Six months on: Lindhout and Brennan are still held hostage in Somalia

Marking six months since their disappearance, this blog post over on the Frontline blog. Graham Holliday has created a timeline, embedded below, marking the course of events.

“Six months ago today [Sunday 22 February] the first reports came in of the kidnap of Canadian freelance journalist Amanda Lindhout, freelance photographer Nigel Brennan and their fixers and driver. The team were reportedly abducted just outside Mogadishu. The fixer and driver were subsequently released, but Lindhout and Brennan remain hostage,” he writes.

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• WashingtonPost: Abducted French security advisers in Mogadishu posed as journalists
• Frontline Blog: Canadian hostage in Somalia reported to have called CTV
• Frontline Blog: AFP publishes first reported communication with Lindhout and Brennan since August 2008
• RSF: Lindhout and Brennan still captive in Somalia 12 months on
• Frontline Blog: Amanda Lindhout’s TV plea

Links for ICO’s call for senior public officials’ (including BBC) salary bands to be publicly available

“Senior public officials salary bands should be publicly available as a matter of routine, according to new Guidance published today by the Information Commissioners Office (ICO)”, the ICO said, in a release today.

“Salary details, bonuses and performance related pay should be in the public domain to the nearest £5,000 band when there is a legitimate public interest. Disclosing exact salaries will only be required in exceptional circumstances,” the ICO said.

The Independent reported the ICO has said that “highly paid executives and presenters working for the BBC, and bosses of the newly nationalised banks, must disclose details of salaries and bonuses.

And here is where you can find that information:

Download the PDF of the release here: http://www.ico.gov.uk/upload/documents/pressreleases/2009/salaries_guidance_final230209.pdf

Download the PDF of the Guidance here:http://www.ico.gov.uk/upload/documents/library/freedom_of_information/practical_application/salaries_v1.pdf

Two examples concerning the BBC from the Guidance:

• “The Commissioner determined that the BBC should disclose the salary band of the Controller of Continuing Drama, but not his exact salary, which was individually negotiated. He found that the legitimate public interest outweighed the intrusion of disclosing the salary band but not the additional intrusion of disclosing an exact salary. (ICO decision notice FS50070465, March 2008)”

• “The Commissioner decided that BBC Northern Ireland did not have to release the fee paid to a presenter. The fee had been decided in confidential negotiations in accordance with the standard practice in the industry, and was therefore properly treated differently from the salary of a senior employee. (ICO decision notice FS50067416, January 2008).”

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PhotoAttorney: Facebook’s old TOU ‘aren’t good either’

Following the reversion to the old terms of use on Facebook, Carolyn E. Wright reminds us that the old TOU ‘aren’t good either, especially for photographers who care that their photos might be used for promotional purposes without payment.’

“Facebook’s TOU currently state:

‘By posting User Content to any part of the Site, you automatically grant, and you represent and warrant that you have the right to grant, to the Company an irrevocable, perpetual, non-exclusive, transferable, fully paid, worldwide license (with the right to sublicense) to use, copy, publicly perform, publicly display, reformat, translate, excerpt (in whole or in part) and distribute such User Content for any purpose, commercial, advertising, or otherwise, on or in connection with the Site or the promotion thereof…’”

Full story at this link…

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Media Release: BBC Trust confirms permission refusal for BBC’s local video plans

From a release issued this morning: “The BBC Trust confirmed today that it has refused permission for local video after concluding its public value test into the proposals”.

“The Trust’s final decision follows a public consultation on its provisional conclusions, published in November, to reject local video because it would not improve services for the public enough to justify either the investment of licence fee funds or the negative impact on commercial media.”

Full release at this link…

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Guardian.co.uk: Handling reader responses in a ‘digital age’

In her weekly column, the Guardian readers’ editor, Siobhain Butterworth, takes a look at newspapers’ handling of reader complaints and responses in the age of digital publishing.

She picks out a New York Times case: following the settlement of a libel action brought against it by a Washington lobbyist, the paper published a joint statement, an article from the lobbyist’s lawyers, a note to readers and a report about the settlement.

“What’s interesting and unusual about the Iseman case is that the negotiated resolution of her complaint included space on the paper’s website for her lawyers’ views about the lawsuit,” Butterworth comments.

Full story at this link…

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FT.com: Fairfax’s ‘plunge’ into first-half loss

“Fairfax Media, Australia’s oldest newspaper company, plunged into a first-half loss on Monday after writing down the value of its mastheads and incurring heavy restructuring charges, underlining the plight facing media companies,” reports the FT.

Full story at this link…

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Defamer.gawker.com: Defamer ‘folds into’ Gawker

Gawker’s Nick Denton explains the changes here, or you can read a post from Seth at Defamer at this link…

In a nutshell, Defamer is being merged into Gawker.com, and its current writers are to move onto pastures new.

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RCFP: AP’s ‘hot news’ claim will go forward in court

From the Reporters’ Committee for Freedom of the Press last week: “A federal court in New York on Tuesday refused to dismiss a lawsuit by The Associated Press that claims a competing news service, All Headline News Corp., misappropriated its news content by drafting stories based on AP reports.” The AP had filed suit against a company, which it claims copied and rewrote AP stories. Full story at this link…

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Guardian.co.uk: The subbing ‘Terminator’ speaks out in print

“Greenslade, a former editor of the Daily Mirror, has become journalism’s very own Terminator,” writes his colleague Simon Hattenstone in today’s MediaGuardian.

Then (a subbed?) piece from Roy Greenslade, on the subs’ ‘fatwa’ he now faces.

Full story at this link…

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CollegeJourn.com: Professors join in the Twitter conversation

We’ll link again to a round-up post, but in the meantime here’s the CollegeJourn.com ‘Bring A Professor chat’ from yesterday evening, displayed via CoverItLive. Journalism educators shared their thoughts on ‘how journalism education can be improved’: “what they’re doing right and how, together, we can help redefine the future of journalism and journalism education,” the host, Suzanne Yada, asked the range of US college students and professors.

Update: And here’s the round-up: http://www.collegejourn.com/2009/02/bring-a-professor-chat-wrapup.html

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