News Roundup Archive

Thursday, June 14, 2012

USIP's Media, Conflict & Peacebuilding Roundup

United States Institute of Peace

 

Center of Innovation: Media, Conflict and Peacebuilding

Weekly News Roundup, June 7 - 13, 2012

Media and Journalism

Internet and Social Media

What's New from PeaceMedia

Media and Journalism

Violence Tests Myanmar's Media, and its Censors
When Myanmar emerged last year from army rule, state censors started to loosen their powerful grip, allowing newspapers to report freely on what had been unthinkable, from the views of opposition politicians to allegations of government corruption. But as sectarian violence rages between majority Buddhists and Muslim Rohingyas in western Rakhine state, the old ways are returning. Censorship is creeping back, raising questions about whether the pre-screening of copy will be dropped.
See the full article (Reuters, 6/14/12)
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Amid Iraq Violence, Journalists Struggle about Government Control
Iraqi journalists, in particular, are still struggling to report freely and safely about their nation, something that was brought home when Marwan Ibrahim, a longtime reporter for Agence France-Presse, was seriously injured in a roadside bomb attack in the northern city of Kirkuk this morning. Death threats, targeted killings and bombed offices may no longer be as much a daily fact of life as they once were. But Iraqi journalists say that pressure and risks persist in other ways, under the increasingly authoritarian government of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki.
See the full article (Christian Science Monitor, Scott Peterson, 6/13/12)
Click to read "Salam Shabab Demonstrating the Value of Diversity Among Iraqi Youth," a USIP News Feature.
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Sudanese Journalists Stymied by "Red Lines" and Raids
Reporters in Sudan have long known that criticizing the president or writing about official corruption could bring a beating, or jail. Official censorship ensured journalists knew exactly where the lines were. But censorship was abolished in 2009, and the secession of South Sudan a year ago and recent border fighting with the new nation has worsened the situation for press freedom. Punishment for crossing the line is increasingly financial - withdrawal of advertising or blocking the distribution of newspapers.
See the full article (Reuters, Ulf Laessing, 6/13/12)
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Afghan Photographers Shoot to Glory
[Massoud] Hossaini is one of a handful of young, talented Afghan photographers who, despite scarce funding, have gained international prominence with the encouragement of exceptional mentors. These photographers are now showing their embattled country to the world - unhindered by cultural and language barriers - through an Afghan lens. Hossaini won a Pulitzer Prize for breaking news photography in 2012.
See the full article (Al Jazeera, Rebecca Murray, 6/12/12)
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The Rise of Citizen Journalism
From live blogs on 'Occupy' protests to footage of Syrian atrocities on YouTube, filmmakers now have access to a wealth of raw material - but can it all be trusted? [The] documentary Syria's Torture Machine for Channel 4, drew on about 30,000 clips that have been uploaded on various social network sites, including "trophy videos" from Syrian military torturers and footage from local families and citizens caught up in demonstrations.
See the full article (Guardian, Kate Bulkley, 6/10/12)
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In a Troubled corner, Afghans Jam the Airwaves
It has just one phone line and broadcasts from a plywood hut safe within a U.S. base, but Nari Radio is proving an unlikely hit in one of Afghanistan's most troubled regions, with a talk-back caller base that counts even the Taliban. With its mix of music and unvetted politics in a poverty-stricken area where radio still counts as new media, Nari has been an unexpected success for U.S. troops trying to counter an insurgency that remains strong, just months from a handover of security to Afghan forces.
See the full article (Reuters, Rob Taylor, 6/10/12)
Click to read about USIP's upcoming event "Pakistani Media: Getting Beyond the Hype" on June 19 at 2:30pm.
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Syria's Assads Turned to West for Glossy P.R.
For some journalists, Syria has been one of the least hospitable countries in the Middle East, a place where reporters - if they can get in - are routinely harassed and threatened as they try to uncover the repression that has propped up the Assad government for decades. For other journalists, Syria has until recently been a country led by the cultivated, English-speaking President Bashar al-Assad who was helping usher in a new era of openness and prosperity.
See the full article (New York Times, Bill Carter and Amy Chozick, 6/10/12) *NYT sign-up may be required to view the full article
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Aid Agencies Limit Their Impact by Refusing to Fund the Media
After living through 14 years of civil war where leaders used propaganda to convince thousands of Liberians to take up arms against their own people - often their own families - Liberians have a better appreciation of the power of truth than most. Aid agencies should support media in their jobs; include smart media strategies as part of their work; fund good journalism; not take journalists out of positions where they are making a difference; and start a national conversation that will open eyes and change destructive attitudes.
See the full article (Guardian, Prue Clarke, 6/7/12)
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Internet and Social Media

Ruling Facebookistan
Last year, when [Palestinian activist Ramzi] Jaber organized a TED-like conference in Ramallah, travel restrictions forced activists to set up satellite events in Bethlehem, Beirut, and Amman, mediating the conversation between the three locations largely through social media. Jaber, a social entrepreneur in residence at Stanford, created new website, onlinecensorship.org, through which users of Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Flickr and Google Plus can report on incidents of deletion and deactivation.
See the full article (Foreign Policy, Rebecca Mackinnon, 6/14/12)
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Facebook Meets Brick-and-Mortar Politics
No doubt Facebook helped a certain educated class of Egyptians to spread the word about the Tahrir Revolution. Ditto Twitter. But, at the end of the day, politics always comes down to two very old things: leadership and the ability to get stuff done. And when it came to those, both the Egyptian Army and the Muslim Brotherhood, two old "brick and mortar" movements, were much more adept than the Facebook generation of secular progressives and moderate Islamists.
See the full article (New York Times, Thomas L. Friedman, 6/9/12) *NYT sign-up may be required to view the full article
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Court Denies Dismissal of WikiLeaks Charges
A military judge refused on Friday to dismiss any of the 22 counts against an Army private charged in the biggest leak of government secrets in U.S. history. On Friday, the third day of a pretrial hearing, [Col. Denise Lind] rejected a defense argument that the government used unconstitutionally vague language in charging Manning with eight counts of unauthorized possession and disclosure of classified information.
See the full article (USA Today, 6/9/12)
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Business as Usual
The Iranian online model is a challenge to internet users in the country, as it is to all those who fear for the shape of the countries in the region in the future. This is because of the importance of the internet and social networks in creating information, passing it along, receiving it and creating direct communication between citizens of different countries, just like the recent Israeli Faceook initiative to bring people from Israel and from Iran together.
See the full article (Guardian, Tal Pavel, 6/8/12)
Click to read about USIP's upcoming event "Change and Continuity in the Islamic Republic of Iran" on June 27 at 9:30am.
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Surfing the Web on an iPhone in Iran
The strength of cellular devices is not found only in their ability to make direct vocal contact between individuals, but also mainly in centralized societies which are characteristic of the Middle East. Their truly important role has been proven many times over the past years, when they served as the device through which one can document events in real-time where they are happening and forward the photographed or filmed information directly throughout the world by uploading it onto the internet.
See the full article (Guardian, Tal Pavel, 6/8/12)
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What's New from PeaceMedia

"Reconciliation - How It Happens" - PeaceTalks
Peace Talks hosts a conversation on preventing communal violence. Participants include ex IAS officer, activist and author Harsh Mander; anthropologist and human rights researcher Shiv Visvanathan; and actress and activist Nandita Das.
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, June 7 - 13, 2012

Table of Contents


Let's Admit It: The US Is at War in Yemen, Too
After years of sending drones and commandos into Pakistan, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta last week finally admitted the obvious: the US is "fighting a war" there. But American robots and special forces aren't just targeting militants in Pakistan. They're doing the same - with increasing frequency and increasing lethality - in Yemen. The latest drone attack [is] the 23rd strike in Yemen so far this year. In Pakistan, there have been only 22. Surely, if America is at war in Pakistan, it's at war in Yemen, too.
See the full article (Wired, Noah Shachtman and Spencer Ackerman, 6/14/12)
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Hillary's Little Startup: How the U.S. Is Using Technology to Aid Syria's Rebels
Abu Ghassan looks more like a hipster than a revolutionary. Decked out in a pink shirt and black jeans, he clutches a pack of cigarettes and begins to talk hesitantly about his activities. He is eager to get back to the beleaguered city of Homs in Syria but quickly warms to questions about how he learned to fight Bashar Assad with an AK-47, a video camera and the Internet--and how Americans helped turn him into a cyberwarrior.
See the full article (TIME, Jay Newton-Small, 6/13/12)
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Is Flame Virus Fallout a Chinese, Russian Plot to Control the Internet?
The barrage of Flame news - including word that Flame and Stuxnet appear to have common authorship - should not be viewed in a vacuum. A group of nations led by China, Russia and several Middle Eastern countries would love to see the end of U.S. dominance over the operational control of the Internet, and these nations think they have found their vehicle for accomplishing that: a U.N. body called the International Telecommunications Union.
See the full article (MSNBC, Bob Sullivan, 6/12/12)
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How Technology Promotes World Peace
Whereas techno-utopians believe technology is the solution to the problem of global conflict, techno-pragmatists see technology as a tool for overcoming deeply entrenched cycles of resource and market competition. In the long-term, then, grand strategy is becoming a collective, not national, enterprise. The question is thus not who controls technology, but the way in which we develop, guide, and control it collectively.
See the full article (Atlantic, Ayesha Khanna and Parag Khanna, 6/12/12)
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New Switchblade a Lethal Weapon: US Backpack 'Kamikaze Drones'
Errant drone strikes have been blamed for killing and injuring scores of civilians throughout Pakistan and Afghanistan, giving the US government a black eye as it targets elusive terrorist groups. Seeking to reduce civilian casualties and collateral damage, the Pentagon will soon deploy a new generation of drones the size of model planes, packing tiny explosive warheads that can be delivered with pinpoint accuracy.
See the full article (Sydney Morning Herald, W.J. Hennigan, 6/12/12)
Click to read about USIP's upcoming event "Pakistani Media: Getting Beyond the Hype" on June 19 at 2:30pm.
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Flame Virus Linked to Stuxnet: Researchers
The Flame computer virus which has been raging in the Middle East has strong links to Stuxnet, a malware program widely believed to have been developed by the United States or Israel. Kaspersky, the Russian computer security firm credited with discovering Flame last month, said its research shows the two programs share certain portions of code, suggesting some ties between two separate groups of programmers. Flame, even though it was discovered just recently, appears to predate Stuxnet, which was created in 2009.
See the full article (AFP, 6/11/12)
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Baghdad Pins Security Hopes On 13,000 CCTV Cameras
Iraq's fragile coalition government is pinning its hopes on a network of closed-circuit television cameras to show it can bring some measure of security to Baghdad. Plans for the security-system upgrade also include 18 high-technology checkpoints which Baghdad Governor Salah Abdul Razaq hopes will help the authorities track would-be terrorists and prevent them from planning coordinated bombings, like the waves of attacks that continue to rattle Baghdad amid heightened sectarian tensions.
See the full article (RFE/RL, Ron Synovitz, 6/11/12)
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The War Machines
Ready or not, robot wars are coming. That was made clear in the skies over Pakistan a week ago, when an unmanned drone killed al-Qaeda's No. 2 leader with a missile strike. And it's happening on the ground in Afghanistan, where robots are increasingly doing the dirty and dangerous work - exploring caves and "walking the point" ahead of their squad - long done by grunts.
See the full article (TIME, Mark Thompson, 6/11/12)
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A National Security Blog From Wired Widens Its Reach
Wired, a magazine that celebrates nerdiness with cover pieces like "How to be a Geek Dad," has found a different audience of readers who are not coming from the programming circles of Silicon Valley. They are technology enthusiasts spread across military bases and mazelike corridors at the Pentagon. In the five years since Wired.com started its Danger Room blog, it has attracted a steady following in the national security community, reaching readers the military sometimes has trouble connecting with in its own ranks.
See the full article (New York Times, Christine Haughney, 6/10/12) *NYT sign-up may be required to view the full article
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Seek and Hide
The FBI's gumshoes are trying to find out who disclosed details of Olympic Games, the codeword for the ambitious initiative to develop cyber-weapons such as Stuxnet. The software, which American programmers are said to have cooked up in conjunction with Israeli ones, went on to disrupt the operation of hundreds of centrifuges at an Iranian nuclear site. That comes as no surprise to computer-security veterans, who had assumed that America and Israel were behind Stuxnet as well as Duqu and Flame.
See the full article (Economist, 6/9/12)
Click to read about USIP's upcoming event "Change and Continuity in the Islamic Republic of Iran" on June 27 at 9:30am.
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Stuxnet: The Worm that Turned Obama into a Hypocrite?
In May 2011, the Obama administration published an admirable document setting out the US's international strategy for cyberspace. But there is a small problem. At the time when he signed that stirring declaration, Obama knew something that the rest of us didn't - namely that the Stuxnet worm, which caused such havoc at the heart of Iran's uranium-enrichment process had been written, under his authorisation, by programmers in the US National Security Agency.
See the full article (Guardian, John Naughton, 6/9/12)
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