A curated selection of public diplomacy-relevant news from a global cross-section of English-language media outlets, including independent, corporate-owned, and state-sponsored sources. The stories featured don't necessarily represent CPD's views nor have they been verified by CPD.
Brazil Defends Plan to Import Physicians from Cuba
Brazil’s foreign minister on Thursday denied that the government’s plan to hire 4,000 Cuban doctors to work in isolated areas has any “ideological aspect.” The decision “was taken to improve public services and has no ideological motivation of any kind,” Antonio Patriota told a congressional committee. The aim is to offer medical services in places where Brazilian professionals do not want to go, he said. “There are many Cuban doctors ready to do that type of work and perhaps not many Austrian doctors, for example, who want to do it,” Patriota said.
Yara Darwish: ‘Qatar Would Love TV like Al Jazeera America’
Al Jazeera now runs three television channels, including the newly-launched Al Jazeera America. The station is based in Qatar. But the kind of journalism Al Jazeera does is still a pipe-dream in that country. Northwestern University in Qatar journalism student Yara Darwish said of her countrymen, including her parents, “they actually have no clue of what journalism is. The culture in Qatar hasn’t allowed them to accept the idea of journalism. We are not a society that shares everything, that shares the news; we are a very private society.
Exclusive: Edward Snowden leaks reveal UK’s secret Middle-East web surveillance base
Britain runs a secret internet-monitoring station in the Middle East to intercept and process vast quantities of emails, telephone calls and web traffic on behalf of Western intelligence agencies, The Independent has learnt. The station is able to tap into and extract data from the underwater fibre-optic cables passing through the region. The information is then processed for intelligence and passed to GCHQ in Cheltenham and shared with the National Security Agency (NSA) in the United States.
Colombia: A Transformation
Metal wheelchairs colliding, balls gliding, and players falling -- sounds like some hybrid between bumper cars and football. It’s wheelchair rugby. These players who served and sacrificed their limbs for their country now play with more intensity than the best professional athletes. They are wounded soldiers brought together by ArcAngeles, a non-governmental organization (NGO).
The Horrific Plight of Hungary’s Roma
The chamber in the Municipal Court of Budapest was packed, observers crammed into sweaty overflow rooms staring at closed circuit television screens and anxiously awaiting the verdict. As these rooms filled, an unwieldy queue formed outside as an incongruous gaggle of journalists, victims' family, and some skinhead supporters of the accused implored court officials to let them in to hear the verdict. Arpad Kiss, his brother Istvan, their friend Zsolt Peto, and accomplice Istvan Csontos stood dead-eyed in front on the judge, flanked by masked policemen.
El Salvador: Quest for Justice
More than 20 years after the end of El Salvador's brutal civil war, its legacy of pain and misery still lingers. Until now, an amnesty has shielded from prosecution those suspected of atrocities. But the discovery of a secret directory of death squad targets has given campaigners hope that the guilty can at last be held accountable. On this edition of People & Power, we investigate how evidence of atrocities committed by government forces during the civil war sparked efforts to overturn the amnesty laws.
K-Flicks: Korean Filmmakers Storm Hollywood
If you’re a film buff, you may have heard of a Korean-made summer blockbuster that, strangely, hasn’t reached American shores quite yet. Starring a line-up of famous Western actors, some critics say Snowpiercer — Korea’s most expensive film ever — represents a potential cultural landmark. Based on a French comic book, it covers a dystopia of post-apocalyptic survivors who, living on a train that travels around the world, rebel against their repressive overlords.
Killing Them Softly
More than 160 of Singapore’s most popular news blogs went dark on June 8. The protest was a cry for help against regulatory changes that would effectively shut down independent online media in the city-state. The regulations are part of a quiet censorship that has become popular with Southeast Asian governments, which are increasingly wary of bloggers and social media activism. Bloggers worry that citizens aren’t aware of how effective this soft approach is, or of its far-reaching consequences.
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