· November, 2008

Stories about Human Rights from November, 2008

Kosovo: Haradinaj's Profile; Discussion at LSE

  30 November 2008

Popkitchen posts a critique of a Vanity Fair profile of Ramush Haradinaj, a former guerrilla leader of the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) and former prime minister of Kosovo, and writes about a recent discussion on Kosovo's independence held at the London School of Economics.

World AIDS Day: Blogging Positively

  30 November 2008

This year marks the 20th anniversary of World AIDS Day, which takes place every year on December 1. Though the impact of HIV and AIDS is felt by millions of people globally every day, this particular day can help bring much-needed attention to the disease. The theme for this year's...

Japan: Mainichi's Wikipedia Slip-up

  30 November 2008

Ignoring the fact that Wikipedia timestamps are in GMT and not JST (Japan Standard Time), on the 18th of November the Japanese newspaper Mainichi Shimbun published an article entitled, “Attack on the former vice-Director's home: crime announced on the Internet six hours earlier… hinting at the crime?”, in which a Wikipedia contributor (”Popons”) was erroneously identified as involved in the attempted murder of Kenji Yoshihara, wife of former vice health minister Kenji Yoshihara. Bulletin board commenters quickly spotted the mistake, and bloggers responded with criticism, but the Wikipedia editor in question was apologetic about the ordeal.

Central & Eastern Europe: Obituaries

  30 November 2008

Edward Lucas re-posts The Economist‘s obits of Mieczyslaw Rakowski, a Polish Communist journalist and politician, who died on Nov. 8, and of Boris Fyodorov, a Russian economic reformer, who died on Nov. 20. Borut Peterlin notes the death of Vilko Filač, the “cameraman of Emir Kusturica’s best movies.”

Ukraine: Taras Kuzio on Yushchenko

  30 November 2008

Taras Kuzio analyzes “the achievements and failures and unfulfilled expectations of the last four years” in Ukraine – here and here, and also writes that president Yushchenko “had over-focused on the issue [of Holodomor] to the detriment of contemporary political and economic concerns.”

Russia: Yevgeny Kolesov and Politkovskaya Trial

  30 November 2008

Robert Coalson of RFE/RL's The Power Vertical writes about “the open-again, closed-again, open-again trial of three men allegedly involved in the murder of investigative journalist Anna Politkovskaya” and the role that former juror Yevgeny Kolesov has played in it.

Hungary, Czech Republic: Romaphobia

  30 November 2008

The Hungarian Spectrum reports on the murder of a 14-year-old girl in a Hungarian village, which led to an anti-Roma rally. The Reference Frame is unhappy with Al Jazeera's story on discrimination against the Czech Republic's Roma children in their access to education.

Iran: Do not Execute Farzad Kamangar

  29 November 2008

Several human rights activists and bloggers warned that Farzad Kamangar, a teacher and trade unionist may be executed in the near future in Iran. Farzad Kamangar, who is from Kurdistan province in Iran, is accused of being affiliated with the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK).

China: Chinese students inform on political science professor

  29 November 2008

David Bandurski from China media project quoted from South China Morning post on a news about two Chinese students reporting to the police on a professor at Shanghai’s East China University of Political Science and Law concerning his “anti-government” speech. The incident has been widely discussed in local forum, such...

The Balkans: Tragic Legacy

  29 November 2008

Cafe Turco writes on the inaccuracies in Resolution 819 film and posts a translation of Hasan Nuhanović's article that challenges “the veracity of some scenes.” Srebrenica Genocide Blog writes on a recent exhumation of “50 complete and 883 partial human remains of Srebrenica genocide victims” and links to a documentary...

Central & Eastern Europe: A Roma Roundup

  29 November 2008

A few Roma-related posts: Inside Albania muses on the U.S. election and concludes that having a Roma PM in Albania will remain “pure fantasy” for quite a while; Romano Them links to a report on the situation with the Roma in Kosovo; Hungarian Spectrum reported on Nov. 20 that “[i]n...

Ukraine, Russia, Kazakhstan: Calling Attention to Tragedy

  29 November 2008

Window on Eurasia writes: “Kyiv’s efforts to call attention to Stalin’s terror famine on the 75th anniversary of that tragedy and especially its moves to gain international recognition of it as a genocide against the Ukrainian people has generated much criticism by Russian officials from President Dmitry Medvedev on down...

Latvia: The Crisis and Freedom of Speech

  29 November 2008

Free Speech Emergency in Latvia wrote on Nov. 22: “A university lecturer was arrested for two days for making comments at a public discussion of the economy, while a musician was questioned for joking about taking money out of a bank during a concert.” More coverage of the situation –...

India: Who are they, and what is the Media saying?

  28 November 2008

Smoke Signals slams the mainstream media coverage of the event, as the television screens are filled with almost panic inducing sequences, and hurried question and answer sessions. At the time that this post is being written, the gun battles are still going on in at least one of the hotels...