PeaceTech News Roundup

 

PeaceTech Roundup Weekly News Highlights, May 8 - 14, 2014   Featured Story: How an Oral History Project Got the Head of Sinn Fein Arrested by Thomas Stackpole Media and Social Media Colombia Rebel Group Releases Rap Video To Rally Support For Peace Talks (AP, 5/14/14) Nigeria Abductions: Will Publicity Hinder Negotiations? (BBC, 5/13/14) #BBCtrending: The Women in Iran Taking Off the Hijab (BBC, 5/12/14) 'Palestine' Newspaper Sold In West Bank For First Time In Seven Years (Reuters, 5/11/14) The Twitter War: Social Media's Role in Ukraine Unrest (National Geographic, 5/10/14) World's Media Under Growing Pressure (CNN, 5/10/15) Egypt's El-Sissi Tells Media Not to Push Freedoms (AP, 5/8/14) North Korea Media Calls Obama A 'Wicked Black Monkey' (Huffington Post, 5/8/14) Technology and Science Tracking the Nigerian Kidnappers (Reuters, Abubakar Shekau, 5/14/14) It was Simply 'Code Innovation' at Google's Code for India Contest (Economic Times, 5/13/14) Technology Trumps Tradition in Bid to End S.Africa Mine Strike (Reuters, 5/13/14) Killer Robots Could Start New Arms Race, Human Rights Groups Say (Al Jazeera America, 5/12/14) From Martin Luther King to Anonymous, the State Targets Dissenters Not Just "Bad Guys" (Guardian, 5/12/14) Afghanistan Signs First Satellite Deal (RFE/RL, 5/10/14) Keepod: Can a $7 Stick Provide Billions Computer Access? (BBC, 5/9/14) #BBCtrending: The 'Electronic Fix' for India's Filth and Corruption (BBC, 5/8/14) Media and Social Media Colombia Rebel Group Releases Rap Video To Rally Support For Peace Talks Colombia's largest rebel group is trying to rally support for peace talks with a new rap video. The fast-paced video that began circulating on social media Tuesday is called "Colombians, everybody to the peace talks." It was produced by negotiators in Havana for the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia along with Cuban rappers Cuentas Claras. See the full article (AP, 5/14/14) [Return to top] Nigeria Abductions: Will Publicity Hinder Negotiations? While the Nigerian government says it is ready to hold talks with the Islamist group Boko Haram, the chances are that intermediaries are already involved in behind-the-scenes efforts to secure the release of the more than 200 school girls being held captive by the militants. However, their task is probably far more difficult because of the media glare on Nigeria - a point ex-US Navy Seal Dan O'Shea makes: "This case has brought such worldwide attention that it takes that option off the table for the Nigerian government." See the full article (BBC, Farouk Chothia, 5/13/14) [Return to top] #BBCtrending: The Women in Iran Taking Off the Hijab Women across Iran are posting photos of themselves without the hijab to a dedicated Facebook page called "My Stealthy Freedom". The Facebook page was set up just over a week ago, and already has 130,000 "likes". Almost all are from people in Iran, both men and women. See the full article (BBC, 5/12/14) Click to read "Countdown to the Final Iran Nuclear Deal" an Olive Branch Post by Robin Wright. [Return to top] 'Palestine' Newspaper Sold In West Bank For First Time In Seven Years A pro-Islamist newspaper was sold in the West Bank on Saturday for the first time in seven years, another sign of a Palestinian unity pact that prompted Israel to suspend peace talks with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. His Palestinian Authority (PA) permitted printers to roll out the tabloid, "Falasteen", Arabic for Palestine, three days after Hamas Islamists in control of Gaza allowed a leading West Bank daily to be sold in their midst. See the full article (Reuters, 5/11/14) [Return to top] The Twitter War: Social Media's Role in Ukraine Unrest As is the rule today, social media played a part in bringing the events in Odessa to light. At least two web videos live streamed the initial clashes between pro-Russian and pro-Ukrainian activists and then showed fighting at the trade union building. Twitter provided photos, updates, and commentary. Facebook was inundated with postings. See the full article (National Geographic, David Stern, 5/10/14) [Return to top] World's Media Under Growing Pressure At first glance, the rapidly changing ways information is produced, distributed and consumed should be signs of a golden age for the world's press. A broader range of professionals as well as citizen journalists and bloggers are writing, broadcasting and posting information in a larger variety of ways. Their news is traveling faster and reaching larger audiences. But the world's media is facing significant new pressures and growing dangers in almost every region of the world. See the full article (CNN, Karin Deutsch Karlekar, 5/10/15) [Return to top] Egypt's El-Sissi Tells Media Not to Push Freedoms Egypt's top presidential candidate, the former military chief, warned newspaper editors not to press issues of freedoms of speech and other rights or campaign for democratic reforms, saying demands and protests jeopardize national security and that full democracy is an "idealistic" goal that could take 25 years to reach. See the full article (AP, Maggie Michael, 5/8/14) [Return to top] North Korea Media Calls Obama A 'Wicked Black Monkey' North Korea's state news agency KCNA resorted to sickening racist language to lash out at Barack Obama this week, calling the U.S. president "reminiscent of a wicked black monkey." The editorial, which also called South Korea's President Park Geun-hye an "old prostitute," was published in English on Friday during Obama's tour of Asian nations. See the full article (Huffington Post, Charlotte Alfred, 5/8/14) [Return to top] Featured Story from the USIP Foreign Policy Peace Channel How an Oral History Project Got the Head of Sinn Fein Arrested by Thomas Stackpole The Justice Department subpoena arrived in May of 2011. Ten years had passed since the Boston College Belfast Project began collecting interviews from members of loyalist and republican militias during the dark period of Northern Ireland's Troubles, and the move caught the leaders of the investigative program completely off guard. The target of the Northern Ireland police's investigation, the Belfast Project researchers surmised, was the leader of Ireland's Sinn Fein party, Gerry Adams. See the full article [Return to top] Technology and Science Tracking the Nigerian Kidnappers Thanks to some new tools, and the spread of some older technologies, crucial data can be gleaned to show where the kidnappers, Boko Haram, may be holed up. Everything from cell phone usage to weapons acoustics to satellite imagery can help build a more complete picture of the group and its activities. See the full article (Reuters, Abubakar Shekau, 5/14/14) Click to read about USIP's upcoming event "Ending Sexual Violence in Conflict" on May, 23, 2014 at 9:30am. [Return to top] It was Simply 'Code Innovation' at Google's Code for India Contest Mobile applications for women's safety, software to detect electoral fraud and solutions that help farmers improve crop productivity were some of the technologies developed by coders this weekend. The contest, Code for India, ran simultaneously for 24 hours on Google campuses in India and the United States. See the full article (Economic Times, 5/13/14) Click to read about USIP's upcoming event "Exploring New Frontiers in Peacebuilding" on May, 21, 2014 at 8:30am. [Return to top] Technology Trumps Tradition in Bid to End S.Africa Mine Strike When the world's top three platinum firms opted to tackle South Africa's worst mining strike by sidestepping the militant AMCU union, they faced a huge logistical challenge: how to contact 70,000 men spread across the country and cowed by violence. The answer was a two-pronged approach combining ancient and modern. Besides SMS and email bursts and local language radio slots, the companies called on tribal elders to help sell their pay offers to strikers. See the full article (Reuters, Ed Stoddard, 5/13/14) [Return to top] Killer Robots Could Start New Arms Race, Human Rights Groups Say The use of fully autonomous weapons, or killer robots, by militaries or law enforcement would be an affront to basic human rights and should be pre-emptively banned by international convention, a new report released by leading human rights groups said on Monday. It argues that killer robots contravene standards of international human rights law and international humanitarian law, the bodies of international law that cover peace and warfare. See the full article (Al Jazeera America, Tom Katsch, 5/12/14) [Return to top] From Martin Luther King to Anonymous, the State Targets Dissenters Not Just "Bad Guys" A prime justification for surveillance relies on projecting a view of the world that divides citizens into categories of good people and bad people. In that view, the authorities use their surveillance powers only against bad people, those who are "doing something wrong", and only they have anything to fear from the invasion of their privacy. "Doing something wrong" in the eyes of such institutions encompasses far more than illegal acts, violent behaviour and terrorist plots. It typically extends to meaningful dissent and any genuine challenge. See the full article (Guardian, Glenn Greenwald, 5/12/14) [Return to top] Afghanistan Signs First Satellite Deal Afghanistan on May 10 started using its first ever satellite, AFGHANSAT 1, which will support a wide range of services, including broadcasting, telecommunications, and international connectivity. The telecommunication sector and a growing digital media industry are among Afghanistan's biggest achievements since the fall of the Taliban regime in 2001. See the full article (RFE/RL, 5/10/14) [Return to top] Keepod: Can a $7 Stick Provide Billions Computer Access? The USB flash drive is one of the most simple, everyday pieces of technology that many people take for granted. Now it's being eyed as a possible solution to bridging the digital divide, by two colourful entrepreneurs behind the start-up Keepod. The test bed for the project is the slums of Nairobi in Kenya. See the full article (BBC, Dan Simmons, 5/9/14) [Return to top] #BBCtrending: The 'Electronic Fix' for India's Filth and Corruption Can the Internet solve India's worst problems? In Bangalore though, India's "Silicon Valley", there are people who think that tech can be the solution to India's problems. But in a country where just over 11% of the population are connected to the Internet, is this really possible? See the full article (BBC, Mukul Devichand, 5/8/14) [Return to top] Did we miss anything?     Share this: | Forward this to a Friend

 

PeaceTech News Roundup

 

PeaceTech Roundup Weekly News Highlights, May 1 - 7, 2014   Featured Story: America's Peace Crisis by Christopher Holshek Media and Social Media Afghan Media Group Looks Beyond 2014 -- With Expansion In Mind (RFE/RL, 5/7/14) Is #BringBackOurGirls Helping? (Washington Post, 5/6/14) Iranian News Agency Removes IRGC Commander's Comments On Iranian Forces In Syria (RFE/RL, 5/6/14) Sisi Interview Fails to Win Over Egypt's Social Media Liberals (BBC, 5/6/14) Pakistan Parliament Votes To Lift YouTube Ban (RFE/RL, 5/6/14) Meet the Censors, Propagandists and Outright Liars Who Won Putin's Pulitzers (Daily Beast, 5/5/14) 10 Countries With the Most Journalist Deaths Since 2004 (Mashable, 5/5/14) Govt Arrests Journalists for Inciting Public to Violence Via Social Media (AllAfrica, 5/5/14) Muzzling Pakistan's Media (New York Times, 5/4/14) Halftime for the Brazilian Press (Committee to Protect Journalists, 5/14) Technology and Science Breaking the Cycle of Internet Repression (Huffington Post, 5/7/14) U.S. and U.K. Should Provide Satellite and Surveillance Technology to Free Boko Haram's Kidnapped Girls (Huffington Post, 5/6/14) New Movement Aims to 'Reset the Net' Against Mass Surveillance (Wired, 5/6/14) Out in the Open: An Open Source Website That Gives Voters a Platform to Influence Politicians (Wired, 5/5/14) Internet Hate Speech Can Lead to Acts of Violence (Washington Post, 5/2/14) Using New Technology to Give Voice to the Voiceless (Huffington Post, 5/1/14) Media and Social Media Afghan Media Group Looks Beyond 2014 -- With Expansion In Mind Its entertainment shows have been condemned as "un-Islamic" by conservatives and its journalists have received death threats for critical reporting about sensitive issues. But the Afghan-Australian family behind the Moby Group, which produces some of Afghanistan's most popular television shows, says it's eyeing the withdrawal of foreign forces from the country not with trepidation but with plans to expand. See the full article (RFE/RL, Frud Bezhan, 5/7/14) [Return to top] Is #BringBackOurGirls Helping? For weeks after the disturbing news broke that Islamist extremists had kidnapped hundreds of schoolgirls in Nigeria, people wondered why the story wasn't the center of global attention. Although there are no doubt many other factors in the visibility of the Nigerian girls story, one factor does stand out: the remarkable rise of #BringBackOurGirls. It seems clear that the hashtag is making some kind of impact. But will that impact actually be positive for Nigeria? Or are Western tweeters falling into a trap of ineffectual, or even counter-productive, slacktivism. The answer to that is not clear. See the full article (Washington Post, Adam Taylor, 5/6/14) Click to read "Countering Hate Speech in South Sudan through Peace Radio" an USIP Publication by Theo Dolan. [Return to top] Iranian News Agency Removes IRGC Commander's Comments On Iranian Forces In Syria Iran's hard-line Fars news agency has removed comments by a commander of the powerful Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), who was quoted as saying that the Islamic republic is militarily involved in Syria. Tehran has repeatedly denied that Iranian combat forces are fighting alongside the troops of President Bashar al-Assad in Syria, where the conflict has left tens of thousands of dead. See the full article (RFE/RL, 5/6/14) Click to read about USIP's upcoming event "The Rubik's Cube (tm) of a Final Agreement" on May, 13, 2014 at 9:30am. [Return to top] Sisi Interview Fails to Win Over Egypt's Social Media Liberals Former Egypt army chief Abdul Fattah al-Sisi's first major TV interview of his presidential campaign was well-received by his numerous supporters, but it is a different story among the country's top liberal social media figures. Usually praised - even lionised - in the mainstream media, Mr Sisi faces a far tougher audience in social media, where pro-democracy campaigners, human rights activists and liberal commentators dominate the tone of discussion. See the full article (BBC, 5/6/14) [Return to top] Pakistan Parliament Votes To Lift YouTube Ban Pakistan's parliament has voted unanimously to lift a ban on YouTube, which has been blocked in the country since September 2012. The resolution approved on May 6 is not legally binding but nonetheless it was welcomed by free speech campaigners as a positive step. See the full article (RFE/RL, 5/6/14) Click to read "Pakistan's Lack of Consensus, Capacity Undercut Efforts against Militants" an Olive Branch Post by Amy Calfas. [Return to top] Meet the Censors, Propagandists and Outright Liars Who Won Putin's Pulitzers On Monday, Russian President Vladimir Putin formally honored over 300 Russian journalists for their "high-level professionalism" and "objectivity" in their coverage of events in Crimea. Among the awardees on Monday was Margarita Simonyan, the acid-tongued, 34-year-old editor-in-chief of the Kremlin-funded RT broadcast network. Last month, she gave full expression to Putin's territorial appetite when, at a peak of pro-Russian separatist violence in Ukraine's east, she ominously tweeted, "Ukraine, RIP." See the full article (Daily Beast, James Kirchick, 5/5/14) [Return to top] 10 Countries With the Most Journalist Deaths Since 2004 Hundreds of journalists are killed, injured or imprisoned in the line of duty each year. Reporting on issues and events in war-torn countries affected by conflict is increasingly dangerous, and the principles of press freedom are often undermined around the world. The data shows that Iraq has been the most dangerous country for journalists, with 174 total deaths since 2004. See the full article (Mashable, Matt Petronzio, 5/5/14) [Return to top] Govt Arrests Journalists for Inciting Public to Violence Via Social Media Six bloggers from the Zone 9 collective and three freelance journalists were rounded up from various parts of Addis Ababa, Ethiopia in a coordinated, 2-day Federal Police raid last weekend. The authorities have charged all of them with "working with a foreign organization to incite public violence" via social media. See the full article (AllAfrica, Lilian Mutegi, 5/5/14) [Return to top] Muzzling Pakistan's Media Pakistan's media is in upheaval these days. But it's not because of the stuttering "talks" between the government and militant groups, who have publicly vowed to target journalists. The current upheaval began with the attempted assassination in Karachi on April 19 of Hamid Mir, arguably Pakistan's most recognizable talk show host and journalist. See the full article (New York Times, Hasan Zaidi, 5/4/14)*NYT subscription may be required to access full story [Return to top] Halftime for the Brazilian Press Since June 2013, Brazil has been the scene of sporadic but huge anti-government demonstrations that have brought millions to the streets to protest an array of grievances, from fare increases for public transport to corruption and the use of public funds to host the coming soccer World Cup. The protests sometimes turned violent; a cameraman was killed in February 2014. Throughout the demonstrations, dozens of journalists have been detained, harassed, and attacked by law enforcement and by protesters irked by some media treatment of the demonstrations. See the full article (Committee to Protect Journalists, Carlos Lauria, 5/14) [Return to top] Featured Story from the USIP Foreign Policy Peace Channel America's Peace Crisis by Christopher Holshek America has had a problem with peace. Even as its military power remains unmatched, the United States has seen its foreign-policy influence fall into steady decline. The string of crises where the United States has looked to soft power over hard, from Syria to Ukraine, to say nothing of Iraq and Afghanistan, has increasingly exposed the long decay of America's ability to manage peace rather than conflict. See the full article [Return to top] Technology and Science Breaking the Cycle of Internet Repression "If you want to liberate a society," said Egyptian Arab Spring activist Wael Ghonim, "just give them the Internet." In retrospect, Ghonim should have qualified his statement to include the kind of Internet free societies need. Today, the optimism about free speech and the Internet that emerged during Egypt's 2011 uprising has been dashed by the Morsi and Sisi regimes, which have silenced online and traditional media and imprisoned dozens of journalists. See the full article (Huffington Post, Timothy Karr, 5/7/14) Click here to read about USIP's new Challenge Cup PeaceTech Prize, awarded at the "1776 Challenge Cup Finals" on May, 17, 2014 at 5:00pm to one of the 64 startups whose tools have the greatest peace-building potential. [Return to top] U.S. and U.K. Should Provide Satellite and Surveillance Technology to Free Boko Haram's Kidnapped Girls Surveillance and other equipment has to be made available to the Nigerian authorities to root the terrorists out -- but we must also make sure that schools are safe for children to attend. Our call for satellite and air surveillance support by America and Britain is based on the urgency of the situation -- these girls may be dispersed soon. There is an obvious need to back up the Nigerian effort with high technology support. See the full article (Huffington Post, Gordon Brown, 5/6/14) [Return to top] New Movement Aims to 'Reset the Net' Against Mass Surveillance A coalition of nearly two-dozen tech companies and civil liberties groups is launching a new fight against mass Internet surveillance, hoping to battle the NSA in much the same way online campaigners pushed back on bad piracy legislation in 2012. The new coalition, organized by Fight for the Future, is planning a Reset the Net day of action on June 5, the anniversary of the date the first Edward Snowden story broke detailing the government's PRISM program, based on documents leaked by the former NSA contractor. See the full article (Wired, Kim Zetter, 5/6/14) [Return to top] Out in the Open: An Open Source Website That Gives Voters a Platform to Influence Politicians Pia Mancini, Argentine political scientist, started the Net Democracy foundation, a not-for-profit that explores ways of improving civic engagement through technology. The foundation's first project is something called Democracy OS, an online platform for debating and voting on political issues, and it's already finding a place in the world. The federal government in Mexico is using this open-source tool to gather feedback on a proposed public data policy. See the full article (Wired, Klint Finley, 5/5/14) [Return to top] Internet Hate Speech Can Lead to Acts of Violence Anti-Muslim hate speech on the Internet is commonplace and can motivate some people to commit acts of violence against Muslims, according to a report released Tuesday (May 6) by Muslim Advocates, a legal and advocacy group in San Francisco. "When you have threatening comments online and they go unchecked, people start thinking it's acceptable," said Madihha Ahussain, an attorney and the report's lead author. "And it doesn't take long to figure out that what becomes acceptable online becomes acceptable in the real world." See the full article (Washington Post, Omar Sacirbey, 5/2/14) Click to read about USIP's upcoming event "A World of Instability: Drivers of Conflict, Levers of Peace" on May, 14, 2014 at 5:00pm. [Return to top] Using New Technology to Give Voice to the Voiceless Simply by virtue of where they live, roughly 1.5 billion people are dangerously at risk of becoming a victim of violence this year. Fortunately, new technologies -- including those being developed by the Igarapé Institute and others like Promundo, Shine-a-Light, NECA and UNICEF can help. Owing to the rapid increase in digital connectivity and access to information communication technologies, governments and non-governmental organizations are beginning to identify new ways of generating data that were previously thought impossible. As a result, young people who were previously invisible are now empowered with a louder voice to shape their own safety and security. See the full article (Huffington Post, Robert Muggah, 5/1/14) [Return to top] Did we miss anything?     Share this: | Forward this to a Friend