Media News - Wednesday, April 02, 2008

Gore group plans ad blitz on global warming

Former Vice President Al Gore and a nonprofit climate group have begun what they say will be a three-year USD 300m (EUR 191m) advertising blitz to recruit 10 million advocates to seek laws and policies that can cut greenhouse gases. The first ad, posted online at wecansolveit.org, compares the challenge of fighting global warming to the invasion of Normandy and the civil rights movement. That advertisement will start appearing on television Wednesday, according to the Alliance for Climate Protection, a group created by Mr. Gore in 2006. It will be followed by ads tailored to particular audiences and media, including the Internet. About half the anticipated budget has been raised from donations, mostly from anonymous benefactors, people involved in the campaign said. (New York Times)

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McClatchy to boost Spanish content

Hoping to offset its losses in the U.S. newspaper market, McClatchy Co. will sharpen its focus on the rapidly growing Hispanic community by sharing articles and other content with a major publisher of Spanish-language publications. The partnership will allow McClatchy's Spanish-language papers and Web sites to feature information produced by ImpreMedia, a privately held publisher that operates in markets covering about two-thirds of the Hispanics living in the United States. Like the rest of the print news industry, McClatchy has been struggling as advertisers shift their spending from newspapers to the Internet in pursuit of the Web's expanding audience. The trend has devastated McClatchy's stock, which has plunged by 82 percent since the end of 2005. ImpreMedia touts its Spanish-language newspapers as an advertising gold mine. The New York-based company estimates the 29.4 million Hispanics living in its target markets have a combined USD 478 billion in spending power. (AP via Yahoo News)

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Afghan Taliban say attack Dutch over anti-Islam film

The Taliban has said two attacks on Dutch forces in Afghanistan were in retaliation for an anti-Islamic film by a Dutch politician, the SITE Intelligence Group said on Tuesday. In a communique posted on Web sites used by militants dated April 1, the Taliban said its Shura Council Leadership announced reprisal operations against Dutch forces because ‘one of the members of the Dutch parliament produced a film that hurts Islam, and he published it with bad intentions.’ Dutch MP Geert Wilders, leader of the anti-immigration Freedom Party, launched the anti-Koran film ‘Fitna’ - an Arabic term that can mean ‘strife’ - last Thursday on the Internet. It was condemned by Muslim nations as a provocation, while Dutch Muslim leaders urged restraint. The Dutch government has said the film in no way reflects its own views. (Reuters)

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Japan’s nationalists on warpath over shrine film

A critically acclaimed movie about Yasukuni Shrine, Japan's controversial memorial to its war dead, has been pulled from Tokyo cinemas amid a campaign of right-wing intimidation and death threats against the distributors. Ten years in the making, Yasukuni explores the shrine's role as a rallying point for the Japanese far right and its tortured relationship with Japan's undigested war history. The Chinese director Li Ying, who moved to Tokyo in 1989 and speaks fluent Japanese, rejects claims that he is anti-Japanese but says Yasukuni symbolises a ‘disease of the spirit’ in Japan and describes his movie as a ‘love-letter’ to the Japanese people. Japanese conservatives have branded the movie ‘Chinese propaganda’ and condemned a decision by Japan's Agency for Cultural Affairs to award Li a JPY 7.5m (EUR 47,570) grant. With criticism growing along with the threat of violence from ultra-right-wingers, four Tokyo cinemas have pulled out of an official launch on 12 April. The documentary, which was applauded at the Sundance Festival in January, is unlikely to ever flicker on Japan's movie screens. Ultra-right-wingers had threatened retribution against anyone who handled the movie. Anonymous bloggers posted contact details for the distribution company, the Japan Arts Council and every theatre showing it. Death threats were issued against the production company, Dragon Films, forcing it to move its Tokyo offices. (The Independent)

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Egypt seizes German magazine over Islam portrayal

Egypt ordered the confiscation of a special edition of the German magazine Der Spiegel about Islam on Tuesday that the government says insults the Muslim Prophet Mohammad, Egypt's state news agency MENA said. Information Minister Anas el-Feki said the decision ‘comes in the context of defending Islamic values and standing firmly against those who try to insult the prophet, the Islamic faith, and religions generally,’ MENA reported. It said that Feki had ordered copies of the March 25 special edition confiscated because it contained ‘a number of images and phrases insulting the prophet, peace be upon him.’ MENA said that the edition, whose cover it said bore the headline ‘Allah in the West,’ included paragraphs quoting a ‘German orientalist’ as saying that Islam called for violence and terrorism. MENA said that the magazine had also characterized Islam as a Christian sect. (Reuters)

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Avatars at US House hearing on virtual world

The founder of virtual world Second Life sought to reassure U.S. lawmakers on Tuesday that the online community is able to police itself. Second Life founder Philip Rosedale and a handful of other virtual reality experts, testified at a House of Representatives hearing that was also attended by on-line personas, or avatars, portrayed on a video screen in the hearing room. Some lawmakers raised questions about what operators of virtual worlds are doing to stop them being used to stage real-world crimes such as terrorism, money-laundering and the exploitation of children. Second Life is an online community with several hundred thousand users who create their own avatar identities and can fly around the virtual world at will. In addition to entertainment, Second Life has created its own currency - the Linden dollar which can be converted to U.S. dollars - in an active marketplace which supports millions of dollars in monthly transactions. Lawmakers on the panel said the hearing was held for informational purposes and no legislation is planned. Rosedale, appearing in both physical and avatar form, outlined steps the company takes to ‘discourage and prevent illegal activity.’ Rosedale and other experts said virtual reality was the next step in the evolution of the Internet. (Reuters)

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