Stories about Media & Journalism from February, 2010
South Korea: 10th Birthday to Ohmynews!
Ronda Hauben from Ohmynews international wrote a review on Ohmynews! at its 10th anniversary. And here you can watch the organization's birthday party.
China: Mobilizing mothers for censorship
On January 19th 2010, the Beijing Association of online media established a group called Mama Jury to censor obscene and pornographic information online. According to report from Southern Weekend, the idea of organizing mothers to “protect” the children from pornography is originated from Western countries. However, the Chinese mother group...
China: Shanxi earthquake rumor
Ten of thousands people in Shanxi Qingxu evacuated to the street on 21 of February after midnight because of an earthquake rumor. (via ESWN)
Colombia: The Closure of Cambio Magazine
The Colombian magazine Cambio, known for its investigative reporting, was recently closed by its owners, who say it was an economic decision. However, journalists say that it was a politically motivated decision.
Lebanon: Stolichnaya and the Girl in the Bathtub
Lebanese blogger Rami at “Plus961” posts some photographs of Stolichnaya‘s latest advertisement which included a girl in a bathtub in the streets of Beirut.
The Balkans, Italy: Berlusconi's “Albanian Girls” Comment; Doctored Photo
Balkan Travellers re-posts a Balkan Insight piece about the Italian PM Silvio Berlusconi's comment that “his country would accept only pretty Albanian girls as immigrants.” Belgraded writes about the photoshopped photos of Berlusconi and Slobodan Milosevic: “Fours days after the [doctored] photo was published, Milosevic lost the elections by a...
Poland: “Better Say Nothing”
The Economist's Edward Lucas posts his article about Poland and follows up with “this exasperated response” to counter “the furious reaction to the earlier piece on the Polish blogosphere.”
Mexico: Critique of the Media Coverage of the “Narco War”
Daniel Hernandez of the blog Intersections critiques the media coverage of Mexico's “Narco War” and provides examples of some recent cases.
St. Lucia, Grenada: Water Crisis
Repeating Islands reports on water woes in the Caribbean territories of St. Lucia and Grenada.
Jamaica, U.S.A.: R.I.P. Rex
Both Labrish and Repeating Islands republish The New York Times’ obituary on the late Jamaican educator and choreographer, Rex Nettleford.
Azerbaijan: Breaking down stereotypes
Flying Carpets and Broken Pipelines blogger Arzu Geybullayeva comments on her audio interview conducted over Skype with Global Voices Online's Caucasus editor for Transitions Online. The blog says that communication is possible, living together is possible, breaking down existing barriers is possible and [that] this a message [it] would give...
Armenia: Homophobia Hall of Shame
Following even more examples of homophobia in the media in Armenia, Unzipped: Gay Armenia has started a Homophobia Hall of Shame. In the first new posting for the list, the blog details the homophobia of the head of one major local radio station and advises international donors to choose wisely...
Russia: More People Watch Video Online
Russian Internet TV daily audience grew 45 percent since last year and now consists of 1.39 million people watching TV programs online, “RUmetrika” reported.
India: Media May Boycott IPL 2010
South Asia Fair informs that Indian news channels and media “have decided to boycott the 3rd edition of the Indian Premier League 2010 after both parties failed to reach a consensus for their differences.”
China: Critical Masses and Shifting State-Society Relations in China
The China Beat has an essay based on the script of a talk Ying Zhu gave at Google’s New York offices on February 12, 2010, discussing the relation between the rise of critical mass and the shifting state-society relations in China.
Trinidad & Tobago: Saving Carnival
B.C. Pires links to a column by Mark Lyndersay, which, “if listened to, could rescue Trinidad Carnival for photographers; or at least stave off the death of yet another of its vital organs”, while other Trinidadian bloggers comment on the government's decision “to award sole rights to distribute coverage of...
Barbados, Canada: Sentencing Today
The convicted murderer of a Canadian tourist is to be sentenced today – Barbados Free Press is “hoping he rots in jail until he draws his final breath.”
China: The Party’s Policies are yakexi
C. Custer from ChinaGeeks blogs about a new buzz word, yakexi, in Chinese Internet community. It is an Uyghur word for good and recently used to praise Chinese policies in the Spring Gala. But the word has been re-iterated to mock at the political propaganda.
“SOS Internet Indonesia”
The Indonesian government plans to create a team which will regulate internet content in the country. The plan is to censor pornography, gambling, racism and other immoral content in cyberspace. But netizens are afraid that it might also stifle freedom of expression
Russia: Copy-Paste Online To Become Illegal
The Russian Telecommunications Agency is about to propose a new anti-plagiarism law that will require all Web sites to provide hyperlinks to the original source of the information that they use, newspaper Vedomosti reported [RUS]. Experts argue that the law will be hard to enforce.
Russia: More Prominent Reporters Go Online
Another two popular Russian journalists started to blog recently, a contemporary artist Dmitri Vrubel reports [RUS]. The prominent reporters for the major Russian newspaper “Kommersant” Andrei Kolesnikov [RUS] and Valery Panyushkin [RUS] joined the community of bloggers.
