Top German Female Journalists Want 30 Percent of Executive Posts Filled by Women
Germany’s top female journalists have organized to demand media outlets introduce a quota system assuring that at least 30 percent of the executive positions in the media industry are filled by women.
In a letter to 250 editors and publishers, hundreds of women journalists complained that only two percent of all editor-in-chiefs at Germany’s 360 daily and weekly newspapers are women, and just three in 12 bosses of public service broadcasters are women.
"Don't be afraid of quotas. I'm a quota woman,” said Ines Pohl, editor taz newspaper, where women occupy half of the staff positions. “For me it's no problem. Because of taz's women target, I have been able to finally show what I'm made of. I'm sure the same would be true for many other women.’
The letter by a group called Pro Quote was prompted in part by the introduction last year of a 30 percent quota of women at Handelsblatt, a well-respected financial daily.
"Women are not the problem, but the solution," Gabor Steingart, the male editor-in-chief, told the Guardian. "It's not just about fairness but it also makes economic sense." | |
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Thailand Court Will Rule on IWMF Courage Winner's Controversial Case in April
Thailand’s criminal court will decide the fate of IWMF Courage in Journalism Award winner Chiranuch Premchaiporn on April 30, when she could face up to 20 years in prison for failing to delete critical remarks about the Thai monarchy on her website Prachatai.
Internet freedom in Thailand was on trial last week, when the defense witnesses testified that she did not intend to violate the country’s draconian computer crime laws. Thousands of comments streamed into her website daily, but government critics insist she should have immediately deleted 10 remarks posted by others that criticized the Thai monarchy – a criminal offense.
Her defense team has 30 days to submit a closing statement. The case has dragged for three years.
"On one hand, it has ended, but on the other hand, we also have to prepare for whatever [verdict] will be delivered," said Premchaiporn. | |
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After Afghan Female Broadcasters Ordered to Wear Headscarves, Minister Blasts Western Media
Afghanistan's Culture and Information Ministry has called the Western media "disgusting and hateful" for linking reported peace talks with the Taliban to a demand for female TV presenters to wear head scarves and avoid heavy makeup.
Culture and Information Minister Sayyed Makhdum Rahin said that female newsreaders should appear different from actresses in movies and television soap operas, and added that most private channels were in agreement on the need to observe Afghan cultural and religious norms.
The controversy arose after the ministry, acting on complaints that female presenters were not observing Islamic and cultural norms, made the request in a letter distributed to state and private media earlier this week.
Shaima Rezayee, an Afghan TV anchor, was killed in 2005 – two months after she was fired from her job on a music program after complaints from religious conservatives. Many Afghan women journalists fear they will be sidelined in the future, and one broadcaster said the ruling would make her feel “caged.”
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Belarus Becomes Prison for IWMF Courage Winner Iryna Khalip, Family
IWMF Courage in Journalism winner Iryna Khalip is featured in Le Monde and the Guardian describing how Belarus has barred her from leaving the country and imprisoned her husband for five years.
Her 4-year-old son has a new game -- he puts his bears in a car and drives them around the flat. When they reach their destination, he tells them, "This is your new prison.” The boy’s father, Andrei Sannikov, an opposition candidate who was jailed after post-election protests last year, is in prison in Vitebsk.
“A year later Khalip still bears the marks of this trauma, prematurely aged by fear and sleepless nights. She, too, was prosecuted, but received a two-year suspended jail sentence. On Jan. 24 she saw her husband for the first time since October, but without being able to talk freely,” Le Monde reports.
"It's as if in three months he had endured 10 years in the gulag. He was careful what he said. He'd been warned. He made it clear that our family was under threat," she told Le Monde.
Read more here. | |
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Digital Advertising Expected to Overtake All Other Platforms by 2016
In the next four years revenue from digital advertising in the United States is expected to grow by 40 percent and to overtake all other platforms by 2016, according to a new study.
A new study of advertising in news by the Pew Research Center's Project for Excellence in Journalism found that even the top news websites in the U.S. are having trouble getting advertisers from traditional platforms to move online.
Of the 22 news operations studied for this report, only three showed significant levels of targeting. A follow-up evaluation six months later found that two more sites had shown some movement in this direction, but only some, from virtually no targeting to a limited amount on inside pages. By contrast, highly targeted advertising is already a key component of the business model of operations such as Google and Facebook. Read more here. | |
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Internet Freedom on Trial: Courage Winner Chiranuch Premchaiporn Back in Court
IWMF’s 2011 Courage in Journalism winner Chiranuch Premchaiporn’s trial resumes Feb. 14, when she faces 10 counts of violating Thailand’s Computer Crimes Act for allegedly not removing anti-royal comments from strangers quickly on her news website Prachatai.
She faces up to 20 years in prison, if found guilty of the charges. Human rights and press freedom groups around the world have protested the lèse majesté trial as a threat to Internet freedom.
Premchaiporn, who is executive director of the website, wrote supporters saying that for three years she had to “live my life being accused of committing a crime under Section 14 and 15 of the Computer Crime Act. Still, I have to continue a life like this without knowing an end.”
Her defense team plans to have five expert witnesses take the stand to present her case in criminal court during two days of testimony. | |
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Christiane Amanpour Returning to CNN Worldwide Primetime in Spring
This spring Christiane Amanpour will return to CNN Worldwide and broadcast her signature program “Amanpour” in primetime around the world.
Weeknights IWMF's Amanpour will deliver world news and an interview program with the CNN International audience. The show will air weekdays at 3 p.m. and replay at 5 p.m. (ET) on CNN International.
Liza McGuirk, an award-winning producer who has more than two decades of experience in TV, will be the executive producer of Amanpour. McGuirk will be based in New York along with Amanpour.
At the same time, Amanpour will continue as global affairs anchor for ABC News. She will continue her reporting in war-torn countries for all ABC News programs, platforms and online. Last year she was the only journalist who interviewed Moammar Gadhafi and Hosni Mubarak. | |
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