Campaign: Save St. Petersburg’s European University!

Written by Mary on March 13, 2008 – 12:25 am -

Description of Campaign: Earlier this month, Russian authorities shut down the European University at St. Petersburg on the pretense that the building had fire code violations. Students and faculty saw this as a effort to shut down the school and are fighting online to re-open the university and maintain their academic community.

Digital Activism Tools: YouTube, LiveJournal

How These Tools Are Being Used: The goal of the campaign is to draw attention to the persecution of the university, a particularly difficult task since the mainstream media in Russia is all state-controlled and is ignoring the issue. For this reason, members of the university community are using alternative media to raise awareness of the situation. One professor, Ilya Utekhin, has started a blog on LiveJournal. (Unfortunately LiveJournal, which is Russia’s most popular blogging platform, is owned SUP, a company allied with Vladimir Putin.) Another LiveJournal blog, Save_EU, has become an online community for people who are fighting for the university.

students and faculty put on a theater production to protest the university’s closing

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Posted in Blogs, Campaigns, Europe, Video | 1 Comment »