A radical Muslim group released a video threatening a number of German journalists last week. The Salafist group named journalists from newspapers Frankfurter Rundschau and Tagesspiegel in the video uploaded to YouTube on Thursday (12 April). The recording showed photographs of the journalists, detailed private information and threatened to reveal more if the media continued to publish “lies” about Frankfurt Salafist group DawaFFM. The group refers to itself as “The True Religion”, it has been widely criticised by press and politicians for its aim to have a copy of the Koran in “every household in Germany, Austria and Switzerland”,
In Mexico, a video showing child actors acting as corrupt politicians, drug traffickers and police on the take has gone viral. Uploaded on You Tube on 9 April, the film clip had reached more than 1 million viewers by the weekend of 15 April. But on 16 April, the video was removed from the video sharing site
Produced by a business group, the film had been criticised by politicians, who claimed it violated the human rights of minors. Yes, there was something unsettling in seeing an 8- or 12-year-old child waving a gun or pickpocketing another child dressed as a businessman. But the film hit a sore spot, as it allowed adults to see how far certain problems have grown in Mexico. The video was well-produced and it was simple in its message. It showed the problem and then asked politicians to solve it.
It is hard not to imagine that politicians were a bit jealous: released in the middle of a national electoral period, the movie gained almost 200,000 followers per day the week it was up on You Tube. The sad part is that this is only the first movie that captured the attention of the Mexican voter. While Mexico is an advanced democracy, albeit today engulfed in drug trafficking related violence, its political campaigns go back to another century. The four presidential candidates and the myriad candidates for Congress are presented in wooden poses and clichéd manners in television, billboards and even on social media.
Only one politician, Miguel Mancera — said to be the top contender for the mayoral race in Mexico City — publicly applauded the video. One columnist claimed that the video is a trap because it was superficial in its demands, and it did not address issues that keep Mexican society unequal.
Because of the success of the first video, the producers created a second video where the child actors, dressed for their roles, are interviewed on camera about problems in Mexico and give their point of view as to what type of city they would like in the future. One of the child actors, Jose Stallin Maya Gonzalez, who plays a corrupt judicial policeman who steals from robbers in the first video, says: “Well, in the Mexico of the Future, the police would take care of us.”
The web has been awash with outrage this week after video emerged of a woman engaged in a racist rant on a tram in Croydon.
The woman has now been arrested for a “racially aggravated” Public Order offence. The specific charge falls under section 4a, “Intentional harassment, alarm or distress”. Convictions can carry a prison sentence of up to six months.
Let’s leave aside for a moment the problematic nature of the Public Order Act, which it can be argued has its practical uses (allowing police to arrest people before violence breaks out), but can be used to censor “offensive” behaviour such as preaching or protest.
There were two things that were fascinating and troubling about the whole “My Tram Experience” experience.
The first is that the woman seems quite unwell. This does not necessarily excuse her behaviour, but in the rush to condemn her behaviour there seemed to be a hell of a lot of opprobrium and very little sympathy.
The other element was the fact that this was filmed and released on YouTube at all.
I tried to imagine how an incident like this would have played out 10 years ago, pre YouTube, pre Twitter. The woman may or may not have been kicked off the tram. People would have got off the tram and told a few people about the weird woman on the bus. That would probably have been the end of it.
Remember when everyone used to worry about CCTV cameras? It was at the height of paranoia about the Labour governments “authoritarianism”, when campaigners such as No2ID warned that the UK’s state surveillance apparatus was worse than that of the Stasi.
That panic seems to be over, perhaps due to many who made the argument being willing to give the Liberal Democrats a chance on civil liberties.
But it’s also perhaps due to a change in thinking. In the age of cameraphones and YouTube, do we now take it for granted that someone’s filming? Are we willingly becoming a citizen Stasi, happy to record and report each other’s behaviour?
Three Saudi men were detained on Sunday after a film they made exposing poverty in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia’s capital, was aired on television. Feras Bugnah, a popular Saudi blogger, and Khalid al-Rasheed and Hosam al-Deraiwish were allegedly imprisoned after being questioned by police — officials have yet to comment. The film was a part of a YouTube series created by Bugnah called “Malub Aleina” (We Are Being Cheated). Part of the series aired on the London-based Al-Islah, which is operated by the banned Movement for Islamic Reform in Saudi Arabia.
