· October, 2012

Stories about Media & Journalism from October, 2012

Japan: Election Tweeting Forbidden

  31 October 2012

Even though Japanese is the second most active language in the world on Twitter, for the country's political candidates, tweeting during election campaigns is forbidden. A group of young activists is seeking to change this situation.

Spain: Journalists Fined After Revealing Corruption in Catalonia

  31 October 2012

Marta Sibina and Albano Dante, editors of the citizen media magazine Cafè amb Llet, have been fined 10,000 euro for libel. They uploaded to YouTube a video strongly criticizing the lack of transparency in public healthcare financing in Catalonia, implicating Josep Maria Via, president of Barcelona MAR Health Park Consortium and healthcare advisor to Catalan President Artur Mas.

Puerto Rico: Prejudice Between the Lines

  30 October 2012

Félix Jiménez denounces in a short note in the digital magazine 80grados the prejudice that is revealed between the lines in the sports sections of the country's main newspapers when covering Orlando Cruz, the Puerto Rican boxer that recently came out as openly gay. Jiménez says: To review articles supposedly supporting Cruz is...

Brazil: Wikileaks Reveals Officials’ Disdain Towards the Guarani Kaiowá

  30 October 2012

Brazilian investigative journalism website Pública reports [pt] on documents leaked by WikiLeaks on the plight of the request for land of the indigenous Guarani-Kaiowá. A cable from 2009 reveals disdain by local authorities from the state of Mato Grosso do Sul towards Guarani-Kaiowá's demands for the demarcation of the lands...

Greece: Public TV Journalists Fired After Criticizing Minister

  30 October 2012

On October 29, two journalists, Kostas Arvanitis and Marilena Katsimi, were fired by the Greek Public Television (ERT) after analyzing claims by British newspaper The Guardian of police torture of Greek anti-fascist protesters in Athens, and criticizing the Greek Minister of Public Order. Explore this and other recent censorship examples.

Puerto Rico: The Unwritten Rule of the Puerto Rican Press

  30 October 2012

Luisa García Pelatti talks [es] in her blog Sin comillas (Without Quotation Marks) about the alleged illegal use of government funds by the newspaper El Vocero [es] (The Spokesman) that was denounced by the newspaper El Nuevo Día [es] (The New Day). García, a former employee of El Vocero, said the following: What El Nuevo Día published...

Greek Journalist Arrested for Publishing List of Alleged Tax Evaders

  29 October 2012

Greek journalist and editor of Hot Doc magazine, Kostas Vaxevanis, tweeted his arrest and posted a video message [el] a few hours after his magazine published a leaked list of over 2,000 names of Greeks with bank accounts in Switzerland, allegedly the “Lagarde list” that Greek governments had misplaced for years.

Discussing New Forms of Journalism

  28 October 2012

What distinguishes citizen media from traditional media? Is it even still possible do draw the line? Global Voices author Débora Medeiros shares her notes from a discussion on new forms of journalism, which took place during a barcamp session at the Berlin Colloquium for Internet and Society, on October 26,...

Colombia: Kien&Ke's Director Resigns After Journalist's Dismissal

  28 October 2012

Maria Elvira Bonilla, director of online portal Kien & Ke, resigned after acknowledging her error in firing journalist Daniel Pardo for his column about the influence exercised by the Canadian oil company Pacific Rubiales in media like W Radio [es]-a case that sparked outrage among Colombians.

Colombia: Journalist Fired Over Article About Oil Company

  27 October 2012

Colombian journalist Daniel Pardo was fired from the website Kien&Ke after publishing a column about the influence exerted by the Canadian oil company Pacific Rubiales in media like W Radio. Many netizens agree that the dismissal is an attack on freedom of the press.

Russia: the Scuffles of the Moscow Literati

RuNet Echo  27 October 2012

Most online conflicts in the RuNet remain virtual. Sometimes, however, members of the Moscow creative class feel that fisticuffs are their only recourse, as a recent Twitter spat between blogger Maksim Kononenko and Pussy Riot lawyer Mark Feygin demonstrated.

Thailand: Problems in Implementing Information Act

  26 October 2012

Saksith Saiyasombut and Siam Voices translate an article written by ThaiPublica about Thailand's experience in implementing the Official Information Act of 1997: Thai citizens were given more rights to request the disclosure of official government information…But even with such progress, it hasn’t resulted in simpler access to official information yet,...

Madagascar: Preserving National Heritage with Video Archiving

  23 October 2012

A Civil Society Initiative has been set up to preserve the 'collective memory' of Madagascar by digitally archiving videos detailing its, often controversial, history. The Fl@H Association was set up to preserve Madagascar’s audiovideo heritage and aims to be a force for the preservation of the country’s history. Members can already point to several achievements.