Like a number of my friends I first learned of the NYC plane crash through Twitter. And saw the first picture there, courtesy of user JKrums and Twitpic. He was a passenger on one of the first ferries to go and help. This follows the Mumbai terror attacks where Twitter offered a lot of eyewitness accounts. It seems to be becoming a breaking news tool as well as a gossip platform.
I was alerted to the plane crash by former AP photographer Jim Macmillan - who reported today that Google Ads were offering a link asking if anyone was injured on the flight - and linking through to (ambulance-chasing?) lawyers....It's a niche world out there.
The BBC launches its latest TV channel today - BBC Persian. It will be a daily eight hour service, for audiences in Iran, Afghanistan, and the wider region, broadcasting at peak times for the market. It will run from 17:00 to 01:00 local time in Iran (that’s 13:30 to 21:30 GMT).
The backbone of the schedule will be news, together with a rich mix of current affairs, features and documentaries, culture, science, business and arts programmes - all broadcast in Farsi from a new newsroom in central London. Iran is obviously geopolitically important with significant influence across the Middle East. The BBC has been providing news and information on radio in Persian for six decades. But these days, TV is the preferred news medium for Iranian audiences.
The BBC is well respected by opinion formers within Iran and brand awareness is high – despite Government media restrictions. Media freedom is severely limited - so we hope BBC Persian TV will build a following by providing free and independent news and information - the traditional role of the BBC World Service over the last 75 years - and provide a window for Iranian viewers to the rest of the world in an open and unbiased way.
The Iranian authorities have been a little apprehensive about the launch, describing it as "an illegal channel", refusing us permission to work within Iran and suggesting anyone found working for it will be arrested as a spy. However, we hope once they have seen the service they may recognise the independence and quality of the channel - and hopefully take part in its programmes.
Persian TV is aimed at audiences in Iran, Afghanistan and Tajikistan – totalling around 100m Persian speakers. The potential audience in Iran is young, highly educated and outward-looking. The projected audience figures for Persian TV are 10m within 3 years – with a total tri-media reach (radio, TV and online) of close to 20m by 2012. The channel will cost £15m a year - funded by the Foreign Office via Grant in Aid.
The launch is much anticipated within the region and is already being discussed on blogs within Iran and beyond. It will be available globally, streamed on the BBC Persian website. Here's a taste of it from YouTube:
Last week the Editor of Sri Lanka's Sunday Leader newspaper, Lasantha Wickrematunge, was targetted and murdered because of his outspoken and independent journalism.
He was one of five journalists killed in the first eight days of 2009, the worst start to a new year since the International News Safety Institute began keeping records in 2003. More than 100 news media staff died in 2008.
But remarkably, a few days before he was killed, he wrote a piece predicting his death and explaining why he took the risks he took - and why journalism matters.
"People often ask me why I take such risks and tell me it is a matter of time before I am bumped off. Of course I know that: it is inevitable. But if we do not speak out now, there will be no one left to speak for those who cannot, whether they be ethnic minorities, the disadvantaged or the persecuted."
"The authorities have made it clear that the service has no official permission to operate in Iran and have warned against cooperation with it. There have been reports of arrests and of Iranian readiness to confront a "soft" information war. The media have also made frequent references to Britain's colonial past and British government funding of the World Service. At the same time, while official and conservative media have made attempts to cast doubt on the BBC's journalistic credibility, some media sources have given a qualified welcome to the new service."
Continuing angst about the future of journalism in today's Observer. A full page on the commercial pressures threatening the New York Times. And Peter Preston even doubts if the Huff Post can be more than a shooting star...
I'm reminded about this Seth Godin post about dentists which, it seems to me, applies fully to the traditional news industry. Nobody wants a dentist unless their tooth aches. To extend the analogy, when Walter Cronkite says it'snot journalists jobs at stake, it's democracy, no-one believes him because their democratic teeth aren't aching.
But it's not all doom and gloom. The GlobalPost - an online-only international news site - launched a day early and looks smart.
