Category Archives: Politics

NUJ condemns Jeremy Hunt’s delay in BSkyB bid decision

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National Union of Journalists general secretary Jeremy Dear has condemned Jeremy Hunt’s decision to delay a referral of News Corp’s bid for BSkyB to the Competition Commission.

Hunt said today that he intended to refer the bid but would first allow the merging parties to sumbit further “undertakings” which they feel might mitigate the bid’s threat to media plurality, outlined by Ofcom in its report.

The NUJ, which has been part of an ongoing campaign against the bid, issued the following statement from Dear:

Hunt has not just shifted the goalposts in considering the Murdoch plan to damage media plurality. He has allowed Rupert Murdoch to take the goalposts home, to return when he feels he’s more likely to win the game.

News Corp’s BSkyB bid: a timeline

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Culture secretary Jeremy Hunt announced today that he will delay his decision over whether to refer News Corporation’s BSkyB bid to the competition commission. Hunt said that he is “minded” to refer the bid, but will hear undertakings from the merging parties before making his decision.

See the full Journalism.co.uk report on today’s announcement at this link, and a timeline of events related to the bid below:

BSkyB bid – a timeline on Dipity.

Greenslade: What the papers did, and didn’t, say about Coulson

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Media commentator Roy Greenslade has taken a look at the newspapers’ response to the resignation of Downing Street director of communications Andy Coulson on Friday.

Coulson, a former editor of the News of the World, cited the continued pressure from coverage of the phone-hacking scandal as the reason for his departure.

One of the government’s key aides departed amid controversy on Friday. So how did the weekend’s press cover the story of the resignation of Andy Coulson, No 10’s director of communications?

Answer: in most cases, with kid gloves. In other cases, hardly at all. And in a couple of instances, it was as if nothing of consequence had happened. What was that business about News of the World phone-hacking? Let’s start with the Saturday issues…

Full post on Greenslade’s blog at this link.

Al-Jazeera offices in Ramallah entered by security forces, reports correspondent

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Al-Jazeera English correspondent Alan Fisher reports that the news organisation’s offices in Ramallah, Palestine were entered by security forces earlier this afternoon, followed by an “angry crowd” which has sprayed graffiti on the walls.

Fisher is reporting on the situation using his Twitter account: twitter.com/alanfisher.

Al-Jazeera began publishing leaked documents about the Israeli-Palestinian peace process today in partnership with the Guardian. The documents accuse the Palestinian Liberation Organisation (PLO) of making a secret agreement to accept Israel’s annexation of all but one of the settlements built illegally in East Jerusalem.

Alan Rusbridger on Coulson resignation: ‘This is not the end of the story’

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Editor in chief of Guardian News & Media Alan Rusbridger released a statement today following the resignation of former News of the World editor Andy Coulson from his position as director of communications for Downing Street.

Coulson said in his resignation statement the “continued coverage” of the phone-hacking scandal at the News of the World made it difficult for him to give the “110 per cent” needed for the job.

Rusbridger credited Coulson’s resignation to the work of Guardian reporter Nick Davies:

From the moment he revealed the secret pay-out to Gordon Taylor in July 2009 it was obvious that Andy Coulson’s position was untenable. But this is not the end of the story by any means. There are many outstanding legal actions, and uncomfortable questions for others, including the police.”

Channel 4 News extended to cover Coulson resignation and Blair testimony

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Tonight’s Channel 4 News will be extended to an hour following the resignation of David Cameron’s director of communications Andy Coulson and Tony Blair’s appearance at the Iraq Inquiry.

Coulson resigned over continued coverage of phone-hacking that took place under his editorship of the News of the World.

Presenter Krishnan Guru-Murthy announced the extended bulletin on Twitter, following a previous comment that there was to be “an unusually exciting Friday night’s channel 4 news ahead”.

Meanwhile, following Coulson’s resignation, Guru-Murthy’s co-presenter Jon Snow alleged that he believes his own phone was hacked with the involvement of another, unamed, newspaper.

Journalisted Weekly: Brisbane floods, Arizona shootings, and Tunisia protests

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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.

for the week ending Sunday 16 January

  • Floods in Brisbane and shootings in Arizona dominated the news during the week
  • Protests leading to the ousting of Tunisia’s government received much coverage over the weekend
  • Northern & Shell, Stuxnet, and controversy over Welsh organ donation received little coverage

Covered lots

Covered little

  • Renewed controversy over the Stuxnet cyber virus, which attacked Iran’s nuclear programme last year, 8 articles
  • Northern & Shell, the group that owns the Express, Star and OK! pulls out of the UK press self-regulation system, 7 articles
  • The Welsh Assembly Government calling for a ‘soft opt-out’ policy for organ donation and raising controversy over human rights, 4 articles

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

Celebrity vs serious

Who wrote a lot about…’Tunisia’

Richard Spencer – 9 articles (Telegraph), James Bones – 8 articles (The Times), Roula Khalaf – 7 articles (Financial Times), Heba Saleh – 5 articles (Financial Times), Colin Freeman (Telegraph) – 4 articles, Angelique Chrisafis – 4 articles (The Guardian)

Long form journalism

From The Media Standards Trust

The Media Standards Trust’s panel event ‘Libel reform: in the public’s interest?’ is now available to watch on our website

The Media Standards Trust’s unofficial database of PCC complaints is available for browsing at www.complaints.pccwatch.co.uk

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

BECTU calls on members to take action over BSkyB takeover bid

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Media and entertainment union BECTU is calling on its members to ask their MPs to support the referral of News Corp’s BSkyB bid to the competition commission.

“Action is easy and takes a matter of minutes. Visit 38 Degrees and enter your postcode to email your MP directly. If you have yet to sign the petition please do so now,” says a release from the union.

BECTU assistant general secretary, Luke Crawley adds: “Once the referral is secured, BECTU will continue its support for the campaign against the takeover which threatens to narrow the range of voices and opinion expressed in the UK’s media.”

The union has also called on culture secretary Jeremy Hunt, who is responsible for making a decision over the bid, to publish Ofcom’s report into the proposals, which was delivered to his department on the 31 December.

Speaking at London School of Economics last week, Hunt refused to comment on process or when a decision would be arrived at. He also declined to reveal when the Ofcom report would be published. His appearance at the university was interrupted by a demonstration over the bid.

Representatives from BECTU attended a meeting about the bid and media ownership at the House of Commons last week. Speaking at the meeting, Lord Razzall said that “all hell will break loose” if Hunt were to ignore a recommendation from Ofcom to refer the bid to the competition commission.

Observer: How the phone-hacking scandal fits together

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As the CPS begins a fresh assessment of Met police evidence in the News of the World phone-hacking case, and coverage of the convoluted scandal is once again on the rise, the Observer has produced a graphic for the confused, showing how the major players fit together.

See the full graphic at this link [PDF].

Today: Cameron defends Coulson, refuses to comment on resignation rumour

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David Cameron defended his director of communications, Andy Coulson this morning on Radio 4, refusing to comment on speculation that Coulson had offered his resignation after mounting pressure over the News of the World phone-hacking scandal.

I think there is a danger at the moment that he is being punished twice for the same offence … I gave him a second chance, I think in life sometimes its right to give a second chance.

Presenter John Humphrys pressed the prime minister on the rumours of a resignation offer but he refused to comment: “I don’t go into private conversations.”

Here the full programme at this link (skip to 18:40 for Coulson questions).