Media News - Friday, May 16, 2008

French bill on journalist sources stirs controversy

The French government on Thursday introduced a bill that recognizes a journalist's right to protect sources while stating there may be special cases when reporters will have to name names. The new legislation has been fiercely criticized by journalists' unions and press watchdogs for stating that reporters may have to reveal sources when ‘a pressing imperative requires it’, wording seen as too vague. Justice Minister Rachida Dati said cases involving terrorism or the kidnapping of a child may qualify under the law as instances when journalists in France may have to reveal sources. She argued the new legislation promised by President Nicolas Sarkozy during his election campaign last year struck a balance between the rights of journalists and the needs of police and other law enforcement agencies. But four unions representing journalists have come out against the bill, saying that the term ‘pressing imperative’ left the door open to broad interpretation. The bill came after a journalist for Le Monde, Guillaume Dasquie, was accused in December of ‘compromising national defence intelligence’ when he wrote an article quoting classified reports that French intelligence services knew of some Al-Qaeda plans before the September 11, 2001 attacks. Dasquie has refused to name the person who gave him the information. (AFP via The Tocqueville Connection)

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US Senate votes to override media ownership rule

The U.S. Senate voted on Thursday to overturn new, looser media ownership restrictions in the 20 biggest U.S. cities, defying a White House threat to veto the measure. Senators, on a voice vote, approved a resolution nullifying the new, relaxed ownership rules adopted in December by the Federal Communications Commission. The vote moved lawmakers a step closer toward overturning the new FCC rule. Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Daniel Inouye, a co-sponsor of the resolution, said he was deeply troubled by the FCC's rule relaxing media cross-ownership. The new FCC rules eased a 1975 ban on ownership of a newspaper and broadcast outlet in a single market. Similar legislation has been introduced in the House but has not come up for a vote yet. The FCC's Republican chairman, Kevin Martin, has said the rule was a minimal loosening of the ban aimed at helping struggling newspapers in big cities by spreading local news-gathering costs across multiple media platforms. However, the rule has been sharply criticized by consumer groups and some lawmakers, as well as by the FCC's two Democratic commissioners. Critics say further consolidation of the media industry would eliminate independent voices and degrade local news coverage. They also contend that the FCC rule contains loopholes that would let media owners combine newspapers and broadcast outlets in many smaller markets around the United States, not just the top 20 cities. The resolution must be passed by both chambers to overturn the FCC rule. (Reuters)

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Investor launches Yahoo challenge

The billionaire investor Carl Icahn has launched a battle to topple the Yahoo board and replace its 10 members with his own slate of directors. Mr Icahn said in a letter to Yahoo that it was clear the board had acted ‘irrationally’ in its dealings with Microsoft, which tried to buy it. Shareholders will now get the choice between the two boards at the annual meeting on 3 July. Mr Icahn wants to buy an additional USD 2.5bn worth of Yahoo shares. The manoeuvre follows much anger and criticism over Yahoo's decision, led by co-founder and chief executive Jerry Yang, to turn down Microsoft's USD 47.5bn (EUR 30.7bn) offer to buy the company. Yahoo had wanted Microsoft to increase its bid of USD 33 a share to USD 37 a share. Mr Icahn said it was ‘unconscionable’ that the firm had not put the decision to shareholders, saying the offer was a 72 percent premium to the value of Yahoo shares before the bid was tabled. ‘I and many of your shareholders strongly believe that a combination between Yahoo and Microsoft would form a dynamic company and more importantly would be a force strong enough to compete with Google on the Internet,’ Mr Icahn said. Microsoft has already said that, contrary to rumours of it possibly making another move later in the year, talks with Yahoo are over. Mr Icahn has reportedly already spent more than USD 1bn to buy about 50 million Yahoo shares - a 3.6 percent stake - allowing him to increase the pressure on Yahoo's board. (BBC News)

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CBS to buy CNET for USD 1.8bn

CBS is to acquire digital media content company CNET Networks in a cash deal worth USD 1.8bn (EUR 1.1m). The US broadcaster said the CNET acquisition would transform it into one of the 10 most popular internet companies in America with 54 million monthly unique users. Globally, CNET will boost CBS web traffic to 200 million monthly unique users. San Francisco-based CNET, founded in 1992, owns a range of online entertainment, news and information websites including CNET, ZDNet, GameSpot.com, TV.com, mp3.com and Silicon.com. The acquisition is expected to be completed in the third quarter of this year. (The Guardian)

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Le Monde staff back revised cuts plan

Staff at Le Monde have approved a fresh plan from the paper's management, bringing to an end more than a month of turmoil at France's most prestigious newspaper. Employees voted 81 to one in favour of the measures, with seven abstentions. The new plan is designed to reduce compulsory redundancies and extends the deadlines for staff to take up voluntary redundancy until June 30. It replaces a management plan to axe 129 jobs, involving 87 newsroom staff - one in four journalists. Once voluntary redundancies are taken up, trade unions and management will together ‘evaluate the savings made by these departures,’ according to a joint statement. Other savings will be sought through reassigning staff. Forced redundancies, if they happen, would take place in September rather than in mid-July, with a guarantee that no one will be sacked during the summer holidays. The agreement brings to an end weeks of protests at the paper that included three one-day strikes and two work stoppages. The industrial action prevented the evening daily from coming out on three separate occasions. Employees were also protesting at the planned sale of assets including a religious bookshop chain, cult cinema magazine Les Cahiers du Cinéma, a publishing house and a monthly magazine on dancing. (The Guardian)

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Woman indicted in MySpace hoax suicide

A 49-year-old Missouri woman accused of pretending to be a love-struck teenage boy on MySpace and drove a 13-year-old girl to suicide with cruel messages was indicted on Thursday on federal charges. Prosecutors say Lori Drew and others created the fake MySpace persona of a 16-year-old boy to woo neighbour Megan Meier for several weeks, then abruptly ended the relationship and said the world would be better off without her. Meier's 2006 suicide by hanging, just hours after she read those final messages, made worldwide headlines and prompted calls for social networking sites like MySpace to crack down on cyber-bullying. Experts said the indictment, which was handed down in Los Angeles after Missouri authorities declined to prosecute Drew, was a first of its kind and could stretch the bounds of the federal statute on which it was based. ‘We are in uncharted waters here,’ University of Southern California law professor and former federal prosecutor Rebecca Lonergan told Reuters. ‘This case is unprecedented and it's also a very aggressive charging decision.’ Lonergan said Drew was charged with accessing a protected computer to obtain information, a statute typically used against defendants who hack into government computers. Drew, who faces a maximum sentence of 20 years in federal prison if she is convicted on all of the charges, was expected to surrender to authorities in Missouri. (Reuters)

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