Twitter blocks international journalists’ accounts

16 December 2022

Twitter blocks international journalists’ accounts

Social media platform Twitter has suspended the accounts of a range of journalists who report on the company.

Reporters including Steve Herman – a long time correspondent for Voice of America (pictured) who has covered the White House extensively – and others from CNN, the New York Times and Washington Post have all been locked out of their accounts.

In a statement, Voice of America said it “can confirm that at approximately 9:00 p.m. last evening [15 December 2022], Twitter suspended the account of Chief National Correspondent Steve Herman. Later in the evening he received additional notification of the permanent suspension of his account. Mr. Herman is a seasoned reporter who upholds the highest journalistic standards and uses the social media platform as a news gathering and networking tool. Mr. Herman has received no information from Twitter as to why his account was suspended.

“As Chief National Correspondent, Mr. Herman covers international and national news stories and this suspension impedes his ability to perform his duties as a journalist. We request that Mr. Herman’s account be reinstated along with an explanation from Twitter for the suspension.”

The response from across the globe to the suspensions has been swift. The UN Under Secretary-General for Global Communications, Melissa Fleming, said she was “deeply disturbed” about reports that journalists’ accounts were being “arbitrarily” suspended by Twitter.

“Media freedom is not a toy,” she said. “A free press is the cornerstone of democratic societies and a key tool in the fight against harmful disinformation.”

In Brussels, EU Commissioner Vera Jourova suggested that sanctions could be applied against Twitter using the EU’s Digital Services Act.

AIB chief executive Simon Spanswick said: “The Association for International Broadcasting is appalled that Twitter is suspending the accounts of respected and highly experienced journalists, including some who work for AIB Member news organisations.

“This goes against the principles of freedom of speech and does an immense disservice to Twitter’s user base across the globe who use the platform to gain news and information from trusted sources. The AIB and its Members call on Twitter to immediately reverse the suspensions of journalists’ accounts.”

CNN+ will launch at end of March in USA

11 March 2022

CNN+ will launch at end of March in USA

CNN has announced that CNN+ will debut on March 29, 2022 in the United States.

“March 29 will be an important day in the history of CNN and CNN+ will be a critical part of our future,” said Andrew Morse, CNN EVP, Chief Digital Officer and Head of CNN+. “I am so proud of the work our teams have done to ensure our world class journalism and storytelling comes to life on this new platform. We can’t wait for our subscribers to experience it.”

CNN+ was announced in July 2021 as set to debut in Q1 of 2022. The product offers subscribers three types of content: live, on-demand and interactive programming, including what the company describes as “a whole new way to engage with CNN’s world class journalism and storytelling.”

“We’re excited for everyone to experience CNN+ and see what we’ve been working on,” said Alex MacCallum, CNN Worldwide Head of Product and General Manager for CNN+. “We have a really compelling content offering with CNN’s world class journalists and are confident in the product offered at this compelling price.”

CNN will have a single CNN app that will offer access to both CNN+ and TVE experiences, with easy navigation between the two. In the single CNN app, CNN+ customers can explore a range of new live, on-demand and interactive content through editorially-curated and personalised experiences that suit their interests. Pay TV customers can also enjoy the TVE experience that they’ve known for years, including access to CNN’s linear TV feeds of CNN, CNN International and HLN as well as a substantial on-demand offering, which will be available exclusively to pay TV customers.

CNN+ will be available for purchase at US$5.99 a month or $59.99 per year. Early subscribers that sign up within the first four weeks after March 29 directly with CNN+ will have access to the “Deal of a Lifetime,” or 50% off the monthly plan – for life – as long as they remain subscribers.

Plug pulled on international media conferences

4 March 2020

Plug pulled on international media conferences

UPDATED 9 March 2020

The media industry is a people business and for many years that has meant getting together at key events to meet colleagues, exchange ideas and share experiences. The coronavirus is rapidly putting a stop to this.

High profile events are falling victim to the virus as governments impose restrictions on large-scale gatherings (such as the Swiss did that led to the cancellation of the immense Geneva International Motor Show) and as organisers ask themselves whether bringing large numbers of speakers and delegates from across the world is worth the risk.

Cancellations include the 2020 International Journalism Festival scheduled to take place in the Italian city of Perugia (pictured) in early April, MIPTV in Cannes, scheduled to open on 30 March and the WSIS Forum that was due to open on 5 April in Geneva. The Journalism Festival was due to see 470 speakers gather from across Europe, Africa, North America and Asia. In a statement, the organisers said: “The health and safety of festival speakers, attendees, volunteers, staff, suppliers as well as that of the citizens of Perugia is and must remain our top priority.”

Google and Facebook have also been proactive and cancelled events they had planned, including the Google News Initiative Global Summit and the F8 conference.

We expect to see the cancellation of other events scheduled for March, April and May. The writing’s on the wall for some major trade events as companies pull out of attending to protect their staff from possible contamination. Video equipment supplier AJA has announced that it will no longer attend NAB in Las Vegas in April. Other companies will inevitably follow suit.

The Middle East CABSAT exhibition and conference, scheduled to open in Dubai on 31 March, has also been postponed. The organisers have now said that it will take place between 26 and 28 October 2019.

ConnectAsia incorporating BroadcastAsia has been postponed from June until 29 September, when it will run until 1 October.

Indian media conclave FICCI-FRAMES has also been postponed from mid-March to an as yet undefined date in the future.

News organisations are starting to restrict travel to conferences and other discretionary trips. CNN issued a memo to staff on 2 March restricting all work travel and limiting events staff to what it describes as “absolutely critical” personnel. According to the New York Times, CNN boss Jeff Zucker has to approve any intercontinental travel by any CNN staffer.

The EBU is cancelling large-scale meetings, such as its Sport Assembly that was due to take place in Malta in mid-March.

The virus presents headaches for media companies large and small. Should news crews be deployed? Can location filming of drama series continue? How can sport coverage continue at large-scale international events? These are challenges that have a real impact on the ability of broadcasters and production companies to operate as normal and serve audiences today and for the rest of 2020.

It is clear that precautions need to be taken to protect staff from infection. Simple steps for anyone in an operational environment can be taken to minimise risk, as we noted in our briefing to AIB Members issued on 2 March. The AIB continues to build a central database of advice that’s being given to staff in a number of large-scale media companies to help ensure that best practice is shared by all AIB Members. Not every organisation has well-resourced occupational health and HR departments, so they welcome practical assistance.

INSI, the International News Safety Institute, has also issued a briefing on coronavirus, available here.

Meanwhile, a glimmer of hope emerges. In February, the Splice Beta conference that brings together journalists, entrepreneurs and others involved in media start-ups in Asia was postponed. Now the organisers have said that it will be going ahead in late September.

The AIB shares their optimism that the situation will normalise over the next few months – at the AIB we’re continuing to plan our events for the second half of 2020.

IBC: News organisations look at emerging challenges

17 September 2018

At the International Broadcasting Convention (IBC) held every year in Amsterdam, news was the focus of some of the conferences at a time when news media organisations, broadcasters in particular, face a number of challenges from new players, social media platforms and questions about their perceived lack of credibility and balance in some countries.

AIB leads debate with industry senior representatives

The AIB was at the centre of one of these conferences with its CEO, Simon Spanswick, chairing a session, entitled “Controlled chaos: Embracing change in the news media business”.

In this meeting, senior representatives from well-established broadcast organisations as well as from relatively new players, discussed the issues they faced and how they worked to best deal with these.

Panellists explained how their respective organisations were embracing media changes, both as regards the use of technological innovations, and the need to meet audience expectations.

The panellists, Leena Duwadi, Editor in Chief, WittyFeed, Ruba Ibrahim, Director of Operations, Al-Arabiya News Channel, Tommy Evans, VP CNN International and Matt Tabaccos, Chief Commercial Officer, of the Ruptly video news agency, described how their organisations addressed the various issues.

Shifting content, audience expectations

WittyFeed understood that the whole concept of content on the Internet was shifting, and WittyFeed idea from its creation in 2014, was to offer “content for the Millenials, produced by Millenials,” Duwadi said. From its beginning, WittyFeed proposed “vivid formats, ranging from stories to videos which differentiate it from other large Indian media companies that have hundreds of millions of users, listeners and viewers.”

Reaching a diverse Arab world audience

Ruba Ibrahim, director of operations of the Dubai-based Saudi-owned 24/7 free-to-air Al-Arabiya pan Arab News Channel launched in 2003, described the main channel and its younger “sister”, Al-Hadath, launched in 2012, which offers more in-depth, extensive coverage of political news.

Al-Arabiya has an English website also and is present and very active on digital platforms and social media.

Ibrahim explained how different content was tailored in content and length to meet the diverse requirements of the multiple platforms, showing examples of reports for online and mobile devices.

Spanswick asked how the channels were tackling the issue of addressing audiences across the entire Arab world. Ibrahim said that Al-Arabiya was primarily targeting audiences in the Gulf area, where audiences share the same language, issues and challenges, covering news, business and sports, and offering documentaries. Following the “Arab Spring”, Al-Arabiya’s extensive, but still limited resources didn’t allow it to cover all the news across the entire Arab world, so Al-Hadath was tasked with covering more specifically news and issues about Yemen, Iraq, the Levant and North Africa.

CNN: Golden age of news, healthy mix of news needed

Tommy Evans, VP of CNN International and CNN London bureau chief, said that “it was the golden age of news. US President Trump makes a lot of news and news is good for CNN and other news organisations.”

The key to success, he added, was “good content”, but he also advised for a varied and balanced mix between hard and soft news. “You can’t expect the audience to be brutalised by bad news constantly. You have to have a healthy mix of stories,” Evans warned.

CNN was established as a cable news network in 1980, but gained international recognition when it was the only channel broadcasting from inside Iraq from the beginning of the first Gulf War in January 1991. CNN launched its website, CNN.com in August 1995. It is now one of the most popular news websites in the world.

CNN has a wide offer of different programmes and online services that cover travel, style (arts, design fashion, architecture), health (food, health, wellness, fitness, etc.), features (freedom project, Impact your world, Inside Africa, climate / environment issues, etc) and even a virtual reality (VR) service, CNNVR.

Ruptly introduced flexible model, imaginative approach

Matt Tabaccos, Chief Commercial Officer, of the Berlin-based Ruptly video news agency, created in 2013 and owned by Russia’s RT television network, detailed the services offered by Ruptly.

These include an offer of real-time and archive visual news content to all media, from broadcast networks large and small to online content providers, including broadcast, digital and mobile platforms.

Ruptly value proposition, Tabaccos said, was “to try to be first, to pioneer new ways of telling stories.” Ruptly was one of the first news organisations to fly drones over war zones, which was the kind of content that resonated over the different platforms, online and broadcast, he said.

“Technology has been one of our main selling points,” Tabaccos added pointing out that Ruptly now gets some 500 million views across platforms every month. The idea is to service broadcasting organisations, start-ups and ordinary users, through flexible models, he said.

Tabaccos announced that Ruptly had just expanded its offer with Ruptly Pass, a “disrupting” subscription-based model “for individuals and growing media entities”, which gives users unlimited access to video and live events on the service for €12.50 a month.

The “Controlled chaos” conference provided a comprehensive overview of the diverse and imaginative approaches adopted by just four media organisations with different audiences to address some of the many challenges faced by the whole broadcast news media industry today.

AIB at IBC 2018 and reporting from the Convention

7 September 2018

IBC, the International Broadcasting Convention, held each September in Amsterdam, opens its doors on 13 September for its series of renowned conferences, with the exhibition opening the following day.

More than 57,000 visitors are expected to come to experience products and services offered by more than 1,700 exhibitors. IBC offers also a unique opportunity for broadcast professionals to network.

Many AIB members, among them broadcasters, content providers or leading technology companies will be present at IBC.

More than 400 speakers including business leaders, global game-changers and disruptors in the media, entertainment and technology industries will address some 1,700 delegates attending the conferences.

As in previous years, and in view of growing concern about so-called fake news and misinformation, news production and delivery will be the focus of several sessions.

One of these, Controlled chaos: Embracing change in the news media business, is dedicated to change in the news media business. It will be chaired by AIB CEO Simon Spanswick. Panellists will include the VP of CNN International, the director of operations of Al-Arabiya News Channel, the Chief Commercial Officer of Berlin-based Ruptly news agency and the editor-in-chief of WittyFeed, one of the fastest growing online content platforms in India. They will explain how they have embraced a constantly changing news media market, from content creation that appeals across diverse audiences, to platform and technical innovation, to scalable models and monetisation.

Reflecting technological advances, and as forecast last year, topics discussed in the conferences will include, among many others, the impact of AI, of voice-activated devices and services, of blockchain.

Changing the “face of content” to reach a younger generation on a multitude of devices, will also be debated.

No less important will be the impact of these technological advances on the production and delivery of services on new platforms for connected audiences, and the fast-growing of fairly recent services, such as e-sports and online gaming.

As usual, very advanced technologies, such as 8K, will be demonstrated by leading set manufacturers and broadcasters; the challenges they represent in terms of content production and delivery will be addressed in technical papers and presentations.

The AIB will be present at IBC and report during, and after, the convention on the conferences as well as on a wide range of issues and new products and services unveiled this year.

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