Final few days to enter the AIBs 2020

17 July 2020

Final few days to enter the AIBs 2020

We are into the final seven days to enter the AIBs – the annual international competition for journalism and factual productions.

The AIBs cover TV, radio and digital platforms and are open to work in any language.

There are 20 categories in this year’s competition, ranging from daily journalism to investigative documentary, natural world to human interest, science to politics.

We recognise that the past few months have been challenging for everyone, and that’s why we only launched the AIBs after discussions with a wide range of producers and journalists. Everyone we spoke with agreed that despite the global pandemic, recognising the work of teams and individuals across the world involved in factual story telling remains important.

The closing date is fast approaching – Friday 24 July – so do not delay in getting your entries together to join colleagues from Singapore, Qatar, the UK, the US, Hong Kong, Germany, Belgium, Bangladesh, Taiwan, Australia and Japan who have already submitted their work for our international panel of judges to consider.

Full information about this year’s AIBs is on our special website at http://theaibs.tv, and you can see the full entry book in page-turning format at https://theaibs.tv/AIBs-2020/Entry-book/index.html.

The AIB team is also available to answer any questions that you may have and to help solve any problems you encounter in entering your work. Full contact information appears below.

We look forward to seeing your work and that of your colleagues showcased to the world in this year’s AIBs.

Good luck!

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BBC sets out modernisation plans

15 July 2020

BBC sets out modernisation plans

BBC News has set out an update on the plans it announced earlier this year to respond to changing audience needs.

The update addresses the BBC’s worsening financial position and draws on the experiences of operating during the Covid-19 crisis.

In January BBC News announced a series of modernisation proposals. Since then, faced with the Covid-19 crisis, BBC News has made huge operational changes to keep vital news services on air. During this time the proposals were paused, and will now be implemented in stages.

Director of BBC News and Current Affairs, Fran Unsworth, says: “Covid-19 has changed all of our lives. We are still covering the most challenging story of our lifetimes. During this crisis audiences have turned to BBC News in their millions and I’m incredibly proud of what we, as a team, have been able to achieve.

“But if we don’t make changes, we won’t be sustainable. This crisis has led us to re-evaluate exactly how we operate as an organisation. And our operation has been underpinned by the principles we set out earlier this year – fewer stories, more targeted and with more impact. We’re aiming to reach everyone, every day. For BBC News to thrive, and for us to continue to serve all our audiences, we have to change.”

Alongside structural changes in some departments, updated plans set out today include:

Commissioning: the changes to working caused by the Covid-19 crisis mean it is not possible to go straight to the new way of working announced in January, but we will move towards it with a new commissioning group (made up of existing editors) to co-ordinate the biggest planned stories, avoid duplication and make BBC content go further
Newsgathering: BBC News will have fewer reporters overall; more correspondents will increasingly be asked to work across a range of content rather than be ‘owned’ by individual programmes. We will invest in new community affairs roles around the country, while reducing numbers in London
Digital: We want to ensure digital is at the heart of our journalism. A number of skilled digital journalists will move into the Newsgathering team and be deployed on stories. We will refocus the ‘rollout’ of our stories, so we break more stories in the morning when our digital audiences are highest
Original journalism: a new team, bringing together expertise from areas such as the Victoria Derbyshire programme and BBC Stories, will focus on under-reported ‘off diary’ stories, producing content for daily news programmes and online
TV political programming: Politics Live, currently airing on Wednesdays only, will return four days a week, Monday to Thursday
BBC Parliament will focus on live and as-live coverage of the elected chambers across the UK and produce daily and weekly highlights programmes. We will no longer commission most of the other bespoke programmes we currently make for BBC Parliament, although we will continue to draw on our archive to broadcast our popular historical election coverage
News channels: We will preserve two clearly branded news channels (the BBC News channel in the UK and BBC World News globally) with a focus on live, breaking and developing stories but will retain some elements of shared output in the mornings and evenings
World Service English: we will make some of the current streamlined schedule changes permanent, including reductions in the duration of Newsday and The World This Week will be decommissioned. We will launch a new Africa-focused podcast
Business output: To increase the impact of business coverage we will integrate it more closely with the rest of the output, and will no longer run the Business Online live page. We will reduce separate business bulletins on the News channel and BBC World Service English
Radio: We will close In Business on BBC Radio 4 but continue long-form business content with The Bottom Line

Building on the lessons of operating during Covid-19, we will use fewer studios and make significant reductions to our operations staff.

The reduction in output means we will also reduce our pool of presenters.

The increased financial pressure on the BBC as a result of Covid-19 means the number of job losses in BBC News will rise to around 520, which is 70 more than the 450 announced in January. This will include senior management posts.

There will be a further update on plans later in the year.

Source: BBC Press Release

#HoldTheLine campaign supporting Maria Ressa launched

9 July 2020

#HoldTheLine campaign supporting Maria Ressa launched

Sixty press freedom groups and civil society organisations, journalism institutions, filmmakers, and other supporters have formed a coalition in support of Maria Ressa and independent media in the Philippines, united around the call to #HoldTheLine.

Today the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), the International Center for Journalists (ICFJ), and Reporters Without Borders (RSF) announced the launch of the #HoldTheLine campaign in support of journalist Maria Ressa and independent media under attack in the Philippines. Acting in coordination with Ressa and her legal team, representatives from the three groups form the steering committee, working alongside dozens of partners on the global campaign and reporting initiatives. The campaign takes its name from Ressa’s commitment to ‘hold the line’ in response to sustained state harassment and prolific online violence.

An internationally celebrated Filipino-American journalist, Ressa is best known for two decades covering South East Asia for CNN and founding the multi-award winning Philippines news website Rappler. On 15 June 2020, she was convicted of “cyber-libel,” alongside former Rappler colleague Reynaldo Santos Jr — a criminal charge for which they face up to six years in prison. The conviction relates to a story about corruption from 2012 – before the law was even enacted – and hung on the correction of a typo.

Ressa and Santos both posted bail, but could be imprisoned if the case is not overturned on appeal. Ressa is facing at least six other cases and charges. Guilty verdicts in all of them could result in her spending nearly a century in jail. Rappler is also implicated in most of these cases, with several involving criminal charges related to libel, foreign ownership, and taxes. The convictions are the latest offense in the Duterte government’s wider campaign to stifle independent reporting, including the recent shutdown of the main national broadcaster ABS-CBN.

“I am moved by the incredible outpouring of support we’ve received from around the globe for our campaign to #HoldTheLine against tyranny – even as President Duterte continues his public attacks on me, the legal harassment escalates, and the state-licenced and Facebook-fuelled online violence rages on. We can’t stay silent because silence is consent,” Ressa said. “We need to be outraged, to fight back with journalism. If we don’t use our rights, we will lose them. Please stand with us!”

Those interested in showing support and helping to #HoldTheLine can take two immediate steps in the run-up to Ressa’s next hearing scheduled on 22 July:

Join the #HoldTheLine coalition by getting in touch via the contacts
Sign and share this petition calling for the Philippine government to drop all charges and cases against Ressa, Santos and Rappler, and end pressure on independent media in the

The 60 founding members of the #HoldTheLine Coalition are:

The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), the International Center for Journalists (ICFJ) and Reporters Without Borders (RSF), which form the steering committee; African Media Initiative; Association for International Broadcasting (AIB); Alliance for Journalists’ Freedom; Amnesty International; ARTICLE 19; Association of Caribbean Media Workers; Canadian Journalism Forum on Violence and Trauma; Centre for Freedom of the Media (CFOM); Centre for Law and Democracy; CineDiaz; The Coalition For Women In Journalism; Community Media Forum Europe (CMFE); The Daphne Caruana Galizia Foundation; DART Asia Pacific; Dart Center; Doc Society; English PEN; European Journalism Centre; First Look Media; Free Press Unlimited; Global Alliance on Media and Gender (GAMAG); Global Forum for Media Development (GFMD); Global Voices; Graduate School of Journalism, Columbia University; Index on Censorship; Institute for Regional Media and Information (IRMI); International Media Support (IMS); International Association of Women in Radio and Television (IAWRT); International News Safety Institute (INSI); International Press Institute (IPI); International Women’s Media Foundation (IWMF); James W. Foley Legacy Foundation; Judith Neilson Institute; Justice for Journalists Foundation; Media Association for Peace (MAP); Media Development Investment Fund (MDIF); Namibia Media Trust (NMT); National Union of Journalists of the Philippines (NUJP); Pakistan Press Foundation; Panos Institute Southern Africa; PEN America; Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism (PCIJ); Press Freedom Defence Fund; Project Syndicate; Public Media Alliance; Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting; Rappler; Rory Peck Trust; Rural Media Network Pakistan; South African National Editors’ Forum (SANEF); Storyhunter; The Signals Network; Tanzania Media Practitioners Association; Union of Journalists in Finland; World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers (WAN-IFRA); and World Editors Forum.

Al Jazeera shocked by Malaysia authorities reaction to documentary

9 July 2020

Al Jazeera shocked by Malaysia authorities reaction to documentary

Al Jazeera shocked by the response from Malaysian authorities to its documentary ‘Locked Up in Malaysia’s Lockdown’ and worried about the safety of its staff

Al Jazeera has serious concerns about developments that have occurred in Malaysia since the broadcast of its 101 East investigative documentary, “Locked Up in Malaysia’s Lockdown” on 3 July 2020. The documentary looked at why Malaysia’s illegal foreign migrant workers are at risk in the time of COVID-19.

Malaysian officials have criticised the documentary as being inaccurate, misleading and unfair.

Al Jazeera strongly refutes these charges and stands by the professionalism, quality and impartiality of its journalism.

The 101 East documentary strand, a weekly programme from across the Asia Pacific region, has a reputation for producing in-depth journalism of the highest quality. Many of its programmes have been internationally recognised with prestigious awards from across the globe, including the AIBs.

The episode “Locked Up in Malaysia’s Lockdown” contains the views and experiences of a wide range of people from different backgrounds, including a well-respected Malaysian doctor and Malaysian relief worker on the frontlines. As stated clearly in the film, Al Jazeera acknowledges that Malaysia’s Covid-19 response has successfully contained the spread of the virus. The programme also clearly shows the humanitarian efforts made by Malaysian organisations which provide direct assistance to migrants in need. The episode does not contain the personal opinions of any Al Jazeera staff.

Al Jazeera repeatedly sought to obtain the government’s view, by requesting interviews with a number of senior government ministers and officials. Repeated requests for interviews were not accepted. Al Jazeera also sought to attend the Defence Minister’s press conferences, but was told only state media could attend. Despite the government’s refusal to be interviewed, Al Jazeera still produced a balanced film by including comments made by the Defence Minister at two press conferences.

The documentary captured events, including immigration raids, as they unfolded in real-time in Malaysia. These events were also widely reported by many other media outlets, both domestically and internationally.

Al Jazeera is deeply concerned that its staff are now subject to a police investigation. Charging journalists for doing their jobs is not the action of a democracy that values free speech. Journalism is not a crime. Al Jazeera also has grave concerns about the sustained online harassment its staff are facing. Reporters have been targeted with abusive messages and death threats. The personal details of current and former staff have been published online, in a serious breach of privacy which could potentially expose them to great risk both now and in the future.

Al Jazeera is also concerned for the safety of those interviewed in the documentary who have also been subjected to abusive online harassment and hate speech. People should feel free to speak with the media and express their views without the fear that they could be targeted. In a world in which the media face increasing threats, Al Jazeera calls for media freedom and the right to report freely without intimidation.

Al Jazeera calls upon the Malaysian authorities to desist from initiating any criminal investigation into its professional, impartial journalism.

Al Jazeera English is prepared to host a representative of the Malaysian government to respond to the matters raised in the documentary.

Edit 15 July 2020

The AIB has written to the Malaysian High Commissioner in London to protest the investigation launched against the team of Al Jazeera journalists who compiled the documentary. You can read the letter here.

TRT World Forum Digital Debates discuss Srebrenica Genocide on 25th anniversary

7 July 2020

TRT World Forum Digital Debates discuss Srebrenica Genocide on 25th anniversary

Marking the 25^th anniversary of the Srebrenica Genocide, as part of a week-long discussion series with the participation of special guests, Digital Debates discusses human rights, war crimes and the effectiveness and challenges of the implementation of the ‘Responsibility to Protect’ principle in an effort to help prevent massacres and genocides.

The first session will take place today (Tuesday, July 7) at 5:00 pm GMT (8:00 pm local Turkey time) with the attendance of Dr. Waqar Azmi, Chairman of Remembering Srebrenica to discuss the ‘The Enduring Denial of Genocide’.

The session seeks to address the obstacles hampering reconciliation, the strategies used by genocide deniers, as well as questioning how Republika Srpska’s ongoing calls for secession affect reconciliation?

The other sessions are listed as follows:

July 8^th at 5:00 pm GMT: ‘Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia and Prosecution of War Criminals’ with Dr. Nevenka Tromp Vrkic, Lecturer in East European Studies at the University of Amsterdam.

July 9^th at 4:00 pm GMT: ‘The UN’s Responsibility to Protect Srebrenica’, Toby Cadman, Co-founder and Head of Guernica 37 International Justice Chambers.

July 10^th at 5:00 pm GMT: ‘How International Justice Failed in Srebrenica’, Sir Geoffrey Nice QC, Lead Prosecutor in the Slobodan Milosevic trial at the UN-run International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia

July 11^th at 5:00 pm GMT: ‘The Humanitarian Scale of the Bosnian War and the Srebrenica Genocide’, Kathryne Bomberger, Director General of the International Commission on Missing Persons.

Everyone can join the sessions:

The sessions will be broadcast online on TRT World Forum’s social media accounts. Attendees are encouraged to address their questions during the live Q&A sessions.

YouTube: @TRTWorldForum

Facebook: @TRTWorldForum

Twitter: @ TRTWorldForum

What happened in Srebrenica:

In July 1995, half a century after the Holocaust, Europe witnessed another genocide. In the wake of Yugoslavia’s dissolution, thousands of civilians escaped to Srebrenica, a UN-designated safe area. However, under the watch of Dutch UN protection forces, the Bosnian Serb forces systematically massacred more than 8,000 Bosnian Muslims in Srebrenica. The ramifications of the massacre continue to haunt the victims’ families and the international community’s conscience.

About TRT

TRT, a European Broadcasting Union founding member, stands out as a reliable source of information with its reporting at home and from abroad, developing a rich tradition of journalistic integrity and offering viewers a rich bouquet of programmes. With over half a century of broadcasting experience, today TRT’s network extends to 14 television channels, 18 radio stations in 41 languages and dialects.In order to fulfill the demands of global audience for an easier access to its content on different platforms, TRT launched its English channel TRT World- a platform of news outlets aimed to inspire change in the world by delivering diverse reporting.

http://www.trt.net.tr/

https://www.facebook.com/TRT/

https://www.instagram.com/trt/

https://www.youtube.com/user/TRTTelevizyon

https://twitter.com/trt

About TRT World

TRT World, Turkey’s first English broadcasting international news platform was launched in 2015 and headquartered in Istanbul, with four newsrooms and an extensive global bureau network covering major regions and hot spots. Strategically designed to maximize its global reach, it is broadly available in all major English-speaking countries and can be accessed via traditional media, including free-to-air, cable and satellite, and other digital platforms, including mobiles, desktops and social media. A distinctive voice to the global news landscape, this is TRT World.

www.trtworld.com
twitter.com/trtworld
facebook.com/trtworld
instagram.com/trtworld
youtube.com/c/trt.world

AIB history brief – jamming

30 June 2020

AIB history brief – jamming

They spent more on jamming than the broadcasts cost to produce. That’s the theory around the jamming of western radio broadcasters by the Soviet Bloc during the Cold War years.

Leaders of the communist states were determined to keep control of the information flow to their citizens, fearing that news from abroad would lead to the undermining of their totalitarian regimes.

Immense shortwave transmitting stations were constructed across eastern Europe, from the Baltics to the Balkans, not to serve audiences but to hinder them. They were not listed in the International Telecommunication Union’s registers of transmitters in the “white book”, the hugely detailed dataset of the world’s shortwave broadcasting. They were, essentially, transmitters that everyone knew existed yet were maintained “off the books” as state secrets.

As jamming became ever more prevalent – aimed principally at the BBC External Services [now BBC World Service]; Deutsche Welle; Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty; Voice of America – western broadcasters had to invest more in building ever greater numbers of high powered shortwave transmitters to ensure that their signals reached their listeners across eastern Europe.

If you tuned across the shortwave radio bands in the 1960s, 70s and 80s, you would have heard a cacophony of sound. Over-modulated speech, distorted music – anything that could have the effect of making the original programme all but impossible to hear was used to stop reception.

To understand the scale of the operation, it’s worth watching a video produced by RFE/RL about the Padorska jamming station (2012 aerial shot from Google Earth pictured) in central Bulgaria. The immense site is now in ruins, with the antennas removed in the last few years (although Google Maps has a Street View image from 2012 in which the site’s antennas are visible in the distance). One of the technicians who started working at the site in the late 1980s, shortly before the Iron Curtain was lifted, explains how the station operated.

There are a good number of anecdotes concerning jamming. One from 1985 when many BBC employees went on strike and programmes were replaced with music on World Service English and most of the language services. The Soviet jammers had a day off – at least until someone in Bush House, then the home to BBC World Service, decided to play “Back in the USSR” by the Beatles. Within minutes the jammers leapt into life, simply to drown out what was clearly thought to be decadent anti-Soviet music.

The end of the Cold War did not mark the cessation of jamming. It’s continued on shortwave over the past 30 years. At the time of the first Gulf War, Iraq jammed the BBC’s services in the Middle East and more recently North Korea has jammed the signals of Radio Free Asia.

Jamming continues from time to time today. As shortwave broadcasting has slowly faded away, satellites have become the target. Ethiopia has jammed satellites carrying opposition TV channels and Iran regularly jams satellites with Persian-language programmes from abroad. There are no longer immense jamming stations seeking to interfere with programmes from around the world; today’s satellite jammers can use commercially available uplink equipment to try and take out transponders on satellites. The satellite industry has responded, and now far greater levels of security exist that prevent almost all attempts to stop TV and radio signals from reaching their intended audiences.

This does not mean that the free flow of information across borders is guaranteed today. Some governments continue to try to restrict the work of international broadcasters, using tactics instead of wholesale jamming of the airwaves. It’s why the AIB continues to work on media freedom to try to ensure that everyone can access the information they want or need.

Additional resources:

http://www.antentop.org/008/files/jamm008.pdf

https://criticaldistance.blogspot.com/2012/04/jamming-hell-out-of-west.html