2011

  
Protesters have created impromptu news theaters in Cairo's Tahrir Square, seen here. (Reuters)

Government lies are exposed in Egypt’s Tahrir Square

Hosni Mubarak’s regime has had 29 years to perfect its always brazen but never convincing justifications for repressing journalists who expose the travesties he and his henchmen regularly visit upon the people of Egypt. It has also long enlisted state-owned media to disseminate the ruling party’s half-truths and outright lies. But over the past week,…

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Gálvez Rodríguez shows his passport to the media after his arrival in Spain. (Reuters)

A Cuban journalist in exile: Unkept promises

The clouds of exile are twice as bitter. Being forced from your birthplace and into legal limbo in the land of your grandparents where you’re met by complete official abandonment only deepens the wounds. My gloominess has nothing to do with the affection and solidarity shown by the Spanish people, especially the citizens of Madrid.…

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Obame after being "sworn in." The government took it seriously. (AFP)

In Gabon, faux news draws real censorship

Last week, Gabon’s government-controlled National Communications Council ordered the TV station of opposition leader André Mba Obame off the air for a period of three months. The ruling is without appeal and, typically, this is how authorities in this oil-rich equatorial African state silence critical news outlets. Except that, this time, the “reporting” for which the…

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