ABC Director Craig McMurtrie speaks to the media as Australian police raided the headquarters of the public broadcaster in Sydney on Wednesday. ABC executives said police executed a search warrant targeting three journalists involved in a two-year investigative report. Peter Parks/AFP/Getty Images
Australian police raided the headquarters of the public broadcaster in Sydney on Wednesday//CRIMSON TAZVINZWA
The Australian Federal Police on Wednesday raided the headquarters of the country’s public broadcaster, the ABC, in connection with a story the network broadcast in 2017 detailing misconduct by Australian special forces in Afghanistan.
The plainclothes officers arrived at the network’s offices at about 11:30 a.m., acting on a search warrant authorizing them to look into “allegations of publishing classified material” in relation to the story, “The Afghan Files” that was based on leaked defense ministry documents, the ABC reports.
The 2017 report uncovered allegations of unlawful killings of unarmed civilians, including children, and other misconduct by Australian special forces soldiers in Afghanistan. It also quoted from military documents that expressed concern about a deterioration of organizational culture within the elite special forces and a “willingness by officers to turn a blind eye to bad behavior.”
The network says authorities copied hard drives and said “they want[ed] to search through email systems in relation to the people mentioned in the search warrant and were searching ‘data holdings’ between April 2016 and July 2017.”
ABC Managing Director David Anderson said the raid was “highly unusual” and “a serious development and raises legitimate concerns over freedom of the press and proper public scrutiny of national security and Defence matters.”
He said the network would “stand by its journalists, will protect sources and continue to report without fear or favour on national security and intelligence issues when there is a clear public interest.”
The search comes a day after a similar but apparently unrelated AFP raid against News Corp journalist Annika Smethurst in Canberra. Smethurst had reported on “secret plans to allow government spying,” the ABC says.
Marcus Strom, an official with the journalists’ union, the Media, Entertainment and Arts Alliance, was quoted by The Sydney Morning Herald as saying that police raids against the media were “becoming normalized and it has to stop.”
The raids represent a “disturbing pattern of assaults on Australian press freedom,” Strom told the newspaper.
The film is about a 14-year-old boy whose father was killed by ISIL, forcing him to abandon school [Al Jazeera]
Digital documentary Growing up too Fast in Afghanistan was recognised in the short video category
The Al Jazeera English Online unit AJ Shorts was honoured alongside fellow awards winners from The New York Times, Reuters, BBC, Washington Post and leading East Asian news outlets at this year’s Human Rights Press Awards ceremony in Hong Kong.
The AJ Shorts digital documentary, Growing up too Fast in Afghanistan, won in the Short Video (English) category, which was announced at the event on May 16. The film is the first-person narrative of a 14-year-old boy, Khudai, whose father was killed by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, or ISIS) group, forcing him to abandon school and take odd jobs to ensure the survival of his mother and five younger sisters.
Filmed and directed by Preethi Nallu, Growing up too Fast in Afghanistan also garnered two awards at the Webby Awards gala in New York City earlier this month.
Al Jazeera Media Network’s director of Digital Innovation and Programming Carlos Van Meek said he is proud of his team’s accomplishments.
“This was a great collaboration between our broadcast partners and our digital team. I credit everyone involved for thinking laterally and working together across platforms to get the most out of a great story. Much more of this to come,” said Van Meek.
The Human Rights Press Awards presented 52 awards in recognition of outstanding human rights-focused journalism from across Asia. Winning entries ranged from high-profile issues such as the plight of Myanmar’s Rohingya, to under-reported topics such as the extrajudicial killing of Muslims in India, and the hardships faced by stateless minority communities living precariously along Cambodia‘s waterways.
Jailed Reuters reporters
The award for Best Investigative Feature Writing went to Reuters reporters Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo and their colleagues in recognition of their chilling work Myanmar Burning, which documented military atrocities including extrajudicial killings against the Rohingya Muslim minority. Shortly after publishing the report, Myanmar authorities imprisoned the two journalists for more than 500 days.
AJ Shorts Commissioning Editor Andrew James Phillips said his team’s win provided “a big lift to continue telling stories of ordinary people in extraordinary and often extremely challenging circumstances”.
“We’re honoured to receive such an important accolade,” Phillips said.
Keynote speaker Maria Ressa, cofounder and CEO of the Philippines-based news website Rappler, summed up the role that human rights storytelling and reportage play in global media.
“Your reporting matters now more than ever,” she said, addressing the audience in Hong Kong. “We need to hold the line and show the best of human nature. That is our hope for the future.”
The TelevisorA BBC cameraman was attacked and pushed by one of President Donald Trump’s supporter yelling “f–k the media” at the president’s rally in favor of a border .
Jeremy Hunt says journalists should never be impeded from “holding power accountable.” – Mary Papenfuss, HuffPost US
British Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt condemned a violent attack by a Donald Trump supporter on a BBC cameraman at an El Paso, Texas, rally on Monday. Hunt linked the violence to a troubling surge in fatal assaults against journalists, whom he praised as the “invisible line between open and closed societies.”
A man wearing a red “Make America great again” cap was captured on video attacking BBC cameraman Ron Skeans at the rally before he was pulled off the journalist. Ironically, the MAGA violence erupted at a rally where Trump talked of improving safety in the nation.
“It is never acceptable when journalists and cameramen are attacked just for doing their job,” Hunt said Tuesday on Sky News. “There is a broader issue here, which is that last year 80 journalists were killed across the world just doing their job.” (Hunt addresses the incident in the video here at 8:33.)
“We are very worried about this because freedom of the press is the invisible line between open societies and closed societies. It’s very, very important that we protect the ability of journalists to do their jobs.”
Hunt added, in an apparent reference to America: “We have to make sure that it’s not acceptable anywhere in the world for journalists to be impeded from doing what they should do, which is to tell the public exactly what’s going on and hold power to account.”
Unlike Hunt, Trump frequently slams the press as the “enemy of the people.”
Last year Trump praised Rep. Greg Gianforte (R-Mont.), who body-slammed a Guardian reporter after the journalist asked Gianforte a question about health care on the eve of his election victory. “Any guy who can do a body slam, he is my type,” Trump said in a speech at a Gianforte re-election rally last fall, triggering outraged criticism. “He’s a great guy, a tough cookie,” Trump added.
At his own campaign rally in 2016, Trump encouraged supporters to attack protesters. “If you see somebody getting ready to throw a tomato, knock the crap out of them, would you?” he said. “Just knock the hell … I promise you I will pay for the legal fees.”
Gary O’Donoghue, the Washington correspondent for the British public service broadcaster, called the attack on Skeans “incredibly violent.” He complained that the “goading of the crowds against the media” is “a constant feature” of Trump’s rallies.
Following the attack, the BBC wrote a letter to the White House demanding a “review of security arrangements” for media covering Trump’s rallies.
The White House News Photographers Association also condemned the attack. “Given that the president’s rhetoric about journalists is too often false and derogatory, we ask that he refrain from unnecessarily targeting journalists with his speech since such rhetoric may be inciting violent acts such as this one,” the association said in a statement.
Matthew Mullenweg is one of the co-creators of WordPress, which sees extensive use in countries situated all around the world. For proof, look no further than the number of top blogs that are reliant upon it to run. Currently, Mullenweg is serving as the CEO of Automattic, which encompasses both WordPress and a number of related products and services.
I recently spoke with Matt Mullenweg, the creator of WordPress and CEO of Automattic, the company that offers a range of products and services for WordPress users.
Automattic is valued today at over $1 billion.
Matt joined me for a wide-ranging conversation on my podcast, in which he shared his aspiration to capture the 75% of the internet that WordPress doesn’t already manage.
He also explained how his 400-person team works largely from home or in co-located offices in 43 countries, and relies almost entirely on an internal blogging platform for communication and collaboration — while avoiding the use of email.
Automattic’s mission is to democratize publishing. Where do you think you are today in terms of achieving that?
It’s probably a lifelong mission, to be honest. The idea is to give everyone, regardless of what language you speak or how much money you have, the ability to have a voice online using the best software in the world.
You or I can download and publish using the exact same software that The New Yorker uses for newyorker.com. And I think that is relatively unique in the history of the world. We don’t have access to the same printing press as The New York Times, but in the digital world we can have the same software as The New Yorker.
You’ve been a fierce advocate for the open-source movement. What’s the state of play today with the movement?
Right now, we power about 25% of all websites — the largest of any of the content-management systems. The number two has around 3%. But we are not happy that we have just 25%, and we see a lot of work to get the remaining 75%.
Certainly, our near-term goal for WordPress is to try to get to a majority because I feel when a majority of the web is driven by open-source software, that will drive the web to be a better place. It’ll be more open, more inclusive, with fewer closed gardens and silos, and it will drive as well the proprietary folks to be more open.
You’ve got a highly decentralized, dispersed work force spanning the globe — people working from home and, for the most part, never stepping foot into an office. How is that working out?
Automattic is a totally distributed company, so everyone works from wherever they are in the world. It could be a coffee shop, it could be their home, it could be a co-working space. We hire people regardless of where they are.
We now have folks in just over 40 countries. This has been amazing for the company in that we can attract and retain the best talent without them having to be in New York or San Francisco or one of the traditional tech enters.
So far this model has worked extraordinarily well, and we plan to continue it.
The “Automattic creed” states that communication is the “oxygen” for a distributed company. For a long time, you’ve used a blog theme called P2 for internal communication and collaboration. And for the most part, you avoid using email for communication inside Automattic.
I think email is definitely on its way out, between things like P2 and Slack, which is a work place chat tool. Email just has so many things wrong with it. I’ve never heard anyone who’ve said they love email, they want more of it — have you?
Imagine if, in your company, instead of email, everyone could post and comment on a blog. Different groups or teams could have their own space on it, but fundamentally everything was tagged and traceable and transparent. That’s kind of what P2 looks like.
P2 also has its own sort of internal Google alerts, so you can keep up with everyone without having to read everything that goes by.
It’s free actually, so go check out p2theme.com. I invite anyone to try it out.
Why is knowing how to write well so important at Automattic?
Skill in writing is one of the things I look for the most in hiring, because I feel that clear writing represents clear thinking, regardless of someone’s background, or whether they’re a designer or coder or whatever.
The ability to communicate effectively and clearly in written form is not only super important in a distributed company, but I think reflects well on how they approach life in general.
Part of the reason I started blogging and started working on WordPress was because I love writing.
If I can become a better writer, perhaps I can become a better thinker.Read the original article on Inc.. Copyright 2019. Follow Inc. on Twitter.
AIWA! NO!|For President Donald Trump, his ongoing battle with the New York Times is personal — he just wants a good story about him from the big newspaper in the city where he grew up.
Trump sat down for an interview on Thursday with Times journalists Maggie Haberman and Peter Baker as well as the newspaper’s publisher, A.G. Sulzberger. Trump had initially requested an off-the-record meeting with Sulzberger, but the publisher declined, saying he would only agree to an on-the-record interview with Times reporters.
Haberman and Baker conducted most of the interview, but Sulzberger specifically decided to press Trump on his attacks on the media. The president, who often declares what he calls the “fake news” to be the “enemy of the people,” defended his stance that he is often treated unfairly by reporters. He took specific issue with a number of outlets, including the Times.
But what becomes clear through his comments, a transcript of which the Times published, is that Trump, who was born in Queens and spent his whole life in New York, just really craves the paper’s approval.
“I came up from Jamaica, Queens, Jamaica Estates, and I became president of the United States,” Trump said. “I’m sort of entitled to a great story from my — just one — from my newspaper.”
Trump often uses social media as a way around the media; he (often successfully) tries to shift the news cycle with a single tweet. In his Times interview, he bragged about his social media following but still indicated that, in his mind, it’s not the same as the write-up he wants in the New York Times.
Social media “gives you at least a voice,” he said. “That’s not — you know, the New York Times is the New York Times.”
At one point, when an aide tried to help wind down the conversation, telling Trump he had some important calls, he responded, “I’ll be in in a little while. What’s more important than the New York Times? Okay, nothing, nothing.”
Later in the interview, when White House press secretary Sarah Sanders tried to cut things off, Trump said if the Times treats him “fairly,” he’ll do more interviews. “We’ll do it a hundred times,” he said.
Trump doesn’t think the New York Times is failing. He thinks it’s failing to give him credit where credit is due.
Trump has for years derided the “failing New York Times” in the media, on the campaign trail, and on Twitter. He often claims that stories about him are false and unfairly slanted.
The Failing New York Times wrote a story that made it seem like the White House Councel had TURNED on the President, when in fact it is just the opposite – & the two Fake reporters knew this. This is why the Fake News Media has become the Enemy of the People. So bad for America!96.2K12:06 PM – Aug 19, 2018Twitter Ads info and privacy45.8K people are talking about this
Despite so many positive events and victories, Media Reseach Center reports that 92% of stories on Donald Trump are negative on ABC, CBS and ABC. It is FAKE NEWS! Don’t worry, the Failing New York Times didn’t even put the Brett Kavanaugh victory on the Front Page yesterday-A17!91.1K1:01 PM – Oct 10, 2018Twitter Ads info and privacy50.3K people are talking about this
Yet he keeps on talking to them.
He’s calledout Haberman and Baker directly on Twitter, but during his Thursday sit-down, his exchanges with them seemed largely calm and familiar.
He brought up Baker’s book on former President Barack Obama, telling him it was a “very good book,” albeit not about “my favorite person.” When Haberman pointed out that sometimes Trump calls Times coverage inaccurate when it is, in fact, accurate, he said they sometimes miss “little things,” like his routine for watching television. At one point, they all joked about exchanging phone numbers:
PETER BAKER, chief White House correspondent: [Handing the president a notepad] Put your number right there, and I’ll be happy to call.
[Laughter]
HABERMAN: We’ll just — we’ll call you.
BAKER: We’ll be happy to call.
HABERMAN: Can we go through the switchboard? We’ll call you. [Laughter]
TRUMP: Do you have a hard time — when you call me, let me ask you this, when you call me you go through — do you ever call for me and —
SANDERS: Two Sundays ago you called — [inaudible]
TRUMP: — and I don’t get back?
HABERMAN: Ish.
Trump said that he’s “very busy” but speculated that if a subject of someone’s reporting doesn’t get back to them, maybe they would “be inclined to do bad stories.”
This is not, generally, how journalism works. Journalists often reach out to the subjects of their reporting to give them a chance to respond to their reporting. But whether someone calls back does not determine whether a story is “good” or “bad.”
But the somewhat relaxed nature of their exchanges, per the transcripts, show that a lot of Trump’s derision of the press is performative. He knows it plays well with his base — and with a lot of voters who are distrustful of the news — and that it’s easier to declare a negative story as false than to accept it and explain what’s going on.
Of course, the stakes are high: Violence against journalists is a very real thing all over the world, and the leader of the United States, which is supposed to be an advocate of free speech and press, constantly attacking media has real-life consequences. Trump said he wants to bea defender of free press but went back to complaining about bad coverage of him. He outlined what he saw as his accomplishments, in real time trying to convince the reporters to do that positive story he so craves.
Trump seems to understand the media game — long before arriving at the White House, he was spinning reporters, even as his own fake spokesperson, to try to get good stories out there.
“You’ve been dealing with the press longer than I’ve been in it, longer than he’s been in it. Longer than Peter’s been in it,” Haberman told Trump.
“I hate to hear that,” he said.
“That’s a long time,” she responded.
“Let me look at a mirror,” he joked.
Trump thrives on media attention, good and bad — and the press has largely given it to him. But the Queens guy has got his eye on a glowing write-up from the New York Times.
“I became president and I didn’t have a good story,” Trump said.
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