The poet talks to us about Russia, St. Petersburg, Italy, literature, and the out-of-body experience of good translation

Alexandra Petrova Photo: © Molly Burkett

Alexandra Petrova is an award-winning Russian poet and fiction writer who resides in Rome. She is the author of three collections of poetry, Point of Detachment (1994), Residence Permit (2000), and Just the Trees (2008). Her poems have appeared in several Russian magazines as well as in Literary Revue, Modern Poetry in Translation, Drunken Boat, and Guernica among others. Alexandra has also written a libretto for a philosophical operetta “Dolly’s Shepherds.” She is currently writing her first novel at the University of Iowa with the International Writing Program.

Petrova was one of the readers at City of Asylum’s 2011 Jazz/Poetry Concert; she was interviewed by Rita Mockus at the New Hazlett Theatre on the day of her debut reading in Pittsburgh. In this interview Petrova talks about St. Petersburg’s international characteristics, Russia’s problems with forgotten history, and the out-of-body experience of good translation.

Let’s talk about your journey as a creative writer. You were born in Russia, later you shortly lived in Estonia and Israel, and now you live in Italy. Does immigration have an effect on your poetry?

I have lived abroad half of my life, but I still write in Russian. Just this year I began writing in Italian; I wrote several short stories, just for fun, but I have noticed that another personality came out of my writing in a foreign language. I’m very different when I write in Italian and it’s interesting for me to discover how much the language we use can affect our personality and our writing style.

Some people believe that my life and my experiences abroad have changed my poetry, but in my opinion, it hasn’t changed that much. I was born and, for many years, I lived in St. Petersburg, an international city which provided a chance for me to live abroad while I was still in Russia.

For me St. Petersburg—which, by the way, is not a Russian name—was the center of the world, inhabited by various cultures living together in symbiosis. For example, strolling down the streets of St. Petersburg I would see an Armenian church, and soon after, a Catholic church, followed by a Lutheran church.

I also lived very close to the Hermitage museum so I would frequently go there after school to explore Italian art or Dutch still life. .For a child growing in St Peterburg it was inevitable and completely natural not to feel much difference between Russian and Italian pronunciation of such names as, for example, Rinaldi, Brenna or Rastrelli.

To answer your question, I started writing poetry before I left Russia, but now, living outside of it, I feel that I have a better grasp of why my native country is the way it is. Perhaps distance is helping me…

In your poem “My Place,” the last line reads, “My nesting place / Italy / my resting place.” Can you comment on that?

Alexandra Petrova in the New Hazlett Theatre. Photo: © Molly Burkett

When I came to Rome, I visited the historic Cimitero acattolico, a famous non-Catholic cemetery where a lot of English writers, including Keats and Percy Shelley were buried along with several important 17th and 18th century Russians. In its literal sense it is a very romantic place. The phrase “my resting place” is also a playful allusion to this cemetery. I love including a secret or even a childish drawing in my poems. In this particular poem I use antique Slavic words that in Russian have the same root, meaning ‘place.’ I am also interested in occasionally employing words like, for example, kladbishia that has a dual meaning of cemetery and cache.

When you metaphorically write, “Russia, my blind mother, / I, your coachman, am freezing inside of you,” what are you actually saying?

The word I use here for ‘mother’ is mamasha. I guess there is no word in English that would accurately describe what I intend to convey by this Russian word. Mamasha means a very cold, unloving woman or mother. Even though I am Russian and love my country, I still think that Russia is blind and, in some ways, cold and terrible.

It seems to me that Russia holds no memory of herself. She is blind because she can’t see how her own history shapes her people. Every new period wipes off everything preceding it. Beginning with Peter the Great, the Tsar who drastically changed Russia’s old culture and killed many people, every new reformation or revolution in Russia makes the memory of the former era sound either criminal or completely right. Nothing in between seems to exist. For example, now some people are nostalgic even of Stalin’s Soviet times. Why? Because they don’t remember how things truly were during those times. This blind mentality is very sad.

“It seems to me that Russia holds no memory of herself. She is blind because she can’t see how her own history shapes her people.”

Is there a difference between poetry and political statement?

Political or not, good poetry is always contemporary. One doesn’t have to write about, say, how terrible Vladamir Putin is. One can write about the ageless topic of trees and still use a current cultural or political point of view. Poetry doesn’t have to be political, but I think that good poetry is never pure demagogy.

Do you accept translation or do you think that it can never adequately represent a poetic text?

Generally, I don’t believe in translation. The Italians have a saying: Traduttore e` traditore (a translator is a traitor), but it’s not always true. Sometimes translation improves the original—in my case, I hope not.

However, I also work as a translator. I have just finished translating a rather difficult text (Patrizia Cavalli’s Patria) and I guess Italians, like us Russians, think about their country all the time. In translation, literary works always look different. When you translate, you have to try to discover the spirit of the poem—which is written in a language that is foreign to you—and completely immerse yourself in it. It’s like you’re entering the writer’s mind and body. If that happens, then the translation is successful.

Is freedom of creative expression still repressed in Russia? Are there limitations on what can be published in Russia?

Nowadays you can write about anything you want in Russia. You can also find a publisher for your work. Ironically, that doesn’t change anything. Well, of course, if you are a journalist and write about dangerous topics such as Chechnya or corruption, then it’s a different story. However, nobody pays any attention to what is happening in novels or poems. Creative writing no longer has the power to change anything in society or politics. It had that power before—people were even afraid of its allegorical and symbolic meaning—but not anymore. It’s very depressing. I don’t know how things will be in the future. Even though I don’t live there at the present moment, I write in Russian, so it still concerns me.

Your writing has moved from poetry to philosophical play (operetta), and now you are writing your first novel. What prompts you to try different genres? How are they different from each other?

When I was writing my operetta I noticed that I was able to engage with the absurd world in a more effective way than in my poetry or prose. Prose is different from poetry because it has a much slower pace. In poetry you can do away with all the ‘unnecessary’ words. In prose you can’t completely avoid description. You have to write about a lot of mundane details and sometimes use boring words and sentences.

Does your writing—poetry, prose, or drama—in any way address issues of contemporary feminism?

I am a natural feminist, so I don’t think it’s one of my obsessions. I was born in a family of women who had university degrees. My great grandmother went to college, and so did my grandmother, and later my mother. Our house was predominately female, we didn’t have to deal with male characters and constantly fight for our rights. I understand that there are women for whom this subject is of cardinal significance, but feminism is not one of my topics.

You have started your international writing program in Iowa. What effect do you hope the Iowa experience will have on your poetry?

I don’t know, maybe I will write something about the squirrels—use them as a metaphor for something. By the way, there is an abundance of them in Iowa. Otherwise, I don’t know; we will see. Perhaps later I will be able to say more about my experience there.

Read a selection of Alexandra Petrova’s poetry from Iowa’s International Writers Program.

The Weekly Digest — a round-up of Sampsonia Way‘s top stories — is your source for quality weekend reading. Sign up today and get it delivered every weekend to your inbox.

Dermot Bolger. Photo: Laura Mustio

Reimagining Ireland: Interview with Dermot Bolger
In this interview Raymund Ryan and Irish writer Dermot Bolger take us through the many phases of Dublin—through architecture, literature, politics, and history. Bolger tells the story of his youth in Ireland founding Raven Arts Press, his experiences with Irish censorship, and how in the 80s an eyesore became a haven for the arts.

Turkmenistan: The Emergence of Citizen Journalism
Turkmenistan has the world’s third most suppressed media, followed only by North Korea and Eritrea. However, the coverage of a deadly explosion in July, 2011 marked the unprecedented emergence of citizen journalism in one of the world’s most isolated countries. We talked with three Turkmen journalists in an attempt to understand the daily challenges faced by citizen and independent journalists.

On October 16, An Emaciated Nabil Released a video from El Marg Prison

Imprisoned Egyptian Blogger Maikel Nabil Issues Statement
Sampsonia Way has been following the case of imprisoned Egyptian pacifist and blogger Maikel Nabil who has now been on hunger strike for more than sixty days. In this unedited statement, Nabil remains defiant and continues to be critical of the military courts.

Censored Website Editor Talks about Media Control in Sri Lanka
Lanka-e-News editor Sandaruwan Senadheera, who fled into exile a year ago, has been interviewed by Reporters Without Borders about the current state of media freedom and freedom of information in Sri Lanka

Two Sri Lankan Internet Service Providers blocked access to the independent news website Lanka-e-News. “This decision by Sri Lanka Telecom (SLT) and Dialog Axiata PLC to block the Lanka-e-News site reflects the increase in censorship in Sri Lanka,” Reporters Without Borders said. “We urge these ISPs not to discriminate against news sites that are critical of the government and to restore access to Lanka-e-News. The government must also stop pressuring ISPs and guarantee their independence.”

The hounding of Lanka-e-News has intensified this year. An arson attack on its headquarters in the Colombo suburb of Malabe in the early hours of 31 January gutted most of the building including the rooms housing its computers and library and forced it to suspend all activities.

The Lanka-e-News political journalist and cartoonist Prageeth Eknaligoda is meanwhile still missing. He disappeared on 24 January 2010 (See the support campaign).

Several other sites, including the Sri Lanka Guardian, are permanently blocked. Groundviews and its partner site Vikalpa were temporarily blocked on 20 June, like the Transparency International site.

Lanka-e-News editor Sandaruwan Senadheera, who fled into exile a year ago, has been interviewed by Reporters Without Borders about the current state of media freedom and freedom of information in Sri Lanka:

Why is Lanka-e-News (LeN) so important, what makes it different from other websites in Sri Lanka?

The media are under a lot of pressure at the moment in Sri Lanka. All electronic media require an annually renewable government license, so it’s as if the media were under the government’s control. It’s at a time like this that LeN is most important to the people in Sri Lanka. LeN was the first Sinhalese online media and we were the first to use the Sinhala language correctly in html. One of the main differences is that, unlike other websites in Sri Lanka, LeN is subject to zero influence from the government or any other political bodies.

Why are the media not free? Can you give examples?

The Rajapakse regime has been more hostile to journalists than any other government since independence in 1948. It is involved in a lot of corruption and it abuses its power to ensure that the word does not get out about its corruption. In the latest example, the chairman of the television channel TNL, Shaan Wickramasinghe, received death threats because he revealed the government’s corrupt involvement in the Sri Lankan share market.

Have there been any changes since the official end of the war in 2009?

There has been a change. Media freedom has gone from bad to worse. The biggest exodus of journalists has been since the end of the war.

Since the torching and closure of LeN’s office, the number of volunteer journalists and informants has increased dramatically. Before there were only four journalists working openly at LeN but now the numbers have increased tenfold and the number of informants have increased a hundredfold. This proves that Sri Lankans are in dire need of access to truthful information.

What about print media, some, like Uthayan, are still operating, aren’t they?

Right, Uthayan is an independent newspaper but the journalists who work there receive a lot of threats.

What can you tell us about Prageeth Ekneligoda, the LeN cartoonist and journalist?

The media minister at the time of Prageeth’s disappearance, Lakshman Yapa Abeywardana, personally told LeN that we would receive good news about Prageeth “within a week.” This is clear evidence that the government was involved in his disappearance.

What is needed to improve the situation of press freedom in Sri Lanka?

I think that the Constitution’s cancelled 17th amendment [envisaging the creation of an independent electoral commission to guarantee electoral transparency] needs to be reintroduced not only to bring back press freedom but also for democracy, law and order, and justice in Sri Lanka. The international community needs to exert greater pressure than just stopping [Sri Lanka’s benefits under the Generalised System of Preferences Plus]. In fact the international community has a big responsibility in this aspect.

This interview was originally published in Reporters without Borders

Egyptian Blogger Maikel Nabil

Sampsonia Way has been following the situation of imprisoned Egyptian pacifist and blogger Maikel Nabil who has now been on hunger strike for more than sixty days.

On October 11th, the military tribunal had declared the April 10th ruling that sentenced Nabil to three years in prison “null and void.” However, Nabil was not released and the court ordered a retrial for October 18th. Nabil refused to attend the retrial and, according to War Resisters International, had asked his lawyers to discontinue co-operation with the military court. According to one of his lawyers, a representative was appointed in their absence who was unfamiliar with the case.

The court ordered Nabil to be transferred to a mental health hospital to undergo evaluation. “They’re taking him to the hospital and will most likely just declare him insane,” said Maged Hanna, one of the two lawyers on Nabil’s defense team. A new trial date has been set for November 1st, which also marks the 70th day of Nabil’s hunger strike.

In a statement released on Monday October 17, Nabil appears to be lucid, but his father has reported that he is in a very grave physical condition. This unedited statement was taken from The Free Maikel Nabil Facebook page:

A Statement For Whomever it May Concern

My sadness grew of what I knew from journals last week… I was saddened for Maspero victims who were assassinated by the bullets of the militarist occupation, I was saddened for the militarists’ chasing of the leaderships of the movement and especially my sister and my colleague Sahar Maher and threatening them with death, imprisonment and attempting to recruit them to the Intelligence as the militarists attempted with me and fail continually.

So as, I was shocked of the news of the apology which my father gave the militarists and the silly way which Adel Morsi the chief of the death battalion affiliated to the military council to make him sign on an insulting paper to all revolutionaries, not me alone… I didn’t commit any mistake to apologize, I’m proud of each word I wrote and each stance I made, it honors me that I was the first one to hold banners in Tahrir against the military rule, at the time when naive politicians and the paid agents were flattering the army… The military council is the one to have to apologize on its crimes of killing, torturing and unlawful prosecutions.

The military council is the one to have to apologize for my imprisonment, my torture, silencing my mouth, spying on my life, my relatives and my friends. I disavow myself from the apology paper which my father signed.

I also felt great insult from the insistence of my lawyers to ignore my willingness in boycotting the military judiciary, and their insistence to impose a guardianship on me and to litigate before the military judiciary without my knowledge and against my will. That’s why I announce that I won’t attend tomorrow’s session, and that no lawyer represents me before the military judiciary.

May the militarists go to hell with their ugly theatrical play, I don’t beg for my freedom from a group of killers and homeland stealers.

Maikel Nabil Sanad
El-Marg general prison 2011/10/17

Update: January 25, 2012, 1:00 pm (EST)
Maikel Nabil Sanad was officially released from El-Marg prison on January 24. At the time of this update his brother Mark reports that Nabil is resting after 10 months in prison and an extended hunger strike.

Read more about Maikel Nabil here:
www.maikel-nabil-in-jail.blogspot.com/
www.freemaikel.com

July Explosion of Arms Warehouse at Abadan, Turkmenistan. Photo: Ferghana Information Agency video coverage

Turkmenistan has the world’s third most suppressed media, followed only by North Korea and Eritrea. However, the coverage of a deadly explosion in July, 2011 marked the unprecedented emergence of citizen journalism in one of the world’s most isolated countries.

In an attempt to understand the daily challenges citizen and independent journalists face while working on and from this muted country, Sampsonia Way interviewed three journalists by email: Oguljamal Yazliyeva, Director of Radio Azatlyk, the Turkmen Service of Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty (RFE/RL); Daniel Kislov, Chief Editor of Fergana Information Agency; and Anna Soltan, Turkmenistan Managing Editor at Neweurasia.

The interviewees explained that the authoritarian practices of Turkmenistan’s government carefully manipulate and regulate the flow of information within and without the country’s borders. Such practices keep its society isolated, and after almost 70 years under Soviet control, then 20 years under Saparmurat Niyazov’s dictatorship, the people fear punishment of free speech.

What are the risks for journalists and bloggers in Turkmenistan? What precautions do they need to take?

Yazliyeva: Turkmenistan is one of the most risky places for journalists and bloggers in the world. Independent journalists and bloggers are under constant surveillance, they are summoned to the national security agencies for questioning, and they face imprisonment or confinement in psychiatric clinics for their journalistic work. They and their family members are blacklisted, meaning they are not allowed to travel abroad, and their family members may be easily dismissed from their positions or expelled from schools. There was also a case of torture in prison; Ogulsapar Muradova, a contributor for the RFE/RL Turkmen Service was imprisoned in 2006 and died in Turkmen custody.

You cannot predict what will happen to you for reporting or taking a picture. The authorities may fabricate any accusation and open a criminal case against you. They may interfere into your private life and use your family problems against you. Journalists in Turkmenistan need to be very cautious. In case of any trouble, the journalist should know who to contact and report to about the security problem. Organized teamwork is helpful in such situations. It is also important to change the mobile account frequently and exercise caution while talking over the phone. Some journalists use nicknames.

How is the media controlled? How is the Internet regulated? Is access restricted?

Kislov: There are no independent media in the country. All TV-stations and papers are under the authorities’ control. Internet access is a luxury for few – rich businessmen and bureaucrats. Prices are high, and common folk must to go to the Internet café and show their passports to get Web access. However, the speed of connection is very slow, and often people cannot use Skype and other programs.

Soltan: The police can obtain the list that includes the names of people with Internet access. There are not many people who have Internet access from home. There is filtering, and Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and several other sites are blocked. The more the Internet develops, the more the control over online communication and Web content increases. For example, two 3rd semester students were evicted from the Transportation Institute recently because of their critical remarks in one of the Turkmen language chat forums. The authorities use IP tracking to locate Turkmen citizens abroad; there are rumors that the authorities are collecting information from Facebook to spy on their citizens.

In addition to your own work, what avenues are there for disseminating information within Turkmenistan? How does the information get out of the country?

Yaliyeva: Despite existing Internet restriction the number of Turkmen Internet users is increasing. Social networking is a new tool of disseminating information, but it is more popular among Turkmen citizens studying or working abroad. It is one of the ways of getting information from Turkmenistan. Information is sent through emails as well. Unfortunately, SMS service is very limited in the country. There is no SMS communication with foreign countries. Also, word of mouth is considered one of the means of getting information.

How does the situation for journalists and citizen journalists in Turkmenistan compare to other Central Asian countries like Iran and Afghanistan that also have strict state-controlled media?

Kislov: The situation in Turkmenistan is going from bad to worse. It’s the worst in the region.

Soltan: Out of these three countries Turkmenistan has the worst media environment and the journalist’s role is the most difficult. In Afghanistan journalists are able to criticize the government’s policies, and in Iran it is possible for journalists to discuss social issues without deviating from the official line. In Iran there are also many young bloggers. There is a reformist group within the Iranian government that enjoys widespread popular support. In Afghanistan there are reporters who work openly for foreign media organizations such as RFE/RL and BBC. None of this is possible in Turkmenistan. Also, various forms of statistics that are available in Iran and Afghanistan are not available in Turkmenistan, where they’re treated as a state secret.

Earlier this year, recently imprisoned Turkmen journalist Dovletmyrat Yazkuliyev compared the revolutions in the Arab world to the situation of Turkmenistan. [Yazkuliyev was released yesterday, after this interview was conducted] What could Yazkuliyev have meant by this comparison?

Soltan: As I understand it, Yazkuliyev had drawn comparisons by saying or meaning that the conditions that led to a revolution in these countries – unemployment, a small, rich elite and a large poor population, a neglected youth deprived of good education and a future, the inflation and lack of reforms—were similar to the conditions in Turkmenistan.

He also suggested that dictatorships are giving way to democracy and dictators would not get very far in oppressing their citizens. I think Yazkuliyev, with his probing questions about the decisions of the Turkmen government, was trying to speak the mind of the Turkmen people when the people themselves cannot speak.

What are the effects of the government’s sustained cultural isolation and media control on Turkmen society?

Soltan: People are less aware about what is happening around them. Because information is power, by lacking information the people can be manipulated easily, which affects the people’s ability to think, predict, and make decisions for themselves. On top of it, the country’s isolation is breeding intolerance, nationalism, and religious extremism.

People are also afraid to talk to reporters. There is still some confusion about journalism as an image of a reporter who cooperates with a foreign news station being a “spy,” an “enemy from within,” or a “traitor to the state,” which is being fostered by official propaganda and by the isolation of the country. This isolates the journalist within the society, meaning less and less good reports in the country. Otherwise, journalists flee the country because they are not able to carry out their profession in a proper manner.

On July 7, an arms depot exploded at Abadan near the capital of Ashgabat. The government first shut down the media and then downplayed the event that was reported by journalists, citizens, and bloggers as a far worse disaster that killed possibly 200 people and destroyed many buildings. What do you think the disaster of Abadan proved to the Turkmen government? The Turkmen people? The global community?

Kislov: Primarily, an unwillingness of the authorities to be responsible to the people.

Yazliyeva: The disaster of Abadan proved to the Turkmen government that it is impossible to hide information in the era of the Internet; the Turkmen people realized that information needed to be spread out for the sake of people in need; the global community saw the real face of the Turkmen government, which tried to prevent the spreading of information and persecuted the citizen journalists.

Soltan: In this situation of utmost desperation and chaos the people felt they had to inform family members, relatives, close friends, and others about what they had seen with their own eyes. They also called on each other to help at the site, which many did. I think they acted by their instincts rather than having the purpose of acting as reporters. So it was very natural of them to upload video footage and photos of the tragedy to share with others. After all, the young generation is growing up with mobile phones and the Internet. You have to imagine the scope of the catastrophe with people writing on chat forums about the horrible scenarios they have gone through, seeing dead bodies, while the government insisted that there were no deaths. After word came out that dozens, and perhaps hundreds, of people had died, and many more were injured, the authorities were prepared to admit that 15 people had died.

The Post Gazette Covers City Of Asylum Pittsburgh’s Exchange

For the first time this summer, City of Asylum created an exchange with Passa Porta, a literary organization in Brussels. It brought Paul Mennes, a Belgian writer, here and delivered Terrance Hayes, a National Book Award poet from Pittsburgh, to Brussels.

The two men exchanged letters about their experiences, and Henry Reese, co-founder of City of Asylum Pittsburgh, shared them with the Post-Gazette. Each writer anticipated that the other would be disappointed with his city.

“Just as you feared I’d find Brussels provincial, I feared you’d find Pittsburgh small and uninteresting,” Mr. Hayes wrote after their meeting.

“I didn’t expect much of Pittsburgh,” wrote Mr. Mennes. “The city has a reputation. … Someone described your home as ‘hell without a lid.’

The letters were published Friday in a Belgian newspaper, Standaard der Letteren and  in the Post-Gazette online version.

Read also Diana Nelson Jones’ City Walkabout published yesterday in the Post-Gazette printed version.

Gary Shteyngart

Gary Shteyngart answered six questions on Occupy Wall Street and shared with us his Facebook pictures of the protests.

Also read a conversation with  the author published in June.

What are the four signs /banners that have caught your attention in the protest?

Just the ones on my Facebook. Feel free to use.

People you describe in your novel have been left behind by the banks, the state, and the profit hoarding private sector. They demonstrate at Central Park demanding their basic rights. Did you think these scenes would become true that fast? Is this going to help to change something in the States?

Yes, the best thing we can all do is take up space somewhere public.

"Sure, but didn't Jesus say something like 'ye who spiteth on the top 1% also spiteth upon me.' Or was that Mitt Romney?" Gary Shteyngart via Facebook.

In your work the demonstrations only cease once America is dismantled into parts and sold off to the countries that form a new financial reign, a new world order. What are your predictions for the protests going on?

Hard to say. It would be nice if they became more of a mass movement and developed coherent political aims.

Have these protests inspired you to write something new?

Nah.

"Could we crowd-source a better slogan for these protesters?" Gary Shteyngart via Facebook.

Bill O’Reilly said about the protesters that they are jobless because they don’t want to work. Gary, are you sure that children are not our future?

What a sweetie he is. I believe Bill O’Reilly is the future. Or to quote Winston’s torturer in 1984: “If you want to see the future, Winston, picture a boot stamping on a human face forever.”

Some pundits have said that the protests are just a place to find your other half. Have you taken your dog Felix to the protests. Is it an easy place for him to find a girlfriend?

Felix has organized his own dachshund protests in Washington Square Park.

Read Amiri Baraka’s comments on Occupy Wall Street

Video: A visibly shaken anchor for Al Hurra, a news station funded by the U.S. government, continues broadcasting while security forces search the station.

October 9, Egypt: A demonstration against religious persecution of Coptic Christians turned fatal, and led to increased media censorship from the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF).

Wael Mikhael, an Egyptian cameraman for the Coptic television broadcaster Al-Tareeq, was shot in the head while filming the military clash with demonstrators.

During state television coverage of the conflict, anchors called on viewers to go to Maspero, headquarters of the Egyptian television and radio union, and defend the military from the “angry Christians” assembling there. Mobs attacked fleeing protesters with machetes, swords, and cudgels. The state’s broadcast didn’t report the 24 deaths and 107 civilians wounded in the conflict, focusing instead on 3 military deaths.

Video: During SCAF’s crackdown on the October 9 protests, protesters were run down by armed vehicles and shot with rubber bullets. Several news stations in Egypt were shut down for covering the protest.

Raids and Shut-Downs

The newspaper Al-Shorouk had electricity, phone lines, and Internet cut twice on October 9. The independent daily had released video footage of dead and injured Christian supporters on its web site.

Military personnel also raided the headquarters of 25 TV, forcing the station to go off the air and confiscating tape showing army tanks running over Coptic protesters and shooting into the crowd.

Al-Hurra, a news station funded by the U.S. government, was subjected to a search at the same time as TV 25. Both stations are housed in the same building. Al-Hurra was live-broadcasting the clashes between the Coptic demonstrators and soldiers in Maspero. Soldiers searched Al-Hurra’s studio under the pretense of pursuing men who entered the station. They harassed staff, and cut the live broadcast when they left. An Al-Hurra reporter said that the network stopped coverage for “security reasons.”

According to Shahira Amin, a journalist inside the country, 12,000 people have reportedly been tried in military courts over the last eight months – more than throughout the entire presidency of Mubarak.These events and others suggest press freedom under SCAF is just as bad, if not worse, than under Mubarak before the January revolution. In the wake of the October 9 incidents, Egyptian political forces are calling for SCAF to step down, and a transitional civilian authority to have executive power put in its place.

Amiri Baraka at Occupy Wall St. Photo posted on Baraka's Facebook page by Ngoma Hill.

Amiri Baraka, activist, writer, and a prominent figure of the Civil Right Movement, is renowned as the Father of the Black Arts Movement. Here he responds to five questions on Occupy Wall Street via email.

Is there something in these protests reminiscent of the Civil Rights Movement?

Both are part of a struggle for democracy, in this case not just a bourgeois democracy but a Peoples Democracy, where the 99% rule!

In the Civil Rights Movement strong leaders were crucial. Do these protests have the chance to be successful without appointed leaders?

The best leadership will develop internally. It must if the spontaneous uprising is to be transformed into an ongoing revolutionary force.

How did you get involved in the protests and how do you participate in them?

I visited the Wall St. site at my wife, Amina’s insistence, to see just what was going down. We have communicated our reactions to other activists in the Black Liberation Movement and expressed the need to see more Black activists there. We also have witnessed the rush of a Wells Fargo bank in Minneapolis by people similar to the wall street occupiers

What do you predict for these protests? Are they going to change something in the United States?

These protests have already changed the US to the extent that there are such protests in hundreds of cities, making it clear that a broad sector of the US population are fed up with the day to day abuses of monopoly capitalism.

In an interview with Sampsonia Way you said that “Artists are supposed to do and help the struggle for the advancement of human knowledge.”  Do you think that individual artists and art organizations are doing and helping enough in Occupy Wall Street?

I’m sure that some of the protesters are artists, but the need for a more organized response is evident. But then the need for organizational solidarity of the protests is evident as well.

Read a conversation between Amiri Baraka and Salan Udin here

Avaaz, a global non-profit organization dedicated to social democracy, celebrates a victory for the internet as legislation for the “gag law” in Italy was once again postponed last week. The organization collected over 600,000 signatures in support of a petition to prevent the law from passing.

According to Index on Censorship, the law would “[Allow] the executive to shut down web pages, bypassing the judiciary power in case of defamation; [force] newspapers to rectify what they wrote within 48 hours at the request of the person ‘offended’ by the article; it includes heavy fines for newspapers that publish material leaked from the judiciary, and it [would] probably include prison sentences for guilty journalists.”

As it is widely believed the motivation for this bill was self-serving for Berlusconi in the wake of a series of alleged sex scandals, this temporary victory marks the Italian public’s refusal to be bound by the strictures of their bacchanalian Prime Minister.