Tag Archives: cricket

Journalisted Weekly: Greece in crisis and cricket match-fixing

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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.

Greece in crisis and cricket match-fixing

for the week ending Sunday 6 November

  • Greek politics and economics dominated this week’s news
  • Vote of confidence in Greek PM and cricket match-fixing guilty verdict covered lots
  • Gaza flotilla, alcohol minimum pricing and China mine explosion covered little

Covered lots

  • Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou announces a referendum on a new EU bailout package, subsequently calling it off, 522 articles (including references to ‘Greek Tragedy’, 18 articles)
  • Papandreou survives a vote of confidence, leading to coalition talks and his eventual decision to step down, 252 articles
  • Three Pakistani cricket players are convicted of match fixing, 192 articles
  • More than thirty vehicles are involved in a huge crash on the M5 motorway, 82 articles

Covered little

  • Israeli naval forces intercept flotilla en route to Gaza Strip, 14 articles
  • Scotland could become first EU nation to introduce minimum pricing for alcohol, 13 articles
  • 45 miners rescued and 8 killed in mine explosion and cave-in near Sanmenxia city in China, 10 articles
  • Alasdair McDonnell elected leader of Social Democratic and Labour Party in Northern Ireland, 10 articles
  • 14 civilians killed in Colombia landslide, 4 articles

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

Celebrity vs. serious

Arab spring (countries & current leaders)

Who wrote a lot about… the negotiations between Occupy LSX protesters and St Paul’s clergy

Long form journalism

Journalists who have updated their profile

  • Catriona MacPhee is Lochaber district reporter at the Press and Journal. She has freelanced for the Big Issue, Glasgow Evening Times, Sunday Herald, The List and The Scotsman, as well as working as web editor and media officer for the Edinburgh Festival Fringe Society, press assistant for Edinburgh International Festival and a reporter for the Oban Times. She has a BA (Hons)in Journalism Studies and Politics from Stirling University and won NUJ Scottish Student Newswriter of the Year in 2009. Follow Catriona on Twitter: @CatMacPhee
  • Hannah Scott is a book reviewer for the Irish Culture Magazine supplement to the Sunday Times and sub editor in features and live news iPad production. In addition she has held several editorial roles for the Sunday Times and has reported and edited for the Brighton Argus, The Times, Merton Matters, the University of Reading student newspaper and Business in Berkshire. She has an NCTJ in Journalism from News Associates and a BA in English Literature from the University of Reading. She won the NCTJ shorthand award for best 100wpm transcript in 2011 and the Reading University Reporter of the Year in 2008.

The Media Standards Trust, which runs journalisted, won the ‘One to Watch’ category at this year’s Prospect Think Tank Awards

Read about our campaign for the full exposure of phone hacking and other illegal forms of intrusion at the Hacked Off website

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

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

Sport goes hyperlocal with a web streamed cricket match

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An Easter Monday cricket match on a village green in rural England is to be web streamed as a possible world first.

Social media consultant John Popham came up with the idea to film the match in Wray, the first wifi hotspot village in Lancashire, after being inspire by two tweets, he explains on his website.

There were two tweets which really inspired this. The first was from Dan Slee expressing his hopes for keeping up with a local village cricket team via twitter, the other was from Chris Conder (@cyberdoyle) as she tested the 30Mbps symmetrical internet connection her village now has access to, courtesy of Lancaster University.

“I started this off as a demonstration to show what can be done cheaply and easily,” Popham told Journalism.co.uk.

But despite plans to use technology such as Livestream‘s free web streaming service to broadcast the match, the idea has now gathered pace.

With the help of a retweet from Stephen Fry it has now attracted attention and Birmingham-based Aquila TV has offered to take over the filming and web streaming, which will be embeddable so can be displayed on the Wray village website and by anyone else interested in broadcasting the match.

Popham explained he is trying to demonstrate the importance of strong and reliable broadband and upload connections in rural areas and explained “there are hardly any other rural areas where this would be possible apart from Wray”.

The attention has also resulted in interest from across the pond.

“I’ve been contacted by Americans over the moon to be able to watch cricket on a village green,” Popham said.

Is Wray’s cricket web stream the first of its kind, or do you know of another wired village transmitting to the world? Tell us in the comments area.

Former Times and Sunday Times journalist in documentary debut at Edinburgh Film Festival

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Former Afghanistan correspondent at the Times and Sunday Times Tim Albone will make his film debut this week with ‘Out of the Ashes’, his documentary detailing the rise of the Afghanistan cricket team.

Directed by Albone and Lucy Martens, with Sam Mendes as executive producer, the blurb reads:

In just a few years, the Afghan cricket team has risen from obscurity in the sport’s lowest ranks to phenomenal success in the highly competitive international arena. This is the remarkable and inspirational story of coach Taj Malik Aleem and his team, who became the sport’s unlikeliest heroes during a triumphant campaign culminating in the crucial World Cup qualifier in South Africa. In a country more often associated with war and rigged elections, their incredible journey is an absolute joy to behold.

Albone was based in Kabul between 2005 and the end of 2007. He has also reported from Iraq, India, Pakistan, Yemen, Ethiopia and Cuba and has worked for Sky News, NPR, the Globe and Mail and the Scotsman.

The film will be shown on 17 June and 19 June as part of the Edinburgh International Film Festival (EIFF).

Sportsbeat agency puts content online

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National press agency Sportsbeat, which provides more than 20,000 stories a year to over 150 newspaper clients in Great Britain, has made its sports news available online for the first time.

New website www.morethanthegames.com will provide articles and blogs covering over 40 sports, excluding football, cricket and rugby union.

“The prospect of the 2012 Olympics has already seen an increase in appetite for content from the editors we supply,” said managing editor James Toney, in a press release.

“We are dedicated to providing coverage of these Olympics sports all year round – and not just the big international events but competitions at national, regional and local level.” There are many sites on the Internet, but https://casinoreg.net provides inexperienced players with the most detailed casino FAQ

A tribute to a brave Guyanese newspaper editor

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John Mair, television producer and associate senior lecturer in journalism at Coventry University, shares his thoughts on David De Caires, the Guyanese newspaper editor who died last November. A memorial service was held in the UK on Friday.

David De Caires was a Great Guyanese. His death – last November 1 – robbed Guyana of a brave and noble editor and publisher. The Stabroek News lit the beacon of press freedom, since followed by the likes of the Kaieteur News.

Last Friday in London, his second home, his life was celebrated by his family and the great and good of the UK diaspora in a memorial service. The group that the late President Hoyte once disparingly called ‘The Putagee Mafia’ were out in force.

An overcast London winter’s day. The spiritual headquarters of the Jesuits in Britain, the Church of the Immaculate Conception in Farm Street, Mayfair. This is the home of High Catholicism where sinners come to repent. Decaires, despite his Catholic education at the British Catholic Public School Stonyhurst, later became an agnostic. One hundred plus were gathered to celebrate his life and achievements and to pray for his soul.

The faces in the congregation were predominantly white. The Decaires family, including widow Doreen, daughter Isabel and her partner Michael Atherton the former England Cricket captain. It was a gathering redolent of a bygone age in what was known as ‘BG’. Two former British High Commissioners-Edward Glover and Stephen Hiscocks, plus Guyana’s long-serving (and soon retiring?) High Commissioner to London Laleshwar Singh among the congregration. Professor Clem Seecharan there too, to pay tribute to a fellow restless mind, the Rev Ivelaw Bowman, Canon of Southward Cathedral, to salute a fellow Guyanese.

The tributes paid were warm. Atherton in his deep Lancashire burr, Nick King in pukka English: an old friend telling tales out of Stonyhurst about the ‘Dec’s’ life-long love affair with the turf and betting. It cost him dearly. As a teenager, he refused  to apologise to a Bishop for hurrying a cricket innings so that he could hear the result of the Epsom Derby. He lost his first eleven cricket place at Stonyhurst as a result. He took up tennis instead.

That boy of principle became the man of principle three decades later when it came to setting up the Stabroek News and battling the PNC and later the PPP governments over press freedom.

David was a resolute life time fighter for that, defending it against attacks whichever direction they came from. Some think his final battle two years ago with the Jagdeo regime over the withdrawal of ads for the paper may have weakened his already damaged heart and led to his final demise.

David would have enjoyed his memorial service. Warm words, Miles Davis reverberating through the huge church, friends old and new meeting and ‘gaffing’ as they say in Guyana plus a dash of high Catholicism. Not a bad epitaph or memorial to have for a life of such great significance for Guyana.

News agencies suspend Australian cricket coverage over online coverage terms

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Reuters, Associated Press (AP) and Agence France Presse (AFP) will not cover matches, training sessions and events for cricket in Australia, because of ‘unacceptable accreditation terms’ set out by Cricket Australia, the sport’s governing body in the country.

According to a release from Reuters:

“No text stories, photos or video of any of the training sessions, matches, press conferences or events will be distributed by the international news agencies to media around the world for the first test against New Zealand later this month, and potentially for the South Africa test coming up in December.”

Reuters partner Getty Images will provide images and ‘fulfil their commercial obligations only’ e.g. not providing any editorial of the matches.

Rights organisation the News Media Coalition said the agencies had been in discussions with Cricket Australia for months before rejecting the terms, which featured several restrictions relating to online coverage including:

  • Rules on how newspaper websites can be updated
  • Veto power for Cricket Australia over which websites and non-sports magazines the agencies are allowed to syndicate content to
  • Restrictions affecting the distribution of content to mobile news services

“As in previous instances, this decision [the accreditation terms] compromises our ability to report independently and objectively, and comes at the expense of global fans and sponsors,” said Christoph Pleitgen, global head of News Agency for Thomson Reuters, in the release.

“We would like to resume our timely, premium coverage as quickly as possible, pending a solution to the current situation. However, freedom of the press and protecting the news interests and coverage rights of our global clients are at the core of both our business and Reuters editorial principles, and these must be upheld.”