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Bulgaria: A muted reaction to mass surveillance

15 Aug 13 | Bulgaria, Digital Freedom, News and features

(Photo illustration: Shutterstock)

While the revelations around mass surveillance by the US and some European governments were reported by Bulgaria’s media, the country’s focus in recent months has been the fallout from the country’s elections.

After a polarising election in May, tens of thousands went out to protest against the new Bulgarian government and staged daily rallies for over nearly two months. As a result, the significance of the NSA revelations was not enough to elevate it above domestic political skirmishes.

The Snowden affair had all the ingredients for the media sensation other European countries experienced: a huge cover-up affirming most citizens’ suspicions about governments spying on them, a global chase through Hong Kong and Moscow (with possible sequels in Vienna, Havana and Caracas) and – most importantly – a local context.

Bulgarians, long sensitive about government surveillance after nearly five decades of totalitarianism, had an eavesdropping scandal of their own as recently as in April when a former interior minister was accused of wiretapping a host of political figures, businessmen and journalists. According to one opinion poll conducted in April, 73% of Bulgarians believed that their government had been practicing illegal wiretapping.

Thus, the interest for the Snowden affair among the Bulgarian public was a given. And the media promptly reacted, assigning it the expected prominence among their foreign affairs coverage, if not the front pages which the scandal got in Germany, the UK or France.

“Revelations about the NSA activities were covered in Bulgaria, but did not become a central topic for the media as they of coincided with the anti-government protests,” said Nelly Ognyanova, a leading Bulgarian media law expert and media analyst. ‘However, Bulgarian media paid special attention to the aspect of the EU – US relations in the light of the scandal,” she said.

Media in Bulgaria, which joined the European Union in 2007, covered the reaction in Brussels and in major European capitals and especially in Berlin where the topic was becoming a battleground in light of the German general elections in the fall. Bulgarian media also focused on the fact that the NSA scandal was threatening to derail the negotiations for a major free trade agreement between the EU and the US.

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Since there are only a handful of Bulgarian foreign correspondents, local media mostly quoted international titles like The New York Times, the BBC, The Guardian and Der Spiegel. The Snowden revelations also did not have (obvious) Bulgarian links – when information emerged that the US was secretly wiretapping foreign embassies on American soil, the weekly “Capital” tried to contact the Bulgarian mission in Washington but was referred to the foreign ministry in Sofia which, in turn, had no comment on the case.

As for Snowden himself, Bulgarian media painted a mostly neutral portrait of the whistleblower.

“Bulgarian media were rather sticking to the facts without taking a judgmental position on Snowden, but without making him look like a hero as well,” said Ognyanova. “In Bulgaria there was no discussion like the one that took place in other countries about whether Snowden is a hero. Against the backdrop of the very important information that he revealed, however, the media treated him with a degree of sympathy for his civil courage.”

Given the anti-government protests and the heightened domestic political situation, the political and social media reaction to the Snowden affair appeared mostly muted. The Bulgarian social networks – an otherwise vibrant community of some 2.5 million people – was mostly preoccupied with the anti-government protests which, in fact, originated mostly on Facebook walls and Twitter profiles and later transferred to the streets of Sofia and other major cities.

One small political party, the Greens, issued a statement in July calling the revelations “a serious attack on civil rights and the foundations of democracy” and asking the Bulgarian government to offer asylum to Snowden.

“The Greens party expresses our gratitude to Edward Snowden for his courage and for his service to EU citizens,” the statement said.

According to Ognyanova, the media law expert, it is important to draw conclusions from the NSA affair.

“Either in the free trade pact or in another agreement, there must be a provision to protect the personal data and privacy of European citizens,” she said. “It is high time for the EU to have their own clouds and to not provide our information to companies under the jurisdiction of countries outside the European Union,” she said. “I expect this from my government and from the EU, being its citizen.”

This article was originally published on 15 Aug, 2013 at indexoncensorship.org. Index on Censorship: The voice of free expression.

In Taiwan, censorship quietly flourishes amid outrage

12 Aug 13 | Asia and Pacific, China, News and features, Politics and Society, Taiwan

Activists and civic groups march in Taipei in protest against the Want Want China Times Group’s planned acquisition of China Network Systems’s cable TV services in Sept 2012.
(Photo: Craig Ferguson / Demotix)

The connections between China and Taiwanese media owners has given rise to concerns, along with some evidence, that the industry is under growing pressure to curb reporting on topics detrimental to Chinese interests and cross-strait ties.

The capital, Taipei, erupted in protests when it became known that Tsai Eng-ming, a pro-Beijing businessman, attempted to wrest control of Taiwan’s largest newspaper, the Apple Daily, earlier this year. The attempt failed amid popular outrage. But conversations with several journalists suggest that Beijing continues to exert a quieter influence – involving self-censorship and lucrative business interests – in attempt to avoid further scrutiny.

This is perhaps most prominent at the China Times Group, a Taiwanese media conglomerate that Tsai purchased in 2008. Estimated to be worth up to US$10.6 billion, the snack manufacturer has since led its subsidiaries to become more China-friendly, accepting payment from Beijing in return for camouflaged advertising and one-sided reporting. His flagship daily, the China Times, has been fined multiple times by Taiwan’s media regulators for masquerading advertising as reporting.

“It happens far more frequently than most people realize,” said Lin Chao-yi, the former head of the Association of Taiwan Journalists, that uncovered one such example last year. After receiving a copy of a schedule detailing how a visit from a ranking Chinese official was to be covered, including pre-defined topics and article lengths, Lin then impersonated a China Times employee to ask the delegation how the paper was going to be compensated.

Caught on tape, the Chinese press officer replied that the payment would be wired to a China Times Group subsidiary in Beijing. But far from discouraging such deals from taking place again, Lin said that his report “just made them more careful.” Indeed, accepting Chinese money is not only lucrative business, but also allows the paper to stay on Beijing’s good graces – guaranteeing access from behind China’s Great Firewall – according to sources familiar with the relationship.

The China Times Group’s cosy relationship with Beijing has led some journalists working under its banner to become more aware of what might, and might not, be publishable. Speaking on the condition of anonymity, one China Times reporter said that, there is an “unspoken understanding” of what articles or reports might contradict the paper’s political viewpoint, including, for example, pieces critical of either Beijing or Taiwan’s China-friendly president, Ma Ying-jeou.

“In these cases, we might choose to just drop the subject, instead of choosing to pursue it further,” the reporter said, in words reminiscent of the self-censorship taking place elsewhere in the Chinese-speaking region.

But far from taking place only at the China Times Group, self-censorship is also seen as a necessity by other media groups keen on maintaining access to the Chinese market. Much of this has to do with Taiwan’s highly profitable entertainment industry that feeds thousands of hours of programming each year into local Chinese television channels. Produced by the same media groups that also run cable news stations, coverage of some politically sensitive topics, such as the Dalai Lama or the Falungong movement, are toned down to avoid antagonizing Beijing.

“China uses its vast market as a bargaining chip,” said Cheryl Lai, the former editor-in-chief of the state run Central News Agency, adding that most of this takes place secretly and away from public scrutiny. “They know that most of these media companies are in it for the money. All they have to do is threaten to cut it off.”

The trend towards greater Chinese influence in the media is reflective of the realization that its political objectives of unifying Taiwan, which it claims to be a breakaway province, can be achieved cheaper and more effectively through propaganda, rather than force. Instead of “spilling blood on Taiwan,” an old rallying call for conquering the island by force if necessary, Beijing has deemed it easier to “spill money on Taiwan,” said Lai, who has been writing on China’s growing political sway on the island.

The same trend can be seen elsewhere where China holds political interests, such as Hong Kong, where a large number of publications are ostensibly under its influence. The South China Morning Post, for example, has reportedly been hit by allegations of self-censorship after the appointment of new Editor-in-Chief Wang Xiangwei, a member of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Congress, a Chinese government body.

In Taiwan, even as most media interests are controlled by large corporations, some with extensive business ties to China, there is, however also a realization that hard-fought press freedoms must be protected. More than 100,000 protestors, including students and reporters, rallied in defence of the Apple Daily during the failed purchase in January this year, with some groups vowing to raise the equivalent funds if it meant protecting the paper’s journalistic integrity.

All this is reason why Beijing is likely to continue and incubate its media influence behind the scenes, at least for now.

Free expression in the news

09 Aug 13 | In the News

#DONTSPYONME
Tell Europe’s leaders to stop mass surveillance #dontspyonme
Index on Censorship launches a petition calling on European Union Heads of Government to stop the US, UK and other governments from carrying out mass surveillance. We want to use public pressure to ensure Europe’s leaders put on the record their opposition to mass surveillance. They must place this issue firmly on the agenda for the next European Council Summit in October so action can be taken to stop this attack on the basic human right of free speech and privacy.
(Index on Censorship)

CHINA
Fault Lines Laid Bare in Hong Kong
To her supporters, Alpais Lam Wai-sze, an award-winning primary schoolteacher who shouted obscenities at the Hong Kong police last month over their handling of a street dispute between a pro-Chinese Communist Party group and an anti-Communist group, is a free-speech heroine.
(The New York Times)

GAZA
Gazans Use Satire to Bypass
Political Censorship
Cynical television presenters such as Egyptian Bassem Youssef may soon no longer appear on Palestinian television outlets as a result of the increased censorship imposed on local media. Yet, this same censorship has stood helpless with the spread of sarcastic literature and media published on social networking sites.
(Al Monitor)

MEXICO
Mexico: self-censorship for survival
Journalists in Mexico are increasingly publishing their articles anonymously. Attaching your name to a report, an article or a picture is an obligation and a right. But doing so in Mexico can cost journalists their jobs or their lives. The biggest danger facing reporters there is not being hit by a stray bullet. No, the main peril is being murdered in order to silence and censor the media.
(Radio Netherlands)

PAKISTAN
Pakistani artists challenging YouTube ban
YouTube is a source of entertainment and news for billions around the world, but Pakistanis have lost access to the video site for almost a year after clips of the controversial film “Innocence of Muslims” prompted a government ban.
(CNN)

SINGAPORE
Singapore: End ‘Scandalizing the Judiciary’ Prosecutions
Singapore’s Attorney General’s Chambers should cease using contempt of court charges to muzzle critics of the judiciary.
(HRW)

TURKEY
Singapore: End ‘Scandalizing the Judiciary’ Prosecutions
Singapore’s Attorney General’s Chambers should cease using contempt of court charges to muzzle critics of the judiciary.
(HRW)

UNITED STATES
The more nefarious US foreign policy, the more it relies on media complicity
Americans are shielded from the ugly consequences of US military power by our journalists’ self-censorship
(The Guardian)

National Park Service’s First Amendment Violations Covered Up by Hometown Paper
During the Saint Augustine Tea Party’s month-long saga of standing up for Free Speech, the Right of Assembly and the American way, the local print newspaper, The St Augustine Record, remained elusive and nowhere to be found.
(Examiner.com)

States take aim at sex-ad websites, but run into resistance
A two-word change proposed to one of the nation’s first online laws has triggered a battle between law enforcement and Internet libertarians.
(The Free Press)

Free expression in the news

05 Aug 13 | In the News

CHILE
Chilean Director Patricio Guzmán Slams TVN Censorship
Chilean television station TVN recently broadcast the Patricio Guzmán documentary “Nostalgia de la Luz”, which takes as main scenery the Atacama desert, shows the testimony of the relatives of some victims of the Pinochet regime and their quest for finding the missing corpses of those victims.
(I Love Chile)

CHINA
Wall Street Journal Hits the Great Chinese Firewall
Another major international website has hit the Great Chinese Firewall—this time it’s the Wall Street Journal’s Chinese language edition, and it’s a mystery as to why the site has been blocked.
(Epoch Times)

Wiki reboot: Chinese Wikipedia makes comeback after early censorship
A censorship blackout lost Chinese Wikipedia many of its users. Now a new generation of mainland volunteers is resuscitating the site
(South China Morning Post)

EUROPEAN UNION
The Last of Us European censorship confirmed
Naughty Dog has confirmed that the PAL territory version of The Last of Us is missing some elements found in the American release.
(VG 24/7)

PAKISTAN
Internet censorship in Pakistan
He is a devout Muslim. He prays five times a day. He observes fasting during the holy month of Ramazan. He recites the Holy Quran in the morning and evening. His very name is Mohammad Islam.
(The Nation)

RUSSIA
6 Human Rights Violations in Russia Where Snowden Has Asylum
To the chagrin, and the anger, of the U.S., Russia — quite likely with the direct approval of President Vladimir Putin — has granted temporary asylum to Edward Snowden. The former NSA contractor who exposed extraordinary government surveillance of metadata for cell phone calls and online communication has spent over a month in the transit area of Moscow’s Sheremetyevo Airport after leaving Hong Kong, where he had first gone public about the leaked files back in June.
(Care 2)

SINGAPORE
Singapore Media and Censorship
After working for three years as sub-editor in a leading Singapore newspaper, Mark Fenn explains how censorship is enforced in the country
(Global Voices)

SOUTH AFRICA
Net censorship won’t stop child porn
Local legislators should not follow the UK prime minister’s ill-advised plan, says Andrew Verrijdt.
(Mail & Guardian)

SRI LANKA
Freedom of Expression
A number of fallacies are common in the blogosphere. A lot of people cannot cope with, or even understand, disagreement. Americans bloggers are fond of citing the First Amendment to the US Constitution. If someone disagrees with them, they complain that they are being silenced. Genuine disagreement is often described as “whining”.
(The Nation)

TURKEY
Facebook facing accusations of censoring citizen journalism
With its mysterious management team for countries, Facebook continues to be a difficult place for people to engage in citizen journalism. The latest case is Ötekilerin Postası (The Others’ Post), whose site has been closed twice in the last month for no clear reason by Facebook management
(Hurriyet Daily News)

UNITED KINGDOM
Christian rights group wants Scotland Yard to protect street preachers
A Christian legal rights group has asked Scotland Yard to inform its police officers that street preachers have free speech rights.
(Deseret News)

Why banning online porn is not the solution to society’s problem
I find it difficult not to be disturbed by the normalisation of pornography. I talk to a group of 14-year-olds and they openly boast about ‘their porn’. When I raise concerns about the pornification of life with a couple of colleagues they look at me as if to say ‘get real and just enjoy it’.
(YourCanterbury)

Twitter UK Chief Apologizes to Female Victims of Online Abuse
The general manager of Twitter UK, Tony Wang, sent a series of tweets Saturday, apologizing to women who have experienced abuse on its site.
(Legal Insurrection)

UNITED STATES
Obama’s Downward Spiral
Four freedoms have always formed the bedrock of American liberty. The freedom of speech, the freedom of assembly, the rights to privacy and to a fair trial, largely covered in the first, fourth, and sixth Amendments. It is astonishing that a single president has so thoroughly undermined all four.
(Dissident Voice)

How We Can Balance Freedom Of Speech And The Rights Of College Athletes
The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled yesterday that video game manufacturer EA Sports could not use the First Amendment to toss out a lawsuit against its use of the names, images, and likenesses of college athletes without compensation when it produced its line of NCAA football video games.
(Think Progress)

ACLU Accuses Union of “Extortion” for Using its Free Speech to Criticize It
Everyone supports free speech, until it’s free speech aimed at them. And suddenly the ACLU, an organization that is perfectly okay with turning over classified information to terrorists that can get Americans killed, draws the line at… being embarrassed in the press.
(Frontpage Mag)

For Twitter, Free Speech Is a High-Wire Act
Twitter likes to carry a free-speech banner, but as the micro-blogging site expands globally, freewheeling tweets are clashing with divergent laws and standards in markets.
(Wall Street Journal)

New mural painted at site of art, free speech debate
Original piece at art store was peeling, so owners had artists put up a new one
(San Luis Obispo Tribune)

Free speech doesn’t exist everywhere
Americans excel at one thing for sure: speaking their minds. Everyone has an opinion, and most are eager to share them. We live in a country where it’s not uncommon to hear criticisms of any elected official, from President Obama right on down the line.
(Yuma Sun)

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