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Fire breathing information warrior sanctioned
Back in the USSR
The European Union’s expanded list of Russian officials facing travel bans and asset freezes includes only one prominent media figure. Ranting nationalist TV commentator Dmitry Kiselyov was added to the list of political functionaries, military officers and billionaires. Mr. Kiselyov, it seems, carries significant weight in the information war.
Last December Russian Federation president Vladmir Putin called upon Mr. Kiselyov to takeover state-owned news agency Rai Novosti, which until that moment held a certain degree of credibility within the wider international news corps. Rai Novosti is to be renamed Russia Today (Rossiya Segodnya), in sync with the state-funded international TV channel of the same name. Mr. Kiselyov is best known in Russia for Sunday evening fire-breathing rants on state TV channel Rossiya 1 belittling the West and pining away for the Soviet Union.
Within the reorganized Russia Today Mr. Kiselyov also takes charge of state-owned international radio broadcaster Voice of Russia. He has been deputy director of state radio and TV broadcaster VGTRK, under which Rai Novosti has operated. Media watchers have begun referring to him as “Putin’s propagandist.” (See more on media in Russia here)
Being added to the EU sanctions list, said Mr. Kiselyov on Rossiya 1 (March 20), is an “attack on freedom of speech” and “contrary to fundamental European human rights.” On his regular Sunday night broadcast (March 16) he told viewers “Russia is the only country in the world that is realistically capable of turning the United States into radioactive ash.” President Putin honored Mr. Kiselyov last month with the Order of Service to the Fatherland medal.
The other official state news agency, ITAR-TASS, is also returning to Soviet roots. The agency will simply be known as TASS, the original name dating from 1925.
New radio service getting organized, slowly
Fewer channels, fewer people
In the nine months since the Greek government shut down public broadcaster ERT on the promise of opening a smaller organization actual progress has been slow. The New Hellenic Radio Internet and Television organization (NERIT) has been formed, directors named, meetings held. Signals from those charged with organizing the reorganization have been confusing.
Before the closure, the ERT radio subsidiary ERA (operated seven national and 22 regional radio channels. Most were immediately shuttered, a few remained on-the-air operated by ex-ERT employees until chased away by authorities. Without offering a firm timetable, NERIT managing director George Prokopakis indicated three or maybe four national radio channels would be part of the new plan and, maybe, 13 regional stations.
A mostly news channel is planned to be the first to hit the airwaves, similar to the old ERA 1 national channel. Following it, according to plan, will be an arts and culture channel similar to the old ERA 3. Next, sometime later, will be either a sports channel or the return of world music channel Kosmos. Mr. Prokopakis likes the idea of a sports channel, reported e-tetradio.gr (February 27), because of commercial opportunities but it might be merged into the all-news channel. The new public broadcaster has asked the public to suggest new names for as many as six radio channels. Dropped is the old ERA 2, the all-Greek music channel, a format coveted by private-sector broadcasters. (See more on media in Greece here)
The regional public stations will reappear as municipal stations, essentially transferred to municipalities. Local morning programs will be supplemented by content from the three surviving national channels.
The NERIT board named new executives this week (March 20); a news director, technical director, financial director and a general manager for regional and local content.
They asked for a billion, settled for nothing
Better to cooperate
The ages old copyright infringement suit brought by entertainment giant Viacom against Google’s YouTube has finally drawn to a close. The negotiated settlement, announced by both companies, ends Viacom’s seemingly endless legal appeals as US courts ruled Google in compliance with provisions of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. Viacom’s 2007 lawsuit asking for US$1 billion compensation was supported by the movie and music industries, the National Football League and the Screen Actors Guild. Google found friends in the media-tech sector – Facebook, Yahoo and Tumblr – as well as eBay, the Consumers Union and Human Rights Watch.
“No money changed hands,” reported Reuters (March 18), referring to an anonymous source familiar with the settlement. Google and Viacom, which owns the CBS and MTV franchises, have been lowering hostilities and a final settlement was inevitable. Two years ago Viacom Paramount Studios agreed a licensing deal allowing YouTube users to access hundreds of movie rentals. (See more on Google here)
Content rights holders in all corners of the planet have come full circle and – largely – see more benefit than pain from the internet.
Regulating newspapers gives comfort to dictators
Phone hacking caused by journalists, not publishers
Newspaper publisher trade association WAN-IFRA finds the prospect of statutory regulation in the UK potentially comforting to evil forces worldwide. The group assembled a special mission of experts to visit the UK in January, ostensibly to discover the evidence. Its report, released Monday (March 17), concludes that newspaper publishers really hate the idea of regulation.
Meeting UK politicians, newspaper editors, activists and academics, the special mission report duly noted the jumble of complexity from UK Prime Minister David Cameron walking right up to the line of accusing Guardian editor-in-chief Alan Rusbridger of treason for publishing Edward Snowden’s detailed trove on government snooping to newspapers snooping on celebrities and regular folks for profit. (See WAN-IFRA release here)
“The lack of any real guarantees enshrining press freedom continues to expose journalism in the United Kingdom to great uncertainty, as there is nothing benign in a system that invites even the possibility of tighter restrictions on freedom of expression,” said WAN-IFRA CEO Vincent Peyrègne in the statement. “If the UK government feels it is acceptable, in the name of national security, to dictate what is in the public interest, and given the UK’s continued influence over developing nations where media are essential for the spread of democratic values, the future of a free, independent press that can hold power to account is under threat worldwide.”
“It is important, however, not to convolute the hacking scandal with the current regulatory debate,” said the report, which reiterated publisher’s position that the phone hacking, bribery and ‘perverting the course of justice’ charges have yet to yield convictions in the top ranks of newspaper executives. “Work should be done throughout the media structure to reinstate professional standards and regain public trust in journalism.”
“We are not surprised because this is, after all, a trade body of which the big British newspaper groups are leading members and because WAN-IFRA showed that its mind was made up even before the mission arrived,” said Hacked Off director Brian Cathcart, who the team interviewed in January, quoted by holdthefrontpage.co.uk (March 17).
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