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.
KENYA: Journalists protest media harassment in Kenya
By Deutsche Welle: Hundreds of journalists took to the streets of Mombasa to protests persistent attacks against journalists and free expression.
MOROCCO: Morocco expels more foreign TV journalists
By RSF: Reporters Without Borders (RSF) condemns the expulsion of well-known Italian investigative journalists Luigi Pelazza and Mauro Pilay yesterday from Morocco and the confiscation of the video they had filmed.
NAMIBIA: Democracy depends on access to information
By The Namibian: Media ombudsman Clement Daniels says freedom of expression and access to information are some of the pillars of democracy.
NIGERIA: Nigeria detains 13 journalists, bloggers, and media workers
By CPJ
SOMALIA: Another journalist gunned down in Mogadishu
By RSF: Outrage at radio journalist Abdiaziz Mohamed Ali’s execution-style murder yesterday evening in Mogadishu and calls for a rapid investigation to identify those responsible and bring them to justice.
SOUTH AFRICA: Not Allowing Journalists to Do Their Jobs Undermines Democracy – Media Watchdog
Via All Africa: Not allowing the media to do their jobs directly undermines SA’s democracy, Media Monitoring Africa (MMA) said following the arrest of News24 journalist Kaveel Singh on Friday.
TANZANIA: In Tanzania, Expressing Political Opinions on Social Media is Becoming Increasingly Dangerous
By Global Voices: Five Tanzanian citizens appeared before a Tanzanian court September 14 charged with insulting President John Magufuli on social media. The five denied the charges.
UGANDA: MPs Divided Over Editors’ Summons
Via All Africa: Last week, the parliamentary committee on Rules, Privileges and Discipline issued summons to news editors of four media organisations over what parliament termed as ‘negative’ reporting of the institution.
INDIA: Prasar Bharti CEO Jawahar Sircar submits resignation to Information and Broadcasting Ministry
By Scroll.in: The head of the corporation was appointed to his post by the previous Manmohan Singh-led United Progressive Alliance government.
INDONESIA: Local media face global competition
By The Jakarta Post: In the past few years, Indonesia has seen a trend of global media companies such as BBC Indonesia and CNN Indonesia offering their content in Indonesian, but what impact has this had on local media?
KAZAKHSTAN: Kazakh journalists face years in prison on retaliatory charges
By CJP
NEPAL: Nepal Republic Media wins WWF Conservation Award
By myRepublica: The WWF has given the award to NRM based on the extensive coverage of environmental issues such as climate change, wildlife, natural resources, biodiversity etc by NRM’s print and online publications.
PAKISTAN: Gunmen kidnap executive director of Pakistan media house
By Metro News: A senior police official says gunmen have kidnapped the executive director of Pakistan’s main media house in the northwestern city of Peshawar [Abid Abdullah has since been returned]
SINGAPORE: Singapore forges closer ties between tech and media by merging government departments
By The Drum
SRI LANKA: Sri Lanka media lacks pre-disaster reporting skills
By The Sunday Times (SL): Concerns regarding the lack of discussion or early warning in the mass media about impending disasters.
SOUTH KOREA: The South Korean newspaper-TV channel experiment
By SBS: South Korean newspapers are merging with television stations in response to declining readers.
AUSTRALIA: ABC OzPod Audience Research
By ABC: New research released for the OzPod 2016 podcasting conference, held on 30 September, offers new insight into the listening habits of Australian podcasters.
AUSTRALIA: Australian broadcasters call for bigger cut in licensing fees
By The Guardian: Coalition signals it is listening to a demand from the Nine and Seven networks to cut the fee by more than the 25% offered in its overhaul of media regulations
AUSTRALIA: PM meets with industry leaders, Worner’s warning on licence fees
By The Australian
AUSTRALIA: SBS Australia launched new app for iPhone and iPad
By ABU: SBS On Demand upgraded app for iPhone and iPad thus offering users access to over 900 movies, 50 dramas, and 200 documentaries, all completely free.
NEW ZEALAND: Muted response to big shift in public funding plans
By Radio New Zealand: Established New Zealand broadcasters will compete with online outlets for our public broadcasting money from next year under a new regime proposed by New Zealand On Air. It is a significant change, but largely ignored so far by the media.
PAPUA NEW GUINEA: Regional Journalists Call for Job Safety for PNG media
By Solomon Times Online: Pacific journalists say Papua New Guinea media bosses should provide more security and insurance to protect colleagues increasingly under attack.
TONGA: Tonga looks at laws to curb cyber crime
By Radio New Zeland: Tonga’s government will submit draft regulations to parliament to try and manage cyber crime in the country.
VANUATU: National TV station makes the switch to digital
By Pacific Media Watch: Vanuatu’s national broadcaster VBTC is officially advising viewers that the analog free-to-air signal of Television Blong Vanuatu will be switched off on October 15 for Port Vila and suburban areas.
GERMANY: More leeway for German media?
By Deutsche Welle: German media are to be given more leeway for joint business ventures under law changes adopted by cabinet.
GREECE: European Federation of Journalists Concerned About Media Pluralism in Greece
By Greek Reporter: Concerns that a new law restricting the number of television broadcasting licences in Greece to four will undermine pluralism and independent journalism in the Greek media.
IRELAND: RTE ditches plans to axe longwave 252 radio service after criticism in Britain
By Independent: RTE is set to scrap controversial plans to axe its longwave radio service, aimed at saving the cash-strapped broadcaster €250,000 a year, the Sunday Independent has learned.
POLAND: Public media independence undermined in Poland – OSCE
By Reuters: The Polish government’s tightened hold on public media, its conflict with the highest court and recent anti-terrorism legislation have jeopardised free expression in the country, according to Europe’s main rights and democracy watchdog.
RUSSIA: Publisher beaten up for publishing police misconduct
By EFJ
SCANDINAVIA: Netflix scales Nordic media summit
By Informativ: The Nordic region is currently the largest international market for Netflix, comparable in subscriber numbers to the United Kingdom.
SERBIA: Serbian Cartoonist’s Sacking ‘Reveals Govt’s Ties to Media
By Balkan Media Watch
SWITZERLAND: Senate supports public service media
By SwissInfo.ch: The Swiss Senate is standing behind a government report on public service broadcasting which earlier in the year attracted criticism from a House of Representatives committee, notably from members of the rightwing Swiss People’s Party.
UK: BBC iPlayer to require registration
By Informativ: The BBC is going to require all users to sign in to the BBC iPlayer, BBC iPlayer Radio and some of its mobile apps.
UK: BBC Radio Director Helen Boaden resigns, criticising state of journalism
By The Independent: This extract from Boaden’s speech she delivered at the Prix Italia Festival in Lampedusa makes the case for ‘slow news’ and reflects on here career.
REGIONAL: EBU big data initiative workshop highlights how recommendation systems can support values of PSM
By EBU: On Friday 23 September, an EBU Big Data Initiative workshop addressed the role and challenges raised by the use of algorithms for public service media (PSM).
BRAZIL: The future remains uncertain for public service media in Brazil
By PMA: The future of public media in Brazil is now even more precarious after new provisional measure is proposed by the government.
COLOMBIA: NEC to Provide Digital TV Transmitters for Colombia’s Public Broadcasting Service
By benzinga
By Knight Center: Journalism in the Americas
PERU: Ojo Público and RSF join forces to monitor media concentration in Peru
By Knight Center: Journalism in the Americas: New project to monitor ownership of the most important media outlets in the Andean country.
ISRAEL: Bennett: Media Issues, New Broadcaster Are Not ‘Core Issues’ for His Party
By Haaretz: In apparent shift, education minister says he will ‘flow with the PM’ on new broadcasting corporation; seems less concerned about press freedom.
TURKEY: Turkey’s bid to make Twitter block reporter part of growing digital censorship trend, advocates say
By CBC News
TURKEY: Turkey stops Kurdish children’s TV channel citing ‘terrorism’
By Deutsche Welle: Turkey has stopped broadcasts of ten mostly-Kurdish TV channels, including the only Kurdish children’s station. Authorities said the Kurdish cartoons constituted ‘separatist’ activity.
CANADA: Canadian media ‘crisis’ puts democracy at risk, says Torstar chair John Honderich
By The Star: Canadian media are facing a “crisis” as market forces shrink newsrooms, leaving fewer journalists to report the news vital to a vibrant democracy, Torstar chair tells MPs.
By CBC/Radio-Canada
USA: Employment picture darkens for journalists at digital outlets
BY Columbia Journalism Review
USA: Nonprofit news outlets mirror overall media in diversity, according to ASNE survey
By Current: Nonprofit news outlets are about as racially diverse as newspapers, according to the American Society of News Editors’ 2016 survey of newsroom staffing.
USA: PBS Wins 14 News & Documentary Emmys®
By PBS
USA: TV spectrum auction enters next stage with new bidding, lower prices
By Current: The first stage of the FCC reverse auction of television spectrum concluded as many analysts had predicted: Sellers’ opening bid prices were more than $60 billion higher than what the forward auction buyers were willing to pay.
By Nieman Lab: A new Reuters Institute report reaffirms familiar trendlines in digital publishing: “People are using mobile more and more, but we are not yet getting the revenue out of it that we would like to get.”
By PMA: What happens in the shared public media space matters and in an increasingly fragile world, it matters more than ever before. An overview of the PMA global conference 2016
By PMA: Our conference rapporteur offers a summary of the key statements and “take-aways” from PMA’s 2016 conference.
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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.
All headlines are sourced from their original story.
If you have any suggestions for our weekly round-ups, please email PMA at editor@publicmediaalliance.org.
Header image: Satellite dishes in Fes, Morocco. Credits: RYTC/Creative Commons
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