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According to confidential information accessed by El American, the Office of Cuba Broadcasting (OCB), which oversees Radio Television Mart, has a list of between 25 and 30 federal employees who could soon be fired from that channel. Since November 2020, right on the brink of the controversial presidential elections, several dozen contractors have been laid off.

At first glance, the matter seems to be a consequence of the budget cuts to be made by the current administration. However, employees and former employees explained to El American that there is strong censorship in the channel and that the budget cut would be one of the numerous measures that have been implemented for months, which would intend to seek to silence both those who discomfort the Cuban regime and those from the United States who are interested in resuming relations with the oldest dictatorship in the hemisphere.

An employee of Radio Television Mart, who asked not to be identified, explained to El American that he has been instructed not to use the word dictatorship in reports and audiovisual products in general. He assured that he also cannot use the word regime and, instead, has been asked to use the word government to refer to Castros tyranny. Likewise, the word dictator is forbidden and the word president must be used, according to our source.

What they tell you had happened during the administration of Barack Obama and Joe Biden, which ended in 2017. Colleagues related to me how they were censored back then. The budget is a pretext, an alibi, an old trick of the socialist clique that has done so much harm to the dream of the visionary Jorge Ms Canosa and the great Ronald Reagan, Luis Leonel Len, a former OCB contractor who worked for years at Radio Televisin Mart, commented to El American.

Radio Televisin Mart has been since its creation a space that is supposed to be dedicated to showing not only Cubans, but the American people and the entire world, the truth of what is happening on the island under a regime that has been in power for decades. The statements and testimonies of employees and former employees about an environment of censorship that would be an open secret are of great concern to the entire Cuban community and to the defenders of freedom of expression.

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Another source contacted by El American pointed out that the cut in funds is functional to continue firing people who are uncomfortable with the interests of the Castro regime. He also assured that what is being experienced in the working environment of the channel is fear.

Luis Leonel confirmed these statements, assuring that if not everybody, a great part of the people are afraid. I was not told that. I lived it. It was sad and frustrating to see how fear is a constant where freedom is supposedly defended. The people I worked with still regret it. And you dont have to be very enlightened to clearly understand that if there is fear, it is because something is very wrong there.

El American also spoke with Isabel Cuervo, a renowned investigative journalist who was fired from Radio TV Mart in 2018. When we asked her if she experienced any kind of censorship at the channel, she answered the following: The biggest censorship that has ever happened in the history of Radio TV Mart was imposed on me, when in October 2018 they censored a report on George Soros, deleted it from all platforms, escorted me out of the building and then subjected me to federal investigation.

In relation to the atmosphere in the media, Cuervo said: With the Soros case they left a strong precedent, but obviously the censorship and silencing of journalists will continue. It is a shame and a real danger that this is happening in the United States.

Regarding the importance and impact of the media, Luis Leonel pointed out that Radio Mart could be the detonator for the Cubans imprisoned on the Island to finally reach the longed-for freedom, which has not yet been achieved and which will not be possible without a media that directly and systematically sends them free information. He also added that deactivating Radio Television Marti would be a great victory for Castroism. They want it as much as they want the Embargo removed and the Guantnamo Naval Base handed over to them, he said.

Legislators from both parties have sent a letter to the U.S. Agency for Global Media (USAGM), which is in charge of OCB, to reject the budget cut. Mario Daz-Balart, Carlos Gimnez, Mara Elvira Salazar, Senators Marco Rubio and Rick Scott, among others, have stressed the importance of Radio Televisin Mart for the Cuban people and access to free information.

The budget cut for OCB is worrisome and would significantly affect a medium that for a long time has denounced to the world what Cubans suffer. However, the allegations of censorship within the media are even more alarming. Turning off the voices of Radio Television Mart that tell the reality of what is happening under Castros regime would almost be tantamount to legitimizing the Castro dictatorship and Miguel Diaz-Canel before the world. There are no media anywhere in the world that does what Radio Televisin Mart has done for decades in giving voice to the Cuban people.

Vanessa Vallejo. Co-editor-in-chief of El American. Economist. Podcaster. Political and economic analysis of America. Colombian exile in the United States // Vanessa Vallejo. Co-editora en jefe de El American. Economista. Podcaster. Anlisis poltico y econmico de Amrica. Colombiana exiliada en EE. UU.

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Censorship at Radio TV Mart? Employees of the Historic TV Station Talk About Possible Mass Dismissals - El American

In China, social media censors have been ordered to drown out public complaints about food and drug shortages.

China was the first country in the world to put quarantines in place during the Covid-19 pandemic. But the virus still persists there, as everywhere else. The Ili Kazakh autonomous prefecture, also known as Yili, was placed under lockdown in early August this year after a fresh outbreak of the virus, and this move was taken without any official announcement to give the public time to prepare.

Now, one month into the lockdown, locals in Yili have taken to social media to write about their experiences, especially about growing concerns and complaints regarding shortages of food, medication, delays or outright refusals of medical care. But their posts are being drowned out by a flood of innocuous posts dealing with anything from cooking to details of personal moods but not all is as innocent as it seems.

According to a leaked directive published by the China Digital Times, government censors were ordered to open a campaign of comment flooding to hide posts criticising the lockdown or those expressing concern with how the situation is evolving.

There are no subject matter restrictions, the document reads, according to CDTs translation. Content may include domestic life, daily parenting, cooking, or personal moods. All internet commentary personnel should post once an hour (twice in total), but not in rapid succession! Repeat: not in rapid succession!

Sample posts archived by the CDT as a possible example of the comment flooding campaign showed pictures of landscapes or local cuisine. However, they were quickly accused of being attempts to dilute the conversation around the lockdown.

Ili Kazakh is an autonomous prefecture for Kazakh people in Northern Xinjiang the region of China that is traditionally the home of mostly Uyghur people. This province has been the site of a years-long oppression campaign by the central government against the local Uyghurs and other ethnic minorities, and locals believe the poor management of this lockdown is part of that campaign.

Locals concerns were further stoked by the fact that sites near Ili Kazakh, a popular tourist destination, have recently been re-opened to visitors. Despite this, the lockdown is now entering its 40th day with no sign of coming to a close anytime soon.

Although central authorities have denied that anything was going poorly initially, they changed their stance last week and recognized that there have been some issues with the distribution of food and medical supplies. Although they did apologize in a press conference, they shifted the blame squarely onto local officials.

Children who have a 40-degree fever cant even see a doctor, pregnant women cant even get into the hospital, we really cant take this any more, said one reported comment. First they say its fake news, then they apologise, added another. What is real, is that the entire city has been silent for 41 days, said another, according to CDT.

Last week, a health official in Yili said that the remaining lockdowns will be lifted after two to three more rounds of testing, according to the South China Morning Post.

The severity of the lockdown in Yili is bewildering given that only around 220 cases of Covid-19 infections are recorded in the whole Xinjiang province. But the rolling lockdowns continue to be implemented in various areas of China under the countrys dynamic zero containment strategy, in which widespread lockdowns and other restrictions can be implemented suddenly on residences, neighborhoods, or even whole cities, in an attempt to stifle any potential outbreak.

Still, the Chinese Governments use of concentration camps against ethnic Uygurs, in the form of the Xinjiang internment camps, officially called vocational education and training centers, casts a huge shadow of doubt on the Yili lockdown. Even if instituted for public safety, locals are understandably reluctant to assume fair play. The severity of restrictions imposed here, alongside food shortages, in particular, raise genuine concerns from locals which are further fueled by the leaked directive.

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Chinese censors told to drown out posts about food and medicine shortages in the mostly-Uyghur province of Xinjian - ZME Science

Board members Stephanie Kraybill and Stephanie Walker exit the dais after an abrupt recess. (PCD).

NEW HANOVER COUNTY New Hanover County Schools staff are revising recording procedures in place at school board meetings after facing accusations of censorship from the public and one board member.

According to Chief Communications Officer Josh Smith, his team will record meetings without interruption from the time the doors open to the public until equipment is taken down at the end of the meeting.

Previously, recordings began when the meeting was called to order and ended when adjourned. When the board was on a break or in closed session, the video would cut to a different screen or play a district promotional video.

I expect we will still occasionally work through technical issues, especially when guests or speakers are remote, he said. But we will otherwise operate much like a C-Span stream of congressional sessions: cameras rolling, microphones hot.

Since last weeks school board meeting, confusion has circulated regarding a tense exchange and its documentation between two board members.

Almost six hours into the school board meeting on Sept. 6, the board was discussing fees at sports games, nine agenda items away from adjournment. Board member Nelson Beaulieu noted the time.

Its 10:45 at night and I apologize to you, he said, directing his comment toward the audience. This is silly.

On the recording, while Beaulieu was speaking, board member Stephanie Walker can also be heard talking, to which board chair Stephanie Kraybill responded repeatedly and sternly: Stop it.

Walker stood up and leaned over to say something to Kraybill in her ear, which is inaudible on the recording. On Tuesday, Walker told Port City Daily she told the chair to stop yelling in her face.

Kraybill then recessed the meeting and the two women stood and walked to the back room. The livestream video cuts off at this point, transferring to a screen notifying viewers the board is on a break.

Kraybill explained the situation further.

The action caught me off guard, and her words and her tone of delivery were concerning, she wrote in an email Tuesday. I needed to remove myself from the situation, so I called for a recess. I did not ask Ms. Walker to follow me off the dais.

According to Walker, Judy Justice and Beaulieu, Kraybill asked NHCS attorney Colin Shive to come with her upon her exit. Walker told PCD while in the back room with Kraybill, the chair asked the attorney if she could adjourn the meeting.

When the two members returned, Kraybill proceeded: We will pick up the remaining items at our next available opportunity. Meeting over.

No motion to dismiss was presented, nor vote taken, a violation of Roberts Rules of Order, which guide meeting processes. According to NHCS policy, the board chair may adjourn the meeting individually in the event of an emergency.

I made a mistake in adjourning the meeting without a motion and a vote, Kraybill admitted.

To add a touch of irony to the nights events, board member Pete Wildeboer requested earlier in the meeting the board review Roberts Rules of Order in the near future. He could not be reached for comment by press.

Seconds after adjournment, the recordings audio cut, though video shows Shive conversing with Kraybill.

I dont know what the understanding was about adjourning the meeting, but he said, you cant do that, you need a day and a time that youre going to continue, Walker told PCD.

A new video begins five to 10 minutes later, after the meeting was called back to order.

Smith told PCD several minutes passed.

Beaulieu, who was driving home when he was requested to return, said he didnt know how long the video cut out, but estimated he was gone around 6 or 7 minutes.

Walker said during the interim, what the video doesnt show is her asking the board to continue the meeting, as only a few agenda items remained. The video resumes with board member Stephanie Adams making a motion to approve the proposed fee schedule.

The allegations of censorship arose when it was discovered the districts livestream of the event did not catch that entire exchange and resumption of the meeting.

On Sept. 8, board member Judy Justice took to Facebook to call out discrepancies in the recording, claiming the move was censorship. She also emailed Smith on Sept. 9: Whether by intentional omission or by actual cutting of that part of the video, without a doubt this part of our meeting was censored out.

Smith explained when the meeting was initially adjourned, the broadcast coordinator Chase Fulton stopped recording as the audience and senior staff started packing away their things.

After several minutes, when it was evident the meeting was to continue, we the senior staff resumed our seats, and Mr. Fulton began recording/streaming again, Smith said.

He added that everything they recorded was posted to the NHCS YouTube. His response to Justices email informed her the media was reaching out about her social media post.

I humbly ask that prior to publicly calling into question the professionalism or ethics of me or any NHCS staff member, you ask the technical questions before posting, Smith wrote in the email. I am happy to discuss this further at the boards pleasure in an open session.

Justice did not respond back to Smith and explained why to PCD.

I think hes doing his job, and I cant blame him for that, Justice said. The lack of transparency is coming from the very top.

Editors Note: Previous reporting used the districts rules of decorum interchangeably with Roberts Rules of Order. The article has been updated to clarify the difference. PCD regrets the error.

Reach out to Brenna Flanagan at brenna@localdailymedia.com.

Want to read more from PCD? Subscribenowand then sign up for our morning newsletter,Wilmington Wire, and get the headlines delivered to your inbox every morning.

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NHCS addresses accusation of censoring board meeting, chair admits to adjourning improperly - Port City Daily

This morning, I logged onto my main TikTok account, @finnegansache, only to learn that I had received a permanent ban. I had just come off a seven day ban from posting videos, leaving comments, and even sending direct messages to the many friends I have made across the world. I tend to get one of these seven day bans at least once every month.

It goes down like this: Right-wingers target my account, which presently has 26,410 followers, by falsely mass reporting videos that have managed to get through to a sizable audience (quite a few of my TikToks have had viewership in the six figures) and in which I speak out against Republican tyranny (as well as smug Democratic inaction). But because I have racked up enough community guidelines violations largely factitious TikTok hits me with a seven day ban, even when I appeal every single one of these falsely flagged videos and win the vast majority of my petitions.

TikToks ongoing censorship of marginalized voices is nothing new, but it has yet to be rectified. And the companys war on free speech is incredibly dangerous during a time in which we need to hear from those who are denied and restricted from other platforms. In March 2000, The Intercept intercepted internal documents at TikTok that revealed a company edict that ordered the moderators to suppress posts made by the poor, the ugly, and the disabled. Not long after this article dropped, Time reported on Black creators also being suppressed by the shady China-based tech giant. The BBC reported that transgender users were censored. The upshot is that, if you arent a wildly attractive, white cis hetero type who never talks politics and who looks good while twerking, TikTok and its moderators will go out of their way to silence you even when the users enjoy your content.

On my TikTok account, I have spoken out against racism, sexism, transphobia, homophobia, income inequality, climate change deniers, disinformation, fawning Trump acolytes, anti-choicers, sinister misogynists, white supremacists, political corruption, corporate greed, capitalistic ills, the ongoing war on the homeless, conspiracy theorists, and the lachrymose yahoos who attempted insurrection on January 6th. None of these topics are verboten under TikToks community guidelines. I have always been a man of the left. A godless heathen who stands for empathy and dignity and human understanding and who isnt afraid to tell the truth. And because I cant be bought and because I have always done everything on my own terms (and have won audiences and awards this way), the media ecosystem has gone well out of its way to ignore me or, if they cant do that, they invent false stories about me. Ive been kicking around for more than twenty years at this creative game and theyve never been able to get me on my work. Fragile and talentless egos which would include the TikTok moderators tend to be terrified of anyone who pulls a faster gun.

TikTok, on the other hand, has been a welcoming place for an eccentric outlier like me. On TikTok at least when it works Ive been tremendously humbled and honored to listen to other peoples stories and I do my best to live up to my quite accidental and newfound duties of sticking up for the people. With great power comes great responsibility.

Whenever I synthesize recent news into thoughtful and entertaining 60 second videos all edited in camera with Sam Raimi-style angles to get people to care about increasingly dystopian developments my TikTok videos have proven to be enormously popular. Perhaps because there is no other voice out there who is speaking out against injustice quite like me and because I have a theatrical panache. I honestly dont know. I didnt go onto TikTok to win an audience. It just happened.

Still, Im cognizant enough to recognize that TikTok far more than Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram is the public agora. And if I want to persuade people to give a damn about vital issues, even if its only a few dozen, then I have to be on there. And honestly I have enjoyed it.

There are now 1 billion active users on TikTok. If I can get through to at least a small sliver of that vast audience and get them worked up enough to care about social ills or to change things, then, as far as Im concerned, Im doing the bare minimum at preventing (or perhaps postponing) the United State of America from sliding into vile despotism. I feel that it is my moral responsibility to raise hell and to call out bullshit in these troubled times and to do so within the framework of the community guidelines. Will I post a thirst trap or dance ridiculously or pick up my guitar and sing and improvise a silly song in order to give people an additional incentive to stand up for abortion rights? You bet your ass I will.

TikTok has also been a healthy outlet for me to perform creative ablutions (roughly six to nine TikToks each day, most of them recorded in one take) just before I roll up my sleeves every weekday morning and get on with the often difficult but always enjoyable business of writing. And, unlike Twitter, I have found that the good people on TikTok are quite capable of behaving like adults, engaging in civil disagreement, and hashing out ideas without getting involved in some jealousy-fueled character assassination campaign predicated upon lies, libel, and unfounded rumors. On TikTok, the Establishment is on an equal footing with the vox populi. Several celebrities have tried to join TikTok and they have been hilariously and mercilessly shot down by an audience that is increasingly less willing to tolerate their clueless and privileged vapidity. The punchy Gen Zers and the fierce millennials on TikTok have restored my faith in the generations who will follow me long after I drop dead. On TikTok, you cant coast on your fame or your blue checkmark. You actually have to create interesting content that is of the moment. You have to listen to other people. And by simply listening to other people, which I have always done, even a middle-aged punk like me has managed to get through to younger people.

But on TikTok, theres an altogether different Establishment a shadow Establishment that is using a wide variety of facile tactics to muzzle anyone who stands against tyranny. The community guidelines much like the constantly revised rules in George Orwells Animal Farm are subject to the whims of some miserable bastard toiling in a 996 perdition.

I cant win every appeal. Because the TikTok moderators some of which are reputed to be based in red states and who take out their trauma on those who play by the rules and who work for slave wages are complicit in silencing my voice. If you mention the Holocaust even when you are citing specific historical examples you will be flagged for hate speech even when you are speaking against hate. If you speak out against bullies, you will be accused of bullying. The TikTok moderators are quite happy to gaslight you. They have deliberately failed to address at least twelve of my videos that were falsely given the ol CGV treatment, letting these videos rot in appeal purgatory and accumulate artificial community guidelines violations when I have, in fact, not violated any community guidelines in these videos.

While its certainly true that my personality defaults quite naturally to anti-authoritarian rebel and that I have a low bullshit threshold, I still abide by community guidelines. And since I tend to be a creative prankster, I decided to prepare 100 TikToks over the course of a week to upload at one time: at the very moment that my latest seven day ban was lifted. This was a ban that was artificially consummated by conservative snowflakes and their willing executioners over at TikTok. (As I said, I won every goddamned appeal against me. But the ban remained enforced.) By the time I had uploaded 45 of these videos, my account was hit with a permanent ban. I had pulled such a stunt before without retribution.

And even though there is no official TikTok policy limiting how many videos one can upload at one time, I was still targeted by the moderators.

Let me be clear that I have had videos falsely targeted for nudity and sexual activity when I have merely rubbed my belly while wearing a shirt. I have been targeted for bullying and harassment when criticizing the likes of Ron DeSantis and Lauren Boebert for their stupidity and cruelty using objective facts. Meanwhile, sixteen-year-old girls are allowed to dance in skimpy thongs without rebuke and white supremacists and misogynists and pedophiles have been allowed to spread their bilious hatred without being silenced.

About twenty minutes after I received the permanent ban, I learned that my account had been restored, although I was hit with another seven day ban. And it is abundantly clear that the TikTok moderators have gone well out of their way to attenuate my voice. Because when you cannot regularly upload videos, your views, followers, comments, and likes take a significant hit. In my case, I have seen up to an 80% drop in engagement every time I am hit with one of these sham timeouts. (You can see from the accompanying image just how much of a hit I took in the last seven days.)

And Im one of the lucky leftists. A wonderful and well-loved user by the name of @mdg650hawk has been forced to create nine separate accounts, six of which have been permanently banned. He now shuffles between his three remaining accounts. He is a voice of progressive sanity. Ive never seen the man do anything untoward. But the TikTok moderators have it in for him. A user named @levantinewitch has also been banned for leftist sentiments. Or how about Savannah Edwards? Banned for being a progressive and smart-as-hell Black woman. There are hundreds, if not thousands, of vital progressives who are either banned or who are, like me, on the cusp of being banned. None of them violated any community guidelines. Or, if they did, it was certainly not frequent enough to merit an outright gag on their vital work. Their only crime was to speak truth to power and get through to a lot of people. This is a noble and peaceful practice as old as politics. But TikTok seems to act as if a principled stand one that is only offensive to the chickenheads too intoxicated by the rapturous voices of a fictitious deity and an orange-tinted megalomaniac is on the level of some creepy guy in a trenchcoat flaunting his junk at a playground.

The optimist in me still believes that TikTok has the potential to be the greatest place that the Internet has ever created. But when such a repugnant autocratic streak pours like some white stripe of paint turning an innocent cat into a skunk for Pepe le Pew to woo, one wonders if theres any hope for democracy. The pungent smell of a corrupt company with corrupt moderators is simply too malodorous for TikToks otherwise promising clime. If TikTok cannot fix this problem and it seems very much that they cant and they wont then its time for some tech entrepreneur to roll the VC dice and beat TikTok at its own game. The panoply is too important for us to settle for anything less.

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How TikTok is Censoring the Left Reluctant Habits - Reluctant Habits

With Russia increasingly cut off from the world following its 24 February invasion of Ukraine, the countrys remaining contemporary art market, facing evident economic and often unspoken ideological pressures, is increasingly looking inward. The tenth Cosmoscow International Art Fair, which runs from 14 to 17 September, was no exception.

Even before the event began, such ideological pressures had apparently been felt by some of the participating dealers. A Telegram channel called Courier of Culture, run by a contemporary art publicist, reported that three unnamed galleries had complained about censorship by the fair, at the application stage, preventing any political works or anything that could in any way be linked to the current state of affairsmeaning the warfrom being exhibited.

One anonymous dealer tells The Art Newspaper: "Cosmoscow asked that we change the design of the stand, the artists, their work and the hanging of it. There was nothingpolitical in the works, nor in the idea of the stand, but it was as if the board was trying to choose works where in the current context definitely no second hidden meanings would be sensed."

They add: "Every year [at Cosmoscow] we show young artists of roughly the same style, and this year there was a feeling that the objections were at the level of 'degenerate art'."

A law signed by President Vladimir Putin just days after the invasion makes it illegal to call the invasion a war and threatens those who spread fakes about the Russian military with up to 15 years in prison.

In April a criminal case was opened against the artist Oleg Kulik on charges of rehabilitation of Nazism for his sculptural installation Big Mother (2015), which was shown at the Art Moscow fair at the Gostiny Dvor centre, just yards from the Kremlin, which is also the venue for Cosmoscow. The work came under fire for allegedly mocking The Motherland Calls, a monument in Volgograd commemorating the Battle of Stalingrad. Kulik, who grew up in Kyiv, has said it was meant to depict the pain of his divorce.

Margarita Pushkina, fair director

Photo: Alexander Murashkin

Censorship not allowed

Margarita Pushkina, Cosmoscows founder and director, says: We have never allowed and do not allow internal censorship. Meanwhile, the fairs expert committee is working as usual, selecting the best galleries to participate in the fair.

The most important thing right now, Pushkina adds, is not to multiply contradictions and conflicts, but instead to maintain human and professional relations, continue the dialogue and discuss ways to resolve complex issues. The fair and galleries, she points out, are all directly dependent on the state of the economy.

For a long time there was a question mark over whether the fair would go ahead at all. Simon Rees, the artistic director of the fairs previous edition, resigned immediately after the invasion. Pushkina says a successor has not been appointed because the fairs priorities have shifted.

One of the tasks of the artistic director of the fair has always been to develop international cultural dialogue and to attract galleries from other countries, Pushkina says. In the current situation, we understand that there is emotion involved for international galleries, as well as many difficulties and risks. First of all, there are logistical difficulties, so their participation does not seem simple and obvious.

Indeed, there are no longer any direct flights to Moscow from the US, UK and elsewhere in Europe, except for Turkey and Serbia, and leading shipping companies are boycotting Russia over the invasion.

The only solution, Pushkina says, is to now concentrate on working with Russian gallery owners in order to try to stabilise the situation and continue working on the development of the domestic art market.

The vast majority of the more-than 65 participating galleries at Cosmoscow are Russian, compared with 82 galleries in 2021, when the fair had the broadest geography in its history, and on par with the 62 participants in 2020, at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Ukrainian artists were always an organic and integral part of the Russian art scene, but understandably no Ukrainian galleries applied for stands this year, Pushkina says.

In recognition of the present situation, Cosmoscow is not marking its tenth anniversary with any special events, Pushkina says, though she did not directly mention the war.

All of us in one way or another are influenced by current events and react to what is happening in our country and in the world, she says. In the current situation, it is impossible to remain indifferent. Everyone determines for himself which path to follow, to remain silent or to continue the activity in a modified format.

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First Cosmoscow fair since Russian invasion of Ukraine to open with no foreign galleries and internal complaints of censorship - Art Newspaper