Peter Bale - curated media, journalism, news - Nobel for journalism; Facebook; objectivity; and more
I admired and totally understood the Muratov dedicated the prize to the six journalists from his paper, murdered in Russia. Remember how this happens: Anna Politkovskaya was shot (having been poisoned sometime before on her way to cover Beslan) on Putin's birthday.
I consider Maria Ressa a friend, former colleague, and totally courageous. She is an inspiration to me and a common friend once dissuaded me from making a mistaken job choice by the threat: "What would Maria say?" I was overwhelmed by her honour and admire Muratov as well of course.
I don't really join the criticism of Facebook (yes, I have done work for them but it is more because the problem is us humans, not necessarily Facebook) but Maria has been subjected to appalling treatment by Duterte and his minions and Facebook should have done far more to combat it. She has endured the most horrid sexual threats and shouldn't have to.
What a cynical bastard Duterte is, using Maria's honour as a way to troll her. He and his acolytes have been at the centre if vicious, immoral, attempts to jail and silence her and potentially much worse.
Worth reading the detail on this extraordinary recognition of two journalists who in a sense represent the entire industry -- the good bits.
Renee is one of the cleverest analysts of the tidal wave of disinformation across the Internet and many platforms -- not just Facebook -- and this is a great analysis of how a hashtag can generate its own momentum from the right and the left simultaneously in a weird correlation.
Subtle but important about the ongoing debate (slightly inside baseball but also significant to readers as well as journalists). I still veer, in a slightly old-fashioned way, towards the objectivity argument but with the overlay of a judgment about "fairness". I also dislike the blending of commentary and reporting and beat reporters doing opinion.
Well, there is a logic to this since much of it might have been read on Facebook and if it's not there and people want it, people may seek out the original source.
This is a natural reaction to a PR disaster of this magnitude and I saw some of this at moments when Microsoft was in the frame and criticised. However, it is clear that Facebook is going to try to protect Mark Zuckerberg more and it is extraordinary how quiet Sheryl Sandberg has been, also how little we know of why advertising boss Carolyn Everson left.
Kind of more of the same but it is good on the way Facebook is trying to manage this. I suspect Clegg is way out of his depth.