Jeremy Darroch, the chief executive of British Sky Broadcasting, has confirmed that he asked Sky News to pull a story on Formula 1, ahead of the launch of a Sky F1 HD channel.

The Financial Times yesterday reported that Darroch “ordered a news story to be removed from the Sky News website after an executive producer complained that it had upset Formula 1 racing teams”.

“I asked the team to review the story,” Darroch told the Guardian Changing Media Summit, where he was delivering a keynote speech in which he announced the launch of a no contract, pay-as-you-go internet TV service from Sky called NowTV.

He said Sky News “has absolute independence and integrity” but added that “there are times as CEO … when you have to challenge parts of the business”.

• #followjourn – @lheron/social media editor
• Aggregators, plagiarists and kleptomaniacs: Rupert Murdoch’s Beijing speech in full
• How the Young Turks thinks it will ‘destroy the old media’ (audio)
• #bbcsms: Risking failure – Mainstream media v start-ups
• Media release: Reuters launches 24-hour live news stream

Sky News’s digital news editor Neal Mann, known to 43,000 people on Twitter as @fieldproducer, has announced he has decided to leave the broadcaster.

Mann announced on Twitter on Friday night:

I’ve decided to leave Sky News. I’ve had a brilliant 3 years, but the time has come to discover what else is out there.

— Neal Mann (@fieldproducer) Mars 16, 2012

Another Sky colleague, former social media correspondent Ruth Barnett, is also leaving to become head of communications for Android app producer SwiftKey. She wrote on Friday:

But this isn’t over any alleged Twitter rules row, just a decision to seize an opportunity to learn new skills and take an exciting risk.

— Ruth Barnett (@SkyRuth) Mars 16, 2012

Sky News introduced new guidelines for journalists about the use of Twitter last month, including the line: “Do not retweet information posted by other journalists or people on Twitter. Such information could be wrong and has not been through the Sky News editorial process.”

Reuters’ Anthony de Rosa commented at the time:

These new rules will hamstring Neal and make it difficult, if not impossible, for him to continue to do what he did to garner so much appreciation from people like me. I suspect Sky will come to their senses and realize the error of their ways. If not, they’re going to lose one of their best ambassadors in Neal, and I would suspect many people working at Sky may wonder if they’re working for an organization that is writing policies that will drive them into obsolescence.

• #followjourn @fieldproducer – Neal Mann/journalist #fieldproducer
• Sky News’ @fieldproducer ranked most influential UK journalist on Twitter
• #jpod: How journalists are embracing Facebook subscribe
• Sky News Twitter restrictions – where do you stand?
• FT.com: Social media editors and community managers – a new two-way dialogue

It started with a tweet from BBC News channel controller Kevin Bakhurst

I’m told #SkyNews have stopped their journos retweeting information/tweets from journalists or people not working for Sky. Must be wrong??

The guidelines, seen by the Guardian, state:

Do not retweet information posted by other journalists or people on Twitter. Such information could be wrong and has not been through the Sky News editorial process.

Don’t tweet when it’s someone else’s story. Stick to your own beat. Always pass breaking news lines to the news desk before posting them on social media networks.

Guardian reporter Josh Halliday said last night:

Sky News battening down hatches on this one. Told new guidelines are non-negotiable – how long will they last??

A hashtag campaign soon got under way to #savefieldproducer – Sky’s popular digital news editor Neal Mann, who has more than 40,000 followers on Twitter.

He replied:

Been a busy day, for those asking me questions about social media policy,I can’t really answer because I didn’t take part in the discussions

In a Reuters piece headlined “Sky News longs for Victorian internet, applies dark age social policy”, Anthony de Rosa writes:

These new rules will hamstring Neal and make it difficult, if not impossible, for him to continue to do what he did to garner so much appreciation from people like me. I suspect Sky will come to their senses and realize the error of their ways. If not, they’re going to lose one of their best ambassadors in Neal, and I would suspect many people working at Sky may wonder if they’re working for an organization that is writing policies that will drive them into obsolescence.

The FT’s Ben Fenton says competitors are likely to benefit:

Just as you never get good search-engine optimisation if you don’t link to outside sites, so anyone who steadfastly refuses to be anything but a puff factory for their own brand will gradually loses friends.

This step will also be likely to offer a competitive advantage to other news sources, such as ITV News or the BBC, enlightened enough to see beyond the blinkers of brand identity.

The move, does, however have some supporters. Sunny Hundal, on the Liberal Conspiracy blog, writes:

The ban on RTs makes sense if you acknowledge their worry that disputed links or info by their journalists could reflect on Sky News itself.

Is it any surprise editors at Sky News feel that a RT not meant as an endorsement could be interpreted in that way anyway? After all, people still attack me for publishing editorials on LC even if I disagree with those views. Once a Twitter mob gets going it’s very difficult to calm it down.

Of course this also implies Sky News editors don’t want to give their own journalists too much leeway in using their judgement. But all the broadcasters have hefty rule books for journalists (I expect the BBC will follow Sky), so this isn’t that surprising.

And Fleet Street Blues says the new policy has some logic to it:

It makes no sense for Sky News to pay journalists to break stories through another medium. It makes no sense for them to pay journalists to amass personal social media followings by promoting rival news outlets. And it makes no sense for them to pay journalists to report through a medium outside its own editorial controls.

Sky News said in a statement last night:

Sky News has the same editorial procedures across all their platforms including social media to ensure the news we report is accurate.

Rupert Murdoch replied this morning:

I have nothing to do with Sky NewsWhat do you make of the new policy? Is it enforceable? What effect might it have on Sky’s reputation?

Gabrielle Laine Peters has put together an excellent Storify of tweets and opinion around the Sky directive. Here is her collated selection called Sky News new social media guidelines get Twitter buzzing.

Elana Zak has also used Storify to collage reactions.

• Digital news editor @fieldproducer leaving Sky News
• BBC Internet Blog: ‘Microblogging – the Editorial Policy Meeting’
• Media Release: BBC opens up editorial guidelines to public
• #followjourn @fieldproducer – Neal Mann/journalist #fieldproducer
• paidContent: WaPo’s social media guidelines in full

This year has been an extraordinary year for news. 2011 has seen the deaths of dictators and despots, revolutions across the Arab world, natural disasters in Australia, Brazil, Thailand, the Philippines, New Zealand, Turkey and Japan and a global financial crisis.

This podcast hears from four broadcasters on the greatest challenges of this year and the news agenda for 2012.

Journalism.co.uk technology correspondent Sarah Marshall speaks to Tony Maddox, executive vice president and managing director, CNN International; Jon Williams, world news editor, BBC; Sarah Whitehead, head of international news, Sky News; and Tim Singleton, head of foreign newsgathering and assistant editor, ITV News.

For more reflections on 2011 read our interview with Sarah Whitehead, Sky News and with Tony Maddox, CNN International.

You can hear all our podcasts by signing up to the Journalism.co.uk iTunes podcast feed.

• #jpod – Gender and conflict journalism: How far have we come?
• #jpod – How web analytics can provide story leads and new angles
• #jpod: How Apple’s Newsstand is revolutionising the publishing industry
• #jpod – Celebrating Local Newspaper Week: Innovations in digital at the regionals
• #jpod: How news organisations are using Pinterest

The Guardian’s long-awaited iPad app was launched yesterday (Thursday, 13 October).

The news app is closer in reading experience to the print edition than to the constantly updated Guardian.co.uk.

This week’s #jpod hears from the Guardian’s digital marketing manager, Steve Wing; media blogger Daniel Bentley and James Weeks, who leads Sky News’ mobile strategy.

You can hear future podcasts by signing up to the Journalism.co.uk iTunes podcast feed.

• #jpod: How Apple’s Newsstand is revolutionising the publishing industry
• #jpod – SoLoMo: a look at the Guardian and Northcliffe’s innovations in social and local
• #jpod – Celebrating Local Newspaper Week: Innovations in digital at the regionals
• #jpod: How news organisations are using Pinterest
• #jpod: A guide to using numbers in journalism

It is being reported this afternoon (19 September) that the family of Milly Dowler has been offered a settlement of more than £1 million by News International in ongoing negotiations.

The Guardian is reporting that it understands News International has made an offer which has been “estimated by sources” at being more than £2 million, which includes a charity donation.

Sky News is reporting that the settlement is “likely to top £1 million”. The BBC has tweeted that News International is “close to agreeing seven-figure financial settlement”.

http://twitter.com/#!/BBCBreaking/status/115822177617588224

The company closed the News of the World following allegations that the phone of murdered schoolgirl Milly Dowler was hacked while she was missing in 2002.

The lawyer Mark Lewis, who is acting for the family, had no comment. News International had not responded to a request for comment at the time of writing.

• Leveson inquiry releases witness statements
• Timeline: Phone hacking and the end of the News of the World
• ‘I knew they’d never get the lid back on’: Tom Watson talks to the Guardian about phone hacking
• News of the World: Reaction to closure of 168-year-old title
• The top 10 most-read stories on Journalism.co.uk, 2-8 July

Clearance on News Corporation‘s bid for the remainder of BSkyB will be delayed by at least two weeks, the Financial Times reported this week, “after a hitch in negotiations between Rupert Murdoch’s media group and UK regulators”.

People familiar with the talks between the two sides said on Monday, that the delay had been caused by the level of detail that Ofcom, the broadcasting regulator, and the Department for Culture, Media and Sport required in a merger remedy offered by News Corp.

The remedy was for Sky News to be spun off into a separate company called Newco to address concerns for media plurality.

See the full FT report here (FT.com does operate a registration model).

• NUJ to protest against green light for News Corp’s BSkyB takeover
• Channel 4 News: BSkyB deal explained, Jeremy Hunt grilled
• Peston: Ofcom has recommended BSkyB bid go to competition commission, that is a fact
• Guardian: Shadow culture secretary calls for end to politics in media takeovers
• Jeremy Hunt considering impact of News of the World closure on BSkyB bid

Sky News is reporting that Richard Desmond has discussed selling the Express to the Daily Mail and General Trust.

Writing on the Sky’s blog, City editor Mark Kleinman claims talks have taken place between the chairman of Northern and Shell and Lord Rothermere, chairman of DMGT.

The two men are now said to get on reasonably well, and I understand both believe that a deal could be in their interests. A merger of the titles would create a newspaper powerhouse commanding weekday sales of more than 3m copies, according to the ABCs (which measure newspaper circulation) for February.

It’s not clear what DMGT would plan to do with the Express if it did buy it. I’m told that it has considered launching a red-top tabloid to compete with the Sun at various points during the last decade, a consideration that would be fulfilled if it acquired the Daily Star and its Sunday sister title, which Desmond also owns.

Kleinman’s blog is not the first to report on the potential sale of the Express. Last month the Evening Standard mentioned a possible offloading of the title when reporting Desmond’s readiness to sell three magazines, including OK!

Roy Greenslade ponders what form a DGMT Express could take.

To reduce national press ownership would be a mighty step at a time when there are increasing concerns about pluralism and diversity of voice.

Of course, the nature of the merger need not result in the disappearance of the Express title. I guess it would be possible for DMGT to publish both papers.

Given their current similarity, there would be no point in producing the Express in its current form. Perhaps it could be transformed into a cheap Mail (on the lines of The Independent‘s kid sister, i).

Then again, maybe Desmond and Rothermere are just having a laugh. I say again: are they really being serious?

• Guardian: Trinity Mirror and DMGT mulled merger of regional media
• MediaGuardian: DMGT records second highest ever profit
• MediaGuardian: Channel 5 plans revamp of news programmes
• TimesOnline: Daily Mail halves its advertising decline rate
• Greenslade: Six newspapers sued for libel by Christopher Jefferies

A gun was allegedly pulled on journalists in a Tripoli hotel as they tried to listen to a woman claiming she had been raped and tortured.

The distressed woman burst into the breakfast room of a hotel where journalists were staying on Saturday, Sky News reported. The broadcaster claimed its crew had a gun pulled on them, and government minders tried to seize footage and smash a camera belonging to another crew.

“Hers is not the voice they want heard in this country,” said Sky News correspondent Lisa Holland.

• Al Jazeera to broadcast Syria documentary filmed entirely on iPhone
• Libya could relax ban on foreign journalists on Friday
• Reuters ‘dissatisfied’ by investigation into death of Fadel Shana
• #jpod in depth – ‘It just sent shockwaves through you’: journalists reflect on 9/11
• #news2011: Russia Today on raising awareness through its FreeVideo platform

Culture secretary Jeremy Hunt today cleared the way for Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation to purchase the 61 per cent of BSkyB it does not already own, for around £8 billion. As part of the deal, Sky News will be spun off to an ‘independent’ company.

Here, Channel 4 News picks over the details of the deal and grills the culture secretary over the issue of media plurality, which many believe to be under threat.

• NUJ condemns Jeremy Hunt’s delay in BSkyB bid decision
• Guardian: Shadow culture secretary calls for end to politics in media takeovers
• Jeremy Hunt considering impact of News of the World closure on BSkyB bid
• Telegraph: Sky News to be ‘hived off’ into independent trust
• Guardian: Hunt rules out new privacy law

British news publishers are leading the way in the iPhone app download charts, according to rankings displayed in Apple’s iTunes store.

The Guardian (version 1) tops the list, followed by MailOnline in third place. The top five grossing UK news apps are:

1. The Guardian (version 1)
2. MailOnline
3. The Economist
4. The Sun: Bizarre
5. The Scotsman

iTunes also lists the top free iPhone news apps but apparently uses an algorithm based on the last four days of sales/downloads. So, bearing in mind this is more of a snapshot (which may also be a bit  skewed because we are currently in holiday season), the top five free UK news apps are currently:

1. BBC News
2. Sky News
3. MailOnline
4. FT Mobile
5. The Economist

At the time of writing, they also appeared in the same ranking for worldwide news apps.

The top five paid-for UK news apps are currently:

1. The Guardian (version 1)
2. This is Bristol
3. The Scotsman
4. Macworld UK
5. MacUser Magazine

Journalism.co.uk’s own free news app, which features this blog, our main news, editorial job listings and press releases, is currently ranked 72.

• Economist launches apps for iPad and iPhone
• Economist launches World in Figures iPhone app
• Condé Nast launches monthly GQ iPhone app
• ITN launches iPhone news app
• Communicate.ae: Digital experiments at the Guardian – successes and failures

Suw Charman-Anderson looks at what went wrong with Sky News’ forums, which were shuttered last month. A thoughtful post on community management more generally:

If Sky News have not been paying full attention to their community, then they only have themselves to blame when things go south. You can’t just leave people to it. As human beings we are used to living within constraints, and the idea that the web is a place where they are not needed is a myth. Communities need limits, and those limits need to be communicated, discussed and thoughtfully enforced.

Full post at this link…

• #wef11 audio: Jim Brady of Journal Register Company talks open newsrooms
• Allvoices.com to offer healthcare plan for its US citizen journalists
• Paul Bradshaw: Objectivity has changed – why hasn’t journalism?
• Why communities will always clash in the comments
• The Editorialiste: ‘New media reality check’ for new journalists

Sky News last night closed down its website’s discussion boards claiming that debate on the platform had been reduced to “meaningless abuse”.

In a post Simon Bucks said that although the boards were “very popular” they had been hijacked by a small number of people.

At Sky News we welcome robust debate about the news, but we want it to be of a high standard. I am afraid that too often on the discussion boards threads which started intelligently would degenerate into mindless name calling.

If you want to contribute to the broad debate, you can still post comments on news stories and on blogs. In addition we intend to run more web chats like the ones last week with our correspondents Alex Crawford and Stuart Ramsay and will develop other ways of allowing intelligent debate about current events.

To those who used the discussion forums sensibly and did not abuse them, or other users, I can only apologise. A small number of people have spoiled it for the majority.

• Will Time Warner sell Time magazine?
• Deadlines and frontlines: extracts from new book on journalism and the Afghanistan war
• BBC reporters get mashed and mapped
• Riots and phone hacking coverage shortlisted for RTS awards
• #afghancov event – Afghanistan: are we embedding the truth?

At the end of last week, news broke that think-tank MigrationWatch had threatened political commentator Sally Bercow with libel action following comments she made on Sky News in August about a Daily Express story on migration.

Her comments reportedly included reference to what she perceived as the oversimplification of arguments made in the article, which included statistics from MigrationWatch, adding that the story was “fairly dangerous propaganda”, based on case documents posted by author Richard Wilson on his blog.

According to a release from the Libel Reform Campaign, Bercow, who is the wife of House of Commons speaker John Bercow, received a letter from MigrationWatch’s chairman Sir Andrew Green’s solicitors demanding an apology and legal costs as a result of her comments.

Yesterday lawyer David Allen Green announced on his ‘Jack of Kent’ blog that he had been instructed to act in Bercow’s defence to any libel action. Discussing the context of the case he said the current state of free expression is “depressing”.

But our ‘banning’ culture in respect of free expression is not inevitable and can be reversed; there is no good reason why the first reaction of so many people to unwelcome statements is to get the law involved, and then there is no good reason for so many police officers, judges, and officials to allow them to do so.

(…) Sally Bercow could have just quietly apologised, perhaps with the pre-prepared humble apology which was attached to the threatening letter. But she chose not to do so. She has chosen instead to make a stand for her right as a political commentator to respond to news stories in the way she did. She wants to show how threats like this to political commentators – and also journalists – support the need for libel reform.

The case has also been highlighted by the Libel Reform Campaign as what they claim is “proof” of the need for defamation law reform. A new defamation bill is already expected to be drafted in 2011 by the government. Jo Glanville, editor of the Index on Censorship added:

MigrationWatch should not be using our libel laws to silence criticism of their approach over immigration. Sally Bercow now faces the same ordeal as Simon Singh with potentially bankrupting costs, years of her life wasted in Court, all for expressing an opinion. It really presses home just how important the coalition’s pledge of a libel reform bill is.

MigrationWatch had no further comment to make at this time.

• Journalism.co.uk backs Libel Reform Campaign
• William Bennett on libel reform: ‘The real crux of the problem is not the law but the excessive costs of deploying it’
• Index on Censorship: Conservatives pledge support to libel reform campaign
• Simon Singh goes to Court of Appeal
• Jack of Kent: Could Lester’s libel reform bill fail to launch?

Video from Sky News showing how it put together its coverage of Gordon Brown’s resignation and the post-election coalition talks between the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats.

Video also available at this link…

Related reading: Sky News’ Niall Paterson on “bigotgate” and the parliamentary press pack.

• Armando Iannucci: #bigotgate turned UK media into ‘pack of shrieking gibbons’
• Mediating Conflict: Twitter, journalists and hype
• #followjourn: @niallpaterson – Niall Paterson/journalist
• Sky News’ version of the Campbell-Boulton row
• Vince Cable versus Rupert Murdoch – the animation!