Media
China says trade deal good for all, media discourages 'nitpicking' – The Telegram
By Gabriel D. Crossley
BEIJING (Reuters) – Chinese state media on Thursday warned against any “nitpicking” as Beijing portrayed the Phase 1 trade deal with United States and its new commitments to massive purchases of American goods as a boon for China’s economy.
In return for some tariff relief, China agreed to buy at least $200 billion in additional U.S. goods and services over two years, including $32 billion more in imports of U.S. farm products – targets some analysts say may be tough to meet.
In the world’s most populous nation, coverage was tightly managed and the trade deal quickly dropped out of the top 10 trending topics on the Twitter-like Weibo platform.
A person who works in censorship at Chinese social media giant ByteDance and a senior official at a state-backed media outlet told Reuters they had been instructed only to use official reports on the deal – guidance that is not unusual for sensitive political news.
Official media and government statements were upbeat with the People’s Daily saying that boosting agricultural imports will “enrich the common people’s dining tables.”
An article in the same publication which bore the pen name “Zhong Sheng”, usually used to express its views on foreign policy, said the pact was in line with China’s reforms, opening up and the push for high-quality growth.
Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said the Phase 1 agreement was good for both countries and the world when asked if he thought the deal was unfair.
China’s Ministry of Commerce, which would normally comment on trade matters, earlier this week canceled its regular Thursday news briefing.
Robust debate was, however, not encouraged.
An editorial in the Global Times, a tabloid run by the People’s Daily, stated that debating “about who had lost or gained is shallow.”
“We urge individuals and forces to exercise some restraint in their nitpicking of the agreement and bad-mouthing future trade negotiations,” it said.
The deal comes at a welcome time for President Xi Jinping, who faces a slowing economy, unrest in Hong Kong, and the recent re-election of the pro-independence party’s President Tsai Ing-wen in Taiwan, said Wang Yiwei, a professor of international relations at Renmin University in Beijing.
“That China hasn’t been defeated completely is already in itself a success,” he said.
Some people on both the U.S. and Chinese sides are not satisfied with the agreement, but that is a good thing, said a post by Taoran Notes, an influential WeChat account run by the Economic Daily.
A deal where just one side was happy would “cause no end of trouble,” it said.
(Reporting by Gabriel Crossley; Additional reporting by Liangping Gao and Cate Cadell in Beijing and Samuel Shen in Shanghai; Editing by Tony Munroe and Edwina Gibbs)
Media
CTV National News: Social media giants sued – CTV News
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CTV National News: Social media giants sued CTV News
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Media
India’s media – captured and censored
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Across almost every form of media in India – social, broadcast and print – Narendra Modi and the BJP hold sway.
With India amid a national election campaign, its news media is in sharp focus. Until recently it was believed that the sheer diversity of outlets ensured a range of perspectives, but now, India’s mainstream media has largely been co-opted by the Bharatiya Janata Party and Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Just how did the media in India get to this point and what does it mean for the upcoming elections?
Featuring:
Ravish Kumar – Former Host, NDTV
Shashi Shekhar Vempati – Former CEO, Prasar Bharati
Pramod Raman – Chief Editor, MediaOne
Amy Kazmin – Former South Asia Bureau Chief, Financial Times
Meena Kotwal – Founder, The Mooknayak
Media
Social media lawsuit launched by Ontario school boards
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Premier Doug Ford says that lawsuits launched by four Ontario school boards against multiple social media platforms are “nonsense” and risk becoming a distraction to the work that really matters.
The school boards, including three in the Greater Toronto Area, have launched lawsuits seeking $4.5 billion in damages against Snapchat, TikTok, and Meta, the owner of both Facebook and Instagram, for creating products that they allege negligently interfere with student learning and have caused “widespread disruption to the education system.”
But at an unrelated news conference in Ottawa on Friday, Ford said that he “disagrees” with the legal action and worries it could take the focus away from “the core values of education.”
“Let’s focus on math, reading and writing. That is what we need to do, put all the resources into the kids,” he said. “What are they spending lawyers fees to go after these massive companies that have endless cash to fight this? Let’s focus on the kids, not this other nonsense that they are looking to fight in court.”
Four separate but similar statements of claim were filed in Ontario’s Superior Court of JusticSocial media lawsuit launched by Ontario school boards pervasive problems such as distraction, social withdrawal, cyberbullying, a rapid escalation of aggression, and mental health challenges,” Colleen Russell-Rawlins, the director of education with the Toronto District School Board, said in a news release issued Thursday.
“It is imperative that we take steps to ensure the well-being of our youth. We are calling for measures to be implemented to mitigate these harms and prioritize the mental health and academic success of our future generation.”
The school boards are represented by Toronto-based law firm Neinstein LLP and the news release states that school boards “will not be responsible for any costs related to the lawsuit unless a successful outcome is reached.”
These lawsuits come as hundreds of school districts in the United States file similar suits.
“A strong education system is the foundation of our society and our community. Social media products and the changes in behaviour, judgement and attention that they cause pose a threat to that system and to the student population our schools serve,” Duncan Embury, the head of litigation at Neinstein LLP, said in the new release.
“We are proud to support our schools and students in this litigation with the goal of holding social media giants accountable and creating meaningful change.”
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