Former BBC vice-chair Anthony Salz joins Scott Trust

Posted by Lacan-Gen Kinyera on 29 May 2009 at 12:58
Tags: Media Business

Guardian Media Group has announced the appointment of former BBC governor Anthony Salz to the Scott Trust.

Salz is currently the executive vice-chairman of Rothschild and a trustee of the Royal Opera House, the Tate Foundation, the Media Standards Trust and the Paul Hamlyn Foundation.

Scott Trust chair Liz Forgan, said: “Anthony Salz’s wide experience of the cultural, media and corporate worlds will bring valuable strengths to the Trust. We are delighted to welcome him.”

The Scott Trust owns the Guardian Media Group, whose portfolio includes national and regional papers, websites, regional radio stations and B2B publisher Emap.

The Trust became a limited company in October last year.

BBC World Service citizen journalism project axed

Posted by Lacan-Gen Kinyera on 27 May 2009 at 15:46
Tags: Broadcast, Journalism, Radio

The BBC World Service has called time on its citizen journalism project Your Story for funding reasons.

The initiative attracted contributors from around the world, who sent in story ideas and were then provided with recording equipment and training to turn their ideas into finished reports.

Senior broadcast journalist Nina Robinson, who ran the service, told Journalism.co.uk: “It’s sad, but funding priorities make it so.”

She said she will meet BBC World Service commissioner Anne Koch “to discuss how we move forward with citizen content”.

Iraqi intelligence service attempts to sue Guardian

Posted by Lacan-Gen Kinyera on 27 May 2009 at 11:17
Tags: National Newspapers

The Iraqi national intelligence service is seeking damages from the Guardian over a story by Ghaith Abdul-Ahad which characterised prime minister Nouri al-Maliki as increasingly autocratic.

The story included interviews with three unnamed Iraqi national intelligence sources, who said elements of Maliki’s rule resembled a dictatorship.

The national intelligence service said the story was “false and defamatory”, and also demanded that Abdul-Ahad reveal the identity of his sources,

Guardian editor-in-chief Alan Rusbridger said: “We are disappointed that prime minister Maliki has launched this misguided action against the Guardian. We will, of course, contest it.”