Mediaboss Marketing

BANGKOK: The Thai media are no stranger to covering military coups and political turmoil. Unfortunately, the martial law in place now has hampered the way news can be reported.

For television reporters the challenge has been overwhelming.

After martial law was declared, army troops occupied most TV stations around Bangkok. And since the coup, all TV programmes were taken off-air for a period of time.

Channels were only allowed to broadcast military-approved announcements and programmes.

It is not an easy job reporting on the political development after the coup in Thailand, and some local journalists have had to improvise to tell their stories. Several local journalists have resorted to using social media as reporting tools -- uploading video clips and dispatching reports from the field with their mobile phones.

Thapanee Letsrichai, a Thai journalist, said: "As a field journalist when we are on location, we want to tell people about what's happening. Personally, we have private spaces in the social media like Instragram, Twitter, and Facebook. So I have been using short Instragram videos to report from different locations."

For the news-hungry Thai public, the clamping down on media freedom has resulted in the proliferation of social media usage, which has also encouraged the circulation of rumors online.

This is worrying many local journalists, and has prompted them to take matters into their own hands.

Fellow Thai journalist Penpan Lamluang, said: "The real worry now is that there are lots of rumours on social media and we as journalist must not disseminate rumours that could further damage the situation. As journalists, we must stick to reporting truthfully based on facts."

Suparp Klee-khajai, president of the Thailand Digital TV Operators Association, said: "The media is a symbol of freedom. Freedom of the media symbolises the level of democracy in countries around the world.

View post:
Thai journalists turn to social media as military tightens control

This Chrome extension lets you control the action in Google Music without needing to leave your current tab.

I have ditched Google Music's Web player for Radiant Player, a standalone Mac app that lets me access and control Google Music via my Mac's menu bar and media control keys. If you use Google Music via a browser, however, and dislike having to return to the Google Music tab to control your musical proceedings, then you should know there is a Chrome extension that lets you control the action without leaving your current tab.

The awkwardly named but subtly useful Music Bubbles extension for Chrome places a small, floating control on your current page. And when you reload your current tabs or open new pages, you'll find the Music Bubbles control floating on them, too.

Screenshot by Matt Elliott/CNET

The Music Bubbles control is a transparent circle, which allows it to remain omnipresent without being overbearing. It's gray in color when you do not have Google Music opened and turns orange when you do have it going.

Mouse over it and play, skip back, and skip forward buttons spring forth, along with thumbs-up and thumbs-down buttons. And if a song is playing, you'll see the song name and artist below the Music Bubbles control.

Screenshot by Matt Elliott/CNET

Perform a long click on the Music Bubbles control and the thumbs-up and -down buttons retreat and two black buttons appear in their place. The one on the left lets you drag the Music Bubbles control to reposition it, and the one on the right lets you blacklist the current site so that the control does not show up when you visit the site. You can then edit your blacklist in the extension's options.

(Via AddictiveTips)

See the original post:
Chrome: Music Bubbles adds floating control for Google Music

The four organisations are the Thai Journalists Association, the Press Council of Thailand, the Thai Broadcast Journalists, and the News Broadcasting Council of Thailand.

The open letter called on the National Peace and Order Maintaining Council to urgently review all orders that are involved with the journalist duty of the media.

The organisations suggested that the NPOMC should have the National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission enforce existing laws to supervise news reports instead of using the restrictive orders to control the media.

The letter also called on the NPOMC to clearly declare that it would support and would not obstruct the journalist duty of all types of media because such a stand would create confidence among Thais and in the eyes of the international community.

The organisations said the NPOMC should urgently arrange for the new charter to be enacted and the new charter should have provisions that guarantee the press freedom.

The organisations also called on the media and journalists to give priority to national interests in their works and provide space for constructive comments for national reforms.

The media and journalist are also called on to have responsibility in their freedom of expression.

Excerpt from:
Media organisations urge junta to lift coup orders that restrict press freedom

Ukip Leader Nigel Farage Fails To Turn Up At Rally

CROYDON, ENGLAND - MAY 20: UKIP candidate for Croydon North; Winston Mackenzie takes a call regarding the whereabouts of UKIP leader Nigel Farage on May 20, 2014 in Croydon, England. Mr Farage was due to attend the UKIP mini carnival in Croydon High Street but pulled out at the last minute. Designed to show diversity within his party organisers said his no show was due to fears for his safety. (Photo by Dan Dennison/Getty Images)

CROYDON, ENGLAND - MAY 20: UKIP candidate for Croydon North; Winston Mackenzie poses with members of the public on May 20, 2014 in Croydon, England. Mr Farage was due to attend the UKIP mini carnival in Croydon High Street but pulled out at the last minute. Designed to show diversity within his party organisers said his no show was due to fears for his safety. (Photo by Dan Dennison/Getty Images)

CROYDON, ENGLAND - MAY 20: UKIP candidate for Croydon North; Winston Mackenzie talks to media regarding the whereabouts of UKIP leader Nigel Farage on May 20, 2014 in Croydon, England. Mr Farage was due to attend the UKIP mini carnival in Croydon High Street but pulled out at the last minute. Designed to show diversity within his party organisers said his no show was due to fears for his safety. (Photo by Dan Dennison/Getty Images)

CROYDON, ENGLAND - MAY 20: UKIP candidate for Croydon North; Winston Mackenzie talks to media regarding the whereabouts of UKIP leader Nigel Farage on May 20, 2014 in Croydon, England. Mr Farage was due to attend the UKIP mini carnival in Croydon High Street but pulled out at the last minute. Designed to show diversity within his party organisers said his no show was due to fears for his safety. (Photo by Dan Dennison/Getty Images)

CROYDON, ENGLAND - MAY 20: A UKIP supporter outside Whitgift Shopping Centre in Croydon waiting for UKIP leader Nigel Farage on May 20, 2014 in Croydon, England. Mr Farage was due to attend the UKIP mini carnival in Croydon High Street but pulled out at the last minute. Designed to show diversity within his party organisers said his no show was due to fears for his safety. (Photo by Dan Dennison/Getty Images)

CROYDON, ENGLAND - MAY 20: Crowds outside Whitgift Shopping Centre in Croydon chanted and waved posters whilst waiting for UKIP leader Nigel Farage on May 20, 2014 in Croydon, England. Mr Farage was due to attend the UKIP mini carnival in Croydon High Street but pulled out at the last minute. Designed to show diversity within his party organisers said his no show was due to fears for his safety. (Photo by Dan Dennison/Getty Images)

CROYDON, ENGLAND - MAY 20: A member of public waves an anti-UKIP banner outside the Whitgift Centre on May 20, 2014 in Croydon, England. Mr Farage was due to attend the UKIP mini carnival in Croydon High Street but pulled out at the last minute. Designed to show diversity within his party organisers said his no show was due to fears for his safety. (Photo by Dan Dennison/Getty Images)

CROYDON, ENGLAND - MAY 20: UKIP candidate for Croydon North; Winston Mackenzie takes a call regarding the whereabouts of UKIP leader Nigel Farage on May 20, 2014 in Croydon, England. Mr Farage was due to attend the UKIP mini carnival in Croydon High Street but pulled out at the last minute. Designed to show diversity within his party organisers said his no show was due to fears for his safety. (Photo by Dan Dennison/Getty Images)

CROYDON, ENGLAND - MAY 20: UKIP candidate for Croydon North; Winston Mackenzie talks to members of the public on May 20, 2014 in Croydon, England. Mr Farage was due to attend the UKIP mini carnival in Croydon High Street but pulled out at the last minute. Designed to show diversity within his party organisers said his no show was due to fears for his safety. (Photo by Dan Dennison/Getty Images)

View original post here:
Local Council Election Results: Ukip Gains Control Of Large Sections Of The Media

SEOUL, South Korea When a South Korean ferry sank with hundreds trapped inside last month, the whole world knew about it. But in North Korea, there was utter silence about the collapse of a 23-story apartment building for five days, until state media issued a rare apology.

The North is not a black hole for information. More than 2 million people have cellphones. Hundreds of foreigners live in Pyongyang, the showcase capital where the collapse occurred a week ago Tuesday. A handful of international news bureaus, including The Associated Press, operate there, and the city sees a steady procession of visiting tourists, academics and diplomats.

But with no Internet for most citizens, a local press that operates as the government's propaganda wing and a security apparatus that severely curbs foreigners and citizens alike, if North Koreans get news about something, it is almost always because the nation's leader, Kim Jong Un, wants them to get it.

Kim may not have meant for his people to know anything about the collapse at first. Three days after it happened, a North Korean state-run newspaper carried a photo of the beaming leader watching a soccer match. The date shown on a telephone screen beside Kim was a day after the collapse, said a South Korean official who spoke on condition of anonymity because the official was not authorized to speak to media about the matter.

Chang Yong Seok, an analyst at Seoul National University, said North Korea may have publicized the building collapse because news likely was spreading among citizens in Pyongyang via domestic cellphone service.

In any case, the delay in reporting gave North Korea's propaganda mavens more time to spin the narrative with a grieving Kim, who one official told state media "sat up all night, feeling painful after being told about the accident."

The state-run Korean Central News Agency said there were casualties but released no specifics on deaths or injuries. Most of the few details to emerge things that people in democracies likely would consider newsworthy have come from South Korean officials, who said they believe many people died because nearly 100 families likely had moved into the building, even while it was under construction.

"As with everything in North Korea, this is all about establishing Kim Jong Un's legitimacy," said John Delury, a specialist on North Korea and China at Yonsei University in Seoul. "Even when a building collapses, they're thinking about how to use it to consolidate his power."

Andrei Lankov, a North Korea expert at Kookmin University in South Korea, said the North continues to exert an iron grip on information.

Citizens have few contacts with foreigners; local media would never report something the government didn't want seen; and foreign reporters' movements often are limited.

Here is the original post:
North Korea building collapse is a study in news media control