Global Voices · Citizen media stories from June 2011

June, 2011

Monthly archive · 186 posts

Stories from June, 2011

24 June 2011

Senegal: Proposed New Election Law Sparks Riots in Dakar

Written by Marc-Andre Boisvert · Translated by Claire Ulrich · Sub-Saharan Africa

President of Senegal, Abdoulaye Wade's, proposed amendment to the Constitution and election law, in anticipation of the presidential elections of 2012, has made a lot of Senegalese angry and sparked demonstrations and riots in the capital Dakar on June 23. This popular unrest has since forced the government to drop the suggested amendment.

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Myanmar: Bomb Blasts in Three Cities

Written by tan · East Asia

Three bomb blasts hit three major cities in Myanmar today. No casualties have been reported. Global Voices author Tan translates a few Burmese online reports which give first hand accounts of the bomb disaster

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Macedonia: .mk Twitter Republic

Written by Filip Stojanovski · Eastern & Central Europe

Protests continue in Macedonia, as the authorities keep silent about the people's demands of accountability, political responsibility and an end to police brutality. On Sunday, a new symbol was displayed by some protesters: the Macedonian flag with a Twitter logo on it, homage to the role of the Twitter community.

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Colombia: Video Mapping the City to Hip Hop

Written by Juliana Rincón Parra · Latin America

In just four days, a creative cast of characters got together in the city of Medellin, Colombia, where they set out to produce videos and place them on a map of the city to reflect topics that affect their communities: militarization, poverty, forced displacement, crimes of state, resistance movements and more.

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Belarus: Police Crack Down on Minsk Protest

Written by Alexey Sidorenko · Eastern & Central Europe

A non-violent rally in Minsk, organized via a social network, ended up with more than 450 people detained. Arrests, trials and numerous detentions, however, do not appear to have stopped the protesters.

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23 June 2011

Croatia: EU Membership Approval

Written by Miquel Hudin · Eastern & Central Europe

On June 10, 2011, Croatia was cleared to become the newest member state of the European Union. There is still a long road before Croatians are officially a part of the EU, and the timing at the moment is, at best, precarious, creating many skeptics. Miquel Hudin reports.

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Updates from June, 2011

28 June 2011

El Salvador

Voices From El Salvador has posted a two part post on “El Salvador's ongoing struggle with food security.” Part 1 provides a historical background, as well a review of current challenges; Part 2 looks at how climate change is affecting food security.

• Silvia Viñas

Ecuador

Bloggings by Boz, explains that “Ecuador is experiencing more violent and organized crime because of an increase in drug trafficking”, and points out: “The most recent surveys I saw in Ecuador showed that crime is becoming a political liability for President Correa.”

• Silvia Viñas

Armenia

whatwaswritten, the blog of Global Voices author Leyla Najafli, translates a story from RFE's Azeri service reporting that Diana Markosyan, a photojournalist from Bloomberg, was detained at Baku airport earlier today. The American-Russian dual citizen of Armenian origin attempted to enter Azerbaijan without a visa as CIS citizens can. However, her request for press accreditation had been rejected and Bloomberg told to replace before traveling to the country due to what the authorities claimed was the inability to guarantee her safety. Armenia and Azerbaijan still remain locked in a bitter conflict over the disputed territory of Nagorno Karabakh and citizens of both can not enter the other without National Security Service approval. This sometimes extends in both countries to foreign citizens of Armenian and Azerbaijani origin, but the situation is considered to be especially bad in Azerbaijan despite some high level Armenian visits in recent years.

• Onnik Krikorian

Russia

‘Search activity of men and women is almost the same,' says [ru] the new research of web search behavior by Yandex. Women search online a little more, add to search queries colors and locations. Men tend to use Latin script twice more often than women. Men search mostly about IT and technology, while women are more interested in relations, kids, and job opportunities.

• Alexey Sidorenko

Russia

Talented photoblogger Tanya Zommer publishes [ru] another photo session with ‘nerds,' this time with Mediterranean scenery.

• Alexey Sidorenko

Senegal

Website politicosn.com has provided real time coverage [fr] of the protests against power shortages in Dakar, Senegal, on June 28, 2011: “Ongoing demonstrations have flared up in Senegal capital, public buildings have been stormed by youth protesting against power shortages. This situation has forced authorities to call upon the army, security forces being unable to cope with the unrest.”

• Abdoulaye Bah

Moldova

Bloggers discuss [ru] the 30-day arrest [ru] of Eduard Bagirov [ru], writer and a blogger close to pro-Kremlin propagandists, in Moldova. Oleg Kozyrev says [ru], Bagirov's arrest is connected with his activity as a commentator on Moldova unrest in 2009. Kommersant, however, provides [ru] the official Moldovan version – Bagirov (known for his aggressive style of writing (often with physical threats to other bloggers)) is charged with the organization of post-election protests in Chisinau.

• Alexey Sidorenko

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.