For the Record

Songwriters Association Files Spotify FTC Complaint:

The National Music Publishers’ Association (a trade organization that represents songwriters and music publishers) "filed a complaint with the US Federal Trade Commission on Wednesday about Spotify Technology SA's decision to provide audiobooks to subscribers, which resulted in reduced royalty payments to songwriters," according to Ashley Carman of Bloomberg. "The audiobooks addition gave Spotify leeway to reclassify its premium subscription offering as a 'bundle,'" Carman added. "Under a complicated system set by the US Copyright Royalty Board, that qualifies Spotify to pay a discounted rate to songwriters since it's now paying for the licensing of books and music under the same subscription price." Furthermore, the NMPA "alleges in its complaint that the bundle is unlawful since subscribers were automatically rolled in, with no option to remain on a music-only tier, which doesn’t yet exist in the US. [...] Payments to songwriters could drop by around $150 million over the next year as a result." In a letter to FTC Chair Lina Khan (an influential legal scholar in the antitrust-oriented New Brandeis movement), the group contended that the "bait-and-switch subscription scheme is 'saddling' shoppers with recurring payments for products and services they did not intend to purchase or did not want to continue to purchase, [costing] consumers millions of dollars, [undermining] the music royalty system, and [harming] competition." The complaint also was forwarded to potentially amenable attorneys general in the key loci of the American music industry (including New York, Tennessee, California and Illinois) alongside several consumer advocacy organizations. "We notify users a month in advance of any price increases and offer easy cancellations as well as multiple plans for users to consider," a Spotify spokesperson said in response to the complaint. "In short, we categorically reject the NMPA's baseless accusations." The complaint follows a similar lawsuit against the digital platform from the Mechanical Licensing Collective, which functions as a "royalty collection service," according to Carman. In addition, the NMPA "sent a cease-and-desist letter last month over products it claims are infringing on songwriters' copyrights," including music videos, lyric readers and podcasts. "Before Spotify’s 'bundling' betrayal, we may have been able to work together to fix this problem, but they have chosen the hard road by coming after songwriters once again," said David Israelite, the NMPA's chief executive officer of the NMPA, in a statement last month. At the time, Spotify characterized the letter as a "press stunt filled with false and misleading claims."

Vietnam Confirms Arrest of Prominent Dissident Journalist:

The Vietnamese government "announced Friday that they have charged prominent journalist and historian Truong Huy San with violating a national security law because of writing he had posted on Facebook, the website of the newspaper Tuoi Tre and other state media reported," according to Grant Peck of The Associated Press. The Security Investigation Agency of the Ministry of Public Security said that Sam, who frequently publishes under the pseudonym of Huy Duc, "was charged with 'abusing the rights of freedom and democracy to infringe upon the interests of the State, the rights and legitimate interests of organizations and individuals.'" Attorney Tran Dinh Trien also was "charged under the same Article 331 of the Penal Code, according to the reports, which said both men were ordered detained for prosecution and that security officials were to carry out searches of their workplaces and homes." Trien, who previously served as an official with the Hanoi Bar Association, also was arrested for "commentary about the government that he had posted on Facebook," although it remains unclear if their cases are related. In a statement, The 88 Project (a group that supports free speech in Vietnam) said that San's arrest "represents an alarming attack on freedom of the press and is the latest in an ongoing crackdown on reformers." Allies determined that San had been arrested after he failed to show up at a public appearance in Hanoi on June 1. Thereafter, content on his Facebook page (followed by more than 350,000 accounts) "disappeared on June 2 with no explanation," according to Peck. Prior to his arrest, San "had posted writing critical of the government led by Communist Party Secretary General Nguyen Phu Trong, who has been shaking up the country’s top leadership as part of an ongoing anti-corruption campaign. [...] Late last month, Public Security Minister To Lam was promoted to become president, after his predecessor resigned, in what some analysts believe was part of a series of shakeups related to who may eventually become the new party general secretary, succeeding the 80-year-old Trong, who is expected to relinquish the post by 2026." Recently, the 2024 World Press Freedom Index (disseminated by Reporters Without Borders) "[ranked] Vietnam at an abysmal 174th out of 180 countries and territories," Peck wrote, while the Committee to Protect Journalists has characterized Vietnam as "the fifth worst jailer of journalists worldwide." Along with PEN America, both organizations have called for San's release. "The articles of independent journalist Huy Duc are an invaluable source of information enabling the Vietnamese public to access censored information by the Hanoi regime," Cédric Alviani, Asia-Pacific Bureau director of Reporters Without Borders, said amid San's arrest. "We call on the Vietnamese authorities to immediately release this journalist and to reinstall his Facebook page."

Nguyen: First National Book Awards Offer 'Mixed Record':

In the first installment of a Washington Post "series of essays by National Book Award-honored authors who will consider (and reconsider), decade by decade, the books that were recognized and those that were overlooked; the preoccupations of authors, readers and the publishing industry through time; the power and subjectivity of judges and of awards; and the lasting importance of books to our culture, from the 1950s to the present day," Pulitzer Board member Viet Thanh Nguyen reflected on the program's initial awards from the 1950s. "It's tempting to think that literary awards go to the 'best' books of a given year, and most tempting for the winners. As Saul Bellow said while accepting a National Book Award for 'The Adventures of Augie March,' in 1954, 'When you get a prize you feel very virtuous.'" He added: "Bellow’s name still carries weight among readers, but many prize winners have been forgotten; conversely, many older books still read today never won awards in their time. Prizes sometimes predict a future member of the literary hall of fame; sometimes they’re simply given to the books that a majority of judges can agree on. Juries are not immune to the passions and prejudices of their times, so it’s no surprise that they can be both prophetic and fallible. [...] The liberal deification of minority trauma and representative 'voices for the voiceless' undoubtedly exists, as Percival Everett's 'Erasure' (2001) scathingly depicts. The novel (recently adapted into the Oscar-winning 'American Fiction') includes a hilarious satire of a prestigious literary prize that looks suspiciously like the National Book Award, with an overwhelmingly White jury that votes unanimously — except for the lone Black judge — to reward a novel by a Black writer that dwells excessively on Black pain and dysfunction. But the opposite of this trauma porn scenario — the supposedly universal aesthetic standards of the ’50s — could also be seen as the genteel literary equivalent of White supremacy."

Report: Climate Journalists Face Threats, Physical Violence:

Nearly "four out of every 10 journalists covering the climate crisis and [environmental] issues have been threatened as a result of their work, with 11% subjected to physical violence, according to groundbreaking new research" analyzed by Nina Lakhani of The Guardian. She added: "A global survey of more than 740 reporters and editors from 102 countries found that 43% of those threatened 'sometimes' or 'frequently' were targeted by people engaged in illegal activities such as logging and mining. Some 30%, meanwhile, were threatened with legal action – reflecting a growing trend towards corporations and governments deploying the judicial system to muzzle free speech." The global survey (by Internews’ Earth Journalism Network (EJN) and Deakin University, a public institution in Victoria, Australia) "is the first-of-its-kind scrutiny of the challenges faced by journalists covering arguably the most pressing – if not existential – issues of our time," she continued. The report, entitled Covering the Planet, also "includes in-depth interviews with 74 journalists from 31 countries about what help they need to do a better job reporting extreme weather, plastics pollution, water scarcity, and mining," among other existential issues of the era. Although the respondents indicated that "climate and environmental stories have more prominence – relative to other subjects – than a decade ago," reporters remained dismayed about the "volume" of coverage relative to "gravity of the problem," according to Lakhani. "The work of 'covering the planet' poses diverse challenges for journalists all around the world – but this work is urgent and vital,” said Dr. Gabi Mocatta of Deakin University. "This study, for the first time, offers truly global insights on reporting climate change and environmental harms … Such insights are crucial in order to support and amplify the work of journalists who tell the most important stories of our times." Lakhani continued: "The survey also found an overwhelming need for more resources for newsrooms covering the environment and the climate crisis: 76% of those surveyed said insufficient resources limit their coverage, and identified more funding for in-depth journalism, in-person training and workshops, and more access to relevant data and subject experts as among their top priorities."

Pulitzer Board Member Thompson Appointed Managing Editor at ProPublica:

Pulitzer Prize Board member Ginger Thompson has been promoted to managing editor of ProPublica effective immediately, the digital nonprofit newsroom announced today. "For the past decade, she has played a key role in our journalism and in shaping our culture — first as a reporter, then as ProPublica’s inaugural chief of correspondents," the newsroom said. "Over the past three years, she has established herself as an invaluable member of the senior leadership team, working across the newsroom to advance our efforts to recruit and retain the best journalists in the business. There are numerous firsts in her list of accomplishments. She has overseen the building, from the ground up, of a department that now manages recruitment, onboarding and professional development for both the editorial and business sides of our organization. In her new role, she will oversee our immigration coverage, our revitalized Washington, D.C., bureau and other key organizational responsibilities. She also will have an expanded role in overseeing our strategic initiatives in audio and video that will broaden the way we tell stories and the audiences we reach." Prior to joining ProPublica, Thompson spent 15 years at The New York Times, where she worked in a variegated array of roles, including Mexico City bureau chief, Washington correspondent and investigative reporter. Thompson also covered Latin America at the Chicago Tribune and The Baltimore Sun; at the latter publication, she and colleague Gary Cohn were named contributors to a 1996 Public Service Prize-nominated investigation "that disclosed the activities of a Honduran army unit that abducted, tortured and murdered political suspects in the 1980s with the knowledge of the CIA." (Thompson also was a bylined contributor to The Times' entry of "How Race Is Lived in America" [an influential enterprise project that received the 2001 National Reporting Prize] and ProPublica's 2019 Public Service Prize-nominated entry on migrant family separations at the U.S./Mexico border.) In addition, her work has garnered the Maria Moors Cabot Prize, the Selden Ring Award for Investigative Reporting, an InterAmerican Press Association Award, an Overseas Press Club Award and the 2019 John Chancellor Award. She was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2021. "Ginger Thompson is one of the finest investigative journalists I’ve ever worked with," said past Pulitzer Board Co-Chair Stephen Engelberg, ProPublica's editor in chief. "She has a remarkable track record for breaking difficult stories, often in dangerous places. She’s been a key member of our leadership team, an innovator who has already made ProPublica a better place. I can’t wait to see what we will do together in this new chapter." Thompson holds degrees from Purdue University (where she was managing editor of The Exponent, its campus newspaper) and George Washington University.

Buzbee Exits Washington Post Amid Murray, Winnett Appointments:

Past Pulitzer juror and Washington Post Executive Editor Sally Buzbee "will leave her role, a major and sudden change at one of the nation’s pre-eminent news organizations," Katie Robertson and Benjamin Mullin reported Sunday. The journalists continued: "Matt Murray, the former editor in chief of The Wall Street Journal, will take her place through the presidential election, the company said on Sunday night. He will start in the role immediately. Robert Winnett, a deputy editor of the Telegraph Media Group in Britain, will take over after the election. [...] Murray will then transition to a new role, the company said in a news release, building a new division of The Washington Post focused on service and social media journalism. At that point, [...] Winnett, [...] Murray and David Shipley, who oversees the opinion section at The Post, will each report independently to Will Lewis, the chief executive and publisher." According to Robertson and Mullin, Buzbee "steered the newspaper for the last three years, a turbulent period that resulted in award-winning journalism" (including the conferral six Pulitzers) alongside a "drop in audience and an exodus of some top talent." Since his appointment last year, Lewis "has focused on remaking the top ranks of the company," as evidenced by the retention of former Dow Jones executive Suzi Watford as chief strategy editor and the appointment of a chief growth officer tasked with overseeing "subscription strategy, partnerships, licensing and data analytics." Last month, Lewis stated at a publication-wide town hall that the news organization "lost more than $70 million" last year, a problem exacerbated by ongoing audience engagement woes. A contemporaneous Pulitzer juror, Murray "led The Journal for four years, a job he was appointed to by [...] Lewis, who was then the chief executive of Dow Jones and the publisher of The Journal," Robertson and Mullin added. He was succeeded by British editor Emma Tucker in 2023 and has since served as contributing editor to News Items alongside a News Corp consultancy. Buzbee joined The Post in June 2021 (replacing longtime editor Martin Baron) after serving as executive editor of the Associated Press, where she spent nearly all of her career. Longtime chief executive Fred Ryan stepped down last June and was temporarily replaced by Amazon board member Patty Stonesifer, who led the search for Lewis while overseeing more than 200 layoffs. Amazon founder Jeff Bezos purchased the newspaper for $250 million in 2013.

Report: Pegasus Used Against Russian and Belarusian Journalists:

A joint investigation between the University of Toronto's Citizen Lab and Access Now has revealed that "seven Russian and Belarusian-speaking independent journalists and opposition activists based in Europe were targeted and/or infected with NSO Group's Pegasus mercenary spyware," John Scott-Railton, Bill Marczak, Bahr Abdul Razzak, Ksenia Ermoshina, Siena Anstis and Ron Deibert reported Thursday. "In September 2023, we published a joint investigation with Access Now into the hacking of exiled Russian journalist Galina Timchenko with Pegasus mercenary spyware. Timchenko is the CEO and publisher of Meduza, a widely-respected Russian independent media group operating in exile," the journalists wrote. "After this publication, in collaboration with Access Now and independent digital security expert Nikolai Kvantiliani, we expanded the investigation into the possible targeting of Russian and Belarusian-speaking independent media and political opposition. The latest investigation identifies seven additional Russian and Belarusian-speaking members of civil society and journalists living outside of Belarus and Russia who were targeted and/or infected with Pegasus spyware. Many of the targets publicly criticized the Russian government, including Russia's invasion of Ukraine. These individuals, most of whom are currently living in exile, have faced intense threats from Russian and/or Belarusian state security services." This problem is potentially exacerbated by the increasing prevalence of Russian and Belarusian journalists working in exile, prompting a concomitant "increase certain digital risks, as groups are forced to rely almost exclusively on third-party platforms and tools to communicate and disseminate information, creating complex challenges for maintaining privacy and security," the investigators wrote. They added: "The shifting practices also introduce new opportunities for malicious actors to probe for and exploit vulnerabilities. There is already evidence of this kind of targeting. For example, Russian independent media organization Meduza reported an intense Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attack against their website during Russia's 2024 presidential elections." The targeted individuals include freelance Latvian journalist Evgeny Pavlov, Charter97.org Editor in Chief Natallia Radzina (a Belarusian currently based in Warsaw) and Israeli-Russian journalist Evgeny Erlikh, a Latvia-based producer with Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty’s Russian-language network. "The targeting timeframe, victim profiles, and overlap of operator Apple IDs suggest (but do not prove) the possibility that a single actor is responsible for these five attacks," the journalists wrote. Although sales of Pegasus licenses to individual governments must be countenanced by the Israeli defense ministry, the versatile spyware (first developed in 2011 with the capability to surveil iOS and Android devices) has been increasingly employed against politicians, journalists and human rights activists. When installed (often through exploit mechanisms), the program can snoop on calls, text messages and location data. 

OpenAI, News Corp Reach Content Deal:

Wall Street Journal parent company News Corp "struck a major content-licensing pact with the generative artificial-intelligence company OpenAI, aiming to cash in on a technology that promises to have a profound impact on the news-publishing industry," according to Journal reporters Alexandra Bruell, Sam Schechner and Deepa Seetharaman. The agreement "could be worth more than $250 million over five years, including compensation in the form of cash and credits for use of OpenAI technology," the trio continued. "OpenAI would use content from News Corp’s consumer-facing news publications, including archives, to answer users’ queries and train its technology." (In addition to The Wall Street Journal, the company's holdings include The Sun, The Times of London, book publishing conglomerate HarperCollins, real estate websites and the sprawling News Corp Australia division.) Although OpenAI has reached similar "content-licensing agreements" with the likes of Axel Springer (the parent company of Politico and Business Insider), The Associated Press and the Financial Times, the "News Corp deal is among the biggest, if not the biggest, reached to date," Bruell, Schechner and Seetharaman added. However, some of the aforementioned agreements are comparatively circumspect; for example, The Associated Press agreement "is more narrowly focused on the use of text archives for training" (and situated in the "single-digit millions" per year range), although it may eventually encompass displayed content. Other publishers (most notably The New York Times) "have opted to battle OpenAI and its backer Microsoft in court, saying their content was used without permission to train artificial-intelligence tools and populate answers for users," with OpenAI maintaining that "the lawsuit is without merit." The trio continued: "OpenAI is seeking to play a key role in answering news queries from users, and is planning to attribute information to publishing partners through a series of links below a summary that appears in response to the queries, according to people familiar with the matter. OpenAI plans to supplement search results with information from Microsoft’s Bing, they said. A future version of ChatGPT may display the logos of the publications whose content is featured in the answer to a user query, as well as links back to their websites, according to mock-ups that OpenAI showed to at least one publication. Mounting a challenge to Google, which has two decades of search dominance under its belt, won’t be easy. Other AI companies are entering the search battle, including Perplexity, which is backed by Jeff Bezos. But building a frequently updated index across a large enough portion of websites to be useful is difficult—particularly when it comes to answering questions about something that has just happened." Meanwhile, "publishers are jaded by more than a decade of dealing with tech giants—especially Meta Platforms' Facebook and Google, whose on-and-off payments and algorithmic tweaks are affecting the fortunes of media companies." In an interview, Louis Dreyfus, the chief executive of the influential French daily Le Monde, seemed resigned to looming AI encroachment: "It’s in my interest to find agreements with everyone. Without an agreement, they will use our content in a more or less rigorous and more or less clandestine manner without any benefit for us."

Israel's Communications Minister Orders Return of AP Video Equipment:

Israel’s communications minister "ordered the government to return a camera and broadcasting equipment it had seized from the The Associated Press, reversing course hours after blocking the news organization’s live video of Gaza," according to Josef Federman and Danica Kirka of the wire service. "The government seized the AP equipment from a location in southern Israel after accusing it of violating a new media law by providing images to the satellite channel Al Jazeera," Federman and Kirka added. "Israeli officials used the new law on May 5 to close down Qatar-based Al Jazeera within Israel, confiscating its equipment, banning its broadcasts and blocking its websites. After Israel seized the AP equipment, the Biden administration, journalism organizations and an Israeli opposition leader condemned the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and pressured it to reverse the decision," prompting the announcement (via social media platform X) from Communications Minister Shlomo Karhi. Karhi "said the defense ministry will undertake a review of news outlets' positioning of live video of Gaza," Federman and Kirka continued. "Officials hadn’t previously told AP the positioning of its live camera was an issue. Instead, they repeatedly noted that the images appeared in real-time on Al Jazeera. Al Jazeera is one of thousands of AP customers, and it receives live video from AP and other news organizations." Lauren Easton, vice president of corporate communications at the AP, remained equivocal following Karhi's announcement. "While we are pleased with this development," she said, "we remain concerned about the Israeli government's use of the foreign broadcaster law and the ability of independent journalists to operate freely in Israel. The reporters added: "Officials from the Communications Ministry arrived at the AP location in the southern town of Sderot on Tuesday afternoon and seized the equipment. They handed the AP a piece of paper, signed by Karhi, alleging it was violating the country’s foreign broadcaster law. Shortly before its equipment was seized on Tuesday, AP was broadcasting a general view of northern Gaza. The AP complies with Israel’s military censorship rules, which prohibit broadcasts of details like troop movements that could endanger soldiers. The live video has generally shown smoke rising over the territory. The AP had been ordered verbally last Thursday to cease the live transmission, which it refused to do." The squabble followed Israel's recent closure of Al Jazeera’s offices under the law, prompting "media groups [to warn] of the serious implications for press freedom in the country [...] The law gives Karhi, part of the hard-right flank of Netanyahu's Likud Party, wide leeway to enforce it against other media."

Assange Wins Right to Appeal Against U.S. Extradition:

Australian publisher Julian Assange will be permitted to "bring a fresh appeal against his extradition," marking a "potentially crucial victory in his long-running legal battle against U.S. attempts to extradite him from the U.K. to face trial on espionage charges," Ben Quinn of The Guardian reported Monday. "Assange's family had feared that he could be on his way to the U.S. as soon as this week if the judges had accepted assurances provided by the US government, including about how a trial would be conducted," Quinn continued. "In the event, the case will rumble on into the rest of this year and perhaps beyond." He added: "U.S. authorities succeeded in 2021 in overturning a decision by a judge in a lower British court who ruled that Assange should not be sent to the U.S. and citied a real and 'oppressive' risk of suicide. He was granted a reprieve earlier this year when judges ruled he could take his case to an appeal hearing unless 'satisfactory' assurances were given by the US that he would be protected by and allowed to rely on the U.S. First Amendment – which protects freedom of speech there – that he is not 'prejudiced at trial' due to his nationality, and that the death penalty would not be imposed. On Monday, judges granted permission for Assange to mount his challenge over the freedom of speech and nationality points, meaning he will be able to bring the appeal. His legal team accepted an assurance he would not face the death penalty was an 'unambiguous executive promise.'" Assange's supporters maintain that the 18 charges against him (primarily under the Espionage Act and stemming from the "2010 publication of classified documents oncerned American relations with other states as well as the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq") are "politically motivated, having been resurrected under the administration of Donald Trump after Barack Obama dropped it," Quinn continued. Supporters also have warned that warn that the effectuation of Assange's extradition could mean that "journalists around the world [will] be at the mercy of extradition to the U.S. for breaking secrecy laws there." Over the next several months, "Assange and his legal team [will] prepare for his appeal, which will cover whether or not the U.S. courts will protect his right to free speech as an Australian citizen," Quinn added. "However, the decision on Monday means that the Australian has potentially much more legal road to run in his battle with the U.S., including a later appeal to the U.K.'s Supreme Court. If that fails, he could also seek an intervention by the European Court of Human Rights, an international court based in Strasbourg that interprets the European convention on human rights, a treaty to which the U.K. is a signatory." Although President Biden "said last month he was considering a request from Australia to drop the decade-long [...] push to prosecute Assange, providing supporters of the publisher with a slim hope that the legal saga could be brought to a swift halt," Assange's wife (human rights lawyer Stella Assange) has remained circumspect about the potential end of the case, opining on Monday that "time is running out for Joe Biden to do the right thing."