MEDIABLAB DAILY DIGEST JAN 14: CRICKET CANING TIVO PANTY POWER FEER LIBEL
January 14th 2008 11:26
A compilation of MediaBlab items published since noon, Friday Jan 11
IRAN US GULF FAKE FOOTAGE FIASCO: HAS THE MAD FILIPINO MONKEY STRUCK AGAIN?
Navy Times magazine reports that the threatening message received by a US Navy ship in the Strait of Hormuz may have come from a notorious radio troll known to seasoned skippers as the "Filipino Monkey."
The Filipino Monkey is a locally famous heckler (or hecklers) among ship drivers in the region.
Chief of Naval Operations Admiral Gary Roughead told Navy Times during a brief telephone interview that, “ Based on my experience operating in that part of the world, where there is a lot of maritime activity, trying to discern who is speaking on the radio channel is very hard to do.”
The magazine said in recent years, American ships operating in the Middle East have had to contend with a mysterious but profane voice known by the “ethnically insulting handle” of Filipino Monkey, likely more than one person, who listens in on ship-to-ship radio traffic and then jumps on the net shouting insults and jabbering vile epithets.
Navy women – a helicopter pilot hailing a tanker, for example – who are overheard on the radio are said to suffer particularly degrading treatment.
Several Navy ship drivers interviewed by Navy Times are raising the possibility that the Monkey, or an imitator, was indeed featured in that video.
Rick Hoffman, a retired captain who commanded the cruiser Hue City and spent many of his 17 years at sea in the Gulf was subject to the renegade radio talker repeatedly, often without pause during the so-called Tanker Wars of the late 1980s.
“He used to go all night long. The guy is crazy. But who knows how many Filipino Monkeys there are? Could it have been a spurious transmission? Absolutely.”
A civilian mariner with experience in that region said the Filipino Monkey phenomenon is worldwide, and has been going on for years.
“They come on and say ‘Filipino Monkey’ in a strange voice. They might say it two or three times. You’re standing watch on bridge and you’re monitoring Channel 16 and all of a sudden it comes over the radio. It can happen anytime. It’s been a joke out there for years.
“While it happens all over the world, it’s more likely to occur around the Strait of Hormuz because there is so much shipping traffic.”
SOUTH AFRICAN MARIE CLAIRE EDITION CLOBBERS MYANMAR JUNTA WITH PANTY POWER
The South African edition of Marie Claire magazine has joined the global call for people to join the "panty protest" against Myanmar's regime by sending women's underwear to the junta's embassy in Pretoria.
Pretoria News reports that Marie Claire's current issue calls on its readers to send their knickers to the embassy as a form of protest against human rights abuses.
Its website urged supporters to "post, deliver or fling" underwear to, or at their nearest embassy to insult the country's leadership.
Thein Win, chairperson of the Free Burma Campaign South Africa, said, "It is an excellent idea. Send more panties to sap more power so that they know people do not support them."
The worldwide protest started late last year after Lanna Action for Burma, a pro-democracy group based in Thailand, urged supporters around the world to join its Panty Power campaign.
Activists seeking to pressure the regime are targeting the superstitions of its senior generals.
It is reported that the 73-year-old head of the military, Than Shwe, and members of the military junta believe that contact with women's panties – clean or dirty – will sap them of their strength.
Embassies have received underwear from Thailand, Australia, Singapore and the UK.
CRICKET WRITER CONVICTED OF ASSAULTING SOUTH AFRICAN YOUTHS BY CANING PUNISHES AUSTRALIA’S CAPTAIN IN RECORD-MAKING ARTICLE
Australia’s so called literary cricket writer Peter Roebuck has made online history in Australia, with his article arguing that the Australia’s “arrogant” cricket captain should be sacked becoming one of the most popular stories ever published on the Sydney Morning Herald’s site.
In fact the Herald pointed out that nine of its site’s top ten stories of the week were about cricket, and the only non-cricket story in its top ten was about one of Australia’s “other great obsessions,” property.
It’s interesting to note the Herald’s comments about cricket being one of Australia’s national obsessions, because one of the Australian media’s obsessions is to write quaint stories with bemused colonial overtones of how obsessed India and the Indian media is about cricket.
For example, when the Sydney Morning Herald pointed out that Roebuck’s record-making story had attracted almost 85,000 votes, it also pointed out in the same sentence that the story had been reported “at length by Indian media.”
In fact so obsessed was the Sydney Morning Herald with cricket that it’s weekend News Reviews section, supposedly a feature-story round up of leading Australian and international news, devoted almost 25 percent of its content to stories about cricket or spin-off opinions about the issues raised by the cricket controversy.
And one of its biggest features again dwelled on the quaint obsessiveness displayed by the Indians about cricket.
The article, by Neil Maxwell, a manager of Cricket Australia-contracted players, was headlined Bollyline 101: cultural studies.” The subhead was, “Indians love Australian cricketers because they dish out so much curry.”
Perhaps it was a case of wishful thinking by Maxwell. His self-serving cliched piece subsided into marketing jargon arguing, “The Australian brand is the leading brand in world cricket and India reaps more revenue for the game than the rest of the world combined.”
The piece went on to say how the Indians love Australian Brett Lee because of his “cultural sensitivity.”
But Indian media news services reported late last week that Australian cricketers are now so on the nose in India that major companies have been dropping them from their ad campaigns and replacing them with Indians.
Plus Exchange4Media also pointed out that Indian TV ratings for the first two tests did not live up to expectations, and it is hoped that controversy will fuel renewed interest and rev up TV ratings.
But, returning to the hero of this story, journalist peter Roebuck, rival newspaper, News Ltd’s The Australian, in its weekend news feature wrap-up, the Inquirer, ran a huge profile on Roebuck including a sidebar highlighting his “words of wisdom.”
The curious piece pointed out that Roebuck is a curious creature, an unconventional loner who in his autobiography quoted his father as saying, “In orthodox spheres, Peter might be regarded as odd.”
Before his Australian cricket-writing season, he was convicted in his home country, England, of assaulting three 19-year-old South African men who had been lodging at his bungalow and receiving cricket coaching.
The Australian reported that, “Britain’s Daily Telegraph said Roebuck had beaten the boys across the buttocks with a cane after they failed his fitness test.”
The Daily Telegraph report said that in a statement one victim said Roebuck had told him, “I’m going to cane you now. Then it will be over and I will forgive you and, if I don’t cane you, I will feel differently about you.’
Roebuck pleaded guilty to common assault and was given three concurrent four-month sentences, suspended for two years.
On a final note: A typically quaint story with bemused colonial overtones about India’s cricket obsession, written by Australian lawyer Irfan Yusuf, was published on Online Opinion, and caused an ongoing argument about whether the article itself was racist.
One reader, Arjay, posted this comment: “Don't be so angry. It is too late. We are witnessing the end of the European culture. It happened to the Egyptians, Romans, Greeks and now us. China and India will now be the new world powers by the fact of their sheer numbers. India will win all arguments in cricket by virtue of their power. With over-population and globalisation, the world will become a nastier place and pampered Europeans will be even less inclined to breed. Enjoy the moment.”
FAIRFAX BUSINESS MEDIA ASIA EXPANDS ITS ONLINE TEAM
Asia’s leading enterprise IT publisher, Fairfax Business Media Asia, has expanded its online team with the appointment of a new online editor, Zafar Hasan Anjum.
Anjum previously helped launch Singapore’s leading classifieds website, Mocca and was its content editor. He has also worked as web editor-sub editor for Singapore’s second most read newspaper website, Todayonline.
Fairfax Business Media Asia’s publisher and regional manager, Andrew Smart, said Hasan’s appointment was part of a strategy to develop the online properties of its four established print magazines in Asia: MIS Asia, CIO Asia, Computerworld Singapore, and Computerworld Malaysia..
Fairfax Business Media Asia is also the official IT media partner of the World Congress on Information Technology to be held in Kuala Lumpur May 18-22, 2008.
This will be the world’s premier information and communications technology forum in 2008 and Fairfax Business Media Asia will provide comprehensive coverage through its print and online properties.
Hasan joins experienced Fairfax Business Media Asia web producer Ong Chun Yeow to review and upgrade its websites with multi-media content and to expand and integrate its digital publishing capabilities.
Andrew Smart said Fairfax operated an integrated media model with print, online and event channels and it was progressively strengthening all of these channels, including online.
He said, "Integrating these channels empowers our audiences to engage us as, when and how they wish. It also allows our clients to use multiple, highly targeted ways to connect with our audiences throughout their campaign lifecycles."
CHINA DAILY ACCUSES WESTERN MEDIA OF POLITICISING THE BEIJING OLYMPICS
As the Beijing Olympic Games approaches, the Chinese capital finds itself being pushed more and more into the world's spotlight with, only the negative side portrayed, according to an unnamed op-ed piece in China Daily.
The op-ed quotes an unnamed press official of the Organizing Committee of the Beijing Olympic Games saying, "So far as some media are concerned, we find we can do nothing right. 'You are wrong' is their mentality and that's their universal conclusion whatever you do or don't do.
"All we can do is to do our best to make the games a success while neglecting rumors and groundless criticisms."
The China Daily op-ed argues that Beijing seems to have received more criticism than other Olympic host cities, such as Sydney.
Air pollution and traffic problems are the issues widely expounded by the media it said, and added, “While some overseas media are demonising Beijing's air pollution and traffic problems, Beijing citizens seem to be happy to get more days of blue skies each year as compared with 2001 when the city won the Olympic bid. As for the traffic, while about half a dozen new subway lines will be open to the public before the Olympics, the authorities are working out traffic control plans which, according to them, should ensure a smooth flow during the Games. Meanwhile, subway and bus lines have been added while fares have been reduced.
“The Chinese capital would be lucky if criticism against it ended just there. “Beijing has kept its promise to the IOC on press freedom, but some media seem to be asking the host to adopt freedom and democracy according to their understanding and explanation. When not satisfied, they threaten to call for a boycott of the Games.
“Trying to politicise a sports event only does harm to the healthy development of the Olympic movement.
“Beijing is in the spotlight, it is under the scrutiny of the media, its strong and weak points will be emphasized. My suggestion is: do not be complacent over success and do not be dejected over exaggerated problems. Keep working hard. The world expects a successful Beijing Olympics.”
CHINA MEDIA SUPPORTS REPORTER WHO EXPOSED CORRUPTION BY A ‘LOCAL EMPEROR’
A vigorous media response has been generated this month in China, reacting to attempts by Zhang Zhiguo, the communist party chief of Xifeng county in north-eastern Liaoning province, to arrest and haul off to his county a Beijing journalist he claims libelled him.
The Australian reported that Zhang, accused by a businesswoman in Xifeng of corruption, was outraged when Zhu Wenna, a reporter with Faren magazine, part of the government-controlled Legal Daily group, followed up her complaints and detailed his heavy-handed measures and illegal dealings.
So he sent police 900 kilometers to apprehend Zhu at her office. She refused to accompany them, and her magazine backed her up. Then, once the account of the police foray was published, the tide turned, and China's websites have since been full of attacks on Zhang. Among four pages of critical commentaries on the website of People's Daily, the national party mouthpiece, Zhang was called a "local emperor".
But the Chinese media and government have been silent about an incident which occurred in September, when AAustralian Chris Buckley, a Reuters correspondent and member of the press corps in Beijing, was tackled to the ground, kicked in the back, and punched by more than a dozen hired thugs.
Buckley had been investigating a claim about an illicit detention centre in Beijing where people coming from Nanyang city in Henan province to present petitions about grievances to the central government are held and forcibly sent home.
His bag with notes, a mobile phone and a camera were taken, and he was threatened with death. Eventually, after he was able to call the Foreign Ministry, he was released and his belongings returned.
He made a formal complaint, but has heard nothing about it since.
SWEDEN NO LONGER A SAFE HARBOUR INTERNET PIRATES
A Swedish company who for years steered steering internet surfers to a free directory of pirated movies, music and software in Sweden could soon be charged.
The offices of The Pirate Bay were raided in 200, and Swedish prosecutors said that by the end of January they expected to charge the individuals who operated the file-sharing service with conspiracy to breach copyright laws.
The Australian reported that Sweden may seem an unlikely harbour for piracy, but weak copyright laws, lax enforcement, high broadband penetration and general antipathy towards the entertainment industry have made it a file-sharing free-for-all. Last year, 43 per cent of the people participating in a survey by Sweden's biggest phone company said they planned to download music during the year.
A pro-piracy political party has more members than the Greens.
The prosecutors' move comes after years of complaints from Hollywood executives and US government officials. US embassy officials have described Sweden as home to the "worst internet piracy in the world" and the Motion Picture Association of America has been fighting to shut down Pirate Bay for years.
BRITAIN’S HIGHEST PAID EDITOR MAKES OVER $3 MILLION
Britain’s best paid editor is the Daily Mail's Paul Dacre was paid almost GBP1.5 million (A$3.3 million) last year, confirming his status as the best-paid editor in Britain.
But while raking in such a big salary from the Daily Mail and General Trust company, operating profit at its Associated Newspapers division, which includes the Daily Mail, Mail on Sunday and the Evening Standard, fell 16 per cent from GBP99 million to GBP83 million.
The circulation of the Dacre’s Daily Mail fell by 1.8 per cent, while that of the Mail on Sunday was unchanged.
REUTERS MODIFIES PHILIP AGEE HEADLINE TO APPEASE ANGRY READERS
Media detractors who say the mass media doesn’t respond to the input of readers needs might be surprised by the action of the globally powerful news agency Reuters last week.
On January 9, Reuters ran this headline: “CIA whistle-blower Philip Agee dies in Cuba.”
The first paragraph of the news story running under this headline ran, “HAVANA (Reuters) - Philip Agee, a former CIA agent who exposed its undercover operations in Latin America in a 1975 book, died in Havana, the Cuban Communist Party newspaper Granma said on Wednesday..”
On January 11 Reuters republished the news item, but this time with a new headline which read: “Ex-CIA spy who exposed agents dies in Cuba.”
A Reuters editor explained, “Several readers objected to the ‘whistle-blower’ headline, making a fair point. We subsequently changed the headline.”
Reuters also posted an example of one of the readers’ comments: Reader Joe wrote, “Regarding your headline, Agee was a traitor who exposed fellow CIA agents to violence and murder by revealing their names in his book. False lionising of this traitor makes YOU HIS ACCOMPLICES. If you hate America so much, then base your offices in Cuba. Need help packing? LET US KNOW…”
WILL MURDOCH TAKE ON SINGAPORE’S RULING LEE FAMILY OVER FAR EASTERN ECONOMIC REVIEW LIBEL CASE?
Asia Sentinel reports that Rupert Murdoch’s purchase of Dow Jones has “delivered some unwanted cargo in the form of a long-running libel suit.”
Dow Jones publishes the Far Eastern Economic Review and in July, the magazine published a long and contentious interview with Chee Soon Juan, the harried leader of the opposition Singapore Democratic Party. The magazine promptly found itself the recipient of a letter from Drew & Napier, the lawyers for the autocratic minister mentor Lee Kuan Yew, and his son, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, demanding an apology.
The Review refused to apologise, and for a year and a half a libel suit hast through the Singapore courts (see MediaBlab archives.)
On the one hand, the Lee family has never lost a libel suit in its own courts.
On the other hand, unlike many of his competitors, Murdoch's titles have never experienced a Singapore libel action.
Asia sentinel said, “But with this libel headache now on Murdoch's desk, Singapore faces a media company run by a dominant individual who is an archly pragmatic deal-maker when it suits him. That could mean wriggle room for legal negotiation except that, with libel, the Lees always want absolute victory.”
“As an example of the Lees’ thirst for judicial blood, many international news organizations, including Time Magazine, the (pre-Murdoch) Asian Wall Street Journal, The International Herald Tribune, Business Week, Bloomberg and the Financial Times have lost suits in Singapore.”
“The Review’s sudden defiance is rare indeed. The presumption of a loss is such that media companies routinely settle promptly and apologize. The most recent, last November, was the Financial Times, which settled for unspecified damages and apologized in a case that according to non-Singaporean legal scholars contained no libel.
“In an earlier case involving the Review, the Anglo-Australian constitutional lawyer Geoffrey Robertson’s cross-examination of the elder Lee was so rigorous that a Singaporean judged awarded additional damages for his discomfort in the witness box.”
Asia Sentinel said that with the advents of Murdoch’s purchase of Dow Jones, the status of this case in unclear.
It said, “Outwardly, it seems as if nothing has changed, and for now a Murdoch-owned Review is still taking on the Singaporeans. The articles and letters remain posted at FEER.com and the Review editors say it is still live, referring the matter to Dow Jones lawyers, who do not respond.”
WALL STREET JOURNAL MAKES SOME CONTENT FREE ONLINE
The Wall Street Journal is to start letting readers look at paid-for website content including editorials, opinion pieces and video interviews for free, according to the Guardian.
The move, which could be a precursor to a complete scrapping of WSJ.com's subscription funding model by new owner Rupert Murdoch, was described by the paper as being ‘as close as we'll get to conceding there is such a thing as a free lunch’.
The journal will launch a new free access website for all its editorials, op-ed pieces, video interviews and commentary.
One US report on the shift on Thursday argued that it was a ‘smart hybrid move’ that would allow the journals columnists to take on the blog world, as New York Times writers already do, without making all the content free.
The two websites will be rolled into one free site for all opinion pieces from the journal, both in the US and overseas editions, as well as book reviews and leisure and arts coverage. Video content will include clips from the journal’s weekly TV show, the Journal Editorial Report, that airs on Fox, which is also owned by the paper's new parent company, Murdoch's News Corp.
TechCrunch, which has always got something to say, said the Wall Street Journal’s move is a “concession to increased competition from the blogosphere and other newspapers throwing in the towel on paid-subscription walls for online content. Does that mean the rest of the paper will soon be free online as well? It is certainly in keeping with new owner Rupert Murdoch’s previous public statements.
“…As more and more readers move online, they will expect their news to be free and ad-supported, as it is today on 99 percent of the Web. Even the Wall Street Journal cannot fight market forces and consumer preference forever.”
But Murdoch’s Antipodean flagship, The Australian seems convinced that the Wall Street Journals will go totally free.
AMERICAN JOURNALIST’S BOOK ABOUT THAI KING RAISES IRE IN BANGKOK
An American journalist took the limelight at an international academic conference, even though he didn’t appear in person since his critical book on the king of Thailand is banned and he thinks he might be unwelcome.
Washington-based Handley published his book, ‘The King Never Smiles’, about Thailand’s King Bhumibol Adulyadej, in 2006. Earlier he had worked in Thailand with the Hong Kong-based news magazine Far Eastern Economic Review.
Handley alleges that Bhumibol has proved a major stumbling block to the progress of democracy in Thailand as he consolidated royal power over a 62 year reign.
This view is shared by some Thai academics, while others are argue that the Thai monarchy is an important agency that modifies the relationship between the military and civilian government and the seesawing struggle for power between the two. .
Annette Hamilton, an Australian anthropologist who has worked in Thailand for almost 20 years, said, "This book raises in a dramatic way some of the most important matters concerning the past, the present and the future of the kingdom.
“Handley's book presents such a profound challenge to a prevailing Thai world-view that we can see that many people would respond with fear and negativity,"
She said that banning books is something associated with fascist regimes, but added that suppression of information has been practiced in recent years in many democracies, including her native Australia.
AP reported that while questioning some of his sources, noting inaccuracies and even questioning his conclusions, both Thai and foreign participants at the 10th International Conference on Thai Studies credited Handley with stimulating debate on the issue within the country.
It was suggested that Handley failed to present a full portrait of the king, and denied the obvious benefits the Thais have gained from his rule.
In 2006, the former Thai Prime Minister didn’t mince words when criticising Hadley’s book.
He said, "I don't like it. The nation doesn't like it. It's a hearsay book and is not based on the fact. We are worried about the foreigners who read it. My suggestion is please ignore that book. It's useless."
DETAILS GIVEN ABOUT TIVO’S ENTRY INTO AUSTRALIA BUT NO LAUNCH DATE YET
Joshua Danovitz, TiVo's international general manager, who is in charge of modifying TiVo for the Australian market has revealed extensive details about the TV recorder's capabilities at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.
The Australian reported that he said Australians will be able to record all free-to-air television channels using TiVo, and will have access to a movie download store and about 100 free internet video channels.
But Danovitz would not reveal an exact price and launch date, saying it was up to the Seven Network, which was spearheading TiVo's local launch, to make the announcement.
Seven has said TiVo will launch before August, in time for the Beijing Olympics.
UNO MEDIA SWITCHES FROM LICENSING TO OWNERSHIP OF UNO HONG KONG MAGAZINE
Uno Media will convert its licensing deal for men’s uno Hong Kong to direct ownership this April with a new management team, after relocating its regional headquarters from Taiwan to Hong Kong, according to Marketing.
Rosalind Lau, marketing manager for Uno Media, said the relocation will allow the team to work closely with advertisers.
Advertisers could also expect the integration of editorial and advertisements of men’s uno Taiwan, Hong Kong, China and Malaysia later this year.
A Singapore and Thai edition will also be launched this year.
The Hong Kong edition will also be expanded to cover Macao.
PHILIPPINE TV COMPANY LOSES COURT CLAIM AGAINST AGB NIELSEN BUT WILL APPEAL
ABS-CBN Broadcasting Corp in the Philippines will to continue its fight for ‘clean and fair’ television ratings even as a court rejected its P63 million (AS$1.74 million) damage and breach of contract complaint against AGB Nielsen Media Research (Philippines) Inc.
The Philippine Star reported that ABS-CBN TV said it would file a motion for reconsideration before the Quezon City Regional Trial Court as the public should not be denied the truth just because of a technicality.
ABS-CBN said, "Our case and our moral purpose can only get stronger, as more and more witnesses are coming out to tell the truth about cheating in the ratings.”
The civil case was filed by ABS-CBN against AGB Nielsen over what it claims was the research company's failure to investigate reports of what it said seemed like "an organised, systemic and well-funded attempt to cheat in the ratings".
ABS-CBN claims to have been approached by an informant who confessed that he was hired to find and bribe people in households equipped with TV ratings meters to change the programs that they were watching
CROSS-OWNERSHIP MEDIA LAWS TE BE RELAXED IN SOUTH KOREA
Print media firms in South Korea will probably allowed to own broadcasting companies and vice versa, the presidential transition team said yesterday.
The Korea Times said that Lee Dong-kwan, spokesman for the team, told reporters that the next government will seek alternative legislation replacing the current Newspaper Law to give press companies more autonomy.
The spokesman said the new legislation will also focus on strengthening the financial health of the media industry.
Mr Lee said the incoming Lee Myung-bak administration will ease regulations prohibiting cross ownership between media businesses and get rid of stumbling blocks to the growth of their business.
Legally, South Korean print media companies are prohibited from having shares of broadcasters, and newspapers and broadcasting companies are not allowed to encroach upon each other's turf.
Experts predict that if the alternative legislation is enacted, newspapers could reach nationwide readers with content-oriented, in-depth coverage through broadcasts.
Major newspaper businesses have called for revisions of the current law.
ITV SELLS LOCAL VERSION OF SATURDAY NIGHT TAKEAWAY TO CHINA
Broadcasting giant ITV has sold its entertainment format Saturday Night Takeaway to China’s Hunan Satellite TV through Granada International, which will see the station create a localised version of the TV series.
Marketing reported that the 13 episode version titled Super 2008: Friday Night Takeaway started broadcasting last Friday.
Ouyang Changlin, general manager and president for Hunan TV, believes that the show will have massive appeal to audiences in China and across Asia.
The deal is part of Granada International's strategy to develop its presence in the Chinese market through the creation of local versions of its shows.
James Ross, regional director, Asia for Granada International, added that Hunan TV would bring "all the high production and entertainment values of the show to Chinese homes, including all the crazy games, laugh-out-loud moments and mad-cap antics."
Hunan TV is known for its broadcast of SuperGirl, a Chinese version of UK's Pop Idol.
INDONESIAN POLITICIANS PUSH FOR RELAXED RULINGS OVER MERGING NATIONAL AND LOCAL TV STATIONS
Indonesian politicians have attacked the government over its controversial decision to withhold the establishment of a networking system with national televisions stations and their local partners, saying it is a serious infringement of the 2002 broadcasting law.
The Jakarta Post reported that the information, foreign affairs and defence commission at the House of Representatives said after its internal meeting that the government should issue a perpu (a regulation in lieu of law).
The regulation would accommodate the decision and would see the government avoid being accused of breaching the law or of conspiracy with television station owners.
Commission member Djoko Susilo said the government could not avoid the accusation because before the decision was made, station owners had also lobbied for an extension of deadlines to establish a network.
All 10 private TV stations appeared reluctant to comply with the law because the networking system would see them share profits with local stations in provinces and regencies.
The Jakarta Post said the Association of Private TV Stations claimed it had difficulty establishing joint companies with local television stations and procuring expensive devices required to establish the networks.
The broadcasting media law gives three years to national television stations to set up a network with local stations. This period could be extended for another two years to promote local culture, avoid monopolies and encourage economic democracy in the broadcasting industry.
BUSINESSWEEK CHINA TO RELAUNCH ITS QUARTERLY EXECUTIVE LIFE LIFT OUT
BusinessWeek China will relaunch its quarterly lifestyle supplement, Executive Life in April 2008 with a new design and editorial targeted at affluent male executives aimed at broadening its advertiser base.
The Chinese language publication, formerly called FashionWeek first launched in 2005 and was renamed Executive Life in the following year.
BusinessWeek has tapped branding agency Stepworks in the redesign of the magazine and hired Desiree Au, former editor of Post Magazine and Style of South China Morning Post as its editorial consultant.
Christina Lee, managing director for BusinessWeek's Asia, said the redesigned Executive Life would give advertisers a luxury environment to reach out to discerning Chinese consumers with money to spend.
She added that the supplement would broaden BusinessWeek's current advertising base providing a platform for luxury fashion, watches, shoes, hotel and airlines marketers to advertise to a primarily affluent male audience.
Executive Life, boosting a circulation of 140, 000, will be distributed as a supplement with BusinessWeek China across 32 major provinces and cities.
A marketing campaign to announce the relaunch will kick off between March and April this year
Al JAZEERA TO BROADCAST IN HONG KONG FROM WEDNESDAY ONWARDS
Al Jazeera English has signed with one of Asia's leading cable operators, Hong Kong Cable Ltd, for the channel to broadcast in Hong Kong, and will debut as Channel 34 on Wednesday, on Hong Kong Cable on January 16, 2008 and will be carried as Channel 34 on the platform.
Hong Kong Cable is one of Hong Kong's leading subscription television providers and is among the territory's top five media with a firmly established platform in news, movies, sports and general entertainment.
Benjamin Tong, executive director of Hong Kong Cable Television Ltd, said, “News has always been our flagship programme and the addition of Al Jazeera will further enhance the width and depth of our news service with the channel's unique content and perspective. I have little doubt that the channel will be welcomed by our viewers,"
Al Jazeera English is the first English language global news and current affairs channel to be headquartered
Phil Lawrie, Al Jazeera Network's director of global distribution said, " This agreement underlines the importance of the Asian region to our next phase of growth and we are looking forward to a long and highly successful relationship with Hong Kong Cable."
Hong Kong Cable Television Ltd was launched in 1993, produces over 10,000 hours of programming a year and is one of the largest pay television operators and content providers in Hong Kong.
But more recently it has struggled to maintain its subscriber level in the face of stiff competition from rival PCCW Ltd's Now TV, which outbid Cable TV on the all-important soccer matches and first-run features, leaving Cable TV to focus on niche areas.
IRAN US GULF FAKE FOOTAGE FIASCO: DOUBTS INCREASE OVER IRANIAN BOAT THREATS TO US WARSHIP
Doubts intensified on Thursday night over the nature of an alleged aggressive confrontation by Iranian patrol boats and American warships in the Persian Gulf on Sunday.
The Guardian reported that Pentagon officials admitted that they could not confirm that a threat to blow up the US ships had been made directly by the Iranian crews involved in the incident.
Several news sources reported that senior navy officials had conceded that the voice threatening to blow up the US warships in a matter of minutes could have come from another ship in the region, or even from shore.
The Pentagon has said that it recorded the film and the sound separately, and then stitched them together – a dubious piece of editing even before it became known that the source of the voice could not, with certainty, be linked to the Iranian patrol boats.
IRAN US GULF FAKE FOOTAGE FIASCO: HOW THE EVENT AND DEGREES OF CONFIDENCE PLAYED OUT
On Saturday, January 12, Mike Nizza, a former New York Times web editor and now editor of The Lede website, posted a series of updates about the “Degrees of Confidence on US-Iran Naval Incident.”
Update: The list of those who are less than fully confident in the Pentagon’s video/audio mashup of aggressive manoeuvres by Iranian boats near American warships in the Strait of Hormuz now includes the Pentagon itself.
Unnamed Pentagon officials said on Wednesday that the threatening voice heard in the audio clip, which was released on Monday night with a disclaimer that it was recorded separately from the video images and merged with them later, is not directly traceable to the Iranian military.
That undercuts one of the most menacing elements from the Pentagon’s assertion that Iranian forces threatened the Navy ships: The voice on the radio saying, “I am coming to you. … You will explode after … minutes.”
Update: ABC News reported more details from the spokesperson for the US admiral in charge of the Fifth Fleet, who confirmed the above and explained why they concluded that the threat came from the Iranian boats:
“It happened in the middle of all the very unusual activity, so as we assess the information and situation, we still put it in the total aggregate of what happened Sunday morning. I guess we’re not saying that it absolutely came from the boats, but we’re not saying it absolutely didn’t.”
Update: At a news conference, a reporter asked Defense Secretary Robert Gates about his level of “confidence in the U.S. military version” of the incident. He was unequivocal: “I have no question whatsoever about the report on this incident from the captains of the ships and also from the video itself”.
Update: A reader posted a comment on The Lede claiming to be a former Navy officer with experience in the Strait of Hormuz and offering an explanation for how easily a mistake could have been made by Navy personnel trying to sift through radio transmissions filled with chatter: “All ships at sea use a common UHF frequency, Channel 16, also known as ‘bridge-to bridge’ radio. Over here, near the US, and throughout the Mediterranean, Ch 16 is used pretty professionally, i.e., chatter is limited to ship handling issues, identifying yourself, telling other ships what your intentions are to avoid mishaps, etc.
“But over in the Gulf, Ch 16 is like a bad CB radio. Everybody and their brother is on it; chattering away; hurling racial slurs, usually involving Filipinos (lots of Filipinos work in the area); curses involving your mother; 1970’s music broadcast in the wee hours (nothing odder than hearing The Carpenters 50 miles off the coast of Iran at 4 a.m.)
“On Ch 16, especially in that section of the Gulf, slurs/threats/chatter/etc is commonplace.
“So my first thought was that the ‘explode’ comment might not have even come from one of the Iranian craft, but some loser monitoring the events at a shore facility.
“I hope everybody exercises great caution here and doesn’t jump to conclusions.”
Update: President Bush was criticised for doing the opposite. According to The Washington Post, “some diplomatic and military officials in Washington” said that Mr Bush’s statements on arriving in Israel Wednesday “inflated the significance of the brief incident” in the strait.
In his remarks, Mr. Bush warned Iran that “all options are on the table to protect our assets.”
Update: Meanwhile, the video images that were released by the Pentagon came in for some more contradiction from Iran, which has contended that the US was exaggerating a workaday encounter between two naval powers in the Persian Gulf: A competing video purporting to show Sunday’s incident from the Iranian side was broadcast today on Iranian television.
Here is how the semi-official Fars News Agency described it: “The four-minute video showed an Iranian commander in a speedboat contacting an American sailor via radio, asking him to identify the U.S. vessels and state their purpose. ‘Coalition warship number 73 this is an Iranian patrol,’ the Iranian commander is heard to say in good English. ‘This is coalition warship number 73. I am operating in international waters,’ comes the reply.”
Update: Agence France-Presse noted one way that Iran’s video seemed to match up with the US account of the encounter: all three US vessels involved in the incident are seen in the video.
Update: The Associated Press was sceptical, saying that “the short clip likely did not show Sunday’s entire encounter.”
Update: The Iranian video went online. A reader using the name Hamid Pasha sent The Lede a link to an English-language Iranian web site, PressTV.com, that has posted the Iranian video.
The clip is a bit over 5 minutes long. The first few minutes are views of coalition warships shot from smaller boats (if you thought the motorboats seemed to be moving fast in the American video, wait until you see the bow waves on the warships). In the latter portion, we see an Iranian on the boat using a microphone handset to hail “coalition warship 73″ by radio, in fairly clear but accented English, and we hear responses in an American voice.
The video clearly covers only part of an encounter, perhaps the encounter though there’s no obvious way a layman would be able to know, and it cuts off abruptly after the American voice is heard answering several inquiries from the Iranian by saying simply that the coalition ship is operating in international waters. We don’t see or hear what happened next.
IRAN US GULF FAKE FOOTAGE FIASCO: FORMER CIA ANALYST URGES CIA TO NOT DO BUSH’S BIDDING
Ray McGovern was an Army infantry/intelligence officer, then a current intelligence analyst at CIA, and is now on the Steering Group of Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity.
He also works with Tell the Word, the publishing arm of the ecumenical Church of the Saviour in Washington, DC. He wrote an article for Consortium.News and this is part of what he wrote:
“When the Tonkin Gulf incident took place in early August 1964, I was a journeyman CIA analyst in what Condoleezza Rice refers to as ‘the bowels of the agency.’
As a current intelligence analyst responsible for Russian policy toward Southeast Asia and China, I worked very closely with those responsible for analysis of Vietnam and China.
Out of that experience I must say that, as much as one might be tempted to laugh at the bizarre theatrical accounts of Sunday’s incident involving small Iranian boats and US naval ships in the Strait of Hormuz, this is—as my old Russian professor used to insist—nothing to laugh.
The situation is so reminiscent of what happened—and didn’t happen—from August 2-4, 1964, in the Gulf of Tonkin and in Washington (that) it is in no way funny.
At the time, the US had about 16,000 troops in South Vietnam. The war that was ‘justified’ by the Tonkin Gulf resolution of August 7, 1964, led to a build up of 535,000 US troops in the late Sixties, 58,000 of whom were killed—not to mention the estimated two million Vietnamese who lost their lives by then and in the ensuing 10 years.
…. Given the confusion last Sunday in the Persian Gulf, you need to remember that a ‘known known’ in the form of a non-event has already been used to sell a major war – Vietnam. It is not only in retrospect that we know that no attack occurred that night.
Those of us in intelligence, not to mention President Lyndon Johnson, Defense Secretary Robert McNamara and National Security Adviser McGeorge Bundy all knew full well that the evidence of any armed attack on the evening of August 4, 1964, the so-called ‘second’ Tonkin Gulf incident, was highly dubious.
But it fit the president’s purposes, so they lent a hand to facilitate escalation of the war.
It is my view that the only thing that has prevented Bush and Cheney from attacking Iran so far has been the strong opposition of the uniformed military, including the Joint Chiefs.
As the misadventure last Sunday in the Strait of Hormuz shows, our senior military officers need all the help they can get from intelligence officers more concerned with the truth than with ‘keeping lines open to the White House’ and doing its bidding.
So, you inheritors of the honourable profession of current intelligence – I’m thinking of you, Rochelle, and you, Rick – don’t let them grind you down.
If you’re working in the bowels of the CIA and you find that your leaders are cooking the intelligence once again into a recipe for casus belli, think long and hard about your oath to protect the Constitution. Should that oath not transcend any secrecy promise you had to accept as a condition of employment?
By sticking your neck out, you might be able to prevent 10 years of unnecessary war.”
| 49 |
| Vote |
subscribe to this blog
