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Tunis (Reuters) - Tunisian journalists went on strike on Wednesday, piling pressure on the Islamist government they accuse of restricting freedom of speech after a revolt toppled the country's autocratic leader last year.

Tunisia's once-staid media has enjoyed a new lease of life since the removal of Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali, but activists say the government, led by the moderate Islamist Ennahda party, is now seeking to impose new controls.

The strike, which also involved staff at state-run televisions and news agency TAP, was called by the 1,200-member journalists' union and is the first ever staged in Tunisia.

"The first general strike (by Tunisian media) aims to defend press freedom after we have exhausted the channels of dialogue with the government," the union said in a statement.

Journalists had in the past year demonstrated outside the office of the prime minister to demand an end to restrictions on media freedoms after the appointment of government officials and editors to state television positions.

The government has repeatedly denied accusations it is seeking to stifle the media.

Radio channels broadcast programmes about the strike, limiting news bulletins to just the headlines. The union plans to stage a rally later on Wednesday and newspapers are expected to be off the stands on Thursday.

Earlier this week, U.S.-based Human Rights Watch accused the government of failing to crack down on Islamist violence against advocates of secularism including journalists and artists.

"It's a shame that journalists continue to suffer from interferences in their work after the revolution," union member Ziad Hani told Reuters. "The government is trying to sow a climate of fear among journalists through beatings or jail".

"We will not allow a return to the pre-January 14 (revolt) era," Hani added.

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Tunisian journalists go on strike to protest Islamist control

HONG KONG (Reuters) - Next Media Ltd, controlled by Hong Kong media mogul Jimmy Lai, will sell its Taiwan newspaper, magazine and television assets to Chinatrust Financial's former vice-chairman Jeffrey Koo Jr for NT$17.5 billion ($600 million).

Koo has entered into an agreement to buy the assets, including Next Magazine and Apple Daily, the company said in a statement on the Hong Kong stock exchange.

Next Media has agreed to a 3-year undertaking under which the company and chairman Lai will not own or control any firm in the Taiwanese print media or television markets, the firm said.

"The possible transaction allows the company to rationalize and focus its resources on the group's operations in Hong Kong and also in further developing its digital content-related businesses", Next Media said in a statement.

The company has terminated an earlier memorandum of understanding with another potential buyer, Lien Tai-sheng, regarding the sale of its TV division in Taiwan, it added.

The move comes weeks after Lai said he was selling his Taiwanese television business - which is best known for its animated takes on political and celebrity scandals - as a result of financial losses.

Next Animations won global exposure when its take on golfer Tiger Woods' troubles was widely viewed on YouTube in 2010.

Lai is persona non grata in China, from where he fled at the age of 12 and was smuggled by boat into Hong Kong.

Shares in Next Media, which last closed on Monday at HK$1.12, were due to resume trade on Thursday. The stock is up nearly 65 percent so far this year, outpacing a 16 percent gain in the benchmark Hang Seng Index.

($1 = 7.7512 Hong Kong dollars)

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Next Media to sell Taiwan print, TV business for $600 million

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Posted 17 October 2012 14:32pm by Graham Charlton with 0 comments

IdeaPlane is a startup that brings enterprise social networking to companies in regulated industries, such as finance, that might otherwise have been reticent about embracing social technologies.

I caught up with CEO and founder James Fabricant, himself a former executive at MySpace, to find out more about his vision for the company and the future of the industry.

Built in partnership with one of the worlds biggest investment banks, IdeaPlane is an enterprise social network that provides the best of both worlds: easy-to-use social tools combined with enterprise-grade security, compliance and privacy controls.

I truly believe that enterprise social networking (ESN) can aid collaboration and knowledge sharing among employees in the financial sector and in regulated companies such as law firms.

While ESNs are catching on quickly in many kinds of businesses, improving internal collaboration, it has been difficult for companies in regulated industries to tap into this trend because of concerns over security, compliance and privacy controls. Until now.

We launched about two years ago. As a former MySpace International executive, I experienced first-hand the power of social networking. However, I was always intrigued to find out how this power could be harnessed in a business environment.

Nowadays most of us use social tools regularly, whether its LinkedIn for professional networking or Facebook for socialising with friends. But the use case for businesses has never been entirely clear.

The company is privately funded at the moment; we have a number of high profile investors such as Kevin Eyres and Clare Flynn Levy are currently looking to complete a first major funding round.

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Start Me Up! A profile of IdeaPlane

London, Oct 17 (ANI): Social networking giant Facebook has turned off its controversial facial recognition feature for users across Europe.

The tool took biometric information provided when users tag friends' faces in photos to make suggestions on the correct tags for future images.

Facebook was criticised when it introduced the feature last June without formally announcing its arrival on the site.

Privacy campaigners were particularly disturbed since Facebook allows photographs to be published on its site without the express permission, or even knowledge of those pictured, the Daily Mail reports.

According to the paper, the removal of the feature and the forced deletion of all the biometric data will be a major blow to the company, which is facing demands to find new ways to convert its vast hoard users' personal information into cash.

Facebook announced last month that it would suspend the feature across Europe and erase all the biometric facial-recognition data it has collected thus far from users on the continent by October 15.

According to the paper, the move followed a review by Facebook Ireland of the degree to which the social networking site had implemented recommendations made in an audit of the social networking site by the Irish Data Protection Commission last December. (ANI)

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Facebook turns off automatic facial recognition feature for European users

Wednesday 17 October 2012

AN airline is to base a fourth plane at a Scottish airport, creating 50 jobs.

AN airline is to base a fourth plane at a Scottish airport, creating 50 jobs.

Jet2.com is launching three new routes from Glasgow Airport next summer, to Murcia in Spain, Pula in Croatia and Menorca.

It will be the first time Murcia and Pula are served from Glasgow Airport.

There will also be more flights to the Canaries, Majorca, Ibiza and Turkey, with overall capacity next summer 20% up on 2012.

Jet2holidays managing director Steve Heapy said: "Glasgow is an important base for us, and as we enter our third year, we are delighted to announce more new destinations our customers want.

"Local holidaymakers have been requesting services to Menorca, Murcia and Pula and we are happy to be offering these amazing destinations for 2013.

"We recently announced Bodrum and Gran Canaria, which are also new for next year, meaning passengers have even more fantastic holiday options direct from Glasgow Airport."

Flights to Murcia will depart every Monday and Friday from May 24 next year, while weekly flights to Pula will start on June 18. Weekly flights to Menorca will start on May 25, 2013.

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Airline to create 50 job at Scots airport