April 2004 Archives

The New York Times has launched a partnership with one of Germany's leading broadsheets, the daily Süddeutsche Zeitung said Friday. The New York Times International Weekly, featuring a selection of articles from the US newspaper, will appear as an English-language supplement with the Süddeutsche from May 3. Süddeutsche editor-in-chief Hans Werner Kilz said the addition was targeted at its "internationally oriented readers" and was an exclusive agreement for German-speaking Europe. The 16-page supplement will include articles selected by the editorial staff of the two newspapers and have a print run of 430,000. SZ managing director Klaus Josef Lutz said he expected the agreement to boost international advertising sales. The New York Times International Weekly already appears with several leading European newspapers including La Repubblica in Italy, Le Monde in France and The Daily Telegraph in Britain.

Source: AFP

"Silvio Berlusconi's hold on the media was blamed yesterday for Italy being downgraded in a global survey of press and TV freedoms, to the same "partly free" class as Albania, Mongolia and Burkina Faso" writes John Hooper at The Guardian. "Explaining its decision, Freedom House, a non-profit organisation partly financed by the US government, said yesterday: "Berlusconi's substantial family business holdings control the three largest private television stations and one newspaper, as well as a significant portion of the advertising market." The results come at a significant time, according to the article the Italian senate has just approved a "controversial media bill which opponents of Mr Berlusconi's government say is tailored to the interests of his vast media empire."

Source: The Guardian

Seen in the Washington Post: "Saddam Hussein's information minister, Mohammed Saeed Sahhaf is now a broadcast correspondent in Abu Dhabi. Often referred to in the Western press as "Baghdad Bob," he was interviewed when the U.S. military took control if Iraq but was not held. "He wasn't wanted for anything. Unfortunately, being a bad spokesman is not a crime," a U.S. official said."

Source: Washington Post

The Reading Evening Post has been crowned the UK's best regional newspaper at the 2004 (national) Newspaper Awards. According to HoldtheFrontPage, Glasgow-based The Herald won the top prize in the category for Most Outstanding Use of Colour and the Sunday Herald collected the award for Best Weekly Newspaper on the World Wide Web. Take a look at the article for a list of all the winners.

Source: HoldtheFrontPage

The Reading Evening Post has been crowned the UK's best regional newspaper at the 2004 (national) Newspaper Awards. According to HoldtheFrontPage, Glasgow-based The Herald won the top prize in the category for Most Outstanding Use of Colour and the Sunday Herald collected the award for Best Weekly Newspaper on the World Wide Web. Take a look at the article for a list of all the winners.

Source: HoldtheFrontPage

A new weekly newspaper called Shofar News has launched in Israel. According to the article by Viva Sarah Press at the Jerusalem Post, the paper was started by "a group of Rabbi Amnon Itzhak's followers" and its goal is to offer the general public "a source of news without gossip, sleaziness, or lashon hara" says Haim Kfir, its editor-in-chief. At the moment, Shofar News is free but will soon have a charge, it is said to have "a jewish angle." Take a look at the website (but bear in mind it is in Hebrew)

Source: The Jerusalem Post

"The new editor of USA Today has been named as Kenneth A. Paulson, the executive director of the First Amendment Center and a former top editor at the Gannett Company chain, writes Jacques Steinberg at The New York Times. This comes as a surprise as Kenneth A. Paulson was not one of the four candidates to be shortlisted. After the Kelley scandal, the new USAT editor said he wanted to attack "virus of fear."

Seen in the Isabelle Hontebeyrie's weblog: "The Swiss Army knife now comes with a memory stick that connects to computers through a USB port. First produced in 1891, the Swiss Army knife is now available in a USB Key Drive version with detachable memory stick connects directly to computers and is compatible with Microsoft, AppleMac and Linux software. The 64MB memory stick is password protected and there's data encryption. Download digital pictures, documents, email or MP3 music files with full-speed data transfer. The nail file extends making the ballpoint pen easier to use, the LED flashlight illuminates your writing and there are useful scissors."

Source: Isabelle Hontebeyrie's weblog

If you are interested in gaining more knowledge of the state of the press in Hungary, soon to join the EU, this really is an excellent article by the BBC. It provides a short synopsis on the country's most popular newspapers and the current state of the industry. The BBC site also features similar information for the Czech Republic and Poland, two other countries that will join the EU on Saturday. Although Romania is not one of the ten countries set to join the EU, there is an in-depth article on the state of the nation's press, which features on the Reporters Without Borders website.

Source: BBC

According to Claire Cozens at the Guardian "advances in technology and the culture of 24-hour rolling news are putting journalists' lives in ever more danger as competition to be first with the news intensifies, experts have warned." Chris Cobb-Smith, a former United Nations weapons inspector who advises the BBC on security, is quoted as saying "the demand for instant news was making it increasingly difficult to protect journalists. New technology has made our job much more difficult. Now anyone can operate in a war zone, many of them with no training whatsoever" The article focuses heavily on the safety of journalists in Iraq and highlights that news agencies do not have enough time or resources to plan for the safety of their staff in Iraq.

Source: mediaguadian

The British Broadcasting Corporation, the world's biggest public broadcaster, has for the first time chosen an Arab to head its Arabic news service, the 42-year-old appointee, Hosam Sokkari said. After graduating from Cairo university with a degree in pharmacy, Sokkari decided on a career in journalism, working first as a cartoonist in Egypt, Germany and Finland. He began working for the BBC in 1994 as a presenter and producer in the Arabic division before moving for a few months to the Dubai-based broadcaster Al-Jazeera in 1996. Three years after returning to the corporation, Sokkari was chosen to run the BBC's Arabic internet operation becoming an award-winning editor of BBCArabic.com.

Source: AFP

Have a read of this article written by Barbie Zelizer at Online Journalism Review. It looks into the purpose of photojournalism during wartime. The article writes "We have long heard that a picture is worth a thousand words, but no one has ever figured out which words an image stands for in the news of war." The article also suggests that it is now time for the journalists to "set the standards" when it comes to war photojournalism and questions whether recent images from Iraq, and also those of the dead American soldiers, should have been published. A very relevant and in-depth article.

Source: Online Journalism Review

"The right to get it wrong only makes sense, though, if reporters who muff stories acknowledge the errors and their publications recall the pieces" said Jack Shafer, Slate magazine in a story called "The Right To Be Wrong... And the elephant in the New York Times newsroom." It's one of these numerous articles written after the Blair and Kelley scandals. For instance, Jack Shafer asked: "if The New York Times was willing to admit repeated mistakes in its coverage of the Wen Ho Lee case, then why have they remained silent on Judith Miller's many mistakes in reporting on Iraq?

Source: Slate

According to PDNonline "New York Times executive editor Bill Keller put to rest one of the best-kept secrets in the industry today by naming longtime Fortune photo editor Michele McNally as the paper's director of photography. McNally, who has been a picture editor at Fortune since 1986, will join the daily deadline pressures of America's leading paper in June."

Source: PDNonline through mediabistro

The New York-based Freedom House watchdog group has accussed press freedom around the world of deteriorating for a second year running in 2003. The organization's report is based on print, broadcast, and Internet freedom around the world and assigns each country to one of three categories: Free, Partly Free, or Not Free. Ten countries, which include, Bolivia, Bulgaria, Cape Verde, Gabon, Guatemala, Guinea-Bissau, Italy, Moldova, Morocco, and the Philippines -- declined in their category. "Fewer and fewer people throughout the world have uncensored and unfettered access to information about their own countries," Freedom House Executive Director Jennifer Windsor said in a statement. Its a good idea to have a look at the Freedom House website, which offers in-depth results for the countries which have changed in their category and charts on the global trends that have occurred.

Source: Freedom House press release and Freedom House website