Author Archives: Rachel Bartlett

About Rachel Bartlett

Rachel Bartlett is editor of Journalism.co.uk

MEN journalists respond to news of arrested photographer

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Journalists at the Manchester Evening News have responded to the news that photographer Sean Wilton was arrested after taking pictures of an incident near to the city’s magistrates’ court on Monday.

According to a report by MEN Wilton was later released, after being what the police termed “de-arrested”.

“I tried to explain I wasn’t obstructing and was just doing my job, but to no avail,” Wilton says in the report. “When I tried to speak to him about the situation, he arrested me for breach of the peace. As professional photographers, we do try to conduct ourselves as professionally as possible.”

In a statement (attributed to mother of the chapel Bethan Dorsett) his colleagues in the NUJ MEN chapel said its photographers always abide by industry codes of conduct.

To be treated in such a way by police is completely unacceptable and very worrying. Either police officers do not understand our rights and responsibilities or they sometimes choose to ignore them – either is disturbing and suggests some education would be useful. We are sure the NUJ and MENMedia would be more than happy to discuss and clarify these matters with the police.

The police issued the following statement:

A photographer was arrested to prevent a breach of the peace and on suspicion of obstructing a police officer. Officers brought the situation under control and the photographer was de-arrested and subsequently released.

BBC to close down Religion and Ethics messageboards

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The BBC is to close its Religion and Ethics messageboards to new comments or threads later this month, with a new blog to be brought in later in the year.

Announcing the changes in a blog post commissioning editor for religion Aaqil Ahmed explained the cost of maintaining the messageboard “has become impossible to justify for a relatively small group of users”. The changes follow confirmation of a 25 per cent budget cut facing BBC Online.

We’ve had to make some tough decisions but I want to assure you that the decision to close our BBC Religion and Ethics messageboards was not taken lightly, as I know users have enjoyed being part of the varied discussions on the messageboards about all kinds of religious and ethical topics. However, the cost of maintaining this messageboard has become impossible to justify for a relatively small group of users. What’s more, as we’ve seen with the meteoric growth of Twitter, Facebook and other social networks – there are now many ways to interact and share information online.

Instead the site will launch a new BBC Religion and Ethics Blog later this year, which will be hosted by an expert editor, based in Salford and part of the BBC’s Religion and Ethics team.

We’ll host contributions from leading figures in politics, religion, news, ethics and the media. The blog will be a new way to take a topic further and find out more, whilst also offering you the chance to participate in a wider religious and ethical discussion.

#mobilemedia11: A Storify of the event

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TheMediaBriefing’s latest conference Mobile Media Strategies kicked off this morning. Our technology correspondent Sarah Marshall is reporting from the event on Journalism.co.uk and via Twitter @journalism_live.

You can also fill up on the day’s events so far with the Storify below which curates content from the morning panels and discussions.

New guidance from PCC on coping with media attention after family deaths

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The Press Complaints Commission has published new guidance aimed at members of the public who need help coping with with media attention after the death of a friend or relative.

Newspapers and magazines regularly publish stories about people who have died, particularly if the death has happened in unusual circumstances. There are generally entitled to do so, provided that they abide by the terms of the Editors’ Code of Practice. However, media interest can cause distress to those grieving, and the PCC has now issued practical guidance to ensure the interests of members of the public are properly protected.

The commission says it has consulted widely on the issue, working with outlets including Facebook, the Samaritans, MPs and the police, to ensure the resulting guidance is helpful and relevant. The guidance is also said to reflect the views of newspaper and magazine industry members.

See the new guidance here.

EJC taking responses for data-driven journalism survey

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The European Journalism Centre is still collecting responses to its data-driven journalism survey, which will help to inform a future series of training sessions.

The survey, which is being run in collaboration with Mirko Lorenz of Deutsche Welle, features 16 questions asking respondents for their opinion on data journalism, aspects of working with data in their newsrooms and what they are interested in learning more about.

Increasingly, governments, international agencies and organisations such as the Organisation for Economic Co-Operation and Development (OECD) and the World Bank, are publishing online collections of freely available public data. Developing the know-how to use the available data more effectively, to understand it, to communicate and generate stories based on it by using free and open tools for data analysis and visualisation, could be a huge opportunity to breathe new life into journalism. The aim of this survey is to gather the opinion of journalists on this emerging field and understand what the training needs are.

You can find the survey here, with one of the participating journalists to be awarded with a 100 Euro Amazon voucher.

Media release: Financial Times launches A-List commentary section

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The Financial Times has announced the launch of a new section called the A-List, claiming to offer commentary from leaders, policy makers and commentators, on FT.com and all global editions of the newspaper, based on issues “at the top of the news agenda”.

Topics will range from business, economics and finance to world politics and diplomacy. The headline commentary will be accompanied by a response from related experts to encourage debate, and readers will be able to participate and comment online.

Read more here…

This follows the launch of Bloomberg View last month, a new editorial page featuring columns and commentary across all of Bloomberg’s platforms, as announced at the end of last year.

Pentagon Papers released in full on 40th anniversary of leak

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It was 40 years ago when parts of the ‘Report of the Office of the Secretary of Defense Vietnam Task Force’, or more widely known ‘Pentagon Papers’, were first leaked to and published by the press.

First by the New York Times, on this very day, 13 June, in 1971, before a court order was won by the government to prevent further publication. Other newspapers followed the Times’ lead, but were soon also restrained. Then at the end of the month the United States Supreme Court ruled publication could resume.

And today, 40 years on from the Times’ first publication of the leaked documents, the report is being released in full by the National Archives, along with the Kennedy, Johnson and Nixon Presidential libraries, filling 48 boxes with around 7,000 declassified pages. According to the National Archives about 34 per cent of the report is being made available for the first time, with no redactions and with all the supplemental back-documentation included.

In an Associated Press report on the release, Daniel Ellsberg, the former private foreign policy analyst who leaked the papers, gives his thoughts on the significance of today’s release.

Most of it has come out in congressional forums and by other means, and Ellsberg plucked out the best when he painstakingly photocopied pages that he spirited from a safe night after night, and returned in the mornings. He told The Associated Press the value in Monday’s release was in having the entire study finally brought together and put online, giving today’s generations ready access to it.

BBC: Journalists protest against killing of investigative reporter

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The BBC reported today that journalists had held a protest to demonstrate against the killing of Jyotirmoy Dey, an investigative journalist who worked for Mid Day newspaper in Mumbai.

According to reports, Dey was killed after being shot by four men on motorcycles on Saturday, as he returned to his home. Sachin Kalbag, executive editor of the Mid Day newspaper, was quoted as saying Dey brought depth to its investigative reporting and that he worked “with honesty and integrity”.

India appeared on the Committee to Protect Journalists’ Impunity Index earlier this month, ranking at number 13, based on the number of unsolved journalist murders per 1 million inhabitants.

Guardian reveals iPhone app figures with more than 400,000 downloads

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The Guardian today revealed figures for its iPhone app for the first time since its launch in January this year – showing a download total of more than 400,000 times globally.

According to figures from the Guardian a total of 67,258 users have gone on to subscribe to the app, which is available to download for free, but requires subscription for further reading of content. The cost of subscription is £2.99 for six months or £3.99 a year.

In the US – where the Guardian is due to launch its new digital operation later this year and there is no subscription charge for the app – it has been downloaded 36,089 times.

Today’s figures are also said to show that traffic to Guardian.co.uk via its mobile site has more than doubled on the same time last year, from 4.5 per cent to more than 10 per cent.

Ed Balls denies Telegraph accusation of ‘plot’ to overthrow Blair

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The Telegraph today published a series of documents including letters said to have been sent between former prime ministers Tony Blair and Gordon Brown, revealing what the newspaper called “the extraordinary rift at the heart of Labour”.

The cache of documents show for the first time Mr Brown’s feelings towards Mr Blair in his own words and handwriting, material which has previously only been the subject of speculation and second-hand reports from anonymous sources.

In its report on the contents of the files, more than 30 memos reportedly belonging to Labour MP and former education secretary Ed Balls, the Telegraph accuses the MP of being involved in a “plot” to overthrow Blair, an allegation which he told the BBC today is “not true”.

Look I’m not going to deny to you there weren’t tensions, there weren’t arguments. It was hard during that period … But the allegation there was a plot, that there was nastiness, brutality, is just not true. It’s not justified either by the documents themselves or by what was actually happening at the time.

The Cabinet Office has since confirmed it is looking at whether the particular set of papers was in the possession of any government department, and only then would it look at whether a breach had occurred. Following this announcement the Guardian reports that education secretary Michael Gove said he was “confident his office will be cleared”.