News Roundup Archive

Thursday, January 20, 2011

USIP's Media, Conflict & Peacebuilding Roundup

United States Institute of Peace

Center of Innovation for Media, Conflict and Peacebuilding

Weekly News Roundup, January 13 - 19, 2011

Media and Journalism

Internet and Social Media

What's New from PeaceMedia


Media and Journalism

Belarusian Journalist Sentenced For Participation In Protest
Belarusian journalist Barys Haretski has been sentenced by a Minsk court to 14 days in jail for taking part in post-election demonstrations on December 19, RFE/RL's Belarus Service reports. Haretski was detained on January 17 near the KGB headquarters in Minsk while interviewing relatives of opposition activists and their supporters who were arrested in central Minsk on December 19-20 during protests following the contentious presidential election.
See the full article (RFE/RL. 1/18/11)
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The 'Problem' with Côte d'Ivoire: How the Media Misrepresent the Causes of Conflict
Much media coverage of conflict in the Ivory Coast relies on a familiar explanation of Africa's wars - that they stem from immutable tribal and sectarian differences. Despite religious and ethnic faultlines, conflict in the Ivory Coast is above all political.
See the full article (ISN, Patrick Meehan, 1/17/11)
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Watchdog Warns of Vietnam Media Clampdown
Vietnam will tighten state control of bloggers and other media with new regulations that enhance its already extensive powers to limit press freedoms, according to a watchdog. A decree signed by Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung last week set out fines of up to 40 million dong (2,000 dollars) for offences including publishing information which is "non-authorised" or not in "the interests of the people".
See the full article (AFP, 1/14/11)
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Conducting Documentary Diplomacy
Kim A. Snyder's "Welcome to Shelbyville" is a melting-pot movie, a simmer with social issues: immigration, racism, unemployment, intolerance. Its examination of the clash between Somali Muslims and rural Tennesseans does not sugarcoat the kinds of conflicts that have bedeviled the country for centuries; it questions, in its way, what America means. And it's been shown around the world by the United States State Department.
See the full article (New York Times, John Anderson, 1/14/11) *NYT sign-up may be required to view the full article
Click to read "Salam Shabab: Views and Voices of Iraqi Youth" a USIP Peace Brief by Theo Dolan and Alexis Toriello.
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Political Satire Iranian-American Style
A new Voice of America TV show has hit a nerve with Iranians inside and outside Iran. It's called "Parazit" (which means "static" in Persian) and it's a weekly half-hour of political satire often compared to "The Daily Show with Jon Stewart." The show's host Kambiz Hosseini and executive producer Saman Arbabi say millions follow them online and they describe how political satire works when the butt of the jokes is an authoritarian government.
See the full article (NPR, Bob Garfield, Kambiz Hosseini and Salam Arababi, 1/14/11)
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Internet and Social Media

Iran Seeks to Boost Corps of Web Watchers
Iran's top police chief envisions a new beat for his forces: patrolling cyberspace. "There is no time to wait," Gen. Ismail Ahmadi Moghaddam said last week. "We will have cyber police all over Iran." The first web watchdog squads are planned in Tehran this month - another step in Iran's rapidly expanding focus on the digital world as cyber warfare and online sleuthing take greater prominence with the Pentagon's new Cyber Command and the secrets spilled to WikiLeaks.
See the full article (AP, 1/19/11)
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Korea's OhmyNews: How Oppression Inspired Citizen Journalism
With its 65,000 contributors, the Korean news organisation OhmyNews is not just one of the biggest in the world but also one of the most established, having been launched back in 2000. The country's huge economic growth since 1961 was assisted by massive investment into technical infrastructure. At the same time, the regime cracked down on media freedom which saw 49 of the 64 daily newspapers available in 1961 close.
See the full article (Guardian, Sarah Hartley, 1/19/11)
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WikiLeaks Has Caused Little Lasting Damage, Says US State Department
The damage caused by the WikiLeaks controversy has caused little real and lasting damage to American diplomacy, senior state department officials have concluded. It emerged in private briefings to Congress by top diplomats that the fallout from the release of thousands of private diplomatic cables from all over the globe has not been especially bad.
See the full article (Guardian, Paul Harris, 1/19/11)
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Tunisia: A Media Led Revolution?
In light of the dramatic development of events, on a considerable scale, it has become evident that new media have been playing a key role this time around in keeping the momentum going, and bringing the voices of the disengaged Tunisian youth to the attention of world media, and hence to international public opinion. Such developments have proven very significant in changing the rules of the game, of journalism production and dissemination of information in a country where the government historically keeps tight control on the media.
See the full article (Aljazeera, Noureddine Miladi, 1/17/11)
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Thousands Of Iranians Join Online Protest Against Sanctions
About 25,000 Iranians have reacted to last week's crash of Iran Air flight 277 by joining an online protest against sanctions that prevent Iran from purchasing new aircraft and spare parts. The protesters believe sanctions undermine aviation safety standards and are therefore to be blamed for a string of air accidents that have claimed the lives of hundreds of Iranians.
See the full article (RFE/RL, Golnaz Esfandiari, 1/16/11)
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Is Al Qaeda's "Internet Generation" Their Most Dangerous?
The chief theorist of the Egyptian al-Jama'ah al-Islamiyah (Egyptian Islamic Group or EIG), Dr. Najih Ibrahim, informed Asharq Al-Awsat that Al Qaeda's "internet generation" who draw on jihadist ideology via websites affiliated to the Al Qaeda organization are more dangerous than the previous generation of jihadists who are affiliated to Islamist groups and armed movements.
See the full article (Asharq Alawsat, Abdulsattar Hatitah, 1/15/11)
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Tunisia Protesters Use Facebook, Twitter and YouTube to Help Organize and Report
Tunisia is in a state of unrest and protesters are using blogs, Facebook, Twitter, WikiLeaks documents, YouTube and other methods to mobilize themselves and report what is going on. Reports on how many people have died vary from at least three to as many as 20, and the weeks of demonstrations have been largely ignored by the majority of media outlets until recent days. As such, the Internet has been the largest source of documentation of the protests, much of it provided by the demonstrators themselves, despite Tunisia's strict censorship of the Web.
See the full article (Los Angeles Times, Nathan Olivarez-Giles, 1/14/11)
Click to read about USIP's upcoming event "Children and Transitional Justice" on January 25 at 10:30am.
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What's New from PeaceMedia

"Israel Speaks Arabic" - Feenjan.com
Feenjan.com is a unique and unprecedented initiative. Using Internet and video media, Avi Melamed, an Israeli Jew, the founder of Feenjan, addresses the Arab world in Arabic. Feenjan's goal is to add an Israeli - Jewish voice, in Arabic, to the narrative about Israel in the Arab world, to present the State of Israel from different perspectives in a balanced, objective way, and to create an online community of Israelis and Arabs that communicate with each other, thus contributing for more understanding and tolerance.
Visit PeaceMedia
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USIP's Science, Technology & Peacebuilding Roundup

United States Institute of Peace

Center of Innovation for Science, Technology and Peacebuilding

Weekly News Roundup, January 13 - 19, 2011

Table of Contents


Predeployment Mental Health Screening May Help Troops
Stringent mental health screening before deployment appeared to reduce the rate of psychiatric and behavioral problems among U.S. Army soldiers in Iraq by 78 percent, a new study has found. Among other things, suicidal thoughts and actions fell by half, according to the results of the study, which were released online Tuesday in advance of publication in an upcoming print issue of the American Journal of Psychiatry.
See the full article (Business Week, 1/18/11)
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U.S. Shifts Focus to Press China for Market Access
A series of trade restrictions imposed by the Chinese government within China, including administrative controls, requirements to transfer sophisticated technology, state subsidies to favored domestic companies and so-called indigenous laws meant to favor homegrown businesses, have angered many American manufacturing and high-tech companies, which are rapidly finding themselves cut out of the world's fastest growing market.
See the full article (New York Times, Helene Cooper and Mark Landler, 1/18/11) *NYT sign-up may be required to view the full article
Click to read about USIP's upcoming training session "Engaging with Identity-Based Differences" on January 24 at 9:00am.
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Laser Beams Can Now Deliver Energy to Machines through Thin Air
A laser, aimed continuously from the ground at photovoltaic cells on the Pelican's underside, a remotely controlled helicopter drone, charged the chopper's battery, keeping her aloft for an unprecedented 12 hours and 27 minutes. LaserMotive reports that American army officials, including some responsible for special-forces kit, have expressed a desire to obtain power-beaming systems for drones. DARPA, the American Defence Department's technology agency, is also sponsoring research into power beaming.
See the full article (Economist, 1/18/11)
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Did a U.S. Government Lab Help Israel Develop Stuxnet?
Questions are being raised about the involvement of U.S. government researchers in the creation of a digital weapon that experts believe may have sabotaged centrifuges at a uranium-enrichment plant in Iran. Researchers at the Idaho National Laboratory, which is overseen by the U.S. Department of Energy, may have passed critical information to Israel about vulnerabilities in a system that controls Iran's enrichment plant at Natanz.
See the full article (Wired, Kim Zetter, 1/17/11)
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In New Military, Data Overload Can Be Deadly
Data is among the most potent weapons of the 21st century. Unprecedented amounts of raw information help the military determine what targets to hit and what to avoid. And drone-based sensors have given rise to a new class of wired warriors who must filter the information sea. But sometimes they are drowning.
See the full article (New York Times, Thom Shanker and Matt Richtel, 1/16/11) *NYT sign-up may be required to view the full article
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Israeli Test on Worm Called Crucial in Iran Nuclear Delay
The Dimona complex in the Negev desert is famous as the heavily guarded heart of Israel's never-acknowledged nuclear arms program. Behind Dimona's barbed wire, the experts say, Israel has spun nuclear centrifuges virtually identical to Iran's at Natanz, where Iranian scientists are struggling to enrich uranium. They say Dimona tested the effectiveness of the Stuxnet computer worm, a destructive program that appears to have wiped out roughly a fifth of Iran's nuclear centrifuges.
See the full article (New York Times, William J. Broad, John Markoff and David E. Sanger, 1/15/11) *NYT sign-up may be required to view the full article
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Tuesday, January 18, 2011

FW: USIP's Science, Technology & Peacebuilding Roundup

 

 

United States Institute of Peace

 

Center of Innovation for Science, Technology and Peacebuilding

Weekly News Roundup, November 4 - 10, 2010

Table of Contents


Nicaraguan Invasion? Blame Google Maps
An embarrassing error on Google Maps has been blamed for Nicaragua's accidental invasion of Costa Rica. Last week, Nicaraguan troops crossed the border, took down a Costa Rican flag and defiantly raised their own flag on Costa Rican turf. But the troops' commander, Eden Pastora, told a Costa Rican newspaper, La Nacion, that his invasion was not his fault, because Google Maps mistakenly said the territory belonged to Nicaragua.
See the full article (Wired, Mark Brown, 11/8/10)
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Mining the Seafloor for Rare-Earth Minerals
Manganese nodules, rocks [that] are plentiful in nickel, copper and cobalt, turn out to contain so-called rare-earth minerals - elements that have wide commercial and military application but have hit a production roadblock. China, which controls some 95 percent of the world's supply, had blocked shipments, sounding political alarms around the globe and a rush for alternatives. China ended its embargo late last month, but the hunt for other options continues.
See the full article (New York Times, William J. Broad, 11/8/10)
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Pentagon's Cyber Command Seeks Authority to Expand its Battlefield
The Pentagon's new Cyber Command is seeking authority to carry out computer network attacks around the globe to protect U.S. interests, drawing objections from administration lawyers uncertain about the legality of offensive operations. Cyber Command's chief, Gen. Keith B. Alexander, who also heads the National Security Agency, wants sufficient maneuvering room for his new command to mount what he has called "the full spectrum" of operations in cyberspace.
See the full article (Washington Post, Ellen Nakashima, 11/6/10)
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Is There Ever a Good Time to Invest in War Torn Countries? Study Finds Out
In a study of the impact of war on stock markets in frontier countries, Caravan Capital Management, a fund that invests in frontier markets for wealthy individuals, found that many conflict countries experience intense post-war rallies. The average country return during the post-conflict phase was 26.6% greater than the benchmark.
See the full article (Forbes, Megha Bahree, 11/5/10)
Click to read about USIP's upcoming event "The Go-Between: Jan Eliasson and the Styles of Mediation - Book Launch" on November 15 at 4:30pm.
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