http://www.cpbf.org.uk Campaign for Press and Broadcasting Freedom News Feed en-us Copyright 2008, CPBF gherman@KeywordsAssociates.com webmaster@cpbf.org.uk http://www.cpbf.org.uk/images/cpbflogo.gif http://www.cpbf.org.uk/ 88 31 News Feed for the CPBF http://www.cpbf.org.uk/body.php?id=2102 In the US the reality of an Obama presidency is sinking in, here's what it means for the future of the media. In a nutshell, if the new president lives up to his campaign promises, we are poised to see an unprecedented transformation of U.S. media. Click here to read more from the US Free Press site http://www.cpbf.org.uk/body.php?id=2101 DATELINE: 12/11/08 Twenty Years at the Margins: The Herman-Chomsky Propaganda Model and Critical Media and Communication Studies, 1988-2008. One-day conference on Friday 19 December 2008 (9.30am-5.30pm) at Northumbria University in Newcastle upon Tyne. http://www.cpbf.org.uk/body.php?id=2098 DATELINE: 11/11/08 Surprising at it may seem, there are a number of things in Paul Dacre's recent speech to the Society of Editors, reported in the Media Guardian (10 November 2008), which we agree with. (A full version can be read by following the link below.) He is right to point out that the Freedom of Information Act is one of the few acts of parliament to benefit the media, and that we have to be vigilant against those who want to cut back some of its provisions. He is also right to criticise government proposals which would restrict access by journalists to the courts by giving coroners new powers to hold inquests in private and even to prohibit publication of the identification of the deceased. Where the love-in stops, however, is at his remarks about the British press having privacy law imposed on it 'by the back door'. http://www.cpbf.org.uk/body.php?id=2097 DATELINE: 10/11/08 The Sertuc conference of the future of public service broadcasting due to be held at the TUC on Saturday 15 November has been postponed to the new year. Please watch this space for more information. http://www.cpbf.org.uk/body.php?id=2096 DATELINE: 6/11/08Half-day conference, hosted by Media Workers Against the War (http://www.mwaw.net), on November 15th 2008 from 2.00 to 6.30pm at the London School of Economics, with Peter Oborne, Inayat Bunglawala, Nick Davies and others (follow the link for more details http://mwaw.net/conference/2008/) http://www.cpbf.org.uk/body.php?id=2095 DATELINE: 5/11/08 Ray Fitzwalter knows his stuff. He worked at Granada from 1970 through to 1993 when he had been Head of Current Affairs for five years. His book The Dream That Died: The rise and fall of ITV is a passionate indictment of a toxic mix of deregulatory government policies, the rise to power of two greedy asset-stripping, profit-seeking individuals (Gerry Robinson and Charles Allen) who seized on the freedoms they were given by the 1990 Broadcasting Act and a toothless regulatory body, the Independent Television Commission (ITC), to take control of the ITV system. Add to this the intervention of institutional investors like Mercury Asset Management who wanted annual profits boosting whatever the long-term implications for diverse programmes and quality television.The consequences have been devastating.