"I was trying to film, and the riot police officers just pushed me, and they forced me out and they tried to take away my camera. And this is not a rare thing anymore. It's very normal to just attack journalists," said Georgian journalist Mariam Nikuradze at the Coda-organized event “Georgia at the crossroads” on May 19.

The online discussion brought together a range of voices to examine the local dynamics and global significance of the unprecedented crackdown on dissent in Georgia. Speakers included:

• Anne Applebaum, historian (U.S.)
• Tornike Gordadze, political scientist and former minister (Georgia)
• Egor Kuroptev, political expert and media manager (Russia)
• Gia Japaridze, professor and academic (Georgia)
• Hanna Lubakova, journalist and researcher (Belarus)
• Peter Pomerantsev, author and journalist (U.K./U.S.)
• Tamara Arveladze, activist and founder of Shame Movement (Georgia)
• Mariam Nikuradze, journalist (Georgia)
• Nino Japiashvili, editor at Radio Tavisupleba (Georgia)
• Slobodan Djinovic, founding member of Otpor and founder of CANVAS (Serbia)

“Georgia at the crossroads” was organized in partnership with ZEG Fest, Stranger’s Guide and our local media partner in Tbilisi, Radio Tavisueba. Watch the recording of the full conversation below and stay tuned for more events like these in the future.

The post Georgia at the crossroads: Why the country’s mass protests matter far beyond its borders appeared first on Coda Story.

“It is this feeling that we Uyghurs cannot escape China wherever we go,” said Buzainuer Wubuli (Zeynure Obul). “Uyghurs in our homeland are being disappeared in prisons and camps. Outside the country, Uyghurs are not allowed to live in peace anywhere.”

For the past 10 years Wubuli’’s husband has faced constant harassment and detention by Turkish authorities — further evidence of China’s reach in Turkey, according to Wubuli — pushing him to finally leave the country with a plan for his family to follow. He was unaware that China had issued a red notice for him and was arrested in July 2021 while in transit in Casablanca. Today Idris Hasan is being held in a Moroccan prison.

Following international outcry, Interpol canceled the red notice for Hasan. However, Moroccan authorities decided to follow through with Hasan’s deportation in light of a recently signed extradition treaty with China. Hasan would be the first Chinese national extradited under the treaty that was signed in early 2021. The UN Committee Against Torture has pressured Moroccan authorities to pause the extradition while it reviews Hasan’s case, a process that could take weeks, months, even years.

This has left Hasan’s wife and children living in limbo. However, Wubuli has launched her own campaign of resistance for her husband’s release.

This is her story.

The post China ordered a Uyghur journalist extradited to Xinjiang. His wife has taken to the Istanbul streets to stop it appeared first on Coda Story.

Pakistan has been celebrated internationally for its wide-ranging centralized digital identification system. The National Database and Registration Authority (NADRA) issues ID cards which control nearly all aspects of life in the country, including school enrollment, employment, bank accounts and phone plans. But millions, like the Imkaan gymnasts and their families, have fallen through the program’s cracks.

Now the team is fighting back, appealing to the Interior Ministry to grant them citizenship on the basis of birthright. If they win, their case will set a precedent for more than three million stateless people in the country.

This is their story.

Special Report: Biometric belonging in Pakistan

Marooned: Karachi’s stateless fishermen

Alizeh Kohari

Life in Pakistan without a digital ID

Alizeh Kohari

Pakistan’s biometric ID scheme is stripping citizenship from thousands of people

Alizeh Kohari

The post ‘These ID cards have so much power.’ Meet the teen gymnasts fighting for an official identity appeared first on Coda Story.

There’s no single narrative for why QAnon has made such deep inroads into American life, with recent polls showing that the conspiracy cult is now as popular as some major religions in the U.S. Emerging from the bowels of the internet, the ever-evolving theory claims that a cabal of pedophiles controls the U.S. government and that Trump is uniquely equipped to save the state from their clutches.

In collaboration with Newsy, Coda brings you stories of couples in Utah, Colorado and Ohio whose lives and homes have been torn apart by QAnon.

The post QAnon destroyed my marriage: a documentary by Coda Story & Newsy appeared first on Coda Story.

The post Syria propaganda train appeared first on Coda Story.

Dima and Tanya are an unlikely couple in modern-day Kiev: Dima was formerly a leader of the city’s most powerful ultra-right movement, and Tanya is an ultra-left activist and self-proclaimed anarcho-feminist.

Together Dima and Tanya fight their own battles to reinvent themselves against a backdrop of violence, loss, and instability in post-Maidan Ukraine.

Hunted by members of Ukraine’s ultra-right movement and ostracized by friends and family, the couple fights the momentum of their pasts while standing together, back to back, in a courageous tale of love and self-discovery.

The post A Ukrainian love story appeared first on Coda Story.

The post What to do about Stalin? appeared first on Coda Story.

Surveillance, privacy, information, control: Coda Story’s new coverage topic provides global reporting on how governments abuse the power and potential of emerging technologies such as AI, facial recognition, digital tracking, and social media and will explore how these technologies are strengthening autocratic regimes and stifling dissent.

The post Surveillance. Privacy. Information. Control. appeared first on Coda Story.

With the midterms approaching, a former Cambridge Analytica insider says U.S. voters need to be aware how they are being micro-targeted all over again.

The post How Cambridge Analytica Did It appeared first on Coda Story.

Jailed for a Like tracks cases of Russians who have been prosecuted or imprisoned for their posts, shares or likes on social media.

The post Jailed for a Like | Episode Six: The Lucky One Percent appeared first on Coda Story.

We spoke to Elena Chingina, the mother of 22-year-old Ruslan Sokolvksy, while he awaited his trial date in pre-trial detention in a Yekaterinburg prison. On August 11, 2016 Ruslan uploaded a video of himself playing Pokemon Go in a church. Shortly afterwards, he was arrested at home and charged with offending the religious feelings of believers. In May 2017, Sokolovsky was given a three and a half year suspended sentence for "inciting hatred" and "breaching the right to freedom of religion. A main part of Sokolovsky’s guilty verdict rested on his “denial of the existence of God” said the judge when she read the verdict.

Jailed for a Like | Episode Two: When Caring Becomes a Crime

This is a story of young mother from Russia’s Kurgan region who was sentenced to six months in prison in 2016 for sharing a video on the Russian social media platform Vkontake. On March 6, 2016 the Kurgan regional court released Evgeniya from prison, one month before the end of her sentencing. The case of Evgeniya Chudnovets sparked debate across Russia about how Russians should behave on social media.

Jailed for a Like | Episode Three: Silencing the Poet

This is a story of Alexandr Byvshev, a poet and a schoolteacher from Russia’s Oryol region who was sentenced to 300 hours of labor for posting a poem about Ukraine that criticized Russia’s annexation of Crimea in 2015. His poem was added to Russia's list of extremist materials and a second case was opened regarding a second poem he had written about Ukraine.

Jailed for a Like | Episode Four: A Family Accused of Extremism

This is the story of an electrical engineer from the city of Tver who was arrested in 2015 for extremism and sentenced to two years in prison for his social media posts. The "evidence" of his extremism was a series of articles he shared about Russian forces in Ukraine. After his release, the family moved to Ukraine.

Jailed for a Like | Episode Five: Criticism or Terrorism?

This is the story of Aleksey Kungurov, a blogger from the city of Tyumen sentenced to two years in prison in 2016 for his post which criticized Russia’s bombing campaign in Syria.

Jailed for a Like | Episode Six: The Lucky One Percent

This is the story of Natalia Vahonina, a journalist from the city of Nizhny Tagil who says that Russia’s laws on extremism on social media were used to try and silence her investigation into local corruption in 2018.

The post Full mini-doc series: Jailed for a Like appeared first on Coda Story.

The post How Two Russian Grandmothers Turned Into An Internet Sensation appeared first on Coda Story.

The post Is it Time for a New Russian-led Civilization? appeared first on Coda Story.

It’s the world’s largest trading union by area, but economically the Russian-led Eurasian Economic Union is still a minnow. Still, the Kremlin hasn’t give up hope that its new bloc will one day rival the European Union and the wider West.

The post What is the Eurasian Union? appeared first on Coda Story.

The post How Russia Weaponized Primetime appeared first on Coda Story.

The post How Russia is Trying to Redress North Korea’s image appeared first on Coda Story.

Jailed for a Like tracks cases of Russians who have been prosecuted or imprisoned for their posts, shares or likes on social media.

The post Jailed for a Like | Episode Five: Criticism or Terrorism? appeared first on Coda Story.

Jailed for a Like tracks cases of Russians who have been prosecuted or imprisoned for their posts, shares or likes on social media.

The post Jailed for a Like | Episode Four: A Family Accused of Extremism appeared first on Coda Story.

The post ‘Anywhere You Live, There is Your Home’: Story of a Refugee Holding on in Berlin’s Tempelhof appeared first on Coda Story.

This is the story of Alexandr Byvshev, a poet and a schoolteacher from Russia’s Oryol region who was sentenced to 300 hours of labor for posting a poem about Ukraine that criticized Russia’s annexation of Crimea.

In January, a second new criminal case was started against Byvshev for another poem about Ukraine.

Jailed for a Like tracks cases of Russians who have been prosecuted or imprisoned for their posts, shares or likes on social media.

The post Jailed for a Like appeared first on Coda Story.

This is a story of young mother from Russia’s Kurgan region who was sentenced to six months in prison for sharing a video on the Russian social media platform Vkontake.

The case of Evgeniya Chudnovets has sparked debate across Russia about how Russians should behave on social media.

UPDATE: On March 6, 2016 the Kurgan regional court announced that Evgeniya will be released from prison, one month before the end of her sentencing. The decision came after Russia’s supreme court asked Kurgan to reexamine its verdict. Read more on this development here.

Jailed for a Like tracks cases of Russians who have been prosecuted or imprisoned for their posts, shares or likes on social media.

The post Jailed for a Like appeared first on Coda Story.

The post Bart’s Story: Life as a Transgender Man Living in Conservative Georgia appeared first on Coda Story.

The post Clash of Narratives: A Tale of Two Georgias appeared first on Coda Story.

In Episode One Coda speaks with Elena Chingina, the mother of 22-year-old Ruslan Sokolovsky who is currently waiting for his trial date in a Yekaterinburg prison.

On August 11, 2016 Ruslan uploaded a video of himself playing Pokemon Go in a church. Shortly afterwards, he was arrested at home and charged with offending the religious feelings of believers. His trial begins in mid-January.

Coda’s mini-documentary series tells the stories of Russians who have been prosecuted or imprisoned for their posts, shares or likes on social media.

The post Jailed for a Like appeared first on Coda Story.