Israeli army video blogs censored by YouTube

As the horror in Gaza is into it`s fourth day and Israel seem to be ready for an invasion, the war is also fought on the internet. YouTube temporary removed a number of videos of the attacks on Gaza posted at the Israeli Defense Force`s official YouTube channel, possibly due to thousands of "inapropriate comments". Some of the videos were later put back with the comment section disabled.

The video above, shot by Israeli army personel, depict bombings of what the publisher claim to be "rocket launching sites" in Gaza. The comment field is also a war zone.

This blogger comments:

"It`s a propaganda campaign, pure and simple. Even though you can see far worse in the chillingly note-perfect AC-130 stage in fucking Call of Duty 4, there are people dying in those buildings, and no, not of of them are terrorists. No war in history has been fought without the warring parties attempting to control the story with info dissemination. But using a forum like YouTube, a public community where smartbombs destroying buildings in a populated city are adjacent to sleeping kittens and 12 year olds` rants on why homework sucks, and where said 12 year olds (literally, and those of 12-year-old intellect) can fill the comment sections with racist hate-spew, is this where we draw the line?"

I think YouTube are wrong to remove this content and censor the comment fields. The firestorm of hate fueled comments are at the very least some sort of dialogue. YouTube have no ethical right to censor this debate. As to the videos, the world is watching anyhow. (The Wikipedia page of the Gaza Strip Airstrikes is flagged with disputed neutrality, as could be expected.)

On a personal note: I`m writing this from Stavanger, the Norwegian oil hub on the west coast, enjoying Christmas break from University and preparing for New Year`s Eve celebrations with friends. I am very fortunate to be located where I am. My thoughts go out to those less fortunate with their location, the civilians in Gaza in particular.

Representative Journalism pilot project in US

Representative Journalism, another experiment in community funded journalism, is being tested in the US.

As with other community supported media business models, this project allows communities, individuals and groups to assign journalists to deliver Web-based local and topical news. The project, called Locally Grown, is geared around an online community in Northfield, Minnesota.

As explained in the documentary above, the pilot project is trying to find out whether there is a financial market for the idea in the community, how a journalist would have to behave to get that support from individuals or advertisers, etc etc.

The journalist assigned to the project says she is trying to bring professional standards and ethics into the blogosphere. "She (the journalist) doesn`t work for us, we`re just the place where she publishes her stuff, the place where she hangs her professional hat," a CO-Host/Blogger from Locally Grown says in the documentary.

The idea comes from Mr. Leonard Witt of Kennesaw State University, a former journalist concerned about the struggling print media: “We are living in an era when old journalism models are failing, newspapers are faltering and experienced journalists are losing their jobs,” Mr. Witt said in a press release from PJnet.

I`ve blogged about community funded journalism before. People are increasingly interested in local news on expense of foreign news. There certainly is a market for very local news stories. Community funded journalism is a very exciting idea, but my problem is still with the funding. (The project in Minnesota is funded through a grant awarded to Kennesaw University and not by the community.)

I don`t like the idea that people could pay for having produced the news they want. Especially in small communities in the blindspots of the public eye. Who`s going to write the important stories nobody want to pay for? Who`s going to write the stories nobody has thought of yet? Who`s going to write the stories the community don`t want to be written?

I`m not protesting about communities paying for the production of cosy feature articles, but news stories. Media can`t function as a watchdog if it`s paid for by the local community.

EU voices concern over Politovskaya-trial

The European Parliament issued this press release just before Christmas, by doing so voicing it`s loudest critique on the court proceedings to date. As I`ve blogged about earlier, there`s been several issues concerning public access to the trial.

The statement reads:

"Two years after the brutal killing of the Russian independent journalist Anna Politkovskaya, who has become a symbol for freedom of the press, serious concerns have been raised with regard to transparency and respect for the rule of law in the criminal investigation and trial following the murder. Parliament calls on the court to fully respect the jury's decision, open the proceedings to all journalists and media, and "establish not only who committed and assisted in the murder of Anna Politkovskaya, but also who ordered it".

It`s encouraging to see the EU follow media watchdogs like Reporters Without Borders in taking such a strong stand on the issue, but I still don`t think their opinion will be heard in Kremlin.

Every Human Has Rights Media Awards

Citizen journalists were among the winners as the media watchdog and -entrepreneur Internews Europe hosted "Every Human Has Rights Awards" earlier this week.

The Paris-based NGO had invited mainstream and citizen journalists to submit world and current affairs reports and stories illustrating one or several articles of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. 482 contributors from 108 countries took part, according to the award`s website.

It shouldn`t surprise anybody to see citizen journalists take the stage among mainstream journalists at events like this. The quality and scope of the contributions is impressive. The full list over contributions by citizen journalists awarded is here:

The Tribune Company bankrupt

One of America's largest media companies has sought protection from its creditors in bankruptcy court. The Tribune Company sought protection last week under Chapter Eleven under US bankruptcy laws. (Chapter Eleven lets a business continue to operate while it seeks to restructure its debt.)

The Tribune Company owns the Los Angeles Times, the Chicago Tribune, the Baltimore Sun and other newspapers. It also owns twenty-three television stations.

According to this story from voa.com, The Tribune Company is the first major newspaper group in US to declare bankruptcy since the rise of Internet in the mid-90s. The article goes far in suggesting that Internet is the cause of the media groups (and all other media groups) problems.

According to this article from The Guardian, penned by Peter Preston, internet can`t be blamed for the problems, it`s down to debts brought on by poor ownership:

"The central problem isn't the internet (a dampener on profits and spreader of uncertainty, at worst; not the end of everything). The problem is newspaper ownership flawed by misplaced ambition and short-sighted management."

I think the truth lies somewhere in between the Internet and greedy ownership. One thing is certain, The Tribune Company isn`t he last newspaper-geared media group to get themselves into trouble over the next few years.

Bloggers in Vietnam

With fast, free Internet available at internet cafes and Universities across Vietnam, bloggers are increasingly challenging censorship and the ruling Communist Party, according to this article from San Francisco Chronicle. A student is quoted:

"We won`t go to the streets, we won`t shout anything. We`re sitting before the screen, typing and blogging."

The article goes on to say that a Vietnamese state-regulated news site has been hacked by bloggers, typing in pro-democracy and nationalist slogans. The story is penned by Geoffrey Cain, Chronicle Foreign Service. I wonder if he`s situated in Vietnam. As most media enterprises are cutting back on their foreign reporting, it`s encouraging to read well researched stories from Asia that aren`t written in news rooms in Europe or the US.

Community-funded journalism project in Australia

I`ve blogged a bit about community-funded journalism before. It`s one of the new media funding models emerging as mainstream media continue to cut back on their staff and the global financial crisis is rocking media in general.

At the MEAA-summit (Media, Entertainment and Arts Alliance) in Australia last week, journalist and author Margaret Simmons announced plans for a loose consortium of journalists, publishers and universities to set up "the first substantial experiment in community-funded journalism in Australia, the foundation for Public Interest Journalism."

"The idea is to develop a more interactive relationship between potential audiences and journalists so that audiences can directly commission the journalism they want," says Simons.

I`m still not sure about this model. The idea of having people pay a journalist to write a story just sounds wrong. I`m not sure about the whole public interest-argument, either. There is a difference between public interest and what`s of interest to the public.

The report following the MEAA-summit, "Life In a Clickstream: The Future of Journalism", can be read here

Mumbai coverage scrutinised

As could be expected, mainstream media is now considering how the Mumbai attacks were reported with regards to citizen journalists breaking the story and supplying the baseline of the reporting.

The Independent argues "Twittering is not how to supply news", saying that BBC was playing Russian roulette with it`s editorial integrity by including a live update from Twitter on it`s website during the attacks.

As I`ve blogged about earlier, for all the good citizen journalism coming out of Mumbai it wasn`t all good. A lot of it was gibberish, repetitive or unhelpful. Some were in the know, others just wanted to be heard.

To me, the biggest ethical dilemma seems to be that mainstream media can`t possibly check all the facts if they include a live update from citizen journalists.

BBC News website editor Steve Herrmann admitted that BBC "will need to take more care in how it uses lightening fast, unsubstantiated citizen posts in the future."

Is there a need for an international ethical standard when mainstream media is dealing with citizen journalism?

Politovskaya-trial again closed to public

The trial was initially closed to the public, then it was opened - and then it closed again, following what clearly must have been Government sensitive testemonies. It`s turning into a farce, really.

(Anna Politovskaya was a Russian investigative journalist and Kremlin critic, murdered in 2006)

The trial judge yesterday closed the trial to the public to hear "classified evidence", as the court heared a testemony from a witness linked to Government agencies, AP reports. The trial was again opened to the public following this testimony.

Russian news agency RIA Novosti quoted Politovskaya`s lawyer saying the witness testified that one of the accused, a former police officer, had told him that he gathered information about Politovskaya. The same witness allegedly also said $2 million was "paid out" for the murder.

Well, I don`t know. Who can tell? A lot of information has come out in earlier proceedings, and a defense lawyer earlier said that court documents indicated that a unnamed Russian politician was behind the murder.

Men are standing trial and someone is probably eventualy going to get sentenced. Possibly even the men who carried out the murder. But I can`t see the ones who ordered the murder being caught. When the trial keep getting closed to the public whenever crucial evidence is being heard it`s hard to not see the proceedings as a well coreographed show.

Reporters Without Borders issued a statement, saying:

"Judge Yevgeni Zubov`s decision to continue the trial behind closed doors has increased our concerns about transparancy. It prevents journalists and public from being able to evaluate the arguements, testimony and evidence presented in court."

Al Jazeera launches web portal for Citizen Journalism

The Beirut-based website Menassat.com reports that Al Jazeera have launched a web portal "in a attempt to increase citizen journalism in the middle east". The portal is currently available in Arabic, but an english version is on its way.

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.

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?