Stories from 2 November 2012
Citizen Monitoring in Nicaragua's Municipal Elections
The "Independent Electoral Citizen Observation Platform" is gearing up to encourage Nicaraguans to use digital technologies to monitor and report on the upcoming municipal elections on November 4. In addition to the direct reports to the site, they are encouraging netizens to use the hashtag #YoObservo (I Observe) before and during the election day.
Chile: Mapuche Win Big in Municipal Elections
In indigenous online newspaper Azkintuwe [es], Pedro Cayuqueo [es] points out that 9 Mapuche mayors and over 30 Mapuche councilmembers were elected in the October 28 municipal elections in Chile. Cayuqueo argues that this big win means several important things, for example: Far from the “violent” and “anti-system” caricature, the...
Peru: Analyzing the Motives behind Violence at La Parada Market
On the afternoon of October 25, an operation at the wholesale market La Parada -which is being moved- resulted in a free-for-all between merchants and the police, leading to two deaths and 108 injured, 66 of whom were police officers. These events have been widely reported, disseminated and discussed on blogs and social network sites.
Iran: Netizens Remember Nasrin Sotoudeh with “Dog Roses”
A new campaign has started within the Iranian cyber space and social networks in support of prisoner of conscience, Nasrin Sotoudeh who has been on hunger strike since October 17. Many Iranian netizens have posted photos of white flowers in solidarity with Nasrin whose name in Persian means a specific...
Palestine: President Abbas Abandons Palestinian Right of Return
During an interview given to the Israeli Channel 2 News, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said that he does not have the right to live in Safed, his birth town, now part of Israel. The declaration was considered by proponents of the "right of return" as an abandonment of Palestinian refugees' right to return to the villages and the homes they were forcibly displaced from during the 1948 occupation of Palestine and the 1967 Arab-Israeli war.
Macedonia: Documenting Online Protest Against Censorship
On October 9, nearly 200 Macedonian websites participated in a day-long blackout, protesting the censorship-inducing provisions [mk, en, sq] that the Government “sneaked in” within the Draft Law on Civic Liability for Defamation, presented as approved by the EU and COE. Activists from Free Software Macedonia, who provided the JavaScript...
Nicaragua: Nothing Goes to Waste at ‘El Gansito’
Adriana Díaz [es] and Gustavo Salinas wrote a guest post for The Nicaragua Dispatch on ‘El Gansito’, a small business in Managua “that makes products out of recycled plastics and rubber.” There is no doubt that this small business is one of the many “green jewels” we can find in Nicaragua....
Chinese Media's Report on the Superstorm Sandy
Jing Gao from Ministry of Tofu picks some online comments that mock at the Chinese state-run media's coverage of calamity caused by Superstorm Sandy in the West Coast of the U.S.A, saying that they are serving the interest of U.S rather than Chinese as they often ignore local protests and...
Foreign Journalists Covering Ningbo Anti-PX Protest
Chinese journalists were banned from covering Ningbo anti-PX protest in China last week while foreign journalists were standing side-by-side with the protestors at the frontline. China Digital Times translated some tweets that tell the grateful feeling of the Chinese netizens toward these group of foreign journalists.
Russia: Blogging Conference Draws Regional Participants
Regional bloggers convened at a Moscow conference organized by a state run news agency. Was it simply an overture aimed at new media, or an attempt to exert more control over the internet?
Tajikistan: ‘Halloween is not for Patriots’
There are not many people in Tajikistan who know anything about Halloween, let alone mark it. Yet even rare celebrations of the holiday in the country make some people uneasy. Is Halloween an 'alien' tradition endangering Tajik culture? Or is it just an 'innocent prank'?
