Media News - Thursday, February 23, 2012

Tech giants agree to new privacy rules

Six of the world's top consumer technology companies – including Apple, Google and Microsoft – have agreed that apps will provide greater privacy disclosures before users download them so as to protect consumers' personal data, California's attorney general said on Wednesday. The move comes amid increasing criticism over "data grabs" by a number of third-party applications which don't offer clear disclosure about how much of a user's personal data such as their address book they will store on their servers. Google also came under renewed scrutiny over its announcement earlier in February that it would streamline its privacy policy, and still faces separate scrutiny from the US Congress over its circumvention of security settings in browsers to track millions of users of its services on Apple's iPhone and iPad, and users of Microsoft's Internet Explorer browser. The new agreement binds Amazon, Apple, Google, Microsoft, BlackBerry-maker Research in Motion (RIM), and Hewlett-Packard – and developers on their platforms – to disclose how they use private data before an app may be downloaded, Attorney General Kamala Harris said. (The Guardian)

Foreign journalists killed in Syria regime shelling

The French government on Wednesday confirmed the death two journalists in the Baba Amr area of Homs, Syria, as the Syrian regime continued its assault on the rebellious city. The reporters were French national Remi Ochlik, and Marie Colvin, an American working for Britain's Sunday Times newspaper. Both were veteran reporters in the Middle East and elsewhere, with Colvin's career spanning over two decades. Ochlik, 28, won a World Press Photo contest for his photograph showing a Libyan opposition fighter squatting on the ground underneath a Libyan flag, with a smoke-filled sky in the background. Colvin's work for the Sunday Times was considered a leading conflict correspondent. She wore her trademark eye patch after losing her vision in the eye after an ambush in Sri Lanka in 2001. Two other journalists, French reporter Edith Bouvier of Le Figaro and British photographer Paul Conroy of the Sunday Times, were wounded as well in the bomb assault in Homs. France has since demanded access to any wounded Western journalists in Syria and summoned the Syrian envoy to Paris.Rights groups say more than 6,000 people have been killed in the 11-month uprising against the Assad regime. Independent confirmation of such figures is impossible due to a government ban on most foreign journalists from reporting in Syria. (Deutsche Welle)

Google aims to offer Kansas City TV

Google Inc. applied last week to provide video service to residents of Kansas City, Mo., according to state records, setting the stage for the Web giant to offer a cable-TV-like package in addition to the high-speed Internet service it plans to market there later this year. The video service, if approved, would thrust the Mountain View, Calif., company into closer competition with satellite and cable companies, such as Time Warner Cable Inc., that already sell pay-TV service in Kansas City. Google could launch its TV service as soon as a month or two from now, according to a media executive currently involved in negotiations to license channels to the service. The service would offer subscribers live TV, as well as on-demand and online access to TV channels, similar to services from major cable operators, this person said. While the plan for now is restricted to Kansas City, this person said Google had discussed expanding it to other markets that Verizon Communications Inc. hasn't entered with its FiOS fiber-optic TV service. It remains unclear whether Google intends to do so, but it would have that right under at least some of the deals it is currently negotiating with TV channels, this person said. (Wall Street Journal)

EU refers anti-online piracy pact to court

The European Commission said Wednesday it has asked the EU's highest court to rule on the legality of a controversial treaty covering copyright, counterfeiting and Internet freedom. The EU executive "decided Wednesday to ask the European Court of Justice for a legal opinion to clarify that the ACTA agreement and its implementation must be fully compatible with freedom of expression and freedom of the internet," said a statement. However, even at the highest levels in Brussels, officials are deeply divided over the accord, with the justice commissioner openly criticising the deal. The United States, Japan and Canada are among signatories to the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA), but a number of mainly eastern European states have threatened not to ratify the treaty, which critics say could curtail Internet freedom. The Commission has defended ACTA against accusations that it amounts to a witch hunt against individuals illegally downloading content and has vowed to try to keep the deal alive when it comes up for ratification later this month by the European Parliament. A string of protests has drawn tens of thousands of citizens onto the streets of European cities over recent weekends. (AFP)

Microsoft files EU complaint over Google, Motorola

Microsoft Corp has asked EU antitrust regulators to intervene in a patent dispute with Google Inc and Motorola Mobility Holdings Inc as it stepped up its battle against Google. Microsoft complained that Motorola Mobility was charging Microsoft too much for use of its patents in Microsoft products a week after the European Commission - the EU's executive arm - and the U.S. Justice Department approved Internet search leader Google's USD 12.5bn acquisition of mobile phone-maker Motorola. Google had pledged to license Motorola patents on fair and reasonable terms if the deal were allowed to go ahead in the week before EU approval for the deal, which is still being reviewed by China's regulators. But Microsoft argued that "Motorola has refused to make its patents available at anything remotely close to a reasonable price" in a blog posted by its deputy general counsel Dave Heiner on Wednesday. As a result Heiner said Microsoft had filed a formal competition law complaint against Motorola Mobility and Google. Heiner had initially named just Motorola Mobility in the blog post but in an update said the complaint also included Google. (Reuters)

UK: Al Jazeera English named channel of the year

Al Jazeera English has been named News Channel of the Year at this year's Royal Television Society Awards. Tuesday's award saw the five-year-old broadcaster beating competitors including BBC News and Sky News. The Qatar-based channel earned praise for its frontline coverage of the Arab Spring, including the protests in Cairo's Tahrir Square, and for being the first on the scene to report the death of Muammar Gaddafi, the former Libyan leader. Additionally, the network's social media programme, The Stream, received the Innovative News Award for its in-depth analysis of the struggle between government loyalists and opposition protesters in Bahrain. The year-old DC-based programme, which relies heavily on social media platforms and Skype interviews for its content, brought the ongoing protests in Bahrain to the forefront and featured an intense Skype debate between Suhail Algosaibi, a government loyalist, and Zainab al-Khawajah, a Bahraini activist. Utilising content from micro-blogging service Twitter, social networking site Facebook, and video sharing site YouTube, the programme featured a series of questions posed by members of the public directly to the show’s participants via these platforms. The annual RTS Awards are decided by balanced juries of media professionals. (Al Jazeera)

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