12 Jan 2011 | Americas, Mexico
The unrelenting violence in Mexico has provoked three well-known Mexican cartoonists — Eduardo del Rio “Rius”, Jose Hernandez and Patricio Ortiz — to launch their own civic Twitter offensive.
Since yesterday, the hashtag #NomasSangre hit the Twitter waves in Mexico. Other hashtags like #RedMexico and #losqueremosvivos, were launched to promote mass reaction to violence in Mexico. #RedMexico is new, while #losqueremosvivos was launched when four Mexican journalists were kidnapped by drug traffickers last June and were lated released because of the public outcry. But what makes the new hashtag interesting is that it is backed by three of the most important cartoonists in a country where the political cartoon is de riguer. Important reporters and analysts have changed the profiles on Facebook and twitter avatars to the one created by the three cartoonists.
“There is a lot of unhappiness in the country. A lot f people are fed up and desperate but feel impotent”, Rius, one of Mexico´s most important cartoonists, told the weekly Proceso. It could not be phrased better. A recent poll determined that 60 percent of all Mexicans feel that last year was one of the most violent years in the four year drug war declared by President Felipe Calderon.
Mexico’s Christmas and new year were marked with grisly crimes. One was the abduction on 31 December of a woman accused of being a kidnapper who was herself grabbed from police as she was taken from a women´s prison to a hospital for a checkup. Her body was later found, half-naked and hanging from an overpass in the city of Monterrey.
This week, police found 15 decapitated bodies in the resort town of Acapulco.
9 Jan 2011 | Digital Freedom, Uncategorized
Almost exactly a year ago, Secretary of State Clinton gave a speech in support of internet freedom, in which she condemned surveillance and censorship overseas. The tactics that the US government is now using in its continuing attempt to indict Julian Assange have robbed Hillary Clinton’s policy of any remaining credibility and leaves the United States compromised in seeking to impose international human rights standards for freedom of expression online.
The investigators appear to be on a fishing expedition to unearth information that will enable it to prosecute Assange and have no shame not only in attempting to force Twitter to hand over personal data about its users, but in trying to keep that attempt secret. Thanks to Twitter’s stand, there is now a chance of challenging the court order.
Reports this weekend reveal the desperate lengths to which the administration will go to: not only in seeking details on an elected member of parliament, Iceland’s Birgitta Jonsdottir, but in being wholly undiscriminating in its requests for information. Why would Twitter have the financial details of its users?
In an interesting post today, privacy expert Christopher Soghoian points out that the judge is not supposed to issue a court order unless the government “offers specific and articulable facts showing that there are reasonable grounds to believe that the contents of a wire or electronic communication, or the records or other information sought, are relevant and material to an ongoing criminal investigation”. Is it in any case likely, as Soghoian points out, that someone like Assange would use Twitter for anything private?
25 Nov 2010 | Asia and Pacific, China
On 24 November the South China Morning Post reported that the milk scandal activist, Zhao Lianhai, may be released just weeks after he began his two-and-a-half-year prison sentence. It appears a back-room deal has resulted in Zhao’s application for medical parole being accepted by judicial authorities. According to the Post:
Public pressure from Hong Kong played a crucial role in yesterday’s dramatic twist in the case of jailed melamine milk activist Zhao Lianhai, who will probably be released on medical parole, his supporters say.
It is unprecedented for Beijing to release a mainland convict so soon following lobbying from Hong Kong. In an unusual move, Xinhua’s Hong Kong branch said yesterday morning that a medical parole application from Zhao was being processed.
Zhao was found guilty of “inciting social disorder” after he set up a website for families affected by China’s toxic milk scandal after his own son became sick. The activist has been on hunger strike ever since he was sentenced on 10 November. His wife, Li Xuemei is also on hunger strike. Earlier this week news broke that Zhao had fired his lawyers. In a letter supposedly sent from inside the prison, this, combined with the news he has dropped plans to appeal and sought medical parole raised hopes that he had made a clandestine deal with the authorities.
Hong Kong politicians have credited themselves with Zhao’s possible release — they say the u-turn is the result of public pressure on Beijing: Peng Jian , Zhao’s former lawyer said “Hong Kong is not only helping one person, but the conscience of China”.
As with other sensitive topics in China, the censorship organs, this time the Internet Management Office, has demanded that all mentions of “Zhao Lianhai” be erased from websites, including online forums, blogs and microblogs. Indeed, whilst Twitter is awash with mentions of the case, and a Twitter account for Zhao, its counterpart in the Chinese microblogging sphere, Sina microblog, has no mentions at all.
22 Nov 2010 | News and features, United Kingdom
Trainee accountant found guilty of sending “menacing” messages over Twitter, is to attempt to appeal his conviction before the High Court
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