June 2004 Archives

From ChinaView.com: The Australian New Express Daily, the first Chinese-language daily paper to be published in the country, was launched Wednesday in Sydney, where Chinese is the number two most-spoken language. The paper is owned by the Guangdong based Kingold Group Companies Limited and the Yangcheng Evening News.

Source: ChinaView.com

Dan Gillmor reveals that "There will be a lot to like about Apple's next operating system, OS X 10.4, aka "Tiger", when it comes out sometime next year. In his keynote at the Worldwide Developers Conference in San Francisco, Steve Jobs said Apple will be moving the bar further ahead of Microsoft... Jobs spent a fair amount of time talking about the native inclusion of RSS into an upcoming version of the Safari browers, and a "personal clipping" service. There's a special search function just for RSS; I'm not clear on whether it's searching via one of the main RSS search engines, whether Apple will write its own or whether it's only searching your designated feeds." I just remind our readers that the present weblog would be impossible to update without using a RSS (Real Simple Syndication). In our case, it's NetNewsWire.

Sources: Dan Gillmor / Siliconvalley.com and Apple website

From the Washington Post: If the Vice President says a very bad word, can your paper print it? In his Media Notes column, Howard Kurtz looks at his own paper's decision to print in full a word Dick Cheney used in a verbal altercation with Democratic Senator Patrick Leahy. "The New York Times said Vice President Cheney had used 'an obscenity' ... The Los Angeles Times had Cheney saying 'Go . . . yourself.' CNN said Cheney used 'the F-word,'" Kurtz reported. So why did his own paper decide to be more specific? "When the vice president of the United States says it to a senator in the way in which he said it on the Senate floor," said Executive Editor Leonard Downie Jr., "readers need to judge for themselves what the word is because we don't play games at The Washington Post and use dashes." What is your paper's policy?

Source: Washington Post

I maybe missed that before but I think Tim Burt, Media Editor of the Financial Timesis the first to give the information: "Guardian Media Group, the newspaper publisher behind The Guardian, has approved a £50m investment to relaunch its titles in a compact format. The Guardian and The Observer, its Sunday sister title, will become the country's first national titles to adopt the "Berliner" shape and size, used by European papers such as Le Monde (between tabloid and broadsheet). Staff were last week briefed on the plans, which will involve significant investment in new presses to replace the 20-year-old printing facilities. Company insiders described the plans as the biggest shake-up since the Manchester Guardian moved to London 40 years ago and the redesign of 1988. Although the company has not yet signed firm orders or contracts for the presses, the new format is expected to be launched about 2006.

For Media Bulletin / Brand Republic, "More than 100 jobs could go at the Telegraph Group as the Barclay brothers, whose £665m bid was accepted last week, look to implement the kind of cost savings that have already been seen at The Scotsman. According to a report in the Independent on Sunday, the Barclay brothers will have to make the cost cuts to claw back savings after their bid climbed to almost £700m. A source quoted by the paper said: "They can not justify paying £665m without some major surgery in the medium term. Editorially and commercially, it has to be improved."

Source: Media Bulletin / Brand Republic and the Independent on Sunday.

Unidentified assailants threw handmade bombs at a newspaper editor in a southwestern Bangladesh city, killing him and wounding his son, police and hospital sources said. Humayun Kabir, 56, editor of Bengali-language regional newspaper Dainik Janmabhumi, was attacked as he stepped out of his car in front of his office in Khulna city, 135 kilometres southwest of the capital, Dhaka. Kabir was the second journalist to be killed in the crime-prone southwestern city this year. Manik Saha, a correspondent for the daily New Age newspaper and the Bengali language service of the BBC, was killed in a bomb attack in January. Saha was known for his reporting on the local mafia, smuggling and communist rebels. At least six other journalists who criticised official corruption or organised crime have been murdered in the country since 1997.

Sources: BBC, The Australian and the Daily Star

From Reuters: "According to studio estimates issued on Sunday, "Fahrenheit 9/11," in which Michael Moore takes aim at President Bush, and the war in Iraq, opened at No. 1 after selling about $21.8 million worth of tickets in the United States and Canada since June 25. All told, the movie's total stands at $21.96 million, because it got a head-start on Wednesday in two Manhattan theaters to help build more media buzz before expanding to a relatively modest 868 theaters two days later. (By contrast, most of the other movies in the top five were playing in more than 2,500 theaters each.)... But one thing is certain. The Oscar race is now definitely underway ahead of next year's Feb. 27 ceremony, with "Fahrenheit 9/11" joining Mel Gibson's "The Passion of the Christ" as the highest-profile contender."

Source: Reuters

According to Brier Dudley, Seattle Times technology reporter, "the world's richest man may start his own blog, one of those online diaries that have been the rage among techies for the past three or four years. Bill Gate's blog won't be all business, either. He's expected to share personal details such as tidbits from recent vacations, according to tech pundit Mary Jo Foley's Microsoft Watch newsletter. Citing unnamed sources, she reported yesterday that Gates is about to start blogging "real soon now." Microsoft spokesman Mark Murray would not confirm the story, but left open the possibility, saying, "Bill would love to do his own blog at some point in the future, time permitting."

Source: Seattle Times

Tunde Oladunjoye, Executive Editor of the Centre for Media Education and Networking in Lagos, says Nigerian editors are motivated not by the desire to tell readers the truth, but by sectional, tribal, economic, political and religious interests. Some politicians and office-holders are even starting their own newspapers, he reports, in order to advance their careers. To solve this problem, Oladunjoye proposes a Media Round Table, “which would consist of professionals from the media, public relations and advertising industries, would meet regularly to examine media contents and quality, identify, commend and recommend good reportage that promotes professional and ethical standards by practitioners; expose and condemn unethical practices and report to appropriate authorities for sanctions, if need be; and look at other relevant issues to be agreed upon by members.” Sounds like self-regulation. Or Press Council process.

Source: AllAfrica.com

Yesterday, the Barclay brothers promised not to interfere with the Daily Telegraph’s editorial policies (see former posting). This puts them in stark contrast with French industrial aeronautics tycoon Serge Dassault, who after buying the French publishing company Socpresse last week, immediately stated his intention to have a hand in the editorial positions of the 70 publications he now owns (including Le Figaro and three major regional newspapers). In fact, Le Monde reported last week that Dassault has been known to explicitly state his desire to acquire newspapers in order to hoist his political opinions on the public, a fact that has the French journalism community concerned about the effect consolidation will have on the diversity of views present in the French press. The Barclay brothers are experienced newspaper publishers who own The Scotsman (and formerly The European).

Source: Libération (in French)

Yesterday, the Barclay brothers promised not to interfere with the Daily Telegraph’s editorial policies (see former posting). This puts them in stark contrast with French industrial aeronautics tycoon Serge Dassault, who after buying the French publishing company Socpresse last week, immediately stated his intention to have a hand in the editorial positions of the 70 publications he now owns (including Le Figaro and three major regional newspapers). In fact, Le Monde reported last week that Dassault has been known to explicitly state his desire to acquire newspapers in order to hoist his political opinions on the public, a fact that has the French journalism community concerned about the effect consolidation will have on the diversity of views present in the French press. The Barclay brothers are experienced newspaper publishers who own The Scotsman (and formerly The European).

Source: Libération (in French)

Seems like the Daily Telegraph drama isn’t over. According to Brand Republic, in what might be nothing more than a desperate attempt to stir things up, disgraced Hollinger CEO and majority shareholder Lord Conrad Black has announced today – two days after the Hollinger board approved the sale of the Telegraph to the Barclay brothers -- that the American firm Cerberus Capital Management has made a bid not just for the Daily Telegraph, but for the entire Hollinger stable, which includes the Chicago Sun-Times and the Jerusalem Post, titles the Barclay brothers had no interest in. "This deal would be an offer for the whole of Hollinger International, not just the Telegraph. This could be a more attractive bid. It is on the table," sources “close to Lord Black” were quoted as saying in The Times of London. Stay tuned…

Source: Brand Republic

This is a very important - and strange - decision that will affect photojournalism. According to BBC news, "Princess Caroline - the daughter of Prince Rainier of Monaco and film star Grace Kelly - has won a major legal battle over the right of newspapers to publish pictures of her. The European Court of Human rights said photographs of her and her children should not have been published, even if they were taken in a public place. It was hailed as a landmark decision which could affect the rights of "paparazzi" photographers elsewhere. It overturns a German ruling in 1999, which said as a public figure she had to accept being photographed in public."

From Seattle Weekly: If journalism is a crucial part of a functioning democracy, then it makes sense that newspapers would encourage their readers to vote. But many of these efforts, particularly campaigns to increase decrease absenteeism among the young, come off seeming like "nanny journalism" writes Seattle Weekly columnist Knute Berger. "It’s not the job of the media to try to improve voter turnout," Berger argues. "Our job is to inform, not implement. In this country, you’re free to vote or to not vote. And Americans want it that way. An ABC News poll in June asked voters if they liked the idea of a small fine being imposed on people who don’t vote, like they do in some countries. The results: 72 percent said such a law would —what’s the technical term?—suck. That’s right. Our right not to vote is sacred, too." It's interesting to read this in light of the high absenteeism during the recent European Parliament elections here on the continent...

From Kenya's Sunday Standard: The East African Standard has come under government scrutiny after publishing political cartoons officials deemed inappropriate. Sunday Standard columnist Kodi Barth reports that the government's Goldenberg Commission of Inquiry has "demanded an explanation" for two political cartoons that mocked its work investigating an export compensation scandal . The Standard Group’s Managing Director, Tom Mshindi, appeared before the commission to apologize for making fun of its officials, but simultaneously defended cartoonists' right to satirize the government. Barth calls satiric journalism a "creat