Things for which I have no more patience:
- Exams
- Revisions
- Lack of follow-through
- Yet another form/survey/test/confirmation from the CLS team
- Street harassment
- Thinking of one more thing to add to the to-do list
Sidi Bou Said, Tunisia.
“They couldn’t arrest everyone if they all insulted the King on Twitter. Or could they…?”
Six Twitter users have been sentenced to a year in prison each by a Bahrain court for allegedly “misusing freedoms of expression” and “defaming His Majesty the King.”
Bahrain Jails Six Twitter Users for Insulting King
Myoung Ho Lee Tree Series: Are these super? Yes. Yes, they are.
Syria Cuts Off Internet As Civil War Continues
Internet connections between Syria and the outside world were cut off on Tuesday, according to data from Google Inc and other global Internet companies.
Google’s Transparency Report pages showed traffic to Google services pages from the country, embroiled in a civil war that has lasted more than two years, suddenly stopping shortly before 3 p.m. EDT (1900 GMT). Google traffic reports continued to show no activity there about four hours after the drop-off.
“We’ve seen this twice before,” said Christine Chen, Google’s senior manager for free expression. “This happened in Syria last November and in Egypt during the Arab Spring.”
It is virtually impossible to definitely determine the cause of such disruptions unless a party claims responsibility, experts said. In the past, Syria’s government and the rebels fighting to topple it have traded blame.
Google’s data showed traffic disruptions limited to Syria and spanning the entire country. Shutting an entire nation from the Internet is possible because IP addresses, individual connections established by each device, are geographically specific and the government has control over the country’s Internet service providers.
Iraqi artist, Ayad Alkadhi
Pieta II
From the series, Widow Nation
Mixed media on canvas
2010Voici une image. Si j’étais un universitaire — une paire de lunettes, as the old cliche goes — je dirais, “Voici un texte,” une novella, un texte qui est en même temps dans le présent et dans le passé — à moins que le corps du Christ habitude d’avoir une “rougeoiement” au néon, un peu de crayeux forme dans l’air …
Il est mort ici, il est mort “là-bas,” et qui est la femme?
World Press Freedom Day
Today is World Press Freedom Day, a time to reflect not just on what are traditionally thought of as press freedoms, but also on ordinary citizen’s ability to share and access information via our digital networks.
Via UNESCO
[S]ecuring the safety of journalists continues to be a challenge due to an upward trend in the killings of journalists, media workers, and social media producers. In 2012 alone, UNESCO’s Director-General condemned the killings of 121 journalists, almost double the annual figures of 2011 and 2010. In addition, there continues to be widespread harassment, intimidation, arbitrary arrest and online attacks on journalists in many parts of the world. To compound the problem, the rate of impunity for crimes against journalists, media workers and social media producers remains extremely high.
Responding to this overall context of press freedom, WPFD 2013 focuses on the theme of “Safe to Speak: Securing Freedom of Expression in All Media” and puts the spotlight in particular on the issues of safety of journalists, combating impunity for crimes against freedom of expression, and securing a free and open Internet as the precondition for safety online.
Reporters Without Borders’ annual World Press Freedom Index is a good place to explore how press freedoms work — or don’t work — globally. At the top of the list are Finland, Norway and the Netherlands. Down at the bottom are the same three that that were there a year ago: Turkmenistan, North Korea and Eritrea.
Freedom House reports that the percentage of the world’s population “living in societies with a fully free press has fallen to its lowest level in over a decade”:
At first glance, it might seem counterintuitive that media freedom is on the decline. After all, in a world in which news is being produced by a broader range of professionals – as well as citizen journalists and bloggers – information is flowing at faster rates than ever before. And with news being transmitted through a greater variety of mediums – including newspapers, radio, television, the internet, mobile phones, flash drives, and social media – one might expect the level of media freedom worldwide to be improving, not worsening.
As noted, press freedom doesn’t just affect professional journalists, but ordinary citizens committing acts of journalism, activists documenting abuses and members of civil society. Take, for instance, four men in Saudi Arabia interrogated over their attempts to launch a human rights organization. The charge against them, according to Amnesty International: ”founding and publicizing an unlicensed organization as well as launching websites without authorization.”
Related, Part 01: Al Arabiya, Iran, Syria ranked among world’s worst countries for press freedom.
Related, Part 02: UNESCO, Pressing for Freedom: 20 years of World Press Freedom Day (PDF).
Images: World Press Freedom Map (top), via Reporters Without Borders. Crime and Unpunishment: Why Journalists Fear for Their Safety (bottom), via UNESCO. Select to embiggen.
William Shakespeare, Queen Elizabeth I, and Admiral Lord Nelson, as they woud appear today.
Okay, maybe it’s actually time to start reevaluating life choices when you literally start bleeding on your keyboard.
This infographic shows global “post 2015” development priorities based on the “MY World” survey - a survey for citizens led by the United Nations and partners.
The survey aims to capture people’s voices, priorities and views on different development goals, and it seeks to bring global leaders’ attention to the efforts that should be made as they begin the process of defining the new development agenda for the world. So far, access to good education is coming out top.
Have a closer look at the survey, interact with the data and select your own priorities. Vote for the changes that would make a difference to your world!
If only there were time-series data, too… *sigh*
A cartoon by Charles Barsotti: http://nyr.kr/ZXZKPw
In my ongoing quest for the perfect framework for understanding haters, I created The Disapproval Matrix**. (With a deep bow to its inspiration.) This is one way to separate haterade from productive feedback. Here’s how the quadrants break down:
Critics: These are smart people who know something about your field. They are taking a hard look at your work and are not loving it. You’ll probably want to listen to what they have to say, and make some adjustments to your work based on their thoughtful comments.
Lovers: These people are invested in you and are also giving you negative but rational feedback because they want you to improve. Listen to them, too.
Frenemies: Ooooh, this quadrant is tricky. These people really know how to hurt you, because they know you personally or know your work pretty well. But at the end of the day, their criticism is not actually about your work—it’s about you personally. And they aren’t actually interested in a productive conversation that will result in you becoming better at what you do. They just wanna undermine you. Dishonorable mention goes to The Hater Within, aka the irrational voice inside you that says you suck, which usually falls into this quadrant. Tell all of these fools to sit down and shut up.
Haters: This is your garden-variety, often anonymous troll who wants to tear down everything about you for no rational reason. Folks in this quadrant are easy to write off because they’re counterproductive and you don’t even know them. Ignore! Engaging won’t make you any better at what you do. And then rest easy, because having haters is proof your work is finding a wide audience and is sparking conversation. Own it.
The general rule of thumb? When you receive negative feedback that falls into one of the top two quadrants—from experts or people who care about you who are engaging with and rationally critiquing your work—you should probably take their comments to heart. When you receive negative feedback that falls into the bottom two quadrants, you should just let it roll off your back and just keep doin’ you. If you need to amp yourself up about it, may I suggest this #BYEHATER playlist on Spotify? You’re welcome.
** I presented The Disapproval Matrix to the fine folks at MoxieCon in Chicago yesterday, and they seemed to find it useful, so I figured I’d share with the class. It was originally inspired by a question my friend Channing Kennedy submitted to my #Realtalk column at the Columbia Journalism Review.
