Media News - Wednesday, September 03, 2008

Thailand: 400 websites shut down

The Thai Information and Communications Technology (ICT) Ministry has detected more than 1,200 websites that violated the Computer Crime Act - of which 344 had content deemed insulting to the monarchy. The ministry said that between March and August this year, it detected more than 1,200 sites disturbing the peaceful social order and morality of the people, and/or which were considered detrimental to national security. ICT Minister Mun Patanotai said the ministry has advised internet service providers to block these websites immediately and had sought court actions against them under article 20 of the law. He said the court issued three orders shutting down about 400 sites, 344 of which carried material that was contemptuous of the royal family. The ministry had also sought help from the police to bring all the violators to trial. The blocked websites included two with religious content, one video sex game and five obscene sites. (Bangkok Post via Asia Media)

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Journalist in Russia’s Dagestan killed

A prominent journalist in Dagestan in Russia's North Caucasus died on Wednesday from wounds received in an attack overnight, regional police said. Police said Abdulla Alishayev was attacked by unidentified assailants on Tuesday evening. He is the second Russian journalist to die since Sunday in Russia's turbulent southern region. In nearby Ingushetia police used batons on Tuesday to break up an anti-government protest over the death in police custody on Sunday of opposition journalist Magomed Yevloyev. Police said he was shot dead when he lunged for a gun. Human rights workers said they did not believe this story. In March the chairman of the Dagestan State Television and Radio Broadcasting company was shot in his car by unknown assailants outside a supermarket in Makhachkala. (Reuters via ABC News)

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Iran bans Al-Arabiya reporter

The Tehran bureau chief for the Saudi-owned Al-Arabiya news channel has been banned Tuesday by Iranian authorities from working in the Islamic Republic and told to leave the country as soon as possible, the network told The Associated Press. The network's representative did not want to elaborate on how the decision of Iranian Culture Ministry to revoke bureau chief Hassan Fahas' press accreditation and declare him 'persona non grata' would affect Al-Arabiya's news office of a dozen reporters, producers and cameramen. Iranian officials have long complained that Al-Arabiya's coverage of Iran is biased. The network has rejected the criticism, saying that it had always given Iranian officials the chance to take part in its programs. This is the third Al-Arabiya correspondent expelled from Iran since it opened an office there in 2003. Saudi Arabia and Iran have long been rivals in the region and lately Saudi media has been playing up the Iranian Shiite threat to the predominantly Sunni Middle East. (AP via International Herald Tribune)

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No split for ProSiebenSat.1 group, owner says

European broadcaster ProSiebenSat.1, which owns a string of TV channels in Germany, Scandinavia and eastern Europe, is not putting them up for sale, a main owner said in a news interview published Tuesday. Joerg Rockenhaeuser, who heads the German operations of private-equity investor Permira, dismissed suggestions that the TV company would raise cash by selling channels. Permira and another private-equity investor, KKR, control 88 percent of Munich-based ProSiebenSat.1, which in turn owns the Swedish-based group SBS. Earnings at ProSiebenSat.1 have lagged amid high debt after the SBS takeover. Rockenhaeuser said the investors hoped to discover fresh synergies in the sprawling group, such as airing one channel's best programs on the other channels, adding that the business was 'well on its way to repeating in 2009 the success of past years.' Speculation on a disposal began in the German media in April after Michael Boernicke, the chief of a German pay-TV company, Premiere, said he would like to buy Sat.1, one of the big group's German channels. The group has repeatedly said it has no desire to sell. (Deutsche Welle)

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New site Demotix brings together citizen and pro journalists, says founder

A website that is aiming to unite 'citizen journalists' with 'mainstream media' outlets and their professional counterparts has gone live Tuesday. Demotix will sell news videos and images submitted by professional and amateur correspondents from across the globe to more mainstream media outlets. Content will be made available on an exclusive and non-exclusive basis with 70 per cent of any fee charged given to the photographer or filmmaker. The initiative was founded in response to the 'mass shrinkage' of foreign news coverage by media organisations, Turi Munthe, Demotix CEO, told Journalism.co.uk. This model will give the mainstream media access to countries where there is heavy censorship and threats to journalists by providing coverage from the ground, Munthe said, while also giving those 'street reporters' a chance to 'get their voices back into the mainstream'. Metadata in the content, which could indicate the identity or location of a journalist, will be removed in cases where a contributor is at risk. The initiative also aims to give freelance journalists the opportunity to showcase their work and forge links with mainstream media. (Journalism.co.uk)

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The Netherlands: Astro TV taken off the screen

Astro TV, an astrological phone-in service has being taken off the screens following a report of a consumer magazine reporter who was employed easily despite having no spiritual experience, reports De Volkskrant. Broadcaster RTL has cancelled live broadcasts of Astro TV in which people can call and be given astrological advice and spiritual consultation after it has emerged that the company was duping their callers. The reporter had posed as a medium called Ramona and was employed to on the company's website, charging EUR 0.80 a minute for consultations without having any 'spiritual experience'. Ramona went on to talk to other mediums behind the scenes and found out that they were sometimes told 'just to make stuff up' and that the service was 'a big con operation'. The consumer magazine reporter also showed contracts stating that callers were supposed to be kept on the line for at least 20 minutes. Broadcaster RTL tells De Telegraaf that it is shocked by the findings. (Radio Netherlands/Expatica Netherlands)

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