Category: Civil Society

Democracy award winner charged with insulting Angola’s state

     

Two journalists in Angola face charges of insulting the state for an article about an allegedly unethical real estate deal involving the attorney general, The Associated Press reports: Rafael Marques… Read more »

Zimbabwe in Transition: Reform and Reconstruction

     

> A 2015 Contingency Planning Memorandum, “Political Instability in Zimbabwe,” highlighted the potential for violence in connection with leadership succession. And there are at least five areas of concern as… Read more »

Russian cyberattacks aimed at legitimacy of political process

     

Current and former government officials painted a sinister portrait Wednesday of Russian cyberattacks aimed at interfering in the U.S. presidential election last year, AP reports: Moscow stockpiled stolen information and selectively… Read more »

Time to counter China’s ‘soft power’ influence ops

     

The Chinese Communist Party’s covert campaign of influence in Australia, exposed in a series of articles and “Power and Influence,” (above) set off a domestic debate about just how wary… Read more »

Russia’s test lab for cyberwar: social media ‘democratize propaganda’

     

In Russia’s shadow, the decades-old nightmare of hackers stopping the gears of modern society has become a reality in Ukraine, Andy Greenberg writes for Wired: And the blackouts weren’t just… Read more »

‘Reckless Exploit’ – Mexican journalists, activists targeted by spyware

     

Mexican journalists, lawyers and activists were targeted by spyware that is sold exclusively to governments, according to an internet watchdog group’s investigation published Monday, AP reports: Titled “Reckless Exploit,” the… Read more »

How to combat disinformation without falling into trap of counter-propaganda

     

The recent decision by Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko to ban popular Russian social networks VKontakte (VK) and Odnoklassniki, on May 15 (see EDM, June 7), provoked serious debate both inside Ukraine… Read more »

Bolivia’s resource windfall squandered by populist mismanagement, hyper-corruption

     

  Across Latin America, one high-level scandal after another has tainted current or recent presidents or vice-presidents in Brazil, Peru, Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Ecuador, Guatemala, Honduras, Panama and Mexico, among others, Simeon Tegel writes for US News:… Read more »

Russia’s ‘surreal’ protests show fraying of social contract

     

  The latest wave of protests in Russia is too diverse and divergent to be unified by a single political leader, platform, or slogan—though there is one motto that people… Read more »

Can the West survive current turmoil?

     

The West’s current upheaval is captured in two books by British journalists hailing from publications known for promoting free peoples and free markets. In “The Fate of the West,” by former Economist… Read more »