Testing academic freedom
Three years later, the Nottingham University “terrorism” row rumbles on —- first reading was made a crime, now internal criticism. Jane Fae reports
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Citizen journalism fills a void
Mexico City is the third largest city in the world. And like every major city, its citizens have a love hate relationship with governability. But in the 2010 barometer of the Americas, conducted by Vanderbilt University, 40 per cent of Mexican citizens believed that the rule of law must be respected, a higher ranking than Argentina and Chile, an important comparison given that Mexico is facing unprecedented violence due to its drug war. But citizens want to get involved, and there is a proliferation of citizen journalists.
One of the most interesting citizen groups is called Ciudadanos en Red, or Citizens Connected, an internet portal that was founded in 2004 and has grown to be one of the most important independent citizen journalism groups in Mexico City. The group is consulted daily by journalists, analysts and just curious city residents. It’s director, Rene Solis Brun, says they are different than any other group because they don’t apply filters and only place in their portal the information submitted by citizens. Unlike other citizen internet sites in Mexico, it is not an activist group. It receives announcements, denunciations, and criticisms from 1700 citizen committees, from throughout the city, which it runs on its site without changes. The site has comments on events in the city, including incidents of corruption by government workers. In another the site runs a story of violence at another elementary school in a working class neighborhood. The group Citizens Connected is a project of Metrópoli 2025, a citizen awareness group.
Brun says the site is evidence that people in Mexico City care about their city. His only worry is that most of those involved in citizen groups are people 40 years and older. His organisation is working towards engaging the youth in the city, and has joined Twitter in an attempt to reach out to a younger audience, you can follow them at @ciudadanosenred
China creates new body to oversee internet
China has set up a new office wielding the whip of internet censorship, as if current levels of online control weren’t enough.
China’s State Council Information Office (the government’s propaganda arm) said was creating a new agency, the State Internet Information Office, under its jurisdiction to control all facets of life on the web.
Its duties are manifold, ranging from directing online content management, licensing online news providers, online gaming, video, promoting major news websites, register domain names and managing online marketing for the government. It will also investigate websites and punish violators.
Responding to criticisms, an unnamed government officer was quoted by the State news agency Xinhua as saying these remarks were “untenable” and were spread with an aim to “tarnish the image of China.” The new body, it said, would help regulate the Internet in ways similar to many other countries, and control vulgarity, fake news and online gambling.
According to the New York Times the growth of the internet in China has “spawned a sort of land rush for regulatory turf by government agencies that see in it a chance to gain more authority or more money, or both.” At least 14 government units, it says, have their finger in internet control in some form of another.
It suggests that this new agency may cause some infighting between it and these other units.
Regulating press tweets won't rebuild the PCC's empire online
So the Press Complaints Commission wants to regulate the tweets of newspapers and their reporters. It is a logical step, as the commission continues to track the old print titles in their march into electronic space. The editors’ code of practice it tries to enforce, after all, applies to journalists and does not restrict itself to one mode of delivery. (more…)