Presseurop |

Television | Eurovision - tomorrow's Europe (The Wall Street Journal Europe, Brussels)

Fri, 13 May 2011 16:06:30 +0100

Often considered too low-brow, the Eurovision song contest, which unfurls this Saturday 14 May, is increasingly appreciated by European academy, who glean in its antics the emergence of a "New Europe". (Article)

United Kingdom | Murdoch handed virtual media monopoly

Fri, 04 Mar 2011 12:45:45 +0100

“The whitewash,” headlines The Independent, after Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation empire was given government approval to take full control of BSkyB, the UK’s largest public satellite broadcasting company. Murdoch can now press ahead with the hugely contested purchase of the 61 per cent of BSkyB, valued at £8bn, that he does not already own. “The proposed deal is controversial due to the degree of control Mr Murdoch would exert over the British media,” the Independent explains. “He already has 37 per cent of the British national newspaper market through his ownership of The Sun, the News of the World, The Times and the Sunday Times." According to a Professor of Communications at the University of Westminster, "This deal will create a hugely powerful newspaper, television, online and ISP media conglomerate which will dwarf every other media organisation in the UK, and would not be permissible in most other democracies."

(News in brief)

United Kingdom | Always be nice to Mr Murdoch's empire

Wed, 22 Dec 2010 11:53:55 +0100

“Cable: The man who declared war on Murdoch... and lost,” headlines the Independent, in the aftermath of an incident which saw UK Business Secretary, Vince Cable, fall victim to a “sting” operation by the Daily Telegraph. Cable, a member of the Liberals Democrats, junior coalition partners in David Cameron’s Conservative government, told two undercover reporters posing as constituents that he had "declared war" on media magnate Rupert Murdoch. Murdoch, who already owns several British newspaper, is seeking to gain control of the UK largest public satellite broadcasting company BSkyB. As the news broke, Cable was immediately “stripped of competition and policy issues relating to media, broadcasting and the digital and telecoms sectors,” the London daily reports.

(News in brief)

Italy | Quality television in Berlusconi-land (L'Espresso, Rome)

Fri, 26 Nov 2010 11:12:53 +0100

Sober and incisive, "Vieni via con me" co-presented by anti-Mafia writer, Roberto Saviano, has set new ratings records in the land of Berlusconi. In the run-up to the last programme of the four episode series scheduled for 29 November, Italian television guru, Carlo Freccero, analyses the reasons for its success. (Article)

EU-Iran | Brussels to counter Iranian censorship

Wed, 24 Mar 2010 14:22:05 +0100

EU foreign ministers aim to “take action” against Iranian censors’ jamming Western TV and radio satellite broadcasts in the Islamic Republic, reports Le Monde. 70-odd foreign broadcasters – including the BBC and Voice of America – have been affected over the past few months. So the 27 intend to "limit" and even "prohibit" the “transfer of goods and technologies used to control and censor” broadcasts, adds the French daily. The German multi Siemens and Finnish Nokia are in the line of fire, accused of supplying Iran with the software to spy on mobile phones. According to Le Monde, these decisions are "a first step towards sanctions to force Tehran to stop its uranium enrichment activities".

(News in brief)

Television | Bring on the Eurostars (Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung, Frankfurt)

Fri, 08 Jan 2010 16:17:51 +0100

Time was when European tellies teemed with series and singers from other European nations. Nowadays, laments historian/journalist Nils Minkmar, even as European borders open up, European mindsets are narrowing. (Article)

Netherlands | More right-wing TV

Thu, 05 Nov 2009 14:24:28 +0100

Starting in September 2010, the Netherlands Public Broadcasting service will include two new entities, PowNed and WNL, reports De Volkskrant. The Minister for Culture, Ronald Plasterk, has granted each of them the right to broadcast two hours of television and nine hours of radio per week, with a view to re-balancing a national audiovisual media service, which is often accused of being "a bastion of left-wing politics." WNL, or Wakker Nederland which roughly translates as "Netherlands Wake-Up," is the brainchild of journalists from the popular conservative daily De Telegraaf, while PowNed plans to offer "trendy and gratuitously over the top" news coverage. The spin-off from the GeenStijl.nl website is hoping to attract younger viewers with "hard-boiled, insolent and critical" reporting, which is brightened by "a touch of humour." Using a system unique in Europe, the Dutch Public Broadcasting service allots airtime to a range of political, religious and other associations, which have more than 50,000 members. The two new entities will take over a slot vacated by the Llink environmental association, whose license will be withdrawn.

(News in brief)

Italy | Berlusconi brigade attacks public TV

Mon, 28 Sep 2009 16:45:58 +0100

"Basta! We won't pay any more taxes for Santoro and his cronies." After the La Repubblica petition to defend the freedom of the press – which the left-wing daily claims has gathered 430,000 signatures – rival newspaper Il Giornale has launched a campaign to encourage Italy's citizens not to pay their TV license fees. The Berlusconi-owned paper wants to "punish" the national broadcaster RAI for the "disgraceful junk" aired on RAI 2 in a new programme hosted by left-wing journalist Michele Santoro - "Annozero" – with a recent special guest appearance from investigative reporter Marco Travaglio, the author of several books on Silvio Berlusconi. Members of the government claim that criticism of the Prime Minister on the programme was exaggerated.

The opposition is eager to highlight the compromised position of the government, which is advising Italians to refuse to pay for a public service that is in direct competition with Silvio Berlusconi's networks. At the same time, once again in the columns of Il Giornale, high-profile right-wing intellectual Marcello Veneziani has accused RAI of being "a circus... in the pay of the unions, which colludes with the political parties and the 'nomenklatura'."

(News in brief)