the(new)mediaslut

The head of the BBC news bureau in Bangkok, Jonathan Head, has been accused of lese majeste by Thai authorities for an unspecified comment he made at the Foreign Correspondents Club of Thailand.

The alleged comment, details of which were not given, was made when Head was moderating a panel at the Foreign Correspondents’ Club of Thailand entitled, “Coup, Capital and Crown”, on 13 December 2007.

Police Major General Wattanasuk Mungkitchakarndee from the Bangkae police station lodged the formal complaint after he reviewed videos and transcript from the panel, though said that Head’s comments were not fit to be repeated in the public domain.

Wattanasuk has previously lodge a similar complaint against Minister to the Prime Minister’s Office Jakrapob Penkair for a comment he also made at the FCCT.

Thailand has some of the strictest laws in the world regarding lese majeste.

From a moral standpoint, can journalists on a junket skip totally irrelevant sessions and go shopping? Or do they have to sit in on sessions, pretend to take notes and not write up anything anyway?

That question came about yesterday when Smartbrain was locked in conversation with a Malaysian journalist at the Shanghai Spring Intel Developer Forum (IDF). The afternoon session of day 0 was all about Intel Capita and its investments into China for the most part. Being a vetran of IDF in Bejing last year, Smartbrain noted to the group that the Intel Capital section was totally and utterly irrelevant to our type of publication at least and last year yielded absolutely nothing for Smartbrain to write about.

Hence, the reasoning went, we should go and check out the fake iPhones and BMW phones at a nearby store. All the more appealing since the event venue is right next to an underground station.

Incidentally there are “Dopodo” phones which boot up with a Windows Mobile facade, look similar to a Symbian S60 phone in use an have a weird full ABCD (as opposed to QWERTY) keypad which makes it almost useless.

However, when a Filipino Intel PR overheard our little plan of egress, she was visibly upset and said we had time on the end of day two to go shopping; that she knew of places in the tourist distrit that gave a nice discount to Intel event attendees and that we should stay.

Exit, Smartbrain stage right, but not before mentioning in passing that some of the shops in Yu Bazarr are ten times more expensive than shops where the locals shop to begin with.

Ten minutes later, Smartbrain finds his merry band of would-be escapees looking totally miserable in the foyer. Apparently there had been a minor incident and none of the other Journalists now felt comfortable with hopping out during the Intel China capital session.

Smartbrain left anyway and got in a sizeable bit of shopping in the Orient IT Plaza that day plus all the information needed to write up a mini shopping in Shanghai story.

On a side note, Shanghai is fun in a barbaric kind of way. If there is no room, shove. The lunch journalist buffet queue was a lesson in how to get ahead without shame: The foreign journos were in a neat, orderly queue (for the most part) while the locals just pushed their way into get food when and where they wanted.

The entrance to the main keynote hall was verging on a crush (and would probably have been illegal in the UK under health and safety laws) and the hapless usher with signs saying “VIP” looked on helplessly on as non-VIP visitors filled up the VIP seats.

At least there aren’t any prostitutes offering their services right outside the convention centre this year as was the case at IDF Beijing last year. Now, that’s progress.

John C Dvorak of PCMag.com has an interesting view why print media dying.

Two reasons. Print printing news that can be found on the web and the publishers are not paying good money for good writers and editors.

Where do these writers and editor go for more money? Public Relations!

Wrote John,

I think much of the problem stems from what I’ve been harping on for years: redundancy. Simply put, there are too many newspapers selling the exact same news. And because the owners of these papers do not understand the fact that the public hungers for original material, different from all the rehashed AP stories, papers will continue to slide.

I can assure you that if you plot the amount of money paid out to writers against salaries paid to executives at the same companies, the writers get the short end of the stick. Today a competent newspaper reporter could easily make twice as much money if he or she was in PR. What does that tell you about priorities?

Generally speaking, when there are layoffs at a newspaper, first the support staff goes; then the reporters, along with a few editors. This cheapens the product; and the public senses the cheapness and rejects it. The paper’s income is further reduced, resulting in a downward spiral of quality.

Ziff Davis Media, the licenser for print titles like PC Mag, EGM, etc has filed for bankruptcy.

Wrote Ziff Davis Media,

In order to implement the restructuring and permanently improve its capital structure, Ziff Davis and certain of its affiliates today elected to file Chapter 11 petitions in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York (the “Court”). The Company intends to implement the restructuring through a pre-arranged plan of reorganization that the Company shortly intends to file. The Company intends to seek Court approval of the pre-arranged plan as soon as possible. Ziff Davis expects operations to continue as usual during the reorganization process and expects to emerge from Chapter 11 this summer.

How will the bankruptcy affect Communication Resources and MediaCorp Publications which publishes the Singapore version of PC Mag and EGM respectively?

Corporations are rushing to offer journalists complimentary tickets to take The Singapore Eye for a spin, but it seems like those who have taken it have complained that it was a boring thirty minutes ride.

One journalist highlighted that he was stuck in the container for 30 mins without water or food and by the time he touched down, he could have drank the whole Singapore river dry.

Those with heavy bladder also didn’t have an enjoyable time on the Singapore Eye.

Another journalist who took photos while seating the Singapore Eye described his album in Facebook as “Singapore Flyer–a boring way to fly“.

Guess the Singapore Eye isn’t for everybody.