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.
ETHIOPIA: Hope for Revision of Ethiopia’s Draconian Laws?
HRW: For a decade, Ethiopia’s government has relied on repressive laws to silence dissenting voices and throw journalists and activists behind bars.
GABON: Gabon regulator suspends French TV channel and local newspaper
RSF: The HAC announced on Wednesday 22 August that it was suspending France 2 broadcasts on all the satellite TV services available in Gabon for 12 months because it had broadcast a documentary that was “subversive” and “liable to disturb pubic order.”
MALI: Digital rights groups round on Mali govt over internet disruptions
ITWeb Africa: Digital rights organisations have accused Mali’s government of having establishing a track record for disrupting internet access and have warned the situation should not be allowed to continue.
MOZAMBIQUE: Mozambique could become Africa’s priciest country for reporters
RSF: Under the decree, originally due to take effect on 22 August, a foreign journalist would have to pay 8,300 dollars a year to be based in Mozambique and 2,500 dollars to make a reporting visit, while a Mozambican journalist working for a foreign media outlet would have to pay an annual 500 dollars (seven times the monthly minimum wage in Mozambique).
NIGERIA: NBC to Shut Down Debtor Broadcasting Stations
Premium Times: The National Broadcasting Commission (NBC) on Monday said it would shut down radio and television stations owing the commission licensing fees.
SOUTH AFRICA: Bringing credibility back to SABC News and reimagining the public news service
The Media Online: “I’m not running a political branch at SABC. I don’t account to politicians, government agencies, government; we are not the mouthpiece of the government and we have to make that clear.”
SOUTH AFRICA: Production on SA’s most watched TV show halted as the SABC fails to pay
Channel24: The filming of Uzalo has abruptly ceased with production that has shut down on the set of one of the SABC and South Africa’s biggest and most-watched TV shows.
SOUTH AFRICA: SABC in desperate financial straits
Sowetan Live: The public broadcaster owes its creditors R694m, with further accruals of R475m expected, SABC chief financial officer Yolande van Biljon told the Portfolio Committee on Communications on Tuesday.
TANZANIA: Improve gender balance, media told
The Citizen: This was said on Wednesday August 22 by UN Women executive director Phumzile Mlambo-Ngucka, at the summit dubbed: Gender and News Summit 2018, Reporting on Sustainable Development in Tanzania.
UGANDA: Careful What You Photograph in Uganda
HRW: A video of soldiers beating and arresting photojournalist James Akena in Uganda rightly caused outrage this week.
UGANDA: Workers’ MPs Demand Compensation of Brutalized Journalists
Chimp Reports: Workers’ Representatives in Parliament have called for compensation of journalists that were recently brutalized by security forces during the Monday protest against the detention alleged torture of MP Robert Kyagulanyi.
IPS
GENERAL: Rights Groups Condemn Torture, Detention of African Journalists
All Africa: Rights groups have slammed the growing harassment of the media in countries like Uganda, Nigeria, and Tanzania.
BANGLADESH: Journos threaten hunger strike protesting attacks on fellows
The Daily Star: Journalists today threatened to go on a hunger strike on September 5 if no visible measures are taken to punish those responsible for attacks on their fellows during the recent students’ protest.
CHINA: RSF calls on Beijing to stop visa blackmail against foreign correspondents
RSF: The head of Buzzfeed News in China was forced on Wednesday to announce her departure from the country for lack of a new visa. RSF is calling on Beijing to stop using visa renewal as a tool of blackmail against foreign journalists.
INDIA: On the frontline of India’s WhatsApp fake news war
BBC: Mobs have lynched at least 25 people across India after reading false rumours spread on WhatsApp. Now the authorities in one Indian state are fighting back – by teaching children about fake news.
INDIA: Ruling party is harassing critical media
IFJ: Critical media houses and independent journalists in India are facing growing pressure and harassment from ruling authorities and their supporters at the detriment of democratic principles.
MALAYSIA: PM’s media czar to deliver Harapan’s pledge for press freedom
Malaysiakini: The Prime Minister’s Office’s appointment of veteran journalist A Kadir Jasin as the media and communications adviser last month is to help the newly-minted Pakatan Harapan government to honour its pledge to unshackle the press.
NEPAL: Nepal urged to repeal new law over press freedom concerns
Aljazeera: New criminal code makes sharing confidential information an offence that deserves prison sentence.
PAKISTAN: Lifting of censorship on state media step towards press freedom: IPI
DAWN: The International Press Institute (IPI) has welcomed the decision of Prime Minister Imran Khan to lift censorship on the state-run media.
PAKISTAN: Pakistan’s state broadcaster ends ban on covering opposition leaders
Hindustan Times: Pakistan Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry had said that Imran Khan government issued directives for complete editorial independence of state media.
PAKISTAN: PPP moves Pemra against TV channels for ‘misreporting’
The News: Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) asked Pemra to take immediate stern action against a private TV channels for broadcasting fabricated and false news reports on the questions asked by the FIA.
SRI LANKA: Rethink ban on ONUR radio dramas: Mangala
Daily Mirror: Media and Finance Minister Mangala Samaraweera yesterday urged the Cultural Affairs Minister to reconsider the ban imposed on radio dramas produced by the Office of National Unity and Reconciliation (ONUR).
TAIWAN: Taiwan to launch Taiwanese language channel in 2019
Taiwan News: A new Taiwanese-language television channel will soon hit the airwaves, after Taiwan’s Executive Yuan approved a budget for NT$400 million (US$12.97 million) for the Public Television Service (PTS) to establish a Taiwanese-language news channel on Aug. 23.
AUSTRALIA: In times of upheaval, Australians turn to the ABC
ABC Media Room: Amid the tumultuous events of last week’s Liberal leadership spill, Australians turned to the ABC across all platforms as their source of trusted news, information and analysis.
AUSTRALIA: ABC Chairman Justin Milne address to ABC Parliamentary Showcase 2018 (Speech)
ABC
AUSTRALIA: Statement from the SBS Board regarding acting arrangements for SBS Managing Director
SBS: The SBS Board of Directors today announced the appointment of SBS Chief Financial Officer James Taylor to the role of Acting SBS Managing Director.
FIJI: Media freedom concern
The Fiji Times: A civil society organisation is concerned about media freedom in Fiji as the country prepares for the 2018 General Election.
NEW ZEALAND: Longest running Māori radio station wins reprieve
RNZ: The country’s oldest Māori radio station will remain on air following a breakthrough meeting with its license holders today.
NEW ZEALAND: National’s Melissa Lee puts political pressure on publicly-funded TV with new bill
RNZ: Opposition broadcasting spokesperson Melissa Lee once made publicly-funded TV programmes for a niche audience on TVNZ. Now she has a bill before Parliament to force the funding agencies to reveal more about the audiences the programmes attract.
SAMOA: JAWS president backs call to abolish criminal libel law
Pacific Media Watch: Rudy Bartley, president of the Journalist Association of Samoa (JAWS), has supported the international call for Samoa’s government to abolish the Criminal Libel Act.
BELARUS: At Least Seven Belarusian Journalists Ordered Not To Leave Country
RFERL: Belarusian authorities have imposed travel bans on several journalists working for three independent media outlets who are suspected of having obtained information illegally from state-run news agency BelTA.
BOSNIA & HERZEGOVINA: Journalists demand justice after Bosnian reporter badly beaten
Aljazeera: Media workers in Bosnia are routinely subjected to verbal attacks, threats and libel lawsuits.
FINLAND: YLE and DNA argue over Finnish DTT future
Broadband TV News: A war of words has broken out between YLE and DNA over Finland’s transition to terrestrial HD broadcasting.
GERMANY: Are journalists increasingly under threat in Germany?
Deutsche Welle: Did Dresden police, at the behest of far-right protesters, block reporters from doing their work? The accusations are under investigation. Journalists in Germany, it seems, are increasingly being targeted by opponents.
GERMANY: Germany’s journalists — smoothing over political discourse?
EJC via Medium: Re-defining the migration debate in Germany
GERMANY: Top German court sides with broadcaster in Nazi camp row
DW: German broadcaster ZDF will not have to post a specifically worded apology as demanded by a Polish court after calling WWII Nazi camps “Polish death camps.” The court ruling runs the risk of Polish castigation.
SLOVAKIA: EFJ-IFJ support Slovak journalists’ call for action in Ján Kuciak murder investigation
EFJ: Slovak journalists are demanding for action in the murder investigation of journalist Ján Kuciak and his fiancee Martina Kušnírova, which after six months has not given any results.
SPAIN: RTVE and possible pitfalls of public competition (Spanish)
Teledetodos: The public tender for the first time to renew the Presidency and the Board of Directors of RTVE has not started well.
SPAIN: RTVE inaugurates its first television museum in Barcelona (Spanish)
La Vanguardia: “The only museum in the world that offers a historical tour through all the trades that make television possible”
SWEDEN: Far right steps up anti-media campaign ahead of Swedish election
Index On Censorship: Sweden baked in record temperatures this summer, matched only by the increasingly heated political climate as it gears up for an unprecedentedly bitter and divisive general election.
SWITZERLAND: Embattled news industry finds allies in ivory tower
SwissInfo: From “fake news” to the loss of readers and advertisers, the list of challenges facing the media sector is long and daunting. Enter the new Initiative for Media Innovation, which wants to find novel ways to help outlets thrive in the digital age.
UK: Coverage of UK court proceedings inevitable, says top TV executive
The Guardian: A senior ITN executive has said it is inevitable that British court proceedings will be televised and has called for the government to allow greater use of cameras in court.
UK: Jeremy Corbyn: I’ll tax tech firms to subsidise the BBC licence fee
The Guardian: Labour leader set to announce sweeping range of proposals to reform UK media industry
UKRAINE: Reporting “together” on a process affecting us all
DW: A new TV editorial team will soon be reporting on major changes in Ukraine. Their new TV magazine will focus on the country’s ongoing decentralization reforms, and DW Akademie is getting the team ready for the launch.
UKRAINE: Ukraine to maintain analog TV services near occupied areas
Telecompaper: The Ukrainian national TV Council has proposed to continue providing terrestrial analog TV services in areas close to the Crimea and Donbass regions controlled by Russia and pro-Russian separatists, reports BizLigaNet.
GENERAL: Leading journalists join call for EU copyright reform
France 24: Leading journalists from more than 20 countries joined a call Tuesday for European MPs to approve a controversial media reform aimed at forcing internet giants to pay for news content.
GENERAL: Migrants and ethnic minorities are underrepresented in media (Literature Review)
EFJ: Although, media framing differs for specific migrant groups and used discourses, immigration coverage is often negative and conflict-centered, the publication shows. Repetitive exposure to negative messages on migrants leads to negative attitudes towards migration, enforcing stereotypical approach towards the groups, and even influence voting decisions.
BRAZIL: Radio journalist killed in Bahia is fourth Brazilian journalist killed in 2018
Knight Center
Knight Center: The lack of commitment on the part of the federal and state prosecutors of Mexico and other authorities to follow the recommendations given by the National Commission of Human Rights (CNDH, for its initials in Spanish) is the reason for the “prevailing impunity” in attacks against journalists, the human rights organization said.
NICARAGUA: Alarming decline in press freedom and free speech in Nicaragua
RSF: Journalists and members of the public who are attacked cannot file complaints with the police or judicial authorities because these entities are under political control and lack the autonomy needed to take action.
NICARAGUA: Nicaraguan government launches campaign of harassment against Channel 10
CPJ: The Nicaraguan government has launched a campaign of harassment against the independent TV station Channel 10, which has criticized President Daniel Ortega for ordering deadly attacks on anti-government protesters over the past four months, according to news reports.
Knight Center: During the first two weeks of August of this year, independent news sites Armando.info and El Pitazo were blocked intermittently on the internet by state and private operators, according to a study conducted by Venezuela’s Press and Society Institute.
GENERAL: 25 feminist alternatives to mainstream media in Spain and Latin America
Open Democracy: From the most playful topics to the most serious, these platforms provide alternative coverage of current affairs – with a feminist lens.
IRAQ: Journalist of the month: Manar Al-Zubaidi
IJNET: Manar Abdul Amir Al-Zubaidi is an Iraqi journalist whose publication addresses women’s issues, highlights the role of media in combating violence against women and prepares reports about minorities.
TURKEY: A permanent state of emergency by any name is no substitute for respecting human rights
IFEX: We the undersigned organizations call on Turkey’s government to follow through on its promise to end the state of emergency by withdrawing recently passed legislation that replicates many of the state of emergency’s special provisions.
TURKEY: Censoring Turkey one tweet at a time
ECPMF: On June 19, Abdülhamit Bilici, the last editor-in-chief of the now-shuttered Turkish paper Zaman,tweeted about the decline of press freedom in his home country. If you can see his tweet, you are probably not in Turkey because it is among the over 1.5 million tweets belonging to journalists and media outlets censored there under Twitter’s “country withheld content” (CWC) policy
CANADA: Annual Public Meeting 2018 (Event)
CBC/Radio-Canada: We are listening – Your voice. Your community. Your CBC/Radio-Canada.
CANADA: CBC North Country will soon return to the airwaves with new radio host in Thompson
Thompson Citizen: The new North Country, which will also see CBC concentrate on producing more digital content from Northern Manitoba, is expected to be back on listeners’ radios in September.
CANADA: Canada’s CBC names digital chief
Rapid TV News: Canadian broadcaster CBC has appointed a new executive director of OTT programming.
CANADA: Inside Igalaaq
Inside CBC/Radio Canada: What is it like to do a TV show entirely in inuktitut? We sat down with Pauline Pemik, producer at CBC North, to unveil the secrets of Igalaaq.
CANADA: Why Canada’s reputation as a kids’ TV production powerhouse is under threat
The Globe and Mail
US: CPB Awards $1.3 Million for Public Radio Urban Alternative Initiative
CPB: The Corporation for Public Broadcasting announced grants totaling $1.3 million for three public media stations to implement Urban Alternative formats to connect with young, multicultural audiences.
US: In Texas, a local public radio show defies the ‘Google it’ age
CJR
US: Senate approves funds for CPB, interconnection, Ready To Learn (Subscription)
Current: The full U.S. Senate passed an appropriations bill Thursday that includes level funding for CPB for fiscal year 2021 as well as FY19 support for interconnection and Ready To Learn.
US: Three-quarters of US consumers refuse to cut the cord
Rapid TV News: The discourse surrounding pay-TV over the last few years has been that of abandoning traditional services for OTT and VOD alternatives but GfK MRI research has revealed an in-built resilience of the pay-TV base in the US.
10 Investigative Tools You Probably Haven’t Heard Of
GIJN: Investigations, the saying goes, are just regular stories with a lot more labor put in. Investigative reporters spend inordinate amounts of time sifting through documents, verifying sources and analyzing data — and that’s if they can even get the data.
Crippling costs of war reporting and investigative journalism
France24: The cost of war reporting and investigative journalism is becoming prohibitive for media outlets, campaigners have warned.
Facebook removes 652 fake accounts and pages meant to influence world politics
The Guardian: Firm announces removal of pages, groups and accounts linked to Russia and Iran, citing ‘coordinated inauthentic behavior’
Illiberal democracies: Awash in media without plurality
Index On Censorship: Visitors to Eurasian countries — Turkey, Russia, Ukraine or, to a lesser extent, Azerbaijan — might be impressed by the sheer number of domestic television channels that offer news programming.
Outflanked by Netflix, Amazon and Hotstar, domestic broadcasters rethink OTT
The Drum: As Canal+ shutters its OTT service due to competition with Netflix, The Drum finds out how broadcasters and streaming platforms around the world are planning to compete with the US giant.
Speak Out! Rebuilding Trust in Media and Democracy in the Era of “Fake News”
IICM: A summary of the PMA 2018 Global Conference by IICM Fellow, Minna Aslama Horowitz.
The essential elements of the new Internet governance: diversity, optimism and independence
LSE Media Policy Project: Policymakers and the Silicon Valley giants are engaged in a battle over freedom and regulation. The Internet Commission is catalysing a new, positive cycle of organisational accountability, transparency and multi-stakeholder dialogue.
Using visual storytelling tools, Oxpeckers investigation incorporates multimedia elements
IJNET: Digital models of publishing and presenting stories have led to the creation of new platforms that help journalists take full advantage of interactive content and storytelling forms.
PSM Weekly is available via email. You can subscribe by signing up to our mailing list at the bottom of the page or email editor@publicmediaalliance.org.
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:The ABC Ultimo Centre, the headquarters of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Credits: lleerogers/istock
Related Posts
