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Concern at level of libel award against Independent group

cash The National Union of Journalists in Ireland has expressed grave concern at the level of damages awarded to communications consultant Monica Leech in her action against Independent Newspapers. NUJ Irish Secretary Séamus Dooley said the record damages of €1.87 mwere “disproportionate and bore no relationship with reality.” more

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Norwich may be UNESCO City of Literature
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books The City of Norwich will bid to become England’s first UNESCO City of Literature by 2010. Norwich readers, writers, libraries, the University of East Anglia, bookshops, printers, museums, media, the city and county councils and Arts Council England are all involved in the bid. more

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27june09 319
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Recent News

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Press freedom affirmed in Belfast
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Journalist Suzanne Breen won the right to withhold material relating to the Real IRA from the state, in a landmark ruling on press freedom on June 18, 2009 in a Belfast court. At Belfast Recorders Court, Judge Thomas Burgess ruled Breen's life would be at risk if she handed over interview notes and other information connected to an interview she conducted with the Real IRA after it killed two British soldiers in March, 2009. more

© www.askaboutwriting.net
20june09 318
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Justice looks into Google deal
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books Google may be facing a new threat to its plan to digitize millions of books. The United States Department of Justice is reported as beginning an inquiry into a $125m settlement the company reached with publishers earlier this year. Under the terms of the deal, the company agreed a payout to publishers to settle a 2005 suit filed over the company's decision to digitize copyrighted works. more

© www.askaboutwriting.net
13june09 317
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Ulysses for £275,000
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ulysses If it’s June there has to be a Ulysses story. So, if you have a rare first edition of James Joyce’s 1922 novel Ulysses it could sell for as much as £275,000. That is the price paid for the Dubliner’s book by a private buyer in London at an antiquarian book fairs, this week. more

© www.askaboutwriting.net
06june09 316
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Journalist faces jail
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note Journalist Suzanne Breen faces jail in Northern Ireland for refusing to hand her notes to the police. The Northern Ireland editor of the Dublin-based Sunday Tribune is resisting an order to surrender confidential sources of information relating to articles about the Real IRA. more

© www.askaboutwriting.net
30may09 315
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No citizen journalism on the world
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man radio The BBC World Service has ended Your Story its citizen journalism project. The service invited participants around the world to submit ideas for stories and news reports. Ot ended for want of funding. more

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30may09 315
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Samuel Johnson money cut
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The prize fund for the BBC Samuel Johnson Prize for Non-Fiction has been reduced by £10,000.
Now in its 11th year the award is said to be the richest non-fiction prize in the UK.
Previously worth £30,000 to the winner, the prize has dropped to £20,000. more

© www.askaboutwriting.net
23may09 314
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Ivy twittering at 103
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More than 4,000 people signed up within two days to read the Twitter postings of a 103-year-old woman in Britain. Ivy Bean lives in a care home and had some 4,800 friends on the social network Facebook before she switched to the shorter form of Twitter, which encourages users to post messages with a limit of 140 characters. more

© www.askaboutwriting.net
16may09 313
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Richard & Judy ends for now
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The influential Richard & Judy chatshow is to be dropped from digital television in the UK, from July. The ending of the show puts the future of the Richard & Judy Book Club into question since there will be no TV show to underscore the club’s selection of books. more

© www.askaboutwriting.net
16may09 313
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Libraries reduce book budgets
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books in hand Authors are seeing purchases of their books being reduced in Irish public libraries as a result of the economic downturn. Libraries in Co Monaghan were told the new-book budget of €165,000 was suspended.In Galway city and county’s 30 libraries funding was cut from €550,000 to €100,000. more

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16may09 313
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No buyer for Irish papers
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Johnston Press has called off the sale of its Irish newspaper business. hammer finance The group had sought to sell its 13 regional papers in the Republic
But, the publisher said prices offered were not high enough to make a sale. more

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16may09 313
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Google settlement changes
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The federal court overseeing the Google Book Search Copyright Settlement in the United States extended the opt-out deadline in the case from May 5, 2009 to September 4. The Booksellers Association repeated its warning that the settlement between Google and the US Author's Guild and the Association of American Publishers results in Google being handed a monopoly. more

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02may09 311
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Twittering away
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More than 60 percent of Twitter users stop using the micro-blogging service a month after joining, according to Nielsen Online research. Users write messages to one another to a limit of 140 characters, which is about the length of two average-size sentences. more

© www.askaboutwriting.net
02may09 311
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Writers reading in Dublin
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The Irish Writers' Centre is launching a series of writing weeks in a continuing effort to re-position the centre The Dublin city centre faced a survival challenge when the Arts Council unexpectedly dropped its grant to the centre. The weeks are designed to offer the chance to participate in creative writing courses, seminars, literary events and workshops. more

© www.askaboutwriting.net
02may09 311
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New Simon & Schuster website
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www Simon & Schuster UK launched a new website on Mayday. More than 100 authors contributed exclusive original content to the site and more material will be added daily, said the publisher.
For detail, see the website .

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02may09 311
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Sharks appear at newspaper office
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swimmers Australian journalists are used to dealing with sharks in their trawl through the flotsam and jetsom of daily life.
However, when a live shark was left lying at the front door of the town's Warrnambool, Victoria, Standard newspaper staff had no idea of any person that wished them any harm or wished to send them any type of message. Still. more

© www.askaboutwriting.net
25apr09 310
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Press Gazette lives on
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Press Gazette, the magazine and news website for journalists, has been saved from possible closure after being acquired by publisher Progressive Media. Online news coverage and on Press Gazette's network of blogs has resumed. more

© www.askaboutwriting.net
25apr09 310
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Recent News

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Telling Tales on air
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thinker A new programme for writers and writing will air on West Dublin Access Radio on May 9. Telling Tales will use the resources of writingclub.org and askaboutwriting.net to broadcast news of writing and opportunities for writers and storytellers on the community station.
The show will include interviews with storytellers, or writers in the news, each week. more

© www.askaboutwriting.net
18apr09 309
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Has the book come in yet?
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running man Have you ever waited and waited for a book to be returned to the library so you could borrow it ? An anonymous borrower sent a Portsmouth library a £20 donation after keeping one of its book for 32 years. But has still not returned the book on railways. more

© www.askaboutwriting.net
18apr09 309
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Working safely with children
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ghost The Arts Council/An Chomhairle Ealaíon has posted some guidelines for sole practitioners on its website, in response to requests from the arts sector. The code of practice aims to provide support and guidance to artists working with children and young people in a solo capacity as practitioners, facilitators or tutors. more

© www.askaboutwriting.net
04apr09 307
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Cost-cutting Playboy withdraws
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Playboy magazine, famed among men for its great articles, is to streamline operations across the company. This will include the elimination of additional positions and reduction of other expenses, said the company. Latest news from the troubled publisher is that from Mayday onwards it will leave its Fifth Avenue offices to integrate its operations elsewhere. more

© www.askaboutwriting.net
04apr09 307
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Dracula to attack Dublin
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vampire Dracula will be seen all over Dublin throughout the month of April. His re-appearance may cause terror and dismay amongst native and visitor alike.
The creation of Dublin writer Bram Stoker, the account of the vampire Count Dracula’s life has been in print since 1897. more

© www.askaboutwriting.net
28mar09 306
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Dead man’s words sell
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Orwell the life It seems to be a good career move to die if you wish to be paid lots for your writing.
Letters written in the 1930s by George Orwell who died in 1950 were sold last week at auction, in London, for £84,000.
The letters discuss the writing of his first two books. more

© www.askaboutwriting.net
28mar09 306
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Writers Centre takes action
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The board of the Irish Writers Centre has acknowledged its responsibility for mistakes made in the past that led to its €200,000 Arts Council grant being suddenly withdrawn in January, 2009. Action has been taken in response to the withdrawal of financial support. Founder members Jack Harte and John F. Deane have agreed to return to the Board. more

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Facing the book
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reader More people are using social networking sites than are using email, according to a new survey. A Nielsen survey of users' habits found 65.1 per cent of web users use web email; but 66.8 per cent log on to social network sites. more

Authors to get library payments
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PLR Authors may now apply to receive payments when their books are borrowed from public libraries in Ireland.
The Public Lending Remuneration Scheme was established with exchequer funding.
Writers and illustrators and translators who register their books with the Library Council may be eligible to receive a payment each time the book is borrowed from one of the country’s 358 public libraries. more

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Arts Council cuts Creative Writers Network funding
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scissors The Arts Council in Northern Ireland has cut financial support to the Creative Writers Network CWN. This £ 60, 000 cut in literary support means two salaried posts will terminate by the end of March, said CWN in a statement. CWN is seeking a review of the decision. here

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New books pile up
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boxes of books More than 300 new titles were published every day in the UK in 2008. There are now more than five million English-language books available to readers in the Nielsen Book database which logs books published in Ireland and the UK. Add in another three million for other countries and the number rises to eight million published titles. more

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Who lived where in 1911
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man with bag In just two years time the centenary of 1911 will be noted with new books and programmes. The authorities in both Ireland and the UK have opened online access to the 1911 census returns. more

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Arise Sir Terry the Writer
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Author Terry Pratchett is to receive a knighthood from the Queen of England for his services to literature. The writer has sold more than 60 million copies of his books and has been translated into 37 languages. The author of fantasy makes up a quarter of the books on a list of permanent sellers with titles from his Discworld series. more

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Pulitzer Prizes to include online-only publications
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The Pulitzer Prizes in journalism, which honour the work of American newspapers appearing in print, have been expanded to include text-based newspapers and news organizations that publish only on the Internet, the Pulitzer Prize Board has announced. more

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