18 January 2010

Stories from 18 January 2010

Tunisia: Bloggers Against Student Imprisonment

  18 January 2010

The recent trials of a group of Tunisian students and their sentencing to prison terms ranging from six months of three years after organizing a sit-in in a university accommodation to claim the right of girl students in housing prompted bloggers to launch a support campaign calling for their freedom, writes Lina Ben Mhenni.

Syria: Journalist Maen Akel Still Detained

  18 January 2010

Maen Akel, a Syrian journalist, was arrested on November 11, 2009, by the Syrian Intelligence Department (State Security) in Damascus. Within 48 hours of his arrest he was also dismissed from his work at Al-Thawra, a state owned newspaper. The reason for his arrest remains unknown.

MENA: Does Rain Bring Happiness or Misery?

  18 January 2010

Many bloggers and Twitter users from Egypt and different parts in MENA region reported rain and some dusty storms today. Depending on their circumstances, some welcomed the drops of rain with joy while others braced themselves for the storms, flooding and heartbreak.

Chile: Sebastian Piñera is the Next President

  18 January 2010

Sebastián Piñera was elected on January 17 as the first right-leaning president in Chile after 20 years of left leaning rule. For many in Chile, these elections demonstrated the country's strength as a transparent and healthy democracy.

Haiti: Online Maps Shift from Charting Damage to Targeting Aid

  18 January 2010

Marc Herman takes a closer look at some maps that humanitarian aid responders are using to communicate the evolving situation in Haiti’s earthquake zone. Nearly a week after the disaster -- and aftershocks equal to major temblors -- the maps and satellite imagery are proving some of the most reliable information available.

UK: Twitter joke led to Terror Act arrest

  18 January 2010

Sharpe's Opinion reacts sarcastically to the news of the first arrest in the United Kingdom over a Twitter joke:  “Round of applause of the police there. Keeping us safe from those dangerous terrorists who go round advertising their intentions on public social networking websites.”

Africa: Free Kiswahili synthetic voice for Freedom Fone

  18 January 2010

Brenda writes about free Kiswahili synthetic voice for Freedom Fone, a project of Kubatana in Zimbabwe: “In recognition of the competitive mobile phone tariffs prevailing in east Africa and the willingness of organisations there to experiment with information on demand voice services, we will create our first localisation of the...

Japan: Shifted Stances in News Reporting

  18 January 2010

In a post titled ‘Media Shifts Make Japan A Harder Read‘, the Shisaku blog describes the changes in the way major news outlets have been reporting news since the establishment of the new administration and why “the world is relying more and more on unfiltered retransmission what Japanese media outlets...

Haiti: Mobile phones bring news of missing relatives

  18 January 2010

In Port-au-Prince, @guyadams , the Independent's L.A. correspondent, tweets: “People finally able to get mobile signals. Sadly, that means they're only now finding out about dead relatives…Our host just found out that three of his cousins are dead. Don't know what I can say to console him.”

Hong Kong: The Siege of Legco

  18 January 2010

DM from Learning Cantonese has a very detailed account of the protest against the government finance plan of the world's most expensive Express Rail Link project on Jan 16, 2010.

China: Speculating the future

  18 January 2010

ESWN translated Han Han's blog post on his wild speculation of the future of Chinese Internet. The blog post was removed by sina blog hosting.