Newspaper Innovation

Italian free newspapers Metro, Leggo, City (picture left from City website), E Polis and DNews all joined the strike against the plans of Berlusconi’s government to restrict reporting based on material gained from police wiretaps.

The government says the wiretap law is needed to protect the privacy of individuals from arbitrary investigation but critics say it will hamper both the fight against organised crime and press reporting on corruption.

The bill can ban newspapers from using transcripts until preliminary investigations are complete, something which can take years. FNSI, the main Italian journalists’ union, said the legislation would “severely limit the right of citizens to know how judicial investigations are proceeding, imposing serious limitations on the free circulation of information.”

Among the few papers on newsstands were “Il Giornale”, owned by the prime minister’s brother, and “Libero”, a pro-Berlusconi daily which said that “the true obstacles to justice are uncontrolled wiretaps.” (RNW)

After two free anti-freesheet bills were rejected, one on restricting free distribution to one year and one to foreign ownership, the next move is examining ‘tycoon’ power in newspapers, which seems to be directed at Sheldon Adelson’s Israel Today paper as well. According to Globes:

“The Knesset Finance Committee will be asked to examine the involvement of US business Sheldon Adelson, an associate of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and publisher of “Israel Today”, in the Israeli media market. The decision comes after the committee decided to move forward on a private members bill by MK Haim Oron (Meretz), which calls for government intervention to dilute the concentration of tycoons’ holdings, and to establish a public committee to examine concentration in the economy.”

Associated Newspapers, the publisher of Metro UK has taken legal action against the distributors of the fake Metro that was handed out in London Friday July 2.

The fake issue carried headlines like “Gordon Brown to be deported to Scotland” (front page, right, click for bigger version), “Two days of actions against Racist Press” and  ”Myth-Busting the Media”.

According to Indymedia UK “Metro has obtained a High Court injunction against “all persons responsible for the publication and/or distribution” of the fake issue, but as the distributors are unknown, “the injunction seems to have been served upon the wrong people”.

The fake Metro – called Metr0 (with a zero instead of the o) – is to be tied to a group that also set up a PressAction blog last month, the article on Indymedia is similar to that on PressAction.

Indymedia/PressAction:

“The owners of Metro, Associated Newspapers Limited, claim this is an infringement of the company’s trademark copyrights, while campaigners argue the company directors “do not have a sense of humour” and have “gone too far in suppressing free speech to protect their commercial interests.”

A spokesperson for Press Action said: “It is very likely that whoever did the spoof was inspired by our callout and wanted to use our name and register the domain with a common address, such as LARC’s, to protect their anonymity. To argue that LARC is “clearly involved with the two days of action,” as the Metro solicitors did in court, is just a desperate search for a scapegoat that is guilty by association.”

The injunction order and other material can be downloaded from Indymedia, on Flickr (source of the picture on the right) more pictures can be viewed.

Distributing fake free papers is not new, a fake activist version of  free daily 20 Minuten in Switzerland appeared when the World Economic Forum gathered in Switzerland, while the French labour union published a fake Direct Matin issue during a strike. The New York Times and de Volkskrant (Netherlands) were also published earlier as free activist papers.

The Israeli parliament – the Knesset – will not vote on a bill that would limit the free-distribution of newspapers to one year. The legislative committee of the Knesset rejected the proposed bill.

Only half of the committee members voted against the bill, but as seven members were absent or did not vote, there still was a majority against the bill.

The bill was mainly targeted at Israel Yahom (Israel Today), the free daily supporting Prime Minister Netanyahu. (Haarezt)

Israel Today owner Sheldon Adelson (casino magnate, the “richest jew in the world”), is flying to Israel to protect the right of his free daily to be published.

A proposal for a bill will be voted on in the “ministerial legislative committee” next week. According to the proposal, by Knesset member Marina Solodkin (Kadima party), called “Prohibition on Distributing Newspapers Free”, newspapers should only be allowed to publish for free one year.

In Israel it is clear that the bill is aimed at ”Israel Today”, which is considered to be very close to prime minister Netanyahu.

Meanwhile, Israel Today has increased its print run from 255,000 copies 300,000 copies. (Globes)

Free Austrian paper Heute will keep its exclusive right to distribute in the Vienna public transport system.

Competitor Österreich tried to have the exclusive right removed at the Austrian “Kartelgericht” but the court decided to grant Heute the right.

The Vienna administration is now thinking of allowing Österreich more positions in the Vienna streets.

Between the two competitors a long history of quarrels on boxes and racks has been going on, with Heute complaining, the city removing some racks and Österreich putting them back again and suing the competitor. (Der Standard)

After the proposed law whereby newspapers cannot be foreign owned in Israel, also another proposal is targeting free newspapers in the country.

Marina Solodkin, a member of the opposition Kadima party in the Israel parliament Knesset wants to limit the free distribution of newspapers to no more than a year.

Solodkin told Israel National News:

I am in favor of freedom of expression and pluralism, but in the current situation, there is a danger of centralization – one paper for the lower classes that want a free newspaper, and one for the upper classes. (…) Maariv is in danger of folding. There must be fair competition; it is unfair if a newspaper can cause another to close because it’s given out for free. This is what I am trying to prevent.

The discussion about the position of free Israeli newspaper Israel Today drags on. Some members of the Knesset are proposing a bill to ban foreign ownership of newspapers, a law mainly targeted at US-citizen Sheldon Adelson’s ownership of Israel Today, or rather against its political content, the support of Bibi Netanyahu (see previous post).

In an excellent background story in Forward, Adelson denies these accusations:

“I started the newspaper to give Israel, Israelis, a fair and balanced view of the news and the views. That’s all. It is not a ‘Bibiton.’”

In newspapers, the main supporter of the bill is Maariv, a paper losing lots of money, and two years ago almost acquired by Adelson (see previous post). Together with Yediot Achronot, Maariv hired a lobbyist, Keren Barak, to convince Knesset members of the proposed bill. (Israel National News)

The largest paid Hebrew newspaper, Yediot Achronot, is affected also in an indirect way. Because of the growth of Israel Today (27% reach in the first half of 2009, against 34% for Yediot, 14% for Maariv and 8% for Haaretz), Yediot is no longer considered to be a newspaper monopoly in Israel (Globes).

Between Maariv and Haaretz another feud broke out when Maariv wrote about the weak financial position of its competitor. Haaretz complained with the Israel Securities Authority, accusing Maariv of slander and bias in articles (Globes).

Haaretz, however, profits from Israel Today as it is printed on the Haaretz printing presses.

The Israeli parliament, the Knesset, will soon be deciding on a bill that could threaten the existence of Israeli free daily Israel Today. The bill, if accepted, will restrict newspaper ownership to Israeli citizens, or to companies majority owned by Israeli’s.

Israel Today, however, is owned by American billionaire Sheldon Adelson, who only seldom visits Israel, although his interest (and investments) in the country are impressive. Adelson has contributed to many philanthropic operations involving Jewish Americans and Israel and was an active supported of former president Bush and the war in Iraq.

His interest in Israeli politics, however, has led to the proposed legislation. In 2006 Adelson invested in Israeli, a free newspaper, but ended suing his fellow investor after a disagreement over control over the newspaper and further investments.

Therefore he founded his own free daily Israel Today in 2007 – soon after this launch Israeli closed down. In 2007 Adelson also tried to gain control over paid paper Maariv. Israel Today is now the second paper in the country after paid paper Yedioth Ahronoth.

Adelson – and Israel Today – is an avid supporter of Binyamin Netanyahu and the Likud party, which in turn led to the proposed legislation (not supported of course by the Likud party members). (The Media Line)

The battle between Metro International and the Swedish tax office drags on (the first blog entry dates from February 2007).

The main issue is whether Metro is an advertising paper or a newspaper, the second option would mean lower taxes. Metro disputed this (quite rightly I would say) and appealed several times. There is also the issue that if it would be a adverting paper, it could deduct some costs, which was also not allowed by the tax office.

The Swedish Administrative Court of Appeal (”Kammarrätten”) now dismissed Metro’s last appeal. The tax amounts to approximately SEK 90m including interest (€9m).

Metro International will appeal against the judgment to the Supreme Administrative Court (Regeringsrätten) and will also apply for a respite of the payment. (Metro Press release)