Category Archives: Media

‘The press has to go on’: Hong Kong media tycoon Jimmy Lai defies Beijing

Posted on by

Apple Daily founder and pro democracy activist says his case will likely be a ‘litmus test’ of Hong Kong’s legal system

Wary but defiant, Jimmy Lai is determined to keep fighting for a democratic Hong Kong, even as he acknowledges that China’s goal is to take full control of the region.

Speaking to the Guardian five days after his arrest on foreign collusion allegations – he is currently out on bail - media tycoon Lai argues the press must keep going. But he also believes that Monday’s round up was a warning from Beijing.

Continue reading...

Bob Woodward obtains letters between Trump and Kim Jong-un for new book Rage

Posted on by

Bob Woodward’s second book on the Trump White House has a title, Rage, and promises to reveal the secrets of “25 personal letters exchanged between [Donald] Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un that have not been public before”.

Related: It Was All a Lie review: Trump as symptom not cause of Republican decline

Continue reading...

Hero’s welcome for Hong Kong media tycoon Jimmy Lai after release on bail

Posted on by

Apple Daily founder and pro-democracy activist returns to office following arrest under national security law

The Hong Kong pro-democracy figure and media mogul Jimmy Lai received a hero’s welcome as he returned to his newspaper after being arrested on allegations of foreign collusion, while Chinese state media labelled him a “genuine traitor”.

Lai, his sons, senior executives from his Next Digital media company and others including the activist Agnes Chow were detained under Beijing’s national security law on Monday. Hundreds of police officers also raided the offices and newsroom of Apple Daily, the popular tabloid Lai founded, in a move decried as an assault on press freedom.

Continue reading...

BBC and Sky accused of ‘voyeurism’ in coverage of migrant boats

Posted on by

Live footage of people crossing Channel to UK is like ‘grotesque reality TV’, says MP

Britain’s television news broadcasters have been criticised by opposition MPs and campaigners over their coverage of migrants crossing the Channel, with claims that some of their reports dehumanise those taking the risk to make the journey.

Footage of Sky News and BBC Breakfast teams approaching and filming small boats trying to navigate the busy waters of the Dover strait was widely condemned on social media. The Labour MP Zarah Sultana said: “We should ensure people don’t drown crossing the Channel, not film them as if it were some grotesque reality TV show.”

Continue reading...

Hong Kong’s Apple Daily vows to fight on after arrest of Jimmy Lai

Posted on by

Readers queued for hours to get a copy of the pro-democracy tabloid, as US secretary of state says China has ‘eviscerated Hong Kong’s freedoms’

Hong Kong’s Apple Daily tabloid has responded with defiance to the arrest of owner Jimmy Lai under a new national security law imposed by Beijing, promising to “fight on” in a front-page headline above an image of Lai being detained..

Readers queued from the early hours to get a copy of the pro-democracy paper a day after police raided its offices and took Lai into detention, the highest-profile arrest so far under the national security law.

Continue reading...

Donald Trump denies asking how to add face to Mount Rushmore

Posted on by

White House reportedly asked South Dakota official about expanding monument

Donald Trump has denied that his team ever approached South Dakota’s governor about adding his face to the iconic monument depicting four presidents at Mount Rushmore. However, he added that it sounded like a good idea.

The New York Times reported a Republican party official source on Saturday stating that a White House aide reached out to Kristi Noem’s office with the question: “What’s the process to add additional presidents to Mount Rushmore?”

Continue reading...

BBC apologises for N-word in television broadcast after DJ Sideman quits

Posted on by

Director general admits mistake following 18,000 complaints

The BBC’s director general, Tony Hall, has apologised after the N-word was used in a TV news broadcast, following mass complaints and the resignation of one of the corporation’s radio DJs.

“Every organisation should be able to acknowledge when it has made a mistake. We made one here,” Hall said in an email to all BBC staff.

Continue reading...

Presenter quits after BBC defends use of N-word in report

Posted on by

Radio 1Xtra presenter Sideman says he can no longer work for broadcaster after ‘slap in the face’

A BBC radio presenter has quit his job after the corporation defended its decision to broadcast the N-word in a television news broadcast.

Radio 1Xtra presenter Sideman said he no longer felt comfortable working for the national broadcaster after it stuck by the decision to broadcast the language in a report on a racially motivated hit-and-run attack.

Continue reading...

Prince Harry hits out at social media for creating ‘crisis of hate’

Posted on by

Duke of Sussex urges advertisers to demand companies do more to curb hate speech online

Prince Harry has hit out at social media companies for creating a “crisis of hate” and called for “meaningful digital reform” after an unprecedented advertiser boycott of Facebook.

In an opinion piece for the US business magazine Fast Company, the Duke of Sussex revealed that he and his wife, Meghan, had begun campaigning for change in social media “a little over four weeks ago”.

Continue reading...

News Corp posts US$1.5bn loss driven by sharp declines in newspaper revenue

Posted on by

Revenue collapses by 16% in Australia and 13% in the UK, while Foxtel loses 12% of its subscribers in Australia

News Corp has posted a US$1.5bn loss, with its Australian and United Kingdom newspaper businesses suffering sharp declines in revenue and its Foxtel pay-TV business in Australia bleeding subscribers, new financial results for 2019-20 show.

The global media giant released its financial results for 2019/20 on Thursday in the US. The reports paint a grim picture across the last quarter and year, with the exception of its Dow Jones business.

Continue reading...

Disney opts for digital-first release of Mulan, shocking cinema owners

Posted on by

Mulan is first blockbuster to go straight to streaming in response to Covid-19 shuttering cinemas

Disney’s decision to bypass cinemas and offer its latest big budget film Mulan directly to streaming subscribers for $29.99 could signal the beginning of the end for the traditional movie-going experience – and forever change the long-established business model underpinning the Hollywood blockbuster.

The surprise move has stunned cinema owners, who had been banking on the film, along with Christopher Nolan’s sci-fi thriller Tenet, to jump-start box office takings as theatre chains struggle to recover from the coronavirus pandemic.

Continue reading...

Meghan wins court bid to keep friends’ identities secret

Posted on by

Court rules in favour of Duchess of Sussex in latest stage of legal action against Associated Newspapers

The Duchess of Sussex has won a high court bid to keep secret the identities of five friends who gave anonymous interviews to a US celebrity magazine, in the latest stage of her legal action against the owner of the Mail on Sunday.

Meghan is suing Associated Newspapers, the publisher of the Mail on Sunday and Mail Online, over an article that reproduced parts of a “private and confidential” handwritten letter she sent to her estranged father, Thomas Markle, in August 2018.

Continue reading...

‘They’re dying … it is what it is’: key takeaways from Trump’s shocking interview

Posted on by

President floundered in conversation with Axios, claiming Covid-19 was ‘under control’ and attacking mail-in voting

Donald Trump stumbled through his second damaging interview in as many weeks, floundering in a conversation with the news website Axios over key issues he is tasked with responding to as president.

It’s been just over two weeks since the president made a series of shocking statements in a one-on-one interview with Fox News, but he packed another host of extraordinary claims into a 37-minute interview released on Monday night by Axios.

Continue reading...

Mexico journalist gunned down – the fifth to be killed this year

Posted on by
  • Police guard also dies in shooting at restaurant in Guerrero
  • More than 120 Mexican journalists killed in 20 years

Press groups have called for justice after unidentified gunmen killed a journalist in southern Mexico, along with a police officer assigned to protect him after a 2016 attack.

Pablo Morrugares was the fifth journalist to be killed in Mexico this year, in attacks which are increasingly killing police guards assigned to the victims. More than 140 journalists have been killed over the past 20 years.

Continue reading...

Marcus Rashford scores cover of British Vogue’s September issue

Posted on by

The footballer is recognised for his activism in the magazine among 40 ‘faces of hope’

Marcus Rashford’s inspirational, policy-changing campaign against child poverty has garnered him accolades aplenty. Now it has also propelled the footballer on to the front cover of British Vogue’s September issue.

The Manchester United striker, who forced a government U-turn on the granting of free food vouchers for the poorest families over the summer, headlines a special edition dedicated to activism.

Continue reading...

Steve Bannon hails Dominic Cummings and predicts lurch to right for No 10

Posted on by

Architect of Donald Trump’s presidential campaign reveals admiration for Boris Johnson’s aide in interview on dark politics

Steve Bannon, who has previously backed a range of notorious far-right political figures, has publicly endorsed Dominic Cummings for the first time, calling him a “brilliant guy”.

Donald Trump’s former chief strategist also said that Boris Johnson will become an increasingly populist prime minister after jettisoning his political positioning as a “globalist” to “opportunistically jump on Brexit”.

Continue reading...

India arrests dozens of journalists in clampdown on critics of Covid-19 response

Posted on by

Reporters for independent outlets, many in rural areas, say pressure won’t deter them from covering embarrassing stories

Facing a continuing upward trajectory in Covid-19 cases, the Indian government is clamping down on media coverage critical of its handling of the pandemic.

More than 50 Indian journalists have been arrested or had police complaints registered against them, or been physically assaulted.

Continue reading...

Oprah Winfrey honors Breonna Taylor with September magazine cover

Posted on by
  • First time magazine will not feature Winfrey on cover
  • Taylor, 26, was shot dead by police in own home in March

A portrait of Breonna Taylor, the 26-year-old Black emergency medical technician shot dead by police in her own home earlier this year, will appear on the cover of the latest issue of O, The Oprah Magazine.

It is the first time in the magazine’s 20-year history that the cover will not feature the magazine’s namesake: Oprah Winfrey.

Continue reading...

Meghan’s friends entitled to ‘super-charged confidentiality’, high court told

Posted on by

Duchess of Sussex suing owner of Mail on Sunday and Mail Online in privacy battle

Lawyers for the Duchess of Sussex have claimed five female friends who spoke anonymously to a US magazine to defend her against British tabloid bullying are entitled to a “super-charged right of confidentiality” as she fought to protect their identities in her privacy battle against the Mail on Sunday.

Forcing her to make public their names was an “unacceptable price to pay” for pursuing her legal action over publication of extracts from a private letter she wrote to her estranged father, Thomas Markle, 75, the high court in London heard.

Continue reading...

Amber Heard ‘placing faith in justice’ as Depp lawyer calls her an abuser

Posted on by

High court hears closing remarks in three-week libel case exposing couple’s relationship

Amber Heard has spoken of her trauma at reliving the breakup of her marriage, saying she is “placing her faith in British justice” as Johnny Depp’s lawyer branded her a “compulsive liar” and the “abuser” in the couple’s relationship.

As the libel action brought by Depp against the publishers of the Sun newspaper ended on Tuesday, Heard was booed and heckled by Depp fans who have gathered daily outside the high court in London for the proceedings over allegations that the Pirates of the Caribbean star had been violent towards her.

Continue reading...