Media News - Tuesday, April 01, 2008

IOC puts pressure on Beijing over Internet access

International Olympic Committee (IOC) inspectors have told Beijing organizers that the Internet must be open for the duration of the 2008 Olympics. The Internet is routinely censored in China but Beijing is committed by its ‘host city contract’ to giving the estimated 30,000 media expected for the Olympics the freedom to report as they have at previous Games. ‘There was some criticism that the Internet closed down during events relating to Tibet in previous weeks, but this is not Games time,’ IOC coordination commission vice chairman Kevan Gosper told reporters. ‘Our concern is that the press is able to operate as it has at previous Games during Games time,’ added Gosper, speaking on the sidelines of the inspection of preparations for the August 8-24 Games. The Australian, also chairman of the IOC's press commission, said blocking the Internet during the Games ‘would reflect very poorly’ on the host country but was confident the Chinese would fulfill the obligations of their agreement. New laws loosening the restrictions on foreign media in China went into operation on January 1 last year but are due to expire in October. (Reuters)

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First North Korea magazine starts with reporters inside country

The first magazine about North Korea reported by North Koreans from inside the country will start publishing a Japanese version this week to try to force change in one of the most isolated countries in the world. Rimjin-gang, the name of a river that flows between North and South Korea, will feature reports on North Korea only using accounts from people based in the country, Jiro Ishimaru, a Japanese journalist who founded the magazine, said in an interview. The magazine uses reports from refugees who agreed to go back to North Korea and report on conditions there, Ishimaru said. They were given cameras to record life in the country. Material for the magazine is smuggled out of North Korea and delivered to editorial staff in Osaka, Ishimaru, who has covered the country for nearly two decades and is author of the ``The North Koreans,'' said. The Japanese-language magazine, which will be published quarterly, will go on sale on April 3 every three months and an English version will start in June. A Korean-language version started publishing last year. (Bloomberg)

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Radio Netherlands Worldwide launches website on international law

Radio Netherlands Worldwide is launching a new website on international law: www.internationaljustice.rnw.nl. This English-language site intends to reach an international audience including lawyers, journalists, politicians and all those involved. Radio Netherlands Worldwide wants the site to make international law accessible to a broader audience. The website will provide both news and background articles. The website’s editorial team will not exclusively follow the most important cases and developments, but will also provide context and analysis. The site will also feature audio from Radio Netherlands Worldwide’s international law programmes as well as links to more than 300 websites of relevant organisations. In addition, visitors can participate in the forum and discuss international justice and its effect. (Media Network Weblog)

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Google starts letting users edit documents offline

Google Inc said on Monday it is taking the next step to make its Web-based software useful in the real world of spotty Internet access by allowing users to edit word processing documents offline. The world's top Internet company said it will begin over the next several weeks to allow users of its Google Docs word processing application to edit documents without an active Web connection, on planes, trains and other disconnected spots. The offline feature of Google Docs temporarily stores documents changes on a user's local computer. Once reconnected to the Internet, any changes the user made will automatically be synchronized and stored on Google-hosted computers. Offline editing is a free feature using a technology known as Google Gears that the company introduced around 15 months ago to application developers to build offline features into their own programs. (Reuters)

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Afghanistan moves to censor TV

Afghanistan's lower house of Parliament passed a resolution Monday seeking to bar television programs from showing dancing and other practices deemed un-Islamic. The decision came just days after the private Tolo TV channel aired a dance number featuring men and women together on an Afghan film awards program. The Information and Culture Ministry condemned the scene, saying ‘dancing by men and women together was completely against the culture of the Afghan, Muslim society.’ The parliamentary resolution, drafted by a commission for cultural and religious affairs, said dancers should not be shown on television, and un-Islamic scenes should be cut from Indian TV series broadcast in Afghanistan, said Din Mohammad Azimi, a lawmaker and member of the commission. The resolution, which is not now legally binding and cannot be enforced, will go before the upper house of Parliament for consideration, Azimi said. It would also have to be approved by the president before becoming law. (AP via ABC News)

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Study reveals impunity in journalist deaths in the Americas

The Special Rapporteur for Freedom of Expression has published the results of a study about the investigations of journalists’ murders between 1995 and 2005 in the Americas. The study is available at Organization of American States (OAS). According to study, between 1995 and 2005 157 journalists were killed in 19 countries in the Americas. At of the end of 2007, only 32 of these cases had resulted in some type of conviction. The largest numbers of murders took place in Colombia, Brazil and Mexico. In Colombia, 75 reporters were killed, but only seven cases resulted in convictions. In Brazil, convictions have been set in only nine of 23 murders. In Mexico, of the 20 murders of journalists, only in four cases have there been convictions. In Guatemala, none of the 9 cases were solved, and in Haiti, only two of six murder cases resulted in a conviction. (International Journalists Network)

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