NUJ New Media

We've moved

2011-01-12T23:00:00.001Z

Regular visitors, if there are any, will probably have noticed that we haven't been using this blog much recently. That's because we've moved to: http://www.nujnewmedia.org.uk, come and visit our new home.

Digital Economy Bill

2010-03-06T23:21:00.002Z

Prince of Darkness' Digital Economy Bill likely to be pushed through before election
Senior industry figures expect controversial measures against illegal filesharing to become law before general election
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2010/mar/05/digital-economy-bill-pushed-through

Protests greet new Digital Economy Bill amendment
ISPs, digital rights groups and Liberal Democrat supporters cry foul
Rosalie Marshall 0- V3.co.uk, 05 Mar 2010
The Digital Economy Bill has created yet another storm of protest after the proposed legislation gained a further controversial amendment in the House of Lords this week.
Amendment 120A would give copyright holders the power to pressure internet service providers (ISPs) into restricting certain web sites. If the ISP fails to cut off the internet access, the copyright holder can apply to the courts to force the ISP to comply. The ISP would then be liable for legal costs.
The amendment has been proposed to replace the already contentious Clause 17, which is supported by the Labour Party and would give future ministers the power to introduce new rules without going through the parliamentary process.
Protestors against the clause include Google, Facebook and Yahoo, all of which argue that the powers could be used to introduce additional technical measures to monitor the internet, which would impose unnecessary costs for ISPs and discourage innovation on the web...................
http://www.v3.co.uk/v3/analysis/2258996/digital-economy-bill-gives-rise

Nick Davies - Bad News: What's Wrong with the Press

2009-11-29T18:22:00.005Z

New ideas for a responsible press

by Paul Breeden & Christina Zaba

Nick Davies: Keynote speaker at Bristol's 2009 NUJ Benn Lecture (Photo by Simon Chapman)

NEW ways to regulate the British press have been suggested following a talk by Nick Davies, the renowned journalist and media commentator, at a packed event organised by Bristol NUJ.

Delivering the fourth annual Benn Lecture, now one of the most important events on the Bristol media calendar, Nick Davies called for a genuinely independent body which will take real action when newspapers publish untrue or damaging stories.

You can listen to a 1hr 45min podcast of the lecture which includes question and answer session here .

Drawing heavily on his much-praised 2008 book Flat Earth News, which documents the decline of journalistic standards, he said the current regulator, the Press Complaints Commission, is failing the public – partly because it is run by the newspaper industry.

“The PCC have proved in spades that you cannot trust the press to regulate itself,” he told an enthusiastic audience of journalists, students and people interested in the media gathered at the Arnolfini in Bristol.

“For the first time in history, we now have a press which harvests people’s private lives in order to sell stories. If we run a story that’s false and damaging, a victim has three courses of action: to write to the editor, sue for libel, or complain to the PCC.

“Letters to the editor are hardly ever published, and libel is a rich man’s law.

“That leaves the Press Complaints Commission, where in ten years 28,000 complaints have been made.

“More than 90 per cent of those complaints were rejected outright on technicalities. Of the 10 per cent which got over the hurdles, only 0.69 per cent were upheld.

“The PCC is structurally corrupt.”

Nick went on to give examples of ‘extraordinary levels of cruelty’ in certain high-profile stories such as those of Max Mosley and Madeleine McCann.

“Journalists will crash over the line in pursuit of a story, and unchecked second-hand material, whether it’s true or not, gets recycled globally within a few days,” he said. “The logic of commercialism has taken over from the logic of journalism.

“If you talk to journalists, they say they believe in a free press. In current circumstances, that’s a bit like a rapist saying he believes in free love.”

Ideas emerging from the discussion which followed Nick’s lecture included the introduction of a new regulator along the lines of Ofcom, which supervises broadcasters with a strict regime demanding balance and accuracy........

http://www.bristolnuj.org.uk/2009/11/27/new-ideas-for-a-responsible-press/

Annie Machon talks about intelligence service interference in the media

2009-07-24T12:20:00.007Z

Annie Machon talks about MI5 recruitment; 'Media Operations' by military intelligence; her ex-partner David Shayler's mental breakdown and 9/11.
Presentation, followed by questions, with media critic Barrie Zwicker. (1hr)

Journalist, author and documentary producer, Barrie Zwicker, interviews Annie Machon, a former MI5 officer and whistleblower.

Annie Machon worked and an MI5 counter-intelligence officer in...
F2 Branch - Investigating political activists (so called subversives).
T Branch - Irish terrorism and
G Branch - International terrorism.

http://www.patriotsquestion911.com/
She stands with several experts that believe there are serious problems in the official narrative of 9/11 that must be re-investigated.

Presented by the University of Waterloo 9/11 Research Group
Hagey Hall Humanities Theatre
May 31st, 2009

http://blip.tv/file/2223151

Put People First - online and off

2009-03-25T09:27:00.003Z

The NUJ is a partner in a new NGO mega-coalition called Put People First, which is coming together to lobby next week's G20 London Summit on the financial crisis. We want to see action to improve the accountability of world financial systems, and real efforts towards a green new deal, rebuilding the economy in a way that has the interests of all the world's people, and its climate, at heart.

NUJ members will be marching in Central London this Saturday - have a look at www.putpeoplefirst.org.uk for more info about the route, and the rally in Hyde Park after the march. Come and join us!

This demo also looks interesting from a new media angle too. The partners and the coalition seems to be jumping all over Twitter at the moment, as well as other social media tools. Posts using the hashtag #g20rally are being collated on the official site, and partner organisations are tweeting away - with a plan to generate retweets from followers. ActionAid have a guy in a cape @themegamouth prowling Central London all week with a megaphone, shouting out whatever he gets sent.

Most ambitious though is a plan to get live reportage from the crowd throughout the march and rally. If you're coming along (or even just watching it online), you can chip in with your own tweets, to help build a big picture of the event and people's concerns. Find the instructions from PPF here to help you get involved too.

How did Obama do it?

2009-01-19T00:40:00.001Z

The USA has a new president, who's promised to bring change. His election campaign itself has already brought a major change to the way politicians use new media. For the first time ever, new media was central to campaigning and fundraising in a US presidential election campaign.

Want to know exactly what he did and how he did it? Thomas Gensemer, Managing Partner of Blue State Digital, the web contractor that gave Obama the online organising tools, can tell you all.

"Obama's (not so) Secret Weapon: the role of the internet in the 2008 US Presidential Election" – a lecture by Thomas Gensemer at City University is on Tuesday 17 February at 6:30.

It's free, but you need to book in advance. More details:
http://www.city.ac.uk/whatson/events/2009/02_february/17022009_1_gensemer

Jacqui Smith wants PCSO 'chimps' to get arrest powers

2008-12-17T01:38:00.014Z

Weren't Police Community Support Officers (PCSOs) supposed to be there to help support ye old community? Surely not to bully filmmakers and photographers whenever they fancy. Rather disturbing that they and the regular police appear here to have no knowledge of the laws they are supposed to be upholding.

Big Brother Hates Being Filmed!

http://www.youtube.com/v/UXk4nLIv5jo

Maybe that's why they're known to many, including Brian Haw and the Parliament Square protesters, as CHIMPS: Cannot Help In Most Police Situations.

BBC: Home Secretary Jacqui Smith - PCSOs should get detention powers

The optimised journalist: How SEO is killing clever headlines

2008-12-09T19:37:00.004Z

Many offline journalists writing for the Web are dismayed that the requirements of Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) are killing the age-old craft of headline writing, claims Shane Richmond of telegraph.co.uk (for it is he) in a well argued piece for British Journalism Review.

They needn't worry, Richmond argues, as witty headlines were never an end in themselves, but rather just a journalistic tactic suited to the offline daily medium and the reader's relationship with the particular media brand they followed. As media and reader loyalties atomise, search-friendliness becomes a bigger part of how readers choose and consume their news and comment, and good journalists need to place equal value on skills that are relevant to the new environment.

Richmond takes The Sun's infamous "Gotcha!" headline from the Falklands war, and reworks it for new media to make this point. “Falklands conflict: Royal Navy sinks Argentinean warship” may not be memorable fifteen minutes on, let alone fifteen years on, but it will allow many more people to find and read the article. And that, rather than the demonstration of literary skill, is the reason the article exists in the first place.

As much as I value SEO (it brings a clear quarter of the traffic to one site I run), I'm still not sure I totally agree here. Sure, search plays a huge role in determining what gets read, and it's far better to see it as an opportunity rather than as a limitation, but the rise of social search may complicate the situation. A great turn of phrase at the head of an article can make a scene more vivid, or provide a useful metaphor for viewing the situation.

Powerful copy that affects readers deeply will have an advantage when it comes to being recommended, copied, commented. Those journalists who find a way to merge the disciplines may find the headlines of the future will be every bit as rewarding as the "gotchas" that got away.

Hat tip: I've Said Too Much

Beware geeks bearing gifts

2008-09-22T20:06:00.006Z

Wikipedia - that wonderful journalistic timesaver. Suppose you've a dry football fixtures piece to knock out, and you need a spot of trivia to show your readers that you know a little more about Manchester City's UEFA Cup opponents, Cypriot club Omonia Nicosia, than they do.

Wikipedia fits the bill perfectly. I mean, where else can you find out in less than 30 seconds that their hardcore fans are known as "The Zany Ones", and that they wear hats made from shoes to illustrate that point?

Well nowhere really, because they aren't, and they don't. Or rather now they don't outside of the pages of the Daily Mirror. Ouch. And lesson number two is to have a working corrections email addy.

There but for the grace of Sub...

Back to school with the NUJ - new media social event

2008-09-16T20:37:00.001Z

Come and meet members of the NUJ working in New Media, talk about work issues, bring your colleagues (members of the union or not) and have a few drinks and some nibbles.

We'll also have someone from the NUJ's training department along to talk about the courses, both professional and trade union, the union will be running.

Date: Wednesday, September 24, 2008
Time: 7:00pm - 11:00pm
Location: Union Tavern, 52 Lloyd Baker Street, London

If you're on Facebook, RSVP at: http://www.new.facebook.com/event.php?eid=73416705787

Guardian reveals secret Home Office terror spin unit

2008-08-26T12:52:00.003Z

Is there no limit to the co-option of our profession at public expense in the so-called War on Terror?

Revealed: Britain's secret propaganda war against al-Qaida
Home Office Research, Information and Communication Unit or (RICU)
BBC and website forums targeted by Home Office unit
..."The disclosure that a Whitehall counter-terrorism propaganda operation is promoting material to the BBC and other media will raise fresh concerns about official news management in a highly sensitive area."...

See also Robin Cook's last article for the Guardian before he died in mysterious circumstances.

The struggle against terrorism cannot be won by military means - The G8 must seize the opportunity to address the wider issues at the root of such atrocities - Friday July 8 2005
..."Bin Laden was, though, a product of a monumental miscalculation by western security agencies. Throughout the 80s he was armed by the CIA and funded by the Saudis to wage jihad against the Russian occupation of Afghanistan. Al-Qaida, literally "the database", was originally the computer file of the thousands of mujahideen who were recruited and trained with help from the CIA to defeat the Russians. Inexplicably, and with disastrous consequences, it never appears to have occurred to Washington that once Russia was out of the way, Bin Laden's organisation would turn its attention to the west."...

Information Clearing House Publisher Threatened

2008-08-08T01:02:00.004Z

By Mike Whitney
The Truth Seeker / Flyby News
http://www.thepeoplesvoice.org/cgi-bin/blogs/voices.php/2008/08/07/p27572
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/

My friend Tom Feeley is in Big trouble. He runs the web site informationclearinghouse.info which updates "news you won't find in the corporate media" every day. The site is strongly anti-war.

Tom has gotten his share of death threats over the years, but what happened this week is a lot more serious.

Two days ago, Tom's wife found three well dressed men in their kitchen. The man who did all the talking, told Tom's wife (I won't give her name) that Tom must "Stop what he is doing on the Internet, NOW!" As crazy as it sounds, he pulled back his lapel and showed her a gun of some kind which she could not identify. Like I said, Tom has been threatened before, but nothing like this. 4 years ago, he was in a parking lot at Long's Drug store in Southern California and when he tried to open his door to get out, a man in a car next to him opened his door at precisely the same time which prevented Tom from getting out. Then, a 40-ish year old man got out of the passenger side of the vehicle and approached Tom saying, "You need to stop what you are doing on the web".

Tom said the man was overweight and had his shirt untucked. Tom was taken aback, but (after collecting himself said) "What the *? Who do you think you are telling me what I can do?"

The man answered, "Tom, I'm just giving you some good advice. You should take my advice, Tom."

This is all I know about the incident. Since, then, there have been occassional death threats, but nothing like what happened on Sunday. Tom's wife is hysterical and has not returned to the house since the incident. She contacted the FBI but the FBI said their was nothing they could do. Tom and his wife separated recently after a 30 year marraige, so he is publishing from a different location.

The well-dressed man told Tom's wife that he knew where her son lived, what line of work he was in, and how many children he had.

Last night, Tom's son and a friend cruised the neighborhood where his mother lives to see if anything strange was going on. They came across two men in a car a half-block from their mother's home using their laptops at roughly 12:30 AM. When Tom's son and friend approached them, the car sped off. Tom, does not know whether this is connected to his situation, but it is definitely suspicious.

I talked to Tom this morning and he is getting by, but he's clearly upset. I do not know his plans, but I know he is ditching his cell phone and (I assume) will have to go underground as much as possible. He plans to keep publishing.

I'll tell you this about Tom Feeley; he is no bullshitter. He is the "real deal" and completely committed to exposing the mob that is presently running our country. He does not understand why, (as he says) "They are reaching down SO far to get someone who just runs web site". But, the truth is, they are. Someone wants him to "shut up" and they apparently have the muscle to do it. He knows he is in danger.

I will probably only hear from Tom infrequently from this point on. But I will update information as I get it. Tom, knows some of the best writers on the Internet---many of them speak out regularly and forcefully on issues of civil liberties and war. Anything they can do to draw attention to Tom's situation will greatly improve his chances of getting through this ordeal safely. Beyond that, I have no idea of what can be done to help.

SOURCE: http://www.journalof911studies.com/
_________________
http://www.shoestring911.blogspot.com

One for the subs

2008-08-06T12:53:00.002Z

Killthecliche.com is, as the name suggests, a site that aims to tackle lazy journalists' overuse of stock phrases and silly jargon. Under the slogan "more data = better media", it tracks RSS feeds from six newspapers, counting up the relative popularity of a range of clichés, and compiling league tables of cliché crime, and of those responsible.

Only focusing on the US media at the moment - phew!

London New Media Social Event

2008-07-17T00:18:00.003Z

All new media workers in London are invited to a social event next Thursday (24 July) in the Yorkshire Grey pub (upstairs), 46 Langham Street (anyone who was at the previous socials, this is not the same pub as before, it just has the same name).

Map: http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&q=46+Langham+Street%2C+London%2C+United+Kingdom

Come along, bring a friend or two, and have a few drinks and some nibbles (paid for by the NUJ). This is not limited to NUJ members, non-members are welcome to come along and have a chat with colleagues and the union.

Pop in any time between 7 and 11 - and don't feel you have to stay all night, it's up to you.

If you're on Facebook, check it out here: http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#/event.php?eid=18359453348&ref=nf

NUJ DGS London hustings video

2008-06-03T21:35:00.003Z

The four candidates for the post of NUJ Deputy General Secretary took part in a London hustings event on Thursday 29 May. You can watch a series of videos of the event on the London Central Branch website - http://nujlondoncentral.wordpress.com/ - as all four candidates give their views on issues facing journalism and their suitability for the job.

Look What's Happening To TV News

2008-05-29T01:02:00.001Z

ADM 2008 – New Media news

2008-04-27T22:44:00.003Z

This year's ADM came wrapped up a year of controversy for the union. The debate over Israel raged for a few months after ADM 2006, but for the new media sector, it was the Drogheda debate that's most important. The debate (if you can call what was often an ugly spat a debate) centred around a deal at the Drogheda Independent in Ireland, which, amongst many other very positive issues, was the first time a newspaper chapel had agreed, in principle, to the possibility that print journalists might, at some point, take pictures.

But, let's come back to Drogheda later, because the biggest news for the new media sector came early in day one of ADM, right at the beginning of the second order paper on Finance and Recruitment. The New Media Industrial Council had proposed a motion to make recruitment in new media a priority with major investment in promotional materials and, most importantly, a mapping exercise to help branches find and identify potential members in the sector. The National Executive Council (NEC) submitted an amendment to broaden the motion and make recruitment a priority for all sectors of the union and, after a little bit of discussion to make sure the mapping exercise of the new media stayed in, it was passed overwhelmingly. So expect to see some results from that fairly soon.

But, back to Drogheda. Due to some overlong speeches, the planned running order of the conference got a bit messed up, but that ended up being for the best for the debate. The Drogheda debate, which had its own order paper, ended up coming before the general Wages, Payments and Conditions motions. As the latter included a motion on the Multimedia Commission Report, that could have become a debate on Drogheda. As it happened, though, there was a robust debate on the two main Drogheda motions themselves, leaving the WPC motions to mop up.

The first Drogheda motion was the more extreme one – calling for the resignation of the NEC's Emergency Committee (which would have led to chaos as the President, Vice-President and General Treasurer were all on the committee) and for the adoption a principle that all Chapel agreements be approved by a higher body. So much for Chapel power, eh? That motion was roundly defeated and so, thankfully, was the following motion, against which I spoke. That motion called for the return of a variation on the old point in the union's Working Practices about writers not normally taking photographs – a proposal I called regressive and out of touch with the reality faced by many of our members.

With those out of the way, the scene was set for Composite H, as it was called, which endorsed "Shaping the Future", the Multimedia Commission's report and planned the way forward – protecting quality journalism online through negotiation on pay, conditions, health and safety and training. All these are, of course, hugely important for our sector and, if you haven't read the document, you should do so, it's easily accessible on the NUJ website (under Activists). The Commission, which features three members of NMIC, Gary Herman, Jemima Kiss and yours truly, is to continue its work on an ongoing basis with elections at the next ADM.

On top of this endorsement was the adoption of a new principle, which added a positive statement to the rejection of the regressive motions about Drogheda. ADM agreed that the NEC should "ensure demarcation rules do not prevent members from seizing the opportunities available to them." In other words, the union's highest body has recognised that multimedia journalism is increasingly the norm in our industry and that we can't let old ideas of who does what stand in the way of our members engaging completely in a multimedia world. For our sector, where, of course, multimedia working is the norm and always has been, this is great news and it will hopefully aid in the recruitment the union has made its priority for the year.

There were a couple more bits and pieces of relevance to our sector, one long-running issue, in particular, took a step forward – that of online branches. For a few years now, European branches or the Continental European Council have brought a motion calling for the rules to allow for branches that exist online only to help branches with geographically disparate members. Each time, it's been knocked back after a long (and sometimes humorous debate), despite regular support from NMIC. This year, though, the movers rejected a call for the issue to be remitted for consideration by the Structure Review and there was a debate. This year, though, the vote was won and the NEC is now obligated to bring a motion calling for a change in the rules to next year's ADM.

Finally, there's the question of the online future of The Journalist magazine. The NEC had put forward a couple of specific issues about the Journalist, such as restricting the number of print editions, but ADM voted instead for a review of the magazine and its relationship to the Campaigns and Communications office and rejected a number of the specific recommendations. So, that's one to watch over the next few months.

Dear Mr Rusbridger

2008-04-24T11:14:00.004Z

This is really old now, but such a good one I thought we needed to share it. Broadsheets are still serving up intros to the world of blogging, and this is a very nice little backatcha: ThisIsThis' Meet the Newspaperers.

"For those of you who don’t already know, newspapers make up a significant portion of topical written content in the UK and are fast becoming a vital part of the newsgathering process."

Trouble in the Wikisphere

2008-02-23T01:29:00.002Z

A Whistleblowers' publishing site was closed down last week after legal action in the US by Swiss bankers Julius Baer. But Wikileaks.org had been publishing evidence of alleged money laundering and tax evasion at the Bank.
The decision to close the site has brought the web freedom campaigners out in force.

Swiss Bank's attempt to hide money laundering backfires
http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2008/02/22/18480978.php

Cringely Looks at the WikiLeaks Debacle
http://yro.slashdot.org/yro/08/02/20/1556209.shtml

To Stop a Leak - Did Bank Julius Baer overstep when it demanded an entire Web site be disabled for hosting a handful of documents?
http://www.newsweek.com/id/114415

Convergence - the final frontier

2008-02-07T14:18:00.000Z

To the Emirates stadium today for a government think-tank session on digital convergence. Today's - rather grandly titled "What is Convergence?" - is the first in a series of events where Whitehall will apparently attempt to piece together some sort of coherent government overview on the mysterious future of the digital world.

Many of the great and the good from the media, hi-tech industry and academia were in attendance, with representatives from the Beeb, ITV, Orange, AOL, Five, Channel 4, the CBI, Guardian, Newspaper Society, Sky, O2...etc

Andy Burnham MP, the recently appointed Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport kicked off proceedings with the usual Nu-Labour speak about the importance of "open markets", diversity and putting consumers in charge etc. According to Mr Burnham, it was important that the think tank wasn't just seen as "insiders talking to insiders" and stressed the importance of including young people in the debate.

A surreptitious glance round the room confirmed there was no-one there under the age of 30, so quite where the input of the "born digital" generation will come from is anybody’s guess, a point picked up by the platform.

Oh, and the findings of the think tank "might or might not" form part of new legislation...my guess is that it probably wont unless Murdoch wants some more favours.

First up in the panel session was the chief executive of Ofcom Ed Richards. He felt that the changes brought about by convergence will bring "disruption" - not only to the media industry but to consumers as the wider media tries to adapt to the digital future. Of course, most NUJ reps would argue that this has been going on across the media for years already, with many hard-working journalists trying to make the best of hair-brained and ill-thought-through schemes to move into the online world drawn up by starry-eyed bosses who don't fully understand the technology...

BBC Director General Mark Thompson spoke about the success of the new iplayer application, with more than two million users since the launch on Christmas Day 2007. However, while evangelising about the brave new world, Thompson also defended radio broadcasting as being central to BBC output and also stressed the need for "outstanding content" as central to digital delivery...

Neil Berkett from Virgin Media told the group that, last Sunday, his broadband customers had downloaded the equivalent of 313 million MP3 tracks in data. Sunday is apparently the busiest day for downloads. (Thus confirming that most UK broadband users are now finally learning to switch off Last of the Summer Wine and instead go on You Tube to rerun that video of Star Wars Kid...)

Marc Overton of Orange moaned about how relatively cheap fixed term broadband was for consumers in comparison to the actual cost of providing the service and support. Damn us savvy customers for going for the cheapest deals! Presumably Orange will either be upping their prices or pulling out of the broadband market. It could be the latter - as Marc predicted that, at an indeterminate point in the future, there would only be three broadband providers for the UK - most likely BT, Virgin and Sky...

He also, rather depressingly, spoke about the popularity of the "Buff or Rough" feature on the Orange website as being one of their most popular developments. (Maybe they hadn't been around during the height of the "Am I Hot Or Not" craze all those years ago...)

The most lucid contribution of the day came from Nick Bertolotti - Investment Fund Managing Director from Credit Suisse. He effectively said what we had all suspected - that the city was "scared of convergence" and that the UK was already "behind the curve". Brands were less important in the online sphere and the established large media companies were under threat from smaller companies, therefore threatening investment etc.

His advice to the media bosses? "Build up the brand. Build up the content side." Ironic that it should be the most overt profiteer on the platform that comes out with what the NUJ has been saying for years about media companies investing in good quality content...

The best contribution of the day came from the floor - Jackie Devereux of the Community Media Association. She picked up on the theme that had come from the platform all morning - that the "individual" was key to the convergence debate. She challenged the notion that the "born digital" generation (anyone under 23) would forevermore be locked away alone in darkened rooms in front of a screen addicted to the net, noting that peoples priorities change as they get older and we don't all stay aged 16 for ever. Amen.

She also pointed out that just because we could now individualise our media consumption, this would not alter the fact that families would sit down and watch a TV show together...a refreshing antidote to the prevalent idea of the day that we would all become anti-social slaves to our handheld devices in years to come.

Finally exposing the elephant that had sat conspicuously in the corner all morning, Devereux made the most valid point of the day that the digital divide is still huge, with almost 50% of children at some inner city schools not having access to a computer at home, along with the scant availability of quality broadband services in poor areas...one for the powers that be to ponder as they attempt to make sense of the rapidly changing digital environment.

I managed to make the NUJ positions during the "break out" discussion group about the very real dangers facing existing media, particularly for local paper staff and freelances, because of the rush online and the need to train all journalists to work across platforms. I also banged the drum for quality content - and the need for all online news content to be managed and produced by experienced and trained professionals. Whether or not these points are taken into the "final cut", remains to be seen.

Petition for Sayed Pervez Kambaksh

2008-01-31T13:08:00.000Z

Afghan journalism student Sayed Pervez Kambaksh has been sentenced to death by an Islamic court for the crime of downloading an Iranian report on women's rights, deemed to be insulting to the court's interpretation of Islam.

Kambaksh handed round the report at his university, with the aim of starting a discussion on the issue in class, but instead found himself denounced and arrested.

The Independent has the story, and is also mounting a petition to President Hamid Karzai, as in this case he is the only one with the power of veto over the court's decision.

You can sign it at www.independent.co.uk/petition

The professor who banned Google speaks

2008-01-17T17:37:00.000Z

I don't know if anyone's spotted it, but an academic has been whipping up a storm (well, mid anti-cyclone) with an unenforceable ban on Google.

Despite her entry in Wikipedia praising her as a finalist for Australian of the Year, Professor Tara Brabazon has banned her students from using Google and Wikipedia, telling them 'Too many students don't use their own brains enough'. This raised the collective eyebrow of the blogosphere just days before her lecture, yesterday, titled Google is White Bread for the Mind proving she is still adept at using modern communication technology.

In reality, despite the alarmingly luddite attitude her ban might imply, the 37 year old professor of Media Studies made some interesting points, perhaps the most interesting was her support of projects like DOAJ (Directory of Open Access Journals), PKP (Public Knowledge Project) and even Google Scholar. Her concern is actually that of many journalists – that the value of quality writing and research is being lost as the public are increasingly subjected to opinion presented as fact, or a homogenised reality designed to appear in the top spot in a Google search.

Her solution? Good quality research being made available for free through these sources, in effect bypassing the expensive licenses charged by the electronic journals that make up modern libraries. All very well if you're being paid handsomely by Brighton University to teach and come up with headline-grabbing publications, but not a solution that will help us all.

You won't be surprised to hear that the lecture is not available as a PowerPoint file!

NUJ publishes multimedia report

2007-12-06T10:55:00.000Z

The long-awaited report of the NUJ's Commission on Multimedia Working, established to investigate the implications of media convergence, has found widespread concern about the impact of new media working on journalistic standards. Three members of the Commission are also members of the union's New Media Industrial Council.

The report, called Shaping the Future, follows months of consultation with journalists working across the industry. It finds that the significant sums that have been spent on new technology haven't been matched by investment in journalism.

The document welcomes the possibilities offered by the internet and media convergence, highlighting their potential to engage new audiences in lively and high quality journalism. However, it also finds that many journalists are worried about the impact they will have on their professional standards.

The report includes numerous examples provided by journalists dealing with these technologies everyday. Trends include demands to produce more content for more outlets without the provision of any extra journalistic resources, which is often felt to have a detrimental effect on quality.

Read the report on the NUJ's redesigned website.

Bloggers told to beat it

2007-11-26T14:09:00.000Z

No - it's not Conrad Quilty-Harper's membership application again, but an interesting link from Conrad himself via the NUJ new media email discussion list (thanks Conrad!) to a US media project.

Beat Blogging

13 journalists with different specialisms are going to try using blogging to build networks to help them in their normal careers. They reckon it'll be a great way to tap into the community around each of their specialisms (sports, local, gaming, stocks, environment, pharmaceuticals etc), and they'll hear more stories and be able to research better as a result.

The names (most of) are announced, and they're waiting to go. I for one will be following this one to see what happens. With some of the specialisms, I reckon it might be hard to break into existing strong communities (gaming maybe). The local one could work really well, but I'm most interested to watch the trade mag ones, to see how they deal with commercial information through the grapevine.

Will they get any more useful than the stream of Guidoesque trolling that Nick Robinson has to put up with on his beat blog? Or will they beat Paul Mason's "Get yourself on Newsnight!" Facebook group to the first social networking/MSM mega-scoop? Reality careers - More gripping than reality TV!

NUJ secures key concessions in AOL redundancy negotiations

2007-11-09T18:01:00.000Z

Members at AOL have been involved in a redundancy process that is seeing the company cut more than half the editorial staff; reducing the number of journalists, designers and photo editors from 38 to just 17.

This is the third restructure of the editorial department in less than 12 months - and now the cuts are accompanied by the outsourcing of much editorial work to India.

Fortunately the NUJ was recognised here a couple of years ago following a tenacious campaign, and the union has able to marshal a strong defence of members' interests during the consultation process -- significantly mitigating the damage.

The union has negotiated a very strong severance package for those members who will be leaving, but our greatest achievement has been securing voluntary redundancies where possible, not just for journalists but across the whole organisation.

We have also successfully gained additional concessions for older colleagues, an extension of redundancy terms for the next year, greater flexibility on retraining allowances and a fairer scoring system for those who will be staying and competing for the remaining jobs.

The union has achieved significant gains which simply would not have been made if the workers had only been represented by the "Employee Forum".

Union reps are still joining members in their meetings with HR as the new organisation is implemented -- but the process has largely been running smoothly and both parties are working together in an attempt to minimise compulsory redundancies.

The whole process has greatly strengthened the chapel at AOL and convinced members of the value of collective representation.

Stacey King, FoC, AOL UK

Remember, remember the fifth of November

2007-10-31T23:08:00.000Z

Don't forget to Stand up for Journalism on Monday.

http://www.standupforjournalism.org.uk/

Read what Michelle Stanistreet, NUJ President, wrote for journalism.co.uk.

My article in The Journalist and the subsequent controversy

2007-10-25T20:34:00.002Z

A little article I wrote for the NUJ's magazine, The Journalist, railing at how the philosophy of Web 2.0 is being used to attack professional journalism - reposted on my blog - elicited a response in the Telegraph's blogs.

The magazine contained more articles, drawn from a report I'm involved in preparing on the impact the way some media outlets are using new technology is having on journalism and journalists. Some of the details are here in the Press Gazette blog.

There's been a a little bit of controversy kicked up by this, with some frankly rather odd reactions. Jeff Jarvis tried to be funny and then followed-up with a more considered response. The Torygraph followed up slagging me off with a go at the rest of the articles and then Roy Greenslade made a grand announcement.

So there we go - a nice big debate about the issues, which is a good thing. So what do you think?

Update: here's another one .

More updates:
Some Silicon Valley oiks get their facts wrong (I'm neither particularly old, a hack nor a Limey - there's a clue in my name)
Shane Richmond strikes again
Greenslade needs the weekend, his City University colleague jumps in and, finally so far, we've someone missing the point (seeing as the whole point of the Multimedia Commission is to "equip our members to embrace it").

And the Podcast:
The Guardian interviewed me about this story - and then people discussed what I said, though I'm not sure they really got the point.

Even more, this time some more considered pieces looking at the issues involved:
Journalism and the articulate commons
What is Wrong with the Tech Journalism

and then there's this one:
Hands up those who think Web 2.0 is rubbish!.

Latest:
Now It’s Your Turn Journalist.

And it goes on:
Let's have a real debate about Web 2.0
Still going: more of the NUJ debate
The NUJ and me: a considered response
Is the Web as weak as its weakest link?
Stand up for kremlinology and groupthink
Night Of The Blunt Nibs
Facing the reality of new media

Another audio appearance from me, this time on late night BBC 5 Live and the subsequent podcast.

And over on our sister site, nujnewmedia.org.uk - Much Ado About Not Very Much

Even more updates:
More Jeff Jarvis:
In olde London
Leaving the union

More Neil McIntosh:
Five things the NUJ could do to engage with the web
NUJ and new media: the trouble is, they just don’t know what’s going on

More Shane Richmond:
Still going: more of the NUJ debate

Paul Bradshaw: The NUJ fuss - now I’m spitting

Joanna Geary: Bedtime reading for the NUJ...

Reportr.net: Does the NUJ understand the internet?

And apparently the Internet's own personal blog

Latest:
A considered and interesting look at the issue from the University of Bedford's New Media Research Group, contrasting with this from the PBS in the US.

Standing up for journalism in the blogosphere

2007-10-18T16:50:00.000Z

The NUJ inspired Stand Up for Journalism day on November 5 has been generating interest in the blogosphere.

And everyone is taking a different line.

Grimmer Up North concentrates on the BBC.

Labour of Love goes with the Peterloo massacre.

Dave's Part plays it straight.

Brussells Reporter takes the Euro-angle.

PR in a jar says she's taking part.

City of the Dead looks at Liverpool's media.

Stephen Newton wants his press releases re-jigged.

How-do pokes the bonfire.

And the Guardian does it the old fashioned way.

If you see anything else, please add them to the list by commenting (thanks to Miles Barter for compiling this list so far).

Downed blogger Craig Murray defends Usmanov attacks

2007-10-01T17:17:00.000Z

see also
Stand up for Tila, an unlikely web warrior

and
Craig Murray will be back online shortly...

Downed blogger Murray vows to continue Usmanov attacks
Ex-ambassador defiant in libel row
By Chris Williams

Former UK ambassador to Uzbekistan Craig Murray has vowed to carry on making allegations against billionaire Arsenal shareholder Alisher Usmanov, despite attempts to silence him and his supporters.

Murray told The Register: "If the man believes he was libelled then he should take me to court."

Murray's blog was deleted by www.fasthosts.co.uk on Friday 21st September after threats from Usmanov's UK legal team. It's expected to reappear on an overseas server, and will repeat the charges that drew heavy fire from specialist libel firm Schillings.

The ex-diplomat says he has contacted Schillings to ask for clarification of which specific aspect of his allegations they contest, but has not received a response. "They say my book [Murder in Samarkand] is 'grossly libellous and defamatory', yet it has been widely available for a year and has sold 25,000 copies, without their actually taking any legal action," he added.

Murray's criticism of Usmanov stems from his rise in Uzbekistan following the collapse of communism to become one of Russia's richest men. He denies the accusations. His profile in the UK has skyrocketed since he followed Chelsea chairman and fellow oligarch Roman Abramovich into football investment.

Murray's blog entry about Usmanov, made September 2, were picked up by many political and Arsenal websites which later also received complaints from Schillings. It became the third-highest hit on Google for the search "usmanov", but was quickly removed from Murray's site after the first legal letter.

Tim Ireland, who runs the political site Bloggerheads.com, which was downed along with Murray's site, has slammed Fasthosts' action, and denied the claim that they refused to comply with takedown requests after he repeated Murray's allegations.

Fasthosts says it acted according to standard industy practice and has declined to answer Reg questions.

Ireland said Fasthosts has so far failed to provide copies of two of the three complaints made by Schillings. "We don't have any of the correspondence despite multiple requests," he said.

The third complaint was made weeks after the September 2 post was removed. The takedown meant the Google robot instead indexed another piece Murray had penned in October 2005 that included the name.

On contact from Fasthosts, site administrator Clive Summerfield suspended the site and wrote back to Fasthosts to suggest that it, Schillings, Ireland and Murray liase on what was acceptable. Fasthosts responded by pulling the plug on his two dedicated servers on Friday.

Bloggerheads and craigmurray.co.uk were part of a small stable of sites run by Summerfield. This connection explains the deletion of Tory mayoral hopeful Boris Johnson's site, despite it having no involvement in the Usmanov affair. The action also downed the website of the London Bach Society and an independent record label.

The new hosting has been arranged separately from the rest of Summerfield's sites - Murray believes that Usmanov's lawyers are trying to make him back down by attacking others.

We asked Murray if he intends to stay on Usmanov's back. He replied: "There is room on Usmanov's back for an awful lot of people. You could get even more on his stomach, and possibly lose some under the overlap of his chins."

We think that's a "yes".

Yahoo, AOL and MSN censor truthout emails

2007-10-01T16:30:00.000Z

Subscribers to the anti-war email news service at Californian news site Truthout.org have found messages diverted into their trash bins, and at Yahoo! blocked entirely, without explanation. This apparent censorship raises questions about the honesty and accountability of free email 'services' and whether those who sign up are actually getting the service they think they are entitled to.

I personally experienced exactly this one month or so ago when sending an invite by email to ex editor of the Independent on Sunday Rosie Boycott. She wrote back to me explaining that she had found my invitation in her trash folder and only noticed it because I had put the word URGENT in the subject heading. One wonders whether this is some ind of systematic policy?

Managers and PR people of these largely faceless free email services have still, since the problem was originally encountered on 14th September, failed to give an apology or a credible explanation. This sort of error, deliberate or otherwise, by the major players who provide free email services to the public round the world begs the question... If MSN, Hotmail, AOL and Yahoo can't be trusted with our mail then who can? I want out but where can I go?

Answers on a postcard please, or post a reply below on this blog. Personally I have found fastmail.fm to be reliable but there doesn't appear to be any quality control to speak of in place as these big corporations apparently use their market share to censor peace movement material they don't like and abuse the trust of their users allying themselves with the US war faction.

AOL/Microsoft-Hotmail Preventing Delivery of Truthout Communications

Here's what one truthout subscriber had to say.

Guys, just to let you know, I do receive my Truthout communications at my Yahoo e-mail address, -@yahoo.com, however, I have noticed this past week that they no longer appear in my Inbox. Rather, they are now always delegated automatically to my BULK folder. I have to check my Bulk to make sure they're Truthout's, and usually, they are.

So, they are coming through, but for some reason, are now delegated to the dump.

I will add your Truthout address to my address book to try and correct this problem - nothing for you to do on your end. I just thought that, in light of your message about Microsoft, this was a curious development.

Keep fighting for truth. We activist/bloggers out here fighting to end this war - I'm a Marine mom who's sent three family members to Iraq SIX times - and fighting to bring sanity back to govt can't do it without you guys.

Sincerely,
Deanie (TO Reader - Yahoo box holder)

And here are some of the people responsible.......

Brad Smith
Senior Vice President, General Counsel, Corporate Secretary, Legal & Corporate Affairs
One Microsoft Way
Redmond, Washington 98052-6399
Phone: 425-882-8080
Fax: 425-936-7329

Tom Burt
Corporate Vice President and Deputy General Counsel, Litigation Group
One Microsoft Way
Redmond, Washington 98052-6399
Phone: 425-882-8080
Fax: 425-936-7329

Yahoo

Michael J. Callahan
Executive Vice President, General Counsel and Secretary
701 First Avenue
Sunnyvale, CA 94089
Tel: (408) 349-3300
Fax: (408) 349-3301

LinkedIn and Facebook

2007-09-27T23:40:00.000Z

There's now an NUJ group on LinkedIn, click here to join.

And NUJ's Facebook group is the biggest union group on Facebook and the union has just had it first Facebook only recruitment, Sushanta Das Gupta, editor of http://www.e-bangladesh.org/. If you're on Facebook, go here to join the NUJ group.

A tale of two cities

2007-09-18T15:37:00.000Z

"Brighton has a vibrant developer community and rich cosmopolitan culture" says Linden Labs' director of marketing Catherine Smith, in this week's New Media Age, as Second Life opened their UK offices and started hiring in London by the sea.

It's shaping up to be a real battle for the UK's second digital city, as Brighton squares up to the BBC's move to Manchester. Both of them are eminently well equipped for new media firms fed up of London - good locations and great variety of lifestyles to attract staff away from the capital. And of course, both with good local NUJ links! What more could you want?

Farewell Facebook?

2007-09-08T21:25:00.000Z

Facebook and employers who ban it at work have been all over the media in the last couple of weeks. I don't think the issue is as widespread as the touted surveys suggest, but I reckon it's getting such good coverage for one main reason... 90% of the UK's journalists are complete Facebook fiends, and they're bricking it that they may have to give up their poking antics too.

I don't think this is too likely though. Journalists are networkers by nature (witness the NUJ group - the biggest of any union group, despite a much smaller membership than unions like Unite), and can often get more of a blind eye turned to the blurs between the cultivation of friend networks and professional networks on and offline than other groups of workers might. I'll eat my Second Life avatar's hat if it ever gets switched off at the Beeb!

Anyway, before you go and practice your "but it's a vital tool of my trade!" plea, check out this guidance for staff about your rights to Facebook, and the correct etiquette for dealing with a friend request from your editor.

In a comedy twist to the issue, one group of banned workers have taken it to its logical conclusion, starting a Facebook group to campaign for Facebook rights reinstatement at Medway Maritime Hospital - a kind of MC Escher recurring issue within an issue.

Wordpress blogs banned in Turkey

2007-08-22T00:50:00.000Z

Turkey bans Wordpress blogs after alleged libel of Islamic writer

Aug 20, 2007, 16:05 GMT

Ankara - Turkish Internet users have been blocked from accessing sites on the Wordpress.com hosting service after a court in Istanbul ordered the site be blocked after lawyers complained that a number of blogs hosted by Wordpress were libellous of Islamic creationist author Adnan Oktar.

Turkish Internet users attempting to access more than a million Wordpress.com sites are now redirected to a site which says in Turkish and English, 'Access to this site has been suspended in accordance with decision no: 2007/195 of T.C. Fatih 2.Civil Court of First Instance.'

Kerim Kalkan, a lawyer for Oktar said that the court first ordered Turk Telecom to block a couple of specific sites but the authors of the sites soon moved the allegedly libelous content to other Wordpress sites.

'It was when this happened that we applied to the court to order that all websites of Wordpress be blocked,' Kalkan told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa.

Kalkan said the court first ordered that Wordpress be blocked on August 13 and that Turk Telecom implemented the order on August 17. 'We have also sent messages to other blog hosting sites and if the libellous content moves to them we will again apply to the courts to have those blocked also,' Kalkan said.

The Wordpress website has posted a number of e-mails and letters from Oktar's lawyers, asking for the various sites to be taken down
......... C O N T I N U E S .............

Michael Chossudovsky Global Research

Punchy New Wave News Sites in Canada

2007-08-18T19:46:00.000Z

The Real News

Exceptional new wave news sites - such a lot of good journalistic stuff going on in Canada. That in Toronto and this in Ottawa.

Michael Chossudovsky Global Research

Journalist Advisory Committee

The Centre for Research on Globalisation (CRG) is an independent research and media group of writers, scholars journalists and activists. The CRG is based in Montreal. It is a registered non profit organization in the province of Quebec, Canada.
http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=theme&themeId=2

The Global Research webpage at www.globalresearch.ca publishes news articles, commentary, background research and analysis on a broad range of issues, focussing on social, economic, strategic, geopolitical and environmental processes.
Our website was established on the 9th of September 2001, two days before the tragic events of September 11. Barely a few days later, Global Research had become a major news source on the New World Order and Washington's "war on terrorism".
Since September 2001, we have established an extensive archive of news articles, in-depth reports and analysis on issues which are barely covered by the mainstream media.

Don't forget - London, 26 July evening - drinks on the NUJ

2007-07-14T18:03:00.000Z

Less than two weeks to go - if you haven't told your friends already, tell 'em now:

NUJ New Media Social Recruitment Event

The NUJ's London Central Branch is putting on a recruitment social event, so, if you work in new media or do you have friends or colleagues who work in new media and like having a drink in good company in comfortable surroundings - please come along.

This event is planned to start at 7:30 pm on Jul 26, 2007 upstairs at the Yorkshire Grey pub, Holborn, London.

If you're on Facebook, you can RSVP at: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=2393405298, if not, just turn up.

Fairer subs for new media

2007-07-10T21:11:00.000Z

As of Monday 9 July, the union's members working in new media will see a fairer subscription rate, with many paying lower subs. The change follows a decision made at this year's Annual Delegate Meeting.

The ADM motion called for subs for all new media journalists, except for those working alongside other journalists in the more established parts of the media, to be lowered to Grade 1.

Low pay continues to be a problem in many parts of the new media sector and job uncertainty is endemic, factors that made recruitment very difficult with subs for the sector at the highest level. The New Media Industrial Council hopes the new subs rates will lead to a boom in recruitment in the sector at a time when the union most needs it.

The full text of the new rule will be in the new Rule Book, but the breakdown means that all those, except people employed in workplaces defined under Grades 2 and 3, will pay subs at the lowest grade. The others will pay subs as appropriate to their workplace.

As part of the new media recruitment drive following the change in subs, London Central Branch has organised a recruitment event in the city on Thursday July 26 from 7:30. Details below.

Lords communications committee to probe media ownership and the news

2007-07-04T21:09:00.000Z

http://www.parliament.uk/parliamentary_committees/hlcommunications.cfm

[mind you the parliamentary web team seem to have some communication problems of their own - two of the three links are kaput. When I visited them the email advice signup was down as was the link to the call for evidence]

The House of Lords Communications Committee have today launched a new inquiry into media ownership and the news.

The inquiry will be in two parts, with the Committee first focusing on changes in the way people access news, developments in the way news is provided and how concentrated media ownership affects the balance and diversity of news in a democracy. The Committee will then go on to consider the concentration of media ownership, cross media ownership and the regulation framework.

The Committee have today launched a Call for Evidence for the first part of the inquiry. A separate Call for Evidence will be issued later in the year for the second part of the inquiry.

At this stage the Committee are particularly seeking evidence on:

1. How and why have the agendas of news providers changed? How has the content of news programmes and newspapers altered over the years?

2. How is the way that people access the news changing? The Committee is interested in national and regional trends and figures for television, radio, newspaper and on-line news consumption.

3. How has the process of news gathering changed? The Committee is interested in the process of news production, the prioritisation of budgets and the deployment of journalistic resources.

4. What is the impact of the concentration of media ownership on the balance and diversity of opinion seen in the news? Does ownership have an impact on editorial priorities and on news values such as fairness, accuracy and impartiality?

5. How should the public interest be protected and defined in terms of news provision? Are the public interest considerations set down for Ofcom in the Communications Act 2003 enough to ensure a plurality of debating voices in the UK news media?

Commenting Lord Fowler, who chairs the House of Lords Communications Committee, said:

“There has been an increasing concentration of ownership in the media. We want to examine if this has had an effect upon news provision. There are important public interest factors here. In a democracy it is vital to have as wide a diversity of news as possible.”

“There has been very little work investigating the impact of ownership on editorial priorities such as fairness, accuracy and impartiality. It is important to know what influence ownership has in order to make informed decisions on media regulation.”

Notes to Editors

1. The House of Lords Communications Committee was formed in May 2007 to consider issues relating to communications and the media. It has since then been conducting a short inquiry into the Chairmanship of the BBC.

2. The Call for Evidence on the Committee’s new inquiry into Media Ownership and The News can be found at:

http://www.parliament.uk/parliamentary_committees/hlcommunications.cfm

3. The current members of the House of Lords Communications Committee are:

Lord Fowler (Chairman)

Lord King of Bridgewater

Baroness Bonham-Carter of Yarnbury

The Bishop of Manchester

Lord Corbett of Castle Vale

Lord Maxton

Baroness Eccles of Moulton

Baroness McIntosh of Hudnall

Lord Hastings of Scarisbrick

Baroness Scott of Needham Market

Baroness Howe of Idlicote

Baroness Thornton

Lord Inglewood

[ENDS]

Get your face in our place!

2007-07-03T12:09:00.000Z

Will you be the 300th member of the NUJ's Facebook community?

Yes, it's grown extremely quickly and is already at 299 members, organising local get togethers and with a number of discussions underway. Come and chat to us all, before everyone's gran is on Facebook too and we all have to flee to whatever the new flavour of the month is.

(Come on, you're journalists ferchrissakes - We know you all use it!)

And for any hardened Web2.0 cynics still out there, here is a nice little ditty from ad-agency Asabailey, promoting the new social interweb at the fringe of this year's Cannes Ad Festival. (NSFW: Be warned if easily offended, or at work!)

Amnesty International podcast covers internet censorship

2007-06-29T14:18:00.000Z

Amnesty International's June Podcast features highlights from the irrepressible.info event held earlier this month in London, including clips of Ron Deibert from the Open Net Initiative, Iranian blogger, Sina Motalebi, and Martha Lane Fox, one of the founders of lastminute.com.

It's available on iTunes if you've got an account, or you can download the mp3/listen to a RealAudio stream on Amnesty International's website.

Non 'Yahoo!' Mailing lists

2007-06-13T15:10:00.000Z

For members interested in starting a mailing list or discussion group that does not involve Yahoo!, the union's New Media Industrial Council has come up with the following list of lists.
It's worth noting that many NUJ freelances use GreenNet at a cost of £25 to set up and £60 annually (plus VAT), while NMIC itself uses two lists - the open list operated by NUJ Bristol at a similar cost (join at http://lists.bristolnuj.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/nujnewmedia ) and the closed one operated by NUJ Manchester (contact gherman at KeywordsAssociates.com for more info).

Free Groups/community:
Google: http://groups.google.co.uk/intl/en/googlegroups/tour/
Topica: http://lists.topica.com/
MSN: http://groups.msn.com/
Cool List: http://www.coollist.com/

Paid Groups/community:
NPOgroups http://npogroups.org/lists/
GreenNet (they do Catherds for NUJ freelances): http://www.gn.apc.org/services/services.html#lists

Free announcement lists:
Mailer4U.com: http://mailer4u.com
ListPower: http://listpower.com
FanBlast! (100 subscribers max): http://www.fanmass.com/
Server.com: http://server.com/communityapps/maillistapp/
Your Mailing List: http://www.yourmailinglistprovider.com/
Notify List: http://www.notifylist.com/
Bravenet: http://www.bravenet.com/

Free hosted lists:
Free Lists (tech related): http://www.freelists.org/index.html
Group Apps (from Server.com): http://grapps.server.com/groupapps.html

Free list software:
Majordomo: http://www.greatcircle.com/majordomo/
Mailman: http://www.gnu.org/software/mailman
Ecartis: http://www.ecartis.org/

Any additions to this list much appreciated - please send to me:
Tony Gosling
tony at tlio.org.uk
who will circulate them.

Amnesty International does social networking

2007-05-25T17:11:00.000Z

Amnesty International launched its yearly report on the state of the world's human rights on Wednesday. Visitors to the Report 2007 website might notice a difference between this year's site and previous ones.

It has all the things it had before, the country entries, the introduction, the video and audio, but this year also sees the introduction of a range of new social networking elements to the site. There’s a blog to give people visiting the site a taste of the work that the organisation does from a human perspective - divided between posts about people's work over the last year or so and posts about the launch itself.

There are also a number of ways for visitors to help spread the word about Report 2007 embedded throughout the site, visit the Add your voice! section for suggestions.

The Report 2007 site is a taster of the way amnesty.org is going. We’re working on a major redesign of the site to make it more accessible and more user-friendly. Comments and suggestions will be gratefully received.

A date for your diaries

2007-05-16T22:36:00.000Z

Take note: 26 July 2007, 7pm at the Yorkshire Grey pub, Holborn, London.

London Central Branch is putting on a recruitment social event, so, if you work in new media or do you have friends or colleagues who work in new media and like having a drink in good company in comfortable surroundings - please come along.

The event will provide NUJ members an opportunity to meet colleagues from other companies and parts of the sector. It's also designed to be a recruitment event, so if you know anyone who could be an NUJ member but has so far been resistant (or possibly not even asked), bring them along for a couple of free drinks (while stocks last).

You've got some time, so think about it a bit. Does your company work with a web design agency? Are there freelancers writing for the website who no-one ever sees? Or even amongst your employees - designers, page coders, video/audio content producers - all are eligible for NUJ membership. So invite 'em all along and let's boost the sector.

NUJ Social Networking

2007-05-12T23:03:00.000Z

Have you got a MySpace page? Or are you more of a Facebook person? Or is all of that far too childish for you and you're LinkedIn instead? Whichever you are, the NUJ is there and waiting for you.

On MySpace: http://groups.myspace.com/nujournalists
On FaceBook: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=2310419644
On LinkedIn there aren't groups, but you can just link me - http://www.linkedin.com/in/donnachadelong .

Let's make full use of social networking to build the union - if you've got more suggestions, please add comments.

Multi-media Commission take-off

2007-05-12T22:53:00.000Z

Last Saturday (5 May), the NUJ launched its Commission on Multi-Media Working with a one-day event at the Headland House HQ in London. There was testimony from people in all sectors of the union, national and regional newspapers, the BBC, the Irish Times website (the first newspaper to go online in the UK and Ireland way back in '94), yours truly for the NEC and NMIC Chair Jemima Kiss addressing the positive sides of new media.

The event presented a snap-shot of the situation the Commission is tasked with drawing together in a major report, due in four months. NMIC is well represented on the Commission, with Jemima, Gary Herman and me along with Helen Mulholland from the Guardian and Paula Dear from the BBC adding more online experience.

Read more: http://www.nuj.org.uk/inner.php?docid=1740

Press Freedom Day: Global action needed to protect journalists

2007-05-03T19:13:00.000Z

"All of society pays the price when journalists are killed with impunity and censorship and fear stifle expression. These are the conditions under which abuse of power and injustice will thrive." A major Amnesty International feature for Press Freedom Day, looking at attacks on journalists and press freedom around the world.

Michael Morgan 1956-2007

2007-04-30T14:57:00.000Z

We are very sorry to have to announce that Michael Morgan, NUJ New Media Industrial Council disabled members' rep, died suddenly of a heart attack on 27 April 2007. A tireless activist who made a major contribution to many disability, arts and trade union causes, he will be sadly missed by all his colleagues. You can read a moving tribute to Michael on the NUJ Disabled Members' Council blog.

New Media news from ADM

2007-04-22T22:26:00.000Z

The National Union of Journalists Centenary Annual Delegate Meeting has already received quite a lot of international attention for one issue, but for those of us in the New Media sector, there was amidst the three days of serious business, a number of key issues addressed.

Most important of all was the final resolution of the long-running issue of the rate of subs for journalists in New Media. Since the sector was established, members have been paying subs at the highest rate. Well, not for much longer! It'll take a couple of months to sort out the details, but come the end of the summer months, our members working on the websites of existing media companies will pay no more than their colleagues, while those working in so-called green field sites will pay at Grade 1 - around half the top grade! So, anyone who said they wouldn't join because it was too expensive, take note - you were right and we'll soon have it sorted.

More importantly for the union as a whole was the establishment of a major multi-media working commission to report in a few months time on the entire range of issues the media is facing as new media takes a serious hold. From local newspaper journalists being handed a video camera to the threat to jobs in the major media centres as individual journalists are expected to do the work of three or four people at the same time, numerous motions were put forwards and passed criticising the these trends and calling for constructive engagement with the union to all journalists to do their jobs properly in this new environment.

The commission will look at all the issues and give guidance to members on best practice and previous successes of the union. And the New Media Industrial Council (NMIC) is strong in the commission, with ADM electing both our chair - Jemima Kiss - and veteran council member Gary Herman and the National Executive Council making it a hat trick by electing yours truly. We're joined by colleagues from both the Guardian and BBC websites. The Commission will be launched at the Educate, Agitate, Integrate conference to be held on 5 May 2007 in London. The conference flyer is available here. Expect more on this soon.

A major fringe meeting on digital convergence organised at conference by NMIC doubtless influenced the votes of delegates. See the ADM blog for more details on this over-subscribed event (people were sitting on the floor and gathered around the door in the corridors outside). Pulling in expertise from across the union, as well as Dr Andy Williams’, who wrote a great report into Trinity Mirror’s online strategy, the meeting really made clear the current landscape and detailed the challenges the union and our members face. Be sure to check out the videos.

This year's China and internet censorship motion was far less combative and confusing. There was general agreement with stepping up the work on internet censorship, both within the NUJ and IFJ, and NMIC was even congratulated on the Yahoo! action of last summer. However, conference stopped short of calling for a boycott of Yahoo! mailing lists, accepting the argument that, with international talks involving Yahoo! on-going, now was not the right time. However, later on, conference agreed that the NEC should investigate ways of facilitating NUJ-hosted email lists.

And finally, a serious topic descended into a rather funny battle of the Luddites versus the Nerds! The subject was virtual branches – the question of removing the rule that says branches must meet in person and allow branches to meet in cyberspace only. On one side those who point out that there's a potential branch in Spain, for example, but the distance between members makes a physical meeting so impractical it's as good as impossible. On the other side are those that argue that physical meetings are a core part of union activity and that efforts should be focussed on improving them rather than creating alternatives.

The serious debate was soon overtaken by one side calling the other luddites and them being called nerds in response! And the funniest contribution was the one member who argued that it was too soon to use things like email – maybe when the bugs are ironed out we should think about it. Ah, bless. The vote went against in the end, though I like to think that was more to do with the perceived issue of defending traditional branch structures and not the bugginess of the technology.

Many, many more motions, on a wide variety of topics covering a whole swathe of issues – showing our union to be democratic and connected to the world in way that still excites its members. Despite all the criticism about one particular motion, that shouldn't be allowed to overshadow so many other things the ADM discussed, debated and agreed.

Guy Fawkes hanged again

2007-03-29T20:44:00.001Z

Interesting exchange on Newsnight if you didn't catch it. Gossip blogger Guido Fawkes holds that he has a big advantage over MSM political journalists, as he doesn't do interviews, and so doesn't need to suck up to his subjects. People like Jeremy Paxman and Nick Robinson are letting down their viewers by playing on the politicians' own terms.

Well worth a watch. Paxman and the Guardian's Michael White give Guido just enough rope to hang, draw and quarter himself. Because he only aims for the jugular, he misses the round picture of what's really going on. Sure, he's certainly not in the pocket of the politicians, but if that means all he can come up with is partisan opinion, bluster and stories about Gordon Brown picking his nose, is he doing anyone a service either? Nick Robinson takes up the story in his own blog.

Is Telegraph's political editor an MI6 agent of influence?

2007-01-31T20:22:00.000Z

Telegraph's political editor - MI6 agent of influence?

The journalist who broke the 45 minute WMD story strikes again

Campaign Iran | 30.01.2007 13:42
http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2007/01/361101.html
Daily Telegraph political editor investigated over further misleading articles

http://www.campaigniran.org/
Press Release – 29th January 2007

The Press Complaints Commission have launched their third investigation of Daily Telegraph political editor, Con Coughlin, in as many months, after a number of high level complaints about his latest ariticle on Iran.
http://www.pcc.org.uk/complaints/process.html
The investigation is looking at an article by Mr Coughlin on 24 January relying on an unnamed “European defence official” alleging that North Korea is helping Iran prepare a nuclear weapons test and follows the recent publication of a report detailing a catalogue of innaccurate and misleading stories about Iran by. The report, put together by Campaign Iran and published last month, revealed that Mr Coughlin, the man who ‘broke the story’ of Iraq’s 45 minute WMD capacity, is behind sixteen articles containing unsubstantiated allegations against Iran over the past twelve months. The PCC will examine whether the stories, all based on unnamed or untraceable sources, are in breach of Clause 1 of their Code of Practice, requiring accuracy.

The veracity of Coughlin’s writing on Iran is already under investigation by the PCC following complaints about a headline article in last month’s Telegraph that claimed that Iran was “grooming Bin Laden’s successor”. The story, universally dismissed by Middle East experts, led the organisation Campaign Iran to conduct a broader analysis of the accuracy of Mr Coughlin’s stories and the journalistic methods he uses. Analysing 44 articles by Mr Coughlin on Iran, the report finds some stark patterns in terms of his journalistic technique:

• Sources are unnamed or untraceable, often “senior Western intelligence officials” or “senior Foreign Office officials”.
• Articles are published at sensitive and delicate times where there has been a relatively positive diplomatic moves towards Iran.
• Articles contain exclusive revelations about Iran combined with eye-catchingly controversial headlines;
• The story upon which the headline is based does not usually exceed one line or at the most one paragraph. The rest of the article focuses on other, often unrelated, information.

The report also reveals that Coughlin has a history of breaking politically important stories that are later shown to be inaccurate. He is the journalist who, discovered “the fact” that Saddam Hussein could launch weapons of mass destruction in 45 minutes. He was also the journalist who, in 2003, unearthed “the link” between the 9/11 hijacker, Mohammed Ata, and the Iraqi intelligence.

Professor Abbas Edalat of Campaign Iran said today: “The quoting of unnamed sources has always been an essential aspect of news reporting, but Coughlin is abusing the practice in order to give substance otherwise implausible political stories. These stories are repeated as fact on news outlets and websites across the world. They cannot be easily challenged because the unnamed source can never be revealed. During the build-up to the invasion of Iraq Coughlin was behind two very influential stories that helped pave the path to war. Both were later found to be completely untrue. We must be vigilant against similar inaccuracies being used to prepare the path for intervention against Iran, and we call on the PCC to take action against Coughlin and to safeguard the integrity and accuracy of our press.”

The report, ‘Conning the Nation: An Analysis of Con Coughlin’s Reportage on Iran’ has been compiled by Campaign Iran, based on research led by Dr Majid Tafreshi.

For more information visit http://www.campaigniran.org/

Appendix 1
Sources used by Coughlin’s for his articles published in the Daily Telegraph and Sunday Telegraph within the last one year.
10/10/2006: “The West woke up too late to the nuclear threat of rogue states” Source: none.
04/08/2006: “Teheran fund pays war compensation to Hizbollah families” Source: “A senior security official”.
21/07/2006: “Meanwhile, Iran gets on with its bomb”Source: none.
14/07/2006: “Israeli crisis is a smoke screen for Iran's nuclear ambitions” Source: none.
13/07/2006: “Cat and mouse games on border that is 'our front line with Iran’” Source: An Israeli soldier.
12/06/2006: “Iran accused of hiding secret nuclear weapons site” Source: A senior western diplomat”
11/04/2006: “The West can't let Iran have the bomb” Source: “An official closely involved in the IAEA's negotiations with Iran”
07/04/2006: “Iran has missiles to carry nuclear warheads” Source: “A senior US official”
07/04/2006: “UN officials find evidence of secret uranium enrichment plant” Sources: “A diplomat closely involved in the IAEA's negotiations with Teheran” and “A senior diplomat attached to the IAEA headquarters in Vienna”.
04/04/2006: “Iran's spies watching us, says Israel”Sources: “A senior Israeli military commander” and “an officer with Israel's northern command”.
06/03/2006: “Teheran park 'cleansed' of traces from nuclear site” Source: “A senior western official”
11/02/2006: “Iran plant has restarted its nuclear bomb-making equipment” Source: “A senior Western intelligence official”
30/01/2006: “Iran sets up secret team to infiltrate UN nuclear watchdog, say officials” Source: “a senior western intelligence official”
16/01/2006: “Iran could go nuclear within three years” Sources: “A senior western intelligence officer” and “an intelligence official”
27/11/2005: “Teheran secretly trains Chechens to fight in Russia” Source: “a senior intelligence official”
29/10/2005: “Smuggling route [from Iran] opened to supply Iraqi insurgents” Source: “The National Council of Resistance of Iran”

SEE ALSO

Mandelson -MI6 Agent of Influence
http://www.salaam.co.uk/themeofthemonth/january03_index.php?l=45%82%22 =0

The aim of this dossier is to serve as a reference point for information on covert actions by Government agencies that are inconsistent with stated government policy or which infringe civil liberties hence subverting the normal course of decision-making in a participative democracy.
The dossier identifies some of the complicities between these agencies and the media, PR and academic communities, including the outright recruitment of journalists by the security services and the planting or slanting of news to support Government policy.
http://www.salaam.co.uk/themeofthemonth/january03_index.php

PICTURE OF CON COUGHLIN
http://msnbcmedia.msn.com/j/msnbc/Components/Video/050630/n_coughlin_bushvsblair_050630.300w.jpg

CPJ welcomes talks on code of conduct for Internet companies

2007-01-19T14:29:00.000Z

New York, January 18, 2007—The Committee to Protect Journalists welcomed the public disclosure today that leading Internet companies are in talks with human rights organizations, including CPJ, investors, and legal experts to draw up a code of conduct for technology companies that would safeguard the right to free expression and privacy of Web users.

http://www.cpj.org/news/2007/americas/usa18jan07na.html

Longsuffering BBC staff face Xmas misery

2006-12-26T00:22:00.000Z

BBC staff face Xmas misery

Morning Star - Saturday December 23rd 2006
NUJ vows to fight tooth and nail for quality journalism
by Tom Mellen

TRADE unionists pledged to fight “tooth and nail” in defence of quality jobs and journalism yesterday after reports that the BBC is facing a real-terms cut in the licence fee.
Culture Secretary Tessa Jowell has struck a deal with the Treasury which will see the licence fee held below inflation for the next six years, Channel 4 news said, reversing nearly 20 years of government policy.
The reported settlement is a bitter blow for the corporation which has been pressing for an above-inflation increase in the current £131.50 fee.
According to Channel 4 there will be 3 per cent increases in 2007 and 2008, followed by 2 per cent in 2009, 2010 and 2011, with a rise of between zero and 2 per cent in 2012.
BBC Director-General Mark Thompson described the deal as “a real disappointment” and, in an email to staff, he warned that the corporation will face “some very difficult choices.”
NUJ General Secretary Jeremy Dear said that “such drastic underfunding will heap misery upon misery at the BBC.”
“After three years of spending cuts and thousands of job losses, the government has rewarded the world’s leading public service broadcaster with an ultimatum - cut jobs, cut services or cut quality.”
“We will fight tooth and nail for a fair funding settlement, against the arbitrary cuts being imposed on public services and in defence of jobs and quality,” Mr Dear vowed, adding “What a bizarre and shameful Christmas present for Gordon Brown to deliver.”
NUJ BBC Organiser Paul McLauchlin warned that well-loved staples like the Radio 4 Today programme and Newsnight are already losing reporters.
“We’ve worked with the Thompson regime for three years, but our members are not prepared to accept more punishment and we will stand up for them and for the interests of the country,” he declared.
Broadcasting workers’ union BECTU Assistant General Secretary Gerry Morrissey warned that, if reports were true, it could lead to heavy job losses and could seriously hit programmes.
“The licence fee should rise by at least the inflation rate. If not we are increasing the power and position of its commercial rivals,” warned Labour MP Jeremy Corbyn.
“This is about imposing the government neoliberal agenda onto the media,” Media Workers Against The War chairman Dave Crouch said.
“Cuts have already led to more journalists sitting in the office and relying on the phone, which cannot but hurt quality,” Mr Crouch added.
And he applauded the “wonderful campaign by staff against advertisements on the BBC website,” noting that this “creeping commercialisation will be stepped up by the cuts in the licence fee.”
Ms. Jowell’s supporters claimed that she had “fought very hard for the BBC corner” and that the settlement represented a “decent compromise.”
The Department for Culture, Media and Sport insisted that the licence fee settlement has still not been finalised.
A BBC spokesman said: Discussions on the licence fee settlement are continuing and we await a decision and announcement in the new year.”

Amnesty International: Close Guantánamo

2006-12-15T17:21:00.000Z

On 11 January 2007, the Guantánamo detention centre will be five years old. Outraged by this symbol of US abuse and injustice, human rights activists worldwide are joining together in solidarity with the detainees and their families, to demand once more that the US government close Guantánamo.

Read what those actitvists are doing on a new Amnesty International blog
http://blogs.amnesty.org/blogs/closeguantanamo

Update:
Sail, fly, windsurf with the Close Guantánamo flotilla!

Amnesty International blogging from the Middle East

2006-12-04T12:36:00.000Z

Today saw the launch of Amnesty International's High Level Mission blog from the Middle East. Starting in Lebanon, the mission led by Irene Khan, AI Secretary General, will travel on to Israel and the Occupied Territories (including the West Bank and the Gaza Strip) to discuss human rights issues with members of the government and civil society.

And they'll be blogging every step of the way -

Amnesty International in the Middle East (December 2006)

Free union membership (strings apply!)

2006-11-24T17:16:00.000Z

One benefit of union membership you mightn't know about is cheap conveyancing when you move house. I was very pleasantly surprised that union solicitors Thompsons will cut a deal for members of the NUJ (and a number of other unions), and it might save you quite a bit.

Their £275 for looking after my move was exactly half the quote I got from two of our local solicitors, so I saved over a year's worth of union subs. In effect, I got my NUJ money back and more, hurrah!

Thompsons are at www.thompsons.law.co.uk if you'd like to check them out. Their national conveyancing office is in Plymouth, so I might think twice about using them if it was going to be a *really* complicated sale, as a lot of to and fro by post might delay things, but we just bought a flat as first-time-buyers, so very little to go wrong. They were very nice and helpful (all by phone/post/email), and everything got done on time (thanks guys!).

Ballot vote at AOL as job fears grow

2006-11-22T23:47:00.000Z

NUJ members at AOL (UK) have decided unanimously to ballot for industrial action over compulsory redundancies and lack of consultation.

The chapel was told in September of the company's intention to cut jobs in the run-up to the sale of the Internet Service Provider to Carphone Warehouse.

Members in the Online Customer Experience department will still be employed by AOL (UK), owned by Time Warner, but although they have been told that their department will be affected, they have not been told how.

The chapel, who have had recognition since 2005, are keen to work with management to minimise the effects of any redundancies. However, they feel that their request for voluntary redundancies hasn't been taken seriously.

Members are frustrated that a 90-day consultation period (due to end on 18 December) so far has not been meaningful. The only thing they have been told is that the company will not accept any voluntary redundancies, and this has caused widespread anger and deep concern.

At a well attended chapel meeting yesterday (21/11) they felt they had no option but to ballot for industrial action.

Assistant Organiser for New Media Jenny Lennox said: “Some NUJ members at AOL are very worried about their futures and they are receiving no reassurance from management.

“Things need not have got to this point had there been better communication but staff are feeling confused and anxious and felt they had to act to defend themselves.”

Notice of the intention to ballot was sent to management today. The ballot will commence on Wednesday 29 November, and the result will be known on Wednesday 13 December.

22/11/06

From http://www.nuj.org.uk

Report into web accessibility

2006-11-13T20:51:00.000Z

Michael Morgan wanted to draw our attention to this piece form ZDNet recently. Well worth a read:

Web 2.0: A step backwards for accessibility?

When the Disability Rights Commission (DRC) undertook a survey of over 1,000 UK websites in 2004, it found that eight out of 10 across all industry sectors failed to comply with even basic accessibility standards.

In other words, a mere 19 percent managed to conform with the most elementary level of the World Wide Web Consortium's (W3C) Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) by achieving a single A performance rating.

But another study undertaken last year for the Cabinet Office by AbilityNet, a charity that provides a range of services to help disabled people exploit computers and the internet more effectively, revealed that the situation had improved little. Of the 1,300 public sector websites across Europe that it examined, only a miniscule 3 percent gained that elusive single A rating, although 17 percent were very close.

Read more >>>

24: "My name's Jerry Yang, and this is the worst day of my life."

2006-11-07T11:19:00.000Z

Starting from now (well, 18 minutes ago), Reporters Sans Frontieres are launching a 24 hour campaign against censorship on the internet. Visit their mayfly of a campaign site between now and 11am tomorrow to pitch in with it yourself.

You can vote on the internet's worst censorship black hole, record your own voice message to send to Jerry Yang of Yahoo!, protesting at the web behemoth's record on colluding with censorship in China, or even contribute to RSF's group blog for the day. What are you waiting for?

Web 2.0 is watching you!

2006-10-31T09:35:00.000Z

2 new startups which aim to keep an eye on us hacks. Both are very new, and have a long way to go to build up both content and users, but if they make it they could have an interesting impact on media transparency in the UK:

Newscounter - www.newscounter.com
This one monitors contentious stories in the papers (though chosen by the site managers rather than users). Site members can then vote on each story they'd like to see the other side of, and Newscounter will then try to source a 'right of reply' from the maligned party to post on the site. No rights of reply yet, and very few votes, so pop over now and give them a click (we'd like to hear the Telegraph's side of the NUJ strike ballot, heh heh...)

Newssniffer - newssniffer.newworldodour.co.uk
Ever been back to a story on the web to find it seems to have mysteriously changed? This new site stores revisions of news stories on major sites (mainly the Beeb ATM), and checks for edited/censored versions throughout the day. A very fun idea, though in practice it seems to find a lot of typo corrections. It also sniffs its way round the Beeb's message boards to snuffle out traces of censorship.

BNP terror trial set for February

2006-10-24T11:04:00.000Z

by Ian Morgan
www.24dash.com

24th October 2006

A former British National Party election candidate and a dentist both appeared in court today accused of possessing an explosive substance.

Robert Cottage, 49, of Talbot Street, Colne, Lancashire, and David Jackson, 62, of Trent Road, Nelson, Lancashire, were charged under the Explosive Substances Act 1883 after chemical components were allegedly found at Cottage's house.

Cottage stood for the BNP in this year's local elections in Colne. [as such he must be still a member of the party as, according to their website BNP membership is from year end to year end and he had to be a member to stand - ed.]

Both men were remanded in custody at Preston Crown Court.

No application for bail was made for either men.

The case was adjourned until January 15, 2007 for a plea and case management hearing.

A provisional trial date has been set for February 12 at Manchester Crown Court. It will be held before a High Court judge and is expected to last one and a half weeks.

see also...
North West Evening Mail
ITN
BBC News
International Herald Tribune
Socialist Worker

Blogs...
Blair Watch
Progressive Gold
Brights Online
Don't Start The Revolution Without Me
Watson Blogs
Daily Grail
West Brom Blog
Blind Nation
Cernigs News Hog
S J Howard
Leninology
Homo Ludens
Musings of a flying Imam

World awaits Monday's BNP terror hearing in Burnley

2006-10-20T21:46:00.000Z

Met police are breaking all records for incarcerating Muslims without trial for possession of bottles of perfume. So it might well be worth a seat in the public/press gallery on Monday to see how Cumbria Constabulary's Superintendent Neil Smith's claim that explosives precursors and a rocket launcher are "not related to terrorism" runs in court.

http://mathaba.net/news/?x=544131
This week a British National Party (BNP) election candidate has been accused of possessing the largest amount of chemical explosives of its type ever found in Britain.
Home secretary John Reid did not hold any special press conferences and it did not make any headlines outside of local newspapers in England and one online news service.
The 22 chemical components recovered by police are the largest haul ever found at a private house in the UK.
The home of another man charged with similar offences contained a rocket launcher and a nuclear biological suit as well as BNP literature and chemicals.
Cottage is an ex-BNP member who stood as a candidate in the Pendle Council elections in May.
The two men from Pendle, England, have appeared in front of Pennine magistrates accused of having "a master plan" after the record haul of chemicals used in making home-made bombs was found in Colne.
Robert Cottage (49), of Talbot Street, Colne, and David Bolus Jackson (62), of Trent Road, Nelson, made separate appearances before the court charged with being in possession of an explosive substance for an unlawful purpose. The offences are under the Explosive Substances Act 1883.
Both men were remanded in custody to appear at Burnley Crown Court on Monday October 23rd. Cottage was arrested at his home on Thursday of last week, while retired dentist Jackson was arrested in the Lancaster area on Friday, the same day as he left a dental practice in Grange-over-Sands.
Mrs Christiana Buchanan, who appeared for the prosecution in Jackson's case, alleged the pair had "some kind of masterplan".
She said a search of Jackson's home had uncovered rocket launchers, chemicals, BNP literature and a nuclear biological suit.
Police raided Cottage's Talbot Street home on Thursday of last week. The house was taped off while forensics officers searched the premises. Neighbours were told to stay in their homes for their own safety. Mr Cottage's car was also taken away for examination.
Officers also made a thorough examination of Jackson's Trent Road home and, again, officers were on duty outside the house. Forensics officers examined the property.

see also
http://www.nwemail.co.uk/news/viewarticle.aspx?id=420965
http://www.socialistworker.co.uk/article.php?article_id=9882
http://www.pendletoday.co.uk/ViewArticle2.aspx?SectionID=13&ArticleID=1806590
http://www.burnleycitizen.co.uk/news/newsheadlines/display.var.947927.0.exbnp_man_held_in_bomb_swoop.php
http://forum.mpacuk.org/archive/index.php?t-16402.html

Army Rumour Service discussion
http://www.arrse.co.uk/cpgn2/Forums/viewtopic/t=48352/postdays=0/postorder=asc/start=0.html

Some answers from the BBC as to why it wasn't covered... because the police were 'playing the story down'.
http://www.nineeleven.co.uk/board/viewtopic.php?t=4931

There was nothing here about the story - so did Cumbria BBC cover it as they say in the forum above?
http://www.bbc.co.uk/cumbria/news/

-- Mathaba News Network reports the news that other mainstream media ignore. Please be sure to subscribe to our new Mathaba Gold service to ensure you do not miss out on special coverage and uncensored news. One month subscription costs only 2 Pounds Sterling or $3 US. Find out more on the link below:
http://www.mathaba.net/subscribe/

We've got mail!

2006-10-20T13:30:00.000Z

Keep up to date with us by joining our NUJ New Media mailing list. It's an open forum for new media workers to discuss issues of relevance to the sector.

Just join up here, and you can start posting out messages and sending replies to everyone else.

More media please!

2006-10-17T08:49:00.000Z

Via the BBC, a survey showing hours of web use in Europe have for the first time overtaken hours of print media consumption.

Interestingly though, it's not a zero sum - the increase in online reading isn't necessarily denting overall print or TV consumption. At least not at the moment, the demographics for different media are skewed somewhat, with the young preferring the web and older people sticking with print.

Guido vs the Lobby: Round 2

2006-10-16T08:48:00.000Z

Blogging MP Tom Watson claims that rumours of the demise of the lobby correspondent have been greatly exaggerated, and that in the long run, Private Eye has more to fear from Guido and the gang than the lobby do.

Punting partially-verified information goes on in all areas all over the blogosphere, not just in the political field. The world is still intrigued by blogs and the opinions within them. I just think that in future years there will be a reaction against them, or at least, a collective worry about the veracity of what is written on them. People will want fact-checked, verifiable information from the sites they read. And you know what? They'll get that from good old quality journalism. Well researched news stories will be a premium.

More at Tom's Blog.

Calling all Mancunians!

2006-10-09T14:06:00.000Z

Do you live in the north west and work in new media? If so, let us buy you a drink!

We're holding a new media meetup at the Lass O'Gowrie pub, on Charles St, just off Princess St (map), between 6.30pm and 9pm on Thursday 12 October. Feel free to drop in at any time. We'll buy the first drink and lay on some food. It will be an opportunity to network with other new media workers in the north west, discuss your new media issues, and maybe find out a bit more about the NUJ.

For more information email newmedia(at)nuj.org.uk. Everyone is welcome - members and non-members, so if you know someone who may be interested in attending, please let them know.

Behind the Golden Shield

2006-09-18T14:18:00.000Z

Ronald Schaefer, a citizen journalist from OhMyNews, writes on the difficulties for people researching and writing from the other side of the Great Firewall of China. The list of companies complicit in censorship grows and grows, from Yahoo! to Cisco, and MSN to Skype.
Especially spooked to hear about the innocuously named goverment campaign "Let the Winds of a Civilized Internet Blow", which seeks to turn everyone into moderators on each others' content.

Should you be thinking smaller?

2006-09-06T07:43:00.000Z

US trade magazine Editor and Publisher has an article by Steve Outing, riffing off the implications for the newspaper industry of the themes in übermarketer Seth Godin's new book "Small is the new big". He argues newspapers are such big business that, like any other big corporation, they have an inbuilt disadvantage when it comes to two-way communications. This could well get in the way as their audience get more used to getting their news via a potentially two-way medium. See: 'Small Should Be 'The New Big' for Newspapers and the Web'

Hat tip: Seth Godin (oh, did he mention he has a book out?)

Nobody likes us (they don't care)

2006-08-18T09:52:00.000Z

Sunny Hundal has a post rounding up the possible reasons newspapers hate blogs so much - on Comment is Free, natch ;)

He's got four main suspects:

Media needs novelty so likes to build trends up and knock them down when they get boring - this is just the normal backlash
Corporate interests - MSM want to protect their patch against new competition
Bloggers upset columnists by disagreeing with them publically, something they aren't used to
Personal interests - now everyone can theoretically be a commentator, it's harder for those at the top to claim they're special enough to be paid well for it

Come and have a go if you think you're trad enough...

2006-07-20T13:30:00.000Z

On the news that tory(ish)-blogger Guido Fawkes snuck into the hallowed trad media turf of the Parliamentary lobby again this week, and that this year's party conference is likely to see dedicated bloggers in the press gallery for the first time, the Guardian's Backbencher column has issued an old-school hack challenge to the new webby upstarts:

The Backbencher was pleased to hear Francis Maude reveal that Guido and his ilk will be allowed to cover the Tory conference this year. Since the bloggers v media/political establishment war has now escalated - and no, the Backbencher isn't going to make any facetious comparisons with the Middle East - she will merely wonder whether the youngish men realise what they are letting themselves in for. Can they survive the full three weeks? (She takes it the TUC isn't in their diaries.) Two hours' sleep, one deep-fried prawn and four glasses of corked semillon at a Social Market Foundation fringe, an intimate search by the men with the damp hands and 347 X-rays later, the Backbencher suspects some of them will be suffering from conference cold in their non-networked hotel room (£200 a night, five miles out of town, buses every six hours, and you'll pay your own expenses). Guys - we can't wait to meet you.

Not a lot of people (want you to) know that!

2006-07-18T14:58:00.000Z

Amnesty are getting all new media at the moment, joining in our protest against the jailing of journalist and Yahoo! user Shi Tao, and now running a very clever campaign to disseminate bits of info that some authority somewhere has censored.

You got a site or blog? Marvellous. Join in and bung a quick snippet of code onto it (see the side bar of our blog) and it will call in a piece of genuine taboo onto your very own pages, making you a mirror site in an vast international censor-busting web ring.

A very neat idea, and one which I think will help make the UK new media community feel very grateful for the freedoms that we enjoy.

http://irrepressible.info/addcontent

[Insert your own headline here]

2006-07-03T11:03:00.000Z

Very amusing piece on the clash between user comments and professional journalism by Joel Achenbach in the Washington post this weekend. He's not entirely taking the subject seriously, but does pose some interesting questions about how commenting should be used, and how far it should go before it stops being so useful.

Interactivity is an evolving process. In the future, reporters will have to have, for at least one hour a day, a reader seated at their elbow to offer helpful suggestions. Occasionally, the reader will be allowed to climb onto the reporter's lap to take charge of the keyboard. You'll start seeing interesting double bylines, such as: By John Noble Wilford and Some Guy Named Bob...
...All of this is an improvement on the old days, when journalists typically interacted only with their bosses and their sources, while pausing occasionally to read a handwritten letter from a reader who was upset that her morning paper had arrived wet.
Writing was often solitary work back then. The writer was guided not by the audience so much as by an inner voice, what might be called, at the risk of sounding pretentious, a literary or journalistic conscience. Thanks to interactivity, that conscience can now be outsourced.

Read his full article (no comments) here

Nice to see you

2006-06-24T20:29:00.000Z

Thanks to everyone who came along and made our evening in the pub a success. Mind you, it's hard to have an evening in the pub that's a total failure, but this one was a goodie. Thanks too to the Yorkshire Grey staff, who were v helpful - it's a good pub (I'd never been before) with a great upstairs room. I can see us going back there!

Anyway, I only managed one shot of the event, which pretty much sums up the state of some participants towards the end of the evening. I think it's safe to say I won't be joining the NUJ photographers' branch any time soon...

Yahoo! recruitment action

2006-06-21T11:54:00.000Z

The New Media Council carried out a recruitment action at Yahoo!'s London headquarters yesterday (Tuesday). As part of our on-going campaign about Yahoo!'s involvement in the imprisonment of journalists and activists in China, we wanted to invite member of Yahoo! staff to join the union and our campaign for human rights.

John and I started out with 300 flyers entitled "Yet Another Hypocritical Online Organisation?" in the well-known Yahoo! colours (purple and yellow) just after five o'clock. By seven, we had none left. 100 or so invitations to the social event on Thursday ran out far sooner.

We got a range of reactions, from people who agreed with our position and said that they had contacted their own management about it, to people who were more defensive. A couple of people asked us how we could do what we were doing and marched back in, presumably to ask security to remove us. However, while laws in this country are getting more restrictive, I don't think there's yet anything that prevents us standing on a public footpath and asking people if they'd like to take a flyer!

A number of people did engage with us, including a number of managers. They gave the corporate line that they had no option but to comply with Chinese law, to which we responded that they did have an option about doing business in a country that has a dreadful record on freedom of speech. We followed that up, though, with an explanation that we are willing to engage with the company and see how we might be able to work together to campaign for freedom of speech in China and elsewhere in the world. We pointed out that, as a trade union, the way we engage with companies is by recruiting their employees.

Now it's time sit back and let the emails (hopefully) flood in.

Come to the pub!

2006-06-15T14:56:00.000Z

We'd like to invite all London's new media workers (yes, all of them!) to join us for a drink or two and a chat on Thursday, 22 June, at 7pm.

The NUJ's New Media sector has been going from strength to strength over the past two years and it's time to celebrate. So, come along to the Yorkshire Grey pub on the corner of Theobald's and Gray's Inn Roads in Holborn and meet others from the sector as well as some of your union representatives.

Expect interesting conversation with others working in the industry about the union's work and some of the issues facing the industry, all with a new media slant.

And, as this event will be taking place during the union's Recruitment Week, bring your friends and colleagues. This is not just for NUJ members, anyone interested can come along, have a drink on us and take a recruitment form with them (no pressure, we'd just like people to consider joining the union).

When: 7pm, Thursday, 22 June
Where: The Yorkshire Grey, 29-33 Grays Inn Road, London, WC1X 8PN
Map: http://streetmap.co.uk/newmap.srf?x=530943&y=181989&z=1&sv=530943,181989&st=4&ar=Y
Getting there:
Closest tube: Chancery Lane
Bus: 19/38 from Charring Cross Road, 17/45/46 from King's Cross (and a few more besides).

Working in a warzone

2006-06-15T08:32:00.000Z

Today is Iraq National Press Day and the NUJ is joining journalists’ groups across the world in a global campaign to highlight the dangers faced by journalists in Iraq. Union members are heading to the Iraq Embassy (9 Holland Villas Road, W14 8BP) at 12.30, for a remembrance picket and to meet Dr Salah Al-Shaikhly, Iraq's Ambassador to the UK.

“It is undeniable that journalists and other media workers have been specially targeted during this war” said NUJ President Chris Morley. “Today thousands of journalists across the world will honour the memory of those that were selectively picked out and shot or bombed, but we also aim to highlight the needs of the survivors and the grieving families and will be urging governments to take urgent action to improve the safety of journalists.”

The campaign is coordinated by the Brussels-based International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) on behalf of its two Iraqi affiliates – the Iraqi Journalists’ Syndicate and the Kurdistan Journalists’ Union. The IFJ has counted 129 media victims (over 100 of whom are Iraqi) since the 2003, with several hundreds injured or disabled.

If you'd like more of a sense of what journalists in Iraq are up against, check out these two blogs written by Iraqi journalists, 'Shut up you fat whiner!' by Salam Pax (the original 'Baghdad Blogger', an NUJ member who often works for UK outlets) and one of his favourite blogs, 'Iraqi Screen', by Ishtar who posts regularly on stories she hears in her work as a journalist in and around Baghdad.

http://justzipit.blogspot.com/
http://iraqiscreen.blogspot.com/

Where the web leads...

2006-06-12T13:28:00.000Z

The Guardian has as of today switched its editorial cycle for paper and site back to front. Now the site gets stories first, as and when they happen, rather than waiting for the paying customers to catch up - an integrated media brand on- and offline, as opposed to a paper with a nice website.

Kim Fletcher's nice MediaGuardian (yes, in the paper...) summary of the far-ranging implications of the changes is worth a peek - "Has a reader more right to insult a writer on the Comment is Free website when he has paid 70p for the paper or clicked on the website for nothing?": http://media.guardian.co.uk/mediaguardian/story/0,,1795194,00.html

The Content is dead! Long live the Content!

2006-06-08T10:06:00.000Z

To the plush surroundings of the Royal Society's Great Hall this Tuesday for NMK's Content2.0 conference. Content it would seem is no longer King, but some kind of revolutionary squatter, ready to pack bags and move on to wherever looks more fun. A really interesting series of presentations which kept a pretty diverse audience engaged, but of particular interest to us NMers were the morning sessions. Adriana Cronin-Lukas posited that new media should be seen as merely a modernising of traditional media - same attitudes with a nice new interface - and not be lumped in with the emergent 'social media'. Showing a nice photo slide of cleaner-birds on hippos, she suggested the two would remain distinct but connected, with social media a parasite on new/trad media, and the two in a symbiotic relationship with potential benefit on both sides.

Jemima's live reporting from the day on the paidContent.org blog makes for interesting reading: http://www.paidcontent.org/c/content-20/

Slow boat from China?

2006-06-08T09:41:00.000Z

Potentially heralding the beginnings of a rethink at Google, Sergey Brin gave a candid response on internal attitudes to their self-censored Chinese search engine, admitting that the original decision was a trade-off on their anti-censorship principles, in the hope of bringing at least something halfway useful to users in China. "Perhaps now the principled approach makes more sense," he told reporters in Washington.

More at the Guardian: http://www.guardian.co.uk/china/story/0,,1792638,00.html

And for those who didn't see it yet, the cheap trick demonstration of Google filtering. Can you spot the difference between these two image searches for "Tiananmen"?

Oi! Yahoo! No!

2006-06-05T11:37:00.000Z

Excerpted from the first issue of logON://, the NUJ NMIC's new newsletter for members working in the New Media sector:

NMIC has decided to sever its collective ties with Yahoo! and remove the open mailing list for all new media journalists from Yahoo! Groups. The reason? Here’s the NMIC press release:
The New Media Industrial Council has decided to shut down its mailing list on Yahoo!. The decision followed a series of reports that the company provided information to the Chinese authorities that led to the arrest and imprisonment of dissidents, including journalist Shi Tao. According to the Court transcript, the evidence that led to Shi Tao’s sentencing included account-holder information provided by Yahoo!.
NMIC has set up the NUJ-newmedia mailing list on an alternative service. The Council calls on others in the union who run mailing lists on Yahoo! to consider doing the same and is willing to provide advice and guidance to those choosing to do so.
NMIC ask people to sign the petition, being run byAmnesty International in the UK and supported by TheObserver and the OpenNet Initiative. So far, nearly18,000 people have signed. You can too. Just go to http://irrepressible.info/ and add your name.The new mailing list is at:NUJnewmedia@lists.serverone.co.uk

There's been a whole bunch of stories about this, but my favourite so far has to be this one, made possible by the wonders of syndication: http://uk.news.yahoo.com/02062006/325/nuj-calls-yahoo-boycott.html (Mind you, if you're boycotting them, you're not allowed to read it, heh!)

Gis a job 2.0

2006-05-23T12:23:00.000Z

How did you find your new media job? I like to think I'm up on living the digital lifestyle most of the time, but I have to confess when it comes to how I sorted out my lovely new media profession, I actually reverted to type and clipped the ad out of the Saturday Guardian (dead tree edition).

Anyway if you too are embarrassed that you're not quite practicing what you preach, you might like to check out the new Chinwag jobs site - the first Web 2.0 job site, and all for us newmediaites. Put together by the webbies' email list supremos, it categorises jobs by 'so-now-dahling' tag clouds, and saves searches to scoop up later by RSS. Hey - it even has a nice big 'BETA' sticker, you don't get much more Web 2.0 than that!

On the downside, it's only just starting and most of the jobs seem to be agency (not knocking it, just would be nice to have more variety), and sometimes a bit vague as it's done through recruitment agencies rather than direct, so I'll probably still be reading my luddite classifieds for a while yet. Definitely does have the 2.0 'neat-o' factor though.

jobs.chinwag.com

Jemima's new contact details

2006-04-29T10:51:00.000Z

Should anyone be interested, I've left journalism.co.uk and I'm now freelance. I'll be working for paidContent.org among other things. That means my old contact details are defunct so you can now get me on jemima @ jemimakiss.com - removing the spaces, of course. More blurb on my site at jemimakiss.com.

Defining citizen journalism

2006-04-29T10:48:00.000Z

Very helpful piece by Richard Sambrook, BBC head of global news, summarising the citizen media movement so far.

Note that Press Gazette have just launched Citizen Journalism awards - although the name is rather misleading as they are focused on the public's mobile video and photo material. Piece on my site about it.

US corporate vultures close in on the net

2006-04-22T11:35:00.000Z

Congress is about to sell out the Internet by letting big phone and cable companies set up toll booths along the information superhighway.

Companies like AT&T, Verizon and Comcast are spending tens of millions in Washington to kill "network neutrality" -- a principle that keeps the Internet open to all.

A bill moving quickly through Congress would let these companies become Internet gatekeepers, deciding which Web sites go fast or slow -- and which won't load at all -- based on who pays them more. The rest of us will be detoured to the "slow lane," clicking furiously and waiting for our favorite sites to download.

Don't let Congress ruin the Internet:

http://www.savetheinternet.com

Congress Sells Out

After accepting hundreds of thousands of dollars in contributions from big telecom firms, Rep. Joe Barton (R-Texas) is sponsoring a bill to hand over the Internet to these same companies. He's not alone.

http://www.savetheinternet.com

Act Now: Save the Internet

*Tell Congress to Save Net Neutrality Now*

Our elected representatives are trading favors for campaign donations from phone and cable companies. They're being wooed by people like AT&T's CEO, who says "the Internet can't be free" and wants to decide what you do, where you go and what you watch online.

The best ideas never come from those with the deepest pockets. If the phone and cable companies get their way, the free and open Internet could soon be fenced in by large corporations. If Congress turns the Internet over to giants like AT&T, everyone who uses the Internet will suffer:

* *Google users* -- Another search engine could pay AT&T to
guarantee that it opens faster than Google on your computer.

* *iPod listeners* -- Comcast could slow access to iTunes, steering
you to a higher-priced music service that paid for the privilege.

* *Work-at-home parents* -- Connecting to your office could take
longer if you don't purchase your carrier's preferred
applications. Sending family photos and videos could slow to a crawl.

* *Retirees* -- Web pages you always use for online banking, access
to health care information, planning a trip or communicating with
friends and family could fall victim to Verizon's pay-for-speed
schemes.

* *Bloggers* -- Costs will skyrocket to post and share video and
audio clips -- silencing citizen journalists and amplifying the
mainstream media.

* *Online activists* -- Political organizing could be slowed by the
handful of dominant Internet providers who ask advocacy groups to
pay a fee to join the "fast lane."

* *Small businesses* -- When AT&T favors their own services, you
won't be able to choose more affordable providers for online
video, teleconferencing, and Internet phone calls.

* *Innovators with the "next big idea"* -- Startups and
entrepreneurs will be muscled out of the marketplace by big
corporations that pay for a top spot on the Web.

We can't let Congress ruin the free and open Internet.

*Let Congress Know that You Want Net Neutrality Now*

We must act now or lose the Internet as we know it.

Onward,

Robert W. McChesney
President
Free Press
www.freepress.net

Cracking student team to blog conference 2006

2006-03-20T23:49:00.000Z

>>> The formal bit

A crack team of student journalists will be covering the 2006 National Union of Journalists conference live from Liverpool, showcasing the work of student members on a dedicated new website.

The union's new media council and the professional training committee have teamed up for the project, helping local students cover the event with text, video and photos.

Members are encouraged to join in and support the project by visiting the site, reading and commenting on stories and spreading news about the site. The organisers hope that the project will help promote the union of students and new media journalists.

"We have a huge challenge in recruiting the thousands of writers, designers and content producers that work in the digital media industry without the support of a union," said Jemima Kiss, new media council chair.

"We have a responsibility to promote what we do and show that we are engaging with this new audience, many of whom work and read news entirely on the internet. Working with our enthusiastic and blog-savvy student team to cover our main annual event live and online is the least we can do to publicise our work to the online community."

Check out the ADM 2006 student blog at http://www.nujstudents.org.uk

>>> The informal bit

Please support the project and encourage out students by reading the site and commenting on their coverage. We can't do it alone! Thanks!

London New Media sub-branch meeting (14 March, 6pm)

2006-03-07T09:08:00.000Z

The first meeting of the London Central Branch New Media sub-branch takes place next week (14 March) at 6pm in Headland House. This will be the first official meeting of New Media people in London and is designed to be a forum for new media issues that will feed directly into the London Central Branch meeting at 7.

The meeting is primarily for members of the London Central Branch who are in the New Media Sector, however, any member who's interested can come along, whatever branch or sector they're in. And, if you're not a member yet, but are considering it - feel free to come along and ask any questions you might have. We'd particularly like it if a range of people turned up for this first meeting to get the whole thing up and running.

So, don't forget, Tuesday 14 March, 6pm, Headland House.

Ringing Emily's bell

2006-01-30T19:22:00.000Z

Methinks Ms Bell's Guardian comments indicate just how much education of staffers and editors actually is needed.

If Ms Bell understood the issues, she would understand the Code. Her piece also, to my mind, indicates that she is more than a little out of touch with the PCC code, which The Guardian should observe.

Witn/less contributors, by the way, are just one example of the genus. Bloggers are another. So are journal-ists; those who keep diaries online. Samuel Pepys must be spinning. "Personal journalists" is yet another description that can be found in print. I think my current total of different sub-species is about a dozen. I'm trying to pull together a proposal so David Attenborough can fully document this particular form of wildlife.

Ms Bell misrepresents the WC Code of Practice. Bloggers are covered by the clauses that re-iterated the NUJ Code of Conduct, the PCC and similar codes that call for "fact" and "speculation" to be clearly identified. That should be all.

Syndication is permitted entirely, as long as appropriate payments are made. Rights are mentioned in the NUJ Code of Practice, not copyright, because journalists have more rights in their work than just copyright.

If publishers want to undermine their credibility with a "Wiki" approach, then they are free to do so. Like so much blogging, the concept is already discredited and does not deserve to be taken seriously. Publishers and editors who mistakenly believe a future lies with "product" that no one can believe, or should believe, have a right to a slow and painful death, it is just a pity that we have to be taken along with them.

Regular readers of Ms Bell's column should not be surprised by her comments.

I came away from last week's Roundtable event feeling very old. Apart from Bill Hagerty, I think I may well have been the oldest there. The largely young contingent representing The Guardian did not seem to have seen a broader picture, or the "fanzine revolution" of the 70s, when Letraset and cheap photocopying caused many similar concerns as those we are seeing today. Their (lack of ) appreciation of history and their proximity to what they are doing worries me.

If anyone saw my response to the blog of the event, I was also very concerned about being reported in a way that a "proper" journalist would never have been allowed to do.

Which brings me to the question of how much do I believe The Guardian? The answer to that is far less than I used to. Does anyone else think that credibility is an issue?

Excuse me, but I have to go and buy another couple of tons of salt; I've been going through a lot recently.

Adam
www.asperceived.com
(c) Adam Christie 2006; All rights reserved

Emily Bell's verdict

2006-01-30T13:47:00.000Z

Here's what she wrote in today's mediaGuardian about the code of practice for citizen journalists:

"The intention, for instance, at the heart of the NUJ's proposed code is to protect a differentiation between the professional journalist and the amateur.

"What it actually does is to potentially tie the hands of those who employ journalists to the benefit of those who do not. Wholesale adoption of the code would lead to: no blogs with free comments on them run by established media organisations; no picture streams or video footage from viewers and readers on news channels and websites; and no ability for mainstream news media to experiment with "wikis" or community-built sites. It would, of course, be far too expensive."

http://media.guardian.co.uk/mediaguardian/story/0,,1697633,00.html

Would anyone like to comment on that?!

All the people, so many people...

2006-01-11T15:32:00.000Z

Interesting topic for a NMK event next month. "Situations Pretty Vacant" is going to be looking at the shortage of skilled staff as the hyped second digital boom allegedly gets underway. It seems to be difficult to entice seasoned trad media staff over to the "new" side, possibly because of the lack of clear parallel roles in some cases, but also maybe because of the lack of career progression, particularly in smaller enterprises. Another suggestion is that the package offered just isn't good enough - something we've seen in some parts of the industry, where online staff seem to get much less respect, and in many cases less pay, than their trad counterparts, and crossing the divide is seen as a move away from 'proper journalism'. Anyway more on this from NMK here.

Happy New Year

2006-01-04T09:31:00.000Z

And starting 2006 on an optimistic note, here's a piece from the Beeb, rounding up the ways in which citizen media found its feet in 2005, and giving some pointers on how it could enhance traditional media in '06. Hope everyone had a good break, and good luck for the coming year!

More on Yahoo's ethics

2005-12-02T09:58:00.000Z

Good piece on anonymity, internet monitoring, Yahoo's compliance with the Chinese government... it's all in there.

http://www.zmag.org/sustainers/content/2005-11/17feffer.cfm

(Thanks Tim G!)

User Generated Content: The Real Deal?

2005-11-03T11:33:00.000Z

Okay, short notice, but this London goto from New Media Knowledge on user generated content's implications for media and journalists looks pretty interesting. Good speakers list covering established new media, agency consultants, and companies working in citizen journalism such as Scoopt.com. And hopefully, for a user generated content event, there'll be lots of time for comments from the floor! http://www.nmk.co.uk/event/2005/11/08/user-generated-content
All pretty pertinent after Ashley Highfield's recent suggestions that mainstream media should be playing to their strengths by focusing on higher quality and lower quantitiy, given the competition from citizen journalism and user content and instant availability of huge archives of similar material with ever improving search.

The eight Reporters Without Borders nominees for the blog contest

2005-10-25T10:06:00.000Z

Reporters Without Borders / Internet Freedom desk

24 October 2005

INTERNATIONAL

The eight Reporters Without Borders nominees for the blog contest

The German radio station Deutsche Welle has published the list of nominees for its weblog contest, including those chosen by Reporters Without Borders for the "freedom of expression" category. The bloggers who have been singled out include former Tunisian judge Mokhtar Yahyaoui, currently on a hunger strike in protest against President Ben Ali's repressive policies.

From the more than 130 blogs proposed by Internet users, Reporters Without Borders and Deutsche Welle picked the shortlist of eight because of a particular passion they have displayed in their defence of free expression. All of these eight blogs carry news and information not found in the traditional media.

Internet users can vote on http://www.thebobs.de/ to indicate who they prefer. But it will be up to the panel of judges to choose the final winners. The results will be announced on 21 November.

These are the eight nominees in the special category sponsored by Reporters Without Borders:

China Digital Times (http://chinadigitaltimes.net/) A news blog about China that is published outside of the country. A very rich source for those who want to follow Chinese current affairs.
Chronique déplaisante d'une dictature ordinaire (http://www.addisferengi.net/) A French resident in Addis Ababa criticises repression in Ethiopia. The blog includes lots of interviews with Ethiopian dissidents.
Manal and Alaa Bit Bucket (http://www.manalaa.net/) An Egyptian blog promoting free expression and human rights. A forum for discussion, but also a resource centre for Arabic-speaking Internet users who would like to set up their own blog.
Wang Yi's microphone (http://zhivago.tianyablog.com/) A Chinese intellectual who uses his blog as a microphone to denounce the repressive system that rules his country.
Hanif Mazrooie (http://hanif.ir/) An independent Iranian journalist's blog which led to its author spending a month in prison in September 2004.
Parastood (http://www.parastood.com/) One of the oldest Iranian blogs, famous for its open criticism.
Colombian realities (http://lacoctelera.com/realidades) A Colombian journalist who writes critically about a range of issues including his country's pervasive violence and corruption.
Yahyaoui (http://yahyaoui.blogspot.com/) The blog of former judge Mokhtar Yahyaoui, one of Tunisia's leading political dissidents and the uncle of cyber-dissident Zouhair Yahyaoui. His blog was recently pirated and rendered unavailable. But it can still be accessed by using Google's "cached" function (enter yahyaoui + blogspot in Google and then choose the "cached" option). Mokhtar Yahyaoui is one of seven Tunisian civil society figures who are currently on hunger strike in protest against the lack of freedom in Tunisia, where his blog is censored, along with dozens of others. Nonetheless, Tunis is to host the World Summit on the Information Society on 16-18 November, which is being organised under the aegis of the United Nations.

Working like a dog

2005-10-24T15:09:00.000Z

Yet more doggy nonsense from the TUC. The long hours culture is pretty familiar to many people in new media, where mobile devices, home access and 24/7 reporting cycles can blur the boundaries between work and home life if they're not managed properly. This little flash animation ("Pup Where We Belong") pokes some gentle fun, and some terrible puns, at the issue.

Paper, scissors, iPod

2005-10-13T11:56:00.000Z

Interesting run-through of some of the technology issues facing the newspaper industry in the Guardian by New York Times (Interesting given last month's story - see below) reporter David Carr. Carr sees a role continuing for 'companion media' (media you need to sit down and take time out with - not cherry picking or background-listening), but thinks it needs its iPod moment - the time when a new technology device makes people start to use a medium in a totally new way. He sees the dedicated eBook reader as this device - if anyone ever gets around to inventing one good enough.

Also, speaking of the NYT ad funding dilemna, evidence is emerging that this is a UK phenomenon too. This piece in Netimperative reveals Internet Advertising Bureau research showing that online is taking an ever bigger slice of advertising revenues, currently half a billion pounds in the first half of 2005 (for the first time this is more than was spent on outdoor advertsing in the same period).

Handbook for bloggers and cyber-dissidents

2005-09-26T16:09:00.000Z

Just in case you haven't seen it already, Reporters Sans Frontières have published a handbook for bloggers and cyber-dissidents - http://www.rsf.org/rubrique.php3?id_rubrique=542.

The internet ate my job

2005-09-26T10:49:00.000Z

Bad news at the New York Times group, where 500 staff may be about to lose their jobs. The group claim that the cuts are unavoidable as too many of their younger readers are now getting their news from the internet instead of papers, a readership problem compounded by a fall in ad revenue as the readership presumably becomes less valauble to advertisers. 45 editorial staff are to go from the NYT editorial department, which will make a pretty big hole, regardless of the group's claim that it won't hit editorial standards. More at Silicon.com

No puppies harmed in the making...

2005-09-06T21:48:00.000Z

I sincerely hope none of you have a workplace as tyrannical as this, but if you have - hey, it's time to join the union...
Comfort Breakdown

Katrina Aftermath: Sept 2, 2005: International Blogging for Disaster Relief Day

2005-09-02T09:20:00.000Z

Here's a posting which gives an informed perspective on the blogosphere's reaction to Hurrican Katrina compared to how it reacted to the Tsunami. Some useful links in the comments, too.

Who's afraid of the big bad blog?

2005-08-31T10:51:00.000Z

Worthwhile read from Silicon's Will Sturgeon on blogging's threat to established new media. He's not one of the starry-eyed evangelists of citizen journalism, and sees a world in which blogging not only complements online news, but is actually totally reliant on it for sources and for accountability. True, he says, these are testing times for new media brands, but this isn't the fault of blogging, which is one of the smaller of a host of seismic changes for the industry.

We need your vital statistics!

2005-08-30T20:22:00.000Z

David Ayrton at the union's research department is asking for information on new media salaries to contribute to the NUJ Pay Summit in November.

David has asked members to submit details from current or previous new media workplaces, and needs to know:

• starting rates
• what journalists usually earn per month
• number of hours worked
• de-facto differentials that may exist in pay between the earning of men and woman.

Please send any details to David by email or to the address below.

David Ayrton
Research and Information
National Union of Journalists
Headland House
308-312 Gray's Inn Road
London
WC1X 8DP
Tel: 020 7843 3745
Mobile: 07734 845 323
Fax: 020 7278 6617
Email: DavidA@nuj.org.uk