Jueves, 3 de mayo de 2018 (Continuación)

Cómo se conquista la libertad de prensa

ReflexionesPensamiento, Cultura y Ciencia

Cada año, el 3 de mayo, el Día Mundial de la Libertad de Prensa, los productores y consumidores de noticias se detienen a reflexionar sobre el estado de los medios de comunicación a nivel mundial. Este año, cuando periodistas y funcionarios gubernamentales se reúnan en Ghana para la 25ª edición de la celebración de esta fecha, la atención se centrará en las innumerables presiones y desafíos que enfrenta la profesión a lo largo de todo el mundo, y en las formas cómo la hostilidad – tanto la oficial como aquella patrocinada por el Estado – dirigida contra la prensa pone en peligro la democracia.…  Seguir leyendo »

Reuters journalist Wa Lone, center, is escorted in handcuffs by police upon arrival at his trial on Wednesday in Rangoon, Burma. (Thein Zaw/AP)

MundoAsia,

Today, on World Press Freedom Day, I recall the vivid experience of walking down a street in Rangoon, Burma’s largest city, and watching freedom of expression flower before my eyes. At that time, in November 2015, the country was gradually emerging from decades under one of the world’s harshest and most insular dictatorships. Burma’s long-suffering reporters were happy to seize the opportunity, and I was seeing the results: Street vendors were offering a dizzying array of newspapers and magazines where once only the gray prose of the state-run propaganda outlets had reigned.

I was visiting Burma, which is also known as Myanmar, to report on its first free election in a generation — one that predictably yielded a victory for Aung San Suu Kyi, the revered leader of the opposition to military rule.…  Seguir leyendo »

An attendee looks at an artificial intelligence service character displayed on a screen in Tokyo, Japan. April 4, 2018. (Kiyoshi Ota/Bloomberg)

ReflexionesNuevas Tecnologías

In 1215, England adopted the Magna Carta to stop kings from abusing their power. Today, the new kings are big tech companies, and just like centuries ago, we need a charter to govern them.

The digital revolution is the greatest dynamic force in the world today. It affects everything from the intimacies of everyday life to geopolitical struggles and has made the world become one in a way that was never possible before. But at the same time, it is fracturing and dividing. Artificial intelligence and the Internet are the twin driving forces of these changes.

The evolution of AI has already gone through two distinct stages and is today moving into a third.…  Seguir leyendo »

A demonstrator carries a photo of slain anti-corruption journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia as others sing the national anthem at the end of a protest on Sunday against government corruption revealed by the Daphne Project, in Valletta, Malta. (Darrin Zammit Lupi/Reuters)

EuropaUnión EuropeaUE a debate

Today, as we mark World Press Freedom Day, it is worth recalling that Europe has recently been rocked by the shocking murders of two investigative journalists. In Malta, a car bomb killed Daphne Caruana Galizia. In Slovakia, assassins’ bullets took the lives of 27-year-old Jan Kuciak and his fiancee.

Both journalists had been pursuing stories that lay at the nexus of political corruption and organized crime. Both cases, thus far, remain unsolved. Both of the countries in which they were killed are members of the European Union.

So the murders point to a wider problem: The hard-won press freedoms in a continent that had shed its totalitarian past are much more fragile than we’ve come to believe.…  Seguir leyendo »

Commuters during rush hour in Beijing, China. (Kevin Frayer/Getty)

ReflexionesNuevas Tecnologías

Data informs and dictates our life decisions, from mundane activities like grocery shopping to career and medical decisions, credit applications and social interactions.

To have a social life in today’s digitized world, one has little choice but to “consent” to all the data-capturing devices and sensors around us. To say we make informed, conscientious choices by clicking a mouse or tapping on a touch screen is a farce. A right without the opportunity to make meaningful choices cannot be called a right.

Thus, the private ownership of data, which is the basis for the current data privacy protection scheme, requires a rethink.…  Seguir leyendo »

Liberté de la presse et démocratie

ReflexionesPensamiento, Cultura y Ciencia,

Il y a vingt-cinq ans, l’Assemblée générale des Nations unies, sur proposition de l’Unesco, proclamait le 3 mai jour anniversaire de la Déclaration de Windhoek, Journée mondiale de la liberté de la presse. En choisissant cette date, elle a voulu rendre hommage aux quelque 60 valeureux journalistes africains indépendants qui s’étaient réunis au début du mois de mai 1991 dans la capitale namibienne à l’invitation de l’Unesco et des Nations unies afin de définir les conditions nécessaires pour l’établissement d’une presse africaine indépendante, libre et pluraliste, à une époque où les quelques médias existants sur le continent étaient, dans leur très grande majorité, contrôlés par l’Etat ou le parti unique au pouvoir.…  Seguir leyendo »

Armenian opposition leader Nikol Pashinyan attends a rally with supporters in the country's second largest city of Gyumri, Armenia, on 27 April 2018. REUTERS/Gleb Garanich

MundoCáucaso

Armenia has plunged into an unprecedented political crisis. On 1 May, parliament voted against the nomination for prime minister of Nikol Pashinyan, the leader of protests that compelled long-time leader Serzh Sargsyan’s resignation on 23 April. The ruling Republican Party proposed no alternative candidate but insisted its deputies vote against Pashinyan. On 2 May, large numbers of protesters poured into the streets again, this time in support of Pashinyan’s bid to win the repeat vote, scheduled for 8 May. In the evening of 2 May, after the ruling Republican Party unexpectedly indicated it might endorse Pashinyan’s bid for prime minister, he has tentatively put the protests on hold.…  Seguir leyendo »