Pakistanis have nothing but love for YouTube: It’s been over a year since Pakistan banned YouTube, but the love ordinary citizens have for the site hasn’t waned. That’s the message behind the group Pakistan for All’s new video “Hugs for YouTube”. The premise of the video is simple: a mascot dressed as the YouTube logo walks the streets of Karachi while holding a sign reading “Hug me if you want me back.” As the Jackson 5 classic “I Want You Back” plays in the background, people eagerly comply.
Watch the video below.
You can also follow Pakistan for All’s Facebook page here. The group describes itself as “a collective of concerned citizens outraged by the persecution of minorities in Pakistan.” (via @JillianCYork, The Express Tribune)
‘Impossible journalism’ and press intimidation in Sri Lanka: The controversial Commonwealth summit ended in Sri Lanka this weekend, but one place you won’t see any reporting on what happened at the gathering is Britain’s Channel 4. News Editor Ben de Pear details the intimidation and monitoring his team was subject to in a blog post.
Here’s a small sampling:
We have been followed everywhere by people we are reliably informed are intelligence, on foot, motorbike, motor rickshaw and in mostly, for some uniform reason, silver hatchback cars.
Our phones and laptops have been monitored, our hotel was under instructions to tell the authorities every time we left, and it has been made clear to us by those who have bravely wanted to meet that many of them are then spoken to themselves.
We were tailed by up to four vehicles, and when we stopped to film the scene of a Tamil Tiger terror attack in 1996, our crew had rocks hurled at them by people we believe to be members of the security services.
The Committee to Protect Journalists has long spoken out against the “perilous climate of press freedom” in Sri Lanka. (Channel 4)
India leads the world in premature births: To mark World Prematurity Day on Sunday, members of the Indian Foundation for Premature Babies gathered in Chennai to discuss how to handle preterm births in India. It’s estimated that one in five pregnancies in India could end in premature delivery. (Deccan Chronicle)
Miss America comes home: Miss America pageant winner Nina Davuluri returned to her hometown of Syracuse this weekend for a three day visit. On Saturday, the former Miss Syracuse visited the Upstate Golisano Children’s Hospital “helping them craft pageant-style crowns and sashes from pieces of foam.” (Syracuse Post-Standard)
Lakshmi Gandhi is an editor at The Aerogram. Follow her on Twitter @LakshmiGandhi.
