Electric Trainer

Media coverage of sustainable development

It's a big year for sustainable development, with some important international summits - at the UN next week and in Paris in December. This means development issues will be finding their way into the mass media where they usually don't get much of a look-in.

This presents a challenge for writers and journalists who may not normally cover these areas. It's also a great opportunity for charities and non-governmental organisations, who work tirelessly on improving the lots of people all around the world but whose work often goes unnoticed.

The big effort this year is on agreeing international "sustainable development goals" (SDGs), which will focus the efforts in every country to make the world a fairer, more equal and better  place.

David Thomas Media has been working with Stakeholder Forum and Civicus (based in South Africa) to produce guides that help journalists on the one hand and charities on the other. Greater understanding on both parts will help more accurate and more engaging reporting. And who could argue with that.

If you're a journalist and are scratching your head about all this, I would recommend these resources:

• A Journalist's Toolkit (PDF, from Civicus)
• Sustainable development goals: all you need to know (excellent summary from the Guardian)

If you're in a development charity or NGO, we've created a guide, site and audio podcasts to help you engage with the media:

• Engaging with the Media - online guide and podcasts

It's also worth reading this great advice from Will Tucker, also for the Guardian:

• How to communicate sustainable development goals

 Now let's hope that these issues get much wider and more accurate coverage.

 

Sustainable Development and the Media

One of my more interesting projects over the last 18 months has been developing two new guides to help development charities and media people understand each other better. 

Laudable and worthy though that may sound in general, this year it has a particular importance.

Development will be big news later this year when the UN agrees to Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) for the planet in September, and big climate change talks happen in Paris in December. These could be really significant events.

In the next few weeks we're launching a website with information, advice and podcasts for charities on how to engage with the media, how to understand journalists, and how to clarify what on earth they are trying to say to a wider audience. More on that very soon.

Already available is a handy 'Journalist's Toolkit', which you can download as a PDF thanks to Stakeholder Forum and Civicus, our clients for all this. http://ow.ly/L75kP

It's aimed at bloggers, journalists and journalism trainers, and covers all the main topics surrounding development and poverty alleviation on our planet - water, climate, educating more women, battling corruption...you name it. We also relate each topic to the new UN goals.

So if you find sustainable development confusing, or you think journalists come from another planet, one of these guides will be just the ticket.

Humanising Wikileaks

How is the British media coping with Wikileaks? As a broadcaster, journalist and trainer it's a good question to ask at the end of another fascinating week.

It's been difficult to remember at times that Wikileaks is not the same as Julian Assange. And as John Naughton says, the real story here is the former, not the latter. 

But for journalism to have an impact the story must be relevant and accessible. The best way to do that is to humanise it.  Assange has therefore become the face of Wikileaks. 

[I did a Google image search on 'wikileaks' this morning and half the images on page one are of Assange. Most of the others are rather dull screengrabs. Plus, bizarrely, one photo of Sarah Palin.]

This has been partly deliberate on the part of Assange and his co-workers. He has said it's better to be the organisation's front man than have journalists constantly speculating on who's behind it. 

He's also deliberately blurred two distinct issues this week,  calling Sweden "a cipher" for the US. Full marks to Will Heaven in the Telegraph for pointing out the difference. [For an outline of the Swedish charges, see the Daily Mail.]

So Assange has done little to dissuade anyone of the view that he and Wikileaks are the same thing. This no doubt benefits Wikileaks in the short term. With all the attention on one man, others can get on with their work. [For more on Assange promoting the Wikileaks agenda, read City University's George Brock.]

But does that help us understand what's going on?

Focusing on one man - who happens to look distinctive and have a foreign sounding name - no doubt helps sell papers and get viewers. But parallels with a Bond villain, and headlines about a 'fugitive', don't get to the bigger story about Wikileaks.

Any digital native will point out that Wikileaks is more leak than wiki, but its actions have certainly encouraged new ways for people to express mistrust of governments, and anger when commercial operations are leant on.

Hacktivists - a word I learnt this week - appear to come straight out of a Stieg Larsson thriller, adding to the intrigue around Wikileaks, and bringing DDoS to the news pages.

I suspect DDoS attacks on Visa or Mastercard are the digital equivalent of chaining yourself to the railings: a nuisance to the target institution, but probably more damaging to reputation than to daily operations. 

That's not to belittle the implications. Some admirable causes down the ages have successfully included railings. 

But Wikileaks is more an idea - even a philosophy - than an organisation. Very hard to pin down, and almost impossible to strangle. Equally hard to frame in a news story, not least as there are implications for journalism itself.

You simply have to engage with it. And we've hardly started down that road.

'Small business mentioned in budget' shock!

Well Mr Osborne has spoken. There's plenty of analysis of the coalition's emergency budget elsewhere. Nick Robinson says 'age of austerity' and Robert Peston says...well, something I didn't quite catch.

As promised, I've been listening to it all and reading the press releases, so you don't have to.

Here are some of the areas I think will affect small businesses like you and me.

Value Added Tax

VAT up to 20% (from 17.5%): - the rise from 4th Jan 2011 (after the New Year bank holiday) may persuade some to register for VAT. Getting 20% back off business purchases is a pretty attractive proposition with a rate this high.

VAT Flat Rate Scheme: - because the standard rate is going up, so is the flat rate. For example the Film, radio, TV and video category is currently 10.5%. This will go up in January to 13%. Read more about the flat rate changes: http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/budget2010/bn45.htm

(The reduced rate of VAT will be unchanged at 5%, by the way. And exempt items like kids' clothing and newspapers will remain exempt.)

Income tax and National Insurance

Personal allowance:- individuals and sole traders will be allowed to have an income of £7,475 before paying any tax (up from £6,475). The rates of income tax stay the same.

National Insurance: sole traders' class 2 NI contributions might be unchanged at £2.40 per week. They'll come to a view about it in the autumn. But class 4 NI will be 9% (up from 8%) and the top rate will be 2% (up from 1%). Both from April 2011.

If you're operating as a limited company, class 1 NI on an employee's salary is 12% (up from 11%) and the employer's contribution is 13.8% (up from 12.8%), but with a 'tax holiday' on the latter if you set up from today, and if you employ fewer than 10 people, and set up outside London and south-east. (I'm still checking thresholds and other details on this...so don't quote me...will post again on this.)

Corporation tax for small businesses

Also for limited companies - the small business rate of corporation tax will be reduced to 20% (from 21%). In fact this is the first time I remember a Chancellor talking about the small business rate in a budget speech. He also said he recognised the importance of helping the smallest of businesses. Collectively they (we) are a significant force.

Capital allowances

This year you've been able to put up to £100,000 of capital equipment against your turnover to reduce your tax bill. This is called the Annual Investment Allowance. 

The cap has been reduced to £25,000 from next year - a reduction of 75%. This seems draconian, but most people I work with will not spend that much on capital equipment in a year. And even if you did you can spread the costs above that cap at a rate of (typically) 20% until April 2012, when it will go down to 18%.

Still checking the small print. If you want to have a look yourself (with a stiff drink close at hand*) try the treasury website:
http://www.hm-treasury.gov.uk/junebudget

Let me know how you feel the budget will affect you and your business. And feel free to point out anything I've missed.

Now - time to go out and enjoy the sunshine!

*I suggest cider or perry - the planned increase in duty has now officially been abolished

Dissecting the election: old media vs new

The always fascinating BBC College of Journalism blog has a couple of new posts about the recent election coverage.

Much discussion by a panel of journalists and political activists about the role of new media vs old.

Not many conclusions, but it seems that new media (Twitter & Facebook) furthered the conversation, but didn't start it.

Read a summary of the discussion here.

View a video of the discussion here. 

Taxing times for the nation

It's not often I get to feel smug - at least not with justification.

I've been mesmerised by the sudden realisation throughout the land that Gordon Brown effectively doubled the starting rate of tax in the 2007 budget.

Doubled?? Surely you mean "abolished"? Well don't get me started (again). I went through all that a year ago.

It amazes me that almost no one saw this tax change as a problem a year ago. Even my most fiscally challenged trainees can spot this during our business skills training.

I have no time for Labour MPs who are suddenly feeling rebellious. Last year they either didn't realise their Chancellor was pulling a fast one, or if they did realise, they thought they could keep it under the carpet.

Either way they look less than in touch with the reality of their constituents, and at worst highly cynical.

But that was before the election that never was, and plummeting approval ratings. Now some Labour MPs are worried about their seats. Surprise surprise.

As Polly Toynbee writes today, the problem is that people don't seem to perceive a need for taxes at all. Although I don't agree that New Labour never made the case for tax increases. Tony Blair did that in 1997, saying you had to pay for the services you want.

Perhaps a bit of honesty on taxes - and some fairness - is long overdue. And perhaps more journalists need to cover taxation stories in ways that make sense to their audience.

Alan Johnston Freed!

It's rare to wake up to the Radio 4 news and be overjoyed at the first words you hear. The end of Alan Johnston's ordeal is good news in anybody's book.

Cynics will argue that any Brit who works in Gaza is asking to be kidnapped. But that misses the point. The respect shown towards Alan Johnston by Palestinians as well as others around the world demonstrates that professionalism and calm impartiality are a tremendously powerful force.

It will be interesting to see whether the international attitude to Hamas changes as a result of its role in Alan Johnston's release. Nothing will happen quickly, but this could be a catalyst.

Fascinating too to hear his abductors described in reports as one of Gaza's 'criminal clan'. That echoes (co-incidentally I suspect) the change in terminology from the Brown government following last week's incidents in London and Glasgow.

Suddenly it feels like we're trying to tackle common criminals rather than wage a war on some kind of -ism. Personally I feel more comfortable with the new approach.

New Year Greetings

Happy new year!

As another April 6th flies past more people are slowly waking up to the fact that Gordon Brown pulled a fast one on small companies in last month's budget. Big business gets a 2p cut in corporation tax. Small business gets a 3p rise in corporation tax. How's that meant to work?

I've been wondering why so many people missed it. David Cameron has been taunting Tony Blair about 'not seeming to realise that there were two types of corporation tax'. I get the distinct impression that he didn't realise either until one of his less well-off lackeys pointed it out some time in the week between the Budget and the next PMQs.

I'll admit it's a bit of a pain updating all our training materials following each Budget, but one of the pleasurable side effects for a news junkie like me is comparing the coverage in all the papers the day after.

Almost all talked about the 'abolition' of the starting rate of income tax - a phrase that the Treasury uses. Now in my version of English abolishing a tax is a thing to be celebrated. But in Treasury-speak abolishing the starting rate actually means turning it into the standard rate. This means doubling it - from 10% to 20%.

None of the broadsheets pointed this out in ways that you or I would understand. Which was the only paper to nail it? Step forward the Sun. And to prove it here's the clever - and remarkably simple - graphic they used.