Maya The Cat

Source: Free Movement

I have so far refrained from any mention of cats, although I came THIS close to asking in examination in chief yesterday whether my clients owned a cat…

You can read the disputed determination for yourself here, courtesy of The New Statesman. You can also read the reasons for yourself. Theresa May was ‘making it up’, basically. Alex Mik has sent in a more thoughtful piece on human rights reporting generally, which I am happy to reproduce below.

As a postscript to the judgment, Maya the Cat is still apparently going strong, as are the gay couple at the centre of the determination. You’d have thought The Daily Mail would be happy about that, but apparently not…

Can we have a little more responsible journalism please?

Much has been written recently about Daily Mail reporting, specifically their dreadful handling of the Amanda Knox trial. This has been covered by a number of better qualified outlets so I won’t focus on this. My attention was drawn to the Daily Mail’s reporting of what is being imaginatively tiled ‘catgate’. It was not the first time my attention had been drawn to it, as it was when the story was originally published in the Sunday Telegraph back in 2009. The story was inaccurate then and it continues to be inaccurate now. The problem is that the mistakes are getting bigger, and there is no need for them.

As soon as Mrs May mentioned the cat people were trying to find the case. The UK Human Rights Blog had time to publish two articles about it, the first of which gave a link to the actual Upper Tier Tribunal determination. The determination makes clear that the cat was irrelevant to the decision to let the individual remain in this country (The decision was reached because the Home Office were not following their own guidance). This was published around 2pm on 4^th October. How is it then that two days later the Daily Mail’s front page article offers a story exclaiming “Truth about Tory catfight: Judge DID rule migrant’s pet was a reason he shouldn’t be deported”? It is the capitals that catch the attention. Much like Mrs May’s “and I’m not making this up”, it is almost as if they feel if they emphasise their mistake it will make more people accept it as truth.

Are we to believe that the piece, which actually credits three authors, was a genuine mistake? That not one of the three established journalists picked up on the accurate story? Or is it that they just preferred their story, as it fit into a wider narrative about the Human Rights Act being something with which criminals are somehow able to cheat the system and remain in this country, no doubt in a 6 bedroom council mansion complete with giant flatscreen tv.  The same goes for Mrs May. Did nobody in her camp check the facts? Or is it a case of throwing enough mud and seeing what sticks.

I haven’t the time or the inclination to check every story the tabloids publish, but I’ve followed immigration stories with interest. Here are some recent examples:

“Nigerian rapist who can’t be deported because European judges say it would violate his right to family life” ­This article appeared in on 20^th September 2011. It was an account of Akindoyin Akinshipe, “24, who was due to be sent home after losing appeal after appeal in the British courts over his jailing for an attack on a girl of 13”. While I’m not disputing that a terrible crime took place, the article wilfully misleads the reader, the crime having taken place when Akinshipe was 15. Rape is a serious crime (a crime for which he was punished), but the paper’s take on it adds a paedophilic dimension, creating an image of the individual as a sexual predator. Again, I’m not trivialising the crime, which was extremely serious, but the individual was sentences for his crime and he served his sentence. The newspaper in question or the readership may take issue with the sentence but that is an entirely different debate, and has little to do with Article 8 of the Human Rights Act. As the paper points out, ‘the probation service said there was a low risk of him committing further offences”, and in the time the Home Office took to decide to attempt to deport him “he had obtained three A-levels, and he was about to finish a degree in economics and banking”. Leaving aside the various moral arguments around bankers and economists, this individual had by most accounts turned his life around. That the newspaper should try and hold him up as a poster boy for their campaign against the Human Rights Act is depressing.

On 14^th September 2011, the same paper had a story with the headline “98,000 asylum seekers have been ‘lost’ by bungling immigration workers”. Part way through the article it explains that “Many have been told they must leave but are mounting human rights or other legal challenges to escape deportation.” This is painted in a negative light. It entirely ignores the fact that many of these asylum seekers would not be mounting human rights or other legal challenges to escape deportation if there wasn’t an argument to be made. Many of these people have been here for over a decade, waiting for the Home Office to sort themselves out. A lot have been given permission to work and do so, paying taxes, contributing to society while unable to leave the country until their claim is decided. There is also an entirely separate article to be written about the tabloid’s liberal interchanging of ‘asylum seekers’ , ‘refugees’ and ‘illegal immigrants’. Refugee Council for one offer training on this sort of thing. Suggest one or two editors take them up on it.

“Most migrants on a marriage visa have never visited the UK before”, appeared on 15^th September 2011. This is probably just me, one of those liberal elites that the government have talked about, but I can’t see how this is a problem. I’ve found that generally marriages aren’t about countries, they’re about the two people getting married. Really, this kind of thing should probably be encouraged by these anti-immigration espousers.  I suspect a lot of spouses upon getting here and seeing the kind of headlines spewed out by our most popular newspapers will feel unwelcome and leave again, taking their partner with them, providing more room for the rest of us. It should also be pointed out that there isn’t a requirement in the rules for spouses to have visited here (possibly because it would make courtships unnecessarily expensive), as the Immigration Rules are more focused on important things like ensuring the marriage is genuine and subsisting. In addition the article raises concerns that “many of those coming here to marry or to join partners have little knowledge and understanding of British culture.” I’m 25 years old, have spent most of my life in the UK, and I’m not sure what British culture it is that they’re talking about. Is it the binge drinking culture I read so much of in the same papers? Is it the films or music? I suspect a lot of applicants have heard of Keira Knightley, Ian McKellen and the Beatles. Realistically our best bits are exported, you don’t ever need to have been to this country to enjoy The Office, our cricket team or our cuisine.

On 22^nd February 2011 the same paper produced an article headed “Immigration fears of the young as almost three-quarters say it is a problem.” Is it any wonder that this is the case when the young are fed such irresponsible journalism on such a regular basis.

As we’ve been told by our political leaders countless times, there needs to be a debate about immigration but we cannot have one while so many, the Home Secretary included, are so badly misinformed.

Alex Mik

Somalia’s endangered journalists get a safe Media House

(Alshahid) – In view of the danger that the few bold journalists remaining in war- torn Somalia face, a new media house has been opened in Mogadishu capital of Somalia to provide Somali journalists with a safe place to work, as well as a center for journalism training.

“Opening this media house at this challenging time is a courageous and bold step taken by Somali journalists,” said Yusuf Aynte, a Member of Parliament. “This house will assist them as they continue to devote their services to the country”.

The Executive Director of the media house, Abdulahi Hassan, said during its launch that its purpose was twofold: to provide journalists with a safe working environment and to offer training so as to improve their skills in journalism.

Journalists will have a place to work, to stay and to access state-of -art equipment necessary to conduct their work.

Read full article

A Poet Called Mercy

Thirty One year old Mercy Moige Mecha was born in Kenya to a family of eight where the only two forms of entertainment available to them were reading or occasionally listening to ‘Play of the Week‘ or stories on BBC radio. Her parents brought them books from school libraries of the schools they worked at and due to their insatiable appetites enrolled in the local library.

“That words could create such endless vistas, had me mesmerised for years(even now) and I became addicted to books to such an extent that I was banned from reading in school and my mother even confiscated the library cards so that we could not borrow books. I hid books under my skirts, read under torchlight and with my sister we pilfered books from the local library and picked those that the library threw away,” revealed Mercy.

The story Teller

She began ‘weaving’ stories of her own before she could write and even came up with her own secret language and under the table club where they took turns telling stories with three of her younger siblings.

At eight she took her first creative writing class, which she enjoyed so greatly that when asked what she wanted to be when she grew up, she claimed with pride, ‘An Authoress’.

At fourteen she began to experiment with poetry after reading Lord Alfred Tennyson and that same year she won the language prize for her form.When she was seventeen she wrote her first Novel under lamplight ‘The lady of Flowers’  which when she gave it to her eldest  brother (whom she considered a literary giant) for his appraisal he said it was trash and for years she became a closet writer.

Education

Mercy wanted to study creative writing at the university but was compelled by her parents to do something that would earn her a living. She then pursued a degree in education with majors in English and Literature. She kept on writing all those years.

Work

Mercy taught at two International Schools where she initiated Journalists and writers clubs and produced a journal and school magazine. She developed an interest in children’s literature, writing stories for her class to explicate  what it meant to operate in a creative realm.

Post teaching-writing aspirations

In 2007, Mercy left teaching and her ambition was to join a creative writing course, in the United States as this would give her time to polish her work but this was not to be. So she spent time as a freelance TEFL tutor, fashion consultant cum entrepreneur and freelance writer. She initiated a writing group in Mombasa, initially intended to be a Women’s Writers Forum but ended up being inclusive and later called  ‘Angalau Pwani.

United Kingdom

It was a dream to be a writer that brought Mercy to the UK. She was admitted into the University of East Anglia Creative writing MA( poetry) and left after one month as it was  not meeting what she needed to grow as a writer. She moved to Northampton, where she is part of the Northampton Writers group and on the way to having her short stories and some of her poetry published in their literary journal.

Mercy will in September 2009 be pursuing Writing for Children(MA) at Winchester University.

TraveI

Mercy loves to travel and has travelled all over East Africa and has been to Sweden , Belgium. Her ambition is to travel all over the world.

3MG Media launches Zimbabwe Citizenship Journalism programme

3MG MEDIA has launched Zimbabwe’s first Citizen Journalism programme with immediate effect. The Global trend is that those nations which are democratically challenged like Zimbabwe gain immensely from Citizen Journalism as it provides accurate, unfiltered news .

The initial phase is targeted at Students within Zimbabwe Universities ,Polytechnics and Technical Colleges who are expected to file short but accurate stories regularly. Each participating student will get a monthly allowance of US$ 100 .

Zimbabwe Telegraph will be the central distribution site. The other 3MG Media community newspaper web sites be part of the distribution channel.

These include
www.ZimDaily.com
http://www.zimtelegraph.com
www.harareTribune.com
www.zimTribune.com
www.southafrica2day.com
www.afrikalink.com
www.zimNetRadio.com

The idea behind citizen journalism is to encourage people without professional journalism training to use the tools of modern technology (cell phones, laptops, internet etc) and the global distribution of the Internet to create, augment or fact-check media on their own or in collaboration with others. Recently Zimbabwe had a cholera outbreak in which accurate information was hardly available. Citizen Journalists are expected to play a leading role in uncovering such humanitarian tragedies as and when they occur.

Citizen Journalists will be able to provide first hand and real accounts of the reality on the ground. Additionally, readers can fact-check articles from the mainstream media and point out factual errors or bias  at  www.zimDailyforum.com which are discussion forums. Alternatively a member of the public can witness police brutality and may snap a digital photo and post to Zimdaily for broad casting . Other  newsworthy events happening in local communities such as Mabvuku ,  Budiriro, Mzilikazi or Dangamvura can be informally recorded and  posted online to tell the real Zimbabwe story .

3MG Media is distributing 5 cameras and cell phones to the first members participating in the initial phase. Other members of the public with own equipment are expected to send in news pieces and pictures which will speak thousands of words.

Citizen journalism, is also called public or participatory journalism or democratic journalism, is the act of non-professionals “playing an active role in the process of collecting, reporting, analyzing and disseminating news and information,”.This is exciting particularly for a nation in transition like Zimbabwe. It will give Zimbabweans an opportunity to interact and participate in information and events that shape their daily lives.

3MG MEDIA Citizen Journalism programme will be different from serious investigative Journalism. An investigative journalist may spend a considerable period researching and preparing a report, sometimes months or years, whereas a typical daily or weekly news reporter writes items concerning immediately available news.

Citizen journalists are “the people formerly known as the audience,” who “were on the receiving end of a media system that ran one way, in a broadcasting pattern, with high entry fees and a few firms competing to speak very loudly while the rest of the population listened in isolation from one another. 3MG MEDIA Citizen Journalism will change all this, our readers will become an integral part of our news gathering efforts.

Citizen journalists may be activists within the communities they write about. This has drawn some criticism from traditional media institutions such as, which have accused proponents of public journalism of abandoning the traditional goal of ‘objectivity’.

Many traditional journalists view citizen journalism with some skepticism, believing that only trained journalists can understand the exactitude and ethics involved in reporting news. Citizen Journalism seeks to encourage reader participation there it must be encouraged and nurtured.

Those interested in participating can contact [email protected]

Amnesty International Media Awards winners in full

By Judith Townend|journalism.co.uk

Here are the winners from 02 June 2009 Amnesty International Media Awards; nominees and judges were reported here. The awards, designed to recognise ‘excellence in human rights reporting’, feature ten categories spread across print, broadcast and online journalism.

Gaby Rado Memorial Award
Aleem Maqbool, BBC News

International Television & Radio
World’s Untold Stories:  The Forgotten People, CNN, Dan Rivers and Mary Rogers

Nations & Regions
The Fight for Justice, The Herald Magazine by Lucy Adams

National newspapers
MI5 and the Torture Chambers of Pakistan, The Guardian by Ian Cobain

New media
Kenya: The Cry of Blood – Extra Judicial Killings and Disappearances, Wikileaks, Julian Assange

Periodicals – consumer magazines
The ‘No Place for Children’ campaign, New Statesman, Sir Al Aynsley Green, and Gillian Slovo

Periodicals – newspaper supplements
Why do the Italians Hate Us? The Observer Magazine, Dan McDougall and Robin Hammond

Photojournalism
No One Much Cares, Newsweek, Eugene Richards

Radio
Forgotten: The Central African Republic, BBC Radio 4 – Today Programme, Edward Main, Ceri Thomas, Mike Thomson

Television documentary and docu-drama
Dispatches: Saving Africa’s Witch Children, Channel 4 / Red Rebel Films / Southern Star Factual, Mags Gavan, Joost Van der Valk, Alice Keens-Soper, Paul Woolwich

Television news
Kiwanja Massacre: Congo, Channel 4 News / ITN, Ben De Pear, Jonathan Miller, Stuart Webb and Robert Chamwami

Special award
This year’s Special Award for Journalism Under Threat was awarded to Eynulla Fәtullayev, from Azerbaijan.

Amnesty International Media Awards 2009 shortlist announced

Amnesty International has announced the shortlists for its annual media awards.

The awards, designed to recognise ‘excellence in human rights reporting’, feature ten categories spread across print, broadcast and online journalism.

The final winners for 2009 will be announced on Tuesday June 2, at a ceremony hosted by the broadcaster Mishal Husain at the British Film Institute.

An additional award will also be made on the night: the Amnesty International Special Award for Journalism Under Threat, to be awarded to a foreign journalist.

The shortlists:

Gaby Rado Memorial Award

• Aleem Maqbool, BBC News

• Ramita Navai, Channel 4 / Quicksilver Media / More4 News / ITN

• Thomas Bell, The Daily Telegraph

Judges: Mike Blakemore, Libby Brooks, Andrew Macdonald, Tom Rado, Jon Snow

International Television & Radio

• Assignment: Africa’s Guantánamo, BBC World Service: David Edmonds, Jeremy Skeet, Rob Walker

• Outlook: Dr Abuelaish, BBC World Service: Deiniol Buxton, Gavin Poncia, Simon Tillotson, Lucy Ash

• World’s Untold Stories: The Forgotten People, CNN: Dan Rivers, Mary Rogers

Judges: Anita Anand, Dorothy Byrne, Susanna Flood, Naresh Puri, Tim Singleton

Nations & Regions

• Eòrpa, BBC Scotland: Hedda MacLeod, Catriona MacKinnon, Colin MacLeod, Annie Cheape, Iain Macinnes, Darren Laing, Alasdair Fraser

• The Fight for Justice, The Herald Magazine: Lucy Adams

• Spotlight: Prisoner B2970, BBC Belfast: Darragh MacIntyre, Paul Lindsay, Gwyneth Jones

Judges: Patrick Corrigan, William Crawley, Jenifer Johnston, Tomos Livingstone, Jon Manel

National Newspapers

• Britain’s New Resistance Fighters: How Neighbours are Uniting to Save Asylum Seekers from Deportation, Guardian G2: Rachel Stevenson, Harriet Grant

• Israel’s Rain of Fire on Gaza, The Times: Sheera Frenkel, Michael Evans

• MI5 and the Torture Chambers of Pakistan, the Guardian: Ian Cobain

Judges: Jack Doyle, Sarfraz Manzoor, Maggie Paterson, Alison Philips, Julie Tomlin

New media

• A Day In The Life: Afghanistan, Sky News Online: Alex Crawford, Hugh Westbrook, Stuart Ramsay

• Kenya: The Cry of Blood – Extra Judicial Killings and Disappearances, Wikileaks: Julian Assange

• Kenyan, Burnt Out, Displaced And Forgotten, duckrabbit: Benjamin Chesterton, Dolphine Emali, Yasuyoshi Chiba, Eliza Barclay

Judges: Sara Ashton, Peter Barron, Sunny Hundal, Martha Lane Fox, Danielle Long

Periodicals – consumer magazines

• The ‘No Place for Children’ campaign, New Statesman: Sir Al Aynsley Green, Gillian Slovo

• ‘Crisis In Gaza: The Conflict Within Hamas’ and ‘The Killings, Shootings and Checkpoints are our Children’s Curriculum’, New Statesman: Edward Platt

• Was it like this for the Irish? London Review of Books: Gareth Peirce

Judges: Jeremy Dear, Maggie Paterson, John Mulholland, Anne Penketh, Sigrid Rausing

Periodicals – newspaper supplements

• The Dirty Secrets of Your NHS, Live Magazine (Mail on Sunday): Jonathan Green

• The Hell Of Being An Asylum Seeker, the Observer Magazine: Mark Haddon

• Why do the Italians Hate Us? the Observer Magazine: Dan McDougall
  

Judges: Jeremy Dear, Maggie Paterson, John Mulholland, Anne Penketh, Sigrid Rausing

Photojournalism

• Gaza Aftermath, Associated Press, Lefteris Pitarakis

• No One Much Cares, Newsweek, Eugene Richards

• Disposable People: Contemporary Global Slavery, Foto 8, Jim Goldberg

Judges: Simon Bainbridge, Sophie Batterbury, Camilla Brown, Maggie Paterson, Carlos Reyes-Manzo

Radio

• Forgotten: The Central African Republic, BBC Radio 4 – Today Programme: Edward Main, Ceri Thomas, Mike Thomson

• Gay in JA; The Catch Up, BBC Radio 1 – Newsbeat & 1Xtra News / Somethin’ Else: Joby Waldman, Debbie Ramsay

• Liberia: Children for Sale, BBC Radio 4 - Crossing Continents: Bill Law, Maria Balinska, Nadene Ghouri

Judges: Jane Anderson, Mike Blakemore, Ian Collins, Anna Doble, Alan Johnston

Television documentary and docu-drama

• Panorama: China’s Secret War, BBC: Robin Barnwell, Sandy Smith, Hilary Andersson

• Dispatches: Saving Africa’s Witch Children, Channel 4 / Red Rebel Films / Southern Star Factual: Mags Gavan, Joost Van der Valk, Alice Keens-Soper, Paul Woolwich

• The Shooting of Thomas Hurndall, Channel 4 / TalkbackThames: Barney Reisz, Rowan Joffe

Judges: Mike Blakemore, Clemency Burton-Hill, Cait Fitzsimons, Tim Marshall, Hugh Williamson

Television news

• Ethiopian government accused of downplaying scale of drought, Channel 4 News / ITN: Nick Sturde, Jamal Osman, Jonathan Rugman

• Kiwanja Massacre: Congo, Channel 4 News / ITN: Ben De Pear, Jonathan Miller, Stuart Webb, Robert Chamwami

• What Happened in Jabaliya, BBC News: Christian Fraser, Robbie Wright, Hamada Abu Qammar, Rushdi Abu Alouf, Youssef Shomali

Judges: Mike Blakemore, Krishnan Guru-Murthy, Caroline Hurford, Ben Rayner, Julian Worricker

Source : Journalism.co.uk (Article first published 06 May 2009)

Zimbabwean Journalist Earns Free Speech Award

By Jason Tarr

He was arrested for journalism.

In Zimbabwe, Frank Chikowore sat in an overcrowded jail cell where feces flowed on the floor. He was denied access to his lawyers, his relatives, and even to food. He knows what it is like when government officials in a country that limits freedom of the press are not happy about the stories he writes.

“Upcoming journalists must try to promote the freedom of the press,” Chikowore urged students, many of them aspiring journalists, at Syracuse University last week. “We must be courageous enough because if we bow down to submission, who will say it?”

Chikowore is a freelance journalist in Zimbabwe, a nation in southern Africa where the internationally infamous regime of President Robert Mugabe has sharply limited the freedom of the press. For example, in 2002, Zimbabwean authorities closed down four newspapers after the government passed a law forcing journalists to acquire expensive registration papers from the government. Just three years after the law passed, the government shut down the “Weekly Times” where Chikowore worked as a senior reporter. He now maintains a blog that provides articles and information on Zimbabwean politics.

Protecting Freedom of Speech

Last week, Chikowore was on the campus of Syracuse University to receive a 2009 Tully Center Free Speech Award. Barry Bearak, a reporter for The New York Times who works in Johannesburg, South Africa, is the other recipient of the 2009 award. Bearak was not able to attend. The award, which carries a $2,000 prize and covers travel expenses, is given annually to people whose work represents the importance of free speech.

The center, which works closely with the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications, paid for Chikowore to visit Washington, D.C., where he will take in political sites and the new Newseum.

Chikowore drew a packed house. Students, faculty, and guests sat on the stairwell, on the floor, and stood in the doorway of a packed Syracuse University auditorium to hear him speak. Chikowore told the audience harrowing stories about his personal experiences, stressed the importance of forcing a change in laws to regain freedom of speech, and called student journalists to action.

Many students were stunned by his stories of how the Zimbabwean government has taken away freedom of the press.

“I was kind of shocked to hear that this type of thing still goes on,” said junior Nikita Chinnery, a senior public relations and international relations major from Atlanta, Ga.

The story of one of Chikowore’s incarcerations particularly resonated with students like Chinnery.

Arrested for Journalism

The story started with Chikowore’s arrest on Feb. 15, 2008. Chikowore was covering the Zimbabwean elections and was covering a strike led by the opposition party, Movement for Democratic Change. Government officials pounced on him, he said, taking him into custody for “practicing journalism.”

Officials held him in detention for 17 days, charging him with many different crimes. Eventually, they accused him of 78 counts of attempted murder for a bus fire that had occurred earlier in the day. It was at that point he became “disturbed.” He feared he might go to jail for life, leaving his wife and children without a husband and a father. He was eventually released after the state failed to prosecute him.

He fears for his freedom because he is a journalist.

“The freedom of the press is under siege in Zimbabwe and as journalists we can’t operate freely,” Chikowore said. “Many of us have been arrested. I have lost count of the number of times I have been arrested.”

But, more than anything, Chikowore said, it is the laws of his country that must be changed if conditions are going to improve for journalists and the people of Zimbabwe. He sharply criticized Zimbabwe’s press law, called the Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act. It requires journalists to apply for, and pay for, a government-issued journalism license. The law made it a crime to practice journalism without a license. The cost of these licenses may be as much as $50,000, he said. In a poor nation like Zimbabwe, Chikowore said, that cost severely limits the number of independent voices in the press. Major network news stations like CNN and the BBC are not allowed to have reporters on the ground in Zimbabwe, either.

“The situation in Zimbabwe will never change unless the laws change,” Chikowore said. “My conscience tells me that anyone must be in a position to disseminate information without hindrance.”

Changing laws in Zimbabwe will most likely be up to the sovereign people of his nation, he said. But he stressed it is also important in places like the United States to protect against laws that harm the freedom of the press, and to create international support.

Chikowore uses the Internet as a way to reach people. The blog he writes allows for him to get around some of the Zimbabwean laws and restrictions on the press, he said. He resists the term “blogger” but said he is a media reporter providing access to information. The problem, he said, that he and other Internet journalists in Zimbabwe face is that most Zimbabweans still do not have access to the Internet.

Avoiding Persecution

But Chikowore said it didn’t necessarily matter how many people received the information. It is more important that they have access to it, he said. He urged students and journalists alike to strive for the freedom to publish that information without fear of persecution.

His words served as a call to action for many students, like journalism graduate student Brittni Smallwood of Somerset, N.J.

“He makes me think that when I go out to do journalism, I need to say I am not going to deliver anything but the truth. I’m not going to deliver anything but solid journalism,” Smallwood said. “He makes me think that being a journalist is much more than just the title. It really is a lifestyle.”

Chikowore left students with a piece of advice that he said is one of the keys to working toward freedom of speech.

“We have an important role in society and we have a responsibility to inform people of what is going on around them,” Chikowore said. “So, just get your pen and tell the story.”- ABC News

‘Journalism schools: embrace Al Jazeera’s Creative Commons deal’

By Dave Lee

You might not know it yet, but Al Jazeera may have just changed the face of student journalism.

The news agency has now started publishing its news footage on the web under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 licence.

Those of you who immerse yourselves in Flickr will understand that term very well. Simply put, it means ‘You can do what you like with this, just so long as you tell everyone you got it from us’.

Many – myself included – would describe Creative Commons as the very essence of the internet. It says, ‘I’ve made this because I wanted to’, while inviting others to use it and build something great. The Al Jazeera Network is effectively opening up its newsroom to us all.

The timing couldn’t be more significant: Al Jazeera is, and has been for some time, one of the only mainstream media companies in Gaza. Its news team is right where the action is.

So passing on this content to others for free is remarkably generous given its ‘monopoly’ (for want of a better word) on news from Gaza.

The implications on a wider scale are up for discussion: will other outlets follow suit? What happens if one news company pinches content from another citing Creative Commons?

How will the likes of the BBC – which makes a pretty penny selling its news to BBC Worldwide, the commercial arm – sustain that income if the same, or similar, if reports are being made by companies embracing Creative Commons?

At the moment you couldn’t call it much more than an experiment. A very brave experiment, it has to be said, and Al Jazeera probably has as little knowledge about its potential impact and success as I do.

But what I do know is that journalism tutors the world over should be jumping for joy that Al Jazeera is doing something no other mainstream media company would dare.

What excites me most is the potential for student journalists. Imagine that learning experience: your workshop task being to put together a national bulletin, piecing together your own reportage, and displaying it alongside the world’s top headlines and top-class pictures.

You may have done this in the past with archived clips, but now you can publish the work online without fear of a copyright backlash.

Think of the challenge of dealing with clips of conflict and suffering for a young aspiring news anchor. An ethical lesson that could not be replicated as realistically in any other way.

A journalism tutor I know very well maintains you can never teach ethics in a classroom. Ethics, retrospectively speaking, are easily agreed upon; real ethics are learnt when dilemmas smack you between the eyes, expecting immediate direction from your moral compass – and you must provide one.

A good student journalist on a good course will hopefully encounter these dilemmas on their own reporting adventures. But it won’t always be that way in their careers – sooner or later they’ll be making decisions based on less than enough information.

Exercises using real, professional clips – like those provided by Al Jazeera – will heighten a student’s sense of what is right and will nurture an altogether tougher egg to crack: the knowledge of what isn’t offensive; the skill of observing when enough is enough, but not too much, or even worse, too little.

The clips provided are unedited and raw in every sense of the word. A clip from January 4 carries a haunting description: ‘Dead woman laying beside her two killed children’.

What does Al Jazeera gain from all this? It’s a marketing and brand identity masterstroke. Independent news programmes will lap up this opportunity with open arms, chopping and slicing Al Jazeera’s clips until their hearts’ are content.

While a clip on Al Jazeera television may have once been seen by only a handful of western viewers, when compared with the rolling news juggernauts, its uniquely Middle Eastern brand will now start popping up all over the place – not least on YouTube.

It’s no exaggeration to suggest that this scheme has the potential to make Al Jazeera news the most watched in the world.

But that’s looking to the future. In the present, journalism tutors – I’m pleading with you now – get your students involved with this visionary scheme.

You don’t have to do anything other than visit a simple, fast website, and then give your students a taste of the real world, with all its decisions, morals and pressures.

Take a look at the Creative Commons repository from Al Jazeera here.

Dave Lee is co-editor of the BBC Internet Blog. He is a recent journalism graduate from the University of Lincoln. His own blog on media and technology can be found here.

Source : First published 29/01/09 Journalism.co.uk

‘Journalism in Zimbabwe risky, dangerous’

Journalism in Zimbabwe remains a risky and dangerous operation inviting criminal prosecution except for a privileged few who work for government-owned media, according to the independent Media Monitoring Project of Zimbabwe (MMPZ).

The MMPZ told the ongoing 44th sessions of the African Commission on Human and People’s Rights (ACHPR) that Zimbabwe’s media landscape remains severely restricted despite the Commission’s long standing recommendations to President Robert Mugabe’s government to scrap all restrictions on freedom of expression.

A power-sharing agreement between Mugabe’s ruling ZANU PF party and the opposition MDC – while acknowledging the need for a free and diverse media environment – had done little to improve the situation and was silent on the need to repeal repressive government media laws, the MMPZ said.

“Journalists continue to be harassed, arrested and prosecuted under the country’s repressive media laws . . . in short, journalism in Zimbabwe remains a dangerous and risky occupation, inviting criminal prosecution except for the privileged few,” the MMPZ told the Commission meeting in Abuja, Nigeria.

The MMPZ is an independent Trust that seeks to promote the ideals of freedom of expression and responsible journalistic practice in Zimbabwe. It holds official observer status at the ACHPR.

The group said restrictions on alternative news sources coupled with the closure of the country’s largest privately owned daily newspaper five years ago has “given rise to a media “wasteland” overwhelmingly dominated by government-controlled propaganda outlets.”

Government Information Minister Sikhanyiso Ndlovu was not immediately available for comment on the issues raised by the MMPZ.

Zimbabwe has for a long time been regarded as one of the most difficult and dangerous countries in the world to operate as a journalist, with a raft of regulations and laws designed to stifle dissent and criticism of Mugabe’s government in the face of a deepening political and economic crisis.

For example, under the government’s controversial Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act (AIPPA) journalists are required to register with the government’s Media and Information Commission in order to practise in Zimbabwe.

The media commission can de-register journalists who refuse to toe the line while those caught practicing journalism without being registered are liable to imprisonment under AIPPA.

In addition to requiring journalists to register, the AIPPA also requires newspaper companies to register with the state commission with those failing to do so facing closure and seizure of their equipment by the police.

The Zimbabwean government has used the laws selectively to punish journalists and newspapers seen as critical of official policies.

At least four independent newspapers, including the country’s biggest circulating daily, The Daily News, were shutdown over the past five years for breaching the government’s media laws. Close to 100 journalists were also arrested by the police over the same period.

Mugabe’s government also continues to block access to foreign media seeking to cover the Zimbabwean story, especially those it regards as hostile, such as the BBC, CNN and South Africa’s e-TV.

There are no independent broadcasters in Zimbabwe.

The state-owned Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation (ZBC) runs the country’s only television and radio stations, all tightly controlled by Mugabe’s government, which has the final say on senior editorial and managerial appointments.

Studio 7 – a special news programme on Zimbabwe broadcast by the Voice of America – and two radio stations run by exiled Zimbabwean journalists and broadcasting into the country from foreign territory are Zimbabweans’ only alternatives to ZBC.

However, these do not have the same reach as the ZBC while Mugabe’s government has frequently jammed the foreign-based stations.

In its recommendations to the ACHPR, the MMPZ urged the continental rights watchdog to: “Impress upon the (Zimbabwean) authorities of the need to respect internationally accepted human rights standards, especially those governing freedom of expression.”

The MMPZ also urged any future government of national unity to “embrace the spirit of the power-sharing agreement that envisages a free and diverse media environment by abolishing all those laws abridging freedom of expression and the right to be informed”.

Zimbabweans had hoped that a unity government established under a September 15 power-sharing deal would help ease the political situation and allow the country to focus on tackling an economic crisis marked by the world’s highest inflation rate of 231 million percent, severe shortages of food and basic commodities.

But the power-sharing agreement looks all but dead after the main MDC formation led by Morgan Tsvangirai said last Friday it would not join any new government in the country before outstanding issues in power-sharing talks with Mugabe are resolved. – ZimOnline

Media Policy need reform : Speaker

The Speaker of Zimbabwe’s Parliament Honorable Lovemore Moyo says the incoming inclusive government should deliver on the letter and spirit of the agreement signed by Zanu PF and the two MDC formations in view of the restrictive nature of laws such as the Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act (AIPPA), Public Order and Security Act (POSA) and Broadcasting Services Act (BSA).

Speaking at the National Journalistic and Media Awards (NJAMA) on 26 September 2008 in Harare Honorable Moyo who was the guest of speaker, conceded that parliament had over the years passed various media laws such as AIPPA, POSA and BSA that “have hindered freedom of expression”. “These laws provide for stringent licensing conditions which makes it difficult for new players to come in and very difficult for journalists to operate. As Parliament we stand ready to play our part in the liberalisation of the media in line with the spirit of the agreement among the political parties which seeks to improve the operating environment of the media,” he said.

Agreement

Article XIX (a) of the agreement states: the government shall ensure the immediate processing by the appropriate authorities of all applications for re-registration and registration in terms of both the Broadcasting Services Act as well as the Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act.

Associated Newspapers of Zimbabwe (ANZ) publishers of The Daily News and The Daily News on Sunday have been battling to be granted an operating licence since the banning of their publications in September 2003 by the Media and Information Commission (MIC) in terms of the repressive AIPPA under which The Tribune and The Weekly Times also met with a similar fate.

“It is my hope that the inclusive government will deliver on this commitment and dedicate itself to chieving this goal,” said the Speaker.”Government interference should be discouraged to ensure impartial and accurate reporting, while the media must afford its readers an opportunity to criticise it when necessary.”

Free press

He said only a free press is best placed to afford citizens information on the actions, decisions and performance of those they have elected to represent them as well as holding them accountable. “So the onus is on the media to inform and educate the public on the detail of the agreement and the need to promote national healing.

“The media thus has an enormous responsibility in that regard and can easily be discredited if it becomes a blatant propaganda tool, resorts to selective or partisan reporting.”

Public media

The Speaker said Africa was replete with examples of conflict and instability arising from partisan journalism. He lamented the fact that there were certain sections of the public media that continue to report negatively about the opposition leadership contrary to the spirit and letter of the agreement.

Referring to the media as the glue that holds democracy together, Honorable Moyo said: “It is therefore indisputable that the public media has the public service responsibility of taking a leading role in the healing of our nation.

“It is against this background that I call upon the independent and public media to have a paradigm shift in order to play a positive role in this process.

“This can only come from journalism that digs and probes and questions rather one that accepts moribund ideas that tend to be divisive of our society.

“Ladies and Gentlemen, we stand at the beginning of a new dawn. It is my hope that the media will play its role to ensure that accountability is promoted, transparency ensured and good governance achieved.”

Rashweat Mukundu
Programme Specialist: Media Freedom Monitoring
MISA Regional Secretariat
21 Johann Albrecht Street
Private Bag 13386
Windhoek, Namibia
Tel: + 264 61 232 975
Fax:+264 61 248016
Mobile: 00 264 813 675 362
E mail [email protected], [email protected]

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