Category Archives: Media

Google and Facebook urged by EU to label AI-generated content

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Call comes amid moves to combat disinformation from Russia, while Twitter is warned to comply with new digital content laws

Social media companies including Google and Facebook have been urged by the EU to “immediately” start labelling content and images generated by artificial intelligence as part of a package of moves to combat fake news and disinformation from Russia.

At the same time, the EU has warned Twitter that it faces “swift” sanctions if it does not comply with new digital content laws that come into effect across the bloc on 25 August.

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Studio Ghibli to release Hayao Miyazaki’s final film with no trailers or promotion

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The director and veteran of Studio Ghibli plans to retire after the release of How Do You Live? which will forgo trailers and marketing ahead of its Japanese release next month

Hayao Miyazaki’s next and apparently final film will be released with no trailer, marketing or other new promotional materials, it has been revealed.

In an interview with Japanese magazine Bungei Shunju, translated by the Hollywood Reporter, producer Toshio Suzuki said the film, titled How Do You Live?, would be released with “no trailers or TV commercials at all … no newspaper ads either.” He added: “Deep down, I think this is what moviegoers latently desire.”

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Chuck Todd to leave NBC’s Meet the Press after nearly 10 years

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Kristen Welker, the network’s chief White House correspondent, will take over hosting duties for the political affairs show

Chuck Todd has announced that he will be leaving NBC’s Meet the Press after nearly 10 years.

On Sunday, Todd, who has hosted the political affairs show for more than nine years, told viewers: “It’s been an amazing nearly decade-long run. I am really proud of what this team and I have built over the last decade.”

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British Vogue editor-in-chief Edward Enninful promoted to new role

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After six years at the helm of British Vogue Enninful is poised to take on new global role at Condé Nast next year

It’s one of the most coveted jobs in fashion. But, just six years after being named editor-in-chief of British Vogue, Edward Enninful is stepping down from the position. Or, rather, stepping up to take a new global role at the publisher Condé Nast that invites speculation he occupies pole position to one day take over from the legendary editor-in-chief, Anna Wintour.

“I am excited to share that from next year I will be stepping into the newly appointed position of editorial advisor of British Vogue and global creative and cultural advisor of Vogue, where I will continue to contribute to the creative and cultural success of the Vogue brand globally while having the freedom to take on broader creative projects,” Enninful wrote to staff.

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Chinese censors remove protest site Sitong Bridge from online maps

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Amid usual scrubbing for Tiananmen Square anniversary, searches for bridge where protest was held in 2022 return no results

Chinese censors scrubbing the internet of any words or symbols that could be used to reference the Tiananmen Square massacre in the run-up to Sunday’s anniversary have a new target in their sights: a bridge in Beijing where a rare protest was staged last year.

As the 34th anniversary of the 1989 massacre approaches, anyone searching in Chinese for Sitong Bridge on Baidu maps will draw a blank.

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Twitter and Tesla’s interests at odds in Elon Musk’s quiet China visit

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The world’s richest person lapsed into an unusual silence on social media during his trip to the electric carmaker’s second largest market

Followers of Elon Musk didn’t know what to expect from his trip to China. Would he speak about Tesla, a company with a large market and manufacturing footprint there? Or SpaceX, with its symbiotic relationship with the American state? Or even Twitter, the social network he bought because “free speech is the bedrock of a functioning democracy”?

The one thing no one expected: silence.

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Ukrainian sanctions on media tycoon Alexander Lebedev revealed

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The Russian businessman is the father of Evgeny Lebedev, who was given a peerage by Boris Johnson

Ukraine has imposed sanctions on Alexander Lebedev – the former KGB intelligence officer whose son Evgeny sits in the House of Lords – in connection with Vladimir Putin’s invasion.

The national security and defence council in Kyiv imposed sanctions on Lebedev Sr last October. The decision – first reported by Tortoise media – emerged on Thursday and follows a decree signed by President Volodymyr Zelenskiy.

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Ben Roberts-Smith defamation loss bad news for Seven boss as Nine marks ‘day of justice’

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Seven chairman Kerry Stokes, who parachuted the former soldier into a network job in 2015, says ‘the judgment does not accord with the man I know’

For Seven’s chairman, Kerry Stokes, the verdict in the Ben Roberts-Smith defamation trial was all bad news.

The cost of the trial is estimated to be between $25m and $35m and, with the billionaire media proprietor bankrolling the former soldier and Seven employee, Stokes’s legal tab will be significant if he does pick up the bill.

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Iran begins trial of journalist who covered Mahsa Amini’s death

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Niloofar Hamedi appears in court over her reporting on woman whose death sparked mass protests

A revolutionary court in Iran has begun the trial of a journalist behind closed doors on charges linked to her coverage of a Kurdish-Iranian woman whose death in custody last year sparked months of unrest, her husband has said.

Mahsa Amini’s death while held by the “morality police” for allegedly violating Iran’s strict dress code unleashed a wave of mass anti-government protests for months, posing one of the boldest challenges to the country’s clerical leaders in decades.

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Jeremy Paxman bows out as host of University Challenge

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Former Newsnight presenter, 73, will end stint as longest serving current quizmaster on British television

Jeremy Paxman’s stint as the longest serving current quizmaster on British television will come to an end on Monday night when he presents his final edition of University Challenge.

The 73-year-old former Newsnight presenter is bowing out from the show after revealing he has been diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease.

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Holly Willoughby says Phillip Schofield lied to her about affair with younger colleague

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This Morning co-presenter wrote that subsequent admission of relationship he denied was ‘very hurtful’

Holly Willoughby has claimed that former co-host Phillip Schofield had previously denied to her that he had a relationship with a younger ITV colleague and described his subsequent admission of the affair as “very hurtful”.

In a statement on Instagram, the This Morning presenter, 42, said: “It’s taken time to process yesterday’s news. When reports of this relationship first surfaced, I asked Phil directly if this was true and was told it was not. It’s been very hurtful to now find out that this was a lie.”

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NHS data breach: trusts shared patient details with Facebook without consent

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Observer investigation reveals Meta Pixel tool passed on private details of web browsing on medical sites

NHS trusts are sharing intimate details about patients’ medical conditions, appointments and treatments with Facebook without consent and despite promising never to do so.

An Observer investigation has uncovered a covert tracking tool in the websites of 20 NHS trusts which has for years collected browsing information and shared it with the tech giant in a major breach of privacy.

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‘I’m insanely thankful to the president’: how a Belarus dissident became an apologist for the regime

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Raman Pratasevich was dragged off a plane and imprisoned two years ago. Now he praises the regime he used to denounce

Two years ago, Raman Pratasevich, a young Belarusian dissident blogger, was white-knuckled, begging a Ryanair flight crew not to make an emergency landing at Minsk airport.

He said: “Don’t do this, they will kill me, I am a refugee,” according to a fellow passenger. The plane, escorted by a Belarusian Mig-29 fighter jet sent to force it down, landed anyway. Pratasevich was promptly arrested.

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A spying scandal and lots of coffee: how Guardian Australia launched 10 years ago | podcast

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In a special edition of Full Story, Guardian Australia’s daily podcast, Bridie Jabour speaks to the key players of its launch in May 2013

The story of how Guardian Australia launched in 2013 is one of strength, determination, a chance encounter, a spying scandal and a lot of coffee. At a time when Julia Gillard was prime minister, newspapers were laying off thousands of staff and Gina Rinehart was vying to take control of Fairfax, the Guardian arrived in a dire period for public interest journalism. But since May 2013 the once-tiny news site has achieved what some thought impossible. In this special edition of Full Story, Bridie Jabour speaks to the key players of Guardian Australia’s launch.

This podcast also features Katharine Viner, Lenore Taylor, Katharine Murphy, Alan Rusbridger, Lee Glendinning, David Marr, Christian Bennett, Graeme Wood, Malcolm Turnbull, Luke Pearson, Lorena Allam, Melissa Davey, Ben Doherty, Mark Scott, Cassandra Goldie, Michael Safi and Luke Henriques-Gomes.

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Supporters of jailed Iranian journalists call for trials to be held in public

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Niloofar Hamedi and Elaheh Mohammadi reported on death of Mahsa Amini and face charges of conspiring with foreign powers

Supporters of the two award-winning Iranian female journalists who were among the first to report on the death of Mahsa Amini, the young Kurdish woman who died last year in police custody, have demanded that their trials due to start next week are held in public.

Niloofar Hamedi and Elaheh Mohammadi, who both have a prestigious record of on-the-ground reporting on social affairs in Iran, have been kept in jail since first being arrested eight months ago and are accused of conspiring with hostile foreign powers, a charge that potentially carries the death penalty.

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James M Cain: lost story by ‘poet of the tabloid murder’ discovered in Congress library

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Strand Magazine will publish Blackmail, a tale of a blind Korean war veteran, found by New York editor Andrew Gulli

A New York editor and literary detective is celebrating the discovery and release of an unpublished short story by James M Cain, one of the greats of American noir, a “poet of the tabloid murder” whose works made famous on film include The Postman Always Rings Twice, Double Indemnity and Mildred Pierce.

“For all the work that you do,” said Andrew Gulli, editor-in-chief of the Strand Magazine, “like 2% of the time you hit the jackpot. I just feel so good. It’s worth it.”

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Tucker Carlson home studio dismantled by Fox News workers

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Source says ‘we removed equipment after building a custom studio at our expense … we did not tear down the studio’

As Tucker Carlson prepares to take his show to Twitter, Fox News, the network which fired the primetime opinion host last month, has dismantled the studio it built in a barn at his home in Maine.

“Fox came in last week and got all their shit out of there,” DailyMail.com quoted Patrick Feeney, who it said was managing work to rebuild the studio, as saying.

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BuzzFeed cooks up new AI-powered recipe generator, Botatouille

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Artificial ‘culinary companion’ will suggest meals based on what you have in your refrigerator and has a chatbot feature

As media companies sort through the ways artificial intelligence will impact their operations, BuzzFeed on Tuesday launched Botatouille, a personalized recipe generator powered by generative AI.

In addition to Botatouille, which BuzzFeed describes as, “the first AI-powered culinary companion” that suggests recipes based on factors like what you already have in your refrigerator, there’s also a chatbot feature that allows people to ask culinary questions while they cook, according to a press release from the company.

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Netflix crackdown on password sharing reaches the UK

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Streaming company tells millions of British subscribers that the service can no longer be used free by other households

Netflix has begun its crackdown on the millions of UK subscribers who share their passwords with friends and family who live outside of their household.

The streaming company has sent a letter to almost four million British subscribers that it has identified as giving friends and family members outside their home free access.

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