Stories about Eastern & Central Europe from December, 2010
Russia: Newspaper Announces Its Partnership with Wikileaks
Russian newspaper Novaya Gazeta known for its critical stance toward Russian authorities announced today its official partnership with notorious Wikileaks. This came as a punch toward less-known magazine Russian Reporter that, until now, claimed to be the official partner of Wikileaks.
South/North Korea: A Review of 2010 in Keywords
From Cheonan incident in March to the latest North Korean attack on Yeonpyeong island, Global Voices took a look back at the year’s hottest keywords that have been widely circulated over Korean internet venues.
Hal Roberts’ Commentary on Internet Censorship in Belarus
Hal Roberts, Berkman Center censorship expert, comments on recent messages of extensive Internet censorship in Belarus. Besides, DNS-hijacking and filtering, Roberts also reports DDOS attacks on opposition websites.
Belarus: Tweets and Pictures of Another Post-Election Rallies
Despite Twitter has been blocked in Belarus, the Twitter hashtag #electby is updated every second. Lots of photos of the Belarus events available at picfog at the same hashtag.
Belarus: Users Are Redirected to Fake Opposition Websites
Habrahabr-user webdew reports that Belarus users are being redirected to fake opposition websites: gazetaby.in, nnby.in, charter97.in, bchdd.in, belaruspartisan.in, euroradio.in, ucpb.in, svaboda.in. The design of all these websites is the same but the content is completely different from the original. All domains belong to “Belpak”, Belarus state-owned Internet provider.
Belarus: Presidential Election Day Ends in Protests and Crackdown
December 19, the 2010 presidential election day in Belarus, ended in mass protests, arrests and violent clashes with the riot police in Minsk, the capital of Belarus. Below is a small selection of citizen media reports on what happened.
Belarus: Gmail, Twitter, LiveJournal, Facebook and other Sites Blocked
Belarus government blocked all major social media (Gmail, Twitter, LiveJournal, Facebook) as well as opposition media outlets “Charter 97“, “Belarus Partizan“, and “Solidarity“, Lenta.ru reported [RUS]. The government decided to block social media in order to prevent mass mobilization after today's elections and following protests.
Ukraine: Blood in the Parliament
On Dec. 16, a fierce fight broke out in the Ukrainian Parliament, sending at least four lawmakers to the hospital with injuries of various degrees of severity. Tetyana Bohdanova reviews blog and Twitter reactions of the Ukrainian public and politicians.
Kosovo, Serbia: Kosovo's PM Accused of Human Organ Trade
Allegations of Kosovo leadership's wartime involvement in the trafficking of human organs were first made public in 2008 - and have re-surfaced now, in a report prepared by a Council of Europe investigator. Sinisa Boljanovic translates some of the netizens' reactions, past and current.
Slovenia: Pension Reform
Sleeping With Pengovsky posts an update on the pension reform in Slovenia.
Serbia: No More Military Conscription
Belgraded.com reports that “from January 1st 2011 there will be no more military conscription for Serbian citizens”: “Reaction of the general public is, as the case often is around here, mixed.”
Russia: Studying Online Mobilization of the Manezh Riots
Recent riots on Manezhnaya Square next to the Kremlin showed that Russian soccer fans have become a powerful community who can mobilize thousands very quickly around an event. Last week, that event was the commemoration of Yegor Sviridov, a fan of the Moscow soccer club “Spartak” who was murdered in...
Russia: Police Intensifies Surveillance ‘to Prevent Calls to Violence’
Special services are monitoring social networks and track IP-addresses of those who spread calls to violence, rian.ru reports [RUS]. Vkontakte.ru, Russian social network, increased removal of the groups with xenophobia content after the events at Manezh square. “600 moderators work on removal of groups inciting hate-crime”, rian.ru adds [RUS].
Russia: Photos and a Testimony of the Clashes in Moscow
Photo-blogger Ilya Varlamov (@varlamov) and bb-mos tweet and share photos of the current events in the center of Moscow. Tujana-jx reports a story of a skinhead assaulting an older woman in metro.
Russia: the Blogosphere Boils As Ethnic Clashes Flood Moscow
Interfax.ru, Russian news portal moved to manual update mode due to the overload caused by numerous ethnic clashes (so far 1200 arrested and 30 injured) in different places of Moscow, news2.ru reported. Fanat1k.ru, largest soccer fan media outlet, has been inaccessible throughout the day, many smaller fan forums don't load...
Poland: 29th Anniversary of the 1981 Martial Law
On the 29th anniversary of introducing martial law in Poland, Tasting Poland Blog shares “bitter memories” by posting a selection of photos and video from 1981-83.
Czech Republic: Present and Future of the Far-Right
Dr. Sean's Diary analyzes the present and the future of the Czech far-right.
Belarus: More Insight on Upcoming Election
More insight on this coming Sunday's presidential election in Belarus – at OpenDemocracy.net (here and here), and at Democratist.
Russia: “WikiFakes”
FP's Passport writes about the possibly fake WikiLeaks’ “scoops” published by Russkiy Reporter magazine.
Russia: Commentary on Dec. 11 Moscow Rioting
Reactions to the Dec. 11 xenophobic riots in downtown Moscow – by Vadim Nikitin, Miriam Elder, Natalia Antonova, Robert Amsterdam's blog, and The Power Vertical.
Russia: Too Warm in the World's Coldest Place
eYakutia reports on the abnormally “warm weather” in Oymyakon, “the world’s coldest inhabited place”: just -20 ºC/-4 ºF, “the heat record of the Siberian winter.”
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