E-Media Tidbits

In the aftermath of the "victory" of Belgian print publications -- in which they were able to prohibit Google News from linking to their online articles -- two examples show that when media prevent direct inbound links, their brand-building ability suffers.

Online articles from the Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post are available only to paid subscribers. Last weekend, SCMP published the first translation of a open letter by three Chinese lawyers to one of China's largest online portals, Sina.com, challenging its censorship practices. However, nobody outside Hong Kong noticed and the story gained little traction.

Then, the weblog EastSouthWestNorth published his own translation, sparking a global discussion of the issue. The blogger received much praise and traffic -- while nobody noticed that the SCMP had published the story first. Rebecca MacKinnon, currently teaching at the journalism school of Hong Kong University, details the chronology of unfolding events.

Then, yesterday I got an e-mail from a friend in Brussels containing an unlinkable story from the French newswire AFP. This story quoted and International Labor Organization diplomat as saying that China was getting ready to ratify the ILO treaty against forced labor. This would be a first step toward abolishing Chinese labor camps, where currently about 300,000 are imprisoned. China is clearly working to get this embarrassing subject out of the way before the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing.

Excuse me? This is a major story with global dimensions. Why do I hear about this through an accidental e-mail from a friend?

Dinosaurs, the end is near.