Our weekly round-up of public service media related stories and headlines from around the world.
Click on the drop-down menus below to reveal the latest regional stories.
EGYPT: New law in Egypt will see government regulate media
By Middle East Monitor: Egyptian President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi has signed a new law today that will further control the media and regulate members of a new media council.
EGYPT: Egypt arrests Al-Jazeera journalist over ‘provoking sedition’
By The Guardian: Mahmoud Hussein is being held on charges of disturbing public security and spreading false news, but broadcaster said he was in the country on vacation.
NAMIBIA: Citizen Journalism & Public Media in Namibia
By PMA: The Public Media Alliance (PMA) has applied for an Innovate Africa project fund to develop an innovative citizen journalism project for youth groups across Namibia with the Namibian Broadcasting Corporation (NBC) and Ignite!.
SOUTH AFRICA: Crisis? It’s business as usual, says SABC
By CityPress: There is no crisis at the SABC and it is not on autopilot without a board, according to spokesperson Kaizer Kganyago.
SOMALIA: Somalia ends 2016 with gloomy record of repression against journalists, says NUSOJ
By SunaTimes: Deadly attacks on reporters and their news outlets as well as a government campaign of repression under a new media law marked 2016 in Somalia, reinforcing a dangerous climate of impunity toward the news media, says the National Union of Somali Journalists (NUSOJ).
TANZANIA: Tanzania: Laws That Challenged Press Freedom
By AllAfrica: Press freedom has been a subject of debate and battles in the country for the last three decades and 2016 has had its share of the protracted scuffles.
THE GAMBIA: Two more Gambian radio stations shut down
By Nigeria Today: Two more private Gambian radio stations have been ordered off air for unspecified reasons, staff said Monday, after a first station was shut down at the weekend amid a political standoff in the west African nation.
CHINA: Chinese whispers: How China is using the media as a form of soft power in Australia
By Hong Kong Free Press: After a year dominated by controversy over China’s soft power forays into Australian politics, experts are warning the emerging superpower is using Australian media to exert political influence with implications for press freedom.
CHINA: CCTV launches global platform in Xi push to rebrand China
By Asia Times: ‘China needs to know better about the world and the world needs to know better about China,’ Xi says. But only the good stuff
CHINA: Independent Journalism in China Struggles to Survive
By The Diplomat: 2016 has been a particularly bad year for non-state controlled media outlets in China.
INDIA: NDTV launches English news channel on Africa’s StarTimes
By ABU: African pay-TV operator StarTimes has increased its English-language news options with the addition of Indian channel NDTV 24×7.
PAKISTAN: Pakistan’s media unraveled
By Himal: The current crisis of media in Pakistan reflects a wider historical trajectory.
PAKISTAN: Sensationalism in our electronic media
By Pakistan Today: A case for real journalism
PHILIPPINES: Communications
By PhilStar
PHILIPPINES: First murder of journalist in Philippines under President Duterte
By RSF: Reporters Without Borders (RSF) calls on the Philippine authorities to investigate this week’s fatal shooting of a local newspaper publisher in Virac, in the central province of Catanduanes, and to ensure that his murder does not go unpunished.
REGIONAL: Bishop presses ABC on Pacific ‘concerns’ over shortwave radio cut
By Pasifik: AUSTRALIA’S foreign minister Julie Bishop has raised the Pacific region’s concerns about the ABC’s planned abolition of Radio Australia’s shortwave service with the national broadcaster and will seek an update in the New Year.
BOSNIA & HERZEGOVINA: New alarm for public TV in Bosnia and Herzegovina
By Osservatorio Balcani & Caucaso: The situation of public radio-television in Bosnia and Herzegovina is deteriorating, while pressures increase for the creation of three ethnonational channels
FINLAND: Yle News TV broadcasts to end
By Yle.fi: Public broadcaster Yle’s English-language news service will end its television broadcasts early in 2017, as Yle management seeks to move resources in order to focus on reaching audiences online.
POLAND: Poland Has Lifted Its Media Ban
By Smithsonian.com: It’s the latest in an ongoing saga about press freedoms in the populist-led country
By The Telegraph: For years Index of Censorship has monitored state interference in news reporting, from the authoritarian Chile in 1970s to North Korea today. With a history of scrutinising government pressure on media, we were never going to join Impress, the new state-approved UK press regulator.
ARGENTINA: RSF deplores attack on two media outlets in Buenos Aires
By RSF: Reporters Without Borders (RSF) condemns the recent break-in at the shared office of two online media outlets, Revista Anfibia and Cosecha Roja, in Buenos Aires, in which a computer and a notebook containing sensitive information were stolen, and furniture and other equipment were badly damaged.
BRASIL: The Chamber approves the end of society’s participations in the EBC (in Portuguese)
By Vermelho: The plenary of the Deputies Chamber approved on Wednesday another Provisional Measure of Michel Temer’s illegitimate government, which reformulates the administrative structure of the Empresa Brasileira de Comunicação (EBC), ending the democratic character of public broadcasting service.
By Knight Center: A group of Brazilian journalists, researchers and media have joined to create a kind of stamp of credibility for journalism.
REGIONAL: Mexico and Brazil among the deadliest countries for journalists in 2016, according to CPJ
By Knight Center: Although the number of murders of journalists in the world has dropped from record levels, two Latin American countries are among the deadliest for communicators in 2016, according to the year-end report from the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ).
MEXICO: Public TV for Mexico City (in Spanish)
By Sinembargo: We are in the crucial days for the approval of the Constitution of Mexico City and one of the fundamental issues of the right to information is the creation of a radio and television system at the service of society and not the government’s.
MEXICO: TV Stations with new rules (in Spanish)
By El Economista: The Plenary of the Federal Institute of Telecommunications (IFT) approved “Technical Provision IFT-013-2016: Minimum Specifications and Requirements for the Installation and Operation of Television Stations, Auxiliary Equipment and Complementary Equipment”.
ST. LUCIA: More climate change reporting urged
By St. Lucia Times
ISRAEL: Cabinet Approves Delayed Launch of Public Broadcaster, at Cost of $36.6 Million
By Haaretz: Netanyahu makes clear the delay is intended is to buy time as he attempts to kill off the new corporation.
ISRAEL: Freedom of the press and freedom of information; fears and realities in Israel
By The Jerusalem Post: Such fears also resonate in diplomatic circles, so Swedish Ambassador Carl Magnus Nesser and Finnish Ambassador Anu Saarela last week co-hosted a discussion on the subject as it affects Israel.
PALESTINE: Report: Sharp spike in repression of Palestinian journalists
By 972Mag: Two new reports document the growing repression of Palestinian journalists by Israeli forces last year. According to the Committee to Protect Journalists, Israel is currently imprisoning the same number of journalists as the Syrian regime.
TURKEY: ‘Worst country’ for media freedom in 2016
By Deutsche Welle: Turkey jailed more journalists than any other country this year. According to the Turkish Journalists’ Association, 148 journalists are currently imprisoned and many media outlets have been shut down.
TURKEY: Turkey charges journalist with ‘terror propaganda’: report
By Yahoo: An Istanbul court Friday charged a prize-winning journalist with “terror propaganda” over a series of social media postings and articles, state media reported, as fears grow over freedom of expression in Turkey.
CANADA: The transformation of Canada’s media landscape
By Rabble.ca: Ian Gill, a former editor at the Vancouver Sun, and Marc Edge, journalism educator and media critic, address the present and future state of Canadian media in talks recorded in Vancouver on Nov 29.
U.S.: A big change to U.S. broadcasting is coming — and it’s one Putin might admire
By The Washington Post
Media and The Game of Climate Change Denialism
By Forbes: There are many aspects of climate change science which are very important, but hardly discussed by the media.
Media: What to look out for in 2017
By BBC: All the forces of change in the media industry are very likely to accelerate in 2017. Be it the consolidation of companies, technological advances and even the future of the BBC, there will be lots happening. Here are the 10 themes to look out for.
Digital media are shaking up reporting on climate change
By Eco-Business: Finding new ways to tell the underlying story of climate change is a challenge – but some are rising to it, says James Painter.
Why digital-born publishers are key to the coverage of climate change
By Journalism.co.uk: RISJ study finds the formats, style and tone of new media are a vital addition to the traditional coverage of environmental issues, peaking interest and reaching wider audiences.
Constructive news brings back audiences
By EBU
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