Media makes Tamils pay dearly

Despite the military defeat of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), which waged an armed struggle for an independent Tamil state in Sri Lanka’s north-east, life for the Tamil minority remains one of oppression and suffering.

But for Australia’s media, still heady from “victory” celebrations in Colombo in late May, the world has moved on and another oppressed people have been left behind.

More here

Also ABCTV (Australia) recently apologised to the Tamil community for their misrepresentation of the history of Tamils within Sri Lanka.
Read more here

Glover Slams SMH Editor

When Sydney Morning Herald Editor Allen Oakley was interviewed by Richard Glover on his drive programme on ABC Sydney today, he must have surely known what was coming for him.

While Oakley tried haplessly to defend his own management, Glover exposed the explicit short term profiteering that Fairfax is clearly involved in. While Glover's column will appear in the SMH tomorrow, because he filed on tuesday and the section is already printed, he warned that if the dispute is still going, he will refuse to cross the digital picketline. Glover even warned Oakley that he was willing to be sacked with Mike Carlton, and every other columnist who is willing to make a stand in support of journalist rights.

The precedent of being able to sack columnists on the spot is a dangerous one. It allows companies to undersell the rights of all freelancers and, in this environment of increasing outsourcing, this is a fate we should all fight to avoid.

Listen to the interview here

Media Workers Protest Mass Sacking

Strking Workers at the Sydney Morning Herald, The Age, Newcastle Herald an the Illawarra Mercury, have today been joined by other journalists and members of the public in actions against Fairfax's mass sackings. In Sydney, the actions directly confronted Fairfax boss, David Kirk.

See a video of the action here

In other related news...

All papers have continued publication with the assistance of scab workers...

Mike Carlton has been sacked for refusing to submit his column for this Saturday's SMH. Fairfax management has decided that columnists can not strike. The Workplace ombudsman is currently investigating the case and a petition in support of Carlton can be signed here

Although AMWU print workers have promised to not cross any picket line, it is still uncertain whether picket lines will be set up to disrupt the production and delivery of the weekend newspapers.

There could be legal trouble ahead for the MEAA. This is due to the current workplace laws that make any strike taken without a secret ballot illegal.

Another industry set to suffer from the Fairfax fallout are in-house Media Law Professionals. This is despite the fact that outsourcing this work will cost more and will limit the flexibility to report, especialy on latebreaking news.

The campaign can be followed at http://www.fairgofairfax.org.au/
The facebook group can be accessed here

Fairfax Workers Strike Kicks Off

Fairfax media workers have not taken the attack on their industry lying down. Today workers, in newspapers like the Age, the Sydney Morning Herald and the Financial Review, have decided to strike until Monday.

Already this has resulted in a sharp fall in the Fairfax media share price. But the cost for the 550 workers, including a substential number of editorial positions, is clearly going to be a lot larger.

Regional Papers, like the Newcastle Herald and the Wollongong Mercury, are likely to proportionally be the hardest hit. It is perhaps a sign of the times ahead that today the Age and SMH featured stories from their respective cities zoos on their front page.

Media Crisis Hits Australia

One week after announcing a massive 47% rise in net profits, to $372 million; Fairfax Media (owner of The Age and Sydney Morning Herald) has sacked 550 employees across Australia and New Zealand.

The mass sackings included The Age's editor in chief, Andrew Jaspan. ABC Radio National's The Media Report has revealed that Jaspan had a "difference of opinion" with the management in Sydney. The sacking of Jaspan, who had served as editor for the last four years, has been seen by many as a first step in the further rationaliation of the newspaper.

Chris Warren, of the MEAA(Media, Entertainment and Arts Alliance), has remained tightlipped on the possibility of industrial action. Warren instead used the opportunity to play Fairfax off against the Murdoch press. The problem with this, is that it not only unnecessarily promotes the idea that the Murdoch press is actually any kind of bastion for journalism. But it also ignores the fact that change is not needed by any single entity, but to the whole media landscape if we are to not only survive, but thrive out of the current crisis.