Weekly email: 22nd April 2010

April 27th, 2010 - 
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Here is this week’s news:

Election Stuff

Gary Barlow of Take That joined David Cameron at a school in Nantwich, Cheshire, to launch our School Stars initiative to celebrate musical kids, more HERE. The new competition will encourage musical achievement among young people and is designed to provide those who participate with a unique, fun and exciting experience. Gary Barlow will be involved in judging the final stages of the competition and the first prize is a chance to record a song with him. The BPI, UK Music and Global Radio have backed our plans, full details HERE

Tonight’s Prime Minsterial debate is at the Arnolfini, possible the only time the arts will really take, or provide, the centre stage during this election, more HERE.

Creative Industries

Media

Jeremy has been interviewed by Dow Jones HERE and discussed our plans to ease media regulations.

Jeremy also took part in a manifesto debate chaired by Michael White with Douglas Alexander and Danny Alexander which covered the BBC and digital economy bill, amongst other things, more HERE.

Google

The Labour Government head’s Google’s European censorship list, more HERE

While the Information commissioner joins Germany, Canada and Spain in calling on Google to protect its users better, more HERE.

BBC

Newly disclosed BBC expenses show BBC technology boss Erik Huggers has had yet another expensive drive, clocking up £646.79 for a car and driver on a trip to Korea, while BBC Worldwide spent more that £6,000 bringing director general Mike Thompson back from Australia. In total BBC executives claimed expenses totalling £173,527.04 from September to December last year, more HERE.

Broadband

Orange has done a deal with BT to piggy back onto BT’s network, and pass their own fixed-line infrastructure to BT. Orange will go head to head with market leaders BT, Virgin Media and TalkTalk, which could sharply increase competition, and drive down consumer charges, more HERE

Video Games

Ed has reassured the video games sector that we support tax breaks more HERE

Skillset’s computer games manager Saint John Walker joined a panel of industry experts for an online Q&A session about the representation of women in the computer games industry on Guardian Careers on Tuesday, more HERE.

Paid content

DMCT, the group that owns the Mail newspapers appear determined to follow a different path to the Time Online’s paid route, more HERE

Publishing

In the era of the iPad and the Kindle some independent innovative publishers are finding a profitable niche for the old-fashioned book, in the FT more HERE.

A thoughtful piece on the iPad’s impact on publishing and the fight for market share and price setting in the digital era, in the New Yorker, HERE.

Music

Paolo Nutini, Dizzie Rascal and an album about cricket have all be nominated for Ivor Novello Awards, more HERE.

Film

The future of MGM is in doubt, as the producers of James Bond put their next production on hold, more HERE.

The founders of Miramax, the Weinstein brothers, are in talks with Disney to buy it back, more HERE.

Arts and Heritage

Arts

Ed was on BBC Midlands Today on Tuesday talking about our arts policies, although for reasons that are unclear, this gem is not on the iPlayer.

This was ahead of an election debate at the Birmingham Hippodrome on arts policies with former Labour creative industries minister Sion Simon, Liberal Democrat Lord Clement Jones and Ed himself, more HERE

Orchestras count the cost of the volcano calamity, more HERE

Heritage

The National Churches Trust has launched its online survey, aimed at people with responsibility for looking after their church building HERE

Theatre

Where were the skewerings of new Labour in Posh? HERE.

Where we’ve been and who we’ve seen

Still on the stump, lovely weather for it.

Ed Vaizey

Shadow Arts Minister

Jeremy Hunt

Shadow Culture Secretary

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Weekly Email

News summary: 21st and 22nd April 2010

April 26th, 2010 - 
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BBC

Newly disclosed BBC expenses show BBC technology boss Erik Huggers has had yet another expensive drive, clocking up £646.79 for a car and driver on a trip to Korea, while BBC Worldwide spent more that £6,000 bringing director general Mike Thompson back from Australia. In total BBC executives claimed expenses totalling £173,527.04 from September to December last year, more HERE.

Music

Paolo Nutini, Dizzie Rascal and an album about cricket have all be nominated for Ivor Novello Awards, more HERE.

Broadband

Orange has done a deal with BT to piggy back onto BT’s network, and pass their own fixed-line infrastructure to BT. Orange will go head to head with market leaders BT, Virgin Media and TalkTalk, which could sharply increase competition, and drive down consumer charges, more HERE.

Video Games

Ed has reassured the video games sector that we support tax breaks more HERE.

Google

The Labour Government head’s Google’s European censorship list, more HERE.

While the Information commissioner joins Germany, Canada and Spain in calling on Goolge to protect its users better, more HERE.

Arts

Orchestras count the cost of the volcano calamity, more HERE.

Film

The future of MGM is in doubt, as the producers of James Bond put their next production on hold, more HERE.

Theatre

Where were the skewerings of new Labour in Posh? HERE.

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Daily News Summary

News summary: 13th April 2010

April 13th, 2010 - 
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Election stuff

Labour launched their manifesto yesterday, see the Guardian’s annotated thingy HERE.

David Cameron pointed out that it doesn’t have anything new to say in it, unlike our manifesto, launched today, which is just rockachoc full of new ideas.  Download the whole document HERE, or at a glance in the Guardian HERE with their annotated interactive thingy to follow tomorrow, doubtless.

Music

Now you might have thought, what with the DEB passing, and the election on, the rows about creative content, cost and the internet would calm down for a while, but you’d be wrong: An association of songwriters, the British Academy of Songwriters, Composers and Authors (Basca) has hit out at much-hailed –as-saviour-of-the-music-business Spotify, claiming that the payments generated for songwriters are ‘tiny’ and calling on the company to be more transparent about the nature of its business. More in the Guardian, HERE.

EMI is likely to be ordered to plug the gap in its pensions deficit when the Pensions regulator rules in June, the groups is already working to get investors to agree to invest more in the company to avoid breaching the terms of its £3.3 billion loan from Citigroup, more HERE.

Publishing

It seems that Gordon Brown hasn’t been reading Lord Mandelson’s memos as he opposes Murdoch’s plans to erect paywalls to access the Times and Sunday Times online, more HERE.

BBC Worldwide is considering a partnership deal to publish some of its magazines under licence, while selling off other titles, more HERE.

Social networking

Twitter unveils its plan to make money: ‘promoted tweets’ ads, similar to google’s approach more HERE and HERE

Facebook has announced new safety measures, including a 24 hours police hotline, an awareness campaign and a new system of reporting abuse, although it has stopped short of adding a logo linking to the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre, more HERE .

Google: can it gauge the greatest art? HERE.

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Daily News Summary

News Summary: 23rd March 2010

March 23rd, 2010 - 
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Google China

Google’s announcement in January that it was no longer willing to remove sensitive material from search results highlighted the issue of China’s domestic internet controls. But its decision last night to shift its Chinese-language service to servers in Hong Kong looks likely to put the spotlight on the methods Beijing uses to block content that is hosted overseas. The censorship system works because it is twofold: it consists of controls on the content posted inside the country, and the ‘great firewall’, which prevents mainland users from reading material hosted overseas.

While Google may have stopped censoring its results thanks to its move to Hong Kong, the Chinese government has not. That is why, using google.com.hk from the mainland last night, searches for ‘Tiananmen student movement’ in Chinese and ’89 student movement’ in English brought no results – just a message that is all too familiar to internet users in China: ‘The connection was reset.’

The great firewall is implemented by internet police in three ways. The first two are common tactics: blacklisting domain names and IP addresses, for example those belonging to groups such as Amnesty International. Dr Steven Murdoch – a researcher at the computer laboratory of Cambridge University and member of the Tor project, which helps internet users surf the web anonymously – said Chinese authorities have been using such methods with increasing zeal. According to Murdoch, the third technique used by China is ‘close to unique,’; this is the keyword blocking system. Essentially, the government’s system mirrors and searches each packet of data as it passes in and out of the country, looking in URLs and webpages for keywords such as ‘falun’, in reference to the banned Falun Gong spiritual movement. Should it find them, it breaks the connection.

The Chinese government has responded to say: ‘This is totally wrong. We’re uncompromisingly opposed to the politicisation of commercial issues, and express our discontent and indignation to Google for its unreasonable accusations and conducts’. More in The Guardian HERE, HERE and HERE; Independent HERE; Times HERE and HERE; Telegraph HERE and HERE; and FT HERE.

Television

Project Canvas, the joint venture between terrestrial broadcasters and internet service providers to create a new web-connected television platform, will be investigated by the OFT, which has said it will study whether the plans of the venture’s members –which include the BBC, ITV and BT – could amount to a merger and whether that would mean less competition. The project could then be referred to the Competition Commission. The Canvas members said yesterday that they had submitted proposals to the OFT, arguing that these did not constitute a merger and should not be referred to the commission. Richard Halton, project director for the venture, said:

‘The Canvas partners are clear that the joint venture does not qualify as a merger and we welcome the opportunity to clarify this position formally. We are delighted that Arqiva have committed themselves to the project. They have a history of positive and progressive support for Freeview.’ More in The Guardian HERE and Times HERE.

Heritage Crafts

Next month, Sheffield city council’s planning committee will consider an application to turn Portland Works into studio apartments and office space. The structure itself is Grade II* listed, and the development looks sympathetic enough. But if it goes ahead, the small group of present-day Little Mesters who occupy the Portland’s warren of workshops – a knifemaker, a tool forger, a silver plater, an engraver, a die maker – will be gone, probably for good. Robin Wood, chair of a newly formed lobby group, the Heritage Crafts Association, which is being launched today at the V&A has said:

‘I’d estimate that more people in the world today eat with stainless steel knives and forks than speak English… You could argue it’s our biggest cultural export. So it seems quite extraordinary that we can protect the bricks and mortar of a place like this, but not care in the least about the skills and craftsmanship that are so much of this city’s culture and identity… ‘they’re every bit as much a part of our cultural heritage as grand museums, fine buildings and admired works of art or literature.’

There exists a peculiarly British problem; in 2003, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (Unesco) adopted a Convention for the Safeguarding of Intangible Cultural Heritage, including ‘traditional craftsmanship’, which argued that any effort to safeguard traditional craftsmanship should focus not on preserving craft objects, but on ‘creating conditions that will encourage artisans to continue to produce crafts of all kinds, and to transmit their skills and knowledge to others’. More than 100 countries signed up. Britain did not. More in The Guardian HERE.

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News Summary: 8th March 2010

March 8th, 2010 - 
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BBC

The BBC is standing by a report that 95% of the aid raised to fight famine in northern Ethiopia in 1985 was diverted by rebels and spent on weapons, despite denials by Bob Geldof and leading charities (whose complaints can be see in our Weekend News Summary HERE).

BBC World Service’s Africa editor, Martin Plaut’s documentary is expected to find itself the subject of a formal complaint next week when Geldof and several charities send a letter to Ofcom and the BBC Trust. The BBC has declined to comment directly, instead referring to a blog entry written by the BBC World Service’s news and current affairs editor. Andrew Whitehead said the programme had presented ‘compelling evidence that some of the famine relief donations were diverted by a powerful rebel group to buy weapons’, adding that the BBC stood by Plaut’s reporting. He also noted that the programme had not suggested that any relief agencies had been complicit in the diversion of funds:

‘It explicitly stated that “whatever the levels of deception, much aid did reach the starving”… But there is a clear public interest in determining whether some money given as famine relief ended up buying guns and bullets. And that’s what the evidence suggests.’ More in The Guardian HERE.

Erik Huggers, the BBC digital chief, has promised its closure of 200 websites is not simply an exercise in cutting dead wood and will help commercial rivals. In an interview with MediaGuardian – which you can read in full HERE – he said the BBC expansionist tendencies that had angered commercial rivals were a natural consequence of the internet being a medium with no boundaries:

‘Our mistake was allowing our web presence to sprawl, a natural consequence of not being constrained by spectrum… We need to be more focused, and do it much better… we need to improve the quality level, and reprioritise on what we do best.’ More in The Guardian HERE.

Tech

A BBC World Service poll, which collated the answers from more than 27,000 people across 26 countries, has found that 87 per cent of internet users felt that web access should be a basic human right. More than 70 per cent of non-users felt they should have access to the net. Dr Hamadoun Toure, secretary-general of the International Telecommunication Union has said:

‘The right to communicate cannot be ignored… The internet is the most powerful potential source of enlightenment ever created. [Government’s must] ‘regard the internet as basic infrastructure – just like roads, waste and water’. More in The Telegraph HERE.

The Chinese government has pledged to punish the hackers who attacked Google if there is evidence to prove it, but said it has yet to receive any complaint; Google has never filed a report to the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology over the cyber attacks or sought negotiations, Vice Minister Miao Wei has been quoted as saying by state news agency Xinhua:

‘If Google has had evidence that the attacks came from China, the Chinese government will welcome them to provide the information and will severely punish the offenders according to the law’. More in The Independent HERE.

Meanwhile today’s Times reports that urgent warnings have been circulated throughout Nato and the European Union for secret intelligence material to be protected from a recent surge in cyberwar attacks originating in China. The attacks have also hit government and military institutions in the United States, where analysts said that the West had no effective response and that EU systems were especially vulnerable because most cyber security efforts were left to member states. James Lewis, of the Centre for Strategic and International Studies has said British and American cyber defences are among the most sophisticated in the world, but:

‘… the EU is less competent… The porousness of the European institutions makes them a good target for penetration. They are of interest to the Chinese on issues from arms sales and nuclear non-proliferation to Tibet and energy.’ More in The Times HERE.

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Weekend News Summary: 6th/7th March 2010

March 8th, 2010 - 
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BBC

Sir Bob Geldof and the Band Aid trust are to report the BBC to Ofcom over a World Service report that millions of pounds raised for famine victims in Ethiopia in 1985 were actually spent on weapons. A group of Britain’s most respected agencies – including Oxfam, the Red Cross, Unicef, Christian Aid and Save the Children – are joining Band Aid in writing an official complaint to the chairman of the BBC Trust, Sir Michael Lyons. Geldoff, who raised $144m for Africa in the Live Aid concert in 1985, has accused the BBC of ‘wilfully naive reporting’:

‘This is a Ross/Brand moment in BBC standards for me… This story has gone around the world on the internet and created a totally false impression of what actually happened… the BBC has undermined the faith of ordinary people across the world in the effectiveness of giving to people in their hour of need. It is a disgrace.’

Nick Guttman, director of emergency relief operations at Christian Aid has condemned the BBC story as ‘outrageous and very damaging’, whilst Phil Bloomer, director of Oxfam’s campaigns and policy division has said:

‘It is palpable nonsense… We know because we bought the food, we bought the trucks, we took the food in, saw it distributed and then we drove the empty trucks out… you have to ask why the BBC seems to have been prepared to run with these extraordinary claims about our work without even putting in a call to Oxfam before they were broadcast.’ More in The Guardian HERE; Independent HERE; Times HERE; Telegraph HERE.

Prominent British Asians have called for the BBC Asian Network to be saved. Actor and writer Meera Syal and Olympic medal-winning boxer Amir Khan and are among the entertainment stars, actors and peers signing a letter – which you can see in The Guardian HERE, urging the BBC to halt the closure of the station. The letter says that the eight-year-old digital broadcaster provides a ‘key platform’ For the national Asian community and:

‘… offers creative British Asian talent an outlet which is demonstrably under-represented in the more mainstream BBC. This would all be tragically lost if these proposals are agreed.’

Jarvis Cocker becomes figurehead of the Save 6Music campaign, more in The Guardian HERE. More on the review in The Guardian HERE; Observer HERE, HERE and HERE; Sunday Times HERE

Amid reports that Chris Evans has sparked 654 official complaints to the BBC with critical messages appearing on his radio show’s message boards, Terry Wogan has written on his blog to fans, or Togs – Terry’s Old Geezers and Gals – who have been particularly vociferous against Evans since he took over the Radio 2 Breakfast Show in January. He said:

‘I asked all Togs to welcome Chris with open minds and hearts, and I know that they have… They know better than most that it took me years and years to build a loyal audience. Chris has had six weeks! I’m trying to build a new audience myself on a Sunday morning… Give us a chance.’ More in The Guardian HERE; Independent HERE; and Telegraph HERE.

Television

The survey of Britain’s main television channels, carried out for Channel 4 by the Communications Research Group, has found that men still outnumber women by two to one, and that, where they do appear, women predominantly feature in programmes about ‘soft’ issues and older women are kept off the screen. The survey indicates that the position has not changed since 2006, when a BBC report found there were twice as many men on television as women.

Women are equally represented in soaps, but make up just one third of people in factual programmes and even fewer on news bulletins. Women make up just over a third (37%) of those giving their opinion in vox pops. More in The Observer HERE and Sunday Times HERE

Publishing

Robert McCrum argues in The Observer that only belatedly are publishers confronting the implications of the digitisation of literature. He says:

‘Electronic time can seem faster than real time. The transformation of the literary landscape has happened at warp speed and it’s not over yet… So it should come as no surprise that the publishing business, a slave to real time and long lunches, should have been so slow to adapt. The book trade has always been intrinsically conservative… At first, when the Google Books Library Project was launched in 2004, senior UK publishers… instinctively found an ostrich-like default position. If they had understood the digital revolution better, they might have resisted Google’s piracy with an articulate common purpose… As it was, only Nigel Newton of Bloomsbury had the wisdom to pull his head out of the sand and raise the alarm. More HERE.

The sale of The Independent is being held up while Alexander Lebedev tries to strike a better deal with its landlord, the Daily Mail and General Trust (DMGT). The Independent and London Evening Standard pay a total of £5m a year to DMGT. More in The Sunday Times HERE.

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News Summary: 2nd March 2010

March 2nd, 2010 - 
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BBC review

The latest on the BBC review, as of 10.04am on the BBC News website HERE is confirmation from Mark Thompson that BBC 6 Music and Asian Network will face closure.

Speaking to BBC staff Mr Thompson also announced that there will be 25% less spent on BBC online by 2013. Among the closures will be teen services Switch and Blast, with Mr Thompson admitting Channel 4 should lead the way with these audiences. He has also pledged that in the future 90p of every licence fee £1 will be spent on programming. The morning newspapers’ coverage of the story can be found in The Guardian  HERE, HERE, HERE (where Greg Dyke accuses Thompson of being overpaid and out of touch), and Thompson’s own article acknowledging that the BBC must stop trying to do everything  HERE. The Times’ coverage is HERE; Telegraph’s HERE, HERE and HERE.

Tech

The 80 or 90% market share dominance of Microsoft’s Internet Explorer looks to be nearing the end as users throughout Europe were yesterday shown a ‘ballot screen’ prompting people to choose a browser to use. The move is part of a deal with European Union regulators; last month Brussels dropped anti-trust charges against Microsoft in return for Microsoft agreeing to provide a software update with a pop-up menu of browsers. Dave Heiner, vice president of Microsoft said ‘users who get the choice screen will be free to choose any browser or stick with the browser they have.’

In an effort to take on Internet Explorer, Google launched a major advertising campaign in Britain to promote Chrome. Today Google will release several improvements in its browser including additional privacy controls and a foreign language translator for web pages. Apple Firefox is the other biggest rival. More in The Times HERE and background on the ’10 year web browser war’ in The Guardian HERE and HERE; Independent HERE; Telegraph HERE; and FT HERE.

Theatre

This month sees the long-awaited launch of National Theatre Wales. In Wales, English speakers outnumber Welsh speakers three to one. The idea of an English-language national theatre has been debated for almost 100 years, but it took Dai Smith, who has chaired the Arts Council of Wales since 2006, to cut through the competing reports on how it should be structured – ‘I decided that this pussyfooting around – should we have a national theatre or not? – was ridiculous… I firmly believe in this’. Like Scotland’s national theatre, the company has no permanent home. Its home is all of Wales. More in The Guardian HERE.

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Weekend News Summary 27th-28th February 2010

March 1st, 2010 - 
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Education

An influential group of leading academics and cultural figures has issued a stark warning that they fear for the future of the arts and humanities in British universities. A letter to the Observer (see HERE) signed by the directors of major arts institutions and a number of university vice-chancellors, claims that funding cuts and a decision to focus on the sciences have left subjects such as philosophy, literature, history, languages and art facing “worrying times”. Without urgent action the country’s intellectual heritage is in danger of being diminished, they conclude, and, with reference to Labour’s decision to run tertiary education from the Business department:

“There is more to citizenship than business and skills… People’s complexity comes from their language, identities, histories, faiths and cultures.” More in The Observer HERE and HERE.

Broadcasting

BBC chiefs effectively wrote off £150m of licence-payers’ money spent on an online education service, BBC Jam, after it was axed, and officials decided efforts to recoup the cash by selling off the material “wasn’t worth the candle” reports The Independent on Sunday HERE.

It has also emerged that leaked proposals by Mark Thompson to axe the digital radio station 6Music have set the BBC’s director-general on a collision course with the BBC Trust. Two weeks ago, the trust published a report into 6Music which concluded the music station was “well liked by its listeners” and its audience had “grown faster than any other BBC digital radio-only service”. It emerged last week that Thompson’s proposals, to be published next month, recommend closing the station down. Other proposals include shutting the Asian Network, slashing the website’s staff by 25 per cent, selling off magazines such as Radio Times and Top Gear and capping sports rights at 8 per cent of budget, or £300m. The news that 6Music is in danger has met with vocal opposition, despite an audience of fewer than 700,000, according to the latest Rajar figures. More in The Observer HERE, HERE and HERE; Independent on Sunday HERE and HERE; FT HERE.

This Wednesday’s full-year results presentation from ITV will be the platform for Archie Norman (Adam Crozier’s start date is yet to be confirmed) to present his plan for the broadcaster’s future – including a roadmap away from the Michael Grade era. The results will be far from woeful; analysts predict pre-tax profits doubling from £34.7m to around £67m-£88m. Numis Securities has forecast a pre-tax profit of around £75m based on the belief that advertising recovered dramatically in the last few months of 2009. The Sunday Times HERE; Telegraph HERE.

Funding

A host of internationally flavoured arts events in London in the coming months are being supported by companies that intend to use cultural links to support their business interests in emerging markets. HSBC, which promotes itself as the bank that best appreciates the world’s diversity, is emphasising that message by sponsoring this summer’s Brazil festival on the South Bank, about which we’ve blogged HERE. Marah Winn-Moon, HSBC’s head of cultural sponsorship, said:

“It is a great opportunity to bring clients in with a cultural hook, and then to start talking to them about doing business in those countries too”.

Overseas companies are also exploiting London’s vibrant arts scene to promote their business in an international context. Nigeria’s Guaranty Trust became the first African corporation to support art in Britain when it sponsored Tate Britain’s current exhibition of paintings by Chris Ofili, a painter of Nigerian heritage. The bank also sponsors the next installation at Trafalgar Square’s Fourth Plinth, the British-Nigerian artist Yinka Shonibare’s “Nelson’s Ship in a Bottle”, a reproduction of HMS Victory bedecked with sails decorated with African patterns. The work will be unveiled on May 24. Segun Agbaje, the bank’s deputy chief executive officer, said that arts sponsorship was an opportunity:

“… to give people another perspective on Africa, to talk about its heritage instead of droughts all the time”. More in The FT HERE.

Theatre

Sir David Hare, an associate director of the National Theatre, has said theatre lags behind other creative art forms, such as the novel, when it came to women and equality of expression. Theatres should realise that women’s writing for the theatre had reached a “tipping point”, he says:

“I don’t think the repertory of most theatres at the moment is reflecting what seems to be happening in terms of the most interesting new theatre…We would hope to see management of theatres reflecting where we think the creativity in playwriting is coming from… There’s no doubt that the structure of the theatre is plainly male… The rough and tumble of the theatre is like politics to a degree – it’s a macho business.” More in The Telegraph HERE.

Art

Some of the world’s most important paintings may be lost to the nation because there are no funds available to keep them here following the purchase of two works by Titian for £100m. The latest artwork poised to join the exodus of masterpieces is St John the Evangelist by the Italian Old Master Domenichino. Despite being in the UK for the past 100 years, the painting is likely to leave the country. Professor David Ekserdijian, of the Government’s Reviewing Committee has said:

“It is the best work by the artist remaining in private hands and its departure from the UK would be lamentable.”

Works to be lost from the country include:

Raphael’s Head of a Muse The “exquisite” drawing from 1510 – a preparation for a commission by Pope Julius II – looks likely to be on its way to America after being bought for a record £29.2m, even though “every possible effort should be made to raise enough money to keep it in the country”.

Turner’s Pope’s Villa at Twickenham One of Turner’s most important works is already in America after an export ban last year failed to find any institutions willing or able to pay the £5.4m the 1808 painting was worth.

Domenichino’s St John the Evangelist It will be “lamentable” if this £9.2m work from 1621-29 left the country after more than 100 years, according to the Reviewing Committee. Lamentable, but likely.

Works saved include:

Titian’s Diana and Actaeon A six-month campaign persuaded the public, the Scottish government and the Heritage Lottery Fund to part with £50m to buy the Old Master’s work from the Duke of Sutherland last year. Fundraising is due to start shortly to raise the same sum for the companion painting, Diana and Callisto, by 2012. Both were created between 1556 and 1559.

Turner’s Blue Rigi One of the finest watercolours by one of Britain’s greatest painters, an 1842 view of a Swiss mountain, was saved in 2007 after the Tate raised £4.95m. More in The Independent on Sunday HERE.

Banksy‘s undoubted knack for exploiting the feverish interest his anonymity provokes has certainly created a lot of hype around the documentary Exit. The point is, says Andrew Johnson in The Independent on Sunday HERE, it isn’t really about him. It’s more about the creation of another street artist, Mr Brainwash, and an exposé of the art market and “suckers” with too much money who want to be part of the latest thing.

Tech

In August 2009, it was hard to move around Beijing without seeing an advert for Google. China was awash with the logo of a company whose motto is “Don’t Be Evil”, and the scale of the investment was a palpable endorsement of China’s vital importance to the economics of any global company. Skip forward to January this year, and an official blogpost announced summarily that the censored results that China demanded from Google were no longer compatible with the company’s philosophy. Off the record, employees said the company would pull out of China imminently.

So did the search giant really decide to eschew profits in favour of a defence of free speech? Or did it realise it would never be the biggest search engine in China and simply cut its losses? The question that matters is simple: what does Google stand for? More in The Telegraph HERE. And the FT asks, having acquired power over those it freed, is Google now a monopoly HERE and how ethically is its power used HERE.

In the week when three Google execs have been convicted and awarded six-month suspended sentences for allowing a clip of an autistic boy being bullied to play on Google Video (see more HERE), The Observer asks HERE, When anyone can have their say, what use is the stuff that comes out the other end? What can be done with it, and who is going to be in charge of quality control when things go wrong? And Microsoft has attacked ‘aggressive’ Google, as covered in The Sunday Telegraph HERE.

Opera

The people of Thurrock are being promised a piece of Covent Garden, complete with the sparkling glamour of its greatest operatic divas and prima ballerinas. On Tuesday, the Royal Opera House will officially take over the centre of an empty 14-acre site near the Thames in Essex. Tony Hall, Royal Opera’s chief executive has said:

“I love the fact Covent Garden is going to do something in a place that is half an hour away from London by train, but could be miles and miles away in every other way… It is a place that is relatively deprived, for the south-east, and that has a history of manufacturing that makes it the right place for us.” More in The Observer HERE.

Design
The Independent on Sunday has picked up two top honours in the prestigious Best of News Design awards. Organised by the Society for News Design, the professional organisation for the world’s graphic designers who work in the industry, the awards recognise the best from around the world in newspaper production. More in The Independent on Sunday HERE.

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News Summary: 25th February 2010

February 25th, 2010 - 
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Tech

An Italian court has found three Google execs guilty of violating the privacy of a child with autism who was shown being bullied in a video posted on Google Video. The case has potentially vast implications for the future of the hosting platforms such as Facebook and YouTube who argue that they cannot be held responsible for content created by their users until they are informed that something is illegal. The Italian prosecutors contended that Google was negligent in not removing the video sooner.

In a statement, Google said the outcome of the case was:

“… surprising to say the least, since our colleagues had nothing to do with the video in question: they did not make it; they did not upload it, and they have not seen it… We are deeply troubled by this conviction for another equally important reason… It attacks the very principles of freedom on which the internet is built. Common sense dictates that only the person who films and uploads a video to a hosting platform could take the steps necessary to protect the privacy and obtain the consent of the people they are filming.”

The prosecutors maintained:

“… this was not a trial about freedom of the internet as some have said. Instead, and for the first time in Italy, a serious issue has been raised about the rights of the individual in today’s society.” More in The Guardian HERE and HERE ; Times HERE; Telegraph HERE; and FT HERE.

Media

A Home Office report has recommended that “lads’ mags” such as Zoo and Nuts should be made top shelf titles with age restrictions on their sale because they are thought to be part of a “drip, drip” media landscape sexualising children at an increasingly early age. The report was commissioned last year by the then home secretary, Jacqui Smith, as part of a Home Office strategy tackling violence against women and girls.

The report, published tomorrow is also expected to endorse a call from the Royal College of Psychiatrists for advertisements and magazine spreads to carry a warning kitemark when digitally enhanced models appear. More in The Guardian HERE.

Robert Dee, a young British man described as “the world’s worst tennis pro” has appeared at the High Court to sue the Daily Telegraph for ruining his professional reputation. He has already secured more than 30 apologies and tens of thousands of pounds in damages from media organisations that made similarly disparaging allegations about his sporting prowess. The BBC, Daily Mail, Guardian and Sun were among the news organisations that apologised to Dee, avoiding litigation. More in The Guardian HERE.

Auction

Chanel couture gowns from the 1920s go under the hammer in France today alongside handbags and jewellery. Estimated prices range from as little as €50 for certain accessories to €10,000 for a silk satin gown embroidered with white pearls, thought to have been designed by Coco Chanel herself, around 1923. More in The Guardian HERE.

A pair of football boots worn by Sir Stanley Matthews in the 1953 FA Cup Final have been sold – complete with laces, studs, and a programme from the game signed by players – for £38,400 at auction. More in The Times HERE.

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News Summary: 24th February 2010

February 24th, 2010 - 
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Media

The Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee’s Press Standards, Privacy and Libel report was published last night and can be read in full HERE. In summary the report:

  • Called for the Government to cut “enormous cost of libel cases” in the UK;
  • Called for the Press Complaints Commission to be renamed and have power to fine;
  • Condemned “collective amnesia” at News International over phone hacking but said the culture of hacking being deemed acceptable had now changed.

More in The Guardian HERE, HERE, HERE and HERE; Independent HERE and HERE; Times HERE; and Telegraph HERE.

Tech

It has been revealed that former children’s laureates Quentin Blake, Anne Fine and Jacqueline Wilson, among others, have opted out of the Google Books settlement. Court documents relating to the case (see HERE) show that more than 6,500 authors, publishers and literary agents have opted out of the settlement. These include the estates of Rudyard Kipling and Roald Dahl. Novelist Marika Cobbold, author of books including Guppies for Tea and Shooting Butterflies, has opted out and said:

“My feelings were, in the end, that I doubted I would lose out by opting out, whereas I might do by opting in. Also there was the principle that copyright is important… It would be like handing over my babies to a babysitter I’d never met, [and] I couldn’t understand what was in it for me. I love Google, and in principle making information accessible is wonderful, but things are moving so fast, and authors are losing so much control over what we’ve done, that my fear was who knows, in five to 10 years’ time, how this information could be used?” More in The Guardian HERE; Independent HERE; and FT HERE.

More bad news for Google as it faces a preliminary anti-monopoly probe by the European Commission into its dominant position in online browsing and digital advertising following allegations that it demotes competing websites to the lower echelons of customers’ search results. The complaints centre on the way in which Google’s search results are compiled and on the terms and conditions the company attaches to deals with advertisers. Although the commission’s investigation is only at a tentative stage, the fact that Brussels is taking the issue seriously is likely to set off alarm bells at Google. More in The Guardian HERE.

Cinema

There’s interesting coverage of the Alice in Wonderland/ Odeon fall-out in today’s Guardian, where it notes that Tim Burton’s film has become an unlikely pawn in a global struggle to ­redefine how, when and where we watch ­movies in the digital age. Disney, which ­produced the movie, wants to shorten the amount of time between some films being released in cinemas and then coming out on DVD. Exhibitors, unsurprisingly, want to preserve the exclusive ­theatrical experience for as long as possible. The studio insists that it’s not trying to enforce a new industry standard: it ­simply wants the ­flexibility to release some films sooner on DVD, when it makes commercial sense to do so. The studio argues that films typically last about two months in cinemas before they disappear off screens; this means a further two-month wait until the official DVD release, a period used by pirates to flog illegal copies. A shorter window, says Disney, will mean less money lost to the pirates.

But exhibitors fear that if they accept a three-month window for Alice, rather than a four, then other studios will ­follow suit, making a further ­contraction inevitable. This, they say, will erode the eagerness of audiences to rush out to the cinema, and tempt them to wait instead for the DVD or online release. More in The Guardian  HERE.

Music

It’s National Sing Up Day today, ‘Sing Up’ works on the basis that every child deserves the chance to sing every day. Singing improves learning, confidence, health and social development; it has the power to change lives and help to build stronger communities. You can read more about Sing Up’s work at their website HERE. There is also news this week that teaching stroke patients to sing can “rewire” their brains, helping them to recover speech. Dr Nina Kraus, a neuroscientist from Northwestern University in Chicago, also studies the effects of music on the brain. She has discovered that musical training seems to enhance the ability to perform other tasks, such as reading; providing yet more evidence that musical training is an important part of children’s education. More in BBC News HERE.

Auction

A rare copy of the first comic book to feature Superman sold for $1m (£640,000) yesterday, smashing the previous record for a comic. The 1938 edition of Action Comics No1 was sold by a private seller to a private buyer. Neither released their name. The issue, which has a cover featuring Superman lifting a car, originally cost 10 cents. More in The Guardian HERE.

Libraries

Miranda McKearney, Directorof the Reading Agency has given an interview to The Guardian, talking about their schemes to promote authors and books to communities, through such means as Summer Reading Challenges and reading groups. More HERE.

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