The French Media’s ‘Charlie Hebdo’ Narrative Isn’t for Everyone in France

One schoolteacher pushes back against the French mainstream media's coverage of minority attitudes about the deadly attack on Charlie Hebdo.

‘Without Humor, We Are All Dead': Cartoonists Pay Tribute to Fallen Comrades After Charlie Hebdo Massacre

Some of the most striking cartoons and images on the web that have circulated in tribute to those killed.

Contestants in This French Beauty Pageant Strike a Pose—With Their Cows

A French farmer organized a tongue-in-cheek beauty pageant on Facebook for "country girls only" as an answer to the glittery official Miss France pageant.

Humanitarian Associations in Burkina Faso Campaign for Revenue Sharing from the Mining Industry with “Just 1%” Hashtag

A new hashtag is trending in Burkina Faso online networks: #Justeunpourcent (Just 1 Percent in English). The hashtag refers to a campaign initiated by local NGOs to the Parliament that requests that 1 percent of the mining revenues be shared with humanitarian associations to fight poverty in Burkina Faso. Nadine...

The First Edition of the Africa Web Festival Will Kick Off in Abidjan, Côte d'Ivoire

The first Africa Web Festival will take place in Abidjan, Côte D'Ivoire (November 24-26).  The festival will give the opportunity to any designers in Africa to participate in a contest (registrations are open until October 12) Vous êtes journalistes, développeurs, producteurs de web tv, de web radio ; vous êtes créateurs et...

Online Networks Help Relief Flood-Plagued Côte d'Ivoire

Abidjan and other regions of Côte d'Ivoire have been plagued by heavy downpour and floods for the past weeks [fr]. Local residents got organized on social networks to bring relief to stranded citizens. On twitter and facebook, #CIVSOCIAL is the hashtag for emergency humanitarian reliefs. It was created in 2011...

African Technology: The TechAfrique Project Assesses How Far It's Come

 Le continent africain apparaît comme la nouvelle frontière mondiale du développement numérique. Ce développement provoque une nouvelle impulsion entrepreneuriale en Afrique, et notamment en Afrique francophone. Mais ce potentiel reste très largement méconnu en Europe ainsi qu'en France.  The African continent appears to be the new global frontier of digital development. This development has caused a new...

Follow the Presidential Election in Mali in Real Time

Today (July 28) is the first round of the presidential election in Mali.  To keep track of the proceedings in real time, updates are available on twitter via the hashtag #Mali2013, on the twitter accounts @Malivote (and its website)  and @angaelections (site) and  on the news group “Info élections 2013″ on Facebook [fr].

‘Qandisha’, the Women's Webzine that is Ruffling Feathers in Morocco

A webzine for women in Morocco is causing a stir for its frank treatment of religion and sexuality. Global Voices recently caught up with the founder, Fedoua Miski.

24 hours in the Life of a French Newsroom

The Journalism School of Lille [fr], in partnership with Canal France International (CFI), set up a website for online resources on journalism: 24 hours in the life of a newsroom. The objective of the site is that anyone who so wishes can learn through the experience of media professionals. The...

France: Online News Association Votes Rue89 “Best Foreign Site”

Our partners and friends at Rue89 [fr] won the Online News Association (ONA) prize for “General Excellence, Non-English” in San Francisco last weekend. Pierre Haski, co-founder, tells of the adventure [fr] that is Rue89. Launched in May 2007, it became a great success based on the concept of “Information from...

Video: “Social Media Has Consumed Our Lives”

France, Yemen: Vanishing Women

Eloïse Lagrenée [fr] has posted on her Facebook page a picture by Yemeni photographer Bushra Almutawakel, illustrating how women could vanish into darkness and invisibility, step by step, under fundamentalist pressure and the full niqab. It has been shared over 1,500 times.

Côte d'Ivoire: CivRoute, a Citizen Project to Monitor Road Traffic in Real Time

In Abidjan, Cyriac Gbogou introduces on his blog [fr] the citizen collaborative project Civroute [fr] that he co-founded. This online plateform will collect information sent by car drivers on the state of road circulation and potential traffic jams on the ivorian avenues via SMS, Twitter or Facebook.

France: #RadioLondres, Election Day Fun and Dissidence on Twitter

After a gloomy presidential election campaign, French voters are finally having fun on voting day, with hashtag #RadioLondres, to oppose the ban on publication of early results.

Lebanon : Mothers’ Day Event in the Absence of Prisoners Detained in Syria

Various organisations demanding the liberation of Lebanese prisoners detained in Syria are organising an event in the “Tent of the Families of the Missing and Detained” on Lebanese Mothers’ Day, today, 21st March 2012, in the gardens in front of the Beirut UN building.

France: The Human Rights Film Festival Awards

Youphil [fr] published the full list of the recent 2012 Human Rights Film Festival awards in France [fr]. This year, the jury award went  to an investigation documentary, Affaire Chebeya: un meurtre d'Etat? [fr] (The Chebeya case: murdered by the State?) by Belgium director Thierry Michel on the murder of human rights activist Floribert...

Lebanon: Picture An Arab Man

Rania Massoud repost on her personal blog [fr] her article published by Lebanese daily L'orient-Le jour about a photography project undertaken by Tamara Abdul Hadi. “Picture an Arab man” wishes to update the image of today's Arab men by photographing men from every Arab country in the nude.

The Best of the Blogs Awards: Have You Submitted Your Blog?

Nominate your favorite blogs in 17 categories and 11 languages to the Deutsche Welle Best of the Blogs Awards (BoBs) before March, 13, 2012. Bloggers, writers, artists, citizen video reporters, activists and educators are invited to participate in this respected global blog competition.

Mauritania: “Facebook is at the Center of the New E-Dissent”

In the wake of the Arab uprisings, the media often overlook Mauritania and its 3 million inhabitants - another country where dissent and social discontent are on the rise. Here is an interview with well-known Mauritanian Internet activist Nasser Weddady on the country's social media scene.

Mali: The River Niger in Pictures

Boukary Konaté, a member of the Global Voices community in Mali, recently toured rural schools on a traditional Malian boat as part of a digital literacy project. This boat trip was an opportunity to explore his own country and to illustrate the many aspects of the 2,600 miles-long Niger river. Here are some snapshots, taken during the journey.