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30 November 2012 | AFP

British inquiry urges new laws for ‘outrageous’ press

A British inquiry called Thursday for a tougher watchdog underpinned by new laws to curb the country's press in a damning verdict that sets up Prime Minister David Cameron for a political battle. Senior judge Brian Leveson, who led an eight-month inquiry sparked by the phone-hacking scandal at Rupert Murdoch's News of the World tabloid, said there should be an independent self-regulatory body, underpinned by legislation. But Cameron voiced concerns about any statutory change, putting him on a collision course with his junior coalition partners the Liberal Democrats, the Labour opposition and many hacking victims. Lord Justice Leveson said in his report that the British newspaper industry had for decades "wreaked havoc with the lives of innocent people" and ignored the codes that it had itself set up. He said that while the press served the country "very well for the vast majority of the time", its behaviour "at times, can only be described as outrageous." The prime minister commissioned the Leveson Inquiry in July 2011 in the wake of a report alleging that the News of the World hacked the voicemails of murdered schoolgirl Milly Dowler as well as the revelation that dozens of public figures had had their phones hacked. Murdoch was forced to shut down the 168-year-old newspaper over the scandal. Victims of phone hacking and press harassment welcomed the inquiry's findings and called on Cameron to implement them in full. But Cameron told parliament that while he backed the creation of a new newspaper regulator, he feared that bringing in new laws risked curbing the freedom of the British press. Parliament will debate Leveson's recommendations on Monday.

Original source

30 November 2012 | The Guardian

Syria shuts off internet access across the country

Syrian officials shut down nationwide internet access on Thursday and closed Damascus airport as rebels mounted offensives nearby and tried to advance on the capital from four directions. Phone networks were also crippled in much of the country, causing fear and confusion on both sides and fuelling claims that a new rebel push was gaining momentum. Syria's information minister blamed "terrorists" for the outage, but the communications shutdown was seen as an attempt to stymie rebel moves as militias try to co-ordinate an assault on Damascus. It was also thought to be aimed at thwarting any plans for advances in other towns and cities. While officials have frequently shut down internet and mobile phone access to opposition-held areas since the uprising began in March 2011, sometimes for weeks at a time, they have never before cut web and voice communications nationwide. Soon after noon on Thursday, all 84 of Syria's ISP address blocks were unreachable, web specialists Renesys said. Five ISP addresses did continue to function. Renesys analysts said they were used to deliver malware to anti-regime activists earlier this year, a fact that would appear to link the addresses to the government. Landline phones began to slowly come back on line later in the day.

Original source

30 November 2012 | Knight Center

The ad-based journalism industry is dead, says Columbia University in new essay

The Tow Center for Digital Journalism at Columbia University released a no-holds-barred essay on the state of journalism in the United States on Tuesday, Nov. 27. The report cum “manifesto,” Post-Industrial Journalism: Adapting to the Present, argues that nothing can save the industry’s advertising-based model and reporters and institutions need to restructure in order to take advantage of new ways of doing journalism. “Post-industrial journalism assumes that the existing institutions are going to lose revenue and market share, and that if they hope to retain of even increase their relevance, they will have to take advantage of new working methods and processes afforded by digital media,” the authors write. C.W. Anderson, Emily Bell and Clay Shirky say that shocks brought on from leaps in technology and the Internet have created an “ecosystem” where “news organizations are no longer in control of the news […] and that the heightened degree of public agency by citizens, governments, businesses and even loosely affiliated networks is a permanent change, to which news organizations must adapt.” Part of this adaptation is moving away from a news industry built around physical infrastructure (printing presses, television broadcast towers, etc.) and towards a more decentralized, post-industrial system of newsgathering.

Original source

30 November 2012 | Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty

Dutch Parliament to revoke blasphemy law

Insulting God will no longer be a crime in the Netherlands after the Dutch parliament decided to revoke a decades-old blasphemy law from the statute books. The law, which was drafted in the 1930s, had not been used for half a century, leading legislators to decide there was no longer a need for it. Discussions over whether to formally abolish blasphemy restrictions in the Netherlands began a decade ago as part of a debate about the limits of freedom of expression. But Marc Veldt, a media-law lecturer at the University of Applied Sciences in Utrecht, says the decision was made possible by national elections in September, in which two liberal parties emerged victorious. Far-right and conservative parties, which had opposed lifting the blasphemy ban, took heavy losses in the poll. Veldt says the move to lift the ban on blasphemy was also an indirect result of the legal case involving anti-Islam Dutch politician Geert Wilders. In June 2011, a Dutch court ruled that Wilders had the right to criticize Islam, even though his opinions insulted many Muslims. Even with the repeal of the blasphemy law, it still remains an offense under Dutch law to insult police officers or Queen Beatrix, the country's monarch. Laws also protect individuals and groups from hate speech.

Original source

30 November 2012 | Asia Pacific Broadcasting Union

UNESCO launches educational TV project in Asia and the Pacific

UNESCO’s Bangkok office has launched a broadcast content sharing project that intends to make available science and education TV programs to public and non-profit education TV channels in countries in Asia-Pacific. The project has been developed in partnership with the Korean television broadcasting company YTN Science TV Channel and the Korean Creative Content Agency (KOCCA). Under this partnership, YTN Science will translate a selection of its science TV programs into English by adding English sub-titles. UNESCO Bangkok, in charge of project coordination, is establishing a network of public and non-profit TV channels interested in broadcasting the materials. To date, 13 broadcasters in the Asia-Pacific region have expressed interest in participating and they include Thailand, Fiji, Malaysia, Vietnam, Bhutan, Myanmar, Mongolia, Philippines, Uzbekistan, Palau and Samoa. The partners hope that this initiative will pave the way for public and non-profit Education and Science TV channels to share their broadcast materials and strengthen cooperation among broadcasters in the region. Watch the trailer.

Original source

30 November 2012 | Asia Pacific Broadcasting Union

On the eve of its General Assembly, EBU issues editorial principles for public service media

The EBU has drawn up a set of Editorial Principles as a guiding document from which all EBU Members can take inspiration for their professional conduct and output. The Principles derive from the ‘Declaration on Public Service Media Values’, which was adopted at the 2012 summer EBU General Assembly, in Strasbourg. They require all PSM staff to be impartial and independent; fair and respectful; accurate and relevant and connected and accountable. Former Editor in Chief of NOS News (Netherlands), Hans Laroes, has led the process and will present the Principles to the EBU membership at the upcoming General Assembly, on December 6 -7. Mr Laroes said many Members had wanted the EBU to take the lead on professional values and ethics, and the Editorial Principles were the response. “These Principles outline professional standards that upstanding public service media ought to abide by,” he said. “Although many EBU Members already have equivalent documents in-house, many others do not. Now they all have the option to apply the text, wholly or in part, to their working lives, or to use it as a catalyst for a professional discussion.”

Original source

29 November 2012 | AFP

New media world won’t end need for journalists: study

Bloggers, "crowdsourcing" and computer-generated articles are making contributions to the news media, but they cannot replace professional journalists in digging up important news. That is the message of a major study released this week by Columbia University's Tow Center for Digital Journalism, titled "Post-Industrial Journalism." The authors of the report said technology has led to an explosion in the amount of information available, with economic shifts which are affecting journalism in both negative and positive ways. But in certain kinds of reporting, professional journalists cannot be replaced by machines or crowdsourcing, the study said. It is not journalism's best moment if much key work were taken over by amateurs, or done by machine, the study said. The role of the journalist "as truth-teller, sense-maker, explainer -- cannot be reduced to a replaceable input... we need a cadre of full-time workers who report the things someone somewhere doesn't want reported," the authors said. But because of the changes to the media, the report said the advertising-supported model of newspaper and broadcast journalism may never be the same, and this means news "has to become cheaper to produce." "There is no way to preserve or restore the shape of journalism as it has been practiced for the past 50 years," said authors C.W. Anderson, Emily Bell and Clay Shirky. The report argued that social media, blogs and "crowdsourcing" can have a positive influence by generating content not available in the past.

Original source

29 November 2012 | Washington Post

Portuguese state broadcaster blames news chief for police access to unaired protest footage

Portugal’s state broadcaster is blaming its head of news for allowing police to privately view raw footage captured during violent clashes with anti-austerity protesters outside Parliament earlier this month. The revelation that the police had access to the footage has prompted concerns about the safety of journalists as well as the broadcaster’s independence. It remains unclear whether any laws were broken. After an internal inquiry, Radio e Televisao de Portugal says Wednesday that its news chief Nuno Santos granted police permission to watch the footage on company premises the day after Nov. 14 protests. Santos resigned last week but has denied the allegation. The Interior Ministry, which oversees the police, says there are legal doubts about whether investigating officers acted properly and has asked the Attorney-General to open an urgent investigation.

Original source

29 November 2012 | New York Times

Problems with a reporter’s Facebook posts, and a possible solution

Start with a reporter who likes to be responsive to readers, is spontaneous and impressionistic in her personal writing style, and not especially attuned to how casual comments may be received in a highly politicized setting. Put that reporter in one of the most scrutinized and sensitive jobs in journalism – the Jerusalem bureau chief of The New York Times. Now add Facebook and Twitter, which allow reporters unfiltered, unedited publishing channels. Words go from nascent, half-formed thoughts to permanent pronouncements to the world at the touch of a key. The result is very likely to be problematic. And for that bureau chief, Jodi Rudoren, who moved to Israel from New York earlier this year, and her editors at The Times, it has been. In terms of social media, Ms. Rudoren has had a rocky start in her new position. Within a few days of taking the post, she had sent some Twitter messages that brought criticism, and had people evaluating her politics before she had dug into the reporting work before her. Now The Times is taking steps to make sure that Ms. Rudoren’s further social media efforts go more smoothly. The foreign editor, Joseph Kahn, is assigning an editor on the foreign desk in New York to work closely with Ms. Rudoren on her social media posts. The idea is to capitalize on the promise of social media’s engagement with readers while not exposing The Times to a reporter’s unfiltered and unedited thoughts.

Original source

29 November 2012 | Zdnet

Google launches petition against German ‘link tax’ proposals

Google has kicked off a campaign against a proposed German law that would force search engine providers to pay copyright fees every time they return a news article in their results. The Leistungsschutzrecht für Presseverleger, or 'ancillary copyright for press publishers', would provide an extension of copyright in Germany to cover snippets of articles, such as those that show up in search results so the user can tell what each result is about. It is being proposed by Angela Merkel's coalition, and follows intense lobbying by publishing giant Axel Springer and others. On Tuesday, Google launched a petition against the proposals, arguing that they would make it much harder for web surfers to find what they are looking for. Google has complained about the Leistungsschutzrecht before, but is now stepping up its opposition due to the fact that the bill will be debated this week in the Bundestag. "Most people have never heard of this proposed legislation," Google country director Stefan Tweraser said in a statement. "Such a law would affect every internet user in Germany [and] mean less information for consumers and higher costs for companies." The petition is accompanied by an interactive map intended to show people how to contact their local MP to lobby back against the bill.

Original source

29 November 2012 | AP

Freelancers’ films on Libya, Syria win media prize

Freelance journalists from France, Spain and Britain on Wednesday won the Rory Peck Awards for video reporting in warzones including Libya and Syria. The annual award, presented at the ceremony at the British Film Institute, recognizes the achievement of freelance cameramen and women working in news around the world. Alberto Arce and Ricardo Garcia Vilanova from Spain took the features prize for a self-funded film about young rebel fighters in the besieged Libyan city of Misrata. Arce, who has directed several documentaries in Iraq and Afghanistan, joined The Associated Press earlier this year as a correspondent in Honduras. French freelance photographer and filmmaker Mani won the news award for a report on the Syrian forces' shelling campaign in Homs in February. Mani gained rare access to the people and fighters in the city as they took on President Bashar al-Assad's forces. Briton Daniel Bogado won the Sony Impact Award for a film on a largely unknown war between civilians and the government in Sudan. The AP is a sponsor of the Rory Peck Trust, which produces the awards. The prize, established in 1995, is named after freelance cameraman Rory Peck, who was killed in Moscow in 1993.

Original source

29 November 2012 | CNET News

YouTube rolls out auto-captions for six European languages

YouTube has added six more languages to its closed caption feature, allowing users to read a video's audio in German, Italian, French, Portuguese, Russian, and Dutch. Viewers just turn on the closed captioning by clicking on the "CC" button in the toolbar during the video. YouTube is also testing a translate feature, available in beta, that translates the caption into another language. In addition to the automatic captioning, video creators will have editing tools to improve the automated captions since there will undoubtedly be errors in the initial text, according to YouTube. These tools include the ability to download captions for editing, or editing them in-line on YouTube. Users can also upload plain-text transcripts to generate captions, software engineer Hoang Nguyen wrote on the site's blog. "Captions are important to make sure everyone--including deaf, hard-of-hearing, and viewers who speak other languages--can enjoy videos on YouTube," he wrote. YouTube starting incorporating the closed caption feature in 2009, when it introduced automated captions in English. Captioning in Japanese, Korean and Spanish followed. There are now approximately 200 million videos with automatic and human-created captions on YouTube, according to the post.

Original source

28 November 2012 | Eurasia Review

Reporters Without Borders launches anti-censorship website

Reporters Without Borders has launched a website called WeFightCensorship (WeFC) on which it will post content that has been censored or banned or has given rise to reprisals against its creator. The website’s aim is to make censorship obsolete. “It is an unprecedented initiative that will enable Reporters Without Borders to complement all of its other activities in defense of freedom of information, which include advocacy, lobbying and assistance,” said the organization. Content submitted by journalists or netizens who have been the victims of censorship – articles, videos, sound files, photos and so on ­– will be considered for publication on the WeFightCensorship site. The content selected by the WeFC editorial committee will be accompanied by a description of the context and creator. It may also be accompanied by copies of documents relating to the proceedings under which it was banned or other documents that might help the public to understand its importance. There will be French and English-language versions of the site. Documents from all over the world will be published in their original language (including Chinese, Persian and Vietnamese) and in translation. The site is designed to be easily duplicated and mirror versions will be created in order to thwart attempts to filter or block it. Internet users will be asked to circulate the censored content in order to give it as much visibility as possible.

Original source

28 November 2012 | AFP

US court puts brakes on AP split from Germany’s DAPD

A US court has temporarily halted a bid by the Associated Press to split from a partnership with Germany's DAPD news agency and link up with the larger DPA agency instead. The temporary injunction by Judge Alvin Hellerstein in New York federal court put the brakes on a reshuffle of AP's operations in Germany. Hellerstein ordered that the leading US news agency "is temporarily restrained and enjoined" from halting its distribution of news, images or other products to DAPD. The order also bars AP from "providing any text, news, information, metadata or other content to any non-DAPD-affiliated entity" in Germany or Austria. Meanwhile, DAPD, which declared bankruptcy last month, is required by the court to keep up its payments of 65,000 euros a week to the AP. Both AP and DAPD agreed to the terms of the temporary order ahead of the judge signing off. The temporary injunction is in response to a lawsuit filed by DAPD following the announcement on November 14 that AP and DPA had hatched an alliance to distribute each other's stories and photos, while the smaller, financially troubled DAPD was being dropped. AP and DPA had said in a joint statement that the arrangement, expected to become effective on January 1, would allow DPA to distribute AP photos and stories in Germany and Austria and text in Switzerland. The AP would have access to DPA coverage of Germany and Austria and represent DPA photos for sale in markets outside of Germany, Austria and Switzerland.

Original source

28 November 2012 | AFP

AFP teams up with South Korea’s STARNEWS

Agence France-Presse (AFP) is teaming up with STARNEWS, a South Korean media company, to bolster the supply of pictures of popular Korean entertainers to AFP clients worldwide, AFP announced Wednesday. STARNEWS will feed a daily selection of pictures of the K-pop scene into ImageForum, the AFP photo database, under terms of an agreement signed between the two companies in Seoul. AFP's regional director for the Asia-Pacific, Gilles Campion, said that the STARNEWS feed will supplement AFP's daily pictorial coverage of South Korea. Campion said that the deal with STARNEWS was another step in AFP's drive at making ImageForum a one-stop shop for pictures. STARNEWS, founded in 2004, focuses on the entertainment industry and is a member of South Korea's MoneyToday group with interests in print, TV and new media. AFP's ImageForum has some 16 million AFP photos and seven million more from 35 partner newspapers and specialised picture agencies. It is used by thousands of newspapers, magazines, websites, book publishers and others.

Original source

28 November 2012 | Star Tribune

BBC Trust chairman Patten defends large payoff to former director-general

The BBC paid its former director-general $772,000 after only 54 days at the helm because it was the only viable way to get him to leave in the wake of the broadcaster's sex abuse scandal, the chairman of its governing body said Tuesday. George Entwistle resigned this month after coming under heavy criticism over the venerable broadcaster's coverage of a child sex abuse scandal, which implicated one of its biggest stars and raised questions about its news judgment. The payout of a full year's salary was "one hell of a lot of money" but the broadcaster's lawyers advised that working out a deal with Entwistle would be cheaper than firing him, Chris Patten, the chairman of the BBC Trust, conceded to Parliament's Culture, Media and Sport Committee investigating the scandal. Entwistle lost confidence after failing to convincingly explain a decision by "Newsnight," the BBC's flagship news program, to shelve an investigation into claims that the late BBC personality Jimmy Savile was a serial sexual predator of young women. The show had also falsely accused a retired senior politician of being a pedophile. The problems at "Newsnight" are the subject of an independent investigation expected to complete its work next month, Patten said. The BBC Trust recently appointed Tony Hall, former head of its news division, to take over as director-general.

Original source

28 November 2012 | AFP

S. Africa TV bans fish and chip ad satirising Zuma

South Africa's state broadcaster refused to air an advert for a fish and chips firm depicting President Jacob Zuma feeding his family on a budget meal, the company and its agent said Tuesday. The 31-second long clip titled "Dinner time at Nkandla" (the president's rural homestead) depicts Zuma having fish and chips with his wives and children. He says at 25 rand ($3, two euros) a plate even the Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan will approve. CEO of the company Carlo Gonzaga said it was "quite presumptuous that they (SABC) are exercising such a censorship role." "We don't believe it's offensive, it's a parody, it's satirical. We think the ad is in good taste," he told AFP. "The message of our ad is if you have lots of mouths to feed and you don't have a budget, (go for) the Fish and Chips Co." The 70-year-old Zuma who has four wives and 21 children, is often a subject of caricature by the South African media. The advert opens with the sketch of a mansion, supposedly the president's residency, with a front fountain in the shape of a shower head. After his rape trial testimony where he said he had showered after sex to prevent HIV infection, cartoonists often throw in a shower head when parodying Zuma. Early this month the SABC ordered its journalists to stop referring to Zuma's controversial state-renovated Nkandla rural house as a "homestead" or as "Zumaville." His home in Nkandla, a village in rural KwaZulu-Natal, is at the centre of a storm over a security upgrade costing around $28 million.

Original source

28 November 2012 | Deutsche Welle

Pakistani journalist targeted for ‘threatening’ Islam

Religious extremists continue to intimidate journalists in Pakistan. The Taliban has claimed responsibility for recently planting a bomb under the car of a prominent journalist because he was "working against Islam." Pakistani journalist Hamid Mir, who hosts a popular political talk show Capital Talk on Geo - Pakistan's biggest private TV channel - and writes a column for Jang newspaper, narrowly escaped an attempt on his life on Monday when a bomb was found attached to the underside of his car. Police said that half a kilogram of explosives had been fitted with a detonator under Mir's car in capital Islamabad. Pakistanis one of the most perilous countries for journalists in the world. A 2012 UNESCO report has ranked Pakistan "the second most dangerous country for journalists the world over" after Mexico. According to the South Asian Free Media Association (SAFMA), 17 journalists were killed in South Asia in 2011, 12 of them in Pakistan. Terrorism and Islamism are the most dangerous issues for Pakistani journalists to report on, SAFMA says. Mir had voiced criticism of the Taliban shooting of Malala Yousufzai - a teenage activist who spoke out against the militants in their northwestern stronghold Swat and campaigned for girls' education. Several journalists' and rights organizations have announced they will stage protests on Wednesday against the attempt on Mir's life.

Original source

27 November 2012 | The Telegraph

BBC sacks two workers for misusing Twitter

A further two workers have been disciplined following inappropriate behaviour on sites like Twitter and Facebook, the BBC has disclosed under a Freedom of Information request. The “unusual” move comes as the broadcaster imposed an informal ban on its staff for tweeting about the BBC’s “problems”. Acting director of news Fran Unsworth sent an internal email earlier this month saying it would be helpful if “some of our problems were not played out publicly across the social media and in the pages of the national press”. Her email was an attempt to regain control amid the Newsnight crisis, after some of the BBC’s biggest names, including the programme’s front man Jeremy Paxman, went public with their opinions on the Corporation, some highly critical. In total, the broadcaster has disciplined two workers and dismissed two others since the recession, the BBC said. The broadcaster has a written policy for acceptable social media use, which all staff have access to and which warns employees that using sites like Facebook must not “interfere” with BBC work. However, Steven George-Hilley, director of technology at right-wing think tank Parliament Street, which obtained the figures, said organisations should train staff so that they do not publicly tweet grievances in the first place.

Original source

27 November 2012 | Reuters

Rights group urges Pakistan judges to stop censoring media

An international human rights group urged Pakistan judges on Tuesday to stop using their powers to censor media critical of the judiciary. Over the last two months, judges have threatened several media executives and journalists with contempt of court if they published reports criticizing the judiciary, New York-based Human Rights Watch said. Last week, an Islamabad High Court judge extended an order to the media regulatory authority to halt the airing of programming critical of Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry and the judiciary. The judiciary, led by Chaudhry, has become a power center in Pakistan's young democracy that has been ruled by the military for more than half its 65-year history. Critics contend Chaudhry has pitted the Supreme Court against civilian and military leaders, distracting attention from the urgent task of reforming a broken judiciary. The Supreme Court has about 20,000 cases pending and there is a backlog of about 1.4 million cases nationally, according to a U.S. State Department report. Of those cases that reach court, only 5-10 percent result in conviction, according to a 2010 report by the International Crisis Group on reforming the justice system. Prosecutors are underpaid and overwhelmed and judges rely almost entirely on oral statements rather than physical evidence.

Original source

27 November 2012 | Washington Post

Italian senate kills proposed libel law protested by journalist union

The Italian journalists union called off a national strike Monday but was demonstrating to press their campaign to decriminalize libel altogether. Parliament’s efforts to do just that were circumvented by right-wing lawmakers’ apparent moves to protect an editor who was sentenced to 14 months for libel under a rarely enforced Fascist-era law that allows a six-year sentence. They changed the draft to impose a one-year jail sentence on journalists while lowering the penalty for editors to €50,000 — sparking protests from Italian journalists and Reporters Without Borders.

Original source

27 November 2012 | Euractiv

Russian and Ukrainian journalists send SOS to Brussels

Media activists from Russia and the Ukraine called for urgent EU and civil society help to protect press freedom in their counties at a public meeting held in Brussels on 26 November. They proposed establishing an international Pen Centre, holding “mega-forums” and adopting charts, similar to those used in the run-up to the Helsinki process. Setting up an all-European Pen Centre to gather journalists from Russia and the Ukraine, as well as EU countries - especially ex-Soviet Bloc newcomers - could be an answer to the deteriorating media situation, visiting journalists said. Speaking at a conference, organized by the Friedrich Naumann Stiftung, Alexander Morozov, editor in Chief of ‘Russki jurnal’, recognized that the EU's leverage in upholding media freedom was limited. He called for 'mega forums' on media freedom issues, as a way of influencing governments and preventing press crackdowns. Other journalists advocated international assistance to provide judical support to colleagues facing trials.

Original source

27 November 2012 | Journalism.co.uk

UK: ITN Productions launches citizen journalism channel

ITN Productions has announced that its new citizen journalism channel has launched on YouTube on Tuesday. TruthLoader, which curates content and invites suggestions for investigations via Reddit, was one of a number of new channels announced earlier this year as part of YouTube's original channels initiative. In a release on Monday ITN Productions said the channel "showcases the work of citizen journalists from around the world with original daily programming from amateur eyewitnesses and passionate online campaigners". According to ITN Productions, the channel is also "supported by [social news agency] Storyful and other social media experts". The channel will curate citizen journalism reports each weekday, as well as hosting "The Hangout", a "live debate show over Skype and Google Hangout for citizen journalists", held on Wednesdays. On Fridays the channel will also publish "reports and investigations ... about conspiracy theories from around the world". In a mission statement video published on the channel today, presenter Phil Harper calls on the audience to help "set the agenda". The channel has also created a subreddit, a discussion topic within Reddit, to help its online community submit suggestions for content to be investigated by the channel.

Original source

27 November 2012 | Reuters

Privacy groups ask Facebook to withdraw proposed policy changes

Two privacy advocacy groups urged Facebook Inc on Monday to withdraw proposed changes to its terms of service that would allow the company to share user data with recently acquired photo-application Instagram, eliminate a user voting system and loosen email restrictions within the social network. The changes, which Facebook unveiled on Wednesday, raise privacy risks for users and violate the company's previous commitments to its roughly 1 billion members, according to the Electronic Privacy Information Center and the Center for Digital Democracy. "Facebook's proposed changes implicate the user privacy and terms of a recent settlement with the Federal Trade Commission," the groups said in a letter to Facebook Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg that was published on their websites on Monday. By sharing information with Instagram, the letter said, Facebook could combine user profiles, ending its practice of keeping user information on the two services separate. In April, Facebook settled privacy charges with the U.S. Federal Trade Commission that it had deceived consumers and forced them to share more personal information than they intended. Under the settlement, Facebook is required to get user consent for certain changes to its privacy settings and is subject to 20 years of independent audits.

Original source

26 November 2012 | Digital TV Europe

Sweden and Hungary lead media concentration table

Sweden and Hungary show the greatest level of media concentration amongst 11 countries surveyed by the European Audiovisual Observatory in a new report, Converged Markets – Converged Power? Regulation and Case Law. Which country shows the greatest level of media concentration depends on the measure used. Taking the combined audience share of the four main media groups in each country analysed, and using date provided by Eurodata TV World-wide, Sweden shows the greatest level of concentration with the top four groups holding 91.9% of the market. Taking the power of the top three European groups as the measure, Hungary shows the greatest concentration, with RTL group holding almost 30% of the daily audience. The three largest European media groups are ProSiebenSat.1, RTL Group and TF1 Group.

Original source

26 November 2012 | AFP

Egypt journalists call for strike

Egyptian journalists called on Sunday for a general strike to protest guarantees of press freedom in a draft constitution, amid a political crisis sparked by decree by President Mohamed Morsi granting himself sweeping powers. They called for the strike during an emergency meeting of the Journalists Syndicate but have yet to set a date, said people who attended the meeting. An Islamist-dominated panel currently drafting the country's new charter has come under heavy criticism for seeking to impose a strict interpretation of Islamic law and failing to secure key rights. The legality of the 100-member assembly was being challenged in the courts, but Morsi's decree on Thursday says no court can now dissolve the panel. Earlier, scuffles broke out at the meeting between supporters and foes of the Muslim Brotherhood. Supporters of the Islamist group, from which Morsi emerged, argued that not enough members were present to conduct the meeting, citing syndicate bylaws. That sparked a heated debate on the technicalities of the meeting, which ended in a fist fight. "The people want the downfall of the Muslim Brotherhood," journalists chanted, as fighting continued on stage and speakers struggled to be heard over the chaos. Morsi's decree, which allows him to issue decisions and laws unchallenged, has sparked furore among the judiciary and the opposition, who have put their long-standing divisions aside, to confront Thursday's decree.

Original source

26 November 2012 | AP

Gov’t raids opposition print plant in Venezuela

Government intelligence agents have raided a business printing opposition political pamphlets ahead of next month's state elections in Venezuela. Zulia state Gov. Pablo Perez says the raid by the Bolivarian National Intelligence Service in the western city of Maracaibo is an attempt to intimidate opponents of President Hugo Chavez's government. He told reporters on Saturday that such actions are "abuses of power." The intelligence agency's regional chief Carlos Calderon tells the Panorama newspaper that agents on Friday found pamphlets that aimed to "sabotage the candidacy" of Francisco Arias Cardenas, a Chavez ally running against Perez in the Dec. 16 elections. Calderon didn't give details but said officials reported the propaganda to electoral authorities.

Original source

26 November 2012 | BBC News

Russian tycoon Alexander Lebedev ‘expects jail’ over punch-up

Russian media mogul Alexander Lebedev thinks he "probably will" be jailed in Russia over a punch-up live on TV last year, his son has told the BBC. Evgeny Lebedev said he feared his father could be killed in jail because of his anti-corruption campaign. Alexander Lebedev owns two UK newspapers and holds a major stake in Russia's opposition Novaya Gazeta. Mr Lebedev is a critic of President Vladimir Putin. Moscow denies it is behind the criminal case against him. If convicted for knocking another businessman off his chair during a heated TV debate in September 2011, Mr Lebedev faces up to seven years in prison. He is the owner of Britain's Evening Standard and the Independent newspapers. Speaking on the Andrew Marr show on Sunday, Evgeny Lebedev said his father could be murdered in prison by "some sinister elements that he's crossed in the past with his anti-corruption campaign". In September, Alexander Lebedev was charged with hooliganism and assault "motivated by political, ideological, racial, national or religious hatred, or hatred of a particular social group" - the same offence that two members of Russia's Pussy Riot punk group were jailed for earlier this year. The 52-year-old former KGB agent - whose net worth was recently reported by Forbes magazine to be $1.1bn - has reportedly signed an undertaking not to leave Russia.

Original source

26 November 2012 | BBC News

Iranian blogger Beheshti ‘may have died of shock’

Iranian prosecutors say the death of blogger Sattar Beheshti in police custody may have been due to "excessive psychological stress". Mr Beheshti died after being held on charges of "actions against national security on social networks". Following his arrest on 30 October, he was handed to police for interrogation and died on 3 November. The exact circumstances of his death remain unclear. Some reports have suggested he was tortured. The Tehran prosecutor's office says the main cause of Mr Beheshti's death could be physical shock - caused by the brute force applied to sensitive parts of his torso - or psychological pressure. The statement notes that a thorough forensic investigation has been carried out and that prosecutors have obtained witness statements from Mr Beheshti's inmates and prison wardens. Neither the statements nor the forensic results are in the public domain. An earlier coroner's report said his body had "signs of wounds" but no broken bones, according to the semi-official news agency Mehr. Mr Beheshti's death sparked an international outcry. Last week, three people were reported to have been arrested and subsequently, according to an opposition website, released. According to opposition website, Kalameh, the suspects had been involved in Mr Beheshti's interrogation. The blogger spent one night in Tehran's notorious Evin prison on 30 October, where he wrote an official complaint to prison authorities alleging ill-treatment, before being moved to an unknown location. His death provoked criticism from politicians and human rights groups, Amnesty International said Mr Beheshti had complained of being threatened the day before his arrest.

Original source

26 November 2012 | The Guardian

UK: Women’s groups demand new watchdog to confront sexism in the media

A coalition of women's groups has called for the issue of sexism in the media to be taken on by a new regulatory body in the runup to publication of Lord Justice Leveson's report on the press this Thursday. Four women's organisations monitored the content of 11 national newspapers over a randomly chosen fortnight in early September, finding more than 1,300 articles and images that raised concerns over how women and violence against them are portrayed in the British press. They say their findings should inform proposals for a new era of newspaper regulation. The analysis, published on Sunday – International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women – warns that newspaper coverage is glamorising and, on occasion, eroticising violence against women and girls, and helps normalise rape while undermining the criminal justice system by creating jurors who hold prejudices against female victims. The coalition will on Sunday send a letter to David Cameron demanding that new press regulation contain clear guidance about women's equality and sexually explicit material. Of particular concern was the frequency of articles that reported violent crimes inaccurately with a tendency to minimise the perpetrator's actions while blaming the victim.

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