Mediagazer: The PIRATE Act, passed by the House, would increase the amount and kinds of fines faced by pirate radios, which often service unrepresented local communities (The Verge)

8:05 AM ET, December 2, 2019

Top News:

BBC:

Malta's Prime Minister Joseph Muscat says he will resign in January, after coming under pressure for his handling of the murder of Daphne Caruana Galizia — Maltese Prime Minister Joseph Muscat has announced on national TV that he will step down in the new year, amid a crisis over a murdered journalist.

Discussion: The Guardian, Press Gazette, @jamesrbuk, The Daphne Caruana …, @arun_ram, @lotteleicht1, @breesanna, Reuters and The Week

Juliette Garside / The Guardian:

Prosecutors in Malta have charged Yorgen Fenech, a prominent businessman in the country, with complicity in the murder of journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia — Yorgen Fenech entered not guilty plea to charges relating to killing of Daphne Caruana Galizia — A businessman has been charged …

Discussion: @adancabdulle, @stephengrey, @dbfamilylaw, @kleptocracyintv, Politico, Associated Press, Globe and Mail, The Sunday Times, The Malta Independent, Reuters, Independent.ie, Metro.co.uk, The Independent, CNN and BBC

Stephen Grey / Reuters:

Source: confession of man charged in murder case of Maltese journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia details how it was carried out and that killers were paid $150K — VALLETTA (Reuters) - One day in the summer of 2017, Vince Muscat dropped his friend Alfred Degiorgio at the Busy Bee …

Discussion: @reuters, @corinne_vella, @reuters, @ava_l_, @ivanmartin89, @stephengrey, @reuters and Politico

Ethan Zuckerman / Columbia Journalism Review:

Imagining a better web, using the history of radio globally as a guide, and rethinking assumptions about the commercial internet's venture capital-backed rise — What would social media look like if it served the public interest? — Over the course of a few short years, a technological revolution shook the world.

Discussion: @medialab, @mau_mejiag, @thorntonaustin, @librarieseu, Scott Lamb's i18n and The Guardian

Lesley Stahl / CBS News:

Susan Wojcicki on YouTube's stance on political ads, hate speech, conspiracy theories, and if it should be morally responsible for the content it recommends — YouTube's mission is to give everyone a voice, but the site's open platform has opened the door to hate.

Discussion: Business Insider, @rationaldis, @hunterwalk, @hshaban, @lutherlowe, @nickmartin and @slpng_giants, more at Techmeme »

Charlotte Tobitt / Press Gazette:

Chairman of UK's News Media Association calls on political parties to end the practice of mimicking local newspapers with their election campaign material — News UK chief operating officer David Dinsmore has backed the call for political parties to “immediately end” the practice …

Jim Waterson / The Guardian:

UK's Liberal Democrats suspend a senior member of their campaign after he forged an email while demanding retraction of a story by the website openDemocracy — Party had sought retraction of journalist's story about alleged sale of voter data — The Liberal Democrats have suspended …

Discussion: @shutupandrosky and @dawnhfoster

The Verge:

The PIRATE Act, passed by the House, would increase the amount and kinds of fines faced by pirate radios, which often service unrepresented local communities — When she was growing up in East Flatbush among the Haitian diaspora, former pirate broadcaster Joan Martinez …

Reuters:

Facebook complies with Singapore's fake news law and adds a label that is visible to local users, under the users' post, saying the post contains false info — SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Facebook (FB.O) said on Saturday it had issued a correction notice on a user's post at the request …

Discussion: Bloomberg, Guerre di Rete, Engadget, euronews, The Straits Times and Wall Street Journal, more at Techmeme »

Joshua Green / Bloomberg:

A look at Courier Newsroom, which is raising $25M and aims to counter right-wing spin via digital “hometown” newspapers with articles targeted to sway voters — In the days after the White House released a readout of Donald Trump's July 25 phone call with the president of Ukraine …

Discussion: @davidfickling, @brendannyhan, @losowsky and @timcast

Bloomberg:

Sources: Indian billionaire Mukesh Ambani is in talks to sell his news media assets, including Network18, to India's Times Group — - Sony already in talks to buy Network18 entertainment stake — Billionaire Mukesh Ambani is in talks to sell his news media assets to India's Times Group …

Discussion: MediaNama, @bloombergquint and @riarevealed

Reuters:

China's new rules, effective Jan. 1, require videos created using AI or VR tech to be clearly marked, make distribution of deepfakes a possible criminal offense — BEIJING/SHANGHAI (Reuters) - Chinese regulators have announced new rules governing video and audio content online …

Discussion: VentureBeat, The Verge and South China Morning Post, more at Techmeme »

Graig Graziosi / Columbia Journalism Review:

A long look at the last days of The Vindicator in Youngstown, OH, and how its closure mirrored the closing of the town's GM auto plant and Rust Belt decline — WHEN THE VINDICATOR DIED, I knew it meant I'd have to leave my hometown. Again. — The shuttering of Youngstown …

Discussion: @spj_tweets, @graiggraziosi and @cjr