“The spread of social media, and technologies such as camera phones, have given us the unprecedented ability to create and send huge amounts of data all over the world almost instantaneously. It has also meant that the trusted sources of news are no longer just governments or the mainstream media, but include a much wider range of actors, including private citizens posting on sites such as LiveLeak. In some ways this has furthered the cause of transparency, as individual citizens have a greater capability to examine and expose government actions, yet it also allows private citizens to produce false and misleading information.”
– Nick Waters, Bellingcat
French-language global TV network TV5Monde hacked
The French-language global TV network TV5Monde was disrupted for three hours on Wednesday night by hackers claiming to belong to the militant group Islamic State, according to news reports. The hackers seized control of 11 channels as well as the network’s website and social media accounts, the reports said. TV5Monde restored its signal by Thursday morning, but said TV broadcasts would take longer to return to normal.
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THE PLOT TO FREE NORTH KOREA WITH SMUGGLED EPISODES OF ‘FRIENDS’
A friend gave Kang two radio receivers. Kang paid a bribe to avoid registering one with police, and he learned how to disassemble its case and remove the filament that hardwired it to official regime frequencies. He and his closest confidants would huddle under a blanket—to muffle the sound from eavesdroppers—and listen to Voice of America, Christian stations, and the South’s Korean Broadcasting System. “At first I didn’t believe it,” he says. “Then I started to believe but felt guilty for listening. Eventually, I couldn’t stop.”
Under their blanket, they relearned all of North Korea’s history, including the fact that the North, not the South, had started the Korean War. Beginning in 1989, they followed the breakdown of Soviet Eastern Europe and the execution of Romanian dictator Nicolae Ceauşescu, a close friend of Kim Il-sung. They heard the music of Simon and Garfunkel and Michael Jackson, even learning the lyrics and softly singing along. “Listening to the radio gave us the words we needed to express our dissatisfaction,” Kang would later write. “Every program, each new discovery, helped us tear a little freer from the enveloping web of deception.”
Continue reading (story from wired)
Image credit: Joe Pugliese
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