An excerpt from a story published in the Sunday Leader, 29th November 2009, demonstrates the reach of communications surveillance in Sri Lanka, and the sheer paranoia of the Rajapakse administration that drives it. Painfully aware of the chinks in their armor the former Chief of Defense Staff could exploit, the Rajapaksas have moved swiftly, decisively [...]
Archive | November, 2009
Intercepting mobile communications: A cogent case for truth-seeking and slow news?
Even if most of us are powerless to completely evade it completely, the pitfalls of mobile phone intercepts are well documented and known. However, two articles recently published on the web can be read as somewhat justifying the use of material thus collected for truth seeking after an act of terrorism. Whether such use justifies [...]
Legal Assistance Network for Online Journalists
The Online Media Legal Network (OMLN) is a network of law firms, law school clinics, in-house counsel, and individual lawyers throughout the United States willing to provide pro bono legal assistance to qualifying online journalism ventures and other digital media creators. As noted here, The idea for OMLN came out of CMLP’s work over the [...]
Multimedia Crisis Guides from US based Council on Foreign Relations
From Bill Warters we learn of an excellent new initiative by the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR), which has been actively developing a series of interactive Crisis Guides that help explain complex international conflicts and crisis quickly and engagingly. The full series is available here. The guides are beautifully produced, with compelling content and good [...]
A billion for a billion: WFP tackles hunger through the web
You know its bound to fail, but embracing the web and social networking in the manner WFP has needs to be recognised, celebrated and supported as best one can. As reported in UN Dispatch, the World Food Program launched a new campaign, a billion for a billion. The idea is to link the 1 billion [...]
Tamil not an official language in some e-gov sites in Sri Lanka?
I wrote in April 2008 that, “You know there’s something seriously wrong with e-gov when the humanitarian section of official website of the President of Sri Lanka has only a single mention of a human (though one wonders whether the person mentioned also fell into the animal welfare directives of the Mahinda Chintana)…. From the non-functional [...]
Moomeo: A perfect site for whistleblowers and anti-corruption initiatives?
Moomeo is a relatively new site based on a powerful, simple idea. It creates a webpage out of any email sent to post@moomeo.com. This website comes with easy links to share it on Facebook, Twitter and anywhere else on the web. Importantly, it does not show the sender of the email, ensuring that her / [...]
Journalism, civil society and mobile networks
Jude Mathurine from Rhodes University has an interesting presentation on the impact of mobile phone based use of social networks in Africa. I’ve not yet come across a comparable study of new media’s use and impact in Sri Lanka, but the points on slides 3 and 7, noting that the Internet is still an elite [...]
The arrest of the ‘blogger’ in Sri Lanka: Crowd-sourcing trumps traditional media follow up
Ayubowan, a blog I didn’t know of before, helpfully posted a screen grab of a post from Gossip Lanka, a blog I also didn’t know of before, on the recent arrest of a ‘blogger’ in Sri Lanka that had many concerned. Gossip Lanka’s post is in Sinhala and doesn’t render at all on my Mac, [...]
1000 posts on Groundviews: Bearing witness, shaping peace
Exactly three years after its launch, Groundviews published its 1000th post today. In it Dr. Paikiasothy Saravanamuttu identifies the site with quality debate and asks citizens to use it to canvass their ideas for constitutional reform, governance, human rights and the economy and whatever else they see as constituting essential elements of an agenda for change and reform. [...]
