According to Guardian.co.uk: A review of bbc.co.uk published today by the trust shows that the actual spend in the 12 months to the end of March 2008 on the corporation’s UK web operations was £110m – almost £36m, or 48%, above what had been budgeted.

Of course, heads have started falling starting with Ashley Highfield. He’ll be replaced by Erik Huggers as the new director of future media and technology. In addition, a controller will supervise spending on new media.

Here’s a few important points:

A terrorist shot in Sarajevo provided the pretext for German aggression which started World War I. 9/11 was used by the Bush Administration to launch the Iraq War. In both cases, trigger-happy leaders exploited the incidents for their own political purposes.

In both cases, the national media played along. The failures of the American media to slow or stop the descent into the Iraq War are the greatest media failures of our current era…

In short, almost all governments lie and lie relentlessly. Yet governments can be made to lie less frequently by being exposed and held to account by the professional media.

He does mention blogs (such as this one) and concludes: The problem with the internet, of course, is that it transmitted considerable flakiness alongside pithy truth telling. Blog sites, for good and ill, are unfiltered and unaccountable.

So what about getting the best of both worlds – the accountability and ethics of professional journalism AND the freedom of expression associated with the Internet (and blogs)?

The strike is in protest at a ‘deliberate policy’ of staff reductions (see also BBC staff reduction).

‘The decision (to strike) demonstrates the concern of the journalists that the deliberate policy of lowering staff numbers, besides the degradation of their working conditions it causes, will inevitably lead to a lowering of the standards of quality of the agency,’ Agence France-Presse cited unions as saying in a statement.

This comes several months after Thomson agreed an 8.8 bln takeover of Reuters.

As a result, BBC will delay the lay offs with two weeks (i.e. till November 5) while they talk to the unions:

The unions welcomed the move, saying it was enough to halt the march towards strike action.

“We are pleased the BBC has stepped back from the brink and agreed to union calls for meaningful talks to take place at a national level,” the NUJ general secretary, Jeremy Dear, said.

This comes only a day after BBC director general Mark Thompson confirmed that there will be 1,800 redundancies. This move is part of a six-year cost-saving program aimed at plugging the estimated £2bn funding gap (approved by the BBC Trust).

If news is what you’re interested in (that’s where my exposure to BBC ends), you migh feel the difference pretty soon. The London-based news division will be one of the hardest hit with between 475 and 490 post closures, resulting in between 350 and 370 redundancies.

Tags: BBC, correspondent, free speech, Gaza, journalism, youtube

BBC, correspondent, free speech, Gaza, journalism, youtube

Today, BBC reports that the authorities has unexpectedly released Le Chi Quang, 34, who was convicted in 2002 because he posted online essays (blogged?) that were critical of the government. More from that story:

[Le Chi Quang] was jailed for four years in November 2002 … The Vietnamese foreign ministry said Quang would have to serve out a three-year term of house arrest which was given at the time of his detention.

Rights groups say at least six other cyber dissidents remain in jail.

Vietnam has introduced tough measure to monitor internet use. Internet cafe owners must keep records of all sites visited by their customers, including those deemed containing “bad and poisonous information”, for 30 days.

So much for citizen journalism in Vietnam. Bloggers beware…

Tags: BBC, citizen journalism, correspondent, free speech, Vietnam

BBC, citizen journalism, correspondent, free speech, Vietnam

The BBC came out with a statement as well:

We are studying the video very carefully. We have been working very closely with Alan’s family for the past 81 days. This is a highly distressing time for them and for his friends and his colleagues. We repeat our call for his immediate release.

Tags: BBC, correspondent, free speech, Gaza, journalism, youtube

BBC, correspondent, free speech, Gaza, journalism, youtube

He’s not alone. The Committee to Protect Journalists annual worldwide census found 134 journalists imprisoned on December 1, an increase of nine from the 2005 tally.

As you can see the main offenders are China, Cuba, Eritrea, and Ethiopia. Overall, there are 24 nations that imprison journalists.

Moreover, some of the worst offenders (e.g. Eritrea) have denied imprisoned journalists even the most basic elements of due process. For some, it’s not even clear if they’re alive or dead.

Another bothering statistic: a full third of all imprisoned journalists are Internet bloggers (or citizen journalists).

I’m a bit surprised that these statistics don’t include the number of journalists that have been brutally murdered in Russia or Iraq.

Tags: BBC, citizen journalism, correspondent, death, free speech, Russia

BBC, citizen journalism, correspondent, death, free speech, Russia

The BBC has more than one million hours of video and audio plus supporting notes and scripts. The archive trial—closed to 20,000 consumers—will launch in May and is expected to last up to six months. It’s meant to gather info to use in proposing a “public service on-demand archive” that will require apprval by the BBC Trust and “to see where we should draw the line between a licence fee funded service and a commercial service.”

It will gauge interest in various old programs, how people want to see them and when—“‘lean-forward’ exploratory mode similar to web surfing, or as a scheduled experience more akin to TV viewing.” Highfield: “The BBC Archive would be an extension of the BBC’s seven-day catch-up on demand proposals, the BBC iPlayer.

As with that proposed service, the Archive journey has been, and will be, a long one. It’s a massive undertaking. Ensuring the right split between license fee funding and commercial funding will be complex.”

The statement comes from a planned presentation that Mr. Highfield is giving at the MipTV in Cannes. Note that BBC has already released a news archive online.

Tags: BBC, broadband, content, iTV, tv, UGC, uk, video, youtube

BBC, broadband, content, iTV, tv, UGC, uk, video, youtube

Alan Johnston disappeared 19 days ago. There haven’t been any public demands by his abductors but obviously some information has trickled down as BBC has announced he is in good health.

According to the latest BBC article:

There have been numerous international demands for his immediate release.

These include appeals from the Arab League and the European Union and non-government groups such as Amnesty International and Reporters Without Frontiers.

Palestinian officials have said all possible efforts are being made to secure his safe return.

Previous “hotspots” for journalists include Russia and Iraq.

Tags: BBC, correspondent, free speech, Gaza, journalism, youtube

BBC, correspondent, free speech, Gaza, journalism, youtube