Archive for March, 2005
Monday, March 14th, 2005
In light of recent debate on whether the US has been targetting journalists, or has just been repeatedly killing journalists by mistake it was interesting to see this post about threats in 2003 against journalists coming up in the 'In Previous Years' section.
Posted in Freedom of the press | Comments Off on Historical perspective on journalists’ deaths
Monday, March 14th, 2005
Interesting to catch, in Foinse, word of a 'campaign' by the Sun newspaper in Britain against what it is terming a 'gypsy invasion' but which is actually centred on members of the Irish Travelling community:In eagarfhocal an pháipéir le linn na seachtaine, dúradh nach raibh aon bhaint ag an bhfeachtas ...
Posted in Citizenship, migration, race, and ethnicity | 2 Comments »
Saturday, March 12th, 2005
Geoffrey Pullum has debunked a claim that was seemingly made on NPR recently - notably that the Irish have no word for sex. I'm reminded of a talk by Nuala Ní Dhomhnaill (I think) on RTÉ some time ago where she stated that the Irish do not have obscenities (at ...
Posted in Society and culture | Comments Off on The Irish language and sex
Friday, March 11th, 2005
The Irish Minister for Finance has defended the Irish government's decision to renege on its promise to meet the UN overseas aid target of 0.7% of GNP (following criticism by Bob Geldof). He claims Ireland will hit the target but refuses to say when. He also draws attention to the ...
Posted in Income and poverty | Comments Off on Irish govt. defend stance on ODA (again)
Friday, March 11th, 2005
The Irish government has come under fire from privacy advocates over new legislation on data retention by telecoms operators which requires that information be kept for three years. I'm in two minds on this.
First access to data of this sort is important for investigation of a range of activities, from ...
Posted in Media regulation | Comments Off on Data retention in Ireland
Thursday, March 10th, 2005
I'm wary of claims that it's the first in the world but the decision to declare Galway an anti-racist city - with resonances of the nuclear-free cities declared in yesteryear - is at least a positive move. For those who wondered what difference it would make for Labour to gain ...
Posted in Citizenship, migration, race, and ethnicity, Electoral politics, Political activism, Society and culture | 1 Comment »
Thursday, March 10th, 2005
Those following the debates over the proposed EU constitution will have noted the narrow and contentious decision by the Socialists (PS) in France to back the constitution. It appears that the debate's not over yet. Some PS activists are looking for the time available to the PS to promote its ...
Posted in International Affairs | Comments Off on ‘No’ side still active in PS in France
Thursday, March 10th, 2005
The scandal surrounding FM translator licenses is now receiving mainstream coverage but much of the heavy lifting has been done by people like my colleagues John Anderson at DIYMedia and Paul Riismandel at Media Geek. Building on statistics gathered by REC Networks they've been investigating the complex shell game being ...
Posted in Media regulation | Comments Off on Radio Translator scandal
Wednesday, March 9th, 2005
Zephoria expresses her exasperation with the current discussions about whether bloggers are journalists, and it makes me think that the multi-faceted blog model I developed (PDF) some time ago - which unfortunately took some time to wind through the academic review/publishing process - might be of some use here.
Posted in Alternative Media, Online communication | Comments Off on Defining weblogs – making appropriate room for journalists
Wednesday, March 9th, 2005
Just before Pete Tridish's talk to the participatory media reading group yesterday I got word over Prometheus's Stubblefield list that:In a precedent-setting move,
fast-food industry leader Taco Bell Corp., a division of Yum! Brands
(NYSE: YUM), has agreed to work with the Florida-based farm worker
organization, the Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW), to ...
Posted in Alternative Media, Citizenship, migration, race, and ethnicity, Labour issues, Political activism | Comments Off on Farm workers gain victory in struggle with Taco Bell