Author Archives: Joel Gunter

About Joel Gunter

Joel Gunter is a senior reporter at Journalism.co.uk.

Hari Kunzru: ‘The right to freedom of speech trumps any right to protection from offense’

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Author and English PEN deputy president Hari Kunzru has posted a tanscript of his address to the European Writers Parliament yesterday, in which he criticised the event’s host country Turkey over article 301 of its penal code which makes it illegal to insult Turkey, the Turkish ethnicity and Turkish government institutions.

I believe that the right to freedom of speech trumps any right to protection from offense, and that it underlies all the other issues I’ve been speaking about. Without freedom of speech, we, as writers, can have very little impact on culture.

Full transcript at this link.

#followjourn: @rjamesjones – James Jones/TV journalist

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Who? James Jones, TV Journalist. James is directing a Dispatches film which will air on Channel 4 on 8 November, and produced BBC 2 series, ‘Secret Iraq’.

Where? James Jones on LinkedIn

Twitter? @rjamesjones

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 laura at journalism.co.uk; or to @journalismnews.

Currybet: What open government data giveth, closed state data taketh away

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Government information architect Martin Belam has an interesting post about some of the limitations of the recent government data release, particularly the difficulty of – and cost associated with – cross-referencing the data with Companies House records.

Using the Guardian’s data explorer tool, you can get a comprehensive list of suppliers. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if you could instantly cross-reference that with the records at Companies House?

I’d love to be able to get an instant snapshot of how many of these companies are large, medium or small enterprises. Over time you could use that to measure whether the intention to open up Government service tendering to wider competition was on track or not.

Full post at this link…

#followjourn: @marccooper01 – Marc Cooper

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Who? Marc Cooper, “Web journo, hyperlocal hound, news consumer, expert coffee drinker”.

Where? Marc blogs at www.marccooper.co.uk

Twitter? @marccooper01

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 laura at journalism.co.uk; or to @journalismnews.

#followjourn: @jheawood – Jonathan Heawood/director of English PEN

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Who? Jonathan Heawood, “Director of English PEN, writer, commentator, walker, Labour liberal”, formerly editor the Fabian Review and deputy literary editor of the Observer.

Where? www.englishpen.org

Twitter? @jheawood

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 laura at journalism.co.uk; or to @journalismnews.

Journalisted Weekly: Royal engagement, Irish bailout, Nato summit

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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. From now on we’ll be cross-posting them on Journalism.co.uk.

for the week ending Sunday 21 November

  • The announcement of Prince William’s engagement to Kate swamped main and celebrity news
  • Ireland’s debt crisis came the the fore of political and financial news
  • A re-occurrence of human bird flu, an impending North-South Korean conflict, and riots in Haiti received little coverage

The Media Standards Trust’s latest report ‘Shrinking World: The decline of international reporting in the British press’ is now available to download

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

Covered lots

  • Prince William and Kate Middleton, announcing their engagement after 8 years of courtship, 411 articles
  • Ireland’s debt crisis, with the Euro country reluctantly accepting an EU bailout, 285 articles
  • The Nato summit in Lisbon, where members discussed Afghanistan, Russia, arms control, and the Turkey (Nato) Cyprus (EU) veto problem, 119 articles

Covered little

  • Riots in Haiti against UN peacekeepers, accused by locals of bringing cholera to the country, 16 articles
  • North and South Korea on the brink of conflict, but still with little coverage despite growing rumblings on their border, 15 articles
  • First human case of bird flu in seven years, diagnosed in Hong Kong last week, 6 articles

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

Celebrity vs serious

Who wrote a lot about…’Ireland’s debt crisis’

Henry McDonald – 9 articles (The Guardian), John Murray Brown – 9 articles (Financial Times), Peter Spiegel – 7 articles (Financial Times), Rachel Cooper – 7 articles (Daily Telegraph), David Oakley – 6 articles (Financial Times), Elena Moya – 6 articles (The Guardian)

Long form journalism

ProPublica signs up to Press+ in bid to encourage donations

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Non-profit investigative journalism outfit ProPublica is to start using Press+, a payment plaform launched last year by startup Journalism Online.

ProPublica will use the tool to manage public donations, with Press+ logos across the site to encourage users to give money. Following an arrangement with the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, which has provided 10 non-profit news sites with the platform, ProPublica will not have to share revenue with Journalism Online for the first year. The New York-based non-profit is the second outlet to take up Press+, following its launch on the New Haven Independent site in June.

Journalism Online was launched in April 2009, and won investment from News Corp in June 2010. Its first client was LancasterOnline.com, which began using the Press+ system in July to charge for its access to its obituary pages.

ProPublica announcement at this link.

10,000 Words: Four fixable sins of news site design

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For those designing (or redesigning) a news site, this 10,000 Words blog is worth a look. It concentrates on four ‘fixable sins’ of news site design: swamps of share buttons; layers of navigation; avalanches of links; cluttered sidebars.

Let’s be honest: In general, news site design isn’t pretty. I know I’m not the first or last to say it, but I do have a theory about why. It starts off innocently enough — an article, navigation, some ads. But as new tools, gadgets, buttons, widgets, extensions and plugins are introduced to the news consumption scene, that once simple design becomes cluttered with bells and whistles that hold the content hostage.

Full post at this link.

#followjourn: @alexgamela – Alex Gamela/freelance

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Who? Alex Gamela, freelance journalist and prolific blogger about the media. He has been a feature on Journalism.co.uk’s Best of Blogs for a while now.

Where? http://www.alexgamela.com/blog/

Twitter? @alexgamela

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 laura at journalism.co.uk; or to @journalismnews.

#followjourn: @hendopolis – Neil Henderson/home duty editor

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Who? Neil Henderson, BBC home duty editor.

Where? The BBC, and Henderson’s personal blog, Reflections of The Hendo.

Twitter? @hendopolis

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 laura at journalism.co.uk; or to @journalismnews.