Stories about Media & Journalism from August, 2008
Georgia: Blogging from Poti
Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty is once again blogging from Georgian towns under Russian military occupation. The station's Tea Absaridze is providing daily updates on the situation in the strategic Black Sea port of Poti, currently controlled by the Russian military despite a ceasefire agreement requiring Moscow to withdraw...
Trinidad & Tobago, U.S.A.: Michelle Did Well
Trinidadian blogger Afrobella is a “great admirer of Michelle Obama” and thinks she nailed her speech at the Democratic National Convention, calling it “poignant and resonant”.
St. Vincent & the Grenadines: Rapist at Large
The women of St. Vincent and the Grenadines are under siege by a serial rapist and Abeni is “very uneasy about the whole scenario…I have now developed an intense hatred for the rapist or rapists who have turned women into prisoners in their own homes. Is it too much to...
Jamaica: Gustav etc.
As Jamaican Annie Paul waits for Hurricane Gustav “to huff and puff and blow our house down”, she blogs about everything from Usain Bolt-inspired dance moves to Michelle Obama: “(She) was impressive, wasn't she? Neither pale, nor male–i can identify with that…”
Guyana: Reporter Fired?
Living Guyana says that a journalist has allegedly been fired for writing a less-than-glowing account of the Carifesta Opening Ceremony, which Signifyin’ Guyana agrees the reporter correctly described as “disappointing”.
Jamaica: Patwa Power
Annie Paul gives a rundown of Jamaica's outstanding Olympic achievements, making the point that “the phenomenal performance of the Jamaican athletes is also due to the cultural self-confidence they feel…this is not a confidence manufactured by the abjectly self-conscious, respectability-seeking, hymn-singing English-speaking middle classes but one bred out of the...
Bahamas, Guyana: Walcott's Warning
At the opening of the Carifesta Symposia in Guyana, Nobel Laureate Derek Walcott warned that regional governments are killing their artists – making Bahamian blogger Nicolette Bethel even more convinced that her decision to resign her post as Director of Culture for the Bahamas Government is the right one.
Brazil: Longer maternity leave causes media outcry
A law that extends paid maternity leave from 120 to 180 days has just been signed by Brazilian President Lula. Private companies will be able to opt out, but the government will grant tax breaks to those that adopt it. Altamiro Borges [pt] comments on the outcry: “the hegemonic media,...
Kazakhstan: Commenters at the Olympiad
Adam reports on the unethical behavior of the Russian commenters of the Olympics.
China: Olympics as a Learning Experience
Nimrod from the Fool's mountain points out that everyone should try to learn from the Beijing Olympics lesson.
China: Brain Damaged Netizen Syndrome
WangXiaofeng listed out 13 symptoms for indicating whether a netizen is suffered from brain damage. The symptoms include a compulsion to read and comment posts even they don't really understand the texts; there is only right and wrong in their world view, and of course they are always on the...
Blogger of the Week: Janine Mendes-Franco
Today's installment of the Blogger of the Week series is taking us to the beautiful island of Trinidad and Tobago, home to Global Voices regional editor for the Caribbean Janine Mendes-Franco.
Georgia: Regional Reporters
The conflict between Georgia and Russia over the breakway territory of South Ossetia were accompanied by cyber-attacks on several Georgian official government and independent media sites. But rather than prevent journalists from utilizing the Internet to report on the war, it achieved the opposite. Many Georgians -- media professionals and citizen journalists alike -- set up blogs to report or comment on the conflict.
Taiwan: Hopes in democracy in the midst of corruption scandal
In the last two weeks, the Taiwan mainstream media has been occupied with the corruption scandal of the former president, Chen Shiu-Bian. According to the news report, a Swiss bank has spotted a large sum of suspected money (up to a billion Taiwan yuan) transfered from Taiwan to Switzerland and...
China: Re-education through labor sentence for two elderly protesters
The closing ceremony of the Beijing 2008 Summer Olympics draws near, and while Chinese media are unable to report on scandals such as this that have dominated foreign media headlines, it is those foreign media reports which have given Chinese netizens plenty to chew over.
South Ossetia: Tskhinvali Photos and Reports
On Aug. 21, Columbia Journalism Review published Julia Ioffe's overview of several Russian journalists' blogging from the war in South Ossetia. Featured in her piece are reports by LJ user krig42 (Komsomolskaya Pravda reporter Dmitry Steshin) and LJ user ep-news (Evgeny Poddubny, correspondent for TV Center). Below are a few more blog posts from Russian and North Ossetian journalists, with photos and accounts of what they've seen in the South Ossetian capital Tskhinvali over the past week.
Lebanon: The Memorandum of Understanding…or Controversy?
Shia Hezbullah and Sunni Salafist groups in Lebanon have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) that prohibits Muslims from killing each other. Hours later, the agreement was revoked. Nash Suleiman digs into the Lebanese blogosphere to bring us the story.
Morocco: Blogosphere Citizenship
Eatbees, a foreign member and upstanding citizen of the Moroccan blogosphere, shares a piece of his interview with blogoma researcher Rebecca Robinson.
Bahamas, Cuba: Inconvenient Truths?
“The Bahamas standard of living reflects the effect of free trade and a relatively limited government. Citizens here are still far better off than in many countries in the region and the world. However, every now and then The Bahama Journal editorialises about the virtues of Cuba. And frankly this...
China: Beijing can't find itself on Google News
They haven't been call the SchizOlympics for nothing (that piece is serious though, and worth a second read), and now Google News is behaving oddly; read all about it at Danwei: “The absence of China from news searches does not appear to be a Net Nanny phenomenon or at least...
Mexico: Attempt to Close Radio Ñomndaa
Notilibertas [es] posts a video about the attempt by federal police to close Radio Ñomndaa, an indigenous radio station in Guerrero, Mexico.
