2012 Special Coverage · Global Voices

The civilian death toll is rising in the latest hostilities between Israel and the Gaza Strip. Rocket fire by Palestinian militants into Israel is being countered with severe air raids on Gaza targeting Hamas.
We look back on the year 2012 in online citizen media all around the world.
What does the world think of President Barack Obama four years later? Tempered by the reality of economic crisis, drones and wars, world citizens now look to the United States with some degree of hope but also trepidation.
Bahrain is one of several countries to stage protests in the so-called Arab revolution time-table inspired by uprisings in Tunisa and Egypt. Police have forcibly quashed demonstrations across the country. Both videos and photos of the crackdown are dodging internet censors and making their way around the web.
Peace is elusive in the South Caucasus. With media in the region often resorting to propaganda and misinformation, few opportunities exist for objective reporting or moderate voices on the conflict to be heard. Global Voices has set up this special coverage page to help address the information gap.
Two prominent reformists and human rights activists in Saudi Arabia are on trial. Mohammad al-Qahtani and Abdullah al-Hamid are being prosecuted for “breaking allegiance to the ruler and his successor” and “trying to impede the country’s developments”.
An overview of Egypt's first post-revolution parliamentary and presidential elections.  New parties have been formed and banned groups are being allowed to enter the elections for the first time; the remnants of Mubarak's regime are also fighting for their place.
This special coverage aims to give a voice to those normal people living with the social, political and financial consequences of Europe's financial bailouts, in Greece, Ireland and Portugal. But the series will not just be about protest – we hope to capture the breadth of reflection and debate that have been provoked in these countries by the bailouts, and feature ideas and alternatives that respond to the difficult times.
Azerbaijan's victory in 2011's competition means Eurovision will descend on capital Baku in 2012, and as a result issues surrounding human rights, corruption and democracy in the country have come under the spotlight. Some activists in the oil-rich former Soviet republic hope that the staging of such an international competition might yet result in some positive change. With Azeri activists and journalists continuing to be imprisoned for their views, others are less than convinced.
There are up to 370 million indigenous people in the world, speaking more than 4,000 languages, and living in more than 70 countries. Indigenous peoples have resisted time, colonization, genocide, epidemics and wars, and are now reemerging with louder voices across the globe.
This special series is the result of a partnership between Global Voices and the International Relations and Security Network (ISN) in Switzerland who have commissioned Global Voices authors to seek out citizen voices worldwide
A video and campaign aimed at making Ugandan guerilla leader and wanted war criminal Joseph Kony “famous” in order to raise support for his arrest has swept the Internet by storm, prompting a wave of backlash.
The arrival of the Internet age has already radically changed the way we communicate. We have developed this page to track the relationship of languages and the Internet, looking at use of language online, and the development and preservation of language in an increasingly digital world.
The 2012 Summer Olympic Games are scheduled to take place in London, United Kingdom from 27 July to 12 August, 2012. With 26 sports, 10,500 athletes and millions of spectators, the Olympics is the world's biggest sporting event.
The Rohingya are a Muslim group from the Rakhine State (formerly Arakan) in western Myanmar (Burma). According to the United Nations, they are one of the most persecuted minorities in the world, but opinion in Myanmar is divided.
A series of global protests against economic inequality and corporate greed calling for the “occupation” of different cities, banks, and public squares began in September 2011 with “Occupy Wall Street” in New York City. Soon after, similar demonstrations were organized around the world in a decentralized and leaderless movement organized by citizens.
Limitations vary from country to country, but for those waging the battles for free speech online, there is much to learn from studying the challenges and successes of netizens in other countries. This page collates Global Voices coverage of online censorship around the world and also highlights the work of our Global Voices Advocacy project dedicated to protecting freedom of expression and free access to information online.
It's hard to put a figure on the number of displaced people in the world and there are different reasons as to why they relocate. Here we collect Global Voices coverage on this topic, and provide selected resources.
Russia's 2011 parliamentary election triggered what no one expected – mass demonstrations protesting the numerous reports of vote rigging and election violations. The overwhelming numbers (over 60,000 protesters in Moscow alone and around 100,000 protesters all over the country), have created an energy and feeling of empowerment that Russians have not experienced for nearly two decades. Looking forward, 2012 will see the presidential election in March.
Russia's political opposition has struggled to define itself in the aftermath of widely criticized elections for the national parliament and presidency. Over the past year, RuNet Echo extensively covered the response to those elections: mass protests, which constituted some of the greatest social turbulence to visit Russia in more than a decade.
In April 2011, a new type of protest march evolved: the SlutWalks represent a debate against the idea that women induce rapes by dressing sexually, like ‘sluts’. The first march took place after a representative of the Toronto police, Canada, called for women to avoid dressing like sluts to stay safe from rapes. It has since been replicated around the world.
Isolated protests in Sudan first began in early 2011, inspired by the Arab Spring movement. Since then, drastic rises in food and fuel prices have fuelled further unrest. Demonstrators in Sudan have been met with repression by the authorities.
Following protest movements in countries such as Tunisia and Egypt, some Syrians called for their own “Day of Anger” on February 5, 2011. Real protests did not flare until until March 15 however; since then up to 150 demonstrators have been reported as being killed as security forces clamp down.
Venezuela's October 7, 2012, presidential election was the most contested and intense in the last decade. Despite the opposition's hopes for a change, President Hugo Chávez gained a clear victory, adding six more years to his current 14-year rule. Traffic on social networks –particularly on Twitter– was extremely intense before, during, and after the vote.
Protests against Yemen's President Saleh that began in February 2011 have ignited strong protests which have led to attacks, clubbings, and shootings of anti-government protesters across the country. Severe poverty and corruption, accompanied by historic rifts between north and south that lead people to fear for the future of the country, both if and if not Saleh is deposed.