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"I will abide by civil service neutrality" says Downing Street's new spin supremo.
DATELINE: 2/7/09
Simon Lewis, the Prime Minister's new official spokesman, says he only took the job on condition it would be non political and that he would be able to conduct himself with civil service neutrality.
Unlike previous Downing Street directors of communications such as Alastair Campbell, Lewis is not a Labour Party appointee. He has accepted a two-year civil service contract and when asked (at a debate in London at the Reform Club 1.7.2009) whether he would like to remain at No.10 should David Cameron defeat Gordon Brown in the general election expected in May 2010, he made it clear he has an open mind and intends to wait and see what happens.
TV broadcasting in Northern Ireland under threat
DATELINE: 29/6/09
Broadcasters, screen agencies, producers and media trade unions have made written submissions to a Westminster inquiry into TV broadcasting in Northern Ireland. The NI Select Committee of MPs set up the inquiry after cut-backs at the commercial television broadcaster, UTV, caused local politicians and media trade unions to complain about the possible lack of plurality of viewpoints, if BBC Northern Ireland gains a monopoly in coming years on news, current affairs and factual television output.
Sky may have to share TV channels
DATELINE: 26/6/09
BSkyB should be forced to make its premium sports and film channels available to rival broadcasters, watchdog Ofcom has proposed. Ofcom said such a move may be a "most appropriate way of ensuring fair and effective competition".
BSkyB has immediately rejected the proposal, saying it will "use all available legal avenues", and that it "fundamentally" disagreed with Ofcom. Ofcom has asked interested parties to respond to the proposals by 18 August.
Speaker's call for an end to ministerial leaks: Downing Street's new media chief could play a role
DATELINE: 24/6/09
Simon Lewis, the newly-appointed director of communications in Downing Street, might be forgiven for thinking his only role will be to pull down the shutters on the last chance saloon for the Labour Party's discredited spin doctors.
But although the Prime Minister has probably less than a year in power, Lewis does have an opportunity to turn a new page in the government's relationship with the news media and roll back the abuses which were institutionalised by Alastair Campbell and which spawned the Damian McBride scandal.
An untold story?
DATELINE: 10/6/09
Fresh claims have been made about government manipulation of the BBC's coverage of the 1984-5 miners' strike. It is now alleged that specific instructions were issued from the "highest level of government" to ensure that the BBC's camera crews focused on the miners' violence and not on "the police smashing heads".
Euro-elections: The Sun and The Times abandon Labour and urge their readers to vote Conservative
DATELINE: 4/6/09
All too often elections to the European Parliament have been reduced to not much more than a snapshot of the popularity of each national government. When the United Kingdom votes to elect 72 MEPs -- in what The Times says is the election that "never happened" -- British voters seem destined to give a good kicking not just to the Labour government of Gordon Brown, but also to the entire political establishment.
Media unions condemn attack on journalists' sources in UK
CPBF Annual General Meeting 2009
Twenty-five years after
The strike recorded
Membership Form
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Notices
Events & Announcements
+++ CPBF CONFERENCE +++
Media for all? The challenge of convergence
School of Pharmacy
29-39 Brunswick Square
London WC1N 1AXRegistration/networking: 9am
Conference: 10am - 5pm
Euro-elections: The Sun and The Times abandon Labour and urge their readers to vote Conservative
DATELINE: 4/6/09
All too often elections to the European Parliament have been reduced to not much more than a snapshot of the popularity of each national government. When the United Kingdom votes to elect 72 MEPs -- in what The Times says is the election that "never happened" -- British voters seem destined to give a good kicking not just to the Labour government of Gordon Brown, but also to the entire political establishment.
The Paul Foot Award for Campaigning Journalism 2009
DATELINE: 8/4/09Call for Submissions
Sponsored by both Private Eye and The Guardian, and now in its fifth year, The Paul Foot Award honours campaigning journalism in the UK in memory of revered investigative journalist Paul Foot.
CPBF Annual General Meeting 2009
DATELINE: 3/4/09Saturday 4 July 2009NUJ HQ 308/312 Gray’s Inn Road, Kings Cross, London WC1.
Further details in the next issue of Free Press (March/April edition)
BOOK LAUNCH & PUBLIC MEETINGS for SHAFTED
DATELINE: 15/12/08
Buy SHAFTED here for £9.99 plus P&P
Peter Lazenby (Father of the Chapel at the Yorkshire Evening Post), left, Anne Scargill (Women Against Pit Closures), and Granville Williams (editor, Shafted) at the launch of Shafted on 12 March ay the West Yorkshire Playhouse in Leeds. In the background is the North Selby NUM banner which is on the front cover of Shafted.
Buy SHAFTED here for £9.99 plus P&P
Read a chapter of the book on the Cold Type website
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Links
Links
al jazeera
Alliance for Lobbying Transparency
allmediascotland - a directory and portal for the scottish media industry
alter-eu - The Alliance for Lobbying Transparency and Ethics Regulation
arab media watch
archives of the weekly spin
bad subjects: political education for everyday life - from the University of California at Berkeley
bectu (broadcast, entertainment, cinematograph and theatre union)
Brass Check TV
British Helsinki Human Rights Group
british journalism review
campaign for freedom of information
Civil Rights Movement
columbia journalism review
committee to protect journalists
community media association
Corporate Europe Observatory: CEO is a European-based research and campaign group targeting the threats to democracy, equity, social justice and the environment posed by the economic and political power of corporations and their lobby groups.
corporation watch (US)
cris - the campaign for communication rights in the information society
cultural studies mailing list (FAQ)
Disinformation - US site combining analysis, rumour, paranoia and alternative lifestyles.
ePolitix - get your own e-mail news feed
europa: 'an internet site covering Europe as a common area of freedom, security and justice' - web site of the European Commission's Directorate-General for Justice and Home Affairs
European Institute for the Media
european journalism centre
global journalism review
global village cat - access TV worldwide
globalvision news network (a mediachannel initiative): GVNews.Net is a global syndicate of more than 345 independent local and regional news organizations that have joined to provide fresh and intelligent perspectives on global events — as seen through the eyes of experienced, professional journalists who are native to the regions about which they report.
ideosphere: non-profit media consultancy (sweden)
indymedia: independent media
information clearing house
Institute for War and Peace Reporting
international federation of journalists
International Network for Cultural Diversity
International News Safety Institute
International Women's Media Foundation - US based organisation aimed at increasing women's participation in the media.
jihad unspun - 'a clear view of the war against terror'
kurdishmedia.com
Liberty's 'yourrights' online provides information and access to advice on human rights issues such as free expression and privacy as well as information on the specific rights of various individuals and groups.
media alliance (US)
media communications policy resources (from Katharine Sarikakis of Leeds university)
media reform - us-based campaigning group also known as Free Press
media watch mailing list
media workers against the war
medialens: the real news from the US
michael moore's site
Middle East Media Guide
national union of journalists (UK & Ireland)
New book: Creating Fear - News and the construction of crisis, David L. Altheide
new internationalist
new internationalist online
notwar.net - quirky international peace group with details of hundreds of campaigning peace groups
NUJ Brussels branch
NUJ Glasgow branch
NUJ New Media industrial council
Observatoire Français des Médias (French only)
Ofcom website - the uk's broadcasting and telecoms regulator
One World
One World TV
pr watch's 'spin of the day'
Pressnet: Journalists, Journalism and Mass Media in Internet.
presswise
Public Voice, a voluntary sector coalition campaigning on citizens' interests in communications.
RAM (Refugees, Asylum-seekers and the Mass media) project bulletin
red pepper - campaigning journal & web site
save welsh tv
Schnews - weekly newsletter from: Justice? Brighton's Direct Action Collective
send e-mail to altmedia (you have to subscribe first)
signs of the times
sp media watch
spinwatch - monitoring PR and spin in the public interest (independent UK-based group)
stop war web site
subscribe to 'the weekly spin'
Taking Sides weblog on IRAQ
the memory hole
truth out - a US Democrat news site
undercurrents (for the news you don't see on the news)
US Free Press
vertigo - independent UK film magazine
VLV (Voice of the Listener and Viewer - working for quality and diversity in British broadcasting)
who owns what - from columbia journalism review
wordpower: books to change our world
working for change (US)
world association for christian communication (WACC)
world association of community radio broadcasters
world commission on the social dimension of globalisation (ilo)
writers' guild of great britain
