· February, 2012

Stories about Citizen Media from February, 2012

Pakistan: Fighting the Great Firewall

  28 February 2012

The recent blow to the internet freedom in Pakistan has been the announcement of a request for proposal (RFP) for national “URL filtering and blocking system” by the ICT R&D Fund under the Ministry of Information Technology (MoIT). The $10 million system is required to be able to ”handle a block list of up to 50 million URLs".

Africa: Vote for the Most Influential African Thinker Alive

  28 February 2012

Africa is a Country blog wants readers to vote for one influential African thinker from a list of 12 candidates. The list includes Chinua Achebe (Nigeria), Mahmood Mamdani (Uganda), Mamdouh Habashi, (Egypt), Kwame Anthony Appiah (Ghana/United States), J M Coetzee (South Africa/Australia) and Issa Shivji (Tanzania). Voting is open until 5 March, 2012.

Haiti: Joining the African Union

  28 February 2012

Mackendie Toupuissant writes [fr]: “The news went almost unnoticed. Until now,  Haiti was a mere “observer” in the African Union.  Since early February, the first black republic in history became  a” full associate member “of the African Union (AU).  This decision, the first of its kind for a country of the African Diaspora...

El Salvador: Hunnapuh, a Pioneer of the Salvadoran Blogosphere

  28 February 2012

We talk with Omar Nieto, a pioneer in the Salvadoran blogosphere. His blog Hunnapuh is one of the oldest and longest-lived in this Central American country. In this interview, Omar talks to us about his blog and about the Salvadoran blogosphere. He also shares some advice about maintaining consistency and quality in a blog.

France : Who is French and who is not?

  28 February 2012

Abdellali Hajjat, author of the book The Boundires of National Identity: The Injunction to Assimilation in France and its Territories, explains in an interview [fr] on the blog Contretemps the ideological seeds of Islamophobia and the institutional logic that reinforces it. “Racism needs a crutch to provide the principle of...

Bahrain: #Hungry4BH Trends Worldwide

  27 February 2012

Bahraini netizens, backed by the international community, helped raise the voices of detained political activists on hunger strike, by making their plight a trending topic on Twitter. Mona Kareem reports on the efforts of activists online and on the ground in Bahrain.

Argentina: The Sarmiento Train Crash, an Accident Waiting to Happen

  27 February 2012

Simon Kofoed says that the train crash that took place last week in Buenos Aires, Argentina, “is the worst train accident in Argentina since the 1979 head on collision of two trains near Benavidez station when over 140 people lost their lives.” He adds: “Anyone who travels on the Sarmiento,...

Peru: Problems with Access to Information and Forestry Transparency

  27 February 2012

The Peruvian Press Council reported on a “Public Hearing: Access to Information and Transparency Forest,” accompanied by a training workshop on related issues in the town of Nueva Cajamarca, San Martin. Journalist and blogger Juan Carlos Lujan, who was one of the trainers, recounts [es] the problems faced due to...

Colombia: Using an Earthquake to Advertise

  27 February 2012

Geek The Planet writes about an earthquake in Colombia which took place during the morning of February 24 and the recklessness of some Community Managers who used the quake to come up with advertising material. The post criticizes what various companies published on Twitter [es], and the writer posts some...

Kenya: Kenya Blogger Wins Annual World Media Awards

  27 February 2012

Kenyan blogger Collins Mbalo is the winners of the first Annual World Media Awards in Best African Blog category: “Collins Mbalo tells the African story from a different perspective. This blog covers issues and topics concerning the everyday African person. A recent interview of ” Sue” a Kenyan prostitute inspired...

Cuba: Working for “The Enemy”?

  27 February 2012

Havana Times reports that “the leading Cuban government website…unleashed a front page attack on blogger Yoani Sanchez…with an article accusing her of working for the enemy (USA) for pay”; Sanchez herself sees a news report “in which the blogger Miriam Celaya and other acquaintances appear, surrounded with epithets such as...

Cuba: More Sunday Detentions

  27 February 2012

Uncommon Sense blogs about yet another Sunday of repression as members of Las Damas de Blanco were again detained by authorities.

Portugal: Web Users Debate Portuguese Private Copying Bill

  27 February 2012

Currently being debated in the Portuguese Parliament is a new bill (PL118) which proposes a tax on any equipment or software capable of recording, copying or storing analogue or digital content, in the name of author's rights. The online community has wasted no time in wading in on the debate, with the hashtag #PL118 duly trending on Twitter.

Russia: The “Big White Circle” Protest in Moscow

RuNet Echo  27 February 2012

On Sunday, Feb. 26, thousands of people gathered in central Moscow for the Big White Circle protest, forming a human chain along most of the length of the Russian capital's 15.6-kilometer/9.7-mile Garden Ring, protesting against corruption and demanding a fair presidential election, which is to take place in one week, on March 4.

Pakistan: Karachi's Third Literature Gala

  26 February 2012

The Karachi Literature Festival (KLF) gave an opportunity to authors and book lovers to join together and celebrate reading. Literature from Pakistan and elsewhere was discussed in the two day long event from 11-12 February, 2012.

Puerto Rico: 365 Photographs

  26 February 2012

José Rodrigo Madera's photos, part of his "365" project, were only visible to his friends on Facebook, until the magazine Revista Cruce published 20 of them for everyone to enjoy. Here is a selection of his beautiful photographs.

Italy: Historic ‘Guilty’ Verdict in the Eternit Asbestos Trial

  25 February 2012

It is a historic verdict: on February 13, 2012 in Turin, northern Italy, the two top senior executives of the multinational Eternit, a producer of asbestos, were sentenced to 16 years in prison after a criminal trial began in 2009. Here are the reactions of the associations and the families of asbestos victims in Italy and Europe.