Media News - Monday, August 20, 2012

Myanmar government ends censorship of local media

Myanmar's government said Monday it would no longer censor local media outlets, the most dramatic move yet toward allowing freedom of expression in the long-repressed nation. The Southeast Asian nation's media had long been regarded as among the most restricted in the world. But President Thein Sein's reformist government began easing media controls over the last year, allowing reporters to print articles that would have been unthinkable during the era of absolute military rule. The Information Ministry, which has long controlled what can be printed, made the announcement on its website Monday. The head of the ministry's Press Scrutiny and Registration Department, Tint Swe, also conveyed the news to a group of editors in the country's main city Yangon. Under the new rules, journalists will no longer have to submit their work to state censors before publication as they have for close to half a century. However, reporters will still have to send their stories to the Press Scrutiny Department after publication so government monitors can determine whether their work violated any publishing laws, journalists said. It was not immediately clear to what degree that might result in self-censorship. (AP)

New York Times CEO Mark Thompson stands to make USD 6m in 2013

Mark Thompson, the outgoing director general of the BBC, is to receive a USD 3m sign-on bonus when he takes over as chief executive of the New York Times Company in November, in a deal that could make him USD 6m in his first year. Thompson will receive an annual USD 1m (GBP 636,000) base salary from the New York Times, plus a potential USD 1m annual bonus. The USD 3m "golden hello" is made up of a USD 1.5m performance-based award of New York Times Company stock, plus USD 1.5m of stock options. He will also receive a further USD 3m bonus for meeting the company's long-term incentives, which will be paid out over three years from 2013. To help the cost of moving from north Oxford to New York, Thompson will get up to USD 100,000 in relocation fees. He will move with his US-born writer wife, Jane Blumberg, and three children. He is eligible for an additional USD 25,000 to cover any legal fees. The USD 3m sign-on bonus looks small compared with the USD 24m payoff Janet Robinson received when she unexpectedly quit as the New York Times chief last December. Like Thompson, Robinson was on a USD 1m a year base salary at the newspaper group. In the regulatory filing, the New York Times said Thompson's salary would be subject to an annual review, but would not be decreased outside of across-the-board salary reductions. At GBP 636,000 a year, Thompson's base salary is marginally more than the GBP 613,000 he received in 2011 at the BBC. His total BBC remuneration last year was GBP 622,000, having been reduced from GBP 838,000 in 2010 as the corporation sought to cut executive pay levels. Thompson's New York Times remuneration was revealed in regulatory documents published by the company on Friday. The targets Thompson must meet to receive the performance bonuses were not revealed. (The Guardian)

U.S. viewers watched 36.9 billion online videos in July

People in the U.S. have an insatiable appetite for watching online videos. According to new numbers released by market research firm ComScore, 85.5 percent of people in the U.S. with Internet access watched online videos in July - that's 184 million people who watched a total of 36.9 billion online content videos in only one month. For comparison, that is equal to every single person on Earth watching at least five videos each. And U.S. viewers' venue of choice is Google, which is not really surprising given the growth and popularity of YouTube. However, what is surprising is that the No. 2 spot goes to Facebook. This isn't the first time the social network has gotten so high on the video chart, but it's been a while since it last took this spot. Coming in fourth and fifth were Vevo and Microsoft, respectively. Other data from ComScore's report show that people in the U.S. watched 9.6 billion video ads in July with Google (again) ranking first as top venue and Hulu coming in second. ComScore notes that 20 percent of all videos viewed online were video ads. Of YouTube partner data, the music channel Vevo maintained its No. 1 spot from months past, but gaming channel Machinima got the second spot for the first time ever. Warner Music came in third and Maker Studios got fourth. The high ratings of YouTube music channels makes sense as reports came out earlier this week concluding that teens favorite venue for music listening happens to be YouTube. (CNET News)

News media in Bulgaria struggle for independence

The European Commission has vowed to monitor media freedoms closely in Bulgaria, where rival political and business groups have taken control of top news organizations and used them to promote their interests. Neelie Kroes, the European commissioner for telecommunications and the commission’s head of media policy and regulation, has said she will ask to meet with the relevant players when she travels to Sofia in September for a conference on broadband Internet. Ms. Kroes said in an e-mail that she had monitored a growing number of reports of reduced freedom of the news media in Bulgaria. The European Newspaper Publishers’ Association has also announced plans to investigate allegations of curbs on media freedom in Bulgaria, said Francine Cunningham, executive director of the organization. More than two decades after the fall of Communism, Bulgaria, which joined the European Union in 2007, is still struggling to build a strong and independent news media. Reporters Without Borders , a group that defends media freedom worldwide, ranked Bulgaria 80th in its most recent World Press Freedom index , placing it last among E.U. members. The country’s ranking has declined steadily since 2006, when it placed 35th. (New York Times)

The limits of free information in the Netherlands

The Dutch government wants to restrict the country's Freedom of Information Law (WOB). The WOB allows citizens, journalists and researchers to request government documents. This has led to politically embarrassing revelations about the costs of the Dutch Royal Family, ministers' expenses and the invasion of Iraq. But the government contends that reporters are abusing the Freedom of Information Law. It is suggesting rejecting "unjustified requests", not disclosing closed-door meetings and introducing conditions on the use of documents, with a maximum penalty of one year in prison. Journalists and others are arguing that curbing the law will make it difficult or even impossible to hold the authorities to account for their actions. (Watch video report) (Radio Netherlands)

India: Facebook, Twitter accounts blocked over hate messages

The Indian government is learnt to have ordered blocking of 80 more internet pages and user accounts today on social networking sites, including Facebook, Google and Twitter, to avoid panic among people of northeastern region living across India. All these sites were found hosting inflammatory and hateful content, spreading rumours and inciting violence targeting the people from northeast, government sources said. Yesterday, the government had issued instructions to block 76 internet sites, which included webpages and some websites, and had said that bulk of the rumours that triggered panic among people of northeastern states in Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Maharashtra were sourced from Pakistan. The rumours about a possible attacks have led to mass exodus of people from northeast from many places, including Bangalore, Chennai, Mumbai and Pune. Home Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde today asked his Pakistani counterpart Rehman Malik to crackdown on elements based in that country that were using social media networking sites to whip up communal sentiments and spreading hate in India. According to a report prepared by the Home Ministry, a Pakistan-based hardline group is suspected to have been involved in doctoring images and spreading them across social networking sites to create panic among people of northeastern region living across India. (Times of India)

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