News headlines for “Mainstream Media”, page 7
Foreign Agent Laws: The Latest Authoritarian Weapon Against Civil Society
- Inter Press Service
MONTEVIDEO, Uruguay, October 21 (IPS) - When thousands of Georgians filled the streets of Tbilisi in 2023 to protest against their government’s proposed ‘foreign agents’ law, they understood what their leaders were trying to do: this wasn’t about transparency or accountability; it was about silencing dissent. Though the government was forced to withdraw the legislation, it returned with renewed determination in 2024, passing a renamed version despite even bigger protests. The law has effectively frozen Georgia’s hopes of joining the European Union.
Belarus Prisoner Release a Diversion, Say Rights Activists
- Inter Press Service
BRATISLAVA, October 7 (IPS) - As Belarussian president Alexander Lukashenko continues to pardon political prisoners in an apparently increasingly successful attempt to improve diplomatic relations with the US, rights groups have warned the international community must not let itself be ‘tricked’ into thinking repressions in the country are easing.
‘The Government Was Corrupt and Willing to Kill Its Own People to Stay in Power’
- Inter Press Service
CIVICUS discusses recent protests that led to a change of government in Nepal with Dikpal Khatri Chhetri, co-founder of Youth in Federal Discourse (YFD). YFD is a youth-led organisation that advocates for democracy, civic engagement and young people’s empowerment.
Mali’s Blocked Transition: Five Years of Deepening Authoritarianism
- Inter Press Service
MONTEVIDEO, Uruguay, October 3 (IPS) - When Mali’s former Prime Minister Moussa Mara stood trial in Bamako’s cybercrime court on 29 September, charged with undermining state authority for expressing solidarity with political prisoners on social media, his prosecution represented far more than one person’s fate. It epitomised how thoroughly the military junta has dismantled Mali’s democratic foundations, five years after seizing power with promises of swift reform.
UNGA80: Lies Spread Faster Than Facts
- Inter Press Service
NEW YORK, September 30 (IPS) - DANGER – WARNING – ALARM: Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Maria Ressa is warning that lies are being weaponized deliberately to manipulate people around the world. Big, profit-oriented, and technology-enabled companies are now disregarding or trampling over the sanctity and veracity of facts and information to speed up disinformation, (using AI) in ways that quickly erase truth and leave people manipulated.
‘The North Korean human rights movement is facing its greatest crisis since it began in the 1990s’
- Inter Press Service
CIVICUS discusses North Korea’s closed civic space with Hanna Song, Executive Director of the Database Center for North Korean Human Rights (NKDB). Based in Seoul, South Korea, NKDB documents systematic human rights violations in North Korea through testimonies from escapees, and has built the world’s largest private database of such abuses.
To Sanctify Bigotry: The Case of Charlie Kirk
- Inter Press Service
STOCKHOLM, Sweden, September 19 (IPS) - On September 11, Charlie Weimers, a Swedish Member of the European Parliament and active within the European Conservatives and Reformists Group, rose up during a Parliamentary session and asked for a minute of silence to honour the memory of Charlie Kirk, who the day before had been shot and killed during a political meeting at the Utah Valley University in the U.S.
Nepal’s Gen Z protest: How Fake News Tried to Rewrite a Revolution
- Inter Press Service
KATHMANDU & NEW DELHI, September 18 (IPS) - Claims that Ravi Laxmi Chitrakar, wife of former Nepali Prime Minister Jhala Nath Khanal, was burned alive in her home—fake. The reports of an angry mob destroying and vandalizing the Pashupatinath Temple—fake. Allegations that protesters were demanding a Hindu nation in Nepal—fake. As Kathmandu and other Nepali cities erupted in unrest last week, the fire of fake news spread just as fiercely across Nepal and into neighboring India and the rest of the world.
‘The Authoritarian Regime Uses Collective Punishment to Discourage Any Challenge to Its Authority’
- Inter Press Service
CIVICUS discusses the deaths of Indigenous activists in custody in Tajikistan with Khursand Khurramov, an independent journalist and political analyst.
Nepal Faces Political Crisis after Deadly Gen-Z Protests
- Inter Press Service
KATHMANDU, September 10 (IPS) - Nepal entered into a new era of constitutional and political crisis after deadly protests by the deeply frustrated young generation (Gen-Z). Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli resigned on Tuesday after protests grew out of control.
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