International Labor Media Network

4 days ago

Palestine: Launch of Palestinian Media Sector Coordination Group

www.ifj.org/media-centre/news/detail/category/press-releases/article/palestine-launch-of-palestin…

23 April 2024

Four media associations and organisations met online on 17 April to launch the “Palestinian Media Sector Coordination Group-PMSCG.” The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) welcomes the launch of the group which will aim to support journalism in Palestine. The group is composed of the Palestinian Journalists Syndicate (PJS), the Palestinian Publishers Association/Founding Committee (PPA), the Palestinian Association of Private Radios (PAPR), and the Media Development Centre (MDC) at Birzeit University.

csm_Image20240417134337_bfdc9fc322.png
Credit: IFJ
The group’s establishment comes amid the worst crises facing journalists and media in Palestine since the start of the war in Gaza on 7 October. Over 100 Palestinian journalists and media workers have been killed and many more injured or displaced.

The PMSCG aims to lead the rehabilitation and improvement of the media sector and to launch a process of rebuilding a more resilient media in Palestine.

At the meeting, the PMSCG resolved to organise a joint event on 3 May to mark World Press Freedom Day, to highlight journalists' challenges in Palestine and possible ways to overcome them. The event will also bring together all organisations involved in supporting journalists, and create an “Alliance for freedom of expression and fundamental rights in Palestine”.

The organisations that launched the PMSCG were represented in the meeting by Buthayna Alsemeiri, director of MDC, Naser Abu Baker, president of PJS, Raed Othman, chair of PPA, and Reyad Khamis, chair of PAPR. Representatives of the IFJ also attended as observers.

For more information, please contact IFJ on +32 2 235 22 16

The IFJ represents more than 600 … See MoreSee Less

Palestine: Launch of Palestinian Media Sector Coordination Group / IFJ

www.ifj.org

Four media associations and organisations met online on 17 April to launch the “Palestinian Media Sector Coordination Group-PMSCG.” The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) welcomes the l…

International Labor Media Network

2 weeks ago

For AIFLD The American Newspaper Guild And The AFL-CIO International Affairs Program/AIFLD
… See MoreSee Less

For AIFLD The American Newspaper Guild And The AFL-CIO International Affairs Program/AIFLD | AFL-CIO Education International Project

aflcio-int.education

For AIFLD The American Newspaper Guild And The AFL-CIO International Affairs Program/AIFLD by mBayram_y2k@Yahoo.com | Mar 1, 2024 | AFL-CIO Betrayals, CIA, Featured, Labor Imperialism, Organizations |…

International Labor Media Network

2 weeks ago

A new bill could help save California journalism. Google wants it dead
AI is poised to finish off local news reporting as we know it unless lawmakers act

www.sfchronicle.com/opinion/openforum/article/california-journalism-protection-act-google-1940405…

By Matt Pearce
April 16, 2024

Gift Article
On Friday, Google announced it was testing removing links to California news websites from some people’s search results. The search giant said it was preparing in case the Legislature passed a bill requiring it to pay media companies a fee for linking to their content.
On Friday, Google announced it was testing removing links to California news websites from some people’s search results. The search giant said it was preparing in case the Legislature passed a bill requiring it to pay media companies a fee for linking to their content.
Jeff Chiu/Associated Press 2019
Last Friday, Google issued an ultimatum, announcing that it was taking steps to block news stories in California in response to a bill from state Assembly Member Buffy Wicks, D-Oakland. The California Journalism Preservation Act would require tech giants to pay journalists, like me, for profiting from our labor. Google’s move followed a similar threat by Meta last year over the bill.
Big Tech’s threats to ban journalism from its platforms in California are just the beginning. Tomorrow’s artificial intelligence-powered internet is poised to finish off local journalism as we know it — unless lawmakers act.
For much of the past two decades, Google and news publishers have operated on an implicit bargain; outlets like the Chronicle or the Los Angeles Times, where I was a longtime reporter, would allow Google to crawl and feature my stories on its services. In exchange, Google would send these publishers a river of users via hyperlinks.
How Trump could use an obscure law from 1873 to effectively end abortion in America
Republican presidential candidate former President Donald Trump speaks at a campaign event in Grand Rapids, Mich., Tuesday, April 2, 2024. (AP Photo/Paul Sancya)
Once upon a time, veteran newsmen hosted Sunday TV talk shows
Not just journalists anymore.
The understanding was that users who no longer subscribe to print newspapers would look at digital ads on news websites or buy digital subscriptions. In return, those users would presumably continue using Google (itself a profitable seller of digital advertising) as their preferred portal to find high-quality information from a variety of sources.
That arrangement has become increasingly unfair for newsrooms — and the California communities that count on them.
You don’t need an MBA to figure out that commandeering endless free labor from journalists and other content creators has been the deal of the century for Google. The internet giant has cornered 90% of all search engine traffic, collecting $48 billion in digital advertising revenue last quarter alone.
Wicks’ bill would require Google, under threat of arbitration, to return a share of these revenues earned from journalism back to news publishers, which would be required to reinvest 70% of those funds into journalism jobs. Australia and Canada have passed similar laws.

Absent these changes — and more ambitious ideas like them — the economics supporting local journalism in California will continue to collapse. The Los Angeles Times newsroom has roughly 40% fewer journalists than in 2019. Many of the savviest digital newsroom innovators I know have lost or left their journalism jobs.
Wicks’ bill has only become more urgent as Google experiments with generative AI, which also scrapes news sites but this time without any pretense that journalists might benefit. Some Google search responses already compile an AI-generated blurb that summarizes news stories.
Jim Albrecht, senior director of news ecosystem products at Google from 2017 to 2023, recently wrote in the Washington Post that AI-powered chatbots, not human-written articles like the one you’re reading right now, are the future of news.
“Publishers will have to think less about those articles and more about conversations with users,” Albrecht wrote. “The users will interact less and less with the actual articles and instead talk about the articles with what the tech industry used to call ‘intelligent agents.’ ”
Anybody hoping to shore up Google’s still-significant referral traffic to publishers — or anyone who’s propagandizing that the idea of paying journalists is tantamount to a “link tax” (the government never touches Google’s money) — is fighting yesterday’s war. The old internet where users actively hunt for information and prowl from site to site is dying.
Following hyperlinks in search of accurate information is annoying, inefficient and increasingly filled with scammy clutter. On the fenced-in internet of tomorrow, AI-powered portals controlled by a small handful of powerful international companies will treat us like stationary consumers who passively expect knowledge and content to come to us, not the other way around.
Think of the uncanny algorithms of TikTok’s For You Page, OpenAI’s general purpose GPT chat interfaces or Elon Musk’s (not exactly successful but persistent) quest to transform the once hyperlink-friendly Twitter into X, an “everything app” where users “can do payments, messages, video, calling, whatever you’d like.”
The dream of the open internet is fading and being replaced by a surveillance-driven dystopia powered by free and low-paid labor. The California Journalism Preservation Act is just the first of many bills that will be necessary to point out that this content-creation arrangement is unsustainable for workers — and also everyone else.
With each day that passes, data-devouring AI models like the kind Google is developing, which are prone to inaccurate “hallucinations,” are at greater risk of ingesting and plagiarizing their own low-quality vomit for want of enough original knowledge to consume. It’s in the long-term interest of artificial intelligence developers to help foot the bill for original, human-produced local journalism because AI models will need more material that’s “grounded” in the real world — to borrow an AI term for verification.
As a journalist, I’m largely indifferent to how the public consumes my reporting. Throughout American history, we have always adapted to changes in the medium; maybe you’d like to get news alerts and investigative reports from me via text message?Journalists will go wherever you want us to be.
But if California and Google still want to have independent journalists around — people who will report what’s going on in our communities, investigate corruption in local government and dig up hidden documents, even if just to feed an AI — somebody is going to have to pay us to do it. The California Journalism Preservation Act reasonably suggests that the people who profit from journalists’ work should help foot the bill.
Matt Pearce is a former Los Angeles Times reporter and the president of Media Guild of the West, a local union of the NewsGuild-CWA, which supports the California Journalism Preservation Act.
April 16, 2024
Matt Pearce … See MoreSee Less

A new California law could save journalism. Google wants it dead

www.sfchronicle.com

Big Tech’s threat to ban journalism from its platforms in California is just the beginning. AI is poised to finish off local journalism as we know it.

International Labor Media Network

2 weeks ago

The Story Of The Yellow Vests In France

en.labournet.tv/story-yellow-vests-us

french with engl. subs |101 min | 2023 |hits: 212

"Welcome to the cinema of the yellow vests. Using images from the internet, we tell the story of the revolutionary movement in order to better understand its paths. A story of revolution and counter-revolution, of a popular uprising against politics. 4,200,000 internet users visit 1,500 Facebook groups. They unite behind the word 'angry'." (from the film)

This anthology documents the day by day of the Yellow Vest movement through images and videos shared on the internet by its participants. An important document, it shows the diversity of participants and also the diversity of their actions. As the film tracks the different phases of the movement, it allows an understanding of how the Yellow Vests ultimately lost momentum. … See MoreSee Less

The Story of the Yellow Vests By Us

en.labournet.tv

Found-footage film about the yellow vests movement in France

International Labor Media Network

2 weeks ago

CWA and NewsGuild react to dissolution of Teamsters local; strike continues for four other unions

www.unionprogress.com/2024/04/11/cwa-and-newsguild-react-to-dissolution-of-teamsters-local/

by Pittsburgh Union ProgressApril 11, 2024
The Communication Workers of America sent out the following press release Thursday about the Pittsburgh news workers strike as it continues for four other unions:

On Wednesday, Teamsters Local 211/205 voted to accept severance payments from Pittsburgh Post-Gazette management in exchange for dissolving their union and ending their strike against an employer that has violated federal law with several unions.

“It’s beyond disappointing that the Teamsters would abandon their fellow strikers at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette,” said NewsGuild-CWA President Jon Schleuss. “We stood with the Teamsters: in the cold, in the rain, in the snow and in the face of violent scab truck drivers and aggressive police. We will continue to strike and hold the employer to account. And we will never give up on our union or our members.”

“We’re very disappointed with what the Teamsters did,” said CWA District 2-13 Vice President Mike Davis. “By selling out in secret, the Teamsters have not only damaged their own credibility but have also jeopardized the possibility of a fair settlement for all the unions involved. We will not forget who stayed in this fight to the end, but right now we’re focused on sticking together because we’re stronger together. And we’re going to get the best possible deal for our members.”

“After 18 months on strike, standing on the picket lines day and late into the nights with Teamster drivers represented by Local 211/205, it’s extremely disappointing to see this unit fall for the company’s divide and conquer strategy,” said Zack Tanner, Newspaper Guild of Pittsburgh president. “Newsroom workers won’t be broken, though. We will always stand strong against the company’s union busting tactics, just as we’ve stood strong against the bosses, cops, and scabs that have tried to break us.” … See MoreSee Less

CWA and NewsGuild react to dissolution of Teamsters local; strike continues for four other unions – Pittsburgh Union Progress

www.unionprogress.com

The Communication Workers of America sent out the following press release Thursday about the Pittsburgh news workers strike as it continues for four other unions: On Wednesday, Teamsters Local 211/205…

International Labor Media Network

3 weeks ago

Slain Al Jazeera journalist was familiar face of Palestinian coverage

www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2022-05-11/slain-al-jazeera-journalist-was-icon-of-palestinian…

Shireen Abu Akleh, a journalist for Al Jazeera network, stands next to a TV camera.
Shireen Abu Akleh, a journalist for Al Jazeera network slain Wednesday, is shown in an undated photo with the golden Dome of the Rock shrine at Al Aqsa Mosque in the Old City of Jerusalem in the background on left. (Al Jazeera Media Network)
ASSOCIATED PRESS
MAY 11, 2022 11:59 AM PT

An Al Jazeera correspondent who was shot dead Wednesday during an Israeli raid in the West Bank was a highly respected journalist in the Middle East whose unflinching coverage was known to millions of viewers.

News of Shireen abu Akleh’s death reverberated across the region. The 51-year-old journalist became a household name synonymous with Al Jazeera’s coverage of life under occupation during her more than two decades of reporting in the Palestinian territories, including during the second intifada, or uprising, that killed thousands on both sides, most of them Palestinians.

The body of Al Jazeera journalist Shireen Abu Akleh, who was killed Wednesday, was carried to Al Jazeera’s headquarters in the West Bank city of Ramallah as a large crowd chanted outside.
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Abu Akleh’s name trended across Twitter in Arabic on Wednesday, setting social media alight with support for the Palestinians. Her image was projected over the main square in the West Bank city of Ramallah as mourners flooded Al Jazeera’s offices there and her family home in East Jerusalem.

Al Jazeera and witnesses, including her producer who was shot in the back Wednesday, said she was killed by Israeli gunfire. Israel said it was unclear who was responsible, calling it “premature and irresponsible to cast blame at this stage.”

Abu Akleh’s coverage of the harsh realities of Israel’s military occupation was inextricably linked with her experiences as a Palestinian journalist on the front lines. Her death underscores the heavy price the conflict continues to exact on Palestinians, regardless of their role as journalists.

Although she was also a U.S. citizen who often visited America in the summers, she lived and worked in East Jerusalem and the West Bank, where those who knew her said she felt most at home. A Palestinian Christian whose family was originally from Bethlehem, she was born and raised in Jerusalem. She leaves behind a brother and her parents.

RAMALLAH, PALESTINE – The body of Al Jazeera journalist Shireen Abu Akleh, who was killed Wednesday, was carried to Al Jazeera’s headquarters in the West Bank city of Ramallah as a large crowd chanted outside. (Associated Press)
WORLD & NATION

Al Jazeera reporter killed while covering Israeli raid in West Bank

May 11, 2022
In an Al Jazeera video released last year, Abu Akleh recalled the scale of destruction and “the feeling that death was at times just around the corner” during her coverage of the second intifada, from 2000 to 2005. “Despite the dangers, we were determined to do the job,” she said.

“I chose journalism so I could be close to the people,” she added. “It might not be easy to change the reality, but at least I was able to communicate their voice to the world.”

Abu Akleh joined Al Jazeera in 1997, just a year after the groundbreaking Arabic news network launched. Among her many assignments were covering five wars in the Gaza Strip and Israel’s war with Lebanon in 2006. She reported on forced home evictions,the killings of Palestinian youths, the hundreds of Palestinians held without charge in Israeli prisons and the continuous expansion of Jewish settlements.

Her longtime producer, Wessam Hammad, said Abu Akleh possessed an incredible ability to remain calm under pressure.

“Shireen worked all these years with a commitment to the values and ethics of our profession,” he said of Abu Akleh, whom the network called “the face of Al Jazeera in Palestine.”

He and Abu Akleh were often caught in Israeli crossfire during the many stories they covered together, he said. On one assignment, their car filled with tear gas and they struggled to breathe. When they would think back on these moments, he said, Abu Akleh would laugh and marvel at how they managed to survive.

Images of the moments after Abu Akleh was shot in the head in the West Bank town of Jenin circulated online and were broadcast on Al Jazeera and other Arabic news channels. Wearing a helmet and a vest clearly marked “PRESS,” Abu Akleh’s body was shown lying face down in a patch of sand. A Palestinian man jumped over a wall to reach her as gunshots were fired, dragging her motionless body to a car.

In video from the West Bank hospital where Abu Akleh was pronounced dead, a male colleague was seen weeping at her hospital bed as others choked back tears. A female correspondent for Al Jazeera in the Gaza Strip wept on air as she reported from a vigil for the journalist.

FILLE – A woman posts photos of murdered journalists during a national protest against the murder of journalists Lourdes Maldonado and freelance photojournalist Margarito Martínez in Mexico City, Jan. 25, 2022. (AP Photo/Eduardo Verdugo, File)
WORLD & NATION

2 journalists killed in Mexico — the 10th and 11th of the year

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Later Wednesday, Abu Akleh’s body, draped in a Palestinian flag and covered by a wreath of flowers, was carried through downtown Ramallah on a red stretcher. Hundreds chanted, “With our spirit, with our blood, we will redeem you, Shireen.”

An outpouring of condemnation came from governments around the world. The U.S. State Department called her death “an affront to media freedom.”

In an opinion piece online, the Israeli newspaper Haaretz lauded her bravery, saying, “Abu Akleh died a hero, doing her job,” and noted that she went to Jenin and other occupied areas that Israeli journalists “rarely if ever visited.”

It had started as another routine assignment for Abu Akleh. She’d emailed colleagues that she was heading to the Jenin refugee camp to check on reports of an Israeli military raid. “I will bring you the news as soon as the picture becomes clear,” she wrote.

“Generations grew up seeing her work,” said Hammad, the producer. “People listened to Shireen’s voice and were influenced by her to study journalism so they could be like her.”

Abu Akleh’s niece, Lina abu Akleh, described her as a “best friend” and “second mom.”

“She is someone that I was looking up to since I was a kid, watching all of her reports,” she told journalists from the family’s home. “I never thought this day would come where the news would be about her.” … See MoreSee Less

Slain Al Jazeera journalist was familiar face of Palestinian coverage

www.latimes.com

A veteran Al Jazeera correspondent who was shot dead while reporting on an Israeli raid in the West Bank was a highly respected and familiar face in the Middle East.

International Labor Media Network

4 weeks ago

Document shows plan for ‘takeover’ of KBS by installing right-wing figures, undermining union
english.hani.co.kr/arti/english_edition/e_national/1134921.html

Posted on : 2024-04-02 16:58 KST Modified on : 2024-04-02 17:29 KST
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The public broadcaster’s union said it would investigate and seek legal recourse regarding an 18-page document detailing plans including abandoning the collective agreement between the company and its union
Highlights from a document titled “A Crisis is an Opportunity” concerning broadcaster KBS, reported on by MBC’s “Straight.” The highlighted portions read: “preparation of a sincere statement (apology) to the public for the loss of its trust”; “taking control of the organization through executive and managerial appointments”; and “declaration of downsizing and staff cuts.” (still from @MBC-straight on YouTube).jpeg
Highlights from a document titled “A Crisis is an Opportunity” concerning broadcaster KBS, reported on by MBC’s “Straight.” The highlighted portions read: “preparation of a sincere statement (apology) to the public for the loss of its trust”; “taking control of the organization through executive and managerial appointments”; and “declaration of downsizing and staff cuts.” (still from @MBC-straight on YouTube)

Controversy is erupting over the disclosure of an internal document outlining a plan for the “normalization” of the KBS network, including the abandonment of a collective agreement and deliberate hiring of right-wing figures.
While it remains unknown who drafted the document or the chain of command it was reported to, the KBS chapter of the National Union of Media Workers (NUMW) signaled that it intends to pursue an investigation and legal response.
“Judging from the things that have transpired since Park Min became president of KBS, there are considerable grounds for concluding that the document’s items were indeed implemented,” the chapter said.
The first report on the document was on a Sunday episode of the MBC program “Straight.” According to that report and the KBS chapter of the NUMW, the document — entitled “A Crisis is an Opportunity” — is believed to have been written before Oct. 13 of last year, when the KBS board recommended Park as network president.
In a press conference on Monday, the union said it had “verified concrete evidence that certain internal forces colluded on discussions to reduce [the network’s] public broadcasting role and change it for the worse.”
“This is not something that can be dismissed as a mere ‘mystery document,’” it stressed.
The 18-page document listed “normalization of KBS (disruptive innovation)” as a short-term task and “revising the broadcasting structure (mid-flight breakup)” as an intermediate one. Among its sub-items were “ending the ‘union-run broadcasting’ system centering on the [Korean Confederation of Trade Unions-affiliated] NUMW’s KBS chapter” and “privatizing KBS 2 TV.”
Additionally, it cited “taking control of the organization through executive and managerial appointments” as an “issue to be immediately addressed upon taking office as president.” Explicitly, it advised hiring figures who were “mainly right-wing.”
According to the union, this content has gone from a mere plan into actual practice since Park’s arrival as network president. Figures provided by the union showed KBS chapter members accounting for 12% of managerial positions under Park’s regime — roughly one-sixth of the 68% rate recorded under predecessor Kim Eui-chul.
Park Sang-hyun, the NUMW chief for the KBS chapter, flips through the document in question during a press conference held on April 1, 2024, at the KBS Annex in Yeongdeungpo, Seoul. (Kim Young-won_The Hankyoreh).jpeg
Park Sang-hyun, the NUMW chief for the KBS chapter, flips through the document in question during a press conference held on April 1, 2024, at the KBS Annex in Yeongdeungpo, Seoul. (Kim Young-won/The Hankyoreh)

The union stressed that the document provided instructions for unfair labor practices.
“Nowhere in the Labor Standards Act, the National Human Rights Commission Act, the Trade Union Act, or the KBS articles of association does it say anything about being able to consider political identification when making official appointments,” it said.
Another one of the “emergency tasks” mentioned for completion after assuming the network presidency was the “preparation of a sincere statement (apology) to the public for the loss of its trust.” This eventually came about in November 2023, with a press statement and apology to the public after Park became network president.
Another time referred to “appointing five positions, including the bureau chief, in accordance with the CEO’s will, and if appointment consent [from the union] is not forthcoming, consideration should be given to disregarding the collective agreement and simply implementing the order.” Indeed, unilateral appointments carried out in January ended up bypassing the union and not seeking its approval.
Chung Myung-ah, a labor attorney who was asked to review the legal ramifications of the document, called the content “shocking.”
“It clearly states that right-wing figures should be appointed in order to cut out the NUMW, and that they should accept the violation or even abandonment of the collective agreement to this end,” she noted.
“The document itself is an unfair labor practice in violation of the Trade Union Act,” she stressed.
Chung also said, “More than half of the document had to do with outsourcing production, cutting staff, and reducing personnel costs.”
“The intention appeared to be to hold the network members’ survival rights hostage to browbeat them into obeying,” she suggested.
NUMW Chairperson Yun Chang-hyun said the document “went a step further than the one in 2010,” referring to a “normalization plan” for MBC and KBS that was drafted and implemented by the National Intelligence Service during the Lee Myung-bak presidency.
“This time, it went beyond simply ‘taking control’ to express its intent to effect an irreversible ‘mid-flight breakup’ of KBS,” he explained, announcing his plan to “hold the document’s author and KBS management to account.”
Highlights from a document titled “A Crisis is an Opportunity” concerning broadcaster KBS, reported on by MBC’s “Straight.” On the left is the 2023 document, with the words “mainly right-wing” highlighted. On the right is a 2010 document, with the words “weeding out of left-leaning figures.” (still from @MBC-straight on YouTube).jpeg
Highlights from a document titled “A Crisis is an Opportunity” concerning broadcaster KBS, reported on by MBC’s “Straight.” On the left is the 2023 document, with the words “mainly right-wing” highlighted. On the right is a 2010 document, with the words “weeding out of left-leaning figures.” (still from @MBC-straight on YouTube)

In a position statement, KBS said, “We have no way of knowing the course of the ‘confidential document,’ and it was neither reported to nor shared with KBS management or staff.”
“We are deeply dismayed by MBC’s reporting of baseless content, and we intend to pursue a response, including a request for a correction,” the broadcaster added.
By Park Kang-su, staff reporter … See MoreSee Less

Document shows plan for ‘takeover’ of KBS by installing right-wing figures, undermining union

english.hani.co.kr

The public broadcaster’s union said it would investigate and seek legal recourse regarding an 18-page document detailing plans including abandoning the collective agreement between the company and i…