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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News Summary: 22nd February 2010

February 22nd, 2010 - 
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Heritage

The Abbey Road recording studios could be listed within a week as part of a move by English Heritage, which is standing by a recommendation it made in 2003 that the studios should be given Grade II listed status. In the recommendation to ministers the organisation concluded:

“The Abbey Road Studios warrant listing at Grade II for their outstanding cultural interest as the world’s earliest purpose-built, and still the most famous, recording studios… [The studios] possess huge cultural interest as well as substantially intact recording studio spaces interiors and should be listed.” More in The Times HERE.

The move is in response to the widely held belief that the studios were to be sold by EMI. However, EMI allayed fears of a sale yesterday, saying it had rejected a bid for the historic building last year but was in discussions about a “revitalisation” project to bring new life to the studios:

“At all times, these plans have focused on providing access to artists and, where possible, members of the public… In mid-2009, we did receive an offer to buy Abbey Road for in excess of £30m but this was rejected since we believe that Abbey Road should remain in EMI’s ownership.” More in The Guardian HERE; Independent HERE; Times HERE; Telegraph HERE; and FT HERE.

A major celebration of the work of Gustav Mahler and a return of a Venezuelan youth orchestra that took London by storm last year (for example, HERE), are among the highlights of the forthcoming classical music season at the Southbank Centre. More in The Guardian HERE.

Tech

The spate of internet attacks that hit Google (background of which you can see in our January news summaries, for example HERE and HERE) has, according to the New York Times HERE, been traced to two colleges in China. Shanghai Jiaotong University is well regarded as a centre for computer studies, and has an extensive information security programme that boasts “high level talent” and, says the NYT, has links to major military research projects. The other college is the Lanxiang Vocational School. While the Chinese authorities have not commented on the report, a member of staff from Lanxiang has said:

“We did not know Google was hacked before the New York Times contacted us – when they called, we told them we know nothing but they still made the story up… Our students are middle school graduates, and we train them to use software like Photoshop. If our students are so skilled they can hack Google, then what are they here for? …I hope the media can be cautious about this report… We don’t want to worsen US-China relations or draw national attention.” More in the Guardian HERE; Independent HERE; Times HERE; and Telegraph HERE.

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News Summary: 17th February 2010

February 17th, 2010 - 
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Brit Awards 2010

It was all about the ‘fame monster’ Gaga wasn’t it really, and so, in turn, is today’s coverage. The British music industry chose to award the 23-year-old, whose “Poker Face” single was the biggest-selling song of 2009, with the gongs for International Breakthrough; International Female Solo Artist; and International Album and you can read more in The Guardian HERE; Independent HERE; Times HERE; and Telegraph HERE.

Here’s the rest of the night’s wins:

British male solo artist Dizzee Rascal

British female solo artist Lily Allen

British breakthrough act JLS

British group Kasabian

British Album West Ryder Pauper Lunatic Asylum, Kasabian

British single Beat Again, JLS

International male solo artist Jay-Z

International female solo artist Lady GaGa

International breakthrough act Lady Gaga

International album The Fame, Lady GaGa

British producer Paul Epworth

Critics’ choice Ellie Goulding

Outstanding contribution to music Robbie Williams

Best Brits performance of its 30-year history Spice Girls, (1997) “Wannabe”/”Who Do You Think You Are?”

Best Brits album of 30 years (What’s The Story) Morning Glory?, Oasis

Tech

Google is being threatened with legal action over the launch of its new social network, Google Buzz, amid furious claims that the service breaches users’ privacy. A week after launching the service with great fanfare and with high hopes that it could lure internet users’ attention away from Facebook and Twitter, Google finds itself embroiled in a technical and public relations nightmare. The pioneering internet company again apologised to users yesterday, and said it was working round the clock to roll out additional alterations to Buzz, on top of emergency changes imposed late last week and over the weekend.

Users revolted when they realised that their contacts could now see who they had been emailing – something that could reveal everything from private business relationships to romantic affairs. Shelly Palmer, founder of Advanced Media Ventures, has said:

“Anyone who understands the Google mindset could not have expected them to get this right… Everywhere they go, they try to apply mechanistic efficiency. They looked at Facebook and said, ‘You have to invite people? How ridiculous! We’ll just look at who you email most and hook up those people right now.’ This wasn’t a malicious attack on your privacy. It was just Google’s attempt to create a social network with no fuss.” More in The Guardian HERE; Independent HERE; and Telegraph HERE.

Broadcasting

SeeSaw, a new television streaming service launches online today, bringing together shows from the BBC, Channel 4 and Five on a single site. SeeSaw went live with more than 3,000 hours of content and, unlike services such as BBC’s iPlayer or Channel 4’s 4oD, which broadcast their own content, has partnerships with BBC Worldwide, Channel 4, Five and independent companies who produce shows for ITV. John Keeling, the controller of SeeSaw, said:

“It’s like having an enormous buffet. You can either just snack on it and catch up on what you’ve missed, or gorge yourself with an entire season. It’s absolutely at your fingertips and your control.”

SeeSaw is currently free and funded by advertising revenue but in future it will introduce a pay-per-view service for top US dramas and other premium content. More in The Guardian HERE; Independent HERE; and Telegraph HERE.

The BBC has been accused of having a “total sense of humour failure” after banning its political editor, Nick Robinson, and other senior journalists from taking part in one of the corporation’s own entertainment programmes. The extraordinary situation relates to “The Bubble”, a new show whose format involves three comedians being cut off from the news for several days in a country house with no access to any media and then being asked to distinguish between authentic and fake news items. Both ITV News and Sky News have been happy to co-operate with BBC the series and supply it with news footage. The only BBC footage to appear will be archive material, even though the series is supposed to reflect stories of the week.

A spokesman for BBC News  has said:

“We are sure The Bubble on BBC Two will be extremely funny but BBC journalists will leave it to the comedians to do the comedy.” More in The Independent HERE.

Advertising

The Advertising Standards Authority have today ruled that eight TV adverts shown during an episode of Sherlock Holmes were “excessively strident” and breached the sound levels code. This followed a complaint from a viewer that the adverts were excessively noisy compared to the surrounding programme material, reflecting a long-standing issue for some TV watchers.

The ASA upheld the viewer’s complaint, saying the volume was “not well matched to the overall sound levels of the programme” but has also noted that complaints about noisy advertisements have gone down since rules were tightened up two years ago. More in the Guardian HERE; and Independent HERE.

Music

Sir Paul McCartney has told of his hopes that the famous Abbey Road Studios could be saved after reportedly being put up for sale by owner EMI. Sir Paul, who recorded most of the Beatles’ songs at Abbey Road, told BBC’s Newsnight:

“There are a few people who have been associated with the studio for a long time who were talking about mounting some bid to save it… I sympathise with them. I hope they can do something, it’d be great.

EMI – which counts Robbie Williams and Coldplay among its artists – posted a £1.75 billion loss for the year to March 2009 in accounts earlier this month. Recent recording advances and cheaper overseas studio facilities have added competitive pressure to Abbey Road and a sale of the studios would raise much needed cash for its struggling owner. More in The Guardian HERE; Independent HERE; and Telegraph HERE.

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News Summary: 16th February 2010

February 16th, 2010 - 
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Radio

The BBC Trust has concluded its nine month in-depth study of Radio 2, whose terms of service licence state that it must appeal to audiences over the age of 35. BBC Trustee David Liddiment, who led the review, said:

“We’re aware of concerns about Radio 2 targeting a younger audience. The current average audience age of 50 is well within the station’s target audience, but the Trust is clear that this must not fall any further, and we would like to see Radio 2 work on its appeal to over 65 year-olds.”

Commercial radio companies have complained that the BBC has been unfairly crowding out its competitors by allowing Radio 2 to focus on a younger audience, pointing to research that shows the number of 15 to 34-year-olds tuning into the station has increased by 62 per cent since 1999, while listeners over the age of 65 have fallen. The switch in breakfast show line-up from a 71 year old Terry, to a 43 year old Chris has offered little reassurance that the trend is about to reverse.

Andrew Harrison, chief executive of RadioCentre, which represents commercial stations, has said:

“We welcome the fact that the BBC Trust is calling for a greater contribution from Radio 2 to the delivery of the BBC’s public purposes, especially in peak times… Over the last decade, Radio 2 has shifted its programming policies – nobody has intervened and this has been disastrous for commercial radio’s heartland audience and for the plurality and diversity of the UK’s fragile radio ecology.”

More in The Guardian HERE and HERE; Independent  HERE; Times HERE; and Telegraph HERE. You can read the BBC Trust’s full review HERE.

Tech

Useful analysis of Google Buzz vs Facebook in The Times today HERE, where it’s argued:

‘It’s not that Mr Zuckerberg is still only 25 and naively arrogant that annoys Google, nor that his company has enticed swaths of senior Google talent. It’s that Facebook’s fast-growing dominance of the “social” internet threatens its rival’s entire business model. If it can sell advertisers access not just to what you’re thinking, but to where you are, who you’re with and what you plan to do, Facebook’s revenues from individually targeted “behavioural” advertising could increase exponentially. And it knows it.’

Background to the Google vs Facebook story can be found HERE; HERE; HERE and HERE.

 Art

The first British exhibition of paintings by the Oscar-winning Welsh actor Sir Anthony Hopkins opens in London today. The 50 landscape and abstract paintings by actor, who has exhibited throughout the US, will be displayed at Gallery 27 in Mayfair, central London, until Saturday before moving to The Dome in Edinburgh for four days on 2 March. Hopkins began painting in 2002, paints every day in his Malibu studio and “takes his art very seriously”, according to exhibition promoter Jonathan Poole, who will play host at this evening’s launch as Sir Anthony is away filming. Five limited-edition prints will be available for purchase. More in the Guardian HERE; and Independent HERE.

Architecture

A plan to mark the entry points to Brick Lane with giant arches in the shape of hijabs has been condemned as offensive to Muslim women and a waste of £1.85m of public funds. Locals have said they risk ghettoising a community that considers itself tolerant and diverse. Tracey Emin, who lives just off Brick Lane, is one of a number of residents in the east London area who claim that Tower Hamlets council risks inflaming racial tension by trying to force the “hijab gates” – as they have become known – through without proper consultation. The Spitalfields Trust, which helped to save many of the historic Huguenot silk weavers’ houses that abut Brick Lane, has urged the council to abandon its “misconceived” idea. The council has extended the deadline for complaints to 22 February. More in the Guardian HERE.

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News Summary: 2nd February 2010

February 2nd, 2010 - 
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Macmillan Publishers seem to be quite successfully capitalising on the bitter rivalry between America’s technology giants, Apple and Amazon, to strike a blow for old media by forcing through price increases on digital versions of its books.

Macmillan is one of five publishers – along with Penguin, HarperCollins, Simon & Schuster and Hachette – to have signed up with Apple to make ebooks available through its online iBookstore. Last weekend, Amazon removed Macmillan books from its US website (more in the Guardian HERE and FT HERE) in protest at the publisher’s demand that they match the $12.99 and $14.99 pricings suggested by Apple. Protestations by the publishing industry then forced Amazon into a U-turn hours later (more in the Telegraph HERE and HERE and in the FT HERE). Amazon told readers:

‘We want you to know that ultimately… we will have to accept Macmillan’s terms because Macmillan has a monopoly over their own titles, and we will want to offer them to you, even at prices we believe to be needlessly high for ebooks’.

Is the use of the term ‘monopoly’ accidental, or a flagging up to regulators potential price-fixing between publishers and Apple, and/ or a gearing-up for a legal battle? More in the Guardian HERE and Independent HERE.

Google Books’ plans to carry ‘substantial extracts’ of books that are out of print but still within copyright, with buyers then paying to download the title in full, continues to be criticised as a ‘massive rights’ grab’. Revenue generated would be split, with 63% going to the rights holder and the rest to Google. Philip Pullman, author of the His Dark Materials trilogy, has said:

‘Just because a book is out of print doesn’t mean it belongs to Google. It belongs to me. And if I want to sell my rights to anybody, why the hell should I have to go and ask Google first?’

American authors, publishing organisations and Google are currently trying to agree the settlement, which has yet to be ratified by a New York court and could be one of the most important agreements in digital publishing. Google insists the proposed settlement ‘is not about acquiring rights to books… It is about creating a new revenue channel for rights holders, and opening up access to these books’. More in the Guardian HERE, with British author’s reactions so far in The Times HERE.

Does Habermas have a Tweet for you?! The German social theorist and philosopher Jürgen Habermas apparently tweeted the following ‘It’s true that the internet has reactivated the grass-roots of an egalitarian public sphere of writers and readers’. But, alas, when asked if he had indeed joined Twitter, the 80 year old Frankfurt School doyen is said to have responded ‘No, no, no…This is a misuse of my name.’ see more HERE. We however like to take this opportunity to happily inform you that Ed’s Twitter Page is bona fide and that he can be found merrily tweeting away every day, and does so like to be followed…

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