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Imagine a media organisation where senior employees at its biggest-selling Sunday paper were convicted of criminal acts including phone-hacking and perverting the course of justice. Then imagine that the same organisation, having claimed a few years later to have cleaned up its act, is revealed to have its most high-profile TV station rife with claims of sexual harassment by its former chief executive and onscreen star, as well as allegations of widespread racial harassment both the subject of legal action and US federal investigation.

Imagine also that the TV station was a byword for bias and slanted coverage and that as recently as May this year it falsely besmirched the name of a murdered Democratic staff member by claiming he, not the Russian government, had leaked thousands of emails from the Democratic party during the presidential campaign. Imagine that it had then withdrawn the story, but three months on taken no action against those responsible nor apologised to the dead mans parents, who had publicly explained how the claims their son was a traitor had added to their grief. Imagine also that the media organisation was unique among commercial organisations in its combined power over newspapers, radio and TV in the UK.

In any fair and just world, the notion that this media organisation was fit and proper to be given greater power over the media landscape in the UK would be dead in the water. But, no doubt in part because the relevant media organisation is 21st Century Fox, run by the Murdochs, the idea that it should get 100% control of Sky is not yet dead.

But the Murdochs are facing more of a battle than they expected. With every passing month, the evidence against this bid has grown stronger. That, and not the laughable claim of commercial reasons, explains their decision this week to suddenly shut down the UK broadcasting of Fox News. Quite simply, the fear of the Murdochs is that the scandals at Fox News could in 2017 sink their bid for Sky, just as the scandals at the News of the World did in 2011.

They deserve to do so, and in the next couple of weeks crucial decisions will be taken by the culture secretary, Karen Bradley, and the regulator Ofcom. To her credit, and partly because of pressure from campaigners such as Avaaz, she has indicated she will refer the Murdoch bid to the Competition and Markets Authority for a six-month inquiry on grounds of plurality the scale of the Murdochs control over the media landscape. But she needs also to refer the bid on grounds of the potential threat to broadcasting standards.Some people will argue that we couldnt end up with Fox News here because of our codes on broadcasting, including our impartiality rules. But that is far too complacent. First, because the codes are limited, as Ofcom acknowledges impartiality rules cannot take account of story selection, tone or prominence. Second, because a broadcaster deciding to push the code to the limits has the power to push around a weak regulator and the Murdochs have a long history of being willing to do precisely that and, indeed, to breach undertakings they have made from the Times in the 1980s to the Wall Street Journal more recently. Third, we dont need to imagine the impact of full rather than partial control of Sky by the Murdochs this change in ownership just happened in Australia and reports suggest the move to a more rightwing, opinionated Sky News has quickly followed.

Fox News has played a major role in polluting the well of public conversation in the US, stirring division and hatred. We know also that Rupert Murdoch has mused about making Sky more like Fox. We should not risk the Foxification of Sky News. What the law requires is a broadcaster committed to acceptable broadcasting standards. If there is a risk that the broadcaster lacks that commitment, then standards are constantly in peril. And in this case, that would be enough to block the bid. The case for referral is overwhelming, based on the record of Fox News as well as the total failure of corporate governance in the Murdoch empire revealed by what happened at the News of the World and at Fox. The secretary of state must have a proper inquiry into these dangers. If she does not and we end up with Sky becoming more like Fox, it will be her responsibility.

The onus is not just on Bradley. Soon Ofcom is due to reply to a legal threat by Avaaz, and a detailed submission from Ken Clarke, Vince Cable, Lord Falconer and me, both of which challenge its finding that the Murdochs record suggests they are fit and proper to take full control of Sky. It is not simply common sense that says Ofcom got it wrong: its judgment was riddled with errors, including the claim that almost all the racial and sexual harassment at Fox News took place before 2012, and therefore did not impugn the new governance arrangements put in place at 21st Century Fox after the News of the World scandal. Ofcom failed to follow up its own report slamming the conduct of James Murdoch and to properly consider his pivotal role as CEO of 21st Century Fox if the bid succeeds. And it erred in the threshold it applied to its fit and proper decision. This decision, and the way it is handled, is Ofcoms biggest test. The right thing to do is to admit its errors and re-open the fit and proper investigation. If it does not, it will likely, and rightly, face legal challenge.

Six years ago, when the hacking of Milly Dowlers phone was revealed, politicians of all parties gravely proclaimed that never again would we kowtow to the Murdochs. There are many issues our country faces. But one of them is whether public authorities have the courage to stand up to the powerful. That is essentially the question facing the regulator and the government about this bid. They owe it to the public interest to honour promises made six years ago in deed as well as word.

Ed Miliband is former leader of the Labour party, and MP for Doncaster North

Read more:
Britain doesn't need a Fox News. The regulators must block the Murdochs' bid - The Guardian

The social media originally developed to help people establish relationships worldwide is towards upheaval. The social medias superb quality of quick sharing without regional borders has contributed to vicious exploitation such as spying, breeding of discrimination, bigotry, hatred and others along various races and communities. This campaign is particularly impactful on communities with nescience and gullibility who are mindless to judge about good and bad.

However, the social media has happened to be instrumental in many ways in the same poor nations. The social networking has been helpful in calling for enormous civil movements to protest injustice, enforcement of governments into taking action about a concern, disclosure of cases of frauds and corruptions, emergence of true masterminds and masterworks. But it carries even further and perilous disadvantages to a victim nation, if not so much to advanced western countries.

Afghanistan has large less-educated populations who are blindly bogged down into the world of social media and fall into the domain of fabricated and misguiding information of warmongers. The social media by far expedited the effort to shape up public minds. Apart from global problems associated with social media, the same evil-doers bombing the Afghan nation are working to spawn psychological disorder and deep-seated rifts and discord among the nation.

The social media supplies these warring powers with quick data about any movements and even subtle intentions in communities in sensitive regions. The data monitoring powers can retrieve your vocal communication on chatting apps, locate you with GPS and draw a general picture of a communitys trends, sentiments, likes or dislikes and secrets, all by virtue of social media on your Smartphone. To this end, the rollout of free-of-charge social networking applications or newer versions of Smartphones into the market which is enabling cyber espionage is welcomed.

Afghanistan is intended to rot intellectually by getting immersed in a viable war of words, opinions, languages, sects and regions. The waged crooks build profiles under pseudonyms of a renowned public figure or a best-selling artist or an activist and work to ignite a wave of tensions in the form of provocative posts along a community of different languages, religions, ethnics and races.

The covert war propagandists are spending ample funds to incite a soft war over an already intense armed war to mentally subdue progressive folks. This is particularly plausible because of absence of an advanced cyber security system in countries like Afghanistan. Crimes related to virtual world [social media] is termed as cyber crimes in many countries which are dealt with punishment of sorts. The scarcity of the same law in Afghanistan has persuaded meddlers to daringly enter into communities on social media and indulge in sabotaging, hate-spreading and splitting.

A flurry of campaign is directed on social media to force people into flight by sharing fearsome posts and generate a state of brain drain in Afghanistan. Although violence may exist at its climax, but relating to many feared issues, evil propagandists amplify the threat to trigger flight of elites, divestment and a state of desperation and forlorn hope for future.

A Reuters report in 2014 shed light on Irans utilization of social media as a means of intelligence. The Iranian hackers created false social media accounts to spy on military and political leaders, ambassadors and personnel from the US, Israel, Afghanistan, Britain, Iraq, Saudi Arabia and Syria. It was successful in so doing. According to reports, the Iranian hackers built fictitious profiles posing as famous media crew or defense contractors or so others to befriend targets after securing ties with victims friends, relatives and affiliates on social media including facebook and twitter.

For Iran, riding a cyber intervention in unsecured Afghanistan is not a big deal, so is for even aggressive state of Pakistan, an ally of the US. They believe a nation may never succumb by wreaking havoc or bombing unless its brain force [intellectual segment] is put to decay by being fiercely involved in a vortex of mental war.

The US government needs the data received from across social media to stay abreast of situation and thwart attempts of revolution, social outbursts, revolt, rebellion, massive demonstration and others not only in home, but essentially in occupied countries such as Afghanistan. The social activism through facebook and twitter has striking examples within the US. According to an analysis, emotions and reactions behind almost 29 million tweets or facebook posts about four events in 2014 and 2015 gave birth to the Black Lives Matter movement. It prompted rallies and protests in the US. It fostered a sense of solidarity among black communities there.

According to Al-Hayat daily, facebook is a crucial weapon of intelligence for Israels Mossad. It keeps a watchful eye on Palestinians life and steals important data from target individuals. Reportedly, the intelligence agency has created a myriad of facebook accounts and each hired officer runs a few of them. Under hectic and precarious situation in occupied Palestinian territories, Israel is curious to collect data about rallying points of resistance movements, mentality, psychological condition as well as public reaction to deadly events.

After receiving the targets IP address, these agents send links to them under the guise of music/video/image download and penetrate into the personal data right after the victim clicks on the link. Thereinafter, the intelligence officers could view or record whatever happens therein. The Egyptian government had forbidden the use of Viber instant-messaging app among army members for a while after learning about Israels spying intents.

The Viber media is founded by Israeli-American Talmon Marco, a graduate of Tel Aviv Universitys computer science department and a veteran of Israels defense force. These free applications whether premeditatedly built for intelligence purpose or later put into such use is capable of recovering vocal evidences and text messages from around the world.

Leaping into Arab world, the same social media websites played groundbreaking part in sparking Arab Spring. It helped quickened communications and interactions among those involved in political protests. It greased the wheel of violence after people used it to organize pro- and anti-government demonstrations, disseminate information about sedition and most importantly enabled far-regional observers to stay aware of events and disasters in the vivid form.

Some governments blocked access to social media. According to studies, nine out of ten Egyptians and Tunisians used it for protests and awareness-raising, yet the number was quite lower for Syrians and Yemenis.

In Ukraine-Russia tensions, Ukrainian president banned Russian social networking sources including Vkontakte and Odnoklassnik countrywide as part of sanctions imposed on Russia. It believed that the superpower is gaining ground in the countrys political crisis amid annexation of Crimea to Russia.

Continued here:
The Social Media Is a Weapon to Control Minds of Poor Nations - Center for Research on Globalization

Post-2003, China has looked to a three-pronged strategy to "win without fighting" that comprises "media warfare, psychological warfare and legal warfare". This is called 'Three Warfares'.

Indian strategists believe China has fully developed the concept of 'Three Warfares', and was "applying it to the Doklam crisis."

Within the 'Three Warfares', media is expected to influence opinion - domestically and internationally - in favour of China. It is a way to dictate the narrative to benefit the Chinese position.

CHINESE MEDIA AND THE DOKLAM CRISIS Specifically, Chinese media warfare becomes increasingly important to understand, because of how visible it became during the recent crisis. Indian media ran report after report based on Chinese coverage of the Doklam crisis.

Chinese media oscillated between threatening India, painting India as the aggressor, and portraying China as simply a defender of its territorial sovereignty.

For example: During the stand-off, the Chinese government warned India that it should learn from "historical lessons", in an indirect reference to the 1962 war that the latter lost. Defence Minister Arun Jaitley retorted, "The situation in 1962 was different and India of 2017 is different."

This led to angry Chinese media weighing in, via an editorial in state-run Global Times, threatening India with "greater losses than in 1962". The editorial demanded that India be taught "a bitter lesson".

Such aggressive rhetoric may be aimed at beating hostile countries into submission, an attempt to get them to toe Beijing's line.

SHOULD INDIA BE LISTENING? Is India giving excessive importance to our neighbour's media? According to Dr Alka Acharya, former Director, Institute of Chinese Studies, and Professor at Centre for East Asian Studies, JNU, we need to adopt a more nuanced and sophisticated way to pick up and leave out information - it is necessary to take more note of publications, opinion makers and scholars close to the Chinese government.

"We should be taking government- and party-controlled publications seriously. For instance, a publication like Global Times should be paid attention to, to understand the hawks in China. While it should not be considered sacrosanct, it is important to understand the dynamics and strains of the Communist Party of China," she says.

CHINESE MEDIA: CREDIBILITY IN THE FACE OF CENSORSHIP The influence exerted by Chinese media will remain directly connected to perceptions of its credibility. This is especially important to remember as the country looks to play a bigger role in international media - albeit with censorship firmly in place.

A 2013 survey by Joseph Weber & Linjun Fan, published in Human Rights Quarterly, brings forth some interesting findings about the perception journalism students in China hold about domestic and foreign media.

The thirty-nine question survey was conducted anonymously at eight Chinese universities.

In two separate questions, respondents were asked how true and accurate they thought news in Chinese state-owned media and foreign media was.

Only 54 of the 111 respondents (48.7 percent), said they "believed most of what they read or saw in Chinese state-owned media".

Originally posted here:
China's media warfare: Winning without fighting - Times of India

Real Madrids official Twitter account was hacked with a post announcing the signing of rival Lionel Messi appearing on their feed.

The hacking group known as OurMine, was behind the attacks on the Spanish giant and posted hoax claims of player transfers.

The group, which has been behind a series of high-profile hacks recently, claimed that Messi, the former multiple world player of the year and Barcelonas greatest ever player, had signed for Madrid.

The post on the Madrid official Twitter account also accompanied by a video of Messi scoring for Barcelona against Real Madrid said Benvingut Messi! !Bienvenido Messi! Welcome Messi! Bienvenue Messi! #Messi.

The tweet remained visible for over an hour before it disappeared from both the Spanish and English social media language feeds. The removable of the post was not quick enough to stop the post going viral with over 27,000 retweets coming in the first 45 minutes.

The hacking group followed up this tweet with a series of tweets claiming responsibility for the hack saying: Internet security is s*** and we proved that.

The hack on the current UEFA Champions League holders came just days after their fiercest rivals, FC Barcelona, had their social media accounts hacked with a post announcing the signing of ngel Di Mara from Paris Saint-Germain.

The Catalan club quickly released a statement confirming the incident: Our accounts have been hacked tonight. Were working to solve the problem as soon as possible. Thanks for your patience.

This was the second time that the club fell victim to hackers having previously had their social media platforms compromised in 2014 by a group claiming to be the Syrian Electronic Army.

It is difficult to ascertain what exactly is the aim of OurMine, is the group using these hacks to simply promote their group, or is there a more serious motive lurking in the dark that is yet to materialize?

Author Shane Curtis, ESET

Originally posted here:
Spanish giants the latest to fall foul of hackers - We Live Security (blog)

BANGKOK

Recent moves by the Cambodian government to crack down on independent media, including broadcasters and newspapers, is seen by analysts and activists as a key step by the government to consolidate control ahead of national elections in 2018.

The tougher approach by the Cambodian government led by Prime Minister Hun Sen in power for more than three decades comes against a backdrop of growing opposition support, especially among younger voters.

Allegations of a campaign against human rights

Rights activists also point to a broad strategy by the government against both the media and rights activists.

The Asian Forum for Human Rights and Development condemned the recent attacks against civil society organizations and the free media.

"These repressive measures come at a critical juncture for Cambodia and severely compromise the legitimacy and fairness of next year's election," Asian Forum said in a statement.

The group also pointed to the killing of activist Kem Ley in July 2016, as well as detention of other opposition politicians, as adding to a "culture of fear spreading in the country."

Campaign takes many forms

The media crackdown has included imposition of a $6.3 million tax bill against the English-language Cambodia Daily, a newspaper published since 1993, with the paper being forced to shut down if the payment is not met by Sept. 4.

Other targets included Cambodian radio stations broadcasting U.S.-funded Radio Free Asia and Voice of America (VOA), with the government claiming the outlets failed to have the correct licenses, charging the offices were unregistered with the authorities.

In late August, Cambodia's Ministry of Foreign Affairs ordered the closure of the National Democratic Institute (NDI), in international development and democracy organization, ordering the institute's foreign staff to leave the country before month's end.

Billy Chai-Lung Tai, an independent analyst with Human Rights and Project Management, said the moves against the media marked a tougher line by the government on the media and public debate.

Analyst says China is a factor

"The gloves are off, so to speak," Chai-Lung Tai said in an email to VOA. He added the government was also less reticent now about maintaining "a semblance of upholding human rights to show the [international aid] donors anymore."

Cambodia has become less dependent on Western foreign development assistance in recent years as the economy has grown and the Cambodian government has built closer ties with China.

Charges that government fears elections

Nathan Thompson, president of the Overseas Press Club of Cambodia (OPCC), said the 2018 elections are the main reason for the media crackdown.

"The ruling party is terrified of losing the 2018 elections and so they crack down on all opposing voices," Thompson told VOA in an email. He pointed to opposition gains in local elections, which "served to only increase their paranoia."

He said there were also fears the government may tighten visa rules and work permits, making it easier for the government to deny visas to freelance journalists and foreign correspondents.

Human Rights Watch charges

Human Rights Watch deputy Asia director Phil Robertson said the government was acting dictatorially to control the media and wipe out opposition political leaders and critical nongovernment organizations (NGOs) "in a barrage of bogus criminal charges heard by judges beholden to [the prime minister]."

Robertson said the strategy by Hun Sen is to "stifle all the remaining independent media outlets, whether they be radio or newspapers, before the real campaigning starts for the July 2018 election."

In a May commentary, the Cambodian Center for Human Rights (CCHR) noted the Cambodian government had also drawn on the new U.S. administration's "more hostile rhetoric and policies regarding the [U.S.] media."

The Southeast Asian Press Alliance (SEAPA) said the government should first clarify new regulations "rather than immediately launch a crackdown as a first action."

SEAPA director Edgardo Legaspi called the government's policy a "systematic attack" at silencing independent media and called on the international community to press the government over the recent crackdown.

"It is important for the international community to voice their concern on the recent events in order to convince the Cambodian government to adopt a more reasonable approach for their all-too-sudden concern about taxation or reporting airtime buyers," Legaspi told VOA.

"We must call for the immediate reinstatement of the programming of the canceled radio programs," he said.

Low 'freedom of press' ranking

Cambodia remains lowly ranked in terms of press freedom with the media watchdog Freedom House, which classifies Cambodia's media as "not free," while in 2016 Reporters without Borders placed Cambodia at 128 out of 182 countries for the freedom afforded to its press.

The Cambodian Center for Human Rights said journalists often found themselves "victim to physical attacks, judicial harassment and even murder."

CCHR said since 1994 14 journalists have been killed in Cambodia with most of the killings carried out "with complete impunity," creating a "climate of fear among Cambodian journalists and political commentators."

The Cambodian government did not respond to requests for comment.

View post:
Cambodian Media Crackdown Seen as Key Step by Government Ahead of 2018 Elections - Voice of America