Global Voices · Citizen media stories from 2008 January 17

17 January 2008

Daily archive · 4 posts

Stories from 17 January 2008

Bolivia: Blogger Named to National Electoral Court

Written by Eduardo Avila · Latin America

The Bolivian blog community is generally very supportive of its members. Recently, a well-known blogger was named to a high ranking position within the Bolivian government. Normally, a pat on the back and other displays of congratulations would have accompanied this new appointment. However, when the blogger in question was named to head up the National Electoral Court (CNE for its initials in Spanish), many bloggers began to question how appropriate was this new member of the CNE.

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Israel: Law for Censorship of Web Comments Passes Initial Knesset Voting

Written by Gilad Lotan · Middle East & North Africa

Israeli web culture is known for having an active talkback (web commenting) scene. Every major news site allows users to submit comments for every single one of its stories. Israeli culture at its best and worst thrives through discussions held within these spaces; discussions which are planned to fall under future censorship, according to the Talkback Law, proposed by Knesset member Israel Hasson. The proposal passed initial voting in the Knesset yesterday, January 16th.

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Armenia: Politics — The Driving Force Behind Blogs?

Written by Artur Papyan · Central Asia & Caucasus

Last week, the main topics discussed in the Armenian blogosphere were the election manifesto of former president Levon Ter-Petrossian and the presidential election in neighboring Georgia. It's no wonder that...

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Kazkahstan: Surviving or Prospering?

Written by Adil Nurmakov · Central Asia & Caucasus

Kazakhstan is a country of contrasts, with no exaggeration: desperate poverty neighbors with arrogant wealth, economic growth is accompanied by decline of social sphere and expansion of state control, and...

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Updates from 17 January 2008

Saudi Arabia

Window on Eurasia reports that the Russian Federation's Muslims make hajj “under the flags of their national republics or even nations.” This may change next year, though.

• Veronica Khokhlova

Russia

Sean's Russia Blog writes about the Freedom House's recent verdict on Russia: “not free.”

• Veronica Khokhlova

Russia

Mark MacKinnon posts for the first time this year: an update on the news from Russia and elsewhere.

• Veronica Khokhlova

Russia

Axis of Evel Knievel writes about Ivan the Terrible.

• Veronica Khokhlova

Russia

Interesting insight into the British Council scandal from Dmitri Minaev of De Rebus Antiquis Et Novis - in this post's comments section at Siberian Light: “These attacks never really stopped, but the British embassy managed to keep the offices running till in 2007 Russia finally demanded that some offices be closed. In Sochi, Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk, Tomsk, Samara, Volgograd and other cities, the staff was fired and the libraries were transferred to the local universities. Now, Russia wants to close two more offices, leaving only one in Moscow. I think I can understand why BC decided to try a new tactics of opposing the authorities.”

• Veronica Khokhlova

Russia

Ongoing coverage of the British Council row - at A Step At A Time: “An interesting feature of the present crisis, which was obviously prepared in advance by the Russian authorities, is the flooding of British media comments boards (the Mail and Telegraph are the two leading examples at present) with anti-UK and pro-Putin messages posted by Russians posing under English-sounding names.”

• Veronica Khokhlova