News Roundup Archive

Thursday, April 12, 2012

USIP's Media, Conflict & Peacebuilding Roundup

United States Institute of Peace

 

Center of Innovation: Media, Conflict and Peacebuilding

Weekly News Roundup, April 5 - 11, 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

Lebanese TV says Syrians Shot Dead Cameraman
Lebanon's Al-Jadeed satellite television on Monday accused the Syrian army of shooting dead its cameraman Ali Shaaban, saying it opened fire at its team which was on Lebanon's side of the border. The Syrian state news agency SANA said the Al-Jadeed team came under fire as border guards opened fire in retaliation to an attack by "terrorist groups."Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati condemned the attack, while President Michel Sleiman demanded a Syrian probe.
See the full article (AFP, 4/10/12)
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Kyrgyzstan Reopens Case of Murdered Journalist Critical of Uzbekistan's Government
Kyrgyzstan's highest court has overturned a murder conviction in the case of a prominent journalist who was shot in the turbulent former Soviet nation in 2007, and ordered a new investigation in the killing. Saipov, who was 26, edited a newspaper that harshly criticized neighboring Uzbekistan's authoritarian policies. He also worked for the U.S.-funded Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and Voice of America. Many analysts and activists believe [he] was targeted by Uzbek security services.
See the full article (AP, 4/9/12)
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Afghanistan Announces Satellite Tender
Less than two decades ago, the Taliban made bonfires of film reels outside Kabul's cinemas, banned television and condemned weather forecasting as sorcery. Now, the government that replaced them is seeking a partner to take the country's communications industry into space. Afghanistan hopes its first satellite will improve television coverage in rural areas and internet access across the country, a project that is political as much as commercial as insurgents and the government vie for influence and support.
See the full article (Guardian, Emma Graham-Harrison, 4/9/12)
Click to read "Myths and Misconceptions in the Afghan Transition," a USIP Peace Brief by Shahmahmood Miakhel and Noah Coburn.
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Tiny Mexican Newspaper Leads the Fight for Truth Amid the Drugs War
Run on a shoestring from a few rooms above a dentist's office in Culiacán, Río Doce is one of the last redoubts of investigative journalism on the frontline of Mexico's drug wars that have killed more than 50,000 people since President Felipe Calderón launched his crackdown on organised crime five years ago. The deaths or disappearance of more than 40 journalists mean most regional media limit their coverage to superficial reporting of violent events and arrests.
See the full article (Guardian, Jo Tuckman, 4/8/12)
Click to read "Summit of the Americas," a USIP On the Issues by Virginia M. Bouvier.
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Female Arab Singer Captures Israeli Hearts by Performing Jewish Songs in TV Contest
A young Arab woman who won a popular Israeli music competition has become an unlikely star, capturing hearts in a country where suspicion and hostility often mark relations between Arabs and the Jewish majority. 25-year-old [Nissren] Kader touched on the nostalgia that many first and second generation Jews of Middle Eastern origin feel for their ancestral homelands, even though most proudly identify as Israeli.
See the full article (AP, 4/5/12)
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20 Years Later: The Bosnian Conflict in Photographs
The photographs in the gallery are from the book Bosnia 1992 - 1995, available July 2012. The book will be self-published by the photographers who covered the Bosnian conflict - which began 20 years ago today - and printed in Bosnia. The captions below these photographs are the personal reflections of the photographers on their experiences in the region.
See the full article (TIME, Massimo Calabresi, 4/5/12)
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10 Journalists Injured in Somalia Bombing
At least 10 journalists were injured, several of them seriously, when a bomb ripped through Somalia's national theatre in Mogadishu. The blast, for which the militant insurgent group Al-Shabaab took responsibility, occurred five minutes into a speech by the prime minister, Abdiwelli Mohamed, at a ceremony marking the anniversary of Somali national television. The CPJ's east Africa consultant Tom Rhodes said: "Somalia remains the region's most dangerous nation for the press."
See the full article (Guardian, Roy Greenslade, 4/5/12)
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Internet and Social Media

Governments Increasingly Targeting Twitter Users for Expressing Their Opinion
In its six years of existence, Twitter has staked out a position as the most free speech-friendly social network. Its utility in the uprisings that swept the Middle East and North Africa is unmatched, its usage by activists and journalists alike to spread news and galvanize the public unprecedented. But some governments have not taken such a positive view of Twitter and freedom of expression. Instead, they've threatened, arrested and prosecuted their citizens for what they express in 140 characters or less.
See the full article (PBS, Jillian C. York and Trevor Timm, 4/11/12)
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From Short Waves to Flash Mobs
Since Mubarak's ouster, hand-held devices armed with Internet access, video cameras, and social media software have challenged the status quo from Beijing to Rangoon, from the pre-election streets of Moscow to the battered Syrian city of Homs. In instance after instance, technologies designed for daily communication or research have adapted to a new task-exposing the malfeasance and incompetence of governments and the increasing irrelevance of traditional media to the average person.
See the full article (Slate, Michael Moran, 4/10/12)
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Syria's Failed Cease-fire and the Limits of Social Media
There was no sign of the planned withdrawal from cities and towns by Syrian forces Tuesday. Activists reported an intensified onslaught by troops, including the use of heavy weaponry, despite claims by the government's foreign minister that a pullout had begun. Hours before, the fighting had even spilled over into neighboring Lebanon and Turkey. Despite support on Twitter, YouTube and blogs for Syria's "zero hour" - a term activists adopted to describe the cease-fire - there was no zero hour at all.
See the full article (Washington Post, Elizabeth Flock, 4/10/12)
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Iran: We're Not Cutting Off Internet Access - Yet
Reports that Iran was planning to shut off Internet access and replace it with a national intranet this summer were lies perpetrated by "the propaganda wing of the West," according to Iran's Ministry of Communication and Internet Technology. But the Ministry did confirm reports that the country will be opening an Iran-only internal network - in March 2013. The original report said that Iran would sever ties to the global Internet and block access to popular websites and services such as Google and Hotmail.
See the full article (Mashable, Alex Fitzpatrick, 4/10/12)
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Fighting the Great Firewall of Pakistan
It takes a strong stomach and a thick skin to be a female activist fighting online censorship in Pakistan. Sana Saleem has both. The 24-year-old founder of a Karachi-based free expression group Bolo Bhi has been accused of supporting "blasphemy." None of this has fazed Sana, who in conjunction with several other young Pakistani blogger-activists had launched a successful campaign that has shamed the government into halting plans for a national Internet censorship system.
See the full article (Foreign Policy, Rebecca MacKinnon, 4/10/12)
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Egyptians Flood Obama's Facebook Page in Election Row
US President Barack Obama's Facebook page has been swamped with comments from supporters of a candidate in Egypt's presidential election. It follows news that Hazem Abu Ismail may be barred from the poll because one of his parents held dual nationality. Egypt's electoral commission has said Mr. Abu Ismail's late mother became a naturalised US citizen in October 2006. But his supporters are calling on Mr Obama to support their claim that the immigration paperwork is fraudulent.
See the full article (BBC, 4/9/12)
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Iran 'Blocks' Official London 2012 Olympics Website
Users in Iran have tweeted that they are unable to connect to london2012.com and are instead redirected to peyvandha.ir - a site offering stories from Iran's official news agencies. The blockediniran.com website confirms that most users in Iran are unlikely to be able to see the Olympics web pages. Iran's Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, recently ordered officials to set up a new body to co-ordinate decisions regarding the net.
See the full article (BBC, 4/9/12)
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Syria's Online Army is Simply Playing into Assad's Hands
A few miles from the advancing tanks of President Bashar al-Assad's army, a young Syrian pledged to leave the safety of a Turkish border town and make a perilous return to his homeland. The activist - I'll call him Ahmed - told me that he would tweet, text, blog and Skype, to ensure that the outside world knew the terrible reality of Assad's rule. But if Ahmed does become another citizen journalist, a "networked individual" plugged into the full array of social media, will it really be the best way to loosen Assad's grip on power?
See the full article (Telegraph, David Blair, 4/9/12)
Click to read about USIP's upcoming event "USIP Annual Conference on Security Sector Transformation in North Africa and the Middle East" on May 10 at 8:30am.
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China Shuts Leftist Web Sites as Political Strife Continues
China's Communist Party censors on Friday closed several "new left" Web sites, and a pro-reform site run by the Carter Center went offline, as the country's rulers sought to stifle divergent voices and muffle signs of an ideological struggle ahead of a crucial leadership change this fall. The crackdown was the latest step in an ongoing tightening of Internet controls as top party officials seek to contain the public fallout from China's most serious political crisis in decades.
See the full article (Washington Post, Keith B. Richburg, 4/6/12)
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Tunisia's Presidency Backs Conviction of Men for Insulting Islam on Facebook
Two men have been convicted and sentenced to prison in Tunisia for posting Facebook images of the Prophet Muhammad in a compromising position, a court decision that drew support Friday from the presidency of this once staunchly secular country. The verdict, which was made public Thursday, has been condemned by some as an attack on freedom of expression and a mark of the rising tide of religious conservatism in the country since a popular uprising ousted a dictator a year ago.
See the full article (AP, 4/6/12)
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Report: New Surveillance Malware Targeting Syrian Opposition
As conflict in Syria continues to rage despite a looming cease-fire deadline, new research shows how the use of covert surveillance could be helping Bashar al-Assad's regime find and target political dissidents. On Wednesday the Electronic Frontier Foundation published information revealing how a "surveillance malware" disguised as a PDF file is being used to spy on individuals who may be sympathetic to the opposition.
See the full article (Slate, Ryan Gallagher, 4/6/12)
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A Social Network Site for Jihadists?
The advantage and attraction of social networking isn't lost on the jihadist community, apparently. New postings on the Ansar al-Mujahideen Arabic forum have been discussing a proposal by one contributor to create a Facebook-like site for jihadists, according to SITE Intel Group, which monitors jihadists activities online. The idea has surfaced as various jihadi sites have mysteriously gone dark, leaving some to speculate whether there was a covert takedown by a spy agency.
See the full article (CNN, Adam Levine, 4/5/12)
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Twitter Reaches Out to Arabic Speaking Users
The micro-blogging site has created a function to include Arabic, Farsi, Urdu and Hebrew languages in all of its features. Users were already able to tweet in their preferred language, but can now create hashtags in their native language, amongst other new features. This enables microbloggers from the Middle East, North Africa, and Central Asia to engage in political spheres across Twitter by communicating in the language they are more comfortable with.
See the full article (Al Arabiya, Noora Faraj, 4/5/12)
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What's New from PeaceMedia

"Sarajevo to Mark 20th Anniversary of War " - Al Jazeera
Two decades after the conflict started, the anniversary of the beginning of the Bosnian War is being remembered by the people of the region. The siege of Sarajevo, the longest siege of a capital city in the history of modern warfare, was one of the defining events of the conflict. Lasting nearly four years, the siege left 10,000 people dead, including 1,500 children.
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, April 5 - 11, 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.**


Pictures at a Revolution
Of all the social phenomena that invite analysis, few are as complex, or as volatile, as revolutions. The petabytes of social media data generated by the upheavals of the Arab Spring are fertile ground for social scientists studying those events. For years we've been snapping photos of demonstrators and protests; now the new cosmos of data potentially enables us to map the ebb and flow of the ideas that drive them, something like a magnetic-resonance imagery technique for visualizing the mechanisms of dramatic change.
See the full article (Foreign Policy, Luke Allnutt, 4/11/12)
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Will Water Pumps Bring Peace to Ivory Coast?
Part of a partnership with the Pulitzer Center for Crisis Reporting, special correspondent Jeff Sapienza reports from the West African nation of Ivory Coast and explains how committees set up to maintain access to water are helping bring together communities divided along ethnic lines and plagued by the unrest of a civil war.
See the full article (PBS, 4/11/12)
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From Short Waves to Flash Mobs
Since Mubarak's ouster, hand-held devices armed with Internet access, video cameras, and social media software have challenged the status quo from Beijing to Rangoon, from the pre-election streets of Moscow to the battered Syrian city of Homs. In instance after instance, technologies designed for daily communication or research have adapted to a new task -- exposing the malfeasance and incompetence of governments and the increasing irrelevance of traditional media to the average person.
See the full article (Slate, Michael Moran, 4/10/12)
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Nye: Cyber War and Peace
In my book The Future of Power, I argue that the diffusion of power away from governments is one of this century's great political shifts. Cyberspace is a perfect example. Large countries like the US, Russia, Britain, France, and China have greater capacity than other states and non-state actors to control the sea, air, or space, but it makes little sense to speak of dominance in cyberspace.
See the full article (CNN, Joseph S. Nye,4/10/12)
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Pentagon to Fast-track Cyberweapons Acquisition
The Pentagon is planning to dramatically speed up the development of new cyberweapons, giving it the ability in some cases to field weapons against specific targets in a matter of days. The rapid acquisition process is designed to respond to "urgent, mission-critical" needs when the risk to operations and personnel is unacceptable if threats are not addressed quickly. The result puts the Pentagon's two-year-old Cyber Command in charge of a new registry of weapons that would catalogue their capabilities and where they are stored.
See the full article (Washington Post, Ellen Nakashima, 4/9/12)
Click to read about USIP's upcoming event "USIP Annual Conference on Security Sector Transformation in North Africa and the Middle East" on May 10 at 8:30am.
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Nuclear Weapons as Instruments of Peace?
It is unimaginable to reach any plateau of global justice without acting with resolve to rid the world of nuclear weaponry; the geopolitical ploy of shifting attention from disarmament to proliferation does not address the moral depravity of relying on genocidal capabilities and threats to uphold vital strategic interests of a West-centric world.
See the full article (Al Jazeera, Richard Falk, 4/9/12)
Click to read about USIP's upcoming event "Mapping Energy Infrastructure Vulnerabilities in Conflict-Affected Regions" on April 19 at 10:00am.
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U.S. Launches New Spy Satellite for Secret National-Security Mission
In the wake of the Arab Spring, U.S. government may be making use of its many spy satellites to keep an eye on the Middle East. Two months ago, for instance, the State Department published satellite imagery of Syria showing what is said was evidence of escalating violence between government and rebel forces. Spy satellites are [also] particularly useful for monitoring the development of potential nuclear capabilities in countries such as North Korea and Iran, where the United States has a limited presence on the ground.
See the full article (Slate, Ryan Gallagher, 4/9/12)
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Siachen Glacier Tragedy: An Opportunity for Peace?
Technology now exists for monitoring any potential violations of treaties and accords signed to resolve this dispute through remote sensing, and so having troops physically on the ground is also utterly unnecessary. The idea of a 'science for peace' effort has also received wide ranging strategic study by eminent personalities in the military establishment in India.
See the full article (National Geographic, Saleem Ali, 4/7/12)
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U.S. Intelligence Gains in Iran Seen as Boost to Confidence
CIA stealth drones scoured dozens of sites throughout Iran, making hundreds of passes over suspicious facilities, before a version of the RQ-170 crashed inside Iran's borders in December. The surveillance has been part of what current and former U.S. officials describe as an intelligence surge that is aimed at Iran's nuclear program and that has been gaining momentum since the final years of George W. Bush's administration.
See the full article (Washington Post, Joby Warrick and Greg Miller, 4/7/12)
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Researchers Release New Exploits to Hijack Critical Infrastructure
Researchers have released two new exploits that attack common design vulnerabilities in a computer component used to control critical infrastructure, such as refineries and factories. The exploits would allow someone to hack the system in a manner similar to how the Stuxnet worm attacked nuclear centrifuges in Iran, a hack that stunned the security world with its sophistication and ability to use digital code to create damage in the physical world.
See the full article (Wired, Kim Zetter, 4/5/12)
[Return to top]

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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Tuesday, April 10, 2012

USIP's Media, Conflict & Peacebuilding Roundup

 

United States Institute of Peace

 

Center of Innovation: Media, Conflict and Peacebuilding

Weekly News Roundup, March 29 - April 4, 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

AFP Kashmir Bureau Chief Izhar Wani Dies
Izhar Wani, who reported on the separatist conflict in the region for more than two decades, died Wednesday of cancer. He was 46. He covered conflict in difficult and often dangerous conditions, all the while maintaining a scrupulous impartiality that was recognised by all sides to the dispute. A well-known and deeply respected figure in the Kashmiri journalistic community, he was also a much sought-after source of information and advice for the many foreign correspondents who visited the region over the years.
See the full article (AFP, 4/4/12)
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Conflict Recorded on the Infrared Spectrum
Richard [Mosse]'s photographs depict a nation during a time of conflict, from landscapes to rebel groups, against the backdrop and trauma of war. "[Congo's] endless cycle of wars seem essentially intangible. It is a protracted, complex and convoluted conflict, fought by rebels of constantly switching allegiance. These narratives, though brutal and tragic, are not tales that are easily told.
See the full article (BBC, Phil Coomes, 4/3/12)
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Turkish Court Agrees to Try Kurdish Militant Case
A Turkish court on Tuesday agreed to try 193 people accused of having links with Kurdish militants in a high profile case that has seen Ankara's attitude towards freedom of speech criticised internationally. State prosecutors have accused the defendants of aiding and abetting terrorism, but their supporters have alleged the suspects - who include politicians, academics and journalists - are being persecuted for non-violent freedom of expression.
See the full article (Reuters, Ece Toksabay, 4/3/12)
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Bomb Kills TV Presenter in Central Iraq: Spokesman
A "sticky bomb" killed a television presenter working for a local station in Salaheddin province of central Iraq, a provincial spokesman said on Tuesday. Kamiran Salaheddin, a presenter for Salaheddin Channel, was killed in central Tikrit by a magnetic bomb attached to his car as he drove home from work late on Monday. Salaheddin, a 34-year-old father-of-two, was the second journalist killed in Iraq this year.
See the full article (AFP, 4/3/12)
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Colombian Journalist Shot Dead
A Colombian community radio reporter has been shot dead. Jesús Martínez Orozco, 42, was killed by two men riding a motorcycle in Sabanalarga, in the province of Atlántico. A respected voice on music, he broadcast on culture for La Nueva radio and wrote occasionally for a newspaper, La Opinión de Sabanalarga. Martínez Orozco is the fifth journalist to be killed in Latin America this year.
See the full article (Guardian, Roy Greenslade, 4/2/12)
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Generation Iraq: The Journalists Who Covered America's War
From the American invasion of Iraq nine years ago this spring through occupation and the official end of the U.S. mission last December, a generation of news professionals - reporters, photographers, translators and fixers - told the story of the Iraq war for the rest of us.
See the full article (New Yorker, Elissa Curtis, 4/2/12)
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Citizen Journalist in Syria Is Captured and Tortured, Activists Say
A citizen journalist in Syria who has been instrumental in assisting those covering the conflict in Homs, helping evacuate wounded journalists from inside the city's neighborhood of Baba Amr, has been seized and perhaps tortured by the Syrian government, an activist told CNN on Saturday. The citizen journalist, Ali Mahmoud Othman, was the head of the media center in Homs, according to CNN, and was thought to be at a secure military unit in Aleppo.
See the full article (New York Times, Matt Flegenheimer, 4/1/12) *NYT sign-up may be required to view the full article
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Imagery and Atrocity: The Role of News and Photos in War
Among the topics discussed [at a U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum workshop] were the current and potential use of journalists, victims' reporting, satellites, aircraft, and drones to reveal to the outside world what is happening on the ground. It was remarkable to hear from a wide range of dedicated people who utilize innovative technologies and collaborative arrangements to document prospective war crimes.
See the full article (Atlantic, Micah Zenko and Emma Welch, 3/30/12)
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Gallup Press Freedom Poll: Two-Thirds of World Believe National Media is Free
Gallup found that countries in the Middle East, sub-Saharan Africa, and the former Soviet Union have the least perceived press freedom. Belarus ranked at the bottom, with just 23% of people reporting that their media has "a lot of freedom." The organization also reported that fewer than 40% of adults in eleven countries -- including Gabon, Armenia, Palestinian Territories, and Iraq -- believe that their national media is free.
See the full article (Huffington Post, 3/29/12)
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Cautious Hope for Freedom of Information in Burma
A week out from special elections that are likely to see opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi take a seat in the country's parliament, Burma's long-straitjacketed journalists sat with local and foreign officials to discuss a new press law that could see the country's censorship regime abolished. Right now in Burma, daily newspapers are banned and existing weeklies must run their content by the censorship board for approval before publishing. But change is nigh, it seems.
See the full article (PBS, Simon Roughneen, 3/29/12)
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Reuters Says Iran's Government Suspends Media Accreditation of its Staffers in Tehran
Reuters says it had corrected a headline that accompanied the video from "Thousands of female ninjas train as Iran's assassins" to "Three thousand women ninjas train in Iran" after the martial arts club where the video was filmed made a complaint. The news agency said Thursday that Iran's Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance had contacted its Tehran bureau chief about the video and that Reuters' 11 staffers were later told to return their media cards.
See the full article (AP, 3/29/12)
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Internet and Social Media

Al-Qaeda Forum Back Online After Blackout
One of al-Qaeda's primary Web forums was back online Wednesday after a lengthy blackout that analysts said appeared to have the hallmarks of a cyberattack. No one has claimed responsibility for the outages, and U.S. officials have said that no U.S. agency, including the military's Cyber Command, was involved.
See the full article (Washington Post, Ellen Nakashima, 4/4/12)
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Iranian Website Pulls Interview With U.S. State Department Official
The online publication of an interview with the U.S. State Department's Persian spokesman by a conservative Iranian website appears to have been pulled following official criticism and condemnation. Iran's Culture Ministry said in a statement on April 4 that there was no justification for the Alef website to allow what it called a U.S. "intelligence officer" the opportunity to respond to questions from Iranians.
See the full article (RFE/RL, Golnaz Esfandiari, 4/3/12)
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'We Don't Know of Any Kony Video': Villagers Tell of Reality of Violent Attacks
Invisible Children's highly emotive plea for the international community, and the US military in particular, to intervene to arrest Kony has attracted praise for raising awareness. [But] not many of the millions who have watched Kony 2012 are in Dungu. There is barely any mobile telephone reception and access to the internet is limited. When asked whether they have heard of the video, the villagers shrug and shake their heads.
See the full article (Guardian, Pete Jones, 4/3/12)
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China Punishes Social Media, Websites on Coup Talk
China is closing a dozen websites, penalizing two popular social media sites and detaining six people for circulating rumors of a coup that rattled Beijing in the midst of its worst high-level political crisis in years. The extensive clampdown, announced late Friday by state media, underscores the authoritarian government's anxieties over a public that is wired to the Internet and eager to discuss political events despite censorship and threats of punishment.
See the full article (AP, Charles Hultzer, 4/3/12)
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Kony 2012: Activists Prepare Follow-up to YouTube Hit
US activist group Invisible Children is to release a sequel to its video highlighting the activities of Ugandan rebel leader Joseph Kony. The first 30-minute film attracted more than 100 million views on YouTube and proved popular with young people. The follow-up has been made without input from the group's co-founder, who suffered a mental breakdown following publicity generated by the film.
See the full article (BBC, 4/3/12)
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Angolan Rights Activists Say Young Protesters Lead Pro-democracy Push Using Internet
Young Angolan protesters who have been able to mobilize online have invigorated anti-corruption and pro-democracy campaigns, traditional political activists in the southern African nation said Monday. Young protesters have circumvented censorship by using Facebook to spread word of gatherings, and have posted videos of their demonstrations - and the often brutal police response - on YouTube.
See the full article (AP, 4/2/12)
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'I am Also an Afghan' -- Iranians Condemn Racism on Facebook
Afghans living in Isfahan were banned from a mountainous park in the city on April 1, the 13th day of Norouz festivities, which Iranian tradition says should be spent outdoors. But it was Iranians who quickly condemned the decision on Facebook and other social media. "I am also an Afghan," some wrote as their Facebook status update. Others slammed the decision as "racist" and an "insult" to Afghans living in Iran.
See the full article (RFE/RL, Golnaz Esfandiari, 4/2/12)
Click to read "Innovative Transformation: An Evaluation of the Ministry of Defense Advisors Program in Afghanistan," a USIP report by Victoria Stattel and Robert Perito.
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World War 3.0
When the Internet was created, decades ago, one thing was inevitable: the war today over how (or whether) to control it, and who should have that power. Battle lines have been drawn between repressive regimes and Western democracies, corporations and customers, hackers and law enforcement. Looking toward a year-end negotiation in Dubai, where 193 nations will gather to revise a U.N. treaty concerning the Internet, Michael Joseph Gross lays out the stakes in a conflict that could split the virtual world as we know it.
See the full article (Vanity Fair, Michael Joseph Gross, 4/2/12)
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In Afghanistan, Learning to Use Facebook to Protest
The internet meme of Afghan youth mourning the loss of family and neighbors after 17 Afghan civilians were murdered in Panjwai district on March 11 - allegedly by U.S. Army Staff Sgt Robert Bales - spread rapidly on social media networks among Afghans in and out of the country. It encapsulated the frustration of a generation that has grown up during the 10 year war that is finding its voice - albeit, on the internet.
See the full article (TIME, John Wendle, 4/1/12)
Click to read about USIP's upcoming event "Prospects for Peace in Afghanistan" on April 10 at 10:30am.
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Internet Freedom: Diplomats Join the Dissidents, Geeks and Censors
It is clear what many autocratic regimes want in the Internet: a controlled space, one that ideally permits their citizens to use online tools for economic activity and basic communication, but that will not permit the kinds of expression that might undermine government authority. The effort to build such a controlled space is no longer restricted to domestic measures, and for several nations it now comprises a significant diplomatic effort.
See the full article (TechCrunch, Richard Fontaine, 4/1/12)
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Myanmar Media use Twitter, Facebook to Report Vote
Myanmar's journalists will take to Twitter and Facebook in their battle to beat press restrictions and deliver breaking news of Sunday's by-elections that for many will be the biggest story of their careers. The vote -- the first contested by opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi and likely to propel her into parliament -- is set to pose a host of challenges for news editors from the country's long-censored media.
See the full article (AFP, Kelly Macnamara, 3/31/12)
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Viral Videos, Activists Discussed as Tools to Prevent Atrocities
[A recent Clinton Global Initiative University Meeting] discussed viral videos, empowering local activists and setting international moral values as means to prevent future mass atrocities against civilians. Despite massive attention to the problems in Sudan's Darfur region, the violence there, which began nine years ago, continues. In such situations, Juliana Rotich, the executive director of Ushahidi, a non-profit technology company managing crisis information, recommended empowering local activists.
See the full article (Voice of America, Nico Colombant, 3/31/12)
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Crowd-Mapping Sexual Violence in Syria in Real Time
What would it mean to document instances of sexual violence in real time, as these assaults are unfolding? And what would it mean to do this for an area of the world that is currently restricted to outsiders, including journalists and human rights workers? That's exactly what the organizers of Women Under Siege Syria are asking, and are attempting to answer with their groundbreaking crowd-mapping initiative.
See the full article (Mashable, Sonia Paul, 3/30/12)
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The Arab Spring's Online Backlash
A bill on "information-technology crimes" with extraordinarily broad wording and harsh punishments is due to come before Iraq's parliament in April. According to an English translation, it includes mandatory life sentences for using computers or the internet to "compromise" the "unity" of the state, promote "ideas which are disruptive to public order", or engage in "trafficking, promoting or facilitating the abuse of drugs", which could include merely blogging about them.
See the full article (Economist, 3/29/12)
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Open Door Policy
Last year, when Internet users in 12 authoritarian states tried to navigate to the social networking sites we take for granted in the West, they encountered the usual government firewall blocking their access. But there was a twist. Many of them also saw an advertisement alerting them to the fact they could download free tools to circumvent this censorship. Almost half a million users did just that. The organization funding the campaign was none other than the U.S. Department of State.
See the full article (Foreign Policy, Fergus Hanson, 3/29/12)
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"Ishmael Beah Calls for Protection of Children in Armed Conflict" - UNICEF
Ishmael Beah, UNICEF Advocate for Children Affected by War, speaks about the devastating effects of armed conflict on children.
See the full video
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