Category Archives: Media

Australia passes social media law penalising platforms for violent content

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Labor supports legislation in response to Christchurch shooting that threatens jail for executives, despite media companies’ concerns

The Australian parliament has passed legislation to crack down on violent videos on social media, despite furious reaction from the tech industry, media companies and legal experts.

The Labor opposition combined with the ruling Liberal-National Coalition to pass the law on Thursday, despite warning it won’t allow prosecution of social media executives as promised by the government. Tech giants expressed the opposite concern that it may criminalise anyone in their companies for a failure to remove violent material.

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What’s the next Game of Thrones? All the contenders for fantasy TV’s crown

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The saga of the Seven Kingdoms may be bowing out, but it has opened the floodgates. Here’s your guide to the next big heroes

Rand al’Thor was found as a baby on the slopes of Dragonmount and taken to Two Rivers, where he grew into a broad-shouldered shepherd boy. But Rand is possessed of immense power, a power as yet untapped, for he is also The Dragon Reborn, destined to be hunted by Darkhounds and Darkfriends as he bids to prove himself a mighty warrior leader. Among other things, Rand’s existence shows that you should always believe ancient prophesies, that even the low-born can save the world – and that characters in TV fantasy series must always have two names.

Rand is just one of the 2,782 characters who appear in Wheel of Time, the bestselling saga of fantasy novels by Robert Jordan. We can only hope the forthcoming adaptation on Amazon will hone the cast down a little, as we follow Rand and his forces towards Tarmon Gai’don, or the final battle between good and evil.

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Saudis hacked Amazon chief Jeff Bezos’s phone, says company’s security adviser

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Chief executive allegedly targeted because he owns Washington Post, where Jamal Khashoggi was columnist

The security chief for Jeff Bezos, chief executive of Amazon, says the Saudi government had access to Bezos’s phone and gained private information from it.

Gavin de Becker, Bezos’s longtime security consultant, said he had concluded his investigation into the publication in January of leaked text messages between Bezos and Lauren Sánchez, a former television anchor whom the US National Enquirer tabloid newspaper said Bezos was dating.

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Moderate media, a compassionate leader: how New Zealand reacted to a tragedy | Calla Wahlquist

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Is New Zealand’s civilised response to the Christchurch massacre just down to good stewardship, or is there something else going on?

To the rest of the world, New Zealand’s reaction to the Christchurch massacre has been extraordinary. The killing of 50 people at Friday prayers in two mosques by a white, right-wing Australian has united, rather than divided, this small country and galvanised a parliament that has been prevaricating on gun reform for 30 years into action.

Much of that response has been down to the leadership of Jacinda Ardern. But even there, the public reception has been remarkable.

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Iran TV station did not break rules over interview praising attack – Ofcom

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UK-based Iran International broadcast a separatist who spoke in support of the Ahvaz terrorist attack in 2018

Iran International did not breach the broadcasting code by interviewing a spokesman for a separatist group who praised last September’s terrorist attack in the Iranian city of Ahvaz, the British regulator Ofcom has ruled.

The news channel, which broadcasts in Farsi but is based west London, interviewed Yacoub Hor al-Tostari, a spokesman for the Arab Struggle Movement for the Liberation of Ahvaz in the immediate aftermath of the attack on a military parade which left 30 people dead, and which was later condemned by the UN security council as a “heinous and cowardly terrorist attack”.

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Palestinian writer has fingers smashed in Gaza beating

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Publisher says Atef Abu Saif, also a spokesperson for Fatah, almost killed by masked men

A UK publisher has condemned an attack by masked men in Gaza on a Palestinian writer and political figure, Atef Abu Saif, accusing the assailants of deliberately breaking his fingers.

Comma Press, a not-for-profit publisher that worked with Abu Saif, said that the beating on Monday night had almost killed him.

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Disney seals $71bn deal for 21st Century Fox as it prepares to take on Netflix

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The acquisition of Rupert Murdoch’s film and TV studio business will boost Disney as it enters the TV streaming market

Disney has closed its $71bn (£54bn) acquisition of Rupert Murdoch’s entertainment business in a deal that unites franchises including Cinderella, The Simpsons and Star Wars under one corporate roof to create a media behemoth of unprecedented scale.

The Walt Disney Company closed its acquisition of 21st Century Fox shortly after midnight New York time on Wednesday.

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Fake news spikes in Indonesia, weeks ahead of elections

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Dozens of posts containing disinformation spread, with fears people may not trust results of a legitimate election

The spread of fake news and disinformation has spiked in Indonesia in recent months, weeks before millions are scheduled to vote in the country’s elections.

Data released in a new report from Mafindo, an organisation focused on combating fake news and improving digital literacy, shows that political fake news and disinformation shot up by 61% between December 2018 and January this year.

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Use forecast to talk about climate change, urges ex-BBC presenter

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Bill Giles calls on broadcasters to add slot explaining humans’ impact on climate

The veteran weatherman Bill Giles is calling on the BBC and other major broadcasters to radically overhaul their forecasts to incorporate information about climate change.

The former head of BBC weather presenters has said more needs to be done by broadcasters to highlight climate change to face the “reality more squarely and openly”.

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Myspace loses all content uploaded before 2016

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Faulty server migration blamed for mass deletion of songs, photos and video

Myspace, the once mighty social network, has lost every single piece of content uploaded to its site before 2016, including millions of songs, photos and videos with no other home on the internet.

The company is blaming a faulty server migration for the mass deletion, which appears to have happened more than a year ago, when the first reports appeared of users unable to access older content. The company has confirmed to online archivists that music has been lost permanently, dashing hopes that a backup could be used to permanently protect the collection for future generations.

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Facebook’s local news project frustrated – by lack of local newspapers

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About 1,800 newspapers have closed in the US in the last 15 years, partly as a result of internet-based companies like Facebook

Facebook’s effort to establish a service that provides users with local news and information is being hindered by the lack of outlets where the company’s technicians can find original reporting.

Some 1,800 newspapers have closed in the US over the last 15 years, according to the University of North Carolina. Newsroom employment has declined by 45% as the industry struggles with a broken business model partly caused by the success of companies on the internet – including Facebook.

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Sky New Zealand pulls Sky News Australia off air over Christchurch massacre coverage

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Independent channel says decision by Rupert Murdoch’s company to show ‘distressing’ footage of terror attack is behind move

Sky New Zealand has pulled fellow broadcaster Sky News Australia off air until the channel stops broadcasting clips from the Christchurch mosque shooter’s Facebook live stream.

In a tweet posted on Saturday morning, Sky New Zealand, an independently-owned broadcaster, said it had decided to remove the Australian 24-hour news channel from its platform because of the distressing footage.

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Venezuela: prominent journalist taken by intelligence service

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Luis Carlos Díaz, who went missing at about 5.30pm Monday, was taken by Sebin, fellow journalists confirmed

A prominent Venezuelan journalist who had been reporting on the country’s escalating political crisis and electricity blackout out has been seized by secret police, sparking international condemnation.

Related: US pulls all staff from Venezuela as Maduro blames blackout on 'demonic' Trump plot

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Bolsonaro under fire for smearing reporter who covered scandal involving his son

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‘Bolsonaro is Fake News’ became a top hashtag in Brazil after president shared ‘false information’ to attack a journalist

Brazil’s President Jair Bolsonaro has provoked a storm of protest after sharing fake news to attack a journalist who has covered a scandal involving a former aide of his son Flávio, a senator who is also under investigation for money laundering.

Leading newspapers, the Brazilian Investigative Journalism Association and the Brazilian Bar Association, criticised the far-right president for sharing a “misrepresentation” and “false information”.

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Elizabeth Warren is right – we must break up Facebook, Google and Amazon | Robert Reich

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The titans of the new Gilded Age must be busted and the idea has bipartisan support. It’s time big tech was brought to heel

The presidential hopeful Elizabeth Warren announced on Friday she wants to bust up giants like Facebook, Google and Amazon.

America’s first Gilded Age began in the late 19th century with a raft of innovations – railroads, steel production, oil extraction – but culminated in mammoth trusts run by “robber barons” like JP Morgan, John D Rockefeller, and William H “the public be damned” Vanderbilt.

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‘A real source of hope’: social media opens Thailand’s junta to criticism

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Social platforms wield increasing power in Thai politics, where traditional media remain under the iron grip of the military

Just over a week ago, Thailand’s army chief began trending on Twitter.

It started with an order, made by General Apirat Kongsompong that 160 radio stations across the country must play the 1970s anti-communist propaganda song, Nuk Paen Din (Scum of the Earth) which glorifies the might of the armed forces, on a daily basis.

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Democrats bar Fox News from 2020 debates over ‘inappropriate’ Trump ties

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DNC chairman says New Yorker exposé on Trump ties to Fox News cast doubt on network’s ability to hold ‘fair and neutral’ debates

The Democratic party’s governing body has announced it will not ask Fox News to host any of its televised primary debates during the 2020 US presidential race, citing a recent report detailing the conservative network’s close rapport with Donald Trump.

Democratic National Committee chairman Tom Perez said a New Yorker exposé on the depth of the Trump administration’s ties to Fox News cast doubt on the network’s capacity to hold a “fair and neutral” debate on the Democratic primaries. The decision was first reported by the Washington Post.

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Netflix to adapt One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez

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Streaming giant buys rights to create first ever screen adaptation of Colombian author’s seminal 1967 magical realist novel

Netflix has acquired the rights to Gabriel García Márquez’s seminal One Hundred Years of Solitude to create the first screen adaptation of the author’s 1967 masterpiece.

The streaming company announced on Wednesday that the book will be adapted into a Spanish-language series and filmed largely in the Nobel prize-winning author’s home country of Colombia, with García Márquez’s sons, Rodrigo García and Gonzalo García Barcha, serving as executive producers.

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Kylie Jenner’s makeup makes her the world’s youngest billionaire

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Youngest of the Kardashian-Jenner reality TV family tops Mark Zuckerberg by two years

Kylie Jenner, the youngest member of the Kardashian-Jenner American reality TV family, has become the world’s youngest billionaire at the age of just 21.

Jenner, who grew up under the watch of TV cameras filming Keeping Up with the Kardashians, was on Tuesday admitted to the “nine-zero” fortune club by Forbes. The business magazine ranked Jenner as the world’s 2,057th richest person. She became a billionaire two years younger than the Facebook co-founder Mark Zuckerberg, who took the title at the age of 23 in 2008.

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Facebook criticised after women complain of inaction over abuse

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Amnesty says social media firm must do more to support users who report harassment

Human rights campaigners have called for action after a survey revealed that more than half of the reports that women lodge about harassment on Facebook are met with no action from the social media company.

The Survation poll, commissioned by the feminist campaign group Level Up, found that 29% of the 1,000 women who took part had been harassed on Facebook.

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