By Michael Allen on March 3, 2010
The apparently stable advantage of democracy over autocracy disguises worrying erosion in the quality of democracy, a new analysis suggests.
Democracy has not lost its normative appeal, but even established democracies have experienced “significant setbacks” in the freedoms of assembly, association and the press, as well as declines in political participation, civil liberties and social capital, [read full story]
Posted in Africa, Analysis, Asia, China, Cuba, Cuba, Elections, Europe, Featured, Georgia, Kenya, Latin America and the Carribean, Middle East and North Africa, NGOs/Civil society, Russia, Turkey, Vietnam, authoritarianism, autocrats, backsliding, corruption, democracy, democracy and development, democratization, economic crisis, emerging democracies, freedom of expression, governance, media, rule of law |
By Michael Allen on March 1, 2010
Following the death of Cuban prisoner of conscience Orlando Zapata Tamayo, the island’s communist authorities have been arresting and harassing dissidents. The World Youth Movement for Democracy highlights other disturbing cases and calls for action:
At approximately 7pm on February 23, human rights activist of the Cuban Youth Movement for Democracy Cristian Toranzo Fundichely, regional winner [read full story]
Posted in Cuba, Cuba, Latin America and the Carribean, communist regimes, dissidents, freedom of expression | Tagged cuba, Cuban prisoner of conscience, New Castro, Orlando Zapata Tamayo, Same Cuba, World Youth Movement for Democracy |
By Michael Allen on February 25, 2010
After the death of a prominent dissident prompted international outrage, Cuba’s communist authorities have reacted with a crackdown on the island’s democracy advocates.
Political leaders and human rights groups deplored the passing of Orlando Zapata Tamayo and called on Havana to release political prisoners still in detention.
To forestall public protests at Zapata’s funeral, security services [read full story]
Posted in Cuba, Featured, Human rights, Latin America and the Carribean, communist regimes, democracy, dissidents, promoting democracy |
By Michael Allen on February 18, 2010
The world’s democracy and human rights advocates need to develop genuinely global responses and new approaches to deal with the current authoritarian offensive against fundamental freedoms of association and expression, former Czech President Vaclav Havel told a Washington meeting last night.
There is a compelling moral imperative for solidarity with dissidents within totalitarian and authoritarian regimes, [read full story]
Posted in Backlash, Belarus, Burma, China, Cuba, Cuba, Democracy assistance, Human rights, NGOs/Civil society, National Endowment for Democracy, authoritarianism, autocrats, backsliding, communist regimes, democracy, democracy and development, democracy support, dissidents, freedom of expression, promoting democracy, solidarity, totalitarianism |
By Michael Allen on January 7, 2010
What’s so sinister about a Cuban citizen receiving or having a laptop or a cell phone?, asks Christopher Sabatini, senior director of policy at the Americas Society/Council of the Americas, and former director for Latin America at the National Endowment for Democracy.
“Nothing — unless the government is maintaining a chokehold on power by holding [read full story]
Posted in Christopher Sabatini, Cuba, Democracy assistance, European Union, Human rights, Labour/labor unions, NGOs/Civil society, National Endowment for Democracy, communist regimes, democracy support, dissidents, engagement, promoting democracy |
By Michael Allen on December 29, 2009
Veteran liberal journalist Nat Hentoff reveals the Castro brothers’ big dirty secret – the prevalence of institutionalized racism in Cuba – as detailed in the under-reported Statement of Conscience by African Americans:
Afro-Cubans are experiencing strong and growing instances of racism on the island, with their 25-odd civil rights movements reporting a wide range of discriminatory [read full story]
Posted in Cuba, Human rights, NGOs/Civil society, National Endowment for Democracy, communist regimes, promoting democracy |
By Michael Allen on December 8, 2009
Some media stories that have caught the eye of the Center for International Media Assistance this week:
Iranian regime’s offensive against new-generation media; how Iranian activists skirt Web crackdown; why Israel wants US to counter the Islamic Republic with Twitter; Russian Internet provider blocks sites ; guerrilla blogging inside Cuba; Mubarak’s virtual enemies; the global war [read full story]
Posted in Blogs, China, Cuba, Cuba, Democracy assistance, Egypt, Hat tip: Center for International Media Assistance., Human rights, Philippines, Russia, Tools/technology, freedom of expression, media |
By Michael Allen on November 20, 2009
Cuban blogger Yoani Sánchez posted seven questions to President Barack Obama and to the island’s Communist leader Raúl Castro.
She was stunned when Obama replied. Castro – at least at time of posting – hasn’t. Strange, huh?
She took the initiative, she said, because for too long “Cubans have resigned themselves to having no one `up there’ [read full story]
Posted in Blogs, Cuba, International Republican Institute, communist regimes |
By Michael Allen on September 4, 2009
In an unprecedented ruling, a United States federal judge has ordered Cuba’s communist regime to pay $27.5m in compensation to the mother of jailed journalist Omar Rodriguez Saludes.
Rodriguez, director of the independent Nueva Prensa Cubana news agency, is serving a 27-year sentence after being arrested in the ‘Black Spring’ crackdown on political dissidents in 2003.
“This [read full story]
Posted in Cuba, Human rights, media | Tagged Black Spring’, Ivan Hernandez Carrillo, National Endowment for Democracy, Omar Rodriguez Saludes. |
By Michael Allen on August 28, 2009
Representatives of five European Union embassies visited the wife of jailed Cuban opposition activist Darsi Ferrer. Diplomats from Sweden, Britain, Hungary, Poland and Germany brought food and clothing to Ferrer’s wife, Yusnaimy Jorge Soca, at her Havana home (hat tip: Foreign Policy Initiative).
Ferrer’s case is another instance of activists being targeted for supposedly non-political offences. [read full story]
Posted in Cuba, Human rights, dissidents |
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