Global broadcasting icon BBC turns 100

LONDON — Global media giant the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) celebrates turning 100 on Tuesday with one eye on its illustrious past and another on its uncertain future.

Over a century, the BBC has established itself as one of Britain's most visible and respected global brands, delivering its original mission statement to "inform, educate and entertain".

The broadcaster reaches an audience of 492 million around the world every week, according to the corporation's 2021-2022 annual report.

BBC World Service broadcasts in 41 languages to about 364 million people a week globally.

"For a century, the BBC has been a beacon of trusted news and programming across the world, as well as being part of the fabric of the UK and one of its key institutions," BBC director-general Tim Davie said of the landmark.

"It has been a story of a devotion to public service and constant reinvention -- which those in the BBC today remain utterly committed to," he added.

For nearly 7 million people, each day starts with BBC Radio 4's flagship "Today" program, which often sets the political agenda.

At weekends, "Strictly Come Dancing", which pairs celebrities with professional ballroom dancers, has had viewers glued to their sets for 20 years and is the most talked-about television program on air.

BBC series such as "Peaky Blinders", "Fleabag" and "Killing Eve" have been exported around the world.

But the centenary comes at a time of uncertainty, with drastic budget cuts and changing viewing habits driven by the digital revolution raising questions about its future.

The government in January announced it would freeze the BBC's license-fee funding model for two years, raising fears it could be scrapped in future.

The annual charge for households with a television set is currently set at £159 (around P10,6000). 

The financial situation has been accompanied by an exodus of younger audiences towards streaming and on-demand platforms, prompting questions about why they should still pay for the BBC.

But BBC chairman Richard Sharp vowed that the broadcaster would "educate and entertain for another century."

"The BBC is one hundred today -- it's a time to celebrate, but also to embrace the future," said Sharp.

"I believe its best days are ahead. We have always innovated, changed and adapted," he added.

"By continuing to put the public first, we will continue to inform, educate and entertain for another century."

Agence France-Presse 

Mogul vs Mogul: Australia’s tech law pits Murdoch against Zuckerberg

SYDNEY — Australia’s push to regulate tech giants has become a power struggle between two of the world’s most powerful men, with Rupert Murdoch and Mark Zuckerberg locked in a generational battle for media dominance.

Efforts in Australia to make Google and Facebook pay for news has garnered worldwide attention, creating what some call a defining moment for the web and for journalism, and even a litmus test for democracy.

But beyond the high-sounding rhetoric lies a more base struggle, with the barons of traditional media fighting back against their digital heirs.

Sydney tech billionaire Mike Cannon-Brookes went as far as calling the Australian push to force payments for content a “shakedown.”

The landmark legislation may carry the seal of government, but media and political insiders see the fingerprints of Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp all over it.

“This has been a passionate cause for our company for well over a decade,” said News Corp chief executive Robert Thomson, hailing his boss’ “fervent, unstinting support” for the cause.

“For many years, we were accused of tilting at tech windmills, but what was a solitary campaign, a quixotic quest, has become a movement, and both journalism and society will be enhanced.”

For decades, the Melbourne-born billionaire behind Fox News, The Sun and Sky News Australia has bestraddled politics in the United States, Britain and Down Under.

Today, he controls roughly two-thirds of daily newspaper circulation in Australia’s major cities, with complete monopolies in Brisbane, Adelaide, Hobart and Darwin.

That has prompted critics to paint the 89-year-old in almost cartoonish terms — as an all-powerful political puppetmaster.

While he still wields political power, the rise of Facebook and Google has seriously challenged Murdoch’s preeminence — gouging ad revenues that kept many of his publications in the black.

‘Frightened of Murdoch’

At the turn of the millennium, newspapers had 96 percent of Australia’s classified revenues. Now, that is down to around 12 percent.

For every $100 spent by Australian advertisers today, $49 goes to Google and $24 to Facebook, according to the country’s competition watchdog, which proposed the law in direct response to this duopoly.

“Let’s not kid around, this was very deliberately designed to put money in the pockets of a very few specific companies — News Corp and others,” Lucie Krahulcova of advocacy group Digital Rights Watch told AFP.

An initial draft of the law even cut out public broadcaster ABC — which Murdoch’s outlets and Australia’s conservative government have long attacked — from receiving Google and Facebook payments.

Former prime minister Kevin Rudd, an outspoken Murdoch critic, told lawmakers in Canberra on Friday that the proposed laws solved the digital dominance problem “by enhancing the power of the existing monopoly -– that’s Murdoch.”

“Everyone is frightened of Murdoch,” he maintained.

Everyone, it seems, except Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, who made a worldwide splash last week by refusing demands to pay Murdoch’s News Corp and other Australian media.

Rather than follow Google and reach agreements to pay for content, Zuckerberg went nuclear, removing news from Australia on the platform and sparking a global backlash.

Enormous political power

The two men were born more than three decades part and come from staggeringly different eras, but both wield enormous political power.

Where Murdoch could hobble governments or torpedo campaigns with a rapier front-page splash, Zuckerberg’s platform can change the tenor of a US election campaign.

Like Murdoch, Zuckerberg has come under fierce scrutiny for his influence over society.

It is also not the first time they have tussled.

Murdoch’s bid for social media dominance failed spectacularly when MySpace was left in the dust of Zuckerberg’s rapidly growing Facebook.

According to reports by tech magazine and website Wired, the pair had a testy exchange in Sun Valley, Idaho in 2016, with Zuckerberg allegedly warned to offer publishers a better deal or expect New Corp to lobby regulators around the world.

Those lobbying efforts are now bearing fruit in Australia, with Google agreeing to pay the company for news in a three-year deal.

The amounts were not disclosed, but similar Google deals with other Australian media groups were said to be worth around US$23 million a year.

Supporters have cheered that as a victory for journalism — a struggling industry long in decline — although questions remain about whether the money will be ploughed back into reporting.

With legislation in the works in Canada, Europe and perhaps even the United States, Murdoch’s “quixotic quest” against the tech giants is unlikely to stop in Australia.

-reuters-

Facebook threatens ban on Australians sharing news in battle over media law

SYDNEY - Facebook threatened Tuesday to block users and media organizations in Australia from sharing news stories if a landmark government plan to force digital giants to pay for content goes ahead.

Australians would be stopped from posting local and international articles on Facebook and Instagram, the company said, claiming the move was "not our first choice" but the "only way to protect against an outcome that defies logic".

Government officials quickly shot back, with Treasurer Josh Frydenberg rejecting "coercion or heavy-handed threats, wherever they come from."

"Australia makes laws that advance our national interest," he said, adding that the proposed law would "help to create a more sustainable media landscape."

In one of the most aggressive moves by any government to curb the power of US digital giants, Canberra has drawn up legislation to force Facebook and Google to pay struggling local news organizations for content or face millions of dollars in fines.

The measures would also force transparency around the closely guarded algorithms that tech firms use to rank content.

Facebook Australia and New Zealand managing director Will Easton said the proposed overhaul "misunderstands the dynamics of the internet and will do damage to the very news organisations the government is trying to protect".

"Most perplexing, it would force Facebook to pay news organisations for content that the publishers voluntarily place on our platforms and at a price that ignores the financial value we bring publishers," he said in a statement.

He also accused the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC), which is drafting the regulations, of having "ignored important facts" during a lengthy consultation process that ended Monday.

"The ACCC presumes that Facebook benefits most in its relationship with publishers, when in fact the reverse is true," he said.

"News represents a fraction of what people see in their News Feed and is not a significant source of revenue for us."

Easton said Facebook sent 2.3 billion clicks to Australian websites in the first five months of 2020 at an estimated value of Aus$200 million (US$148 million) and had been preparing to bring Facebook News to Australia -- a feature launched in the US last year where the tech giant pays publishers for news.

"Instead, we are left with a choice of either removing news entirely or accepting a system that lets publishers charge us for as much content as they want at a price with no clear limits," he added.

"Unfortunately, no business can operate that way."

Facebook on Tuesday also informed Australian users of a change in its terms of service that will come into effect on October 1 and allow it to remove or block access to content if "necessary to avoid or mitigate adverse legal or regulatory impacts".

Google has also campaigned forcefully against the proposed changes, creating pop-ups on the search engine warning "the way Aussies use Google is at risk" and urging YouTubers around the world to complain to Australian authorities.

The legislation will initially focus on Facebook and Google -- two of the world's richest and most powerful companies -- but could eventually apply to any digital platform.

It has strong support from local media outlets and is expected to be introduced this year.

Agence France-Presse

YouTube collaborates with ABS-CBN in launching Super Stream

MANILA – YouTube has collaborated with ABS-CBN and other media partners to give netizens free access to video content across a variety of genres for a limited time.

Through Super Stream, YouTube users can watch over 300 hours of binge-worthy content including local blockbuster movies, hit shows, romance flicks, historic sports matches, inspiring documentaries and more, the video platform said in a statement.

Super Stream will run from Aug. 30 to Sept. 26.

“Every day, Filipinos go to YouTube to learn, share their passions, or be entertained. As people limit going out to remain well, we want to make staying safe at home better by introducing Super Stream so everyone can access movies, TV shows and more--for free until September 26,” said Gabby Roxas, Marketing Head of Google Philippines.

“Whether it is a box office hit, classic TV show, sports event, or documentary, there is Super Stream content for entertainment needs on top of the YouTube videos from favorite creators,” he added.

For its first week from Aug. 30 to Sept. 5, the following movies from ABS-CBN will be available on YouTube’s Super Stream channel:

    Ang Pagdadalaga ni Maximo Oliveros
    The Gift
    Everybody Loves Baby Wendy
    Allergy in Love
    Barbara Reimagined
    Agawan Base
    Mamu and a Mother, Too
    Baka Bukas
    Tisay
    Happyland
    The Reunion
    SPARK
    Apple of My Eye

Meanwhile, daily full episodes of “Pangako Sa’Yo,” “Lovers in Paris,” “All of Me” and “Dolce Amore” will also be available for streaming.

The following digital series cutups and 25-minuter supercut movies will be on the Super Stream channel:

    A Second Chance
    The Unmarried Wife
    All Times Seph Was The Reliable Friend
    All Times Junjun Was The Wise Friend
    Listen To Love: The Four Bad Boys and Me (EP 1, 2 and 3)

Under the variety show genre, netizens can watch “Love Out Loud with Kaorhys” and the first and second episodes of “Hello Stranger Finale FanCon.”

Lastly, the 17th episode of Toni Gonzaga’s “I Feel U” and “We Rise Together’s” 62nd,63rd and 64th episodes will also be available on Super Stream.

Aside from ABS-CBN, YouTube has also collaborated with GMA and TBA Studios for this new project.

news.abs-cbn.com

Advertising slump during virus crisis hits media jobs

PARIS - Media redundancies, partial layoffs and managerial wage cuts are on the rise as advertising markets implode, despite customers showing an ever stronger appetite for information on the coronavirus crisis.

FIRST PRESS VICTIMS

In Britain, The Guardian announced 180 redundancies in response to tumbling ad revenues, while The Economist magazine has said it is laying off 90 people.

US media have likewise not been immune to the market consequences of the crisis.

Conde Nast, publisher of the likes of Vogue, Wired and The New Yorker, has announced it is laying off 100 of its 6,000 staff.

Vox Media, home of The Verge and New York Magazine, has said 72 of its employees will be laid off or furloughed.

The New York Times has laid off 68 employees from its sales teams.

The McClatchy group, which publishes some 20 newspapers including the Miami Herald, was sold to an investment fund, Chatham, after going into receivership.

According to a New York Times analysis, the pandemic has seen 36,000 media workers either laid off, furloughed, or forced to take a wage cut in a sector that had already endured years of belt-tightening.

More than 50 local newsrooms across the United States, some of which had been operating for over a century, have been shuttered, according to a list updated by the Poynter site.

In France, the already fragile regional daily La Marseillaise was hit hard by the lockdown and placed in judicial liquidation.

Le Parisien is planning to cut 30 jobs and its regional editions.

Anticipating three years of losses, the sports daily L'Equipe reduced its employees' salaries and days off, after many of the world's sporting competitions sat idle for months.

WEB IN CRISIS

Online news portals are also struggling.

The Vice Media group is to fire 55 US-based and 100 foreign-based staff, according to a note sent by the group's CEO Nancy Dubac to employees, which was published by US media.

Beyond the problems caused by the coronavirus crisis, she also accused media tech platforms of "not just taking a larger slice of the pie, but almost the whole pie," threatening online news streams and thousands of journalists' jobs.

News and entertainment site Buzzfeed announced in March it was cutting salaries by between five and 25 percent and would also end coverage of news in Britain and Australia, having already left France.

For some media, the coronavirus crisis is a chance to speed up the transition to a more stable, subscription-based publishing model.

That is the case of financial news provider Quartz, whose Japanese owner Uzabase says it plans to cut some 40 percent of staff, mainly advertising posts.

NO ESCAPE FOR BROADCAST

Broadcasting has not escaped the crisis cull. In Britain, the BBC has announced it will cut 520 jobs out of a total of 6,000 employees, mainly in its regional programs.

Journalists will cover fewer stories and work in centralized teams instead of focusing on a particular program, the BBC news director said.

In the United States, NBC Universal has lopped 20 percent off top salaries, while the giant ViacomCBS plans to lay off 10 percent of its 35,000 employees, in television production as well as in its amusement parks, according to Bloomberg.

In France, BFMTV/RMC has announced plans to slash its use of freelancers and consultants.

Agence France-Presse

ABS-CBN shares on trading halt after regulator forces sign off

MANILA -- Shares of ABS-CBN Corp were placed on trading halt on Wednesday, after the Philippines' telecommunications regulator ordered it to sign off.

The National Telecommunications Commission issued a "cease and desist" order against ABS-CBN despite a request from lawmakers to grant the company provisional authority to operate beyond the expiry of its franchise on May 4 as they need more time to deliberate on its renewal.

"I think it was fair also to have a halt, otherwise it could spiral down because of uncertainty and that could also be bad for investors," BDO Capital President Ed Francisco told ANC's Market Edge.

"I still think there’s great intrinsic value in that and I’m hopeful it will be, Congress will fix it and they’ll get their temporary license or even a permanent franchise soon," he said.

The broadcast shutdown order also came as ABS-CBN sustained its broadcast and public service works, raising up to P300 million, to help those in need during the COVID-19 pandemic and resulting lockdowns.

The NTC order covers 42 ABS-CBN television stations, including the flagship Channel 2, 10 digital broadcast channels, 18 FM stations and 5 AM stations, including DZMM radio.

"We trust that the government will decide on our franchise with the best interest of the Filipino people in mind, recognizing ABS-CBN’s role and efforts in providing the latest news and information during these challenging times," the company said.

"ABS-CBN remains committed to being in the service of the Filipino and we will find ways to continue providing meaningful service to them," it said.

ABS-CBN signed off past 7 p.m. Tuesday, at the end of its flagship newscast, TV Patrol. It will continue streaming programs on its websites and on its official Facebook and YouTube channels. Cable channels will also continue operating.

news.abs-cbn.com

Australia to force Google, Facebook to pay for news content

BRISBANE - Australia said Monday it would begin forcing Google and Facebook to pay news companies for content, in a landmark move aimed at shielding traditional media from the tech giants' digital dominance.

Treasurer Josh Frydenberg said a mandatory code of conduct to be unveiled by July would require the firms to reimburse Australian media companies for using their news and other content.

"What we want to see is a level playing field. What we want to see here is a fair go for the companies and for the journalistic content that is prepared," he told Channel 7.

It comes just weeks after France's competition authority ordered Google to negotiate with publishers over payments to reuse snippets of content in its news aggregator and Google Search.

Google and Facebook have had a huge impact on Australia's news industry, with the number of newspaper and online journalists falling more than 20 percent since 2014 as digital advertising revenues were overwhelmingly captured by the two titans.

The new regulations follow an 18-month inquiry into the power of digital platforms by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC), which recommended an overhaul of existing regulations.

Frydenberg said the government was imposing the measures after discussions on a voluntary code failed to make headway, with the impact of the coronavirus pandemic on advertising revenues hastening the need for action.

"That hasn't made meaningful progress so now we are taking the decisive decision to create a mandatory code, seeking to be the first country in the world to ensure that these social media giants pay for content," he said.

A similar move by Spain saw Google shut down its News service there in 2014, while the company has threatened to do the same in response to the new French laws.

Australia's new regulations will also cover the sharing of data, and the ranking and display of news content, to be enforced by binding dispute resolution mechanisms and penalties.

An estimated 17 million Australians use Facebook each month and spend an average of 30 minutes on the platform a day, while 98 percent of Australian mobile searches use Google.

Agence France-Presse

Facebook offers $100-M to help virus-hit news media

Facebook said Monday it was donating $100 million to support news organizations globally hurting from the coronavirus pandemic, citing the need for reliable information about the crisis.

"The news industry is working under extraordinary conditions to keep people informed during the COVID-19 pandemic," said Facebook's news partnerships director, Campbell Brown.

"At a time when journalism is needed more than ever, ad revenues are declining due to the economic impact of the virus. Local journalists are being hit especially hard, even as people turn to them for critical information to keep their friends, families and communities safe."

The new funding includes $25 million in emergency grants for local news through the Facebook Journalism Project, and $75 million for additional marketing efforts "to move money over to news organizations around the world," according to a statement.

Facebook said it will offer grants "to publishers most in need in the hardest hit countries."

The move comes amid growing concerns of cutbacks and closures of news organizations hit by lockdowns and a massive slump in advertising resulting from the health crisis.

In recent months Facebook and Google have stepped up efforts to help news organizations, following criticism that their dominance of online advertising has made it difficult for media to profit from digital operations.

Facebook has also supported fact-checking operations with AFP and other media companies, including Reuters and the Associated Press, under which content rated false is downgraded in news feeds so that fewer people see it.

source: news.abs-cbn.com

Bloomberg to sell his company if elected US president: campaign

WASHINGTON - Democratic presidential contender Michael Bloomberg will sell Bloomberg LP, the financial information company that made him a billionaire, if he is elected to the White House in November, his campaign confirmed on Tuesday.

Bloomberg has risen quickly in opinion polls since entering the race for the Democratic nomination in November and he will appear in his first debate of the election cycle on Wednesday in Las Vegas. Democrats are vying for the right to challenge Republican President Donald Trump in the Nov. 3 election.

The former New York mayor has said before he would likely sell Bloomberg LP if elected, which his campaign affirmed on Tuesday.

"If elected president, Mike will sell the company," spokeswoman Galia Slayen said.

Bloomberg LP provides financial information to Wall Street firms in addition to news. It is privately held, with Bloomberg himself owning most of the company, which he founded in 1981. Analysts at Burton-Taylor International Consulting estimate the firm generated over $10 billion in revenue in 2019.

Reuters News competes with Bloomberg LP's news service.

The Bloomberg campaign said the process of selling the company would begin with putting it in a blind trust and then selling it.

Bloomberg is not competing in the early voting states of the Democratic nomination process and instead hopes to start winning votes when 14 states vote on March 3 in the Super Tuesday contests.

source: news.abs-cbn.com

Treat us like something between a telco, newspaper: Facebook's Zuckerberg

MUNICH - Online content should be regulated with a system somewhere between the existing rules used for the telecoms and media industries, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg told global leaders and security chiefs on Saturday.

Speaking at the Munich Security Conference in Germany, Zuckerberg said Facebook had improved its work countering online election interference, and expanded on his previous calls for regulation of social media firms.

"I do think that there should be regulation on harmful content ... there's a question about which framework you use for this," Zuckerberg said during a question and answer session.

"Right now there are two frameworks that I think people have for existing industries - there's like newspapers and existing media, and then there's the telco-type model, which is 'the data just flows through you', but you're not going to hold a telco responsible if someone says something harmful on a phone line."

"I actually think where we should be is somewhere in between," he said.

Facebook and social media giants including Twitter and Alphabet's Google have come under increasing pressure to better combat governments and political groups using their platforms to spread false and misleading information.

Zuckerberg said he now employed 35,000 people to review online content and implement security measures.

Those teams and Facebook's automated technology currently suspend more than 1 million fake accounts each day, he said, adding that "the vast majority are detected within minutes of signing up."

"Our budget is bigger today than the whole revenue of the company when we went public in 2012, when we had a billion users," he said.

"I'm proud of the results but we will definitely have to stay vigilant."

source: news.abs-cbn.com

Dingdong Dantes stands with ABS-CBN amid franchise challenge

MANILA — Actor Dingdong Dantes, a prized star of GMA-7, has expressed support for its rival network ABS-CBN amid the challenges to its franchise renewal.

The former National Youth Commission head, 39, released his statement in support of the Kapamilya network, a day after the Office of the Solicitor General filed a quo warranto petition asking the Supreme Court to void its franchise.


"Magkaiba man ng bakod, we are one in the media industry," Dantes wrote on Twitter on Tuesday.

"We have one love for the many talents and crafts under this Network, the products and output of which, directly or indirectly, benefit the lives of millions of Filipinos," he said.

Dantes then quoted a portion of Buhay Rep. Lito Atienza's privilege speech on the ABS-CBN's franchise renewal the day prior.

"Inaction will only spell the weakening of the foundations of our democratic system... This Congress is really paralyzed with inaction; and we should not be deserving to be called representatives of the people," Atienza had said, as shared by Dantes.

The lawmaker was referring to the pending bills before Congress seeking to renew the franchise of ABS-CBN, which will expire at the end of March.

"In the end," Dantes added, "I pray that the true interests of the people, under the rule of law, will prevail over any other political agenda conveniently veiled as a countermeasure against alleged abuses."

"I pray too that the government, thru Congress, will hear out its constituents. After all, Congress is supposed to represent our 'voice.' #NoToABSCBNShutDown," he wrote.

Dantes, while an exclusive TV talent of GMA-7, has been a frequent collaborator of ABS-CBN Films' Star Cinema. He most recently starred in the Kapamilya project "Fantastica" in 2018.

source: news.abs-cbn.com

Media law expert says ABS-CBN shutdown will be 'a dark day for country'

MANILA - A media law expert on Tuesday urged the Supreme Court to act judiciously on the quo warranto petition seeking to void ABS-CBN's franchise, saying the network's shutdown would be "a very dark day" for the country.

On ANC's Headstart, lawyer Marichu Lambino, an expert on media law and ethics at the University of the Philippines College of Mass Communication, stressed that the right to a free press is vital to the nation.

"We hope that the Supreme Court acts judiciously and follows all the precedents on whether or not it can repeal a legislative franchise, or whether or not it should exercise the administrative regulation reposed upon the National Telecommunications Commission," said Lambino.


"The nation will not survive a single day without a free and independent press," she said.

On Monday, Solicitor General Jose Calida filed a quo warranto petition against ABS-CBN Corp and ABS-CBN Convergence, citing supposed "abuses" in their franchises. 

"The filing of the quo warranto was resorted to because it can be fast, it can be granted in a quick manner, or it can be granted in a judicious manner depending on the Supreme Court," said Lambino.

Lambino believes it is highly probable that Congress would not act on the network's franchise issue because they are going on recess on March 11.

ABS-CBN Corp's franchise is due to expire by the end of March, while its subsidiary, which runs movie channel Kapamilya Box Office, will have its franchise lapse by June 30, 2022. 

Several bills are pending in Congress for the renewal of the ABS-CBN franchise, but no panel hearings have been set. President Rodrigo Duterte has several times expressed his opposition to allowing the network to continue airing. 

"I think it's very frightening when that day comes when we will just see a no signal. It would just be a very dark day for this country when that happens," she said.

She added: "We need ABS-CBN to be there when we are all sleeping and your reporters are awake watching the world for us, watching if there are super typhoons, if there are disasters, if the world is going to crack open. We need ABS-CBN there."

House Deputy Speaker Johnny Pimentel earlier cited 2 different legal experts' views on whether or not ABS-CBN could still air its programs if its franchise is not renewed.

"Based on experience, there have been some franchisees that have been able to operate in spite of the expiration of their franchise and these are small telcos, local telcos, small radio station," Pimentel said.

But Pimentel stressed that ABS-CBN's case is different. 

"We know very well that the President has been very vocal, has made some pronouncements that he does not want ABS-CBN to be renewed," he said.

He said the network couldn’t do anything if the NTC orders it to stop airing its programs.

Lambino added that based on practice, the NTC grants a grace period.

"But if there are orders from higher ups, we might see darkness on March 31," she said.

Malacañang on Monday said the President's verbal attacks against ABS-CBN Corp. is not related to the filing of the quo warranto petition against the network.

But Lambino believes otherwise.

"The pronouncement of the president is policy, so it’s going to be followed by government officials," Lambino said.

source: news.abs-cbn.com

49 journalists murdered in 2019: media watchdog

PARIS - Forty-nine journalists were killed across the world in 2019, Reporters Without Borders said Tuesday, the lowest death toll in 16 years.

The "historically low" number mostly died covering conflicts in Yemen, Syria and Afghanistan, the Paris-based watchdog said, which warned that "journalism remains a dangerous profession".

Some 80 journalists a year have lost their lives on average over the last two decades, said the organisation, which is known by its French initials RSF.

But its head Christophe Deloire warned that the number of journalists murdered in countries supposedly at peace was still alarmingly high, with 10 dying in Mexico alone.

"Latin America, with a total of 14 reporters killed across the continent, has become as deadly as the Middle East," he added.

While he said that the fall in the number of fatalities in conflict zones was something to celebrate, "more and more journalists are being assassinated for their work in democratic countries, which is a real challenge to democracy."

While fewer journalists are dying, more are ending up behind bars, according to RSF.

Some 389 were locked up in 2019, up 12 percent on last year.

Nearly half were imprisoned in three countries -- China, Egypt and Saudi Arabia, which was blamed for the gruesome murder of columnist Jamal Khashoggi at its embassy in Istanbul last year.

"China, which has intensified its repression of the (mostly Muslim) Uighur minority, alone holds a third of the journalists locked up in the world," RSF said. 

Meanwhile, 57 journalists are being held hostage across the globe, mostly in Syria, Yemen, Iraq and Ukraine.

"There has been no notable freeing of hostages this year despite major developments in Syria," the RSF said, which has led it to fear for the worst for many of those abducted. 

source: news.abs-cbn.com

Trump bars Bloomberg News journalists from campaign events

President Donald Trump’s reelection campaign said Monday that it would bar Bloomberg News journalists from attending its rallies and political events, an attempt to retaliate against the news organization’s decision to cease investigating Democratic candidates in the wake of its billionaire owner’s entry into the 2020 presidential race.

The Trump campaign broke from years of precedent in 2016 by revoking the press credentials of journalists from outlets like The Washington Post, Politico and BuzzFeed News, an early sign of the efforts to demonize the media that have become a hallmark of the Trump presidency.

But Bloomberg News is facing a fraught situation, too. After the company’s owner, Michael Bloomberg, decided last month to pursue the Democratic nomination, editors at the news outlet instructed their reporters to avoid “in-depth investigations” of Bloomberg or any other Democratic candidate. It was an attempt at fairness that some journalists called stifling.

On Monday, Trump’s campaign manager, Brad Parscale, called it something else: biased.

“Bloomberg News has declared that they won’t investigate their boss or his Democrat competitors, many of whom are current holders of high office, but will continue critical reporting on President Trump,” Parscale wrote in a statement, calling the decision “troubling and wrong.”

“Since they have declared their bias openly, the Trump campaign will no longer credential representatives of Bloomberg News for rallies or other campaign events,” Parscale wrote. The campaign said it would decide “on a case-by-case basis” whether to respond to inquiries from individual reporters on stories.

The editor-in-chief of Bloomberg News, John Micklethwait, quickly fired back.

“The accusation of bias couldn’t be further from the truth,” Micklethwait wrote in a statement. “We have covered Donald Trump fairly and in an unbiased way since he became a candidate in 2015 and will continue to do so despite the restrictions imposed by the Trump campaign.”

Howard Wolfson, a top campaign adviser to Bloomberg, also weighed in, pithily. “One week in and Mike is already under Trump’s skin,” Wolfson wrote on Twitter.

Trump and his senior aides routinely disparage individual reporters and entire news organizations for coverage they deem unfavorable. Press advocacy groups say the president’s attacks have contributed to one of the more hostile domestic environments for journalists in recent memory.

Dean Baquet, executive editor of The New York Times, criticized the Trump campaign’s move in a statement on Monday. “We condemn any action that keeps quality news media from reporting fairly and accurately on the presidency and the leadership of the country,” Baquet wrote.

At the same time, Bloomberg News’ approach to covering its owner’s candidacy has proved divisive.

Roughly 2,700 journalists work at Bloomberg LP, the financial data company that is the wellspring of Bloomberg’s fortune, and this is not the first time that Bloomberg’s ambitions have placed his employees in an awkward spot. During Bloomberg’s 12 years as mayor of New York City, coverage of the billionaire’s wealth and personal life were considered off-limits at Bloomberg News.

In a memo last month, Micklethwait acknowledged that “there is no point in trying to claim that covering this presidential campaign will be easy,” but added that the newsroom would continue to investigate Trump’s administration “as the government of the day.”

On Monday night, Trump, who had flown to London for a conference, added his own thoughts on the matter, deriding Bloomberg in a Twitter post as “Mini Mike Bloomberg” and describing Bloomberg News as a “third rate news organization.” (He also accused The Times of “hatred & bias.”) The president wrote that “It’s not O.K.!” for Bloomberg News to skip investigations of Democratic candidates.

While Bloomberg News has pledged to continue covering polls, policies and “who is winning and who is losing” the 2020 race, the prohibition against investigative reporting — considered among the most valuable forms of campaign journalism — has caused some uproar.

Megan Murphy, a former Washington bureau chief at Bloomberg News, wrote on Twitter that it was “staggering” for the news outlet to prevent “an army of unbelievably talented reporters and editors from covering massive, crucial aspects of one of the defining elections of our time.”


2019 The New York Times Company

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Bloomberg News sets out how to cover its owner

Get ready to cover the boss’ presidential campaign, with some caveats.

That is the message roughly 2,700 journalists at Bloomberg LP, the financial data company owned in large part by Michael Bloomberg, received Sunday morning after Bloomberg, the former mayor of New York City, formally announced his candidacy for president as a Democrat.

“We will write about virtually all aspects of this presidential contest in much the same way as we have done so far,” John Micklethwait, Bloomberg Editorial and Research’s editor-in-chief, said in the memo, in which he always referred to Bloomberg simply as “Mike.”

“We will describe who is winning and who is losing,” Micklethwait added. “We will look at policies and their consequences. We will carry polls, we will interview candidates and we will track their campaigns, including Mike’s. We have already assigned a reporter to follow his campaign (just as we did when Mike was in City Hall). And in the stories we write on the presidential contest, we will make clear that our owner is now a candidate.”

But, the memo said, Bloomberg’s outlets, which also include Bloomberg Businessweek and several industry-specific sites, will not do in-depth investigations of Bloomberg — or any of his Democratic rivals.

On Sunday morning, the main Bloomberg website featured an article by Mark Niquette about Bloomberg’s entry into the “crowded 2020 Democratic field.”

This unusual policy of avoiding in-depth investigations of the Democratic field echoes the similarly unusual way that the outlet covered Bloomberg’s 12-year tenure in City Hall as well as its practices regarding rivals of Bloomberg LP. As an internal guide instructs: “Bloomberg News doesn’t originate stories about the company” or cover Bloomberg’s “wealth or personal life.” (But, the memo added, Bloomberg would not change its coverage of President Donald Trump so long as he is not a direct rival of Bloomberg.)

Micklethwait also said that several journalists in the opinion section would take leaves of absences to join Bloomberg’s campaign. They include Timothy L. O’Brien, executive editor of Bloomberg Opinion, and David Shipley, senior executive editor. Shipley was previously an editor at The New York Times opinion section, and O’Brien, also a former Times editor and reporter, is known for his 2005 biography of Trump. The section’s unsigned editorials will go on hiatus, the memo said, and a note on the Bloomberg Opinion website said it would not accept outside op-ed articles about the campaign.

MSNBC also confirmed that O’Brien would no longer be a network contributor while he is working on the Bloomberg campaign.

The moment is fraught for one of the most prominent global newsrooms in the country, which now has to document the candidacy of its owner, one of the richest men in the world — one who has mused about selling his holdings if he ran for president. Bloomberg said last year: “I don’t want the reporters I’m paying to write a bad story about me. I don’t want them to be independent.”

Micklethwait acknowledged the uneasy relationship in his memo. “There is no point in trying to claim that covering this presidential campaign will be easy,” he said, “for a newsroom that has built up its reputation for independence in part by not writing about ourselves (and very rarely about our direct competitors).”

source: news.abs-cbn.com

Google Assistant to be 'news host' on devices

WASHINGTON - Google said Tuesday its digital assistant will serve as a "news host" on its connected devices to deliver stories from a variety of its media partners.

The feature called Your News Update will be activated by asking the Google Assistant to read the news.

The artificial intelligence program will deliver "a mix of short news stories chosen in that moment based on your interests, location, user history and preferences, as well as the top news stories out there," said product manager Liz Gannes in a blog post.

The assistant will offer stories from partners including CBS, Politico, Fox News and CNN based on user preferences and other factors.

It can offer news, for example, about the user's favorite sports teams or specific local or business events.

"In between stories, the Google Assistant serves as your smart news host that introduces which publishers and updates are next," Gannes said.

The feature is available in English in the United States, and will expand internationally next year, for people with compatible smartphones and connected speakers.

It is activated by saying, "Hey Google, play me the news."

Amazon offers a similar "flash briefing" feature for its Alexa-powered devices.

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Financial Times names first woman top editor

For the first time in its long history, The Financial Times will be led by a woman.

On Tuesday, the daily known for its robust coverage of international markets, its distinctive salmon-hued paper and its impenetrable digital paywall, announced that Roula Khalaf will be its top editor, starting in January. Khalaf, a 24-year veteran of the newspaper, which has its headquarters in London, will succeed Lionel Barber, a Financial Times journalist since the 1980s and its editor since 2005.

Barber, 64, said in an interview Tuesday that he had consulted with the newspaper’s owners about a transition for more than a year. “You mustn’t see this as some kind of ‘woke’ gesture — it’s got nothing to do with that,” he said. “She is one of our most outstanding journalists. She’s been deputy editor for 4 years, she’s been tested in all sorts of areas, and that’s why she’s the next editor.”

The newspaper, which was founded in 1888 and has a paid circulation of 1 million, including digital and print subscribers, declined to make Khalaf available for an interview. In a statement Tuesday, she said, “It’s a great honor to be appointed editor of The FT, the greatest news organization in the world.”

Born and raised in Beirut, Lebanon, and educated in the United States at Syracuse University and Columbia University, Khalaf has served as the publication’s Middle East editor, foreign editor and deputy editor. Before joining The Financial Times, she wrote for Forbes magazine, where she made waves with a feature article on Jordan Belfort, the shady stockbroker who became known as the wolf in Martin Scorsese’s 2013 film, “The Wolf of Wall Street.” A character based on Khalaf appears in the movie.

Khalaf returned to the subject of Belfort in a 2014 Financial Times article, writing, “I am the journalist who in the movie wrote the 1991 ‘hatchet job’ on Belfort and his respectably named but disreputable Stratton Oakmont outfit. My character — I was a Forbes reporter when I wrote the profile — gets a few seconds’ play, followed by a scene in which Belfort is infuriated by my story. I had described him as sounding like a twisted version of Robin Hood who takes from the rich and gives to himself and his merry band of brokers. That was rather charitable since he was also probably fleecing widows and orphans.”

During his 14-year tenure as top editor, Barber guided the newspaper through a decline in the industry, as well as its sale four years ago from Pearson, the British media company, to Nikkei, the Japanese financial news publisher, for $1.3 billion.

He noted that he had traveled in the Middle East with Khalaf, interviewing the Iranian president, Hassan Rouhani, in 2013 and, in 2015, visiting Mohammed bin Salman, then Saudi Arabia’s deputy crown prince.

Barber’s legacy will include presiding over the newspaper as it reoriented its business model to be focused on circulation revenue — subscribers paying for access. Many legacy media news organizations, including The New York Times, have made this move in recent years. The Financial Times was among the pioneers, instituting an online paywall as early as 2007.

“We said, ‘We’re going to charge for content,’” Barber said. “By saying that, and also raising prices, that was a message to the outside market that we’re worth it. But it was also an incredibly powerful message to the newsroom: ‘Now we’re really going to have to be the very best.’”


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Facebook’s new role as news publisher brings new scrutiny

A little more than 2 weeks after Facebook announced a news initiative, the social network was on the defensive, responding to a published report that a website co-founded by the company’s top news executive had displayed bias against Elizabeth Warren.

Popular Information, a liberal newsletter, reported on Monday that The 74, a nonprofit education policy website co-founded by Facebook’s top news executive, Campbell Brown, had published several articles attacking Warren, a senator from Massachusetts and Democratic presidential candidate. One of them called Warren “the second coming of Karl Marx.”

The newsletter entry was written by Judd Legum, a former editor of the defunct liberal website ThinkProgress and a onetime Democratic political operative. It argued that the articles critical of Warren that appeared on The 74 were relevant to Facebook’s move into the news business, because Brown still sits on the site’s board. Legum also reported that the family foundation of the education secretary, Betsy DeVos, was a donor to The 74.

Brown responded swiftly to the criticism on Monday, saying in a Twitter thread that her involvement with The 74 had no bearing on Facebook News and that the articles singled out by the newsletter were opinion essays, not news articles.

“The 74 is not part of Facebook News and the FB news team does not and has not supported The 74 in any way,” Brown wrote on Twitter. “I still care deeply about the issues The 74 covers so I remain on the board of directors w/no editorial role and make personal donations (it’s a nonprofit).”

Brown, a former anchor at NBC and CNN, also said that she had listed her relationship with The 74 in her Twitter biography. She added that her support for the charter-school movement — a frequent topic in The 74 — puts her in the company not only of DeVos, but of Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., a presidential candidate.

The flap is the latest sign that Facebook will be susceptible to charges of bias now that it has stepped more boldly into the role of media publisher.

The company drew the close attention of journalists, politicians and anyone else on the lookout for signs of partisanship when it announced Facebook News, a separate section on its mobile app featuring reporting from publications including BuzzFeed, The New York Times, The Washington Post and The Wall Street Journal.

News organizations responded positively to the move, for the most part, because Facebook is able to deliver readers in huge numbers and had agreed to pay for some content. There was skepticism, too, some of it resulting from Facebook’s decision to include Breitbart, a far-right news and commentary site, among the publications it had chosen to highlight. On Friday, Facebook News removed posts from Breitbart that claimed to identify the whistleblower who set in motion an impeachment inquiry into President Donald Trump.

Steve Snyder, the editor-in-chief of The 74, said in his own tweets Monday that the site had also published opinion pieces critical of DeVos and her policies, along with news articles dispassionately covering education. “Nothing is structured here to prioritize one viewpoint over another,” Snyder said in an interview. He added: “Campbell plays no editorial role.”

Legum defended his newsletter story in an interview. “She maintains a public association and is admittedly still involved in the website — she sits on the board,” he said, referring to Brown. “I don’t think it’s illegitimate to say we should be able to evaluate what’s on there and that it reflects somewhat upon her approach.”

A Facebook spokeswoman said in an emailed statement that The 74 was not among the sites whose articles will be featured in Facebook News’ selection of top stories, adding that Brown had always been open about her relationship with the site. “Any suggestion otherwise is baseless,” the spokeswoman said.

When the company announced its push into news last month, Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook’s chief executive, said he hoped the new tab’s users would number in the “tens of millions” in the United States and “hundreds of millions” globally.


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Journalists urge action against Google over EU copyright dispute

PARIS — Hundreds of journalists called Wednesday for European officials to take action against Google over its refusal to pay media companies for displaying their content in defiance of a strict new EU copyright law.

France was the first country to ratify the law, which was passed this year and comes into force on Thursday to ensure publishers are compensated when their work is displayed online.

But Google said last month that articles, pictures and videos would be shown in search results only if media firms consent to let the tech giant use it for free.

If they refuse, only a headline and a bare link to the content will appear, Google said, almost certainly resulting in a loss of visibility and potential ad revenue for the publisher.

Around 800 journalists as well as photographers, filmmakers and media CEOs signed an open letter published in newspapers across Europe urging governments to ensure that Google and other tech firms comply with the new EU rule.

"The law risks being stripped of all meaning before it even comes into force," the letter said, calling Google's move "a fresh insult to national and European sovereignty".

"The existing situation, in which Google enjoys most of the advertising revenue generated by the news that it rakes in without any payment, is untenable and has plunged the media into a crisis that is deepening each year," it said.

The presidents of the European Alliance of News Agencies and the European Newspaper Publishers' Association also signed the letter.

'CATASTROPHE' 

Google has countered that it benefits news publishers by sending more than 8 billion visits to their websites each month in Europe alone.

"We don't pay for links to be included in search results" because "it would undermine the trust of users," Richard Gingras, Google's vice president in charge of news, said in Paris last month.

But news publishers, including AFP, say such links to their websites are unable to help them cope with plummeting revenues as readers migrate online from traditional media outlets.

French President Emmanuel Macron has said Google will have to comply with the law, and the European Commission said it stands ready to assist member states, which must translate into domestic legislation by June 2021.

The new rules create so-called neighboring rights to ensure a form of copyright protection -- and compensation -- for media firms when their content is used on websites such as search engines or social media platforms.

"Now that disinformation campaigns are infecting the internet and social networks, and independent journalism is under attack in several countries within the European Union, surrendering would be a catastrophe," said the open letter.

"We call on the public decision-makers to fight back."

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Meghan Markle says motherhood a 'struggle' under spotlight

LONDON - Meghan Markle has admitted becoming a mother while living under an intense media spotlight has been a "struggle."

The Duchess of Sussex gave birth to son Archie in May after marrying Prince Harry last year.

Britain's aggressive press at first welcomed Markle, 38, into the royal fold but coverage has become increasingly hostile, with the tabloids luxuriating in stories about Markle's fractured American family and rumors of palace rifts. 

Speaking to ITV during the couple's recent tour of southern Africa, she said: "Not many people have asked if I'm OK".

"Look, any woman - especially when they are pregnant - you're really vulnerable and so that was made really challenging, and then when you have a newborn - you know?" she said, when asked how she was coping.

"And especially as a woman, it's a lot. 

She added: "And also, thank you for asking because not many people have asked if I'm OK. But it's a very real thing to be going through behind the scenes."

Asked if it would be fair to say it had "really been a struggle", Meghan said: "Yes."

Her comments come after the couple launched legal action this month against British tabloid the Mail on Sunday for invasion of privacy, with Harry recalling the hounding of his later mother Diana.

Harry told ITV the memories of what happened to his mother was a "wound that festers".

"I think being part of this family, in this role, in this job... every single time I see a camera, every single time I hear a click, every single time I see a flash, it takes me straight back, so in that respect it's the worst reminder of her life, as opposed to the best," he said.

The Duke of Sussex is also suing two British tabloid newspaper publishers over alleged phone hacking.

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