Key Quotes - Media

A world perspective in bite-size chunks
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Last update: Wednesday 25th March
 
A sharp rise in anti-Semitic incidents in Britain last year has been blamed by a senior Israeli cabinet minister partly on "incitement" by the UK media - including The Independent. The number of anti-Semitic incidents in Britain rose from 163 in 2003 to 310, according to a report by the Global Forum Against Anti-Semitism, which is partly run under the auspices of the office of the Israeli Prime Minister, Ariel Sharon. The report cited "years of hostile reporting and commentary in the British press" - apparently on the Israeli conflict with the Palestinians - as a cause of the steep rise.
MediaThe Independent – 25th January 2005
 
Church chiefs have criticised a Dublin radio station for sponsoring a 'wedding' ceremony for a couple matched up on a phone-in programme who never saw each other until the ceremony. Amid concerns that the stunt devalued the Sacrament of Marriage, the director of the Irish hierarchy's communications office Martin Long said the most important point to note was that there was a key difference between a marriage and a wedding. "In a marriage a couple, through love and support for one another, are ministering the sacrament of marriage every day," said Mr Long. "Marriage is not a one-day event, it's a life-long commitment.".The wedding 'commitment' ceremony resembled a wedding in most respects except that the couple were not actually legally married.
MediaThe Universe – 2nd January 2005
 
Ofcom received 192 applications from groups interested in obtaining full time Community Radio Licences, which will run for 5 years. This follows on form the huge success of the pilot projects: some of which have been broadcasting for over 2 years.The breakdown of applications is 34 for services within London; 23 - South East England; 20 - Yorkshire and Humberside; 18 - North West England; 17 - East Midlands; 16 - East of England; 14 - West Midlands; 13 - South West England; 6 - North East England; 17 - Scotland; 7 - Wales; 7 - Northern Ireland.
MediaAirflash – Issue 85
 
Nearly six million people used the BBC's radio web sites in October, listening to more than 10 million hours of radio via the Internet and generating almost 160,000,000 page impressions, new figures reveal.
MediaThe Radio Magazine – 27th November 2004
 
The media was under fire today after the UK's most senior military officer blamed it for making it easier for insurgents to attack British troops in Iraq. Chief of Defence Staff General Sir Michael Walker said attacks on the Black Watch may have been prompted by media coverage of their deployment to the so-called "Triangle of Death" in Iraq.
MediaThe Sentinel – 10th December 2004
 
France has ordered a satellite television station run by the extremist Hizbollah movement in Lebanon to be banned from the French airwaves by tomorrow for promoting the hatred of Jews. Al-Manar television has outraged Jewish groups and infuriated politicians of all stripes in France by broadcasting a series of programmes which promote Arab conspiracy theories about Jews and glorify violence against the Israeli state.
MediaThe Independent – 15th December 2004
 
The BBC was intended to be a beacon of inspiration to the country. The Latin inscription on Broadcasting House reads: "This Temple of the Arts and Muses is dedicated to Almighty God by the first Governors of Broadcasting in the year 1931, Sir John Reith being Director-General. It is their prayer that good seed sown may bring forth a good harvest and that the people, inclining their ear to whatsoever things are beautiful and honest and of good report, may tread the path of wisdom and uprightness."
MediaPart of Antony Pitts, Senior Producer, BBC Radio 3, resignation statement as a result of the showing of 'Jerry Springer:The Opera' - 9th January 2005
 
I had understood from news sources such as BBC Radio 4, bbc.co.uk, The Independent, The Daily Telegraph that 'Jerry Springer:The Opera' contained elements that were clearly blasphemous in any ordinary understanding of the word. Having now watched the show in its entirety and the hour-long introductory broadcast, my conclusion was that the blasphemy was far, far worse than even the most detailed news reports had led me to believe. Here are a few specific examples out of many - although words even now do not convey the offensiveness of these elements in their context:
*The introduction of and dialogue with the Jesus figure containing all kinds of abuse, insults, profanity and deliberate mockery of the Lord's Name.
*The ridiculing of the figure of Jesus on the Cross, dressed to imply sexual perversion.
*The repeated mockery of the wounds (stigmata) of Jesus, linked to acts of crudeness.
*The singing of "Jerry eleison" as a contemptuous travesty of an act of worship.
As I understand it, the current legal definition of blasphemy is as follows:
"Every publication is said to be blasphemous which contains any contemptuous, reviling, scurrilous or ludicrous matter relating to God, Jesus Christ, or the Bible, or the formularies of the Church of England as by law established. It is not blasphemous to speak or publish opinions hostile to the Christian religion, or to deny the existence of God, if the publication is couched in decent and temperate language. The test to be applied is as to the manner in which the doctrines are advocated and not as to the substance of the doctrines themselves. Everyone who publishes any blasphemous document is guilty of the [offence] of publishing a blasphemous libel. Everyone who speaks blasphemous words is guilty of the [offence] of blasphemy." (article 214 of Stephen's Digest of the Criminal Law, 9th ed., 1950 - confirmed by Lord Scarman, 1979, and the European Court of Human Rights, 1996)
MediaPart of Antony Pitts, Senior Producer, BBC Radio 3, resignation statement as a result of the showing of 'Jerry Springer:The Opera' - 9th January 2005
 
A German television development company is planning to launch free viewing on the internet with the help of a revolutionary Web service that aims to give viewers access to any programme they want from almost anywhere in the world. The project is called Cybersky, a pun on the name of its German inventor; Guido Ciburski.Cybersky, scheduled to start in a month or so, aims to do for television what already applies to music and video, which can be downloaded free from the internet. The concept has alarmed Germany's television companies and is likely to concern other broadcasters around the world. Media analysts are expecting a new round of legal action similar to the campaign against Napster.
MediaThe Independent – 11th December 2004
 
Viewing figures for the BBC's two main television channels have fallen to an all time low in the week that the director general, Mark Thompson, announced swinging cutbacks. BBC1's share of all television viewing is set to fall through the psychologically important 25% barrier for the first time in the broadcasters history, according to audience figures for this year up to 9 December...The decline, largely because of the rise of multi-channel viewing, has afflicted ITV1 even more severely than the BBC - since 2000 the channels audience share has fallen 22% to 22.8% of all television viewers. In 2004, for the first time, multi channel television has attracted higher overall viewing figures than either BBC1 or ITV1, with 26% of the audience.
MediaThe Independent – 14th December 2004
 
One quarter of households believe the BBC is not worth the licence fee, former chairman Gavyn Davies warned. Research showed that six million households were unhappy paying the £121 per year.
MediaThe Sentinel – 14th December 2004
 
After being hammered in the ratings in recent years by Coronation Street, Top of the Pops is to be deposed from its premier Friday night spot on the BBC's main channel. Instead, it will live out its days on BBC2 in the backwaters of Sunday teatime - where religion, nostalgia, antiques and natural history usually rule. For music fans of a certain age, many of whom resented the move from Thursday evenings a decade ago, it will mark the final admission that the show's glory days, and perhaps those of pop music, are over. At its peak, TOTP attracted an audience of 14 million. Last week, it was just over 3 million.
MediaThe Independent – 30th November 2004
 
An Independent poll has found that 55% of people blame politicians for the decline in trust of the whole process of politics, while 20% blame the media. 27% of people believe the accuracy of news reporting in the media has worsened over recent years, 25% think it has improved and 42% feel it is just the same.
MediaThe Independent – 11 October 2004
 
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