Global Media News

Russian Television Gets A New Russian Language Channel

 In December of 2014, European Leaders were creating a new Russian Language Television Channel that was aimed at the Russian Propaganda.

 Television is the main news source in Russian Media. Most of the Russians rely on this news source for important weather, and politic updates. Russian TV still dominates Russia today by having channels that run by the Government. 

Ben Smith from BuzzFeed News states,

"The proposal being discussed, he said, is “to invest jointly in alternative sources of information — not alternative propaganda sources, but an alternative normal European TV channel, with entertainment, with news,"

This new Language Channel is great for the Russians because the Russians will now have the actual news from the TV reporters and the news anchors. Before Russia got this new News Channel, Russian TV wasn't considered as a normal News Channel due to not having actual information. The European Union Leaders would want people in Russia to watch more entertainment than watching news inside their government. 

Alec Luhn from The Guardian states,

"The channel’s launch comes as Germany’s state-run broadcaster Deutsche Welle attempts to start a new international news service to counter Russian propaganda."

This statement by Alec was very significant because this new channel is going to bring a stronger international news source for the Russians. 

Also Kashmira Gander from the Independent states,

"and should not be another propaganda tool,"

Kashmira also agrees that this new language channel will not be propaganda. Propaganda was used in Wars where it created hatred towards an enemy. This new language channel will not bring any hatred towards another country. Since Russian Television is owned by the Russian government, they would like to have this channel have politicians speak their personal opinion. 

Gay Expression Restricted in Nigeria

Homosexuality is scorned upon by the Nigerian government. Laws have been past to restrict gay marriage in Nigeria. Anyone found or assumed to be gay can be captured and tortured legally. Arrests have been made to punish those suspected to be gay leading to fourteen years of jail time. Nigerians are allowed to beat and even kill gays in public. Gay Nigerians have fled the country in order to protect themselves and their families.

Bisi Alimi was one of the first gay Nigerians to come out about his homosexuality on television. His appearance caused his interview to be taken off air and the show to be canceled. The show producers where putting together a project covering stories of people in the L.G.B.T community. Although Alimi was a guest on the show, he was ridiculed by the host for his sexuality. The host felt the need to apppear against homosexuality in order to convince the public that they do not promote it on the show. The host Funmi Lyanda had stated "In a country like this how dare you come out and say your gay?" (The New York Times) Unfortunately the public wasn't satisfied with Funimi's backlash because they did not want any coverage on homosexuality at all. After the show he was harassed and death threats pushed him to flee his country.  Since the show, Alimi has received positive and negative support on social media such as twitter over his sexuality.

Whether people believe in homosexuality or not, some just can'y understand why its a major problem. People question as to why laws are being made over gay marriage instead attention being paid to poverty and underdevelopment. The Nigerian government is expected to have kept homosexuals detained in order to collect more money from their families and take advantage of their charge. Dorethy Aken'Ova, executive director of Nigeria's International Center for Reproductive Health and Sexual Rights stated "Even after extorting them, they have not released the people". The bias and lack of self expression against gays is unfair.

Reference:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/worldviews/wp/2014/04/15/meet-the-first-man-to-come-out-as-gay-on-nigerian-television/ 

http://amanpour.blogs.cnn.com/2014/01/16/meet-the-first-gay-nigerian-to-come-out-on-tv/

http://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2014/12/22/372536703/adebisi-alimi-gay-nigerian-actor-puts-his-sexuality-in-the-spotlight

Global Media News Webcast #4: February 21, 2013

Media News from Russia, Hungary and Poland!

Global Media News for February 21, 2013

Global Media News is a weekly webcast covering media news from around the world.  GMN is a production of  Media Studies students from the SUNY College @ Old Westbury. 

This week on Global Media News:   "Media News from Russia, Hungary and Poland"

• Russia vs. YouTube
• Russian Twitter Bots Blocking Tweets
• When is Lenin not Funny? Polish Ads Pulled
• Hungarian Censorship of the Internet
• Lurkmore?  Promoting Suicide and Drug Use?
• Can the RU Stamp out "Gay Propaganda" on the Internet?
• Dash Cam Follies:  The Russian Craze for Road Rage Porn

Next week on GMN:   Media News from Japan and both Koreas.

Listen to our webcast streaming live next Thursday @ 11am EST.

Can't listen live? Our next webcast of the season will be posted by 2:00pm, Thursday, February  28, 2013.

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Russian Protestors Caught on Film

In late December 2011 an abundance of videos were taken about the Russian protestors taking to the streets demanding a fair election. This is coming off the heels of the rigged election, the people had enough of their leader Putin. 

Robert Mackey of the New York Times report: 

 "Tens of thousands of Russians filled a street named for the Soviet dissident Andrei Sakharov on Saturday, demanding fair elections."

The people flooded the streets with signs that mostly displayed their anger towards the current prime minister in hopes that the government's reacts to the protest. Several videos have went viral that Russian people wanted their freedom of speech and  protection of the Russian constitution. The video brought different reactions to other countries around the world. 

 

Russia Protesters' Twitter Blocked by Bots

Back in December of 2011 Russia's political twitters were speaking about the event that happened at Moscow's Triumphal Square. About 50,000 poeople gathered to protest the ballot-rigged election.  As the tweets began to roll out the bots were used to block out any negative comments or tweet a positive comment. The bots targeted anyone speaking on the Triumphal Square and Pro-Kremin messages. 

The BBC News quoted Maxim Goncharov the senior threat reaseacher of the security intelleigence blog:

"Mr Goncharov said the machines, or bots, in this network had targeted chatter about the protests in Moscow's Triumphal Square. The protests followed accusations about irregularities during Russia's recent parliamentary elections.  Some of the chatter on Twitter was organised around the topic name, or hashtag, of #triumphalnaya."

The bots were being used as a away of limiting the freedom of speech in Russia. In the past Twitter's hashtags was used to speak about a specific topic.  The hashtag  #triumphalnaya means is a place to meet. The protesters used this hashtag to speak about the rigged election and the same way the bots were able to block any negative tweets by looking for this hastag.

In article "The Dark side of social media"  Mr. Goncharov said:

"On December 6 2011, a number of pro-Kremlin activists launched an attack on Twitter using bots which posted messages with a hashtag #триумфальная (Triumfalnaya). These bots posted a range of national slogans and crude language. With a rate of up to 10 messages per second, these bots succeeded in blocking the actual message feed with that hashtag."

The bots' mission was successful because the words were blocked out or drowned out. This created an uproar in the country and  part of Twitter world was involved. This is an example of the bots blocking the message on Twitter.  

Russia: Freedom of Press Takes Major Step Backwards

    It seems that for every giant step forward Russia takes for freedom of press, they seems to two two giant steps back. Russian President Vladimir Putin is once again in the news for limiting public assembly and censoring what is on websites in Russia. 

    Putin recently signed laws  and bills that allowed the censorship of websites and public assemblies. The censorship or websites would include blacklisting certain websites from public view and putting limits on other websites that were NGOs. The bills and laws were approved. Websites that feature things such as war propaganda were to be banned. 

 Many believe Putin's crackdown on freedom of press has become worse in his current term, which is his third. Putin has already showed his intolerance towards the media by jailing punk rock group Pussy Riot. Many have started to protest his actions. 

Image: Vladimir Putin: Cracking down on internet content. Putin has been putting

harsh restrictions on what internet users see.

RUSSIAN GOVERNMENT BANS VIDEO AND YOUTUBE FIGHTS BACK

Youtube filed suit Monday February 11,2013 in a Moscow Arbitration Court after the Federal Consumer Protection had added yet another video to its list of banned websites.   

In an article posted February 12,2013 in the Moscow Times.   Federal Consumer Protection Chief Gennady Onishchenko  stated " this video was about how to apply special makeup and contained instructions for how to commit suicide."  By special makeup they are referring to fake blood and a plastic razor blade .  They are probably props used by actors for movies or theater.  The video actually illustrates how to appear to be slitting your wrists with a fake  razor blade and fake blood.     I found the video to be very disturbing .  But the question is: Does the Russian goverment have the right to decide what we see as entertainment or not?

The story was also reported in another Russian paper The Runet.  The register of sites classified this particular Youtube video as harmful for children .  Last year, the Rospotrebnadzor established a new law aimed at protecting children on the Internet.   Don't you think this is a family matter to decide what children view on the internet?  Is this the goverment's job to censor what our children see?

Youtube 's response to this latest claim  was "this is a video that specifically contained instructions on applying specific makeup, and not on committing suicide, and should be taken off the black list".  

According to an article in the Wall Street Journal Google stated (google is the parent company for youtube) " In this case, we have appealed the decision of Russian consumer watchdog because we do not believe that the goal of the law was to limit access to videos that are clearly intended to entertain viewers."

Is this "censorship" of entertainment by the Russian goverment?  YES, in my opinion it is but, it was justified.  You can actually view the video for yourself.  This leads to another issue, is it the goverment's job to restrict viewing of material that they deem inappropiate?

 

Russia cracking down on swears !@#$%^&*

Since October, the Russian Government has been attempting to create a ban on swearing in the Russian Media. According to an article by Ria Novosti in The Moscow News, if the bill is passed, violators will be charged a fine of up to 2,000 Rubles or $6,400.

The bill has even gone so far as to assign responsibily [to the authors] of viewer comments as well. Co-author of the bill, Sergei  Zheleznyak, said,

"The media would even be held responsible for swearwords in the  comments readers leave on their websites."

In January, the bill was still in motion. Interfax.com reported that,

"Zheleznyak said parliamentarians and executive authorities are constantly
receiving requests from citizens asking them to prevent the use of foul language
on television programs and in the press."

As a result of numerous requests such as these, Zheleznyak and Liberal Democratic Party leader Vladimir Zhirinovsky have drafted this new bill. According to an article on  RT.com, the first reading of the bill has been approved by Russian lawmakers. Zhirinovsky does not want to stop there. Authors Ria Novosti and Lliya Pitalev report that,

"Zhirinovsky believes that lawmakers should go even further than banning obscene language and outlaw the usage of foreign words as well whenever they can be replaced by Russian synonyms."

It appears that the government would like to place a ban on swear words in the media in order to maintain Russia's reputation for its beautiful language. Zhironovsky's ideas also show a desire to preserve Russian language and culture by eliminating foreign words as well.

The media in Russia is continiously becoming more restricted and censored. Furthermore, the ban on swear words in the media is an extension of an already approved law that restricts the use of swear words in public. From taking down websites and banning swear words and foreign words in the media, the Russian government seems to be attempting to preserve the character of Russian citizens.

Russia: "Lurkmore" is No More

A popular Russian Wikipedia site has recently been taken under the control of the Russian Government. Lurkmore will no longer be available to the Russian public. Though only in Russian, the website can be viewed here.

According to an article in The Economist , author, J.Y. has said,

"Although no one had officially told [founder] Mr. Homak anything, it soon became clear that the site had fallen into the Russian government’s “Single Register” of web content to be banned under a law passed by the Duma in June."

Russia is imposing new laws which will limit the public's access to particularly offensive or vulgar websites. This new law was passed on November 1st. Lurkmore, according to founder Dmitry Homak, Lurkmore is

“the kind of stuff said by the characters on SouthPark”.

Already, more than 180 websites have been added to a list which fall under one or more of three categories. They are, 

"child pornography, instructions or propaganda for drug use, and material promoting suicide."

Russian blogger Andrey Tselikov posted on Global Voices Online, providing a link to the list of websites that are currently banned from the Russian internet. That list can be found here. How effective is the method of blocking used by the Russian government? Well, Irina Levova of the Russian Associaction for Electronic Communications has pointed out that the websites are currently being blocked by IP address. The issue is that IP adresses can be changed easily and therefore, the public will then be able to access these websites. So the issue of how the Russian government will continue to enforce their new policies arises.

Global Media News Webcast #5: March 1, 2012

Listen! Global Media News #5: March 1, 2012

Global Media News is a weekly webcast covering media news from around the world.  This webcast is a production of  Media Studies students from the SUNY College @ Old Westbury.

This week on GMN:

• Murdered Reporters:  Violent news from Syria
• Censorship in Russia:  Same as it ever was?
• An Internet Bill of Rights?
• New Media Braille:  Tech for the Blind
• Saving Endangered Languages with New Technologies 
• Girl Talk:  Female patterns superior?
• Selling Electric Cigarettes to Kids
• Google Goggles:  The latest data in your face

See you next week for more breaking media news!

Listen to our webcast streaming live every Thursday @ 11am EST.

Can't listen live? Our next webcast will be posted by 2:00pm, Thursday, March 8 2012.

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