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Ireland forms consolidated regulator
…broadcasters taxed…
Ireland’s Communication Ministry published the newly drafted Broadcasting Bill (May 14) establishing one consolidated regulator, the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland (BAI), replacing the Broadcasting Commission of Ireland (BCI) and the Broadcasting Complaints Commission (BCC).
Two separate committees will be formed for commercial and community broadcast licensing, the Contracts Award Committee, and the Compliance Committee to keep public and private broadcasters following the rules. The BAI will have content authority over public broadcaster RTE. Five BAI board members will be chosen by the government and 4 by the Irish parliament.
Junk food advertising is banned in Ireland under the Broadcasting Bill and citizens are guaranteed the right of reply, requiring broadcasters to air apologies or corrections when reputations are besmirched.
The BAI will be funded by a levy on broadcasters revenue. (JMH)
Government Urges Chinese Media To Do Good Job On Quake Coverage
One of the few “good news” stories coming out of the tragic China quake coverage is just how well Chinese media can cover such an event of enormous proportions when they are just allowed to do their jobs without political interference.
Foreign media are giving Chinese media rave reviews for their blanket, 24 hour coverage. It’s a far cry from the “old days” when the government would have wanted to keep a lid on such a tragedy but given today’s modern communications and the very size of the quake zone – about the distance from New York to Arizona – it would have been near impossible to keep this one under wraps
The Chinese leadership itself quickly got off the mark and took a literally hands-on commanding role in the relief efforts as obviously the government wanted the people to know that its leadership had the situation under control. But the stories are on far more than just what the government is doing – there is terrific coverage from the cities and towns devastated by the quakes and the work being done by volunteers and the like to try and find survivors since no government support had yet arrived.
Li Changchun, a member of the Standing Committee of the Central Committee Political Bureau, gave the media its marching orders to do a good job at a conference called to discuss earthquake coverage.
And how do we know that? Because the state-run Xinhua News Agency filed a report on the meeting!
China’s General Administration of Press and Publications also issued instructions telling the media to make timely and accurate reports to reassure the public, and also ordered local governments to take care of reporters, support them in their filing of in-depth stories about the relief work, but at the same time calling on those same governments to be vigilant for any false reporting.
Meanwhile witnesses to the Sichuan Province devastation have flooded websites with homemade videos, the chat rooms are extremely active, and it seems like non-stop text messaging. Citizen journalists plainly are in their element and it’s doubtful the authorities could stop it even if they wanted to.
What’s going to be interesting now is to see how/if international organizations continue waging their human rights campaigns against China now that the country is so visibly caught up in a national tragedy. What a difference a week can make for such campaigns.
Change of guard at News Corp Europe
Sky Italia chief bumped up
James Murdoch (aka Mr. Murdoch The Younger) shuffled the ol’ organigram appointing Sky Italia CEO Tom Mockridge as CEO European Television, a new position. Mockridge will continue his role with Sky Italia. Martin Pompadur, a long faithful servant of Mr. Murdoch The Elder, steps aside, down actually.
This is not a story about ‘promoting the sales manager,’ a well-known disaster looking for a place to happen. Mockridge is known as a skillful manager, not without a creative bent. He’s also closer in age to The Younger than The Elder. Expect more as Mockridge’s mandate is continental Europe, leaving UK TV projects to others. (JMH)
Cablevision buys Newsday, or at least most of it
…big deal of the day, at least most of it…
Yep, Tribune Company CEO Sam Zell turned down the opportunity to do a really big deal with Rupert Murdoch. He took the cash from Cablevision (US$ 632 million € 408 million) for 97% of Newsday. There’s enough synergy in this story to last the rest of the week. (JMH)
A Newspaper Trade Group Removes The Word “Newspaper” From Its Title
It’s no longer the International Newspaper Marketing Association. Welcome to the International NewsMedia Marketing Association. Pretty clever that, the group still gets to keep the INMA initials but is Newsmedia really just one word?
By removing the word “newspaper” it sounds like the organization has little faith in print any more, but Earl Wilkinson, INMA executive director says nothing could be further from the truth. “Our roots and origins remain intact,” he said. “Most of our members continue to make the preponderance of their revenues from print newspapers, and we believe that will resume growing in the future. Yet the online, mobile, digital and niche publishing canvasses are vital, growing and important to news consumers and advertisers who want to reach them.”
Well, if INMA believes it is in its best interests to drop the word “newspaper” can we expect the World Association of Newspapers (WAN) to do likewise and become the World Association of Newsmedia? We put that question to Timothy Balding, WAN CEO, who thankfully assured us it wasn’t going to happen, at least not in the near future, although he does admit the question does arise from time to time.
“We continue to accompany – in many ways, I hope, lead – newspapers in their transition towards multi-platform publishing, so no one has any doubt about our identity and objectives. And we continue to grow in membership, staff, activities and influence, so our current name is not hampering our ambitions and our expansion,” Balding explained.
Well, thank goodness some things are still left sacred!
Thomas Reuters?
Those of us who live in glass houses shouldn’t really throw bricks, but there was a headline correction on the Dow Jones newswires Monday that struck a chord and brought a wry smile. In its entirety:
“DJ Correct: Thomson Reuters, Not Thomas Reuters, To Launch Blackberry Partners Fund …”
Wonder who Thomas was?
Irish parliament on TV
…”interesting and vibrant”…
Ireland’s new Broadcasting Bill authorizes the Communications Ministry to set up a new DTT channel to broadcast sessions of both the upper and lower houses of Parliament, the Dail and the Seanad, plus all those meetings in between. Details on the programming and distribution should be released this week, according to the Sunday Business Post. In addition to Irish government business, the channel could broadcast sessions of the United Nations, European Parliament and the Council of Europe.
Also coming are proposals to make those Irish parliament sessions “more interesting and vibrant”, said committee chairperson Barry Andrews to the Post.
The channel is currently on the air in Dublin. (JMH)
Euro 2008 channel on Zattoo
…do you Zattoo?…
Just in time for the Euro 2008 football championships Swiss publisher Ringier will bring all the coverage to laptops. A dedicated Euro 2008 channel will air on the IPTV portal Zattoo beginning June 7th. In addition to the usual football stuff - debates, analysis, arguments – five ‘citizen journalists’ will take cameras and record their visits to Switzerland and Austria for the championships. The Euro 2008 channel will also be broadcast on Ringier’s Blick TV.
Zattoo offers a variety of TV channels, all live streamed, for TV fans away from the big screens at home. It’s available in Switzerland and seven other countries. Quite good quality, actually. (JMH)
BBC Goes Tabloid
...what would the Queen say?...
Passed without comment... (link - until somebody notices)
...from the ever faithful ftm Media Sleuth team. (JMH)
Sports as an intellectual property right? Please...
...punt, pass, kick...
Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) voted against establishing a new intellectual property right (May 8). But this barn door is open and rights holders - teams, leagues and other rights sanctioning agents - are clear in their intention to force media organizations to play by their rules... and pay.
The European Publishers Council (EPC) was generally pleased with the vote. (Read EPC presser here). The MEPs vote becomes a recommendation to the European Commission for further action.
Creating a new intellectual property right is a tough legal battle. Big broadcasters tried and failed at WIPO last year, eventually giving up. (read that story here) Legal precidents being what they are, it's difficult to find a pervasive argument for creating a new intellectual property right when WIPO itself refuses. (JMH)
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