Campaign: Stop the Deportation of Amdani Juma

Written by Mary on June 6, 2008 – 5:52 pm -

amdani juma

Description: Amdani Juma left Burundi during the 1994 Rwandan genocide. When he returned after the conflict he was held captive, beaten, and put under surveillance. He fled to Britain in 2003 and applied for asylum, which he was denied last December. He had become a pillar of the community in Nottingham, working for the Refugee Forum and setting up his own organization, the African Institute for Social Development. For this reason, people in Nottingham wanted him to stay in their community and started a campaign to fight his deportation to Burundi, which was scheduled for June 4th.

Digital Activism tools: several different blogs (including an official blog), Facebook group, citizen journalism, e-petition

How These Tools Are Being Used: Online tools are integrated with offline tactics and organizing to intensify the impact of the campaign. While the official blog is a center for the latest information on the case, including press releases, and the Facebook group draws in new members, offline actions, like a protest in Nottingham’s town center, bring attention to the injustice. The e-petition is used in the same way as the protest - to make a visual popular statement of support for Juma. Because the story was not being covered by the mainstream media, citizen journalists from the site Indymedia UK covered the story to raise awareness, as did bloggers.

Outcome: Juma’s deportation was moved back 6 days, to June 10th, though a final decision has not yet been made.

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Posted in Blogs, Campaigns, E-Petitions, Europe, Social Networks, Sub-Saharan Africa, Tools, Video | No Comments »

Tactics: Tibetans Get the News Out Despite Media Censorship

Written by Mary on March 16, 2008 – 5:31 am -

Description: Last week hundreds of Tibetan monks took to the streets in and near the Tibetan capital of Lhasa to protest Chinese rule. Although the heavily censored Chinese media refused to cover the story, both Tibetans and foreign tourists used the Internet to get the news out. According to the Vancouver Sun, “Amateur cellphone photos and video clips showing what were described as confrontations between police and Tibetans protesting Chinese rule poured onto websites big and small, including those for major news media, Tibetan rights groups and tourist blogs.”

Organizer: unclear

Purpose of Action: To protest Chinese rule of Tibet.

Organizing Tools: e-mail, digital photos, mainstream media sites that accept user-generated content (like BBC), web sites of sympathetic NGOs, travel blogs of tourists, cell phone video uploaded to YouTube.com,

Outcome: Bringing global attention to protests that the Chinese government would prefer to silence.

Ease of Replication: Unless the government shuts down the Internet, as occurred during the recent protests in Burma, using individual e-mail accounts, cell phones, and blogs to distribute information and images is an effective way to get around domestic media censorship.

cell phone image of protests published on the site of a Tibetan rights NGO based in India

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Posted in Asia, Blogs, Digital Images, Tactics | 2 Comments »