracia o serviço público serve para ser a voz das pessoas. Numa ditadura serve para ser a voz do dono, ou seja do governo. Na nossa situação actual, temos um governo que nos manda a nós portugueses emigrar, e ataca os nossos direitos fundamentais. Por isso, a rádio pública ser a voz do governo, não é sequer ser a voz daqueles senhores que alguns de nós elegeram, porque este governo é a voz da chaceler alemã, é a voz dos banqueiros alemães.

"Censored" journalists from "Este Tempo": António Granado, Gonçalo Cadilhe, Raquel Freire, Rita Matos and Pedro Rosa Mendes. Poster by Art.21º shared on Facebook together with the transcription of the Portuguese Constitution on Freedom of Information and Expression.

The news came out one day before the publication of Reporters Without Borders' ranking [en] on international press freedom, 2011-2012. Portugal is in the 33th place, 7 places higher than in the last report published by the end of 2010.

While analyzing the report, journalist and researcher on Angolan issues, Orlando Castro, said on his blog Alto Hama in an ironic tone “this year Portugal and Angola will climb up a few more places, thanks to - especially but not only - the RTP show made in Luanda and RDP's decision to cut off those who don't want to be the voice of the owner”, and added:

Creio que o relatório não refere mas, quanto a mim, tudo se deve ao contributo decisivo dado pelo ministro Miguel Relvas e, é claro, a Fernando Lima, consultor político do Presidente da República de Portugal, e seu ex-assessor de imprensa, para quem “uma informação não domesticada constitui uma ameaça com a qual nem sempre se sabe lidar” [Nota GV: declarações noticiadas a 4 de Janeiro].

“The truth is a poison”, said Rosa Mendes in his last piece, broadcast on January 25. The journalist closed with harsh critiques of an “a  society asphyxiated by the values of silence, cowardice and fawning” after 40 years of democracy in Portugal:

Podemos sempre pensar que apenas em cenários limite - genocídio, a guerra, extermínio - acontecem escolhas-limite; e que é a violência absoluta ou é a humilhação ou o sofrimento absoluto que impõem a revolta, o inconformismo, a coragem; ou não. Tenho para mim que as escolhas-limite se fazem todos os dias, no nosso quotidiano; e duvido muito que quem vive de espinha dobrada em tempo de paz , em tempo feliz (como é já nos esquecemos o tempo democrático) seja capaz de endireitar a espinha em tempos difíceis.

The Regulatory Authority for the Media (ERC) is already investigating the case, concerning the possible “violation of rights, liberties and warranties  in media activities”.

Written by Sara Moreira · Translated by Janet Gunter · View original post [pt] · comments (0)
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Shock and awe awaited Greek citizens on Monday January 23, 2012, when Louka Katseli, former minister of labour and social security (2010) and minister of economy, competitiveness and shipping (2009), revealed that she had had only three hours to read the IMF memorandum tackling the country's debt crisis.

Michalis Chrysochoidis, current minister for development, competitiveness and shipping and former minister of citizen protection, admitted on a morning television show interview [el] that he signed the IMF memorandum without having read it at all, arguing that “simply, he had other obligations during that time, as he was fighting against crime”:

Minister Manolis Chrysochoidis. Photo by Flickr user Piazza del Popolo (CC BY 2.0).

News spread quickly on the web reacting to the remarks, including extremely negative comments and derogatory insults from netizens, expressing their disdain for the political system, and mocking the minister's excuse.

Within one to two hours, the case became a world trending topic via the Twitter hashtag #de_diavasa_to_mnimonio_giati (I didn't read the memorandum because…):

@northaura: Now whole twitter “parties” with the “I didn't read the Memorandum” statement of Min. Crysochoidis, in hashtag #De_diavasa_to_mnimonio_giati

Global Voices Author and Editor Asteris Masouras (@asteris) made a Storify collection of various posts, photos and tweets. Below listed are some samples of Greek netizens' tweets and comments:

@agamemnon_st: Αφού δεν ήταν δουλειά σου να μελετάς το μνημόνιο και τους νόμους, γιατί ήσουν βουλευτής;

George Kallis: den exeis tsipa epanw soy na valeis thylia sto laimo soy !!!! exete katastrepsi olh thn ellada me tis ypografesas

'The Dark Knight returns to fight crime on Athens' mean streets'. Image mocking Minister Chrysochoidis' statement. Photo via Twitpic by @Teacherdude.

@ngeor: #De_diavasa_to_mnimonio_giati I was elected to lead, not to read.

@Ovelikios: Δεν έχω διαβάσει το μνημόνιο αλλά έχω δει την ταινία

@natachef: #de_diavasa_to_mnimonio_giati δεν άνοιγε το attachment.

@Stathisgr: Mnimonio? LoL, Too busy beating protesters

@mpampaki: “Είχα να αντιμετωπίσω το έγκλημα. Ο Ρόμπιν είχε πυρετό κι ο Τζόκερ είχε απαγάγει το γιο του Επιθεωτητη Γκόρντον.”

@nchrysoloras: #De_diavasa_to_mnimonio_giati μόνο ο Τσακ Νόρις έχει διαβάσει το Μνημόνιο

Twitter user @mirsiniloizou posted: "and here, the photo of #didn't_read_memorandum_because". Photo shows "protagonists of the day" Ms. Katseli and Mr. Chrysochoidis.

After the intense criticism, Chrysochoidis published the following Facebook status update (original text in Greek here):

I want to clarify and confirm my point. Yes, I repeat that I didn't read the memorandum. I didn't deal with either the text or the procedures of “supposedly” negotiations. This wasn't declared with pride. Even more, I don;t say this in order to shirk responsibilities. On the contrary. I consider this as one of the biggest errors of my political career; because I appreciated wrongly those critical moments and I was preoccupied with the minor issue, my work as a minister, instead of the major one, my responsibility as a member of the country's leadership. I said that to stress how much everyone has to change. We used to trust every leader, every prime minister; to vote in the Parliament and to agree in the government. Those times belong to the past and this model faded. What is needed is collectivity, personal responsibility and contribution. […]

During last year, the government and members of parliament have been the target of heavy criticism for their acceptance of the IMF memorandum and their inaction against the socio-economic crisis of the country, which has urged many of them to defend their beliefs and political actions.

Another “disclaimer statement” was made on October 2011 by former PASOK MP Thomas Rompopoulos, who argued [el] during a radio show broadcast: “Nobody had the time to read the Memorandum, neither I did nor anybody did; We authorized [Minister for Economy at the time] Papakonstantinou to sign for it. It was a matter of trust”:

In addition to the bold accusations Minister Chrysochoidis himself received, many netizens via social media have also criticized the general political scene, but also the “blindness” of they themselves, who have been conniving with the politicians' foul actions:

Panagiotis Giannoudis: Ζήτω η Βουλή των Ελλήνων!

@helena_chari: greece doesn't need weapons of mass destruction; it's got its politicians

dangler69: Τελικά το διάβασε και κανένας; Ίσως εκείνοι που διαγράφηκαν.

@Dr_Troy: #De_diavasa_to_mnimonio_giati ” και που με περιγελούν τώρα, αρκετοί απ' αυτούς θα με ξαναψηφίσουν. Ξεχνάνε γρήγορα, βλέπεις…

@cpil: Ενώ όλοι εσείς, το διαβάσατε το μνημόνιο.

@MilitaryRaiden: Όλοι πέφτουμε από τα σύννεφα με ομολογία ανικανότητος Χρυσοχοΐδη αλλά όχι με τη διατήρηση δικαιώματος ψήφου των ηλιθίων που το εξέλεξαν.

@tgeorgakopoulos: Σσσσ, ακούς; Κάνε ησυχία -ακούς; Είναι ο ήχος 299 εκτυπωτών σε γραφεία βουλευτών. Τυπώνουν το μνημόνιο.

@sVathis: Οι έλληνες ανέκαθεν δεν διάβαζαν user manuals

Finally, during the following day, user Arkoudos concludes bitterly, reflecting the saddest part of Greek economical and social crisis [el]:

@arkoudos: Δεν σας πληρωσα το χαρατσι της ΔΕΗ;Αχχ χιλια συγνωμη,*δεν το ειχα διαβασει*,ειχα παει να ικετευσω για δουλεια,για να εχουμε να φαμε το βραδυ

This post is part of our special coverage Europe in Crisis.

Written by Veroniki Krikoni · comments (0)
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