By Wolfgang Merkel* This article was issued by the Toda Peace Institute and is being republished with their permission. BERLIN. 22 August 2023 (IDN) — It is above all social conflicts that shape politics, its disputes and its effects on democracy. The effects can be positive or negative, depending on the degree of conflict and […]
Democracy à la Google, Facebook & YouTube: Some Reflections
Viewpoint by Lucas Malaspina* ROME (IDN) – When Mark Zuckerberg decided to offer emerging nations Internet.org, anger was not long in exploding. As Daniel Leisegang writes in ‘Facebook is saving the world’, this project which emerged in 2013 was a humanitarian masquerade: to allow Internet access to a huge number of Third World citizens who […]
Court Rules in Favour of Dutch Human Rights Advocate
By Reinhardt Jacobsen
AMSTERDAM (IDN) – A Court in Amsterdam struck down Meseret Bahlbi lawsuit against Mirjam van Reisen, Dutch professor and human rights advocate. The judge found that she was not guilty of libel and slander and that the youth party of the Eritrean regime can be seen as a means of collecting intelligence abroad. The decision comes as a huge relief not only for the Dutch professor, but also for the Eritrean diaspora across Europe.
Dutch Court Examines Alleged Eritrean Surveillance & Intimidation
AMSTERDAM (IDN) – The reach of an allegedly long arm of the Eritrean regime abroad has been the subject of a series of high profile articles in the media. Latest reports say that it is not only targeting Eritrean refugees but also Dutch citizens.
At the core of the debate is a series of articles by OneWorld journalist Sanne Terlingen who revealed that members suspected to have links to the Eritrean regime were serving as interpreters in asylum cases. Two siblings of the chair of the YPFDJ, the youth wing of the only party of Eritrea, were still employed by the interpretation service, even though the rules of the Dutch government agency would not allow this.