Media News - Wednesday, July 04, 2012

Icann gets green light to maintain internet overlord role

Icann will continue its role of internet governance for another three to seven years following a new contract by the US Department of Commerce. The department's National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) said Icann's new contract to perform the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority functions (IANA) will begin on 1 October 2012. The non-profit body has been fulfilling IANA functions, such as the co-ordination of internet protocol address space and the management of domain name registration, since it was first established in 1998. Before that, the US government controlled the internet domain name system. Icann confirmed in June that former RosettaNet founder Fadi Chehade would take over as its new chief executive. Upon taking over, Chehade will be taxed with overseeing the ongoing rollout of a new set of generic top-level domains (gTLD). Icann recently announced the list of firms that applied for control of the generic domains. The process, thus far, has been a rocky road which has included a pair of shutdowns over technical glitches and unintentional data disclosures which have delayed the process by several weeks. (V3.co.uk)

UK: ‘Just do it’ ruling over Nike tweets is good news for media

Media who sell tweets to advertisers as part of advertising deals will be encouraged by a recent ruling by the Advertising Standards Authority. Celebrities have cashed in big-time on sponsored Tweets. Catherine Zeta-Jones’ endorsement deal with T-Mobile was reportedly worth millions. The mobile phone company’s national sales jumped 25 per cent during the campaign. Last year, the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) said that people should make it clear if they were being paid to tweet about something. It later warned: “Online advertising and marketing practices that do not disclose they include paid-for promotions are deceptive under trading laws.” The ASA recently investigated two tweets for Nike posted in January 2012 by Nike sponsored footballers, Wayne Rooney and Jack Wilshere on the official Twitter feeds. It wanted to determine whether the tweets were identifiable as marketing communications. But in a somewhat generous decision, the ASA said: “There was nothing obvious in the tweets to indicate that they were Nike marketing communications”. Media who offer cash-for-tweets deals will be encouraged by the decision. But the OFT’s guidance still applies - they expect sponsored tweets to be clearly recognisable. The ASA has suggested using a tag “#ad” may be enough to keep them within the law. (Press Gazette)

Belarus: Journalist indicted on libel charges

A journalist based in western Belarus has been indicted on libel charges after alleging that President Aleksandr G. Lukashenko influenced a court decision to execute two men convicted of an April 2011 bombing of a Minsk subway station. The journalist, Andrzej Poczobut, a correspondent for the Polish daily Gazeta Wyborcza, could face up to five years in prison if he is convicted of libeling Mr. Lukashenko in 11 articles published in the Belarussian opposition press, the Charter 97 Web site reported. In the articles, he also claimed that the authorities had ordered the arrest of an opposition politician and accused Mr. Lukashenko of “living in a made-up fantasy world, where he leads an unthinking war against imaginary enemies.” Mr. Poczobut, was indicted and released on Saturday. He is serving a three-year suspended sentence, also for libel against Mr. Lukashenko, from 2011. (New York Times)

UK: Don’t mention the ‘O’ word: A closer look at those Olympic media restrictions

If you’re planning to publish user-generated content from spectators at the Olympic Games, it’s best to have your solicitor on standby. There are strict rules on what ticketholders can do with photos and videos they take. And one thing’s clear – they can only post them on their Facebook, YouTube and Twitter pages and personal blogs if there’s no commercial purpose involved. So that rules out sending them in to newspaper, magazine or broadcasting websites. The small print on the Olympic tickets said: “Images, video and sound recordings of the Games taken by a Ticket Holder cannot be used for any purpose other than for private and domestic purposes and a Ticket Holder may not license, broadcast or publish video and/or sound recordings, including on social networking websites and the internet more generally.” Fortunately, some events like the marathon and the cycling road races, are ticket-free, so the restrictions don’t apply. But the rules apply to athletes, too. Athletes and other ‘accredited persons’ are banned from uploading images to social media platforms. They can’t even tweet! And if they want to post a photo or image taken in the Olympic village, they must get consent from anyone appearing in it. These rules are in addition to the stringent media restrictions on using the Olympic logo and various associated words. (Press Gazette)

Turkish journalists protest at police raid

Turkish journalists staged street protests after security forces raided the offices of the two Istanbul-based news agencies, Gunes, and Etkin (ETHA), and the Atilim newspaper. Carried out on 26 June as part of an operation against a communist party known as MLKP, police seized material and personal belongings while holding staff in their offices for several hours. ETHA editor Nadiye Gurbuz said notes pertaining to news stories were confiscated along with archive material. The chairman of the Turkish journalists' union, Ercan Ipekci, criticised the increasing use of "anti-democratic measures" in his country. Earlier this year, the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) called for the real of articles in Turkey's anti-terror laws that interpret the reporting of news as propaganda for terrorist groups. Turkey has drawn widespread criticism for its failure to protect press freedom. Last November, a judge at the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) said Turkey had the worst press freedom record among all 47 member states of the Council of Europe. (Bianet/IPI via the Guardian)

Tunisia: State media independence threatened by non-transparent appointments

Reporters Without Borders condemns the lack of provision for consultation before public broadcasting bosses are appointed and dismissed in Tunisia, where the dismissal of state-owned Watanya 1 TV director-general Sadok Bouabene and the appointment of nine state radio chiefs have just been announced. The appointment of Bouabene and other public radio station directors without prior consultation on 9 January already prompted an outcry. The heads of all the public radio stations were subsequently fired. "In the absence of clear legislation respecting international standards, senior public broadcasting personnel are being appointed in a way reminiscent of the old regime's methods," Reporters Without Borders said. "The lack of transparency not only threatens the public media's independence but also raises questions about the government's intention of implementing decree-laws 115 and 116 on the media in the near future. Reporters Without Borders urges the authorities to heed the report they received on 30 April from the National Body for the Reform of Information and Communication (INRIC), in particular, its recommendation that they should push ahead with reform of the Tunisian media. The INRIC plans to give a news conference tomorrow on the role that civil society should play in promoting reform in the information and communication sector. Reporters Without Borders will attend. (Reporters Without Borders)

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