Media News - Wednesday, August 22, 2012

Canada: Four Postmedia papers launch paywalls

Four of Canada’s highest-profile newspapers threw the switch on paywalls Tuesday, asking their readers to pay for the content they are reading online. By the end of the day The Ottawa Citizen, Vancouver Province, Vancouver Sun and National Post will all have caps on the number of articles readers can access per month before being asked to pay. The papers will initially charge 99 cents a month for full access to their sites and iPad apps. Anyone who doesn’t pay will still be able to read breaking news on each paper’s site, but will be limited to 15 non-breaking news articles each month. Print subscribers will have full access to all of the paper’s digital products. A membership to one paper won’t provide readers with access to the chain’s other papers – they would need to buy another subscription for each paper they want to access online. The National Post will only ask for money from international visitors to its website. This international model will also be applied to the Gazette in Montreal, which already has a metered paywall for domestic readers. Newspapers across North America – including The Globe and Mail – are scrambling to monetize their digital content to make up for declining print advertising revenue. The industry has been emboldened by the success of the New York Times, which has about 500,000 paying subscribers that is generating meaningful revenue for the company. (Globe and Mail)

Foreign journalists ‘intimidated’ in China: Press groups

Foreign press associations in China expressed alarm Tuesday over recent incidents of intimidation directed against foreign media workers, including the alleged beating of a Japanese journalist. The Foreign Correspondents' Clubs of Beijing, Shanghai and Hong Kong said they were “extremely concerned” by four recent cases of journalists who had been harassed or subjected to violence while reporting in China. A joint statement cited the alleged beating of a journalist from Japan's Asahi Shimbun daily by police while covering a demonstration in eastern China in July. His equipment, worth several thousand dollars, was taken and had not been returned, it said. Other incidents included an assault on a Hong Kong television reporter outside the court in eastern China where Gu Kailai, wife of disgraced politician Bo Xilai, stood trial for murder this month. “We are particularly concerned that a number of these incidents have involved members of the official security forces and associated elements,” the statement said. China's foreign ministry had no immediate comment on the statement, which came after Al-Jazeera's correspondent in May became the first foreign journalist to be expelled from the country since 1998. The statement also cited an attack on a German television crew who were accused of being spies and forcibly detained for nine hours at a chemical factory before police escorted them to their vehicles. (Sunday Times)

Chinese company keeps Syria connected to Internet

A firm that tracks the pathways of the Internet says a Chinese company is keeping war-torn Syria connected to the Internet as other telecommunications companies withdraw. The Syrian government ultimately controls Internet connection to the outside world but it's a major route for rebel communications and news from the country as the civil war intensifies. Hong Kong-based PCCW Ltd. is now carrying most of the Internet traffic to and from Syria, according to Renesys Corp., a Manchester, N.H., company that studies the structure of the Internet. PCCW has shouldered the load as Turk Telecom, the main phone company in neighboring Turkey, dropped away Aug. 12. It's not clear what killed its connections to Syria, but Turkey has protested the Syria regime's actions. China is one of Syria's few international allies. Renesys said Tuesday that Telecom Italia of Italy and Deutsche Telekom of Germany also carry some Syrian Internet traffic, but the Italian company's share is declining for unknown reasons. Syria is connected via undersea cables to Cyprus, Lebanon and Egypt, and PCCW is a part-owner of some cables running through the Mediterranean Sea. (Sacramento Bee)

19 million Americans can’t get fast internet

Access to fast Internet is spreading in the U.S., but about 19 million Americans can't get it, according to a new government report out Tuesday. The report by the Federal Communications Commission shows improvement from the agency's data last year that showed 26 million were without access to such Internet service. The FCC says its latest report was based on data it had as of June 2011. The decline partially reflects Internet service providers' expansion beyond suburbs, but the FCC also attributes it to data collection that improved from its previous efforts. The lack of access continues to hamper rural Americans in particular. About 14.5 million rural Americans - or 23.7 percent of 61 million people living in rural areas - had no fast Internet service offered for their homes. In contrast, only 1.8 percent of Americans living in non-rural areas - 4.5 million out of 254.9 million - had no broadband access. The FCC categorizes an Internet service as broadband if it transmits at a speed of at least 4 megabits per second. The report's ranking of states again underscored the correlation between broadband access and economic productivity. Economically struggling states fared worse than more thriving areas of the country. (Detroit Free Press)

Internet analysts question India’s efforts to stem panic

The Indian government’s efforts to stem a weeklong panic among some ethnic minorities has again put it at odds with Internet companies like Google, Facebook and Twitter. Last week, a mobile phone displayed a text message spreading a rumor about northeastern Indians’ safety in Bangalore. Officials in New Delhi, who have had disagreements with the companies over restrictions on free speech, say the sites are not responding quickly enough to their requests to delete and trace the origins of doctored photos and incendiary posts aimed at people from northeastern India. After receiving threats online and on their phones, tens of thousands of students and migrants from the northeast have left cities like Bangalore, Pune and Chennai in the last week. The government has blocked 245 Web pages since Friday, but still many sites are said to contain fabricated images of violence against Muslims in the northeast and in neighboring Myanmar meant to incite Muslims in cities like Bangalore and Mumbai to attack people from the northeast. India also restricted cellphone users to five text messages a day each for 15 days in an effort to limit the spread of rumors. Officials from Google and industry associations said they were cooperating fully with the authorities. Some industry executives and analysts added that some requests had not been heeded because they were overly broad or violated internal policies and the rights of users. (New York Times)

“Facebook Murder” shocks the Netherlands

They are just 14, 16 and 17 but they are charged with a gruesome murder. A killing that was well planned, and paid for. The trial began Monday in a case that has caused widespread shock and dismay in the Netherlands and has become known as the “Facebook Murder”. The three teenagers from the Chinese community in the Netherlands are standing trial for the murder of another Chinese teenager 15-year-old Joyce Winsie Hau. She was stabbed to death at her home in January, following a dispute with her best friend on Facebook. Winsie allegedly gossiped about the sexual escapades of her closest friend, 16-year-old Polly, on Facebook and other social media. Polly became so angry that she and her boyfriend decided Winsie must pay for the insults. They hired another Chinese-Dutch boy, 15-year-old Jinhua, to murder her. They offered Jinhua a small sum of money – reportedly less than EUR 100. According to the Dutch Justice Ministry, they spent weeks planning the murder, communicating with the assassin on Facebook and by phone. The “Facebook murder” is unprecedented in the Netherlands because it is being heard in public despite the fact that the suspects are minors. It has sparked a discussion about the role of social media and the online behaviour of teenagers. (Radio Netherlands)

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