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 "creative art": "The point is that within the creative art, there is no question of right or wrong. It is the power of debate within the constitutionally endorsed quest for journalistic space that counts. Better still if that debate is provoked in humour. Naturally, law and ethics may find fault with any publication, creative or otherwise, that is premised on a wrong and a lie. But satire, which highlights practices that frequently contradict virtue, is often the extreme limit of comedy in which the difference between things as they are and things as they ought to be is deliberately exaggerated."

Source: Sunday Standard

From Agence France Presse via Yahoo News: Press freedom abuses throughout the world include the harassment and imprisonment of online journalists and the suppression of Internet news content and commentary, a new report by Reporters Without Borders reminds us. RSF highlighted two types of online press freedom abuses in the report: the "gag the Internet" ethos of totalitarian governments like China, and the effort to restrict access to certain material in the name of the war on terrorism or more general crime fighting, as practiced by democracies such as the United States. In China, 61 web-based dissidents are in jail. And in the U.S., where laws like the Patriot Act impose government surveillance of Internet activity, the Senate has backed a plan to fight international Internet censorship but refused to check U.S. companies who manufacture the email and Internet surveillance tools used by "gag the Internet" governments. Other nations cited in the report include France, Tunisia, Vietnam. Along with the U.S., the European Union and Council of Europe are singled out for failing to balance press freedom issues with the need to pursue the fight on terrorism.

Source: Agence France Presse via Yahoo News

From Agence France Presse via Yahoo News: Press freedom abuses throughout the world include the harassment and imprisonment of online journalists and the suppression of Internet news content and commentary, a new report by Reporters Without Borders reminds us. RSF highlighted two types of online press freedom abuses in the report: the "gag the Internet" ethos of totalitarian governments like China, and the effort to restrict access to certain material in the name of the war on terrorism or more general crime fighting, as practiced by democracies such as the United States. In China, 61 web-based dissidents are in jail. And in the U.S., where laws like the Patriot Act impose government surveillance of Internet activity, the Senate has backed a plan to fight international Internet censorship but refused to check U.S. companies who manufacture the email and Internet surveillance tools used by "gag the Internet" governments. Other nations cited in the report include France, Tunisia, Vietnam. Along with the U.S., the European Union and Council of Europe are singled out for failing to balance press freedom issues with the need to pursue the fight on terrorism.

Source: Agence France Presse via Yahoo News

From Agence France Presse via Yahoo News: Press freedom abuses throughout the world include the harassment and imprisonment of online journalists and the suppression of Internet news content and commentary, a new report by Reporters Without Borders reminds us. RSF highlighted two types of online press freedom abuses in the report: the "gag the Internet" ethos of totalitarian governments like China, and the effort to restrict access to certain material in the name of the war on terrorism or more general crime fighting, as practiced by democracies such as the United States. In China, 61 web-based dissidents are in jail. And in the U.S., where laws like the Patriot Act impose government surveillance of Internet activity, the Senate has backed a plan to fight international Internet censorship but refused to check U.S. companies who manufacture the email and Internet surveillance tools used by "gag the Internet" governments. Other nations cited in the report include France, Tunisia, Vietnam. Along with the U.S., the European Union and Council of Europe are singled out for failing to balance press freedom issues with the need to pursue the fight on terrorism.

Source: Agence France Presse via Yahoo News

Several of the largest U.S. newspaper groups said they saw a gradual recovery in the advertising market for the rest of the year, and said the circulation scandals at rival publishers would have little impact on the overall market... Left unaddressed for investors attending the Mid-Year Media Review conference in New York were the recent revelations of circulation pumping at Tribune Co.'s Newsday and Spanish-language Hoy, and Hollinger International's Chicago Sun-Times. Chief executives at both companies defended their auditing practices. "We have a rigorous internal auditing practice," Tony Ridder, CEO of Knight Ridder told Reuters. But he added, "We're going to talk about if there's any more we can do." Douglas McCorkindale, Chairman and CEO of Gannett said the problems that have plagued his rivals are not pervasive. "The newspaper industry operates in an straightforward and ethical manner," he said. The media is "blowing it out of proportion ... there is no circulation scandal."

Source: Reuters and former EW posting

According to BBC news, "The Daily Telegraph - UK's best-selling broadsheet with a circulation of 873,000 copies - and its sister publications have been sold to the Barclay Brothers for £665m. The sale brings to an end months of bidding following the ousting of Lord Black as chief executive of Telegraph group owner Hollinger International. The Barclays, billionaire twin brothers who live in the Channel Islands, are the owners of the Scotsman newspaper and London's Ritz hotel." MediaGuardian adds that "the twins are understood to have raised their bid by tens of millions yesterday morning to beat their rivals (3i venture capital group proposed £650m), led by former Mirror boss David Montgomery."

According to FT, "The Financial Times became the first foreign media group to buy a stake in an Indian newspaper after signing an agreement to acquire 13.85 per cent of Business Standard, the country's second-largest business daily, for Rs141m ($3.05m). The FT's move follows reforms that allow foreign titles to acquire up to 26 per cent of an Indian newspaper. The Business Standard stake represents the latest leg of the FT group's global strategy of investing in leading titles in local markets. Pearson, the global publishing group that owns the FT, holds stakes in newspapers in France, Germany, Spain, Russia and South Africa. From next week, all editions of Business Standard, published in seven cities, will carry a dedicated page of FT content. Business Standard, whose board will include a representative of the FT, would continue to operate as an independent entity, said the FT."

Source: Financial Times

Janet Weaver, the dean of faculty of The Poynter Institute, was named Monday as The Tampa Tribune's managing editor. She was the executive editor of the Sarasota Herald-Tribune before leaving for the nonprofit journalism school in November. Weaver said she enjoyed her work at Poynter, but missed being in the newsroom."

Source: Naples Daily News (Florida) through topix.net

Janet Weaver, the dean of faculty of The Poynter Institute, was named Monday as The Tampa Tribune's managing editor. She was the executive editor of the Sarasota Herald-Tribune before leaving for the nonprofit journalism school in November. Weaver said she enjoyed her work at Poynter, but missed being in the newsroom."

Source: Naples Daily News (Florida) through topix.net

A new exclusive posting for Kevin Roderick, LAobserved: this letter from the Los Angeles Times editor to his staff... "On Friday 18 June, we notified all 42 staff members who applied for voluntary buyouts that their applications had been accepted. Today, we are notifying an additional 20 staff members that they are being laid off. All of the people who are leaving have made meaningful contributions to the paper and to life in the newsroom. We are sorry to be losing them. This is a wrenching time for them -- and also for those who are staying, some of whom are taking on more responsibility... It is crucial that this episode of cost cutting prove to be nothing more than that - a bump in the road, not a change in direction. I appreciate all you are doing for the Los Angeles Times. John Carroll" The proof that newsrooms are still on the front stage of cost-cutting exercises. Faced with lower than expected advertising revenue, the Los Angeles Times said that it had cut a total of about 160 jobs at the newspaper.

Source: LAobserved (excerpts of the LAT editor's letter). Hear also this NPR interview.

A new exclusive posting for Kevin Roderick, LAobserved: this letter from the Los Angeles Times editor to his staff... "On Friday 18 June, we notified all 42 staff members who applied for voluntary buyouts that their applications had been accepted. Today, we are notifying an additional 20 staff members that they are being laid off. All of the people who are leaving have made meaningful contributions to the paper and to life in the newsroom. We are sorry to be losing them. This is a wrenching time for them -- and also for those who are staying, some of whom are taking on more responsibility... It is crucial that this episode of cost cutting prove to be nothing more than that - a bump in the road, not a change in direction. I appreciate all you are doing for the Los Angeles Times. John Carroll" The proof that newsrooms are still on the front stage of cost-cutting exercises. Faced with lower than expected advertising revenue, the Los Angeles Times said that it had cut a total of about 160 jobs at the newspaper.

Source: LAobserved (excerpts of the LAT editor's letter). Hear also this NPR interview.

Press freedom not the key to good journalism? Perhaps, says Media Guardian columnist Martin Kettle. Like Newsweek's Robert J. Samuelson, Kettle warns against overly-partisan journalism, in this case, using British coverage of the European Union constitutional debates as a test case. The U.K. media, Kettle says, has turned toward Europe to both fan the flames of alarmism about immigration (on the right) and urge integration (on the left). Front page splash-headlines, fiery leads chock-full of figurative language and television appearances by top editors have pushed journalists to the fore of the policy debate, when they should be acting as disinterested observers, Kettle writes. The solution? Not unadulterated press freedom, but perhaps the creation of a bipartisan, Parliament press oversight committee to "ask editors and senior journalists to explain their coverage of public life. You can hear the howls of outrage already - but the aim would be scrutiny not regulation."

Source: Media Guardian

From Digital Media News for Europe: The Guardian, through a partnership with EMI, is set to become the first U.K. newspaper to offer downloading of songs for 99 pence each to its online readers. The system is modeled on iTunes, Apple's pay-by-the-song, legal music downloading platform. "Simon Waldman, director of digital publishing at Guardian Newspapers, told New Media Zero that the service was on a trial basis only for now: 'Our audience is bang in line for downloading and digitising music,' he said. 'But in a market this new it's still not quite clear how a publisher can make this work profitably.'"

Source: Digital Media News for Europe

From Digital Media News for Europe: The Guardian, through a partnership with EMI, is set to become the first U.K. newspaper to offer downloading of songs for 99 pence each to its online readers. The system is modeled on iTunes, Apple's pay-by-the-song, legal music downloading platform. "Simon Waldman, director of digital publishing at Guardian Newspapers, told New Media Zero that the service was on a trial basis only for now: 'Our audience is bang in line for downloading and digitising music,' he said. 'But in a market this new it's still not quite clear how a publisher can make this work profitably.'"

Source: Digital Media News for Europe

I'm happy to see more and more articles - this week in Newsweek - on OhmyNews, the Korean online participatory newspaper. Three weeks ago, his CEO, Oh Yeon-Ho was our guest during the 11th World Editors Forum in Istanbul and he made a very strong speech about his vision of journalism. These days, the site is very interesting because of the reactions of Korean people about the threats against one Korean citizen in Iraq. I like too this sentence from Dr Oh: "Technology itself cannot change society.  Korean citizens were ready to participate.  Only prepared people, who can use the merits of technology, can make a difference."

Source: Newsweek through MSNBC.com. And OhmyNews website in English.

I'm happy to see more and more articles - this week in Newsweek - on OhmyNews, the Korean online participatory newspaper. Three weeks ago, his CEO, Oh Yeon-Ho was our guest during the 11th World Editors Forum in Istanbul and he made a very strong speech about his vision of journalism. These days, the site is very interesting because of the reactions of Korean people about the threats against one Korean citizen in Iraq. I like too this sentence from Dr Oh: "Technology itself cannot change society.  Korean citizens were ready to participate.  Only prepared people, who can use the merits of technology, can make a difference."

Source: Newsweek through MSNBC.com. And OhmyNews website in English.

Thanks to Hans Kullin to provide us a list of more than 80 RSS feeds for Nordic media. Surprisingly, only one newspaper is quoted for Finland. I didn't know this blog, very helpful for a better knowledge of Scandinavian media.

Source: Media Culpa. RSS feed available.

Written by Todd Gitlin, the first article sounds like a "cavalry charge" against the New York Times and its new editor Bill Keller: "The scandalous Jayson Blair fabrications were stinking fish in a barrel. The (Judith) Miller problem, which is also her editors' problem, goes to something deeper: the everyday slackness and gullibility, the on-the-one-hand, on-the-other-hand blah-blah and other unreflective stenography that passes for "coverage" of the most powerful government in the history of the world. Omission includes the failure to connect dots. Position means dumping the tough stuff in the back pages." To make the balance, you can read another "cavalry charge" in the New York Daily News: the author is Bill O'Reilly from Fox News!

Source: The American prospect. Todd Gitlin is a professor of journalism and sociology at Columbia University.

I missed this information last week: "The Swedish daily newspaper Dagens Nyheter (second largest newspaper after Aftonbladet and before Expressen) will follow the Swedish newspaper trend and change its news and opinion pages from a broadsheet format to a compact size. "We have long been discussing the decision to shift entirely to the tabloid format, says the Editor-in-Chief of Dagens Nyheter, Jan Wifstrand. Most readers find the smaller size appealing and the change now reflects the many requests from our readers. When the change will take place has not been finally decided yet. First we have to resolve all technical and editorial issues. The business, sports, culture, travel, real estate, auto and Söndag sections are already published in tabloid size."

Source: Publicitas

Meditate on this formula: "a piece of the whole is worth more than the whole." The quote is from IBM Business Consulting Services partner Saul Berman, who opened the API Publishers Forum with a presentation based on his report "Media and Entertainment 2010: Open on the inside, open on the outside: The open media company of the future.". "For news organizations, that could mean taking a fresh look at all of the content they have from a marketing perspective they might never have contemplated before," Berman said. "This is as big an opportunity as it is a threat, there's lots of content sitting in your archives that is probably going to have a lot of value in this new world that it didn't have in the past."

According to the Knight center for journalism in the Americas, "Six independent journalists recently were given the Prize for Free Expression, awarded for the first time on the island, Cubanet reported. The prize was given by the Foundation for Free Expression, created in 2002 with the goal of campaigning for the release of imprisoned journalists. The winning stories were authored by Tomás González Coya, Luis Cino, Tania Díaz Castro, Adrián Leyva, Oscar Mario González and Miriam Leyva. This prize represents the persistence of the independent press in the country, despite the difficult situation it faces, according to the foundation’s president."

Sources: Knight center for journalism in the Americas and Cubanet

Have a look at this: "Here's a fantastic interactive from latimes.com (Los Angeles Times website) that shows what the American polls say now in each state and offers readers an interactive map to test their own scenarios. Click on a state to mark whether you think Bush or Kerry will win it and the interactive calculates the total number of electoral votes nationwide and who would win under that scenario."

Source: cyberjournalist.net

Have a look at this: "Here's a fantastic interactive from latimes.com (Los Angeles Times website) that shows what the American polls say now in each state and offers readers an interactive map to test their own scenarios. Click on a state to mark whether you think Bush or Kerry will win it and the interactive calculates the total number of electoral votes nationwide and who would win under that scenario."

Source: cyberjournalist.net

From Media Guardian: Last week, Media Guardian reported that Reuters business correspondents were being pressured to back away from investigative reporting by their employer after the news wire was investigated by Britain's Financial Services Authorities as to how they obtained information on retail sales figures before it was officially released. Read our posting here. Now, Reuters Editor-in-Chief Geert Linnebank has written a sharp letter to the Guardian defending his firm's ethics. "Reuters has a worldwide reputation for providing accurate and reliable news. It's a great shame that your reporter did not apply the same journalistic standards," Linnebank says.

Reported from BBC news: "Richard Wallace has been named the new editor of the British Daily Mirror, following the recent departure of Piers Morgan. Wallace, 43, currently deputy editor of the Sunday Mirror, will take up his new position with immediate effect. Morgan was sacked after publishing photographs - later shown to be fakes - that purported to show British soldiers abusing Iraqi prisoners. Des Kelly, acting editor of the Daily Mirror for the past five weeks, is leaving the company. Wallace is a former showbusiness editor, US editor and head of news at the Daily Mirror, and has also held reporting roles on the Daily Mail and the Sun. He has been acting Sunday editor for the past four months while editor Tina Weaver is on maternity leave."

Source: BBC

According to Reuters, "The discovery of hidden microphones in a press room at Thailand's telecoms ministry has stirred suspicion in the media, and newspapers are accusing the government of spying on journalists and violating press freedom. A national watchdog urged the government on Tuesday to investigate the incident and said any attempt by the state to interfere with the media's work would violate the constitution... Despite the ministry's denials, the respected Bangkok Post said in an editorial on Tuesday that "the apparent bugging" was "unconscionable, unethical, and most probably illegal... The government of Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra is notorious for its intolerance of criticism, media watchdogs say.

Source: Reuters via Houston Chronicle

According to Kansas.com, "A top editor with The News & Advance (Lynchburg, USA) has apologized for altering news stories entered in journalism contests and has left the Lynchburg newspaper. Associate Managing Editor Bob Morgan, who had worked at the paper for 19 years, said in a message to the staff that he had left "because of an ethical breach for which I am solely responsible." Morgan, 49, said he changed "several stories" to include content or corrections not in the originally published articles. The entries were submitted electronically. Managing Editor Joe Stinnett wrote about the ethical lapse in a "Dear Reader" letter published Wednesday on the front page of the paper.

Source: AP via Kansas.com

According to Kansas.com, "A top editor with The News & Advance (Lynchburg, USA) has apologized for altering news stories entered in journalism contests and has left the Lynchburg newspaper. Associate Managing Editor Bob Morgan, who had worked at the paper for 19 years, said in a message to the staff that he had left "because of an ethical breach for which I am solely responsible." Morgan, 49, said he changed "several stories" to include content or corrections not in the originally published articles. The entries were submitted electronically. Managing Editor Joe Stinnett wrote about the ethical lapse in a "Dear Reader" letter published Wednesday on the front page of the paper.

Source: AP via Kansas.com

From Media Guardian: Wall Street Journal reporters withheld their bylines from Wednesday's paper to protest what they called management's sub-par offers on pay and benefits, which included asking employees to contribute to the cost of their health insurance and the threat of imposing a "punitive contract" if an agreement could not be reached. The byline strike is the first in the paper's history and will most likely continue for the Thursday edition.

Source: Media Guardian

Al Jazeera reports that Norwegian journalists Tor Dommersnes and Fredrik Refvem have been expelled from Morocco, perhaps because of their plans to meet with representatives from Western Sahara, a nation under Moroccan occupation since 1975. Dommersnes and Refvem work for the daily newspaper Stavanger Aftenbladet, and were in possession of Moroccan press passes at the time authorities told them they had violated the law. The pair's editor, Tom Hetland, and the Norwegian ambassador to Morocco, Arne Aasheim, plan to protest the expulsion.

Source: Al Jazeera

Found by Rafat Ali in the Wall Street Journal: "Bono, lead singer for rock band U2 and antipoverty activist, is joining Elevation Partners, a new Silicon Valley fund set up earlier this year by veteran technology investor Roger McNamee and John Riccitiello, who in April left his post as president of videogame maker Electronic Arts for Elevation. The participation of Bono should sharply raise the profile of Elevation, which people familiar with the fund say initially will raise $1 billion for buyouts and investments in media and entertainment companies, seeking to profit from turmoil in those sectors. It is expected to look for investment opportunities in media and entertainment companies disrupted by the advent of the Internet and other digital technologies. Music, movies, publishing and other traditional media industries are grappling with how to exploit new distribution means -- including the Internet or cellular phones -- while stemming piracy that such technologies enable.

Source: paidcontent.org

From expatica.com: Catalonia Today, a new English-language daily, was launched yesterday in Catalonia by the company that publishes the Catalan-language daily El Punt. The 36-page, free paper will be distributed in Barcelona and throughout the region. Its editor-in-chief is former Times of London correspondent Stephen Burgen. Ten journalists make up the reporting staff.

Source: expatica.com

From Media Bulletin: "The UK's two big red-top tabloids could soon be edited by women as the Sunday Mirror's Tina Weaver is now leading the race to take over at the Daily Mirror, facing off against The Sun's Rebakah Wade, after News of the World editor Andy Coulson turned the job down. Coulson is understood to have turned down an offer of the editorship of the Daily Mirror after being persuaded by senior figures at News of the World owner News International that he is valued and can expect a long career at the Rupert Murdoch-owned firm. The Daily Mirror is reportedly denying that any firm offer to Coulson has been made, but according to Media Guardian, Coulson was invited to take the job last week by Trinity Mirror general manager Ellis Watson, acting on instructions from chief executive Sly Bailey."

Source: Media Bulletin

Revealed by MediaBulletin: "Plans are pressing ahead for the launch of a new daily cross-border newspaper for the pro-united Ireland nationalist community, despite Rupert Murdoch's court victory to stop the use of the working title Ireland Today. The new newspaper, which is described as a quality compact rather than a tabloid, is due to appear in November and will be published by Andersonstown News, a newspaper group based in Belfast. The group, which publishes titles including the North Belfast News, South Belfast News and Irish-language daily Lá, has been researching the launch since 2002."

Source: MediaBulletin

Read in the Daily Star (Lebanon): "The three-day "Media Ethics and Journalism" conference which took place at the Lebanese American University last week wrapped up on Monday with a series of recommendations that aim at changing the way the sector functions in the Arab world. "We chose to summarize the guidelines for good journalistic practice (issued earlier), into eight universal principles that are easy to remember, simple, direct and less cumbersome for implementation," said Magda Abu Fadil, the director of the Institute for Professional Journalists which organized the event last week... The eight guidelines are summarized as follows: fairness, integrity, honesty, commitment to the public, courage to pursue the truth, awareness of diversity, solidarity with fellow-journalists treated unjustly and skill development through continuous training."

Source: Daily Star (Lebanon) and Libanese American University

The Daily Star, Lebanon, is definitively one of my favourite newspaper in the Middle East. According to the paper, "Lebanese media lack ethics and professionalism, despite the fact that Lebanon is way ahead of other Arab countries in the field of media freedom" said Magda Abu Fadil, the director of the Institute for Professional Journalists (IPJ). Speaking to The Daily Star after presenting the recommendations of the Media Ethics and Journalism conference that took place in Beirut last week, Abu Fadil said that Lebanese culture is too lax regarding some major aspects of media ethics."

According to DMEurope, "The Audit Bureau of Circulations (ABC) for the UK and Ireland has announced rules to enable publishers to report digital editions on their existing ABC print certificates. While digital editions can now be reported on the print certificate, they cannot be included within the Average Net Circulation Figure. They will be reported separately. The rules include four principles that govern the auditing of digital editions." "These are:

• Opting in – all digital edition copies claimed must be ‘opted in’ i.e. the individual subscriber must have personally requested the copy

• Entitlement to copy – the audit will prove the entitlement of the subscriber for the publication i.e. verifying the paid subscription or free request documentation

• Availability of copy – ABC will check during the audit period that the correct publication and issue was available for download or view

• Notification of copy (some categories of free copies only) – the audit will include verification of the notification to the subscriber of the availability of a new digital edition.

The Audit Bureau of Circulations independently verifies circulation figures of newspapers and magazines to facilitate the buying and selling of advertising space in them.

Source: DMEurope and ABC press release

Media Bulletin reports The Daily Mirror's search for an editor-in-chief to replace axed Piers Morgan is down to two candidates, Sunday Mirror editor Tina Weaver and News of the World's Andy Coulson. If Weaver is hired, she will be the second woman this year to take the helm of a major British paper, after Rebekah Wade replaced David Yelland at the Sun. In doing some background research, I happened upon this mention of Weaver in a Scotsman article from last month: "Tina Weaver, the Sunday Mirror editor, is an obvious candidate, though the fact that she has a young child will be a handicap." What? Did the women's movement never occur? I can't imagine a male editor being "handicapped" because of the age of his children.

Source: Media Bulletin and The Scotsman

On the occasion of the fifth anniversary of the launching of Taiwan's Tapei Times, associate editor-in-chief Laurence Eyton gives us this column about the challenges the paper has faced in staffing and battling what he calls Taiwan's "weak" tradition of journalistic inquiry. What I think is most useful in this piece, however, is Eyton's candid discussion about the nuts and bolts of launching a foreign-language newspaper. He discusses the importance of keeping foreign and Taiwanese employees on an equitable pay-scale and of constant staff turnover fueled by the inescapable reality that Anglophone journalists can earn more in Hong Kong. He writes, "We are forced to rely a great deal on talented youngsters looking for a rung on the ladder. This mixture of youth and staff turnover weakens that collective historical memory that is the backbone of a newspaper of record. People cannot put the necessary background into stories simply because they don't know it. Often they don't even know what they might usefully look for in the archives. This makes producing material of the depth and quality that we originally envisaged a far harder task than we anticipated, especially when senior staff have so much time consumed in routine but constant training of newcomers." Read the whole article for a fascinating look at the short history of the Taipei Times.

Source: Tapei Times

Thought I'd start off the day with something amusing from Media Guardian: Did Prince William kill a 14 inch dik-dik deer in Kenya with a Masai warrior spear, shoot with a tranquilizer gun another endangered breed of deer in Chile, and does he speak fluent Swaahili? If you care at all, the answer to all those questions seems to be no. After a drawn out battle with royal press handlers, the Mail on Sunday has agreed to retract two stories it ran last August that presented all the above ridiculous occurrences as part of what it dubbed the Prince's "blood lust." Now, Paddy Harverson, Wills' new communications director, says the apparent total fabrication of those stories (probably by the newspaper's sources) has convinced the palace to take a harder line against inaccurate articles, instead of staying above the fray.

Source: Media Guardian

The International Herald Tribune reports today that Tim Berners-Lee, the British scientist who conceived of the World Wide Web as we know it, has finally received a monetary reward for the labor he refused to seek a patent on, and thus be-quested to the rest of us. Berners-Lee, currently director of the World Wide Web Consortium based at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, has won the world's largest technology prize, the Millennium Technology Prize from the Finnish Technology Award Foundation, which includes a 1 million Euro reward. Berners-Lee, 49, says he will use the funds to finance his children's education and remodel his kitchen, but he is also taking the opportunity to speak out against the widespread patenting of software he believes should be mass produced and made available to the public at no cost...

From Media Guardian: The "compact revolution" was the catchword on everyone's lips at our 11th World Editors Forum in Istanbul. Today, columnist Roy Greenslade employs the same metaphor to imply that perhaps the revolutionaries have gotten a bit carried away in their overhaul of traditional newspaper formatting: "Revolutions are never smooth transitions. After an initial burst of fervour there are usually periods of relative calm during which everyone - the leaders and the led - are able to assess whether tearing up the old world was a good idea after all. It is a worrying time for the leaders because they can't go back. But how do they maintain the momentum? Why, they ask themselves, has the initial euphoria vanished? That's the quandary facing both the Independent and the Times just now in the great compact revolution. As the latest official circulation figures reveal, the sales rises prompted by the move away from the broadsheet format have slowed dramatically in the past couple of months."

Source: Media Guardian

According to dotjournalism.co.uk, "The fourth annual American Indian Journalism Institute is underway at the University of South Dakota. Twenty-four students from 19 Native American tribes are attending the programme, which runs from 6 to 25 June. Organised jointly by the University of South Dakota and the Freedom Forum, the programme is designed to give intensive training and practical experience across a range of journalism disciplines."

Source: dotjournalism.co.uk

From I Want Media: This is an interview with David Wallis, editor of the new anthology Killed, a collection of magazine feature stories axed by editors for political, financial or just plain nonsensical reasons. Wallis is also the founder of Featurewell.com, a syndicate service for the work of 1,000 accomplished freelance journalists. Through Featurewell, Wallis says he learned the stories behind the stories that big titles--like Vanity Fair and Details--refused to print because of pressure from advertisers, concern for the price of their own stock options, or political reasons. "A lot of editors have risen to positions of power because they know not only what to run, but they know what not to run. There's a certain "get along" attitude that is endemic in the upper echelons of the media," Wallis told I Want Media...

From Agence France Presse: "Zimbabwean authorities on Thursday shut down an independent weekly owned by a ruling party lawmaker who openly criticised President Robert Mugabe's tough media laws. The weekly Tribune had its license revoked but the publisher said it would file a complaint on Friday to challenge the closure in court. ... Under Zimbabwe's tough media laws, all news organisations have to obtain a licence from the state media commission. The chairman of the media commission confirmed that the weekly had lost its licence, the second independent newspaper to be banned from publication in less than a year. The Daily News, an outspoken independent voice, was forcibly shut down last September in a police raid and its publisher and directors are currently on trial for violating the media law."

Source: Agence France Presse