YouGov accuses blogger of libel over polling allegations

Former diplomat and blogger Craig Murray has been accused of libel by polling company YouGov.

YouGov is unhappy with what it claims are defamatory allegations made by Murray about its leaders’ debate poll and its CEO, Stephan Shakespeare.

Murray has as yet not removed the posts in question and has also reproduced the letter his ISP reportedly received from YouGov’s lawyers, on his blog.  We contacted YouGov’s lawyer, Dan Tench at Olswang LLP, this morning.

“We have written to Mr Murray stating that he has published serious false and defamatory allegations regarding Mr Shakespeare and YouGov and asked him to remove them,” YouGov told Journalism.co.uk, via its lawyer.  “We still hope that he will do so.”

We asked why it was pursuing this action: “Mr Murray has made serious false and defamatory allegations regarding Mr Shakespeare and YouGov.  He has not sought to substantiate these allegations at all.  Mr Shakespeare and YouGov understandably want these allegations to be taken down.

“We will continue to press Mr Murray to remove these allegations.  If this is unsuccessful, we may have no option but to approach the webhost once again and ask in light of Mr Murray’s wholly  irresponsible actions, to take down the allegations.  We hope very much that that will not be necessary.”

Index on Censorship also reports on the incident at this link…

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#followjourn: @chriscondron/head of digital strategy

#followjourn: Chris Condron

Who? Head of digital strategy.

Where? Currently at the Press Association. Formerly editor-in-chief of ITV.com.

Contact? @chriscondron.

Just as we like to supply you with fresh and innovative tips every day, we’re recommending journalists to follow online too. They might be from any sector of the industry: please send suggestions (you can nominate yourself) to judith or laura at journalism.co.uk; or to @journalismnews.

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Could peace journalism offer a future for news media?

Non-violent activism is not reported enough in the media, which focuses on violence in too much of its language and reportage, Richard Keeble, Professor of Journalism at the University of Lincoln, argued yesterday in a Coventry Conversation event at Coventry University entitled “Give Peace Journalism a Chance!”

“Peace journalism is solution-orientated. It gives a voice to the voiceless. It’s attempting to humanise the enemy and exposing lies on all sides, highlighting peace initiatives and focusing on the invisible effects of violence, such as psychological trauma,” he said.

Keeble attacked the traditional media, for acting as propaganda for war, rather than a resolution promoter, but stressed the importance of alternative media in promoting peace journalism.

“Part of the critique is the critique of the language of the media and one of the things that always amazes me, is the way in which the metaphor of war is everywhere [...] there’s all different kinds of ways in which alternative citizen journalists are challenging the professional monopoly of this word journalism, and I celebrate them enormously.”

Talking about the exposure of war, Keeble said: “It is the responsibility of journalists to expose the truth.”

“You are not being told to be objective,” he added. “There’s no way in which X can be balanced with Y, because what about A, B, C and D and everything else in between? The whole notion of balance is problematic, isn’t it?”

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Out-law.com: German court rules that Google image search results do not infringe copyright

Out-law.com reports on a case in the German Federal Supreme Court; it ruled that Google is not infringing owners’ copyright by showing thumbnail image previews  from external websites.

An artist sued Google in Germany because thumbnail images of her pictures appeared when her name was entered into Google’s search engine. The pictures were taken from her own website.

The Court said that Google’s display of the images was not copyright infringement because the artist had not used a simple technical measure to stop Google indexing her site.

Full post at this week…

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Poynter Online: How news orgs hope to use new Facebook features

Poynter’s Mallary Jean Tenore talked to various news organisations about how they might make use of Facebook’s new features.

She interviewed journalists at the Washington Post, ABC News, ESPN.com “to find out how the integration of these tools fits into their overall social media strategies”.

Full story at this link…

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Reportr.net: ‘Does new media require new journalism ethics?’

Professor Alfred Hermida reports on today’s conference at the Center for Journalism Ethics at UW-Madison’s School of Journalism and Mass Communication, which will look at changing media ethics in an online environment.

At the heart of the ‘New Journalism, New Ethics?’ conference is whether new forms of media require new standards. Or do established ethical principles still apply?

Ahead of the event, the Center has released a report – ‘Ethics for the new investigative newsroom’.

You can view the report at this link [PDF].

Full post at this link…

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Alan Rusbridger on his vision for a ‘mutualised newspaper’ (video)

Alan Rusbridger, editor of the Guardian, recently appeared on the Charlie Rose show, now available online.

Asked about free versus paid content and newspapers, Rusbridger talked about a future of collaboration rather than competition.

The collaborative possibilities of the web are the interesting ones, he said, citing how the Guardian invited external environmental websites to sit on its site.

Rusbridger, who has spoken out against pay walls in the past, talked about his vision of a “mutualised newspaper”.

“We have to get over this journalistic arrogance that journalists are the only people who are the figures of authority in the world,” he said. Using the example of theatre coverage, he said you didn’t need to get rid of the critics, but you could invite other members of the audience in.

“If you can open your site up, and allow other voices in, you get something that’s more engaged, more involved – and actually, I think, journalistically better.”

Full clip at this link…

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#Tip of the day from Journalism.co.uk – journalist’s guide to Twitter

Trinity Mirror Regional’s head of multimedia, David Higgerson, offers a guide to Twitter and how to make it work for journalists. Find it on his blog at this link… Tipster: Judith Townend.

To submit a tip to Journalism.co.uk, use this link – we will pay a fiver for the best ones published.

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What the candidates really think: TheyWorkForYou database goes live

Yesterday we reported how online election scrutiny projects could really come back to haunt candidates once elected, as bloggers and developers collect detailed information on promises and claims made in the run-up to 6 May.

Well, one of those powerful tools is now live. The non-partisan Democracy Club sent out questionnaires to as many prospective parliamentary candidates as possible, and they have received over 1,000 replies. About one third of PPCs have responded; follow the response rate here.

As the Guardian reports, of the three main parties, the Conservatives have been the least responsive, with candidates unwilling to publicly declare a personal position on specific local and national issues.  Only 6 per cent of 616 invites had been answered at the time of writing.

Those answers have been compiled into a TheyWorkForYou.com database, available here:

• Who would work for you, if elected MP?

Answer each question with your own view, and you will find out what the candidates (who responded) stand.

There’s a project FAQ here at this link, but we also asked developer Tim Green for a bit more information:

Did the candidates answer most questions?

Candidates have to answer all questions to submit. Some had a problem with this.

Where are the gaps?

You’ll notice from the chart that the Conservatives don’t seem to like it. Most of the ones I’ve been in email contact with don’t seem to like the idea of being forced to go clearly on record with other candidates, and would rather contact each constituent individually even if it actually means fewer people hear about them, which I find a bit odd.

Will you be doing any statistical analysis with the data?

We’ve had some interest from academics on working out the political breakdown implied by the survey results. I’m really looking forward to it! The low Conservative response may make this harder, but we hope it’ll be possible anyway.

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Tricks and tips for journalism and editorial job hunting online – an update

Journalism lecturer Andy Dickinson (@digidickinson) has now updated his recent SlideShare and blog post on how to find editorial jobs online, which we featured on this blog last week, to include a more detailed transcript of his talk.

His blog post this week contains lots of handy tips for the dedicated journalism jobseeker, so if you are in the market for a new job, check it out.

Meanwhile, here at Journalism.co.uk, we have produced a new page explaining how to get the most out of our own jobs board, including six step-by-step videos taking you through the jobseeker registration process and various alert systems. Here are the benefits, all of which are free:

• ability to save jobs you have searched for and liked for later;
• ability to upload and store your CV;
• ability to apply online and save your applications for future re-use/modification;
• ability to register a personal statement so that our can advertisers can find you using our CV match service;
• ability to receive job opportunities by daily email;
• ability to create customised RSS feeds based on your own search criteria.

I would urge you to take a few minutes to sign up, even if you are not necessarily looking to make a move now. You never know what opportunity might coming knocking on your door.

Finally, if you are on the other side of the fence and looking to recruit editorial staff, please read why you should advertise your vacancies on Journalism.co.uk here, and register to post your jobs here.

Recruitment advertising helps fund our free content, so if you like what we do this is one great way to support us!

Useful reading:

Job application tips

How to prepare a killer CV

How to prepare for that crucial interview

How to make the most out of work experience

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