New York, U.S.A. — An Ivoirian government security detail assaulted a journalist covering the eviction of a senior official’s family on Friday, seizing his equipment and leaving him bleeding and bruised, according to news reports. The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns the attack and calls on authorities to ensure the perpetrators are brought to justice.

A police officer, a military soldier, and agents in plainclothes attacked Anderson Diédri, a reporter for the private daily Le Nouveau Courrier, as he interviewed and photographed a woman and her five children as they were being evicted from their home in Abidjan, according to local journalists and news reports. The woman’s husband, Albert Toikeusse Mabri, the minister of planning and development, had sought the eviction after filing for divorce in June.

Mabri had sent the assailants to supervise the eviction, even though an appeals court had nullified an eviction order issued earlier by a lower court, news reports said.

Diédri said that he had identified himself as a journalist to his assailants, but the men continued to punch and kick him, leaving him with a bloody lip and bruises on his body, according to news reports. He said the men had also seized his camera and mobile phone, news reports said. One of Mabri’s aides later returned the camera to the journalist, but all of the photographs had been deleted, Stéphane Bahi, the editor of Le Nouveau Courrier, told CPJ.

No one has been arrested for the assault, according to local journalists. Bahi told CPJ that the newspaper planned to file an official complaint.

Edmond Doua, the director of communications to Mabri, told CPJ that the minister had not ordered the assault. Doua also said that the images had been deleted because the journalist had taken photographs of a private affair without any authorization. He said he had personally apologized to Le Nouveau Courrier and secured the release of the journalist’s equipment.

“We condemn the assault on Anderson Diédri in connection with his reporting on a public official,” said CPJ Africa Advocacy Coordinator Mohamed Keita from New York. “If Ivoirian minister Albert Toikeusse Mabri did not order the attack, it is all the more imperative that he do everything in his power to identify Diédri’s assailants and bring them to justice.”

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Under The Twitter Rules, it is stated that “You may not publish or post other people’s private and confidential information, such as credit card numbers, street address or Social Security/National Identity numbers, without their express authorization and permission.”

The San Francisco-based microblogging service offered this reasoning to journalist Guy Adams for his account’s suspension on July 29. Adams, the Los Angeles correspondent for UK publication The Independent, had tweeted on July 27:

“The man responsible for NBC pretending the Olympics haven’t started yet is Gary Zenkel. Tell him what u think! Email: Gary.zenkel@nbcuni.com.”  The corporate email account belongs to Gary Zenkel, president of NBC Olympics for NBCUniversal (a Comcast Corporation subsidiary), the American broadcaster with exclusive US media rights to the airing of the London 2012 Olympics.

As part of his email to Twitter’s European public relations executive Rachel Bremer, Adams wrote, “I’m of course happy to abide by Twitter’s rules, now and forever,” it reads. “But I don’t see how I broke them in this case: I didn’t publish a private email address. Just a corporate one, which is widely available to anyone with access to Google, and is identical [in form] to one that all of the tens of thousands of NBC Universal employees share.”

Although Zenkel’s email is not readily available on NBCUniversal’s website, the email accounts of executives at American cable channel Bravo – which is owned by NBCUniversal – follow the same format. Since his suspension, Twitter users have been reposting Zenkel’s email in a show of solidarity. Regarding the dubious “non-public” status of the account, New York Magazine wrote, “If it was ever private, it’s not now.” The hashtags #NBCFail and #TwitterFail are also trending in relation to the incident.

In a twist that had Adams writing about “various ethical issues relevant to journalism in the online era,” NBC Sports issued a statement yesterday regarding its role in bringing the message to Twitter’s attention. Matthew Keys of Reuters tweeted part of the statement, “”We filed a complaint with Twitter because a user tweeted the personal information of one of our executives.”

The service entered into a partnership with NBC to tweet exclusive Olympic content through its website. According to the Wall Street Journal, the broadcaster will not be paying Twitter or sharing any advertising revenue.

Twitter has not responded publicly regarding the incident.

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Kyiv, Ukraine — The World Newspaper Congress will take place in Kyiv on September 2-5, 2012 and is expected to bring up to 1,200 delegates, representatives of influential international media. The event will also feature the World Editors Forum as well as the annual Info Services Expo 2012.

Now that millions of European football fans and the leading international media discovered Ukrainian hospitality during the EURO 2012, it is high time to establish a deeper and more comprehensive cooperation between Ukrainian and foreign journalists, stated Oleksandr Kurdinovych. Number one objective of the World Association of Newspapers and Publishers (WAN-IFRA) congress is insuring that objective information on developments in Ukraine reaches the “western world,” he mentioned.

According to Ukrainian media the upcoming congress is going to be the second largest international event in Ukraine after EURO 2012 championship.

In preparation to the sports tournament Ukraine drastically improved its infrastructure and, according to Michel Platini, UEFA President, the country’s success was extraordinary. He also noted that the Ukraine’s infrastructure leaped 30 years into the future after having built and renovated airports, built new roads, constructed and renewed 290 hotels. In addition, Ukraine was listed as number one among CIS countries regarding railroad infrastructure development, according to the World Economic Forum’ latest Global Enabling Trade Report.

World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers is a global organization of the world’s newspapers and news publishers that represents over 18,000 publications and 15,000 websites in 120 countries. It has a status of an official consultant, which represents the interests of newspaper industry in UNESCO, United Nations and the European Council.

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Journalists at Fairfax Media have gone on a 36-hour strike over job outsourcing to New Zealand. Fairfax Media is the second largest publishing company in Australia, and is accused of making “easy instead of smart” decisions about cost-cutting.

This strike affects journalist staff in both print and online sections of several papers including The Age, The Sydney Morning Herald, The Australian Financial Review, The Sunday Age, The Sun Herald, Newcastle Herald, and Wollongong’s Ilawarra Mercury.

The strike began at 5:30 p.m. Wednesday evening with staff walking out after hundreds of journalists met with media union officials from the Media, Entertainment and Arts Alliance (MEAA) that same day.

The cost-cutting, outsourcing plan is causing fear in the journalists for their job safety and will result in 66 jobs lost due to the relocation of the editorial staff.

Rallies were held May 31 in Australia by the striking journalists and the MEAA. Louise Connor, MEAA Victorian secretary, stood outside Fairfax’s Melbourne offices on Thursday with around 100 journalists.

“Our grave concern is that this company makes the easy decisions to cut costs instead of making the smart decisions to move this company into the new era,” Ms. Connor told reporters.

“This is a very dangerous step for Fairfax to be taking. There has been no experience in Australia of companies making the decision to offshore such a central part of the newspaper and this can only destroy the vital nexus between the newsroom and the community. Sub-editors are journalists and the heart of the newsroom.

They should always be embedded in the community to enable the newspaper to tell the local story accurately.” said Chris Warren, MEAA federal secretary. The MEAA said the outsourcing is just Fairfax’s way to finding cheap cuts in journalism.

The striking journalists risk the chance of being fined. To them, it is definitely worth it.

“We don’t think we’ll be fined. We understand the risk that we took in walking out, but there’s frustration at the decision to outsource jobs,” said Ben Schneiders, a journalist at The Age.

Fairfax Media management has expressed disappointment at the journalists’ strike action, but says the changes will put the company in a better position to take advantage of the numerous opportunities in digital media.

Senior staff and sub-editors from the involved newspapers are going to negotiate with Fairfax management over the next few days to find an alternative solution, the MEAA says.

The strike is due to end Friday morning.

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Beijing, China – PR Newswire issued a new white paper that provides essential information about the media landscape in China, as well as tips for building successful communications strategies and media outreach programs. Designed specifically for companies looking to learn more about China that may not currently have a presence here, the white paper, titled “Navigating China’s Complex Media Landscape,” is a must-read for marketing and communications experts interested in learning about what drives the world’s most populous nation.

Breaking down China’s complex media landscape into bite-size segments, the white paper provides useful and usable information about how to navigate both traditional and online media in China. Confusing and contradictory at times, Chinese media can also be summarized by their fast transformation, and while traditional media still play an important role, online media are becoming more and more influential.

The white paper includes: a detailed breakdown of both traditional and online media, with an emphasis on the power of traditional media and the growing impact of social media and new technologies; a comprehensive list of Do’s and Don’ts for marketers and communicators; tips for writing Chinese press releases, building media relationships and getting noticed online and a selection of case studies highlighting international companies that got it right.

“The goal of the white paper is simple. We want to provide companies with a clear and concise picture of China’s media landscape and how best to navigate it,” said Lee Green, Director of Operations (Asia) at PR Newswire. “We hope that the knowledge we’ve gained over the last decade, since PR Newswire first opened its Beijing office, will help guide companies as they look to crack what can be a very complex industry, and we’re also delighted to be conducting a three-part webinar series on ‘Understanding China’ that runs in connection with this white paper.”

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