Spokane's The Spokesman-Review is what I call a photo-friendly newspaper. The editors there, those in management and the trenches, get it about using photography and telling community stories effectively.

Colin Mulvany who used his still camera at that paper for a number of years has now shifted to using his video camera to create Video Journal, a terrific video blog or vlog.

The stories are almost always community oriented. They are edited with great precision and carried me from one video post to another because the narrative is so compelling in each of them. I recommend a broad-band connection, though a lo-bandwidth version is also conveniently available.

According to Melissa Lyttle, “Finding The Frame” is a series of posts on the Video Journal site “where a Spokesman-Review photojournalist gets to talk about how a picture came together, and the audio gives you some insight into what they were thinking when they shot it.”

[Tip o' the hat to A Photo A Day]

The actor Joaquin Phoenix apparently lost his brakes and collided with another car.

Here is what I find terribly annoying about entertainment journalism – it is woefully incomplete. We know the actor lost his brakes. We know his car flipped over. We know he hit someone else. We know he walked away uninjured.

Um, I reread the Associated Press article that was provided to MSNBC.com and was left wondering about the the folks in the car Mr. Phoenix hit? Did they walk away as well? After all, Mr. Phoenix' car “overturned.” And for a car to flip over, it had to have been going pretty darn fast or hit something pretty hard. Trust me, I have seen a SUV get hit and flip over. It ain't pretty. Did he hit a woman, a man, a car-load full of kids? Whom did he hit and are they ok?

Did MSNBC.com edit that crucial portion of the story off so that it makes it into the “celebrity” section of the site? Or, did AP goof things up? In any event, this story relegates itself to the realm of gossip because of inadequate interesting facts and it fails to inform the public at large what really occurred on the road going eastbound above Sunset Strip. Anyone else find this kind of journalism wholly irresponsible?

The Editors Weblog reports that The Hindu will have an ombudsman so that there is greater transparency and “social responsibility” towards its readers. Bravo, Mr. N. Ram for establishing such a position.

Also, for those who haven't had a chance to look at that paper recently, I was pleasantly surprised to see the design and layout of the paper has vastly improved. Gone are the long columns of text broken up by awkwardly phrased headlines. The Hindu now publishes in color, with some very good photography as well. The width of the paper, I noticed, had shrunk to what is called “web size,” making it easy to handle, especially if you had a nice hot cuppa decoction, Madras-style, coffee in the other hand. Mmmmm … brings back fond memories.

Much of the press here in the US is more inclined to focus on the relief efforts of Hurricane Katrina and Hurricane Rita, but a gentle reminder – today is the one-year anniversary of the tsunami disaster to strike South and South East Asia.

The South Asian Journalists Association Reporting Fellowships have made it possible for journalists to go back to areas in South and South East Asia, to continue covering the stories from those regions well after the major networks have left the scene.

“The SAJA Reporting Fellowships are aimed at promoting a rare element in 24/7-news-cycle journalism, namely, in-depth and follow-up reporting on major events relating to South Asia or South Asians, long after the breaking-news crews have moved on. For the inaugural year, 2005, SAJA provided three projects a total of $10,000 to do stories about the tsunami aftermath that would not otherwise get covered. The money was raised thanks to the efforts of SAJA members and well-wishers around the country.”

The first series of stories is by veteran journalist Ken Moritsugu:
Tsunami aid distributed unevenly between India's fishing and farming villages and A Rush to Rebuild Leads to Wasted Effort.

Find below an audio slideshow of Moritsugu's findings. Please press on the play button on the lower left to start the show. Remember to also turn your speakers up so that you can hear Mortisugu's words.

As the year ends, I urge you to consider donating to this worthwhile effort. For more information, please email John Laxmi, SAJA's Treasurer at johnlaxmisaja[at]gmail.com.

Kank Mani Dixit, editor of Himal South Asian magazine, who was recently harassed by the Nepali government for his progressive politics wrote in with some good news.

The magazine that had closed down a while ago has been injected with some newfound energy. The zine begins distribution again in October 2005. [Update: I previously stated that the Nepali government was behind the closure. I received a note from Kanak today telling me that it was the lack of funds that shut the zine down in the first place.]

If you are in Nepal, Kanak also welcomes journalists and well-wishers for a tea party kicking off the July-August 2005 ‘coming out' issue of Himal Southasian.

Time: 5 pm, Thursday, 30 June
Place: Yala Maya Kendra, Patan Dhoka
Event: Tea, plus a copy of Himal

It's great to see Himal magazine again in circulation. If you would like the free July 2005 copy please write to distribution[at]himalmag[dot]com. Please support high caliber South Asian journalism.