China blogger angered over losing Facebook account

Chinese blogger and activist Michael Anti wants to know why he is less worthy of a Facebook account than company founder Mark Zuckerberg's dog.

Anti, a popular online commentator whose legal name is Zhao Jing, said in an interview Tuesday that his Facebook account was suddenly canceled in January. Company officials told him by e-mail that Facebook has a strict policy against pseudonyms and that he must use the name issued on his government ID.

Anti argues that his professional identity as Michael Anti has been established for more than a decade, with published articles and essays.

Anti, a former journalist who has won fellowships at both Cambridge University and Harvard University, said he set up his Facebook account in 2007. By locking him out of his account, Facebook has cut him off from a network of more than 1,000 academic and professional contacts who know him as Anti, he said.

"I'm really, really angry. I can't function using my Chinese name. Today, I found out that Zuckerberg's dog has a Facebook account. My journalistic work and academic work is more real than a dog," he said.

Facebook officials weren't available to comment on his case. The company says its policy leads to greater trust and accountability for its users.

"We have tried to keep the rule simple and fair by saying personal profiles must always be set up in the real legal name of the individual concerned," it said by e-mail to Anti.

Dissidents in a variety of countries have argued that Facebook's policy can endanger human rights activists and others if their identities become known.

Anti said there is a long tradition in China for writers and journalists to take pen names, partly as protection from retaliation from authorities. If Facebook requires the use of real names, that could potentially put Chinese citizens in danger, he said.

"For my fellow Chinese, this policy could easily help Chinese police identify them," he said.

It's not the first time Anti has had problems with an Internet site. In 2005, his blog on a Microsoft site was shut down by the company following pressure from Chinese officials. Microsoft's action led to a public outcry.

Zuckerberg recently set up a Facebook page for his newly acquired puppy, "Beast," complete with photos and a profile. [Feral Beast emphasizes that there is no relation!] More than 29,000 people have clicked "like" on this page.

Tini Tran of Associated Press reports from Beijing. Microsoft famously shut down Michael Anti's controversial blog at the end of 2005, sparking debates about Chinese censorship online.

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Beat Reporter- CBS 's Lara Logan assaulted by mob in Cairo

People who have been cheering the events in Cairo from afar find themselves aghast after learning about the violence inflicted on 52 journalists, including CBS News correspondent Lara Logan, who now is recovering in a U.S. hospital from a sustained sexual attack and beating she suffered while reporting on the tumultuous events in Cairo. AP reports.

Logan was in the city’s Tahrir Square on Friday after Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak stepped down when she, her team and their security “were surrounded by a dangerous element amidst the celebration,” CBS said in a statement Tuesday.

The network described a mob of more than 200 people “whipped into a frenzy.”

Separated from her crew in the crush of the violent pack, she suffered what CBS called “a brutal and sustained sexual assault and beating.” She was saved by a group of women and an estimated 20 Egyptian soldiers, the network said. The Associated Press does not name victims of a sexual assault unless the victim agrees to it.

She reconnected with the CBS team and returned to the U.S. on Saturday.

The scene last Friday in Tahrir Square — ground zero of 18 days of protests that brought down Mubarak — was primarily one of celebration — people wept, jumped for joy, cheered and hugged one another. Some soldiers stationed at the square ran into the crowd, and the protesters lifted them onto their shoulders. Other troops stayed at their posts, watching in awe. There were fireworks, the sound of car horns and even some shots fired in the air.

Sexual harassment of women is an all-too-common occurrence on the streets of Cairo. But many women noted a complete absence of it in the early days of protests in Tahrir Square, where demonstrators made a point of trying to create a microcosm of the society without many of Egypt’s social ills.

However, in the final days, and especially after the battles with pro-Mubarak gangs who attacked the protesters in Tahrir, women noticed sexual assault had returned to the square. On the day Mubarak fell, women reported being groped by the rowdy crowds. One witness saw a woman slap a man after he touched her. The man was then passed down a line of people who all slapped him and reprimanded him.

The attack on Logan, CBS News’ chief foreign affairs correspondent, was one of at least 140 others suffered by reporters covering the unrest in Egypt since Jan. 30, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists. An Egyptian reporter died from gunshot wounds he received during the protests.

A week before Friday’s attack, Logan was detained by the Egyptian military for a day, along with a CBS producer and cameraman. They returned to the U.S. after their release, and Logan went back to Cairo shortly before Mubarak left.

Logan joined CBS News in 2002. She regularly reports for the “CBS Evening News” as well as “60 Minutes,” where she has been a correspondent since 2006. She has reported widely from Iraq and Afghanistan, and other global trouble spots.

CBS said it had no further comment on Logan’s assault.

AP chief: Journalists need access to battlefront

Journalists need reasonable access to battlefields to provide the public a realistic view of what is happening in Afghanistan and other war zones, the top executive of The Associated Press said Thursday.

Tom Curley, president and CEO of the AP, said the coming months will tell whether the Obama administration's decision to deploy thousands of additional troops to Afghanistan "provides a true path forward or is just another turn in the bend of what so far seems to have been an aimless - and deadly - war."

Curley's speech kicked off a conference on war and journalism at the University of Kentucky. The conference, Covering Conflicts in a Modern World, continues through Saturday and features discussions on the role of media in foreign policy, military and media relations, media ethics in conflict reporting, war reporting and war in film. It is open to the public.


Pressure to reform Afghanistan's weak government and fight corruption have increased since President Barack Obama took office last year. Another 30,000 U.S. forces are heading to Afghanistan to try to oust a resurgent Taliban and secure large swaths of the country.

News organizations covering the conflict could not take credit for the latest changes in U.S. tactics, Curley said.

"But the fact is that war coverage by a free and independent media with reasonable access to the battlefield forces policy makers to deal with the reality of what is happening on the ground instead of what they want the public - or even Washington - to think," he said. "Nowhere is truth more at risk - or more elusive - than in today's wars."

News media had been reporting the chinks in the U.S. strategy in Afghanistan shortly after American forces drove the Taliban from power following the Sept. 11 attacks, Curley said. Soon afterward, the U.S. focus turned to Iraq.

"The repercussions of this can't be understated: While official reports were claiming a beaten-down Taliban, AP was reporting just the opposite," he said. "The U.S. administration already was looking to Iraq, of course, and didn't have the resources to devote to Afghanistan, which helps explain such official misinformation. It had to make Afghanistan a success to enable Iraq."

Journalists covering conflicts like the one in Afghanistan understand the risks they take to cover the story, Curley said. Late last year, AP photographer Emilio Morenatti lost his lower left leg when the Stryker vehicle he was riding in ran over a bomb. Two soldiers also were badly wounded.

"This relentless risk of harm separates war coverage from all other journalism we pursue everyday. AP spends more money on it per story than anything else we do," Curley said. "I am convinced ... that it is more important than anything else we do."

Read more here. Of course, if that Wikileaks video of their Iraqi photographer being shot from the air is anything to go by, Reuters would agree.

Big Fat Lie reported around the Globe

That horrendous tale about a Peruvian gang which murdered people for their fat was widely reported last month. A grisly photograph of "evidence" - four jars of human dripping from corpses plus a detached head - was circulated in most mainstream media outlets. Scientists were dubious about the existence of a black market for human lard, but still these arrest reports made the rounds, thanks to the Associated Press.

A closer look shows that story proved to be blatantly untrue, or as the Beeb put it, a "big fat lie." The top cop who circulated the story was sacked after hundreds of journalists were duped by his mix of horror and legend. Here's how.

Oops. AP publishes sketchy notes about pedophile celeb instead of article

Life is not going swimmingly for the director and persona-non-grata Roman Polanski.
To be first with the news requires a little oversight, and the Associated Press embarrassed itself when the initial notes between two wire reporters covering Roman Polanski's latest arrest in Switzerland were published instead of a more polished article. The mistake was rectified, but not before these speculative notes ran online and on the googlenews portal, due to aggregate 'bot feeds. It could have been worse, though. No egregious f-bombs were sent into cyberspace.
Click the BBC tech website for a matter-of-fact report. Would Reuters or AFP have gloated more ?

Pictures of war can carry more moral meaning than thousands of words

Pictures of war can carry more moral meaning than thousands of words | Ben Macintyre - Times Online

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Publishing the controversial photo of the dying Lance Corporal Joshua Bernard, aged 21, over the objections of his family drew widespread condemnaiton of the Associated Press as well as a tongue lashing from Alaska's ex-governor, Sarah Palin, on her Facebook page. OMG. The thoughtful article referenced above puts this photograph into perspective.

Idiot wind- Jersey cops arrest Bob Dylan as vagrant

Look familar, officer?

This Associated Press lede and its inescapable kicker are priceless.

Rock legend Bob Dylan was treated like a complete unknown by police in a New Jersey shore community when a resident called to report someone wandering around the neighborhood.....
How does it feel?

Plus consider the timing, 4 decades after woodstock! No surprise that the young cops didn't recognise his famous name, face or voice. But aren't Dylan lyrics taught as poetry in high school classes these days?

Extra, extra - old media keeps reporter on for 49 consecutive years

Hard-boiled reporters still exist. There's another legendary newspaper hack named Pyle, not Ernie but Richard, who was a mainstay of the Associated Press and is due to retire at age 75 before the ultimate deadline. Half a century of service, minus a year and four days! It's worth reading Dana Kennedy's Q/A with this veteran reporter, over on the blog-heavy Huffington Post. Irascible, gruff newsmen like him are getting scarce. The guy doesn't tweet, apparently

Associated Press will cut 10 per cent of jobs

Hatchetmen are everywhere as the year draws to an end
With perhaps a bit too much glee, the rival wire agency Reuters has reported the impending job slashes at the Associated Press. At least 600 jobs will be axed, about ten per cent of their employees. Whatever next?

Shocker: Tribune Co. Gives Notice To Drop AP

This may be the beginning of the end trend (AP is available 'free' online anyway, the papers' editors must figure). Journalists are shocked by this move, splashed in Editor and Publisher. Read more here.

Oops. AP calls Joe Liberman a "prick"

A classic typo was briefly circulated in a major Associated Press dispatch. Many lefty "moonbats", who have frequently snarked about turncoat Sen. Joe Lieberman -- the Democrat turned Independent who has endorsed John McCain -- found it all too apt, according to the sharpeyed folks at Editor and Publisher.
The typo, in an article about the upcoming vice presidential nominations due from McCain and Barack Obama and written by one of the top AP political writers, Nedra Pickler, was soon corrected but can still be found viewed via Google at numerous news sites early this morning.

After focusing on Obama, the article discusses several possible McCain picks, and relates, "His top contenders are said to include Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney. Less traditional choices mentioned include former Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Ridge, an abortion-rights supporter, and Connecticut Sen. Joe Lieberman, the Democratic vice presidential prick in 2000 who now is an independent."

Wire services examined: a good thing?

Debates about the powerful influence of the Associated Press surface, but no one expects the situation to change, especially since newspapers and magazines are rarely funding their own investigations abroad these days. The old saying was "You can's spell cheap without "A.P."...and is still holds.

US Army seeks criminal case against Associated Press shooter in Iraq

US Plans Case Against AP Photographer

By BRIAN MURPHY

NEW YORK (AP) - The U.S. military plans to seek a criminal case in an Iraqi court against a Pulitzer Prize-winning Associated Press photographer from Fallujah but is refusing to disclose what evidence or accusations would be presented.

An Associated Press attorney on Monday strongly protested the decision, calling the U.S. military plans a "sham of due process." The journalist, Bilal Hussein, has already been imprisoned without charges for more than 19 months.

A public affairs officer notified the AP on Sunday that the military intends to submit a written complaint against Hussein that would bring the case into the Iraqi justice system as early as Nov. 29. Under Iraqi codes, an investigative magistrate will decide whether there are grounds to try Hussein, 36, who was seized in the western Iraqi city of Ramadi on April 12, 2006.

A public affairs officer notified the AP on Sunday that the military intends to submit a written complaint against Hussein that would bring the case into the Iraqi justice system as early as Nov. 29. Under Iraqi codes, an investigative magistrate will decide whether there are grounds to try Hussein, 36, who was seized in the western Iraqi city of Ramadi on April 12, 2006.

Dave Tomlin, associate general counsel for the AP, said the defense for Hussein is being forced to work “totally in the dark.”

The military has not yet defined the specific charges against Hussein. Previously, the military has pointed to a range of suspicions that attempt to link him to insurgent activity.

The AP rejects all the allegations and contends it has been blocked by the military from mounting a wide-ranging defense for Hussein, who was part of the AP’s Pulitzer Prize-winning photo team in 2005.

Soon after Hussein was taken into custody, the AP appealed to the U.S. military to either release him or bring the case to trial — saying there was no evidence to support his detention. However, Tomlin said that the military is now attempting to build a case based on “stale” evidence and testimony that has been discredited. He also noted that the U.S. military investigators who initially handled the case have left the country.
“While we are hopeful that there could be some resolution to Bilal Hussein’s long detention, we have grave concerns that his rights under the law continue to be ignored and even abused,” said AP President and CEO Tom Curley.

“The steps the U.S. military is now taking continue to deny Bilal his right to due process and, in turn, may deny him a chance at a fair trial. The treatment of Bilal represents a miscarriage of the very justice and rule of law that the United States is claiming to help Iraq achieve. At this point, we believe the correct recourse is the immediate release of Bilal.”


Reporting from the point of view of the insurgents- is this tantamount to abetting the enemy? The military appears to think so. Watch this space.