News Roundup Archive

Thursday, January 19, 2012

USIP's Media, Conflict & Peacebuilding Roundup

United States Institute of Peace

 

Center of Innovation: Media, Conflict and Peacebuilding

Weekly News Roundup, January 12 - 18, 2012

Media and Journalism

Internet and Social Media

What's New from PeaceMedia

**Click here to subscribe to USIP's Science, Technology and Peacebuilding News Roundup.**


Media and Journalism

Pakistan Taliban Admit Killing Reporter MK Atif
The Taliban in Pakistan have said they killed a journalist while he was praying in a mosque near the city of Peshawar on Tuesday. Mukarram Khan Atif - who worked for the Voice of America broadcasting service - was shot in the head. A spokesman for the militants told the BBC that he was shot dead for not conveying the Taliban's point of view.
See the full article (BBC, 1/18/12)
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I Watched North Korea's Propaganda Film So You Don't Have To
Kim Jong Un is ready for his close-up. Hidden away from both the North Korean people and the world for the better part of a decade, he is now the star of his very own propaganda TV special, an all-you-can-eat buffet of images glorifying the newest star of the Kim dynasty. New footage from North Korean state TV offers a rare glimpse at the (not necessarily real) life of Kim Jong Un.
See the full article (Foreign Policy, Adam Cathcart, 1/13/12)
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Why Training Citizen Journalists is So Important After the Arab Spring
For many of the Arab Spring countries, the press has long served as an arm of the government. As the doors to freedom and democracy swing open in the wake of revolutions, a flood of citizen journalists rushes in to take the place of media outlets held up by old regimes. But without training in ethics, accuracy and production skills, these new citizen journalists risk becoming puppets of influential businesses, organizations and new governments.
See the full article (PBS, Anne Medley, 1/13/12)
Click to read about USIP's upcoming event "Salam Shabab Premiere: Next Generation Peacebuilding and the Arab Spring" on January 25 at 4:00pm.
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Pakistan Panel Fails to Identify Journalist's Killers
A government commission investigating the murder of a Pakistani journalist [Syed Saleem Shahzad] last year has said it failed to identify the culprits. That conclusion is likely to reinforce suspicions that Pakistan's intelligence services act with impunity against journalists or whoever they consider an enemy of the state, such as Taliban militants or Baluch separatists.
See the full article (Reuters, Rebecca Conway and Qasim Nauman, 1/13/12)
Click to read about USIP's upcoming event "Pakistani Peacemakers: The Challenges for Civil Society Actors" on January 19 at 10:00am.
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Death of French Journalist in Syria Brings Calls for Independent Probe of Violence
The French government, human rights groups and Syria's opposition demanded an inquiry into the death Wednesday of Gilles Jacquier, 43, in a barrage of grenades in the restive city of Homs. The award-winning correspondent for France-2 Television was the first Western journalist killed in the 10-month-old uprising.
See the full article (AP, 1/12/12)
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Internet and Social Media

China Expands Program Requiring Real-Name Registration Online
China will expand nationwide a trial program that requires users of the country's wildly popular microblog services to disclose their identities to the government in order to post comments online, the government's top Internet regulator said on Wednesday. Free-speech advocates generally condemn the move, saying that the microblogs' freewheeling debate and frequent criticism of official misconduct will be neutered if the government knows the identity of everyone who posts a comment.
See the full article (New York Times, Michael Wines, 1/18/12) *NYT sign-up may be required to view the full article
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Dangerous Social Media Games
The emergence of China's "50 Cent Army" in 2004 marked a new phenomenon by paying commenters, working for or in close conjunction with the state, in an attempt to influence local attitudes. Now, a new plan exposed by the Electronic Intifada reveals that Israel's National Union of Israeli Students (NUIS) has created a scholarship programme to pay Israeli university students $2,000 to [refute] online misinformation.
See the full article (Al Jazeera, Jillian C. York, 1/13/12)
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Chinese Police Warn Human Rights Activist over Internet Comments
A prominent Chinese human rights activist released from prison last year says police have seized two of his computers and warned him to tone down his activism and online comments or face detention. Hu Jia was questioned by police for about seven hours on Thursday, a day after Yu Jie, a well-known dissident writer who has frequently been threatened with jail for his writing, left China for the United States.
See the full article (AP, 1/12/12)
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21st Century Statecraft Add-on to Traditional Diplomacy
Social media has fundamentally changed the way people communicate - and that includes how the State Department interacts with foreign countries. State is calling January 21st Century Statecraft month. The department has set up 10 Twitter feeds, each in a different language. Throughout this month, a department spokesperson is answering questions every Friday tweeted with the hashtag #askstate.
See the full article (Federal News Radio, Jolie Lee, 1/12/12)
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Putin Web Launch Ignores Russian Protests
Ignoring the political upheaval that has shaken Russia over the past month, Vladimir Putin's presidential campaign unveiled a hefty new Web site Thursday that promises a fistful of important reforms but sidesteps the complaints that have drawn tens of thousands of protesters to the streets. The launch of putin2012.ru leaves Russians with no better idea than before how Putin intends to address the issues raised by the demonstrations.
See the full article (Washington Post, Will Englund and Kathy Lally, 1/12/12)
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North Korea Launches English Version of Party Newspaper
North Korea has taken another step to bolster its international digital presence with the launch of an English-language website of the country's main newspaper. The website of "Rodong Sinmun," the newspaper of the country's ruling Workers Party, was launched on January 10. With the vast majority of North Koreans not having access to the Internet, such initiatives are aimed solely at an international audience.
See the full article (RFE/RL, Luke Allnutt, 1/12/12)
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U.S. Acts Quickly to Tamp Down Afghan Video Scandal
The Obama administration on Thursday strongly condemned a viral video that apparently depicts Marines desecrating corpses as U.S. officials tried to prevent a popular backlash in Afghanistan and forestall damage to nascent peace talks with the Taliban. The swift U.S. response was intended to stave off the kind of international outrage that followed the 2004 release of pictures depicting the humiliating treatment of Iraqi prisoners at Abu Ghraib prison.
See the full article (Washington Post, Craig Whitlock and Greg Jaffe, 1/12/12)
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What's New from PeaceMedia

David Beckham Inspires Children - UNICEF
On a recent trip to the Philippines, UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador David Beckham highlighted the importance of a caring and supportive family as he toured the 'Village for Youth,' a Government-run center for young people who have been abused or abandoned.
See the full video
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USIP's Science, Technology & Peacebuilding Roundup

United States Institute of Peace

 

Center of Innovation: Science, Technology and Peacebuilding

Weekly News Roundup, January 12 - 18, 2012

Table of Contents

**Click here to subscribe to USIP's Media, Conflict and Peacebuilding News Roundup,
which includes a special section on Internet and social media.**


Army's Virtual Reality Plan: A Digital Doppelganger for Every Soldier
As the military's enthusiasm for virtual reality training continues to grow, the Army's got a new plan to make the programs freakily immersive: National Defense magazine is reporting that the Army wants to give every soldier a digital doppelganger - a custom avatar they can use throughout their stints in the military, and in myriad virtual training environs, from urban combat practice to cultural prep.
See the full article (Wired, Katie Drummond, 1/18/12)
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State Radio Says Tehran Will Give US a Toy Model of Downed American Drone
The report Tuesday said the toy model of the RQ-170 Sentinel stealth drone will be sent to the White House in response to a formal request from Washington last month asking Iran to return the aircraft that went down over Iran in December. State radio said the model will be one eightieth the size of the original aircraft. The report says the models also will be sold on the Iranian marked for about 70,000 rials, or around $4.
See the full article (Chicago Tribune, 1/17/12)
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For Intrigue, Malaria Drug Gets the Prize
The Chinese drug artemisinin has been hailed as one of the greatest advances in fighting malaria, the scourge of the tropics, since the discovery of quinine centuries ago. But few people realize that in one of the paradoxes of history, the drug was discovered thanks to Mao Zedong, who was acting to help the North Vietnamese in their jungle war against the Americans.
See the full article (New York Times, Donald G. McNeil, Jr., 1/16/12) *NYT sign-up may be required to view the full article
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Cyber Attacks Take Down Two Israeli Websites - Is Cyber Warfare The Next Front in the Middle East Conflict?
Websites for the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange and El Al, Israel's national airline, were hit by anonymous hackers in what is being described as an escalating cyberwar Monday. A hacker who identified himself as oxOmar contacted Ynet overnight warning that a group called Nightmare planned to bring down the sites. oxOmar was responsible for posting the details of over 20,000 Israeli credit cards earlier.
See the full article (Forbes, E.D. Kain, 1/16/12)
Click to read "Arab Society - Police Initiative in Israel," a USIP Grant Highlight.
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The Crash and Burn Future of Robot Warfare
An account of the spectacular end of [a] nearly $4 million drone in November 2007 is contained in a collection of Air Force accident investigation documents. They catalog more than 70 catastrophic Air Force drone mishaps since 2000, each resulting in the loss of an aircraft or property damage of $2 million or more. These official reports offer new insights into a largely covert, yet highly touted war-fighting, assassination, and spy program involving armed robots that are significantly less reliable than previously acknowledged.
See the full article (Huffington Post, Nick Turse, 1/16/12)
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Drones: Coming Soon to a Sky Near You?
The Federal Aviation Administration is preparing to announce new regulations for small camera-equipped drones, versions of which you can already buy at your local mall. Lots of people are eager to hear the FAA's decision, from energy execs and environmentalists to police and protesters. Brooke talks to Matt Waite, founder of U. Nebraska's Drone Journalism Lab, about some of the "cool" and "creepy" ramifications of drone technology.
See the full article (NPR, 1/13/12)
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Israeli Hacker Retaliates to Credit Card Hacking
An Israeli hacker has published details of hundreds of Saudi credit cards online and is threatening to post more in revenge for acts by Arab hackers. Last week a hacker, claiming to be from Saudi Arabia, published information about tens of thousands of Israeli credit cards online. Experts say the attacks draw attention to the potential for virtual or cyber wars in the Middle East.
See the full article (BBC, Yolande Knell, 1/12/12)
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Click here to subscribe to USIP's Media, Conflict and Peacebuilding News Roundup,
which includes a special section on Internet and social media.

Did we miss anything?

 

 


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