Several Iranian bloggers including Rsoreported [fa] that Abbas Palizdar, a judicial investigator accused senior ayatollahs and officials of corruption. It happened for the first time in Islamic Republic history.
[...] Isaac introduces Hamid Tehrani, the Persian Language Editor for Global Voices and a frequent commentator on the Iranian blogosphere. Tehrani examines the myths and realities of the impact of social media tools on the recent post-election Iranian protests. He believes that the Iranian protests proved the power of citizen media, with many people risking their lives to post videos and messages to the internet, but that the use of these tools was often misunderstood by the mainstream media. As early as 2006 Iranians were using blogs to coordinate and publicize protests. YouTube videos stirred major protests over a sexual harassment scandal at Zanjan University and corruption charges against senior ayatollahs. [...]
Krista, from the collective blog Muslimah Media Watch, shares her family's passion for “ridiculous and tacky” salt and pepper shakers. Their latest acquisition, a gift bought in Dubai, has raised a lot of questions in Krista's mind.
How do international media represent cities in South America, Asia, Africa and the Middle East? Is it fair or helpful to development? A symposium of scholars from the London School of Economics in London, United Kingdom explore this topic. See video.
As the situation in Syria worsens, and more terrifying reports arrive from the Homs district of Houla, Foreign Policy-hosted blog Turtle Bay summarizes a report [PDF] from UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on the UN observer mission. This “gloomy” account clearly shows that measures recommended by Kofi Annan have not been implemented, and a viable peace plan is not yet in place despite diplomatic pressure. Ban Ki-moon notes that “while many fear the implications of a further militarization of the conflict, some have doubts that peaceful change is possible.”
Local open governance activists in Tunisia have launched the first open data website showing the municipal budget [ar, fr] of the city of Sayada for the current fiscal year. The Tunisian open governance community [ar, fr] has had some success in increasing the government's transparency; they have already convinced the Tunisian presidency to reveal its budget.
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