Editors Weblog: Search Results

Google's split from China: Taking a stand or harming journalists?

Posted by Alexandra Jaffe on March 19, 2010 at 5:05 PM

No Google search: It's an unthinkable scenario for much of the world, but one that China is likely to face next month as the business shuts down its search engine in the notoriously conservative nation. Although Google has not confirmed the pullout, China Business News reported today that the company is likely to announce its decision to remove its search capacities from the nation on Monday.

The decision comes as a response to increasing conflict between the Chinese government and the Internet business. Google suffered an attack on their technological interface in December that has been attributed to hackers based in China, and the search site has been subject to mandatory censorship from the Chinese government.

Journalismfund.eu funds stories investigative money-laundering and slave labour

Posted by Emma Heald on March 17, 2010 at 10:00 AM

The European Fund for Investigative Journalism, or Journalismfund.eu, launched in February 2009 with a plan to raise funding for investigative reporting that involved cross-border collaboration in Europe.

"In Europe we can see that politics, business, even organised crime all cross borders, while journalists and their coverage are often focussed purely on a national target group and are reluctant to cross borders," director Brigitte Alfter explained in an interview last year.

Just over a year on, two investigative stories have been published and eight more are currently being researched, with groups of two to six journalists working on each. The money raised by Alfter goes towards travel, advice, time and making freedom of information requests.

Chinese censor orders journalists to take communist exam

Posted by Trafton Kenney on March 12, 2010 at 1:39 PM

Journalists in China will have to brush up on their communist history if they hope to continue reporting the news. China's print media censor is planning to introduce a new qualification exam for journalists as the government tries to exert further control over news outlets, the South China Morning Post reported yesterday.

Li Dongdong, the deputy director at the General Administration of Press and Publication confirmed on Wednesday that that qualification exam would resemble the test taken by civil servants, and that all aspiring journalists would be required to take it before applying for a reporting job.

Under the new guidelines, the Communist Party's stance on journalism would be required reading for students studying journalism.

Poll finds the majority of Danes against newspaper apology

Posted by Robert Eisenhart on March 9, 2010 at 10:59 AM

A recent poll conducted by the Megafon Institue found that the slight majority of Danes (51%) did not support the recent apology made by the Politiken newspaper for re-publishing cartoons negatively depicting the Prohpet Mohammed in 2008. Politiken's decision was largely influenced by Muslim organizations that promised to drop legal action if the newspaper published a public apology.

FBI's decision threatens the future of investigative reporting into civil rights

Posted by Robert Eisenhart on March 5, 2010 at 2:14 PM

In a recent Washington Post article the FBI announced its decision to close all but a few of the most promising cases of the 108 cold case murders from the civil rights era.

The Post's story led The Civil Rights Cold Case Project in conjunction with the Centre for Investigative Reporting to issue a statement pledging their continued commitment to reporting on unsolved or untold stories from the Civil Rights Era.

Danish newspaper apologizes to Muslim organizations for printing Muhammad cartoons

Posted by Maria Conde on February 26, 2010 at 6:00 PM

In another development in the case of the controversial Muhammad cartoons, the Danish newspaper Politiken apologized today to eight Muslim organizations for the offense it caused them by reprinting the cartoons. The Muslim organizations have promised to drop legal action against the newspaper if it printed an apology, according to the Guardian.

The newspaper's apology was condemned by a wide range of Danish figures that believe the apology compromises Denmark's freedom of the press.

UK: Highlights from the CMS report on libel, privacy, and press standards

Posted by Maria Conde on February 26, 2010 at 2:20 PM

After a long year of looking into the state of the press, the UK Culture, Media, Sports Select Committee has finally released its report on libel, privacy, and press standards, according to journalism.co.uk

The 167-page report completed by a committee appointed by the House of Commons offers recommendations on journalism ethnics to guarantee "a constructive way forward for a free and healthy UK press in the years to come."

According to the report's summary, this inquiry is the "product of the longest, most complex, and wide-ranging inquiry" the Committee has ever undertaken.

Non-profits and eyewitnesses: the changing face of journalism awards

Posted by Maria Conde on February 23, 2010 at 9:10 PM

T. Christian Miller of the independent, non-profit news organization ProPublica recently won the prestigious 2010 Selden Ring Award for Investigative Reporting. Editor & Publisher reports that it was a collaboration between The Los Angeles Times and the non-profit news outfit that produced Miller's winning report into abuses of insurance coverage for private contractors in war zones.

Just last week, the winners of the George Polk Awards in Journalism - usually given to courageous and skillful reporting - were announced, NPR's On the Media explains. Among the usual big media winners was a surprising win - the anonymous Iranians or Iranian who captured the death of the 26-year old protestor Neda Agha-Soltan on tape in the violent aftermath of the Islamic Republic's contested elections of June 2009.

Despite dwindling resources, newsrooms persist in fight for freedom of information

Posted by Maria Conde on February 16, 2010 at 3:15 PM

As companies slash newsroom budgets, they are also scaling back on one of their civic duties: legal battles to gain access to government information, reports The New York Times.

But while many regional newspapers are choosing to cut expenses on lawyers, asking them to work pro bono, another trend paints the opposite story, say press advocates and First Amendment lawyers.

Some companies including Hearst and The Associated Press have been quietly stepping up their legal efforts, by doing more of the work in-house, utilizing their in-house lawyers and being more aggressive in states where they can recoup legal fees and the federal level, which also allows plaintiffs in such access cases to sue for legal fees when they win.

Iceland as a "journalism haven"?

Posted by Trafton Kenney on February 15, 2010 at 1:23 PM

Some Icelandic MPs, with the help of non-profit website WikiLeaks, are hoping to turn their small island in the North Atlantic Ocean into a destination for investigative journalists with a new proposal to be submitted to Iceland's parliament on February 16th.

WikiLeaks editor Julian Assange has been in Iceland for the past two months, consulting parliamentarians on the bipartisan Icelandic Modern Media Initiative (IMMI) that hopes to turn Iceland into a "journalism haven," he told the BBC. The proposal would implement some of the strongest legal protection in the world for the press and its sources.

Iran: reporting restrictions for anniversary celebrations

Posted by Elizabeth Redman on February 12, 2010 at 11:16 AM

Many journalists have been denied visas for Iran in the lead-up to the Islamic Revolution anniversary celebrations, and those in Iran have been told not to report on opposition protests, The Guardian reports.

The internet and phones have been interfered with and the few foreign correspondents in Iran operate under tight restrictions. Although the Iranian government says that over 200 foreign journalists have been approved to cover the event, this consisted of government minders escorting them to the official rally at Tehran's Azadi square. Exiled Iranian journalists warned their colleagues not to go.

Editors Webinars - Andrew Moger and Juan Ignacio Gallardo

Posted by Antoine Laurent on February 9, 2010 at 3:42 PM

Instructions on Webinar usage Webinars Archives Back to Main Menu

Limitations imposed on media coverage of

sports events

How to understand accreditation contracts with FIFA, and how to protect news-gathering on the ground at sport events.

Date: Tuesday, March 16, 2010
Time: 14h00 GMT (London Time)

Speakers: Juan Ignacio Gallardo, Deputy Director, Marca; and Andrew Moger, Executive Director, News Media Coalition.

Buy the Limitations imposed on media coverage of sports events Webinar for only €59!

Our guest sepakers are going to tackle the following issues:

1.    How to understand your accreditation contract, understand FIFA terms
2.    How to take the right steps to protect news-gathering at events
3.    What can you do about negotiating terms

About the guest speakers:

The News Media Coalition (NMC), with headquarters in London and Brussels, seeks to preserve the function and ability of news organisations to inform public society about major events of interest.
Moger is one of the leading architects of the campaigning global network which seeks to protect the press freedom interests of journalists, editors and publishers in the contentious area of sport and other major news events. Before taking up this consultancy role, he was a journalist and executive editor for national newspapers in the United Kingdom, including The Times of London.

The sport daily Marca, one of the founder members of the IASN, has a readership of over 2,300,000, the highest in Spain for a daily newspaper and more than half of sports readership.
Marca is also Marca.com, the most visited sports website in Spain, with over 3 million users a month, and a 24-hour/day radio station, Radio Marca.
Gallardo, who started his journalistic career at Antena 3 and Radio 80, has been with Marca since 1991, with responsibilities covering virtually all the departments of the newspaper. He has co-ordinated and directed the supplement collection Tesoros del Real Madrid, one of the most remarkable successes in the history of the newspaper.
He has implemented Plusmarca, a project pioneering the delivery of information on mobiles in Europe.
Gallardo is also a writer. He is the author, among other works, of a biography of Maradona, the book Historias de una ilusión, dedicated to Spain's football team, and El Deporte Rey.

Buy the Limitations imposed on media coverage of sports events Webinar for only €59!

Instructions on Webinar usage Webinars Archives Back to Main Menu

If you have any questions, please contact Antoine Laurent, Editors Webinars Manager: Click Here

UK: Council newspaper costs revealed

Posted by Elizabeth Redman on February 4, 2010 at 3:22 PM

There's more fuel for the debate over council-run newspapers in the UK today, with one local newspaper revealing that its council-supported rival costs taxpayers almost £28,000 a month.

In the town of Salford, near Manchester, the council magazine Life in Salford competes with newspapers the Salford Star and Salford Advertiser. The Salford Star filed a freedom of information request to determine the cost of producing the council magazine. It determined that the council spends £27,797 per month, or an average of £333,564 per year.

By contrast, outside advertising income for the paper totaled just over £19,000 for eight issues.

Whistleblower Wikileaks' temporary closure

Posted by Helena Humphrey on February 1, 2010 at 11:55 AM

Dubbed the "brown paper envelope for the digital age" by the Guardian when it launched in 2007, Wikileaks, "the online clearinghouse for leaked documents", has been forced to temporarily close in order to raise the funds it requires to continue operations.

Committed to remaining ethical and independent, the website refuses to accept government or corporate funding. Having leaked some 1.2 million sensitive documents online, Wikileaks is the force behind the publication of the British National Party's membership list and attracted attention when it hosted the Minton report - a report detailing oil trader Trafigura's activities at a time when the company's legal representation was desperately trying to keep its contents secret from the press.

Twitter trending topics go local

Posted by Elizabeth Redman on January 29, 2010 at 5:40 PM

Twitter has introduced a 'Local Trends' filter, which allows users to see what others are posting about on the site in their area.

The official Twitter blog explained that the trends function began as a way to see what was popular on a global scale in real-time, but this would create another way for members to discover relevant topics to them.

"The big events that come up around the world will always become a global conversation," a spokesperson writes, "but what about the big events that only happen in your world that only matter to those around you? Or the slight differences in the way Californians perceive an event, like Obama's election victory, versus those (in) São Paulo, Brazil?"

US: Study shows government subsidies to media have declined

Posted by Maria Conde on January 28, 2010 at 4:49 PM

Newspapers have not only lost significant advertising revenue in the last couple of years, they have also been losing government support in the form of subsidies in the last forty years, concludes a new study by the University of Southern California.

According to Poynter, a new study of historic subsidies and emerging trends tracks various tax breaks, reductions in postal subsidies first enacted in 1792, and upcoming cutbacks in public notices that government regulations have traditionally forced into American newspapers. The study provides valuable insight, if not clear-cut recommendations for print media to follow, about the thorny issue of government funding for media.

AP president speaks out on Freedom of Information Act

Posted by Elizabeth Redman on January 25, 2010 at 5:41 PM

Journalists should be willing to fight for strong freedom of information and open records laws, said the president of the Associated Press in a speech on Friday.

Speaking at the Kentucky Press Association, AP president Tom Curley stressed the importance of these laws as part of the "journalistic tool kit" to help reporters access information in the public interest.

"It's vital," he said. "A strong FOIA in the hands of strong journalists with strong legal support breaks news."

Kuwaiti Journalists Criticize Stricter Media Laws

Posted by Trafton Kenney on January 19, 2010 at 2:53 PM

The Kuwait Journalists Association on Monday criticized a series of proposed amendments which would impose stricter punishment of press offences. The group of journalists along with prominent newspaper and television editors called on parliament to reject the new measures, even agreeing to boycott the lawmakers responsible for them.

"We urged MPs to reject the government plan to amend the press law," an official statement released by the KJA said.

Jeff Jarvis' take on News Corp's latest move

Posted by Helena Humphrey on January 18, 2010 at 11:51 AM

Jeff Jarvis, author of What would Google do and media columnist at the Guardian, has spoken out against News Corp's recent decision to block NewsNow from linking to its content, condemning Murdoch's as empire "foolish".

In his column, Jarvis argues that permitting linking is not only in News Corp's interests - as (previously) it directed traffic to the likes of Times Online, Sun Online and NotW.co.uk - but is also in the interests of democracy, allowing the public access to public information. "What's public is public - that is, we, the public, have a right to observe, point to, share, and comment on it. And the internet is public," writes Jarvis. Denying NewsNow the right to link, by disabling its crawler using the robots.txt file, impedes free comment and therefore freedom of speech, he adds.

Developing and diversifying the Marca brand from an advertising and special operations point of view

Posted by Elizabeth Redman on January 15, 2010 at 3:08 PM

Working closely with advertisers can help newspapers to establish a good brand image, says Paz Alvarez Sanchez-Arjona, Market Intelligence director of Marca/Unidad Editorial in Spain, speaking at the WAN-IFRA conference 'Using sports news to optimise your revenues'.

She has worked closely with marketing and advertising teams. This was satisfactory for the advertisers because the campaigns were distinctive and became well-known. This created loyalty and gave her brand a good, dynamic image, as well as revenue.

Marca is the leader among newspapers in terms of readership in Spain. It has 2.8 million readers, far more than any other newspaper in Spain. There are 40 million people in the country, with four national sports newspapers. Marca is located in Madrid and focuses a lot on Real Madrid and football, although it covers all the sports. In the last few years, a number of local papers have popped up, focusing on local teams. These detract from Marca's readership.

Sports coverage: News or Entertainment?

Posted by Elizabeth Redman on January 15, 2010 at 9:27 AM

Is sports coverage news or entertainment? "Everyone in this room would say both," says Larry Kilman, Executive Director of Communications and Public Affairs for WAN-IFRA, speaking at the WAN-IFRA conference 'Using sports news to optimise your revenues'.

The traditional partnership between sports and media is collapsing, he says. Sports organisers aim to extend intellectual property rights to their matches, which will affect news coverage, and what is paid and what is free. If newspapers become betting companies, the lines are blurred, he adds.

Can an event be copyright? French draft law would give sports organisations extra copyright protection, and a French court has ordered Unibet to pay the French Open tennis event €300,000 in recognition of ownership rights. Proposed British legislation calls for stricter licensing as sports bodies want the government to ensure a fair return for them. And the Sports Rights Owner Coalition, composed of international and national sports bodies, is lobbying for sport-specific intellectual property protection.

New newspaper opening in Pakistan

Posted by Elizabeth Redman on January 13, 2010 at 5:33 PM

Pakistan is set to get a new English-language newspaper focusing on Pakistani news and business, under an alliance between the International Herald Tribune and Century Publications. The launch date is tentatively set for March of this year, and the paper will be distributed inside the IHT.

Publisher of the yet-unnamed newspaper Bilal Lakhani told Media Mughals that Pakistan needs "a credible and authoritative news source" because of the social and political turmoil the country faces.

Norway: Controversial Mohammed cartoons reprinted

Posted by Elizabeth Redman on January 11, 2010 at 4:25 PM

A Norwegian newspaper has republished the controversial cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed, after an axe attack on a Danish cartoonist in his own home, The Telegraph reported.

The newspaper Aftenposten, in an article about cartoonist Kurt Westergaard, last week printed six out of the 12 controversial images that ignited global debate and protest after their initial publication by Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten in 2005. Westergaard's drawing depicted the prophet wearing a turban in the shape of a bomb.

Editor of Aftenposten Hilde Haugsgjerd said that it seemed "natural and justified to republish the artistic and journalistic body of work that is likely the cause of this violence".

True to his word: Murdoch blocks news aggregator

Posted by Helena Humphrey on January 11, 2010 at 12:02 PM

Towards the end of last year, Rupert Murdoch, head of News International, spoke out against news aggregators. In an interview with Sky News Australia, he condemned the likes of Google as nothing more than "thieves", intent on stealing content from his newspaper's websites for their own benefit. The media mogul has long wielded threats of removing all News International articles from search indexes and implementing stringent paywalls around all his websites by the end of 2010.

It's only January, but Murdoch has already set about putting his plans into action: On Friday, the Guardian reported that News International is to prevent the aggregator NewsNow.co.uk from linking to content found on the Times Online website, by changing its search engine settings via the robots.txt protocol.

Iran: Contact with international organisations banned

Posted by Elizabeth Redman on January 6, 2010 at 5:28 PM

Iranians have been forbidden to talk to or receive aid from more than 60 international organisations, including thinktanks, universities and broadcasters, The Guardian has reported.

The BBC, which last year launched a Farsi television channel, and Wilton Park, a British group that organises foreign policy conferences, are among those blacklisted. Two U.S. government-funded Farsi-language outlets, Voice of America and Radio Farda, have also been banned, as have Yale University and American thinktanks the Brookings Institution and the George Soros Open Society Foundation.

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