Mediamentor Overseas

Imagine a World Without Free Knowledge - I support #wikipediablackout! Show your support here

2012-01-18T01:44:00.001-07:00

I support #wikipediablackout! Show your support here http://tinyurl.com/7vq4o8g

Imagine a World Without Free Knowledge

For over a decade, we have spent millions of hours building the largest encyclopedia in human history. Right now, the U.S. Congress is considering legislation that could fatally damage the free and open Internet. For 24 hours, to raise awareness, we are blacking out Wikipedia. Learn more.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:SOPA_initiative/Learn_more

Journalism in Conflict Zones - Free Webinar

2011-05-14T22:24:00.001-06:00

(May well apply to reporting on Yellowknife's 50th Street!)

A Newspapers Canada webinar next week.

please visit:
https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/370213947

Subject: Journalism in Conflict Zones - Free Webinar

Journalism in Conflict Zones - Free Webinar

Wed, May 18, 2011 12:00 PM - 1:00 PM EST

Cost: Free

Format: Webinar

Length: 30 minutes

Military personnel are highly trained to react in intense situations – but what about the journalists covering the story?

Athabasca University in Alberta has collaborated with the Department of National Defense to create a practicum course for journalism graduates and students interested in learning about reporting from a war zone in a mock-Kandahar site at CFB Wainwright.

The unique course offers participants a one-of-a-kind opportunity to experience simulated conflict zones while receiving mentorship from experienced war correspondents.

Students participate in combat exercises in scenarios that change daily.

The webinar is free to attend and participants are encouraged to ask questions following the presentation.

Sponsored by Newspapers Canada
REGISTER
https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/370213947

----------
MISSED A WEBINAR? Need some inspiration?
Download recordings of past webinars and view at your leisure.

https://www.cna-acj.ca/cart/cart.php?m=product_detail&p=19
https://newspaperscanada.ca/cart/cart.php?m=product_list&c=3
VIEW WEBINAR ARCHIVES

QUESTIONS? Email <mailto:info@newspaperscanada.ca>info@newspaperscanada.ca
http://www.newspaperscanada.ca

Facebook moving to China?

2011-04-09T15:15:00.001-06:00

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Rebecca MacKinnon <rebecca.mackinnonATgmail.com>
Date: 9 April 2011 06:17
Subject: [chineseinternetresearch] Facebook moving to China?
To: chineseinternetresearch <chineseinternetresearch@yahoogroups.com>, "oni@eon.law.harvard.edu Initiative" <oni@eon.law.harvard.edu>, liberationtech <liberationtech@lists.stanford.edu>

http://mashable.com/2011/04/08/facebook-china-4/
Is Facebook Moving Into China?
[REPORT]<http://mashable.com/2011/04/08/facebook-china-4/>
15 hours ago by Charlie White
<http://mashable.com/author/charlie-white/>
14<http://mashable.com/2011/04/08/facebook-china-4/#disqus_thread>

According to the latest crop of rumors,
Facebook<http://mashable.com/category/facebook>is about to make a deal
that will bring it into the vast Chinese market.

Though such rumors have been circulating since
2007<http://mashable.com/2007/10/31/facebook-china/>,
the information is presently coming from numerous credible industry sources.

But don't expect to friend anyone in China. Keeping with the country's
closed nature, any new Facebook social network in China wouldn't be linked
with the rest of the site.

According to *TechRice<http://techrice.com/2011/04/09/blockbuster-rumor-facebook-partners-with-baidu-to-enter-china/>
*, Facebook will be partnering with
Baidu<http://mashable.com/follow/topics/baidu/?page=1>,
the largest search engine in China, valued at $50 billion. That's if Hu
Yanping, founder of the Beijing-based Data Center of the China Internet (
DCCI <http://www.dcci.com.cn/>), tweets the truth. He says Facebook has
already signed an official contract with Baidu to create a new social
network in China.

Marbridge Consulting<http://www.marbridgeconsulting.com/marbridgedaily/2011-04-08/article/45061/rumor_baidu_facebook_ally_to_launch_sns_in_china>has
also heard from multiple industry sources, which say Facebook will be
working with Baidu on the new China site, bolstered by rumors that Baidu
visited Facebook in February.

So we have tweets on top of rumors on top of blog posts. The preponderance
of evidence is that Facebook has something going on in China. But given that
China wants to prevent the kind of revolutionary fervor reaching a fever
pitch in the Middle East and Northern Africa lately, any version of Facebook
in China will likely be tightly regulated and censored.

Could this end up being like that pale imitation of
Twitter<http://mashable.com/2010/12/15/chinas-communist-twitter/>we
saw sprouting up in China late last year? And will China's penchant
for
censorship mean a Chinese version of Facebook is doomed to die? Let us know
what you think in the comments.

--
Rebecca MacKinnon
Schwartz Senior Fellow, New America Foundation
Co-founder, GlobalVoicesOnline.org
Cell: +1-617-939-3493
E-mail: rebecca.mackinnonATgmail.com
Blog: RConversation.blogs.com
Twitter: @rmack <http://twitter.com/rmack>
Facebook: facebook.com/rmackinnon

[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

------------------------------------

Via

<*> To visit your group on the web, go to:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/chineseinternetresearch/

Columbia Journalism Review: Chinas Chess Match - How the web has empowered the people

2010-11-16T16:55:00.001-07:00

Feature — November / December 2010
China's Chess Match - How the web has empowered the people
Columbia Journalism Review
By Howard French

http://www.cjr.org/feature/chinas_chess_match.php

[excerpt]

Early in 2003, like millions of other migrants of his generation, Sun
Zhigang, a young graphic designer, left central China, where he had
attended university, and headed for the country's booming industrial
Southeast. His quest: work, and with luck, fortune.

When he entered an Internet café one evening, shortly after his arrival in
Guangzhou, he was stopped by police who demanded to see his ID, which he
had left behind in his nearby apartment. It was a costly mistake. The
police had just launched a large-scale dragnet of illegal migrants, and as
was common at the time for people without papers, he was promptly hauled
off to detention.

Three days later, Sun Zhigang's family was informed of his death, which
the police claimed had been caused by a heart attack. But the Southern
Metropolis Daily, a local tabloid that was just establishing itself as a
powerful crusading force in the country's news landscape, would not let
the story end there. A few weeks later, it ran a two-page spread that put
a far more sinister spin on the incident. Citing a confidential autopsy
report, its bold headline read: UNIVERSITY GRADUATE, 27, SUDDENLY DIES
THREE DAYS AFTER DETENTION ON GUANGZHOU STREET.

Word of Sun's death spread rapidly, so rapidly that what ensued was
without precedent in China. Within two hours of the newspaper hitting the
street, thousands of people from around the country had posted angry
commentary on Sina.com, China's largest news portal. What would quickly
become known nationwide as the "Sun Zhigang case" had begun to go viral.

After its initial scoop, the Southern Metropolis Daily was banned from
reporting further on the incident, but old-fashioned censorship measures
like this would prove too little, too late. Online discussion of the case
was already mushrooming, and so was the scope of debate, which began with
calls for justice in one particular tragedy but quickly led to far broader
demands for legal reforms to put an end to the arbitrary detentions and
other abuses routinely suffered by hundreds of thousands of migrant
laborers.

In June, with the Sun Zhigang case still the talk of the Internet, Chinese
premier Wen Jiabao announced an end to regulations that police had used
for two decades to summarily detain paperless migrants in hundreds of
detention centers, which were maintained around the country solely for
this purpose.

Beijing has never acknowledged the public fury and Internet mobilization
around the Sun Zhigang case as the driver of this major reform, but for
most of China's Internet-savvy public, the connection was unmistakable.

Looking back, China's Internet era could well be said to have begun with
this case. Not literally, of course, since China had been online already
for several years. But the outcry over Sun Zhigang's death is widely seen
in China nonetheless as the opening act in the age of the "netizen."

New style 2010 Northwest Territories license plate #NWT

2010-09-02T15:51:00.001-06:00

New style 2010 Northwest Territories license plate
Originally uploaded by The MediaMentor 

My new style 2010 Northwest Territories license plate
©2010 George Lessard

RSF - CHINA - Private-sector companies in battle with journalists over information

2010-08-26T13:01:00.001-06:00

Reporters Sans Frontières - CHINA - Private-sector companies in battle
with journalists over information
http://ow.ly/2vlrp

RSF - Entreprises vs. Journalistes : la bataille de l'information
http://ow.ly/2vlye
graves pour la liberté de la presse en Chine

Reporters Without Borders/Reporters sans frontières

26 August 2010

CHINA
Private-sector companies in battle with journalists over information

Chinese journalists and media are increasingly finding themselves the
targets of threats and censorship by private-sector companies (and some
state companies as well). Several cases with serious implications for
press freedom in China have illustrated this privatisation of censorship
and violence against journalists in the past few weeks. The phenomenon is
not new, but it is tending to grow in an alarming manner.

In one case, two journalists had a run-in with the police for writing a
story about a biotech company. In another case, a respected Beijing
journalist was physically attacked a few weeks ago after several articles
about doctors and health sector entrepreneurs had a big impact.

Reporters Without Borders condemns the way certain companies harass
journalists. Often accused of corrupting local media, many Chinese
companies are nowadays using their influence over the authorities
(including the police and Propaganda Department) to avoid negative
coverage. Paradoxically, this is taking place at a time when the Chinese
public is taking more interest in consumer rights and the quality of goods
and services.

"We urge the government to take energetic measures to protect Chinese
journalists who sometimes put their lives in danger to cover these
companies," Reporters Without Borders said. "We welcome the statement that
the General Administration of Press and Publication (GAPP) issued on 30
July expressing its support for journalists. It is time the authorities
investigated all these cases thoroughly."

Reporters Without Borders has gathered information about all the main
press freedom cases involving Chinese companies.

One of the latest was the interrogation of journalist Liu Hongchang on 9
August by police, over an article he wrote together with a colleague, A
Liang, about the internal problems of Hanlin, a Laiyang-based company
based in Laiyang, in the eastern province of Shandong, and its ambitions
to become a biotech giant. The article was posted on the Qianlong.com
website, which was ordered to withdraw it after the Laiyang Propaganda
Bureau alerted the authorities in Beijing.

The police who interrogated Liu Hongchang questioned him above all about
his sources and the bribes they suspected he and A Liang were given to
write the article. A Liang was not interrogated because he was absent from
Beijing at the time. The police threatened to issue a warrant for his
arrest if he did not respond to the summons. Several Chinese journalists
have publicly expressed their support for Liu Hongchang and A Liang and
accused the police of violating press freedom.

Dangerous for health, dangerous for journalists

Reporters Without Borders reiterates its call for an exhaustive
investigation into an assault on Fang Xuanchang, a science reporter for
the magazine Caijing, as he was returning home on 24 June in Beijing.
Beaten over the head and back with a steel bar by two unidentified
assailants, Fang had to be rushed to hospital. Until now, the police have
conducted no more than desultory enquiries into what appears to have been
a murder attempt.

Fang told the US magazine Foreign Policy (www.foreignpolicy.com) that his
mysterious assailants clearly tried to kill him. But who tried to kill him
and why? Fang does not know the identity or motives of his attackers but
he has some theories. He thinks for example that they might have been
hired by a doctor he criticised in one of his articles. Fang has written
about medical charlatans, fake discoveries and the questionable practices
of several small health-sector companies.

There are other possible motives for the attack. Fang exposed the presence
of genetically-modified cereals in China. In a TV programme, he challenged
a scientist's claim to be able to predict earthquakes. And he exposed a
doctor who claimed to have found a miracle cure to cancer.

In another case, on 13 August, the Propaganda Department imposed
censorship on reports about Synutra, a brand of milk-powder produced by a
company based in the northeastern city of Qingdao. Several media reports
had blamed the powder for hormonal problems in young girls. The health
ministry issued a denial on 12 August, claiming that the powder had been
analysed by nine experts and that no link with the hormonal problems had
been established. Thereafter the media were told they could only use the
official news agency Xinhua's dispatches on subject.

Meiri Jingji Xinwen (National Business Daily), a newspaper based in
Shanghai, has also paid the price for questioning a product's quality. A
Hong Kong-based newspaper claimed in June that Bawang, a famous herbal
shampoo endorsed by film star Jackie Chang in ads, contained a very high
level of a carcinogen called dioxane. After Meiri Jingji Xinwen reported
these allegations, four people from the Bawang company stormed into its
offices on 30 July and threatened the editor and staff.

In May this year, Bao Yueyang was moved from his job as editor of the
newspaper Zhongguo Jingji Shibao (China Economic Times) to another post
within the Development Publishing Company as a result of his coverage of
allegations about contaminated vaccines in Shanxi province. It had been a
big story in the Chinese press since March until the authorities
restricted reporting on Chinese websites and ordered the traditional media
to just use Xinhua's dispatches. Bao, who refused to comment on his
demotion, had a reputation for encouraging his reporters to investigate
sensitive issues.

Censorship favouring companies

Here are some other recent cases in which the authorities have protected
companies and businessmen at the expense of media freedom:

Tang Jun's spurious doctorate claim
The Propaganda Bureau in Beijing banned the media on 12 July from
repeating allegations that Tang Jun, one of the former CEO of Microsoft's
operations in China, had not obtained the US university doctorate listed
in his résumé. The allegations caused a major stir online and led
journalists to check the authenticity of the diplomas claimed by other
prominent Chinese figures.

The magazine Business Watch and the state power company Grid Corp
The magazine Business Watch was suspended for a month in early May over an
article it had published in March about the state power company Grid Corp.
The authorities did not like the magazine's user of internal company
documents for the story.

Explosion in a Nanjing factory
When there was an explosion at a Nanjing factory with a toll of 300
injured and 10 missing on 28 July, a Jiangsu TV crew went there and began
broadcasting reports until an official intervened and told them to stop,
threatening them with "serious problems" if they did not. The footage that
had already been broadcast was then removed from the Internet.

Attack on Zhongguo Shibao reporter
When Chen Xiaoying, a reporter for the newspaper Zhongguo Shibao (China
Times), arrived at the place in Shenzhen where she was supposed to meet an
anonymous source on 29 July, a man punched her hard in the face several
times. She had gone there because she had been told she would be given
information about the Shenzhen International Enterprise Co., a company she
had already written about on 8 July. Chen thinks the attack was linked to
that story, in which she suggested that the company's CEO was involved in
illegal activity. The CEO had told her after its publication that: "This
kind of story will not be good for you." The company denied any role in
the assault.

Exemplary support for Qiu Ziming

Cases of this kind can sometimes have a happy ending. Economic Observer
reporter Qiu Ziming went into hiding in July after being placed on a list
of most wanted criminals by the police in the eastern province of
Zhejiang, for allegedly defaming Kan Specialties Material Corporation, a
Suichang-based company that is one of China's biggest battery
manufacturers. The Zhejiang authorities finally rescinded the warrant for
his arrest on 29 July after he won a great deal of support online thanks
to his blog, in which he said he stood by the allegations of improper
practices that he had levelled against the company.

These cases show that more and more journalists are testing the limits of
press freedom in China. But, with increasing frequency, they are running
up against solid resistance from the government and both state and
private-sector companies.

---------------

CHINE

Entreprises vs. Journalistes : la bataille de l'information

Journalistes et médias doivent affronter de plus en plus fréquemment les
menaces et la censure des entreprises privées et d'Etat. Cette
privatisation de la violence et de la censure contre les journalistes
s'est illustrée au cours des dernières semaines par des affaires graves
pour la liberté de la presse en Chine. Tout récemment, deux journalistes
ont eu mailles à partir avec la police pour avoir publié une enquête sur
une entreprise de biotechnologie. Par ailleurs, un journaliste réputé de
Pékin a été sévèrement agressé, il y a quelques semaines, après plusieurs
reportages retentissants sur des entrepreneurs du secteur de la santé. Ce
phénomène n'est pas nouveau, mais il tend à s'accélérer dangereusement.

Reporters sans frontières dénonce ce harcèlement de certaines entreprises
à l'encontre des journalistes qui les dérangent. Régulièrement accusées de
corrompre les médias locaux, de nombreuses sociétés chinoises utilisent
aujourd'hui leur influence sur les autorités (police et Département de la
propagande) pour éviter les reportages négatifs. Paradoxalement, ce
phénomène va de pair avec un souci croissant des Chinois pour le droit des
consommateurs et la qualité des produits et des services.

Nous appelons les autorités de Pékin à prendre des mesures énergiques pour
mieux protéger les journalistes chinois qui se mettent parfois en danger
de mort pour enquêter sur ces entreprises. L'organisation note avec
satisfaction le communiqué de la General Administration of Press and
Publication (GAPP), en date du 30 juillet, qui apporte son soutien aux
professionnels de l'information. Il est temps que les autorités se
saisissent de toutes ces affaires.

Reporters sans frontières a recensé et enquêté sur les principales
affaires de liberté de la presse impliquant des entreprises chinoises.

Dernière en date, l'interpellation de Liu Hongchang, qui avait publié, en
association avec son confrère A Liang, une enquête sur une entreprise de
biotechnologie. Le 9 août, Liu Hongchang a été interpellé par la police
de Laiyang pour avoir divulgué des informations sur l'entreprise de
biotechnologie Hanlin, basée dans cette ville de la province du Shandong
(Est). Le rapport des deux journalistes révélait les ambitions du groupe
de devenir un "géant" du secteur, ainsi que des problèmes internes. Ce
rapport a été publié sur le site internet qianlong.com, ensuite contraint
de le retirer, sur ordre des autorités locales.

En effet, le Bureau de la propagande de Laiyang a alerté les autorités de
Pékin. Lors de l'interrogatoire de Liu Hongchang, les questions se sont
focalisées sur ses sources, et d'éventuels pots-de-vin qui auraient
poussé les journalistes à écrire ce rapport. A Liang, quant à lui, n'a
pas encore été interrogé, car il était absent de Pékin. La police a
menacé de lancer un mandat d'arrêt s'il ne se présentait pas de lui-même
à la convocation.

Plusieurs journalistes ont exprimé publiquement leur soutien à Liu
Hongchang et A Liang, considérant que les procédés de la police violent la
liberté de la presse.

Dangereux pour la santé, dangereux pour les journalistes

Reporters sans frontières réitère sa demande aux autorités de mener une
enquête exhaustive sur l'agression, le 24 juin dernier, à Pékin, de Fang
Xuanchang, journaliste scientifique du magazine Caijing. Alors qu'il
rentrait à son domicile, le journaliste a été violemment agressé, frappé
notamment à la tête et au dos à coups de barre de fer et a dû être
hospitalisé d'urgence. A ce jour, la police n'a pas mené d'enquête
exhaustive sur cette tentative d'assassinat.

"Ils ont essayé de me tuer", a déclaré Fang Xuanchang au journal en ligne
www.foreignpolicy.com en parlant de ses deux mystérieux assaillants. Mais
qui a essayé de tuer Fang Xuanchang et pour quelles raisons ? Le
journaliste explique ne pas connaître l'identité ni le motif de ses
assaillants, cependant il émet des hypothèses : ces hommes pourraient
avoir été engagés par un médecin qu'il avait dénoncé dans un de ses
articles. En effet, Fang Xuanchang s'intéresse au charlatanisme,
inventions mensongères, et autres incompétences scientifiques qui se
multiplient dans les milieux médicaux. Il a publié plusieurs enquêtes sur
des petites entreprises du secteur de la santé aux pratiques douteuses.

Autres hypothèses pour expliquer cette agression : il avait révélé la
présence de céréales génétiquement modifiées en Chine ; réfuté, dans une
émission télévisée, la thèse d'un scientifique qui affirmait pouvoir
prédire les séismes ; ou encore dénoncé l'abus de confiance d'un médecin
qui prétendait avoir trouvé un remède miracle contre les cancers.

Autre cas de censure imposé par le Département de la propagande est celui
datant du 13 août, qui concerne la diffusion d'informations sur le lait en
poudre de la marque Synutra produit par une compagnie basée à Qingdao
(Est). Plusieurs articles de presse avaient dénoncé le fait que ce lait
serait la cause de dérèglements hormonaux chez des fillettes. Après que le
ministère chinois de la Santé a démenti les informations le 12 août en
affirmant que le lait en poudre avait été analysé par neuf experts et
qu'aucun lien avec ces dérèglements hormonaux n'avait pu être prouvé, les
autorités ont imposé aux médias de n'utiliser que les dépêches de l'agence
officielle Xinhua sur cette affaire.

Autre média à faire les frais d'un article sur la mauvaise qualité d'un
produit est le Meiri Jingji Xinwen (National Business Daily) publié à
Shanghai. En juin, un journal de Hongkong dénonçait la présence de
substances chimiques cancérigènes dans un célèbre shampooing de la marque
Bawang. Ce shampooing aux plantes médicinales qui rendrait les cheveux
encore plus brillants, comme l'affirme la star de cinéma Jackie Chan dans
une publicité, contiendrait un taux très élevé de dioxane, un agent
cancérigène.

L'information a été reprise par le Meiri Jingji Xinwen, mais le 30
juillet, quatre personnes de l'entreprise Bawang ont fait irruption dans
les bureaux du journal pour menacer le personnel et particulièrement le
rédacteur en chef.

Des enquêtes sur les vaccins contaminés dans la province du Shanxi ont
également valu à Bao Yueyang, rédacteur en chef du journal Zhongguo Jingji
Shibao (China Economic Times), d'être écarté de son poste pour être
transféré à une autre fonction au sein de la Development Publishing
Company. Cette affaire de vaccins a fait grand bruit depuis mars 2010 dans
la presse chinoise. Le gouvernement avait restreint la publication
d'informations sur ce scandale sur les sites chinois, et les médias
traditionnels avaient été priés de se limiter aux dépêches de l'agence
officielle Xinhua.

Bao Yueyang est connu pour avoir incité ses journalistes à enquêter sur
des sujets sensibles. Il a refusé de commenter la sanction prise à son
encontre.

Censure favorable aux entreprises

D'autres affaires récentes révèlent comment les autorités ont couvert les
entreprises au détriment de la liberté d'informer.

L'affaire du faux diplôme doctoral de Tang Jun

Le 12 juillet, le Bureau central de la propagande a interdit aux médias de
reprendre l'information selon laquelle l'un des anciens présidents de
Microsoft en Chine, Tang Jun, était impliqué dans une affaire de
falsification de diplôme académique américain. L'affaire faisait grand
bruit sur le Web, et avait poussé des journalistes à faire des recherches
sur l'authenticité des diplômes de certaines personnalités chinoises.

Le magazine Business Watch et l'entreprise d'électricité d'Etat Grid Corp

Début mai, le magazine Business Watch a été suspendu pendant un mois suite
à une enquête datée de mars sur l'entreprise d'électricité d'Etat Grid
Corp. Les autorités n'auraient pas apprécié que le journaliste utilise des
documents internes.
L'explosion d'une usine à Nanjing
Le 28 juillet, à Nanjing, une usine a explosé faisant trois cents blessés
et dix disparus. Une équipe de la chaîne Jiangsu TV s'est rendue sur les
lieux et a diffusé des images dans la foulée. Mais un fonctionnaire a
empêché les reporters de continuer de prendre des images de l'usine, les
menaçant de "sérieux problèmes". Les images ont ensuite été retirées du
Web.
Agression d'un journaliste du Zhongguo Shibao

A Shenzhen, le 29 juillet, Chen Xiaoying, du journal Zhongguo Shibao
(China Times), a reçu plusieurs violents coups de poing au visage alors
qu'elle arrivait sur les lieux d'un rendez-vous avec une source anonyme, à
Shenzhen. Cet inconnu lui avait affirmé qu'il pourrait lui révéler des
informations sur l'entreprise Shenzhen International Enterprise Co. La
journaliste pense que l'attaque a un lien avec son article publié le 8
juillet, qui présumait que le directeur de cette compagnie était impliqué
dans des activités illégales. Le directeur l'avait menacé auparavant : "Ce
genre de publication ne t'apportera rien de bon." Après l'agression, des
responsables de l'entreprise ont nié toute implication dans cet incident.

L'affaire exemplaire de Qiu Ziming

Certains cas similaires peuvent avoir un dénouement heureux, comme en
témoigne l'affaire très médiatisée de Qiu Ziming. Journaliste de The
Economic Observer, il a été contraint, en juillet, de se cacher après
avoir été placé sur la liste des criminels les plus recherchés par les
autorités de police de Suichang, province du Zhejiang (Est). Il était
accusé de "diffamation" pour avoir dénoncé les mauvaises pratiques d'un
important producteur de batteries, Kan Specialties Material Corporation.
Le 29 juillet, les autorités du Zhejiang sont revenues sur ce mandat
d'arrêt, après que le journaliste avait gagné le soutien massif des
internautes grâce à son blog. Pendant sa cavale, il affirmait être
innocent.

Ces différentes affaires démontrent que de plus en plus de journalistes
testent les limites de la liberté de la presse en Chine. Mais ils se
heurtent encore trop souvent à un bloc toujours plus soudé, celui du
gouvernement et des entreprises aussi bien étatiques que privées.

Vincent Brossel
Asia-Pacific Desk
Reporters Without Borders
33 1 44 83 84 70
asia@rsf.org

The Creative-Radio e-mail list is now on Twitter

2010-07-19T03:39:00.001-06:00

RT @creative_radio: The Creative-Radio e-mail list
http://ow.ly/2dgHN
is now on Twitter
@creative_radio
Community Radio from around the world to the world

http://twitter.com/creative_radio

Creative-Radio is a worldwide text only community radio LPFM e-mail forum
and online archive http://groups.yahoo.com/group/creative-radio for people
active or interested in using radio creatively in international
development, public health and related fields. Creative Radio tries to
bridge the gap between journalism and humanitarian, post-conflict and
development activities. The Creative Radio list uses this unique position
to help develop strategies to make the best use of the mass media, at a
time when radio's role is recognized widely as key in the fight against
illiteracy, poverty and disease.

Group Information

* Members: 782
* Category: Radio
* Founded: Oct 3, 1998
* Number of messages posted since founding: 11881

Call for Stories - Media Reporting on Development

2010-06-10T08:03:00.000-06:00

---------- Forwarded message ----------

From: DB Click: Media Development <mediadev@comminit.com>
Date: 9 June 2010 14:16
Subject: Call for Stories - Media Reporting on Development

AWARDS: MEDIA REPORTING ON DEVELOPMENT
Provocative and Original Stories

[To view this announcement online, please see http://www.comminit.com/en/node/318253/2754 or go directly to http://groups.comminit.com/node/318017 ]

The Institute of Development Studies (IDS - http://www.comminit.com/redirect.cgi?m=43aa03f46cdfe63f5184b31300f6ff68) invites entries for their first awards for reporting on international development, soliciting compelling alternative narratives and critiques and encouraging discussion on development issues and processes. Journalists from around the world are requested to submit their best articles, news pieces, critiques, and editorials that focus on poverty alleviation, democracy and governance, rights, health, and other Millennium Development Goals.

There will be 3 awards: one of UKP 500, and two of UKP 250.

Deadline for submission of articles is July 9th 2010.

In order to participate either by submitting a story or commenting on stories submitted by others, please go to The Communication Initiative's Development Networks Group "Awards: Media Reporting on Development" (http://groups.comminit.com/node/318017).

APPLICATION INFORMATION

Journalists must register and join The Communication Initiative's Development Networks Group "Awards: Media Reporting on Development" (http://groups.comminit.com/node/318017) in order to participate in this awards process.

Submissions will be open for comments/critique by other members of the "Awards: Media Reporting on Development" Group (http://groups.comminit.com/node/318017).

Submissions will be judged and selected for prizes by a group of IDS research fellows, board members, and communication staff.

Criteria:

1. TYPE: The article submitted must have been published in some print or online media form (newspaper, journal, magazine, etc.) in the period from Jan 1 2009 through May 30 2010.
2. CONTENT: The article must have a focus on a recognisable development issue (e.g., poverty, health, rights) or a recognisable development process (e.g., participation, advocacy, policy development, system strengthening).
3. PERSPECTIVE: There should be a prominent focus within the piece on the voices of those most affected and/or those engaged in the development process or issue that is the focus of the piece. The piece will also be judged based on originality of perspective.
4. RELEVANCE: The piece must show the ability to locate the specific development issue or process being reported within overall national or global development dynamics.
5. REPORTAGE: There must be a high standard of journalism demonstrated within the piece.
6. QUALITY: The writing must be of a high standard.

Process:

Beginning June 9th 2010, journalists will be Invited to join the Communication Initiative's Development Networks Group "Awards: Reporting on International Development" (http://groups.comminit.com/node/318017) and to submit the stories that they wish to have assessed.

Between June 9th and July 9th 2010, journalists can Submit their work as Posts to the Group, with brief outlines in the posts themselves and their stories attached as PDFs or links to online versions of the full stories.

During this time, other members of the Group will be able to Comment on these stories - in order to both inform the judges' deliberations and encourage a process of mutual support and guidance.

The Decisions on the award winners will be made by the IDS-convened judges group between July 10th and July 16th 2010.

The winners will be announced on or just after July 19th 2010.

The Top 10 outstanding stories will be featured within The Communication Initiative process after the awards are announced.

For more information, contact:
Deborah Heimann
The Communication Initiative
http://www.comminit.com
dheimann@comminit.com

CHINA: Propaganda Department sets rule for covering Shanghai Expo and Qinghai earthquake (Eng+Fr)

2010-04-29T07:07:00.001-06:00

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: RSF ASIA <asie@rsf.org>
Date: 2010/4/29
Subject: [rsfasie] CHINA: Propaganda Department sets rule for covering Shanghai Expo and Qinghai earthquake (Eng+Fr)
To: RSF ASIA <asie@rsf.org>

Reporters Without Borders/Reporters sans frontières

29 April 2010

Français : http://fr.rsf.org/chine-censure-expo-shanghai-tremblement-de-terre-qinghai-29-04-2010,37230.html

English: http://en.rsf.org/china-shanghai-expo-earthquake-qinghai-censorship-29-04-2010,37231.html

CHINA

Propaganda Department sets rule for covering Shanghai Expo and Qinghai earthquake

The Propaganda Department and the government Information Office have imposed strict rules for coverage of the Shanghai World Expo that begins this weekend and the 14 April earthquake in the Tibetan province of Qinghai.

In a 23 April directive, the Propaganda Department asked the Chinese media to wait until after tomorrow's opening ceremony to run articles about the exhibition's best pavilions and advised them to use the official news agency Xinhua's reports about the content of the pavilions.

Reporters Without Borders has been told that another directive from the Propaganda Department on 25 April asked the media to reduce their coverage of the consequences of the Qinghai earthquake and increase the number of reports and features about the Shanghai exhibition.

According to the information obtained by Reporters Without Borders, the Propaganda Department has set the following rules for covering the earthquake: Talk of the earthquake in "scientific terms" ; Do not criticise the earthquake forecasting agency ; Do not focus too much on the efforts by Buddhist monks to help the victims ; and Give extensive coverage to the appeals for donations organised by state-owned CCTV.

"The Propaganda Department's attitude is incredibly paternalistic and conservative," Reporters Without Borders said. "We call for an end to censorship of the consequences of the Qinghai earthquake and for the release of the Tibetan writer who was arrested last week because of the comments he made."

It was to denounce this kind of censorship and repression that Reporters Without Borders has launched for the Shanghai Expo a virtual Garden of Freedoms on its website at http://en.rsf.org/shanghai_en.html

The Chinese authorities are also preventing the Hong Kong-based newspaper Apple Daily from going to Shanghai to cover the exhibition. In 2008, the authorities initially refused to give the newspaper permission to cover the Beijing Olympic Games before finally relenting.

The Information Office, whose responsibilities include monitoring the Internet, has reminded major news websites that they can not do their own reporting. As regards the earthquake, the government has ordered sites managers to make sure that reports contain no mention of the Dalai Lama and the solidarity campaigns organised by Tibetans.

The government has also told the main websites to provide only limited coverage of the leadership changes in Xinjiang province and to prevent any comments on subjects linked to the conflict under way there.

These directives have coincided with the arrest of Tibetan writer and scholar Tagyal, who is better known by the pen-name of Shogdung, for signing an open letter about the earthquake. Local police in Xining, in the western province of Qinghai, arrested him during a search of the offices of the Qinghai Nationalities publishing house on 23 April. The police also seized computers from his home that evening. His wife said they later came back to give her a copy of the order for his arrest.

Signed by Tagyal and other Tibetan intellectuals and released on 17 April, the open letter offered condolences to the families of the victims and criticised certain aspects of the Chinese government's handling of the relief efforts. The authorities had prevented Tagyal from visiting the quake-hit areas.

The authorities meanwhile also jammed a special programme of condolences broadcast by Voice of Tibet, an independent radio station based abroad.

Finally, Zhu Di, the editor of the opinion pages of Nanfang Dushi Bao (Southern Metropolitan), a daily based in the southern province of Guangdong, was suspended on 17 April for allowing the publication of an opinion piece six days earlier that was entitled "Loving one's country does not mean loving one's government." Her suspension was ordered by the province's governor.

---------

CHINE

Le Département de la propagande impose des règles pour couvrir l'Expo Shanghai et le tremblement de terre

Le Département de la propagande et le Bureau de l'information du gouvernement ont imposé des règles strictes dans la couverture de l'Exposition universelle qui va s'ouvrir à Shanghai et du tremblement de terre du Qinghai. Dans une directive du 23 avril 2010 dont Reporters sans frontières a eu connaissance, le Département de la propagande a demandé aux médias chinois d'attendre après la cérémonie d'ouverture pour publier des articles sur les meilleurs pavillons de l'Expo. Il est conseillé aux médias d'utiliser les informations de l'agence officielle Xinhua sur le contenu des pavillons.

Reporters sans frontières a été informée que dans une autre directive datée du 25 avril, le Département de la propagande a demandé aux médias de réduire la couverture des conséquences du tremblement de terre dans la province tibétaine du Qinghai. Il a été conseillé aux médias de multiplier leurs articles sur l'Expo Shanghai. "L'attitude paternaliste et conservatrice du département de la Propagande est consternante. Nous demandons la levée de la censure sur les conséquences du tremblement de terre au Qinghai et la libération de l'écrivain tibétain qui y a été arrêté pour ses commentaires", a affirmé l'organisation.

C'est pour dénoncer cette censure et cette répression que Reporters sans frontières a lancé le Jardin des Libertés sur son site : http://fr.rsf.org/shanghai.html

Selon les informations de Reporters sans frontières, le Département de la propagande a précisé les règles pour la couverture du tremblement de terre : parler du séisme en "termes scientifiques" ; ne pas critiquer l'administration en charge de la prévision des tremblements de terre ; ne pas trop se concentrer sur les efforts des moins bouddhistes pour aider les victimes et ; couvrir largement les appels aux dons organisés par la chaîne officielle CCTV.

Par ailleurs, les autorités chinoises empêchent les reporters du quotidien Apple Daily de Hong Kong de se rendre à Shanghai pour couvrir l'Expo. Déjà, en 2008, les autorités avaient refusé d'accorder des autorisations à ce média pour les JO de Pékin, avant de changer de décision.

De son côté, le Bureau d'information du gouvernement, notamment chargé du contrôle de l'Internet, a rappelé aux sites d'informations qu'ils ne devaient pas produire leurs propres reportages. A propos du tremblement de terre, le gouvernement a ordonné aux responsables des sites d'être vigilants pour que n'apparaisse aucune information liée au dalaï lama (originaire de cette région) et les campagnes de solidarité organisées par les Tibétains.

Le gouvernement a également précisé aux principaux sites de couvrir de manière limitée les changements intervenus à la tête de la province du Xinjiang (Nord-Ouest), et d'empêcher les commentaires sur tous les sujets liés au conflit en cours dans la région ouighoure.

Ces instructions interviennent au même moment que l'arrestation d'un écrivain tibétain, M. Tagyal, connu sous son nom de plume, Shogdung, pour avoir publié une lettre ouverte relative au tremblement de terre. Le 23 avril, des policiers du commissariat de Xining (province du Qinghai, Ouest) ont perquisitionné les bureaux de la maison d'édition Qinghai Nationalities où ils ont arrêté l'écrivain. Dans la soirée, des policiers ont saisi ses ordinateurs à son domicile. Son épouse a déclaré que la police était revenue pour livrer un ordre d'arrestation.

Le 17 avril, un groupe d'intellectuels tibétains ont publié une lettre de condoléances aux familles des victimes, critiquant certains aspects de la gestion des secours par les autorités chinoises. M. Tagyal avait été empêché par les autorités de se rendre sur les lieux du tremblement de terre.

Par ailleurs, les autorités ont brouillé un programme spécial de condoléances produit par la radio indépendante Voice of Tibet, installée à l'étranger.

Enfin, la responsable des pages "opinion" du quotidien Nanfang Dushi Bao (Métropole du Sud) a été suspendue de son poste le 17 avril après la publication, six jours plus tôt, d'un commentaire intitulé : "Aimer son pays ne veut pas dire aimer son gouvernement. La journaliste Zhu Di a été sanctionnée sur instruction du gouverneur de la province du Guangdong (Sud).

Vincent Brossel

Asia-Pacific Desk

Reporters Without Borders

33 1 44 83 84 70

asia@rsf.org

LIVE STREAM World People's Conference on Climate Change & the Rights of Mother Earth, Cochabamba, Bolivia

2010-04-19T08:53:00.001-06:00

LIVE STREAM World People's Conference on Climate Change & the Rights of
Mother Earth, Cochabamba, Bolivia April 20 > 22
http://abyayalanexus.wetpaint.com/page/Abya+Yala+Nexus%3A+Streaming+Live!