The programme’s longest-serving presenter will leave after the next UK election
Kirsty Wark will step down as lead presenter of Newsnight after the next election, the BBC has announced.
Wark, who celebrated her 30th anniversary with the programme on Thursday, will continue presenting for the BBC on documentaries as well as on programmes such as The Reunion and Start the Week on Radio 4.
Continue reading...Alsu Kurmasheva reportedly detained due to Radio Free Europe coverage of Russia’s military mobilisation for Ukraine invasion
A Russian-American journalist has been detained in Russia on charges of violating its foreign agents law, reportedly due to her coverage of Russia’s military mobilisation for its invasion of Ukraine.
Alsu Kurmasheva, an editor with Radio Free Europe-Radio Liberty’s (RFE-RL) Tatar-Bashkir service, was detained on Wednesday by masked Russian law enforcement agents.
Continue reading...Streaming company announces plans to increase prices as profits rise, even as Hollywood strikes threaten to affect programming
Netflix announced its global crackdown on password sharing was working and unveiled plans to increase prices as it announced its latest quarterly results on Wednesday.
The streaming media company added 8.8 million new subscribers over the last three months, far better than expected and up from 2.4 million in the same quarter last year. The increase came even as a strike by Hollywood actors and writers threatened to affect the rollout of new shows.
Continue reading...Palestine Action says it was behind incident in London, accusing BBC of ‘manufacturing consent for Israel’s war crimes’
A pro-Palestinian protest group has claimed responsibility for throwing red paint over the BBC’s headquarters, accusing the broadcaster of having “blood on its hands” over its coverage of the Israel-Hamas war.
The organisation Palestine Action identified itself as being behind the incident, which took place early on Saturday morning at Broadcasting House. It alleged that the broadcaster was “manufacturing consent for Israel’s war crimes”.
Continue reading...Shell, reportedly Israeli, struck group of international journalists covering clashes at border
A group of international journalists covering clashes on the border in south Lebanon have been hit by shelling, with one killed and six injured. The Associated Press and Al Jazeera said the weapon was an Israeli shell.
Reuters said: “We are deeply saddened to learn that our videographer Issam Abdallah has been killed. Issam was part of a Reuters crew in southern Lebanon who was providing a live signal. Our thoughts are with their families at this terrible time.”
Continue reading...Public broadcasters the ABC, SBS and NITV as well as Sky News will follow the count live, as commercial channels keep coverage to a minimum
Voters keen to know the result of the referendum on Saturday night will find blanket coverage on the public broadcasters, ABC, SBS and NITV, as well as on Sky News Australia, but the commercial networks are keeping their reporting to a minimum.
The SBS and NITV presenters, Anton Enus and Natalie Ahmat, a Mudburra and Wagadagam woman, will kick off the four-hour simulcast at 6.30pm with news and live crosses to reporters on the ground.
Continue reading...Indigenous affairs editor Lorena Allam and political editor Katharine Murphy among journalists named as finalists
Guardian Australia has picked up seven nominations in the 68th annual Walkley awards for excellence in journalism.
Guardian Australia dominated the short feature writing and commentary and analysis categories, taking out two of the three nominations in both.
Continue reading...Case of footage from set of Palestinian film being repurposed to make false claims is far from one-off
The video shows a young boy in a black T-shirt apparently lying in a pool of blood on the ground. Above him is a camera, with a man shouting directions near him. Two men in kippahs, the Jewish skull caps, and men in green military fatigues similar to Israel Defence Forces (IDF) uniforms are gathered around him.
The clip has been viewed about 2m times on X, formerly known as Twitter. It was shared by a verified user with the caption: “Video showing Israel attempting to create fake footage of deaths.”
Continue reading...More than £3,000 raised to keep the Student – founded in 1886 by Robert Louis Stevenson at Edinburgh University – going
The oldest student newspaper in Europe has been saved from closure after its volunteer staff raised more than £3,000 in emergency crowdfunding.
A free newspaper, the Student was founded at the University of Edinburgh in 1887 by the novelist Robert Louis Stevenson, the author of Treasure Island and Kidnapped, who served as its first arts editor.
Continue reading...UK minister calls urgent meeting to discuss coverage as X comes under scrutiny over disinformation claims
The UK technology secretary has summoned social media executives to demand the removal of violent content from their platforms related to the Hamas attack on Israel.
Michelle Donelan called the meeting as the European Union criticised Elon Musk’s X platform about coverage of the Israel-Hamas conflict on its platform including fake news and the use of repurposed historical footage.
Continue reading...Corporation says decision will be made ‘in due course’ after show’s staff reportedly told to look for other work after Andrew Flintoff crash
The BBC has denied Top Gear has reached the end of the road amid reports the show had been axed.
The Sun reported on Friday that the broadcaster had told production staff on the long-running show to look for other work after the presenter and former cricketer Andrew Flintoff was injured during filming last December.
Continue reading...Betr chairman says he is grateful for media company’s ‘initial and ongoing support’ but that it is no longer an investor
News Corp has sold its shares in gambling startup Betr less than a year after its launch and having received a record $210,000 fine from regulators in April.
Betr was established with a reported $70m backing from News Corp, the former BetEasy chief executive Matthew Tripp’s TGW and the Las Vegas firm Tekkorp, with the intention of utilising News Corp’s media assets to promote the company.
Continue reading...Securities and Exchange Commission inquiring whether Musk broke federal law in 2022 when he bought stock in the platform
Elon Musk is under investigation by the US Securities and Exchange Commission over his $44bn takeover of social media giant Twitter, it was revealed on Thursday.
The investigation concerns whether Musk broke federal securities laws in 2022 when he bought stock in Twitter, which he later renamed X, as well as statements and SEC filings he made about the deal.
Continue reading...Search also carried out on office of news website under investigation for allegedly receiving funds from China
Police have carried out early morning raids on a news portal office and the homes of almost 50 journalists, activists and comedians across India under anti-terrorism laws, deepening concerns over a crackdown on freedom of expression in the country.
Delhi police carried out the searches on numerous locations on Tuesday morning. Several journalists were detained, with their phones and laptops confiscated, and some were taken in for questioning. Delhi police confirmed that two journalists had been arrested in the case.
Continue reading...Business secretary privately met media mogul in apparent breach of ministerial code of conduct
Kemi Badenoch failed to declare a meeting that she held with Rupert Murdoch days after she was appointed to the cabinet – in a breach of transparency rules.
The business and trade secretary reacted angrily on Monday on social media after it was revealed that she had privately met the media mogul and other executives from his News Corp company in New York in September 2022.
Continue reading...Appointment to board of banker who ran rightwing social media platform Parler suggests channel will not turn its back on radical libertarianism
The leadership of the rightwing TV channel GB News is trying urgently to avert fresh public censure following the Laurence Fox and Dan Wootton debacle, the Observer has learned.
Under scrutiny are a number of incidents, including last week’s crude, on-air attack on the journalist Ava Evans by the actor and pundit Fox, and Friday’s interview of Suella Braverman, the home secretary, conducted by the deputy chair of her own party, the Conservative MP Lee Anderson.
Continue reading...In an excruciating BBC interview, the transport minister sticks resolutely to the party line on rail link … and fails to answer the question
Mark Harper is not the first cabinet minister to suffer a difficult early-morning interview, but the transport secretary seemed oddly blindsided by a quizzing about the future of HS2. No fewer than 12 times he dismissed the issue as “speculation”. If only there were a senior figure from the Department for Transport to clear things up? Here is an edited version of his awkward interview with the BBC Today Programme’s Mishal Husain:
Husain Has something changed on HS2 plans since the last update to parliament in June?
Continue reading...Censorship, data harvesting and purchases of foreign news outlets could lead to ‘sharp contraction’ of freedom of expression
China is manipulating global media through censorship, data harvesting and covert purchases of foreign news outlets, according to a new report from the US state department, which warned the trend could lead to a “sharp contraction” of global freedom of expression.
The report released on Thursday found that Beijing had spent billions of dollars annually on information manipulation efforts, including by acquiring stakes in foreign media through “public and non-public means”, sponsoring online influencers and securing distribution agreements that promote unlabelled Chinese government content.
Continue reading...Broadcaster says it is conducting full investigation after also suspending Fox
GB News has suspended the presenters Dan Wootton and Laurence Fox as the channel struggles to contain the fallout after misogynistic comments made on Wootton’s show.
The rightwing news channel said on Wednesday: “GB News has suspended Dan Wootton following comments made on his programme by Laurence Fox last night. This follows our decision earlier today to formally suspend Mr Fox. We are conducting a full investigation.”
Continue reading...Case follows Walliams’ exit as BGT judge after transcript surfaced of him making offensive off-air comments about contestants
David Walliams has filed a case against the production company that makes the ITV show Britain’s Got Talent.
The action being taken by the show’s former judge against FremantleMedia is listed as dealing with data protection, according to the BBC. No other details have been given.
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