Category Archives: Media

Doomscrolling linked to existential anxiety, distrust, suspicion and despair, study finds

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Expert compares doomscrolling to being in a room where people are constantly yelling at you and says media needs to rethink news

Does scrolling your phone give you an existential crisis? That’s the question a team of international experts have sought to answer in a study published in the Journal of Computers in Human Behavior Reports.

Researchers surveyed 800 university students from the US and Iran and found that doomscrolling – or spending excessive time consuming negative news – was linked to feelings of existential anxiety, distrust and suspicion of others, and despair.

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Wall Street Journal fires new chair of Hong Kong Journalists Association

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Selina Cheng says she believes her termination is linked to her taking up the position at the embattled union

The chair of the Hong Kong Journalists Association has been fired by her employer, the Wall Street Journal, weeks after being appointed as the head of the embattled union.

Selina Cheng said she was “appalled” that her first press conference as HKJA chair was to announce that she had been “fired for taking up this position in a press union”.

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Iranian TV presenter stabbed in London moves abroad for safety

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Exclusive: Pouria Zeraati ‘no longer felt safe in UK’ as Tehran regime steps up threats and attacks on critics in exile

An Iranian television presenter, who was attacked in London by men believed to be acting for the Tehran regime, has moved abroad, saying that he no longer felt safe in the UK.

Pouria Zeraati said the UK’s approach to the threat posed by Iran on British soil could not guarantee his safety.

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Germany bans ‘rightwing extremist’ Compact magazine

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AfD-supporting publication has fed racist and far-right nationalist conspiracy theories

The German government has banned the rightwing extremist magazine Compact, accusing it of whipping up “unspeakable” hatred of Jews, Muslims and foreigners while undermining the country’s constitutional democracy.

In what she called a “hard blow” against the far right, the interior minister, Nancy Faeser, ordered dawn raids in four German states at properties linked to the publication, which is ideologically close to the Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) party and promotes its drive for power.

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Billie Eilish latest star to read CBeebies bedtime story

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Oscar-winning singer chooses book by Oliver Jeffers that highlights importance of protecting nature

Billie Eilish has become the latest star to read a CBeebies bedtime story, having chosen a book that teaches children about interacting with nature.

The Oscar-winning singer of What Was I Made For? and Birds of a Feather read This Moose Belongs to Me by the author and illustrator Oliver Jeffers.

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Labour donor Dale Vince has libel case against Daily Mail thrown out

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Energy entrepreneur claimed headline about different man used alongside his photograph was defamatory

The millionaire Labour donor Dale Vince’s £100,000 libel case against the Daily Mail has been thrown out after a high court judge ruled it did not have a realistic chance of success.

The green energy businessman and Forest Green Rovers chairman claimed the newspaper libelled him in a June 2023 article titled “Labour repays £100,000 to ‘sex harassment’ donor”.

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Bitter tensions as reporters feel misled by White House over Biden health

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Press briefings become flashpoint as journalists criticise culture of denial and non-disclosure around the president

It was the moment when long-simmering media resentment at a seemingly opaque White House broke through the surface with startling intensity.

With Joe Biden’s candidacy teetering in the wake of last month’s alarming debate showing, journalists who had covered his presidency full-time for years suddenly asserted that it lacked that most basic political element: credibility.

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Meta lifts restrictions on Trump’s Facebook and Instagram accounts

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‘Guardrails’ that previously existed removed as Meta says voters should be able to hear from presidential nominees

Meta has removed previous restrictions on the Facebook and Instagram accounts of Donald Trump as the 2024 election nears, the company announced on Friday.

Trump was allowed to return to the social networks in 2023 with “guardrails” in place, after being banned over his online behavior during the 6 January insurrection. Those guardrails have now been removed.

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Keir Starmer commits to keeping BBC licence fee after years of Tory hostility

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Broadcaster suffered severe cuts under Conservatives, which reneged on inflation-linked deal

Labour will support the BBC licence fee, Keir Starmer has pledged, in stark contrast to the years of Conservative opposition to the funding model.

The levy of £159 a year on households with a television used to receive live broadcasts (or watch BBC iPlayer) raises £3.2bn annually for the BBC and the Welsh channel S4C.

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Disinformation networks ‘flooded’ X before EU elections, report says

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Analysis by Dutch researchers shows coordinated activity in France, Germany and Italy in run-up to ballot

Coordinated networks of accounts spreading disinformation “flooded” social media in France, Germany and Italy before the elections to the European parliament, Dutch researchers have found.

After an in-depth analysis of disinformation on the platform X in four EU countries, the researchers concluded that many of the accounts had been set up after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine but were cranked up in the weeks and days before the vote, with growth in their numbers of followers rocketing.

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Russia bans Moscow Times in crackdown on independent media

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Move leaves anybody who cooperates with ‘undesirable’ news outlet liable to prosecution

Russia has classed the Moscow Times as an “undesirable organisation”, outlawing its activities inside Russia and leaving anybody who cooperates with it open to prosecution.

The Kremlin has escalated a campaign against independent media and reporting since Russia launched a military offensive on Ukraine in February 2022.

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Record number of journalists killed in Pakistan already this year

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Seventh and most recent victim was ambushed while driving, as most cases thought likely to be work-related

Seven reporters have been killed in Pakistan in the first six months of 2024, a record annual number with half a year still to go.

The most recent victim was Khalil Jibran, a former president of a local press club in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, which borders Afghanistan. He died in June when the car he was driving was ambushed by two men who dragged him out and shot him multiple times.

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Independent Muslim who beat Labour in Leicester says victory was not ‘sectarian’

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Shockat Adam says he is not a single-issue MP, but will fight on NHS and housing as well as Gaza

The man who pulled off a shock victory at the general election by ousting shadow cabinet member Jonathan Ashworth has criticised claims that the wave of strong showings by independent Muslim candidates represents the rise of “sectarian” voting.

Shockat Adam, an optometrist, caused a huge upset by beating Ashworth, the shadow paymaster general and a familiar face in Labour’s election campaign, to become the new MP for Leicester South.

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Biden says only ‘the Lord almighty’ could make him drop out in pivotal TV interview

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In appearance aimed at quelling nascent rebellion among Democrats, Biden made no big gaffes, but reviews are mixed

Joe Biden has insisted that only “the Lord almighty” could persuade him to exit the US presidential race in a potential make-or-break TV interview aimed at quelling a burgeoning rebellion in the Democratic party.

In an exchange free from major gaffes but unlikely to appease his critics, Biden was asked by George Stephanopoulos of ABC News how he would feel if he were to remain the nominee and lose to Donald Trump. “I’ll feel as long as I gave it my all and I did the goodest job as I know I can do, that’s what this is about,” the president replied.

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Can Murdoch’s Tubi repeat its US success as it launches in the UK?

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Ad-funded streamer wades into market with offering it says will appeal to those underserved by rivals

The Wes Anderson classic Moonrise Kingdom, the Channel 4 sitcom Fresh Meat, a reality TV series about adult content creators, some Bollywood hits and a handful of shark flicks: Tubi’s home screen is not short of viewing options, just like the British video-streaming market it waded into this week.

Tubi is taking on the likes of Netflix, Disney+, ITVX and the BBC’s iPlayer with a free, ad-funded service offering 20,000 films and TV episodes, and an ambition of repeating its success in the US, where it has amassed nearly 80 million monthly users. But will it have a similar impact in the UK, where rival platforms are already well established?

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End of an era for New Zealand media as Newshub set to air final bulletin

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New Zealand left with one state-owned, English language network as shrinking news landscape prompts fears over impact on democracy

One of New Zealand’s longest running news outlets, Newshub, will air its final bulletin on Friday, marking the end of an era for the country’s media.

In April, Warner Bros Discovery announced it would close all its Newshub news operations, including the news website, the morning television show and the 6pm television bulletin, resulting in roughly 300 job losses.

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UK political parties on track to spend £1m on election day online ads

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Digital campaigning gets round media blackout rule restricting broadcasters’ coverage while polls are open

The UK’s political parties are on track to spend more than a million pounds on online adverts on Thursday, circumventing a media blackout rule that forces television and radio stations to stop their election coverage when polls open.

British parties have traditionally ceased top-level campaign activity when voting began as they had no way to get out their message out. This is because of a longstanding broadcasting rule, enforced by the media regulator Ofcom, that states: “Discussion and analysis of election and referendum issues must finish when the poll opens.”

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China’s tech firms vow crackdown on online hate speech after knife attack

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Clampdown follows fatal stabbing of Chinese woman who tried to stop attack on Japanese mother and child

China’s internet companies have announced a crackdown on “extreme nationalism” online, particularly anti-Japanese sentiment, after a Chinese woman was fatally stabbed while protecting a Japanese mother and child in Suzhou.

Tencent and NetEase, two of the biggest firms, said at the weekend that they would be investigating and banning users who stirred up hatred.

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Journalists refused entry to Azerbaijan energy conference ahead of Cop29

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Incident reignites concerns over crackdown on media before crucial UN climate talks in Baku later this year

Western journalists were refused entry to an energy industry conference in Azerbaijan earlier this month, reigniting concerns over the state’s crackdown on the media ahead of crucial UN climate talks in Baku later this year.

At least three journalists from the UK and France have told the Guardian that they felt “unsafe” after they were denied entry to the Baku Energy Week forum, despite registering with the event organisers weeks in advance.

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‘You can expect everything’: what next for Julian Assange and WikiLeaks?

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Site’s edge on whistleblowing is gone and its co-founder must recover, yet their resilience may make revival a possibility

As Julian Assange enjoys his first weekend of freedom in years, there appeared to be no question in the mind of his wife, Stella, about what the family’s priorities were.

The WikiLeaks co-founder would need time to recover, she told reporters after they were reunited in his native Australia, after a deal with US authorities that allowed him to plead guilty to a single criminal count of conspiring to obtain and disclose classified defence documents.

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