Stories about Digital Activism from March, 2006
Belarus: Balloon Revolution
“[…] Good psychological weapon against the troops” – in order to show the regime they are not terrorists, everyone should come to the rally in Minsk with a toy balloon, suggests LJ user eugene_exe (BEL). Any color would do, but blue is preferable.
China: Missing AIDS activist
Zeng Jinyan, the wife of Chinese AIDS activist Hu Jia, is blogging about her attempts to find her husband (ZH), who disappeared a month ago. She attempts to file a complaint, as provided for in Chinese law, of unlawful detention against the police, who have been stonewalling her since he...
Cuba: Blogger blogs blocked?
Ernesto, based in Havana, responds to a concern that Blogger blogs are being blocked in Cuba (ES), possibly by Google itself, by posting at his own Blogger blog. “Nevertheless this doesn't prove anything,” Ernesto writes, “since Google may have blocked some and not all Cuban blogs. I am not aware...
Creative Commons Mexico
Berkman Center Executive Director John Palfrey certainly sounds enthusiastic when he writes: Right this very minute, Creative Commons Mexico is launching in Mexico City. Congratulations, Larry Lessig, Leon Felipe Sanchez, and all the CC International team on yet another landmark on your road to world domination. For atmospherics, Larry has...
Japan: See it. Film it. Change it.
Joi Ito announces his appointment to the board of WITNESS, a group which aims to advance human rights advocacy through the use of video and communications technology, and strengthen grassroots movements for change by providing video technology and assisting its partners to use video as evidence before courts and the...
China: Massage Milk blunder
ESWN has a chortle over a Chinese media report which gloats over the ease with which Massage Milk and Milk Pig kidded Western media into thinking they had been the victims of government censorship. After lecturing the readers on the importance of research, ChinaNews/Xinhua gets the gender of one of...
Mohamed Choukry and Jill Carol ..Remembered in the Moroccan blogosphere
Last week was a very active one in the Moroccan blogosphere. Different subjects interested the Moroccan bloggers from Jill Carol‘s liberation to the the sexual education for kids. Islam, as usual, was among the hot topics especially after the media, in the international level, are giving the opportunity to anyone...
Images from Brazil: “Don't Shoot”
“Don't Shoot” by Tatiana Cardeal Brazilian photographer and social activist, Tatiana Cardeal has posted a set of photographs related to the youth outreach program, Afroreggae. In this picture, Cardeal explains: Here is Afroreggae group playing at the meeting, inside the headquarters of the military police of Rio de Janeiro, where...
China: Punditry and peer pressure
Danwei‘s Jeremy Goldkorn responds to comments on Bingfeng Teahouse, who was wondering if Goldkorn's approach to the Massage Milk hoax was conditioned by other Western writers, because he too imagined the blog had been closed by the authorities.
Belarus: Pictures From An Opposition Meeting
LJ users aliaksei and belnetmon share their impressions (RUS) and photos of the opposition candidate Milinkevich's meeting with the voters in Minsk on Sunday: two to three thousand people of all ages showed up, including some agents provocateurs and undercover KGB men; the music was blaring so that no one...
China: Bloggers and farmers
Danwei compares two recent China cover stories about potential threats to the status quo. Newsweek‘s cover is entitled “Beijing vs. the Bloggers”, while Time focuses on rural unrest.
Ukraine: Freedom of Information Campaign
Maidan: An Internet Hub for Citizens Action Network in Ukraine reprints Stephen Bandera's report on Ukrainian freedom of information activists and their campaign to publicize secret governmental documents “that bear the ‘not for publication’ stamp.” So far, the justice ministry has agreed to provide the dates and titles of nearly...
Malaysia: Covering the Fuel Protests
Worried that the local traditional media will ignore the action, bloggers in Malaysia are covering protests against a recent hike in fuel prices. Jeff Ooi at Screenshots is compiling some places on the Net where you can find more grassroots journalism.
China: Critical Readers Named
Wang Yi's Microphone posts a list of the core members of the Critical Reading Group of the Chinese Communist Party's Central Propaganda Department, and key officials in the secretive Propaganda Department itself. The former includes: Foreign Affairs Ministry News Department officer Song Ronghua; Ministry of Information Industry inspector Song Naiqi;...
Philippines: A New Voice
On Feb. 27, in the wake of demonstrations calling for the overthrow Philippine President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, Filipino blogger Bong Austero wrote a post called an “Open Letter to Our Leaders” in which he expressed his frustration and anger at opposition leaders’ grab for power. “You know why?,” he wrote....
China: Massage Milk archive
ESWN digs out a translated archived post of a self-description by Massage Milk/Cream, whose blog appears to have been deleted by Chinese censors.
The Moroccan blogosphere celebrates women and discusses taboos
The Moroccan bloggers paid their tribute to the woman who is, Today, celebrated all over the world. They also discussed sensitive issues like being gay in a conservative environment. Samir blogged about Rif, where two-thirds of farmers grow cannabis, while IBAHRINE stressed the revolutionary role of the internet in the...
Women's Day & Solidarity
Iranian women and bloggers are organizing conferences for Women’s day. Zannevesht (Persian), an Iran based blogger & journalist, informs us that at 8th of March a conference will be organized in social sciences faculty in university of Tehran. Main topic will be violence against women. Cafe 84 (Persian), an Iran...
Guyana: Teen bloggers
Scott points to a project started by a Guyana-based Peace Corps volunteer that teaches young people how to write using a blog as the teaching tool. The young people's blog is called Guyana Teenagers of Today, and so far they have tackled issues such as the drug trade, sexual assault...
China: A parliament of blogs
Danwei rounds up and translates a selection of blogs by official delegates to China's People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) and National People's Congress (NPC), noting that many of the comments on these People's Daily-sponsored blogs are far more outspoken than any official newspaper. Original Chinese here.
Iran: Clerics & Blogs
Roznamenegar No (new reporter) says according to ITNA (Information Technology News Agency) Iranian clerics in several religious centres must learn blogging (Persian).
