· March, 2008

Stories about Politics from March, 2008

Taiwan: Voices after Presidential Election

March 22 is Taiwan's presidential election held once every four years. The victory is belonging to KMT's Ma Ying-jeou, who got 60 percent of votes and 2 million votes than the other candidate, Frank Hsieh from Democratic Progressive Party (DPP). KMT lost the political power since DPP became the ruling party eight years ago. Now they are back and complete the second-round trasition of political power. After the election, in addition to the election result reported by Taiwan and international press, bloggers in Taiwan have many comments on democracy development, hot and criticism for two parties, and relationship between Taiwan and China.

31 March 2008

Cuba: Can You Hear me Now?

News that Cubans will now be allowed to buy cell phones has been met with differing reactions by Cuban bloggers…El Cafe Cubano: “Cubans on average earn about $20 a month...

31 March 2008

Zimbabwe: What is MDC waiting for?

Bev Clark writes about elections in Zimbabwe:”But what now? What is the MDC waiting for . . . the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission’s “official” results which everyone is suspicious of? It...

31 March 2008

China: Foreign Media

DANWEI has organized a panel discussion on foreign media's news coverage of China. Here is a sum up.

31 March 2008

Japan: Views on Yasukuni, the movie

A documentary film about the controversial Yasukuni shrine, shot by a Chinese filmmaker through funding by a Japanese government agency, has sparked debate and discussion after a group within the ruling LDP party convened a screening to assess its "neutrality". Bloggers offer differing views on the move and on the idea of their government subsidizing what some see as a "political" film.

31 March 2008

China: Chaos and Nationalism

Shangguan from Tianya blog felt that the Chinese government campaign against western media in the report of Tibet riot has stirred up nationalistic sentiment in China [zh].

31 March 2008

Taiwan: Counter Culture

Blog worker wrote a letter to gutsy youths who vote to use counter culture spirit for changes in Taiwan [zh].

31 March 2008

Bahrain: Scorn for inflation package

To alleviate the effects of inflation in Bahrain, the government has introduced a BD40 million (USD105 million) aid package – and Bahrain's bloggers are unanimous in questioning how effective it will be, writes Ayesha Saldanha.

31 March 2008

Lebanon: On censorship

Beirut Spring posts about “good censorship” versus “bad censorship” and on the difference between censoring the Da Vinci Code and censoring Persepolis in Lebanon.

30 March 2008

Georgia: Opposition Ends Hunger Strike

TOL Georgia comments on news that the opposition has called off its hunger strike after a second intervention from the Georgian patriarch. With no concessions forthcoming from the government, the...

30 March 2008

Zimbabwe: Harare is tense after Tsvangirai claims victory

Following the presidential and parliamentary elections in Zimbabwe yesterday, bloggers are reporting that the situation in Harare is tense, in Bulawayo MDC supporters are celebrating (MDC candidate, Morgan Tsvangirai, has claimed victory) and all over the country there are rumours that Robert Mugabe has left the country for Mozambique.

30 March 2008

Armenia: Opposition Protests Continue

Despite amendments to the law on public marches, rallies and demonstrations following the recently lifted state of emergency, the opposition continues to hold meetings on the streets of the Armenian capital. In order to circumvent the restrictions, the gatherings are held under the guise of playing chess, reading books or even eating fast food in public.

30 March 2008

Brazil: Blogs banned from the 2008 elections

Brazil is warming up for local elections later this year, but the Supreme Electoral Court has just passed regulations that have raised eye-brows throughout the blogosphere: only candidates' purpose-built web pages will be allowed. Blogs and 'social web' facilities have not been subjected to a more comprehensive legislation and as a result these are now left in limbo. Will the netizen be silenced?

30 March 2008