| Center of Innovation: Media, Conflict and Peacebuilding Weekly News Roundup, May 2 - 8, 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 Yemen Signals It May Release Journalist Accused of AQAP Ties
Yemen's transitional government is signaling that it may release Abdulelah Haider Shaye, a Yemeni journalist who was arrested in August 2010 and who U.S. intelligence officials believe supported al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula. Shaye was sentenced to five years in prison in January 2011 in a trial that drew condemnation from Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International, and human rights and journalist advocacy organizations have since campaigned for his release.
See the full article (Foreign Policy, J. Dana Stuster, 5/8/13) *Foreign Policy sign-up may be required to view the full article
[Return to top] Colombian Journalist in Line of Fire for Exposing Corruption
Colombian journalist Ricardo Calderon was shot at five times while travelling by car on a main road from the city of Ibague back to Bogota last week at 7pm. Calderon, who heads the investigative unit at Colombia's leading weekly news magazine Semana, is known for his hard-hitting reporting that exposes corruption and crimes carried out by the country's political elite and armed forces.
See the full article (Thomson Reuters, Anastasia Moloney, 5/7/13)
[Return to top] Iraq Barring of TV Channels 'Unacceptable': US Envoy
Iraq's decision to suspend the licences of 10 satellite TV channels, a move that bars them from working in the country, is "unacceptable," the US ambassador to Iraq said on Friday. "We must recognise that it is unacceptable to attack freedom of expression or limit the media by suspending operating licences," Ambassador Stephen Beecroft said in a statement marking World Press Freedom Day.
See the full article (AFP, 5/4/13)
[Return to top] A Rag of Riches
Like many publications in Egypt, which are suffering in the weak economy, Egypt Independent had been struggling financially. But it is just as much a casualty of Egypt's polarized media landscape, in which businessmen and political parties jockey for power. Journalists who had hoped the revolution would strengthen the autonomy and credibility of the press are finding that their profession is more vulnerable than ever.
See the full article (New York Times, Ursula Lindsey, 5/2/13) *NYT sign-up may be required to view the full article
[Return to top] Nigeria Enters Ranks of Countries with Dire Journalistic Impunity Records
Nigeria is suffering from militant aggression in the north and politically inspired aggression nationwide. That is the background to the country becoming one of the worst nations in the world for deadly, unpunished violence against the press. That sobering truth emerges in the updated "impunity index" produced by the New York-based press freedom watchdog, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ).
See the full article (Guardian, Roy Greenslade, 5/2/13)
[Return to top] Internet and Social Media 19-Hour Internet Outage in Syria Ends
Internet connections in Syria are coming back online after a nearly day-long outage, according to data from service tracking companies. The outage began at approximately 3 p.m. ET Tuesday, sparking fears the country's military was preparing an assault against rebel forces following an Israeli airstrike on a Hezbollah-bound shipment of guided missiles in Damascus.
See the full article (Mashable, Alex Fitzpatrick, 5/8/13)
[Return to top] | [Return to section] Twitter Aids Rise of Web-Based Hate Forums, Report Finds
Twitter Inc., the Web-based social-messaging service, helped spur a 30 percent growth in online forums for hate and terror over the past year, according to a report by the Simon Wiesenthal Center. Social-media services including Twitter, Facebook Inc. and Google Inc.'s YouTube video-sharing website should restrict the dissemination of hateful speech or content that aids terrorists, according to Rabbi Abraham Cooper, associate dean.
See the full article (Bloomberg, Douglas MacMillan, 5/7/13)
[Return to top] | [Return to section] Israel Says Google's 'Palestine' Page Harms Peace Hopes
A senior Israeli official accused Google on Monday of setting back Middle East peace hopes by putting the name "Palestine" under the banner of its search page for the Palestinian territories (www.google.ps). Palestinians hailed Google's move as a virtual victory on the long path to the state they seek in the West Bank, East Jerusalem and Gaza Strip, which Israel seized in the 1967 war.
See the full article (Reuters, Dan Williams, 5/6/13)
[Return to top] | [Return to section] The 'Onion' Latest Victim of Syrian Electronic Army's Fat Jokes
This afternoon, the Syrian Electronic Army, a group of hackers supportive of Bashar al-Assad's regime, appeared to briefly hack into the Onion's Twitter feed. Over the course of about an hour, the SEA tweeted seven times from @TheOnion, and claimed responsibility for the attack on the Onion's @ONN account.
See the full article (Foreign Policy, J. Dana Stuster, 5/6/13)
[Return to top] | [Return to section] Jihad.com: My Week in the Online Terror Underworld
I decided to try an experiment: I would spend seven days creeping through the Internet using disposable IP addresses, inhabiting the milieu of radical sites and Facebook pages. In Manhattan coffee shops, on subway platforms, between tasks at work, I would take up residence in the darkest corners of the Web-and see what I could learn about the fetid swamps where self-made jihadists are allegedly born.
See the full article (Daily Beast, Michael Moynihan, 5/6/13)
[Return to top] | [Return to section] What's New from PeaceMedia "Tomorrow We Will See"- Soraya Umewaka
"Tomorrow We Will See" ("Bukra Minshouf") offers a window into Lebanon's flourishing creative culture through the perspective of ten Lebanese artists. A common trait that unites the artists is their talent of using art as a tool for transcending sectarian divisions and encouraging freedom of thought. Through their own artistic expressions, they have overcome decades of social and political instability and the uncertainties of what tomorrow may bring.
See the full video
[Return to top] Click here to subscribe to USIP's Science, Technology and Peacebuilding News Roundup. Did we miss anything? | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
