The Czech Lead

There has been quite a debate recently about the announcement by the Associated Press that they will protect their news by a code that will enable them to show who is using their content without paying for it. I am not sure everyone in the debate discussed the same thing, but in any case it was and is quite useful. Among others we had an intervention by Chris Ahearn from Reuters, that I consider very important because it addresses both sides of the fence. Which is, incidentaly, my approach to the issue as well.

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Tags: AP, Business models, Chris Ahearn, Internet, Internet 2, Journalism, News, News Agencies, Newspapers, Reuters, Steve Buttry, wiki

Just a little note from my previous life in London. A fox in our back yard, photographed by my friend Stan Mundil. And this is just off Hampstead Heath.

Foxes in gardens are good. They frighten the unbelievably arrogant and annoying grey squirrels.

Just a fox in the middle of London

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Tags: Fox, Hampstead Heath, London, Photography

“Citizen Journalism Networks Stepping Up Editorial Standards,” states DigiDave in his recent post. Just as he does I try to avoid the “professionals good - amateurs wrong” (or vice versa, which is far more frequent) debate about journalism, since I think it mostly exaggerates and misses the point. My view is that these two branches have certain elements common and actually need each other. And both need to reform. That is what NowPublic, AllVoices, Orato and Ground Report among others are up to at the moment, revising their original editorial policies and strengthening them, trying not to stifle the stream of “citizen” journalists.

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Tags: Citizen Journalism, Editorial Standards, New Media, News Agencies

Starting from scratch is what not many people do. It is not natural, sometimes not quite useful (my fellow fans of Zdenek Jirotka´s book Saturnin will know exactly what I mean) but in other instances it can be very innovative and revealing. I think one such project was recently announced by Elsevier and is called The Article of the Future.

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Tags: Elsevier, Future, Journalism, New Media, Research, Science, Structure

The Washington Post has been at the receiving end of the new media gurus and “print-is-dead-squads”. It is interesting, therefore, to see WP´s new effort boldly called Innovations in News – The latest creations from Slate and The Washington Post (sponsored by, who else, 3^rd Generation Prius – which, I guess, is important).

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Tags: Ideas, Innovation, Internet, Press, Washington Post

There is a development in the Czech gagging law. A group of 34 Senators filed a case against with the Constitutional court last week.

The Senators want the Court to find that the ban on publishing wiretaps and naming the accused by the police are unconstitutional. They want to keep the legal provision that naming the victims of certain crimes is still a criminal offence bearing up to five years in prison.

So far the workings of the law are a bit ironic. Among the first to be accused of breaking it was the Ministry of Justice, the office of the President (found already to be not guilty of doing so), Minster for Minority Rights (also found innocent of breaking the law) and the Prison service.

Tags: Law, Politics, Press Freedom

Today, I went to see Bonsai exhibition at Prague Botanical Garden in Troja, which will be on for a few more days. I loved it. And there are some photos for you, but not before this:

I would have loved to point you to their website, but Google says it is toxic, so who am I to doubt or even challenge the verdict of the almighty Google Safebrowsing. The poor folks at the Botanical Garden are probably not aware that whoever wants to visit their web will get the sternest of warnings - even if they just type the web address into the Firefox address line, Google is there on their behalf and will prevent your Firefox to get to the garden´s website without this:

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Tags: Bonsai, Google, Internet security, Nature, Photography, Prague

When asked by the Czech TV what is the worst feature of the new “gagging law” directed at the Czech media, I said that it is the fact that it makes journalists much more vulnerable due to uncertainty of how this law is going to be applied. And that proved to be the case.

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Tags: Government, Law, Media, Photography, Politics

There is a new law coming to force in the Czech Republic that is going to complicate work for the Czech journalists to a considerable degree (which no-one would be too concerned about) and at the same time limit what the public will be allowed to know. It deals with naming the names.

The motivation for the law is commendable in as far as it seeks to protect underage victims and victims of violent crimes from being dragged through newspapers (it has also other, possibly less commendable aims). However, the extent of the protection is such that it borders on harsh and, frankly, in some cases impracticable.

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Tags: Criminal, Ethics, Law, Media, Names

There were many photos of London and England under the snow published today by the wires. This one is a personal one. “Our” London yard, taken by the present occupant of our former London house, Stan.

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Tags: House, London, Peace, Snow, Winter