Our weekly round-up of public service media related stories and headlines from around the world.

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EGYPT: Draft by-laws to penalise Egyptian media for rumours and criticism

Middle East Monitor: Egypt’s state-run Supreme Council for Media Regulation (SCMR) is considering the imposition of a new list of penalties for libel, defamation, inciting violence or publishing and disseminating rumours or anonymously sourced news.


ETHIOPIA: Facebook shuts 20 pages claiming to be Ethiopian broadcaster

ABC News (US): Fana Broadcasting Corporate’s announcement comes as Ethiopians complain that fake news reports in recent months have contributed to mass violence and deaths in some parts of the country.


NIGERIA: Nigerian Media Unite to Fight Misinformation Ahead of 2019 Elections

This Day via All Africa: Ahead of the 2019 general election, a coalition of news organisations in Nigeria is collaborating to combat misinformation, fake news and other information disorders that might have negative impacts on the polls.


SOUTH AFRICA: Heads Expected to Roll At the SABC After Sexual Harassment Notices Issued

News24 via All Africa: Heads are expected to roll at the SABC after the public broadcaster announced that it would initiate action against all those implicated in the sexual harassment of their colleagues.


SOUTH AFRICA: SABC board chair sticks to retrenchment and cost-cutting script

Times Live: SABC board chair Bongumusa Makhathini has vowed to push ahead with the cost-saving measures at the public broadcaster, including retrenchments, even if the move cost him his job.


TANZANIA: A missing journalist, two detained activists: What’s happening in Tanzania?

Deutsche Welle: Investigative journalist Azory Gwanda was last seen one year ago. His fate, as well as the recent detentions of two media activists, has created a tense situation for media workers in Tanzania.


REGIONAL: New data suggests African audiences see significantly more misinformation than Americans do

NiemanLab: More than a quarter of Kenyans and Nigerians surveyed said they had shared stories that they knew were made up.

CHINA: China keeps the media in line

RNZ: International journalists were startled when Chinese officials prevented them from reporting some events at the APEC summit in Papua New Guinea this week. It was a taste of the tactics China employs to shape media coverage of the country overseas.


CHINA: Meet the Chinese Journalist Taking on Public Records Obstacles

GIJN: Reporter Feng Xin tells GIJN about the challenges Chinese journalists face with open records, and about her ongoing John S Knight Journalism Fellowship research to find some answers.


CHINA: Papua New Guinea: Chinese delegation excludes journalists from three side events during APEC summit

RSF: During the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit, held from 12 to 18 November in Papua New Guinea, several accredited media, including the Australian TV channel ABC and the local daily The National Newspaper, were prevented from covering three events organized by the Chinese delegation and involving Chinese President Xi Jinping.


HONG KONG: Foreign journalists fear visa rejection after Hong Kong ousted Financial Times editor, says press club chief

HKFP: Several foreign correspondents in Hong Kong have told The Young Reporter (TYR) they feel a general sense of anxiety about their visa renewals after senior Financial Times editor Victor Mallet was denied permission to continue working in Hong Kong.


INDIA: Prasar Bharati to overhaul workforce

The Hindu: Manpower audit not aimed at retrenchment, says CEO


INDIA: Rural, women-focused newspaper in India is now a national phenomenon

IJNet: What started as a four-page experiment to inform women who were learning to read and write eventually became a newspaper that exposes everything from the malfunctions of local government to the mistreatment of women.


JAPAN: NHK to trim fees by 4.5% by fiscal 2020 to meet criteria for online simulcasting

The Japan News: NHK’s board on Tuesday approved the public broadcaster’s plan to cut its television viewing fees by 4.5 percent by fiscal 2020.


PHILIPPINES: Philippine news site, Rappler, vows that it won’t be silenced by Duterte’s threats

CBC News: ‘We are Rappler and we will hold the line,’ says editor-in-chief Maria Ressa.


PHILIPPINES: Relentless Attacks and Threats Online, On Ground, Across the Nation [Statement]

Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism: In the 28 months of the Duterte presidency, or from July 1, 2016 to Oct. 31, 2018, we have documented at least 99 such cases of direct and indirect assaults against journalists and news media agencies.


SINGAPORE: Call for legislation to curb fake news on social media

The Straits Times: But tackling such platforms can be tricky, say experts ahead of global meeting on issue.


TAIWAN: ‘Fake news’ rattles Taiwan ahead of elections

Aljazeera: Beijing is test-driving propaganda techniques ahead of Taiwan’s largest-ever elections on Saturday [24 Nov], officials say.


TAJIKISTAN: Tajik Media Losing Relevance

IWPR: The mainstream media in Tajikistan is struggling to stay relevant in the online age, according to an expert discussion convened by IWPR this week.


THAILAND: Thai Media to Sign Cooperation Pact on Relaying Tsunami Warnings

The Nation: Despite fierce business competition, major TV stations have joined hands to boost tsunami warnings and crisis reports, so as to prevent future disasters.


SOUTH KOREA: Public broadcaster EBS blasted for selling puzzle ‘glorifying’ Kim Jong-un

The Korea Times: Sales of a three-dimensional puzzle series, including one of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, have been put on hold after accusations that the puzzle glorifies Kim.


UZBEKISTAN: Uzbekistan Reforms: Is the Media a Bellwether?

VOA: Uzbek media, long a mouthpiece of the state, has diversified, with the emergence of online sources, such as Kun.uz, Daryo.uz, Qalampir.uz, and the recently launched Turon24.uz.

AUSTRALIA: Michelle Guthrie given $800,000 payout after being terminated as ABC managing director

ABC News: Former managing director Michelle Guthrie has received a payout of more than $800,000 after being terminated by the ABC, and is suing for more.


FIJI: Fiji deals with fake news over election time

RNZ: This month’s election in Fiji was not immune to the increasingly world-wide phenomenon of so-called fake news around polling time.


FIJI: Media apprehension at another Bainimarama term (Audio)

RNZ: One of Fiji’s senior journalists Lice Movono says she’s very nervous facing another four years of government led by Frank Bainimarama’s FijiFirst party.


NEW ZEALAND: ‘Radical changes’ for Māori Television news

RNZ: Māori Television is replacing news and current affairs shows next year with a ‘Māori Media Hub’ to deliver “news as it happens” online and on TV. Mediawatch asks its chief editor why – and how that will be done.   


PAPUA NEW GUINEA: EMTV overturn suspension of PNG journalist Scott Waide after public pressure

ABC: Mr Waide’s suspension prompted widespread criticism from the public and press organisations, which accused EMTV of acquiescing to the Government.


REGIONAL: Nauru, PNG, Fiji criticised for obstructing freedom

RNZ: Civic freedoms in three Pacific nations are under threat, according to the international watchdog group, Civicus.


REGIONAL: Trauma research on TV journalists covering killings revealed in Pacific Journalism Review

Asia Pacific Report: The statistics globally are chilling. And the Asia-Pacific region bears the brunt of the killing of journalists with impunity disproportionately.

BELGIUM: DAB+ Gains Ground in Belgium

RadioWorld: “DAB+, is a means to an end, allowing us to serve our audience with a broader musical choice,” says Medialaan


BULGARIA: Bulgaria industry group urged to refrain from discrediting journalists

IPI: IPI, ECPMF pen joint letter to construction chamber in response to comments about investigative site Bivol


FRANCE: France Télévisions to cease putting shows on YouTube as Canal+ reveals new VOD plan

Digital TV Europe: France Télévisions is going to stop distributing complete programmes on YouTube, following director-general Delphine Ernotte’s earlier move to no longer distribute content on Netflix.


FRANCE: Public broadcasters launch “Culture Prime” on social networks (French)

Franceinfo: The new cultural offer shared by the six groups of the public media sector was launched Friday, November 23 under the mark “Culture Prime”. It brings together videos published on Facebook and YouTube with the aim of attracting a younger audience than the one following the current antennas.


GREECE: 24-Hour Greek Media Blackout Ahead of General Strike

The New York Times: Greek journalists have walked off work for 24 hours ahead of a general strike that is expected to bring the country to a standstill to protest against protracted austerity measures.


HUNGARY: The Website That Shows How a Free Press Can Die

The New York Times: From the beginning of his premiership in 2010, Viktor Orban has steadily eroded the checks and balances in Hungary’s once-promising democracy, especially the independent media.


LATVIA: Latvia speaks out against disinformation and journalist killings

LSM: On 20 and 21 November 2018, at the meeting of the Intergovernmental Council of UNESCO International Program for the Development of Communication (IPDC), in Paris, France, Latvia called for the fight against disinformation to be one of the next priorities of the UNESCO IPDC.


MALTA: Maltese media at high-risk of being influenced by politicians, study finds

The Times of Malta: Daphne murder ‘darkest hour for media freedom since Charlie Hebdo’.


NETHERLANDS: Netflix to show series from Dutch public broadcaster NPO

Telecompaper: Netflix and Dutch public broadcaster NPO have reached an agreement on a Dutch offer for Netflix.


NORWAY: An environmental newspaper fights for press freedom in the Russian Arctic

WLRN: The paper keeps a close watch on the Russian Arctic because it’s part of the neighborhood, and because there’s a lot at stake there, for Russians and the rest of us.


POLAND: Poland is intimidating our journalists: U.S.-owned Polish broadcaster

Reuters: U.S.-owned private Polish broadcaster TVN said it was facing intimidation after members of Poland’s internal security agency entered a TVN cameraman’s house and called him to a hearing over accusations he propagated Nazi propaganda.


ROMANIA: How The GDPR Can Be Used To Threaten Investigative Journalists

EJO: The European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) was meant to protect and empower all EU citizens’ data privacy. It wasn’t meant to be used as a tool to abuse journalists. However, this is exactly what seems to have happened in Romania.


SPAIN: Rosa María Mateo will ask the Government to re-finance TVE with advertising (Spanish)

La Informacion: The provisional administrator of the public broadcaster questions the “Zapatero model” and puts forward plans to change its financing model.


SPAIN: TVE News Council signals faults in the new administration but does not detect cases of manipulation or censorship (Spanish)

InfoLibre: The data contrasts with the previous report by the same agency, which documented seventy cases of manipulation and censorship in the last period under the previous direction.


SPAIN: TVE journalists claim their independence prior to the Andalusian electoral campaign (Spanish)

InfoLibre: They demand that the information needs to be elaborated exclusively with journalistic criteria, subject to principles of truthfulness, objectivity and impartiality.


SWEDEN: New financing of public service adopted

Government Offices of Sweden: The system will be introduced on 1 January 2019. Along with the new fee, other changes will also be introduced aimed at strengthening the independence of public service broadcasting.


SWITZERLAND: TV and radio still more popular than online media

SwissInfo: Streaming services like Netflix and Spotify are increasingly popular in Switzerland, especially among the young, but television and radio remain the most popular media across the whole population, a survey has found.


UK: BBC consults on options for over 75s licence fee

Digital TV Europe: The age group is currently entitled to a free TV licence under a government-funded scheme that is set to expire in June 2020, after which it is to be left to the BBC itself to decide on any future scheme and how to pay for it.


UK: BBC experimenting internationally following BBC Player launch in Germany

Digital TV Europe: The BBC has confirmed it is experimenting with “different ways to reach audiences in different markets” after launching an SVOD offering via Amazon Prime Video Channels in Germany and Austria last week.


UK: BBC R&D: Amazon Alexa interactive drama

Advanced Television: In creating the drama, the team at BBC R&D has built on its work in 2017 with smart speakers, when it made the sci-fi interactive drama The Inspection Chamber.


UK: Local newspapers need to be based on public service, not profit (Opinion)

The Guardian: Advertising revenue alone is no longer enough to sustain regional newsrooms


UK: UK regulator advises current media ownership rules should be retained

Rapid TV News: Despite a turbulent last twelve months that has seen mega-mergers, divestments and closures, in its fifth report to the Secretary of State on UK media ownership rules, broadcast regulator Ofcom has suggested that the legislative status quo is maintained.


UK: United Kingdom: regulator requested to revoke Chinese state-owned group CCTV-CGTN’s license for airing forced confessions

RSF: A British former journalist, who in 2013 fell victim to the Chinese authorities’ practice of forced TV confessions, filed a request in London on Friday for “violation of the Broadcasting Code” against the CCTV-CGTN audiovisual group.


REGIONAL: How oligarchs captured Central Europe’s media

DW: Journalism is a dangerous job in Central Europe. Hungary and the Czech Republic have shown how three or four oligarchs can hand the government an almost total stranglehold.


REGIONAL: #IJ4EU: Exposing fraud put Bulgaria, Romania journalists under threat

IPI: IJ4EU-funded investigation halts EU-funded projects worth ‘millions’

BRAZIL: Jair Bolsonaro is president-elect of Brazil. What’s next for fact-checkers?

Poynter: Fact-checkers are rethinking how to do their jobs under Jair Bolsonaro.


BRAZIL: Requesting public data anonymously is now easier in Brazil thanks to new civil society and government mechanisms

Knight Center: For Brazilian journalists, the ability to keep their identity secret when requesting public data through the Law of Access to Information (LAI) has become easier recently.


COLOMBIA: The Ministry of Communications and public television reach an agreement with the Law for the Modernization of the sector (Spanish)

360 Radio: The request of the regional channels was that public television continues to provide its social service especially in the most remote areas of the Colombian territory.


COLOMBIA: Reporting initiative spotlights the lives of Indigenous peoples living in Bogotá

IJNet: In 2018, independent news outlet Agenda Propia brought together a team of editors, journalists and documentary photographers in Colombia to create a space to tell the stories of the more than 37,000 Indigenous people who live in the country’s capital, Bogotá.


MEXICO: Mexican journalists denounce violence against communicators in series of profiles on murdered and missing colleagues

Knight Center: In Mexico, killing a journalist is like “killing nobody.” This is demonstrated by the high levels of violence against journalists and impunity in these cases.


MEXICO: Senate over-rules the intention to give Segob control over public media in the next Government (Spanish)

Sin Embargo: The point was included in the amendments to the Organic Law of the Federal Public Administration, and implied granting powers to Segob to provide the service of digital public broadcasting throughout the Mexican territory.


NICARAGUA: At least nine journalists from Nicaragua denounce attacks, arrests and threats (Spanish)

100 Noticias: In the last 48 hours, at least nine journalists and media workers from the independent press in Nicaragua reported being subjected to arrests, death threats and one of them was beaten by the Sandinista police.


GENERAL: China wants exchange of more good news stories

Jamaica Observer: A senior official of the Chinese Communist Party wants to see an exchange of more ‘good news’ stories between China and Latin America and the Caribbean as part of a series of steps the country is taking to deepen relationships between the three regions.

ISRAEL: Israel to Loan Public Broadcaster $18.8m for Eurovision Production Costs

Haaretz: Total cost of producing the international song contest is 110m shekels, says Kan corporation; CEO worried about being able to repay the funds


PALESTINE: Palestine: IFJ welcomes collective agreement strengthening safety of journalists in public media

IFJ: The preamble of the agreement emphasizes the importance of protecting freedom of expression for a democratic society, the value of public service broadcasting and stresses the need to guarantee journalists’ social and professional rights as the foundation for media freedom.


SYRIA: Defiant Syrian radio host shot dead

RNZ: A prominent Syrian radio journalist has been shot dead by gunmen in the rebel-held Syrian province of Idlib.


TURKEY: Nine international organisations urge EU officials to raise Turkey’s freedom of expression crisis during EU-Turkey high political dialogue

EFJ: More than 160 journalists are imprisoned in Turkey today, with hundreds more on trial for exercising their right to freedom of expression.


GENERAL: Fighting Fake News: Can Technology Help The Middle East Throw Off The Shackles Of Censorship?

Forbes: In the days when newspapers and television were dominant, it was relatively easy to control what emerged from printing presses and broadcast studios, but in recent years governments have shown themselves to be adept at controlling the conversation on social media too.


GENERAL: MBC to partner China’s National Radio & TV Administration
Details

Rapid Tv News: Pan Arab media group MBC has agreed a three-year memorandum of understanding (MOU) with China’s National Radio and Television Administration (NRTA) to develop content and share production expertise.

CANADA: Canada introduces a $595 million package in support of journalism

The Star via NiemanLab: Canada’s federal government introduced a CAN$595 million-over-5-years tax package to bolster the country’s journalism market.


CANADA: Creating a culture of accessibility

CBC Digital Labs via Medium: Including people with disabilities — with our loaded histories, with our resilience, and with our superior sense of humour — creates greater depth in our content and expands our capacity for storytelling beyond the same old narrative.”


CANADA: Indigenous Sport & Wellness Ontario and CBC sign historic five-year agreement

CBC: Agreement will further showcase Indigenous achievement to CBC’s national audiences.


CANADA: Ottawa to provide aid to support Canadian journalism

The Toronto Star: The federal government is giving a tax break to digital news subscribers, a refundable tax credit to news outlets and will allow non-profit media organizations to give charitable receipts to donors, all to help journalism in Canada.


US: Attention, please? The East Coast media bias of fire coverage (Opinion)

Poynter: Instead of devoting five minutes at the top of the hour, CNN could be spending whole hours on in-depth analysis of this catastrophe, or inviting on climate scientists and meteorologists to discuss not only the scope of devastation and causes of the Camp Fire but California’s increasingly bleak future in terms of wildfires and the links to climate change.


US: From Get-Out-To-Vote To Text-Out-To-Vote: The Rise Of Peer-To-Peer Texting

NPR: Peer-to-peer texting emerged as a prominent digital tool used by both political parties during the midterm elections, and the success of this medium explains why you may have received so many campaign messages directly to your cellphone in 2018.


US: How local journalism can upend the ‘fake news’ narrative (Opinion)

The Conversation: Local journalists are often the only journalists that most people will ever meet


US: The press won’t let Trump bury climate change. But it is still complicit.

CJR: It is positive that Trump’s news dump backfired. But when it comes to burying the reality of climate change, the news media is still complicit.


US: To improve local TV news, ABC’s stations are betting on a Localish brand and community-level hires

Nieman Lab: “The reality is we do not have folks who are embedded in the communities they serve who actually are responsible for telling these stories.” ABC is making local hires as one step to try to fix that.

Facebook fake news inquiry: the countries demanding answers

The Guardian: Legislators from Argentina to Ireland feel the firm has failed to get a grip on the issue, and they are ready to step in.


How to launch and grow your first news podcast

EJC: Conversation with Dávid Tvrdoň, podcast producer and product manager for online news at SME.sk.


Is it finally time for media companies to adopt a common publishing platform?

NiemanLab: Media companies are each independently trying to solve the same technical problems, rather than focusing on competing with Facebook. Is the usual answer to “buy or build?” changing?


Social media and the spread of misinformation

RNZ: Immunisation expert Dr Nikki Turner says scaremongering on social media is putting off parents vaccinating their children. Just how do you decide what’s fact and fiction about anything on Facebook or Twitter?


Tools for user-generated video content from Al Jazeera English’s NewsGrid

IJNet: As traditional television news loses its dominance more audiences prefer to get their news online. Mobile phones are fast replacing big satellite trucks, as almost everyone can livestream events using their smartphones. As a result, many news outlets are taking on different formats, including shorter videos with music and text to catch viewers’ attention in the first few seconds.


Under the skin of ICIJ’s Implant Files

CJR:  In 2014, Jet Schouten and her colleagues at AVROTROS, a public broadcaster in the Netherlands, embarked on an intricate undercover operation. Their aim was to show how easy it can be to get medical devices onto the market in Europe, and, consequently, inside patients’ bodies.


Use structured journalism to cover complex, ongoing stories

IJNet: This approach to reporting organizes information into categories, which can help improve story organization for topics that evolve over long periods of time.


What is it like to be a young, female photojournalist in a male-dominated industry?

Journalism.co.uk: Reuters’ photojournalist Hannah McKay talks about winning the Pulitzer Prize for reporting on Rohingya refugee crisis and the upsides — and downsides — of being a 30-year-old female news photographer.


What newsroom leaders can do now to prepare for disaster coverage

CJR: In this month’s edition, CJR Editor Kyle Pope and resident management guru Jill Geisler discuss how to be disaster-ready, race and newsroom culture, and how to give thanks to journalists and employees.

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All PSM Weekly stories are provided for interest and their relevance to public service media issues, they do not necessarily reflect the views of the Public Media Alliance.

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Header image: Empty television studio with camera. Image: Grafissimo/iStock