Censorship in Venezuela: Over 370 Internet Addresses Blocked
New Study Finds Major News Networks and Social Media Impeded by Government Censorship
In Venezuela, at least 372 web portals have been blocked by main Internet service providers (ISP). Also, 43 Internet domains have been blocked by these same providers, both public and private.
Of those, 44 percent are web pages related to black market dollars. An additional 19 percent of the pages are news media and an additional 12 percent feature blogs critical of Nicolás Maduro’s administration.
When the world of documentary films became a factory production line, I fought back
In 2011, I suggested to family friends who were looking for projects for their old farmhouses and barns in Kent, that we run a film festival. We would turn their old barns into screening rooms, and guests could camp out in the field. They loved the idea, and we soon created the Quadrangle Film Festival – now called Otherfield.
At the time, it felt like the most natural thing to do. The Quadrangle was a place that I had been visiting since childhood, and the huge granary barn and surrounding fields formed the most natural setting for camping and cinema. Like many of my friends, I was carving out a path in the strange world of creative documentary-making. More than anything, I longed for a place where we could gather, talk, watch and share experiences with like-minded others.
Our raison d’etre was that we were filmmakers creating a space for filmmakers. It was a radical idea when set against the industry’s competitive world of TV commissioning and selling that was threatening to overtake all creative practice in non-fiction filmmaking.
New President Approves Death Squads – Even for Drug Users
Rodrigo Duterte, sworn in today as president of the Philippines, may face legal obstacles to his campaign promise of killing the country’s one million illegal drug users.
Duterte, nicknamed “the Punisher” by various media outlets, has called for the execution of drug traders and users throughout his political career. In an election rally in May, he issued a stark warning: “All of you who are into drugs, you sons of bitches, I will really kill you. I have no patience, I have no middle ground. Either you kill me or I will kill you”.
UK Tries to Cover up Torture of Pregnant Woman
The UK Government has spent over £600,000 on lawyers in an attempt to stop a torture case being heard in court, documents obtained by human rights group Reprieve have revealed – even though the victims bringing the case have offered to settle for an apology and a token payment of one pound.
Galactic Dialouges From Outside of Time w/ Thad McKraken
In this episode of the Free Radical Media podcast, magickal practitioner, psychonaut, Disinfonaut, and writer Thad McKraken joins us to discuss his new book and current magickal explorations.
New Report: Inside the Women’s Ward: Mistreatment of Women Political Prisoners at Iran’s Evin Prison
Political prisoners held in the Women’s Ward at Iran’s Evin Prison are routinely denied medical care and hospitalization, face severely restricted or denied visitation rights even with their young children, are deprived of regular telephone contact with their families, and are not provided adequate nutrition, according to a report released today by the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran.
How a Shootout on a Guatemalan Highway Opened Window to Corruption
In 2013, ProPublica reporter Sebastian Rotella got a tip on an assassination attempt against Enrique Degenhart Asturias, a 44-year-old Guatemala native who had been working as a consultant to the U.S. Embassy in Guatemala City. Rotella, a veteran Latin America correspondent, knew such violence was common in that part of the world, but this event felt distinctive.
For one thing, Degenhart was shot nine times, but he lived to tell the story. Second, Degenhart had recently been fired from a post in the country’s notoriously corrupt immigration service after trying to reform it. Third, the Guatemalan government had removed Degenhart’s security detail ten months before gunmen tried to take his life.
Venezuelan Opposition Leader Calls for Open Rebellion against Maduro
Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado held a press conference this week in which she insisted citizens rebel should the recall referendum of President Nicolás Maduro not go into effect this year.
First Brazil, Next Venezuela: Will the World See a Coup in Caracas?
(Sputnik) – Venezuela’s Nicolas Maduro declared a state of emergency in January, which was extended for two months last week, as opposition ramps up to remove him from office. Meanwhile, in Brazil, rumors are spreading about the government selling off state assets just days after President Dilma Rousseff was suspended pending an impeachment trial.
Speaking about the extension of the state of emergency in Venezuela, Dr. Francisco Dominguez said that there were “threatening noises” from the May 12-13 Concordia Summit in New York. The “noises,” according to Moniguez, suggest that measures should be taken to “sort out difficulties that the United States have with governments like Venezuela.”
I discovered the truth about Singapore’s ‘war on drugs’. Now I campaign against the death penalty
(openDemocracy) – Yong Vui Kong was my first encounter with the death penalty in Singapore. I was 21 years old, and so was he. But we couldn’t be further apart when I sat in the public gallery of the courtroom and he in the dock, behind a glass pane. At that age I was considered by many older people as young, idealistic, naive, prone to mistakes and immaturity. Yet the Singaporean criminal justice system was expecting Yong Vui Kong to die for a mistake he’d made when he was just 19 years old.
Born to a poor family in the east Malaysian state of Sabah, Vui Kong was arrested in 2007 with 47.27 grams of heroin. Under Singaporean law, 15 grams and above is enough to attract the mandatory death penalty. Seeing his youth, the trial judge had asked the prosecution to consider reducing the charge, so he wouldn’t have to face the gallows.