A Ph.D. student at Michigan State University said his mother was arrested in Bangladesh after he criticized the country’s government in a Facebook post.

  • Something Burger 🍔@jlai.lu
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    4
    arrow-down
    7
    ·
    1 year ago

    South America and Africa aren’t the first places you think about when someone mentions freedom of the press. France is the “country of human rights”, it should be top 10, and it’s not even top 10 in Europe.

    • barsoap@lemm.ee
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      6
      ·
      edit-2
      1 year ago

      Namibia consistently ranks as the top country in Africa regarding press freedom and has been a stable democracy ever since being freed from colonial rule by South Africa.

      (South Africa had a mandate over Namibia I mean, the Apartheid fucks attempted to implement Apartheid there, not free the country).

      There’s still issues with women’s rights and those of sexual minorities, as well as various indigenous groups being marginalised and having poor socio-economic status (notably San) but overall that’s more of a function of where the country came from, and not where it’s going.

      You should be exactly as ashamed of being behind Namibia in press freedom as you’re ashamed of being behind Germany. Also, that your former colonies fare much, much worse. Git gud. And you can find solace in the fact that the UK ranks below you.

      • scv@discuss.online
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        4
        arrow-down
        1
        ·
        1 year ago

        Thank you, that guy is so bigoted he didn’t realize I was calling him out.

    • Nix@merv.news
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      6
      ·
      1 year ago

      France is one of the main reasons Latin American and African countries are in the positions they’re in… I don’t see how France could be the “country of human rights”

    • RegularGoose@sh.itjust.works
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      4
      ·
      1 year ago

      France is the “country of human rights”

      There has literally never been a single moment in history when this was even remotely true.

      • Something Burger 🍔@jlai.lu
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        1
        ·
        1 year ago

        French politicians and journalists often refer to France this way. Of course, it’s not true, especially considering the number of times it was sentenced by the European court of human rights.