Thursday, May 26, 2005

Argentina - COMMUNITY RADIO station harassed

COMMUNITY radio station harassed ...
IFEX - Toronto,Ontario,Canada
AMARC is concerned about the intimidating act carried out on 17 May 2005
by officials from the National Communications Commission (CNC), who attempted
to enter ...

... AMARC is concerned about the intimidating act carried out on 17
May 2005 by officials from the National Communications Commission
(CNC), who attempted to enter FM De La Azotea radio station's
transmission facility in Mar del Plata without a search warrant or
prior notice.

During the incident, the officials told the journalists to stop
broadcasting, alleging that the station's radio signal was
interfering with that of the Brigadier de la Colina airport.

However, station managers report that the airport authorities whom
they consulted assured them that they had never made a complaint of
that nature, and moreover, that there had not been signal
interference from any media in recent months....

RECOMMENDED ACTION:

Send appeals to the federal radio broadcasting committee (Comité
Federal de Radiodifusión, COMFER):
- asking it to instruct the CNC not to take any action against the
radio station, given the need to reform the radio broadcasting law.

Send letters of support to the radio station.

<http://www.ifex.org/en/content/view/full/66879/>

Tuesday, May 24, 2005

Monday, May 09, 2005

Global inquiry into deaths of journalists

GLOBAL INQUIRY INTO DEATHS OF JOURNALISTS
-----------------------------------------
(4 may 2005) The International News Safety Institute (INSI) has
launched an inquiry to find out the reasons behind the rising death
toll of journalists the world over and will offer solutions for
reducing violence against media persons. The inquiry will be headed
by director of BBC Global News Richard Sambrook and will address
legal, professional and practical issues related to protection of
journalists.
http://southasia.oneworld.net/link/gotoarticle/addhit/110637/1893/24355

Sunday, May 08, 2005

What & how to charge when creating media for others

[Freelance photographers, video and audio artists should also take
note of the suggestions mentioned.]

------- Forwarded message follows -------
Date sent: Fri, 06 May 2005 21:58:29 -0600
From: Penney Kome <pkome@shaw.ca>
Subject: what to charge when writing for others
To: wim-list@eagle.ca, twuc@yorku.ca

Useful article from writersweekly.com, that I thought was worth
passing along. cheers, Penney

May 04, 2005

Writing For Others - What to Charge? By Angela Hoy
<http://www.writersweekly.com/print/the_latest_from_angelahoycom/002649_05042005.html>
printable version

This article may reprinted/redistributed freely as long as the entire
article and bio are included.

When someone hires you to do a special writing job, they give you the
assignment and you do the job. Sounds pretty simple, right? Well, not
really.

These are examples of complaints I've received over the years:

A local drycleaner thought he could write his own brochure, but he
just "didn't have the time." He hired Melanie, a professional
copywriter, to write it for him for a flat fee, and gave her a list of
bullet points to include. After the job was complete, he decided he
wanted to add a few more bullet points and remove some he'd provided
previously...but he didn't understand why Melanie asked for more
money.

The marketing manager of an old business downtown hired Jeff to
ghostwrite a historical book about the company. The book would be
offered to local bookstores and be used to generate publicity, of
course, but the main purpose of the project was to provide a
marketing freebie to potential clients. The marketing manager sent
Jeff a very detailed outline of the project along with a list of
interviewees. A few weeks later, after more executives at the firm
got excited about
the project, they all started getting ideas. Some items Jeff had
already written were deleted and the list of interviewees suddenly
got much longer. When Jeff asked for a contract amendment and more
money, the marketing manager told him there were no more funds in the
budget and that the original flat fee was the only money available
for the project. He even threatened to sue Jeff if he refused to
finish the book, saying there was nothing in the contract that
allowed Jeff to quit the project.

Linda was hired to write a series of press releases by the co-owner
of a company. After completing the third press release, the company's
other owner decided he didn't like the way the series was
progressing. He wanted the first three press releases changed. Linda
asked for additional payment to make the changes because the scope of
the project had changed so drastically. The company balked at her
request, fired her, hired another writer to finish the series, and
never paid Linda's invoices.

Scott was hired to ghostwrite a novel for an individual. He completed
the work and sent the manuscript and his invoice to his client. The
client phoned a few weeks later to say she now wanted the book
written in first-person. When Scott requested more money, she told
him he
should have thought about this possibility before he agreed to the
contracted price.

I receive emails almost daily from writers asking me what they should
charge for special projects like these. My answer is always the same
- charge them BY THE HOUR!

Most people who have an idea for a new project only have a very rough
idea of what they want, and they almost always change their minds
about some or all of the project along the way. Unfortunately, when
this happens, especially when writing is involved, many people don't
think the writer deserves any more money to incorporate the changes.
Why? Perhaps they think "it won't take very long." Or, maybe they
think you "just have to move a few sentences around." They don't want
their budget disturbed and almost always want to blame the writer if
something doesn't turn out as they'd hoped it would.

A sad fact of being in our industry, and probably the main reason why
some people think writers don't deserve payment for their work, is
because most people think that, just because they can type or hold a
pen, they can write. Thus, they think writers' jobs are easy. One
certainty about our industry is that books, brochures, websites, and
even most articles are NEVER published as first written. The boss
almost always wants some changes, often because they've changed their
mind about the scope of the project.

The way to avoid getting into this mess in the first place is to:

* Get the entire preliminary scope of the project in writing. Be
sure to list as many details as possible. If the project description
seems too broad, ask lots of questions and include the additional
information they provide in your proposal and the contract itself.
This will be your best weapon later when they don't want to pay you
for additional work.

* Estimate the total number of hours you believe will be
required. Stress in bold that this is a rough estimate, based on the
scope of work initially provided to you for this project.

* Quote an hourly rate. If the client wants to see a round
number, multiply the hourly rate by the projected number of hours.
But, remember to stress that the figure is a rough estimate based on
the information initially provided by the client and again state
you'll be billing them by the hour.

* Include a clause in your proposal and in the contract that any
change requests may require additional time and will therefore
increase the cost of the project.

* Make your payment terms no longer than net 14 days.

* Include a clause in the contract specifying that prepayment is
required for delivery of the final installment of the project.
Withhold delivery of the final 15% of the project until your final
invoice is paid.

* VERY IMPORTANT! Include a clause in the contract specifying
that you own all copyrights to the work until all your invoices are
paid.

* Submit the project in increments (every 25 or 50 pages, or
every other week, or every 20 hours of work). Send them an invoice
each time you submit a piece of the project and stop work immediately
if even one invoice is past due. Don't continue working until they've
paid what is currently owed. (You'd be surprised how many writers
keep working after their client stops paying their invoices!)

* Never turn in the last part of the project without having your
final payment in hand. (You'd be surprised how many writers never get
that final check!)

* If the information above doesn't appear on the contract, ask
them to include it as an addendum to the contract and make sure you
and the "boss" sign it. Don't start work until you have a signed copy
of the contract in hand. (You'd be surprised how many companies never
return signed contracts and then never pay the writers, saying the
contract was never signed!)

* When change requests come through, save all emails and letters
and document all changes in detail. If the changes come via a phone
call, make a list of the changes requested, send the list to the
"boss" and request he sign the list and return it to you. (You'd be
surprised how many clients ask for more work but then later, after
their budget is blown, claim they never asked for more work!)

When two companies sign a contract, both firms usually know how to
correctly handle the situation (get signed copies of the contract,
include a copy of the proposal, addendums, penalty clauses, etc.).
Unfortunately, when companies are dealing with freelancers, they
often don't follow standard procedure and then use the freelancer's
ignorance about business processes to screw them later. After reading
hundreds of emails sent in by readers over the years, it's obvious,
when a project goes awry, the company's attitude toward the
freelancer is often, "Well, you should have known this could happen,
and included it in your price!"

When the boss changes their mind about a project, it's not your
fault! When those changes mean more time on the job for you, you
deserve more money! Protect yourself in writing up front and remain
firm and professional when they try to talk you out of charging extra
for THEIR mistakes.

Angela Hoy is the co-owner of
<http://www.writersweekly.com/>WritersWeekly.com and Booklocker.
WritersWeekly.com is the free marketing emag for writers that
features new paying markets and freelance job listings every
Wednesday. Booklocker.com, is rated the top POD Publisher by attorney
Mark Levine. Mark's book, The Fine Print, analyzes the contracts and
services of 73 top POD and ebook publishers. Read more
<http://www.writersweekly.com/books/1804.html>here. Booklocker.com
can publish your paperback or hardcover book in 4-6 weeks for only
$217.

This article may reprinted/redistributed freely as long as the entire
article and bio are included.

--
--

= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
Via / By / Excerpted / From / Tip from / Thanks to:

Penney Kome, author and journalist
http://penneykome.ca
Editor, Straight Goods, http://straightgoods.com

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"We create our own reality" A statement on the state of US mainstream media today.

An interesting statement on the state of US mainstream media today.

Laura Bush's Mission Accomplished.

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/05/08/opinion/08rich.html?pagewanted=2&th&emc=th

[excerpt]

"We create our own reality" is how a Bush official put it to Ron
Suskind in an article in The Times Magazine during the presidential
campaign. That they can get away with it shows the keenness of their
cultural antennas. Infotainment has reached a new level of ubiquity
in an era in which "reality" television and reality have become so
blurred that it's hard to know if ABC News's special investigating
"American Idol" last week was real journalism about a fake show or
fake journalism about a real show or whether anyone knows the
difference - or cares. This is business as usual in a
culture in which the Michael Jackson trial is re-enacted daily on
cable and the most powerful television news franchises, the morning
triumvirate of "Today" and its competitors, now routinely present
promotional segments about their respective networks' prime-time hits
as if they were news.

No wonder many local TV news operations thought nothing of
broadcasting government video news releases in which fake
correspondents recruited from P.R. firms pushed administration
policies; in some cases, neither the stations' managers nor
journalists even figured out these reports were frauds. Now that
public broadcasting is being turned over to Republican apparatchiks,
such subterfuge could creep into the one broadcast news organization
that, whatever its other failings, was thought to be immune to
government or commercial interference.

The more the press blurs these lines on its own, the more openings
government propagandists have to erect their Potemkin villages with
impunity. "Our once noble calling," wrote Philip Meyer in The
Columbia Journalism Review last fall, "is increasingly difficult to
distinguish from things that look like journalism but are primarily
advertising, press agentry or entertainment." You know we're in
trouble when Jeff Gannon, asked about his murky past on Bill Maher's
show on April 29, moralistically joked that "usually the way it works
is people become reporters before they prostitute themselves." No
less chastening was the experience of watching Matt Drudge, in
conversation with Brian Lamb the same day, sternly criticize Fox for
cutting off the final moments of the Bush news conference for Paris
Hilton's reality series. When Mr. Drudge is a more sober spokesman
for the sanctity of news than his fellow revelers at the
correspondents' dinner, pigs just may start to fly.
--

--

= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
Via / By / Excerpted / From / Tip from / Thanks to:

http://www.nytimes.com

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GEORGE LESSARD
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