Media News - Tuesday, August 07, 2012

UK: Amazon selling more Kindle ebooks than print books

The UK's biggest book retailer Amazon now sells more ebooks than hardbacks and paperbacks combined, the company has said. For every 100 print books sold through the site, Amazon said it sold 114 titles for its Kindle e-reader device. It added that the average Kindle owner bought up to four times more books than they did before owning the device. The strong figures have been boosted by titles such as multi-million selling erotic novel Fifty Shades of Grey. The book has sold more than 31 million copies worldwide, with two million ebooks of the title selling in less than four months. The figures do not take into account ebook sales on other platforms, such as Apple's iBooks or the website for bookseller Waterstones. Amazon's figures have also been boosted by a surge in popularity for self-publishing. The company said there had been a 400 percent increase in authors using Kindle Direct Publishing since summer 2011. Among them were some of the site's bestsellers. The figures were released as Amazon marked the two-year anniversary of the Kindle's release in the UK. (BBC News)

Myanmar censors lift ban on 2 magazines

Myanmar's media censors agreed to lift suspensions on two weekly magazines, editors said Tuesday, after journalists staged a rare protest to demand more press freedom. The Press Scrutiny Board summoned editors from The Voice Weekly and Envoy magazines on Monday and informed them they could resume publishing on Aug. 18. The meeting came a week after editors were ordered to suspend publication indefinitely for having violated regulations, but they were given no further explanation. Kyaw Min Swe, chief editor of The Voice Weekly, said officials at Monday's meeting revealed the publication's offense was a front-page article speculating about details of an anticipated Cabinet reshuffle. President Thein Sein has eased censorship as part of sweeping reforms after decades of repressive military rule, but some forms of control still exist. The recent flourishing of press freedom has brought serious investigative reporting as well as sensationalism, both of which make the government uncomfortable. Last weekend, dozens of journalists held a petition drive to collect signatures from members of the media and wrote a letter addressed to Thein Sein calling for an end to censorship. The rally was hailed as historic in a country where protests used to be illegal and any form of dissent was harshly penalized. The event highlighted a new assertiveness in the press corps. (AP)

S.African public broadcaster to launch 24-hour news channel

South Africa's public broadcaster announced Monday it will launch a 24-hour news channel to compete with independent television. The South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) aims to bring content from around Africa to audiences, according to chief executive Lulama Makhobo. "We are not seeing our... channel as being purely South African. We see it as a Pan African channel which will bring much more regularly news from the rest of the continent that affect South Africa," she was quoted as saying by the Sapa news agency. News will be broadcast for six hours at the start, then grow to 24 hours. The channel will be hosted by South African telecommunications company Multichoice's satellite television platform DSTV, which has a large presence in Africa. It was unclear when the channel would launch. Currently the country has one 24-hour news channel, eNews, which in recent years has branched out elsewhere in Africa. Controversy has plagued public broadcaster SABC, with mismanagement and political interference fingered in audits and media reports. In 2010 it scrapped its international channel, after it drew too few viewers. (AFP)

Uruguayan newspaper accuses government of censoring violent images in news publications

In an editorial published Thursday, Aug. 2, the newspaper El Observador criticized the Uruguayan government of issuing a decree that censors violent images prior to their publication in the news. According to the newspaper, the alleged ban is the government's strategy to avoid "public exposure to violence" in the country, since research shows that insecurity is the population's main concern. On Friday, Aug. 3, the Uruguayan government officially denied the censorship accusations, reported the news site La Red 21. The government said that the article was incorrect and was the opposite of what the administration had published about the subject, according to the government's press release. "The Executive Power did not issue any decree forbidding the publishing of images, as the 1988 provisions that authorized prior censorship were revoked," the release said. (Knight Center)

China: Baidu employees arrested for taking bribes for post deletion

Three employees of Chinese search engine Baidu have been arrested for taking bribes to delete postings. According to the BBC, the bribery ring netted a profit of thousands of pounds. It is still not known what type of content was deleted from search postings. Baidu has a history of censorship scandals. The company reportedly sacked four employees following an investigation. Three of the unnamed employees were arrested. The fourth fired employee faced no criminal charges but was accused of being a co-conspirer by Baidu. Baidu is currently China's most used web search service. According to iResearch statistics the company held a 74 per cent online search market share in 2011. The Baidu scandal points to the larger concern of online censorship in China. The company was sued for governmental censorship last year. A group of Chinese residents in New York sued the search company for conspiring to censor pro-democratic content. While corporate bribery is a major crime in China, the incident could still be a cause for concern in the country's business scene. Former China Mobile vice chairman Zhang Chunjiang was arrested for taking over USD 1m in bribes as of 2011. Chunjiang was accused of giving out favorable contracts in return for bribe money. The former corporate vice president was sentenced to death for accepting the bribes. (V3.co.uk)

Egypt TV channel caters to fully veiled women

The only visible female face in the Cairo-based studio of a new Islamic TV channel for women is that of a puppet. The human stars are all veiled from head to toe, with only their eyes showing. Maria TV is run primarily by women. They operate cameras, present shows and interview female guests ranging from doctors to students of Islamic theology. But they cannot show their faces during the broadcasts, and no men are allowed on air during the female programming, not even for phone-ins. Shrouded in long, flowing black robes and scarves known as niqabs, with black gloves to match, the women are distinguishable only by their voices and the slits for their eyes. The channel, which was launched last month to coincide with the start of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, is the brainchild of Ahmed Abdallah as part of a broader effort to expand his religious, pan-Arab satellite station Ummah TV. The shows range from beauty programs where presenters simply discuss makeup tricks without actually showing any to shows about medicine and marriage. The puppet is used in a satirical show that pokes fun at major news stories. Abdallah, known by his nickname Abu Islam, said his goal is to show women that they do not have to reveal their beauty to the world in order to be seen. (Reading Table)

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