Results matching “restrictions on”

The Internet was responsible for Barack Obama's election to the White House, Arianna Huffington, founder of the Huffington Post claims. Although this statement will inevitably incite dissenting views, in the context of Huffington's talk on the power of the Internet it does not seem wholly unreasonable. Huffington was speaking at the Activate Conference 09, convened to discuss the social implications of the rise of the Internet and technology.  

The conference reiterated discussions of technological and cultural trends, which are conditioning not only how news needs to be presented, but how these new forms of diffusion can directly affect politics and society.

The regional press in America is in the midst of a whirlwind of stylistic, managerial and media development, to the extent that its face is changing beyond recognition.  That evolution is a necessary but merciless concept has been demonstrated by the disappearance of many regional daily newspapers and the unpredictable life span of modern ventures.

Michelle Ferrier, the former managing director of the development team of the soon-to-be late hyperlocal community site, MyTopiaCafe.com, laments the failure of the initiative of the Daytona Beach News-Journal. The experiences of the Daytona project have been shared by other now redundant initiatives of media organisations eager to offer new services while drastically cost-cutting and downsizing. Hyperlocal, however, is not necessarily a prematurely defunct form of community news provision. The problems were symptomatic of the approach, warns Ferrier, yet lessons can be learned.

Following the Iranian election on 12 June, which both sides claim to have won, Iranians and the rest of the world wants to know the truth about the results, as well as wanting to follow protests and other developments. But this has proved more difficult than anticipated given the restrictions on reporting, both by Iranians and foreigners, and the occasion proved to be an opportunity for citizen journalism to show its value.

Reporting restrictions

Mainstream media has been suffering from severe restrictions in Iran, even tougher than during last year's Zimbabwean elections, foreign editor for Channel 4 News Ben de Pear told the Guardian. Foreign journalists first had to get special press cards and were closely monitored, then on the Tuesday following the election, foreign journalists were banned from reporting on the streets. The BBC's correspondent has been asked to leave the country after the broadcaster was accused of supporting rioters. And it is not just foreign reporters who are suffering: now even reporters of Iranian nationality are being confined to their offices. According to Reporters without Borders (RSF), 26 Iranian journalists, editors and bloggers have been imprisoned since June 14.

Citizen video becomes a symbol

In the absence of an abundance of professional reporters, amateurs have stepped up. One of the most watched and discussed videos to come out of the tragedy, and one which is emblamatic of the role of citizen journalism in reporting from Iran, is that of the death of Neda Agha-Soltan, a young Iranian woman who was walking near the scene of clashes between pro-government militias and demonstrators when she was shot. The video has prompted international outcry and the girl's death has since come to represent the tragedy of the conflict, a "symbol of the anti-government movement," according to the New York Times. It was taken, not by a reporter with a camera, but by a bystander on a mobile phone, and posted on Facebook and YouTube after the man sent the 40-second clip to a friend who then forwarded to friends and news sites in Europe and the US.

A Twitter revolution?

Talk of a Twitter revolution swiftly spread as Iranians and others in the country used the social network Twitter to get their news out to the world, and it has been used extensively by the media. Twitter is particularly effective as a method of spreading news as it is harder to censor, given that it can be accessed via various different applications on computers or mobile phones, as well as via the website. #IranElection has been the top trending topic on Twitter for days, with thousands of updates an hour using the hash tag to get included in the feed and direct interested observers to text, image or video content. Following a request from US President Obama, Twitter decided to delay maintenance to the site in light of the important role it was playing in keeping people informed, carrying it out during Tehran's night rather than daylight hours.

Twitter is clearly not immune to censorship, however. The following message has been passed around Facebook over the last few days amongst Anglo-Saxon users:

"FREEDOM OF SPEECH: If anyone is on twitter, set your location to Tehran and your time zone to GMT +3.30. Security forces are hunting for bloggers using location/timezone searches. The more people at this location, the more of a logjam it creates for forces trying to shut Iranians' access to the internet down. Cut & paste & pass it on."

Amateur issues

Clearly, there are problems with relying on information generated by amateurs. Benoit Hervieu of RSF told Editor & Publisher that one of the main problems is that because many people want to remain anonymous, it is harder to verify information. And indeed, it seems that much false information has been circulating. After Twitter was hailed as the voice of the revolution, a backlash quickly emerged asserting its unreliability. There is always the possibility, after all, that interested parties might deliberately try to misinform, or might be so personally involved in the debate that they cannot maintain impartiality. And one of the disadvantages of a campaign such as that mentioned above, encouraging international Twitter users to set their locations to Iran, could end up misleading journalists searching for information on the network.

So how are citizen journalism agencies dealing with these risks and challenges?

Checking for reliability is a top priority for those trying to sell their content to traditional media companies. Citizen journalism agency Demotix has obtained many images from freelancers and amateurs portraying events in Iran, including two pictures which have appeared on the front page of the New York Times. Demotix COO Jonathan Tepper emphasised that Demotix understands the importance of reliability of sources and "believes that serious citizen journalism needs to take all the ethics of traditional reporting and build on them, such as verifiability and protection of sources." All submissions go through a vetting procedure which includes looking at the metadata in photos.

Citizenside, which specializes in citizen photo journalism, has managed to get hold of some good images which have been published by mainstream media outlets, but co-founder Matthieu Stefani said that it has been "really hard" both to establish contacts in Iran and to receive images from these contacts. "The big issue is that most of the contributions we've received were sent through proxies, with most of the time no way to contact our contributors as cellphone networks don't work really well," he explained, and therefore his team is extremely cautious about what they accept. He said that the photos that the agency has been pushing most to its clients were received from known and trusted members in the UK who were sent them by close relatives in Iran.

The Observers, a project run by TV news station France 24 combining citizen journalism with professional editing, has been active in its coverage of Iran. Founder of the initiative Julien Pain told the EW that what makes their coverage particularly useful is the fact that they already had trusted contacts in Iran before the election, and hence they have fewer problems with establishing the reliability of sources of information, particularly when using proxy servers. "We worked with these people before the situation was tense," he explained, "so we know them." He gave the example of a girl who has recorded a video describing how the censorship works, with whom he and his team had already worked. Prior to any major election, Pain added, the Observers tries to enlarge its network of contacts, which in this case proved particularly useful. Even using trusted contacts, Pain said that the Observers still cross-checks information as far as possible.

Amra Tareen, CEO of AllVoices, a project that aggregates professional and amateur news on one site, has a different approach: publish everything and let the reader decide. She said that the site has received more than 1,000 submissions, in English and Farsi, since the election, gathered via proxy servers as the AllVoices site is blocked. She stressed that submissions have tackled both sides of the issue and that this is one of the most crucial aspects of citizen journalism and of her site in particular: that anyone can be heard. "we're neutral and anyone can have their voices heard on our platform--that's key for the credibility of citizen journalism; bias will undermine the concept and keep citizen journalism and citizen journalists from ever being taken as seriously as they ought to be."

Generally it seems that such a situation where media access is severely reduced has provided citizen journalism with a significant opportunity to prove its importance. Tareen commented that "we really want to use this opportunity to show that Cit-J is not only about massive amount of non-qualified content, but also good "pro-am" work that we have been promoting for years now," said Stefani.

Getting pictures on the front page of a major daily is likely to be a huge boost to Demotix in terms of fame and credibility. Tepper was clear that Demotix is trying to supplement mainstream media rather than replace it, but said that "we think our reporting can sometimes be more accurate than the mainstream media" because "most of our users record what is known to them, in their city or country" and therefore "Demotix images provide a more accurate representation of the subject from a local perspective."

For the Observers, the situation has provided an opportunity for collaboration with the TV station on an unprecedented level. Usually, Pain said, he would publish a video on the Observers website and offer it to TV, now he has been working more with programming at France 24 to supply them with videos first before putting them online, to offer a period of exclusivity. "We've really moved a step forward here," he said. "We have learnt how to work together, and it's not going to be the same any more."

Although amateur 'citizen journalists' do not have the knowledge or expertise to analyse developments the way a professional journalist could, they can certainly witness and record events, and when traditional media coverage is limited, this is a valuable service. In terms of providing a true news service, amateur contributions must be verified so that readers can trust them, which is a priority for citizen journalism agencies. As opportunities continue to arise for citizen journalism to prove its value, the mainstream media is likely to incorporate it with increasing frequency and develop new ways of working closer with citizen journalism agencies.

As the world's political and media spotlights focussed on the Iranian elections, the Internet was always expected to play an important role in keeping people up to date with developments, but little did we know the Web would also prove to be the scene of political unrest.

As news emerged that incumbent president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad had secured 62.6 percent of the 46.2 million votes cast compared to rival Mir Hossein Mousavi's 33.75 percent, tweets started circulating from a section of the country's disappointed and disenfranchised voters.

Andrew Stroehlein, communications director of the International Crisis Group has written an article in the Christian Science Monitor to express his concerns about cuts in international media coverage, which he believes are not being taken seriously enough. Recent moves include the BBC's cuts in Paris, Moscow and Brussels and the Chicago Tribune's decision to close its bureaus in Rome and Jerusalem. Stroehlein cites two recent developments to illustrate his argument.

First is the situation in Somalia, which Stroehlein feels has been neglected in the Western media, particularly in the US. The recent attention given to the capture of a US vessel by Somali pirates focussed on the fact that "a new president with the world's largest military at his disposal could defeat a handful of lightly armed thugs," and gave little attention to the arguably more important issue at stake: that "piracy is a symptom, not the disease, and lawlessness off the coast of Somalia will continue as long as anarchy is allowed to remain on land."

A one-off summit at the House of Commons on local media has been described as "both dull and brilliant", but nonetheless a "breakthrough moment in history" by media commentator Roy Greenslade.  In the ongoing troubles of the UK's regional media, the summit was attended by representatives of all types of UK media, and speakers included culture secretary Andy Burnham and Ofcom chief executive Ed Richards.

The main point of note from the summit has been the unprecedented level of cooperation show by all sides. Greenslade describes how the summit was "was all the better for the absence of fireworks, the lack of point-scoring and even the rather obvious and well-rehearsed contributions from some of the representatives because it revealed a welcome trend towards co-operation."

Thanks to Commodore Frank Bainimarama, coup leader (pictured below), Fiji is currently embroiled in a press freedom of information war, in which the media has been banned from reporting any news which may cause "disorder", "disaffection", "public alarm" or "undermine" the current military-led government.

The Guardian's Toni O'Loughlin has reported that a native of the island, Edwin Nand, was himself detained by the authorities for simply writing about the imprisonment of journalist Sean Dorney of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, who is to be expelled from the country along with two New Zealand journalists.

The Huffington Post's latest business model combines the for-profit online publication with the nonprofit Huffington Post Investigative Fund. This week founder Ariana Huffington announced the launch of the Investigative Fund with an initial budget of $1.75 million partially funded by the HuffPost in collaboration with The Atlantic Philanthropies and other donors.

The investigative group will be lead by American News Project founder Nick Penniman, and though the group's investigations will be published on the Huffington Post, it will both remain a separate legal entity and also make its work available to other publishers. These provisions are absolutely necessary to maintain the Fund's nonprofit status.

Critics of Senator Benjamin Cardin's Newspaper Revitalization Act are concerned that the bill will stifle freedom of speech. On Tuesday Cardin proposed a bill that would allow newspapers to operate as tax-exempt non-profits with 501(c)(3) status. Advertising and subscription revenue would be tax-exempt and contributions to the papers would be tax deductible.

In an article in the Wall Street Journal, reporter James Taranto points out that, though the bill expressly permits nonprofits to publish newspapers, there is no existing legislation that prevents them from doing so now. Some newspapers, including the Christian Science Monitor, currently operate as non-profits, the difference being that under Cardin's bill the nonprofit papers may sell ad space free of taxation as long as sufficient space is provided for editorial content.

The Financial Times has discovered that seven chief executives of the UK's top regional newspapers held a secret meeting with communications minister Lord Carter on February 2nd. The aim of the meeting was to impress upon Carter just "how serious the financial circumstances affecting their industry were", and also to ask for the strict merger restrictions surrounding the regional press to be relaxed. According to those present, the communications minister responded that "the group had a strong emotional case, but needed to prove empirically that the government should intervene".

Present as part of the Local Media Alliance were the chief executives of Trinity Mirror, Johnston Press, Newsquest (Gannett), Northcliffe Media (DMGT), Guardian Media Group, Archant and DC Thomson. Combined, the seven companies can lay claim to 72% control of the UK market - such industry collaboration is unprecedented. Roger Parry will step down as chairman of Johnston Press later this month, and has been appointed the chairman of LMA. He described the alliance as "a way for the regional press to act quickly and efficiently to provide information and responses to government in a fast-moving situation."

"Democracy can't exist without newspapers" was the headline of former Scotsman editor Tim Luckhurst's article in the Independent on Monday. He was writing about the declining fortunes of two of Scotland's biggest national papers; the Herald and the Scotsman. Luckhurst charts the decline of the newspaper for which he "once hired foreign correspondents from Washington DC to Beijing", but "is now a parochial rag with meagre claim to influence in Edinburgh". He cites the 9.18% drop in the Scotsman's sales in the year ending January 2009, and a parallel figure of 9.7% for the Herald.

Many London based newspapers print Scottish editions, but "until recently Scottish newspapers were the only titles published outside London that could possibly claim national status." To survive, they had to cover Scotland better than their rivals, and cover world news to the same level as their London based competitors. However, recent spates of redundancies and a "brain drain" of talented journalists migrating from Scottish newspapers to their London counterparts has left the editorial quality of these two Scottish newspapers somewhat depleted.

In an interview with the Media Guardian, Alexander Lebedev has revealed that he doesn't intend to interfere in the editorial line of the Evening Standard, explaining, "It is not polite for a Russian to interfere in British politics".  Nor does he seem to have any strong desire to profit financially from the takeover - after buying the publication for a token £1; he is preparing to invest £30 million into it over the next three years.  

He does, however make the suggestion that the Standard could be distributed in Moscow.  Lebedev has problems with the current restrictions on the press in Russia and Novoya Gazeta, the newspaper which he part owns, is one of the last remaining anti-government publications in the country.  Further extending his hand in the media industry, Lebedev has bought up two FM radio licences, one of which will become an English speaking radio station in Moscow.  Although not intending to change or affect the Standard's editorial line, Lebedev seems to intend to use his new acquisition to extend his influence in his home country.

Matt Thompson at the Reynolds Journalism Institute is encouraging people to think outside the box to save journalism.  In September, he started his Newsless blog, speculating over the restrictions of time on journalism.  In his first post, he stated his belief that "journalism is the constant effort to deliver a truer picture of the world as it is".  Thompson's studies explore news reporting moving away from its integral time restricted nature and placing more emphasis on context, which he muses is made possible by the Web. In his latest post he theorises that "a focus on delivering context means that the news is never the endpoint... It doesn't end at all. It merely connects with more and more dots that form an ever-clearer picture of a better society."

Dutch daily NRC Handelsblad have a by now tried and tested method of journalism which has enabled them to retain some of the younger generations of readers that they noticed they were losing.  In March 2006 Handelsblad launched NRC Next, a morning digest of the previous afternoon's paper aimed at all the young people that hadn't subscribed.  It costs just one third of the price of Handelsblad, but looks better and stays away from news with time limits that young readers would have already read online the previous day. "Readers have got to feel that this is better than Holland's four free dailies -- better even than Handelsblad -- or this isn't going to work," explains Hans Nijenhuis, then foreign editor at the newspaper, to Time Magazine.  Both these theories steer away from the time pressure generally associated with news and towards more timeless content - perhaps this is the way for newspapers to keep on with the ever-developing Internet.

Source: Time, Newsless.org

If any confirmation was needed of the increasing presence of quality journalism on the net, this is surely it; at least 5 web-only newsrooms are entering the Pulitzer prize this year.  The online-only St Louis Beacon is amongst other sites taking advantage of the December change in Pulitzer rules to submit entries for the prestigious journalism prize, and submitting their works - the deadline for which is Monday. 

The regulations state that any Internet entries must be from sites that publish weekly, produce original work, aren't connected to any broadcast or magazine outlets, are "primarily dedicated to original news reporting and coverage of ongoing stories," and that "adhere to the highest journalistic principles."

An interview between the Arab Press Network and Lawrence Pintak has addressed the divide between Arab and Western reporting, focusing on a survey of 601 Arab journalists that produced occasionally surprising results. Pintak is the director of the Kamam Adham Centre for Journalism Training and Research at the American University in Cairo, as well as publisher and co-editor of Arab Media & Society, an online journal.

The UK Government's Treasury Committee is planning to conduct an investigation into the banking crisis to examine, "the role of the media in financial stability and whether journalists should operate under any form of reporting restrictions during banking crises".

Financial journalists have responded negatively to the idea that financial journalism could be subject to reporting restrictions.

Two newspapers are to resume printing in Belarus after being forced to publish abroad for several years, according to the Moscow Times. 

Narodnaya Volya and Belorusskaya Niva have been publishing from Russia after government restrictions on the use of state printing plants in 2004 and 2005 "forced many opposition papers to print outside Belarus."

There was no government comment on the announcement made by Narodnaya Volya editor Iosif Seredich.  This decision follows pledges by the European Union to "intensify dialogue with Belarus if it moves to promote democratic values, including press freedom."

Source:  Moscow Times via EJC

According to the International Herald Tribune, Microsoft plans to help "European media owners protect and profit from copyrighted material online."

Thomas Rubin, Microsoft's intellectual property lawyer, said that they were going to work with publisher to develop a technology that will allow them to have more control over their material after it has been referenced by search engines.

China has agreed to loosen restrictions on foreign news and information providers inside the country, where government controls were tightened in 2006.  The agreement settles a trade dispute with the United States, the European Union and Canada.

International news and information agencies such as Bloomberg, Thomson Reuters and Dow Jones & Company will be able to "more freely compete and sell their services inside China" under the agreement, the New York Times reports.

A global code of conduct has been signed by Microsoft, Google and Yahoo to protect free speech online and to combat official intrusion on the Internet.

The name of this agreement is The Global Network Initiative. The code has been put in place as a response to criticism that the large online companies have been complicit with regard countries such as China censoring the internet. The code's goal is to limit the data shared with authorities.

The Global Network Initiative was drawn up by the internet companies along with human rights groups, academics and investors.

The code says that privacy is "a human right and guarantor of human dignity," and the agreement commits the companies to try to resist overly broad demands for restrictions on freedom of speech and the privacy of users. The code commits participants to look at the human rights climate in a country before concluding business deals and to ensure their employees and partners do the same.

Source: BBC News

According to a panel of journalists at a National Press Conference, news agencies now in financial turmoil are no longer pushing for access to information like they used to.  

"The media seems less and less willing to fight back and to challenge government authority in a legal sense," said Brian Maass, who leads the investigative team at Denver's CBS 4.

The (US) government is putting up more restrictions on information because "they know its expensive to sue and the news media don't have a lot of money."  Which raises the question as to where the news business is going and how it will continue to protect its values.

Source: Marketwatch

See Also:
The Future of Investigative Journalism Part 1 - Interview: "Flat Earth News" author Nick Davies
The press release and cost cut problem: editorial forgetting core values?

The relaxed rules that permeated during the Olympics are to be allowed to expire next month, according to the Foreign Ministry. There had been hopes that the Olympics would mark a general relaxation of the rules following hints from a Chinese official last December.

China did loosen its controls on foreign journalists -- which include requiring government permission for all interviews and travel -- at the beginning of 2007. During the Olympics, journalists were allowed to interview Chinese citizens without seeking government approval.

It is not clear at this stage what will follow after the Olympic rules expire; Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu said "I think when the time comes, we will tell everyone what the arrangement will be."

The relaxed regulations did not apply to Chinese journalists; the government has maintained its control over domestic operations throughout the sporting event.

Source: The Associated Press

See also:

China: Officials allegedly released guidelines for local Olympic coverage
Media companies reporting the Olympics, Google launches online tool
China: Lifts some Internet restrictions after IOC negotiations
Thousands Protest China's Press Freedom Violations
China: Internet restrictions for journalists at Beijing

Chinese journalists claim that the Chinese authorities have released guidelines for the local media on how to report during the Olympics, with rules such as ignoring protests or avoiding negatively criticizing the opening ceremony. Chinese authorities, however, deny the issuing of the document.

The 21-point edict was translated in the Sydney Morning Herald and mentioned that journalists should refrain from conducting interviews about the US presidential election or China's foreign relations.

"Follow the official propaganda line on the North Korean nuclear issue; be objective when it comes to the Middle East issue and play it down as much as possible; no fuss about the Darfur question; no fuss about UN reform; be careful with Cuba. If any emergency occurs, please report to the foreign ministry", the decree wrote.  


Source: European Journalism Centre

See also:
Thousands protest China's press freedom violations
Internet restrictions for journalists at Beijing
China: Lifts some Internet restrictions after IOC negotiations

When a session of Congress adjourns, so do C-Span broadcasts. C-Span cameras, which deliver live broadcasts of the proceedings of the US Senate and House of Representatives, are controlled by members of Congress, so when "Pelosi just turned out the lights," as John Culberson wrote on Twitter Friday, the cameras went off - but recording didn't stop.

Culberson used his cellphone to record video of discussions that continued after the adjournment, and later posed this video to his Qik site. One 12-minute video Culberson posted has received more than 22,000 views.

The House adjourned Friday for their five-week summer recess, but dozens of  Republicans chose to stay on the House floor to discuss energy legislation. Culberson, a Texas Republican, who reqularly updates both Twitter and Qik, "acted as a citizen journalist covering the proceedings, albeit one with clear partisan intentions," reported The New York Times.

Culberson used his Nokia 95 cellphone to record the discussions - described by another congressman as a "pep rally" - from a hallway (since House rules prohibit private cameras on the House floor).

"Mr. Culberson's online communications showed how new media tools like Twitter can supplement professional reporting," reported NYT. "As the Republicans departed the House chambers, a C-Span host explained the camera restrictions and said, 'We don't have a lot to show you.' So, in the absence of professional video, the cable channel showed one of Mr. Culberson's videos."

Source: The New York Times