Media News - Tuesday, October 07, 2008

UK: Government will spy on every call and e-mail

Ministers are considering spending up to GBP 12bn (EUR 15.5bn) on a database to monitor and store the internet browsing habits, e-mail and telephone records of everyone in Britain. GCHQ, the government's eavesdropping centre, has already been given up to GBP 1bn to finance the first stage of the project. Hundreds of clandestine probes will be installed to monitor customers live on two of the country's biggest internet and mobile phone providers - thought to be BT and Vodafone. BT has nearly 5m internet customers. Ministers are braced for a backlash similar to the one caused by their ID cards programme. Dominic Grieve, the shadow home secretary, said: 'Any suggestion of the government using existing powers to intercept communications data without public discussion is going to sound extremely sinister.' MI5 currently conducts limited e-mail and website intercepts which are approved under specific warrants by the home secretary. Further details of the new plan will be unveiled next month in the Queen's speech. The Home Office stressed no formal decision had been taken but sources said officials had made clear that ministers had agreed 'in principle' to the programme. Officials claim live monitoring is necessary to fight terrorism and crime. However, critics question whether such a vast system can be kept secure. A total of 57 billion text messages were sent in the UK last year - 1,800 every second. (Times Online)

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US public television to give Americans more world news

A new nightly world newscast is being launched on U.S. public television, and producers of the new show say they intend to present foreign news in a way that is interesting and significant to American audiences. Producers of the new show Worldfocus say there is little foreign news coverage on television in the United States and what is covered is often glossed over or not explained very well to American viewers. Referring to what he calls a 'void in television news,' executive producer of the program Marc Rosenwasser says he wants to focus on foreign news in a way that shows Americans how international events and happenings impact their lives. He says Worldfocus will draw from a large network of global newsgathering organizations and individuals, and the staff purposely comes from all over the world. 'We have assistant producers who come from the Middle East, Taiwan, Brazil, Africa. By having people who hail from all over the world, we think we can easily get well beyond the typical coverage of the same two or three major stories and extend our region to all kinds of stories,' Rosenwasser said. Worldfocus will also have a Web presence and will try to engage people outside of the United States in an interactive way. Rosenwasser says the half-hour newscast has already secured coverage on eight out of the top 10 public television stations in the United States, with two New York stations airing the program twice each night. (VOA News)

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UK: Freedom of Information Act generates 1,000 stories in two years

The Freedom of Information Act has led to the media publishing more than 1,000 stories based on disclosures by public authorities in just two years, according to a new report. The disclosures, made under the UK and Scottish legislation, demonstrated the enormous range of information being released, said the report, published by the Campaign for Freedom of Information. 'They include significant disclosures about the Iraq conflict, the possible cause of Gulf war syndrome, assaults on public service staff, the state of civil service morale, compensation paid to victims of medical accidents, schools' efforts to inflate their exam results, hospital techniques for deflating waiting lists, the universities teetering on the edge of financial collapse, police officers with criminal records, government efforts to encourage gambling, lobbying by multinational oil, pharmaceutical and food companies, nuclear safety and other hazards, crimes committed by offenders on parole, unpublicised prison escapes, the expansion of the national DNA database and innumerable reports about high expenses claims and dubious public spending,' said the report, researched by Jon Matthew and Robin Robinson. The disclosures also cast new light on the government's approach to many issues, as well as identifying shortcomings in public service delivery, highlighting other problems which had not been addressed, and illustrating where policies had succeeded. In 2006 the Government attempted to impose restrictions on the use of the Freedom of Information Act, arguing that journalists were making excessive use of it, and that a large number of requests for information were trivial. But those proposals were dropped when Gordon Brown became Prime Minister. (Press Gazette)

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Scientist: Holographic television to become reality

Picture this: you're sat down for the Football World Cup final, or a long-awaited sequel to the 'Sex and the City' movie and you're watching all the action unfold in 3-D on your coffee table. The future of television? This image is an impression of what 3D holographic television may look like. It sounds a lot like a wacky dream, but don't be surprised if within our lifetime you find yourself discarding your plasma and LCD sets in exchange for a holographic 3-D television that can put Cristiano Ronaldo in your living room or bring you face-to-face with life-sized versions of your gaming heroes. The reason for renewed optimism in three-dimensional technology is a breakthrough in rewritable and erasable holographic systems made earlier this year by researchers at the University of Arizona. Dr Nasser Peyghambarian, chair of photonics and lasers at the university's Optical Sciences department, told CNN that scientists have broken a barrier by making the first updatable three-dimensional displays with memory. 'This is a prerequisite for any type of moving holographic technology. The way it works presently is not suitable for 3-D images,' he said. The researchers produced displays that can be erased and rewritten in a matter of minutes. The breakthrough has made some long-time researchers of the technology believe that it could now come to fruition. The Japanese Government is pushing huge financial and technical weight into the development of three-dimensional, virtual-reality television, and the country's Communications Ministry is aiming at having such technology available by 2020. (CNN)

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Mubarak pardons health-row editor

President Hosni Mubarak has pardoned a newspaper editor sentenced to jail for publishing an article questioning his state of health. Ibrahim Issa was last month given a two-month jail sentence for printing pieces a court said were likely to disturb public security. Al-Dustour's editor-in-chief is one of the president's more outspoken critics. Mr Mubarak issued the pardon on Armed Forces Day 'to affirm his concern for freedom of opinion', state media said. The 80-year-old also wanted to ensure there was 'no feud between him as president and any Egyptian citizen', the Mena state news agency added. An Egyptian national holiday, 6 October saw the start of the 1973 war with Israel, as well as the assassination of President Anwar Sadat in 1981. By tradition it is also an occasion when the president announces his official pardons. (BBC News)

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‘Comments on Dutch news sites rightwing and too coarse’

The Dutch react on news websites more coarsely than other Europeans, according to Dutch newspaper Trouw. 'Swearing, insults or threats, as happen frequently in the Netherlands, seldom or never occurs in Germany, the UK, France and Belgium,' the newspaper wrote Monday. In France, 'differences of opinion are played out hard, but with arguments,' according to Trouw. Also, on the sites of 'the UK gutter press, it can sometimes get heavy, but the Brits show they like their language, and humour reigns.' The Belgians also like to keep it polite, 'although rightwing sentiments often reign on the news forums in Belgium, as with ours'. Germans are the example for the Christian newspaper. 'They prefer to begin their reactions on news forums with 'dear sir/madam'.' In the Netherlands, however, there is 'unbridled swearing at the premier, ministers and Moroccans,' the newspaper concludes. Trouw said this happened at various newspaper and weblog sites but aimed its darts primarily at De Telegraaf, the Netherlands' biggest newspaper. A spokesman for NoviaFacts, which moderates the site of De Telegraaf, confirmed that it allows, for example, the premier to be called a prick. 'If we were not to permit that, we could actually throw away almost all reactions,' according to Claudia van der Laan. (NIS News)

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