The Arab Free Press Forum opened Monday in Tunisia with a celebration of the gains that have been made in Middle East press freedom, but with a reminder that much more needs to be done.

“If Tunisia is the country in the region that has most advanced in the construction of democracy, other countries in the region are still suffering under the yoke of authoritarianism,” said Moroccan journalist Aboubakr Jamai, opening the conference on behalf of the World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers (WAN-IFRA). “Reporters thus face different situations. Some have won — like their fellow citizens — their freedom of speech, while others continue to risk their freedom and even their lives.”

“Some are more advanced than others in constructing democratic society, but if the level of democritization differ, there is little doubt about the dynamics that have begun in our societies,” said Mr Jamai, laureate of WAN-IFRA’s Gebran Tueni Award. “There is a sense of history, one that leads to respect for liberty and dignity.”

More than 200 journalists, editors, publishers and others from the region and beyond gathered in Tunis for the two-day annual conference, organised by WAN-IFRA.

The event, supported by a partnership between WAN-IFRA and the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida), is unique among conferences in the region in that it brings together discussions about press freedom with practical strategic advice for building viable media businesses. More on WAN-IFRA’s media development work and the projects conducted under the partnership with Sida can be found at http://www.wan-ifra.org/microsites/media-development.

Other partners in the Arab Free Press Forum include UNESCO, the World Editors Forum, Google, Agence France-Presse, International Media Support, World Press Photo and the Dutch Ambassador to Tunisia.

WAN-IFRA, based in Paris, France, and Darmstadt, Germany, with subsidiaries in Singapore, India, Spain, France and Sweden, is the global organisation of the world’s newspapers and news publishers. It represents more than 18,000 publications, 15,000 online sites and over 3,000 companies in more than 120 countries. Its core mission is to defend and promote press freedom, quality journalism and editorial integrity and the development of prosperous businesses.

It’s not too much of a statement to call Steve Jobs the father of the modern creative class.

The first thing I ever wanted to be was an illustrator and the first place I ever really practiced that craft was on my Apple IIc. This was in the early ’80s, and despite the fact that my mother owned a small ad agency at the time, it wasn’t clear to me that Illustrator was a conceivable profession. I attempted to find a more practical application of my creative desires – architect. But from this, too, I was dissuaded – “many architects simply spend their careers crating plumbing diagrams for office buildings” I recall being told. So I aimed for Doctor – surely this was unassailable! And off I went to Trinity College. With my Macintosh.

There, in my freshman year, I got my first email address and downloaded the Mosaic browser and learned what a hyperlink was and went for the first time to the many strange and beautiful destinations it could take me. There on the Internet and on my Mac I opened my consciousness to an entire world of media being made and people making it.

I began recalling more frequently the many preteen hours I’d spent with MacPaint and Print Shop. Sunday dawns filled with the incessant screeeeeeeech and whir, screeeeeech and whir of a dot matrix printer howling out a 14 foot banner: Happy Mother’s Day! Maybe there was an Illustrator still in me?

But by this time I was a writer. The die had been cast. I edited the Opinion section of The Trinity Tripod with Jamie Evans. In addition to writing and editing, we also had to lay out the section each Tuesday night before the printer pick-up on Wednesday morning at 6 AM. This was where I learned desktop publishing, in Quark and Photoshop, on top-of-the-line Macs.

Using those wonderful computers made this task fun. I could move pictures – and type! Oh those are called Drop Quotes! And slowly, as I completed all of the Pre-Med class requirements and contemplated taking the MCAT, I realized I didn’t need to take the MCAT, or become a doctor. I realized that being a creative professional was not just a possibility, but that it was happening – people just a few years ahead of me were graduating and doing just that! And I could too!

And if this feeling was strong enough to penetrate the thoroughly pre-Med, pre-Law and pre-Corporate ramparts of Trinity College I knew it was real. And all of these realizations happened face to face with and largely because of the power of Apple computers. And my entire career has followed. And I am not alone.

Some version of this story can surely be told by every one of my colleagues. We are not masters of the universe, we are pious citizens of the creative class. We are aesthetes and nitpickers, masochists and technophiles, organizers and disorganizers, pixel-pushers and stubborn brats, nerds and artists, oversharers and brilliant hermits, scientists and authors, gamblers and brigands, drawers and dreamers.

We are different……We are different because of Steve Jobs.

Dave Skaff is Creative Director ,The Science Project

This article titled "BBC journalists plan work to rule" was written by Tara Conlan, for guardian.co.uk on Tuesday 26th July 2011 12.05 UTC

More disruption to BBC news programmes is on the cards over the coming weeks with journalists "indefinitely" working to rule following a 24-hour strike on Monday.

The BBC News Channel is like to be most affected by the action, which is taking place in protest over compulsory redundancies.

Following last Friday's strike, another 24 hour stoppage is due to take place on Monday.

National Union of Journalists' members at the corporation have been told in an internal memo that "an indefinite work to rule will begin across the BBC from 00.01 on Tuesday August 2nd immediately following the 24 hour strike".

According to corporation sources, working to rule could be more effective at causing disruption because many staff on the BBC News Channel "act up" to cover more senior positions during busy news days.

On Tuesday afternoon, talks are taking place between the NUJ and BBC management over the three members of staff in BBC Monitoring and the World Service who have been made compulsorily redundant.

It is understood that another NUJ member has been made compulsorily redundant since last week's strike, despite sitting and passing a test for an alternative job.

According to the internal memo there is also a claim that "work which could be done by a second member dismissed from BBC Monitoring is being done by individuals flown in from overseas instead".

Meanwhile, BBC management has agreed to meet all the broadcasting unions on 11 August to discuss the corporation's stance on redundancies in light of the cuts due to take place as a result of the Delivering Quality First initiative.

A BBC spokeswoman said: "We are disappointed that the NUJ has chosen to take industrial action and implement work to rule over these redundancies. These actions do not alter the fact that the BBC is faced with a number of potential compulsory redundancies following significant cuts to the central government grants that support the World Service and BBC Monitoring.

"We will continue with our efforts to reduce the need for compulsory redundancies. However, the number of posts that we are having to close means that unfortunately it is likely to be impossible for us to avoid some compulsory redundancies.

"The BBC has been in continuous dialogue with the NUJ over the past week."

guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010

Published via the Guardian News Feed plugin for WordPress.

The Women In News (WIN) initiative, a groundbreaking leadership programme for African women working in media, launched its second year this week, bringing together 32 women in middle and top management of newspapers in Botswana, Namibia and Zambia, as well as a team of coaches and mentors from local markets and abroad.

The goal of the project, organised by the World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers (WAN-IFRA), and supported by the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida), is to help women media professionals, who are under-represented in top management positions, to excel in their careers.

³We are very impressed by the direct impact this programme has had on the professional lives of the participants, with several of them taking on new positions or changing their career paths,² said Programme Director Melanie Walker, who noted that the programme doubled in size in just its second year.

With a focus on coaching, mentoring, skills development and networking, the WIN programme places an emphasis on local ownership and knowledge-sharing.
These activities build on the tradition of mentorship, which has begun to disappear from African society as modernity and economic growth take centre stage.

³WIN has made me grow. At the start of the 2010 programme I was so shy I couldn¹t even draw the courage to ask simple question, no matter how badly I wanted to,² said Letty Gaolape, Human Resources Administration Officer of the Botswana Guardian. ³But today I¹m bold, I¹m confident. And my employer is seeing the great impact of WIN through the projects I manage. I¹m no longer an effective employee, I¹m exceptional.²

The South African meeting held this week included sessions and workshops on managing diversity in the newsroom, strategies to attract young readers, managing personal finances, project management skills and time management.

Guest speakers included South African Press Ombudsman Joe Thloloe, who addressed the group about media ethics, and media chameleon Thami Ngubeni, former editor of O, (The Oprah Magazine, SA), columnist for Destiny magazine, and current radio host for South Africa¹s Metro FM.

The Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency and WAN-IFRA conduct an ambitious strategic partnership to advance media development and press freedom worldwide. The partnership allows WAN-IFRA to broaden and develop its press freedom and media development activities to support free and financially sustainable media worldwide. A series of pilot projects to test new methods and approaches in strengthening media in emerging markets was launched in 2010.

New York: The Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD), the nation's lesbian, gay bisexual and transgender (LGBT) media advocacy and anti-defamation organization, today announced the launch of its People of Color Media Training Institute as a part of the organization's National People of Color Media Initiative.

The Media Training Institute, funded by the Arcus Foundation and created specifically for people of color who are LGBT or LGBT allies, will develop a group of passionate and visible leaders to speak in national media outlets about issues that impact the lives of LGBT people and their families.
The Institute will consist of a two-day, advanced spokesperson training program in New York and Los Angeles, where GLAAD staff, leading journalists and talking heads and key media trainers will develop Institute participants in the areas of framing and messaging for on-camera and radio interviews.

Applicants to the Institute are asked to submit an application through GLAAD's website. The program will be limited to 25-30 people, and participants will receive ongoing support, coaching and training from GLAAD staff, including quarterly progress reviews.

"While the visibility of LGBT people and issues continues to grow, far too often the voices, views and faces of people of color are underrepresented, if represented at all, in American news, entertainment and online media," said GLAAD's Senior Director of Media Programs Rashad Robinson. "This initiative will help us elevate more voices and continue GLAAD's ongoing effort to ensure that LGBT issues are represented in a fair, accurate and inclusive way – celebrating the rich diversity of the community and our allies."
 

Washington : US President Barack Obama is vacationing in Hawaii. But presidents are never truly off work — and neither are his aides or hordes of reporters following every move of the world's most scrutinized person.

Obamas are staying in a beachfront home in Hawaii. The palm-shaded, seaside resort and spa is housing more than three dozen White House staffers and journalists who followed the president on his annual vacation, the Washington Post reported.

Alexandria, VA  : Media Research Center President Brent Bozell has demanded that CNN and MSNBC prove that radio talk show king Rush Limbaugh uttered a racist quote they have attributed to him as fact after Limbaugh publicly denied having ever said, “Slavery built the South. I’m not saying we should bring it back. I’m just saying it had its merits. For one thing, the streets were safer after dark” on his nationally syndicated airwaves. 

The accusations came in the wake of reports that Limbaugh is bidding to purchase the St. Louis Rams, which spurred a wave of left-wing cries that the NFL should deny him the opportunity to purchase the team because of these supposed bigoted remarks.

Media Research Center President Brent Bozell said ,  “CNN and MSNBC must immediately and publicly source when Limbaugh uttered this phrase. He has unequivocally denied it. Now it is up to the same news media that reported it as fact to prove that it was, indeed, stated.

“The MRC has overnighted letters to senior executives at both cable networks demanding that they take this sourcing seriously and report back to the public. We await their word.

“Either Rush Limbaugh is lying or these networks – willfully or not – are participants in the worst form of character assassination imaginable.   They can prove their innocence by documenting this accusation. If they can’t, then they are 100% guilty of character assassination.

“Tomorrow we will go public with their response.”