A report published by the Citizen Lab of the University of Toronto on 20 December details how the mobile phones of 36 journalists, producers, presenters and executives at the Qatar-based broadcaster were infected by the Pegasus software developed by Israel’s NSO Group.

“This attack on journalists and others working for Al Jazeera and Al Araby is insidious and worrying,” says AIB chief executive Simon Spanswick. “It appears that hacking software is becoming constantly more sophisticated through the development of so-called ‘zero-click’ attacks. It’s vital that all those using mobile devices for investigative research have the most up-to-date operating system installed. In many cases, it is preferable to have a separate phone and SIM card used exclusively for researching a story to mitigate the risks of infection of their everyday phone.”

Australia’s government has accepted recommendations from the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Intelligence and Security following the Committee’s Inquiry into issues around freedom of the press.

The Government Response means that search warrants involving journalists and whistleblowers will need to be signed off by senior judges, offering some degree of protection for journalists and news organisations covering stories regarded as sensitive by government.

The Association for International Broadcasting has been closely involved in the issue of media freedom in Australia - full story here

Chinese authorities have detained Haze Fan, who works for the Bloomberg News bureau in Beijing, on suspicion of endangering national security.

French international news channel France 24 has strengthened its presence in Italy with a new distribution agreement with Tivù, an Italian television operator.

On December 10, 2005, RT went on air for the first time from its Moscow studio; today, RT broadcasts from multiple continents in six languages across TV and online platforms. Over the last 15 years RT has become one of the most-watched international TV news networks in the world, a nine-time Emmy/International Emmy finalist for news, and one of the most discussed and influential news media organisations worldwide.

The Antimonopoly Committee of Ukraine (AMCU) has fined the country's digital TV provider, Zeonbud, for abusing its monopoly position. It provides broadcasting distribution services to national TV channels.

According to the AMCU, Zeonbud set its fees without calculation or economic justification. The company was initially licensed in 2010 with a ten-year extension granted in October 2020.

In 2014, AMCU declared Zeonbud as a monopoly as there were no alternative digital TV providers in Ukraine.

In a reassuringly unchanged ceremony - although virtual and with our audience tuning in via PCs, phones, tablets and smart TVs - the winners of the AIBs 2020 were announced in November

Winners and highly commended entries were announced by our host, Al Jazeera English presenter Kim Vinnell. We linked with our winners around the world - although none of them knew they'd won in advance.

Reaction from our global audience suggest that we got this important celebration about right, ensuring the work of our finalists was treated with respect and care. Read more about how we went about staging the AIBs 2020 here.

You can watch the shows at http://theaibs.tv and read the winners and finalists book at https://theaibs.tv/AIBs-2020/The-AIBs-2020-WinnersandFinalists.pdf.

The AIBs 2021 will launch in April.

ReNEWS, a new home for the news community, sets the stage for vital conversations about socio-cultural challenges: how they affect our newsrooms, and how we report on them. At least once per quarter, ReNEWS will hold a 60- to 90-minute conversation with experts - people with skin in the game - and senior news editors from around the world, looking at different viewpoints and exploring practical considerations for newsrooms and editorial choices.

The first ReNEWS conversation will take place at 1500 GMT on January 14, 2021. It will explore: "Culture Wars: Are they co-opting the mainstream narrative?"

Are we watching freedom of speech slip away in service of political correctness, collective guilt and a fear of being bullied and canceled for expressing an opposing view?

Great news! AIB is partnering with ReNEWS to bring you discounted tickets. All AIB members are entitled to a special discounted price of EUR 12 (excluding VAT), using this code: https://hopin.com/events/renews?code=yJ2oUBZYVbRoSwmZfSjS4orsV

ReNEWS will livestream the conversation.

Laurie Davison has been named head of TV and Film Operations at YouTube in Europe, the Middle East and Africa. His role includes overseeing relationship with studios, production companies, pay-TV groups and PSBs in the EMEA region.

Davison joined YouTube in May 2020 as manager of strategic partnerships TV and Film. Before that, he worked as analyst covering media and internet at Deutsche Bank and Goldman Sachs.

The EBU has elected its new Executive Board, formed of representatives of PSBs across Europe (pictured above).

The new Board, that will serve for a two-year period from January 2021 to December 2022 is:

President: Delphine Ernotte Cunci, CEO, France Télévisions (France)

Vice-President: Petr Dvořák, Director General, Czech TV (Czech Republic)

Thomas Bellut, Director General, ZDF (Germany)

Cilla Benkö, Director General, SR (Sweden)

Marcello Foa, President, Rai (Italy)

Monika Garbačiauskaitė-Budrienė, Director General, LRT (Lithuania)

Giacomo Ghisani, Acting Director General, RV (Vatican State)

Sebastian Sergei Parker, Deputy Director General, Channel One (Russia)

Gonçalo Reis, President and CEO, RTP (Portugal)

Fran Unsworth, Director of News and Current Affairs, BBC (UK)

Alexander Wrabetz, Director General, ORF (Austria)

The AIB is continuing to develop its coronavirus pandemic recovery work plan. This is designed to assist Member companies as they maintain and improve pandemic-affected operations over the coming challenging months.

We have published our recovery planning document which will continue to be developed as we receive input from our specialist working group that has representatives from AIB Member companies across the world. This work has increased in significance given the emergence of new, possibly more transmissible, strains of the virus in the past few months leading to more stringent restrictions on businesses and the population at large.

Contact the AIB Secretariat to discuss membership of the Association and our pandemic recovery planning work.

Well over 2,600 dotRadio top level domains have been registered by broadcasters, radio presenters, producers, community stations, DJs, radio amateurs and others, harnessing the power and appeal of the dotRadio domain.

This specialist domain is available to all broadcasters and to others involved in radio, both professionally and personally. Alongside the domain comes a special tool - on.radio - for broadcasters to use short URLs, such as live.on.radio/popconcert, with tracking of visits to help gauge effectiveness. There is also a redirection service included as part of the domain service and an email service is to be introduced in the coming months.