· April, 2009

Stories about Media & Journalism from April, 2009

Liberians Are Talking, Are You Listening?

  30 April 2009

"Liberia's national image has been defined by parachute foreign correspondents for nearly its entire history, since it was first founded as an independent republic by freed Black slaves from the United States in 1847. Today, Liberians are able to tell their own stories to an international audience by taking advantage of participatory media tools like blogs and photo-sharing sites," writes David Sasaki following a blogging workshop he ran last year at the American Embassy in Monrovia, Liberia.

Cuba: Path to the Future

  29 April 2009

“This little accessory hanging from the hip could well come to be all the newspapers we lack at the kiosks”: Cuba's Generation Y has faith in the potential of SMS to be a reliable source of information.

Guyana: e-Waste

  29 April 2009

“The mo’ they fall, the mo’ they break, the mo’ they break, the mo’ you buy. Slick, smart cell-phone makers and sellers”: Guyana-Gyal considers where all the e-waste goes.

Egypt: Stigmatized by AIDS

A group of Egyptian bloggers and independent media personalities are putting their hands together in support of the “Openness” initiative, which aims at anti-stigmatizing AIDS patients, and calls for integrating them in the society instead of alienating them further by educating people on how to deal with them to avoid getting infected, reports Marwa Rakha.

Egypt: Interviewing a Baha'i Assailant

Egyptian blogger Ibn Rushd interviewed one of the Baha'i assailants. Marwa Rakha translates the interview, in which the assailant admits to his role in the burning of six homes belonging to Baha'i families in the village of Shoraneya, from Arabic.

Bermuda, Turks & Caicos: Better Representation

  28 April 2009

Vexed Bermoothes is disappointed in his Premier's performance at the recently concluded Fifth Summit of the Americas: “I wish he had stuck to working for Bermudians’ benefit rather than playing cheerleader for the discredited TCI administration.”

Trinidad & Tobago: What's Happening?

  28 April 2009

Trinidad diaspora blogger Jumbie's Watch is not pleased with recent developments in his home country: “Have criminals become so hardened that they wage war on children now?”

Venezuela: How Children Show Their Community Through Photography II

  28 April 2009

Children can often be the most vulnerable members of refugee communities. The group Ancla2 is working to provide more opportunities to these children through a photography and creative writing workshop in a community called El Nula along the Venezuelan-Colombian border teaching them how to appreciate the details of daily life and to communicate that through images and text.

Central & Eastern Europe: Racism Roundup

  28 April 2009

The beatroot writes about Poland's boycott of the UN conference on fighting racism; Hungarian Spectrum writes about the Hungarian Guard and Holocaust denial; coverage of Slovenia's neo-Nazis – here and here, by Sleeping With Pengovsky, as well as here, by Piran Cafe; Borut Peterlin posts photos from an anti-fascist rally...

Morocco: Al Quds Al Arabi's 20th Anniversary

From Morocco, Cinema and Movies marks the 20th birthday of Arabic language newspaper Al Quds Al Arabi. “In my country, it is sad to hear from time to time that some journalists are given bribes to keep their thoughts hidden.However,there are others just like our modest newspaper, Al qods Al...

Lebanon: Billboard Marriage Proposal

Lilane, from Lebanon, draws our attention to a billboard which contains a marriage proposal: ‘While driving on the highway towards Antelias from Jal el Dib, just near Antelias bridge on the left, this huge billboard (a bit blurry) caught my eyes (and the eyes of all Lebanese who drove by...

South Africa: Newspaper makes wrong results call

  27 April 2009

A South African newspaper makes a wrong results call: While clearly nowhere near as disastrous as that, I was amused this morning to find that the Weekender newspaper dated 25 April 2009 has made a similar mistake by “calling” the results of the Western Cape poll prematurely.

Azerbaijan: Blog round-up

  27 April 2009

Writing on his In Mutatione Fortitudo, Global Voices Online Azerbaijan author Ali S. Novruzov says that Radio Free Europe has started to pay attention to the local blogosphere. However, he notes, the station needs to learn a few important lessons about blogging and citizen media.

Russia: Sochi Mayoral Election

  26 April 2009

James writes this about the mayoral election in Sochi at Robert Amsterdam's blog: “It can be tough work to continue coming up with new ways to fake the democratic process … after a while, the voters seem to wonder ‘why bother?'” Russia! reports on the detention of journalist Keith Gessen...