Paul Holmes
Principles and ethics
Friday 16 March 2012
Good on Thomson Reuters for again making the list of the world’s most ethical companies compiled by the Ethisphere Institute, whose annual Global Ethics Summit Thomson Reuters is hosting this week [● Thomson Reuters wins ethics award for fourth year]. It’s a shame, though, that the ● Thomson Reuters press release misspells Principles, as in Trust Principles.
Paul Holmes
nbnbn
Paul Holmes
nbnbn
Desk shake-up
Sunday 29 January 2012
Any announcement [● Reuters editorial desk shake-up in drive for quality] that volunteers the defensive and unsolicited statement that a reorganisation is “not about saving money or cutting staff” should be taken as a piece of fluff. Reuters journalists are expected to see through such announcements when they come from the companies they cover so it is not clear why they shouldn’t see through this one.
Why should anyone believe this announcement when it says that the reorganisation of Reuters desks will improve quality when the only steps it specifies are shutting overnight shifts and moving more routine tasks to cheaper locations? The rest is puff.
Good organisations always look at ways to be more efficient and effective, as they should, but improvements to quality come from giving people the skills and incentives they need and making sure you have enough of the right people to do the job well.
It’s especially troubling that the announcement, which purports to come from the heads of the desks in Asia, the Americas and EMEA, contains a split infinitive, tautology and a non-sequitur, and uses “between” where it should use “among”. Perhaps the announcement was vetted by a third-rate PR firm. It certainly reads that way, bullet points and all.
Paul Holmes
nbnbn
Why should anyone believe this announcement when it says that the reorganisation of Reuters desks will improve quality when the only steps it specifies are shutting overnight shifts and moving more routine tasks to cheaper locations? The rest is puff.
Good organisations always look at ways to be more efficient and effective, as they should, but improvements to quality come from giving people the skills and incentives they need and making sure you have enough of the right people to do the job well.
It’s especially troubling that the announcement, which purports to come from the heads of the desks in Asia, the Americas and EMEA, contains a split infinitive, tautology and a non-sequitur, and uses “between” where it should use “among”. Perhaps the announcement was vetted by a third-rate PR firm. It certainly reads that way, bullet points and all.
Paul Holmes
nbnbn
Sri Lanka
Friday 22 July 2011
What a joy to read the exchange between Feizal Samath and Brian Williams. It’s a reminder of the great bond of friendship and respect that existed – and one hopes still exists – between locally hired Reuters journalists and the colleagues who would travel in to join them in pursuit of the story. That bond always made Reuters a very special place to work. The resident local correspondents had and undoubtedly still have the tougher time in balancing the demands of the job against the obligations to family, and in facing despicable harassment and worse from various government goons, censors and thugs. Reuters could never be Reuters without people like Feizal and so many others who cover their countries for the world. May their integrity, dedication and sacrifice never be undervalued.
As an aside, I too had the distinct pleasure of staying at the Galle Face during a visit to Colombo in 2004 before the place got spruced up. The bacon and egg breakfasts were something else, as was my room, a suite so expansive that it exceeded the square footage of my Manhattan apartment. Not that anything in the room worked, or had done for the better part of half a century. That's what made it such a charming place, along with the view.
Paul Holmes
vbnbnbn
As an aside, I too had the distinct pleasure of staying at the Galle Face during a visit to Colombo in 2004 before the place got spruced up. The bacon and egg breakfasts were something else, as was my room, a suite so expansive that it exceeded the square footage of my Manhattan apartment. Not that anything in the room worked, or had done for the better part of half a century. That's what made it such a charming place, along with the view.
Paul Holmes
vbnbnbn
Jean Espinassy
Thursday 19 May 2011
It took Bernd Debusmann a matter of hours to solve the mystery of the Lebanon correspondent who used to call on Lt Col Jean Espinassy, the French chairman of the Israel-Lebanon Mixed Armistice Commission (ILMAC) in Beirut in the late 1970s. Gavin Bell is the name Jean has been searching for all these years. Thanks to Bjorn Edlund and Paul Holmes who also came up with the answer. Now, of course, after telling me tales of his encounters with Gavin – “I think he thought I had some state secrets to leak to him” – Jean wants to know what happened to him. I gather he’s living somewhere in Scotland. Is anyone in touch with him? Jean and his wife Annie clearly have very fond memories of Gavin and I’d love to be able to put them back in touch. Jean is an interesting man who served in Berlin, Indochina, and the Sahara as well as with the UN in Lebanon. In Berlin, as a young captain, Jean tells me he was very popular with the Americans. “I had the only heated jeep and I also had camembert.” On his wall is a framed certificate attesting to the fact that he had a share in the Nobel Peace Prize won by the UN Peacekeeping Forces in 1988. “I got the certificate, he (the UN Secretary General) got the money,” he says.
Terry Williams
Gavin Bell’s contact details are listed in The Baron Directory – Editor.
Terry Williams
Gavin Bell’s contact details are listed in The Baron Directory – Editor.
Richard Williams
Thursday 03 March 2011
Richard and I worked together in Bonn in the mid-1980s. He was a fine colleague to have in a bureau, fun to be with and, for all his cynicism, someone who cared a great deal about Reuters, its people and its journalism. As Richard's untimely obituary noted, he and Victoria Barrett were a formidable negotiating team for the NUJ. As importantly, they were also a formidable duo as features editors. Between them, they kept a valuable service alive during some dark times when writing a feature story was regarded by some in senior management as most unsound. It is immeasurably sad that he will not savour his retirement.
Paul Holmes
Paul Holmes
Namir Noor-Eldeen and Saeed Chmagh
Wednesday 21 April 2010
Reuters journalists should thank Michael Reupke for justifiably taking the current editor-in-chief to task for a mealy-mouthed response to the video footage of the killing of Namir Noor-Eldeen and Saeed Chmagh by US forces in Baghdad.
A robust public statement is not a matter of "sounding off" – as Tom Glocer calls it – but of holding the authorities in a democracy that purports to respect the work of journalists to account for their actions and, in this case, their unconscionable failure to follow through on their own commitments.
In August 2003, almost four years before Namir and Saeed were killed, Reuters cameraman Mazen Dana was shot dead in Iraq by US forces who said they mistook his camera for an RPG launcher. "We will do everything in our power to make sure things like this do not happen again," a US military spokesman, Lt. Col. Guy Shields, said at the time. In March 2004, after Reuters had pushed vigorously for a proper investigation of Mazen’s killing, a US military review exonerated the soldiers involved but made important recommendations to help make war zones less dangerous for journalists. One of the recommendations, which Reuters welcomed, was to "investigate better methods of identifying journalists in the theatre of war". It is questionable whether the US military ever did anything about its own recommendations, given that the helicopter crew who killed Namir and Saeed so readily concluded yet again that cameras were weapons.
Thomson Reuters needs to speak out before another journalist with a camera falls victim to the US military’s failure to take the steps it recommended in its own review into one of all too many needless killings. “Quiet engagement” without public accountability won’t work.
Paul Holmes
A robust public statement is not a matter of "sounding off" – as Tom Glocer calls it – but of holding the authorities in a democracy that purports to respect the work of journalists to account for their actions and, in this case, their unconscionable failure to follow through on their own commitments.
In August 2003, almost four years before Namir and Saeed were killed, Reuters cameraman Mazen Dana was shot dead in Iraq by US forces who said they mistook his camera for an RPG launcher. "We will do everything in our power to make sure things like this do not happen again," a US military spokesman, Lt. Col. Guy Shields, said at the time. In March 2004, after Reuters had pushed vigorously for a proper investigation of Mazen’s killing, a US military review exonerated the soldiers involved but made important recommendations to help make war zones less dangerous for journalists. One of the recommendations, which Reuters welcomed, was to "investigate better methods of identifying journalists in the theatre of war". It is questionable whether the US military ever did anything about its own recommendations, given that the helicopter crew who killed Namir and Saeed so readily concluded yet again that cameras were weapons.
Thomson Reuters needs to speak out before another journalist with a camera falls victim to the US military’s failure to take the steps it recommended in its own review into one of all too many needless killings. “Quiet engagement” without public accountability won’t work.
Paul Holmes
Independence, integrity and freedom from whiskey
Monday 23 November 2009
I was intrigued to read on reuters.com that the excellent "Route to Recovery" series on the American recession is "brought to you" by Amtrak, the US-government owned rail network.
Thomson Reuters maintains that the Trust Principles apply to the dissemination of news as well as to the gathering of news, as well it should. At the same time it allows a troubling perception of dependence on corporate advertising to creep into its news presentation in a way that other respected news organisations are careful to avoid.
True, a footnote on the home page of the "Route to Recovery" series at ● www.reuters.com/routetorecovery clarifies for those who scroll down that "Reuters journalists are traveling by air, road and rail for this special report. All travel expenses are paid for by Reuters". Are we to assume, though, that the series would not have been undertaken without corporate sponsorship?
No such footnote appears to be included with another advertisement that "brings you" the news on reuters.com, this one from Jack Daniel's. Perhaps Reuters should make clear that Jack Daniel's is not providing liquid nourishment to its journalists.
Paul Holmes
Thomson Reuters maintains that the Trust Principles apply to the dissemination of news as well as to the gathering of news, as well it should. At the same time it allows a troubling perception of dependence on corporate advertising to creep into its news presentation in a way that other respected news organisations are careful to avoid.
True, a footnote on the home page of the "Route to Recovery" series at ● www.reuters.com/routetorecovery clarifies for those who scroll down that "Reuters journalists are traveling by air, road and rail for this special report. All travel expenses are paid for by Reuters". Are we to assume, though, that the series would not have been undertaken without corporate sponsorship?
No such footnote appears to be included with another advertisement that "brings you" the news on reuters.com, this one from Jack Daniel's. Perhaps Reuters should make clear that Jack Daniel's is not providing liquid nourishment to its journalists.
Paul Holmes
Arthur Spiegelman memorial
Saturday 02 May 2009
I'd like to thank all the people who came out in the pouring rain to remember Arthur in New York, especially those who came from so far. And most especially Evelyn Leopold and Paul Holmes who actually did all the work involved.
I also want to thank all the people who sent me e-mails, notes, phone calls, flowers and Zabar packages. I'm still very moved by the stories you told about Arthur and the affection you had for him.
I'm always happy to see Reuters people past and present. I'd love to see any of you who might be passing through LA.
With much affection,
Charlotte Spiegelman
I also want to thank all the people who sent me e-mails, notes, phone calls, flowers and Zabar packages. I'm still very moved by the stories you told about Arthur and the affection you had for him.
I'm always happy to see Reuters people past and present. I'd love to see any of you who might be passing through LA.
With much affection,
Charlotte Spiegelman
Arthur Spiegelman
Sunday 21 December 2008
In addition to agreeing entirely with all the above comments about Art – e.g. Paul Holmes’s phrase “graceful prose, unfailing sense of humour”, Bernd Debusmann’s “sparkling prose”, Evelyn Leopold’s “beautiful, clear and ordered journalism”, Sam Perry’s “fluid genius” and Roy Gutman’s “spotter of news”, I would just like to add that he was one of the most RELIABLE colleagues I have ever worked with. Send him on an assignment, no worries. Turn your back on him, no worries. Leave him in charge, no worries. What a great and reliable journalist and friend!
Dave Betts
Dave Betts
