Results matching “the freedom of”

"It's impossible to have editorial freedom without financial independence," said Aboubakr Jamai, founder and editor of Moroccan weekly magazine Le Journal Hebdomadaire, opening the business-focused session of the 5th Arab Free Press Forum, which also included Jacek Utko of Bonnier Business Press.

Many obstacles to successful news publication in the Arab World are receding, said Mohammed Alayyan, founder and publisher of Al-Ghad Daily, the first independent paper in Jordan, and the Alwasweet Weekly Newspaper.

Public concern has been raised over media laws restricting freedom of the press in Hungary and South Africa, but less attention has been devoted to the worsening situation in Ecuador, where the news media are now under attack, writes George Brock, Professor and Head of Journalism at City University London, on his blog.

On January 24, the World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers (WAN-IFRA) published a report that illustrates how the government of Ecuador is carrying out "a sophisticated strategy of marginalising all voices independent of state power".
Download the full report in English and Spanish here. 

Press freedom and freedom of expression remain under serious threat in the Middle East, despite the democracy revolutions and reforms that are sweeping the region, a panel of experts said Tuesday at the Arab Free Press Forum in Tunisia.

"The problem today is that you might not be afraid of the secret police, but you might fear the moral police," said Ghias al-Jundi, the Syrian Director of the PEN International Writers in Prison Committee and a member of the International Freedom of Expression Exchange's (IFEX) Tunisia Monitoring Group.

While the dramatic democratic upheavals "have made steps in overcoming power and overcoming the kingdom of fear," the Islamist groups who were long barred from politics and are now emerging do not have a tradition of political interaction with other groups.

How can the media regain public trust as a credible source of news, participants contemplated at the 5th Arab Free Press Forum in Tunis. After years of propaganda, it is difficult for newly-free publications  in the Arab World to establish themselves as trustworthy sources of news, particularly when facing competition from blogs and social media.

Hussam Eddin Muhammed, columnist for Palestinian-owned, London-based paper Al-Quds al-Arabi, said that respecting the reader and the viewer is very important. There are both journalists who risk their lives to bring accurate news to the public, and then there are media that just offer incorrect news.  

by Larry Kilman

With repression of Arab media lifted in some countries following the 'Arab Spring' revolutions and reforms, what needs to be done to develop a professional independent press in the region?

That was the question posed during a panel discussion Monday at the Arab Free Press Forum in Tunis, and the answer is - quite a lot of things.

Of course there is journalism training, but the needs go far beyond reporting. The challenge is how to turn media into commercial ventures.

"Journalists often don't have proper management experience or marketing experience," said Hafez al-Bukhari, President of the Yemen Polling Centre.

The 5th Arab Free Press Forum opened Monday in Tunisia with a celebration of the gains that have been made in Middle East press freedom, but with a reminder that much more needs to be done.

"If Tunisia is the country in the region that has most advanced in the construction of democracy, other countries in the region are still suffering under the yoke of authoritarianism," said Moroccan journalist Aboubakr Jamai, opening the conference on behalf of the World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers (WAN-IFRA). "Reporters thus face different situations. Some have won -- like their fellow citizens -- their freedom of speech, while others continue to risk their freedom and even their lives."

"Some are more advanced than others in constructing democratic society, but if the level of democritization differ, there is little doubt about the dynamics that have begun in our societies," said Mr Jamai, laureate of WAN-IFRA's Gebran Tueni Award. "There is a sense of history, one that leads to respect for liberty and dignity."

Liberalization of professional services is on the agenda of the Italian technocrat Mario Monti's government, as part of the wider plans to boost economy, from energy to transport.

Journalists appear to be amongst the professions listed in the regulation reform. Speculations about the alleged changes - the reform bill is a draft and hasn't been approved yet - that will involve the Ordine dei Giornalisti, the professional state-approved body representing Italian journalists, have raised concerns within the profession. It has also provided a boost to reinvigorate the long-time ongoing debate about the possibility of the abolition of the "extraordinary league of journalists".

The state-regulated body defines who, after passing an exam, can officially be called a journalist and has the power of sanction these people in case of ethical misconduct that can lead to their removal from the official journalists' list and a ban on exercising the profession.

The Globe and Mail, Canada's largest newspaper, has announced the appointment of its first ombudsman. 

The Ecuadorian National Assembly have passed changes made by President Rafael Correa to the country's Democracy Code restricting media outlets from publishing positive or negative material about political candidates in the run up to elections, due to take place on January 20, 2013.

Twenty-five journalists were arrested in Somaliland: eight for having protested about the closure of the TV station HornCable TV and thirtheen more who went to their aid, Roy Greenslade reported on the his blog on the Guardian via Reporters Without Borders.

Reuters announced today the launch of Reuters TV, a new YouTube channel featuring ten new commentary and analysis shows from the news and media division of Thomson Reuters, TechCrunch reported. According to the company's announcement, the YouTube channel won't mimic traditional TV, but will use an editing style that's "suited for Internet programming", the article said.

The founder of Wikipedia Jimmy Wales announced that the site will go dark for 24hours on Wednesday in protest of the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA), The Next Web's Insider reported. The Next Web also reported that, in reply to a tweet that queried whether Twitter's Dick Costolo, Google's Eric Schmidt or Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg would follow Wikipedia's protesting footsteps, Costolo responded by saying that the decision was foolish.

The Media Development Loan Fund is seeking an experienced journalist with expertise in on-line publishing and journalism to lead the work creating, synthesizing and publishing information on the digital transition of news businesses. See here to apply.

For more industry news please see WAN-IFRA's Executive News Service.

Today the Associated Press opened the first fully-operated news bureau in North Korea from a Western news organisation, a press release announced. The international news wire's office in Pyongyang will be the first to offer, with a full-time staff, a video and text coverage from the country. The plan to open the bureau was announced last June.

According to the Guardian, the opening arrives after months of discussions with the Korea Central News Agency, inside which the new office will be based, and it was originally planned to open last December but it has been postponed after the death of leader Kim Jong-il.

The agency already had a video office in North Korea six years ago through its London-based Associated Press Television News (APTN) and it has been the only independent foreign media news agency operating in North Korea till now, as reported on the APTN website. 

Who owns a journalist's Twitter account, the individual or their employer, asks Cleland Thom on Press Gazette's blog. If a journalist moves to another publication, can they take their account with them?

Tumblr is forming its own editorial team to help promote stories people write and share on the network, reported Business Insider after a meeting with the five-year-old company's 25-year-old founder David Karp. Tumblr raised $85 million in September and, as Business Insider said, it has a lot to prove in 2012.

Twenty-four journalists were killed in 2011, one of the most 'challenging and tragic' years for the countries of the Americas, said the Inter American Press Association in its 2011 review of the state of press freedom.

Social media is on the rise in India, according to a Nielsen report covered by Social Times.

For more industry news please see WAN-IFRA's Executive News Service.

German president Christian Wulff has admitted on German television that it was a mistake to attempt to pressure leading tabloid Bild into killing a story. It emerged on Monday that Wulff had called Bild's editor Kai Diekmann and left a voicemail message in which he threatened "war" if Bild published a story about his personal finances.

As the Guardian reported, the message specifically made threats of "judicial consequences" and a "definitive breach" in relations with Axel Springer, Bild's publisher. Bild published the story. 

Repression of uprisings makes the region the world's most dangerous place for journalists.

Sixty-four journalists and other media workers were killed world-wide because of their professional activities in 2011, with nearly half of them killed in Pakistan, Iraq, Libya and Yemen, the World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers (WAN-IFRA) said Thursday.

Ten journalists were killed in Pakistan for the second consecutive year, making it again the most deadly country for journalists.

The Arab region was the world's most dangerous region for media professionals, with twenty-two journalists killed. The brutal repression that followed widespread popular uprisings in Bahrain, Egypt, Libya, Syria, Tunisia and Yemen cost the lives of sixteen journalists. Journalism in Iraq remains a dangerous profession, as six journalists lost their lives in the country last year.

Some Italian newspapers could be at risk due to the cuts in state subsidies that the new technocrat government is planning to implement.

The Financial Times reported last week that about 100 titles are facing closure as Mario Monti's administration confirmed cuts in public subsidies for the press from €170m to €53m budgeted for next year. These had already been proposed by the previous government led by Silvio Berlusconi.

At risk are wellknown papers such the leftwing Liberazione, Il Manifesto and L'Unità, the former communist party daily founded by Antonio Gramsci in 1924 and the Catholic daily Avvenire. 

With 120 participants from across the Arab world and beyond, the three-day 'Forum for Media Freedom Defenders in the Arab World' kicked-off on Monday in the Jordanian capital, Amman.

The Forum was organised by the Amman-based Center for Defending Freedom of Journalists (CDFJ), an organisation concerned with protecting Jordanian and Arab journalists and their liberties and rights, in addition to developing the Arab media sector. The event has been funded by The Royal Norwegian Embassy in Amman.

During the first two days, the Forum has conducted open discussion sessions on the role played by the media during the uprisings in the Arab world. The goal is to identify the challenges facing the Arab media and discuss how to create a better future for freedom of expression in the region. The last day of the Forum will be a closed workshop session where participants will form working groups to discuss how to "develop strategies and plans to assist in institutionalising mechanisms of defending media freedom in the Arab world".