Independent: Poll finds judges ‘too ready’ to gag newspapers

The findings of a poll run by the Independent show  the majority of respondents believe “judges have been too ready to issue gagging orders” which enable the rich and famous to protect their privacy, the paper reports.

People appear to have little sympathy with those high-profile film, television and sports stars who have resorted to the courts to stop embarrassing details of their private lives reaching the public domain, according to the ComRes survey.

According to the Independent, which reported last week that at least 333 gagging orders have been granted in the last five years, 70 per cent of voters in the poll agreed that courts had been “too willing” to grant injunctions.

A total of 65 per cent believed that “celebrities and sports stars owe their lifestyle to their public profile so they should not complain about intrusion into their private lives”.

Although voters disapprove of the efforts that well-known figures make to prevent damaging headlines, they also believe by a narrower majority that privacy rules have failed to keep pace with the rapid growth of the internet.

This comes as a new account appears on Twitter publishing allegations of identities said to be being protected by injunctions. Following a previous case of a Twitter account publishing accusations against celebrities of taking out injunctions, as well as the wide Tweeting of individual identities said to be subject to privacy injunctions, the site reportedly confirmed it would hand over details about users if legally obliged to do so.

According to reports, just this weekend, in an entirely separate case not related to injunctions, a local council was allegedly successful in making Twitter hand over user details for a court case.

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#Tip of the day from Journalism.co.uk – Five steps to building a more engaged audience

Poynter has a guide to building a bigger, but more crucially more engaged audience around your site. Tips include naming sources in tweets and Facebook updates, commenting on stories elsewhere and linking back to your own, and tweeting about any updates.

Follow this link for the full list.

Tipster: Joel Gunter.

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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Editorsweblog: AFP launches YouTube channel for election coverage

International news wire Agence France-Presse (AFP) has launched a YouTube channel which will be dedicated to covering next year’s French presidential elections, the Editorsweblog reports.

The new channel has been launched in conjunction with Twitter and the CFJ journalism school (Centre de Formation des Journalistes), the report adds.

The channel hosts videos posted by political parties and tracks candidate popularity, but its main feature is an interface in which viewers can submit questions to candidates. The questions are then posed in interviews held by journalism students from CFJ.

Read more here…

See the YouTube channel here…

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Complaint against i newspaper for ‘misleading’ claim of no celebrity gossip upheld

The Advertising Standards Authority has upheld a complaint against the i newspaper that its claim in a television advert that the paper does not contain “celeb gossip nonsense” is misleading.

The adjudication, published here, makes specific reference to the contents of the paper’s daily Caught and Social column, which the complainant felt was “dedicated to celebrity stories”.

In a defence advertising service Clearcast said i “concentrated on newsworthy stories without sidetracking readers to the kind of celebrity gossip published in red top newspapers and celebrity magazines” and believed the ad made this clear. It added that the complainant had misunderstood the claim to mean that there would be no mention of celebrities at all.

They said this was unrealistic because celebrities featured in a range of newsworthy stories that i reported on that were of significant interest.

But in its assessment the ASA upheld the complaint.

The ASA noted the Caught and Social column featured stories about celebrities and included sections entitled Scene & Heard, OMG, iquote and ichat that quoted celebrities and provided updates about where they had been and what they were doing. We considered that readers would understand from the ad that there was no celebrity gossip in i. However, we noted featured stories in two different publications from March included headings that stated “Alex fancies a pop at 007″, “Cilla moves with the times” and “Dame Helen and Russell snog for fans”. We considered that readers would interpret these stories as celebrity gossip and therefore concluded that the ad was misleading.

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Journalisted Weekly: Obama, Ryan Giggs, G8, & ash

Journalisted is an independent, not-for-profit website built to make it easier for you, the public, to find out more about journalists and what they write about.

It is run by the Media Standards Trust, a registered charity set up to foster high standards in news on behalf of the public, and funded by donations from charitable foundations.

Each week Journalisted produces a summary of the most covered news stories, most active journalists and those topics falling off the news agenda, using its database of UK journalists and news sources.

For the week ending Sunday 29 May

• Obama’s European tour captures the headlines
• Debate over privacy injunctions spreads across tabloids and broadsheets
• Alleged sexual harassment by French government minister covered little

Covered lots

• President Obama’s UK and Ireland visits ahead of the G8, including Guinness sampling, a Buckingham Palace banquet, and historic addresses to Parliament and Westminster Hall, 340 articles
• Footballer Ryan Giggs is named by MP John Hemming for having taken out an injunction, igniting further debate over privacy law and the internet, 176 articles
• The G8 Summit in Paris, including talks over Middle East aid, Russia as mediator in the Libya conflict, and internet regulation, 154 articles
• Iceland’s most active volcano erupts, causing more than 500 flights over Scotland to be cancelled in fear of another ash cloud, 129 articles
• Serbian fugitive Ratko Mladic, arrested and awaiting trial at the Hague for the 1995 Srebrenica massacre, 126 articles

Covered little

• President Sarkozy’s civil service minister, Georges Tron, is accused by two women of sexual harassment, 6 articles
• Former Egyptian president Mubarak and his sons, charged with corruption and conspiracy to murder protesters, 6 articles
• Infrared satellite mapping reveals 17 pyramids, 1,000 tombs and 3,000 ancient settlements around the ancient Egyptian city of Tanis, 6 articles
• A teenager thought to be Britain’s youngest ever contract killer is jailed for life, 2 articles

Political ups and downs (top ten by number of articles)

• David Cameron: 635 articles (-13% on previous week)
• Nick Clegg: 175 articles (-27% on previous week)
• George Osborne: 136 articles (-31% on previous week)
• Tony Blair: 125 articles (-6% on previous week)
• Gordon Brown: 121 articles (-24% on previous week)
• Ed Miliband: 113 articles (-35% on previous week)
• Alex Salmond: 110 articles (-21% on previous week)
• William Hague: 104 articles (1% on previous week)
• Philip Hammond: 89 articles (+48% on previous week)
• Chris Huhne: 72 articles (-67% on previous week)

Celebrity vs serious

• Cheryl Cole, dropped from US X Factor, 92 articles vs. a massive tornado hitting the Missouri city of Joplin, killing over 120 people, 84 articles
• Oprah Winfrey, bidding farewell after her 25 year chat show reign, 37 articles vs. anti-government rebels overunning Yemen’s capital, Sana’a, with more protester deaths, 30 articles
• Angelina Jolie, starring in new film Kung Fu Panda II, 25 articles vs. PC Simon Harwood, to face manslaughter charges for Ian Tomlinson G20 death, 22 articles

Arab spring

• Libya and Colonel Gaddafi, 186 articles (+38% on previous week)
• Yemen and President Saleh, 55 articles (+139% on previous week)
• Israel and Prime Minister Netanyahu, 45 articles (-46% on previous week)
• Syria and President Bashar Al-Assad, 40 articles (-18% on previous week)
• Gaza and Hamas, 29 articles (-19% on previous week)
• West Bank and President Abbas, 16 articles (-11% on previous week)
• Tunisia and Prime Mininster Sebsi, 8 articles (+700% on previous week)
• Egypt and Prime Minister Essam Sharaf, 8 articles (+100% on previous week)
• Iran and President Ahmadinejad, 8 articles (-50% on previous week)
• Saudi Arabia and King Abdullah, 7 articles (+250% on previous week)
• Bahrain and King Al Khalifa, 4 articles (-80% on previous week)
• Oman and Sultan Al Said, 1 articles (+100% on previous week)
• Jordan and King Abdullah, 1 article (-86% on previous week)
• Lebanon and Prime Minister Najib Mikati, 1 article (+100% on previous week)
• Turkey and Prime Minster Erdogan, 1 articles (-50% on previous week)

Who wrote a lot about…’The G8 Summit’

Long form journalism

• 4,092 words: ‘Someone to lean on’ – Amelia Gentleman, The Guardian, 28th May 2011
• 3,067 words: ‘Home truths: ‘Squatting is the perfect example of the Big Society” – Matthew Bell, The Independent, 29th May
• 2,836 words: ‘Power to the people: Dale Vince, green energy pioneer’ – John Paul Flintoff, Telegraph, 27th May 2011

More from the Media Standards Trust

Visit the Media Standards Trust’s new site Churnalism.com – a public service for distinguishing journalism from churnalism

Churnalism.com ‘explore’ page is available for browsing press release sources alongside news outlets

The Media Standards Trust’s unofficial database of PCC complaints is available for browsing at www.complaints.pccwatch.co.uk

For the latest instalment of Tobias Grubbe, journalisted’s 18th century jobbing journalist, go to journalisted.com/tobias-grubbe

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#followjourn @lindseyhilsum – Lindsey Hilsum/journalist

Who? Lindsey Hilsum

Where? Lindsey is the international editor at Channel 4 News. She was named journalist of the year at the One World Media Awards in May, 2011.

Twitter? @lindseyhilsum

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 sarah.booker at journalism.co.uk; or to @journalismnews.

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• #followjourn: @KathViner – Kath Viner/journalist

Twitter’s new ‘follow’ button encourages readers to follow reporters

The Telegraph is is among the first websites to add Twitter’s new ‘follow’ button, which allows users to click and follow reporters or the newspaper’s Twitter account in a single click.

In an announcement on the Twitter blog, the social media giant says:

More than 50 sites have added the follow button today, making it easy for you to discover the Twitter accounts of your favourite reporters, athletes, celebrities, and other personalities. Using the follow button is as simple as a single click. You can also see the profile and latest tweets of the account you want to follow by clicking the username next to the button.

An article on Telegraph.co.uk says:

The Telegraph, the only UK newspaper to partner with Twitter for the launch, has added the new buttons to journalists’ pages, blogs and section pages such as news, sport and technology.

The button is simple to add to news sites and blogs. Click here and copy and paste the embed code.

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