Showing posts with label 2016 at 03:43PM. Show all posts
Showing posts with label 2016 at 03:43PM. Show all posts

Sunday, September 25, 2016

Despite Turkey’s objections Moody’s downgrades Turkey’s sovereign debt rating to ‘junk’ level….

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Senior Turkish officials have criticized the cut to Turkey’s sovereign credit rating by ratings agency Moody’s, claiming that the move is “biased” and does not reflect the realities of Turkey’s macro indicators
Moody’s cut Turkey’s sovereign debt rating by one notch to the speculative or “junk” level of “Ba1” on Sept. 23, saying the country’s finances have weakened amid increased political turmoil
‘Stable outlook reflects strengths in the credit profile,’ agency says

NEW YORK ― The Friday morning event in New York City was billed as a definitive discussion on the attempted putsch in Turkey in July. It promised the perspective of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the controversial leader who

After Turkey’s failed coup on July 15, the Turkish government declared a state of emergency.
The ebb and flow of life in Gaziantep
Reporting is fraught with challenges amid ever-present tensions in the Turkey-Syria border town.
BBC – Sep 23

‘I think it’s really sad and wrong they think we’re terrorists, because we’re not,’ says Chilla, a bright and articulate sixth-former at the elite Kharisma Bangsa high school near Jakarta, Indonesia’s capital. Until mid-July, her main worry was

Turkish Minute – Tm – Sep 21, 10:22 AM

A password will be e-mailed to you. Biden’s office refutes Turkish minister’s claim that US has proof Gülenists plotted… US Vice President Joe Biden’s office refuted a claim made by Bekir Bozdağ, justice minister of Turkey, who said on

The Government has indefinitely postponed UN Special Rapporteur on Torture Méndez’s October visit. “I believe that postponing my visit at this late stage sends the wrong message”, Méndez said.
Turkey will not take part in a U.S.-led coalition operation to liberate the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant’s (ISIL) de facto capital of Raqqa if Syrian Kurdish fighters are also involved, Presidential Spokesperson İbrahim Kalın said

Turkey to be upset if US arms the YPG: Turkish PM

Turkey would consider the United States’ supply of weapons and ammunition to the Syrian Kurds as a regrettable development, Prime Minister Binali Yıldırım said Sept. 22 in comments regarding a New York Times report

Turkey seems to be preparing for a long-term stay in northern Syria

It has been nearly a month since Turkey and the Free Syrian Army (FSA) launched the Euphrates’ Shield Operation, which is considered a successful military move given the results so far
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said on Sept. 20 the EU has let down his country in terms of its commitments under a refugee deal
In his speech at the UN, Erdoğan discussed the Gülen movement, the war in Syria, a no-fly zone and the military operations in Syria and Mosul.

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Wednesday, July 13, 2016

It seems that Turkey finally gives in over Syria: “Turkey wants to develop ‘good relations’ with Syria, says PM Yıldırım”

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Turkey aims to develop “good relations” with Syria and Iraq, Prime Minister Binali Yıldırım said on July 13, raising the prospect of yet more big shifts in Ankara’s foreign policy after rapprochement with Russia and Israel

Binali Yıldırım says: ‘For the fight against terrorism to succeed stability needs to return to Syria and Iraq’

The French Embassy in Ankara and the French consulate in Istanbul will be closed until further notice after the country’s diplomatic missions in Turkey have cancelled their planned events to mark France’s National Day due to security concerns

Turkey, Germany to continue discussions on MPs’ visit to İncirlik base

Turkey and Germany will continue to talk about a potential visit of German MPs to the İncirlik air base, where some 400 German soldiers are deployed, Deputy Prime Minister Numan Kurtulmuş has said
Turkey has said it has not taken any official or unofficial steps to normalize its ties with Egypt, calling on the Egyptian government to examine its anti-democratic actions against political prisoners

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Saturday, May 14, 2016

Journalism agenda: The BBC White Paper…

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As the BBC’s current charter expires at the end of 2016, the government has drafted a white paper to outline key changes for the broadcaster’s future

The BBC White Paper is a recipe for long-term decline

The government’s proposals would be a blow to both the BBC’s freedom from government interference, and its place at the heart of British popular culture.

John Whittingdale is a committed free-marketeer. Credit: Jon Super / PA Images

Want a glimpse of the culture minister’s real agenda for the BBC? Just turn to pages 112-115 of the government’s White Paper and the commissioned questions asked by the polling agency. They are very revealing.

 

The BBC White Paper is a recipe for long-term decline

The government’s proposals would be a blow to both the BBC’s freedom from government interference, and its place at the heart of British popular culture.

John Whittingdale is a committed free-marketeer. Credit: Jon Super / PA Images

Want a glimpse of the culture minister’s real agenda for the BBC? Just turn to pages 112-115 of the government’s White Paper and the commissioned questions asked by the polling agency. They are very revealing.

 

What is the vision behind the BBC White Paper?

Listen to a discussion about the long-term implications of this week’s government White Paper on the future of the BBC.

After weeks of rumour and speculation about an imminent assault on the BBC the publication of the White Paper on the corporation’s future has been seen by some as anti-climactic. But while the headlines have been restrained, the document makes several suggestions that would have a significant impact on the corporation, including major changes to governance, programming and the mission statement. Last night The Media Society hosted a discussion about the paper, unpacking its key points and asking how they might unfold in the long-term.

The BBC may soon be unable to compete

The requirement for output to be “distinctive”, coupled with the growth of media consortia, could force the BBC out of the game.

BBC New Broadcasting HouseBBC New Broadcasting House

The culture minister John Whittingdale may not have succeeded in giving himself the ability to re-schedule the BBC’s programming to save ITV from the perils of competition in prime time. However, the government’s White Paperdoes redefine the Corporation’s mission as something more than the holy trinity ‘Educate, Inform, Entertain’. The BBC now has a new remit: “To act in the public interest, serving all audiences with impartial, high-quality and distinctive media content and services that inform, educate and entertain”.

 

Now is a good time for publishers to invest in virtual reality

As virtual reality grows in popularity, news organisations should get started in the immersive medium before they are left behind
The Offshore Leaks database, released on 9 May, includes information about more than 300,000 offshore companies

It started as a sort-of-joke writer Kyle Chayka made a few weeks ago, after he’d been reading a lot about bots.

Chayka then actually created that weekend bot, which was “kind of an absurdist joke about bots and sort of the pointlessness of this delivery mechanism for all the same stuff.”

 

The Times of London and Sunday Times on Wednesday launched new phone and tablet apps, and a new website, all focused on publishing online in editions that will be updated four times a day.

There will be a fresh issue early in the morning, followed by updates at 9 a.m., noon, and 5 p.m. — all times when the Times’ traffic tends to peak as readers wake up, arrive at work, eat lunch, and commute home.

 

How The Telegraph built its new CMS by focusing on simplicity

Starting Wednesday, about 95 percent of content the British newspaper The Telegraph publishes online will flow through a new content management system — one that it developed in-house through a collaboration between its product team and the newsroom, aimed at simplifying its digital publishing process.

The BBC reaches 68 percent of 18- to 24-year-olds in the U.K., both online and offline, in a given week. The German public media organization ZDF, meanwhile, reaches just 24 percent of that age group.

Why is the BBC reaching so many more young people than ZDF? A new report from the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism examines how public media can stay competitive online “in a fast-evolving global digital landscape.” The report looks at leading public media organizations in the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Italy, Finland, and Poland.

Editor’s note: Our sister publication Nieman Reports is out with their new issue— go check it out. I write a column for the print edition of the magazine; here’s my latest.

A few years back, around the time of the financial crisis, I remember hearing about a guy with a startup idea for a news site. The main expense any online publisher has is people, right? People who stubbornly insist on being paid actual money.

Around 5 p.m. on April 1, everyone in our little office crowded around my desk, watching a live video of baby goats roaming inside BuzzFeed Motion Pictures president Ze Frank’s office — a prank by staffers for his birthday. Would Frank be angry? Would the goats escape?? Would chaos ensue?! Five of us waited for the grand climax, baffled by our own interest, along with 81,000 other viewers.

Editor’s note: There are lots of new stories to read in the newest issue of our sister publication Nieman Reports. In this piece, an excerpt from her new bookSaving the Media: Capitalism, Crowdfunding, and Democracy, the French economist Julia Cagé calls for a new legal structure for media organizations that reflects the role of news as a public good.

Despite Facebook’s unrivaled status as a distribution platform for publishers, it hasn’t always been as effective at helping publishers make money. The latest update to its ad policy might help change that.

Facebook said this morning that it will start letting verified celebrities, influencers, and publishers use their pages to post content they’ve created with brands. The new policy will let publishers post videos (including 360º and Facebook Live video), photos, or articles (Instant or otherwise) that explicitly mention or feature brands.

WordPress, to steal a phrase from Marie Kondo, does not spark joy. When I log in, I see a series of modules that I never use and 11 plugins that need updating.

Medium wants to free us from this unsightly digital mess. At an event Thursday in New York, CEO Ev Williams and other Medium executives repeatedly referred to the company as a city — a new one, built from the ground up. “It’s a simplistic view to say go where the people are,” Williams said. “You need to go where the right people are.”

As most people — and most women on Twitter — know, the Internet can be an ugly and abusive place. The Guardian, which receives more than 50,000 reader comments a day, is taking steps to help change that with “The Web We Want,” a series it kicked off on Monday. As part of the series, the paper will publish its “own analysis of abuse on our site,” it said in an editorial. “Other platforms that have been reticent until now must follow suit,” it added.

 

Parsely1Twitter generates 1.5 percent of traffic for typical news organizations, according to a new report from the social analytics company Parse.ly that examined data from 200 of its client websites over two weeks in January. (You’ll need to give Parse.ly your email address to access the full report.) Parse.ly’s network includes publishers like Upworthy, Slate, The Daily Beast, and Business Insider.

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