The Tickle File is ftm's daily column of media news, complimenting the twice weekly feature articles on major media issues. Tickle File items point out media happenings, from the oh-so serious to the not-so serious, that should not escape notice...in a shorter, more informal format.

We are able to offer this new service thanks to the great response to our Media Sleuth project in which you, our readers, are contributing media information happening in your countries that  have escaped the notice of the international media, or you are providing us information on covered events that others simply didn't know about. We invite more of you to become Media Sleuths. For more information click here.

The Tickle File is a time honored journalistic tradition. Invented in 1761 by Urs Tickes, editor of a long disappeared Swiss newspaper, it is an effective tool for organizing article ideas.

To each journalist Tickes would hand 10 file folders saying "Halten Sie Ihre Ideen organisiert und Ihre Schreibtisch sauber, verdammt!"

Unfortunately Tickes met an unfortunate demise. While personally escorting a shipment of 10 million file folders from Sweden, the boat was sunk and all, including Tickes, was lost. Rumors of involvement by a militant Swiss journalists guild - Die organisierte Gesellschaft des Rechtgehirns, durcheinandergebrachte schweizer Journalisten - were never proven.

The legend of Tickes continues...

Here is the ftm Tickle File with notes from the ftm team...and you!

Tickle File Week of November 27, 2006

134 Journalists Imprisoned Globally, 49 Of Them Internet Journalists

The New York-based Committee To Protect Journalists (CPJ) says there are now 134 journalists imprisoned around the world, including two held by US military authorities. The worst offending nation is China with 31 imprisoned.

Bloggers and online reporters now make up one-third of those being held. “We’re at a crucial juncture in the fight for press freedom because authoritarian states have made the Internet a major front in their effort to control information,” CPJ said in a written statement.

Countries holding journalists are Algeria, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bangladesh, Burundi, Cambodia, China (31), Colombia, Cuba (24), Democratic Republic of Congo, Eritrea (23), Ethiopia (18), Gambia, Iran, Maldives, Mexico, Myanmar, Russia, Sri Lanka, Tunisia, Turkey, United States (in addition to the military prisoners a freelance blogger who refused to turn over video to a Grand Jury is also being held), Uzbekistan, and Vietnam.

Google to Provide Customer services for BSkyB under Sky’s Brand

Google has now started up a wholesale business – it has agreed to set up the UK’s BSkyB satellite broadcaster that recently introduced high-speed Internet with all the services such an operator should be providing to its customers. 

Google will provide Sky with a user-generated content site similar to YouTube that it recently bought for $1.65 billion. In addition Google will provide email facilities similar to gmail but with a Sky.com address. Google will also operate Internet search and search-linked advertising.

Google’s chief executive, Eric Schmidt, said he would like the Sky deal to be a framework for other similar deals around the globe.

EMarketer Says US Online Spending To Grow 30.8% This Year

EMarketer now says that the warning by Yahoo in September that its third quarter numbers would be down because of a drop in automotive and financial advertising did not affect the online advertising market as much as it thought it would, and it now predicts that total growth for the year will come in at 30.8% instead of the 26.8% it said in September.

Of the $16.4 billion now forecast, Google is predicted to capture 24.7% -- $4.05 billion. That’s more than the Internet income in China, Japan and the UK put together!

The Internet’s share of the total 2006 spend is estimated at 5.8%.

CME’s Garin “Confident”

Speaking to the NASDAQ London investors show, Central European Media Enterprises (CME) CEO Michael Garin held to company projections for 2006 and said the future for television in central and eastern Europe looks very good.

“We are very confident our revenues will double between four and five years and that our margins will slightly expand while we do that," he told investors.

“This will make CME one of the fastest-growing traditional media companies in the world.”

Notice anything missing in that statement? Mr. Garin is not jumping up and down about new media. Indeed, he’s basing CME’s growth on fundamentals: growing economies and advertising demand.

US Magazines Overtake Newspapers In Advertising Share

Magazines and newspapers have both had a rotten advertising year, but it looks like newspapers actually had a rougher time. According to a study by TNS Media Intelligence magazines garnered 19.8% of the US advertising spend for the first nine months of this year compared to 18.7% for newspapers.

That’s quite a drop for newspapers that last year, for the same period, had a 20% share of the spend compared to 19.7% for magazines.

Leading the pack is television that grabbed a 43.5% share compared to 43% last year.

The top advertiser remains Procter & Gamble with a spend of $2.46 billion, a 7% increase over same time last year.  Conspicuous by their drop in spend are General Motors, down 20.9% at $1.75 billion – still good enough for second place – and Daimler Chrysler, down 11.2% at $982 million.  Ford was up 12.2% at $1.19 billion, and Toyota was up 9.5% at $900 million.

Malaysian Bloggers Had Better Toe The Line

The Malaysian science and technology minister believes stricter Internet laws are necessary to prevent bloggers from “disseminating disharmony, chaos, seditious material and lies. We want our bloggers to be responsible."

Reporters Without Borders takes a dim view of that and in a statement said, "The government of Abdullah Badawi seems to want to impose on the Internet the same strict controls that it already applies to the press. Malaysian bloggers currently enjoy an outspokenness denied to journalists in the traditional media. It is vital for the country's democratic life that the Internet is not pushed into self-censorship."

On another media issue the prime minister has told Parliament in a written reply to a question from a Senator that the Internal Security Ministry is constantly in contact with media companies to ensure that their reports are not a threat to peace and national security.

Abdullah, who is also the Internal Security Minister, said the ministry usually advised, criticized or warned the media if they did not adhere to the ministry's guidelines. "If they continue with the same offenses, the ministry will issue a show-cause letter followed by suspension or cancellation of their licenses," he said. 

Murdoch, Malone Make Peace

In a complicated deal to keep the taxman at bay, News Corp is going to retire the 19% shareholding John Malone has in the company and in return Malone gets News Corporation’s 39% share in DirecTV.

News Corp had bought the DirecTV shares at $14 and with the shares closing Wednesday at $25.33 that’s a tidy $5 billion profit. 

The deal also means that with those Malone shares retired Murdoch increases his holdings in News Corp to 36%, and he is rid of a major irritation.

European Members Urge UN Security Council to Protect Journalists

Speaking for the UK, Denmark, Greece, Slovakia as well as France, French UN Ambassador Jean-Marc de la Sabliere introduced a resolution at the UN Security Council aimed at protecting journalists in war zones.

“It is very important that journalists can do their job independently and freely and are not attacked,” he said.

The resolution, if passed, would condemn hate radio, recently resurfacing in Ivory Coast.

Mrs Reding Unloads on Politicians

EC Info Society and Media Commissioner Viviane Reding has a rare brilliance within Brussels-world: not only seeing but pointing to the problem. Yesterdays’ venue was the ITU Telecoms World in Hong Kong and again Mrs Reding gave a reality check.

Choosing technical standards, she said, “should be left to businesses to find the business models that attract consumers to opt for the services they like best.”

And she added: “Competition and open markets drive investment and innovation, monopolies don’t.”

What a concept! Sadly, 192 national regulators removed her name from their Christmas card list.

Former OFCOM Chief Stephen Carter Takes PR Job

UK media wags were blinded by the dizzying fog; for months envisioning Stephen Carter, head of regulator OFCOM, as head of ITV. Barely a week after Michael Grade stole the show – as he is known to do – Mr. Carter announced that, yes indeed, he has constructive employment in the public relations field with the big-league (but smaller than ITV) Brunswick.

Widely credited for the near-faultless creation of the UK’s super media regulator three years on, Mr. Carter will be visiting Brunswick’s super media clients NTL, Reuters, EMI, SMG and Emap.

ITV could be shopping for a PR firm. Is its image so blighted among UK media wonks that a showman like Michael Grade was never suspected?

Spanish Language Media In US Doing Really Well

US newspaper ad revenue fell 2.7% through the first nine months of 2007, according to TNS Media Intelligence, but Spanish language newspapers improving by 9.4% over the same period last year. Their revenue, however, is only 1.3% of the total newspaper advertising pie. National newspapers saw a 3.7% increase but local newspapers were down 3.7%.

Overall television advertising revenue, helped particularly by the mid-term elections, were overall 5.2% above the same time last year with Spanish language stations also doing the best with a 19.1% increase.

Magazines rose 4.5% and Spanish language magazines did the best there, too, with a 9.6% increase.

Spot a trend?

Spanish Supreme Court Rejects US Military’s Version Of That Infamous Attack on Baghdad’s Palestine Hotel

It was one of the most infamous events of the US military’s move into Baghdad. Military commanders knew the foreign media were based in the Palestine Hotel, but had they passed on the word to the troops on the ground?  A tank crew, from across the river, claimed they were taking incoming fire from the hotel and fired back. And two journalists lay dead.

One was a Ukrainian working as a Reuters television cameraman and the other, Jose Couso, was Spanish.

Reuters raised all kinds of hell with the Pentagon but at the end of the day the US cleared its soldiers of any blame.

The Couso family looked for justice through the Spanish court system. The family wanted the three soldiers in the tank extradited to Spain to stand trial. A lower court said no. But a successful appeal to the Supreme Court has thrown the matter wide open with the court saying that it would be justified to extradite the three American soldiers to Spain.

Now It’s The Koreans Trying To Restrict Foreign News Agency Distribution

South Korean state-owned news agency Yonhap is trying to persuade the government it should be the sole distributor in the country of foreign news agency information, an action similar to one taken in China this year by Xinhua.

Main difference, of course, is that South Korea is supposed to be a democracy – freedom of the press and all that!

And the World Association of Newspapers (WAN) that held its annual Congress in Seoul last year, isn’t too happy about Yonhap’s attempts at Fair Trade Agreement talks that it should have back its monopoly it once held.   “We believe that to reinstitute the Yonhap monopoly on news agency distribution would be a significant blow to press freedom in Korea,” WAN wrote to Myung-Gon Kim, Minister of Culture and Tourism, the ministry that oversees Yonhap.

“It simply is not acceptable in a modern democracy and a free market to deprive media of their right to receive international news from any source they wish to choose.” WAN wrote.

France 24 Debuts

Four years after French President Jacques Chirac demanded a French voice in international media, France 24 takes to the air this week. The actual launch will be on the internet Wednesday evening, followed Thursday by satellite transmission.

The “world through French eyes” will be presented in French and English on duel channels part of the day. “Most of our target audience speaks English,” said Channel President Alain de Pouzilhac.

Australia’s Media Madness Continues As Seven Network Now Buys Into John Fairfax

Seven Network, owned by Kerry Stokes, has taken a less than 5% stake in John Fairfax Holdings just a few weeks after News Corp. bought a 7.5% holding in the company that is News Corp’s biggest competitor in Australia. At the time Rupert Murdoch said the purchase was made to block any John Fairfax takeover bid and he would increase his stake to 10% if necessary.

Seven already owns 14.9% of West Australian Newspapers.

The Australian media scene has been in a financial frenzy since Australia’s Parliament passed new media laws in October loosening ownership restrictions. The government has not said when the new laws will actually take effect but it is expected to be some time in early 2007. Meanwhile Australian media moguls are angling for the best positions for once the law takes effect.

Danish Journalists Found Not Guilty Of Printing Intelligence Secrets

The City Court in Copenhagen acquitted three journalists Monday of having printed in 2004 secret Danish intelligence reports suggesting that Iraq did not possess weapons of mass destruction.

The editor-in-chief of Berlingske Tidende and two reporters were charged with printing articles based on leaked documents from the Danish Defense Intelligence Service. The operative who actually leaked the documents had already been sentenced to six months in prison, reduced to four months by an appeals court.  If found the guilty the journalists could have received prison sentences ranging from six months to two years.

“This verdict is a victory for press freedom, for the public interest and for the media’s role as watchdog over governments and their agencies,” said Timothy Balding, CEO of the World Association of Newspapers. “We hope other countries that are using secrecy laws to prevent embarrassing disclosures take note of the Danish decision and stop harassing journalists.”

The New WSJ Will Be Free On Launch Day

Dow Jones figures the best way to have people try out their new, narrower, Wall Street Journal which hits the newsstands Jan.2 is to give it away for the day. And so readers can really tell how the paper interacts with the web site, wsj.com will be free that day, too.

The Journal is reducing its width size by about one column  -- it couldn’t bring itself to go tabloid as it did in Europe and Asia. On an editorial basis it says it is gong to concentrate more on analysis rather than regurgitating yesterday’s news.

The narrowing of the paper is to save on newsprint costs. In another savings ploy, the Journal has closed its Canada bureaus with six staffers losing their jobs.

MySpace In MyChina?

News Corp is looking to extend the MySpace franchise to China, and it looks like Rupert Murdoch’s wife, Wendy Dong, may take her first step into News Corp. business by sitting on the board of the new venture.

MySpace US growth is slowing so the web site is actively boosting its international business, already setting up versions in the UK, Ireland, Australia, Germany, France and Japan. Of its 80 million unique visitors in October, one-third came from outside the US.

Mrs. Murdoch, born in China, first met her future husband when she was a junior executive  at Hong Kong’s Star TV, owned by News Corp.

Forbes’ December Russian Edition Hits The Newsstands. It Almost Didn’t

There has been so much talk about freedom of the Russian press that it was refreshing to see how a foreign owned print publication would handle local pressure. In the case of the American business magazine’s Russian edition, licensed by Axel Springer, it has to be said Springer hasn’t come out of this looking particularly brave.

The magazine had a cover story on Yelena Baturina, the billionaire wife of Moscow Mayor Yury Luzhkov. She just happens to be in the construction business. He just happens to be in the business of handing out city construction contracts, but enough of that. She is well known for litigation against stories she doesn’t like. On the cover Forbes ran a very nice picture  of Yelena standing with her hands crossed in front of her, as so many successful people seem to pose these days, but there was a quote that said, “I am guaranteed protection.”

Well, it turned out that quote wasn’t really quite right and had been taken out of context and somehow  her company had a copy of everything before distribution and she threatened to sue. So Axel Springer’s immediate reaction was to pull the issue. (If someone showed that a quote on the cover of Der Spiegel was inaccurate would Springer pull that magazine in Germany, one wonders?)

To cut the long story short, the Forbes Russia editor threatened to resign, Forbes in The US insisted the publication go forward, the quote was corrected to what she actually said --  “Like any investor, the protection of my rights is guaranteed” and the cover therefore changed to “As an investor I am guaranteed protection” – and the issue hit the newsstand.

But there are many who question the way Springer reacted to all of this. It said in its original statement that there had been violations of “the principles of  journalistic ethics.”  Not that that happens at all with Der Spiegel or Bild  and do those publications ever fail to hit the newsstand on time?

China Eases Foreign Correspondent Restrictions

From January 1, 2007 foreign correspondents in China can travel anywhere and interview anyone without getting government permission beforehand. It’s part of the government’s promise of few international journalist restrictions as the world’s media descends onto Beijing for the 2008 Olympic Games.

But after the Olympics are history, so, too, will be the easing of those restrictions. The rules end in mid October 2008, and then it is back to permission needed as usual, unless the government sees that such freedoms weren’t so bad after all.

Indonesia Going Digital – Why Aren’t You?

Digital broadcasting trials are in progress said Indonesia’s Minister of communications and Information Sofyan Djalil at the IBEX conference in Bali. An IBOC (HD) trial has been completed and DAB trial has been scheduled for this month. DMB-T and DVB-T testing is also underway.

"The migration process to digital broadcasting that Indonesia has tried to implement now is urgently needed since analog technology is dying," said Asia Pacific Broadcast Union Secretary General David Astley.

After China, Indonesia is the Asia-Pacific regions largest broadcast market.

German Public Broadcasters Shift Bosses

New General directors at German public broadcasters Südwestrundfunk (SWR) and Westdeutscher Rundfunk (WDR) are choosing decorations for big corner offices. SWR picked lawyer Peter Boudgoust to replace retiring Peter Voss.

Voss called Boudgoust “the right man and the right time.” The transition will be completed by May 2007.

Monika Piel was recently named to succeed Fritz Pleitgen at WDR, who has taken up the challenge as European Broadcasting Union president.

More Pressure on Broadcaster in Ukraine

Recent changes in Ukraine’s media ownership laws have forced the American owner of Gala Radio to register the company in a different name.

“The regulation was designed specifically for Gala Radio,” said US ex-pat Joseph Lemire in an interview with Kyiv Post.

The new media rules prohibit a “foreign founder” from owning more than 30%, according to the article. Lemire says he wasn’t the founder but, rather, bought the station more than a decade ago. Lemire also charged that Ukraine media owners supporting President Viktor Yushchenko, he of Orange Revolution fame, have influenced decisions by the National Television and Radio Broadcasting Council.

Previous disagreements between Gala Radio and the Ukraine government have been resolved at the highest US-Ukraine diplomatic levels.