Global Voices · Citizen media stories from December 2009

December, 2009

Monthly archive · 156 posts

Featured stories from December 2009

Global Voices needs your support

Dear Global Voices Reader, We'd like to ask you to support our work for 2010 with a financial contribution. If you've been following the activity on the Global...

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China: Cui Weiping tweets elite views on Liu Xiaobo

Many Chinese public intellectuals take flack for keeping quiet on major social issues. Beijing Film Academy professor Cui Weiping has sought to change that by tweeting her peers' views on the recent sentencing of China's most prominent democrat.

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Global Voices partners with Google on freedom of expression award

Nominations open today (December 29) for the Breaking Borders Award, a new prize created by Global Voices and Google to honor outstanding web projects initiated by individuals or groups that demonstrate courage, energy and resourcefulness in using the Internet to promote freedom of expression.

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Five Years of Global Voices: Where they are now 29 December 2009
Russia: Role of Stalin Debated on RuNet 27 December 2009
Palestine: Gaza's Bloggers Remember The War 27 December 2009
Iran: When Rage Overcomes Fear 27 December 2009
Global: Tweeting for #Gaza 27 December 2009

Stories from December, 2009

31 December 2009

South Asia: Looking Back At 2009

Written by Rezwan · South Asia

The year 2009 is ending and its time to retrospect how the year has been for the South Asian region. In a two-part review we will look back at some of the major events which took place this year in the South Asian countries seen through the eyes of the citizen journalists.

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Caribbean: 2009 Regional Roundup

Written by Janine Mendes-Franco · North America, Caribbean

As Global Voices celebrates its fifth anniversary, the occasion has given us all an opportunity to reflect on why we do what we do and how our work makes a...

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Caucasus: 2009 Blog Review

Written by Onnik Krikorian · Central Asia & Caucasus

If the Armenian and Georgian blogospheres attracted most interest during 2008 after one disputed presidential election in the former and an albeit short war with Russia in the latter, Azerbaijan was the undoubted focus in 2009. In particular, youth activists quickly embraced both new and social media to spread their message online.

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30 December 2009

China: Akmal's death sentence, a resolute No to memory of humiliation?

Written by Bob Chen · East Asia

Akmal Shaikh, a British citizen convicted of smuggling heroine into China, was executed on Tuesday although his families along with the British government had pleaded for reprieve, claiming that he...

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Indonesia: Email mom ‘not guilty' says the High Court

Written by Carolina Rumuat · East Asia

Prita Mulyasari, a housewife who was charged with defamation by a hospital for an email complaint against a bad health service, was found not guilty by the Indonesian High Court. Bloggers and twitterers are happy with the ruling.

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Overcoming negative stereotypes in the South Caucasus

Written by Onnik Krikorian · Central Asia & Caucasus

An online project using new and social media to overcome negative stereotypes in the South Caucasus entered a second stage last week when two blogging Azerbaijani journalism students and a Georgian blogger joined in the initiative.

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Tunisia: The White Note Campaign Against Cyber Censorship

Written by Lina Ben Mhenni · Middle East & North Africa

Tunisian bloggers organised a White Note Campaign to protest against online censorship on their blogs. One blogger decides to swim against the tide with a Black Note in protest.

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29 December 2009

The Year that Was in Madagascar: Part I

Written by Lova Rakotomalala · Sub-Saharan Africa

In part one of a three-part summary of the year in citizen media in Madagascar, Lova Rakotomalala recalls the turmoil that seized the country in the first four months of 2009.

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Nicaragua: The Aftermath of the 1972 Earthquake

Written by Eduardo Avila · Latin America

On December 23, 1972, a 6.2-scale earthquake struck Managua, Nicaragua killing 5,000 and leaving 250,000 homeless. Nicaraguan blogger Homero was a young child at the time, but he holds memories of the aftermath, which he describes in a recent post in his blog Ventana de Homero.

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Malawi: Bloggers discuss 30 earthquakes in 3 weeks

Written by Victor Kaonga · Sub-Saharan Africa

In what some geologists have described as rare occurrences, Malawi's northern district of Karonga has in the past three weeks experienced a total of 30 earthquakes resulting in at least 5 deaths, over 200 people injured and over 3,000 made homeless. Bloggers have been quick to share their reactions.

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Updates from December, 2009

31 December 2009

Bangladesh

Saad Hammadi at Of Diaries And Experiences reminds that Bangladesh is reversing the clock by an hour to go back to Bangladesh’s geographic timing: “Thus, the 31st will last for 25 hours. For the party goers, how better could it be than celebrating the new year twice!”

• Rezwan

Bhutan

“Nobody seems to know when it started or how it started, but tradition dictates that Thimphu residents – especially public servants – avoid going to office on the day the city receives its first snowfall of the season,” informs Tshering Tobgay from Bhutan.

• Rezwan

Zimbabwe

Amanda blogs about the “politics of condemnation” in Zimbabwe: The Congress [Zanu PF] resolved that “the Party’s national strategic objective for the next five years shall be the checking, containment and ultimate defeat of the West’s neo-colonial regime change agenda.”

• Ndesanjo Macha

Ghana

Beautiful photos and a post about a tour to the Cape Coast Castle in Ghana: “We followed a guided tour into the slave dungeons. There were several African-Americans in the group. We were all quiet, reduced to silence by the ghosts and the sadness thick in the musty air.”

• Ndesanjo Macha

Ethiopia

Arefe reports that the mother of the leader of the leader of Ethiopia’s biggest opposition party and political activist, Birtukan Mideksa has sent a letter sent to Prime Minster Meles Zenawi asking for her daughter’s release.

• Ndesanjo Macha

Dominica

Chris at Dominica Weekly shares his thoughts on the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States' Economic Union.

• Janine Mendes-Franco

Trinidad & Tobago

Jumbie's Watch does the math on Trinidad and Tobago's murder rate: “While the CoP was bleating in public about the 3.65% murder solve rate (for last year), he neglected to mention that for the ‘known’ 508 victims of this year, there is a further 904 still missing!!!”

• Janine Mendes-Franco