Category Archives: Media

Lisa Wilkinson lodges official complaint with Seven Network over Bruce Lehrmann interview

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Complaint also relates to mention of letter allegedly sent by Brittany Higgins to Wilkinson, who claims she has no record of it

Lisa Wilkinson has lodged an official complaint with the Seven Network about a program that featured an interview with Bruce Lehrmann and about a separate segment on morning television.

Wilkinson lodged the complaint on Tuesday alleging the broadcasts breached commercial television standards, and can escalate the complaint to the Australian Communications and Media Authority (Acma) if it is not resolved, her lawyers confirmed.

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EU regulator orders Google to sell part of ad-tech business

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Competition commission accuses firm of favouring its own services to detriment of rivals

The EU has ordered Google to sell part of its advertising business, as the bloc’s competition regulator steps up its enforcement of big tech’s monopolies.

The competition commission said it had taken issue “with Google favouring its own online display advertising technology services to the detriment of competing providers of advertising technology services, advertisers and online publishers”.

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US House unanimously calls on Russia to release journalist Evan Gershkovich

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Gershkovich was arrested in March on espionage charges, which both he and his employer, the Wall Street Journal, deny

The US House of Representatives voted unanimously on Tuesday for a resolution calling for the release of Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, who has been imprisoned in Russia for three months.

The vote was 422-0 in favor of the nonbinding measure.

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Nobel laureate Maria Ressa says research by Oxford institute can be used against reporters

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Exclusive: methodology used by Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism risks undermining media in global south, says Ressa

Nobel peace laureate Maria Ressa has claimed Oxford University’s leading journalism institute is publishing flawed research that puts journalists and independent outlets at risk, particularly in the global south.

One of the world’s most prominent and respected journalists, Ressa said she resigned last year from the advisory board of the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism (RISJ), because of deep concerns about how it compiles an annual Digital News Report.

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Miriam Margolyes: ‘I never had any shame about being gay’

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Actor, 82, also comments she ‘wouldn’t want to be straight for anything’ as she appears on the cover of Vogue for the first time

Miriam Margolyes has said she “never had any shame about being gay” as she makes her British Vogue cover debut at the age of 82.

The award-winning actor, known for her foul mouth and lovable eccentricity, said gay people are “not conventional” and she “wouldn’t want to be straight for anything”.

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UK government to invest in film and TV AI special-effects research

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Almost £150m to be spent on research labs to help future-proof industry and lift creative economy

Ministers are seeking to future-proof the UK’s multibillion-pound film and TV production industry by investing almost £150m in a network of research labs across the country tasked with developing the next generation of special effects using tech such as artificial intelligence.

The scheme aims to build on Britain’s reputation for producing hi-tech hits from Star Wars to Harry Potter, and is part of wide-ranging plans to drive the UK creative economy. The government has earmarked millions to support grassroots music venues hammered by the Covid pandemic, and is tripling a fund designed to find and support the next generation of homegrown superstars like Adele and Ed Sheeran.

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Pakistan media decry de facto ban on giving airtime to Imran Khan

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Journalists say directive on hate speech issued by regulator indirectly affects coverage of former PM

Broadcast journalists in Pakistan have decried a de facto ban on mentioning Imran Khan by name or showing his image after a series of directives issued by the country’s media regulator.

Pakistan’s parliament ousted Khan from parliament in April last year. Since then he has been making nearly daily headlines with fiery speeches and tweets directed at the government and army.

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Why access to Tory party members is big incentive for owning Daily Telegraph

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Newspaper retains considerable influence among those who will shape the direction of Conservatives

Whoever buys the Daily Telegraph is not just purchasing a historic and profitable newspaper – they are acquiring direct access to Tory party members who will control the future direction of the Conservatives.

Paul Goodman, the editor of ConservativeHome, said the newspaper retained “considerable” influence among the approximately 160,000 card-carrying members of the party’s rank and file who vote in leadership elections and MP selections.

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Former Italian PM Silvio Berlusconi back in hospital

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Eighty-six-year-old readmitted to Milan hospital weeks after long stay linked to chronic leukaemia

The former Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi has been readmitted to a hospital in Milan for scheduled medical checks, weeks after being discharged after a long stay.

The media tycoon, 86, had left San Raffaele last month after six weeks of treatment for a lung infection linked to a chronic myelomonocytic leukaemia, a type of cancer that affects the white blood cells.

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Radio New Zealand investigates Russia-friendly editing of Ukraine articles

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At least four wire articles published by national broadcaster had been edited to add pro-Kremlin phrasing

New Zealand’s national radio broadcaster is conducting an internal investigation after evidence emerged that an employee had edited wire reporting on the Ukraine war to add Russia-friendly phrasing.

The state-funded RNZ, or Radio New Zealand, published at least four articles attributed to the Reuters wire service that had been edited to add pro-Kremlin phrasing.

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Sydney Morning Herald apologises for failing ‘dismally’ on coverage of 1838 Myall Creek massacre

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Nine Entertainment paper says it ‘essentially campaigned’ for 11 stockmen accused of killing at least 28 Aboriginal people to escape prosecution

The Sydney Morning Herald has apologised for failing “dismally” in its coverage of the Myall Creek massacre and two subsequent trials in the 19th century.

On 10 June 1838, with the Myall Creek Station manager away, a dozen stockmen led by John Henry Fleming rounded up and brutally killed at least 28 Wirrayaraay women, children and elderly people while their young men were away helping another settler.

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Struggling Meta showcases new AI tools at company meeting

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Employees get preview of chatbots similar to ChatGPT for Messenger and WhatsApp

Facebook’s owner, Meta, announced new artificial intelligence-focused tools in an internal company meeting on Thursday and outlined its plan after months of financial struggle.

The company confirmed a New York Times report that employees were given a sneak peek of new products it has been building, including ChatGPT-like chatbots planned for Messenger and WhatsApp that could converse using different personas.

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Tucker Carlson lawyer hits back at Fox News claim of contract breach

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Carlson attorney Bryan Freeman accuses network of attacking first amendment rights amid dispute over post-firing settlement

Responding to Fox News’s contention that Tucker Carlson was in breach of contract when he debuted his Twitter show this week, a lawyer for the fired hard-right host accused the network of attacking his client’s first amendment rights.

“Fox defends its very existence on freedom of speech grounds,” said attorney Bryan Freedman in response to reports, first by Axios, about a letter to Carlson from a lawyer for Fox.

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Army of fake social media accounts defend UAE presidency of climate summit

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Sultan Al Jaber – Cop28 president and CEO of state oil firm – is ‘ally the climate movement needs’, posts say

An army of fake social media accounts on Twitter and the blogging site Medium have been promoting and defending the controversial hosting of a UN climate summit by the United Arab Emirates.

The president of the Cop28 climate talks is Sultan Al Jaber, who is also the chief executive of the state oil giant Adnoc, which has major net zero-busting expansion plans.

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‘Former estate agents’: the strange life of the Barclay twins

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Losing Telegraph newspapers will not turn remaining twin Frederick Barclay into a pauper, but it’s a bitter end to brothers’ empire-building

From humble beginnings growing up in a west London house so close to the railway line the window frames rattled when a train passed, the Barclay twins, Frederick and David, became an extraordinary, energetic and eccentric power couple.

They built an empire of glitzy hotels and made many millions in shipping and retail before plunging into the world of newspapers but – largely – eschewed the trappings of life in the London fast lane to live in strange isolation in a sprawling mansion on a small rocky island just off the French coast.

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Major newspapers could face a $40m hit if governments follow Victoria in abandoning print advertising

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Data highlights total government spending on print as experts say Daniel Andrews’ move will be watched

Major metropolitan newspapers could lose up to $40m in advertising revenue if state and federal governments follow Victoria’s lead and pull their print advertising.

In 2022 state and federal governments spent about $40m placing government ads in major capital city newspapers, and another $5m on digital advertising on news websites like heraldsun.com.au and theage.com.au, according to media agency data collected by Standard Media Index.

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‘A watershed’: Meta ordered to offer mental health care to moderators in Kenya

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Trauma experienced by staff at Nairobi Facebook hub recognised in legal ruling that may have global implications

Meta has been ordered to “provide proper medical, psychiatric and psychological care” to a group of moderators in Nairobi following a ruling in a Kenyan employment court that heard harrowing testimony about the distressing nature of their work.

The instruction by judge Byram Ongaya formed part of a broader interim ruling that saw the moderators’ jobs restored after they sued Meta in March for what they termed a “sham” mass redundancy.

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BA, Boots and BBC staff details targeted in Russia-linked cyber-attack

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Hack attributed to criminal gang hit MOVEit software used by third-party payroll provider Zellis

British Airways, Boots and the BBC are investigating the potential theft of personal details of staff after the companies were hit by a cyber-attack attributed to a Russia-linked criminal gang.

BA confirmed it was one of the companies affected by the hack, which targeted software called MOVEit used by Zellis, a payroll provider.

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