Two sighs of relief for the Prodi government. First, the Senate approves the Italian mission to Afghanistan after the government made it a vote of confidence. Second, the Camera approves by the required two-thirds majority amnesties for certain crimes – and the minister who opposed it, Antonio Di Pietro, doesn’t resign.
Members of the centre-right had [...]
More Axegrinder 21.07.06 | Press Gazette: “BBC director general Mark Thompson put his foot in it with a Labour MP during his appearance in Westminster last week. Thompson was being assailed by MP Mike Hall about a BBC programme called The Secret Policeman, which, in Hall’s words, used ‘criminal elements’ in its production.’If you’d care [...]
SNP demands meeting over BBC job cuts.
SNP Holyrood leader Nicola Sturgeon is asking for a meeting with director-general Mark Thompson after reports of a further round of cuts which could jeopardise flagship BBC television and radio output… Further budget cuts again underlines the need for broadcasting to be devolved to Scotland
In what sense? A Scottish [...]
Satisfaction with the Prodi government increases, according to this ISPO poll. The government now has net positive ratings: 43% evaluated the government positively (up 4 from late June), 31% negatively (down 10).
Independent Online Edition > Media: “Liam Fox, the shadow Defence Secretary, has accused the BBC of pumping out ‘unrelentingly negative’ reports about Iraq without giving adequate coverage to more positive developments.”
Paolo Gentiloni’s initial thoughts on Rai’s reorganisation – which I covered earlier this month, seem to have hardened. In an interview with the Corriere della Sera (reprinted here), Gentiloni suggests that Rai ought to have a rather complex structure. Rai is to remain a single company, but is to have three separate accounting units/subsidiaries:
One [...]
The BBC today announced a very thorough plan for re-organisation (coverage from Netribution and Press Gazette). The plan creates three large macro-units, BBC Vision, BBC Journalism, and BBC Audio, which will form the core of the BBC’s organisation. Other units which ply their trade across the BBC – Future Media & Technology (FM&T), Policy, [...]
I came back from Stockholm to a pleasant surprise: two copies of Politica in Italia 2006, featuring an article I co-authored with David Hine on the Berlusconi government’s reshuffle last year. The package was addressed to ‘Prof. Hanretty’. Well, I can dream.
Buy the book here.
An interesting example of how content monitoring can be used to further charges of bias. One of the members of the RTVE council has accused the local RTVE franchise there of being biased, on the grounds that the PP was given only 7% of screen time despite forming the regional government.
Unfortunately, the story provides little [...]
As part of my doctorate, I’m researching the political independence of public service broadcasters. This is a difficult concept to define, much less measure. One approach is to ask people whether they perceive the broadcaster to be independent – or impartial, or biased. (The latter two are very different to the former, but may be [...]