Business as usual?

The Icelandic Travel Industry Association issued this press release today, reminding tourists "it`s all business as usual" on Iceland. At this point, cash flow isn`t going to get them out of the mess they`re in.

Following aid from IMF, the Icelandic Prime Minister, Mr. Geir Haarde, have identified 4 billion Euros as missing in order to balance the economy. Russia have offered to lend Iceland this money, which made the Nordic countries act fast to reassure Iceland they could expect help "from their closest friends".

Following the Nordic Council meeting in Helsinki yesterday, the Icelandic government were assured the other Nordic countries (Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Finland and associated territories) are ready to help Iceland battle their financial crisis.

And today, The Faroe Islands, with a population under 50 000 a very marginal power in the High North, have offered a £25 million loan. Very charming, but not really doing the business.

Russia have stepped up their interest in the High North, as the battle for oil, gas and mineral rights in the Arctic is heating up. An estimated ten million metric tons of hydrocarbons are buried under the Arctic seafloor, according to an article in GeoTimes. As global warming keeps opening up the Arctic Ocean, the players involved in this game get more and more eager.

Last year, a Russian expedition rather vulgarly deposited a Russian flag under the seabed at the North Pole, much to the disapproval of other nations with territorial claims in the Arctic.

"Look, this isn`t the 15th century, you can`t just go around the world and plant flags and say we`re claiming this territory", Peter MacKay, Canada`s foreign minister, said on Canadian TV.

Russia offering Iceland this loan can hardly be seen as anything but part of their increasing domestication of the High North. The Nordic countries` sudden solidarity can hardly be seen as anything else, either.

David Randall on Russia

Mr. David Randall, assistant editor of Independent on Sunday and author of a number of books, among them The Universal Journalist and The Great Reporters, held a guest lecture at University of Sheffield today.

I read The Universal Journalist last week. An interesting, entertaining and inspirational read, and one of the best books I`ve read on "How to be a Journalist".

Obviously, Mr. Randall has a long and impressive CV. I made note of his contribution in establishing English press in Russia in the mid-90s, working as managing editor of Independent Press, who at the time published Moscow Times and later St. Petersburg Times. The group has now merged with the Finnish-Danish Sanoma group. I`ve blogged about this earlier.

Mr. Randall shared some anecdotes on the rich culture and civil manner of Russian folk, which I appreciated, having travelled in Russia and having an interest in the country. When asked about the negative western perception, Mr. Randall said this is "serving the stereotype and conventional view" and further: "Unfortunately, this is what most journalists do in general".

He also pointed at the obvious advantage of not having a drunk (Jeltsin, in case you wondered) as President anymore, as well as the improving economy and decreasing corruption under Putin. Even though Putin had to pass the presidency over to Dmitry Medvedev in May this year due to legislation, Putin still very much controls Kremlin. Fair enough, but I`ll stay sceptic until I`ll stop reading stories about critical Russian journalists disappearing or turning up dead.

David Randall on citizen journalism and reporting

I have separated my post on Mr. Randall`s guest lecture at University of Sheffield in two, it seems more digestible this way.

Talking about the future of journalism in increasingly digital and immediate times, Mr. Randall asked how many times a citizen journalist (blogger) had reported on matters of national or international significance. The auditorium went silent, possibly due to his somewhat intimidating presence, but to be honest I couldn`t really think of a single occasion.

When writing this, I have come up with some examples. During the 7/7 bombings in London, the first dramatic photographs came from Londoners trapped underground, who recorded the scenes with their mobile phones. Many of these photographs were quickly available to the world, not on television screens or newspapers, but on Bloggers` websites. William Hachten and Scott F. Scotten wrote about this in The World News Prism. The book offer good analysis of significant news events as well as insight on current global media developments and trends.

On the secrets of being a good reporter, Mr. Randall pointed at fanatical curiosity, being a compulsive reader of anything and the ability to apply intelligence to what you`re writing about. Sounds good, doesn`t it? In his own words, though in a different context: "It does take a bit of an ego to survive this crap". He later had a question from the auditorium, "Is The Independent the best newspaper in UK?", at which he answered "Yes", giving a brilliant example to what sort of answer you`ll get when asking a closed question.

Mr. Randall pointed at Metafilter.com as a news site worth reading. I thought it`s worth mentioning.

Russia freeze student loan instalments

As the credit crunch hits Russia, the Russian government have decided to freeze all student loan instalments. According to this news story in The Moscow Times, well under one percent of Russia`s seven million students receive financial aid. The students found out about the decision when trying to pay their tuition fees. The interviewee, a journalism student, said he was unable to take his exams following the freeze in payments.

I suppose you have to save where you can? Those Russians are hard people.

The Moscow Times is owned by the Finnish-Danish Sanoma group, and is alongside St. Peterburg Times (also owned by Sanoma) a good source of Russian political and economic news.

Lazy journalism

The student/academic initiated organization Human Rights In China published a statement last week, welcoming the Chinese government`s decision to make permanent temporary media regulations that have provided greater freedom for foreign journalists reporting in China since January 2007. The statement then went on to urge the Chinese government to extend these freedoms to domestic journalists.

Aftenposten, a Norwegian daily broadsheet, ran a news story today on Chinese officials refusing a Norwegian delegation of politicians, civil servants and “experts” to bring journalists into Tibet during the much delayed discussions with China on human rights. There is a lot of public interest in this news story.

The problem is it doesn`t offer any comment from a Chinese official. As it stands, the information in the copy comes solely from the Norwegian foreign minister`s office. I`m sure they had a nice chat.

As much as I disagree with the Chinese government`s attitude towards press freedom and control of information, I can`t help but ask myself: If you don`t apply balance or opposing view to your copy, can you really criticize the Chinese approach?