Online Freedom Slips in Russia, Ukraine; Kyiv Announces Another Cease-Fire
Online Freedom Slips in Russia, Ukraine; Kyiv Announces Another Cease-Fire
Plus, Hungary protests McCain’s ‘dictator’ comment and a green kitty turns heads in Bulgaria.
by Piers Lawson, Jack Nicholson, Anders Ryehauge, and Will Sandeman 5 December 2014
1. Russia and Ukraine ‘hit by worsening Internet freedom’
Internet freedom has declined around the world for the fourth consecutive year, with some of the biggest deterioration seen in Ukraine and Russia, according to U.S.-based watchdog group Freedom House.
The annual “Freedom on The Net” survey of 65 countries shows that Internet users in Ukraine and Russia experienced significantly less online freedom between May 2013 and May 2014.
Freedom House ranks countries as free (0-30 points), partly free (31-60 points), or not free (61-100 points).
Russia received 60 points, the worst possible score in the “party free” range and an increase of 11 points since 2009.
Since Vladimir Putin was re-elected president in 2012, critical websites have been blocked, sometimes with no explanation, the report notes. Further, “surveillance and detentions of online activists have increased.” In December 2013, Putin signed a law creating a blacklist of sites that contain “extremist” content or call for unsanctioned public protests.
“One of the more troubling cases of politically motivated prosecution involved Sergei Reznik, a well-known blogger who reported on alleged corruption involving local officials. In November 2013, a court sentenced Reznik to 18 months in a labor camp on charges of bribery, insulting an official, and misleading the authorities,” the report states.
Damir Gainutdinov, co-founder of Russia’s Association of Internet Users and a legal analyst at the Agora human rights group, wrote in May that “everything has changed drastically” in regard to online freedom in Russia the last few years, with security agencies increasingly controlling the Internet.
Ukraine went from “free” to “partly free,” falling from 28 last year to 33 due to violence against journalists and bloggers during the EuroMaidan protests, the consolidation of media ownership into “progovernment hands,” and “extensive evidence of targeted surveillance of media and civil society actors” by the administration of former President Viktor Yanukovych.
Among other countries in TOL’s region, four – Estonia (8), Hungary (24), Georgia (26), and Armenia (28) – were deemed “free.”
Kyrgyzstan (34), Azerbaijan (55), and Kazakhstan (60) were labeled “partly free,” and Belarus (62) and Uzbekistan (79) were judged “not free,” despite a slight improvement in Belarus due to “generally fewer attempts to limit content,” the report says.
Scores worsened over the past year for 36 of the 65 countries surveyed.
2. Ukraine and pro-Russia rebels announce new cease-fire initiative
Petro PoroshenkoThe Ukrainian government and pro-Russia rebels have reached an agreement on a new cease-fire scheduled to start 9 December, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko has announced on his website.
Ukraine’s military will halt fire for what Poroshenko describes as a “Day of Silence.”
Leaders of the rebels in Donetsk and Luhansk have confirmed the new agreement, Andrei Purgin, de facto leader of the self-styled Donetsk People’s Republic, told Russia’s RIA Novosti state news agency, Al Jazeera reports. Both sides have agreed to pull back heavy weaponry from the front line on 10 December.
The new agreement is included in the larger cease-fire deal signed in Minsk on 5 September, which has been regularly ignored since its signing. More than 4,300 people have been killed in eastern Ukraine since the rebellion in the east began in April, according to Reuters.
Ukrainian officials also discussed further action in case militants do not fulfill their side of the agreement, according to the president’s announcement.
Earlier this week, the two sides broke an agreed cease-fire at the Donetsk airport hours after it took effect, Radio Free Europe reports.
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Pavlo Klymkin said today that negotiations among the Ukrainian government, rebel leaders, the Kremlin, and OSCE are in the works but no date is scheduled yet, the Russian-government-owned Sputnik news website reports
3. McCain’s ‘dictator’ comment sets off U.S.-Hungary diplomatic tussle
U.S. Senator John McCain has caused a diplomatic storm by describing Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban as a “neo-fascist dictator,” the BBC reports.
Colleen BellThe former Republican presidential nominee made his comments to the Senate earlier this week during a vote on the appointment of a former TV soap opera producer, Colleen Bell, as ambassador to Hungary.
At a February confirmation hearing, McCain had humiliated Bell, who made a significant contribution to U.S. President Barack Obama’s re-election bid, by repeatedly asking about the strategic interests of the United States in Hungary, which she was not able to elucidate.
In outlining Bell’s unsuitability for the post this week, he said Hungary is “on the verge of ceding its sovereignty to a neo-fascist dictator, getting in bed with (Russian President) Vladimir Putin,” the BBC reports.
John McCainMcCain’s words fell on deaf ears in Washington, with Bell confirmed by 52 votes to 42, but in Budapest they were received angrily. The Hungarian foreign minister summoned the U.S. charge d’affaires, Andre Goodfriend, to register his displeasure.
Bell starts her job as American criticism of Hungary has become increasingly vocal, the Financial Times notes.
Washington recently imposed entry bans on six prominent Hungarians, including the head of the national tax office.
Orban created an uproar earlier this year when he said he would embrace an illiberal model of governance for Hungary.
4. Bulgarian ‘moggy from Mars’ mystery is solved
The mystery of a lurid green cat seen wandering the streets of a Bulgarian seaside town may have been solved.
Locals in Varna, a resort on the Black Sea, were worried the cat had been the victim of vandals who were painting it in a luminous color – and set up a Facebook page to try and catch the perpetrators, The Independent reports.
But the real reason for the cat’s unusual appearance – it looks as if it could be a moggy from the planet Mars – could be less sinister.
It could be abandoned paint in a garage, and not malicious vandals, turning this kitty in Varna, Bulgaria, green. Image from a video by RT.
It has been spending its nights in an abandoned garage, sleeping on a pile of synthetic green paint, The Independent explains. The color is thought to have spread gradually all over its coat and is made brighter each time it sleeps in its adopted home.
The bright green but unassuming cat has now become an Internet sensation and has been reported on by both local and international media.
Despite the cat’s newfound fame, it is still unknown if it is a stray or if it simply prefers sleeping in the garage.
The RSPCA, a UK animal rights society, is concerned about the cat’s welfare and warns that dyeing or painting animals can have fatal consequences, The Daily Mail reports.
5. Poles not laughing over Czech phone ad
The Polish Embassy in Prague has complained over an advertisement made by a mobile telephone operator that it says caricatures Poles and their country, Polskie Radio and Radio Prague report.
In the ad, made by T-Mobile, a group of Czech skiers crosses the border into what is presumably Poland. Soon afterward one of the party receives a call on his mobile phone but when he tries to answer, he is unable to take the call.
Just then a Polish-speaking trader, disguised as a tree, offers to help out. He bamboozles the skier into buying a shiny new phone, but when the traveler tries to use it for the first time discovers that it too does not work.
In the meantime, the disingenuous Polish trader vanishes into the forest as the advertisement exhorts viewers to replace their old phones with new ones provided directly by a more reputable supplier, such as T-Mobile.
“We strongly protest against such simplified and scandalous depictions of Poles,” Grazyna Bernatowicz, Poland’s ambassador to the Czech Republic, wrote in a letter to T-Mobile’s chief executive in the Czech Republic, Milan Vasina.
In an interview with Radio Prague, Polish diplomat Marek Minarczuk said the advertisement worked against efforts to improve relations between the two countries and reinforced negative perceptions of Poles.
The row has received extensive coverage in Poland, Radio Prague reports, with Minarczuk conceding that some Poles – and some Czech marketing experts – find it mildly amusing.
Pavel Brabec, head of the Association of Czech Adverting Agencies, told Radio Prague the commercial went too far.
“Commercials should have certain attributes, one of them being corporate responsibility,” Brabec said. “And I think that here, T-Mobile might have failed.”
T-Mobile has “expressed regret about how the Polish ambassador perceived the ad,” according to Radio Prague. The company is considering dropping the ad and the company’s chief executive has offered to meet with the ambassador.