Media News - Monday, May 19, 2008

Polish President vetoes media reform bill

Polish President Lech Kaczynski has vetoed the bill on reforming public radio and television. He said it could lead to ‘the further commercialization of the important area if public media and to the curtailing of ordinary citizens’ influence on these media.’ Under the new bill, proposed by the government, the role of the National Broadcasting Council would be reduced. Its members are now appointed by both houses of parliament and the president for six-year terms. The new regulations would allow Council members to be recalled before the end of the their terms and would limit the powers of this regulatory body, transferring some of them to the Office of Electronic Communication, subordinate to the government. Prime Minister Donald Tusk said he was not surprised with the presidential veto. Talking to reporters in Lima, where he was attending the EU-Latin American summit, he said that the president’s decision is a defense of the dominant position of the opposition Law and Justice in the public media. Mr Tusk added he is not emotionally attached to the broadcasting bill. More important for him is the bill on abolishing license fees. The vetoed legislation now returns to parliament, in which a three-fifths majority is needed to override a presidential veto. (Polskie Radio via Media Network Weblog)

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Microsoft proposes alternative deal to Yahoo

Microsoft Corp said on Sunday it proposed an alternative deal to Yahoo Inc rather than a full acquisition, but the move was unlikely to win favor with financier Carl Icahn, a person familiar with his thinking said. Icahn launched a proxy campaign on Thursday to replace Yahoo's board with directors who would reopen talks with Microsoft, saying Yahoo had acted irrationally in refusing the giant software company's USD 47.5bn bid. Microsoft walked away from its pursuit of Yahoo two weeks ago after three months of negotiations when Yahoo's board rejected Microsoft's sweetened offer of USD 33 a share, saying the company was worth at least USD 37 a share. The software giant's move on Sunday was likely to prompt the billionaire investor to press Yahoo to further pursue a possible alliance with Google, the source said. Microsoft's statement on Sunday said it was ‘considering and has raised with Yahoo an alternative that would involve a transaction with Yahoo but not an acquisition of all of Yahoo.’ It did not clarify what that alternative might be. The New York Times reported that Microsoft and Yahoo may form a partnership or joint venture for search-related advertising to take on Google Inc, which dominates the search market with a share significantly larger than a combined Yahoo and Microsoft. For its part, Yahoo continues to talk with Google Inc about a search advertising partnership and a deal could come as early as this week, a source familiar with the talks said on Thursday. (Reuters)

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Afghanistan: Appeal verdict in death sentence case adjourned to 25 May

A court in Kabul Sunday adjourned its verdict in the appeal against the death sentence of journalist Sayed Perwiz Kambakhsh of Jahan-e Naw (The New World). The 24-year-old was sentenced to death for blasphemy by the first chamber of the Mazar-i-Sharif court in northern Afghanistan on 22 January 2008. Kambakhsh was represented by a lawyer at the appeal hearing even though the lawyer only received his file during the week, two months after the journalist’s transfer to Kabul. His brother, journalist Sayed Yaqub Ibrahimi, said that the ‘appeal could lead to his release’. ‘We want this trial to be fair and hope that the verdict will not be obstructed by pressure from the fundamentalists’, he added. Kambakhsh’s summary trial in Mazar-i-Sharif was held behind closed doors and without a defence lawyer. He has been imprisoned since 27 July 2007 and is currently being held in the Pul-e-Sharkhi jail in the east of the capital. (Reporters Without Borders)

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Al Jazeera English tries to extend its reach

The English-language offshoot of Al Jazeera, the Arabic television news network, is pushing for a ‘breakthrough’ that would make the channel available to American TV viewers and help it move beyond a turbulent start-up phase, according to its new managing director, Tony Burman. The hiring of Mr. Burman, a former editor in chief of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, the Canadian public broadcaster, was announced last week. Al Jazeera English’s first year and a half has been marked by intense scrutiny of its coverage and by the recent defection of several high-profile Western journalists who had been recruited to lend credibility to the channel. Al Jazeera English, which is part of the Al Jazeera Network, based in Qatar, also announced distribution agreements last week in markets as far-flung as Portugal, Ukraine and Vietnam, increasing its potential audience to 110 million homes. Conspicuously absent, however, was the United States, where Al Jazeera is still largely unavailable on television. Viewers can watch it on the Web through a deal with YouTube, the online video service. In the United States, a market of 300 million people and hundreds of pay-television services, the reputation of its Arabic sibling as the preferred outlet for videos from Osama bin Laden has made the English-language version too hot to handle for some cable operators. A lack of space on crowded cable systems has also made it difficult for operators to offer Al Jazeera English. In an effort to make Al Jazeera English more appealing to American operators and audiences, Mr. Burman said he planned to increase coverage of American news, particularly as the presidential election approaches. (New York Times)

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Online publishers upbeat despite economic downturn

Online publishers are doing well despite an economic downturn, and the ones who are best positioned to succeed are strong brands with quality content, the head of the Online Publishers Association said on Friday. Web sites have an edge over traditional media by offering advertisers the ability to target consumers in a cost-efficient and highly focused way, the association's president, Pam Horan, told Reuters during the OPA's ‘Forum for the Future’ in London. The expected growth rate for online advertising spending in the U.S. this year is a still robust 23 percent, down from 25 percent last year, according to data from eMarketer. While both global media brands and local online publishers should be able to weather the storm, the ones with the strongest brands and quality content are likely to be most successful in attracting advertisers, Horan said. In an ever-expanding global economy, foreign readers are becoming increasingly important for publishers, Horan said. Advertising categories such as travel and financial news are particularly well placed to make money from foreign visitors. The continuous evolution of digital publishing platforms is another reason why the prospects for online advertising revenue are brighter than for traditional media. The mobile Web, video and social media are seen as key growth areas for advertising revenue. (Reuters)

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Google maps could cross EU privacy laws

Global search engine colossus Google has been warned by the EU data protection chief that the ‘Street View’ feature on its Google Maps service could run up against European privacy laws if it launches in EU countries. Street View allows users of Google's online map service to have a full-colour, 360-degree look around city streets. Users can digitally walk up and down the virtual street, which is built from composites of photographs taken by roaming Google cars with roof-mounted cameras. Peter Hustinx, the EU data protection supervisor, told reporters while presenting his annual data protection report on Thursday that if Google launched such a feature in Europe, the company would first have to comply with European privacy legislation, which in many member states is stricter than in the United States. The company has not launched the service in Europe yet, although it has announced plans to do so next year, and Google cars snapping away photos of the vias and rues of Rome and Paris have already been spotted. The company responded to the EU official's concerns by saying it is perfecting face-blurring technology. (EU Observer via Business Week)

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