The Washington Post and The New York Times are collaborating with software designer Mozilla to create a system that will help improve the culture of online commenting. The project is also intended to make it simpler for readers to post in the comment section of news websites and to interact with each other, as well as journalists.
The World Association of Newspapers and News publishers has strongly condemned the sentencing of Al Jazeera reporters by a Cairo court today. “We are disappointed and outraged at this judgement. It is an abhorrent abuse of press freedom principles”, Secretary General Larry Kilman said. “These journalists have been jailed for simply doing their jobs and journalism is not a crime.”
After four years, Agnes Uwimana Nkusi, editor of Umurabyo newspaper in Rwanda, has been released from prison.
A year after the Snowden revelations, The World Editors Forum has launched a global survey targeting editors and senior journalists, designed to assess the security of newsrooms and investigative journalism in the post-Snowden era. The results of this survey will be used to underpin further industry-relevant research and reportage on the surveillance debate and they will feed into a major UNESCO study on privacy and freedom of expression online.
After more than ten months in jail without charges, Abdullah al-Shami was released from Cairo’s Scorpion prison on Tuesday 17 June. The Al Jazeera Arabic correspondent was arrested by security forces in August 2013 while covering the violent dispersal of a pro-Morsi sit-in that left hundreds of protesters dead. Jailed Al Jazeera journalists Peter Greste, Mohamed Fadel Fahmy, Baher Mohamed await their verdict on 23 June.
UNESCO’s Director of Freedom of Expression and Media Development, Guy Berger, has urged editors to plan coverage on journalists’ safety to coincide with the UN’s new International Day to End Impunity for Crimes Against Journalists. November 2nd is the designated day and Berger told the 2014 World Editors Forum in Turin, Italy, that editors could profitably use this ‘news peg’ to draw attention to the need for justice for slain journalists.
The relationship between print newspapers and tablets has strengthened, positively influencing audiences and increasing recall of news, Abba Newbery, Director of Advertising Strategy, News UK Commercial, told participants at WAN-IFRA’s World Advertising Forum on Wednesday in Torino, Italy.
Verification has long been one of the guiding principles of journalism and is even more essential today in the age of Photoshop-altered photos, social media hoaxes and “astroturfing,” a panel of digital media accuracy experts at the World Editors Forum asserted. Kerry Northrup reports from Torino.
Enhanced Media Metrics Australia (EMMA) is a metric system built for the digital age, targeting both advertisers and media agencies and reaching 93 percent of readers, says Mark Hollands, CEO of The Newspaper Works, Australia.
“How sexy is print? It’s so unsexy you can hardly talk about it,” said Staffan Hultén, Vice President and Founder, RAM Research and Analysis of Media, Sweden. Yet as his presentation made clear, print is still an incredibly effective advertising medium.
Partnership and constant innovation are two of the key success factors for news publishers who are transforming their business for the multiplatform mobile world. That was the main message of the session titled “How to transform your business for the multi-platform mobile world” at the World Newspaper Congress in Torino, Italy.
From the early hours of Friday 6 June, the Nigerian army began halting the distribution of major national newspapers in what it claimed was part of a security operation. After five days of restricted circulation, newspapers returned to the news stands on 11 June.