Global Voices · Citizen media stories from August 2011

August, 2011

Monthly archive · 173 posts

Stories from August, 2011

5 August 2011

Bahrain: Liliane Khalil, Another Blog Hoax or Propaganda?

Written by Mona Kareem · Middle East & North Africa

On 2 August 2011, British blogger and PhD Student, Marc Owen Jones wrote a post about his investigation into the identity of an alleged Arab-American Journalist named Liliane Khalil. Jones traced back all the social media accounts of this persona, only to discover that most of what she had written about herself turned out to be false.

· read »

Lebanon: Protest Against Syrian Regime Attacked by Loyalists

Written by Antoun Issa · Lebanon

A small protest in the front of the Syrian embassy in Beirut, Lebanon ended in violence on Tuesday, 2 August 2011, when pro-regime loyalists stormed the gathering. Syria has always had a polarising effect on its smaller neighbour Lebanon, and Lebanese politics is often divided between pro-Syrian and anti-Syrian camps.

· 2

· read »

Côte d'Ivoire: The Surprise Ousting of Pascal Brou Aka from Television Channel RTI

Written by Kanigui · Translated by Carol Osborne · Sub-Saharan Africa

The CEO or RTI ( Ivorian Radio and Television), Pascal Brou Aka, has been ousted from his post by the President of the Republic Alassane Dramane Ouattare. This decision was apparently taken for reasons including the lack of coverage of the President's return from his US visit and surprises a great number of Ivorian internet users. Is Pascal Brou Aka's independence the reason for the firing ? Kanigui investigates:

· read »

Chile: Police and Students Clash in Unauthorized Education Protest

Written by Katie Manning · Latin America

Hundreds of Chilean students, fighting to overhaul their education system, clashed with an intensified police force as they protested without permission on Thursday through the center of capital Santiago. The protest sky-rocketed to the top of the city's trending topics on Twitter as students vented their growing frustrations.

· 10

· read »

4 August 2011

Mozambique: Behind the Detention of MC Azagaia

Written by Jornal @Verdade · Translated by Sara Moreira · Sub-Saharan Africa

MC Azagaia, a controversial activist musician from Mozambique, had been arrested for possession of cannabis on the same day that he was going to present his latest hip hop work. Netizens have been wondering about real motivations for his arrest while discussing the limits of freedom of expression. Azagaia has been released and the presentation took place on August 4.

· 2

· read »

Iran: Water Fight in Tehran Leads to Arrests

Written by Fred Petrossian · Middle East & North Africa

Everyone knows not to play with fire. In Tehran, it seems, even playing with water can cause problems. At least this a ‘lesson' that several Iranian youngesters learned when they were arrested last week by security forces for taking part in a game of water war in the streets

· 4

· read »

Updates from August, 2011

22 August 2011

China

Sascha interviews a Sichuan comedian, Li Bo Qing abou the teahouse culture in Chengdu. The city's teahouse is similar to the salon in France where citizen would spend the afternoon talking about current affair.

• Oiwan Lam

21 August 2011

Serbia

Bill's Blog and A Yankee-in-Belgrade write about and post pictures of the Serbian capital's recently completed new bridge across the Sava River.

• Veronica Khokhlova

Ukraine

Foreign Notes writes that the criminal case against Yuri Lutsenko, Ukraine's former Minister of the Interior, is “falling apart.”

• Veronica Khokhlova

Russia

Oleg Klimov writes [ru] that Mikhail Gorbachev, speaking on the 20th anniversary of the Soviet Union's collapse, said that “Putin is no dictator - he has just castrated democracy by depriving citizens of the democratic right to choose.”

• Veronica Khokhlova

North Korea

Siberian Light notes that RIA Novosti, a Russian state-owned news agency, has called the Russian PM Vladimir Putin “increasingly autocratic” in an article on the visit of North Korea’s leader Kim Jong-il to Russia.

• Veronica Khokhlova

Lebanon

“The Lebanese Parliament endorsed a law that bans smoking in public or closed spaces. The law also bans any sort of tobacco advertising and promotions….” reports Moudz, who added that “Non-smokers have been overjoyed today with the news filling up the social timelines with their expressions of approval.”

• Moussa Bashir

Mexico

Realidadtorreon uploaded a citizen video recorded inside the stadium where a football match was cancelled after “gunmen opened fire on police outside the stadium in the northern city of Torreon”, as reported by The Associated Press. Eduardopolis [es] blogged about the incident and how it was covered by the media and by citizens on Twitter.

• Silvia Viñas