Stories about Media & Journalism from January, 2012
Cuba: Human Rights Double Standard
Lilianne Ruíz, blogging at Translating Cuba, compares a television spot “that shows a series of watercolors of butterflies from one of the five officials of the Interior Ministry imprisoned in the United States…with the stories that are told of Cuban jails, especially for political prisoners who, ever since their detention,...
Russia, Syria: Anti- and Pro-Assad Facebook Comment Attack
Facebook pages of some Russian media outlets (e.g., Afisha, Bolshoi Gorod, Esquire Russia, Channel 1, MTV Russia) were deluged with copy-pasted comments [ru, ar] from users who appeared to be supporters of the Syrian opposition earlier today. An excerpt from a typical comment [ru, ar]: “Syria's regime is killing people...
Puerto Rico: Waste of Money
Dondequiera says of a US $20 million ad campaign to promote tourism: “If we could only use 1/4 of that money to police and clean our beaches, maintain the bathrooms…. I just thought you'd like to know how your hard earned tax dollars were being spent. The whole thing just...
Cuba: Upwardly Mobile?
The latest Cuban media campaign “is directed against the [expensive] mobile vendors, those sellers of fruits and vegetables who transport their goods on a tricycle or other wheeled device” – Generation Y says: “Although this is a problem that hurts us all, I don’t think we will solve it with...
Jamaica: Bleached
Annie Paul posts an article she wrote about Vybz Kartel and the skin bleaching phenomenon.
Brazil: Sex Scandal on Big Brother Provokes Debate on Machismo
The live broadcast of an alleged rape on the TV show with the highest ratings in Brazil on 14th January, with no immediate intervention by TV Globo, led thousands of internet users to declare their disgust and outrage, but also provoked an important debate on machismo and sex education in the country.
Pakistan: Moral Policing of Dating Couples Gets TV Show Axed
In a recent live Pakistani television show, a group of middle aged women were seen scouring the parks of Karachi to hold accountable the couples dating without their guardians' knowledge. Protests mounted on social media which led to the firing of the anchor and removal of the show from the network.
Cuba: No Political Reforms
Cuban bloggers discuss the national Communist Party conference, which took place this past weekend.
India: New Challenges to Fight Tuberculosis Worldwide
India’s media sphere exploded last week with reports from Mumbai of a tuberculosis strain (TDR-TB) completely resistant to all known treatment. As the World Health Organization released a statement refuting the term TDR-TB, the blogosphere erupted to remind whatever they call it, they should do something about it.
UK: #TwitterKurds Organize First Social Media Gathering in London
A group of Kurdish Internet activists that have been organizing around the #TwitterKurds hashtag on Twitter have come together for the first Kurdish Social Media Gathering earlier this month in London. The event was live streamed and joined in via Skype and YouTube by those who could not be there physically, although there were participants who had traveled from as far as Australia to participate.
Australia Day: Fury Follows Aboriginal Tent Embassy Protest
Australia Day ceremonies are usually the dullest of events. But not when Australia’s political leaders are together just walking distance from a gathering at the contentious Aboriginal Tent Embassy. Kevin Rennie reports.
Ethiopia: Standing With Ethiopia's Tenacious Blogger
Standing with Ethiopia's jailed blogger: “It would be hard to find a better symbol of media repression in Africa than Eskinder Nega. The veteran Ethiopian journalist and dissident blogger has been detained at least seven times by Prime Minister Meles Zenawi's government over the past two decades, and was put...
Bhutan: Promoting National Language
Penstar protests against the tendency of some Bhutanese newspapers to undermine Dzongkha language and suggests that the national language needs to be promoted everywhere.
Trinidad & Tobago: The Value of Seniors
kid5rivers takes the Port of Spain mayor to task for his disagreement with a proposal to offer offer free utilities and transport to senior citizens, asking, tongue firmly in cheek: “Perhaps His Worship confused SCs who are worth their weight in silk with SCs who are waited upon because they...
Trinidad & Tobago: Child Abuse
Guanaguanare hopes that the story of Josiah Governor, the child who was beaten to death, will “motivate us to be more humane in the way we treat our children”, while TnT River blogs about Everton Vasquez, a minor who “hanged himself after receiving a beating from his grandmother.”
Brazil: Military Police Asks “Understanding” on Pinheirinho Eviction by E-mail
Brazilian blogger Conceição Oliveira republished [pt] an e-mail sent by the Military Police of São Paulo trying to explain the actions on what became known as “Massacre of Pinheirinho“. The police complains of “misleading statements that have been spun by people not involved with the real democratic values”.
Portugal: State Radio Silenced after Angola Opinion Piece
A week after the broadcast of an opinion piece by the journalist Pedro Rosa Mendes on public radio, the end of the program was announced. The piece criticized the coverage of an event with several politicians and business men from Portugal and Angola. Bloggers immediately reacted to the "axing of freedom of expression".
Sri Lanka: Black January
Sunanda Deshapriya reports that Media organisations in Sri Lanka have staged a protest titled “Black January” on January 25, 2012 in Colombo against a series of attacks targeting media personnel in recent years.
Pakistan: Moral Policing On TV
Raza Habib Raja criticizes moral policing efforts in a Pakistan TV show which generated much controversy.
Cuba: Internet as a Public Good
“In addition to triggering the greatest civic hell-raising in Internet history…the SOPA/PIPA laws have touched a nerve in Cuba’s digital community”: half-wired explains.
Guyana: Protest at University
Bloggers report on protests against the firing of journalist and lecturer Freddie Kissoon from the national university, here and here.
