Our weekly round-up of public service media related stories and headlines from around the world.
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CAMEROON: Govt Detains Journalists Reporting on Unrest for ‘Propagating False Information’
Via All Africa: Media rights organizations are calling on authorities in Cameroon to release five journalists detained without charges in the past month after reporting on the country’s unrest.
EGYPT: New media law aims to silence independent online media, RSF says
RSF: Under the new law, which the authorities began implementing on 23 October, online newspapers will now have to apply to register.
KENYA: BBC Nairobi: The largest bureau outside UK
BBC News: The BBC has launched its largest bureau outside of the UK in Kenya’s capital, Nairobi.
KENYA: Telcos regulator seeks to monitor WhatsApp
Daily Nation: Kenya is considering regulating online services such as WhatsApp and Skype in a radical move that could force the internet-based service providers to share data with the government.
KENYA & NIGERIA: Kenya and Nigeria get a bad internet freedom rating
DW: Internet freedom remains on the decline worldwide, a report by US-based think tank Freedom House shows. DW’s Chrispin Mwakideu spoke to Freedom on the Net 2018 Program Manager Mai Truong about the findings.
SOUTH AFRICA: SABC releases findings of sexual harassment
SABC News: An independent commission of inquiry into sexual harassment claims at the SABC makes public its findings and recommendations on Tuesday.
SOUTH AFRICA: SABC unions pledge to fight to the bitter end
SABC News: Worker Unions have pledged to fight to the bitter end in the ongoing retrenchments saga at the SABC. Last week, the public broadcaster announced over 2 000 planned retrenchments.
SOUTH AFRICA: We have to cut costs or the SABC may collapse, says CEO as almost 1000 jobs on the line
Fin24: SABC CEO Madoda Mxakwe says that the public broadcaster’s top management cannot let the SABC collapse due to its poor finances.
SOUTH SUDAN: Creatives are stepping up to counter a media clampdown in South Sudan
Quartz:
SUDAN: Relentless harassment, intimidation and censorship of journalists must end
Amnesty International: Sudanese authorities have this year been unrelenting in their quest to silence independent media by arresting and harassing journalists, and censoring both print and broadcast media, Amnesty International said today.
SUDAN: Sudan’s Journalists Face Continued Extortion and Censorship By National Security Agency
IPS (Via All Africa)
TANZANIA: Media council abhors impunity on crimes against Tanzanian journalists
The Citizen: The Media Council of Tanzania (MCT) has called for action to end impunity on crimes against journalists and revealed that police officers are the leading in carrying out violence against journalists.
TANZANIA: Tanzanian governor asks for names as he launches new social media squad to arrest gay people
ABC News: Tanzanian authorities are set to track down and arrest gay people — who face at least 30 years in prison — after the announcement of an anti-gay surveillance squad.
ICFJ: When Zimbabwe held its long-awaited presidential election earlier this year, a group of fact-checkers were ready to track fake news and misinformation spread on social media and elsewhere during the tense voting to replace Robert Mugabe.
ZIMBABWE: ZBC suspend managers after news bulletin glitch
Bulawayo 24 News: The Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation (ZBC) has sent two managers home over a technical hitch that saw a 30 minute delay in last Sunday news bulletin edition.
REGIONAL: Freedom of Expression and the Impunity Challenge in West Africa
MFWA
ARMENIA: The Role of Investigative Journalism in Armenia’s Velvet Revolution
GIJN: “Investigative journalism is regarded as a fight against corruption, and it’s important in terms of changing the way society thinks.”
BANGLADESH: Let a free press thrive (Editorial)
The Daily Star (Bangladesh): Media freedom is under attack the world over. Governments in countries worldwide, with a few exceptions, are doing everything in their power to throttle the media and silence journalists. And those who care about independent journalism are increasingly realising that we can no longer take a free press for granted.
CAMBODIA: CSOs call on authorities to step up the fight against endemic impunity (Letter)
Article19
Business Insider: Many of them catered to countries that are part of China’s Belt and Road Initiative, a massive infrastructure project that aims to link 70 countries around the world.
CHINA: Will Chinese pressures in Hong Kong see Asia’s foreign media hub move?
Asian Correspondent: When German broadcaster Deutsche Welle announced it was opening its Greater China bureau in Taipei, it was met with considerable enthusiasm by journalists and China watchers.
INDIA: Report Says Indian Journalists Remain Soft Targets; Murder Investigations ‘Tardy’
The Wire: A total of 12 journalists have been killed in India since September 2017. Only in six of these cases the perpetrators of the crime have been arrested.
JAPAN: Japanese journalist apologizes, recounts days as hostage in Syria
Reuters: Jumpei Yasuda, a Japanese journalist held by militants in Syria for more than three years, said on Friday he told his captors to deafen him if they suspected he was eavesdropping on their conversations.
MALDIVES: Broadcasting regulator asked military to shut down Raajje TV
Maldives Independent: The defence ministry was asked to shut down the station during February’s state of emergency.
MYANMAR: IFJ Blog: No Press Freedom in Myanmar
IFJ: Although the right to freedom of expression is protected in the Myanmar Constitution preamble, and under Articles 6, 354 and 364, at recent time, the media are threatened by unexpected rules from the penal code, so called hidden weapons.
MYANMAR: Myanmar: imprisoned Reuters journalists launch appeal
The Guardian: Guilty verdict in June was widely condemned; appeal says trial ‘ignored compelling evidence of police set-up’
PAKISTAN: PML-N rejects proposed media authority
Dawn: The Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz has rejected the proposal to set up a centralised regulatory authority for print, electronic and social media.
PHILIPPINES: Philippines: Most dangerous place for journalists in Asia
The Straits Times: The Philippines was the most dangerous country in Asia for journalists last year. It has been that way in recent years, and it is unlikely to change soon, especially with a government targeting journalists criticising its policies.
SOUTH KOREA: Incumbent President Selected to Lead KBS
KBS World Radio: Incumbent KBS President Yang Sung-dong has been selected to continue leading the country’s largest public broadcaster.
SRI LANKA: Sri Lanka’s Constitutional Crisis and the Right to Press Freedom (Opinion)
The Diplomat: Journalists should not have to fear for their lives in reporting in the interest of the Sri Lankan public.
TAIWAN: As China tightens its grip on Hong Kong, Taiwan emerges as Asia’s hub for foreign media.
The Splice Newsroom: Foreign media outlets are slowly, but surely, expanding their presence in what is one of Asia’s only liberal democracies.
GENERAL: Data analysis, accountability and a little humor: The best of Uncovering Asia 2018
ICIJ: From the ongoing fight for press freedom and unjust imprisonment of colleagues to the latest investigations and podcasts, the Uncovering Asia 2018 conference covered vital ground.
AUSTRALIA: ABC leads the way in boosting Australia’s screen industry
ABC: The ABC is the nation’s leading broadcaster in supporting home-grown stories, boosting Australia’s screen industry more than the commercial free-to-air networks combined.
AUSTRALIA: How the ABC outspends Seven, Nine and 10 on drama
MediaWeek: The ABC this week detailed how it is the nation’s leading broadcaster in supporting homegrown stories.
AUSTRALIA: Misleading report in Fairfax Media
ABC: Today’s (2 Nov) Fairfax Media report by Michael Koziol (“ABC reporter suspended for two months after complaint by Alex Turnbull to chairman”) is misleading and seems to have been deliberately written to create a false impression that editorial interference has occurred in ABC News management.
AUSTRALIA: SBS launches cultural diversity study guides for school students
SBS: SBS has created new educational resources to help secondary students gain a greater understanding of inclusion and appreciation for diversity, through a series of videos, animations and classroom guides.
FIJI: Social media major battleground in Fiji election (Audio)
RNZ: Social media in Fiji is running hot with campaigning by political parties and their candidates in the run up to next week’s election.
NEW ZEALAND: Is a summit to preserve quality journalism, overdue? (Audio – Opinion)
RNZ: Media commentator, Gavin Ellis ponders whether a proposed media summit on preserving quality journalism in New Zealand is long overdue.
NEW ZEALAND: Māori media under review
RNZ: A major review of Māori broadcasting has been announced by the government against a backdrop of growing problems. Mediawatch talks to an executive who hopes it will confront 25 years-worth of unresolved issues.
NEW ZEALAND: Media group renews focus on collaboration (Press Release)
Via Scoop: The Ministerial Advisory Group on Public Media’s terms of reference have been updated and two new appointments made, the Minister of Broadcasting, Communications and Digital Media Hon Kris Faafoi announced today.
NEW ZEALAND: NZ to use TV channel to promote its investment in Pacific
RNZ: New Zealand’s Foreign Ministry will use a new dedicated TV channel for the Pacific to promote its investment in the region.
NEW ZEALAND: Stuff to slash community reporting jobs after merger plan fails
RNZ: Stuff, which runs the stuff.co.nz website as was formerly known as Fairfax, recently failed in its bid to merge with its main competitor, New Zealand Herald publisher NZME.
BULGARIA: Bulgarian Media Funding Law Sparks ‘Witch-Hunt’ Fears
Balkan Insight: A new law that will force the country’s newspapers to declare their sources of income and details about their funders, sparking fears of a witch-hunt of foreign-funded media and pressure on individual donors to smaller outlets, has been attracting criticism in Bulgaria.
CROATIA: NGOs warn state remains silent about pressures on journalists
Total Croatia
ESTONIA: New ETV+ chief on ratings, audiences, challenges (Interview)
ERR: New editor-in-chief of ERR’s new Russian TV channel talks about the unique position of ETV+ in the Russian-language media landscape, and the challenges facing the channel.
FRANCE: 127000 participants to the public consultation of Radio France et France Télévisions (French)
Offremedia: More than 127,000 people participated in the online consultation launched in early October by Radio France and France Télévisions: my radio tomorrow and my TV tomorrow. The consultation seeks to help the public broadcasters to define the shape of the future of radio and television.
GREECE: Greek TV bosses resign
Advanced Television: Vassilis Costopoulos and his deputy Giorgos Thalassinos have quit according to local reports and following alleged pressure from the government’s Deputy Minister, Leferis Kretsos, at the Ministry of Information & Communications.
HUNGARY: The News Is Bad in Hungary (Opinion)
The New York Times: Viktor Orban didn’t like what the press was reporting, so he took it over.
POLAND: Landmark week for Poland’s TVP
Broadband TV News: The Polish public broadcaster TVP has opened what is described as the most modern TV studio in Europe just days before the launch of its first English language channel.
SLOVAKIA: Where do the Ján Kuciak murder investigations stand?
ECPMF: Almost nine months after the murders of investigative journalist Ján Kuciak and his fiancee, there’s a new link to Hungary, there are charges against four people, and ECPMF’s fact-finder is back in Bratislava again.
SPAIN: RTVE gets involved with its project in Ultra High Definition at the Malaga 4K Summit (Spanish)
Panorama Audiovisual: Radio Televisión Española will be the protagonist of four conferences, it will participate in a round table and will sponsor the presentation of the international festival of shorts Malaga 4K Fest on Friday 9 November.
SPAIN: The new direction of Telemadrid (Spanish)
El Pais: The chain opened in 2017 a new cycle to get away from political manipulation, recover hearings and recover from the traumatic 2013 employment regulation inquiry
Swedish Government: The Government is commencing a more systematic effort to safeguard – and thereby strengthen – the democratic discourse against threats and hatred.
SWEDEN: Op-ed: SVT’s immigrant-focused catch-up service is a lesson in inclusion
TBI Vision: Can a public broadcaster’s vast archives of premium content be used to help accelerate the integration of immigrants into host cultures? Missing Link Media’s Jan Salling explains how Sweden’s public broadcaster SVT is leading the charge.
SWITZERLAND: SRG SSR appoints new director of SRF
Telecompaper: The Board of Directors of the Swiss public broadcasting corporation SRG SSR unanimously approved the proposal of the regional board of the SRG German-speaking Switzerland to elect Nathalie Wappler as the new director of broadcaster SRF.
UK: BBC claims it is ‘crucial’ to UK media as Ofcom fears damage to competition
BT: The watchdog has said changes to the iPlayer could damage media competition in the UK.
UK: BBC report explores alternatives to free over-75s licence fee
DIgital TV Europe: This is according to a Frontier Economics report, commissioned by the BBC, that explores the longer-term funding options relating to the over-75s TV licence concession.
UK: Channel 4 chooses Leeds as new ‘national headquarters’
The Guardian: City beats Manchester and Birmingham to become broadcaster’s new base outside London.
NiemanLab: News publishers of all sizes are partnering to “save democracy” at the local level; more than 35,000 stories have been published.
UK: New BBC Sounds app aims to woo younger listeners
BBC News: BBC Sounds, a new app that brings together the corporation’s radio, music and podcasts, is hoping to entice more younger people to listen to the BBC.
UK: Public service broadcasters’ shows need protection, say MPs and peers
The Guardian: Cross-party group writes to culture secretary Jeremy Wright, aiming to control power of commercial giants.
GENERAL: European SVOD subscriptions tipped to triple over four years
Digital TV Europe: The number of SVOD subscriptions in Europe will triple between 2015 and 2018 to reach 76 million this year, according to Digital TV Research.
GENERAL: Kids’ viewing ‘differing significantly’ between European countries
Digital TV Europe: Kids daily TV viewing times and use of catch-up TV differ significantly between France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the UK, according to a report by Eurodata/Mediamétrie.
Pew Research Centre: Younger Europeans are also less likely to agree on a single main source for news
BRAZIL: Brazilian journalists suffer attacks in the context of presidential elections
Knight Center: Before and during the Brazilian presidential election that took place on Oct. 28, journalists were the subject of physical, verbal and digital threats and aggression.
BRAZIL: The IFJ declares itself on alert after threats to the press by Jair Bolsonaro (Spanish)
IFJ: The president-elect threatened to withdraw official publicity to the Folha de Sao Paulo newspaper for commenting against him.
BRAZIL: Tips to report on Bolsonaro, Brazil’s next president
IJNet: In the wake of the election of former army captain Jair Bolsonaro as Brazil’s next president, many journalists are now wondering how best to move forward.
CHILE & BRAZIL: Bolsonaro aims to privatise (or close) public TV in Brazil and JA Kast wants to do the same with TVN (Spanish)
CNN Chile: The former presidential candidate said that the state TV is an “unnecessary expense” just when the massive dismissal of workers in the television headquarters in Bellavista has [been announced].
COLOMBIA: Yosokwi Productions uses visual media to share the realities of Indigenous community in Colombia
IJNet: Visual and multimedia communication has been the method through which they have presented their message to the world in an effort to raise consciousness about various issues.
MEXICO: “MX Play”, the first free public media app (Spanish)
Razon: It is the first content platform produced by a public service of a cultural, educational and healthy entertainment nature; the application is available on iOS and Android system.
NICARAGUA: 420 attacks on journalism in Nicaragua in six months (Spanish)
La Prensa: The attack affected 261 victims, including journalists and the media during this period of socio political crisis the country is facing, due to the repressive regime of Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo.
PERU: Programme in asháninka language premieres on Peruvian public tv (Spanish)
LaJornada: Ashi Añane, which translates to Our Voice in Spanish, is the first cultural program in Ashaninka language that premiered on Saturday in Peruvian public television. The programme seeks to inform and communicate to thousands of indigenous people who speak the language.
GENERAL: A Free Press and Disasters
Trinidad & Tobago Guardian: Over the years, people in the media development field have been paying increasing attention to industry performance and sustainability at times of natural disaster.
Knight Center: When the murders of journalists are not brought to justice in court, the result is not only injustice for those professionals and their families, but a greater threat to the colleagues they leave behind.
TURKEY: Turkey Crackdown Chronicle: Week of October 26, 2018
CPJ
GENERAL: Independent Arab media faces an uphill battle (Opinion)
Financial Times: New journalism platforms are emerging from the darkness of government control
CANADA: CBC vice-president Heather Conway to leave public broadcaster
CBC: Executive led network’s English services, including digital, TV and radio
CANADA: Disruption, Trust and the Public Broadcaster
CBC/Radio-Canada: Speaking notes for Catherine Tait, President and CEO, at the IIC Canada 2018 Conference.
CANADA: Jack Nagler named CBC/Radio-Canada’s new English Services Ombudsperson
CBC/Radio-Canada
CANADA: Online giants should pay their share, CBC head to tell government
Financial Post: Catherine Tait: ‘It’s not the public broadcaster that’s hurting private media in Canada’
US: Amid forecast of fundraising declines, pubcasters should focus on sustainers, cultivate major gifts
Current: Fundraising experts project that 2018 will close with a decline in charitable giving from last calendar year, when most of the nonprofit sector saw an outpouring of donations.
US: How the law protects hate speech on social media
CJR: The rationale is that it would be infeasible for the big platforms to review or screen all of the content they host.
US: The super typhoon American media forgot
CJR: Despite the widespread destruction, not a single national news crew was on the ground to document it.
US: Statistic of the Week: How American voters get their new
RISJ
US: Unlike in 2016, there was no spike in misinformation this election cycle
NiemanLab: The “Iffy Quotient” has been downright steady leading up to tomorrow’s midterm elections, and Facebook deserves some credit for it.
A guide to anti-misinformation actions around the world
Poynter
Swedish Radio: Cilla Benkö, CEO and Director General of Swedish Radio, writes about the worrying climate of debate, feeding hatred and threatening democracy.
Call for Proposals: Internews’ EJN & SEAPA Environmental Story Grants
Earth Journalism Network: Announcing new grants by Internews’ Earth Journalism Network and the Southeast Asian Press Alliance (SEAPA) for Environmental Journalists from Asia and the Pacific to produce stories focused on promoting free speech and the environment in the region.
Election 2018 Digital Misinformation Roundup
The New York Times: Here is a collection of coverage from The New York Times and elsewhere on efforts to mislead voters on social media and the wider internet.
In Institutions We Trust: What Is Quality Journalism?
EJO
The New Yorker: There was no real cognitive dissonance existing in the minds of most people in the Soviet Union of the nineteen-seventies and eighties. Everyone knew that everything said on the radio or on television, everything (with the exception of weather reports or sports results) was a blatant lie…
Online harassment brings special risks for freelance journalists
IPI: Freelancers fear loss of job opportunities for speaking out about online abuse.
Tim Berners-Lee launches campaign to save the web from abuse
The Guardian: A ‘Magna Carta for the web’ will protect people’s rights online from threats such as fake news, prejudice and hate, says founder of the internet.
The Rise of Digital Authoritarianism: Fake news, data collection and the challenge to democracy
Freedom House: Governments around the world are tightening control over citizens’ data and using claims of “fake news” to suppress dissent, eroding trust in the internet as well as the foundations of democracy, according to Freedom on the Net 2018: The Rise of Digital Authoritarianism, the latest edition of the annual country-by-country assessment of online freedom, released today by Freedom House.
#TruthNeverDies: International Day to End Impunity for Crimes against Journalists
GIJN: Over the past 12 years, close to 1,010 journalists have been killed for reporting the news and bringing information to the public. On average, this constitutes one death every four days. In nine out of 10 cases the killers go unpunished.
UNESCO Director-General’s Report on the Safety of Journalists and the Danger of Impunity
UNESCO: The 2018 UNESCO Director-General Report on the Safety of Journalists and the Danger of Impunity provides an overview of data collected by UNESCO on killings of journalists that took place between 1 January 2016 and 31 December 2017.
Younger Europeans are tuning out of TV news — but they’re into newspaper websites
Nieman Lab: “While younger Europeans are less likely than those 50 and older to use public news media, they are more likely to name a newspaper or magazine brand as their main source for news.”
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