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AN INDEPENDENT, unbiased and diverse media landscape is, to me, what keeps our democratic society in check.

Without it, the voting public would be uninformed, easily persuaded and controlled by whoever has the most power and money.

As a journalism student, media is my passion and journalism a profession built upon ethics and a responsibility to serve the public.

In the digital age, consumers have unprecedented control over which forms of journalism dominate.

The mainstream media, however, is often criticised for portraying the exact opposite of these ideals. In a recent poll by Reader's Digest ranking professions by trustworthiness, Journalists ranked 42 out of a possible 50, just scraping in above salespeople, politicians and CEO's.

I find it ironic that the people that often expose politicians and CEO's for being untrustworthy are not regarded much more highly themselves.

As in any profession, there exists a minority that perhaps do not fulfil their duty statement but if you look hard enough good, purposeful journalism is abundant.

Increasingly, Australian media is dominated by two major conglomerates: Rupert Murdoch's NewsCorp and Fairfax Media.

Outside of these monopolies however you enter the realm of independent journalism; journalism that primarily aims to inform and educate, rather than simply sell.

In the digital age, consumers have unprecedented control over which forms of journalism dominate.

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Trustworthy, reliable journalism will come if you demand it

Independent filmmaker Dean Francis is looking to social media to get his new movie Drown into Australian cinemas.

Mr Francis has distribution deals in America, the UK and Europe but he is using a cinema-on-demand platform, Tugg, instead of the traditional film distribution model to get Drown onto local screens.

"The take-up internationally has been really enthusiastic and fantastic," the Australian director and producer told AAP.

"Here in this country I think there's a sense in which it's quite hard to market a film that is actually as edgy as our film.

"I don't know whether it's just that it's potentially perceived as a gay film, although that's certainly not its only focus, or whether it's that we're just saying something that's maybe a bit uncomfortable for the distributors to feel like they can push to audiences."

Traditionally distributors control what movies are shown on the big screen but with Tugg anyone can act as a distributor by organising a screening at a cinema - provided they get 60 people to pre-buy tickets.

Mr Francis said the film, which explores issues such as gay people in sport and one-punch violence, has gained enormous traction on social media and is doing well using the cinema-on-demand model.

He said the partnering of Tugg, which has been operating in the US for three years, with Australian film distributor Leap Frog Films was a "golden opportunity" for a film like Drown.

Unlike his first feature Road Train, Mr Francis opted to bypass traditional film funding bodies for Drown.

"On this particular project we opted to go down the path of doing this as a very low budget film that would rely on the support of the community both financially and in terms of people actually working on the film for the love of it basically."

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Aust filmmaker's social media distribution

Assistant Secretary for Arms Control, Verification and Compliance Frank Rose will travel to Japan, Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore, and India February 23-March 9, 2015, for a series of strategic discussions on international security.

From February 23-27, Assistant Secretary Rose will meet with senior Japanese officials on issues including space security, strategic stability, extended deterrence and multilateral arms control in Tokyo. On February 23 and 24, he will deliver public remarks on the U.S.-Japan Alliance at the American Center and Tokyo Foundation. On February 25, he will chair the U.S.-Japan Space Security Dialogue. On February 26, Assistant Secretary Rose will deliver remarks at the Japan Space Forum on space situational awareness.

On March 2, Assistant Secretary Rose will engage in bilateral discussions in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia with senior officials from the Ministries of Foreign Affairs, Defense, and the Malaysian National Space Agency on a variety of security topics of joint interest.

On March 3, Assistant Secretary Rose will travel to Jakarta, Indonesia for bilateral discussions on space security and multilateral arms control topics with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Indonesian National Institute of Aeronautics and Space.

On March 4, Assistant Secretary Rose will meet with senior officials in Singapore on a variety of security issues including space security and multilateral arms control.

From March 5-9, Assistant Secretary Rose will travel to India for bilateral talks with senior Indian officials and will chair first bilateral U.S.-India Space Security Dialogue.

Follow his travel on Twitter at @StateAVC.

For more information on the Bureau of Arms Control, Verification and Compliance, visit http://www.state.gov/t/avc.

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Press Releases: Assistant Secretary Frank A. Rose to Travel to Japan, Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore, and India

Last year the Hungarian media scene was chiefly characterized by the centralization of state advertising, growing government pressure on media outlets and overt political intervention in newsroom practices including theforced removal of editorial teams Mrtk Media Monitor said today in its report entitled "Gasping for Air - Soft Censorship in the Hungarian Media 2014".

While the state is continually engaged in media market interventions to take control of media outlets or reign in unruly media, recently some conflicts emerged between the governing party and some segments of the pro-government media as well, according to the 50-page report, released by what is probably the country's top independent media monitoring group.

The report says that reorganization of state-owned television and radio channels will further increase the risk of governmental pressure on the media market, and will also make it easier to rearrange the market positions of right-wing media.

The most spectacular scandal in the media market in 2014 was the removal of [Hungarian online daily] origo.hus editor-in-chief from his position, following an investigative report on Cabinet Chief Jnos Lzrs foreign trip, the report says. Many observers conclude that if such a huge company, especially one backed by German telecommunications giant Deutsche Telekom, cannot withstand political pressure, then smaller Hungarian media owners do not have a chance.

Based on Mrtks investigation, the report says that segments of the market that are financially and politically independent, and strive to preserve their professional integrity, have lost ground and that fewer outlets have the capacity to resist pressure.

According to the opinion survey Mrtk distributed to journalists, it appears that the situation of press freedom has deteriorated in 2014, and that pressure on the media has intensified, with a concomitant surge in self-censorship.

With regard to advertising, the report says that the main beneficiaries in the daily newspaper, magazine, radio and outdoor advertising markets have been the same for years now (Metropol, Heti Vlasz, Class FM, Publimont), adding that these companies are obviously part of the [ruling] Fidesz-affiliated media empire.

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Report: Governments pressure on media grows

The city of Henderson has revoked a policy that said employees could be fired for talking to the media.

City Manager Jacob Snow announced the change in an email to employees Thursday afternoon. It came after recent articles in the Review-Journal about the citys media policy and dealings with reporters.

Media and civil-liberties advocates criticized the firing clause as an effort to intimidate employees and control what the media and public know about city government.

In an interview, Snow said the language was mistakenly included by a new assistant city attorney who had worked in the private sector. The threat of employees being fired for talking to the media is common in business, Snow said, but not appropriate for a governmental entity thats supposed to be open and transparent.

He added: Thats something that shouldnt have happened.

Thursdays announcement was a sharp reversal. When first asked about the firing threat after a Feb. 3 City Council meeting, Snow said he knew nothing about it. But he also said the clause did not surprise or concern him because he wanted all media inquiries routed through spokespeople.

And in a later interview with Fox News, city spokesman Bud Cranor defended the discipline clause, saying, If you violate a policy, there is a consequence.

Snow signed off on the three-page policy in September, but said neither he nor his staff noticed the final section, which said employees could be disciplined or fired for speaking to a reporter without permission from the city communications office. The previous policy, adopted in 2002, had no discipline clause.

I should have caught it, but I didnt, Snow said. My staff should have caught it, but they didnt.

The new media policy also will include language reminding employees they have protection under state whistleblower law and city ethics law if they speak up to expose wrongdoing.

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Henderson pulls firing policy for news media contact