James Murdoch, son of Rupert Murdoch and CEO of News Corporation censured the news channel BBC during the Edinburgh International Television Festival for offering free content in the internet, accusing it of threatening the independent journalism in United Kingdom.

BBC is a public channel of news and, according to Murdoch, it would be hindering the situation for the private channels like News Corporation, owner of Wall Street Journal newspaper, among others, when allowing its content to be accessed for free while those companies try to charge for the same service.

Greg Dyke, director of BBC, defended the channel saying that the argument of Murdoch is fundamentally wrong and what is really happening is related to the world situation (as the economic crisis) and not to BBC.
In the beginning of the month News Corporation announced, under Rupert Murdoch’s voice that will start charging for the content after the damages that his organization is facing.

In 2007 he had said exactly the opposite, announcing that a free model and financed by announcements would be beneficial to the market.

20 years ago, in the same event, Rupert Murdoch also made a speech criticizing the public journalism of United Kingdom, in the same inflamed tone now used by the son, way before the rise of digital journalism.

Via: The Independent.

Jeffrey Borinsky of United Kingdom is the proud owner of the nation’s oldest television set, that was manufactured in the year 1936 and is known as Marconiphone. It is also estimated to be Britain’s very first line of ‘high definition’ televisions.

Jeffrey Borinsky is a resident of the United Kingdom and is known to be avid collector of antique television and radio sets. Jeffery acquired the Marconiphone from another collector and has been trying to restore the antique piece of history back to its original condition. The Marconiphone is sports a 12 inch television screen he acquired it then years ago.

The screen of the television set is embedded inside a wooden cabinet and the image is projected onto a mirror, through the cathode ray tube, that has been installed in a classic vertical formation inside the cabinet.

At the time of the manufacturing of the Marconiphone, there was only one channel operating in the United Kingdom, that was BBC, therefore, UK’s very first television set has no channel changing buttons. However, it does have volume control and vertical control buttons.

According to Jeffrey Borinsky:

“The cabinet was beautifully restored by the previous owner, but my aim is to gradually restore its electronics to its true 1936 magnificence,”

Here is a video of this historical finding:

Via BBC.

China has left the repressive shackles of Communism but vestiges of state control are hard to shake off. One of these lingering practices is censorship. Fairly recently, China censored the information on the melamine tainted milk scandal which government authorities had known even before the Beijing Olympics. For fear of tarnished image that could wipe out the fervor of the Olympic season, it waited till after the international games before the issue of melamine was even heard of.

Since last month, China has again been wielding its flair for censorship, this time on the World Wide Web. It has earlier clamped down on and blocked the websites of the BBC and the New York Times. Now, it accuses Google for displaying pornography and vulgar content. China earlier claimed that it had alerted Google about its many links to immoral sites, but according to state officials, Google has not lifted a finger to address the issue.

If the trend of its warnings being ignored continues, China threatens to punish and even close down the sites. The country feels strongly against vulgar content because it claims that these deeply harm the health of the youth. The government has responded to the clamor among parents in China to save their children from such vulgar trend. Is China just dreaming that it can lock horns with something whose nature defies the boundaries of geography? Surely, it knows what the World Wide Web really means.

Image

Via Inquirer

The third season of Torchwood is coming and the millions of fans around the world are increasingly anxious.

For those who do not know, Torchwood, produced by the BBC, is one of the best shows of today’s science fiction that has its focus on extreme situations with which humanity is facing, but not always able to see with clarity.

The idea is not exactly original, but its presentation is entirely new. In the nineteenth century, the Queen Victoria secretly created an organization called “Torchwood” with the sole purpose of recovering items aliens and use them for the good of the British Empire.

The series has 5 central characters. Each of them has different agendas, their relationships are both external as internal oscillating because often they engage in moral disputes.

It is one of the few shows that bring to light topics as suicide, euthanasia, existentialism, nihilism, the power as an instrument of corruption, life after death (more specifically: lack of life after death – A recurring theme in Torchwood is the fact that “when you die, everything ends, there is nothing but darkness), secret identities and homosexual relationships.

Finally, a series far above the common, especially for those who like to be challenged by intelligent scripts and complex plots.

Via: IMDB.

The same police. The same city. And three decades to understand.

It is the year 2008. After being hit by a car, the agent is in a coma. When he wakes he is in 1973. Without understanding anything, he discovered that he is in the same precinct. When investigating a crime, realizes that there is a possible link with his present (trying to arrest a serial killer).
The story Life on Mars blending science fiction – with the element of travel in time – and police drama. The series focuses on cultural differences that separate the police today and the police from the 70’s , especially with regard to differences of approach of the suspects: as the twenty-first century, the police must be concerned with the legal consequences of their actions, their colleagues in the past had fewer restrictions and more freedom to act with the criminals.
Another focus of the series is supposed to travel in time for Tyler: It is not clear whether he really is living in the 70’s or is in a coma and the whole plot is the fruit of his imagination.
Originally, this series is produced by the BBC, but due to the resounding success (reached an Emmy Award winning), ABC decided to produce the American version of this series, too.

The soundtrack and the reconstruction of New York (the American version) are impeccable. Best of all is the blending of elements of the past with the future (something besides leave the troubled protagonist, leaves the viewer curious to know what will happen.

If you’re a fan of such series, for sure will not be sorry.

Via: BBC.