Hot topics click link for more
Media promotion experts have a rule, largely borrowed from their brothers and sisters in the advertising world. The promotional announcement (promo) is more important than the show. Following this rule has driven big audiences to otherwise weak products. Forgetting this rule risks having dismal ratings. And, lest we forget, ratings are everything.
This week (April 20) a 30 second video made the rounds showing talkshow host Piers Morgan and former US president Donald Trump engaging in verbal fisticuffs. Brutal. Nasty. Name calling. It ended with Mr. Trump appearing to storm off the set. Fans of both parties love this stuff. Reporters around the world provided it considerable - often verbose - notice.
The little video was a promotional announcement for the debut of Mr. Morgan’s new talkshow, scheduled on TalkTV in the UK and Fox Nation in the US next week. Mr. Trump will be the stellar attraction. Both are News Corp outlets, principally owned by the Murdoch family. Mr. Morgan also penned a column for tabloids New York Post and The Sun, also owned by the Murdoch family, promoting the “interview.” (See more about television here)
Mr. Trump’s current press flack pressed the story by providing US TV network NBC with purported outtakes showing both participants laugh it up after the show was recorded. Mr. Morgan did his part, extending the name calling into Thursday. Reporters lapped it up, using the word “controversy” as often as possible. Somewhere Rupert Murdoch is laughing, too. Again.
These are challenging times for Russian government propaganda outlets, particularly those aimed at foreign audiences. While officials from RT (Russia Today), Sputnik, Channel One and others howl and wail about press and speech freedom, nobody (almost) is listening. Seeing the horrific video from Ukraine causes a reflexive swat of the mute button.
As so today (April 20) the Austrian media regulator KommAustria amended rules banning broadcast of RT and Sputnik. Now there is a steep fine for even quoting the infamous Russian propaganda channels. KommAustria set the distribution rule last week to comply with the broader European Union sanctions. In Austria there is a €50,000 fine for distributing RT and Sputnik content in any language and a similar fine for attempting to circumvent the sanction. (See more about propaganda here)
Russian Federation Human Rights Council president Valery Fadeev implored OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media Teresa Ribeiro to “take measures” against harassment of Russian-language media, noted state news agency RAI Novosti (April 19). “The new Austrian law,” offered Russia Today chief editor Margarita Simonyan on social media, “it concerns both the media and ordinary people. You are still the bloody regime.” Lack of irony noted.
Earlier in the week Albania’s broadcast and telecom regulators, AMA and AKEP respectively, banned RT and Sputnik, reported Ukrainian media news portal Detector Media (April 19). The AMA “briefed local media on ethical rules and cautioned in using pro-Russian information.” This follows Western Balkans neighbor Kosovo, which blacked out RT and Sputnik in February.
Meanwhile back in Moscow infamous Russian Federation media regulator/censor Roskomnadzor has continued the campaign to intimidate independent media outlets. Most recent are all services of French international broadcaster Radio France International and the Russian-language edition of The Moscow Times. Previously sanctioned independent news portal Mediazona ended its cooperation with Roskomnadzor’s rules. "We are no longer going to comply with all other crazy requirements,” said its social media message, which called the rules “idiotic,” reported Jerusalem Post (April 19). “Thanks for staying with us. No war!”
Observers in the French-speaking world paid notice to Algerian daily newspaper Liberté, which closed last week (June 14). Owner Issad Rebrab announced the closing a week earlier saying he was retiring and his sons, taking over the family business Cevital, have no interest in keeping the newspaper going, reported AFP (April 14). "After 30 years of intellectual adventure, Liberté is finished,” said the front page of the last edition. A drawing by famous cartoonist Ali Dilem, always on the back page, depicted a coffin.
Liberté debuted in June 1992, published in Algers, as the country entered a decade of turmoil and civil war. During that decade, two Liberté reporters were murdered. Several media outlets appeared during those years, most fading away. Protests, often violent, reemerged in 2019 as the government enacted stiff laws to curtail civil liberties. Algeria is considered politically unstable. Press freedom in Algeria, never particularly strong, has continued to deteriorate. Reporters sans Frontieres (RSF) 2021 World Press Freedom Index ranks Algeria at 146, between Pakistan and Burundi. (See more about media in North Africa here)
“The disappearance of Liberté comes in a political and economic context extremely unfavorable to press freedom in Algeria,” said RSF secretary general Christophe Delore, in a statement (April 8). A former director and co-founder of Libertè - Ahmed Fattani - has expressed, contentiously, interest in reviving the newspaper, reported Observ/Algerie (April 18). He is the current publisher of L’Expression, another French-language Algerian daily newspaper, and is claiming “moral” ownership.
Election debates between - or among - candidates are commonplace in countries with historical regard for democratic conventions. Others don’t bother. These are always on TV because nothing is important unless it is on TV. We are still a few years before they will be held on TikTok.
The big TV debate between Marine Le Pen and Emmanuel Macron is scheduled for tomorrow (April 20) on TF1 and France 2 as well as LCI and FranceInfo. Mme Le Pen is a perpetual right-wing candidate and M Macron is president of the French Republic. TF1’s news anchor Gilles Bouleau and France 2 political commentator Léa Salamé have been chosen to interrogate the candidates.
The two main TV news channels decide on the debate format and the interlocutors, in concert with the political parties. Mme Le Pen’s party National Rally was adamant that Anne-Sophie Lapix of France 2 not be selected. That follows Mme Le Pen’s call to privatize French public broadcasting, a favorite rally cry for right-wing politicians. (See more about elections and media here)
In 2017 the same two principals held a “muscular exchange,” noted L’Internaute (April 19), though the audience for that event was smaller than ever. In preparation for this event Mme Le Pen has gone into isolation. M Macron has not. Polling from Les Echos (April 19) shows M Macron leading with 56%.
Though the next US presidential campaign is many months away, the TV debates briefly jumped into headlines. Republican National Committee (RNC) voted (April 14) to boycott the Commission for Presidential Debates in 2024, noted The Atlantic (April 18). Republican candidates will be required to “attest in writing” that they will only participate in events sanctioned by the RNC, which called the Commission on Presidential Debates “biased.” They want to choose the moderators, the venues and, of course, the outcomes.
For two decades Afghanistan’s media sector had become a testament to international media development and support initiatives. Dozens of outlets were established to offer radio, TV, newspapers and online platforms to a population impatient for news, entertainment and, most of all, a sense of normalcy. That mostly crumbled last August when the Taliban extremists swarmed back into the country.
True to their word, the Taliban extremists shuttered all by religious media, terrorising media workers along the way. Around the world, for a few weeks last year international media was rapt with stories of Afghans trying to escape. Some were media workers, highly skilled and trained. Some got out. Many remain in hiding. (See more about conflict zones here)
A report from Columbia Journalism Review (CJR) a month ago (March 17) attempted to illuminate the fate of those Afghan media workers who were able to flee and those who remain in hiding. The CJR piece focused on “the asylum trap,” professional status disappearing into “refugee bureaucracy, effectively becoming wards of the state, unable to work or live independently, often for years, while their applications for resettlement were processed.” Blame was levied on employers, aid agencies and foreign governments. (See more about media support here)
Sharif Hassan Yar fled last August with his family to Pakistan. He had been the director of Ariana TV since 2014. Prior to that he had been news director at Tolo TV. “Escape was a difficult but good decision,” he said to Journalisten NO (April 15). Today they are in Molde, Norway, children in school, he and his wife learning Norwegian.
“In Afghanistan, I could not do this interview,” he continued. “The Taliban do not behave like humans. They stop people on the street, check messages, emails and everything on the mobile phone. They search through the pockets of random people. Under Afghan law, they have no right to do so.”
“I continue to use my voice in social media, among other things. Now I am happy to be here and to be able to contribute from here.” He would like to return to media work, preferably in Norway.
|
