News Roundup Archive

Thursday, February 2, 2012

USIP's Media, Conflict & Peacebuilding Roundup

United States Institute of Peace

 

Center of Innovation: Media, Conflict and Peacebuilding

Weekly News Roundup, January 26 - February 1, 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

Free Press Euphoria Fading Fast in South Sudan (Reuters, 1/31/12)
Dengdit Ayok's dream of a free press in Africa's newest nation dissolved when he was arrested and beaten up after writing about the wedding of South Sudanese President Salva Kiir's daughter. Reporters say there is no clear mechanism for censorship or monitoring but the very lack of a media law allows security forces to make summary arrests on behalf of ministers upset by an article.
See the full article
Click to read "The Politics of Oil and a Proposed Pipeline for South Sudan ," a USIP On the Issues by Jon Temin and Raymond Gilpin.
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Somali Radio Station That Shabab Can't Stand
Threatened for years by both the Islamist al-Shabab group and circles within the government, a Somali radio station has lost its third director since 2007. "We have been targeted because of our uncensored editorial policy," Mohamed Amiin Adow, a representative for the station, told Al Jazeera. "We try to expose every part of Somalia of what they are doing to the public. We are targeted for our independence."
See the full article (Al Jazeera, Mujib Mashal, 1/29/12)
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Ethiopia: Journalists, Politicians Get Jail Time
An Ethiopian judge on Thursday handed down prison sentences ranging from 14 years to life to three journalists and two politicians. The five were arrested last year and charged last week under Ethiopia's controversial anti-terrorism laws. Ethiopian officials had said they were involved in planning attacks on infrastructure, telecommunications and power lines. Ethiopia has arrested close to 200 people, among them journalists and opposition politicians and members, under last year's anti-terrorism proclamation.
See the full article (AP, Luc Van Kemenade, 1/27/12)
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US Says Iran Seeking to Snuff Out Free Expression
The United States Thursday accused Iran of trying to quash all freedom of expression ahead of March elections, as it cracks down on reporters and bloggers. US State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland cited the reported arrests of four journalists and death sentences imposed on two bloggers, who she said face imminent execution over charges of spreading corruption.
See the full article (AFP, 1/27/12)
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Al-Jazeera Gets Green Light to Reopen Office
Kuwait has allowed pan-Arab news channel Al-Jazeera to reopen its office in the Gulf state more than a year after ordering its closure. The Al-Jazeera office was previously closed for three years from November 2002, reopening only after a visit by Qatari Emir Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al-Thani. It has maintained an antagonistic relationship with most Arab regimes and, as a result, has had its offices shut down, its bureau ransacked, its journalists arrested and its signals jammed.
See the full article (AFP, 1/27/12)
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Press Freedom Index: Big Falls for Arab Trio in Year of Protest
Three Arab countries where popular risings have been quashed have achieved their worst-ever rankings in the annual press freedom index. But the falls by Syria, Bahrain and Yemen are among many changes that reflect a year of unrest and protest. While Libya (154th) turned the page on the Gaddafi era, Egypt (166th) fell 39 places because the military leadership which replaced the Mubarak regime in February has dashed the hopes of democrats.
See the full article (Guardian, Roy Greenslade, 1/26/12)
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For Turkish Journalists, Arrest is a Real Danger
In the wake of the Arab Spring, some Muslims in North Africa are looking across the Mediterranean to Turkey as a potential model of a state that can be modern, Islamic and democratic. But some analysts in the region say that model is flawed, and they are questioning Turkey's human-rights record and its dealings with the press. Critics say the government is using Turkey's slow-moving and sometimes opaque justice system to stifle dissent.
See the full article (NPR, Peter Kenyon, 1/26/12)
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For Many in Pakistan, a Television Show Goes Too Far
One morning last week, television viewers in Pakistan were treated to a darkly comic sight: a posse of middle-class women roaming through a public park in Karachi, on the hunt for dating couples engaged in "immoral" behavior. This hour long spectacle, broadcast live on Samaa TV on Jan. 17, set off a furious reaction in parts of Pakistan. "Journalists don't have the right to become moral police," said Adnan Rehmat of Intermedia. "We need to draw a line."
See the full article (New York Times, Declan Walsh, 1/26/12) *NYT sign-up may be required to view the full article
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Internet and Social Media

Google to Censor Blogger Blogs on a 'Per Country Basis'
Google has quietly announced changes to its Blogger free-blogging platform that will enable the blocking of content only in countries where censorship is required. "Migrating to localized domains will allow us to continue promoting free expression and responsible publishing while providing greater flexibility in complying with valid removal requests pursuant to local law," Google wrote [in its announcement].
See the full article (Wired, David Kravets, 1/31/12)
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Netanyahu Chats on Facebook with Arab World
Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu spent 30 minutes Monday in a first-of-its-kind live Facebook chat with Arabs from around the world in an effort to use social media to deconstruct stereotypes about him and Israel. Netanyahu's spokesman for the Arabic media translated the questions that came into Netanyahu's Arabic Facebook page in real time, and then immediately typed in Arabic Netanyahu's responses. [Israeli government figures claim that] about 700 people took part, including from Egypt, Jordan, Iraq, the Persian Gulf, the Palestinian Authority and North Africa.
See the full article (Jerusalem Post, Herb Keinon, 1/31/12)
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Anti-terrorism Police Target 'Extremist' Internet Files
Two years ago the Association of Chief Police Officers set up a nationwide trial project, the Counter Terrorism Internet Referral Unit (CTIU), which was tasked with shutting down or removing extremist content from the web. The unit has received over 2,000 referrals since it officially began its work 18 months ago. [CTIU head] Supt Jayne Snelgrove says that if a domain is hosted in the UK they can act quickly with service providers to take it down or remove the offending content.
See the full article (BBC, Sanjiv Buttoo, 1/30/12)
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Internet Censorship from Around the Globe
Last week, public outrage forced congress to table some bills backed by Hollywood lobbyists that would have barred access to sites accused of piracy. But Hollywood's influence extends well beyond the US Congress. Bob talks to Rainey Reitman of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, which has created a website called Global Chokepoints that tracks pending or existing legislation worldwide that would kick people or websites off the internet.
See the full article (NPR, 1/27/12)
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New Apps Help Activists Sharing Video to Remain Anonymous
A pair of new apps, launched via a collaboration between WITNESS, The Guardian Project, and the International Bar Association, are attempting to ensure better "visual anonymity" and "visual privacy" for activists -- but also to preserve that video for posterity. ObscuraCam, which is currently only built for Android, allows users to post videos online with pixilated faces to protect their identities. It can also delete potentially incriminating metadata attached to the video.
See the full article (RFE/RL, Luke Allnutt, 1/27/12)
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Revolution, Women And Social Media in The Middle East
With her arms still bandaged from the assault she suffered at the hands of Egypt's ruling military power last November, [Egyptian-American activist Mona el] Tahawey was greeted like a celebrity as she kicked off the Yahoo! Change Your World Cairo summit Wednesday. The event brought together many of the region's leading activists to tell their stories of revolutions -- both successful and unsuccessful -- and discuss how women were using social and digital media to bring about positive change.
See the full article (Huffington Post, Courtney C. Radsch, 1/27/12)
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Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry Documents Artist's Social-Media Dissent
Most art documentaries feature paintbrushes or chisels. Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry opens with a surveillance camera. Alison Klayman's entertaining, compelling and thought-provoking film, which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival this week, follows the Beijing-based architect, conceptual artist and provocateur as he does battle with Chinese authorities. Footage from Never Sorry shows him thinner, looking broken, and he's under a one-year ban from using social media.
See the full article (Wired, Jason Silverman, 1/27/12)
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Twitter's Country-specific Censorship Tool Prompts User Protest
Some Twitter users say they will stop using the service on Saturday in protest of the company's new rule that allows for content to be blocked in specific countries. Critics worry that Twitter's policy will destroy its capability to work as a platform for impromptu social movements, a role it played so prominently during the Arab Spring. The company said that as it continues to grow globally it's had to rethink its policies on free expression.
See the full article (Washington Post, Hayley Tsukayama, 1/27/12)
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21st Century Statecraft: Forging U.S. Digital Diplomacy
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has made 21st Century Statecraft, or using digital networks to advance America's interests around the world, a key part of our foreign policy approach. So we're continually asking ourselves as we look at our foreign policy priorities - how can innovation help us do this better, faster, and more economically? Social media offers a powerful way for the State Department to listen to foreign publics and better understand their needs and aspirations.
See the full article (Huffington Post, Victoria Esser, 1/26/12)
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FBI Plans Social Network Map Alert Mash-up Application
The FBI is seeking to develop an early-warning system based on material "scraped" from social networks. It says the application should provide information about possible domestic and global threats superimposed onto maps "using mash-up technology". The FBI says the information would be used to help it to predict the likely actions of "bad actors", detect instances of people deliberately misleading law enforcement officers and spot the vulnerabilities of suspect groups.
See the full article (BBC, 1/26/12)
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How Africa Tweets
In an analysis of more than 11.5 million geolocated tweets posted during the last three months of 2011, Portland Communications and the platform Tweetminster gathered data about the continent's use of the social network. Fascinatingly, 68 percent of those polled said they also use Twitter to monitor the news, making Twitter a potentially effective, if still nascent, way to circumvent African nations' generally highly restricted media institutions.
See the full article (Atlantic, Megan Garber, 1/26/12)
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What's New from PeaceMedia

"Building Peace Without Travelling" - Bridging the Divide
By harnessing the power of the Internet, it is possible to connect peacebuilders across cultures, languages, and distances. This video shows how Google, the popular search engine, can deliver opportunities to get involved with civil society programs around the world.
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 26 - February 1, 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.**


Killer App
Have a bunch of Silicon Valley geeks at Palantir Technologies figured out how to stop terrorists? [The company's] expertise is in finding connections among people, places, and events in large repositories of electronic data. Palantir has sold its software to the CIA, the military's Special Command, and the Marine Corps, which use it to help track down terrorists. The director of the National Security Agency has said Palantir's software could help the agency "see" into cyberspace to defend against hackers and spies attempting to breachgovernment computer networks.
See the full article (Washingtonian, Shane Harris, 1/31/12)
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Who Was That Masked Man?
For a group that sprang organically from an Internet forum normally devoted to anime cartoons and cat videos, the amorphous hacker/prankster collective known as "Anonymous" has become a surprisingly potent actor in global politics. But to understand the forces that make the group tick, let's look back to a time before SOPA and the Arab Spring and consider the strange story of one "Agent Pubeit."
See the full article (Foreign Policy, 1/31/12)
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With Its Deadly Drones, the US is Fighting a Coward's War
It may be true, as the US Air Force says, that because a drone can circle and study a target for hours before it strikes, its missiles are less likely to kill civilians than those launched from a piloted plane. But it must also be true that the easier and less risky a deployment is, the more likely it is to happen.
See the full article (Guardian, George Monbiot, 1/30/12)
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US Drones Patrolling Its Skies Provoke Outrage in Iraq
A month after the last American troops left Iraq, the State Department is operating a small fleet of surveillance drones here to help protect the United States Embassy and consulates, as well as American personnel. [Unlike Pentagon and CIA craft], the State Department drones carry no weapons and are meant to provide data and images of possible hazards, like public protests or roadblocks, to security personnel on the ground. [But] some senior Iraqi officials expressed outrage at the program, saying the unarmed aircraft are an affront to Iraqi sovereignty.
See the full article (New York Times, Eric Schmitt and Michael S. Schmidt, 1/29/12) *NYT sign-up may be required to view the full article
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Cyber and Unmanned War Systems Spared Axe
Budget cuts proposed by the Pentagon will hit nearly every part of the US defence industry, from makers of fighter jets and warships to providers of services such as information technology support. However, there were notable exceptions to the austerity. The Pentagon is hoping to protect spending for building unmanned systems and developing new ones. Funding for an unmanned army system would be spared, and the Pentagon vowed to invest in sea-based intelligence systems and in space systems.
See the full article (Sydney Morning Herald, Marjorie Censer, 1/28/12)
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Q&A: How Global Conflict Shows Up in Computer Games
Earlier this month, an Iranian court handed a death sentence to a former US Marine of Iranian descent who was convicted of spying for the CIA. One strange twist in the case was that the defendant allegedly confessed to using video games to manipulate public opinion. Strange as it may seem, this isn't the first time that video games have played a part in foreign disputes. Rex Brynen, a political science professor at McGill University who co-edits a blog on conflict simulation, answered our questions about how computer games reflect global tensions.
See the full article (Los Angeles Times, Emily Alpert, 1/27/12)
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New Apps Help Activists Sharing Video to Remain Anonymous
A pair of new apps, launched via a collaboration between WITNESS, The Guardian Project, and the International Bar Association, are attempting to ensure better "visual anonymity" and "visual privacy" for activists -- but also to preserve that video for posterity. ObscuraCam, which is currently only built for Android, allows users to post videos online with pixilated faces to protect their identities. It can also delete potentially incriminating metadata attached to the video.
See the full article (RFE/RL, Luke Allnutt, 1/27/12)
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Iranian Scientist Arrested in Los Angeles Has Court Hearing
The United States has arrested and charged an Iranian semiconductor scientist with violating US export laws by buying high-tech US lab equipment. Prison records show the US has been holding Seyed Mojtaba Atarodi, 54, a microchip expert and assistant professor at Tehran's prestigious Sharif University of Technology, in a federal facility outside San Francisco. The arrest comes as the US, Israel and their allies are using diplomacy, sanctions and intelligence efforts to try to cripple what they suspect is Iran's drive to lay the foundations of a nuclear weapons program.
See the full article (AP, 1/26/12)
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Call for Cyberwar 'Peacekeepers' Force
The US Army's Cyber Command is recruiting. Its mission? To create "a world class cyberwarrior force." Recruits will be trained using cyber challenge scenarios, for what is widely acknowledged as setting the cyber threat apart is not just its scale but its unpredictable and all-pervasive nature, posing a risk to critical national infrastructure such as power grids and water supplies, as well as the financial sector, individual companies and citizens.
See the full article (BBC, Susan Watts, 1/26/12)
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How Africa Tweets
In an analysis of more than 11.5 million geolocated tweets posted during the last three months of 2011, Portland Communications and the platform Tweetminster gathered data about the continent's use of the social network. Just over half -- 57 percent -- of tweets, the analysis found, are sent from mobile devices. Which is actually a surprisingly low number, considering that 53 percent of the overall population currently have a mobile cellular subscription.
See the full article (Atlantic, Megan Garber, 1/26/12)
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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.

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