Stories from 2 February 2011
Honduras: Community Radio in Danger
RNS in Honduras Culture and Politics writes: “Community radio serves to broaden public access to the airwaves. […] Now the Comisión Nacional de Telecomunicaciones (CONATEL) wants to issue a rule suspending the issuance of licenses and frequencies for low power FM community radio stations.”
Ecuador: Chevron Files Lawsuit Against Ecuadorian Plaintiffs
“In the latest chapter in the legal battle between Chevron and Ecuadorian natives the former has raised the stakes in its offensive on the latter,” The Latin Americanist reports. The lawsuit, “alleged that the Ecuadorian plaintiffs and their legal team aim to ‘extort (Chevron) into paying to stop the campaign...
Poland: Reactions to Evacuation of Polish Tourists From Cairo
Sylwia Presley shares tips on what to do if one ends up getting stuck at the Cairo Airport due to political situation in Egypt, and reports on Polish netizens' reactions to their government's decision to help evacuate Polish tourists currently there.
Russia: Blogger Navalny Starts Anticorruption Fundraising
Alexey Navalny, Russian anticorruption blogger, started [RUS] fundraising for his website rospil.info. Within first three hours Navalny had collected [RUS] more than $5,300 in donations which is a record for online anticorruption iniatives in Russia.
Russia: Perm Blogger On Using LiveJournal as a Political Resource
Perm-based blogger Anton Tolmachev (LJ-user legart) tells [RUS] his (unsuccessful) story of trying to use to his LiveJournal as a tool for collecting signatures in order to run for the Perm city legislative assembly. He asked his LiveJournal friends help him to run for the mayor, however, the authorities had...
Russia: Opposition Politician's Facebook Account Suspended
Facebook account of Vladimir Milov, Russian opposition politician, has been suspended, Milov reported [RUS]. As in the case of the suspension of Mikhail Khodorkovsky's account, the suspension was due to anonymous information of account misuse.
Sri Lanka: State Media to Censor News From Egypt
The News Master is reporting that “the news heads of state run television stations: SLRC (Sri Lanka Rupavahini) & ITN (Independent Television Network) have received strict orders from the government hierarchy to ‘filter’ news reports received from Egypt.”
Pakistan: Another Blasphemy Case
Tazeen at A Reluctant Mind criticizes the arrest of a 17 year old Pakistani high school student under blasphemy law on the charges of making derogatory remarks against Prophet Muhammed (PBUH) in his answer script of an examination.
South Asia: Impact Of The Egypt Protests
The news of the recent protests in Egypt is being discussed in the South Asian blogosphere in different perspectives. Many bloggers are watching the developments closely and are updating their reactions.
Egypt: Clashes in Tahrir Square in the Words of Bloggers
Clashes took place in Tahrir Square today between those who are with Mubarak and those who are against him. But the question is, who is really behind all this chaos?
Egypt: The Battle of the Thugs Continues
Protesters continued to battle with waves of government-paid thugs, who entered their ranks, first as pro-Mubarak demonstrators, and waged started a full-fledged attack, with knives, tear gas and Molotov cocktails, at the peaceful protesters. All this happened in front of the very own eyes of television viewers, who have been glued to their sets and live streams on their computers, since Egyptians rose, demanding an end to president Hosni Mubarak's 30-year regime.
Haiti: Elections’ Second Round
Kiskeacity reports that Twitter has been “abuzz with speculations about what will happen tomorrow when the CEP (Electoral Council) announces which of the three main candidates moves on to the second round.”
Bahamas: RIP Marcquel Bethel
Weblog Bahamas‘ Jerome Pinder mourns the loss of “a great Bahamian.”
Sri Lanka: Boycotting Galle Literary Festival
Court Jester thinks that Reporters sans frontières (RSF) boycott of the Galle Literary Festival was wrong and damaging to free speech.
Bermuda, Guyana: Action of the People
Respice Finem suggests that Bermuda may have some lessons to learn from the Middle East, while The Guyana Groove says: “I am so inspired by the recent political revolutions happening in the Mid-East. I just love it when people realise that they are the ones who should be in control.”
Cuba: Parallels with Egypt
Ernesto Morales Licea looks at the unfolding situation in Egypt and wonders: “why not Cuba?”
Cuba: Transportation in Reverse
“In Cuba, the only means of cheap public mass transit are the city buses…state taxi service has disappeared”: Iván's File Cabinet says that the transportation service in Havana is regressing.
Nepal: Networking Citizen Journalists
Ujjwal Acharya at The Radiant Star reports that “Equal Access Nepal, an INGO working mainly in media development, is in a process of creating MeroReport.net with an aim of making it a network for citizen journalists in Nepal”.
Latin America: Drawing Parallels with Egypt
As protests in Egypt continue, Latin American bloggers are drawing historical parallels with similar uprisings in the region and some are wondering: “Could it happen here now?”
Bhutan By Bhutanese
Tshering Tobgay highlights “Bhutan by Bhutanese”, a photo-exhibition taking place in the city of Baar in Switzerland, which showcases Bhutan as the Bhutanese see their own country.
Kuwait: Blogger Sued for Restaurant Review
What started as a normal thing, a blogger writing a personal review of a newly opened restaurant, suddenly escalated into online drama when the restaurant manager threatened with a lawsuit. Mark Makhoul, a Lebanese expat-blogger in Kuwait, wrote a review of Benihana Kuwait, on his blog 248am.
