AFGHANISTAN: French-Afghan journalist freed in Afghanistan: RSF

RFI: French-Afghan journalist Mortaza Behboudi, held in detention since January in Afghanistan, was freed after charges against him were dropped, Reporters Without Borders (RSF) said Wednesday.

CHINA & AUSTRALIA: ‘Like being buried alive’: Australian journalist Cheng Lei on life in a Chinese prison

The Guardian: Australian journalist Cheng Lei spent almost three years in China’s prison system for breaking an embargo by a few minutes, she has revealed in her first interview after returning home to Melbourne last week.

INDIA: India’s press freedom under scrutiny after police raids on journalists

RFI: The editor of an Indian news website stands accused of taking shady funds to promote pro-China propaganda in a case that has seen police interrogate dozens of journalists. But observers warn that the allegations are merely an excuse to intimidate the media.

INDIA: Journalists rethink jobs as India targets media

Deutsche Welle: Rights groups and other organizations have expressed concern at Indian authorities’ increasing use of anti-terror legislation to target reporters and media outlets who don’t follow the Indian government’s narrative.

INDONESIA: Opening the Archipelago Student Festival, Ambon City Secretary Hopes RRI Consistently Serves Information and Educational Broadcasts

Referensi Maluku: In commemoration of the 95th Youth Pledge Day (28 October 1928 – 28 October 2023), Radio Republik Indonesia (RRI) Ambon held the Archipelago Student Festival (FPN) involving high school/vocational high school students ( SMA/SMK) in Ambon and surrounding areas.

MALAYSIA: RSF urges authorities to drop abusive investigation against journalist

RSF: Journalist and editor Kean Wong was briefly detained on 17 October and is currently under investigation for publishing a book in 2020 that was censored due to its controversial cover.

NEPAL: FNJ protests non-payment of wages and illegal dismissals (Press Release)

IFJ: On October 17, the Federation of Nepali Journalists (FNJ) announced the start of daily one-hour protest action at Kantipur Media Group (KMG) in Thapathali, demanding the implementation of minimum wages and the reinstatement of illegally dismissed media workers.

SRI LANKA: CPJ calls on Sri Lanka to reconsider bills likely to undermine press freedom

CPJ: Sri Lankan authorities should withdraw the proposed Online Safety Bill and Anti-Terrorism Bill or significantly amend them in line with international human rights standards, the Committee to Protect Journalists said Wednesday.

THAILAND: Thai PBS joins Launch of the Audio Book Project, Happy with Sound, under the Reading Hero activity (Thai – Press release)

Thai PBS: Children’s Books Foundation, Thai PBS, National Library of Thailand Launch of the Audio Book project, happy with sound, under the Reading Hero activity, read well, read every day, every day. At the 28th National Book Fair

REGIONAL: Media Representatives Discuss Use of AI in Journalism at Singapore Symposium

The Japan News: Representatives from various media outlets worldwide discussed issues surrounding the use of artificial intelligence in news at Digital Media Asia 2023 in Singapore on Friday.

REGIONAL: Outcomes of the AIBD’s 21s General Conference

AIBD: The 21st General Conference held in Balaclava, Mauritius was indeed a momentous occasion for the AIBD, and it was graced by the distinguished presence of His Excellency Timothy Mark Masiu, Minister for Communication & Information Technology of Papua New Guinea.

AUSTRALIA: ABC Annual Report 2022-23

ABC: The ABC’s Annual Report 2022-23 was tabled in Parliament by the Minister for Communications on October 20, 2023.

AUSTRALIA: I mourn the loss of Australia’s Indigenous voice vote – and won’t forgive the media’s mendacity (Opinion)

The Guardian: The polls had been favourable until a brutal press campaign kicked in against this kindly, long-overdue change. 

AUSTRALIA: Netflix to scrap basic plan in Australia

News.com.au: In a cost of living blow for Aussies, the streaming service has unveiled yet another change to its plans with the axing of a popular option.

AUSTRALIA: SBS Learn launches refreshed website for teachers and students

RadioInfo: SBS Learn has joined with the Australian Media Literacy Alliance (AMLA) to launch a refreshed website to help students critically engage with media, to explore perspectives, and to challenge their perceptions for Media Literacy Week.

AUSTRALIA: SBS Learn partners with the Australian Media Literacy Alliance to support young peoples’ literacy in television and media across Australian classrooms (Press release)

SBS: SBS Learn has joined the Australian Media Literacy Alliance (AMLA) to empower students with the ability to critically engage with media, to explore perspectives, and to challenge their perceptions and their sources of information with two bold and innovative resources ahead of Media Literacy Week on 23-29 October.

AUSTRALIA: Survey finds family preferred and trusted news source for young Australians, but social media on the rise

Western Sydney University: Young Australians access news regularly from multiple sources but their preferred and most trusted source is their family, a new survey has found.

NEW ZEALAND: Musk’s X targets $1 fee for new users in New Zealand in bid to target spam

Stuff: Elon Musk’s social media platform X has begun charging a $1 fee to new users in the Philippines and New Zealand, in a test designed to cut down on the spam and fake accounts flourishing on the site formerly known as Twitter

NEW ZEALAND: The journalist who quit TVNZ after his ‘off the record’ interview was used to undermine a victim of sexual offending

NZ Herald: A journalist who quit TVNZ and his role on its flagship current affairs show Sunday has spoken of resigning on a point of principle after “off the record” material was provided to defendants in a sexual offending case who then used it to try to undermine her in court.

PAPUA NEW GUINEA: Female voices in sports journalism

The National: The women in news and sports initiative has become a very important tool helping women within the media fraternity to carve out a career in the male-dominated world of sports media.

ICELAND: RÚV services reduced due to women’s strike (Press release – Icelandic)

RÙV: The effects of the women’s strike will be felt in many places, and the services of the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation are not excluded. Emphasis will be placed on providing essential services. The National Radio does not deduct the wages of those who take part in the strike.

IRELAND: Fake Ads (Press release)

RTÉ: We are aware of misleading material circulating on social media which replicates RTÉ branding, features RTÉ newscasters and presenters, and purports to be official RTÉ content. 

ITALY: RAI Head of Film and Drama on Dedicating More Space to European Series: U.S. Strikes Are ‘Creating a Gap, and I Want to Make My Mark’

Variety: Veteran RAI exec Adriano De Maio has been trying to shake things up at the Italian state broadcaster since last May, when he was appointed head of film and drama.

LATVIA: Latvia Union of Journalists and EFJ organised seminar on journalism in the Baltic States

European Federation of Journalists: The European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) joined the Latvia Union of Journalists (LŽS) in Riga, Latvia on 18 October 2023 to host a seminar on the threats and challenges faced by journalists and media workers in the Baltic States.

LITHUANIA: Portal LRT.lt – news without lies and embellishments (Press release – Lithuanian)

LRT: The LRT.lt portal, which is growing rapidly and receives more and more real users every year, with a new campaign invites you to read real news – without lies, embellishments and sensations.

NETHERLANDS: This is how NOS reports on the war in Israel and Gaza (Press release – Dutch)

NOS: Since the early morning of Saturday 7 October, NOS has been reporting 24 hours a day on the war between Israel and Hamas. How are we doing that? And are we doing it well enough?

NORTH MACEDONIA: EFJ demands transparent justice in Kocho Angjushev case

EFJ: The defamation lawsuit brought by North Macedonia’s former deputy PM Kocho Angjushev must be conducted with the utmost transparency. 

NORTH MACEDONIA: Western Balkans unions urge IFJ to set up global youth group

IFJ: Union leaders and young members from North Macedonia, Serbia and Montenegro have called on the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) to establish a global group to fight for the rights of young workers.

POLAND: “We made propaganda worse than under communism,” admits Polish state TV star after election failure

Notes from Poland: A prominent figure from Polish state broadcaster TVP has admitted that, under the ruling Law and Justice (PiS) party, the station has been creating “worse propaganda than [under communism] in the 1970s”. He believes this contributed to PiS losing its parliamentary majority at Sunday’s elections.

RUSSIA: RFE/RL condemns detention of journalist Alsu Kurmasheva in Russia (Press Release)

DW: On October 18, authorities in Kazan, Russia, detained Alsu Kurmasheva, an editor with Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty’s (RFE/RL) Tatar-Bashkir Service.

SLOVENIA: The Council of RTV Slovenia confirmed the appointment of three directors (Press Release – Slovene – 17 October)

RTVSLO: The councilors of RTV Slovenia today approved the appointment of Mirko Štular as director of Radio Slovenia, Ksenije Horvat as director of Television Slovenia and Kaja Jakopič as director of Digital Content.

UK: Boost in volunteer rates for local community radio stations (Press Release)

Ofcom: Volunteers are vital in running local community radio stations. So, today we’ve updated our guidance to increase the value of volunteers that stations can use when reporting on their annual turnover.

UK: Meeting between BBC/Board of Deputies of British Jews (Press Release)

BBC: The BBC regularly meets a range of groups and today [18 October] met the Board of Deputies of British Jews.

REGIONAL: DIGITAL NETWORK ACT – PUBLIC SERVICE MEDIA CALL ON GOVERNMENTS TO OPPOSE NETWORK FEES

EBU: Next week, Telecommunications Ministers will likely discuss the Digital Networks Act (DNA), which has recently been suggested by Commissioner Thierry Breton

REGIONAL: EUROPEAN MEDIA FREEDOM ACT: EBU’S POSITION FOR TRILOGUE NEGOTIATIONS

EBU: As the European Media Freedom Act (EMFA) enters its final phase of negotiations, the EBU outlines the best outcome to secure independent public service media. 

ARGENTINA: Argentina’s presidential election: RSF’s ten proposals for media freedom and independence

RSF: With just days to go to the first round in Argentina’s presidential election, Reporters Without Borders (RSF) calls on the five candidates to adopt its ten proposals for reinforcing media freedom and consolidating journalistic independence in Argentina.

ARGENTINA: The public signal Aunar celebrated its first year on screen (Spanish)

Télam: As part of the celebrations, the organization coordinated by the Media Secretariat announced that it added new content from provincial and university public channels throughout the country, with the purpose of “enriching the view on Argentina.”

ARGENTINA: ‘True’ label on fact-checked information gets shared more than content refuted as ‘false,’ says new study on disinformation in Argentina

LatAm Journalism Review: Fact-checking initiatives should consider labeling content as “true” more frequently, because social media users tend to share fact-checked information confirmed and labeled as “true” more than they share refuted fact-checked information labeled as “false,” according to a recently published study carried out by five Latin American researchers.

BRAZIL: Brazil’s supreme court president asked to rein in judicial harassment of journalists

RSF: Reporters Without Borders (RSF) and ten other press freedom organisations are calling for bold decisions by Brazil’s new supreme court president in order to rein in judicial harassment of the media at a time of growing misuse of the Brazilian justice system with the aim of silencing journalists

BRAZIL: EBC signs partnership with TVT and expands its network in Greater São Paulo (Press Release – Portuguese)

EBC: Empresa Brasil de Comunicação (EBC) and TV do Trabalhadores (TVT) signed, this Thursday (19), membership contracts for the São Paulo broadcaster to become part of the National Public Communication Network (RNCP) of Radio and Television.

BRAZIL: Fired EBC president says repost calling Israel supporters idiots caused embarrassment to government (Portuguese)

O Globo: Dismissed from command of Empresa Brasil de Comunicação (EBC) this Wednesday, Hélio Doyle stated that the Minister of the Secretariat of Communication Paulo Pimenta sought him out after he reposted a message on his social networks in which he called out Israel’s supporters in the war of idiots. 

BRAZIL: New deals double signal of Brazil’s public broadcasting

Agência Brasil: Brazil’s National Public Communication Network (RNCP), coordinated by Empresa Brasil de Comunicação (EBC), is about to undergo the biggest expansion in its history. 

COLOMBIA: How Slain Colombian Journalist May Be Proved Right on Corruption Claims

VOA: Two investigative journalism organizations have unearthed evidence they say validates corruption claims made by a Colombian reporter who released a chilling video predicting his own death at the hands of those he exposed.

COLOMBIA: MinTIC presents a free digital training program for all women in Colombia (Press release – Spanish)

RTVC: The Ministry of Information and Communications Technologies will present on October 25, from Quibdó, Chocó, its ICT Women for Change program , with the purpose of promoting female leadership and closing the digital gender gap in the appropriation of ICT in Colombia.

COLOMBIA: This will be the first gender equality seminar on Colombian public radio (Press release – Spanish)

RTVC: The deputy radio management of RTVC Public Media System will hold this seminar that will have four thematic axes: access to land ownership, female leadership, masculinities and gender stereotypes in the media.

COSTA RICA: FEPALC’s 2023 Regional Meeting took place (Spanish)

IFJ: The Federation of Journalists of Latin America and the Caribbean (FEPALC), a regional organisation of the International Federation of Journalists, met in Costa Rica for three days of trade union training and its Annual Assembly.

NICARAGUA: New initiative aims to support, train independent journalists from Nicaragua

LatAm Journalism Review: Independent journalism in Nicaragua is under attack by Daniel Ortega’s regime. At least 223 Nicaraguan journalists have gone into exile since April 2018 in order to continue practicing the profession, but many of them lack editorial support.

TRINIDAD & TOBAGO: Climate journalists are struggling. Newsrooms should develop a mental health strategy to help them cope

Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism: It’s time to recognise that climate reporting can have a serious mental impact, says Seigonie Mohammed at CCN TV6 in Trinidad and Tobago.

REGIONAL: ProJourn launches legal assistance workshops for journalists (Workshop)

IJnet: Interested journalists can register for these free online trainings in Spanish. ProJourn, an initiative of the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, in collaboration with the Institute for Nonprofit News, is organizing sessions focusing on the most critical legal issues facing journalists.

REGIONAL: Webinar on media and information literacy projects (Workshop)

IJNet: Journalists in the Caribbean and Latin American can register for a webinar. As part of the Global Media and Information Literacy (MIL) Week, UNESCO is hosting the webinar “Harnessing and Scaling Caribbean MIL Experiences and Initiatives.”

IRAN: Iran Sentences 2 Journalists to More Than 6 Years for ‘Collaborating With US’

VOA News: A court in Iran sentenced two female journalists to up to seven years in prison for “collaborating” with the United States government among other charges, local reports said. Both have been imprisoned for over a year following their coverage of the death of Mahsa Amini while in police custody in Sept. 2022.

ISRAEL: Israel suffocating journalism in Gaza

RSF: With journalists killed or wounded, media premises destroyed, Internet shutdowns and the threatened censorship of the Al Jazeera TV news channel, Israel has been steadily suppressing news reporting in the Gaza Strip for nearly two weeks, says Reporters Without Borders (RSF).

ISRAEL & PALESTINE: Media Casualties in Israel-Hamas War Renew Focus on Safety (Watch)

VOA News: With at least 15 journalists killed in the first week of the Israel-Hamas conflict, including a Reuters video journalist, newsrooms and safety specialists are discussing how to keep crews safe.

JORDAN: Jordan’s New Cybercrime Law Passes Despite Freedom Concerns

The Tahrir Institute for Middle East Policy: In record time of just under a month, Jordan passed a new cybercrime law in August 2023, reawakening widespread public criticism with regards to its impact on freedom of expression and how the law’s provisions could be used by authorities to counter dissenting voices.

PALESTINE & ISRAEL: At least 21 journalists killed since Hamas-Israel war began, says press freedom group

The Guardian: At least 21 journalists have been killed since the outbreak of the Hamas-Israel war, the majority in Israel’s attacks on Gaza, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists.

TURKEY: Adem Yavuz Arslan: Exiled journalists are the hope of the Turkish people (Interview)

Turkish Minute: Turkey is among the world’s worst offenders when it comes to imprisoning journalists. According to Expression Interrupted!, which keeps track of the number of jailed journalists in Turkey, 45 journalists are currently behind bars in the country.

TURKEY: Turkish court censors online content on judicial bribery allegations – Stockholm Center for Freedom

SCF: A court in İstanbul has ruled to block access to 59 pieces of online content, including news articles, columns, social media posts and videos covering bribery allegations implicating prominent judges, Free Web Turkey reported.

YEMEN: Human rights groups condemn internet blocking and censorship

ARTICLE 19: The measures carried out by YemenNet in September are the latest in a long history of internet shutdowns and censorship in Yemen, which has intensified since the start of the conflict in 2015 between the Houthi forces and the Saudi-led coalition.

REGIONAL: ASBU News Committee urges sovereignty over content

ABU: News leaders from across the Arab region gathered in Tunis for the Arab States Broadcasting Union’s 19th Standing Committee on News, where members emphasised a common need for sovereignty over their content, free from foreign censorship.

CANADA: CBC mainly remains off X, citing low traffic six months after scaling back presence

Yahoo! Finance: Six months after the Canadian Broadcasting Corp. and Radio-Canada scaled back its use of the social media site X, the public broadcaster says it will mostly remain off the platform formerly known as Twitter because it doesn’t bring in a lot of traffic.

CANADA: CBC/Radio-Canada’s 2022–2023 annual report now available online (Press release)

CBC/Radio-Canada: CBC/Radio-Canada underscored its standing as an inclusive, innovative and accessible public media organization. 

CANADA: Go behind the headlines at CBC/Radio-Canada’s Annual Public Meeting

CBC News: This year, the APM takes you behind the headlines and into the inner workings of our newsrooms. Journalists, ombudsmen, and newsroom leaders will answer your questions about their roles, the challenges they face and CBC/Radio-Canada’s commitment to deliver responsible and trustworthy news content to Canadians.

CANADA: Transparency, proximity and collaboration: the building blocks of trust (Press release)

CBC/Radio-Canada: At Trust Talks — The future of journalism in a digital world, Catherine Tait discussed how media organizations can work together to build trust in journalism.

CANADA: Wait, wait, don’t tell me how this Canadian radio show became a TikTok hit

Nieman Lab: CBC’s Because News spent seven years making content for Instagram and YouTube. They got more views on TikTok within two months.

US: American trust in media is near a record low, study finds (Opinion)

Poynter: Only 7% of adults have a ‘great deal’ of trust in news media, a new Gallup poll found. 38% say they have none at all.

US: Local Newspapers Are Vanishing. How Should We Remember Them?

ProPublica: As smaller newspapers shrink or disappear, it’s easy to romanticize the role they played. But one reporter’s memories of the heyday of local journalism reveal a much more complicated reality.

US: NPR introduces ‘State of the World’ daily podcast (Press release – 11 October)

NPR: Today, NPR introduced the daily podcast, State of the World, an expansion of the State of Ukraine podcast, featuring important international coverage and storytelling from NPR journalists on the ground.

US: Statement from CEO Amanda Bennett on Hamas Attack on Israel (Statement – 11 October)

USAGM: In times of crisis, audiences rely on USAGM broadcasters to deliver the truth.

AI and the end of photographic truth

POLITICO: The AI program Midjourney doesn’t just create pictures. It can analyze an image and provide a prompt — or descriptive language — that could have been used to create it. 

An essay explores the incidence of network violence in politics and democracy (Spanish)

Télam: In a conversation with Télam, the writer and journalist reflected on current events that led him to investigate, for example, the way in which memes and other marginal discourses on the Internet appropriated the political debate. “I see a danger for democracy in the use of political violence as propaganda,” he said.

Google cut 40 jobs in its news division the same week its CEO promised to focus on content moderation: report

Business Insider: Google laid off workers in its news unit this week as the Israel-Hamas war rages on and disinformation spreads online, CNBC reported Wednesday.

‘I challenge you to write a solutions journalism story this week’

Journalism.co.uk: At a time of constant negativity and toxicity, the Solutions Journalism Network co-founder and Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Tina Rosenberg has an important message for all newsrooms

“Make climate impact part of all beats”: Tips from the Sustainable Journalism Partnership for better climate reporting (17 October)

Nieman Lab: “Good journalism is about doing compelling stories, and we seem to have forgotten that when it comes to climate journalism.”

RSF launches global “Collateral Damage” campaign highlighting the danger of the Assange prosecution to media and the public’s right to know

RSF: Reporters Without Borders (RSF) has launched a new global communications campaign as part of its longstanding efforts for the release of WikiLeaks publisher Julian Assange.

Trust Conference 2023: seven things we learnt about press freedom around the world

Reuters Institute for Journalism: Here are a few highlights from speakers such as Sebastien Lai, Jodie Ginsberg, Charlie Beckett and Rana Rahimpour at TRF’s flagship event.

Word choice matters, especially when covering a war (Opinion)

Poynter: Journalists are generally hunting for the most accurate and objective terms to use, but their decisions can signal all sorts of things to audiences.

YouTube wants to get you watching more news from ‘authoritative sources’

The Verge: With a new watch page, the platform wants to make it easier for users to find more news videos. It’s also pledging $1.6 million to help fund more shortform news content.