Global Voices · Citizen media stories from 2009 January 28

28 January 2009

Daily archive · 8 posts

Stories from 28 January 2009

Egypt: “Kleenex” Literature at the Cairo International Bookfair

Written by Marwa Rakha · Middle East & North Africa

With more than 15 new titles, Egyptian bloggers took the 2009 Cairo International Book Fair by storm. Conventional writers label bloggers' literature as “Kleenex” Literature. Marwa Rakha reviews reactions from the Egyptian blogosphere in this article.

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Erin Brockovich wanted in Egypt

Written by Marwa Rakha · Middle East & North Africa

Egyptian Blogger sued for slander and looses. Zeinobia wrote about Tamer Mabrouk who blogs from Port Said and who published a report supported by photography showing how “Trust Chemical Industries” Company was polluting the Lake Manzala with its chemical wastes from their factory. Author of “El Hakika” blog has to pay L.E 2500 as a fine and L.E 40,000 compensation for the company !!

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Armenia-Azerbaijan: Young Bloggers Bridge Geopolitical Divides

Written by Onnik Krikorian · Central Asia & Caucasus, North America

Nearly 15 years after a ceasefire agreement put the conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan over the disputed territory of Nagorno Karabakh on hold, a lasting peace remains elusive and few citizens of either country have the opportunity to meet or communicate with the other. That might all be set to change, however, with DOTCOM, a project funded by the U.S. State Department's Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs and implemented by Project Harmony.

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Israel: Where is Mahmoud al-Zahar?

Written by Gilad Lotan · Middle East & North Africa

Senior Hamas official Mahmood el-Zahar is no where to be seen. Gilad Lotan tunes into to the whispers making rounds on the blogs about his possible whereabouts.

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Bahrain: Bloggers united against decision to block websites

Written by Ayesha Saldanha · Middle East & North Africa

Bloggers in Bahrain are fuming at a decision by the country's Minister of Information to block access to scores of websites, as well as prevent access to proxy sites which enable surfers to get to sites in a round about manner. Ayesha Saldanha reviews reactions from Bahrain.

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Arab World: “We Stopped Saying Israel…”

Written by Anas Qtiesh · Middle East & North Africa

A message on Twitter calling upon Arabs to stop saying Israel has snowballed into a movement across the Arab world, in this latest twist of the ongoing online war following the Israeli bombing of Gaza. Anas Qtiesh reports from the front lines.

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Armenia: Council of Europe Reprieve

Written by Onnik Krikorian · Central Asia & Caucasus

Yesterday's meeting of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) gave Armenia one last chance to avoid sanctions following last year's clashes between opposition supporters and security forces in the aftermath of a bitterly contested presidential election. Armenian bloggers react to the news.

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Fiji: Bloggers discuss newspaper publisher's deportation

Written by John Liebhardt · Oceania

Fiji’s government deported Fiji Times publisher Monday, January 26, a few days after the newspaper was found guilty of contempt of court and fined nearly $55,000 for printing a “scandalous” letter to the editor.

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Updates from 28 January 2009

Russia

LJ user ottenki-serogo is the first Russian blogger to have officially registered his blog as a mass media outlet. Many readers are asking: “What for?” One of the 168 comments to the post (RUS) with a scanned copy of the registration certificate, by LJ user vlada_lad (RUS): “Good thing that readers don't have to register anywhere yet. :)”

• Veronica Khokhlova

Romania

Tessa Bunney, who photographed rural life in the Carpathians of Romania, wrote this about the implications of the EU accession for some of the subjects of her photos: “The Romanian government’s interpretation of EU policy has resulted in the banning of horse and carts and hand milking of cows. No animals are to be kept within 200m of the house. If they decide to strictly implement these rules it will be the end of the family farm. No animals will mean no hay and the landscape will change forever.”

• Veronica Khokhlova

Russia

RFE/RL's The Power Vertical reports that president Medvedev “has instructed his administration to re-work a controversial bill broadening the definition of treason and espionage to assure that it doesn't violate human rights.”

• Veronica Khokhlova

Ukraine

Scenes from the Sidewalk posts pictures and writes about the only medical center in Kyiv “where street children can get medical attention without documents”: “Many At-Risk Children or street children do not have these documents and will be turned away at the door if they try to get medical attention. (I have been through this experience with a child I tried to help. It was pretty ugly.) Most of these children would not even consider going to a doctor if they needed it, because they know they will be turned away.”

• Veronica Khokhlova

Latvia

Free Speech Emergency in Latvia writes that “employees of Latvia's public service radio (Latvijas Radio) have called for a flash-mob to gather near the parliament (Saeima) building for five minutes on Friday, January 30 to stand in complete silence to protest the “silencing” of the national radio service through budget cuts and a large deficit apparently cause by negligence by persons and authorities responsible for the oversight of its operations.”

• Veronica Khokhlova

Pakistan

Teeth Maestro discusses about the recent controversy regarding Pakistan president Zardari's remark on the lawyers' protest.

• Rezwan

Armenia

Queering Yerevan posts an open letter in Armenian and English for its readers to sign in protest at growing intolerance and homophobia in the pro-government and pro-opposition media as well as from some representatives of civil society in the country. Meanwhile, Unzipped: Gay Armenia links to previous posts detailing the problem.

• Onnik Krikorian

Sri Lanka

Darini Rajasingham Senanayake at Groundviews opines that the long ethnic conflict in Sri Lanka cannot be solved by military means alone. “It would require a political solution that ensures power-sharing with the minorities in the north and east. Otherwise the LTTE would very likely regroup and return to fight another day, as has occurred in the past.”

• Rezwan

Taiwan: When News is Sold to the Chinese Government

First, let us ignore your assertion that at the time only 1% of young Chinese attended university because its not...

Came to find this post after signing the AllOut petition (which already has almost 50k signatures, and needs to grow...
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