Section: Global Voices (The Netherlands)
Russia’s return to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe: Diplomacy or defeat?
“A wolf in sheep’s clothing.” Allowing Russia back in the PACE may encourage other oppressive leaders, critics worry. Cartoon courtesy of Anna Tóth (annatoth.com). This article by Pavel Antonov and Ksenia Vakhrusheva originally appeared on BlueLink, a regional e-magazine covering Central and Eastern Europe. It is republished here via a...
As Ukraine and Russia exchanged prisoners, the RuNet reacted
Ukrainians have mixed feelings about how their government handled the exchangeOleg Sentsov, the Crimea-born activist and filmmaker, with his daughter at Kyiv airport after his release on September 7, 2019. Photo courtesy of Christopher Miller. Used with permission. When the 35 Ukrainian prisoners arrived at Kyiv’s Boryspil airport on...
Poorly regulated and rich in reach: online technologies in Ukraine’s elections
Ukraine’s politicians are eager to win hearts and minds onlineA polling station in central Kyiv, Ukraine, during parliamentary elections on 21 July 2019. Photo (c) by Maxim Edwards. On Sunday July 21, Ukrainian voters went to the polls to vote in a snap parliamentary election, called after President Volodymyr Zelensky, elected in March...
Macedonian PM publicly apologizes after he was deceived by pro-Kremlin Russian pranksters
Prime Minister of Republic of North Macedonia Zoran Zaev at the press conference about ‘Russian pranksters’ on 9 July 2019 in Skopje. Photo by Arbnora Mehmeti/Meta.mk CC-BY. This story originally appeared on Meta.mk News Agency, a project of Metamorphosis Foundation. An edited version is published below as part of a content-sharing...
Russians rejoice as their favorite Ukrainian presidential hopeful, a comedian with no political experience, wins first round
Zelensky’s win means a healthy democracy, his Russian fans say.Volodymyr Zelensky (fourth from right), the unexpected frontrunner in Ukrainian presidential elections, tours with District 95, a TV comedy troupe he co-founded in 2003. Photo by Vadim Chuprina, CC 4.0 On March 31, Ukrainians voted on the first round on its presidential...
With elections just days away, Ukraine faces disinformation, cyber attacks and further Russian interference
Worried about Russian election meddling? Take a look at Ukraine.Little green and grey men invading a cyber space. Photo by Filip Stojanovski, CC-BY. Ukrainians will head for the polls on Sunday 31 March in what will be the first regular national elections since the country’s 2014 Euromaidan revolution. With its Crimean peninsula still...
Mayor of Odessa could face criminal charges after his security attacked a local reporter
Odessa Mayor Gennadiy Trukhanov seconds before his security showed off Radio Svoboda reporter Mikhail Shtekel out of courthouse where he gave a press briefing. Screengrab from Shtekel’s video posted on Twitter. Odessa’s police will investigate the city’s mayor Gennady Trukhanov for “impeding the lawful professional activity of...
Ukraine is outsourcing law enforcement to private companies that don’t respect human rights
Odessa Municipal Guard dismantling decorative fencing on the territory of “Dom Pavlovyh” guest house. Photo by Konstontin Puzilovskiy, via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0. A series of incidents involving Ukraine’s municipal guards are adding up one after another, with ever more citizens demanding they be outright banned. After the...
Attack by municipal guards signals rising threats against journalists in Ukraine
A member of the Municipal Guard attacks a journalist with teargas. Photo by Tomikage via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0) The year 2018 has thus far been a difficult one for journalists in Ukraine. On June 4, 2018, OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media Harlem Désir issued a public statement condemning Ukraine’s Spokesperson of the...
What’s happened to digital rights over the past seven years? 300 editions of the Netizen Report will tell you
Protests in Budapest, October 2014. Photo by Marietta Le, used with permission. The Advox Netizen Report offers an international snapshot of challenges, victories, and emerging trends in internet rights around the world. This week, we’re looking back at seven years of covering global digital rights news in celebration of our 300th edition!...
