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Coup and resistance in Myanmar: A timeline of the first month under the 2021 military junta
Protesters gathered at Yangon’s city center Sule on February 22, 2021. Used with Permission. Following the November 2020 general elections, Myanmar's democratic transition took an unexpected turn. Early on the morning of Monday, February 1, 2021, just before the first parliamentary session of the newly elected National League for Democracy (NLD) government, Senior General Min Aung Hlaing of the Tatmadaw, Myanmar's military, staged a coup d'état and arrested the country’s state counsellor, Aung San Suu Kyi, and its president, Win Myint. The General claimed the results of the elections were inva...
Global Voices
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Press freedom in Jammu and Kashmir: An interview with journalist Anuradha Bhasin
Anuradha Bhasin, executive editor of the newspaper Kashmir Times. Screenshot from YouTube video by VideoVolunteers. This post originally appeared on Video Volunteers, an award-winning international community media organisation based in India. An edited version is published here as part of a content-sharing agreement. In an interview broadcast on February 11, VideoVolunteers community correspondent Basharat Amin interviewed Anuradha Bhasin, executive editor of the Daily Kashmir Times newspaper, to understand the present situation of freedom of the press in Jammu and Kashmir. On August 5, 2019, ...
Global Voices
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BREAKING: Hong Kong Baptist University cancels World Press Photo exhibition citing ‘safety and security’ concerns
The Hong Kong Baptist University has cancelled a press photography exhibition, two days before it was expected to begin next Monday. The exhibition showcased “the best visual journalism” of the past year and included prize-winning images of the Hong Kong protests. It was set to be held from next Monday to March 21 at the the university’s Koo Ming Kown Exhibition Gallery. “After giving due consideration to campus safety and security, and the need to maintain pandemic control, Hong Kong Baptist University considers that it is not an appropriate time to hold the ‘World Press Photo Exhibition 2020...
Hong Kong Free Press
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In post-war Armenia, legislators take aim at press freedom
Armenia – Republic Square, Yerevan by Dumphasizer. Licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0 This article originally appeared in English on OC Media. An edited version is republished here via a content partnership agreement. Victoria Andreasyan, a journalist working for Infocom, visited Armenia’s Syunik province on February 7 to cover the personal stories of residents living near the border with Azerbaijan. When she and her camera operator reached the entrance of the border village of Shurnukh, they were stopped at the checkpoint. “Border troops told us we needed permission from the National Security Servic...
Global Voices
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Bloggers, journalists and creatives in the crosshairs of the Belarusian state
Belarusian journalists under pressure (left to right): Katsiaryna Andreyeva, Darya Chultsova and Katsiaryna Barysevich. Image courtesy of Human Rights Center “Viasna”. Belarusian authorities have now fixed their sights on bloggers, journalists, and the creative class amid the ongoing repression of the 2020 protests against long-time President Alyaksandr Lukashenka. Since last August, thousands of protesters have been detained, many of whom have received fines and even criminal sentences for “breaching public order,” and among them are those who have received harsh punishment for online posts a...
Global Voices
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Algeria releases dozens of pro-democracy prisoners ahead of Hirak anniversary
Screenshot of Berbere TV interview with Rachid Nekkaz following his release. He appears here holding back tears as he spoke of his disease. Algerian authorities released on February 19 at least 33 political detainees linked to Hirak protests as part of an amnesty that came ahead of the uprising's second anniversary, which was marked by thousands of protesters returning to the streets. The Associated Press reported on Monday that thousands of demonstrators paid heed to calls for people to take to the streets, in protest to the unmet political, social, and economic reforms demanded in the 2019 u...
Global Voices
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Mozambique’s President pardons young men who insulted him in viral video
Meeting between the president and the pardoned young men – screenshot TVM – 16 February 2021, by the author. Mozambique's President Filipe Nyusi pardoned on February 16 two individuals who had appeared in a video insulting him after the case became widely discussed in the country. In the video, two men who were stuck in a traffic jam in Maputo minutes before the start of the curfew — which was put in place in the Mozambican capital on February 4 — complain about the restrictive measures linked to the COVID-19 pandemic. Using insults, the two criticize the curfew given the chaotic traffic situa...
Global Voices
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‘Why can’t Chinese people use Twitter or Facebook…?’ asks China’s gov’t spokesperson amid gov’t ban
China’s foreign ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying has questioned why Chinese people cannot use Twitter or Facebook despite foreigners having access to Chinese media platforms. At a press conference last Thursday, China Review News asked Hua about an Associated Press report which found that Beijing had launched “what may be its first global digital disinformation campaign” to seed and spread stories suggesting Covid-19 originated in the US. “The number of Chinese diplomatic accounts on Twitter has more than tripled since mid-2019, while on Facebook they’ve more than doubled,” the report said. ...
Hong Kong Free Press
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Academic Gordon Mathews: Why I am staying in Hong Kong – for now
By Gordon Mathews The national security law, with its reach extending ever further and its grip ever tighter, has led many to start calculating whether Hong Kong is still a city worth living in. The news these days buzzes with accounts of those who are leaving. I myself have chosen to stay, at least for now. I have just signed a contract to keep teaching anthropology at my university, the Chinese University of Hong Kong, for another three years. I could retire in August when I become emeritus and could move to Japan, my other home, but have decided to remain here. Partly this is for my postgra...
Hong Kong Free Press
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In unrecognized Transnistria, a retiree faces criminal charges for ‘anti-Russian’ rhetoric
Screenshot from video interview with the defendant, published on “Zona de Securitate” human rights monitoring website. A 70-year-old retiree from Tiraspol stands accused of offending the president of Transnistria and “denying the positive role of Russian peacekeepers” in the unrecognized republic, according to public records revealed recently. The charges against Mikhail Yermuraki were brought in February 2020 after he had a disagreement with the director of a secondary school in Tiraspol, the capital of Transnistria, about the rationale for installing a memorial plaque in the school's premise...
Global Voices
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