links for 2007-03-22

• BBC NEWS | UK | Magazine | Best of British
  "A cut glass English accent can fool unsuspecting Americans into detecting a "brilliance that isn't there", says Stephen Fry. So is a British accent - of any variety - the route to success in the United States?"
  (tags: language culture)
• Poynter Online - Photojournalism in the Age of Scrutiny
  "A leading organization of visual journalists, the Society for News Design, has adopted a new ethics code, just as two new controversies emerged that questioned the integrity of photographic images."
  (tags: ethics photos photojournalism newmedia jmschku)
• EastSouthWestNorth: Local Action in Hong Kong
  " Why isn't more reported about them? It is very simple. The gatekeepers of mainstream media have decided that there is no news value to their readers/viewers."
  (tags: hongkong media journalism internet blogs eswn politics)
• Global Voices Online » Blog Archive » China: Book banned prior to printing
  "‘A Narrow Escape From Death: My ‘Right-wing’ Life’, a book from retired Xinhua journalist Dai Huang was banned from being published... Dai recounts the years during which he was cast as a rightist and forced to undergo reform labor."
  (tags: censorship publishing politics history ccp propaganda books)

Comments

[Clarke]

"The gatekeepers of mainstream media have decided that there is no news value to their readers/viewers. There is no right or wrong about that kind of decision because it is a judgment call..."

Wha?..."no right or wrong?" Since when are "judgement calls", especially those made by HK's mainstream media gatekeepers, beyond right or wrong?

This pretty well sums up much of the apathy in Hong Kong and why everyone should read Roland Soong's "comments" with a few boxes of salt.

There's plenty in HK that needs to be questioned and yes, condemned...people who know better need to get off the fence and stop peddling this type of tripe.

The fact is people do believe it's newsworthy and the mainstream press in HK has been actively engaged in filtering (aka "censoring") for far too long. Yes, it's a judgement and yes it's wrong.

And sadly, I'll bet Ms. MacKinnon won't post this comment...

[Rebecca MacKinnon]

Thanks for your comment. For the record I approve all comments except for spam, porn-promotion, and personal insults containing no substantive comment.

I have to moderate comments in order to avoid being accused of promoting Asian porn. I can't win can I?