Business of Media
Julian Assange risks ‘flagrant denial of justice’ if tried in US, London court told
Julian Assange faces the risk of a “flagrant denial of justice” if tried in the US, his lawyers have told a permission to appeal hearing in London, which could result in the WikiLeaks founder being extradited within days if unsuccessful, reports The Guardian’s Haroon Siddique.
Assange, who published thousands of classified military and diplomatic documents relating to the Afghanistan and Iraq wars, could be jailed for up to 175 years – “a grossly disproportionate punishment” – if convicted in the US, the high court heard on Tuesday.
Edward Fitzgerald KC, representing Assange, also argued that his client could be targeted by US state agencies for “extra-legal attack elimination” if he was extradited, particularly given “the real possibility of a return of a [Donald] Trump administration”.
Virgin CEO Jayne Hrdlicka quits after ‘four years of heavy lifting’
Virgin Australia’s chief executive officer Jayne Hrdlicka will soon step down from leading Australia’s second-biggest airline after four years at the helm, abandoning the original plan to lead it through a long-awaited initial public offering process, reports Nine Publishing’s Amelia McGuire.
Virgin confirmed the news on Tuesday afternoon and said Hrdlicka would stay on through a transitional period while the company starts a global search for her replacement.
Kylie Minogue to receive Brits Global Icon award -but will Australia be watching?
Former Neighbours legend Kylie Minogue will receive the Brits Global Icon award at this year’s Brit Awards “in recognition of her career spanning across five decades as one of the world’s most successful and iconic music stars,” reports TV Tonight.
But there are no confirmed plans to screen this in Australia.
UKTV sources confirmed to TV Tonight they are not broadcasting the event which takes place on March 2 (UK).
Taylor Swift, the pope, Putin: in the age of AI and deepfakes, who do you trust?
If you wanted to find out what was happening in the world in Paris in 1750, you went to l’arbre de Cracovie, or “the Kraków tree”. This chestnut tree was called that not because it had any particular connection to the Polish city, but because the slang term at the time for “fake news” was craques, and the space beneath its branches was full of it, reports The Guardian’s Alexander Hurst.
And yet the tree didn’t just draw gossips who would claim to know what was really going on in the corridors of power because they had eavesdropped on a conversation or glimpsed a private letter. It also drew the attention of the government, which wanted to know what Parisians were thinking, as well as foreign powers, who sent agents there to gather information – or to plant it.
Why Disney is seen as the “big winner in the licensing renaissance”
Disney is “set to be the big winner in the licensing renaissance” as Hollywood giants look to make revenue from their content beyond using it on their own streaming services, according to a new study, reports The Hollywood Reporter’s Georg Szalai.
“Disney trumps all the other major studios with its ownership of powerful licensable content, owning more than double that of its rivals,” research firm Ampere Analysis explained in a report published Monday. “After four years of major studios employing a walled-garden approach to the distribution of their TV content on streaming, licensing is steadily making a comeback.”
It added: “Studios were understandably reluctant to give up exclusivity for major franchises as they built their streaming services. But Warner Bros. Discovery‘s 2023 deals to license recently released DC-adapted content to Amazon, Netflix and Tubi demonstrate that even strategies around exclusivity for core IP are now changing.”
Sports Media
Jarryd Hayne supporter awarded almost $40,000 after defamation fight with Seven
A man who supported former NRL player Jarryd Hayne when he was jailed for sexual assault has been awarded almost $40,000 in damages after a judge found Seven had defamed him by suggesting he “spat at” Hayne’s victim outside court, reports Nine Publishing’s Michaela Whitbourn.
In a decision on Tuesday, Federal Court Justice Anna Katzmann ordered the network to pay Mina Greiss, one of Hayne’s longtime friends, $37,940 in damages for a Facebook post after she found Greiss “spat towards” Hayne’s victim outside court but not “at” her, as the post suggested.
But Seven successfully defended a related article published online and a post by one of its reporters on social media platform Twitter, now called X, after Katzmann found Seven had proven Greiss had acted “disgracefully” outside court.
FuboTV sues to block ESPN, Warner and Fox Sports-streaming service
Sports-centric streaming service FuboTV sued the media companies behind a new sports-streaming platform scheduled to launch this fall, alleging they wouldn’t let Fubo carry a small bundle of sports-focused channels that they are now looking to include in the new service, reports The Wall Street Journal’s Isabella Simonetti.
The lawsuit, which was filed Tuesday in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, seeks to block the joint venture among the companies: Fox Corp., Warner Bros. Discovery and ESPN parent Disney. The suit also is asking for a jury trial and punitive damages.
The suit wasn’t immediately publicly available, but a copy of it was viewed by The Wall Street Journal.
See Also: Australia has Kayo Sports, now TV giants to launch US domestic multi-sport streaming platform