News Roundup Archive

Thursday, April 4, 2013

USIP's Media, Conflict & Peacebuilding Roundup

United States Institute of Peace

 

Center of Innovation: Media, Conflict and Peacebuilding

Weekly News Roundup, March 21 - 27, 2013

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

Burma Approves 16 Private Dailies
Burmese authorities have granted approval for 16 daily newspapers, including one run by opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi's party, to start publishing next week as part of media reforms allowing private dailies to operate in the country for the first time in decades. The move to allow private dailies, announced in December, comes amid a series of media reforms that would have been unthinkable during the five decades of absolute military rule that ended in March 2011.
See the full article (Radio Free Asia, 2/26/13)
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BBC Suspends Sri Lanka Broadcasts Due to 'Interference'
The BBC is to stop providing radio news to Sri Lanka's state broadcaster because of "continued interruption and interference" in its Tamil programming. The BBC took similar action in 2009 when its services were also disrupted. The Sri Lankan authorities have not so far commented on the announcement.
See the full article (BBC, 3/26/13)
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Democratizing Iraqi Media?
Democratizing the media has been one of the achievements of the United States in many state-building experiments around the world -- but this was not the case in Iraq. After the U.S. intervention in 2003, Iraqi media was transformed from being a heavily controlled state propaganda tool, to a plethora of political, ethnic, tribal, and sectarian mouthpieces.
See the full article (Foreign Policy, Haider Al Safi, 3/26/13) *Foreign Policy sign-up may be required to view the full article
Click to read "Mitigating Media Incitement to Violence in Iraq," a USIP Special Report by Maureen Taylor and Theo Dolan.
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Somali Women's Rights Reporter Shot Dead in Mogadishu
A 21-year-old woman has become the latest victim of a series of deadly attacks against journalists in Somalia. [Rahma] Abdulkadir is the third journalist killed in Somalia this year. The National Union of Somali Journalists has demanded that the work of a taskforce established by the Somali government to probe media assassinations be sped up.
See the full article (Guardian, Roy Greenslade, 3/25/13)
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Iraq and the Reinvention of Reality
The Iraq war is notable not only for journalistic weakness, but for journalistic futility: the futility of fact itself. Fact could not match the fabrications of power. Eventually, our reality shifted to become what they conceived. That was the message of the Iraq war: There is no point in speaking truth to power when power is the only truth.
See the full article (Al Jazeera, Sarah Kendzior, 3/24/13)
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On Iraq, Journalists Didn't Fail. They Just Didn't Succeed.
For much of the past decade, the American news media has chastised itself for how badly it performed in the months leading up to the war in Iraq. There's no doubt that many news organizations, including this one, missed important stories, underplayed others that were skeptical of the administration's case and acted too deferentially to those in power. But "failure" grossly oversimplifies what the media did and didn't do before the war, and it ignores important reasons the reporting turned out the way it did.
See the full article (Washington Post, Paul Farhi, 3/22/13)
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China Media: Two Koreas
The top news on the front pages of People's Daily and other national newspapers is President Xi Jinping's pledge of China's support for "reconciliation and co-operation" between the two Koreas in his phone conversation yesterday with South Korean President Park Geun-hye. Chinese experts believe that Beijing is voicing support for direct dialogue between Pyongyang and Seoul.
See the full article (BBC, 2/21/13)
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Toppling Saddam and a War's Coverage
Broadcast live to millions around the globe, the toppling of Saddam Hussein's statue in Baghdad's Firdos Square seemed to be the defining visual moment of the Iraq war. To viewers and commentators, it was gripping proof that Iraqis were celebrating the triumphal arrival of the Marines. But it was not so apparent to some of the journalists who were actually there.
See the full article (New York Times, James Estrin, 3/21/13) *NYT sign-up may be required to view the full article
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Internet and Social Media

Saudi Arabia 'Threatens Skype Ban'
Encrypted messaging services such as Skype, Viber and WhatsApp could be blocked in Saudi Arabia, the telecommunications regulator there is reported to have warned. It is demanding a means to monitor such applications, but Saudis say that would seriously inhibit their communications. Saudi newspapers are reporting that the companies behind the applications have been given a week to respond.
See the full article (BBC, 3/25/13)
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Top Saudi Cleric Says Twitter Is for Clowns
Saudi Arabia's top religious cleric has criticised the microblogging website Twitter, calling it "a council for jokesters" and a place for unjust, incorrect messages. Local journalist Faisel al-Haidari tweeted that the mufti's remarks were not intended for all Twitter users but for "corrupt" people "who sabotage the thoughts of youth with corrupt tweets".
See the full article (Al Jazeera, 3/24/13)
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Dozens of Web Activists Pardoned and Released in Oman
The sultan of the Gulf country of Oman, Qaboos bin Said, has pardoned and released dozens of online activists. The writers, bloggers and activists were arrested during a crackdown in Oman in late May and early June 2012. At the time, the public prosecutor threatened legal action against the publication of "offensive writing" in the media or online.
See the full article (BBC, 3/23/13)
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In Kenya, Social Media Hate Speech Rises as Nation Awaits Election Ruling
In the wake of elections that are still unresolved, significant numbers of Kenyans on Twitter and Facebook are purging their followers and friends as a tide of "hate speech" -- which is encouraging tribal divisions -- sweeps through social media. Such base and hateful talk during Kenya's last election in 2007 fanned tensions that spilled into violence and later led to International Criminal Court charges.
See the full article (Christian Science Monitor, Mike Pflanz, 3/21/13)
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Jihadi Web Forums Are Losing Members to Twitter, Facebook, Death
Social media is killing the websites where terrorists and terrorist wannabes talk shop. That's the claim made by jihadi ideologue Abu Sa'd al-'Amili in a recent essay circulating online. "Major writers and analysts" are now spending more time on Facebook and Twitter than on the forums. The Twitter feeds, Facebook pages and YouTube channels of extremists may be more important indicators of where the residual jihadist movement is going.
See the full article (Wired, Spencer Ackerman, 3/21/13)
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What's New from PeaceMedia

"Sri Lanka Unites, Reconciliation and Social Media" - Peace One Day
At the Peace One Day conference in London, Sri Lanka Unites' president Prashan De Visser elaborates on SLU and its determination for reconciliation in Sri Lanka, and how social media and technology helps get the job done.
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, March 21 - 27, 2013

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.**


Kenya's Odinga Says Technology Failures Led to Vote Fraud
Lawyers challenging Uhuru Kenyatta's victory in the Kenyan presidential election said on Wednesday new technology meant to counter fraud had broken down, leading to a manipulated vote count. Lawyers for Odinga told the Supreme Court that the failure of an electronic system to transmit numbers from polling stations to a tallying center and the breakdown of other equipment had undermined the chances of a transparent vote.
See the full article (Reuters, James Macharia, 3/27/13)
Click to read about USIP's upcoming event "Consolidating Democratic Gains, Promoting African Prosperity" on March 29 at 9:00am.
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Don't Call Africa's Tech Hub 'Silicon Savannah'
People have dubbed it "Nairobbery" for a reason. Crime is still a crushing reality in Kenya's capital of Nairobi. Yet life in the city is changing for its 3 million inhabitants. The recent presidential elections earlier this month passed peacefully, a marked improvement over the disastrous 2008 elections, when 1,000 people died and the country nearly tipped into civil war. Now that the election has passed without violence, it will be investors, both foreign and African, that will decide its future.
See the full article (Mashable, Monty Munford, 3/26/13)
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Legal Experts: Stuxnet Attack on Iran Was Illegal 'Act of Force'
A cyberattack that sabotaged Iran's uranium enrichment program was an "act of force" and was likely illegal, according to research commissioned by a NATO defense center. The 20 experts who produced the study were unanimous that Stuxnet was an act of force, but were less clear about whether the cyber sabotage against Iran's nuclear program constituted an "armed attack," which would entitle Iran to use counterforce in self-defense.
See the full article (Wired, Kim Zetter, 3/25/13)
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Rabid Response
Nuclear deterrence isn't the best analogy for addressing cyber-threats, and it is certainly the wrong policy. All through the Cold War, and even now, the United States had early-warning satellites that used infrared sensors to pinpoint where nuclear-tipped missiles may have come from, thus fulfilling the critical attribution criterion on which deterrence hinges. Nothing remotely equivalent exists in cyberspace.
See the full article (Foreign Policy, Yousaf Butt, 3/22/13) *Foreign Policy sign-up may be required to view the full article
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Microsoft and the Global Network Initiative
China's surveillance of Skype is not particularly surprising. What is surprising is that Skype owner Microsoft is a founding member of the Global Network Initiative, an anti-internet censorship and pro-privacy organization. [NPR] speaks to Ethan Zuckerman, director of MIT's Center for Civic Media, about the Global Network Initiative and its apparent shortcomings.
See the full article (NPR, 3/22/13)
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World Water Day 2013: Water as a Catalyst for Peace
Today we celebrate World Water Day - a day to raise awareness on the global water challenge and to advocate for the sustainable management of water resources. If water resources continue to be poorly managed, food and energy production will decline, and waterborne disease will increase. When combined with poverty, social tensions, and weak leadership and institutions, water challenges may lead to social disruptions that cause state instability and regional tension.
See the full article (Forbes, 3/22/13)
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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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USIP's Media, Conflict & Peacebuilding Roundup

United States Institute of Peace

 

Center of Innovation: Media, Conflict and Peacebuilding

Weekly News Roundup, March 28 - April 3, 2013

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

Mobs Storm Newspapers in Baghdad
The angry mobs barged into the newspaper buildings, in the heart of bustling Baghdad. They smashed equipment, stole files, beat up guards and workers, and tossed one person from a roof. The assaults, which unfolded simultaneously Monday, apparently stemmed from outrage over a story seen as critical toward a Shiite cleric in Karbala.
See the full article (CNN, Mohammed Tawfeeq and Joe Sterling, 4/3/13)
Click to read "Mitigating Media Incitement to Violence in Iraq," a USIP Special Report by Maureen Taylor and Theo Dolan.
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Tamil Paper Uthayan Attacked in Northern Sri Lanka
Masked men in northern Sri Lanka have attacked the offices of a Tamil newspaper and beaten its staff. The owner of the pro-opposition Uthayan paper said six masked men entered the building in Kilinochchi before dawn. It is the fourth time this year that Tamil-language newspapers or their distributors have been attacked in Sri Lanka.
See the full article (BBC, 4/3/13)
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Inside the War Machine: New Documentary Maps an Epic Photo Career
Which Way Is the Front Line From Here? The Life and Time of Tim Hetherington is a posthumous recounting of one of the most impressive photojournalism careers to date. Hetherington, who died in Misrata, Libya on April 20, 2011 in a mortar attack while covering the civil war, was well known for his creative and impassioned approach to documenting the human side of war.
See the full article (Wired, Jakob Schiller, 4/3/13)
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The Turkish Media Muzzle
Turkey's image is suffering as a result of the prime minister's heavy-handed approach with Turkish journalists who refuse to toe the line. In recent years, Turkey has jailed more journalists than any other country, thanks to the liberally interpreted anti-terrorism law, a law that highlights deep structural problems within the Turkish legal system.
See the full article (Al Jazeera, 4/2/13)
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Syrian Newspapers Emerge to Fill Out War Reporting
Absi Smesem became the editor in chief of a new weekly Syrian newspaper hoping to leave behind what he disparaged as the "Facebook phase" of the uprising. The tall tales and outright misinformation that tainted so much reporting from Syria convinced him that more objective coverage was essential to bolster the effort to overthrow President Bashar al-Assad.
See the full article (New York Times, Neil MacFarquhar, 4/1/13) *NYT sign-up may be required to view the full article
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U.S. Accuses Egypt of Stifling Freedom of Expression
The United States on Monday accused Egypt of muzzling freedom of speech after prosecutors questioned the most popular Egyptian television satirist over allegations he insulted President Mohamed Mursi and Islam. U.S. State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland also suggested the Egyptian authorities were ignoring or playing down attacks on anti-government demonstrators.
See the full article (Reuters, Arshad Mohammed, 4/1/13)
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A Step Toward Democracy: Privately Owned Newspapers Return to Myanmar
For most people in Myanmar, it will be a novelty when privately run daily newspapers hit the streets on Monday. Many weren't even born when the late dictator Ne Win imposed a state monopoly on the daily press in the 1960s. In Myanmar the state has monopolized the daily press since the 1960s, but privately owned daily newspapers will hit the streets once again.
See the full article (AP, Aye Aye Win, 3/31/13)
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Internet and Social Media

Embassy Cairo Shuts Down Twitter Feed After Muslim Brotherhood Spat
The U.S. Embassy in Cairo shut down its Twitter feed Wednesday following a public fight with the Egyptian Presidency and the Muslim Brotherhood over the arrest of an Egyptian television star. "It's inappropriate for a diplomatic mission to engage in such negative political propaganda," the official Twitter feed for the Egyptian presidency said on their own feed Tuesday.
See the full article (Foreign Policy, Josh Rogin, 4/3/13) *Foreign Policy sign-up may be required to view the full article
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Cartel Watchdog Disappears from Social Media After Death Threats
The Twitter and Facebook accounts for a popular crime watchdog in one of Mexico's most dangerous states have been abruptly taken down. Watchdog group Bravery for Tamaulipas was something of a clearinghouse for information about the cartels in the state. Information posted to the social media accounts was also in stark contrast to the quieter reporting by mainstream newspapers.
See the full article (Wired, Robert Beckhusen, 4/3/13)
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Saudi Arabia 'May End' Twitter User Anonymity
Saudi Arabia may try to end anonymity for Twitter users in the country by limiting access to the site to people who register their identification documents. Twitter is highly popular with Saudis and has stirred broad debate on subjects ranging from religion to politics in a country where such public discussion had been considered at best unseemly and sometimes illegal.
See the full article (Al Jazeera, 3/31/13)
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Russians Selectively Blocking Internet
Russian communications regulators have required Facebook, Twitter and YouTube to remove material that the officials determined was objectionable, with only YouTube, owned by Google, resisting. Opposition leaders have railed against the law as a crack in the doorway to broader Internet censorship.
See the full article (New York Times, Andrew E. Kramer, 3/31/13) *NYT sign-up may be required to view the full article
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North Korea's Internet? What Internet? For Most, Online Access Doesn't Exist
You won't find people in North Korea checking Facebook or Twitter for the latest updates on the tense situation created by its leader, Kim Jong Un. That's because the nation of 24 million is largely shut out from the Internet. Few outside the government and military have ever been online.
See the full article (NBC News, Suzanne Choney, 3/30/13)
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Palestinians Fight Prison Sentences for Mocking Their President on Facebook
A Palestinian court on Thursday upheld a one-year jail sentence for a journalist convicted of insulting President Mahmoud Abbas with a pastiche image posted on Facebook. Another Palestinian was given the same sentence last month for posting a humorous caption beneath an image of Mr. Abbas kicking a soccer ball on the social network.
See the full article (New York Times, Robert Mackey, 3/28/13) *NYT sign-up may be required to view the full article
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What's New from PeaceMedia

"Bridge Media Promo" - AED
Bridge Media is AED's signature approach to using radio, broadcast, print, and electronic media to bridge inter-ethnic tensions in divided countries. Bridge Media initiatives use inter-ethnic production teams to develop popular media programs that promote peace and reach nationwide audiences while building indigenous media capacity.
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, March 28 - April 3, 2013

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.**


Latest US Message to N. Korea: Missile Defense System Sent to Guam
The U.S. is deploying a ballistic missile defense system to Guam in the coming weeks, its latest response to daily threats and provocations from North Korea. The U.S. Navy stationed a missile defense ship southwest of the Korean Peninsula, and a sea-going radar could soon be moved into position to keep close watch on North Korea's launch site for long-range missiles.
See the full article (CBS News, 4/3/13)
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Cheap Drones Made in China Could Arm U.S. Foes
Cheap drones made in China could end up arming potential U.S. foes such as North Korea, Iran and terrorist organizations. Chinese manufacturers are touting their plans to build drones five or even 10 times cheaper than comparable U.S. drones, whose hardware alone costs $5 million to $10 million. That means countries such as Syria might obtain Chinese drones for the surveillance or oppression of their own citizens.
See the full article (Mashable, Jeremy Hsu, 4/3/13)
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Stunning Before-and-after Satellite Photos Show Sectarian Devastation in Burma
In late March, as tension between Burma's Buddhists and its Muslim minority escalated. Human Rights Watch, as part of an extensive investigation into the violence, has released before-and-after satellite images showing the breathtaking extent of the damage, in which entire neighborhoods have been effectively wiped off the map.
See the full article (Washington Post, 4/3/13)
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North Korea Vows to Restart Shuttered Plutonium Reactor
North Korea said it will restart its long-shuttered plutonium reactor and increase production of nuclear weapons material, in what outsiders see as its latest attempt to extract U.S. concessions by raising fears of war. The nuclear vows and a rising tide of threats in recent weeks are seen as efforts by the North to force disarmament-for-aid talks with Washington.
See the full article (AP, Hyung-Jin Kim and Foster Klug, 4/2/13)
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Mapping Hate Speech to Predict Ethnic Violence
In the months leading up to the Rwandan genocide of 1994, the radio station Radio Television Libre des Mille Collines blanketed the country with anti-Tutsi propaganda. But what if the world had been monitoring Milles Collines before the killing started? That's the idea behind Hatebase, a Canadian group that aims to use social media and other technology to identify early warning signals for ethnic conflict.
See the full article (Foreign Policy, Joshua Keating, 4/1/13) *Foreign Policy sign-up may be required to view the full article
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New Manual Explains Laws of Cyberwarfare
Under international law, if Nation A fires a missile at a military base in Nation B, Nation B has the right to defend itself with lethal force. But what if Nation A uses a cyberattack to cause an explosion at a military base in Nation B? Or what if, in the midst of an armed conflict, a cyberattack from Nation A knocks out power at a hospital in Nation B? Was that target off limits under international law?
See the full article (RFE/RL, Heather Maher, 4/1/13)
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Technology, Transparency, and the Kenyan General Election of 2013
After the chaos of the 2007 elections, the Kenyan government used a higher level of technology in the 2010 Constitutional Referendum and various by-elections to enhance the credibility of results. The plan was that the 2013 elections would represent a technological apex for voting. The vision was to use technology for two key aspects of the voting process.
See the full article (Al Jazeera, Warigia Bowman and Brian Munyao Longwe, 3/29/13)
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Egypt's Navy Intercepts Internet Cable-cutting Scuba Saboteurs
According to an Egyptian army colonel, the country's naval forces intercepted and arrested three scuba divers attempting to slice underwater internet cables. It's not clear who the alleged culprits are, or who they represent. Considering what a huge part the internet played in the country's 2011 revolt, it would be surprising if any opposition activists were involved. It's in fact the new government, rather than the opposition, which has been voicing a desire to block undesirable channels.
See the full article (Wired.co.uk, Liat Clark, 3/28/13)
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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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