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The rise of social media has brought journalists some powerful new storytelling and information-gathering tools. However, with these new opportunities have come some new risks.

At Reuters, we have just published some social media guidelines that lay out some basic principles and offer recommendations that should prove useful as journalists navigate what can sometimes seem a chaotic landscape.

In building the new guidelines, we’ve embraced some basic principles:

• We encourage the use of social media approaches in Reuters journalism.
• Accuracy, freedom from bias and independence are fundamental to our reputation. These values and the Trust Principles apply to journalism produced using social media just as they have to all other journalism produced by Reuters.
• A distinguishing feature of Reuters is the trust invested in its journalists to rise above personal biases in their work and to apply common sense in dealing with the challenges offered by social media.

This last point is particularly important to me.

I’ve written in the past about how we depend on our journalists to rise above their biases to cover stories in an independent way, whether they’re in Gaza or Washington–or anywhere else.

As comments have shown–and will no doubt show again–there are those who will never believe this is possible. And there are those who would actually prefer to read, listen to or view only those information sources that confirm their own worldview.

Some news organizations have been more proscriptive with their rules or guidelines for journalists using social media–and it’s tempting to provide the rule-hungry with specific latitudes and longitudes of what’s acceptable.

But I think that approach sells short the ability of journalists to use their brains and to see–and report on–a world that’s changing every day.

That’s why I think of the Reuters Handbook of Journalism as a living document, one that helps us navigate that changing world with an eye on the future while being grounded in the ethical behavior and high standards that have brought us so far.

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Dean Wright is Global Editor, Ethics, Innovation and News Standards. Any opinions are his own.

A few weeks ago, I wrote about the Breaking Borders event in Berlin that marked the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. The event, at which I spoke, took the anniversary as an opportunity to explore how the Internet is playing a role in advancing participatory democracy and free expression around the world.

The media of 1989–television and satellite technology–played a role in bringing down the wall by connecting people and empowering them with information. Now, 20 years later, vastly more powerful information and communication technology is connecting people online, making it more possible to get around efforts at censorship and the suppression of information.

As a result of discussions at the Breaking Borders conference, Google and Global Voices, the international network of bloggers, have established the Breaking Borders Award to honor those who are fighting for free expression.

The award, which is supported by Thomson Reuters, will honor and support outstanding Web projects–by individuals or groups–”that demonstrate courage, energy and resourcefulness in using the Internet to promote freedom of expression.”

You can make nominations for the award by going to www.breakingborders.net.

There will be three $10,000 prizes; one each in these categories:

• Advocacy: given to an activist or group that has used online tools to promote free expression or encourage political change.
• Technology: given to an individual or group that has created an important tool that enables free expression and expands access to information.
• Policy: given to the policy maker, government official or NGO leader who has made a notable contribution in the field.

(Full disclosure: I’m serving as one of the judges for the awards.)

Sami Ben Gharbia, the advocacy director for Global Voices, put it well: ” The Internet has emerged as a critical front in the freedom of expression movement worldwide.”

Today’s media world can be cacophonous, as anyone with an Internet connection can be a publisher. But I believe we in the mainstream media have a responsibility to be enthusiastic participants in–and moderators of–this exciting media world.

I invite you to take a look at the Breaking Borders site and submit nominees.

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Barclays top-two — Chief Executive John Varley and President Bob Diamond — declined their 2009 bonus for the second year in a row, although the bank is paying the 23,000 staff at its investment bank £191,000 per head on average. The bank had a record year, but said all bonuses to its Executive Committee would be deferred, as it reacts to widespread criticism on bankers’ pay.

Have your say. Take our poll and leave us a comment.

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Barclays top-two — Chief Executive John Varley and President Bob Diamond — declined their 2009 bonus for the second year in a row, although the bank is paying the 23,000 staff at its investment bank £191,000 per head on average. The bank had a record year, but said all bonuses to its Executive Committee would be deferred, as it reacts to widespread criticism on bankers’ pay.

Have your say. Take our poll and leave us a comment.

Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post’s poll. Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post’s poll. Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post’s poll.

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With Toyota preparing a global recall of its new Prius and rolling out a fix to eight other models with a brake problem, the world’s largest automaker has its work cut out to regain the confidence of consumers.

The company has already reported a 16 percent sales drop for January, allowing Ford and GM to surge past it in the U.S. market. And the news has only got worse for Toyota this month.

So we’re curious: who would buy a Toyota right now? Take our polls and leave us a comment. If you’re sticking with the brand, tell us why.

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The late language maven William Safire would have been helpful at this point but, as stated, he is late, having passed away in 2009.

So here’s my problem for you. The year that Safire passed away in — excuse me — in which Safire passed away, is nearly always expressed verbally as two-thousand-and-nine. Occasionally, a  person might say just two-thousand-nine, but that is just sloppy. It is rarely, if ever, expresed as twenty-oh-nine.

What year are we in now, then? Is it two-thousand-and-ten as the past decade’s use would suggest? Or is it twenty-ten, as in ninteeen-sixty-eight and so on?

Before you answer, however, consider this:

• 2000 was inevitably referred to as the-year-two-thousand.
• 1907 was occasionally  spoken of as nineteen-hundred-and-seven but usually as nineteen-oh-seven.
• 1066 is always ten-sixty-six, never one-thousand-and-sixty-six.
• The film ‘2001: A Space Odyssey’ has always been two-thousand-and-one.
• Its follow up, ‘2010′, followed up as two-thousand-and-ten, at least as far as I can recall.
• Britain’s Olympics in 2012 are usually referred to as twenty-twelve.
• Sometimes they are referred to as the two-thousand-and-twenty Games.

Do not dimiss this serious matter. There are 990 years to get through before the-year-three-thousand and we have future generations to consider.

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It was down, down, down in 2008 and up, up , up in 2009. So what will 2010 bring?

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If anyone needed a reminder that Christmas and NewYear holidays are almost here, Societe Generale has provided it. Analyst Dylan Grice has picked up the mantle of the departed James Montier to offer a seasonal reading list for those with a fixation about investment and economics.

True, some people might prefer to immerse themselves in a rollicking sea tale from Patrick O’Brian or a good old  Sookie Stackhouse vampire mystery. But we know that Reuters blogs’ readers are a discriminating lot with a keen understanding of and passion for finance. So here is Dylan’s list of six must-reads:

1. Manias, Panics and Crashes, by Charles P. Kindleberger;
2. The Essays of Warren Buffet, edited by Richard Cunningham;
3. Reminiscences of a Stock Operator, by Edwin Lefevre;
4. Fooled by Randomness, by Nassim Taleb;
5. The Case against the Fed, by Murray Rothbard;
6. Judgement under Uncertainty: Heuristics and Biases, eds Kahneman, Slovic and
Tversky.

His description of each can be found here. But what is your reading list? Tell us what you would include  and why.

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Simon Cowell says the Internet campaign to keep X factor winner Joe McElderry from the coveted Christmas No. I  spot is aimed at him rather than the type of music the show produces.

He calls the campaign stupid.

But critics of the show loathe what they call the “karaoke” of X Factor and thousands have backed the push to get an anti-establishment track by American rockers Rage Against the Machine up into the top slot next week.

The band’s guitarist Tom Morello told the BBC: ”I think people are just fed-up of being spoonfed some overblown sugary ballad that sits on top of the charts. It’s a little dose of anarchy for the holidays, it’s good for the soul.”

It’s good for Sony too, analysts have noted, since both records are on its label.

Critics of the Internet campaign note that record numbers of viewers watched last weekend’s X Factor final and millions voted for McElderry. If so many people like him, why should he not be No. I they ask.

What do you think?

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Reuters is a news power house – our 2,800 journalists in 190 different bureaus around the world are dedicated to being the indispensable news source. News has been in our blood for more than a century and a half, but we’ve always been restlessly innovating and always looking to the future.

For Reuters.com, the future is now.

This is our redesign, a year in the making. That’s a year of extensive discussions with people like you, our elite audience of business professionals, about what would make the site better and faster and easier to use for you as you drive business activity around the world.

We want this to be the world’s best website covering business and finance news, analysis, and opinion. Full stop.

We want you to be able to come for a quick glance at the top headlines, or a longer deep dive into a topic that’s important to you. We want you to scan the output of the 2,800 men and women or hone in on a favorite writer or photographer.

This site is for you; we want it to be your ticket to a wealth of news, information, and analysis presented in a cutting-edge format, including text, video, pictures, graphics, user interaction, and personalization features (try the new toolbar at the bottom of every page).

Remember, too, that this is the front door of Thomson Reuters. In addition to the news you see here, Thomson Reuters is also the world’s leader in providing news, information, services, and technology to healthcare, legal, business, and financial professionals. What that means is that our journalism is professional grade, giving our users the inside edge needed to make important decisions.

We’re proud of our new home, and hope you like it. And this is just the beginning. In the coming months, we will continue to roll out new features and functionality.

Please give us your feedback. Write to csmedia@thomsonreuters.com. And come back often. There’s a world of news we’ve got for you.

David Schlesinger
Editor-in-chief, Reuters

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In the small community of Butha Buthe, a two-hour drive north of the Lesotho capital of Maseru, Bono and his wife Ali Hewson have invested in a clothing factory that produces their ethnically-conscious fashion brand Edun.

For every T-shirt sold $10 goes to fighting AIDS in Lesotho, which has the fourth largest HIV rate in the world. Many of the AIDS victims work in the countrys textile and apparel industry that employs about 45,000 people.

Hewson, an activist herself, told Reuters while touring the factory on Tuesday that country’s textile and apparel industry was hard hit by the expiry last year of the Multi-Fiber Arrangement that elminated the advantages to many investors of setting up in developing countries.

To keep workers at the Clothing Zone employed, Hewson has kept it in business with the Edun line and is currently in talks with retailers to bring their business to Lesotho.

At the nearby Qalo high school in Butha Buthe, profits from the sale of Edun Live T-shirts have been used to build a water well. Bono and Hewson visited the school on Tuesday to see for themselves how the money was spent — to the delight of U2 fans at the school. We love Lesotho because we think the mountain kingdom is very cool, he said. (Pictures: REUTERS/Mike Hutchings)

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When Bono disembarked from a 737 chartered plane in the tiny kingdom of Lesotho on Tuesday at the start of a new African visit, executives from Gap and Motorola were with him. Both companies are part of his Product Red branding initiative in which products associated with it help to raise money for a global fund to tackle AIDS. Teaming up with a celebrity like Bono also has its public relations perks.

Bono acknowledges that four years ago when he toured Africa with then U.S. Treasury Secretary Paul ONeill, bringing private sector with him would never have crossed his mind.

It’s a signal of changes in Africa over the past decade, but in part it’s Bonos own advocacy that has helped shift attitudes toward the African agenda.

I think it is bizarre that Africa got me interested in commerce, chuckles the U2 lead singer in an interview with Reuters. I am an activist but I looked at the mosaic of problems facing this magical place and I could see so many of the pieces intersected with commerce, trade and entrepreneurial spirit.

And Im saying, I believe that Africa can compete with China in terms of offering jobs to its people in the apparel sector, I believe Africa can compete with India in terms of offering jobs to people in the IT sector, if this problem of business efficiencies and strangulation of red tape and corruption can be dealt with, he said. Africas political leaders know the influence he wields. Lesothos Minister of Trade and Industry Mpho Meli Malie is one of those who knows that having Bono pitch for Lesothos apparel sector could bring new investments. A celebrity like Bono and with his organization DATA they should be able to penetrate and encourage some of the brands to consider Lesotho as a destination, said Malie.

(Ed. note: Reuters correspondent Lesley Wroughton is traveling with Bono in Africa. You can send questions or comments to her with the comment link below. The picture: Irish rock star Bono speaks to HIV positive workers at a clothing factory in Lesotho’s capital Maseru May 16, 2006. Bono began a new African tour on Tuesday in Lesotho where he will unveil a new initiative to fight AIDS in its ailing textile industry. REUTERS/Mike Hutchings)

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