{"id":2501,"date":"2012-09-21T01:22:01","date_gmt":"2012-09-21T06:22:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bytebot.net\/blog\/?p=2501"},"modified":"2012-09-21T01:22:10","modified_gmt":"2012-09-21T06:22:10","slug":"faith-in-bernama-the-national-news-agency-wanes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.bytebot.net\/blog\/archives\/2012\/09\/21\/faith-in-bernama-the-national-news-agency-wanes","title":{"rendered":"Faith in Bernama the national news agency wanes"},"content":{"rendered":"

I just read that Bernama has admitted to doctoring a photo with the Prime Minister<\/a>. Of course they are crying sabotage and denying any previous edits. Stop and read that, its well worth it.<\/p>\n

I’m not surprised. Neither should you be. Anything that comes from Bernama tends to be pro-government. I gave up trust in them since 2006, when I had a little issue with them stealing my photo without attribution which I’ll talk about in a bit.<\/p>\n

Bernama is an independent body placed under the Ministry of Information, Culture & Communication, started by an act of parliament. Wikipedia’s Bernama entry<\/a> isn’t half bad, and if you’re inclined, you can read the Bernama Act 1967<\/a>. Its quite clear that beyond<\/a> subscription income, they’re probably funded by the ministry (this isn’t a fact but a presumption – I have no time to dig this up).<\/p>\n

So from a Nineteen Eighty-Four<\/a>\"\" perspective, these folk are akin to the\u00a0Ministry of Truth<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

What’s my beef with Bernama? They have no issue with using what’s not theirs, i.e. they don’t believe in proper attribution. They do not respect the Creative Commons<\/a> licenses either. They didn’t in 2006, and they probably don’t in 2012.<\/p>\n

Imagine my shock when a photo of mine was attributed to be a Bernamapic in an article<\/a>? Besides a tighter crop, the news agency didn’t respect the attribution, non-commercial aspect of the CC license. Bernama charges up to RM500\/month to access its newswire for blogs, and this cost is bound to go up for other print publications. Can’t afford a photographer?<\/p>\n

Speaking to them, they claimed that they would investigate but naturally, nothing came of it. I had thought of taking legal action but decided against it as my life wasn’t in Malaysia.<\/p>\n

Alas, I have never had much faith in them, and neither should you.<\/p>\n

\n

X-Mozilla-Status: 0001<\/p>\n

X-Mozilla-Status2: 00800000<\/p>\n

Message-ID: <4545AC7E.704@aeon.com.my><\/p>\n

Date: Mon, 30 Oct 2006 18:40:46 +1100<\/p>\n

From: Colin Charles <colin@aeon.com.my><\/p>\n

User-Agent: Thunderbird 1.5.0.7 (Macintosh\/20060909)<\/p>\n

MIME-Version: 1.0<\/p>\n

To:\u00a0 ungkubesar@bernama.com<\/p>\n

Subject: Using pictures without attribution<\/p>\n

Content-Type: text\/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed<\/p>\n

Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Hello,<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

We spoke on the phone recently<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Here are the photos (sources): http:\/\/bytebot.net\/tmp\/Take1FiestaMalaysia\/<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

It was used in the star:\u00a0<\/p>\n

http:\/\/thestar.com.my\/news\/story.asp?file=\/2006\/10\/30\/nation\/15861794&sec=nation<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

And in the NST in a article titled “A taste of Malaysia in Melbourne”<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Now, I don’t mind you using the photos, but you have to accept copyright\u00a0<\/p>\n

and attribute it to where you got it from. Saying it came from Colin\u00a0<\/p>\n

Charles, will be a start. (i.e. I’m not even asking for payment)<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

This is a sample of more pictures to come, from the event at:\u00a0<\/p>\n

http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/byte\/281750614\/<\/p>\n

(there’ll be a fiestamalaysia group on Flickr, if you’ve noticed from\u00a0<\/p>\n

the above picture)<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

kind regards<\/p>\n

—\u00a0<\/p>\n

Colin Charles, http:\/\/www.bytebot.net\/<\/p>\n

Lenify! http:\/\/lenify.wordpress.com\/<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Share this:<\/h3>