19 Apr 2012 | Uncategorized
It looks like LMFAO’s party-rockin’ tour has been enlisted in whitewashing Bahrain’s human rights abuses. According to the state-owned Bahrain News Agency (BNA), the duo is set to perform in a free show for fans at the Bahrain Grand Prix Sunday.
Bahrain has borrowed a favourite from the iPod of fellow protest-crusher Syria’s Bashar Al-Assad to help ensure that the race goes forward.
Let’s recap: yesterday, ongoing clashes between protesters and security forces turned violent when stun grenades were fired at a demonstration outside of a cultural exhibition celebrating the upcoming race. Imprisoned hunger striker and activist Abdulhadi Alkhawaja is now entering his 71st day on hunger strike, despite international outrage over his continued detention.
While the BNA has been active in publicising the concert, which they claim was responsible for a recent spike in ticket purchases, LMFAO has kept mum about the concert. They have not publicised the performance, which suggests that they’re being used and they know it.
Both the Bahraini government and CEO of Formula One, Bernie Ecclestone, have claimed that the race would be secured, and dismissed concerns about protesters. Ecclestone claimed that “there’s nothing happening” and that things were “peaceful” in the troubled kingdom. However, former assistant-commissioner of the Metropolitan Police, John Yates, admitted yesterday that they cannot “guarantee security” at the race. He also added that security forces would use live rounds if necessary, but dismissed the possibility as unlikely.
In honour of the group’s Bahrain performance, I’ve made a few memes. Feel free to post your own, and tweet them during their performance on American Idol tonight. Hopefully, their own fans can be made aware of what is happening in Bahrain, and place pressure on the group to avoid being used to take attention away from what has been a failure to make substantial reforms.
18 Apr 2012 | Americas, Index Index, minipost
A police officer investigating a journalist’s murder was shot dead on Saturday by two men on a motorcycle in Ponta Porã on the Brazil-Paraguay border. Paulo César Santos Magalhães, who was part of a special unit fighting organised crime, was leading the investigation into the death of journalist Paulo Rocaro, also shot dead by two gunmen on a motorcycle in February. Magalhães stopped at traffic lights before being shot 13 times. Four other Brazilian journalists besides Rocaro have been murdered this year. Investigations into their deaths are ongoing.
18 Apr 2012 | Digital Freedom, Middle East and North Africa
Tunisian prime minister Hamadi Jebali has outlined government plans to “secure the electronic space of the country”, sparking fears that the government plans to reinstate internet censorship.
The programme will bring together a team of experts not only from the Ministry of Technologies of Communication, but also from the Ministries of Interior, Defence, and Justice.
Activists and bloggers concerns that this announcement could lead to the reintroduction of internet censorship were heightened by the news that the Ministries of Interior and Defence would play a role in “securing” the net.
In an interview on 12 April with state television channel Al-Wataniya TV 1, government spokesperson Samir Dilou, attempted to reassure the public. He said “securing” the internet is for “users’ benefit” and aimed to “prevent defamation and other virtual dangers”.
According to a Bloomberg investigation, the once feared Interior Ministry acted not just as an internet watchdog, but also intercepted and altered emails.
“When the Interior Ministry was involved in “securing” the internet during Ben Ali’s regime, the people couldn’t impeach it after the revolution. We are still unaware about the processes that existed to censor the web. And if we don’t know our past mistakes, we are most likely condemned to repeat them. So I fear that we are paving the path for a comeback of censorship”, said Bassem Bouguerra, a blogger, to Index.
After the 2011 uprising, both the judiciary and the Ministry of Defence have been involved in internet filtering. In May 2011 the Military Tribunal of Tunisia ordered the filtering of five Facebook pages over the publishing of content that the Ministry of Defence claimed sought to “damage the reputation of the military institution and, its leaders”, “destabilise the trust of citizens in the national army”, “and spread disorder and chaos in the country”.
Meanwhile the Tunisian Internet Agency is fighting a court decision ordering the filtering of X-rated websites.
The involvement of these ministries, whether before or after the uprising, in a number of censorship related tasks, explains the concerns that free speech advocates, and bloggers have about the government’s future plan.
Sleh Din Kchouk, President of the Tunisian Pirate Party believes the government’s plan will only “strangle [the] internet”.
“If the government does go ahead with this plan, it will prove to the Tunisian people that it is not here to defend freedoms as it is claiming, but it is here to cover up for people affiliated to the former regime, because it is only through Internet we can reveal the wrong doings of these people”, he added.
