Mumbai and citizen journalism

As the somewhat dramatic account (above) tells you, it was citizen journalists and not mainstream media that broke the story and published the first images and comments from the terror unfolding in Mumbai this weekend.

This story from TechCrunch provides good insight to the first few hours of the reporting of the attacks. Bloggers and social media sites like Flickr and Twitter broke the story and provided the foundation for mainstream media coverage. Several local Indian news channels were reported to have carried a live feed to Twitter updates on the attacks. (Twitter is a micro-blogging service where people can send short messages of up to 140 characters to friends using text messages or over the internet.)

This comment from The Daily Telegraph, written by Demotix, a citizen journalism press agency, is arguing the Mumbai attacks were another defining moment for citizen journalism. Now, Demotix would hope this to be the case as this is the business they`re in, but I still think it is a good argument. There certainly was a lot of citizen journalism going on in Mumbai. But for all the good citizen journalism it wasn`t all good, as this Telegraph-reader commented:

"Browsing Twitter in the hours after the attack, it was striking how little reliable, eye-witness information was about. Most of the Tweets were taken from mainstream media reports, and many of the rest were gibberish, repetitive or unhelpful. There were a handful of Mumbai-based Twitterers posting good stuff but they were drowned out by the chatter. It's a problem that I've experienced with the site before - the difficulty of separating those who are really in the know from those who just want their say."

Another interesting by-story is The Times reporting that Indian police asked Twitter-users to stop updating the site for security reasons as it was assumed the terrorists gained strategic information through the updates.

Politovskaya-trial reopened to the public

The Russian mainstream TV station RT published this story (above) today, as the Anna Politovskaya-trial is reopened to the public following the controversial and internationally criticised decision to close it to the public last Wednesday, as Reporters Without Borders and a united western media expressed disapproval.

- So is this a victory for press freedom in Russia, then?

The Guardian published this feature yesterday, the headline runs "To be a journalist in Russia is suicide", following the attack on Moscow-based journalist and editor Mikhail Beketov earlier this month. According to the story, Beketov was attacked in his garden with clubs, breaking his fingers and skull before leaving him for dead, laying unconscious for two days before a neighbour called the police.

"The police appeared unbothered by the assault and - assuming he was dead - flung a blanket over Beketov`s face. At this time the journalist`s arm twitched."

The Guardian published another comment a few days ago, pointing out that western media (as well as Putin and his allies) are pushing an impression of Putin as an all-mighty dictator that controls every aspect of the country, while the reality is that the very special democracy he undoubtedly is in charge of does not allow any single person to have such power.

Demotix: Correction

The Citizen Journalism news agency Demotix contacted me yesterday to flag some mistakes in the NewMediaAge-article I linked to in my post about them. I`ve corrected my references from the article in my post, but anyway:

- Demotix` clients does not include BBC and The Financial Times, but Newsweek, The Daily Telegraph, La Republicca, Le Monde and al-Nahar (Lebanon). They are also supported by Non-Governmental organisations such as United Nations, Reporters Without Borders and Amnesty International.

Demotix say they expect more clients when they relaunch their web 2.0-site. Yes, there certainly seems to be a lot of money in this model.

Citizen Journalism news agency opens for advertisement

The citizen journalism news agency Demotix is to open up it`s site to advertisers in a bid to create additional revenue streams, NewMediaAge reports. There seems to be a lot of money in this. Demotix works like any other news agency, but their sources are citizen journalists from (according to NewMediaAge) 83 countries, including countries with limited press freedom.

You basically upload your copy, video or photo to them, they sell it for you and give you 50% of the sale. Their clients include Le Monde, Newsweek and The Daily Telegraph.

This looks like a model that isn`t going to go away. Does this benefit journalism? Most news enterprises are cutting back on their foreign reporting, if mainstream media is going for sites like Demotix for foreign news, (and there is money in producing these stories and photographs) how can it really be trusted?

Developments in the Politovskaya-trial

Following the events on Thursday, international media is reporting on the recent controversy surrounding the Anna Politovskaya-trial. The BBC is blunt in its reporting, quote:

"Politovskaya`s supporters believe state security agents were involved in her murder - and for that reason, they say, there will never be a fair and open trial"

The Moscow Times reports that an internal probe have been opened to look into the decisions of the trial judge who closed the trial to the public. This might take a while.

What`s happening to the Politovskaya-trial?

It`s hard to keep up with events in the Anna Politovskaya-trial. (Politovskaya was a Russian investigative journalist and Kremlin critic, murdered in 2006.)

On Monday it was reported by Russian mainstream media (above) that the much delayed trial was to be heard in open court. This decision was changed yesterday, as Reporters Without Borders released this angry press release.

Earlier today, AP and a number of other media were reporting that the trial has been adjourned for ten days following fears of transparency and lack of fairness. In his justification, the trial judge said the jurors had asked him to close the trial to the public out of fear of repercussions. He also claimed the defence lawyers "were busy with other work", which they are denying is true.

As one might expect, this decision infuriated Politovskaya`s family and sparked allegations of a cover-up. AP published another story later today, stating the jurors never said they wanted the trial to be closed to the press. Nineteen out of twenty jurors signed a statement today asking the trial judge to reverse the decision, a juror told Echo of Moscow Radio station, according to AP. The juror is quoted:

"We asked only for the removal of television cameras, while we had no objection to the written media attending".

This statement is again being contradicted by this news story from the Russian News and Information Agency Novosti, published earlier today.

Who knows what will happen next, but I don`t think Putin/Kadyrov will stand to benefit from the trial being held behind closed doors.

Community-funded journalism?

As newspapers are laying off journalists to cope with new media realities and the global financial crisis, new ideas for media funding is emerging.

David Cohn, an American Web Journalist, have launched Spot.Us. The site is a hub where freelance journalists can pitch story ideas and readers can pitch in money to pay the journalists to report and write the story. Cohn calls the model "community-funded journalism. (Source: TechCrunch) This link tells you all you need to know about how Spot.Us is organised as to funding, editorial work, media law, etc.

Some interesting comments on the concept left by readers:

"Sounds good for an experiment, but doesn’t seem it will take off anytime soon. I still prefer my CNN news", "This is a great idea and I look forward to supporting it. Citizen Journalism is key to democracy" and "I don`t know whether this will work. It will probably sway either right or left wing, but hopefully there`ll be editors vetting it."

I don`t think this is the way forward, but I`ve got a feeling I might have to get used to this model.

Citizen Journalism in Congo

Human rights activists and journalists in The Democratic (...) Republic of Congo have set up an interactive online portal to chart the violence in the country. Citizen journalists in the war zone can report on the violence through it, but it`s also intended to be a map site to situate the conflict zone for global viewers. Having been active for a week or so it contains a frightening amount of information provided by, well, anybody.

Media interest in High North

Barentsobserver.com, a multi-linguistic news site producing and publishing news stories concerned with the High North, have published this editorial pointing towards geopolitical interest in the High North as the motivation behind Russia offering Iceland a substantial loan in order to battle to financial crisis.

It should be noted that Barentsobserver.com is managed by the Norwegian Barents Secretariat, a project funded by the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Needless to say, Norway has a keen interest in the High North and a big conflict of interest with Russia, this news site contains a bit of a bias. Having said that, it is a very good source of information from the High North.

This article from the news site EUobserver.com offer insight as to where the Norwegian Barents Secretariat is going with Barentsobserver.com.

Russian interest in Iceland: Russian media

As I`ve blogged about earlier, the Russian government has offered Iceland a substantial cash loan following the Icelandic economic collapse.

The Moscow Times, also blogged about earlier, is owned by the Finnish-Danish Sanoma media group and is a good source of news from Russia. This news story (fifth paragraph) is carefully questioning the motivation of the initiative from Kremlin.

Western media coverage on the initiative (apart from Russian mainstream media) points at increasing Russian domestication of the High North. The Nordic countries and other nations with an interest in the Arctic seem to have come to the same conclusion, as they have lined up to offer Iceland financial help following the Russian initiative. Russian mainstream media report the scepticism as yet another example of western bias.

This news story from BBC highlights the question marks raised on Russian motivation for rescuing the Icelandic economy and offer good background to the story.

Arab Press Freedom Forum

This sounds interesting: The third Arab Press Freedom Forum is to be held in Beirut, Lebanon, on December 12th and 13th, a press release from the Paris-based World Association of Newspapers, (WAN) stated today. WAN, who organise the forum along with the Lebanese Al-Nahar daily newspaper, is looking to "overview the latest press developments in the Arab world, from obstructive government policies to the changing face of Arab blogging, and from the appeal and influence of Pan-Arab news media to the business of newspaper publishing in the Arab world"

The Arabic Network For Human Rights Information has a lot of useful links for further reading.

Internet: Obama vs. McCain

Above: Obama interviewed by YouTube, answering questions from users.

Both Obama and McCain have made "change" the core of their campaigns, and something has certainly changed already. If Obama wins, he might have the internet and social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter and MySpace in part to thank for it.

This article provides good analysis on how Obama have boldly gone where no presidential candidate have gone before.

At the time of me writing this, McCain and Obama are desperately appealing for votes. So are their families.

Michelle Obama is blogging at Blogher, "the community for women who blog", effectively reaching out to, well, American women. Her last post is on Halloween, family life, her daughters and her husband.

"I only wish you had a picture of the girls!", "You are good people, Michelle!", "Beautiful family!" and "I can`t wait to have you as First Lady" are among the comments.

McCain`s daughter Megnan, a recent graduate from Columbia University, is blogging for the sake of her dad along with some friends. The aim of the blog is obviously to explain younger voters what a nice man daddy is.

Having read it, it looks like she and her friends had a lot of fun campaigning with daddy and his "crew". It`s also very clear to me that she loves daddy very, very much.

There is obviously also a substantial number of blogs commenting on the candidates. Some interesting, some rediculous. This is a Christian-Conservative rant on why Obama is the devil. This is a rant on why McCain in the White House would prove disastrous. If you`re interested.

World Press Freedom Index 2008

- And finally some good news from Iceland.

The annual World Press Freedom Index by Reporters Without Borders (RSF) places Iceland on top of the list, along with Norway and Luxemburg.

Iceland jointly topped the list last year as well as in 2006, 2005, 2004, 2003 and 2002, when RSF started compiling it. Well done Iceland.

Northern European (and especially Scandinavian) countries, where robust press freedom is firmly established, have dominated the top end of the lists since 2002.

Being top of such a list for seven years running is clearly something to be proud of, but as a Guardian reader comments: "(...) journalists in Iceland, despite having the most freedom in the world, somehow missed that their economy was about to implode". It is a very good point.

RSF looks at a number of factors when drawing up the index, including the treatment of journalists, freedom of speech and information as well as media ownership.

According to the document, 81 journalists and 32 media employees were killed last year, 64 of which in Iraq. 139 journalists have been killed in Iraq since 2003, which is twice as many as died during the twenty years of war in Vietnam.

More on the World Press Freedom Index 2008

Some other comments on the document:

The UK comes out 23th due to the situation in Northern Ireland, where journalists continue to be threatened by paramilitary groups. The USA comes out 36th, which is a significant improvement from last year`s place at 48th, but receives criticism for arresting journalists during the Democratic and Republican conventions.

This feature from the US-based The Huffington Post reflects on the poor global standing.

Russia, where the trial of those accused of murdering investigative journalist Anna Politkovskaya started two weeks ago, comes out at 141st, below countries like Sudan, Bangladesh and the Philipines. Not very flattering for a nation that continuously tells the world about its democratic values.

Parts of the Politkovskaya-trial takes place behind closed doors, as several of the documents are classified as secret by FSB, the successor agency of KGB.

China comes out seventh from bottom at 167th. The lowest ranking countries, North Korea, Turkmenistan and Eritrea, are referred to as the "unchangeable hells" of media and political oppression.