Media News - Monday, July 14, 2008

Guardian Media buys paidContent.org publisher

The Guardian News & Media has acquired ContentNext, publisher of media and technology business blog paidContent.org, a sign of the growing importance of such sites to traditional media companies. ContentNext's founder and editor, Rafat Ali, and Chief Executive Nathan Richardson would continue to run the company as a stand-alone business, said the privately held Guardian, which publishes the Guardian and Observer newspapers in Britain and the Guardian America website. The Guardian paid about USD 30m (EUR 18.8m), a source familiar with the situation said. ContentNext, which is based in Santa Monica and New York City, delivers news and analysis to executives in the media, entertainment and technology sectors. It was founded in 2002. It owns paidContent.org, which covers digital content; mocoNews.net, which covers mobile content; paidContent:UK, which focuses on the UK and Europe; and contentSutra.com, which covers India's digital content market. (Reuters)

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Dutch Supreme Court: secret service allowed to eavesdrop journalists

The Dutch AIVD secret service is under certain conditions allowed to eavesdrop journalists. The Supreme Court on Friday upheld a ruling by the appeal court in The Hague, in a dispute between De Telegraaf newspaper and the Dutch state. The AIVD decided in 2006 to tap the phones of De Telegraaf journalists Joost de Haas and Bart Mos after they published information about top criminal Mink Kok. This information came from confidential, classified material of the AIVD itself. According to the appeal court in The Hague, 'weighty interests of the state were at risk.' The AIVD was therefore authorised to deploy so-called special investigation techniques, such as phone-tapping. The Supreme Court upheld this ruling. 'The journalistic protection of sources is not absolute, as it is limited among other things by the protection of national security and the need to prevent the distribution of confidential information,' the Supreme Court stated. (NIS News)

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Euronews launches Arabic feed

European news channel Euronews launched an Arabic feed on Saturday, following an internet premiere on Friday evening. The channel, which already broadcasts into seven languages is targeting several million potential viewers. 'We will address both to Arabic-speaking people in Europe, whose population is evaluated at 15 million, and to the Arabic region and its 250 million inhabitants,' Euronews' President Philippe Cayla told press agency AFP. Arabic programming will be the same as for the seven other languages, served by the same images. They will include a news edition every 30 minutes, magazines on society, culture, sport, business and its famous No Comment section. Euronews wants to keep to its line of international news channel and thinks its competitors will be CNN and BBC more than Al-Jazeera or al-Arabiya. While the channel's budget amounts to EUR 50m, the Arabic version will be completely financed over the next five years by EC for a total amount of EUR 5m. The channel will have 17 reporters of eight nationalities, all based in Lyon. (RapidTVNews)

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Cambodian journalist gunned down

A journalist working for a pro-opposition Cambodian newspaper was killed along with his son in a drive-by shooting in the capital, police said Saturday. Khem Sambo, 47, reported on corruption and other social ills under the rule of Prime Minister Hun Sen for the opposition newspaper Moneaseka Khmer. He was riding a motorcycle with his 21-year-old son on Friday when they were each shot twice by a man who was also riding a motorcycle, Phnom Penh police Chief Yim Simony said. They died later in a hospital. Moneaseka Khmer editor Dam Sith called the attack 'the gravest threat' to his newspaper, which is affiliated with Cambodia's main opposition Sam Rainsy Party. Oum Sarin, president of the Cambodian Association for the Protection of Journalists, said the killing is 'creating a climate of fear' among journalists. The case is the first killing of a Cambodian journalist in five years, according to Pen Samithy, president of Club of Cambodian Journalists. The killing threatens the climate for campaigning ahead of July 27 national elections, the Cambodian Human Rights Action Committee, a coalition of 21 private groups, said in a statement. It said it suspected the killings were linked to the many articles Khem Sambo wrote about issues such as illegal logging, illegal fishing deals and land grabbing that involved powerful government officials. (AP)

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Yahoo rejects joint Microsoft proposal

Yahoo Inc on Saturday rejected a proposal to sell its search business to Microsoft Corp and hand over the remainder of the company to activist investor Carl Icahn. Yahoo said in a statement it received the joint proposal from Microsoft and Icahn on Friday evening and was given less than 24 hours to accept. It said Microsoft and Icahn made clear they were unwilling to negotiate the fundamental terms, which include the immediate replacement of Yahoo's board and removal of top management. The company said the 'take it or leave it' deal that was offered would also preclude a potential sale of all of Yahoo 'for a full and fair price, including a control premium.' The move comes a few weeks before Yahoo's annual meeting on August 1, when Icahn is seeking to oust Chief Executive Jerry Yang and replace the nine-member board with his own slate of directors. Icahn owns nearly 5 percent of Yahoo shares. Microsoft, which has been embroiled in on-again, off-again deal talks with Yahoo for six months, has said it no longer wants to negotiate with Yang's team, but that it is willing to resume talks if a new management is in place on August 1. (Reuters)

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NHK bans stock trades by reporters

NHK said Friday that effective the same day it is prohibiting, in principle, stock trades by reporters and other employees who have access to its news information management system. The ban was introduced following the revelation earlier this year that two reporters and one director made share transactions using information obtained from the system. All three were fired in March. Around 5,700 employees who have access to the news information system at NHK and its affiliates will be required to pledge in writing that they will not trade in stocks, and those who fail to do so will not be given access to the system, NHK said. NHK employees who do not have access to the system are banned from engaging in short-term stock trading. (Japan Times)

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