We start the show this week with a report on the referendum in southern Sudan and the polarised coverage it triggered in the country and throughout the international media. We then have a report on the challenges journalists face when covering the very large, complex and secretive defence industry.
A simple vote for independence in southern Sudan resulted in some not so simple news coverage. That is because Sudan is a hard story to tell. Aside from the constant red-tape journalists face while doing their job, the country has a decades-long history of war, with a death toll in the hundreds of thousands, there have been accusations of genocide and often, the story has been misreported in the media.
It is nearly impossible to get an accurate depiction of what is happening on the ground because the country is so divided. If you picked up a newspaper in the north you would get one side of the story, in the south another and both would probably differ from what was being said in the international media.
The Listening Post's Meenakshi Ravi looks closely at the complexities of reporting from within and about a country that is undergoing a major change.
It is nearly impossible to get an accurate depiction of what is happening on the ground because the country is so divided. If you picked up a newspaper in the north you would get one side of the story, in the south another and both would probably differ from what was being said in the international media.
The Listening Post's Meenakshi Ravi looks closely at the complexities of reporting from within and about a country that is undergoing a major change.
Quick hits from the media world: The US media looks to re-evaluate its role and rhetoric after a shooting in Arizona leaves six people dead; the Tunisian government tries to block the coverage of protests there, but bloggers and activists manage to get the story out on social media; an editor in Turkey gets sentenced to 138 years in prison for her reporting on the banned Kurdish Workers Party; and an MP in Iceland finds out that her Twitter account is under investigation by the US department of justice.
Weapons' trading is a multi-billion dollar industry that is as big and complex as it is lucrative. Journalists' working in the mainstream media often turn to defence trade publications for information. These publications have spent many years covering the industry, building contacts within it and garnering trust - a necessary practice that often leads to subjective analysis. But because journalists rely on these publications for information, they themselves become a party to that bias. It is a scary thought when considering the subject.Full Story
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