Global Issues
News headlines
Freedom of the Press as a Guarantee for Human Dignity and Well-Being
- Inter Press Service
STOCKHOLM / ROME, May 01 (IPS) -
You may proclaim that one must live not as a tool, a number or a link but as a human being — then at once they handcuff your wrists. You are free to be arrested, imprisoned and even hanged.
1The United Nations has designated at least 170 specific days of the year as occasions to mark particular events or topics to promote the objectives of the Organization. 2
This might be considered as yet another sign of a supersaturation caused by the internet revolution. However, it cannot be denied that certain issues need to be globally recognized and amended.
Journalism is Not a Crime…and Fake News on Social Media is Not Journalism
- Inter Press Service
KATHMANDU, May 01 (IPS) - This year's World Press Freedom Day on 3 May falls during COVID-19 lockdowns in many of our countries. Restriction on movement means journalists all over the world are facing obstacles in getting interviews and data, and verifying stories before publishing.
Protect Journalists' Rights so We can Stop the COVID-19 Disinfodemic
- Inter Press Service
HYDERABAD, India, May 01 (IPS) - Andrew Sam Raja Pandian, a digital journalist and founder of a news portal in the southern state of Tamil Nadu, was arrested for running two news articles related to COVID-19.
One of the articles exposed corruption in the government food aid distribution system, while the other highlighted doctors in Coimbatore city facing food issues. The city police first detained the journalist and photographer who had reported on the stories, Jerald Aruldas and M Balaji, for 9 hours before arresting Pandian for publishing the pieces.
Across the World, Construction Workers are Caught Between Coronavirus Risk and Joblessness
- Inter Press Service
ISTANBUL, Apr 30 (IPS) - A daily commute of two-and-a-half hours each way would take a toll on anyone, but for Özkan, a construction worker in Istanbul, the hardest part of his long journey is coping with his fears about what might happen after he gets home.
Africa's Youth Scholars Harvest Ideas on the Business of Agriculture
- Inter Press Service
BULAWAYO, Zimbabwe, Apr 30 (IPS) - In Rwanda, Benimana Uwera Gilberthe, a scholar and pepper producer, experienced first-hand the challenges of breaking into agribusiness.
While in Nigeria, Ayoola Adewale is trying to understand if poultry egg farming will prove a profitable and viable business opportunity to the youth of the continent's most populous nation. Also in Nigeria, Esther Alleluyanatha is understanding the link between young people leaving their villages for larger cities, the remittances they send home, and the implications on rural livelihoods and agriculture productivity.
The COVID-19 Pandemic and the Reinvention of the Spirit of Solidarity and Cooperation
- Inter Press Service
GENEVA, Apr 30 (IPS) - An invisible adversary has thrown the world – Global South and Global North alike – into disarray. The psychosocial and economic consequences of the COVID-19 crisis will remain with us long after it has been overcome.
There will be no anti-viral return to the pre-coronavirus status quo, nor can we afford to idly wait for a viral transformation of our world. The future is not inevitable, abstract promise – it will depend on our collective readiness to forge it, or to be forged by it.
Public Health and Epidemics
- Inter Press Service
STOCKHOLM / ROME, Apr 30 (IPS) - For some time Wuhan in China and Lombardy in Italy were epicentres of the COVID-19 virus, something that has changed when the contagion is spreading fast in the US.
A Lombardy in the grip of a deadly epidemic might among several Italians give rise to memories of their school days. For almost a century, Alessando Manzoni's massive novel The Betrothed (I promessi sposi) from 1842 has been obligatory reading for all Italians during their last primary school year. A quite impressive endeavour considering that the novel is more than 700 pages long.
Only Sustainable Investment & Global Cooperation Can Counter COVID’s Blow to SDGs
- Inter Press Service
NEW YORK, Apr 30 (IPS) - We are today in a time of crisis—a time when our shared choices will shape the way history tells our story and the paradigm shift it has so forcefully provoked.
How South Africa can Address Digital Inequalities in E-learning
- Inter Press Service
CAPE TOWN, South Africa, Apr 30 (IPS) - South Africa's education system is complex, with historical inequalities dating back to apartheid. Most of the country's pupils come from disadvantaged backgrounds. Language is an issue; most pupils do not speak English as a mother tongue, yet English dominates in many classrooms. And, as the COVID-19 crisis has showed, there's a huge digital divide at play.
Press Freedom Needs Protection from Pandemic too
- Inter Press Service
ROME, Apr 30 (IPS) - Wearing an orange jacket and face mask, Li Zehua, a Chinese freelance journalist, can be seen filming himself in a car. He is sure that state security agents have been pursuing him since he began documenting events in Hubei's capital Wuhan, the first epicentre of the COVID-19 pandemic. A second YouTube video, circulating widely since he launched his appeal, ends abruptly when two men knock at his apartment. He has just reappeared online after two months, saying police interrogated him and put him in quarantine and that he was well looked after during this period.
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