Mediagazer: European VOD Service Viewster Kicks Off $100,000 Online Film Competition (Scott Roxborough/Hollywood Reporter)

1:55 PM ET, March 14, 2014

Top News:

Rosie Gray / BuzzFeed:

An inside look at what it's like to work at Russia Today, the Kremlin-funded media outlet — How The Truth Is Made At Russia Today — “It was my first job and I feel embarrassed and ashamed.” An inside look at what it's like to work at the Kremlin-funded media outlet.

Discussion: @coalsonr, @mbk_center, @joshuafoust, @billbrowder, @anowrt, @intelwire, @peterlauria3, @buzzfeedben, @thegoldfarb and @rosiegray

David Remnick / The New Yorker Blog:
Putin Moves Against the Press

Max Seddon / BuzzFeed:
Russia Wipes Opposition Sites From The Internet

Discussion: Columbia Journalism Review, @kasparov63, Daily Dot, Gigaom, @jeremyduns, Softpedia News, CNET, TechCrunch, Global Voices, Reporters Without Borders, @miriamelder and Committee to Protect …

Reuters:

Comcast deal may offer media companies leverage on fees — (Reuters) - Media companies plan to press Comcast Corp for higher fees in the coming year, seeing an opportunity to squeeze better terms from the U.S. cable company as regulators review its planned takeover of Time Warner Cable Inc.

David Gelles / New York Times: Charter Still Hanging Around Time Warner Cable

Bloomberg:

Jennifer Lopez-Backed NuvoTV Said to Make Offer for Fuse — Jennifer Lopez, the singer and actress who dated Sean “Diddy” Combs more than a decade ago, is now challenging her former beau as the two compete for Madison Square Garden Co.'s Fuse TV, people with knowledge of the matter said.

Discussion: Reuters, Mediawire Daily, TheCelebrityCafe.com, The Boombox, @sfnick and EURweb

Sarah Harrison / Guardian:

Britain is treating journalists as terrorists - believe me, I know — My links to WikiLeaks and Edward Snowden mean I am treated as a threat and can't return to the UK. We need a free speech roadmap — Free speech and freedom of the press are under attack in the UK.

Discussion: @dangillmor and @higgis

Reuters:

Russia accuses U.S. of discrimination against Russian journalists — (Reuters) - Russia accused the United States on Friday of unacceptable discrimination against Russian journalists by barring them from a news conference given by President Barack Obama and Ukraine's prime minister.

Discussion: RTÉ, Stuff.co.nz, Worldcrunch, The Huffington Post and ITAR-TASS

Roy Greenslade / Guardian:

Newspaper ill-advised to let police post their own online story — A newspaper that allowed its local police force to publish an article directly on to its website should be wary of celebrating the initiative. — Torbay police posted a “story” on the site of the Torquay Herald Express …

Discussion: HoldTheFrontPage and @gazthejourno

New York Times:

Questions About News Photographers in Syria Arise After Freelancer's Death — Late last December, Ahmad Barakat, a tailor turned rebel commander in Aleppo, Syria, buried two sons who died together during a battle with Syrian government troops. The elder son, Mustafa, fought for the Tawhid rebels.

Discussion: Poynter, @philgreaves01, @jswatz, @donaldrwinslow, Corey Pein and Foreign Policy

Michael Calderone / The Huffington Post:

Vice News Quickly Makes Mark With Ukraine Dispatches — NEW YORK — Vice News correspondent Simon Ostrovsky has reported extensively through Central Asia, the Middle East and the Caucasus region, but says he's never encountered as much hostility as he has covering the Russian invasion of Crimea.

Discussion: NY Daily News

Scott Roxborough / Hollywood Reporter:

What a German Comedy Can Teach Kristen Bell About Crowdfunding — After three weeks near the top of the German box office, “Stromberg” is set to pay back online fans who invested $1.4 million to get it made. — Kirsten Bell's Veronica Mars reboot is set to light up the box office …

Scott Roxborough / Hollywood Reporter:

European VOD Service Viewster Kicks Off $100,000 Online Film Competition — Users can vote on the 84 shorts and features submitted to the first annual Viewster Online Film Fest. — European VOD service Viewster has launched its first-ever online film festival, putting up $100,000 …

D.B. Hebbard / Talking New Media:

New UK study finds young people less enthusiastic about eBooks, many still do not own a tablet — The youth insights consultancy Voxburner released a new report on digital content buying habits in which the firm sought to discover more information about the eBook reading habits of young people in the UK.

Discussion: Voxburner and econtentmag.com

Todd Spangler / Variety:

IMDbPromo.com, Which Claimed to Boost Star Rankings on IMDb, Shuts Down — IMDbPromo.com, a service that promised to boost individual STARmeter rankings in the IMDbPro database for upwards of $999, said it has pulled the plug on the service at IMDb's behest.

Discussion: Herald de Paris, Cinema Blend and filmindustrynetwork.biz

Noor Zainab Hussain / Reuters:

British publisher Future's shares slump on profit warning — (Reuters) - British publisher Future Plc warned on Friday that its profit this year would be “significantly below” market expectations, sending its shares tumbling as much as 35 percent. — Future, whose titles include Total Film …

Discussion: Reuters, Life Style Extra and Talking New Media

Kate Knibbs / Daily Dot:

BuzzFeed aggregation of tweets about sexual assault raises questions about ethics of embedding — The ethics of embedding tweets — Christina Fox, a prolific Twitter user under the name @steenfox, posed a question to her followers: What were you wearing when you were sexually assaulted?