MEDIABLAB DAILY DIGEST JAN 21: SOEHARTO BRITNEY SPEARS NAOMI KLEIN SHOCK DOCTRINE BURMA
January 22nd 2008 03:12
OVERDOSE OF REPORTS ON SOEHARTO’S MEDICAL CONDITION A SYMPATHY-GARNERING PLOY SAY INDONESIAN MEDIA EXPERTS
Asian media experts say purposely sympathetic coverage of former Indonesian strongman Soeharto's declining medical condition places balanced reportage into question
The Jakarta Post reports that media observers and activists said the countless reports on Soeharto's ill health could evoke sympathy from the public, which would then lead to forgiveness over his alleged past crimes.
Chairman of the Alliance of Independent Journalists Heru Hendratmo said footage of Soeharto being carried on his bed through the hall, which depicted his weak condition and had been aired repeatedly by television stations, was a particular example.
The Institute for Press and Development Studies, Ignatius Haryanto, said media coverage of Soeharto's illness "now purposely tended to evoke sympathy".
Communication and media expert Effendi Ghazali told the Jakarta Post the "sympathy-evoking coverage" could spark questions around the lack of balance in reportage.
He said, "Those who believe in the conspiracy theory will question media ownership."
The public may understandably wonder if Soeharto or his family is behind the media, he said.
Indonesian television stations including RCTI, TPI and Metro TV are connected either with Soeharto's family or his close companions.
A number of University of Indonesia graduates who are part of the 98 UI Big Family group said they wanted to remind the public of "the humanity destruction, the injustice and the under-development of people that took place during Soeharto's presidency and were results of his dictatorship".
Soeharto's family lawyer Juan Felix Tampubolon told the Jakarta Post that during his several visits to the hospital, he had not heard Soeharto's family complain about the excessive media coverage.
FRENCH DISAGREEMENT OVER DISBANDING OF JOURNALISTS SPY UNIT
Reports from France say there have been disagreements over the disbanding of the intelligence unit attached to its ministry of overseas territories, originally set up to gather information about politicians and journalists.
Pacific Media Watch said the move was announced by the junior minister, Christian Estrosi, and the French weekly Le Point now says he will not rescind his decision after it was criticised by his superior, the Minister of the Interior, Michele Alliot-Marie.
Estrosi said the contract of the general in charge of the ministry’s military unit expired at the end of December and after consulting the president, the prime minister and the defence minister, it was disbanded.
He says the intelligence unit was set up in 1959 to gather information about politicians, as well as journalists, on the ministry’s behalf.
According to Le Point, Alliot-Marie will hire a military adviser and maintain some offices responsible to the high commissions.
TELEVISION COVERAGE OF THE AUSTRALIAN TENNIS OPEN SERVES UP AN ACE FOR NETWORK SEVEN
Networks Seven’s television coverage of day six of the Australian Open swept across primetime and into the early hours of this morning, peaking at 2.229 million.
Its daytime average audience share was 33.4 percent, its primetime share was 38.6 percent, and its late night share was 38.9 percent.
In total audience reach, 5.397 million Australians across the five major metropolitan markets watched all or part of Seven’s coverage of day six of the Australian Open.
In total audience reach, 8.937 million Australians across the five major metropolitan markets have now watched all or part of Seven’s coverage of the Australian Open.
The Roger Federer vs Janko Tipsarevic match peaked at 1.912 million
The Lleyton Hewitt vs Marcos Baghdatis clash, which aired live from 11.47pm until 4.33am and was the latest ever finish for an Australian Open match, peaked at 1.010 million, but this figure is until 2am only as Australian ratings are measured in a 24 hour period from this time.
ASSOCIATED PRESS RULES THAT VIRTUALLY EVERYTHING INVOLVING BRITNEY SPEARS IS NOW ‘BIG DEAL’MediaBloodhound reports that the flow of news about “Britney Spears, an obscure and underreported pop star,” is guaranteed to continue following a memo from Frank Baker, Associated Press Los Angeles assistant bureau chief.
The irreverent web site Gawker ran the text of Baker’s memo which was issued to “News – Southern California Editorial Staff,” on January 8.
The memo read,
“Now and for the foreseeable future, virtually everything involving Britney is a big deal. That doesn’t mean every rumour makes it on the wire. But it does mean that we want to pay attention to what others are reporting and seek to confirm those stories that WE feel warrant the wire. And when we determine that we’ll write something, we must expedite it.
“Thanks, Frank.”
Gawker also reminded its readers about AP’s former admirable but aborted effort to rid its wires of Paris Hilton reports for one week.
Gawker said, “And while the AP and Baker have taken some heat for the Britney move, it’s only fair to point out the AP’s valiant, cold turkey effort to break its addiction to reporting on Paris Hilton, a forgotten weeklong struggle that began on February 19, 2007, at the end of which the newswire king – conjuring images of night sweats and hallucinations of giant babies crawling on ceilings – reported, ‘We didn’t cover her weekend birthday bash in Las Vegas.’ In its battle with the demons of newsworthiness, AP also noted, ‘During blackout week, the AP didn’t mention Hilton’s second birthday party at a Beverly Hills restaurant, at which a drunken friend reportedly was ejected by security after insulting Paula Abdul and Courtney Love. And editors asked our Puerto Rico bureau not to write about her visit there to hawk her fragrance.’”
But, according to Gawker, “In the end, the monkey on the AP’s back was an unrelenting, pitiless temptress. While the weeklong moratorium was an admirable goal, Paris Hilton, an infinite source of news that impacts all of our lives, proved too strong. Before the week’s end, the AP admitted, ‘However, her name did slip into copy unintentionally three times, as background: in stories about Britney Spears, Nicole Richie, and even in the lead of a story about Democrats in Las Vegas.’”
Gawker concluded, “Nevertheless, this historic journalistic effort – worthy of the industry’s highest accolades – must never be forgotten. For if quitting cigarettes is, as the medical community has noted for years, as difficult as kicking heroin, then the AP’s addiction to Paris and Britney and the infinite pool of talentless, vapid Americans famous for being famous can only be compared to, say, a speedball of cocaine and heroin, or, possibly, the largest hunk of journalistic crack ever smoked in the western hemisphere.”
SYDNEY MORNING HERALD SPREADS ITS EARTH HOUR ACROSS THE EARTH
The Sydney Morning Herald’s editor Alan Oakley has called onto the World Editors Forum to spread the word to newspapers and individuals to participate in this year’s Earth Hour.
The Forum’s Editors Weblog reports that Earth Hour, an initiative supported by The Sydney Morning Herald, aims to get people worldwide involved in the struggle against climate change and excessive energy consumption by having them switch off their lights at a given hour.
On March 31 2007, 2.2 million people and 2100 Sydney businesses turned off their lights for one hour. This effort reduced Sydney’s energy consumption by 10.2 percent for one hour – the equivalent of taking 48,000 cars off the road for an hour.
In response to this initiative, many other major global cities will be joining Earth Hour in 2008.
As of now, over 3,600 people and 220 businesses have signed up for Earth Hour 2008.
NAOMI KLEIN’S NEW BOOK THE SHOCK DOCTRINE GIVES THE LOW-DOWN ON DISASTER CAPITALISM
Naomi Klein’s new book, The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism is set to rattle a few cages, especially if Mark Groubert’s rather sensationalist review in Crooks and Liars is anything to go by.
A breathless Groubert reports, “A divinely inspired work, Naomi Klein has tapped into the zeitgeist of modern day destruction capitalism. In 400-plus pages and extensive footnotes, she melts the myths surrounding the so-called global free market. Apparently, it is neither global, nor free and anything but a market.
“The Shock Doctrine, based on her historical research, and four years of boots-on-the-ground investigation by Klein, reveals the shocking truth that connects Pinochet’s Chile, the Falklands War, the Tiananmen Square Massacre, the collapse of the Soviet Union, the Asian financial crisis and Hurricane Mitch all in terms of rapid fire corporate restructuring of these societies and their economies. Along the way, we go through Poland following communism, South Africa after apartheid, Sri Lanka recovering from the tsunami, Iraq after mission accomplished and New Orleans’ privatisation post Katrina.
“The Shock Doctrine reads like an economic disaster film, Die Hard With a Calculator, if you will. Its antagonist is the late economist Milton Friedman and his gang of Chicago Boys, economic free marketeers trained by the University of Chicago to spread their gospel to an unreceptive and reluctant world. Friedman argued that “only a crisis – actual or perceived –produces real change.
“The shocking truth is that most of the world’s economists now believe this. (He was given a Nobel Prize to make sure of the fact.)
“At first you won’t believe this parallel history laid out by Klein and then later, near the end of the book, you will be unable to see the world in any other way than through the prism of Shock. It is the political equivalent of reading Howard Zinn or Noam Chomsky for the first time. Whole swaths of recent history have been reinterpreted for the reader, who if you are like me, will be stunned that the connections hold up so solidly.”
HONG KONG’S TVB WEEKLY MAGAZINE RELAUNCHES WITH NEW SECTIONS
Marketing reports that Hong Kong’s TVB Weekly has boosted its content and will relaunch with four additional booklets, extending from TV drama entertainment to cover baby, beauty and digital TV.
TVB Weekly has always been sold in two booklets covering TV drama entertainment news and lifestyle, but the revamp has seen the magazine expand into four booklets, TVB Weekly, TV Baby, TV Beauty and TVB Digital Guide,
Yu Ming, publisher of TVB Weekly, said the different booklets will allow advertisers to target a more segmented audience.
With HD and DTV being a currency topic, the new booklet will also attract electronics and set-top box advertisers.
Yu said the new magazine aims to attract a 15 to 20 percent increase to its current readership of 198,000.
IRELAND’S INDEPENDENT NEWS AND MEDIA TO BUY AFRICA’S CLEAR CHANNEL INDEPENDENT
Reuter’s reports that Independent News & Media Plc said it would buy Clear Channel Outdoor Holdings Inc's 50 percent stake in African advertising firm Clear Channel Independent for $US127 million.
Ireland's Independent News said it had owned CCI, a Johannesburg-based outdoor advertising company, as a joint venture with Clear Channel Outdoor since 2001.
"This transaction simplifies and takes INM's ownership interest to 100 per cent," it said. "The transaction is expected to be earnings accretive for INM."
INM said the acquisition would be through the issue of 39 million ordinary shares in the Dublin-based company at the share price at completion.
CCI operates in Angola, Botswana, Lesotho, Malawi, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, Swaziland, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
INM said CCI has forecast 2008 earnings representing a growth rate of more than 20 percent on 2007, with continued growth expected in the run-up to the 2010 soccer World Cup in South Africa.
INM operates in Ireland, Britain, South Africa, Australia, New Zealand and India.
CHINESE PEASANT LEADER JAILED FOR TALKING TO FOREIGN JOURNALISTS
Chinese peasant leader Yu Changwu has been reportedly sentenced to two years' hard labour over a land dispute involving allegedly corrupt officials in the north-eastern province of Heilongjiang.
The South China Morning Post reported that Yu, who led a bold campaign to recover seized farmland, was sentenced for talking to foreign journalists.
The Sydney Morning Herald reported that an internet account posted in Yu's name had earlier accused corrupt local officials in Fujin of acting like landlords. It said villagers had unilaterally proclaimed private ownership of their appropriated village lands, in apparent conflict with the Chinese Constitution.
Details of Yu's conviction remained hazy over the weekend, with Fujin officials not answering their phones.
A family member told the Sydney Morning Herald, “Yu was arrested for talking to foreign journalists. So I cannot agree to talk with you until after he returns home."
The Herald said, “If Yu's conviction is linked to discussions with foreign journalists, as family members believe, it would raise serious questions about the integrity of China's Olympics Games commitment to allow foreign journalists to freely conduct interviews across the country.
“But China also has tough anti-subversion laws, which may have been acted upon in this case.”
The Herald visited the village after Yu was arrested, reporting that officials had been engaged in a costly 15-year cover-up that had impoverished 40,000 peasants. The dispute relates to the local government's messy handling of an agricultural project that was supposed to have reclaimed swampy "wasteland", but instead appropriated prime farm land.
HOLLYWOOD WRITERS STRIKE COULD BE CLOSE TO RESOLUTION
Reuters reports that the Hollywood directors' union reached a contract deal with major film and TV studios on Thursday in a move that might pave the way to settling the a 10-week-old writers.
The studios' tentative three-year labour pact with the Directors Guild of America includes provisions to pay union members more for work distributed over the internet, a key sticking point in stalled contract talks with the writers.
But Reuters said leaders of the Writers Guild of America, which has been on strike since November 5, need to analyse terms of the directors' agreement before deciding whether they could serve as template for their own settlement.
The Directors Guild deal also sets new ‘residual’ fees for the reuse of material in the form of advertising-supported online streaming and video clips, and requires studios to work with union directors on content produced especially for the internet.
The writers strike has taken an enormous toll on the entertainment industry. Much of U.S. television production has ground to a halt, major film projects have been derailed and Hollywood award ceremonies have been scaled back or cancelled.
HOW THE MEDIA DISTORTS NEWS ABOUT ACTIVITIES IN MUSLIM COUNTRIES
It’s interesting how many journalists distort news about activities in Muslim countries to give the impression that our Muslim brothers and sisters are, well, just a little mad.
For example, in The Weekend Australian Rosemary Sorenson wrote in her The Overflow column in The Review section, “about the news that Malaysia’s government this month banned those of the non-Muslim faith using Arabic words such as Allah.”
This is not quite correct. As MediaBlab has reported in several items (see archives) Malaysia's Cabinet decided in early January that the weekly Catholic publication, The Herald, edited by Father Lawrence Andrew, is not permitted to use the word Allah to denote the Christian God in its Bahasa Malaysia-language section.
Minister in the Prime Minister's Department Abdullah Mohd Zin said it was only proper for other religions to use the word ‘God’ and not ‘Allah’ when referring to their God in respective beliefs, adding that the use of the word ‘Allah’ shall not be made a public debate that may give the impression that there is no freedom of religion in the country.
Malaysia is often cited as an example of pluralistic democracy in the Muslim world.
Malaysia’s Internal Security Ministry said Andrews should use the word ‘Tuhan,’ which is a general term for God in the language spoken by the majority of Malaysians, Bahasa Malaysia.
GERMAN BROADCASTER NAILED FOR FALSE SPORTS DOPING REPORTAGE
Deutsche Well reports that biathlon athletes linked to a doping scandal were shown to be falsely accused when German public broadcaster ARD apologised for the accusations made earlier this week, which it admitted had no foundation in fact.
ARD initially reported that up to 30 athletes, many of them from Germany and active at the current biathlon World Cup in Anterselva, were involved in illicit blood-doping activities revolving around the Austrian blood bank Humanplasma, German public broadcaster ARD apologised for the accusations made earlier this week.
Presenter Michael Antwerpes, speaking ‘in the name of ARD’ at the games, said the broadcaster was not justified in making general allegations without presenting any facts. German Ski Federation spokesman Stefan Schwarzbach said ‘the alleged doping affair’ had now become ‘more or less a media affair.’
He added that the federation would take legal steps against the journalists responsible but not against ARD itself.
NEW LINE UP OF SENIOR JOURNALISTS FOR THE AUSTRALIAN NEWSPAPER
The Australian newspaper announced major changes in its journalistic line up on the weekend.
Multi-award-winning journalist Paul Toohey has rejoined The Australian as Darwin-based Northern Territory chief reporter, following a lengthy stint at the Bulletin magazine.
Christian Kerr, the national affairs editor of website Crikey, which at times has been strident in its criticism of The Australian, has defected and will join The Australian’s Canberra bureau in March.
Kerr has been a former adviser to two federal cabinet ministers and a state premier.
Ruth Ostrow, better known for her humour column in The Australian’s weekend colour magazine, becomes the newspaper’s fulltime business columnist and writer
Sid Maher becomes Canberra bureau chief after a stint as national bureau chief, and Michelle Gunn, deputy national bureau chief, succeeds him as of today.
MYANMAR TIMES CONFIRMS DETAILS ABOUT GOVERNMENT ORDERS FOR FLOUTING CENSORSHIP
Myanmar Times editor in chief Ross Dunkley, also ceo of Myanmar Consolidated Media Ltd, has confirmed that the company would not publish a Myanmar-language edition of the paper this week on government orders after flouting censorship rules.
Dunkley confirmed that the government's Press Scrutiny Board ordered the Myanmar-language edition of the Myanmar Times not to publish this week for having run a story earlier that was not approved.
The story, from the news agency Agence France-Presse, was about a huge increase in Myanmar's annual license fee for using satellite TV dishes.
But Dunkley denied reports the government asked that four editors be sacked, although he acknowledged he was asked “to make changes in the newsroom.”
He did not specify what kind of changes, but said they were being implemented.
Meanwhile, the Irrawaddy Journal, not always correct in its coverage of Myanmar events, reported “the resignation under pressure of one of (Myanmar Times reporters, Win Kyaw Oo, in a newsroom reorganisation” is one of the “latest examples of how Minister of Information Brig-Gen Kyaw Hsan is clumsily harassing the country’s media.”
Win Kyaw Oo is in fact the Myanmar Times’ chief of staff (news).
The Myanmar Times’ Ross Dunkley is part of a consortium of western businessman who this month bought a controlling interest in Cambodia’s leading English-language newspaper, The Phnom Penh Post.
FORTUNE MAGAZINE APPOINTS INAUGURAL GLOBAL EDITOR
Stephanie Mehta, a veteran writer at Fortune magazine has been appointed as its new global editor, or foreign editor in the old language.
The South Asian Journalists Association reports that Mehta, whose father is Indian and whose mother is Filipino, is one of four journalists of South Asian origin to hold similar titles at major US magazines.
Fareed Zakaria is editor of Newsweek International; Nisid Hajari is foreign editor of Newsweek; and Bobby Ghosh is international editor of Time, succeeding Romesh Ratnesar.
Regarding the appointment of Mehta, Fortune’s managing editor Andrew Serwer wrote in a staff memo:
“I want to tell you about some changes here at Fortune. Our International
Editor, Robert Friedman, is leaving the magazine after seven years on the
job. Robert worked very hard in helping build our global franchise to its
current strong position, and I want to thank him for that.
“Replacing Robert will be Stephanie Mehta in a new role as Global Editor.
Stephanie's title reflects that our European and Asian editions will now
mostly contain content that appears in our North American edition. All three
editions will continue to be filled with international content written by
Clay Chandler and Peter Gumbel, as well as globetrotters from the US like
Barney Gimbel, Jeff O'Brien, Brian O'Keefe, John Brodie, Alex Taylor, David Kirkpatrick, and Adam Lashinsky, all of whom have traveled on assignment abroad for Fortune recently. (Stephanie herself went to Mexico on the Carlos Slim cover story last year.)
“Fortune remains deeply committed to global coverage. In fact, we are already preparing for our next global forum.
WALL STREET MEDIA ANALYSTS GO THE WAY OF THE DODO
FollowTheMedia reports that the shrinking ranks of Wall Street media analysts has shrunk even more with news that Anthony Noto, senior media analyst and partner at Goldman Sachs is leaving the company to join the National Football League in February as its chief financial officer.
FollowTheMedia said that “Wall Street firms have been cutting back on media analysts because , many believe the sector is in such dire straits there’s not much point in following it very closely.”
In October, Morgan Stanley media analyst Lisa Monaco was one of 300 staff fired in a restructuring move and the company said it would no longer be following the newspaper sector.
FollowTheMedia reported, “Only just the day before she had applauded the restructuring plans by Belo and E.W. Scripps to isolate newspaper shares into their own company and she urged other companies to do similar to unlock shareholder value, not knowing she was part of Morgan Stanley’s plan the next day to do exactly that.”
PEARSON CLOSE TO SELLING ITS HALF-SHARE IN FINANCIAL TIMES DEUTSCHLAND
UK company Pearson is believed to be close to selling its half-share in FT Deutschland, the Financial Times’ German sister paper, to joint venture partner Gruner Jahr, ending the UK media group’s foray into foreign language newspapers.
According to a report in the Financial Times, “People familiar with the deal said G J, controlled by German media group Bertelsmann, had beaten nat¬ional rivals Holtzbrinck and Sueddeutsche Zeitung to satisfy Pearson’s asking price of Euro15 million (A$25.17 million) to Euro20 million.
G J was expected to pay about half up-front and the rest in the form of annual licence fees for the brand FT Deutschland, which it will control for 10 years. The transaction could be ann¬oun¬ced as early as this week.
Pearson in July sold French newspaper Les Echos and said then it was keen to move resources from a national print brand to global and digital brands such as the Financial Times and Mergermarket, both of which it fully owns.
The UK company ex¬panded into the continental European business newspaper market in the 1980s and 1990s, buying Les Echos and Expansion in Spain and joining forces with G J to launch FT Deutschland, seven years ago.
AUSTRALIA’S SWISH GROUP TO DISTRIBUTE SINGAPORE’S IPOP MUSIC LABEL GLOBALLY
Australia’s Swish Group subsidiary, Swish AmpHead, has entered into an exclusive five year worldwide digital distribution agreement, through its partner The Orchard, with iPOP, Singapore’s only independent record company.
The company has also entered into a physical distribution agreement that entitles it to distribute the extensive range of music, audio and video content of iPOP in Australia, New Zealand and the Pacific.
The agreement with iPOP includes work from pop artist John Klass, a multi-platinum-selling artist in the South East Asian region, as well as all future and back catalogue independent releases.
The entire range of music from the iPOP label will be available through Swish AmpHead/The Orchard.
Gary Mackenzie, ceo of Swish AmpHead said “The five year deal between iPOP and Swish AmpHead/The Orchard provides Singapore artists with worldwide digital distribution for the first time and over the next five years should deliver the company a substantial increase in revenue and earnings as well as providing further opportunities for Swish AmpHead in the South East Asian region.”
THE WEST AUSTRALIAN NEWSPAPER CELEBRATES ITS 175TH ANNIVERSARY
The West Australian newspaper is celebrating its 175th anniversary this month.
The first edition of The Perth Gazette and Western Australian Journal was published on Saturday January 5, 1833, when Captain James Stirling was still governor of the Swan River colony.
The West Australian of 2008 has a direct, unbroken line to the journal, which postmaster Charles Macfaull started as a four-page weekly.
The West Australian is Australia's second-oldest continually produced metropolitan daily newspaper. Only the Sydney Morning Herald, first published as the Sydney Herald in 1831, is older.
The three columns on the front page of the first Perth Gazette and Western Australian Journal were dedicated to advertisements. News did not replace advertisements on the front page until 1949.
The paper's name changed four times, becoming The West Australian in 1879 with an initial cover price of threepence. It has been a daily newspaper, published six days a week, since 1885.
Arthur Shenton became proprietor in 1847, and he renamed it The Perth Gazette and Independent Journal of Politics and News to emphasise its independence. It became Perth Gazette and WA Times in 1864 when he bought and folded in rival The West Australian Times.
A syndicate of prominent settlers bought the paper in 1874, three years after Shenton’s death from apoplexy, reportedly caused in part by his imprisonment for contempt of court. It changed the masthead to The Western Australian Times.
The title was shortened to The West Australian in 1879 after a Mr Harper bought it for 1100 pounds and took the editor, Sir Thomas Cockburn-Campbell, and lawyer John Winthrop Hackett as partners. Hackett became business manager and The West soon moved to tri-weekly publication and, in January 1885, to a daily.
Hackett (later Sir Winthrop) became editor in 1887 and took full ownership after Mr Harper died in 1912. Sir Winthrop died in 1916 and the sale of his assets a decade later left substantial legacies to the University of WA and the Anglican Church, and ownership of The West moved to the public company West Australian Newspapers Ltd.
In 1947, a newsprint crisis prompted a switch from broadsheet to smaller tabloid format for the paper.
The Melbourne-based Herald and Weekly Times bought WAN in 1969 and sold it to a subsidiary of Robert Holmes a Court's Bell Group in 1987. In 1988, Bond Corp gained control of Bell and moved the paper's offices to 219 St Georges Terrace. The presses moved to Osborne Park.
After the Bond-Bell collapse, receiver managers of the Bell subsidiary accepted a 1991 offer of $261.4 million from the newly formed West Australian Newspapers Holdings Ltd to buy the printing and publishing assets, headed by The West Australian. WANH was then floated at $1 a share in a heavily oversubscribed offering, which raised $185 million. Its shares listed on the stock exchange in January 1992 and closed yesterday at $12.20, valuing the company at more than $2.5 billion.
WANH and The West moved to a purpose-built $35 million headquarters beside its press facility in 1998. A new $210 million press and production complex was completed last year.
Almost one million people will read today's edition of The West Australian, which the newspaper says is the biggest market penetration of any newspaper in Australia.
AUSTRALIA’S REELING REELTIME APPOINTS TWO NEW BOARD MEMBERS
Reeltime last week appointed Jim Zavos and Andrew Wilshire to its board, effective immediately.
Jim Zavos is the founder and ceo of EzyDVD and has over 25 year’s extensive experience in retail and movie operations. He opened one of the first video stores in Adelaide in 1982 and from there operated six Video Ezy stores when he diversified and founded the EzyDVD business in 1999. Since then the business has become Australia’s number one online DVD retailer, with a market share of aabout 10 percent of the $1.3 billion Australian DVD sales market.
The website www.ezydvd.com.au receives over 40,000 visitors a day and has over 220,000 active registered subscribers.
Andrew Wilshire, ceo of Reeltime, has notched up an extensive track record in software and the internet over the last 20 years both in Australia and New York, and he founded and managed several successful companies. Most financially significant of these was Massive Incorporated – the world’s leading online video games advertising delivery venture – which was sold last year to Microsoft for over $250 million.
He also established www.accessibility.com.au, the leading website in Australia for people with disabilities and the aged and their carers to get information and accessibility products online.
LIBEL TOURISM BECOMES THE NEW HEADACHE IN GLOBALISED MEDIA
The web has certainly globalised publishing and this has brought new legal headaches to publishers as potential litigants go ‘shopping’ for the best country in which to take their case to court.
This phenomenon has become known as libel tourism and Oslo-based journalist Kristine Lowe’s media blog gives an interesting insight into the trend.
Lowe said, “'Libel tourism is a threat to all web publishers, and something we'll se a lot more of in times to come'
She writes, “'It's the dark side of internet and globalisation that nobody likes to talk about,’ said David Carr, a London-based lawyer who's assisted several bloggers with libel issues, when I asked him about the peculiar case of the Icelandic bank Kaupthing who has sued Danish tabloid Ekstra Bladet for libel in London.
“Earlier in the day, I'd had a chat with Bent Falbert, the editor-in-chief of Danish tabloid Ekstra Bladet, who was growing ever more pessimistic about his attempts to reach an out-of-court settlement with Kaupthing
“Not that Falbert didn't think the paper had a good case, but the cost of fighting a libel case in Britain is staggering. Falbert estimated it would cost
four to five times as much as in Denmark. His paper stands accused of libelling Kaupthing in England when they translated several articles about the Icelandic economy to English and published them online.
“Kaupthing's lawyers argue that this means the 'offence' – they claim the articles are highly libellous – took place in England. ‘It's frightening if you can be sued in any country in the world if you write in English, then we could just as well be sued in Australia,’ said Falbert. But that is exactly the case said Carr.
“’According to law, a statement is libellous where it is read. This is the downside of the internet's globalisation of information that nobody likes to think about. When something appears on the web, it appears all over the world: you could potentially face libel suits all over the world.
“’It could just as well be in Australia, where libel laws are even worse, or in France, where you have some very odd historic laws,’ he said, and predicted that this was something we would see happening more: ‘We're going to see people shopping for the legal systems most beneficial to them a lot more.’”
Lowe said UK libel law reverts the burden of proof, which is extremely useful if you want to threaten someone. UK libel law could easily be spread all over the world and become the world's libel law by default, said Carr, adding that just hiring a libel lawyer is very expensive, and something only the very rich can afford
“Jon Wessel-Aas, a lawyer for Norway's public broadcaster NRK told me that the current situation, where it's unclear which countries' laws applies to where, effectively serves to restrict freedom of speech. Libel tourism' is also a problem for broadcasters whose broadcasts can be picked up in other countries than where they broadcast.”
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