Today’s MediaWireWorld roundup of journalism news from outside the U.S. Send tips to Kristen Hare: khare@poynter.org
United Kingdom
On Friday morning, at 5:20 a.m., BBC radio aired BBC World Service. It was supposed to run the Shipping Forecast, John Reynolds and Mark Sweney reported Friday in The Guardian, but thanks to a technical problem, that didn’t happen. “It was early-morning chaos and warnings of impending armageddon when BBC Radio 4 failed to broadcast the Shipping Forecast for the first time in more than 90 years,” they wrote.
The BBC radio service is something of an institution, metronomically broadcasting four forecasts a day since 1924, a routine which failed for the first time at 5.20am on Friday.
A technical glitch meant the BBC’s World Service was played in its place, a gaffe that prompted listeners to take to Twitter to voice their bewilderment.
@BBCRadio4 @bbcworldservice @corrie_corfield no shipping forecast this morning, I felt bereft
— Liam Delaney (@liamdelaney1) May 30, 2014
@BBCRadio4 @bbcworldservice No shipping forecast?! Like the ravens fleeing the Tower! England may fall!
— Phineas Head (@phineashead) May 30, 2014
Twitter is useful. I thought it was just me. #bbcradio4. This feels post-apocalyptic.
— Tony Emmerson (@TonyEmmerson) May 30, 2014
Crimea
Crimea is still a dangerous place for journalists, KyivPost reported Friday.
In the last six weeks, Andrey Krisko, who heads the Crimean Human Rights Field Mission, has registered nine serious incidents of harassment of journalists, involving personal harm, damage to equipment, and illegal detention for more than three hours. He experienced one such incident himself, when he was physically prevented from taking pictures of a journalist arguing with self-defense forces on May 17. Later, he found out the journalist had been followed and detained.
Most cases, Krisko said, concern not single but groups of journalists, and all cases involve the self-defense militias. Some cases have been widely publicized, like that of journalist Osman Pashayev on May 18.
Colombia
Today from El Colombiano, in Medellin, Colombia, the capybaras can be saved! (Front page courtesy the Newseum.)
