Category Archives: Media

Lester Holt to exit NBC Nightly News as MSNBC cuts Ayman Mohyeldin’s show

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Holt to step down as anchor as Katie Phang and Jonathan Capehart, whose shows also canceled, to remain at MSNBC

NBC’s Lester Holt is stepping down as anchor of its Nightly News show, and MSNBC’s Ayman Mohyeldin is stepping down from a similar role at his namesake weekend evening show as the networks’ owners continue a major programming shake-up on Monday.

Others at MSNBC affected by changes revealed on Monday include Katie Phang and Jonathan Capehart, the New York Post reported.

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MSNBC reportedly cancels Joy Reid show in reshuffle at liberal network

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ReidOut is being cancelled as part of a lineup shuffle being helmed by the network’s new president, Rebecca Kutler

MSNBC has reportedly canceled longtime anchor Joy Reid’s show in what is evidently a major programming restructure at the liberal network.

Speaking to the New York Times, two people familiar with the reshuffling told the outlet that Reid’s 7pm show, The ReidOut, is being cancelled as part of a lineup shuffle being helmed by the network’s new president, Rebecca Kutler.

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UK creative industries set behaviour standards after Strictly and MasterChef rows

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An independent standards authority says the industry must learn from recent scandals and create safer working environments

New guidelines will be issued this week for the UK’s creative industries after a series of scandals including reports of inappropriate behaviour by Gregg Wallace and Gino d’Acampo, and bullying allegations on the BBC’s Strictly Come Dancing.

The Creative Industries Indep­endent Standards Authority (CIISA) will set new standards with the aim of stamping out bullying, harassment and discrimination, and address “power imbalances”.

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Konstantin Kisin: anti-woke libertarian who reluctantly calls himself ‘right wing’

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In speech at Arc conference, podcaster argues ‘identity politics and multiculturalism … are two failed experiments’

Konstantin Kisin has until this week been best known as a libertarian, pro-free speech independent podcaster, and for a viral appearance at the Oxford Union arguing that “woke culture has gone too far”.

His profile has suddenly risen, however, after hosting the Conservative leader, Kemi Badenoch, on his podcast, and arguing in an episode with Fraser Nelson, the former editor of the Spectator, that Rishi Sunak was not English owing to his “brown Hindu” background – triggering criticism on social media.

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BBC pulls Gaza documentary featuring child whose father was Hamas minister

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Show removed from iPlayer as ‘further due diligence’ carried out and critics ask if any Hamas members were paid for filming

A BBC documentary about Gaza has been pulled from its iPlayer service while the broadcaster deals with intensifying accusations that the film was biased because it failed to make clear the father of its child narrator was a Hamas deputy minister.

BBC sources indicated the intention was to make the documentary available to watch again once a “due diligence” exercise had taken place, but the decision reflects a frustration that the filmmakers did not inform the broadcaster of the situation before transmission.

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Nearly 500 cat figurines stolen from Gordon Ramsay’s London restaurant

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By Ramsay’s own estimate, he has lost more than £2,000 during one week in stolen maneki-neko cat models

Nearly 500 cat figurines were stolen in one week from Gordon Ramsay’s new London restaurant, the TV chef has said.

The restaurateur, 58, recently launched Lucky Cat 22 Bishopsgate by Gordon Ramsay in one of London’s tallest buildings, which features the beckoning Japanese cat models called maneki-neko.

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British journalist missing in Brazil for 11 days

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Foreign correspondents’ association urges authorities to step up search for Charlotte Alice Peet, 32

A British journalist has been missing in Brazil for 11 days, a foreign correspondents’ association in the country said on Tuesday, urging authorities to step up their search efforts.

Charlotte Alice Peet, 32, last communicated with a friend on 8 February, according to a statement from the Rio de Janeiro-based Association of Foreign Press Correspondents (ACIE).

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State department orders cancellation of media subscriptions around world

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Foreign posts told to end all ‘non-mission critical’ news subscriptions in Trump directive that will ‘endanger lives’

The state department has reportedly ordered its outposts around the world to cancel all subscriptions to news and media outlets that are supposedly “non-mission critical” in another extraordinary Trump administration crackdown on normal information channels.

An email memo was circulated to embassies and consulates earlier this month explaining that the move was a further effort to cut costs by the federal government, the Washington Post reported late on Tuesday.

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Off air: one by one, the Taliban are removing women’s voices from Afghan radio

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As one of the last female-run stations in the country is silenced, a former broadcaster gives an inside view of the crackdown on women working in the media

When the Taliban began marching towards cities across Afghanistan in the summer of 2021, Alia*, a 22-year-old Afghan journalist, found herself doing some of the most important work of her short life and career.

In the weeks leading up to the Taliban takeover in August, Alia’s voice on the radio became familiar to many in northern Afghanistan. She reported on the withdrawal of foreign troops, the siege of government offices and on the detention of former officials in her province.

Above all, Alia reported on the situation for women and their fears and concerns – emotions she was experiencing herself. As the Taliban gradually began imposing restrictions on them, Alia was documenting history repeating itself.

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Kabul evacuation whistleblower wins case against UK government

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Civil servant Josie Stewart found to have been unlawfully dismissed in 2022 after she told BBC about failures

A civil servant who blew the whistle about the chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan and Boris Johnson’s involvement in a decision to evacuate a pet charity from Kabul has won her case for unfair dismissal against the government in a legal first.

An employment panel of three judges unanimously found the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) unfairly dismissed Josie Stewart in 2021 after she leaked information in the public interest.

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Next ad banned over ‘unhealthily thin’ model in digitally altered leggings

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Watchdog upholds complaint about advert that digitally altered clothing and used low angle to accentuate long legs

The UK advertising watchdog has banned an advert from high street retailer Next for featuring an “unhealthily thin” model in digitally altered clothing.

The advertisement, which ran on its website, featured a model marketing Next’s “power stretch denim leggings”.

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China tops list of countries trying to silence exiled dissidents over past decade, study shows

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Russia, Turkey and Egypt also among worst perpetrators of transnational repression around the globe

A quarter of the world’s countries have engaged in transnational repression – targeting political exiles abroad to silence dissent – in the past decade, new research reveals.

The Washington DC-based non-profit organisation Freedom House has documented 1,219 incidents carried out by 48 governments across 103 countries, from 2014 to 2024.

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Associated Press barred from Oval Office for not using ‘Gulf of America’

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Agency says its reporter wasn’t allowed into event in effort to ‘punish’ style guide on upholding use of Gulf of Mexico

The Associated Press said it was barred from sending a reporter to Tuesday’s Oval Office executive order signing in an effort to “punish” the agency for its style guidance on upholding the use of the name of the Gulf of Mexico, in lieu of Donald Trump’s preferred name for the geographic landmark as the Gulf of America.

AP’s executive editor, Julie Pace, said in a statement: “As a global news organization, The Associated Press informs billions of people around the world every day with factual, nonpartisan journalism.”

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Far-right populists much more likely than the left to spread fake news – study

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Amplifying misinformation is now part of radical right strategy, says Dutch study of tweets by MPs in 26 countries

Far-right populists are significantly more likely to spread fake news on social media than politicians from mainstream or far-left parties, according to a study which argues that amplifying misinformation is now part and parcel of radical right strategy.

“Radical right populists are using misinformation as a tool to destabilise democracies and gain political advantage,” said Petter Törnberg of the University of Amsterdam, a co-author of the study with Juliana Chueri of the Dutch capital’s Free University.

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Fears grow for health of social media influencer arrested on live TV in Sierra Leone

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Hawa Hunt’s detention a month ago was politically motivated, say daughter and rights groups, who also raise concerns about her treatment in jail

Fears are mounting over the mental and physical health of a social media influencer who has been in prison in Sierra Leone for more than a month after she was arrested on live television.

Hawa Hunt, a dual Canadian and Sierra Leonean citizen, was arrested on 22 December while starring in House of Stars, a reality TV show, for comments she made on social media about the president of Sierra Leone and the first lady in May 2023.

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Prince Andrew aide fights to prevent release of statement about ‘Chinese spy’

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Media group led by Guardian seeks release of document written by Dominic Hampshire in support of Yang Tengbo

Lawyers for an aide to Prince Andrew are fighting to prevent his statement in support of a man accused of being a Chinese spy, who briefly became a trusted business partner and associate of the prince, from being released to the press.

The Guardian is leading a group of media organisations seeking the release of a witness statement written by the prince’s fixer and close friend Dominic Hampshire, originally at the personal request of the businessman Yang Tengbo.

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Netflix increases UK subscription prices despite record audience

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Analysts warn streaming service needs to tread carefully as its standard subscription rate goes up by 18%

Whether you are binging The Night Agent or American Primeval, getting a Netflix fix has become pricier in the UK as the streaming giant increased subscription costs despite a record audience.

The streaming service has upped the cost of its most popular standard subscription without adverts by £2, or 18%, to £12.99 a month. Its other packages are going up in price, too. The last time it pushed through a price increase in the UK was October 2023.

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ABC executive tells court there was ‘pressure from above’ over Antoinette Lattouf’s position

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Chris Oliver-Taylor tells unlawful termination hearing of events leading up to decision to sack journalist three days into casual contract

The ABC executive who sacked Antoinette Lattouf for sharing a Human Rights Watch post has conceded he felt “pressure from above” after the then ABC chair, Ita Buttrose, sent him all the complaints she was receiving.

Under cross-examination in the federal court which is hearing Lattouf’s unlawful termination claim, the outgoing ABC content chief, Chris Oliver-Taylor, said there was a “strong view” from colleagues about “having someone who has published strong views, either way, on air”.

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BBC and ITV slash big-budget TV spend as US streamers pour money into UK

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Channel 4, Channel 5 and Sky also among UK broadcasters making cuts as Netflix, Disney and Amazon pile on pressure

UK broadcasters slashed their spending on big-budget TV shows to the lowest level in almost a decade last year, even as their US rivals Netflix, Disney and Amazon ploughed hundreds of millions more into British-made premium content.

In a sign of the increasing competitive pressures of the streaming era, the amount spent on high-end TV shows costing more than £1m an hour to make by domestic operators such as the BBC, ITV, Channel 4, Channel 5 and Sky, plunged by a quarter last year to £598m.

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Antoinette Lattouf hearing day four – as it happened

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This blog is now closed

David Anderson is back in the witness box and has been promised the remaining questions won’t take long.

Oshie Fagir is examining the communications between Anderson and his content chief, Chris Oliver-Taylor, over Lattouf’s removal.

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