17 February 2012

Stories from 17 February 2012

Costa Rica: Videos from the Past

  17 February 2012

A video by geographer Homer Dávila is making nostalgia grow on Facebook as people are reminded of the light traffic that used to be the norm between the capital city of San José, Costa Rica and neighboring city of Alajuela.

Mexico: Citizen Initiative to the Clear the Streets of Election Trash

  17 February 2012

Every three years, the streets of Mexico are plastered with a thick layer of unending advertisements sporting images of smiling candidates for a variety of elected positions. But after the elections, the advertisements remain for days, weeks and even months. #QuitaUnAnuncio ["TakeDownAnAd"] is a citizen initiative to clean up Mexico City during the election period.

Curacao, Haiti: Media Mandate?

  17 February 2012

In light of prime minister Schotte's recent welcome of Haitian president Michel Martelly “(who repeatedly suggested a pardon or amnesty of Duvalier) [and] who publicly is seen with…ex dictator Baby Doc Jean Claude Duvalier in Haiti like nothing happened like nobody got terrorized, killed under his regime”, TRIUNFO DI SABLIKA...

Trinidad & Tobago: These Boots were made for Jumping

  17 February 2012

Trinidadian bloggers go to town over a photograph of the Prime Minister at a Carnival fete sporting expensive brand-name shoes: B.C. Pires says: “She’s bound to get flak for such a vulgar display, even at the height of the vulgarity of one of the world’s most vulgar displays, the modern...

Bermuda: Media Shapes Public's Political Views

  17 February 2012

Respice Finem says that “two important aspects of the news media on our Island merit attention…first, almost all of the news is event driven with very little investigative journalism. The second…is that the media…have an unwritten code whereby they do not report on the private lives of public figures.”

Reports on North Korea Cell Phone Ban is Incorrect

  17 February 2012

A Cario-based telecommunication company and the majority owner of North Korea’s cellular network., Orascom corrected recent media reports which claimed that North Koreans have been banned from using mobile phone during a mourning period for North Korean dictator, Kim Jong Il. North Korea Tech has more details.

Brazil: LGBT AIDS Prevention Campaign Excluded From TV

  17 February 2012

Marcelo Gerald, from the blog Eleições Hoje, comments [pt] on the alleged censorship by the Brazilian Ministry of Health of a recently launched campaign on AIDS prevention, focused on the LGBT public. He posts some of the videos that were excluded from the TV a few days after the campaign...

Japan: Netizens Cast Doubt on Anti-Nuclear Power Poster

  17 February 2012

On March 11, 2011, the largest earthquake in the history struck Japan, and the resulting tsunami irreversibly damaged Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant. An anti-nuclear power poster has triggered arguments on the multifaceted impact of visual art.

Bangladesh: Government Observation of Facebook Ignites Debate

  17 February 2012

For a while now, the Bangladeshi authorities have been keeping an eye on the social media space and the country's Facebook users are increasingly finding themselves in the eye of the storm. Recently the country's High Court sentenced an university teacher to a 6 month jail term after he failed to appear in court to face trial regarding his Facebook status update.