Hot topics click link for more
The onward march of network radio in the UK has trampled another local station. Global Radio, one of two giant UK radio operators, has acquired Liverpool station Juice FM. Owner UTV Media has been “reviewing” local radio assets, presumably to shield the company from losses attached to its recent launch of a television channel in Ireland. The transaction is valued at GBP10 million (about €13.5 million), reported the Guardian (June 5), about four and a half times revenue.
Global Radio chief executive Ashley Tabor, in advance of the required exhaustive review by regulator Ofcom, welcomed “Juice FM to the Global family.” Pop-rock Juice FM will likely disappear into Global Radio’s Capital brand, currently without a Liverpool distribution point. Global Radio and Bauer Media have worked tirelessly in recent years to strengthen their national commercial radio brands, following the model of US commercial radio owners and pleasing their investment bankers and media buyers. Radio reach in the UK continues to drift lower, according to RAJAR audience estimates over the last year or so. (See recent RAJAR trends chart here in Resources)
Juice FM launched in 2000 as an all-local Liverpool pop-alternative station. Absolute Radio, originally a joint venture of Ulster TV (UTV) and German radio operator Eurocast, acquired the station in 2003 from celebrity owners. Bauer Media acquired assets of Eurocast, including Absolute Radio, leaving UTV Media with its TalkSport national franchise and several local stations.
Press and media freedom advocates have risen once again to yet another challenge to the journalism tribe. This week Turkey’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, filed a criminal complaint against the editor-in-chief of newspaper Cumhuriyet, Can Dündar, for posting a video to the newspaper’s website. President Erdogan, hardly a friend to critical reporting, asked that Mr. Dündar be given a life sentence… or two.
The video distressing President Erdogan showed, allegedly, Turkish intelligence agency MIT trucks entering Syria with “heavy weapons,” reported hurriyetdailynews.com (June 4). Cumhuriyet posted the video last week. The Turkish government says images shown were faked. “The person who committed this crime will pay a heavy price,” said President Erdogan on a State television TRT program (May 31). Parliamentary elections will be held in Turkey this weekend. (See more about media in Turkey here)
Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) called on President Erdogan to “stop threatening the media and stop meddling in the judicial system,” in a statement (June 3). “Press freedom is not a cosmetic detail,” said International Federation of Journalists president Jim Boumelha in a statement (June 3). “It is a non-negotiable condition to ensure the sustainability of a democracy. We cannot tolerate that journalists' values continue to be trampled over in Turkey with total impunity.” WAN-IFRA president Tomas Brunegard offered that Turkey is “regressing under an intolerant president.”
The proposed acquisition by French broadcaster NextRadioTV of digital TV channel Numéro 23 has been suspended pending review by regulator CSA of “obligations in terms of diversity,” reported AFP (June 3). The review is the first application of a 2013 law giving the CSA authority to judge broadcast ownership transfers on factors in addition to financial. Numéro 23 was authorized in 2012 as a digital TV channel offering programs from a wide variety of international sources.
The transaction, announced in April, brought howls and wails from legacy broadcasters, rights holders and politicians less for diversity issues than the spectre of “fraudulent speculation.” NextRadioTV offered €88.3 million for the barely 2-year old license, awarded by the CSA for the nominal fee of €1. Numéro 23 was launched by Pascal Houzelot, owner of Pink TV, with investment from, among others, two owners of daily newspaper Le Monde (Xavier Niel and Matthieu Pigasse) and LVHM principal Bernard Arnault, principal owner of French business newspaper and portal Les Echos. NextRadioTV, principally controlled by Alain Weill, operates national news-talk radio channel RMC, Paris station BFM Business and four digital TV channels. (See more about media in France here)
"I see no legal reason that should create significant challenges, given the precedents," said M.Weill, noting that TF1 bought two digital channels in 2009 (TMC and NT1) and Canal+ bought two digital TV channels in 2012 (D8 and D17). “The strongest criticism comes from legacy groups that have themselves acquired channels. They do not want new players.”
The 2013 amendments to the Act Macron that expands the CSA’s role in broadcast license transfers also imposed a 5% transactions tax. The French Senate approved increasing that tax to 20% on license transfer within five years, endorsed by the chief guardian of French culture. "It is as if you are awarded a public garden and you resell it making a capital gain,” said Culture Minister Fleur Pellerin, quoted by challenges.fr (May 15). “There's something wrong."
It goes without saying that privacy and rights to it sometimes fall afoul of the public’s right to know and the news media’s right to share it. Regularly, courts settle these disputes when the body of law is subject to interpretation. There are many stumbles along the way.
Late last month Ireland’s High Court enjoined public broadcaster RTÉ from reporting alleged loan transactions between an Irish individual - Denis O’Brien - and the Irish Bank Resolution Corporation (IRBC). Well-known in Ireland and elsewhere for making a few billion investing in telecoms and as a media owner, Mr. O’Brien, through his attorneys, claimed certain privacy rights concerning private financial transactions and argued the yet-to-be broadcast investigation contained untrue statements from stolen documents. The Irish government is in the process of liquidating the IRBC, once known as State-owned Anglo-Irish Bank. The High Court’s injunction effectively prevents all Irish news outlets from reporting any details from the documents. Every slice of this story is controversial.
And it all got more complicated when a member of the Irish legislature (Dáil Éireann) - Catherine Murphy - took to the floor during a hearing on the IRBC liquidation last week to claim Mr. Brien received favorable treatment by the bank, quoting from the allegedly untrue and stolen documents and invoking parliamentary privilege to ignore the High Court injunction. That sent the Irish media - less the outlets owned by Mr. O’Brien - into a bit of a tizzy. Attorneys for RTÉ and Irish Times, separately, have returned to the High Court as well as attorneys for Mr. O’Brien seeking clarification. In its injunction the High Court prevented reporting of the contents of its decision until all parties agree on what can and cannot be reported. Irish media has largely complied but British news outlets are having a field-day.
Editors and publishers are always wary of authorities intruding on their space. Source protection is a touchy issue when law enforcement views journalistic background material essential to their work. News outlets do not, typically, give up that right.
There was recently an armed robbery near Stockholm. Masked gunmen struck a gold shop and made a get-away. Somebody - unidentified - snapped digital photos as the robbery took place and, eventually, made them available to Swedish tabloid Aftonbladet, which dutifully published a few, faces digitally obscured.
Local police were, understandably, interested in taking a look at the photos in original digital form. Without contacting Aftonbladet executives, the investigating prosecutor obtained last week a court order to access IT systems. “We have no interest in hampering police work,” said publisher Jan Helin, quoted by medievarlden.se (May 27). “In this case, our lawyers sort it out.” (See more about press/media freedom here)
Swedish law on source protection being quite clear, an appeals court halted execution of the search warrant. “It sounds like someone finally conceded,” said Mr. Helin, also quoted by medievarlden.se (June 1).
|
