· July, 2012

Stories about Law from July, 2012

Costa Rica: Video Love Note Gets Vice-Minister Dismissed

The Costa Rican Vice-Minister of Youth Karina Bolaños was removed from her post by the Costa Rican President Laura Chinchilla after a video showing an underwear clad vice minister sending a love note to a lover was made public and spread through the web.  Reactions to this news are quite varied: from censure to the Vice-Minister for making a video and not taking care to erase it, to rejection of all those who continued to spread the video and finally, repudiation to the President for removing the vice-minister from her post as  if she were not the victim of this whole affair.

31 July 2012

China: Bizarre Power Triangle – Sina, the Government and Netizens

Ever since the advent of Internet in China, the Chinese government has either tried to embrace it or control it. The upsurge of social media in the country has introduced two other characters into the story-Chinese netizens and leading Internet company Sina. Find out more about this often bizarre power triangle.

31 July 2012

Russia: Nepofigism, Free Crowdsourced Legal Consultation

RuNet Echo

The Russian online group "Nepofigism" offers a free legal consulting service. The project's creators designate no particular direction for the consulting. Their aim is to offer real help to people with any type of problem. The site is a space for professionals and ordinary Internet users with various legal and everyday problems.

30 July 2012

Jamaica: Campaign to Exonerate Marcus Garvey – Part 2

Jamaican diaspora blogger Geoffrey Philp has been working tirelessly to gather signatures for the online campaign to exonerate Marcus Garvey, who, in the early 1920s, was convicted and sentenced to prison on charges of mail fraud involving his Black Star Line shipping company. In this follow-up post, Geoffrey discusses why he thinks it is important for Garvey's name to be cleared and why it should be done under the Obama administration.

29 July 2012

Jamaica: Campaign to Exonerate Marcus Garvey – Part 1

Marcus Garvey was a Jamaican political leader, writer and thinker who is considered a national hero in the land of his birth. But in the United States, Garvey is down on record as a convicted felon. In the first installment of this two-part post, Global Voices talks to one Jamaican diaspora blogger, Geoffrey Philp, who started an online campaign to clear Marcus Garvey's name.

27 July 2012

Russia: The Killing of Krutov

RuNet Echo

The June 29 murder of Svetloyarsk Raion administration head Nikolay Krutov was a blip on that day’s news. It was not unprecedented, but unraveling why the crime was committed (and what it means) is anything but straightforward.

26 July 2012

Syria: Weapons and Combat Tutorials Online

Syrian rebels turn to a YouTube channel called 'Free Syrian Army Help' for training. The channel has 80 videos explaining tactics like hand-to-hand combat, how-to-make flame-throwers, and ambushing an enemy.

25 July 2012

The Bahamas: Comments on the Colorado Shooting

There has not been a significant reaction in the Caribbean blogosphere about the Colorado movie theatre shooting - which is being cited as one of the deadliest in recent U.S. history - save for two Bahamian bloggers, for whom the news hit close to home.

24 July 2012

Hungary: Community News Site Takes On Neglected Fire Hydrants

Faulty and out-of-order fire hydrants made it difficult to control a fire that broke out in the Kutya mountain, close to the town of Nagykovácsi in Hungary. This inspired the founder of a community news site Nagykovácsi.net Dávid Fáber to launch a community-driven data gathering initiative to document all of the town's fire hydrants through his website's registered users.

22 July 2012

Zambia: New Minimum Wage Pits Employers Against Government

The Statutory Instrument stipulating the minimum wage payable to domestic servants, shop workers and other general workers is arguably one of the most controversial policies of the 10 months old Patriotic Front (PF) government. This issue has divided Zambian netizens on citizen media and social network sites, those for and those against it, in equal measure.

21 July 2012

Moldova: Communism – Is It Really Over Now?

On June 12, Moldova’s parliament condemned the Soviet totalitarian communist regime and prohibited the use of the communist symbols, the hammer and sickle. Diana Lungu reports on the online reactions to this important yet belated decision.

21 July 2012