Uk sailors released bvy Iran
The Listening Post

Tehran v London

Plus a blogger fights for his journalistic principles and ‘G bombing’.

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The newly-freed British sailors after their release
The capture and release of British sailors and marines has dominated international headlines. 

The story has played out on a media battlefield with pictures and words used as diplomatic weapons and it has typified the divide in the nature of reporting between the East and the West.

Were they captives or hostages, pawns or players? And who or what were the winners and losers?

In Our Global Village Voices this week we discuss the Iran situation and include Jackie Mason, comedian and author of Schmucks, vlogging about the media coverage of this week’s news divide.

 
There is a feature on US citizen journalist Josh Wolf who was released from prison this week. In 2005 he filmed an altercation between police and protestors at a protest in San Francisco. The police demanded he hand over the video and give testimony – Wolf refused, citing a law designed to protect journalists, but the court ruled against him.

The episode has begun a re-evaluation of the term ‘Citizen Journalist’ and started a battle for bloggers to claim professional status and the legal protection that goes with it.

In newsbytes this week, global measures to reign in cyberspace – Jimmy Wales, the founder of Wikipedia, presents a plan for a code of conduct amongst bloggers. 

Malaysian authorities toy with the idea of blogger registration and the Thai government takes exception to Youtube after a video is posted including images that insult their king.

Google bombing is our second feature. The phenomenon, also called link bombing, and the G bomb, is a way of skewing search engine results – its uses are varied.

The most famous Google bomb was “Miserable Failure”: when typed into a search engine the top result was the biography page of George W Bush, on the White House web site.

This year Google has tried to clamp down on the phenomenon. However, this link bomb still works on other search engines and other Google bombs still work on Google. 

And Finally, Sweden’s bottomless vault of musical talent continues to amaze. First Abba and The Hives, now Johan Soderberg. His version of Diana Ross and Lionel Richie’s Endless Love sees Bush and Blair in place of the original recording artists and this cartoon romance is our video of the week.

 
Watch this episode of The Listening Post here:
 
Part One:

 
Part Two:
 

This episode of The Listening Post aired from 13 April 2007

 
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Published On 15 Aug 2007