Off the Record

Journalists freed in Cuba, China with CPJ’s support

News from the Committee to Protect Journalists

After years behind bars for their work as journalists, two journalists in Cuba and two journalists in China were released from prison in February.

Spain’s Foreign Minister Miguel Angel Moratinos announced the release of Cuban journalists José Gabriel Ramón Castillo and Alejandro González Raga on February 15. The two were imprisoned after a massive crackdown against the independent press five years ago. CPJ has lobbied intensively for the release of all jailed Cuban journalists—in March 2007, CPJ met with Trinidad Jimenez, secretary of state for Iberoamerica at the Spanish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which played an important role in their release.

In China, Straits Times journalist Ching Cheong was released unexpectedly on February 5 after spending nearly three years behind bars for allegedly spying for Taiwan. Just before he was let out, Ching’s wife, Mary Lau, asked CPJ and other organizations to push for his release because of his deteriorating health. Then Yu Huafeng, deputy editor in chief and general manager of Nanfang Dushi Bao (Southern Metropolis News), was set free on February 8. Yu was detained along with a colleague in 2004 after his newspaper published a story about a suspected SARS case in Guangzhou. He was given a 12-year sentence for corruption. READ MORE...

De Niro, Rosenthal chair bigger Tribeca

NEW YORK -- Robert De Niro and Jane Rosenthal will co-chair a bigger and stronger version of the Tribeca Film Institute, partnering with the Rockefeller Foundation's Renew Media to deliver more than $1 million film, media and arts grants annually.

The two not-for-profit groups are expected to complete their union by April, setting a goal to create a permanent exhibition space, screening venue and artist workspace in downtown Manhattan. READ MORE...

Google News, Yahoo, AOL and the last stand of the traditional Media -- quandrantONE Written by cho

Friday 2-15-08, in Media Firms Create ONline-Ad Network, the Wall Street Journal reported on the latest effort by traditional media to fight back: Gannet, Hearst, the New York Times Co. and the Tribune Co. are setting up a stand-alone online ad-sales network called quandrantONE.

Don't be misled, this "startup" is not just about efficiency in selling web ads. In some ways it is really about how certain folks -- who have what one of ePluribus Media's Columbia School of Journalism Sulzberger program colleagues calls news DNA -- can continue to create and disseminate the news we read. Or more succinctly, it is at least somewhat about who controls the daily news "agenda" -- news folk or search engine folk. READ MORE...

Yahoo! talks with News Corp arouse scepticism

A PARTNERSHIP between Yahoo! and News Corp, which would avoid a Microsoft takeover, would be a "tough one to put together", said Norman Pearlstine, a managing director at Carlyle Group.

"I don't know why a shareholder would prefer the kind of arrangement we have read about instead of cash and stock from Microsoft," said Mr Pearlstine, a former managing editor at The Wall Street Journal who advises on media acquisitions at Carlyle.

The chief executive of Yahoo!, Jerry Yang, turned down Microsoft's $US44.6 billion takeover last week, saying it "substantially undervalues" the company. Yahoo! is in talks about a combination with Rupert Murdoch's News Corp, according to a source. READ MORE...

Newspapers form network to gain ads on Internet

Gannett Co., Tribune Co., New York Times Co. and Hearst Corp., facing an industrywide decline in newspaper advertising sales, have created an online venture to sell ads for local news Web sites.

The new ad network, quadrantONE, will let advertisers buy space on more than 170 newspaper and broadcast sites without having to negotiate individual deals, the companies said Friday in a statement. The local sites reach a combined 50 million unique visitors a month, they said, citing Nielsen Online data.

Combining sales forces may help newspaper publishers sell more national ads and boost revenue from their Web sites as advertisers shift money away from print publications to the Internet. The venture will be "very complementary" to partnerships some of the publishers formed with Yahoo! Inc., said Dana Hayes, quadrantONE's interim chief executive. READ MORE...