Journalist @brianwhelanhack’s rental dispute: As it happened on Twitter

The Storify below outlines the story so far after journalist Brian Whelan, who it’s understood helped break the news over the weekend that the government was considering a missile site on the roof of his apartment building to protect the Olympics, tweeted that he was being “forced” to leave his apartment. His landlord has said she has served notice because of a disagreement relating to the renewal of the tenancy, and that the decision was not related to the missile situation in any way.

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Government launches ‘virtual media centre’ for 2012 London Olympics

The government has launched the first few web-pages which will in time form its online media centre for the 2012 Games, giving the press a “single point of access for all government-related news stories”.

Content offered on the pages will include background information, logistics information and an image library. In a press release, culture secretary Jeremy Hunt, who has responsibility for the Games, said:

With London 2012 set to be the biggest media event in history, the UK Government is doing all it can to ensure the world’s media have everything they need.

Delivering an outstanding Olympic Games is not just about building world class facilities and infrastructure; it’s also about making sure the media can bring the sporting, cultural and human interest stories to homes across the world as quickly as possible.

These pages, plus the Government Olympic Communication Media Centre next year, will play crucial parts in making this Games the easiest to access for the media and their audiences. Between now and the start of the Games we will continue to work with media partners to ensure we’re doing all we can to meet their needs.”

The pages went live yesterday (24 October) and journalists can now sign-up and subscribe to the news alerts at www.culture.gov.uk/2012newsroom.

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Media accreditation process open for Paralympic Games

The Newspaper Society issued a reminder this morning that media accreditation has now opened for the Paralympic Games. The first stage of the process, called Press by Number, opened earlier this month and media organisations have until 28 November to complete a document to indicate how many people they would to request accreditation for.

There are more details and documentation at the British Paralympic Association website. Successful media organisations will be contacted early next year to progress their applications to the second stage.

The NS adds that it is currently working with regional and local newspapers and the British Olympic Association (BOA) to put in place a regional press pool for the Olympic Games, which runs a separate accreditation process.

The Olympic Games process has come in for some criticism in recent weeks after it emerged many local London papers have not yet been approved despite certain aspects of the games taking place on their patch.

The NS reports that the minister for sport and the Olympics Hugh Robertson said he would write to the BOA about the matter after being questioned by MPs, but said it was “massively oversubscribed”.

He added: “There will be a level of public interest that I do not think we have remotely started to get our minds around. Spots will be tight, but I will absolutely do all that I can.

“There is a possible second channel for non-accredited media, and considerable provision is being made for those who cannot get formally accredited. The mayor of London has done an enormous amount to help that take place.”

Under the pooling system titles would be able to share material on the Games.

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Journalisted Weekly: Breivik in court, Winehouse funeral and Olympics countdown

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.

• Norway remains prominent in the aftermath of the terror attacks
• Amy Winehouse (in the week of her funeral) and the Olympics (with a year to go) also covered lots
• Cyprus’ credit rating, ITV’s profits and South Korean landslides covered little

Covered lots

• Anders Behring Breivik, making his first court appearance after twin terror attacks in Norway, 513 articles
• Olympic countdown, with one year until London 2012, 309 articles
• Amy Winehouse, whose funeral took place this week, 250 articles
• President Obama and House Speaker Boehner address the nation as the US debt crisis deepens, 175 articles

Covered little

• Cyprus’ credit rating is cut by Moody’s rating agency, 15 articles
• Broadcaster ITV announced a rise in pre-tax profits, 10 articles
• Torrential rain in South Korea causes landslides, killing at least 32 people, 8 articles

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

• David Cameron: 468 articles (-42% on previous week)
• George Osborne: 270 articles (+34% on previous week)
• Vince Cable: 177 articles (+111% on previous week)
• William Hague: 143 articles (+96% on previous week)
• Ed Miliband: 109 articles (-54% on previous week)
• Tony Blair: 88 articles (-41% on previous week)
• Ed Balls: 88 articles (+132% on previous week)
• Gordon Brown: 73 articles (-47% on previous week)
• Nick Clegg: 72 articles (-56% on previous week)
• Michael Gove: 56 articles (+17% on previous week)

Celebrity vs serious

• Zara Phillips’ wedding on Saturday, to rugby player Mike Tindall, 137 articles vs. the death of BBC journalist Ahmed Omed Khpulwak, killed in an insurgent attack in Afghanistan on Thursday, 9 articles
• L’Oreal’s airbrushed make-up ads, featuring stars like Julia Roberts, are banned, 7 articles, vs. resignation of Polish defence minister, Bogdan Klich, following a report on the 2010 plane crash that killed President Kaczynski, 3 articles
• David Beckham launches an underwear range, 14 articles vs. Iranian nuclear scientist shot dead in Tehran, 5 articles

Arab spring (countries & current leaders)

• Libya and Colonel Gaddafi: 199 articles (+188% on previous week)
• Syria and President Al Assad: 54 articles (+42% on previous week)
• Egypt and ex-President Mubarak: 36 articles (+3% on previous week)
• Tunisia and ex-President Ben Ali: 19 articles (+19% on previous week)
• Yemen and President Saleh: 10 articles (-17% on previous week)
• Turkey and Prime Minster Erdogan: 9 articles (+200% on previous week)
• Saudi Arabia and King Abdullah: 8 articles (-27% on previous week)
• Egypt’s Military council: 8 articles (-43% on previous week)
• Iran and President Ahmadinejad: 7 articles (-22% on previous week)
• Gaza and Hamas: 6 articles (-40% on previous week)
• Israel and Prime Minister Netanyahu: 6 articles (-54% on previous week)
• Iraq and Prime Minister Al Maliki: 6 articles (from 0 articles previous week)
• Jordan and King Abdullah: 4 articles (+300% on previous week)
• Bahrain and King Al Khalifa: 2 articles (-67% on previous week)

Who wrote a lot about…’Famine in Somalia’’

Long form journalism

• 4,285 words: ‘Jude Law: “I was a great champion of the human spirit. I lost that for a time”‘ – Carole Cadwalladr, The Observer, 31 July 2011
• 3,784 words: ’9/11 Ground Zero: why has its rebirth turned sour?’ – Rowan Moore, The Observer, 31 July 2011
• 3,642 words: ‘Charity cash should go to starving children, not to fire me: Former Unicef boss blasts poverty charity’ – Warren Swords, Mail on Sunday, 31 July 2011

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

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Guardian: Police files investigated and News International to lose exclusive Olympic access

The Guardian reports today (21 July), that Scotland Yard has been asked to look at “thousands of files” to investigate whether officers unlawfully obtained mobile phone-tracking data for journalists.

There were half a million requests by public authorities for communications data in the UK last year – of which almost 144,000 were demands for “traffic” data, which includes location.

In other phone-hacking related news, newspapers under the News International umbrella are to lose exclusive access to British athletes in the lead up to the Olympics next year, also according to the Guardian. This is due to the closure of the News of the World and the impact of this on the partnership contract, according to the report.

Team 2012, the Visa-backed project supporting potential British Olympians, had signed up News International as its official partner.

But Team 2012 has said in a statement, that “as a result of the closure of News of the World the contract can no longer be fulfilled as originally envisaged”.

According to the Guardian Team 2012 “is now looking for potential new media partners”.

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Reuters: Athletes can tweet at 2012 as long as not in manner of journalists

According to Reuters, athletes due to perform at the 2012 Olympics in London, have been told they can blog and tweet about their experiences of competing in the games, as long as it is “not done for commercial purposes”.

The decision comes from the International Olympic Committee, Reuters reports, which was said to actively encourage and supports athletes “to take part in ‘social media’ and to post, blog and tweet their experiences”.

Bloggers and tweeters must, however, restrict themselves to “first-person, diary-type formats”, must not report on events in the manner of journalists and must ensure their posts do not contain “vulgar or obscene words or images”.

According to the report, broadcasting of video and audio taken inside the venues remains banned but athletes may post videos taken outside the venues.

The IOC gets much of its revenue from the sale of television and online media rights and is therefore highly protective of their intellectual property in that regard.

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Calls for local media to apply for Olympics accreditation

Local news organisations are reminded they can now apply for accreditation to cover the 2012 Olympics in London in a release from the Newspaper Society.

Companies wishing to send journalists and photographers to the games must apply to the British Olympic Association (BOA) by the final deadline of 15 October.

The Society says it has held talks with both the London Organising Committee for the Olympic Games (LOCOG) and BOA to remind them how “uniquely placed” local media are to cover the event.

The NS has re-iterated that it is vital that the organisers of the Games should take full account of the particular role and needs of the local and regional press both in terms of those applying for full accreditation and in respect of non-accredited journalists, including as regards access to local venues and facilities to follow and report on particular athletes’ progress. The NS has also raised the issue of balancing broadcast rights against the needs of legitimate reportage on newspapers’ own websites, including blogs.

Applications for accreditation must be made using the downloadable form on the BOA website. According to the NS, accreditation for non rights-holding broadcasters is managed by the International Olympic Committee with application forms available in March next year.

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Schlesinger: Reuters’ ‘multimedia gospel’ and a new media Olympics

On Tuesday Reuters editor-in-chief, David Schlesinger urged the International Olympics Committee to rethink its accreditation rules and strategy for media/news coverage of forthcoming Games to take into account new forms of newsgathering, publishing and the democratisation of both in the hands of the non-journalist.

Schlesinger (or @daschles) is well placed to comment on such issues – during this year’s World Economics Forum, the Reuters head beat one of his own correspondents to a report by tweeting his own updates from George Soros’ speech.

Last night, he also described to the IOC how he had been pressured to remove a Reuters blog post after he took pictures of the Beijing Games without proper editorial photographer accreditation.

His comments also builds on the debate ahead of last year’s competition over whether athletes should be allowed to blog/report from the Games.

Some key quotes from the speech:

• “The old means of control don’t work. The old categories don’t work. The old ways of thinking won’t work. We all need to come to terms with that.”
• “More and more, we’re issuing a multimedia report to multimedia-savvy consumers who no longer make a distinction between information they receive from text and information they receive from images.”
• “That means understanding what really can be exclusive and what really is insightful. It means truly exploiting real expertise. It means, to my earlier point, using all the multimedia tools available and all the smart multimedia journalists to provide a package so much stronger than any one individual strand. It means working with the mobile phone and digital camera and social media-enabled public and not against them.”

You can read Schlesinger’s full speech on Reuters’ blogs.

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Sportsbeat agency puts content online

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.”

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Legacy problems for Olympics media centre?

News from Estates Gazette’s Paul Norman

that Tom Russell, London Development Agency group director of Olympic Legacy, has left his job after just over a year.

Not the usual Journalism.co.uk territory you might think. But it seems Russell was heavily involved in the ‘legacy’ plans for the Olympic media centre.

“Russell it seems has been fighting the corner for idea that the media centre ought to be built to a high enough standard to attract media occupiers to Hackney Wick post Games,” writes Norman.

When Journalism.co.uk attended an event about new media, Beijing and the London Olympics last year, some pretty impressive plans for the media centre were brought out. Among the journalism/media union representatives in the audience, however, the size and temporary nature of some parts of the building were challenged.

Indeed, it seems some aspects of the design may have been scaled back since this event in October – as Norman writes:

“Potential tenants looking at the space from the media world and Hackney council are all understood to be concerned that in its haste to get the building completed the ODA has jettisoned important design features and by implication the legacy impact of what after all was intended as the main jobs driver post-Games.”

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• #followjourn: @BBCNormanS – Norman Smith/journalist