Global Voices · Citizen media stories from April 2011

April, 2011

Monthly archive · 191 posts

Stories from April, 2011

21 April 2011

China: The Murder Case of Yao Jiaxin

Over the past few months, the cold-blooded murder of a young woman, Zhang Miao, by affluent music student Yao Jiaxin, has been the most heated topic on the Chinese Internet. On the eve of the verdict in the murder trial, propaganda authorities have demanded that all media outlets use the Xinhua report as their only news source, as well as to monitor all related online discussions.

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Indonesia: Suicide Bomber Targets Police Mosque

Written by Tikno · East Asia

A suicide bomber attacked the Adz-Zikro mosque located within a police complex in Cirebon City in Indonesia last Friday, April 15, 2011. Dozens were injured when the bomb exploded during Friday prayers. Indonesia is the most populous Muslim dominated nation in the world and in recent years, it has been targeted by extremist terrorist groups. Here are some reactions from Indonesian bloggers.

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20 April 2011

Colombia: Anti-Personnel Mines and the “Remángate” Campaign

Written by Cati Restrepo · Translated by Marianna Breytman · Latin America

April 4, 2011, marked the celebration of the International Day of Awareness of Anti-personnel Mines. In Colombia, the Presidential Program for Action Against Anti-personnel Mines (Paicma) joined corporate groups and social organizations to promote the "Remángate" campaign. The campaign relies on its website, Twitter account (@remangate) and hashtag #Remangate.

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Costa Rica: Climate Change Affecting the Cloud Forest

Written by Juliana Rincón Parra · Latin America

The Monteverde Now project documents the stories of 11 members of the Monteverde Community through short video interviews where they explain how their life has been transformed and how they are adapting to sustaining their diverse and delicate ecosystem in the face of climate change.

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Malaysia: Email For Citizens Project Draws Criticism

Written by Jerrenn Lam · East Asia

Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak announced that all Malaysians aged 18 years and above will receive a 1Malaysia email account. But many bloggers have criticized the project as unnecessary, saying that its estimated cost of RM 50 million can be better used for other purposes.

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South Korea: Search Engine Censorship Claims

Written by Lee Yoo Eun · East Asia

As South Korea's biggest search engines file an anti-competition charge against Google, net users have started to look back at the various companies' contributions to the Korean net environment. The nation's most visited portal, Naver, has come under particular fire for alleged news screening and censorship of information, along with its monopoly in the field.

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Updates from April, 2011

27 April 2011

D.R. of Congo

Donors are wary of involvement in elections in the Democratic Republic of Congo: “With only seven months to go before elections in the Congo, donors are trying to calibrate their political and financial involvement in the polls. One forum where this is playing out is the UN Security Council, which will have to renew MONUSCO's mandate in June.”

• Ndesanjo Macha

Russia

Nikolay Podosokorskiy analyzes [ru] activity of Russian political parties in the social networks. According to his brief research, ruling party “United Russia” is one of the closest and inactive parties online, while the most active is the Communist Party of Russia with more than 73,000 members at Vkontakte groups and 1,300 active discussions. Other active party communities are: LDPR and “A Just Russia” with around 30,000 members.

• Alexey Sidorenko

Russia

Anton Nossik publishes [ru] 5 rules of successful crowd funding: 1.it should have an aim, 2. it should be transparent, 3. it should be tested before launch, 4. it should also facilitate non-financial help, 5. initiators should disclose their own efforts of improving the project they collect money for. Oleg Kozlovsky adds [ru] several suggestions: 1. important topic, 2. involvement of famous activists, 3. anonymity, 4. simplicity of donation-making process.

• Alexey Sidorenko

Nigeria

Nigerian women say no to violence: “Nigerian women in Abuja protesting against the post election violence in the north of the country. Nigerian women have always at the forefront of anti-violence protest in the country. Last year hundreds women from the Jos region gathered in Abuja in a day of mass mourning to protest against the violence in Plateau State and criticise the governments failure to protect them.”

• Ndesanjo Macha

Kenya

Poets and writers meet in Nairobi, Njeri Wangari reports: “Last Saturday, 23rd April was the inaugural POWO event - a forum for Poets and Writers that seeks to encourage Kenyan Creative writers to exploit the various opportunities presented by their internet for promotion of their writing.”

• Ndesanjo Macha

Japan

Japan Probe translated the comments [en] of some netizens who reacted to the arrest of an English man who grabbed “a mike from a politician at a train station and yelled about how Japanese elections are loud and annoying.”

• Scilla Alecci

Mexico

Gancho reports that “Federal Police rescued 51 kidnapped migrants in Tamaulipas today [April 26], days after they saved another 68 in the same state. Such rescues were not common before the discovery of scores and scores of dead bodies last week in San Fernando, and now we've had two in a week,” and asks: “Why can't they always operate like that?”

• Silvia Viñas

Brazil: Communities in Rio Blame Olympics for Evictions

Hi Christa, Thank you for sharing the good news. I am glad that at least one battle has been won by...
Help us bring international visibility to this issue. Please read and share the following link regarding Vila Autódromo's recent win...

Interesting indeed. I don't hear much news from Peru so this information was indeed news and something the world community...
Interesting read. Thanks for sharing!
Great article that addressed the matter concisely and with appropriate supplemental material.