Category Archives: Harassments

Apr 02 1 comments
Harassments

Madagascar: Security forces are harassing bloggers and twitterers

Opponents to the Haute Autorite de la Transition (High Authority for the Transition) have been holding daily demonstrations in the Malagasy capital since March 21, 2009. Last saturday’s protest was harshly repressed by the security forces, and resulted in at least 34 injured people, including children. During the protest, a young man, dubbed Razily by Malagasy Internet users, held a flag proudly and courageously marched towards security forces. The security forces fired at him, but despite their bullets, he kept marching, holding the flag high and finally got so close to them, they threw him in their pick up truck, all the while beating him up and then throwing the Malagasy flag on the ground. Internet users still do not know what happened to him.

Razily's arrest - courtesy of radotiana.blaogy.comRazily’s arrest- courtesy of radotiana.blaogy.com

The HAT is now de facto leading Madagascar, since the former President Marc Ravalomanana opted not to resign but has instead transferred power to a military Directorate. Under duress , (the details can be witnessed on a youtube.com video and the American ambassador bears witness to the events, as he was also threatened with weapons pointed at him ), the Directorate then transferred power to the HAT. The HAT has since been duly recognized as a legal authority by Madagascar’s Haute Cour Constitutionnelle de Justice which is responsible of making sure that the laws of land and the constitution are being respected in Madagascar.
No countries have so far recognized the HAT and its new President, Andry Rajoelina, the youngest African president ever, who under the Malagasy constitution, is still six years too young to even be on a Presidential election ballot ! And the former Malagasy President, Marc Ravalomanana, barely escaped from his Palace and is now seeking refuge in South Africa and Swaziland.

The Southern African Development Community and the African Union , while harboring themselves some countries that are no slouches in the antidemocratic and human rights violations department, have taken the stand that they will not tolerate putsches amongst their members and have not only banned Madagascar from their midst but are also considering sanctions.

Many western countries such as Norway and the United States have stopped aid to Madagascar and concerns have been risen on how the poverty stricken country which relies on aid for 80% of its budget will manage to hold its head above water, although the HAT has now declared its intentions on selling Ravalomanana’s $60 million private jet to replenish its coffers, at least in the short term. France which was accused by some as having, if not engineered the coup, then at the very least of supporting it, has been doing some amendments of its own, saying now that it still considered Ravalomanana as Madagascar’s President according to the constitution.

Such is the mind boggling and categorization defying political crisis that bloggers and twitterers are striving to report on. Online content about the crisis have been plentiful and have attracted international attention. Our colleague, Lova Rakotomalala, has been the subject of a Wall Street Journal article and a CNN interview for his dedication to relaying and translating Madagascar based twitterers’ contributions. Another blogger, Solofo Rafeno, has been invited to a debate hosted by France24 News.

There are however some alarming developments that could hinder Malagasy twitterers and bloggers’ reporting in the future. One website, Topmada.com, reports on March 30 that :

“20:00 - La police et les militaires ont arrêté certains journalistes et photographes pour les forcer à effacer leurs photos”

“20:00 - Police and soldiers have held some journalists and photographers to force them to delete their pictures”

This information is confirmed by twitterers. Twitterer Thierry_ratsiz was held and forced to delete his pictures by the security forces.

thierry_ratsiz: #madagascar Ils m’ont juste prie de ne pas prendre photos (d’eux!!) et effacer photos, peur de photos diffuses sur internet!!
thierry_ratsiz: hola, interpele par les gendarmes pour avoir ete surpris en prenant des photos… :/ #madagascar

They have just asked me not to take pictures of them and to delete pictures, for fear of having pictures spread on the internet!!
Held by the security forces for having been caught taking pictures

R1lita and Pakysse experienced the same thing as reported:

TRT @r1lita: @pakysse, other twitterer in #Madagascar, was also ordered to delete the photos he took in Antaninarina by police earlier.

But the most scary incident was reported by Avylavitra, one of the bloggers who has the most prolifically covered the crisis. He writes :

“Nahazendana ny maro ny zavatra nitranga teto satria tsy nanmpoizina velively: nisy iray tamin’ireo miaramila avy tao amin’ny RM1 izay nivoaka teo amin’ny arabe no tonga dia nanondro basy AHY no sady niteny hoe:
Miala any ny mpanaogazety, Tsy mila mpanao gazety eto. Miala sao tifiriko eo an.

Tsy nahita izay hatao aho no sady nanangana fotsiny ny karatra niantona tety ambozoko. Eo ambony Scooter aho amin’io raha mandeha an-tongotra kosa ny maro tamin’ireo mpanao gazety sy mpaka sary maro namana teny an-kianja mafana teny. Rehefa hitany fa tsy nihetsika aho no sady mbola nanangana ny karatra tety an-tanako, dia vao mainka niakatra ny feon’ilay ranamana. Tsy haiko na mpifehy ao amin’io toby io ilay zalahy iny, na iza. Fa ny fihetsika nataony aloha no niarahana nahita.

Nisy tamin’ireo mpanao gazety sasany no nihiaka niteny azy nanontany hoe :

Fa hatramin’ny oviana ny mpanao gazety no tsy mahazo maka sary sy manao ny asany. Sa efa niova indray koa ny lalàna?

Namaly ranamana no sady efa nikendry ny lohako. Ny elanelan’ny trotoir roa no manasaraka anay amin’io fotoana io. Hoy indrindra izy:

Rehefa hoe tsy mila mpanao gazety eto dia tsy mila, miala hoy aho sao tifiriko eo. Tifiriko ialahy an!’

Fahatsiarovana sady tsara no ratsy ho ahy iny ry zalahy namana. Kanefa tsy mba voatahiriko an-tsary, fa dia ny nanodina ny Scooter sy ny nidina ambanimbany namonjy ireo mpanao gazety sy mpaka sary sasany no nataoko sisa.

Koa miangavy anareo izay nahazo sary an’iny ’scène’ iny aho, tena miangavy. Mba omeo sary hotehiriziko, na farafaharatsiny, mba omeo rohy hahafahako mijery azy.

Enga anie ka ho anatra ho an’ireo miaramila rehetra ny namoahako ity lahatsoratro ity, fa aleo hivoaka ny marina sy ny nisy. Izay rahateo no ezahako ijoroana hatrany amin’ity GazetyAdaladala ity. “

“What happened was astonishing because completely unexpected : one of the soldiers of the RM1 (Note of the author : the name of a military barrack) who were on the streets pointed his weapon at ME and said :
Journalists go away. We do not need journalists here. Go away or I will shoot!
I did not know what to do so I just showed him the card I carried around my neck. I was riding a scooter at the time while most of the journalists and photographers were on foot. When he saw that I did not move but was instead showing my card, he raised his voice even more. I do not know if he was in charge of the barrack or who he was. But everybody saw his actions.
Some of the journalists dared to ask him :
Since when are journalists not allowed to take pictures and do their job. Has the law changed?
He answered and aimed at my head. The sidewalk was the only distance standing between us. He said again :
“I said I do not need any journalists here, so leave or I will shoot. I will shoot you !”
This was a bittersweet moment for me, my friends. But I do not have it on film, as all I did was turn my scooter around and follow other journalists and photographers further down. So those of you who may have that scene on film, I ask of you, please do give me at least a link so that I may see. I hope my publishing this post will be a lesson for those soldiers, that everybody may know the truth and what happened. This is what I strive for on this GazetyAdaladala blog.”

mydago.com has a humorous take on this turn of events :

“Mais que peut internet contre des armes à feux ? Contre des lacrymogènes ? Contre des militaires en pick up et brodequins ? Et fusils ? Rien ! Mais absolument rien ! Alors quel est le problème ? Et puis Madagascar est une île. Laissez donc tranquille cette île. C’est bien une île. Il y a la mer autour. Et la prochaine terre est loin. Cà permet de tout cacher. Les violence, les excès, et tout. La dictature même. Les dictatures.

Mais aujourd’hui, plus rien ne va. Quand on fait un coup d’état, les militaires ne peuvent plus faire leur travail normalement comme avant. Les jeunes d’aujourd’hui sont intenables. Ils sont extrêmement ennuyeux !!! Ils prennent des photos et des vidéos. Ensuite ils les transmettent par internet à des sites. Qui ensuite les publient dans le monde entier. Ah, ils sont vraiment ennuyeux ces jeunes d’aujourd’hui. Il n’y a plus de valeurs. Ils ne respectent plus la force ! La force militaire !”

“But what can the Internet do against weapons? Against lacrymogens? Against soldiers in pickup trucks and boots? And rifles? Nothing! Absolutely nothing! So where is the problem? And Madagascar is an island. Leave the island in peace. It is an island. It is surrounded by sea. And the next land is far away. It lets you hide everything. Violence, excesses, anything. Even dictatorship. Dictatorships.
But today anything goes. When one commits a putsch, soldiers cannot do their work normally anymore. The youth are not controllable. They are extremely annoying!!! They take pictures and videos. Then they upload these on internet sites. Which are then published worldwide. Ah, they are really annoying these youths. There are no more values. They do not respect might anymore. Military might!”
Mar 06 0 comments
Harassments

Lessons on libel: South African blogger sued for defamation

If Quality Vacation Club (QVC) thought that by suing blogger, Donn Edwards, for defamation they would silence any criticism of their dubious marketing tactics, they were wrong. Instead, the blogger’s case has started an avalanche of attacks from sources both in the blogging and mainstream media arena. Unwilling and unable to take the case lying down, Donn Edwards initiated a campaign that has sparked the attention of bloggers throughout the country – with suggestions that the community form a permanent group to monitor blogger freedom in the country.

This is what we’ve learned:

1. Solidarity is our greatest weapon.

Donn Edwards did a great job of couching the QVC case as a case against all bloggers in South Africa rather than just a personal attack. According to Guy McLaren:

QVC’s attack on Donn was interpreted as an attack on Blogging. Now most bloggers have at least 4 readers, some have more. But facts are that blogs are a powerful medium and if you want negative publicity, attack the blogging world and I know that Bloggers know people in radio, on TV, in fact some bloggers are from the press.

Apart from the 40+ blog posts and 100s of comments supporting Edwards, a Facebook group with 300+ members was set up for people to express support for Edwards, as well as a wiki documenting the growing number of blog posts and articles dedicated to the case. With his logo entitled ‘Blogger court case’, Edwards contacted other bloggers early on, asking them to write about the case, and so start a distributed network attack that left QVC spinning. Then, instead of QVC attempting to silence what Eve Dmochowska called ‘One lonesome blog, that is mostly focused on writing about computer security, and whose audience is probably least likely to be talked into a QVC sale anyway’, they now had hundreds of people making similar statements.

The irony is that, what became a transparent, community-driven campaign will end up being settled privately out of court. This will prevent a legal precedent being set for cases that will inevitably come up against bloggers in the future.

2. The mainstream media loves a good David and Goliath story

My ears pricked up one morning in December when I heard popular talk show host, John Robbie, interviewing Edwards about the QVC case on Johannesburg Talk Radio 702. After the interview, Robbie took calls from others who had similar complaints about the company. And so the momentum grew. The Sunday Independent also wrote about the story – and more recently Noseweek.

The lesson? The traditional media love a good David and Goliath story. But add bloggers and social media to the mix and you might just start questioning who the David is in the story.

3. Be careful. Take some time to think about the people on the other side of our blog posts and learn about your rights and responsibilities.

Probably the first high-profile case against a local blogger, Donn Edwards’ experience has shown how important it is to recognise that, with our need to criticize, comes a need to understand our rights and responsibilities.

Paul Jacobson has a post cautioning bloggers from adopting the ‘controversial title of citizen journalists’ but the fact is that whether we call ourselves ‘citizen journalists’ or not, a number of laws are triggered when we start publishing online.

Chris M. wrote:

‘This just goes to show that these days, as bloggers, we actually need to be really careful about what we say and about who we flame, because someone might be sitting on the other end, ready to pounce and take advance of us small bloggers.’

Perhaps the most insightful comment came from Tony Lankester.

There’s a warning in his experience that all bloggers, myself included, should heed. If you’re going to play in the sandpit of journalism, learn all the rules. Even if you plan on breaking them. At least learn from the dozens of court cases that have preceded you. Just because the online world is on screen only, it doesn’t mean that the real world laws of defamation and libel don’t apply. And just because you are your own headline writer, journalist, copy editor, editor and publisher, it doesn’t mean you have latitude to ignore the basic courtesies, practices and principles of good journalism.

Blogging has really grown up in the South Africa over the past year. Eve Dmochowska believes that we’ve learned a great deal about giving and receiving criticism well and has a great post on what she learned in 2008.

Most importantly, though, local bloggers have learned how important it is to work together. Hopefully something will come out of the Facebook wall post that Andrew Edwards (Donn’s brother) wrote on December 29, 2008:

Donn asked that I shut down the group once the last post about the saga is made on his blog. I thought we should then start a new group with a new name and mission. Any recommendations? Like “can a leopard change his snots” (a group to monitor blogger freedom and aggressive companies)??

Photo: ‘David vs Goliath’ by maha-online on Flickr - CC BY-SA

Feb 27 0 comments
Harassments

China - Blogger released from hospital after bookshop attack - 27.02.2009

Well-known blogger Xu Lai (http://blog.ifeng.com/1738385.html) told one of his relatives yesterday that he has been released from the hospital where he was being treated for the stab wounds he received two weeks ago. “I feel fine and I am now resting at home,” he said.

Feb 19 0 comments
Harassments

China - Call for thorough investigation into stabbing of well-known blogger - 18.02.2009

Reporters Without Borders condemns an assault on popular blogger Xu Lai (http://blog.ifeng.com/1738385.html) on 14 February and urges the authorities to quickly identify his two assailants. He is being treated for two stab wounds to the stomach in Beijing’s Chaoyang Hospital, where doctors say his life is not in danger.