Mediagazer: Are the U.S. media as transparent as the U.S. government? (Erik Wemple)

12:00 PM ET, January 1, 2014

Top News:

Defamation Act comes into force today with ‘serious harm’ now needed for claims to succeed — The long-awaited Defamation Act 2013 comes into force today bring sweeping changing to the law of libel. — The act introduces a “new serious harm threshold” designed to help people understand …

Discussion: Guardian, BBC, Financial Times, @johnston_press, OUPblog, Times Higher Education and Boing Boing

Reuters:

Egypt's top prosecutor detains Al Jazeera journalists for 15 days — Egypt's general prosecutor on Tuesday detained several journalists for 15 days for broadcasting graphics on the Qatar-based Al Jazeera channel that damaged the country's reputation. — Al Jazeera's Cairo offices …

Discussion: Business Standard, Globe and Mail, ABC and National Updates

Samer Al-Atrush / Agence France Presse:
Egypt holds Jazeera crew on ‘terror’ accusations

Discussion: New York Times, BBC, @sameralatrush, @sameralatrush, @sameralatrush and Sydney Morning Herald

Hugh Miles / BBC:
Why is Egypt's government targeting Al-Jazeera?

Discussion: @mlcalderone, @ambassadorpower and BuzzFeed

Capital:

Mossberg and Swisher relaunch as Re/Code — It's styled as and in a message to the anxiously awaiting crowds who wanted to see what Walt Mossberg and Kara Swisher did with AllThingsD when they migrated the franchise from The Wall Street Journal to NBC, they tell us: “While we think tech news is important …

Discussion: Gigaom, @recode, @allthingsd, @karaswisher, @waltmossberg, @joshelman, @mikeisaac, @hunterwalk, @waltmossberg, @kenli729, @karaswisher, @karaswisher and @hunterwalk

AllThingsD:
Walt Mossberg and Kara Swisher reflect on AllThingsD, tease new company launching January 2

Discussion: Recode, @jsnell, @startupljackson, @karaswisher, @ryan, @chernowa, @allthingsd, @jeffjohnroberts, @rosenthal, @waltmossberg, @engadget, @delrey, @scottcowley, @caseynewton and @benparr

Erik Wemple:

Are the U.S. media as transparent as the U.S. government? — Bob Schieffer of CBS News gave one of the great media quotes of 2013. He was asked by Leonard Downie Jr., the former executive editor of The Post, about how the Obama administration ranked in terms of openness toward the media.

Hadas Gold / Politico:

Could the N.Y. Times have saved ‘60 Minutes’? — The New York Times was partly responsible for taking down “60 Minutes” in November after its botched Benghazi segment, but it also could have saved the program had the Times run its exhaustive new report on the attacks in Benghazi when it was first ready this summer.

Discussion: Politico, BBC, San Francisco Chronicle, National Review, USA Today, Fox News, The Huffington Post, The Colorado Independent, The Huffington Post, The Week, Talking Points Memo and Mother Jones

Lucia Moses / Adweek:

Key metrics show Time.com lags behind competitors, despite significant traffic growth in 2013 — Will Time.com be Able to Catch up to Rivals? Ahead of redesign, a look at how the site stacks up By Lucia Moses — With its long-delayed redesign expected to go live in the next six weeks …

Discussion: @huffpostpartner

John Borland / Wired:

GlobaLeaks project powers key web sites underpinning the growing whistleblowing movement — Whistleblowing Rippling into New Corners — HAMBURG - Edward Snowden is on the run. Chelsea Manning is in prison. Julian Assange is in limbo, otherwise known as the Ecuadorian embassy in London

Discussion: @abditum and @wbpress

Susan Stellin / New York Times:

District Judge Upholds Government's Right to Search Electronics at Border — The government's right to search travelers' electronic devices at the border was upheld in a ruling released by a federal judge on Tuesday, which dismissed a lawsuit challenging this policy.

Discussion: ACLU, Associated Press, The Verge, @mikescarcella, @drrimmer, @nppalawyer, @donaldrwinslow, Engadget, The Huffington Post, RT, NPPA, Techdirt and Wired

Andrew Longstreth / Reuters:

Justice Department defends Apple monitor in e-books case — (Reuters) - A bitter battle between Apple Inc and a lawyer appointed to monitor its compliance with a court antitrust ruling escalated on Monday, as the U.S. government and the monitor both hit back at Apple.

Discussion: TheHill, CNET, Bloomberg, NDTV Gadgets, Wall Street Journal, AppleInsider, MacRumors and Wall Street Journal

Patrick Brzeski / Hollywood Reporter:

Chinese Search Giant Baidu Fined for Copyright Infringement — The crackdown comes as China tries to rid itself of the stigma of rampant piracy and establish a healthy Internet video market. — China's largest search engine, Baidu Inc., and Shenzhen-based technology firm QVOD …

Discussion: Zacks Investment Research and Investors.com

Joe Flint / Los Angeles Times:

Will DirecTV keep its Sunday Ticket football package or punt? — The satellite broadcaster's two-decade-long arrangement with the NFL has fueled its growth, but it's facing a hefty rate increase. — DirecTV pays $1 billion a season for the rights to all Sunday afternoon NFL games under …

Discussion: @jbflint

Rick Edmonds / Poynter:

For newspaper stocks, 2013 was a surprisingly good year — Despite yet another year of falling revenues, publicly traded newspaper companies saw their share prices rise sharply during 2013. — Yes, the overall market was strong — with the S&P index up 29.5 percent and the Dow Jones up 26.5 percent.

Discussion: @mariannmartin