Reporters Without Borders (RSF) has issued a statement condemning Yemen’s ‘harassment and denigration’ of Al Jazeera television, including a threatening telephone call to Sanaa bureau chief, Mourad Hashem, earlier this week.
RSF said that Al Jazeera has been branded by the authorities as the ‘enemy of a united Yemen’ because the channel covered unrest in the south of the country.
“The authorities use and abuse defence of national unity to censor media that try to cover events in southern Yemen,” the press freedom organisation said in the release.
Journalism.co.uk had been surprised to learn at last month’s Journalism in Crisis event that the BBC used only stringers to cover South America, according to director of news Helen Boaden.
The location of global bureaux ‘is something to do with your colonial past’ she said, adding to comments by BBC director-general Mark Thompson, when he was questioned by an irate audience member on the corporation’s lack of coverage in that part of the world (specifically Latin America).
Audio here:
Does the BBC really have no bureaux in Central and South America? Well, the BBC press office later told Journalism.co.uk, it depends how you define stringers and bureaux.
There is a distinction between ‘newsgathering hub’ bureaux and ‘non-hub’ regional bureaux the BBC spokesperson said. While there are no ‘newsgathering hub bureaux’ in South and Central Americas, there are four regional offices, located in Sao Paulo, Buenos Aires, Mexico City and Havana. How many in each, Journalism.co.uk asked.
Two in each of the four cities: one producer and one local fixer, both on sponsored stringer contracts with retainers. Other individual stringers cover the rest of the continent other parts of Latin America and the Caribbean, with freelancers working from Colombia, Peru, Venezuela, Chile and Jamaica.
It’s an interesting question: where are international news organisations’ bureaux and why? A particularly pertinent one to raise, given the difficulties in accessing material from Iran at the moment. The BBC office in Tehran remains open, but permanent correspondent Jon Leyne has been ordered to leave the country, the corporation reported yesterday.
While the BBC had two producers inside a Gaza office in 2008, it did not have any permanent crew on the ground and this affected its coverage of the crisis at the end of that year, and the early part of 2009.
It was helpful for Al Jazeera to have people already based in Gaza, as its two correspondents told Journalism.co.uk in a live-blog interview in April.
NB: Whether Al Jazeera were the ‘only’ English-language international broadcaster in the area for the 12-day media block is still a bone of contention: a journalist later reminded Journalism.co.uk that his employer, Iranian government-funded Press TV, was also reporting from the region during that period.
More broadly the Al Jazeera network, which includes the Arabic channels, has also not been afraid to try out new technology, with the launch of a ‘citizen-journalism upload portal’ for example.
This week we’ve reported on its video content partnership with the Independent newspaper site. While they’ve tightened up the PR act (no longer in-house, it’s managed by Brown Lloyd James, the same agency that handles press for the Telegraph group) these are newsworthy developments.
Today comes further news from the broadcaster: the beta launch of its Arabic and English mobile websites, which will work on any mobile handset with web browsing ability.
“Users only need to bookmark the following web addresses on their mobile, for English news http://m.aljazeera.net/, and for Arabic news http://ma.aljazeera.net/,” a release from the company said.
“The mobile web initiative is one of the key services that is being launched as part of our New Media strategy”, Saeed Othman Bawazir, Al Jazeera’s director of technology, said in the release.
“The aim is to make our content more accessible to new audiences across various new platforms. With the launch of this mobile service, we hope to provide our audience with a customized news browsing experience on the mobile device of their choice,” he said.
This initiative includes ‘delivering video and other content over interactive platforms,’ such as YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, and iTunes, the release said.
Further to the Follow the Media comment we picked out this morning, here’s a visual explanation of Al Jazeera’s Gaza coverage. Senior New Media Analyst Riyaad Minty outlines the multimedia coverage in an interview on the English channel here:
The channel, which joins a host of other Arabic-language content on the service, is ‘an important addition’, Matteo Berlucchi, Livestation CEO, said in a press release.
“Recent feedback from our users confirms a strong demand for Arabic news channels. We are also looking forward to working closely with Al Jazeera Arabic to utilise our interactive tools,” he said in the release.
Phil Lawrie, director of global distribution at Al Jazeera Network, said the deal would bring Al Jazeera content to millions of broadband users.
Marking Al Jazeera's 12th birthday, a new Public Liberties and and Human Rights Desk will be launched, headed by its cameraman Sami al-Haj who spent six years at the US detention centre in Guantanamo Bay. Full story...
ITN Source has signed a ’six figure’ deal with Al Jazeera to make 800,000 hours of archived video content available to the broadcaster, a press release has said.
The network and production companies making programmes for Al Jazeera will have access to footage from Channel 4, Reuters, Granada and ITN as part of the deal.
The agreement covers both transmission on the Al Jazeera Network and through online outlets, including its YouTube channel, for five years.
Al Jazeera cameraman Sami al-Hajj has been released from Guantanamo bay, after six years at the US military prison.
Al-Hajj, who has been on hunger strike since January last year, was flown back to his family in Sudan last night, Al Jazeera reports.
The cameraman was detained by US authorities as an ‘enemy combatant’ in 2002, despite holding a working visa for employment with Al Jazeera’s Arabic channel in Afghanistan
“We are concerned about the way the Americans dealt with Sami, and we are concerned about the way they could deal with others as well. Sami will continue with Al Jazeera, he will continue as a professional person who has done great jobs during his work with Al Jazeera,” Wadah Khanfar, Al Jazeera’s director-general, told Al Jazeera.
Working in journalism and want to boost your digital skills? Questions about starting a news business online that you've been too afraid to ask?
Come to news:rewired on 14 January 2010 at City University, London, to ask the experts. Meet pioneers in multimedia and online journalism at our one-day event.
As more and more freelancers enter the marketplace, how can you set yourself apart and gain trust - and commissions - from editors? Book before December 23 for this one-day course led by in-demand freelance journalists Olivia Gordon and Johanna Payton, who will tell you how. January 30, 2010, London - To book, visit this link
Working in journalism and want to boost your digital skills? Questions about starting a news business online that you've been too afraid to ask?
