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After being in the news for all the wrong reasons in the wake of the party's back-to-back electoral setbacks besides the raging intra-party power struggle, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) is in damage control mode and has decided to avoid the media glare for some time to improve its public image.

Sources told The Statesman that the continuous negative media coverage of AAP has created an adverse impact on the minds of public who had voted in huge numbers in favour of the party in the 2015 assembly election.

Since the day AAP formed the government, some media houses, especially the electronic media under a well-planned strategy have been consistently working to defame the party. And the way these media houses blow things out of proportion after the partys recent electoral losses, the party has decided to disengage itself from such media outlets, sources said.

Sources said AAP has shifted its focus to re-energise the party cadre and work at the grassroots level to reconnect with the people that voted the party to power in 2015.

After AAPs dismal performance in the Goa and Punjab assembly polls as well as the Delhi municipal elections followed by the partys internal rift, Kejriwal is toiling hard to iron out the differences over the functioning of the party and focus on administration work in the national capital.

AAP also went in for a major internal restructuring with top leaders resigning from important party positions.

AAP Delhi convener Dilip Pandey was replaced by Labour minister Gopal Rai. Vice chairman of Delhi Dialogue Commission Ashish Khetan was appointed as a new advisor to Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal after Ashish Talwar's resignation. Punjab in-charge Sanjay Singh also resigned from his post.

Sources said AAP is now focusing on social media to highlight the developmental work carried by its government in the capital.

The strategy is bearing fruit. All AAP leaders have a huge following on Facebook and twitter and people are recognising their work in the government, sources said.

Talking to The Statesman, AAP's chief Delhi spokesperson, Saurabh Bharadwaj said most media houses in the country have lost their credibility when it comes to the ethics of journalism.

Most of the media houses are being run by private investors that have made them biased. There is no neutrality in media these days, he said.

Bharadwaj said even though the party is not avoiding the mainstream media, it prefers to communicate through social media because of its impartiality.

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The Statesman: AAP in damage control mode, shuns media - The Statesman

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan gestures during a news conference to present the outcome of the G-20 summit in Hamburg, Germany, July 8, 2017.(photo byREUTERS/Wolfgang Rattay)

Author:Semih Idiz Posted July 25, 2017

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan briefly visited Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Qatar onJuly 23-24 on a tour billed by the Turkish media as a mediation effort aimed at resolving the Qatar crisis. The tour, which came on the heels of ongoing efforts at mediation by Kuwait and the United States, revealed Ankaras limited capacity to make a difference in this crisis.

Turkeys initial desire to act as mediator was dashed when Ankara provided strong backing for Qatar, including sending military forces to that country. Despite insisting that it is neutral, this move ensured that it was not in a position, at least in the eyes of the Saudi-led coalition, to act as mediator.

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, a key member of this coalition, at one stage even called on the boycott against Qatar to be extended to Turkey, according to reports by The New Arab.

Meanwhile, Kuwaits efforts, with substantial US pressure on the sidelines, have already produced enough results for US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson to call for the blockade of Qatar to be lifted.

Remarks by Erdogan, prior to departing for the Gulf, also reflected an awareness that there is limited scope for a Turkish contribution to resolving this crisis. We support the mediation efforts by Kuwaits Emir Sheikh [Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-] Sabah, Erdogan said. Starting with those by the United States, we find the activities of the international community to be useful, he added, expressing hope that these efforts will bear fruit.

Erdogan indicated that the main reason for his visit to the Gulf was the Qatar crisis, but there were undoubtedly other reasons behind Erdogans high-level talks, especially in Riyadh. One principle reason voiced in diplomatic circles is Erdogans need to engage in damage control with regard to Turkeys ties with Saudi Arabia.

Turkey has been receiving very bad press in that country since the Qatar crisis broke out. Given thatthe Saudi government strictly controls the media, the views expressed in the media are believed to also reflect official thinking.

Yasin Aktay, a deputy from Erdogans ruling Justice and Development Party, who also advises the government on foreign policy issues, has pointed to what he says is the unfair campaign in the Saudi press against Turkey.

No one can claim that this campaign reflects a reaction by Arabs that came about on its own, Aktay wrote in his column for the pro-government newspaper Yeni Safak.

He claimed that the offensive articles in the Saudi press were manufactured systematically from a center that aims to sow discord and produce hatred of Turkey among Arabs, but he did not clarify his remark.

Erdogan, who relishes blasting the Western media over unfavorable articles, has remained silent in the face of the media attacks on Turkey, not just in Saudi Arabia, but also in other Gulf states.

Prior to departing on his Gulf tour, Erdogan lavished praise on Riyadh and King Salman bin Abdul-Aziz Al Saud. He told reporters his first stop would be Saudi Arabia, which he referred to as the regions big and wise country.

As the big brother in the Gulf region, Saudi Arabia has the duty to solve the crisis in the Gulf. As I have said on several of occasions, King Salman heads the list of those who can solve this crisis, Erdogan said.

While Turkey relies on its vast and growing economic ties with Qatar, it cannot afford to undermine its equally important economic and political ties with other Gulf states, especially at a time when its relations with the West continue to deteriorate.

Ankara is also noting with dissatisfaction how Egypt is making diplomatic headway in the region for example, in Syria where it is cooperating now with Russia. Egypt is also deepening its dialogue with the European Union with a view to stabilizing the Middle East.

During Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukrys visit to Brussels this week, the EUs foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini expressed the EUs desire to be in close coordination with Egypt on efforts to resolve the crises in Libya, Syria and the Gulf.

Tillersons recent interventions in the region, which have produced tangible results and defused the crisis to an extent, have also made it easier for Ankara to try to smooth the ground with Riyadh.

For instance, Qatar has agreed to sign a memorandum of understanding with the United States on monitoring the flow of terrorist financing, prompting Washington to call on Riyadh, its key partner in the Gulf, to lift the blockade on Qatar. Ankara wants the blockade lifted also.

Meanwhile, the Saudi-led coalition, clearly under US pressure, has reduced its list of 13 demands for Qatar to six demands. The new list does not include the condition that Turkey close down its military base in Qatar.

This issue was reportedly not discussed in Erdogans talks with Salman or Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in Riyadh.

The increasing US involvement in the Gulf could also provide a niche for Turkey to play the role of facilitator in the region, if not mediator, according to a Turkish Foreign Ministry source speaking to Al-Monitor on condition of anonymity.

Despite its backing of Qatar, and the strains that followed this, Turkey continues to have ties with all members of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC). It had initiated a strategic dialogue with GCC members prior to the Qatar crisis.

Professor Mensur Akgun from Istanbul Kultur University argued that it was wrong to say little had come out of Erdogans Gulf tour that was significant. To start with, Turkey reduced some of the pressure on it that had resulted from being caught between Qatar and Saudi Arabia, Akgun told Al-Monitor.

It also showed that Turkish forces will remain in Qatar since the demand by Saudi Arabia and its allies regarding this appears to have been dropped, he added. Erdogans visit also showed that Turkeys ties with Saudi Arabia were not easy to sever, Akgun said.

Retired Ambassador Murat Bilhan agreed. Turkey cant risk its ties with Saudi Arabia, which is the most important state in the Gulf region, Bilhan told Al-Monitor. It is impossible to produce a coherent Gulf policy without having good ties with Saudi Arabia, he said.

Bilhan added,however, that Erdogans visit did not clarify why Turkey had sent forces to Qatar at a sensitive time like this, and what their mission there was.

Like other regions in the Middle East, the Gulf states are bracing for the defeat of the Islamic State (IS) in Iraq and Syria, after which the Saudi-Iranian rivalry is expected to peak.

Former German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer predicted in an article for Project Syndicate on July 21 that the phase after IS will not be marked by peace because of Irans increasing influence in the Middle East.

Ankara clearly needs better ties with its natural Sunni allies in the region, starting with Saudi Arabia, in order to promote its interests during that phase. Erdogans Gulf tour can therefore also be seen as an effort to advance ties with Riyadh.

Points of divergence, most notably Turkeys continuing support for the Muslim Brotherhood, still remain an obstacle. It will probably take more than this visit by Erdogan for the key Gulf states to overcome their suspicions of Turkish motives.

Nevertheless, Erdogans visit and his talks with Gulf leaders showed that they cannot ignore Turkey either.

Read More: http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2017/07/turkey-saudi-arabia-erdogan-gulf-tour-advance-ties.html

Read more here:
Erdogan hopes to woo Saudi Arabia with Gulf damage control tour - Al-Monitor

Chief Justice Susan Denham presented the annual report of the Courts Service for 2016. Photograph: Dara Mac Dnaill

Procedures are needed so contempt of court laws can be used against those who disrupt court proceedings with social media, the Chief Justice Susan Denham has said.

Her comments come in the wake of an unprecedented social media campaign during the Jobstown trial, but also reflect a more general concern amongst the judiciary about social media, in particular as to how it can affect jurors.

To date, it has been rare that courts in Ireland have had to use contempt of court law to curb inaccurate and disruptive online communications about cases, Mrs Justice Denham said at the launch of the 2016 Annual Report of the Courts Service.

It would be naive of us not to plan for the future in this regard, she said. The fundamental right to a fair trial does not change in the face of any new means of communication. Rules can and must reflect the new reality.

She said she will this week send a draft discussion paper on guidelines on the use of social media in the courts to the presidents of all the courts, and ask the Courts Service to engage with the media and the legal professions on the matter.

There has been some discussion already about the possibility of banning certain devices from courtrooms unless they are being used by legal professionals or journalists, as well as how to prevent jurors being influenced by social media or online material.

One of the matters to be considered is who in the system would be responsible for trying to enforce any new rules.

Minister for Justice and Equality, Charlie Flanagan said he was most anxious that the area of civil and criminal contemptshould be reviewed.

The issue of social media use and court proceedings had arisen on a number of occasions in recent times and he was keen to see the topic reviewed.

Everyone is entitled to a free and fair trail, without outside interference, he said. He looked forward to ensuring that any recommendations that emerged from a review would be implemented.

Mrs Justice Denham, who is the chair of the Courts Service board, is to retire as Chief Justice soon and will have her last court appearance on Friday.

She said that in 2016 the Courts Service supported 24,588 court sittings involving 170 judges.

The courts deal with approximately 750,000 civil and criminal cases and other matters each year, with 516,000 of these being in the District Court where 60 per cent of cases relate to road traffic offences.

The 2016 report showed a 15 per cent increase in personal injury cases, despite the existence of a parallel non-court process for such claims, she said.

Strikingly there was a decrease of 32 per cent in new possession cases year on year, she said. Hopefully this is a sign that the effects of our great recession are fading, and that the alternative mechanisms for dealing with personal debt are successful for many.

There has been a 125 per cent increase over two years of applications under the debt resolution mechanisms of the Personal Insolvency Act. That such legal avenues to exit debt exist is to be welcomed, she said.

The number of trials heard in the Central Criminal Court have increased by 48 per cent over two years, ensuring that waiting times for murder and rape trials do not grow longer.

The final phase of the Fines (Payments and Recovery) Act 2014, which aims to reduce the number of people going to prison for the non-payment of fines, has commenced and enforcement notices were last week sent to more than 2,000 people who have failed to pay fines imposed by the courts. These people must now appear in court in September, but the Chief Justice pointed out that it is still possible to pay in full the fines at issue, right up to the court appearance date.

On social media, she said in order to protect the right to a fair trial, it will be necessary to introduce draft guidelines on the who, when and what of using social media in courtrooms.

Also, there has to be a discussion among those who work in and around courts about how such guidelines might work. And, thirdly, there was a need to look at legal reform to take cognisance of the new reality of instant communication.

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Rules needed to control social media use in courts, says Denham - Irish Times

The two sides, which have sued each other in separate claims, present entirely conflicting descriptions of who owns the company and what is being withheld from whom. The earliest chance for resolution appears to be a court hearing scheduled for next week.

Whether the squabbling will affect Snopess ability to produce its popular mythbusting remains to be seen, but the disputes are unlikely to be settled until there is legal clarity on the underlying structure of the company.

Proper Media considers itself an owner of Bardav, not a vendor. As Proper Media tells it, Barbara Mikkelson, Mr. Mikkelsons ex-wife, sold her 50 percent share to Proper Media in 2016, but for tax purposes it was bought in the name of its individual members for the benefit of Proper Media. Two Proper Media officers, Drew Schoentrup and Christopher Richmond, would get 20 percent stakes in Bardav, while three others would own 3.33 percent stakes.

Proper Media said the deal included Mr. Schoentrup taking a seat on a two-person board alongside Mr. Mikkelson.

But Mr. Mikkelson, who owns the other 50 percent of the Bardav shares, said that Mr. Schoentrup does not sit on the board, and that the five shareholders should be viewed individually, as opposed to collectively, giving Proper Media equal ownership.

Mr. Schoentrups on or off status on the board is crucial in Mr. Mikkelsons decision to cancel Bardavs contract with Proper Media, which handles many of the technological and advertising services for Snopes. In March, Bardav gave Proper Media a 60-day notice that it would be terminating the contract, effective May 8. Mr. Mikkelson said the contract was agreed to when Snopes was a much smaller company, but now it had its own business-focused employees and other services can be obtained much more cheaply from other vendors.

Karl Kronenberger, a lawyer for Proper Media, said in an interview on Monday that Mr. Mikkelson cannot cancel the contract without calling a board meeting which, in Proper Medias view, would include Mr. Schoentrup. The company has continued as if the contract remained valid.

Last week, a court ordered Proper Media, which cannot directly pay Snopes employees, to release $100,000 of the advertising revenues to Bardav, on the condition that the money be used for expenses and not be paid to Mr. Mikkelson, according to Mr. Kronenberger. Proper Media sued Mr. Mikkelson in May, accusing him of mismanaging the companys funds and abusing his position. (Mr. Mikkelson said he hadnt received money from the company this year aside from expenses and salary, which he said made him the lowest-paid employee at Snopes.)

Mr. Kronenberger said Mr. Mikkelson has locked Proper Media out of Bardavs bank accounts and key databases it needs to do its job, and he disputed that Proper Media had locked Bardav out from making technological changes.

Mr. Mikkelson has absolute control of this domain name, Mr. Kronenberger said. He can move it within minutes.

As for the advertising revenue, Our position is nothing is being wrongfully withheld, he said.

But on the crowdfunding page, Mr. Mikkelson wrote that although we maintain editorial control (for now), the vendor will not relinquish the sites hosting to our control, so we cannot modify the site, develop it, or most crucially place advertising on it.

Both sides hope a court hearing scheduled for Aug. 4 will begin to bring some clarity. Proper Media hopes the judge will remove Mr. Mikkelson from the company, while Bardav is hoping the judge requires Proper Media to hand over the rest of the advertising revenue, including some money from before the contract termination took effect.

For more than 20 years, Snopes has been a destination for batting down the urban legends and viral misinformation all too commonly found on the internet, first in email forwards and later in popular but misleading articles. At first run entirely by David and Barbara Mikkelson, it developed a reputation as an authority on declaring simply whether such tidbits could be believed.

In recent years, the site added staff as it took increasing aim at the routine falsities of the political process. In December, Facebook made Snopes a key part of its efforts to combat fake news, including it in a group of fact-checkers that would be alerted if enough users flagged an article as fake.

On Monday, Snopes used its website and social media accounts to promote its crowdfunding effort. It reached its $500,000 in about one day.

Were just trying to pick a number that were sure we can continue operations for, lets say, through possibly the end of the year, or at least the next several months while all this is happening, Mr. Mikkelson said.

A version of this article appears in print on July 25, 2017, on Page B3 of the New York edition with the headline: Fact-Checking Website, in Heated Legal Battle, Asks Readers for Money to Survive.

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Snopes, in Heated Legal Battle, Asks Readers for Money to Survive - New York Times

Last month I tested the Logitech Slim Combo keyboard for the iPad Pro 10.5. While the keyboard is functional and useful for productivity, it's quite thick and the $150 price is tough to justify.

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For the last couple of weeks, I've been using the ZAGG Rugged Messenger for the iPad Pro 10.5. It is priced $50 less than the Logitech one ($99.99) and I prefer it for several reasons.

Slide your iPad Pro into the top case portion of the combo for protection around the edges and back of your iPad Pro. A mixture of hard plastic and a TPU frame protect the back and edges to a MIL-STD 810G rating of 6 feet. Obviously, dropping your iPad Pro on the display will likely cause it to crack, but side and edge drops may survive.

There are openings in the cover for the camera, flash, Lightning port, 3.5mm headset jack, and mics. Raised buttons for the power and volume are present too.

One of the best features of the ZAGG Rugged Messenger combo is the Apple Pencil holder found along the top (in landscape) or right (in portrait). I hate that there is no way to conveniently carry the Apple Pencil with your iPad and this feature alone may set the ZAGG Rugged Messenger apart enough to satisfy many customers.

The bottom piece is the keyboard and back cover that serves as the kickstand for your iPad Pro. It attaches via a very strong magnet in the spine and connects to your iPad via Bluetooth. A fully charged keyboard is rated to last for up to two years between charging.

There is a row of keys above the five typical keyboard rows that serve as the following shortcuts:

There are five rows of keys below this top line with a full number row, directional arrows, FN key, two CMD, Two Alt/Option, and two Shift keys. Use the FN and down arrow to toggle through three brightness levels. Use the FN and right arrow to toggle through seven keyboard backlight colors. The backlighting is more even and bright than what is present on the Logitech Slim Combo.

The keys are well spaced and have solid travel. The wrist support is long enough to be comfortable when used in a number of ways. The magnets are very strong to hold the keyboard to your iPad and also prop up your iPad.

The back piece of the keyboard has three seams in it and folds then slides up and down the back of the ZAGG case to allow you to prop up your Apple iPad Pro 10.5 in several different positions. When you pull the keyboard down from the front of your iPad Pro, your iPad wakes up and the display turns on.

The ZAGG Rugged Messenger matches the premium design of the Apple iPad Pro and is the keyboard combo I was looking for to match up with the Apple iPad Pro. It looks great and is well designed.

The ZAGG Rugged Messenger is only $99, which is about a third less than the Apple and Logitech keyboard options. I have tested all three and prefer the ZAGG design and capability. The ZAGG Rugged Messenger weighs in at a rather hefty 1.53 pounds, but with the iPad Pro it is still lighter than most laptops.

Although the keys may be a bit better designed on the Logitech Slim Combo, the price, Apple Pencil holder, backlighting options, and better use on your lap make the ZAGG Rugged Messenger a better option.

See more here:
ZAGG Rugged Messenger keyboard for Apple iPad 10.5 hands-on: Protective case and elegant keyboard combo - ZDNet