The post is about a story told by Yoani Sánchez (who was unable to address the Conference) about a friend whose cell phone screen may have saved...
The post is about a story told by Yoani Sánchez (who was unable to address the Conference) about a friend whose cell phone screen may have saved him from arrest by Cuban secret police. “Babbage” continues: “Interesting enough on its own, but then this week Ethan Zuckerman reported from a conference on cyber dissidents at the George W. Bush Institute in Dallas. (Parts I, II and III are all worth reading.) Two guests pointed out that the internet is better at getting information out of repressive countries than it is at moving it around within them. ‘Ernesto Hernandez Busto, a Cuban dissident and blogger living in Barcelona, notes that citizen media’s value in his country is reportorial, not organizational. Stories likethe death of patients in mental hospitals through freezing to death would never have been reported in state-controlled media – to the extent that the internet creates an alternative media space, it’s the most important space for journalism. ‘David Keyes, co-founder of the new Cyberdissidents.org project, explains his agenda: he wants to make dissidents very famous. He’s worked closely with Russian refusenik and later Israeli politician Natan Sharansky, and took as a lesson from Sharansky’s work and life that dissidents who aren’t known suffer in silence, while those who are famous have their struggles publicized and escape some harm. He suggests that social movements like the April 6 movement in Egypt need to be less about the movement, and more about individual actors.’” From By the Light of his Nokia, posted Apr 22nd 2010, 16:12
