Global Voices Online

Dumping Grounds for People is a blog devoted to the results “of a four-months long journalistic investigation, conducted mostly undercover in ten institutions for adults with intellectual disabilities or mental illnesses in Bulgaria, Romania and Serbia.” A Flickr photo set, by Yana Buhrer Tavanier, is here, along with this note: “Bulgaria and Romania, both EU members since 2007, and Serbia, which seeks the same status, have a grim track record when it comes to institutional care. This investigation suggests that they are still failing to meet international standards.”

Recent Links also in Eastern & Central Europe

English Russia writes about the phenomenon of “social network graffiti” [ENG] that became very popular among the users of the leading Russian social network Vkontakte.ru.

There are 15 million Web sites in the Russian segment of the Internet. They account for 6,5 percent of all Web sites available online. An average Russian Web site contains 255 pages, 159 thousand words, and 204 images. These facts were revealed in the latest research “The Runet Content” by Yandex [RUS].

Fifty one percent of young Russians (ages 16 - 24) consider the Internet a reliable source of information. This makes the Internet the second most trustworthy source after TV among the youth. This and other findings are available in a newly published report [RUS] by the Public Opinion Foundation.