Our weekly round-up of public service media news stories from around the world.
13 June – 19 June
Africa
A failed coup and Facebook: the story of Burundi’s elections
From The Guardian: An extract from a new book by Nigel Watt on the role of the media in Burundi’s recent and ongoing unrest.
Algeria disables 3G internet to fight exam cheats
From BBC Monitoring: The Algerian Ministry of Education has disabled mobile internet and jammed access to social media in an attempt to fight cheating and leaking of the Baccalaureate exams
AU, editors meet to formulate ways of telling the ‘African story’
From News 24: More than 30 top representatives from media houses across the continent have met in Accra to discuss how best to objectively report news.
Ghana to switch on to Digital transmission in September 21, 2017
From Ghana Broadcasting Corporation: Progress for digitization across Africa. On September 21, 2017, all analogue transmitters and frequencies will be switched off in the country.
Kenyans Satisfied With Local Broadcast Content
From CapitalFM: According to a report, 77% of Kenyans claim to satisfied with local content.
Asia
All India Radio turns 80, plans to widen overseas broadcast of Mann Ki Baat
From Live Mint: AIR plans to broadcast ‘Mann Ki Baat’ programme to several countries and in multiple languages, says a top official
Beijing’s ‘invisible hand’ felt as Hong Kong press freedom declines
From Asia Pacific Report: With media freedoms on the decline in Hong Kong, amid growing fears of “mainlandisation”, is the press still performing its function as a watchdog? And can new media pick up the slack?
China Restricts TV Shows Based on Foreign Formats
From the New York Times: China is restricting TV shows that use formats from abroad such as “The Voice of China,” which is based on a Dutch talent show, in a move it says is intended to lead to more innovation and original programming among Chinese TV channels.
Regional development forum focuses on ICTs for smart society in the Asia-Pacific region
From ITU: The Forum provided a platform for a high-level dialogue between ITU-D Membership on the progress made in the implementation of the five Asia-Pacific Regional initiatives approved by ITU in 2014
Australia, New Zealand & the Pacific
ABC picks up two gongs at New York Festivals International Radio Program Awards
From Radio Info: 10 Australian programmes were nominated for the finals.
APN News and Media to sell regional media division to News Corp for $36.6m
From ABC News: APN News and Media has announced it will sell its Australian regional media division to Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp for $36.6 million.
PM’s Fiji trip puts media freedom in the spotlight
From Radio New Zealand: Prime Minister John Key’s visit to Fiji drew attention to the fact some journalists are not welcome there.
Won’t someone think of the children?
From Radio New Zealand: What broadcast options are available for children in New Zealand and are they shrinking?
Europe
Croatia: Public broadcaster sacks editor after interview with astrologer
From Mapping Media Freedom: Editor and host of the late evening news aired on the Croatian Radio Television (HRT), was removed from the programme and then received a notice of his dismissal over an interview with an astrologer who spoke about controversies surrounding Deputy Prime Minister Tomislav Karamarko.
Dunja Mijatović (OSCE) calls on governments to protect freedom of expression
From the European Broadcasting Union: Representative for Freedom of the Media at the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe issues plea for people to ‘shout about the need for public service media’ at the EBU’s General Assembly in Montenegro on 16 June
Earmarked tax funding to continue for Yle
From Yle: A parliamentary working group set up to examine Finnish public broadcaster Yle’s media role is not proposing any change to funding operations but there are changes regarding multiculturalism.
Government Crisis Spreading to Croatian Radio Television as Well
From Total Croatia News
ITV should make more current affairs content, says Puttnam inquiry
From The Guardian: Broadcaster should air more current affairs in return for keeping EPG position and retransmission fees from Sky, says peer
Report says public media must reform
From Swissinfo.ch: A federal report has concluded that the Swiss Broadcasting Corporation (SBC) must keep evolving to adapt to the digital revolution overtaking all media.
RSF hails initial retreat by Warsaw on public media reform
From RSF: RSF welcomes the Polish government’s decision to postpone adoption of a new “major law” on the public broadcast media that would have included changes to their legal status and would have made it possible to fire all of their journalists.
Ukraine’s oligarchs may own the media, but public broadcasting is shaking things up
From Atlantic Council: Last year, after years of debate and lobbying on the issue, public broadcasting was established in Ukraine. In a country suffering from a serious crisis of trust in the media, it looked like a chance to regain people’s faith.
Latin America & the Caribbean
Argentina Expels TeleSUR and RT: Double Standards When it Comes to Press Freedom
From the Council on Hemispheric Affairs: On June 8, the Argentine government notified the Latin American TV network teleSUR that their services would be shut off in the country within 15 days. On June 10, Russia Today received a similar summons.
Curator of the EBC Council rejects the possibility of the company’s extinction
From Agency Brazil: EBC denies possibility of intervention and closure by government after Acting Minister of Government Secretariat suggested supporting its closure on Twitter.
From Knight Center for Journalism in the Americas: The Peruvian data journalism portal Convoca decided to carry out a project to provide readers, in real-time and from its own website, the results of the second round of elections for the country’s presidency.
From Knight Center for Journalism in the Americas: The nominees are nominated in 6 out of 10 categories.
UNESCO workshop “inform, engage, investigate: lessons learned from Zika outbreak”
From the Caribbean Broadcast Union: CBU members invited to new UNESCO workshop in Panama City to promote coordinated action between the media and UNESCO in combatting Zika outbreaks.
Middle East
Al Jazeera Media Network establishes a New Digital Division
From Al Jazeera: The broadcaster has announced the establishment of a new Digital Division in alignment with the network’s objectives to innovate and lead in the development of digital products, services and platforms.
Media Club calls on PA to protect journalists
From the Middle East Monitor: The Palestinian Media Club yesterday called on the Palestinian Authority (PA) to protect journalists from the Israeli occupation instead of harassing them and putting restrictions on their work, the Safa news agency reported.
Vibrant media reflect Lebanon’s diversity
From BBC Monitoring: Emergence of a vibrant and diverse media scene reflects “multi-sectarian, multi-faith make up” of the country’s population.
North America
CBC News wins big at Digital Publishing Awards
From CBC/Radio Canada: Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women project wins Best Editorial Package
CBC significantly increases female directors
From CBC/Radio Canada: Women now make-up half or more of all directors or directing 50 percent or more of all episodes on on some of CBC’s biggest hits.
PBS Wins Two Revere Awards for Excellence in Education
From PBS: PBS LearningMedia Student App and Election Central recognized as Top Winners by The Association of American Publishers
Pew’s 2016 news media report is a tough read for journalism
From Tech Crunch: Recent Pew report highlights difficulties faced by traditional media whilst tech giants make most of digital ad profits.
Other
Covering demonstrations and civil disorder
From the International News Safety Institute: A useful guide issued during unrest brought by some Euro2016 supporters in France.
New Digital News Report released
From the Reuters Institute: This year’s report reveals new insights about digital news consumption based on a YouGov survey of over 50,000 online news consumers in 26 countries including the US and UK.
A guide to using social media to report breaking news–without getting burned
From the International Journalists’ Network: In light of the horrendous Orlando shootings, the IJC have reissued their useful verification tips and tools.
If you have any suggestions for our weekly round-ups, please email PMA at editor@publicmediaalliance.org.
These stories are provided for interest and 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.