US State Department to fund BBC anti-jamming

The BBC World Service is to receive a "significant" sum of money from the US government to help combat the blocking of TV and internet services in countries including Iran and China, reports the Guardian

In what the BBC said is the first deal of its kind, an agreement is expected to be signed later this month that will see US state department money – understood to be a low six-figure sum – given to the World Service to invest in developing anti-jamming technology and software.

The funding is also expected to be used to educate people in countries with state censorship in how to circumnavigate the blocking of internet and TV services.

It is understood the US government has decided the reach of the World Service is such that it makes investment worthwhile.

The US government money comes as the World Service faces a 16% cut in its annual grant from the Foreign Office – a £46m reduction in its £236.7m budget over three years that will lead to about 650 job cuts. The money will be channelled through the World Service's charitable arm, the World Service Trust.

The deal, which is expected to be formally announced on International Press Freedom Day, 3 May, follows an increase in incidents of interference with World Service output across the globe, according to its controller of strategy and business, Jim Egan.

BBC Persian television, which launched in early 2009 and airs in Iran and its neighbouring countries, has experienced numerous instances of jamming. The BBC Arabic TV news service has also been jammed in recent weeks across various parts of north Africa during the recent uprisings in Egypt and Libya.

"Governments who have an interest in denying people information particularly at times of tension and upheaval are keen to do this and it is a particular problem now," said Egan.

Another area in which the BBC World Service is expected to use the US money is continuing its development of early warning software.

This will allow it to detect jamming sooner than it does currently where it relies on reports from users on the ground.

"Software like this helps monitor dips in traffic which act as an early warning of jamming, and it can be more effective than relying on people contacting us and telling us they cannot access the services," said Egan.

The BBC also expects to use state department money to help combat internet censorship by establishing proxy servers that give the impression a computer located in one country is in fact operating in another, thereby circumnavigating attempts by repressive governments to block websites.

"China has become quite expert at blocking websites and one could say it has become something of an export industry for them – a lot of countries are keen to follow suit," said Egan.

"We have evidence of Libya and Egypt blocking the internet and satellite signals in recent weeks."

Egan added that the battle against jamming is likely to be an ongoing one because repressive countries are likely to develop methods to counter any anti-censorship technology that is developed.

"It is a bit of a game of cat and mouse," said a BBC source.

US Forces release freelance Photographer in Iraq

Ibrahim Jassam Mohammed had been held for 17 months without charge despite protests from media rights groups. This shooter from Reuter is free at last.Chris Tryhorn, from the Guardian, reports:

A Reuters photographer in Iraq has been freed by the US military after 17 months' detention without charge.

Ibrahim Jassam Mohammed, an Iraqi who contributed to Reuters on a freelance basis, was released earlier today.

He was detained in a raid by US and Iraqi forces on his home in Mahmudiya, south of Baghdad, in September 2008 and continued to be held without charge despite widespread protest from media rights groups.

"How can I describe my feelings? This is like being born again," Jassam told Reuters by telephone.

"I am very pleased his long incarceration without charge is finally over," said Reuters editor-in-chief David Schlesinger.

"I wish the process to release a man who had no specific accusations against him had been swifter."

Jassam's case was the latest example of Iraqi journalists working for foreign news organisations being detained by the US military without charge.

A month before his arrest, US forces detained Reuters cameraman Ali Mashhadani for the third time, holding him for three weeks without charge.

The US military said Jassam was a "security threat" but the evidence was classified and no full explanation of his detention was given other than that it related to "activities with insurgents".

The Iraqi Central Criminal Court ruled last year that there was no case against Jassam.

A freelance print journo's foray into telly

Freelancer reporter Graham Johnson's travails with Zig Zag productions in London, trying to provide shock tv for hardmen without deep pockets, seems to be a lesson in schlock tv reporting for (hardly) men. Here's an excerpt from "Strong-arm tactics", Johnson's Guardian piece about the visual media's darkside:

The first thing you learn about TV folk is that they've got no stories. I'm generalising here. When I say TV folk, I mean some TV documentary makers, as opposed to the (slightly) more honourable breed of TV news reporters and execs.

The second thing you learn is that they haven't got any money to pay for stories. This brings me on to the third thing you learn about TV people - if they can't afford to buy stories, then they will try to take them from you... Many down-trodden print journalists look at TV as being the promised land, which will one day make them famous, give them the credit they deserve and free them from the pressure of tough news execs.

Memo to careworn, overworked print journalists: the magic of TV. It's all a blag. It's an illusion. Stay where you are.

Click here to read the complete article.

Swine Flu Soundslide show gets thumbs up

Click here to see how swine flu creates echoes in empty Mexican churches shown in this Guardian sound slideshow. Prayer is not as available to Mexicans in this current health crisis and the church's tactics are discussed. Is this the future of feature news coverage? It's podcast + pix, and is easy to download.
Something about the reporter's Irish lilt and the surreal wire photos coalesce to make this a sensitive report about a possible pandemic. Especially on Cinco de Mayo. The Mexican tourists trapped in China have just got an airlift back home. Ole.

and, according to Harper's magazine (another future avatar of the aggregate news roundup):

Egypt, which has no cases of the flu, ordered all
its pigs killed, especially slum pigs; police at Manshiyat
Nasr slum fired tear gas and rubber bullets at rioting
Coptic Christian pig farmers.
Geneticists continued to
sequence the flu's genes. "Atgaaggcaa tactagtagt
tctgctatat," read the opening line of the segment-four
hemagglutinin gene. "Acatttgcaa ccgcaaatgc agacacatta."

And the latest fad in the midst of "Parmageddon" and Aporkalypso?
"Pimp your mask, man."

Open Platform-Open Sesame

Is this the way fwd in these aggregate/aggravating news cucless? London's leftie rag, the Guardian (often known as the Grauniad for its idiosyncratic subbing) inaugurates a new era with Open Platform. Bloggers can weave the Guardian's content for free into "the fabric of the internet", if you carry their ads. Don't miss the Guardian Datablog...tells how comment is free, facts are sacred...and have been since before the founding of The Manchester Guardian

Are reporters doomed?

In the rush to embrace new media we risk destroying the soul of traditional reporting,
argues David Leigh in the Guardian. In the race for quick hits on sex, celebrity and scandal, slow (old school)journalism may be fazed out in favor of the bottom line, he laments, and warns against the demise of powerful news outlets.

There are several reasons for this. The mass media can shine a light. Or they can reflect back light. The Daily Mail and Fox News, for example, are highly profitable businesses that make their money out of telling people what they think they know already. They reflect back their audience's existing beliefs. They reassure them by hammering the world into a shape that suits their prejudices. This is less an information service than a form of cheap massage.

Too much interactivity, commentating and blogging can end up inadvertently doing the same thing. It is cheaper and excitingly faster, but it is not always
a source of light. People shout past each other. They enjoy the sound of their own voices and confirm their own prejudices through the delicious experience of self-publishing. Paradoxically, more becomes less.

I'm in favour of the future, of course. We all have to be. It is coming to get us, whether we like it or not. We have to come to terms with what is going on. More than come to terms — we have to embrace it. But we should spend less time fretting about platforms and more about the loss of honesty in our trade. There is yet to be a proper accounting for the disgraceful loss
of journalistic integrity on both sides of the Atlantic that cheer-led us into the Iraq war on a false prospectus.

Incestuous plot in London

These sister papers should not marry, hurrumphs Stephen Glover, a media analyst at the Independent newspaper.

One story you will not have seen in MediaGuardian concerns goings-on at 'The Guardian' and 'The Observer'. As I wrote here a little over two months ago, there have been discussions about turning 'The Observer' into a seven-day version of its daily sister paper. The 'Evening Standard' has even suggested that Roger Alton, 'Observer' editor, may be considering his position. He denies this.

The rationale for making 'The Observer' into some sort of Sunday version of 'The Guardian' is that it is losing a good deal of money. Integrating some departments would reduce losses. A similar thought process has been going on at the 'Telegraph' papers, where there appear to be plans afoot (though they are denied) to make the Sunday title closer to the Daily one.

The contrary case is that making 'The Observer' into a seventh day 'Guardian' would weaken it. I would like to know of a successful instance in this country of a Sunday paper being successfully merged with its daily stablemate. Almost invariably, the process, having been embarked upon, is reversed. Of course, some resources, such as foreign correspondents, can be shared. But if it is to punch its weight in a very competitive market, a Sunday title needs its own editor and staff.

One can understand why the Guardian Media Group should be concerned by losses at 'The Observer', but I hope it keeps it separate. In 1993, Newspaper Publishing, then owner of 'The Independent', almost acquired 'The Observer' with the idea of merging it with the 'Independent on Sunday'. At the last moment 'The Guardian' bought the paper with the assurance of keeping it alive as a separate title. It must not break this pledge.

Correction of the Month: A pseudo-apology runs in the Guardian

The football column in London's Guardian recently ran a rather snide "correction." Have a read of Simon Hattenstone at full throttle. (Hat tip to the website regrettheerror.com)

This column might have given the erroneous impression that it does not revere the legendary football manager, Sven Goran-Eriksson. The Guardian wishes to apologise to Mr Eriksson for any distress caused, and is happy to clarify that he is the manager of the season 2007-08, the only coach to have done the double with three clubs in three countries, the modern master tactician and Sweden's greatest babe magnet, bar none.

Svennis, I'm so, so, so, so, so sorry. I shouldn't have compared you to Death in The Seventh Seal, shouldn't have called you frigid, lily-livered and deluded, or harked on about your Cuban heels, or made gratuitous references to your Zeus-like libido, or been catty about the sweet dream that you were managing Manchester United, or questioned your ingenious scouting on YouTube. I was foolish, Svennis, an ignoramus. Glib. Just a stupid football fan wantonly giving you sticks.

My colleagues advised me to wait at least three games before apologising. But that would be wrong. One game in, and you already have my heart. I have not been so exhilarated since Dennis Tueart scored with overhead kicks in three successive games and Colin Bell streaked on to the pitch at half-time singing If I Said You Had A Beautiful Body (Would You Hold it Against Me).

Sven is playing fantasy football. In two weeks he has bought the ingredients for a divine footballing cake and baked it to holy perfection...

contrarian's contrarian simply cancels himself out

Thumbs down on Andrew Keen's book, Cult of the amateur: How today's internet is killing our culture and destroying our economy. Why is this guy anti-blogging prof getting any attention? He's a throwback with far less savvy than most of the MSM (er, mainstream media, for those still baffled by blogging terms.)
Commentator Roy Greenslade quotes critic Jeff Jarvis, as someone who is not especially keen on this polemical book:

"Keen wants to be the contrarian's contrarian. But that only makes him a double negative. It makes him a curmudgeon, a conservative trying to hold on to the past, a mastadon growling against the warm wind of change."

Dirty Digger: charm offensive or just plain offensive?

The Bancroft family, who sold out Dow Jones and the Wall Street Journal, comes off as "dysfunctional as the Windors", writes Andrew Clark in the Guardian. Christopher Bancroft, the seller, is shown left.
Clark recounts a family farce almost as bad as Queen Elizabeth's annus horribilis, where one bitter relative shows up at the corporate meeting wearing a fishing cap emblazoned "Bite me."

The tycoon's brilliant business strategy just took a bit of time

"like a parent waiting for a baby to cry itself to sleep, Murdoch simply waited for the Bancrofts to exhaust themselves with in-fighting."