Monthly Archives: July 2022

COVID-19 in Mongolia: "The media screamed ‘censorship’ and the government screamed ‘slander’" – DW (English)

Posted: July 4, 2022 at 11:36 pm

DW Akademie: Why do you see the coronavirus pandemic as a crisis in civil rights?

Gunjidmaa Gongor, director of the Media Council Mongolia: Mongolia closed its borders with China at the beginning of 2020 much earlier than most of the other countries did. Calling it a situation of "heightened preparedness", the government introduced legislation ensuring that it would monopolize communications during the crisis. This resulted in censorship-like effects where the media, for example, was only allowed to report using official sources. Still, the country wasn't experiencing an epidemic at the time, and the first coronavirus transmissions only happened in November 2020.

How did media workers cope?

They were basically out in the cold and being threatened with fines that could ruin their existence. The state and the media were openly hostile to each another, and at the daily press conferences, the national crisis staff rarely allowed any questions. The police also cited journalists for interrogation if they published the results of their own research, even if was correct. The reports from various government agencies often contradicted each other, so the media screamed "censorship" and the government screamed "defamation." It became impossible to agree on basic rules like the public's right to information from different sources, and coronavirus patients' right to not see their name in newspapers or on social media.

The first coronavirus carrier in Mongolia was apparently a truck driver. His photo and personal information about him, his family, work colleagues and neighbors was then shared on social networks and news channels

Has the Mongolian CCC project come at the right time for strengthening cooperation between state and non-state actors?

There was a turning point in the discussion back in January 2021, after a private television station circulated a video showing a young mother and her newborn baby being removed from a maternity clinic it was freezing in the middle of a night and being taken to a quarantine station for those who had contracted Covid-19. Protests then broke out in Ulaanbaatar and the entire government resigned. At the very latest, that was when everyone involved realized that something was fundamentally wrong with our country's crisis communications. We knew we had to work together to restore people's trust so that they could rely on "good" information, which was available, and that could help them in the pandemic.

'Be human!' Poster in Ulaanbaatar's Sukhbaatar Square, protesting the state's treatment of those who've contracted the coronavirus

How would you describe the Mongolian Crisis Communication Chapter (CCC) and how does it work?

We invited all those involved in the state crisis management, including the Ministry of Health, the National Center for Infectious Diseases and the National Crisis Staff.Our project has been working together with state actors, journalists and civil society on a pilot project with a community in a yurt district of the capital, Ulaanbaatar. Together with DW Akademie, it developed a journalism training program covering issues like fact-checking and storytelling for different channels. Another focus has been on how professional PR can support media professionals (and vice versa).

How does the CCC reach people?

It uses all media and dissemination channels available. Social platforms such as Facebook Live events are good for openly addressing virus-related questions right on the spot. The CCC has also developed flyers, information posters, and questionnaires, and our members on the ground also provide journalists and government officials with important information. This type of "two-way" communication is different from the way the government and the media usually work, where they can only look at a problem from the outside. Still, one thing is clear: this project can only succeed if people consider it to be useful. And that's what we're focusing on.

Where will the project go from here?

The national crisis management team seems interested in integrating a CCC structure in the state crisis management system. This would be a huge success because in future crises, decision-makers and experts would have a concept guaranteeing that crisis communication is not about competing for truths or interests, but is geared entirely towards the needs of the public.

This project is part of the global initiative "Transparency and media freedom Crisis resilience in the pandemic" of DW Akademie and is supported by the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development.

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Creative freedom censored in Iran – Midland News – MidlandToday

Posted: at 11:36 pm

New Canadian Media spoke with Iranian theatre creatives on their experiences dealing with the strict censorship they face in Iran. The post Creative freedom censored in Iran appeared first on New Canadian Media .

Freedom; who has it, what are people free to do and who makes those determinations is a controversial subject in politics. Currently, in various geopolitical contexts, in the United States, Russia, and here in Canada, the idea of freedom is being challenged.

Freedom is also central to the story of Mohammad Yaghoubi and the play Heart of a Dog. The play is a comical adaptation by the award-winning Iranian director and playwright, based on a novel of the same name by Russian writer Mikhail Bulgakov. The novel is seen as an allegory for the Communist revolution and a scathing critique of the Soviet Unions attempt to impose its ideologies to the world. Publication of Heart of a Dog was prohibited in the Soviet Union until 1987.

Yaghoubi also ran into issues with censorship when adapting the novel into a play. As Yaghoubi explained, Iran is an authoritarian country where many freedoms are significantly limited. Initially, Yaghoubi wanted the main character, the dog, to be played by a woman. However, this was impossible in Iran because womens bodies are politicized, they dont have autonomy, and the censorship bureau said no.

In the English premiere of Heart of a Dog, the lead is played by Iranian actor and director, Aida Keykhali. The two eventually got married and founded a theatre group in Iran called InRoozHa. They decided to move to Canada in 2015 to escape the harassment of the censorship bureaus and started Nowadays Theatre.

New Canadian Media spoke to them about the play and their experiences in both Canada and Iran.

The audio version of this conversation below focuses on freedom of expression, the play, and Yaghoubi and Keykhalis experiences in Iran.

The text version of this conversation below focuses on immigration and integration, and the differences between Canada and Iran. This conversation was edited and condensed for clarity.

Aida Keykhali: When youre living in a country like Iran with lots of censorship, your brain works differently. You dont have even in your private moments this idea in your head that you can do that. You are wired that youre not allowed.

How does that affect you as an actor, knowing that there are certain roles you cant do or certain things that your character isnt allowed to do?

Aida: Before I came to Canada, even in my mind, I couldnt think that I could do this kind of role. Because I grew up in Iran, from the first moment I remember I had a scarf on my head, with lots of censorship, with lots of limitations on lots of things because Im a woman.

When we immigrated here, Mohammed wanted to produce this and he told me, Aida, do you want to do the role of the dog? And I said, Mohammed, do you think I can do that? He said, Yeah, were living here, in a free country, you can do that. It was very shocking for me. And when I tried to do that [move], I said, Oh, my God, I have lots of abilities in my body, in my voice that I never had a chance to present.

When that board comes in to oversee something, if they dont approve, are you still able to publish it and then deal with the consequences or if they say no, it cant be published at all?

Mohammad Yaghoubi: This is the part of the theatre that I love, because you can disobey. But to disobey has results, thats why we are now, because we disobeyed too much and they punished us. Every time they asked us to cut something in theatre, we had two options: First, do whatever they told us or change it another way so I can say, okay, I changed it but I did it the other radical way I had in my pocket. Audiences love that disobedience. But the censorship office, whenever they saw that we tried to resist, they got revenge on us with our next production.

What are the benefits of pushing those boundaries and taking those risks if you get punished for it, if it ends with you having to leave the country?

Mohammad: For me, its celebrating theatre. Asserting Im a living person, not a robot. This is art and they can feel Im alive by showing rejection, showing resistance. I love this part of theatre. In Iran, theatre is a political movement inherently. Anywhere in the world [theatre is inherently political] because its a live art you can change anytime, because of its capability of change. I think it was the best way for us to connect with the audience.

Aida: Me as an artist, I think its our responsibility to act based on our beliefs. When I wanted to direct a play and there was a role and the girl was a prostitute. They said, No, you cannot do that. Could you change the job to a nurse? I said What are you talking about? She became a prostitute because of a lot of problems. These are the things that I want to show, its a social matter that I want to talk about. They said, we cannot show that because there is no prostitution in Iran. Theyre stupid. We cannot obey them because we dont want to be like them.

In the play, Polygraf Polygrafovich Sharikov grows more dissatisfied with their situation as they develop intellectually and you see the two doctors have less patience with Sharikov and are more dismissive. I thought it was an interesting way to think about power dynamics, could you speak to that Mohammad?

Mohammad: I think the authorities in Iran dont like Heart of a Dog because of the revolution in Iran. When I was under 30, I made my first draft of the Heart of a Dog adaptation. And I remember the Supreme Leader at that time, had a lecture about anti-revolutionary literature and he specifically mentioned Heart of a Dog as an anti-revolutionary novel in Russia. And I, as a young, inherently disobedient person, I thought, Oh, if I make this play, it can be a hidden struggle with my Supreme Leader. Thats why I did it. But I never told this to anyone, just Aida maybe. It was like a hidden fight.

Thats brave. Youre essentially saying that your approach to the play was going against the Supreme Leader because you were doing something you know is going to upset the Supreme Leader and thats not someone most people would want to get into a confrontation with.

Mohammad: I like that way of fighting. You can say, No, I didnt know. It was just a novel that I liked, thats it. The second time I staged this play, I changed my approach to directing and I asked the men, like women, to wear scarves. The propaganda, governmental papers and TV [stations] showed my picture [and said] this guy wants to mock the hijab.

In a totalitarian country, if everyone say, does an illegal move, even a small movement, based on their capability, we could change anything.

In a country like Iran, where speech isnt 100 per cent free, what impact do you think that has on the average person? For example, when you asked the cast members to wear scarves, how do you think the average person would react to that?

Mohammad: In Iran, if a man wears a hijab, its for cheap comedy but most actors liked my idea. One didnt like it but I could feel that its not his true answer. It was like he was shy and he couldnt do it because it was humiliating to wear a hijab. Some of the female actors said, now you can feel how difficult it is that we have to wear a hijab. You dont like to wear a hijab, even for theatre.

For our first night, all actors, male and female, had a hijab. After eight nights, governmental papers wrote against me.I remember the minister of the venue called me and said, Mohammad did you see the TV, what they wrote against you in the paper, what we should do now? And I told him if hijab is good, I want my male actors to have hijabs like women. He told me Mohammad, dont say that to me. You know what youre doing.

Aida: Me and Mohammad are not against the hijab, were against mandatory hijabs. Women in Iran, if you ask 100 women, 90 of them are against the hijab but they have to wear it. If you want to wear it, wear it but I dont like it, why should I wear it? They hate that people are different from them. This is the thing that Mohammed wanted to show in his production, that this kind of country wants to make people similar.

Mohammad: That was the connection between the Heart of a Dog and the Russian story and the Iranian story because after the revolution in Russia, the communist revolution, they forced people to be like each other. Its ridiculous because that country was against God and Iran is an Islamic country but they are the same in terms of policy with their citizenship. Thats why I thought this story is great to show how two different political countries can be the same like China, about their peoples; they force people to be like they want. This goes back to what you were talking about power dynamics. its about ownership and freedom.

Mohammad, you said in the directors note that Russias and Irans approaches to freedom of expression and opinion are ridiculous, why?

Mohammad: Because in Iran, you will be arrested if you dont believe in God, and in the Communist Party, they arrest people if you believe in God, which means they are contradictory. But in terms of the policy, their behavior towards their citizenship, they are similar. Even now, [Russian President Vladimir] Putin and the Supreme Leader, they are close friends. We can see why they are similar, because its bullshit what they believe.

Aida: In Iran, if you change your religion, they can hang you. So they have no choice, its not that they believe, for example, in hijabs, really or they believe in God, really. Its the thing that they have power over, these are the things that can control people.

Mohammad: Thats why in China, there are Uyghur Muslims who are under the pressure of the authorities in China but Iranian authorities dont say anything against China. Even though Iranian authorities all the time talk about we are Muslim, we want to defend any Muslim in the world, but specifically about Chinas Muslims, they are silent.

Now that youre in Canada and theres more freedom, what does having that freedom mean to you both as a citizen but also as an artist?

Aida: When I was in Iran, I didnt know that I, as a human, have value. But now here I feel that I have value. Im a person with specific thoughts that only belong to me, and people and the government respect it. I recently became a full-time ACTRA member [union for actors in Canada] and they sent me things to read about my rights and I told Mohammed, I didnt know that I have these kinds of rights as a human, let alone as an actor. I didnt know that I have some rights as a person to live in my life.

You know, its very sad because when I think about my friends, my family, everyone in Iran, they dont know that they have these kinds of rights. As I told you, they brainwashed us, they did it at schools, everywhere, and we cannot think differently. But when we came here to a free country, and we understand that we have value, we can talk, we have a voice, its very different.

Mohammad: When we do theatre in Iran, all the time part of our job is to get around censorship. But when we want to do Heart of a Dog here, we can get rid of this part and focus on the artistic practice. To connect to the audience to engage them, not fighting to get around them [censorship bureau]. That takes too much energy.

One time I thought, Oh, if they want to tell me to cut this phrase, this word, what if I asked actors to say 25 instead of anything the censorship office wanted me not to say. The actors asked me, why 25? I didnt tell them the reason. I just asked them to say 25.

As you can imagine the censorship office asked me again before the public show, Mohammad, What is 25? I told them, Its just a number. If you want, I can change it to 19 or whatever you want. But I knew why it was 25, 25 refers to code 25 of the constitutions laws which says censorship is forbidden. There is a specific code in our constitution but they dont care. After two or three shows, I used 25 and this approach to get around censorship, then I demystified this code and after that, I was not allowed to use 25.

Do you think artists have a responsibility to reflect society and to challenge norms? And why is that personally important?

Mohammad: Yes. Its actually in our companys mandate, on my policy, my way of writing. In 2018, I started to write in plain English because I live in this country and it doesnt make sense not to write in English. My second play is about my reflection about society here in Canada.

Aida: Yeah, and especially as a woman, I have a lot of responsibility to do something as an artist. I directed a play about swimming for Persian women because women in Iran cannot swim. So, they make an imaginary pool in their apartment and try to swim. Ive heard a lot of my friends in Iran say that we are just artists, we are not political people, but they live in a country, and I lived in a country where whatever you do is political, even small things.

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Is Jacinda Ardern rethinking her China strategy? | RNZ News

Posted: at 11:35 pm

By Geoffrey Miller*

Analysis - Is New Zealand suddenly softening its more pro-Western foreign policy - and its tougher line on China?

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern Photo: RNZ / Angus Dreaver

After months of inching towards the West, Jacinda Ardern's set-piece speeches on her Europe trip last week seem to have been crafted to try and keep observers guessing.

At the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) summit in Madrid, the New Zealand prime minister gave a speech that - in tone at least - seemed designed to evoke memories of the direction that her Labour predecessor David Lange had taken in the 1980s.

Lange built his foreign policy on the trinity of Labour's nuclear-free policy of 1984, France's bombing of the Rainbow Warrior in Auckland Harbour in 1985 and the US's formal suspension of its obligations to New Zealand under the ANZUS Treaty in 1986.

At the outset of her three-minute speech to NATO leaders in Spain, Ardern said "New Zealand is not here to expand our military alliances. We are here to contribute to a world that lessens the need for anyone to call on them".

The remarks vaguely recalled the fiery tone taken by Lange when New Zealand's role with NATO came up at the Oxford Union debate in 1985: "This country, New Zealand, is not going to contribute to a nuclear alliance. This country, New Zealand, never has".

Ardern followed up on her opening remarks by pointing to New Zealand's "fiercely held independent foreign policy" that she said should not be judged against "political ideology".

The prime minister also rebuffed the idea that Russia's war should be seen as a "as a war of the West vs Russia, or even democracy vs autocracy".

This particular line was surprising, given that it could easily be interpreted as a rebuke of US President Joe Biden.

After all, the US President made "the battle between democracy and autocracies" a theme of his State of the Union and Warsaw speeches in March. He has also used similar framing elsewhere, such as when he organised the inaugural 'Summit for Democracy' last December, which Ardern herself attended.

US Vice President Kamala Harris (L) and US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi applaud US President Joe Biden as he delivers his first State of the Union address at the US Capitol in Washington, DC. Photo: AFP

Ardern's pledge not to join a military alliance might seem like a significant concession to China, which tends to see the rise of new Western-led groupings in the Indo-Pacific as plots against it.

Of course, plenty of wriggle room remains on that front. Even if New Zealand were to join either of the two most hawkish groups - AUKUS (Australia, the UK and the US) or the Quad (Australia, India, Japan and the US) - it would technically not be signing up to a formal defence alliance.

Ardern also seemed to take a softer approach when she spoke to Chatham House in London on Friday. Her prepared speech did include relatively mild criticism of China - which she called "assertive" - but she managed to avoid mentioning China by name entirely during the much longer 40-minute Q and A session that followed.

This wasn't for a lack of effort on the part of her questioners: Ardern was quizzed twice on the rather sensitive matter of how New Zealand would respond if China invaded Taiwan.

In her answers, Ardern largely talked around the issue and generally preferred to bring the discussion back to Russia and Ukraine itself - far safer ground. Noting that she would be "loath to assume any particular trajectory", she also deployed the strategic soundbites of "diplomacy, diplomacy, diplomacy" and "dialogue, dialogue, dialogue".

Did New Zealand effectively blink last week and return to its old, pre-Ukraine hedging strategy of satisfying the West one week - and China the next?

Time will tell, but Beijing will be far more interested in Ardern's actions than her rhetoric.

After all, Ardern was invited to attend last week's Madrid summit precisely because the alliance wanted Asia-Pacific countries standing alongside it when NATO called out China in its new 'Strategic Concept'.

To that end, NATO's new blueprint did not mince words. The line of "China's stated ambitions and coercive policies challenge our interests, security and values" served as just the opener for several paragraphs of very specific and pointed critique of Beijing's military, nuclear and economic policies.

And as if to underline New Zealand's true stance, Minister of Foreign Affairs Nanaia Mahuta released a statement on Friday - while Ardern was still in Europe - that called out China for "continued erosion of rights, freedom and autonomy in Hong Kong".

New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern with leaders at the NATO summit in Madrid, 29 June 2022. Photo: RNZ / Katie Scotcher

Moreover, the many and varied steps that New Zealand has taken this year to align itself more closely with the West remain. Ardern's foreign policy U-turn in March that saw New Zealand impose sanctions on Russia has been followed by the Prime Minister choosing to visit countries that are also clearly in the Western camp: Australia, Belgium, Japan, Singapore, Spain and the United States.

In its relations with the US, New Zealand has joined Washington's Indo-Pacific Economic Framework (IPEF) and - even more significantly - the new Partners in the Blue Pacific (PBP) initiative. The latter group - made up of Australia, Japan, New Zealand and the US - pledges to co-operate for 'prosperity, resilience, and security in the Pacific' and seems squarely aimed at countering China in the region.

In fact, as Richard Harman points out, the PBP is of such a delicate nature that Wellington has almost pretended it does not exist: a White House statement remains the only official announcement of New Zealand's involvement.

The Partners in the Blue Pacific announcement came a month after Jacinda Ardern visited Joe Biden in the White House at the end of May, a key outcome of which was Wellington's joint statement with Washington that itemised a long list of typical US complaints about China.

On the Pacific, Ardern has sided with the Western position that essentially seeks to keep China out of the region. In April, she said there was "no need" for Solomon Islands to sign a security deal with China. Citing the Pacific Islands Forum's Biketawa Declaration - a mutual regional support pledge signed after the Fiji coup in 2000 - Ardern expressed the view that the arrangement between Beijing and Honiara crossed a "very clear line".

Since then, Ardern has also been careful to show unity with Canberra by repeating Australian lines of "our backyard" and "Pacific family" to describe New Zealand's own relationship with the Pacific.

More broadly, the prime minister and her foreign minister, Nanaia Mahuta, have talked up the role of the Pacific Islands Forum - which Ardern described at Chatham House as "the place for discussing and determining regional security needs".

Later this week, Nanaia Mahuta is scheduled to attend the Forum's foreign ministers' meeting in Fiji, which will be followed by Ardern's participation in the leaders' summit next week.

Effectively, the Pacific Islands Forum will be the West's chance to make a counter offer to China's multilateral ambitions for the region that foreign minister Wang Yi unveiled on his tour of the Pacific in May.

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi toured the Pacific Region in May. Photo: AFP

New Zealand's Pacific-focused, post-Ukraine tilt towards the West might now seem locked in: China's security deal with Solomon Islands that was first leaked in March and its subsequent even grander plans for the region arguably forced Wellington's hand.

But that does not mean there is no room, or no time, or no reason for a major rethink.

Last week's mediocre free trade deal with the EU - which gave New Zealand only minor gains in the crucial meat and dairy sectors that make up 40 percent of its exports - only underlined the simple fact that New Zealand needs China more than ever.

The EU and the US are unwilling - or unable - to put their money where their mouths are.

They are failing to match their rhetoric of solidarity with the kinds of high-quality trade deals that New Zealand would need as any kind of China substitute.

By contrast, China remains a willing and able buyer of a massive 33 percent of New Zealand's exports, especially of the butter, cheese and beef that the EU would rather exclude from the bloc on protectionist grounds.

For the foreseeable future, China will remain New Zealand's biggest trading partner - by far.

There is no Plan B.

*Geoffrey Miller is the Democracy Project's geopolitical analyst and writes on current New Zealand foreign policy and related international issues. He has lived in Germany and the Middle East and is a learner of Arabic and Russian.

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Jacinda Ardern’s photo with Prince William reveals change to Kensington …

Posted: at 11:35 pm

The Express reports that the photo featuring Ardern and William reveals "some subtle but significant changes to the home's reception room since members of the public last saw it".

"At the time [of the Obamas' visit], the room was shown to have a neutral colour scheme, with two matching cream sofas, an array of light-coloured armchairs for visitors and a large octagonal ottoman in the centre of the room that was also finished in a cream fabric with intricate gold detailing."

However, according to the outlet, the new photo shows that the ottoman has been reupholstered with a "much brighter floral print" that "brings out the red accents in the room's lampshades and floral print cushions". However, those remain unchanged.

The apartment apparently has 20 rooms, including five reception rooms and three master bedrooms.

The New Zealand Prime Minister visited William on her last day in London. She was in the United Kingdom as part of her five-day Europe travel.

While with William, Ardern gifted him a book and a Women's Rugby World Cup jersey and ball.

Ardern told media Prince William has a "very close relationship with New Zealand". But she didn't reveal whether any Royal visits to NZ were in the works, saying those announcements would be made by the Royal household.

She previously met with UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson.

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Prince William Meets With New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern – Harper’s BAZAAR

Posted: at 11:35 pm

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Prince William has welcomed New Zealand's Jacinda Arden on her first trip to the U.K. since the pandemic.

The Duke of Cambridge held an audience to the young prime minister this morning at Kensington Palace. In a photo released by the palace, the pair smile as they chat, while sitting on a pair of sofas at the duke's London residence.

William wears a classic navy suit and a blue dress shirt sans tie, while Ardern wears a floral maxi dress with elbow-length sleeves.

Ardern has visited London for talks with U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson, regarding trade and the ongoing war in Ukraine. After meeting yesterday, the pair issued a joint statement condemning Russia's invasion of Ukraine and committing to "working harder to support an international [trading] system."

The Kensington Palace audience was the first meeting between Prince William and Prime Minister Ardern since the duke traveled to New Zealand in April 2019, in the wake of the tragic shootings at two mosques in the city Christchurch. During his visit, the duke met with the victims of the shootings and laid a wreath on the cenotaph at the Auckland War Memorial Museum, on behalf of Queen Elizabeth.

In 2017, Ardern became the youngest female head of government at age 37 upon her election to New Zealand's highest office. Significant moments during her tenure include the passing of strict gun laws in the wake of the Christchurch terrorist attack, as well as the country's swift response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

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Fran O’Sullivan: Ardern, Albanese have plenty to chew over – New Zealand Herald

Posted: at 11:35 pm

There will be a lot of focus on the relationship between Jacinda Ardern and Australian leader Anthony Albanese.

OPINION:

Jacinda Ardern's United States foray was delayed by Covid. Now Grant Robertson has come down with the virus.

He is not quite jinxed yet, however.

Robertson is still confident of attending next week's pivotal meeting of Australian political and business power brokers in Sydney: the Australia New Zealand Leadership Forum (ANZLF), which will take place for the first time since September 2019, before the Covid pandemic emerged. That's because all things being equal he will get the all-clear to cross the Tasman on Thursday morning in time to join forum attendees for the first plenary reception.

If he had tested positive another day or so later, it would have been a Zoom call or nothing at all.

The Prime Minister will also be back in town from her successful foray building support from European political leaders to get negotiations on the bilateral free trade agreement over the line. She will have a fireside chat with Australia's new Prime Minister Anthony Albanese at a forum dinner later that night.

Businesspeople present will be judging the verbal and physical semaphore between the two leaders to get a sense of how this new PM-to-PM relationship is unfolding. There will be humour. Some transtasman jostling and hopefully some zinger questions from the audience that evoke pungent and forthright responses to cut through the PR.

It all matters when it comes to building confidence.

But her bilateral business will take place elsewhere the annual meeting of the two prime ministers takes place on Friday morning before the Air Force 757 departs at 1pm (Australian Eastern Standard Time) for New Zealand.

The theme of this year's forum is "The Great Acceleration Emerging Stronger Together", pointing to the acceleration of trends arising from the pandemic's impact and how Australia and New Zealand can emerge from global disruptions stronger together.

The Finance Minister who has multiple gigs at the forum told me at Air New Zealand's parliamentary reception this week that he was looking forward to a conversation with the new Labor Treasurer Jim Chalmers on the economic growth challenges post-Covid.

That session will be chaired by McKinsey's David Dyer and is expected to invite some engagement with the participants.

It is central to the forum's theme.

The economic relationship matters to both countries, with two-way trade worth $23.33 billion in 2022 and significant two-way investment flows.

However, Covid impacted the flow of trade as well as people between Australia and New Zealand. That two-way trade figure is down from $27.7b in the year to March 2020.

Both countries share some problems. Both are dealing with international ructions such as war, pandemics and climate change, and are seeking to deepen relationships through emerging architecture like the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework.

The cost of living crisis; emerging issues with our major trading partner China (more so for Australia, which has a habit of poking the panda); monetary policy; supply chains; housing bubbles (ours is bigger); and the Great Resignation to tip just a few.

One advantage for Australia is its ability to tap into our most valuable export across the Tasman people.

The Great Resignation is now accompanied by the Great Exodus.

We are staring down a developing situation where go-ahead people in New Zealand who can't actually get ahead here will simply go to Australia instead, to fill labour gaps in its economy, and get paid more so they can buy homes. Australia (and Singapore) have capitalised on these situations before by offering tax breaks and even baby bonuses for people who shift nations.

ANZLF's New Zealand director Fiona Cooper relates that this year's forum will have a strong focus on transtasman collaboration on climate change, strengthening transtasman digital connections, the shared challenge of labour and skill shortages and economic growth challenges post-Covid-19.

"We will also discuss the challenges and opportunities for transtasman business in a range of sectors and spheres including international trade, foreign policy, indigenous business, tourism, science and innovation, infrastructure and health innovation," says Cooper.

Under her leadership on this side of the Tasman complemented by her Australia counterpart Charlotte Renwick Cooper has built multiple working groups to focus on common policy issues and present solutions.

Among the workstreams: health technology; indigenous business of the 250 expected attendance at this forum there is a major indigenous group; infrastructure; innovation; and tourism.

There are six Cabinet ministers taking part: Ardern and Robertson will be joined by Stuart Nash (Tourism), Willie Jackson (Mori Development), Ayesha Verrall (Associate Health ) and James Shaw (Climate).

The forum has previously been promoted as a "successful symbol of transtasman togetherness", but it hasn't always been so.

The first at Government House in Wellington in 2004 was dominated by Australian interests who believed all would be just fine if New Zealand only adopted their institutions and formed common banking regulators, competition regulators and merged the national flag carriers. Hugh Morgan, then CEO of Western Mining, even gave the Kiwis a slap for under-investing in defence and the emergence of the Anzus debacle.

Later forums focused on proposals for common borders and common currencies.

If anything, it was the development of the Single Economic Market (SEM) concept under the leadership of former Australian Treasurer Peter Costello and the late Finance Minister Michael Cullen which forged a common purpose both sides could sign up to.

The ANZLF has put forward new measures to further strengthen the e-commerce and digital trade element of the SEM agenda. And it has recommended a transtasman Digital Economy Agreement to bring the governance and enabling of the digital economy into the Single Economic Market and help future-proof a more seamless transtasman regulatory environment.

Says Cooper: "We look forward to meeting with representatives of the new Australian Government and the New Zealand Government and to having new conversations on matters of common interest such as climate change.

"This will be an important meeting for sharing business priorities with both governments in preparation for some key bilateral milestones in 2023, including 80 years of diplomatic relations, and 40 years of our ground-breaking Closer Economic Relations trade agreement."

Cooper says the forum is looking forward to the outcome of the joint prime ministerial meeting including on SEM issues.

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How football shirts chart the rise and fall of tech giants – Rest of World

Posted: at 11:34 pm

Its the ultimate status symbol, a level of exposure achieved by few companies but one available to any company thats willing and able to pay a hefty price. Its an honor that costs millions of dollars, and in return, your companys logo is on the TV screens of millions of people every week.

Sponsoring a football club proper football, that is is more than just a business transaction. Its about using the worlds most watched sport to promote your brand. Getting your companys logo on the shirt of a team like Liverpool or Real Madrid means tying your brand to a global icon. And for decades, its been a route taken by emerging tech companies, flush with cash to burn and a name to earn.

But these sponsorships actually reveal something about the tech industry as a whole: when you trace the history of these commercial deals across the decades, patterns emerge. Rather than individual companies, entire sectors of the industry from cars to consumer tech to gambling websites seem to jump into the sport at once, signaling their rise to, or the desire to, dominate global markets where football is also part of everyday life. Its no coincidence, for example, that mobile phone companies turned to sponsoring football clubs during the beginning of the new millenium: with handsets becoming increasingly common and 3G just around the corner, companies like Samsung and Vodafone wasted no time in paying record amounts to some of the most successful clubs in England.

Rest of World took a look at some of the more memorable shirt sponsorship deals in football from Sonys affiliation with Italys champions to Rakutens deal with a Spanish giant and what they say about the rise and fall of the tech sectors those companies represented.

Japanese consumer electronics brands were among the first tech companies to dive into shirt sponsorship. Their logos adorned the shirts of clubs from England to Italy across the 80s and 90s, mirroring the rise of those companies in the wider world: these were the decades dominated by the Walkman and the Game Boy.

Some of those companies were household names before their sponsorship of the English football teams; others used it to secure their place as a global brand. Believe it or not, Samsung Mobile was a small player in the world of handsets when their deal began with Chelsea in 2005. By the time it ended in 2015, Samsung was the biggest smartphone maker in the world. (Chelsea was pretty successful too.)

Not all sponsorship deals work out. Rakuten is one of Japans leading e-commerce platforms, but putting their logo on the shirts of one of the most recognized football teams did little to expand their brand abroad. Kejian, a mobile phone maker, may have thought it was onto something great when it signed up to sponsor Everton, which also landed two Chinese players as part of the deal. Kejian folded in 2013, but the sponsorship deal was still a groundbreaker: at that point, the company only sold its phones in China. Kejian might have been the first company to use the shirts of an English football club to target an audience halfway across the world, but it wasnt the last.

Kejians idea might seem counterintuitive, but the English Premier League is a global product: the league claims matches are shown in 188 of the worlds 193 countries recognised by the United Nations. In the 2010s, another rapidly growing tech sector took advantage of this: online gambling companies. By the end of the decade, half of the leagues 20 teams had gambling logos on the fronts of their shirts, many of them for companies targeting audiences in Asia.

Which sector will dominate the 2020s? Edtech platforms are starting to take an interest, as seen with Colombias Platzi, which sponsors Spanish La Liga team Granada, and Indian unicorn Byjus, which sponsors the Kerala Blasters. But if you take a look at the wider world of sports, the answer is obvious: crypto. From the NBA to Formula 1, crypto logos are everywhere, and football is no different. Binances logo adorns the shirts of Lazio, while fellow Italian club Inter Milan is already on its second blockchain-based shirt sponsor.

Its unclear what impact the market meltdown will have on crypto companies and whether theyll still have the money for high-profile sporting sponsorships. But as the past decades have shown: theres always another set of tech companies ready to pay up.

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Digital Entertainment (Video, Music, Games) Market from the Tech Giants Perspective – ResearchAndMarkets.com – Business Wire

Posted: at 11:34 pm

DUBLIN--(BUSINESS WIRE)--The "Tech Giants in Digital Entertainment" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering.

This report examines the digital entertainment market (video, music, games) from the specific perspective of the Tech Giants.

The introductory section describes the market dynamics of digital entertainment revenues and consumption trends. Some of the Tech Giants' key assets are then presented.

The next section addresses digital entertainment revenues and usage by segment (video, music, video games). For each segment, the relative positioning and global market shares of the Tech Giants are documented.

The major Internet players are then analysed in detail with respect to their positioning in digital entertainment and associated business models. Revenues by segment (video/music/video games) are documented, sometimes through estimates. We profile players from the United States (Amazon, Apple, Google/YouTube, Meta/Facebook), from China (Alibaba, Tencent) or both (TikTok/Bytedance).

In the final section, the report describes the market prospect from different angles. It first analyses the impact of Tech Giants on the entertainment industry. Then, it details the various drivers and barriers to the further development of Tech Giants in digital entertainment.

Finally, market forecasts propose an evolution of the Tech Giants' market share in the global entertainment industry until 2025. The evolution of the market shares of the top 3 players by segment are also presented.

Key Topics Covered:

1. Executive Summary

2. Market dynamics

2.1. The digital entertainment market - Sizing and trends

2.2. Digital advertising revenues

2.3. App revenues

2.4. Digital entertainment consumption

2.5. Addressable market

2.6. Financial weight of Tech Giants

2.7. Technologies and platforms

2.8. Enhanced reality

3. Market segments

3.1. Video services - Revenues and usages

3.2. Video services - Positioning of Tech Giants

3.3. Music services - Revenues and usages

3.4. Music services - Positioning of Tech Giants

3.5. Video games - Revenues and usages

3.6. Video games - Positioning of Tech Giants

4. Players' profiles

5. Market prospect

5.1. Impacts of Tech Giants on the entertainment industry

5.2. Market development factors for Tech Giants

5.3. Market prospect - Forecasts 2025

For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/iud9gi

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Ireland is home to these 18 US tech titans and they’re hiring – Siliconrepublic.com

Posted: at 11:34 pm

Dublin and Cork are two of Irelands major hubs favoured by US tech giants from Apple to ServiceNow. But there are lots of jobs on offer all over the country this 4 July.

Towards the end of last month, the 2022 edition of the Most Attractive Employers Index Ireland found that Irish Gen Z and millennial students had their sights set on working for big tech multinationals.

The index revealed that IT and engineering students rated Google and Intel as their most attractive employers, respectively, with Microsoft, Apple and Amazon close behind.

Why did the students surveyed pick these US-headquartered tech giants? Perhaps it has something to do with the prestige of working for a big name, international company. Or, the index suggested that students may associate these companies with market success, a willingness to embrace new technologies and innovation.

So, if youre interested in working with a major US tech player, heres a list of 18 companies currently growing their Irish teams.

California-headquartered software company Adobe has had a presence in Ireland for two decades. It currently employs almost 4,000 people here, having grown from less than 100 Ireland-based employees in 2005. Its base is in Dublins Citywest.

The company makes well-known software such as Adobe Reader and Photoshop. It is currently recruiting for a number of tech and engineering roles in Dublin, such as tech support engineers and tech support consultants.

The online accommodation rental platform has its European headquarters in Dublin. Founded in the US in 2008, it began hiring in Ireland in 2013.

In 2016, Airbnb unveiled a new office at Hanover Quay in Dublin, along with 200 new jobs. It currently has around 500 workers in Ireland, and its still hiring.

The companys CEO, Brian Chesky, said in April that all Airbnb employees would be allowed to live and work anywhere to fully take advantage of flexible working practices.

Alphabet is the parent company of tech giant Google. While Google recently featured across the board in the top 10 most attractive employers to Irish students, Alphabet ranked in third place in LinkedIns list of the best places to work in Ireland in 2022.

Google has several offices in Dublin. While it rowed back on a previous decision to lease an office in Dublins Docklands in 2020, it was granted permission earlier this year to establish a new campus in the city centre, which could accommodate up to 1,700 employees.

The company is still hiring here and no doubt will continue making use of Irelands tech and engineering graduates. Recently, its head of engineering in Dublin, Dr Jessica McCarthy, told SiliconRepublic.com that Ireland is crying out for talent.

Analog Devices has been in Ireland since the 1970s and currently employs around 1,300 staff here. The US semiconductor company announced earlier this year that it plans to create 250 new jobs in Ireland by 2025.

It is looking to add new recruits with software and AI skills to work in areas such as industry 4.0, sustainable energy and next-generation connectivity.

The companys recent 100m investment in Co Limerick will be key to its continued European expansion. It is planning to build a new facility for innovation, called ADI Catalyst, at its Irish base in Raheen Business Park in Limerick.

Amazon has several sites in Ireland, with offices in Dublin and Cork as well as data centres. After first opening an office in Ireland in 2004, Amazon extended its presence in the country and Amazon Web Services (AWS) came to Ireland in 2007.

Over the past few years, Amazon has consistently announced big hiring plans for its Irish operations. In 2018, it said it was creating 1,000 new tech jobs at a new facility in Dublin 4.

In 2020, Amazon pledged to bring its Irish workforce up to 5,000 with a hiring announcement for Cork and Dublin, and last year it said it was hiring500 people for its new fulfilment centre in Dublin.

The tech giant was recently named the biggest company in Ireland by The Irish Times as part of its Top 1000 list. Apple first came to Cork in 1980 and has grown its operations in Ireland significantly since then.

To mark Apples 40th anniversary in Ireland, SiliconRepublic.com editor Elaine Burke described its humble origins in Cork with just 60 employees. These days, Apple employs more than 6,000 people and its Cork campus is vast.

In April of this year, the company opened a new multimillion-euro engineering and test facility at its Cork site, and revealed plans for further expansion.

Apple, which recently became the first company in the world to surpass a $3trn valuation, is hiring for several roles in Ireland currently.

Cisco may have just announced it is exiting Russia and Belarus, but it is still going strong and hiring in Ireland.

The Silicon Valley-based manufacturer and designer of networking tech equipment has two facilities in Ireland. It employs more than 300 staff across its product design and development, marketing, manufacturing, HR and software engineering divisions.

In 2018, Cisco CEO Chuck Robbins visited Ireland to announce the creation of 100 new jobs to help further the companys capabilities in AI, machine learning and the internet of things, in Galway and Dublin.

In March of this year, Cisco scooped the top spot in Irelands best large workplaces list for the second year running.

The Californian tech giants portfolio spans personal computers, printers, software, services and other IT infrastructure.

HP first set up operations in Ireland in the early 1970s and since then it has grown steadily, with locations in Kildare, Galway, Belfast and Dublin.

In May, HP appointed Val Gabriel as its new managing director for Ireland. Gabriel said he hopes to build on the companys cybersecurity, hybrid working and sustainability capabilities.

IBMs Irish headquarters are located on Dublins Shelbourne Road. The company has been in Ireland since 1956, having been founded way back in 1911 in the US.

In a piece about the companys 100-year anniversary in 2011, former SiliconRepublic.com editor John Kennedy recalled attending company events in the 90s in the Shelbourne Hotel, where IBM had started its first Irish operation in one room. By 2011, IBM had grown to more than several thousand employees at its west-Dublin campus alone.

In May of this year, IBM announced the creation of 200 new jobs across its operations in Dublin, Cork and Galway. The roles will be in IT, R&D, digital sales, software development, digital security and software engineering. Recruitment is underway and new roles are in addition to the 400 new hires it made here during the pandemic.

The most sought-after employer for Irish engineering students, US chip giant Intel has been in Ireland since 1989.

It employs almost 5,000 people here and plans to add 1,600 roles at its Leixlip campus following the completion of an expansion begun in 2019.

Last year, Intel said it was planning to invest 80bn in its European operations to combat the semiconductor shortage. Intel kicked off its investment in Ireland and several other European countries earlier this year with an initial commitment of 33bn.

Our planned investments are a major step both for Intel and for Europe, said Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger. We are committed to playing an essential role in shaping Europes digital future for decades to come.

Meta has been the name of Facebooks parent company since 2021, when Mark Zuckerberg unveiled plans to focus on the concept of the metaverse.

Facebook has been in Ireland since 2008 after it established its EMEA headquarters in Dublin. Over the years, it has grown its staff headcount significantly. It now employs more than 3,000 people in Ireland and is still growing.

Last October, it said it was planning to hire 10,000 new workers across Europe for its AR and VR projects.

Another tech giant with its EMEA headquarters in Ireland, Microsoft employs nearly 3,000 people at its campus in Leopardstown, whichopened in 2018, and at its data centre in Dublin.

The company has teams across software development, operations, finance, HR, sales and marketing. In February 2021, it said it was going to grow its digital sales team by 200.

Later that year, Anne Sheehan was named as the companys new general manager in Ireland.

Computer software company Oracle set up in Ireland in 1990. Its EMEA headquarters are in Dublin, like many other tech companies on this list.

In 2016, it announced the creation of 450 new jobs in Dublin as part of a wider EMEA recruitment drive.

While there was a risk of job cuts in 2020, Oracle is back hiring in Ireland. Some of the roles on offer at the moment include technical product manager, sales reps, solution architect and field support specialist.

California-headquartered semiconductor company Qualcomm has its main Irish office in Cork. It began hiring in 2013 for its R&D facility in the city.

The chip giant was one of the major players in the smartphone revolution. Its Cork facility began with just 20 staff focusing on security technology and related intellectual property for 3G and 4G devices.

In 2020, Qualcomm announced that it would bring hundreds of new jobs to Cork. Its subsidiary, Qualcomm Technologies, said it planned to invest 78m in a new R&D facility at Penrose Dock in the city.

The US employee experience software company has been expanding in Dublin ever since its arrival on these shores in 2013. It went on hiring sprees in 2014, 2015 and 2018.

Last September, it said it planned to double the size of its Dublin office as part of a major EMEA expansion. Dublin is home to its EMEA headquarters and by 2024 it wants to have 650 staff employed there. In total, Qualtrics said it aimed to hire 1,000 people across its European locations over the coming three years.

In a recent conversation with SiliconRepublic.com, CEO Zig Serafin described Dublin as the epicentre of how we operate across Europe.

The cloud software player provides customer relationship management tools to its worldwide network of clients. It has been in Ireland since the early noughties and its Irish headquarters are in Dublin.

In 2019, it made a major hiring announcement for Dublin with plans to create 1,500 jobs. This announcement coincided with the companys news that it was planning to build a sister Salesforce tower to the one it had in San Francisco.

It is hiring for several tech roles in Ireland currently.

Californian software company ServiceNow has been operating in Ireland since 2018. Last April, it said it planned to hire 300 new staff for its Dublin office.

The company said its hiring plans in Ireland were part of a broader push to grow in Europe. It said it was looking to recruit engineering and digital sales staff over the next three years.

The previous year, ServiceNow said it was developing a data centre in Dublin to serve customers in Ireland and wider Europe.

The California-headquartered cloud computing and virtualisation tech company first established itself in Ireland in the mid-noughties, opening an office in Cork.

Last month, VMware said it was hiring 205 staff in Ireland, with all the roles to be in place by 2025. The company has a hub in Dublin, however staff will have the option to work remotely.

The new hires will be involved in VMWares efforts to create new cloud tech. Ireland is the companys third largest location globally with more than 1,000 employees.

US semiconductor manufacturing company Broadcom recently announced it plans to acquire VMware. If Broadcoms planned acquisition of the company goes through, it will be the second major change in its operations since it spun out of Dell last year.

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Commentary: Tech companies need to stop the cheap ploys and do more to support human rights – GeekWire

Posted: at 11:34 pm

(Bigstock Photo)

Editors note: The following is commentary from Megan McNally, a business attorney and founder of theFBomb Breakfast Club, a peer support community for women founders and business owners.

Abortion is healthcare.

When the Supreme Court released its opinion in Dobbs vs. Jackson Womens Health Organization Friday, the tech community was quick to praise Microsoft, Meta, and other industry leaders for pledging to cover healthcare and travel costs for employees no longer able to access healthcare safely where they live.

But this benefit, like so many corporate actions in the days and weeks after George Floyds murder, is a cheap, disingenuous ploy. And deploying these benefits could be dangerous for employees.

Lets start with the cheap ploy.

What were these tech giants doing when the Senate refused to hold confirmation hearings for the Supreme Court nominee of a sitting President in 2016?

How about when three ultra-conservative nominees were plucked directly from Leonard Leos list to re-shape the Court, even while out of step with the majority of Americans, 62% of whom say they are moderate or liberal in their ideology?

What were they doing between May 2, when the draft Dobbs opinion was leaked, and now?

They were funding all of it. Thats what tech companies were doing.

Amazon, Microsoft, and Googles PACs were among those funding politicians who scored zero on the Human Rights Campaigns Congressional scorecard.

Amazon, Facebook, and T-Mobile were among those funding the Republican Attorneys General Association (RAGA), a group that actively organized the January 6 insurrection.

In 2016, 51.28% of Amazon.coms PACs contributions went to Republican candidates. The company ratcheted up its GOP contributions 242% in 2018.

I could go on, and its hard to have the full picture thanks to dark money. But enough information is in the light to illuminate the robust, active role of Big Tech in shaping Congress and thus federal appointments, law, and funding.

Lets turn to the very dangerous idea that any employee should disclose to their employer that they or a family member are seeking an abortion.

Its important that tech companies offer health plans that cover the full range of human healthcare for every human. Its imperative that employers remove barriers like the cost of travel for accessing healthcare when one cant do so safely where they live.

But its problematic: accessing this particular benefit means the health plan now has a record. If the health plan has a record, the employer does, too. Its especially fraught when you consider growing movements promoting whistle blowing to private citizens by suing doctors or anyone who assists a woman in getting an abortion see Texas and Oklahoma, for example.

While a matrix of health privacy and employment law should theoretically activate to prevent most employers from being able to access and use that information in individual employment related decisions, no one should be fooled into trusting this patchwork legal framework given the precedent now set by Dobbs.

The Dobbs decision, taken with other decisions this term (see, for example, Kennedy vs. Bremerton, Vega vs. Tekoh, and New York State Rifle & Pistol Association, Inc. vs. Bruen), profoundly changes our understanding of constitutional rights. In overturning Roe vs. Wade, the Court has eviscerated the very (supposedly) American concept of due process and put all of us on notice regarding the right to privacy.

Writing for the Dobbs majority, Justice Alito said that Roe held that the abortion right, which is not mentioned in the Constitution, is part of a right to privacy, which is also not mentioned. Because the right to privacy is not explicit in the text of the Constitution (the importance to them of which is mentioned repeatedly), and we now have a majority Court of textualists, one would be foolish not to expect challenges to other rights that have been found within the implied right to privacy, including in the areas of employment and health. And so neither is it foolish to be concerned that accessing abortion through an employer-sponsored health plan will put employees at risk of career-altering bias and discrimination, the risk at which will fall disproportionately to those who have no alternative but to rely on their employer for this care.

If tech leaders really care about human rights, heres what they should do right now:

The U.S. is becoming an increasingly divided country with egregious gaps between the haves and have-nots, and an alarmingly dangerous place for Black, indigenous, and people of color, for women, LGBTQ people, and immigrants.

Tech companies shouldnt be hailed a hero for dropping press releases with performative band-aid solutions to problems they funded. This is a crisis of their own making.

Denying people healthcare means denying them the right to participate fully in society. Thanks Amazon, Facebook, Microsoft et al for underwriting the disaster now unfolding. Forgive me if Im not ready to give you a humanitarian medal.

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