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The Tickle File is ftm's daily column of media news, complimenting the feature articles on major media issues. Tickle File items point out media happenings, from the oh-so serious to the not-so serious, that should not escape notice...in a shorter, more informal format. We are able to offer this new service thanks to the great response to our Media Sleuth project in which you, our readers, are contributing media information happening in your countries that have escaped the notice of the international media, or you are providing us information on covered events that others simply didn't know about. We invite more of you to become Media Sleuths. For more information click here. |
Week of October 19, 2009 |
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London The Libel Capital Of The World?The lord chief justice of England and Wales, Lord Judge (yes, his last name really is Judge and he is the top ranking judge in England and Wales) says he is not proud that London has the legal nickname as the “libel capital of the world”. It’s rare for judges to make public statements, but at a news conference marking the first anniversary of his appointment he covered many subjects including English libel law. Asked why people from all over the world want to sue for libel in the UK (it’s called “libel tourism”) even if the libel was not published in the UK, the judge said he was not proud. “We need to look closely at why it (London) is called the libel capital of the world and if it is, we have to try to persuade Parliament to change the law." He said he did not like the fact that wealthy and powerful litigants from around the world came to the London High Court to silence criticism via libel actions. Indeed, American states don’t like that, either, and last week California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger signed legislation that state courts have the right not to enforce British libel judgments. The governor was moved by a British libel judgment that ordered all copies globally of a book about a Saudi sheik to be destroyed even though the book, written by an American, was never published in Britain. The UK media has taken a tough stance against the judiciary for what it sees as being far too willing to make very large libel judgments, and for expanding privacy law without such legislation. The Daily Mail editorialized just last week, “With its draconian gagging orders, bizarre and monstrously expensive libel awards, and its insidious attempts to create a privacy law through the Human Rights Act, the High Court is renowned as the champion of the rich and secretive against the public’s right to know.” Guardian’s US homepage To GoMuch has been made that a large percentage of visits to UK national newspaper web sites come from the US, helped by links by the like of Drudge and others. So the thinking caps went on around newspaper executive suites a couple of years back on how to capitalize on that and in the Guardian’s case it launched a US website with a US homepage. But two years on that homepage is disappearing and the US page will be within the Guardian’s UK site. The Guardian blames “low traffic” for the decision, but it is not giving up on the US. It has established an in-house US sales unit selling online ads targeted to Americans and placed on the UK site. Farewell Sir Ludovic KennedySir Ludovic Kennedy was one of the great British TV personalities and a constant campaigner to right injustice, concentrating on miscarriages of justice. He can take some credit because of his revelations of how in various cases the wrong men were hanged for the UK abolishing the death penalty in 1965. Mark Thompson, BBC director-general, called him, “one of the giants of post-war broadcasting. His integrity and the tenacity of his investigative journalism, particularly where he saw injustice, won him the respect and trust of generations of audiences." Sir Ludovic – he was knighted in 1994 for services to journalism – died Sunday of pneumonia. He was 89. For 56 years he was married to ballet dancer and actress Moira Shearer, perhaps best known for her starring role in one of the best-ever British films, The Red Shoes. She died in 2006. More Problems For DoganAs if Turkey’s Dogan Media Group doesn’t have enough problems what with a more than $3 billion tax demand hanging over its head, now a government entity says it has broken the law restricting foreign ownership to no more than 25%. There had been a report (not in a Dogan newspaper) that the company has sold to Germany’s Axel Springer more than a 25% stake in its 28 radio and TV stations. (Ed. note: It was in 2006. See article with background here) The state media watchdog says the company has three months to resolve the issue. The Kiwis Do Like Their Rugby!Under a deal agreed with the New Zealand government, four TV channels will simultaneously show important games, especially Kiwi games, live during the 2011 Rugby World Cup which the country is hosting, and the government will assist financially with the rights costs. Overkill? Not according to Prime Minister John Key, who obviously understands his political constituency. "You can never get too much rugby," he exclaimed. Which may be one reason why the government will help fund the Maori Television-TVNZ-TV3 joint bid for free-to-air rights, expected to cost about $5 million. English strategy for French automaker
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