Media news digest archive for October 2005

Garret warns media on new terror laws (Oct 31)
Federal MP and former Midnight Oil frontman Peter Garret has warned that elements of the Federal Government's new anti-terror laws contain traps for media and those hoping to use it to assist a cause.
In a speech delivered over the weekend, he said he had obtained legal opinion on the draft legislation and it revealed a number of concerns.
“It is not enough to say, as some do, that if you have done nothing wrong and are not involved in any terrorism, then you can't be harmed by these laws. You can be,” he said.
“A citizen in my electorate of Kingsford Smith already has been mistaken for someone involved in terrorism.
“Under the proposed laws we would have no knowledge of cases of this kind. And if these things happen -- innocent people are taken away -- you won't know about it -- journalists, newspapers, TV stations won't be able to report it.”
Garret said the law could be broken by:
-- a play, or film, or TV programme depicting in a sympathetic or non hostile way the policies …of the Iraqi insurgents, or of al-Quaida, or of other groups which may from time to time be at war with or engaged in armed hostilities with Australia
-- a newspaper or magazine article which took a similar non critical or explanatory approach, even if based on material that was accurate
-- any imaginative/creative work which repeated or included seditious views expressed by others.
Peter Garret's speech

Web versus the rest is wrong -- Gates (Oct 29)
Microsoft founder Bill Gates has played down the web versus the rest view of media, during a speech at the Internet Advertising Bureau's Engage 2005 conference.
"The notion of Internet versus non-Internet advertising -- over the next decade that notion will be obsolete," he said. Instead, he commented, the future lies with a seamless and customised delivery of all forms of media.
IAB page with video link
Reuters story

Troubled waters for Kirk (Oct 28)
New Fairfax CEO David Kirk has walked in on what's turning out to be an industrial relations nightmare, with problems in Sydney and Melbourne.
The Media Alliance reports: “Members at Fairfax have returned to work today after walking out on Thursday evening in protest of company plans to shed up to 68 editorial positions at The Sydney Morning Herald, The Sun-Herald, The Age and The Sunday Age. Management has overtly and consistently pursued higher profits at the cost of editorial integrity. This is the third time in a little over 12 months that Fairfax has reduced costs through editorial redundancies.”
A factor that is not helping the debate is that Kirk was given a sign-on fee of over $1 million while his predecessor was given a golden handshake of over $ 4 million -- something the journos take a dim view of, given the belt-tightening at their level.
Trouble is also brewing in the firm's rural operations in Victoria, where staff at Fairfax Community News have been taking industrial action over wage negotiations.
Media Alliance

Where to now for TV news? (Oct 28)
From our Benton news service: The New York Times recently ran an extended piece speculating on what is likely to happen to the tradtional news bulletin in the face of increasing competition from a variety of alternative formats. It says, in part: “The days of network news executives as emblems of conscience in journalism are long gone. The job now requires skills more as a manager of talent and
budget. Direction remains the most pressing issue for all the network divisions. Nobody is entirely sure which way to go. To upset the traditional news format - with an anchor reading a news script and leading into reports from correspondents - risks alienating the aging but still substantial audiences that the networks control. But to stay with that traditional format risks losing relevance with each passing day to the immediacy of the Internet and the all-the-time availability of electronic devices like cellphones, which will soon be news outlets as well.”
Benton news file
NY Times web; Story

Blog busters (Oct 24)
It had to happen. There's a new wave of web publishers out there - blog busters.
One, clearly fed-up with this form of publishing and many other aspects of life, defines blog by saying: "It's an abbreviation used by journalism drop-outs to give legitimacy to their shallow opinions and amateur photography that seems to be permanently stuck in first-draft hell. Looking in the archives of the blogs, one would expect someone who has been at it for years to slowly hone their craft and improve their writing and photographs, since it's usually safe to assume that if someone does something long enough, he or she will eventually not suck at it. Even with lowered expectations, you'll get a shotgun blast of disappointment in your face."
Bloggers, and those unhappy with less than charitable opinions on most things, may want to avoid this link... (Our thanks to Rob van Driesum for the news tip.)

Diversity key to real freedom (Oct 23)
South Africa marked Media Freedom Day last Friday, which prompted the African National Congress magazine, ANC Today, to publish an article which paints a not so rosy view of the local media. It says that while the country’s media may have thrown off hostile government shackles, it faces a whole different set of problems through lack of diversity.
“Though often not acknowledged in public discourse on media freedom, diversity is as much an integral component of a free media as is the absence of state censorship and control. It is meaningless to free the media from control by the state only to have it overwhelmingly controlled by some other social force. The only difference is that the state, at least in South Africa, has a democratic mandate,” the article says.
“The objective then is to ensure that the media in collective terms is owned and controlled by the broad range of interests and forces that comprise society. The more diverse the media, the greater its capacity to provide space for all South Africans to exercise their constitutional right to freedom of expression.”
Article link

Who’s (not) talking now (Oct 20)
Over the last five years, The White House Project in the USA has researched the absence of women on Sunday morning talk shows on the five major networks: ABC, CBS, CNN, FOX and NBC. Its first Who’s Talking report was released in 2001 and found that men outnumbered women 9 to 1 on these agenda-setting shows. In the 2002 follow-up, it found that there was little improvement—women only made up 13 per cent of all guest appearances on the shows. In the 2005 study, called Who’s Talking Now, it found more than half of Sunday morning news shows did not include a single women.
Project link

Apple videopod shakes up media (Oct 19)
The recent launch of Apple’s video iPod has sparked a mix of glee and concern, depending on which end of the media business spectrum you talk to.
Independent and low-budget producers see it as a potential new market which would be relatively cheap to access, while major TV and movie companies are less welcoming.
Some, like the USA’s ABC network , are prepared to put a nervous toe in the water. An episode of the network’s hit series Lost was offered as US$1.99 download the day after it first aired and many people will be interested to se the reponse.
Some companies see the videopod, with its ability to download material from legal or pirated sources, as having massive potential to undermine their business, although it can be argued that any desktop computer already has this ability. Others are unsure whether there will be enough return on the cost of reformatting shows for the hand-held devices tiny screen.
Meanwhile some media unions in the USA are on top of the technology, demanding residuals for any material offered for podcasting.
Apple web

Google to challenge telcos? (Oct 19)
Search engine and ad business Google has offered the city of San Francisco a free wireless internet network. While this may seem generous at first, it has telecommunications companies worried, as it could effectively replace much of what their cable networks now do, and with a far less costly infrastructure.
Google meanwhile would stand to gain direct access to homes and businesses in the market, opening some interesting possibilities when it comes to delivering localised advertising.
The Wall Street Journal suggests, “By offering consumers free service, Google
could pressure traditional providers to slash fees for Internet access, a
growing source of telecom revenue -- when they don't have Google's
advertising revenue to make up the difference, and have large, extensive
networks for transmitting voice and data to maintain.”
SFgate report
Wall Street Journal web

How technology has changed reporting (Oct 19)
From the Benton files: Derek Willis, the Research Database Editor at the Washington Post, has written a series of essays about the future of journalism and how advances in technology have changed the way that the news is reported and written. It includes: The Collaboration Issue; The Information Gap; The Annotated Archive; The Engagement Process; and Rivers of Data.
Cyberjournalist link
Benton media news

Private or public? (Oct 17)
A debate over what constitutes private or public information has, somewhat ironically, been raised by the decision of a politician to leak a government draft document. ACT Chief Minister Jon Stanhope decided that the Federal Government's draft legislation for new anti-terrorism laws should be made public and has offered a full copy for download from his website.
The Prime Minister was under-whelmed by the action, and was reported by the Sydney Morning Herald as saying, "It's important that governments, no matter what political stances you might take, should have the capacity to talk to each other in confidence. And that legislation was given in confidence."
Interestingly, Stanhope published the documents without comment either for or against.
Considerable disquiet has caused by the content of the draft and the short lead-time for review. A senate committee has been given a week to examine the legislation and must report by November 8. Critics complain the timing leaves only one senate sitting day before deadline.
Meanwhile the Media Entertainment and Arts Alliance (MEAA) says the laws will be a serious blow to press freedoms in Australia.
It says it is concerned that 'notice to produce' powers for the Australian Federal Police will be used to demand any information, including the identity of confidential sources and journalists notes which may identify sources, during their investigations.
“This new legislation seems to be part of a broader set of counter-terrorism measures which, taken as a package, effectively limit freedom of speech in Australia,” said Alliance federal secretary Christopher Warren.
“If sources cannot speak to journalists with confidence that their identity will be protected, then whistle blowers will be much less likely to expose wrong doing. The public will be significantly less informed and the watchdog role of journalism will be diminished.”
Proposed extensions to sedition law will shift the focus of the legislation, says the MEAA, to what people say, rather than the actual outcome of their action, a change that could radically alter the nature of legitimate public debate.
“This may drastically affect journalists' right to freedom of expression and in turn the Australian public's right to know. The Federal and state governments should rethink this unclear proposal to avoid stifling free speech, ” said Warren.
Jon Stanhope web link (Oct 20 update: Stanhope has now added a legal opinion on the draft legislation, which says it fails to meet all but one of the promises the Federal Government made about its intentions.)
MEAA home
SMH home

Wankers & snuff films (Oct 17)
John Doyle, one half of the Roy & HG comedy team, delivered the 2005 Andrew Ollie memorial lecture recently and, as might be expected, didn't exactly hold his punches when it came to expressing his views on the development of journalism.
“It was during the bombing of Baghdad that I reeled in shock, awe and disbelief when I saw Fox news coverage. Two immaculately dressed presenters were genuinely excited by the pictures they were seeing. One of them shouted 'I want to see the Moab! (The mother of all bombs.) Bring on the Moab!' And I thought it's come to this. The news had degenerated into watching people wank at a snuff film. They were the new type of journalists. The fact is, rarely has there been a more important time for truth in journalism,” he said.
Click here to read the full text, or go to the ABC page linked here for an MP3 file.

Digital radio launches in Australia (Oct 14)
Federal Communications Minister Senator Helen Coonan today announced the launch of digital radio in Australia, at a radio conference in Sydney.
According to the government, “Digital radio has the potential to deliver a range of new and innovative services to listeners such as record and rewind, streamed text with news and weather updates, play list information and even still pictures.”
The rollout will use an international technical standard called Eureka 147.
Existing players in the radio industry will be protected by a six-year moratorium on the issue of new licences. Those stations will be able to run existing services in tandem with new transmissions and expand their offerings to include parallel programming.
“As radio is the only mainstream broadcasting platform to remain analogue-only, and with increasing competition from new digital platforms such as the Internet and mobile phones, the radio industry needs the certainty to plan and promote the potential benefits of digital radio,” Senator Coonan said.
Click here to read Senator Coonan’s speech

Placement & engagement key for advertisers (Oct 14)
From the Benton files: While marketers are pushing for print's answer to product placement, it turns out that most magazine readers already consider it rampant. A study released this week by Starcom USA found that 65 per cent of the consumers believe that advertisers pay for editorial mentions. Moreover, Starcom found, readers are receptive to reading about brands in articles. Nearly 83 per cent of the respondents, when they identified brand appearances in titles, found that the mentions of specific brands "fit" the content and context of its article, and that they expected to read about specific products.
A related story from NAA.org says engagement was the key ingredient for advertisers. It said: Andrew Swinand, senior vice president of the media research and buying firm Starcom USA in Chicago, suggested that publishers move away from circulation and readership and identify a metric that truly measures consumer usage. “Accountability is pervasive in every other media,” he said.
What advertisers want, he added, is an “engaged” audience-people who receive the right message, at the right time, and at the right place so that they can act on it. How engagement, or an advertiser's return on objective, can best be measured remains a mystery.
Benton news service
Adage home; Story
NAA.org; Story

Maxim potential in the furniture market (Oct 13)
Popular US lad's mag Maxim has launched its own furniture line, available via its Maxim Living microsite.
“Maxim Living was created to meet today's men's growing demand for premium products to furnish their homes, certifying Maxim's leap from one of the most recognized magazine brands in the world to a sophisticated lifestyle retail brand,” said Dennis Publishing.
The magazine claims an international readership of over 17 million and boasts sales of nearly four million copies each month.
By Cassie Maher
Maxim website

Young lad mag explodes onto market (Oct 12)
Pacific Magazines launches Explode today, pitched at young teenage males.
The publisher says of the title, “Taking your average teen guy, Jack, Explode aims to fill the hole Jack has had in his reading investments with a brand extending to both print and online. Pacific Magazines has learnt that Jack has a substantial disposable income, he likes girls but is afraid to talk to them, he owns a games console, a mobile phone, an MP3 player and loves cars. Jack also likes surfing, skating, soccer and footy. Explode encompasses all of Jack's passions with the same drive he does and in doing so will capture his imagination like nothing of this nature eve has.
“With accredited sex and life advice with both Dr Michael Carr-Greg and Dr Sally Cockburn, as well as humorous stories, dirty jokes and gruesome information, the Explode sealed section is going to the perfect remedy to Jack's long list of embarrassing questions, while the tongue-in-cheek antics and stories throughout the rest of the magazine will act as a virtual best mate for Jack, a best mate he can take anywhere and share with his friends.”
We're confidently predicting that, assuming the mag lasts a few months and can show some reasonable circulation numbers, you'll be seeing competitors from the likes of ACP and EMAP hitting the news-stands.
Explode website
Pacific Mags corporate page

Yahoo looks to the future (Oct 12)
The future of media companies lies in technology. That was the message from Yahoo's CEO Terry Semel at the annual Web 2.0 conference held in San Francisco last Thursday.
Billed as an event that brings “the intelligence, innovation, and leadership of the internet industry together”, the conference was the perfect place for Semel to talk about the future of media in internet companies for the 21st century.
Semel explained he sees Yahoo as a leader in designing the future of content.
ZD Net's Richard MacManus was at the conference and reported that the three types content mentioned by Semel were user-generated, professional, and the future of what content may be.
Semel acknowledged the competition from Google, a company which he said was steps behind his own, even though it has recently been hard at work expanding in order to become more than just a search engine.
“They would probably be rated number four,”Semel said, rating Google as a web portal, “We have a much more diversified model."
Since joining Yahoo in May 2001, Semel and his team have employed many new services to the company including a blogging service and a social events calendar site.
Other speakers at the sold out conference included Google's Omid Kordestani , Microsoft's Ray Ozzie and Jonathan F Miller from AOL.
By Cassie Maher
ZDnet blog
Conference link

Don’t mention the wabbit (Oct 11)
The BBC reports that publicity for the latest Wallace & Gromit movie from Aardman Animations, called Curse of the Were-Rabbit, has had to delete the word “rabbit” in Portland, Dorset.
It seems the burrowing activities of the little critters has been held responsible for landslides and mine collapses over the years, building up a reputation that forbids mention of the R-word in polite company. Instead, people refer to “underground mutton” and “furry things”, or perhaps even bunny business.
The local mayor told BBC News, “"If the word rabbit is used in company in Portland there is generally a bit of a hush…It is an unwritten rule in Portland that you do not use the word rabbit."
Meanwhile Aardman has lost film memorabilia spanning 30 years to a factory fire in Bristol, just as its latest film hits number one in the US market.
BBC News; Story
Wallace & Gromit site (Our thanks to Rob van Driesum for the news tip.)

Media dominates our waking hours – study (Oct 11)
The average American spends more time using media devices -- television, radio, iPods and cell phones -- than any other activity while awake, says a new study from Ball State University in the USA.
Key findings of the research include:
-- About 30 percent of the observed waking day was spent with media as the sole activity versus 20.8 percent for work activity, while an additional 39 percent of the day was spent with media while involved in some other activity;
-- In any given hour no less than 30 percent of those studied were engaged in some way with television, and in some hours of the day that figure rose to 70 percent;
-- While television is still by far the dominant medium in terms of the time average Americans spend daily with media at 240.9 minutes, the computer has emerged as the second most significant media device at about 120 minutes;
-- About 30 percent of all media time is spent exposed to more than one medium at a time;
-- People ages 18 to 24 spend less time online than any other age group except those older than 65;
-- Levels of concurrent media exposure were higher among those 40 to 65 than people 18 to 39;
-- Women spend more time multitasking with two or more types of media than men;
-- Use of the Web, e-mail and phones is substantially higher on Fridays than any other day of the week.
"Television is still the 800-pound gorilla because of how much the average person is exposed to it," a researcher said. "However, that is quickly evolving. When we combine time spent on the Web, using e-mail, instant messaging and software such as word processing, the computer eclipses all other media with the single exception of television."
See this link for the full story

Yahoo, Google encroach further into content (Oct 11)
"There is an awakening occurring at the traditional media companies," CBS Digital's Larry Kramer told the Wall Street Journal. And just what is waking them up, and causing an old-line company like News Corp to spend $1.3 billion on the Internet? Yahoo and Google. The Journal's Julian Angwin notes that one of the driving factors in the huge acquisition craze by media companies is Yahoo's plans to transform itself into a media company. Those plans became clearer when Yahoo announced the launch of Kevin Sites in the Hot Zone, an original multimedia report from war zones around the world, and more recently the hiring of nine investment columnists for Yahoo Finance. The New York Times explained that Yahoo CEO Terry Semel wants Yahoo to be more than just an interactive studio, "he wants Yahoo to be seen as more akin to Time Warner, which mixes content like Warner and CNN with distribution, like its cable systems."
While Yahoo's push into media content has been more apparent, Google too has been taking similar steps. Google recently streamed the first episode of UPN's "Everybody Hates Chris" TV show based on the life of Chris Rock. The search giant has also been indexing television content for its Google Video search, which is still in beta. Beyond content, Google is also working on a search of Web-based classified ads, according to the Classified Intelligence Report, and has been in discussions with CareerBuilder about getting access to job-ad feeds. CIR's Jim Townsend told InternetNews that online classifieds will eventually move from a pay-for-listing model to pay-for-performance. On the good foot, Google ended its one-year ban on CNET News.com 10 months early when CEO Eric Schmidt was interviewed by News.com's Elinor Mills.
By Online Publishers Association

Backfence gossip becomes big business (Oct 10)
Grassroots journalism has a new champion at Backfence.com. An online suburban newspaper released in the suburbs of Washington DC is so far threatening to one day make print suburban papers, or at least their current structure and content, obsolete.
Backfence was launched in the towns McLean and Reston, Virginia, in June, and has so far been widely applauded for its micro approach to the news.
Community members themselves are the journos and report on local news, events, and businesses, even posting their own photos.
Bloggers can also buy, sell and advertise goods as well as sharing their 'helpful hints' and general advice with fellow users, the site describing itself as a leader in a new phenomenon called “citizens' journalism”.
Although amateurs may be providing the news, an experienced journalist is at the helm.
Chairman and CEO of Backfence, Mark Potts, is a former editor and reporter from the Washington Post, and came up with the idea for backfence over lunch with co-founder Susan DeFife.
On their site, Potts and DeFife, say Backfence was designed to be a kind of mecca for regular neighbourhood gossip.
After all, who knows what is going on in the neighbourhood better than the neighbours themselves.
“Backfence is all about exploring new ways to exchange information and new ways to bring community members together,” say Potts and DeFife.
“We think of Backfence as a natural evolution of those early days of content.”
Editors have a relatively easy ride, with all content sent in from community members, published 'live', with no grammical corrections made and inappropriate language rejected automatically .
Users even receive some journalism 101 through writing tips from the site, including advice to keep their style “clear and simple, and to the point”.
In the few short months it has been operational, Backfence has received more praise than criticism.
The Australian newspaper's Mark Day said, “It strikes me Backfence does what the suburban newspapers are failing to do. Sure, they carry the ads, but they don't effectively bring people together in their communities or provide an interaction with their readers.”
At only 30 years old, Potts may have quite a little empire on his hands.
Although the only revenue so far is through advertisers (Backfence is free to visit and use), Potts plans to soon let other investors have their share in the software, which will no doubt see his creativity and vision rewarded accordingly.
By Cassie Maher
Visit the site www.backfence.com
The Australian home; Story

Points & Sales sites merge (Oct 6)
ACP's Points websites -- Carpoint, Boatpoint, Bikepoint etcetera --- are being merged with the Carsales group.
A stock exchange statement revealed, “Carsales will purchase ACP 's Australian online trader classifieds assets comprising Carpoint.com.au, Boatpoint.com.au, Bikepoint.com.au and Ihub.com.au (truckhub,farmhub, constructionhub, factoryhub, forestryhub and minehub) as well as Equipment Research Group Pty Ltd (“ERG ”),an industry based research and statistic company in return for the issue to ACP of equity equivalent to 41%of the share capital of Carsales. Three nominees of ACP (James Packer, John Alexander and Gregg Haythorpe) will be appointed to the Board of Carsales which will now comprise six directors.”
Fairfax, which has a car-based print and web brand called Drive, was another potential suitor and owns a little over 11 per cent of Carsales.
Nielsen rates the unique users of the five top car sites at: Carsales 930,000/month, Carpoint 867,000, Sensis (Telstra) 786,000, Drive 654,000 and Cars Guide (News) 460,000.

Gunning for journos in Tas (Oct 6)
Tasmanian Greens Senator Christine Milne last night presented the upper house of Federal Parliament with what she portrays as a web of intrigue between government, business and media that may have cost a young journalist his job. Click here to see the full text of the speech.

Beware what you promote -- ACCC (Oct 5)
Court action by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) has flagged a clear warning to editors and producers that they need to be careful about what they promote via their editorial content.
The government watchdog has named the Seven TV network and its Today Tonight program as respondents to an action that includes the promoters of a property investment scheme called the Wildly Wealthy Women Millionaire Mentoring Program.
Its public statement says, “The ACCC alleges that both the principals of the mentoring program and Seven Network Limited (or wholly owned subsidiaries thereof) made misleading representations as to the results that could be expected by participants in the WWW mentoring program; and that one of the principals of the WWW mentoring program was a millionaire and the other principal owned in excess of 60 properties.”
The action, which refers to programs run in late 2003 and early 2004, has been taken to the Federal Court and hearings are to begin on November 8.
ACCC web

Macquarie opens global media group (Oct 5)
The Macquarie investment bank, which has holdings in a wide variety of industries, has announced a Media Management Group (MMG) that will be open to retail investors from October 18.
“MMG will have a mandate to acquire media assets globally, and will target assets which have stable earnings and cash flows, strong market positions, barriers to entry and the potential for further earnings improvement through market growth, technological change and leveraging economies of scale,” says the company.
The aim is to raise close to $1 billion.
While it is happening just before the Federal Government announces its final plans for loosening up current media ownership laws, the timing is seen by business commentators such as Stephen Bartholomeusz at the Age newspaper as coincidental rather than deliberate.
Macquarie already owns an Australian, largely regional, radio network with 85 stations.
The Age home; Bartholomeusz comment

Spanish court jails journo (Oct 5)
Arab TV network Al Jazeera's most senior journalist, Mr Tayseer Allouni, has been sentenced to seven years prison by the Spanish High Court after been found guilty of collaborating with a terrorist group.
Born in Syria and currently a Spanish citizen, Allouni came to international attention when, in October 2001, he was the first person to interview Osama bin Laden post-September 11 for Al Jazeera -- a network many in the west had not heard of at that time.
Allouni has had many arrests and re-arrests in Spain since September 2003, but was being staunchly defended by Al Jazeera, international civil libertarians and most notably by the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ).
IFJ General Secretary Adam White is deeply concerned about the erosion of press freedoms, especially when reporting on terrorism.
"This verdict could have the effect of closing down sources of information that journalists need to get to the facts behind the propaganda that dominates the so called war on terrorism," said Mr White.
"The seven year jail term is punitive given the nature of the evidence against him."
Allouni's trial coincided with the sentencing of 18 other Muslims suspected of terror links, a highly-charged political issue in Spain in the wake of the Madrid bombings of 2004.
The Bush Administration has long been concerned by the increasing reach of Al Jazeera in the Islamic world and stands accused of attacks on Al Jazeera offices in Kabul and Baghdad, which caused the death of journalist Tarak Ayoub.
Allouni was refused bail but is appealing.
By Barry Kennedy

US military detaining journos (Oct 5)
The IFJ has also expressed concern about the US military's tendency to detain Iraqi journalists.
It says Majed Hameed, a reporter for the Al Arabiya News Channel, is one of a number of journalists to be detained without charge or explanation from the authorities. In recent months several Iraqi reporters working for international news organisations have been held for lengthy periods without being charged.
“We are very concerned that there is no word about why he has been held in what appears to be a premeditated action against him,” said White. “This man is acknowledged as a hard-working professional whose work has taken him into some of Iraq's most dangerous places from where he has delivered much ground-breaking journalism.”
The IFJ says that Iraqi journalists whose energy and resourcefulness is producing some of the most telling reporting from the region are also among those most likely to face harassment from the military.
“There have been a number of cases of journalists being targeted simply because they get to the scene of an incident quickly. In the eyes of the army this is suspicious, but in effect they are penalised for doing their job too well,” said White.
IFJ web

Call to kill junk food ads (Oct 4)
In the wake of a spiralling obesity among children in Australia a growing chorus of opposition including three State Health Departments and a clutch of health groups are calling on the Federal Government to tighten laws that apply to fast food advertising on kid's television, especially the largely regulation free pay television market.
The current regulative environment bans fast food advertising on free to air preschool programs of which each network must have at least one. There are no such restrictions in the self-regulating market of pay television however.
Some companies have been conspicuous in reducing their overall television advertising on kids television, but are among the biggest advertisers on children's pay television channel The Cartoon Network (pictured). The annual revenue increase of The Cartoon Network was 40 per cent last year, against the industry average of 32 per cent.
Current debate over junk food advertising has many parallels to the situation surrounding tobacco advertising twenty years ago, with advertisers, represented by the Australian Association of Media Advertisers, steadfastly declaring there are no proven links between advertising and obesity.
To many critics of junk food advertising like Liz Develin, the Director of the Centre for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Advancement, it's the unique characteristics of the demographic that makes the obesity problem self-perpetuating. Develin told The Australian newspaper, “We would suggest that there is evidence that TV ads influence pester power and (children's) own choices when they have food presented to them.”
Australia was last year ranked as having the most junk food ads per hour of television in the world by the International Obesity Task Force, more than even the US. $A200 million is spent annually in Australia by fast food giants, with a large proportion hitting television screens during children's timeslots.
By Barry Kennedy
The Australian home; Story
Australia & NZ Health Policy site

Top news agency demands media death inquiry (Oct 3)
Reuters news agency's Managing Director, David Schlesinger has written to US congress demanding an investigation into US military behaviour towards journalists in Iraq and calling for Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld to face questioning over a string of tragic incidents.
At least 66 journalists have died in Iraq since March 2003, many of them Iraqi's who have died at the hands of American soldiers mistaking them for insurgents. An increasing amount of journalists are now being detained without charge or legal representation in recent months, many for possessing footage or photographs of insurgents.
The letter written to Senator John Warner, the head of the Senate Armed Services Committee is timely with Rumsfeld soon to appear, the apparent purpose being to persuade the committee to question the Defence Secretary on the US military's rules of engagement towards journalists.
Schlesinger is appealing for increased dialogue with US military commanders and comes in the wake of a climate he refers to in the letter as a "worsening situation for professional journalists in Iraq directly limit[ing] journalists' abilities to do their jobs and, more importantly creat[ing] a serious chilling effect on the media overall."
Speaking to the the ABC TV's Lateline, Schlesinger believes the death toll for journalists is greater than at the comparable stage in the Vietnam conflict.
Schlesinger told the ABC's Tony Jones that for US forces, "There are clear lessons to be learned. A camera is not a grenade launcher. A tripod is not a rifle...and the fact that journalists come in all sizes, shapes, gender, nationalities, races."
Four Reuter's journalists have died in Iraq, two are in custody as well as a freelance journalist who has worked for the news agency.
By Barry Kennedy
ABC Lateline story
Alertnet story

Brits battle loss of free TV cricket (Oct 3)
A decision late last year by the English and Wales Cricket Board, (ECB) to award all domestic test series, from next year through to 2009, to Rupert Murdoch's pay television giant Sky, has started a very public fight.
As a triumphant domestic season draws to its close with unparalleled local interest, the ECB decision to award the 220 million pound broadcasting rights to a subscription television station seems more in step with many of the English teams on field disasters of Ashes contests gone by.
But an upsurge of English consternation is now brewing led by the website www.keepcricketfree.com and a early morning motion led by Labour MP, John Grogan, both with the intent to bring the ECB and broadcasters back to the negotiating table to discuss other broadcast solutions.
One politician currently feeling the heat is Secretary for Culture, Mrs Tessa Jowell, who is being accused of betraying an understanding forged between her predecessor Chris Smith and the ECB in 1998 when test cricket was removed from the 'crown jewels' of sports programming, a list that includes the FA Cup, the Olympics and Wimbledon. Keep cricket free believes "the deal signed by the ECB last December was in breach of a ministerial understanding with the then ECB president Lord MacLaurin in 1998 that the majority of Test Cricket would continue to be available live and free-to-air after it moved from the A to B-list of protected events."
From the ECB's perspective a cool 24 million pound windfall will inject millions into struggling county teams and junior cricket, but what price for public exposure on the back of the heady public mood brought on by the Ashes win, which was watched by eight million viewers on Channel Four during the final moments of the last test. According to David Brook, one of the organisers of keep cricket free, 40 million pounds could be lost from not having cricket live on terrestrial television from sponsorship revenue and merchandising.
There is no doubt Sky has the upper hand and even the recently discovered English pluck seems unlikely to reverse the turn of events.
A decision by the Howard Government last year guarantees domestic Australian cricket tests are shown on free to air television, although the current list of sport protected by anti-siphoning regulations may be up for review, with the Australian Government warning that the use it or lose it principle will be applied.
By Barry Kennedy
Guardian cricket
Keep cricket free

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