Media News - Thursday, July 17, 2008

Diversify or die: Equality chief’s stark message to broadcasting industry

A continuing failure to reflect ethnic diversity by "overwhelmingly white" broadcasters such as the BBC and Channel 4 must be urgently addressed if they are to survive in the digital age, according to a study. The report, commissioned by Channel 4 from Trevor Phillips in the wake of last year's Celebrity Big Brother racism row, calls for a financial levy on every TV show to fund schemes aimed at fostering diversity. Twenty-five years after Channel 4 was set up, partly with the aim of giving minorities a voice, and seven years after Greg Dyke, then BBC director general, described the corporation as "hideously white", Phillips found too little had changed. Phillips, a broadcaster and chairman of the Equality and Human Rights Commission, was paid to write the report in a private capacity. He commissioned research that found most white viewers felt broadcasters were doing a satisfactory job in representing multicultural Britain, but all other ethnic groups felt their performance was "very poor". The report accused mainstream broadcasters of tokenism and stereotyping, screening exaggerated and extreme representations of minority communities, failing to reflect modern ethnic minority culture, and of fostering a lack of black and Asian people in positions of power within the media. Key criticisms included reference to characters in soaps that perpetuated stereotypes, such as the Asian cornershop owner in Coronation Street or a black single mother in EastEnders with two children by two different fathers. Pointing out that there was only one non-white face in this week's MediaGuardian 100 power list, for which he was on the panel, he said the industry needed to find a "broadcasting solution" rather than a political one. (The Guardian)

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Al Jazeera English TV makes debut in Taiwan

Al Jazeera English, the English-language service of the popular Arabic satellite news channel, made its debut yesterday in Taiwan. The channel is now available through Chunghwa Telecom's Multimedia-on-Demand (MOD) service, an Internet TV service offered by the state-controlled telecommunications giant that to date has almost 500,000 subscribers nationwide. Speaking at the press conference in Taipei to mark the launch, Derl McCrudden, acting bureau chief of the Kuala Lumpur broadcast center, said that Al Jazeera had "no agenda other than the news" and would offer Taiwanese viewers unbiased analysis on global events. Former vice president Annette Lu, also in attendance, said she was pleased about the arrival of the new channel, as she had just had MOD installed in her house. She added that the launch of Al Jazeera, which is unpopular with certain governments around the world, was yet another sign of Taiwan's media freedom and showed how far the nation had progressed since the days of media censorship just a few decades ago. Launched in November 2006 and with its Asian base in Kuala Lumpur, Al Jazeera English features news, documentaries and sports and reaches an estimated audience of 120 million households around the world. (Asia Media)

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Drop-off in advertising lowers Gannett’s profit by 36 percent

The Gannett Company, America’s largest newspaper publisher, reported a 36 percent decline in second-quarter earnings on Wednesday as advertising sales in its publishing business fell 14 percent. The profit, $233 million, or $1.02 a share, compared with a profit of $366 million, or $1.56 a share a year earlier. The earnings matched expectations of Wall Street analysts surveyed by Thomson Financial. Gannett, publisher of USA Today, the nation's largest newspaper, sold several newspapers in the second quarter of 2007, adding 32 cents a share to earnings. Excluding the sale, profit fell by 18 percent. Revenue fell 10 percent, to $1.72 billion from $1.91 billion, in the quarter, which ended June 29. Shares of Gannett, which is based in McLean, fell 78 cents, to $16.57. The vast majority of lost revenue in the quarter stemmed from a 14 percent decline in advertising revenue in the company's publishing business. Retail advertising fell 8 percent, and classified advertising fell 19 percent. At USA Today, advertising sales fell 17 percent in the quarter. In a conference call with analysts, Craig A. Dubow, Gannett's chief executive, said he expected an increase in revenue in the current quarter from Olympics and political advertising. (NYT)

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Nepal 1 closes Kathmandu office

The staffers of the Delhi based Nepal 1 television channel have formed a new committee to launch protests demanding appointment letters, salary increment and regular pay after the management closed its Kathmandu office Tuesday. The struggle committee is scheduled to hold discussion with officer of the Federation of Nepali Journalists (FNJ) Thursday before beginning the protest programmes. Journalists stopped working from Tuesday accusing the management of failing to implement the agreement reached last year. FNJ chairman Dharmendra Jha, who reached the TV's Kathmandu office, told reporters in a press meet that federation would fight for the rights of the agitating media persons. Meanwhile, in a statement, a senior producer of the channel, Hakikat Kadian, claimed that he had received death threat from the agitating journalists. He further said to protest against the unprofessional behavior, he and another colleague have decided to go on fast confining themselves in the studio of the TV channel. (Asia Media)

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Magazine raided in Renault espionage case

French police on Tuesday questioned a journalist from specialized magazine Auto Plus and confiscated computers and photographs as part of an investigation into an industrial espionage complaint filed by Renault. The French carmaker filed an industrial espionage complaint in July 2007 after Auto Plus published photos of an as-yet unreleased model. A Renault spokesman would not confirm which confidential photos triggered last year's complaint. Auto Plus has published numerous photos and detailed information on the next-generation lower-medium Megane, slated for release at the Paris auto show in October. A Renault employee is reportedly under investigation for leaking the confidential photos to Auto Plus. All Renault employees sign standard confidentiality agreements prohibiting them from releasing information on new models or discussing them with the press, a company spokesman told Automotive News Europe. (Automotive News Europe)

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Licensing plan for East Timor journos

A United Nations-sponsored lawyer has recommended that journalists in East Timor be licensed to practice and that defamation be included in the country's criminal code. Isabel Duarte, a Portuguese lawyer, was appointed by the UN Development Program at the Government's request to participate in workshops conducted throughout the country by Kolkos -- the commission for media law in East Timor. Duarte said that throughout the country journalists told her they recommended licensing to ensure professionalism of the occupation. To establish such licensing, an institution funded by the East Timor parliament, but not covered by government regulations, should be established. It should consist of journalists and media representatives from print, radio and television with an independent chair, she said. Journalists would be licensed if they were high school graduates with one year of good practice in journalism. The licensing body would also provide a mechanism in the form of a press council to deal with public complaints and to provide an alternative dispute resolution process other than going to court. The body would have control of subsidised government support to the media and ensure this support did not entail favouritism or discrimination. Duarte said any general media law adopted by the Government should include defamation in both the civil and penal codes and a freedom of information regime to allow access to public documents. That proposal has already triggered a stern response from East Timor's Journalists Association. It’s spokesperson said journalists were "appalled" that defamation could be included in a penal code. (The Australian)

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