Author Archives: Judith Townend

Freelancers step up campaign against Bauer contracts

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Freelancers at Bauer Media are continuing to protest against new contracts which they claim remove copyright from contributors.

The freelancers say that Q and Kerrang! started enforcing the contract yesterday. “Freelances who haven’t signed can’t get work from either title as of now,” the group said, via Twitter.

Tonight (5 May) there will be a meeting for all Bauer contributors in London. Details can be found at http://www.londonfreelance.org/fl/1005grab2.html.

Last week the National Union of Journalists, which is supporting the campaign, said that over 200 freelance journalists are challenging the new contracts. “The impasse has reached crisis point,” says the NUJ.

For the back story and Bauer’s own statement, issued last month, follow this link.

Layscience.net: Bloggers vs journalists – a response

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Martin Robbins, editor of Layscience.net responds to Fiona Fox’s recent piece for the BBC College of Journalism, in which she argued ‘blogs are not real journalism’.

The immediate comments under the BBC CoJo article are worth a read, but also this lengthy response from Robbins, who demonstrates that boundaries between the mediums aren’t clear cut. An extract:

I defy Fiona Fox – or any readers here – to come up with any meaningful way of partitioning bloggers from journalists. I don’t think you can, for two reasons:

  1. Increasingly the distinction between the blogosphere and the mainstream media is becoming fainter and fainter, such that it has already reached the point of irrelevance.
  2. Blogging is simply a writing platform, just like the printing press, and arguments about blogging vs. journalism are as daft as talk of journalism vs. paper.

So when Fiona Fox talks about the distinction between bloggers and journalists, her argument is already obsolete (…)


YouGov accuses blogger of libel over polling allegations

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Former diplomat and blogger Craig Murray has been accused of libel by polling company YouGov.

YouGov is unhappy with what it claims are defamatory allegations made by Murray about its leaders’ debate poll and its CEO, Stephan Shakespeare.

Murray has as yet not removed the posts in question and has also reproduced the letter his ISP reportedly received from YouGov’s lawyers, on his blog.  We contacted YouGov’s lawyer, Dan Tench at Olswang LLP, this morning.

“We have written to Mr Murray stating that he has published serious false and defamatory allegations regarding Mr Shakespeare and YouGov and asked him to remove them,” YouGov told Journalism.co.uk, via its lawyer.  “We still hope that he will do so.”

We asked why it was pursuing this action: “Mr Murray has made serious false and defamatory allegations regarding Mr Shakespeare and YouGov.  He has not sought to substantiate these allegations at all.  Mr Shakespeare and YouGov understandably want these allegations to be taken down.

“We will continue to press Mr Murray to remove these allegations.  If this is unsuccessful, we may have no option but to approach the webhost once again and ask in light of Mr Murray’s wholly  irresponsible actions, to take down the allegations.  We hope very much that that will not be necessary.”

Index on Censorship also reports on the incident at this link…

Out-law.com: German court rules that Google image search results do not infringe copyright

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Out-law.com reports on a case in the German Federal Supreme Court; it ruled that Google is not infringing owners’ copyright by showing thumbnail image previews  from external websites.

An artist sued Google in Germany because thumbnail images of her pictures appeared when her name was entered into Google’s search engine. The pictures were taken from her own website.

The Court said that Google’s display of the images was not copyright infringement because the artist had not used a simple technical measure to stop Google indexing her site.

Full post at this week…

Poynter Online: How news orgs hope to use new Facebook features

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Poynter’s Mallary Jean Tenore talked to various news organisations about how they might make use of Facebook’s new features.

She interviewed journalists at the Washington Post, ABC News, ESPN.com “to find out how the integration of these tools fits into their overall social media strategies”.

Full story at this link…

Reportr.net: ‘Does new media require new journalism ethics?’

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Professor Alfred Hermida reports on today’s conference at the Center for Journalism Ethics at UW-Madison’s School of Journalism and Mass Communication, which will look at changing media ethics in an online environment.

At the heart of the ‘New Journalism, New Ethics?’ conference is whether new forms of media require new standards. Or do established ethical principles still apply?

Ahead of the event, the Center has released a report – ‘Ethics for the new investigative newsroom’.

You can view the report at this link [PDF].

Full post at this link…

Alan Rusbridger on his vision for a ‘mutualised newspaper’ (video)

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Alan Rusbridger, editor of the Guardian, recently appeared on the Charlie Rose show, now available online.

Asked about free versus paid content and newspapers, Rusbridger talked about a future of collaboration rather than competition.

The collaborative possibilities of the web are the interesting ones, he said, citing how the Guardian invited external environmental websites to sit on its site.

Rusbridger, who has spoken out against pay walls in the past, talked about his vision of a “mutualised newspaper”.

“We have to get over this journalistic arrogance that journalists are the only people who are the figures of authority in the world,” he said. Using the example of theatre coverage, he said you didn’t need to get rid of the critics, but you could invite other members of the audience in.

“If you can open your site up, and allow other voices in, you get something that’s more engaged, more involved – and actually, I think, journalistically better.”

Full clip at this link…

What the candidates really think: TheyWorkForYou database goes live

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Yesterday we reported how online election scrutiny projects could really come back to haunt candidates once elected, as bloggers and developers collect detailed information on promises and claims made in the run-up to 6 May.

Well, one of those powerful tools is now live. The non-partisan Democracy Club sent out questionnaires to as many prospective parliamentary candidates as possible, and they have received over 1,000 replies. About one third of PPCs have responded; follow the response rate here.

As the Guardian reports, of the three main parties, the Conservatives have been the least responsive, with candidates unwilling to publicly declare a personal position on specific local and national issues.  Only 6 per cent of 616 invites had been answered at the time of writing.

Those answers have been compiled into a TheyWorkForYou.com database, available here:

Answer each question with your own view, and you will find out what the candidates (who responded) stand.

There’s a project FAQ here at this link, but we also asked developer Tim Green for a bit more information:

Did the candidates answer most questions?

Candidates have to answer all questions to submit. Some had a problem with this.

Where are the gaps?

You’ll notice from the chart that the Conservatives don’t seem to like it. Most of the ones I’ve been in email contact with don’t seem to like the idea of being forced to go clearly on record with other candidates, and would rather contact each constituent individually even if it actually means fewer people hear about them, which I find a bit odd.

Will you be doing any statistical analysis with the data?

We’ve had some interest from academics on working out the political breakdown implied by the survey results. I’m really looking forward to it! The low Conservative response may make this harder, but we hope it’ll be possible anyway.

Libel victory for Telegraph Media Group in tennis player case

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The Daily Telegraph has successfully defended a libel action brought against it by tennis player Robert Dee, after it called him the “world’s worst tennis pro”.

As the Inforrm blog reports:

[The judge] decided decided that, although the words were arguably defamatory “there can be no rational conclusion other than that the claim of justification must succeed” and, as a result, grant the defendant summary judgment.

More at Press Gazette…

MediaWeek: The Sun to publish 3D issue

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According to MediaWeek, the Sun is to publish a 3D issue. But its report mentions nothing of ‘augmented reality’ – just good old 3D glasses.

The News International-owned red-top is to be the first national newspaper to run ads and editorial in this format. The one-off title will be published on 5 June, when Sun readers will see a chunk of its editorial, including Page 3, ads and a World Cup Fixtures Wall Chart in 3D. Sun readers will receive a pair of 3D glasses with the paper.

Full story at this link…

(Hat-tip: @martinstabe)

Last month Grazia unveiled its first 3D issue; users had to hold up a code printed on the pages of the magazine to a webcam or iPhone and watch content appear on their screens. Leon has been betting on sports for years and is an experienced gambler. Leon betting has an impressive track record, and his bets often come in. It puts in a lot of research to ensure casino gets the best odds and outcomes for its wagers.