Summary: Since the middle of June, Sudan has been witnessing its own version of the Arab Spring. Thousands of Sudanese have taken to the streets protesting against austerity measures imposed by President Omar al-Bashir’s government. But compared to some of the other uprisings, Sudan has received little news coverage. There are a number of reasons for this, revolution fatigue among them. Within Sudan, the story is being censored from the public. Security forces have banned newspapers, citizen journalists have been arrested and activists have had to rely on social media for information. In this week’s News Divide, we look at why the media has failed to keep up with an uprising that has quickly gathered pace. This week’s Newsbytes: Gotabaya Rajapaksa, Sri Lanka’s defence minister, unleashes a tirade of abuse against a prominent Sri Lankan journalist; in Tunisia, the independent body created to reform the country’s media has quit, citing government censorship; a new law in Russia spells trouble for freedom of expression online; and the story of the MP who brandished a gun on live TV. London Olympics: Ambush advertising From July 27, London will host the 30th Olympic Games. The stakes are high and the competition will be fierce, not just among the athletes, but the corporations who will use the mega-media event to sell to the billion people tuning in. The price to advertise has been around the $50m mark and companies have ensured they are getting their full money’s worth. The official sponsors, however, find themselves competing with numerous advertising rivals, ‘ambush marketers,’ who employ guerrilla tactics to crash the branding party that the Olympics have become. In this week’s Feature, the Listening Post’s Flo Phillips looks at the competition of the corporations in this year’s Olympic Games. Have you ever wondered what you would say if you had the chance to speak to yourself at a different age? Jeremiah McDonald, one US-based filmmaker, has apparently done that. Back in 1992, as a 12-year-old boy he recorded himself on video tape asking questions of his adult self – and now he is grown up, he has edited together that conversation. The two Jeremiahs banter about former pets, Star Wars and some old hobbies. The video has gone viral, with more than five million hits, but has people wondering whether the young Jeremiah is actually an actor. We have made it our internet video of the week and we hope you enjoy it as much as we did.
