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Alma Media Corporation Press release 17 April 2012, at 9.30 (EEST)

ALMA MEDIA TO JOIN THE CITY OF HELSINKI`S CLIMATE COVENANT

Today, Alma Media, together with the other companies in the Climate Partners network, signed a climate covenant with Jussi Pajunen, the Mayor of Helsinki. In the covenant, the companies identify the measures they will take to control climate change in their own operations.

The aim of the Climate Partners is to bring a group of pioneers together around the same table and find new practices for fighting climate change through cooperation. Another aim is to strengthen the companies` competitiveness and find new business opportunities.

Alma Media`s climate goals

"In 2011, we conducted a significant study on the environmental impacts of media, the results of which have already helped us not only reduce our own environmental impact, but also engage media users and advertisers in a discussion on how to reduce theirs. The Climate Partners network is also important because it shows how increased environmental awareness translates into concrete measures in the world of business" says Rauno Heinonen, Vice President, Corporate Communications.

Alma Media has agreed to build economically and socially sustainable media and to consider responsibility when developing its business operations. The company reports its own environmental impacts openly and encourages all media users and advertisers to reduce their own climate impacts derived from media use.

Alma Media aims to reduce emissions directly as follows:

A network of pioneers

The Climate Partners network, a joint initiative of the Confederation of Finnish Industries and the City of Helsinki, includes Alma Media, Forum Virium, Elisa, Helsingin seudun Kauppakamari, Kesko, Kiinteist-Tapiola, Lassila & Tikanoja, Lemminkinen, Logica, Martela, NCC, Nordea, Paulig, Siemens, Skanska, Sponda, Stockmann, VR Group, VVO and YIT. The president of the Climate Partners is Pekka Sauri, the Deputy Mayor of Helsinki, and the network is coordinated jointly by the City of Helsinki Environment Centre and Economic Development.

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Alma Media to join the city of Helsinki's climate covenant

I refer to the bill amending the Printing Presses and Publications Act 1984 tabled by the government in the Dewan Rakyat today. The amendments are minimal, superficial and will maintain the government's oppressive control of the mass media.

Under the new section 3(3), the power of the minister to grant and revoke or suspend newspaper licences is left untouched. Proper and functioning democracies do not impose licence requirements for the mass media. If the Prime Minister and the BN government are genuine about lifting restrictions on the press, why impose the licence requirement?

The only possible object of a media licence requirement is to enable the government to control the media. The licence requirement in section 3(3) is in clear breach of the lettter and spirit of Article 10(1)(a) of the Federal Constitution which guarantees freedom of speech and expression.

Minister can revoke anytime

To make things worse, section 3(3) allows the minister to revoke or suspend a newspaper licence at any time. This is the equivalent of a permanent threat hanging over the heads of newspaper owners and editors to toe the government line. There is thus no significant difference between the provisions of the old PPPA 1984 and the amended version.

Allowing judicial review is of little comfort to newspaper owners as it imposes upon them the onerous burden of taking the matter to court. This impedes the establishment and functioning of free media organizations. Further, the judiciary has consistently failed in defending or affirming fundamental rights such as press freedom.

Section 8A

We are also shocked and disappointed that the Prime Minister and the government have chosen not to remove the draconian section 8A of the PPPA which punishes the publication of false news. Section 8A is like a sword hanging over the head of printers, publishers, editors and writers, and has a chilling effect on press freedom.

The PPPA Amendment Bill 2012 is intended to maintain the government's harsh grip on newspapers, whilst pretending that Prime Minister Najib Razak is making good his promises of reform. We call upon the PM and his government to withdraw this amending bill, and instead repeal the PPPA 1984 in its entirety.

N SURENDRAN IS THE VICE PRESIDENT OF PARTI KEADILAN RAKYAT

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PPPA amendments cosmetic: BN retains its oppressive control of the media - Surendran

New Delhi, April 16:

Seeking the Centre's immediate attention for controlling social networking sites, the Rajasthan Chief Minister, Mr Ashok Gehlot, said on Monday that these companies should be asked to set up their servers in India.

Mr Gehlot drew the attention of those present at the Chief Ministers' Conference here, which included the Prime Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh, that communal elements had posted some comments on Facebook which resulted in communal tension in a region of his State.

Effective action was taken immediately against the miscreants, he said, and added that while his government complied with the idea of freedom of expression, it should not be misused by communal elements and needs to be dealt with all severity.

I would appreciate if these sites could develop a system which by itself prevents posting of material with communal and anti-national overtones, he said.

As the servers of these social networking sites are located outside the country, it becomes an arduous task to obtain any information related to such incidents.

I would suggest that the Government of India develop a system which can help in obtaining the information from these servers on real-time basis, or as an alternative making it mandatory for these companies to set up their servers in India, Mr Gehlot said.

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Social networking sites should set up servers in India: Gehlot

Former Facebook senior executive Dave Morin is co-founder of Path. (Joi Ito / April 16, 2012)

April 16, 2012, 4:49 p.m.

Social networking mobile app maker Path said Monday that it raised about $30 million from venture capital firms such as Greylock Partners and Redpoint Ventures and individual investors such as Virgin Groups Richard Branson and DST Globals Yuri Milner.

The investment values the San Francisco company at $250 million.

Path, which had previously raised $11.2 million, is the brainchild of former senior Facebook executive Dave Morin and Napster co-founder Shawn Fanning. Its riding the new wave of tech companies that are building for mobile, not the Web. Path has been compared to Instagram, which Facebook said last week it would buy for $1 billion. Instagram had more than 30 million users but no revenue.

Path, which has nearly 3 million users, is looking to connect people in more intimate ways than Facebook. It limits its users to 150 connections. The average user connects with 40.

The company, which is not profitable, will use the extra dough to double its staff, expand internationally and do more marketing. It plans to sell a premium version of its app.

Path has gotten into a few scrapes. In February it was discovered that Path stored users address books without their permission. The company apologized and changed its software.

Morin rejected a $125-million buyout offer from Google shortly after he launched Path.

"Our 'Path' has only just begun," Morin said.

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Mobile social networking app Path raises $30 million

Recruiters are increasingly turning to social networking sites to find the right job applicants and LinkedIn is leading the way over Twitter and Facebook.

LinkedIn, which is known as the 'professional network', leads the way, but Twitter and Facebook are underused and are expected to make up ground over 2012, says United States-based recruitment-platform provider Bullhorn Reach.

Bullhorn said LinkedIn was adopted much earlier for recruiting, which is why recruiters have smaller networks on Facebook and Twitter.

Bullhorn Reach provides specialist recruiting software that enables agency and corporate recruiters to better use social networking sites to find candidates for jobs.

Bullhorn said that recruiters were likely to increase their activity on social networking sites in 2012 as the world becomes even more connected through the big three social networks.

'Based on current data trends, recruiters could quadruple the size of their Twitter networks by the end of 2012 and potentially add approximately 1,000 connections to their LinkedIn networks,' Bullhorn said in its 2012 Social Recruiting Activity Report, which was published on Wednesday.

'Currently, Facebook has the least amount of network activity among agency and corporate recruiters.

'One would anticipate them to alter their strategies, going forward, to leverage the power of the largest social network - for example, employee referral programs.'

Bullhorn said it also expected that other social networks such as Google Plus would boost their efforts to grab a share of the recruiting space or develop strategies that attract certain segments of the professional population.

The Bullhorn report found that recruiters were connected to all three big social networks but were using LinkedIn and Twitter more than Facebook.

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Recruiters boosting social network use