seenandheard

Writing in his Legal column in The Guardian, Marcel Berlins is a tad dischuffed with certain aspects of news:

There must be a shorter and pleasanter way of communicating to the public all the horrors that children today are allegedly going through. In the past week alone I've had to read six separate stories (and probably there were others in newspapers I don't read) about the plight of, or danger to, kids.

It's all repetitive, confusing and never tells you anything you didn't know. Here's a simple way to save newspaper space and readers' time. It's a chart, which can be published everywhere, weekly. Across the top are four sections: Good news/Bad news, Says who? and What's the government doing about it?

Down the side is a list of everything that's wrong with children: obesity, teenage pregnancies, yobbishness, rubbish parents, depression, incorrect child seats in cars, illiteracy, teenage abortions, drugs, junk food consumed, crime etc, etc. Then just fill in.

This week, for instance, under "rubbish parents" you would have filled in "never home", "the Archbishop of Canterbury", "nothing". On obesity: "more", "10,000 surveys", "nothing". And so on. Every week a summary of children's misery - without all the boring details. - The Guardian, September 20, 2006.

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Google opens up 200 years of news

Web giant Google is to launch of Google News Archive Search, which will allow users to
explore existing digitised newspaper articles and more recent online content, spanning the last 200 years.
Partners in the project include the websites of the New York Times and the Guardian. Other sources include news aggregators, websites which collect and display news stories from multiple sources.
The new service searches hundreds of different news sources to answer a user's query. Google says search results are based on relevance, not partnerships with companies.
The earliest known searchable story is said to be somewhere in the mid-1700s.

Free legal help for Iraqi journalists

The Iraqi Journalists' Rights Defending Association (IJRDA) has launched a
legal division, defence committee, and telephone hotline for Iraqi journalists facing libel or defamation lawsuits.
The association it would provide lawyers, free of charge, to any journalist accused of violating publishing regulations. The group advertised the hotline contact information in
Iraqi newspapers and with news agencies.

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Free to roam during Olympics, says Beijing

Beijing's Olympics organisers have promised that the international media
will be allowed to travel freely around China by the time the Games
start in 2008, according to Britain's minister for culture, media and sport, Tessa
Jowell.
The assurance, given by the head of the organising committee, Liu Qi,
would require a loosening of some of the tightest restrictions on foreign journalists

in the world. Correspondents are frequently detained by police and sent back to

Beijing when they try to cover sensitive stories in the provinces.
Britain, Germany and other European countries have urged China to drop
these controls and to grant the same freedoms permitted to Chinese
reporters in London, Berlin and other western capitals. It was unclear
whether the relaxation would apply only for the duration of the
Olympics, when more than 20,000 journalists are expected to arrive in
Beijing, or be a permanent change.

Today, as we officially break the “language barrier” with Aljazeera.net English, our dream of bringing “people and continents together” is coming true. A new window of opportunity to see the world through is now opening.

Aljazeera.net English goes behind the scenes to provide every visitor with “the news they don’t see”, daringly and boldly as Aljazeera always does. The website promises to raise traditionally sidelined questions and issues. It upholds the same philosophy of the mother organisation: “The right to speak up”. This translates into allowing everyone to express their opinion freely,and encouraging debates.

Aljazeera has come a long way since it was launched in November 1996. Today the channel that sent shockwaves through the whole Arab world from its very first day on air has become a global name which people, governments, and decision-makers cannot afford to ignore.

With more than 30 bureaus and dozens of correspondents covering the four corners of the world Aljazeera has given millions of people a refreshing new perspective on global events. Free from the shackles of censorship and government control, it has offered its audiences in the Arab world much needed freedom of thought, independence, and room for debate.

In the rest of the world, often dominated by the stereotypical thinking of news “heavyweights”, Aljazeera offers a different and a new perspective.

Aljazeera's correspondents opened a window for the world on the millennium’s first two wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. Our expanded coverage competed with and sometimes outperformed our competitors bringing into the spotlight the war’s devastating impact on the lives of ordinary people.

We continue to cover all viewpoints with objectivity integrity and balance. So now when Aljazeera speaks, the world listens and “reads”. Aljazeera.net is the online version of the same Aljazeera.

In January 2001, Aljazeera.net (Arabic) was launched as the first mainstream Arabic news site and in no time, it rose to the top of the Arab media. In 2002, Aljazeera.net (Arabic) received more than 811 million impressions and 161 million visits.

Boiling topics and heated debates along with objective news reporting and interactive feedback are the attributes that put Aljazeera.net amongst the 50 most visited sites worldwide.

Yet more is to come with Aljazeera.net’s latest Arabic version. The new design is a first step towards the creation of an integrated network of Aljazeera websites. The upgrade is designed to offer the visitor four sources of online information: News, Knowledge, Channel, and Business.

The four sites are integrated through a portal that shows the latest and most important content in each site.

News is an Arabic news site which offers comprehensive coverage of world affairs and developments.

Aljazeera.net English has been designed to attract readers from continents poles-apart. Not only does Aljazeera.net English offer a versatile content of news and information, but it also aims to be more interactive.

Our ultimate goal is to set up a more proactive relationship with our audience, where the audience is not simply a visitor at the other end of the line. They are and they will always be an integral part of the news reporting and news making process.

Our team of dedicated journalists with their multi-national education and diversified backgrounds share a common set of attributes: objectivity, accuracy, and a passion for truth.