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.

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

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

By now, there’s no discussion on who posted it first because it can be found on Youtube and Google Video, possibly on other video sharing sites as well (graphic warning, link here).

The Iraqi government has promised that they’ll investigate the execution. It shouldn’t be too difficult to identify who shot and leaked the video. After all, when it’s a handheld POV, it shouldn’t be hard to place the blame.

My concern is that big media might call it citizen journalism taken to the extreme. Cellphone cameras have been known as a “guerrilla” journalist tool. That’s why there’s so much buzz about the Apple iPhone.

Tags: cellphone, citizen journalism, google video, saddam, video, youtube

cellphone, citizen journalism, google video, saddam, video, youtube