Chinese journalist beats the system

Posted by Ian Reeves on 20 February 2006 at 14:12
Tags: Blogs, International

At least one journalist in China is managing to stay one step ahead of the censors.
Li Xinde uses various blogs to expose corrupt officials and injustice on his China Public Opinion Surveillance Net.

“They shut down one, so I move to another,” he told Reuters.

“It’s what Chairman Mao called sparrow tactics. You stay small and independent, you move around a lot, and you choose when to strike and when to run.”

Jobson beats the ban

Posted by Ian Reeves on 20 February 2006 at 14:00
Tags: Newspapers

Congratulations to Robert Jobson, shortlisted in the Scoop of the year category in the British Press Awards for being first with the story that Charles and Camilla were to marry.

His story ran in the Evening Standard, whose journalists were told not to enter as part of Associated’s boycott of the this year’s event.

Dog trusts that Jobson, who is the Standard’s royal watcher, gets the necessary pat on the back from his bosses.

Journalists push to stamp out “stone age” terms

Posted by Ian Reeves on 17 February 2006 at 11:17
Tags: Newspapers

John Pilger and BBC World Affairs editor John Simpson have urged fellow journalists not to use terms such as ’stone age’ and ‘primitive’ to describe contemporary tribal peoples, in a letter published in the Financial Times.

‘These terms are dangerous because, aside from being often implicitly pejorative, they are used to justify the persecution of tribal people,’ the letter states. ‘Governments, such as in Indonesia and Botswana, claim that forcibly ‘developing’ tribes is for their own good and helps them to ‘catch up’ with the ‘civilized’ world. The results are almost always catastrophic for those involved.’

The letter is part of Survival’s campaign to stamp out racism against tribal people in the media.

The keys to blog cash

Posted by Ian Reeves on 14 February 2006 at 12:44
Tags: Blogs

Law, money and sex are the areas bloggers should be concentrating on if they want to make a living. So says Harold Davis, an expert on keyword advertising and author of two books about Google.

In an interview with Wired magazine, Davis says serious bloggers could make $10 per page per year from their efforts - if they have enough quality content and are hosting their own blog rather than using a free service like Blogger.

Horrifying fact of the day

Posted by Ian Reeves on 13 February 2006 at 15:11
Tags: Newspapers

Who wrote the fourth-best-selling autobiography in British publishing history?
According to yesterday’s Observer, it was….

Jordan.

Yes, that Jordan.

Welsh rugby captain apologises to media

Posted by Ian Reeves on 10 February 2006 at 14:39
Tags: Sport

Gareth Thomas, the captain of the Welsh rugby team, has apologised to journalists after his team withdrew from media interviews last week. The standoff arose after the team objected to comments made by Graham Thomas, the journalist who ghost-wrote Gavin Henson’s autobiography, in a match programme.

They collectively refused to speak to any journalists until Thomas, a BBC presenter, had left the media conference on Wednesday.

Now, according to The Times, the skipper says “I just want to apologise on behalf of the team. In hindsight the stance we took was a mistake.”

Dawn of the mobizine

Posted by Ian Reeves on 7 February 2006 at 11:11
Tags: Magazines

This week sees the launch of Mobizines - ’snack-sized’ content from magazines including GQ, Glamour, Time Out and OK! that can be read on mobile phones.

The launch follows a successful pilot scheme by Refresh Mobile. ITV and radio talk station TeamTalk are also involved.

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More editors pay price for publishing cartoons

Posted by Ian Reeves on 7 February 2006 at 10:52
Tags: Newspapers

More editors have paid the price for publishing the controversial cartoons of Mohammed. In Malaysia, the editor of English language daily the Sarawak Tribune has resigned after the country’s Malaysia’s security minister, Noh Omar, asked for a detailed explanation for why the cartoons were published. If he’s not satisfied with the answer, the paper could lose its licence to publish.

Meanwhile in Yemen, the licence of al-Hurriya was anulled and its editor arrested, according to The Australian.

‘Philadelphia Inquirer’ breaks ranks to publish ‘Muhammad’ Cartoon

Posted by Ian Reeves on 6 February 2006 at 11:02
Tags: Newspapers

The Philadelphia Inquirer was one of the only major US newspapers to publish the controversial cartoons that have lead to Muslim protests across Europe and the Middle East.

According to US online magazine Editor and Publisher, almost all other papers have run the story but not the cartoon itself. “This is the kind of work that newspapers are in business to do,” Inquirer editor Amanda Bennett told the Associated Press. “We’re running this in order to give people a perspective of what the controversy’s about, not to titillate, and we have done that with a whole wide range of images throughout our history…You run it because there’s a news reason to run it.”

Others to disagree include Washington Post executive editor Leonard Downie Jr, who said: “We have standards about language, religious sensitivity, racial sensitivity and general good taste.”

City AM poll: 80% don’t read FT

Posted by Ian Reeves on 6 February 2006 at 10:45
Tags: Newspapers

An online poll carried out by free daily London newspaper City AM shows that 71 per cent of its readers never read The Times, Telegraph, Guardian or Independent, and 80% never read the FT.