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Monday, 10 October 2011
Are UWI students paid to post pro-Govt comments?
Are UWI students paid to post pro-Govt comments?
'Campus Chronicle' investigates...
By Faine Richards faine@mycampuschronicle.com
Story Created: Oct 9, 2011 at 9:49 PM ECT
Story Updated: Oct 10, 2011 at 10:29 AM ECT
An organisation purporting to work for the People's Partnership is allegedly paying university students to inundate newspaper websites and Internet chat forums with pro-government sentiment.
A Campus Chronicle investigation found that the organisation—known only as 'tntgoodblogs'—hires students to post reader comments below news stories on the Trinidad Express, Trinidad Guardian and Newsday websites in praise of Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar and her government.
University students recruited for the covert propaganda campaign who spoke to the Campus Chronicle on condition of anonymity, said students are also paid to author comments or 'blogs' that attack the Opposition and counter anti-government opinions expressed by other bloggers.
In addition to receiving monetary payment, student bloggers are also promised a free BlackBerry with unlimited Internet access to allow them to frequently post comments online during classes.
Minister of Foreign Affairs and Communications, Dr Suruj Rambachan, told the Campus Chronicle he was unaware that any such operation exists.
The "bloggers project" targets students at the University of the West Indies (UWI) through a series of flyers posted on notice boards across the St Augustine campus.
The flyers invite resumes from students who are "intelligent, patriotic and enjoy sharing (their) views" and who seek to "have a sense of power associated with the changing of minds (Paradigm Shift)".
"I expected being able to talk about my own opinions on current affairs, that was my first impression of it," said a female UWI student who applied for the project. "But it was totally different.
"Instead of what the flyer said about you giving your opinion, it was pretty much that they would tell you what to say," she revealed.
Neither the name of the employer nor contact information for anyone overseeing the project is disclosed on the flyer. Interested students are simply told to send an email to tntgoodblogs@hotmail.com.
In response, applicants receive a phone call from a woman who only identifies herself as Marsha.
A female UWI student said Marsha told her, "We're going to sway the ideas of the public by speaking positively about what's going on."
That objective was reiterated in detailed email instructions specifying the frequency and content of the blogs students would be paid to post online.
In addition to blogging on all three newspaper websites, the email correspondence obtained by the Campus Chronicle directed students to write in support of the People's Partnership on certain Yahoo chat groups. Two of the more popular Yahoo groups targeted by the blogging operation are 'theunitedvoice' and 'Caribbean Talk'. Both forums are devoted to discussions on politics, news and current affairs.
In one of the documents attached to the email, an unnamed author explained, "Organisations contract 'tntgoodblogs' to promote their image products. We are compensated when we provide intelligent, positive and persuasive blogs for the contracted organisations."
But three UWI students who applied for the job told the Campus Chronicle that Marsha was more explicit during telephone conversations.
"She stated the People's Partnership had hired them," one girl recalled.
When contacted by the Campus Chronicle about the bloggers project, Minister Rambachan said, "I really don't know anything about this, you're the first to bring this to my attention. I have to investigate it and see if I can get to the bottom of it."
Asked whether he was concerned that tntgoodblogs claims to be doing work for the People's Partnership, Minister Rambachan said, "There's nothing to say until I investigate it."
In an email dated July 26 and sent to a batch of ten students who applied to the bloggers project, the anonymous author directed bloggers to flood newspaper websites and chat groups with support for the resignation of then Minister of Works and Transport and FIFA Vice President Jack Warner, from the international football body.
But the students were also mandated to cast doubt on whether Minister Warner should retain his Cabinet post.
"QUERY HIS CURRENT POLITICAL STANDING," the email urged student recruits. "QUESTION HIS REMAINING IN POLITICS. (GO ANTI PEOPLE'S PARTY FOR HIM. Jack is yet to clarify the issues to the people.) His integrity is questionable, especially as the person who has much access to our resources.
"Call me for clarification if needed," the email's author added.
The students who spoke to the Campus Chronicle said that directive triggered concerns which ultimately led to their decision not to work for the bloggers project.
One student recalled, "I sat and thought about it and said, 'I don't know if I want to get involved in this.' So I decided not to, it sounded scary."
"From that point, I was like, 'something in this not right,'" said another student.
The email also instructed students to blog in favour of Minister of Health Dr Fuad Khan deciding to cease his private medical practice.
Amid concerns about a conflict of interest after it was discovered that the Minister continued to see patients while managing the nation's health system, the paid bloggers were ordered to focus attention on Minister Khan's choice to give up his private urology practice instead of his Cabinet post.
"He was called to serve in the Cabinet at short notice and accepted the call because of the crisis that exists within the health sector," the email guided students to write of the Health Minister.
Instructions in a subsequent email said, "So we should applaud him for choosing country over a self...a couple hundred sick who are in need."
Tntgoodblogs recommended that students use facts and quotations to substantiate their arguments. "Doesn't this sound like the approach for a University assignment?" the email's author remarked.
The Opposition is deliberately targeted by the bloggers project, with students being instructed to dispute statements made by other bloggers who support the People's National Movement.
"I AM GIVING YOU THE CHANCE TO BATTLE HEAD ON WITH THE OPPOSITION BLOGGERS!" an email from tntgoodblogs dated August 2 told student bloggers. "YES, YOU CHOOSE OPPOSITION BLOGGERS AND TARGET THEIR BLOGS AND HIT THEM ONE FOR ONE. NO MERCY. START ARGUMENTS, BE BOLD AND STAND UP FOR WHAT YOU BELIEVE IN!!!"
One of the students who withdrew from the propaganda campaign said she had concerns about trying to obstruct the free expression of opinion.
"If you look at some of the counter blogs (that paid student bloggers post), they are really insulting to people," she told the Campus Chronicle. "For you to dissuade me from giving my opinion because you are supporting it and getting paid for it, it's not fair.
"I just think it's wrong, immoral. It's just unethical," she said.
Students who submitted neutral blogs were chastised by Marsha.
"She said if I had an issue before I could have come out and tell her but then in the same breath she contradicted herself," one student recalled, "and said how I am a rookie and I am on (a one-week) trial and I don't have a say… she gives me something to write, I have to write on it."
The underground blogging operation strictly prohibits its student bloggers from using their real names. Instead, bloggers are required to present the orchestrated comments under the guise of multiple aliases or screen names.
To create a significant pro-government presence on newspaper websites and chat forums, every student blogger is required to submit a minimum of five comments daily.
Should student bloggers pass a one-week trial period, the anonymous author of the email promised to give them "a free BlackBerry and free Internet access" to help them blog throughout the day from any location.
A female UWI student recalled discussing payment with Marsha over the phone.
"The first week would be $300, if she kept us on, and we were getting a BlackBerry with unlimited Internet and she said she ran the numbers…and I would make $3000- $4000 a month."
To independently verify the information from students interviewed during this investigation, the Campus Chronicle created an email account under a female name and sent an expression of interest to the email address displayed (tntgoodblogs@hotmail.com) on the flyers.
The following response was sent from the email account, tntgoodblogs@yahoo.com:
“Based on d (sic) tense environment now, emails like these need to be heavily screened…Note.... No resume attached but wants information. Note... ‘paid’ is used in her response but that word was never stated in flyer. Can u or anyone u kno (sic) do student searches to verify if d (sic) student is in fact part of that faculty and if that is her major.”
An hour later, a follow-up email from tntgoodblogs@hotmail.com:
“Please be advised that the previous email was sent to you in error. Can you please send a copy of your resume and a one page summary highlighting your social, political and economic affiliations and perspectives. The purpose of your summary will guide me as to where you should be placed if recruited.”
The Campus Chronicle also called the mobile contact number for Marsha. The woman who answered the phone initially hung up when asked if her name was Marsha. Upon calling again, the woman insisted her name was Nicole.
Asked if she managed the student bloggers project, she said, “You tell me, I would love to know.”
Told that her contact number was given to student bloggers as a liason for tntgoodblogs, she said “Who gave it to you? Maybe you should ask them.” The woman maintained she was a UWI student who simply sent an email to tntgoodblogs inquiring about the bloggers project, and never received a response from the organisation.
faine@mycampuschronicle.com
From : http://www.trinidadexpress.com/news/Are_UWI_students_paid_to_post_pro-Govt_comments_-131431448.html
'Campus Chronicle' investigates...
By Faine Richards faine@mycampuschronicle.com
Story Created: Oct 9, 2011 at 9:49 PM ECT
Story Updated: Oct 10, 2011 at 10:29 AM ECT
An organisation purporting to work for the People's Partnership is allegedly paying university students to inundate newspaper websites and Internet chat forums with pro-government sentiment.
A Campus Chronicle investigation found that the organisation—known only as 'tntgoodblogs'—hires students to post reader comments below news stories on the Trinidad Express, Trinidad Guardian and Newsday websites in praise of Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar and her government.
University students recruited for the covert propaganda campaign who spoke to the Campus Chronicle on condition of anonymity, said students are also paid to author comments or 'blogs' that attack the Opposition and counter anti-government opinions expressed by other bloggers.
In addition to receiving monetary payment, student bloggers are also promised a free BlackBerry with unlimited Internet access to allow them to frequently post comments online during classes.
Minister of Foreign Affairs and Communications, Dr Suruj Rambachan, told the Campus Chronicle he was unaware that any such operation exists.
The "bloggers project" targets students at the University of the West Indies (UWI) through a series of flyers posted on notice boards across the St Augustine campus.
The flyers invite resumes from students who are "intelligent, patriotic and enjoy sharing (their) views" and who seek to "have a sense of power associated with the changing of minds (Paradigm Shift)".
"I expected being able to talk about my own opinions on current affairs, that was my first impression of it," said a female UWI student who applied for the project. "But it was totally different.
"Instead of what the flyer said about you giving your opinion, it was pretty much that they would tell you what to say," she revealed.
Neither the name of the employer nor contact information for anyone overseeing the project is disclosed on the flyer. Interested students are simply told to send an email to tntgoodblogs@hotmail.com.
In response, applicants receive a phone call from a woman who only identifies herself as Marsha.
A female UWI student said Marsha told her, "We're going to sway the ideas of the public by speaking positively about what's going on."
That objective was reiterated in detailed email instructions specifying the frequency and content of the blogs students would be paid to post online.
In addition to blogging on all three newspaper websites, the email correspondence obtained by the Campus Chronicle directed students to write in support of the People's Partnership on certain Yahoo chat groups. Two of the more popular Yahoo groups targeted by the blogging operation are 'theunitedvoice' and 'Caribbean Talk'. Both forums are devoted to discussions on politics, news and current affairs.
In one of the documents attached to the email, an unnamed author explained, "Organisations contract 'tntgoodblogs' to promote their image products. We are compensated when we provide intelligent, positive and persuasive blogs for the contracted organisations."
But three UWI students who applied for the job told the Campus Chronicle that Marsha was more explicit during telephone conversations.
"She stated the People's Partnership had hired them," one girl recalled.
When contacted by the Campus Chronicle about the bloggers project, Minister Rambachan said, "I really don't know anything about this, you're the first to bring this to my attention. I have to investigate it and see if I can get to the bottom of it."
Asked whether he was concerned that tntgoodblogs claims to be doing work for the People's Partnership, Minister Rambachan said, "There's nothing to say until I investigate it."
In an email dated July 26 and sent to a batch of ten students who applied to the bloggers project, the anonymous author directed bloggers to flood newspaper websites and chat groups with support for the resignation of then Minister of Works and Transport and FIFA Vice President Jack Warner, from the international football body.
But the students were also mandated to cast doubt on whether Minister Warner should retain his Cabinet post.
"QUERY HIS CURRENT POLITICAL STANDING," the email urged student recruits. "QUESTION HIS REMAINING IN POLITICS. (GO ANTI PEOPLE'S PARTY FOR HIM. Jack is yet to clarify the issues to the people.) His integrity is questionable, especially as the person who has much access to our resources.
"Call me for clarification if needed," the email's author added.
The students who spoke to the Campus Chronicle said that directive triggered concerns which ultimately led to their decision not to work for the bloggers project.
One student recalled, "I sat and thought about it and said, 'I don't know if I want to get involved in this.' So I decided not to, it sounded scary."
"From that point, I was like, 'something in this not right,'" said another student.
The email also instructed students to blog in favour of Minister of Health Dr Fuad Khan deciding to cease his private medical practice.
Amid concerns about a conflict of interest after it was discovered that the Minister continued to see patients while managing the nation's health system, the paid bloggers were ordered to focus attention on Minister Khan's choice to give up his private urology practice instead of his Cabinet post.
"He was called to serve in the Cabinet at short notice and accepted the call because of the crisis that exists within the health sector," the email guided students to write of the Health Minister.
Instructions in a subsequent email said, "So we should applaud him for choosing country over a self...a couple hundred sick who are in need."
Tntgoodblogs recommended that students use facts and quotations to substantiate their arguments. "Doesn't this sound like the approach for a University assignment?" the email's author remarked.
The Opposition is deliberately targeted by the bloggers project, with students being instructed to dispute statements made by other bloggers who support the People's National Movement.
"I AM GIVING YOU THE CHANCE TO BATTLE HEAD ON WITH THE OPPOSITION BLOGGERS!" an email from tntgoodblogs dated August 2 told student bloggers. "YES, YOU CHOOSE OPPOSITION BLOGGERS AND TARGET THEIR BLOGS AND HIT THEM ONE FOR ONE. NO MERCY. START ARGUMENTS, BE BOLD AND STAND UP FOR WHAT YOU BELIEVE IN!!!"
One of the students who withdrew from the propaganda campaign said she had concerns about trying to obstruct the free expression of opinion.
"If you look at some of the counter blogs (that paid student bloggers post), they are really insulting to people," she told the Campus Chronicle. "For you to dissuade me from giving my opinion because you are supporting it and getting paid for it, it's not fair.
"I just think it's wrong, immoral. It's just unethical," she said.
Students who submitted neutral blogs were chastised by Marsha.
"She said if I had an issue before I could have come out and tell her but then in the same breath she contradicted herself," one student recalled, "and said how I am a rookie and I am on (a one-week) trial and I don't have a say… she gives me something to write, I have to write on it."
The underground blogging operation strictly prohibits its student bloggers from using their real names. Instead, bloggers are required to present the orchestrated comments under the guise of multiple aliases or screen names.
To create a significant pro-government presence on newspaper websites and chat forums, every student blogger is required to submit a minimum of five comments daily.
Should student bloggers pass a one-week trial period, the anonymous author of the email promised to give them "a free BlackBerry and free Internet access" to help them blog throughout the day from any location.
A female UWI student recalled discussing payment with Marsha over the phone.
"The first week would be $300, if she kept us on, and we were getting a BlackBerry with unlimited Internet and she said she ran the numbers…and I would make $3000- $4000 a month."
To independently verify the information from students interviewed during this investigation, the Campus Chronicle created an email account under a female name and sent an expression of interest to the email address displayed (tntgoodblogs@hotmail.com) on the flyers.
The following response was sent from the email account, tntgoodblogs@yahoo.com:
“Based on d (sic) tense environment now, emails like these need to be heavily screened…Note.... No resume attached but wants information. Note... ‘paid’ is used in her response but that word was never stated in flyer. Can u or anyone u kno (sic) do student searches to verify if d (sic) student is in fact part of that faculty and if that is her major.”
An hour later, a follow-up email from tntgoodblogs@hotmail.com:
“Please be advised that the previous email was sent to you in error. Can you please send a copy of your resume and a one page summary highlighting your social, political and economic affiliations and perspectives. The purpose of your summary will guide me as to where you should be placed if recruited.”
The Campus Chronicle also called the mobile contact number for Marsha. The woman who answered the phone initially hung up when asked if her name was Marsha. Upon calling again, the woman insisted her name was Nicole.
Asked if she managed the student bloggers project, she said, “You tell me, I would love to know.”
Told that her contact number was given to student bloggers as a liason for tntgoodblogs, she said “Who gave it to you? Maybe you should ask them.” The woman maintained she was a UWI student who simply sent an email to tntgoodblogs inquiring about the bloggers project, and never received a response from the organisation.
faine@mycampuschronicle.com
From : http://www.trinidadexpress.com/news/Are_UWI_students_paid_to_post_pro-Govt_comments_-131431448.html
Wednesday, 20 January 2010
Top party members: Yes, Jack has Kamla file
Top party members: Yes, Jack has Kamla file
Ria Taitt Political Editor
Wednesday, January 20th 2010
Is there really a Jack Warner file on Kamla Persad-Bissessar?
No, says Chaguanas MP Jack Warner, who is supporting Persad-Bissessar’s candidacy for the post of UNC Political Leader.
However, several persons-including UNC vice chairman and St Augustine MP, Vasant Bharath, CEO and Caroni East MP Dr Tim Gopeesingh and Tabaquite MP Ramesh Lawrence Maharaj- yesterday stated that Warner came to a meeting of the UNC Executive on March 11, 2009 and produced a file, the contents of which he attempted to reveal.
Bharath said Jack presented the file and placed it on the board room table. ’He threatened to open the file, and I stopped him (from opening it),’ said Bharath, who chaired the meeting. (UNC leader Basdeo Panday was not present and was due to return from Scotland on that very day).
’He (Warner) held the file. It was a thick file, about 1 1/2 inches thick,’ Bharath said.
Gopeesingh also confirmed that Warner brought the file to the Executive meeting. ’I remember the incident. It did happen,’ he said .
Said Maharaj: ’He walked with the file to the National Executive, he attacked Kamla and offered to show the file to the members of the Executive and nobody wanted to touch the file because of what he was saying about the file. It was very derogatory.’
An Express story carried on March 12, 2009 on this Executive meeting quoted Warner, in an interview after the meeting, as saying: ’I had come to this meeting to go after Kamla’ and that he had come ’with a ton-load of stuff from since she was born to yesterday’. He however ended by saying that Kamla was a mother, a sister and a daughter.
Persad-Bissessar, who was also interviewed, had stated: ’Mr Warner had said he will deal with me and Mr Warner came to the meeting and did deal with me and indicated he had nothing to say.’
The Executive meeting had taken place three days after Persad-Bissessar attacked Warner and Maharaj in her feature address to the UNC Women’s Arm, referring to them as ’the destructive element ... inspiring clamours for change’.
Maharaj also reiterated yesterday (and in statements made in an interview with the Sunday Express) that at the meeting in Penal, Warner had the file and showed it to him. Warner at a meeting in Cedros on Sunday night described this as a ’blatant lie’.
Chairman of that meeting, Rampersad Sieuraj, yesterday told the Express that Warner ’ had spoken of the file even before the Siparia meeting and also talked about it at a social gathering at his home right after that meeting. Sieuraj said Warner on the platform stated that ’Kamla was not fit to hold office and made mention of the file. After that, we had a gathering at my home and I distinctly remember Jack talking about a file ... and he also told us of the contents of the file... In my garage, he sat down and talked this things... And he threatened to bring the file and Ramesh indicated to him, ’no, don’t do that’.’
Said Sieuraj: ’I wanted to call Jack Warner this morning and tell him that he did say he had a file at my home. I was there.’ Asked what Warner alleged was in the file, Sieuraj said: ’It is not the sort of things that we want to discuss, it is not things that our womenfolk would need to hear’
’Furthermore, one of the persons on his team, Sylvester Ramquar, sat down with me and others at a home in Chaguanas and told us of some of the contents of the file. And if Sylvester Ramquar disputes it, I could bring ten people who were there,’ Sieuraj stated, adding: ’The issue of the file was well established. He (Warner) just trying to deny it now because he is on Kamla’s platform. He want to play football with the people. But this is not a football game where you kick in one corner and then kick in the next.’
~
~
Ria Taitt Political Editor
Wednesday, January 20th 2010
Is there really a Jack Warner file on Kamla Persad-Bissessar?
No, says Chaguanas MP Jack Warner, who is supporting Persad-Bissessar’s candidacy for the post of UNC Political Leader.
However, several persons-including UNC vice chairman and St Augustine MP, Vasant Bharath, CEO and Caroni East MP Dr Tim Gopeesingh and Tabaquite MP Ramesh Lawrence Maharaj- yesterday stated that Warner came to a meeting of the UNC Executive on March 11, 2009 and produced a file, the contents of which he attempted to reveal.
Bharath said Jack presented the file and placed it on the board room table. ’He threatened to open the file, and I stopped him (from opening it),’ said Bharath, who chaired the meeting. (UNC leader Basdeo Panday was not present and was due to return from Scotland on that very day).
’He (Warner) held the file. It was a thick file, about 1 1/2 inches thick,’ Bharath said.
Gopeesingh also confirmed that Warner brought the file to the Executive meeting. ’I remember the incident. It did happen,’ he said .
Said Maharaj: ’He walked with the file to the National Executive, he attacked Kamla and offered to show the file to the members of the Executive and nobody wanted to touch the file because of what he was saying about the file. It was very derogatory.’
An Express story carried on March 12, 2009 on this Executive meeting quoted Warner, in an interview after the meeting, as saying: ’I had come to this meeting to go after Kamla’ and that he had come ’with a ton-load of stuff from since she was born to yesterday’. He however ended by saying that Kamla was a mother, a sister and a daughter.
Persad-Bissessar, who was also interviewed, had stated: ’Mr Warner had said he will deal with me and Mr Warner came to the meeting and did deal with me and indicated he had nothing to say.’
The Executive meeting had taken place three days after Persad-Bissessar attacked Warner and Maharaj in her feature address to the UNC Women’s Arm, referring to them as ’the destructive element ... inspiring clamours for change’.
Maharaj also reiterated yesterday (and in statements made in an interview with the Sunday Express) that at the meeting in Penal, Warner had the file and showed it to him. Warner at a meeting in Cedros on Sunday night described this as a ’blatant lie’.
Chairman of that meeting, Rampersad Sieuraj, yesterday told the Express that Warner ’ had spoken of the file even before the Siparia meeting and also talked about it at a social gathering at his home right after that meeting. Sieuraj said Warner on the platform stated that ’Kamla was not fit to hold office and made mention of the file. After that, we had a gathering at my home and I distinctly remember Jack talking about a file ... and he also told us of the contents of the file... In my garage, he sat down and talked this things... And he threatened to bring the file and Ramesh indicated to him, ’no, don’t do that’.’
Said Sieuraj: ’I wanted to call Jack Warner this morning and tell him that he did say he had a file at my home. I was there.’ Asked what Warner alleged was in the file, Sieuraj said: ’It is not the sort of things that we want to discuss, it is not things that our womenfolk would need to hear’
’Furthermore, one of the persons on his team, Sylvester Ramquar, sat down with me and others at a home in Chaguanas and told us of some of the contents of the file. And if Sylvester Ramquar disputes it, I could bring ten people who were there,’ Sieuraj stated, adding: ’The issue of the file was well established. He (Warner) just trying to deny it now because he is on Kamla’s platform. He want to play football with the people. But this is not a football game where you kick in one corner and then kick in the next.’
~
~
Monday, 21 December 2009
Thursday, 25 October 2007
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