“You need money to recruit writers but you need writers to make money.” — Co-founder John Ndege of the UK citizen journalism start-up Scribblesheet , which shut down after just six months. Ndege told a blogger/columnist at the Guardian newspaper that he does think there’s a need for citizen journalism — but can’t reconcile the…
On March 26 China said it would allow the first group of foreign journalists to visit Tibet — under escort — since violent protests began earlier this month. Reported Associated Press, “It was unclear how much freedom to report the small group of foreign journalists, among them an Associated Press reporter, would have during the…
Reading a Globe and Mail business story about how the U.S. Patriot Act “haunts” Google’s business services outside the U.S., I wondered how many journalists use gmail (or any other U.S. Internet service including domain hosting companies, or email services like hotmail or yahoo), as a backup email service. I suspect that using any American…
Let’s see: China is lambasting foreign reporters for “biased” coverage of the riots in Tibet — while preventing them from traveling to Tibet or neighboring provinces to report on the unrest. Hmmm. The only possible translation is that China wants journalists and the rest of the world to simply accept China’s version of what’s happening,…
Iraq coverage by major American news sources has dropped to about one-fifth of what it was last summer, says a New York Times story, which also notes, “the drop in coverage parallels — and may be explained by — a decline in public interest.” Shame! The New York Times story is here.
Just why has CanWest Global — the giant media company in an industry that is rightfully leery of libel chill and which relies on the right to freedom of expression for its existence — begun using law suits to squelch criticism of itself? CanWest is suing The Tyee, an independent online magazine founded by David…
“Canadian TV news has been hopeless in capturing the meaning of the implied censorship behind Bill C-10,” writes John Doyle in a Globe and Mail column. The omnibus bill would change the Income Tax Act, and also give the heritage minister the discretion to deny tax credits to any production deemed contrary to public policy.…
Since the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq five years ago, Iraq has become the world’s deadliest country for media while hundreds of Iraqi journalists have been forced into exile because of threats or murder attempts, said Reporters Without Borders, in a report on the state of Iraq’s journalists. Instead of reporting in Iraq, they are refugees…
“Occasionally, despite their aim to represent objective journalism, newspapers have to assert an ethical position on divisive issues. The Washington Post’s publisher, Katharine Weymouth, recently instituted the inalienable right to extreme procrastination in the workplace: She established a game room at the D.C. daily, complete with air hockey, foosball, and a Wii.” — From the…
“Every once in a while I feel that it might be helpful to readers if I explained what it is I am trying to do in these columns,” wrote Stanley Fish in the New York Times. Kudos to Fish. As both a reader and a some-time column writer, I have often thought both readers and…