大象传媒

I'm the 大象传媒's media correspondent and this is my brief selection of what's going on.

Monday's 大象传媒's Panorama reported that three senior Fifa officials who will vote on the 2018 and 2022 World Cup bids took bribes in the 1990s. The 大象传媒 has been criticised by those running England's bid to host the tournament for the programme's timing, three days before the vote.

the timing of the Panorama programme.

The three of the Fifa executive committee members who will decide the fate of the 2018 World Cup were accused by Panorama of taking bribes in a corruption scandal involving around $100m (拢64.2m) of secret payments.

The FM radio has been "thrown a lifeline" after Ministers privately accepted the digital switchover will not happen by 2015. It says insiders believe the switchover may not be achievable until 2017 at the earliest and, given the current take-up rate, 2020 is more realistic.

The culture minister, Ed Vaizey said the British Film Institute would assume the lion's share of the responsibilities of the defunct UK Film Council and announced a 60% increase in lottery funding for the UK industry, .

The that Sky News has revealed plans for an Arabic TV service, under a joint venture with Sheikh Mansour Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the owner of Manchester City Football Club.

"The world according to Andrew" is the lead for most tabloids and broadsheets, as the 大象传媒 Newspaper review shows. It follows the leaking of remarks made about Prince Andrew by Washington's ambassador to Kyrgyzstan in a document revealed by website Wikileaks.

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Commentators consider the implications of cables released by Wikileaks which show that Chinese leaders no longer regarded North Korea as a useful or reliable ally.

the Wikileaks revelations are not new news:

"This is an interesting revelation but it is hardly new information, at least not among Korea- and China-watchers. We have heard of similar characterizations of the Chinese mindset in recent months from Western diplomats, describing Chinese frustrations with their North Korea allies. This document simply confirms that.
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"China's frustrations have come out in the open a few times. When North Korea conducted a nuclear test in 2009, China broke ranks with North Korea and voted in the U.N. Security Council in favor of imposing sanctions on its North Korean allies. In the past, China, which wields a veto vote as a permanent member of the Security Council, would have simply abstained and let the resolution pass."

the cables are more ambiguous than some have suggested:

"The cables about North Korea - some emanating from Seoul, some from Beijing, many based on interviews with government officials, and others with scholars, defectors and other experts - are long on educated guesses and short on facts, illustrating why their subject is known as the Black Hole of Asia. Because they are State Department documents, not intelligence reports, they do not include the most secret American assessments, or the American military's plans in case North Korea disintegrates or lashes out. They contain loose talk and confident predictions of the end of the dynasty that has ruled North Korea for 65 years."

Editor of chinadialogue.net that the revelation that China might accept the idea of reunification under South Korea could make an unstable situation worse:

"Beijing has proved unequal to the task of keeping North Korea in line, or, as yet, of persuading it to follow China's transition to a market economy. China is regarded as the last country that has influence in Pyongyang, but the leaked cables confirm how limited that influence is.
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"Beijing has been unwilling to put real muscle into its persuasion, pointing to North Korea's desire to talk on equal terms with the US. China has facilitated the now stalled six-party talks, but has shied away from enforcing responsible behaviour or allowing the regime to collapse. The US, in turn, is reluctant to concede North Korea's demands for recognition and pleads with China to get its junior ally under control. Now the WikiLeaks revelation that China is beginning to accept the once unthinkable alternative - a reunification under South Korean control - may make an unstable situation worse."

Former foreign secretary Sir that the leak may have put back a shift in Chinese policy by years:

"The tragedy of these Wikileaks is that if China is contemplating what would be a historic change in its attitude to North Korea and possible support for reunification, this premature revelation - because of statements made to an American diplomat which now appear in the world's press - that would have put that back by years. That shows the damage that can be done by unauthorised leaks of highly sensitive information and private conversations between diplomats."

In contrast, the that we should not assume that the release of this information is harmful.

"Today's revelation from the embassy cables that North Korea had lost its strategic value to China as a buffer state between their forces and US ones, and that Beijing would accept the reunification of the peninsula under Seoul's leadership, should send shivers down the spine of the right person - the ailing dictator Kim Jong-il. Pyongyang could be about to lose its only insurer. Long before last week's lethal shelling of a South Korean island, it is clear from the private views of senior Chinese officials that their strategic asset had turned into a major liability... If the leaking of these cables was read and absorbed by North Korea's ageing generals, this would be an example of disclosure instilling realism into a military dictatorship which so clearly lacks it."

I'm the 大象传媒's media correspondent and this is my brief selection of what's going on.

The the 大象传媒 has appointed property consultants Lambert Smith Hampton to help sell Television Centre. Plans have been drawn up for approval by the finance committee next month. In the summer the 大象传媒 unveiled proposals for a redevelopment of the site as a "creative quarter" for independent TV production firms, performing groups, and media companies.

that the furore over Wikileaks and its exposures shows that free speech "is woefully lacking in so much of British public life". He writes that "far from being 'feral beasts', to use Tony Blair's phrase, the British media are overly respectful of authority".

The 大象传媒 World Service was one of the biggest casualties of George Osborne's comprehensive spending review (CSR), . He says this was "partially obscured" because the 大象传媒 was determined to put a positive spin on the settlement.

The contents of thousands of secret US diplomatic memos uploaded to whistleblowers' website Wikileaks are splashed all over the front pages, as the 大象传媒 newspaper review shows.

Links in full

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鈥� 大象传媒 | Newspaper review.

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鈥� Read my previous Media Brief

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US State Department assessments of governments and statesmen, including from Hamid Karzai, Silvio Berlusconi and Nicolas Sarkozy have been . Commentators discuss whether this is a serious blow to diplomacy or just embarrassing.

[subscription required] that Wikileaks threatens to destroy the role of diplomats:

"[T]he likelihood is that the vast majority of material being hurled into the limelight by the insouciant Mr Assange will not reveal any actual treacheries or scandals. It will consist mainly of what diplomats call 'frank assessments'.
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"And while the UK can probably forgive and forget a few frank assessments - OK, ripe insults - about Gordon Brown's social skills. David Cameron's inexperience or who the hell is this Clegg guy, there is real fear that the touchier countries around the world will be outraged. Especially in the Muslim nations, where it seems to be all right for pretty senior voices to refer to us as kuffar, dogs, infidels, etc, whereas the slightest reservation about anything Islamic is considered an atrocity second only to the Crusades.
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"...If diplomats no longer dare to send undiplomatic, unvarnished truths to their governments on encrypted cables, the world's peace will be in more danger."

calls the leaks troubling:

"US diplomats should be able to share their assessments candidly with the folks back in Washington without fear of waking up and finding their cables splashed across the front page of the New York Times. People who take great risks to share sensitive information with embassy officials won't come forward if they worry that the Kremlin, or the Mugabe regime, is going to punish them for their candor. And sometimes too much media attention can get in the way of quiet progress, as in the Arab-Israeli conflict."

newspapers' involvement with the leak:

"There was a time when editors and reporters thought of themselves as citizens first and journalists second. There were damaging leaks even during World War II, but when they occurred they were generally denounced by the rest of the press. We now seem to have reached a moment when the West's major news organizations, working hand in glove with a sleazy website, feel free to throw spitballs at those who make policy and those who execute it. This is journalism as pure vandalism. If I were responsible, I would feel shame and embarrassment. But apparently, those healthy emotions are in short supply these days."

In contrast that the leaks are embarrassing but not serious:

"The Wikileaks story is great fun. The embarrassment of others always is. But however much the Guardian, the New York Times and Julian Assange assure us that this represents a shattering blow to every assumption we hold about foreign relations, the fact remains that it's a collection of little substance that will do nothing to reshape geo-politics. The Saudis would like someone to whack Iran? No kidding. Afghanistan is run by crooks? Really? Hillary Clinton would like to know a lot more about the diplomats she is negotiating against? You surprise me. The Russian government may have links to organised crime? Pass the smelling salts, Petunia. The Americans are secretly whacking al-Qaeda operatives in Yemen? What, you thought the Yemenis were doing it? Muammar Qaddafi has a full time, pneumatic Ukrainian 'nurse'? Nice one. Diplomats are terrified of Pakistan's nukes? Me too. And so on, ad infinite boredom."

that while this may not reveal anything new for the US, the leaks are still significant:

"There is so much information flowing around about US policy - and often, a good deal of transparency - that a smart observer with good contacts can get a good idea of what's happening. Not so in the Arab world, and the contents of the conversations Arab leader are having with their patron state are not out in the Arab public domain or easily guessable, as anyone who reads the meaningless press statements of government press agencies will tell you. Cablegate is in important record from the Arab perspective, perhaps more than from the US one."

The chief executive of Index on Censorship about how Wikileaks will prompt changes in the law:

"Once this latest flurry is over, prepare for the backlash. Mr Assange's industrial-scale leaking may lead to legislation in a number of countries that makes whistle-blowing harder than it already is. Perhaps the most curious aspect of the Wikileaks revelations is not that they have happened, but it took someone as mercurial as Mr Assange to be the conduit. Rather than throwing stones, newspapers should be asking themselves why they did not have the wherewithal to hold truth to power."

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Commentators discuss David Cameron's countrywide consultation to assess the nation's happiness.

The Minister for Universities and Science [subscription required] the difference between measuring happiness and what the government intends to do, measuring wellbeing:

鈥淚t is much more to do with the pursuit of external goals and happiness comes as a by-product of that. The Canadian provinces with the highest life satisfaction are the ones where there is most volunteering. The Harvard psychologist Brian Little has put the point very pithily: what makes life worth living is not the pursuit of happiness but the happiness of pursuit.
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鈥淭he ONS is not, therefore, going to try to find out how happy we are.鈥�

that he likes Mr Cameron for wanting to find out what makes everyone happy, but suggests that we all know anyway:

鈥淲e want first of all good health and financial security, and then we want good public services, ideally all of them free. We want people to be kind and polite to us, especially policemen and other motorists. We want nice pubs and corner shops and post offices all over the place. The trouble is we will never be able to have more than a few of these things, and it's the government that has to decide which ones matter most.鈥�

the prime minister's timing:

鈥淭he British government may not have picked the best time to begin testing the national mood鈥�
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鈥淚t's not that the index is a bad idea, it's that one wonders what the government will find given the state of its economy.
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鈥淏ritain, like other countries in Europe, is hurting. It has unveiled tough austerity measures that include cuts to welfare, it is drowning in debt, and its jobless rate is at 7.7 per cent, with almost 2.5 million people unemployed.鈥�

that efforts may be futile:

鈥淢easuring happiness, eh? Even defining the thing has taxed philosophers and other thinkers since time immemorial. As I suggested , never since the attempt to extract sunbeams from cucumbers on Swift鈥檚 Island of Laputa has there been such a preposterous conceit...
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鈥淚t is presumably beyond futile to point out that historically rulers who set out to create Utopia invariably developed into murderous tyrants. So it is that as HMS Ark Royal gives way to General Wellbeing, Prime Minister Pangloss may be not merely destroying his country鈥檚 ability to resist tyranny but actually himself substituting a soft despotism in its place.鈥�

大象传媒 trustee that measuring happiness is nonsense:

鈥淚t ought to be obvious that measuring 'Gross National Happiness' is a bad idea simply from the fact that its advocates hold up Bhutan as a model. Bhutan? It's one of the poorest countries in the world, with low life expectancy, poor literacy levels and scant political freedom. I don't care how 'happy' its not-very-free people claim to be when they're asked in a survey.鈥�

Finally, that David Cameron may have done well to get comedian Ken Dodd to introduce him, given the intellectual debt Mr Cameron owes him:

鈥淒odd鈥檚 1964 hit song, Happiness, went unmentioned. The core of Dodd鈥檚 message, or of Doddism as it will become known, is found in the lines: 鈥業 hope when you go to measuring my success, That you don鈥檛 count my money count my happiness.鈥�
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鈥淢r Cameron is a less radical thinker than Dodd, and wants to go on counting the money too.鈥�

Commentators discuss Education Secretary which aims to improve teachers' standards.

Nick Clegg and Michael Gove at Durand Academy Primary School

Sacked after talking about failing schools at the Tory party conference, teacher that Michael Gove's idea, which will allow heads to sack bad teachers and give pay rises to good ones, may be halted by workplace politics:

"The problem with Michael Gove's reforms is that as well as requiring head teachers to be robust enough to implement them, they also require the young, talented teacher, just out of university, to have enough backbone not to mind being scorned by his colleagues. For that's what is likely to happen if you pay them more for being good at their jobs. After all, teachers, like pupils, want to be liked, and they want to have friends in the workplace."

a list of those he predicts will resist change:

"But be in no doubt about the significance of the Education Secretary's plans: they amount to a declaration of war on the teaching establishment and the principles which have dominated state schools for more than 40 years.
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"Educational theorists, along with many civil servants in the Whitehall education machine, the zealots who run teacher training colleges and tens of thousands of teachers will fight tooth and nail against almost everything Mr Gove wants to do."

that Mr Gove has missed the obvious target for reform - Ofsted:

"So a government appoints people who aren't teachers to set targets; those same people then attack schools for being too target-driven; and a new regime sets new targets to break the spell of the old targets. It would be more interesting, productive - and cheaper - to reform Ofsted, so that it drew its inspectors from among the best of the active teaching population. The 'target' problem would probably solve itself."

that there is an inconsistency in Mr Gove's aim to drive up standards while allowing free schools to make their own decisions:

"In its complacent selfishness, the drive for free schools is part of an atomised reactionary vision at odds with Mr Gove's resolution at the centre. I know he would disagree intently, arguing that his resolute ambition is all about giving power and responsibilities away to teachers, heads and parents, but I do not see a coherent picture. There is a difference between a [reactionary's] desire to let a thousand flowers bloom even though many will die in the creative chaos, and a ministerial recognition that a government must seek a rise in standards in every school, especially those with the least promising intakes."

that he supports the idea but that Mr Gove's efforts to improve school standards may be in vain:

"I fear that the White Paper will not be transformative, for a simple reason: the schools system is broken. It doesn't respond to instructions. The Education Secretary does not run education - power rests with local authorities and the teaching unions. They're not too keen on Gove, and have allies in parliament ready to insert the odd amendment into legislation. Top-down instructions won't work. Only competition can deliver the transformation he seeks. That can only come from his 'free schools' programme."

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Commentators consider what could have triggered North Korea's artillery attack on South Korea.

Senior lecturer in international relations at the University of Cambridge, there may be an internal reason for the attack:

"[A]t a time when the North has been grappling with weak economic conditions, food shortages brought about by flooding and the uncertainty surrounding the succession process for the young heir Kim Jong-un, the government may be looking to a foreign crisis as a means of shoring up support at home. Conflict abroad can mobilise domestic opinion, reinforcing the position of the military and legitimising a leadership in transition."

[registration required] the latest artillery attack comes at a time when the Kim regime struggles to maintain its isolation:

"Life in the North continues to be harsh, plagued by shortages of food and energy. But those living there can now compare their lives with the South, as television and film from south of the border are increasingly available. Those governments who protest - in vain, so far - at the flood of counterfeit DVDs from China washing around the globe might take comfort from their effect in North Korea. Even that regime cannot keep them out, and the films show North Koreans that another life could be - and should be - theirs."

The English language South Korean newspaper the squarely at Kim Jong Il, saying the attack was planned:

"The North attacked Yeonpyeong Island after unveiling new uranium enrichment facilities to an American nuclear expert as recently as two weeks ago. Obviously, Pyongyang thoroughly planned and prepared to launch Tuesday's attack.
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"The North staged the aggression by protesting the joint 'Patriotic Drill' conducted by the South Korean armed forces from Monday. The South Korean military simply carried out artillery exercises in South Korean waters west of Baeknyeong Island and south of Yeonpyeong Island inbetween the two islands Tuesday morning. Having tried to find an opportunity to blame the South, the North launched the attack."

The it is difficult to tell why the conflict has come about now:

"It is nearly impossible to know what is going on there, but these outbursts are almost certainly tied to the struggle over replacing the ailing leader, Kim Jong-il."

While , saying there is no mystery behind North Korea's actions as their demands have been clear for years:

"First, the regime wants respect, through recognition of its legitimacy, however distasteful that idea may be. Second, it wants a peace treaty - finally ending the Korean war - that guarantees its territorial sovereignty and banishes the spectre of regime change (they watched the Iraq movie, too).
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"Third, Kim wants an end to international sanctions and diplomatic isolation - the monicker of America's chief bogeyman is no longer for him. Fourth, he wants food aid, electricity, financial assistance, investment, trade. Finally, the ailing dictator wants backing for the postulated dynastic succession of his youngest son, a scheme that could yet collapse amid acrimony or worse."

Commentators discuss the anticipated announcement by the home secretary of a cap on immigration of skilled workers coming to Britain from outside Europe at 43,000 a year.

The founder of the all-party Parliamentary group on migration Labour MP that immigration has become the new fault line cutting across the British political landscape:

"Immigration, the elephant in the room? Not any more. Now it's parading down the high street, garlanded in ribbons, leading a three-ring circus. This detonation over migration has shaken both left and right. For the Conservatives, who had long seen the issue as a licence to print votes, the increase in support for the BNP has presented a serious political problem, akin to UKIP in bovver boots. It has also generated a wider debate within David Cameron's inner circle about whether tough lines on immigration cut across the 'New Tory' brand, a debate heightened by the awareness that both William Hague and Michael Howard, when they were Tory leader, ran hard on the issue, to little tangible benefit."

David Cameron to break his promise on immigration, urging change elsewhere:

"Probably what riles most anti-immigration sentiment is a sense that, in recent years, too many immigrants with no skills, no income and no assets have moved to the UK for its seemingly generous but inefficient benefits system, not to mention free health care and education for their children. But the fundamental problem here isn't immigration, it's the benefits system and the universal access to health and education."

The the cap is at best pointless and might be damaging:

"The trouble with the Tories' pledge, and indeed with Britain's immigration policy in general, is that most of the key variables are beyond its politicians' sway. Net migration is affected by both inflows and outflows: the government has little direct influence over the latter (Britons leaving) and only severely circumscribed control of the former (people arriving). Roughly half of all immigrants are either Britons returning from abroad or citizens of other European Union states, whose entry is guaranteed by rules on freedom of movement in the EU. Many of the rest arrive either as students or under provisions that enable family reunions. Foreign students are lucrative for universities; restricting family reunions might seem inhumane, or even violate human-rights law. The government says it will look at both categories, but has seized on non-EU economic migrants - 12% of the total, by one count, though they bring a similar number of dependents - as the most pliable group."

the cap sensible, conceding that the numbers affected will be relatively small:

"There's much more to this than meets the eye. For a start, it focuses on people that companies actually need. People who come on spec hanging around looking for a job are going to be cut right back. Secondly there's a minimum salary for transfers between companies which will make a big difference."

The that one area that should be targeted is bogus colleges. However, the that the Labour government also promised to crack down on bogus colleges.

At US airports, intrusive "pat-downs" and revealing full-body scans of travellers has provoked an uproar ahead of the Thanksgiving holiday, the biggest travel occasion of the year. US officials have said security procedures will "evolve" with travellers' input, but stopped short of promising any changes in the near term. Here is a round-up of reaction from top US news sources and blogs.

on one scientist's idea to render the machines more palatable. The proposal: distort the images as in a fun-house mirror. Government researcher Willard Wattenburg told the paper:

"Why not just distort the image into something grotesque so that there isn't anything titillating or exciting about it?"

that one of the听companies selling the clothing-penetrating full-body scanning machines - dubbed "porno-scanners" by some irate wags - has doubled its lobbying effort since 2005:

L-3 Communications, which has sold $39.7 million worth of the machines to the federal government, spent $4.3 million to influence Congress and federal agencies during the first nine months of this year, up from $2.1 million in 2005, lobbying data compiled by the Center for Responsive Politics show. Last year, the company spent $5.5 million on lobbying.

In a , Atlantic Monthly writer Jeffrey Goldberg says the long queues that result from the strict screening听process create another "dire problem": large, unprotected herds of travellers grouped together in unsecured areas of the airport. He also writes the TSA has declared war on "creamy dips and spinach", linking to a list of Thanksgiving food items the agency has barred from passengers' carry-on luggage.

At liberal blog Daily Kos, that conservatives have latched on to public criticism of the TSA because it presents another opportunity to attack President Barack Obama, even though the agency was established by President George W听Bush.

So while it's good that TSA is opening itself up to making changes in its system, it's going to be important to make sure that the changes it makes are in response to legitimate concerns that its procedures are too invasive, not the trumped out right-wing storyline that the solution is to put in place a system of racial and ethnic profiling. And as TSA explains the thinking behind its policy changes, it needs to be aware that in addition to real concerns of the traveling public, it's also being attacked by conservatives who are more interested in destroying President Obama than they are in protecting our security.

Transportation Security Administration officials who worked under听Mr Bush applaud the newly intrusive "pat-down" procedure, . But some acknowledge the agency seems unable to determine at which point Americans will no longer tolerate stricter measures in the name of security.

鈥淚f lawmaker X says, 鈥楬ey, this is too invasive, the American people won鈥檛 put up with this,鈥� then I would say, 鈥榃ell, what鈥檚 the alternative?鈥欌�� Chad Wolf, who ran the TSA鈥檚 security policy office in 2005, told POLITICO. 鈥淚f they say profiling, then that鈥檚 the debate that needs to be had.鈥�

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The Irish debt crisis has highlighted the problems of eurozone membership - a country cannot devalue its currency in order to deal with debt nor can it set its own interest rates. Commentators ponder whether the euro will survive.

in his blog that Ireland's bail-out will only work if underlying problems are solved:

"[M]any EU states spend too much and collect too little in tax revenue. They need faster growth to make bringing these two figures into balance easier. Will they get faster growth from the policy mix favoured by the EU and IMF? The inability to devalue within the Euro removes one of the normal ways heavily indebted and less competitive states sort out their problems. Euro states have to do it by cutting wages and cutting public spending, which is tough and difficult to do in democracy."

another problem with the euro:

"The eurozone comprises a currency and a central bank without a government. But a currency is only as sound as the public finances of the state that issues it. In the eurozone, fiscal discipline was supposed to be enforced through treaty obligations and common oversight. But it was not. This is the systemic flaw, previously hidden behind what the journalist Gillian Tett has called 'social silence', that was exposed by the global crisis."

that the loan could bring on a new stage in the privatisation of government by the financial system:

"What is being presented as a loan by the British government to the Irish government is, in fact, a loan by the British government to the remnants of Ireland's commercial banks, which are melting down. And the reason the British government is lending to the Irish banking system is because British commercial banks lent so much money to Ireland in the boom years. British banks hold less than 拢10 billion worth of Irish government bonds. But they hold something like 拢130 billion worth of other Irish debt - property loans, business loans."

the argument that the UK is helping out Ireland due to a sense of community "risible", pointing to the fact that Ireland is the UK's biggest trading partner.

Finally, chief executive officer of the Centre for Economic and Business Research
that he predicts the euro only has a 20% chance of survival, saying it has fundamental problems:

"It's going to be quite hard. There are lots of challenges. First of all they haven't managed to harmonise inflation; secondly they haven't managed to harmonise borrowing. And thirdly they've got this problem in some countries of property price inflation, property price boom and bust."

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Commentators discuss Pope Benedict XVI's comments that the use of condoms is acceptable in exceptional circumstances, such as for a male prostitute.

[subscription required]:

"The last two words, for me, are the dynamite. Living sexuality! And in the context of a gay prostitute! Never mind the Aids issue; lay that aside for the moment, and just observe that the words come from a Pope seen as a rottweiler, a hardline enforcer of strict doctrine, the Cardinal who said all homosexuality is intrinsically disordered and an evil. 'A more human way of living sexuality' ...!"

The editor of the Catholic weekly the Tablet that the Pope's announcement remains consistent with Catholic teachings:

"He's not chucking overboard the Catholic Church's traditional stance against artificial birth control; rather, he is suggesting the prophylactic is used to prevent harm. Catholic teaching says sexual intercourse should be open to the creation of life - that is a good - but various Catholic theologians and cardinals have said for some time that condoms could be used to help halt the evil of the spread of disease and death."

that in the example of male prostitutes conception is impossible, but the question is trickier for the majority of people:

"The really interesting question is whether his remarks are supposed to apply even in cases where conception would be possible: may a female prostitute demand that her customers use condoms (assuming for the moment that either party takes much notice of the pope's opinions)? May a wife whose husband is infected? May a husband who has married an HIV positive woman?"

Former editor of the Catholic Herald that this should put an end to the difficulty she had in answering questions on the church's ban on condoms in Africa:

"Atheist hate-mongers will have to change their script. The philosopher Pope has freed his people from an ugly ghetto. We languished there, vulnerable targets of strident secularists who portrayed the teaching on condoms as the essence of a backward Church. We were full of self-doubt as we had to defend the indefensible. Now, Benedict has sprung us out of this captivity: we can get on and do good."

if the Pope's shift on condoms is the thin end of the wedge, and what else may change:

"If this can change, what else might follow, if not under this ageing pontiff then his successor? We already have some married priests, converted from Anglicanism. What if the next pope, in response to a divine revelation to answer the shortage of vocations, decided that women could be ordained too? Where would Church of England refugees be then?"

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I'm the 大象传媒's media correspondent and this is my brief selection of what's going on.
(This will be my last Media Brief for a fortnight.)

Alexander Lebedev, the owner of the Independent and London's Evening Standard, has promised to help expose "corruption on a global scale". The Russian tycoon and former KGB officer said the press was "a defence against tyranny, corruption and injustice". , he was speaking last night at the opening of the Society of Editors annual conference in Glasgow.

The 大象传媒's world news editor Jon Williams has blogged to explain why the 大象传媒 delayed reporting the release of Paul and Rachel Chandler, the British hostages held by Somali pirates. He said an injunction was imposed to protect the safety of the Chandlers - and prevented the media from referring even to its existence. "While we're not in the business of censoring the news, no story is worth a life - we accepted the argument of the family, their lawyers and the judge that to do otherwise would jeopardise the safety of Paul and Rachel Chandler. Some other news organisations did not."

that if he had been in Andy Coulson's position as editor of the News of the World when one of its staff was jailed for hacking into voice messages, he would have known all about it. But he says Coulson is nothing like him - and he believes "101% that he hadn't got the vaguest idea where the source was."

The Daily Mail used to be a "digital laggard", , but now Mail Online is the UK's most popular newspaper website.

"So happy to be alive - so happy to be free" is the Daily Mail's headline, describing Paul and Rachel Chandler's feelings after they were freed. But The Times says the paying of a large ransom creates a "terrible precedent". 大象传媒 newspapers review.

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鈥� Read Friday's Media Brief

I'm the 大象传媒's media correspondent and this is my brief selection of what's going on.

The NUJ has called off a 48-hour strike at the 大象传媒 planned for next Monday and Tuesday over proposed pension scheme changes. The 大象传媒 welcomed the NUJ's move and said it was willing to give "greater clarity about how the pension reform package will work" but said the offer would not be changed as reported on the 大象传媒 website.

The NUJ has called off a 48-hour strike at the 大象传媒 planned for next Monday and Tuesday. peace talks are expected to take place between union representatives and 大象传媒 management in the next fortnight, after executives said they would "clarify" proposed changes to the pension plan.

One of the male presenters hired by 大象传媒's Countryfile did not meet the criteria which saw three middle-aged women forced out of their jobs, of the Miriam O'Reilly industrial tribunal.

The 大象传媒 reports that a Conservative Birmingham City councillor has been arrested over allegations that he called on Twitter for a female writer to be stoned to death. Later, he wrote on Twitter: "I made an ill-conceived attempt at humour in response to Yasmin Alibhai-Brown on Radio 5. I [apologise] for any offence caused, it was wholly unintentional."

undergoes a bushtucker trial, as the publicity for I'm A Celebrity Get Me Out of Here begins.

Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows Part 1 is "the scariest Potter yet" but has attracted mixed reviews from the film critics.

Emma Watson is pictured on most of the front pages at last night's premiere of Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows Part 1 .

"Bold and principled" is how The Daily Telegraph describes the welfare changes proposed by the Work and Pensions Secretary Iain Duncan Smith. But The Daily Mirror says they are the "harshest benefits rules ever devised" says the 大象传媒 newspapers review.

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I'm the 大象传媒's media correspondent and this is my brief selection of what's going on.

The a second wave of planned NUJ strikes could be called off, after the 大象传媒 told a union representative it was prepared to hold fresh talks on pension proposals if the threat of industrial action were lifted. It quotes a senior executive:

"The 大象传媒 is not prepared to reopen negotiations. However, we are happy to meet the unions to clarify some elements of the new arrangements. We will not do this with the spectre of strikes which will effect the public hanging over us".

The [subscription required] Jay Hunt, former controller of 大象传媒 One, told an industrial tribunal that the 大象传媒 would not change the way it picked presenters for its primetime shows even if it were to lose an age and sex discrimination claim.

Plans to crack down on illegal file sharing and internet piracy have been thrown into doubt after the High Court agreed yesterday to review the Digital Economy Act. The BT and Talk Talk, two of the largest internet providers, argued that the legislation was rushed through Parliament and contravenes European law.

The 大象传媒's Newspaper review points out violence at the students' demonstration is on all the front pages with a picture of a demonstrator kicking in a window at Millbank Tower widely used.

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Commentators discuss the violence at student protests against a change in tuition fees.

that the Lib Dems have been spared by "idiotic students":

"The violence at today's student protest is, politically, a boon to the coalition. The story now is not the Lib Dems breaking their word but the storming of Millbank. The violence will also have cost the no-fees cause much public sympathy, we don't like attempts at aggressive direct action in this country."

the critics of violence, finding fault with the Liberal Democrats:

"Those lining up to condemn the actions of students at Millbank as contrary to the traditions of democracy should be reminded it is the Liberal Democrats who have failed to live up to those traditions, not the students.
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"By making a manifesto commitment to abolish tuition fees, the Lib Dems picked up hundreds of thousands of votes from those hoping to see the return of the fully funded education enjoyed by earlier generations."

Senior lecturer in philosophy at Roehampton University, that the violence comes from justified anger:

"It is hard to see the violence as simply the wilfulness of a small minority - it is a genuine expression of frustration against the few who seem determined to make the future a miserable, small-minded and debt-filled place for the many.
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"The protest as a whole was extremely important, not just because of the large numbers it attracted, and shouldn't be understood simply in economic terms as a complaint against fees. It also represented the serious anger many feel about cuts to universities as they currently stand, and the ideological devastation of the education system if the coalition gets its way. It was a protest against the narrowing of horizons; a protest against Lib Dem hypocrisy; a protest against the increasingly utilitarian approach to human life that sees degrees as nothing but 'investments' by individuals, and denies any link between education and the broader social good."

In contrast, the Telegraph's columnist that this is going to capture the sympathy of the country:

"In my day student demonstations we about not one's own interests... We were fighting for civil rights, black votes in the south and against de facto segregation in the north and against war in Vietnam. As a result those demonstrations really did capture the imagination of a generation.
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"What these demonstrations seem to be about is something much more unrealistic and self-serving which is to say that the whole of society should pay for your education."

The [subscription required] staunchly against the principle behind the protests and suggests that the violence was directed at the wrong party headquarters:

"Nick Clegg allowed his party to adopt a profoundly unrealistic policy before the election and made promises he neither could nor should keep. It is right that the Lib Dems should pay a political price for their ludicrous posturing. And it is understandable that the inability of Mr Clegg's party to keep his ridiculous pledge has provoked frustration and led to protest. But the fact that the broken windows were outside Conservative Party headquarters suggests that logic chopping with the Lib Dems was not really the aim of the violence."

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I'm the 大象传媒's media correspondent and this is my brief selection of what's going on.

ITV's director of television [subscription required] that the 大象传媒 and ITV should stop trying to "rip each others' throats out" and agree to stop scheduling some hit shows at the same time. The paper quotes 大象传媒 sources as saying the Corporation would be happy to discuss the proposal.

Executives from Channel 4 and Channel 5 have dismissed claims by ITV bosses that advertising restrictions have forced it to concentrate on "lowest common denominator" programmes. The that Anne Bulford, C4's chief operating officer, told the Lords communications committee that Contract Rights Renewal was "a scapegoat". Last week ITV chief executive, Adam Crozier, and chairman, Archie Norman, told the committee that CRR was responsible for a "ratings rat race".

The X Factor presenter Dermot O'Leary "let slip last night that X Factor WAS fixed. The ITV1 show's host revealed a plot was hatched to save oddball singer Katie Waissel minutes before the four judges voted."

The the royal family's new Facebook page has become a lightning rod for debate about the monarchy, with the palace web team forced to censor a string of offensive comments.

The 大象传媒's newspaper review says the Times and the Guardian carry a photograph of David Cameron and cabinet colleagues toasting a business deal in Beijing. Both papers say they wore Remembrance Day poppies despite being warned by the Chinese this would stir up unhappy memories of the Opium Wars.

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Commentators consider why George W Bush wrote his memoir Decision Points.

The there is nothing new in this memoir, something he is not shocked by as the purpose, he thinks, is to get us to like him more:

"Bush as he presents himself here is calm, deliberative, reasonable, open-minded, God-fearing, loyal, trustworthy, patriotic.
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"This should come as no surprise. The presidential memoir as it has evolved, especially in the wake of recent presidencies, is not a memoir as the term is commonly understood - an attempt to examine and interpret the writer's life - but an attempt to write history before the historians get their hands on it."

As if to back up that point, George W Bush's former media advisor his compliments to his former employer:

"I'm glad President Bush has published Decision Points--not so much because I think it will help rehabilitate his image or improve his place in history, though I think it will help on those counts. I'm glad because I believe readers will get a sense of the George W. Bush who I've known for 15 years - a man who is very different than the distorted public image many have come to accept as accurate. Contrary to conventional wisdom, President Bush is very smart, quietly reflective, often contrite, and deeply humble."

that George W Bush is modelling himself on Harry Truman, who's image was successfully changed over time. However, she warns that it may not work:

"Unfortunately, neither Bush's book nor his publicity blitz can help him attain his real goal, that elusive place in history. In fact, Truman's rehabilitation came about not from his memoirs, but because the unfolding of the Cold War proved he had been right about Stalin, right about Soviet intentions, possibly even right to fight back in Korea. A later, less stuffy generation of Americans was less bothered by Truman's humble origins, and more impressed by his honesty and humility.
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"Subsequent events - in Iraq, Afghanistan, the US itself - will also determine the way Bush's presidency is perceived, possibly in ways we find hard to imagine."

[subscription required], which is serialising the memoirs, that George W Bush's avid reading hasn't taught him the complexities of history:

"If history teaches anything, it is that the past and the affairs of man are complex, uncertain and unpredictable. But the history that Mr Bush tells, his story, is clear-cut, a Manichean battle between good and evil, fought with history on his side.
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"'I admired Lincoln's moral clarity,' he writes. 'The clash between freedom and tyranny.' History, he says, will judge him, but it is unlikely to assess him with the simple clarity with which he judges himself."

that there is a more immediate need than history to change Mr Bush's image:

"Until now the American right has dealt with Bush the way Stalin dealt with Trotsky - via the airbrush. Most Republicans have tried to vanish him from the record, avoiding the merest mention of his name. But that's not sustainable for ever.
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"Eventually, if the Republicans are to return to the White House, they will need an account of the last Republican presidency - ideally one that does not have Americans cowering behind the sofa, terrified to look. If they can pretty up Bush's image just a bit, make the Bush era seem less like a nightmare to which the US must never return, that can only help."

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I'm the 大象传媒's media correspondent and this is my brief selection of what's going on.

The the 大象传媒 has been given a one-year deadline to drastically improve 大象传媒 One and 大象传媒 Two, after its "formulaic and derivative" daytime programmes were criticised in what it calls "a damning report" by the 大象传媒 Trust. Jana Bennett, the director of 大象传媒 Vision, gives a different interpretation: "The Trust has asked us to build on the strong performances of 大象传媒 One, Two and Four to deliver even more fresh and new content to our audiences."

大象传媒1 and 大象传媒2 are too similar, while 大象传媒4 needs to do more to raise its profile. That is the of the 大象传媒 Trust review of the channels.

The Mark Thompson, the 大象传媒 director general, has refused to enter new negotiations with the National Union of Journalists, whose members disrupted TV and radio services last week over pension proposals.

it was a relief to have a day without Today because of the NUJ strike. "It was like finding a forgotten fiver in an old coat pocket. On Friday the nation woke up to discover 大象传媒 radio was full of nice things."

The Countryfile presenter Michaela Strachan was forced to leave the programme because she did not want to report on producing meat, the corporation's head of rural affairs told an industrial tribunal. Andrew Thorman denied claims by Miss Strachan's former colleague Miriam O'Reilly, 53, that she and other presenters were victims of ageism and sexism.

Sir Brian Barder, the former British ambassador to Ethiopia, has criticised the 大象传媒 over its apology to Band Aid. listeners were misled that 95% of famine relief aid for Ethiopia was diverted to the military:

"It isn't just Band Aid to which the 大象传媒 owes an apology, but the British government, other donors, charities and ordinary people who gave so generously."

Film-maker Warner Bros is to announce plans to develop a permanent UK studio base, including a visitor centre for its films such as Harry Potter. The 大象传媒 reports it will be built at Leavesden, in Hertfordshire, where production on all eight Harry Potter films took place.

Ann Widdecombe says she won't quit Strictly Come Dancing like John Sergeant. The asking if she should she stay or go?

The 大象传媒's newspapers review says George Bush's memoirs dominate many front pages. In an exclusive interview, he tells the Times that he does not mind what people think of him. The Guardian also has extracts.

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Commentators are asking whether the 20 finance ministers meeting in Seoul later this week will be able to reach an agreement which could avert a currency war.

[registration required] the "seven pillars of friction" which, he concludes show the G20 as increasingly illegitimate, including the "manipulators v manipulated":

"America accuses China of manipulating its currency by deliberately undervaluing the renminbi. China retorts that it is America that is manipulating the markets by printing dollars. The rest of the G20 worries about being caught in the crossfire of a global currency war. Some, particularly the Indians, seem more concerned about the Chinese undervaluation. Others, such as the Germans, seem more worried by the actions of the US Federal Reserve. But nobody likes being caught in the middle."

Former minister of economic affairs and the Treasury of Turkey, [registration required] in the ability of the G20:

"It is unlikely anything more concrete can be agreed at this week's summit, except perhaps more detail on indicators to determine current account limits, but no more. Some will therefore dismiss the agreement on targeting upper bounds for current accounts as inconsequential and argue the G20 is losing credibility as a 'potential steering group' for the world economy.
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"In fact the agreement, if it is endorsed by the leaders, may constitute a significant step forward for international economic co-operation. First, it is right that the focus has shifted to 'outcomes', in the form of current account imbalances, and away from the exchange rates themselves. After all, if the Chinese surplus were to dwindle to a small amount, with China importing almost as much as it exported, while the Chinese exchange rate remained the same, the world would stop worrying about Chinese exchange rate policy."

Less bothered by talk of currency wars, the the key to recovery is for President Obama to sign more trade agreements:

"The symbolic value of these agreements is also important. Global trade is recovering from its 2009 collapse. And so far there have been no full-out trade wars. But protectionism - trade barriers, but mostly high and unfair export subsidies - is on the rise. In Washington, members of Congress are itching to punish China for its currency manipulation. A weakening dollar is sparking protectionist sentiment in many other countries."

The the talks will be the "tensest yet" saying the best idea to avoid a currency war comes from an unfortunate place:

"Of all the ideas put forward so far, the best has been a proposal from the US that countries should have limits set on how much of a surplus or a deficit they can run in trading with the rest of the world. A country like Germany that consistently runs a big surplus with its trading partners is effectively sucking demand from them. The problem with this idea is that it is America's. The US neither has the economic strength nor the track record of prudent economic governance (that long boom, fuelled by so much private debt) to win this argument. Even so, it is ideas of managing trade a bit more closely that the G20 will need to consider if it is to avoid an unseemly trade squabble."

The the ability of the G20 but warns the French leadership of the group against big thinking:

"Unfortunately, history suggests that big-picture debates on the future of the international monetary system rarely yield results, while diverting attention from smaller, practical goals. France should take note. The G20 will remain worth having only if it sticks to the art of the possible."

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I'm the 大象传媒's media correspondent and this is my brief selection of what's going on.

The that Mark Thompson apologised to the 大象传媒 Trust for not informing them he was signing a letter criticising Rupert Murdoch over the proposed buyout of BSkyB. It says the Trust is releasing the minutes of a meeting at which it was discussed.

, general secretary of the NUJ, and , 大象传媒 director of people, were interviewed on Radio 4's Today this morning following last week's 48-hour strike.

the NUJ strike at the 大象传媒 passed him by:

"I consume vast quantities of news - but almost entirely without the assistance of the 大象传媒."

The two of the 大象传媒's most high-profile presenters, Evan Davis and Sarah Montague, enraged colleagues on Saturday by defying the strike that has brought chaos to its news schedules.

Today presenter he will get tougher in his interviews and "upset more people".

Ann Widdecombe remains in Strictly Come Dancing, despite getting the lowest marks from the judges. The many of the show's fans think the joke is wearing thin.

The Jack Duckworth will bow out of Coronation Street tonight in the "most moving Corrie" in the soap's 50 years.

Downton Abbey, which ended last night, has achieved a grip on emotions stronger than any social drama since Upstairs, Downstairs almost 40 years ago. It returns next year.

that Downton Abbey has been "a triumph in the precarious word of TV drama".

The Queen is set to have an official presence on Facebook when a British Monarchy page launches on the internet-based social networking site, the 大象传媒 reports.

The 大象传媒's newspaper review rounds up the papers' advice for Prime Minister David Cameron as he prepares to visit China. 大象传媒 newspapers review

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Commentators pick through the arguments surrounding coalition plans to force the long-term unemployed to do manual work or lose benefits.

[subscription required] that forcing the jobless back to work is a kindness, recalling a similar scheme he witnessed in the US in the 1990s:

"Many of them really didn't want to be there, but they knew they would lose all benefits if they didn't take part in the training. The atmosphere was not harsh or negative. In fact, as the trainees realised they were no longer consigned to the bin and that there was an alternative life for them, you could almost see the scales fall from their eyes. The will to work was only dormant and simply needed to be brought out. Three years after their training, 88 per cent of the people who found a job were still in work. Object to compulsion if you will, but it's the poor who suffer today."

that American ideas don't always work in the UK:

"They do far less than we do for the unemployed. A Darwinian 'survival of the fittest' reigns there. Workfare, the U.S. scheme on which our new plans are based, was invented in 1968 not by a conservative but by civil rights activist James Charles Evers."

how the plans will work for the "workless" as opposed to the "workshy":

"If there are jobs to be had, you can push people into them. If there aren't, you are just pushing them off a cliff, into depression, ridicule and despair. What happens to someone, already feeling crushed and useless because they have been sacked, and then turned down, who does not want to spend 30 hours a week in front of the neighbours, scrubbing graffiti? Will they be watched by security guards, or made to wear identifiable uniforms? If they refuse, what do ministers think they will do when their benefits are cut off for three months? Rob? Deal drugs? Beg?"

The a problem with the scheme:

"The danger could be that paid jobs will be cut, only to reappear as unpaid jobs in the voluntary sector. It is not hard to imagine the absurd situation where a local council employee is laid off, only to be displaced by a benefit recipient putting in his or her voluntary hours. Which poses the further question of basic justice: whether a job should not be rewarded, at very least, at the rate of the minimum wage."

The political bloggers look at the how the proposals could affect dynamics between the coalition and Labour. Former Conservative candidate on his blog that the announcements are another example of a policy changes being introduced to the newspapers before they are introduced to Parliament, suggesting PR requirements are taking precedence over Parliamentary proprieties.

The blog that Labour put forward the same policy in 2007 and 2008. a problem Labour might find if opposing the policy:

"Politically this could be dangerous for Labour because the last thing they want to be portrayed as is the party that supports the 'work-shy' - however unfair that tag might be."

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I'm the 大象传媒's media correspondent and this is my brief selection of what's going on.

The 大象传媒 has made an unreserved apology to Band Aid and its founder Bob Geldof for reports claiming that millions of pounds raised by the charity to fight famine in Ethiopia was spent on weapons. The an "industry source" as saying the 大象传媒 "compounded their mistake by robustly defending the programme before a proper investigation."

The Band Aid Trustee and former 大象传媒 chairman that the 大象传媒 had taken far too long to admit it was wrong.

The Business Secretary Vince Cable has referred the News Corporation bid for 100% ownership of BSkyB to the media regulator Ofcom, reports the 大象传媒. News Corp formally applied to the European Commission on Wednesday to buy the 61% of the shares it doesn't own.

The business secretary's decision was .

The that the 大象传媒's director of Global News Peter Horrocks has told the Commons Foreign Affairs Committee that budget cuts to the World Service are likely to result in about 300 job losses and closures to some language services.

A strike by members of the National Union of Journalists tomorrow is expected to disrupt 大象传媒 news programmes, including Radio 5 Live, Newsnight and the 大象传媒 News Channel. The 48-hour strike has been called has been called in protest at the 大象传媒's proposed cuts to its pension scheme. The Martha Kearney and Nicky Campbell among those joining the action.

The face of a dispirited-looking Barack Obama can be seen on many front pages, as the 大象传媒's newspaper review shows. The Guardian sees "contrition, but little sign of compromise" from the White House, after the Democrats saw their worst mid-term defeat in 70 years. For the Daily Telegraph, Barack Obama is "the fallen idol".

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Commentators ask why the remembrance poppy appears to create controversy every year.

This year the storm centres around Jon Snow, the Channel 4 News presenter, who has hit out at "poppy fascism" and "intolerance" after he was criticised for not wearing the emblem on TV. he told a commenter to get that "Hitler lost the war".

does Jon Snow know how offensive he is being:

"My complaint is that, by turning on his critics like an angry schoolboy chastised for neglecting his homework, [Jon Snow] has, no doubt unwittingly, encouraged the belief that wearing a poppy is a sign of dull conformity. Really, it is a badge of pride. Of course, he is entitled to say that in a free country he has a right to choose whether or not he wears this emblem of gratitude."

The the controversy, saying Jon Snow is just taking the hit for a yearly debacle:

"You can tell the passing seasons just by reading the regular TV fixtures that pop up in the Daily Mail news calendar. There's the 'too many Christmas repeats' story, the 'not enough religion on the telly at Easter' tale, and that perennial favourite, 'outrage at presenters who don't wear poppies'."

The debate recalls a 2006 article from the Guardian in which on accusations of "poppy fascism" on a .

Historian :

"Not wearing a poppy on air is not equivalent to not remembering those who died for our freedoms, although I suspect Snow over-eggs it a bit when he says that soldiers died so that we might choose. I'm somewhat wary of defending small, specific liberties by invoking wartime sacrifice, but I'm extremely wary of a culture that insists on forcing us, as individuals, to publicise our remembrance and our grief."

Mr Walters goes on to suggest the debate may have a positive result for the Royal British Legion:

"Snow's blanket ban on wearing symbols is a positive reaction against competitive public grief. His refusal makes us think again what the poppies are really about, and ironically, his blank lapel does more to remind us of sacrifice and remembrance than a poppy worn mindlessly or out of compulsion."

the poppy to an American audience:

"The poppies recall Marimekko in their graphic punch, and 'Sex and the City'-era brooches in their ubiquity, but they are political, not fashion, accessories - the American-flag pins of British public life. David Cameron would no less be seen without one than he would be seen without a shirt."

Prompted by Tony Blair wearing a poppy on US news in 2004, the emblem to Americans, saying the poppy permeates British culture:

"Explainer found that roughly one out of every four tube passengers sported the vibrant red flowers; Explainer even dropped a pound in a Royal British Legion collection box and wore a poppy in his lapel for the duration of his stay - it was the easiest way to be mistaken for a Brit."

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I'm the 大象传媒's media correspondent and this is my brief selection of what's going on.

ITV programmes cater for the 'lowest common denominator' because the channel is sucked into a 'ratings rat race', its two top bosses said yesterday. The the broadcaster's chief executive Adam Crozier and chairman Archie Norman told a House of Lords committee that its programmes suffered from a 'remarkable lack of diversity'. The that they want ITV to be released from Contract Rights Renewal, the mechanism which governs advertising sales deals.

Jon Snow, the veteran Channel Four News presenter, has hit out "poppy fascism" and "intolerance" after he was criticised for refusing to wear the emblem on TV in the lead up to Remembrance Sunday. and , he told a commenter to get "on yer bike" and that "Hitler lost the war".
that some 大象传媒 presenters have been criticised for wearing charity poppies too early.

What do the Times paywall figures actually mean? The of media commentators saying most have noted that the figures from News International are vague and that what News International has omitted is at least as informative as what's included. that James Murdoch says he's "pretty happy" that they have 50,000 subscribers.

Barack Obama's job may not have been on the line in the US mid-term elections but he is still the focus of most of the attention in the papers, as the 大象传媒's newspaper review shows.

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Commentators debate the government's announcement that it will allow prisoners to vote. This is inline with a European Court of Human Rights ruling that banning convicted killer John Hirst from the polls had breached his right to free elections.

The head of crime and justice at the think tank Policy Exchange that the change is undemocratic:

"The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) in Strasbourg was only able to pass judgement on this matter because of an individual case lodged by an ex-lifer who had pursued his claim relentlessly for years. Rather than being determined by a free vote in Parliament, or by the judgement of our own courts, an individual litigant was able to appeal over the heads of the British public, the Government and the judiciary to an unaccountable foreign court. The result is a major change to national policy that did not originate here. This is not democratic."

In a similar vein that it shows David Cameron's weakness:

"So once again British ministers are not being allowed to govern in accordance with the wishes of the British public who elected them. Is this not replete with the most bitter irony? For this ruling gives prisoners the right to vote. But what's the point of any of us having the right to vote, when the government we thus elect is overruled by a bunch of judges in a foreign court?"

the idea that David Cameron had no choice but to accept the European ruling:

"David Cameron is said to be 'exasperated and furious' at having to lift the ban. It appears that it was looked at 'from every legal angle'. But it seems there was no alternative.
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"Hogwash. That is simply not the legal situation. It is perfectly possible for the UK legislature to derogate from the ECHR should it really want to. Indeed, the UK has done so before in respect of anti-terrorism measures. Of course, such a move would be extraordinarily illiberal. But it would not be impossible if David Cameron actually was 'exasperated and furious'.
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"Instead, the better explanation is that this is a liberal measure being implemented under the cover of illiberal noises."

the change, which she says fits in with Ken Clarke's hope for a rehabilitation revolution:

"Prisoners lose their liberty, not their citizenship. If the object is to punish them, protect the public and equip offenders to rejoin the community, then they should work, pay taxes - and vote. Creating a disenfranchised and idle sub-class merely encourages re-offending. There's no question of all prisoners getting the franchise. Very serious offenders will certainly remain barred."

Opposed to the change, ex-prisoner [subscription required] that prisoners aren't interested in politics anyway and points to impracticalities:

"How will voter fraud be prevented among some of the most experienced fraudsters in the country? Merely to ask such questions indicates the headaches that will afflict prison governors now tasked with becoming returning officers."

"The Criminal Law Act 1967 and the Criminal Law Act (Northern Ireland ) 1967 abolished the division between felonies and misdemeanours and, as a result, removed that ban on voting in Parliamentary elections. This was not an accidental oversight but followed a specific recommendation from the Criminal Law Review Committee in the mid-1960s that the specific penalties for felonies, such as being banned from voting for Parliament, did not need to be continued via other means. The ban was however restored by the Representation of the People Act 1969."

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The results of Tuesday's mid-term elections were monumental - a shift in power away from Democrats just two years after they won a historic presidential victory. But they were also almost entirely expected. For months, commentators had warned of a Democratic bloodbath, and they were right. So where to from here?

that the country is divided over what to do next:

"Can this new power structure - one with different ideological philosophies to fix increasingly complex problems - actually lead a sharply polarized country that can't agree on where it wants to go? Will the politicians even try? If voters don't know what they want beyond something different from the status quo, how can a government deliver, much less one that's divided? These will be the central questions of the next two years as a weakened Obama, diminished Democrats and resurgent Republicans try to figure out how to meet the demands of a suffering electorate that now seems to perpetually crave change. And how to keep their jobs in 2012."

it will be difficult to get Democrats and Republicans to work together:

"Governance - and particularly building consensus on tough and complicated challenges - can be painstaking and require a degree of trust between the parties that is not likely to be restored anytime soon. The Democratic caucus that will return to Capitol Hill in January is likely to be more liberal than before, after some of its most moderate and conservative members were wiped out Tuesday. And in the tea party, Republicans must grapple with a new political force for whom compromise is seen as a problem, not a solution."

about the big issues in the next few months:

"The biggest wild cards are on tax cuts and health care. On tax cuts, as someone who thinks that we're going to need to let the Bush tax cuts go in order to address America's mounting entitlement problem, I think the worst-case scenario is that the GOP manages to bully their way to a full repeal. But perhaps optimistically, I think there's at least a chance of a best-case scenario: in the Congressional stalemate, the Bush tax cuts expire. On health care, I think it's likely that the GOP will try to defund much of the health care bill, while leaving the pre-existing condition rules, and perhaps the addition of adult children to their parents' health insurance. If that happens, health care reform will collapse under its own weight, perhaps taking the US insurance market down with it. Can they do it? If they're very smart and strategic, confining their defunding to health care, maybe."

that Republicans were helped in no small part by older voters, a group President Obama has always struggled to connect with:

"Chances are Republicans will be too busy celebrating Tuesday's big victory to ask any questions. That would be a mistake. Winning a single midterm election on the backs of disgruntled older voters in a time of severe economic anxiety is one thing. Basing your party's electoral future on seniors is something else entirely. If Republicans knew what was good for them, they'd start figuring out how to expand their reach beyond retirees before the next election rolls around."

that the new congress doesn't take office until January. Until then, the existing Congress will remain in a "lame duck" session.

"Some of the items on the lame duck agenda are political musts. For instance, if Congress doesn't address the Bush tax cuts, they will expire, a result almost nobody wants... Insiders say it's difficult to gauge the dynamics of the coming lame duck. Democrats could be wary of flaunting the public's repudiation at the polls. Or, fired incumbents free from the tether of their constituents' wishes may use their freedom to push for legislative action."

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I'm the 大象传媒's media correspondent and this is my brief selection of what's going on.

News International has announced this morning that 105,000 people have paid to go behind The Times and Sunday Times paywalls to read the papers. A further 100,000 people have a joint subscription to read the papers digitally and in print. The 大象传媒 reports Rebekah Brooks, chief executive of News International, said they were very pleased and the figures showed "large numbers of people were willing to pay for quality journalism in digital formats". that the statement from News International describes its subscribers as "relatively affluent".

The that is was early days but he was encouraged by the figures.

Public service advertising campaigns did well at the IPA Advertising Effectiveness Awards last night, as the Government cuts its advertising budget by 50%. The the annual awards recognised campaigns for stroke awareness, anti-smoking and teacher recruitment; the top prize went to Hovis.

the Sun has escalated the Murdochs' war with the 大象传媒. In the corporation's journalists of outright bias, claiming "the Beeb is today the pompous voice of defeated socialism."

The 大象传媒's newspaper review shows the US mid-term elections occupy many papers. The Daily Mail predicts the Democratic party is heading for its worst rout in 68 years. The Daily Telegraph says President Obama will pay for failing to stem unemployment amid fears the American dream is beyond the reach of many.

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Commentators discuss the treaty to be signed by France and the UK agreeing to military co-operation including testing of nuclear warheads.

[subscription required] that the "entente is about to get even more cordiale":

"It is a sign of how far Britain's relationship with France has changed that the concerns over the Anglo-French defence treaty focus not on an assumed cultural incompatibility, rooted in history, but the practical and logistic challenge of aligning two great military powers. The chauvinism that once characterised Anglo-French relations, particularly in military circles, is evaporating."

The director of the Royal United Services Institute that all previous attempts at collaboration ran out of steam on the military level:

"There was good political atmosphere on occasion, it never actually created real step changes in capabilities later on. This time it might be different, because they are desperate.
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"...The fact is if both powers are determined to play a role in the world with military force they are going to have to find ways of pooling their relatively common force structures to have some real effect."

The for the future:

"Though Mr Cameron and M. Sarkozy may get along, where will Britain be left if we have to plead with a future French Socialist Government for the use of an aircraft carrier to defend our interests? And how can the Tories, who rightly opposed plans for a European army, even consider handing operational control of the SAS to France? Mr Cameron said yesterday: 'The point is to enhance sovereign capability by two like-minded countries.' We may be like-minded today, Prime Minister. But what about tomorrow?"

[registration required] that austerity has made both nations realise they only have each other:

"[T]he two nations may at last have realised that they have reached the end of the separate roads on which they set off after the Suez crisis. France can no longer hope to organise Europe against America. Britain cannot substitute a close bond with the US for collaboration on its own continent. The pity is that it has taken the reality of decline to persuade them of the obvious."

In the French press that this won't lead to a European army:

"What is in no doubt, however, is that integrated European defence is not being considered. The UK will not hear of it and, since France's reintegration into Nato, it's a low priority for Paris."

Conversely, that Europe will gain from the relationship:

"If the two capitals can get along to pool their resources, share major equipment projects and prepare joint deployments, it's the defence of Europe as a whole that is progressing."

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Commentators look at why Harriet Harman's "ginger rodent" insult directed at Chief Treasury Secretary Danny Alexander created such a storm.

The about why the insult provoked objections:

"Curiously, and unremarked, David Cameron made a weak ginger joke (something to do with Neil Kinnock) during his conference speech. And he was fattist about the justice secretary. So maybe the outcry this weekend was less to do with the insult than the person who made it."

Communications researcher that you can fault Harriet Harman's ginger jibe, but you can't fault her rhetoric:

"Whatever you might have thought about hearing the politically correct Harriet Harman referring to Danny Alexander as a 'ginger rodent', the offending sequence was a technically very effective example of how to use the Puzzle-Solution technique to trigger applause. It's based on the very simple principle that, if you say something that gets the audience wondering what's coming next, they'll listen more attentively and, if it's a good 'solution', they'll applaud it."

that politics needs insults:

"[W]e need our political comedians. In these dry, grey times we shouldn't howl anyone down for trying. Harman's 'ginger rodent' jibe wasn't particularly funny. But the answer is to think a little harder, and try again. The joke that works lasts longer than the politician who makes it."

Harriet Harman was politically incorrect to use the word ginger but defends the "rodent" insult:

"Tories who believe they're born to rule us, that in any case some of their wealth should "trickle down" and that a rising tide lifts all boats even though theirs is a luxury yacht and ours a cobble.
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"But what can you call a [die-hard] Liberal Democrat who spent the last century opposing all of that? Who just weeks ago was denouncing the Tories, seeking to persuade us that they, not Labour, were the real social democrats.
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"You could call them a Danny Alexander. Or, more accurately, you could call them a rat."

he wants to see more cutting comments from politicians:

"If there's a failure here, it's that there isn't enough vigour in the attacks. The art of political invective lies in delivering not only an insult, but one which stings because there is a perceived truth in it. The part of Ms Harman's attack which bit was when she said that the LibDems had 'mutated into something alien to Scotland -Tories'."

that perceptions of the remark as anti-Scottish may harm the SNP:

"Crying 'anti-Scottish' when Harriet Harman makes a silly remark about red hair confirms a view many non-Nationalists have long had about parts of the SNP. That some Nats are obsessive to the point of silliness. They can spot anti-Scottishness even when it doesn't exist."

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I'm the 大象传媒's media correspondent and this is my brief selection of what's going on.

News Corporation is expecting to notify the European Commission this week of its intention to bid for the 61% of BSkyB it does not already own. The that the move will formally kickstart a regulatory process that could result in its offer being blocked by the business secretary, Vince Cable.

that on-demand TV services are set to flood the market, and competition is increasing between YouView, BSkyB and Virgin Media.

the 大象传媒 doesn't want anyone to know about its bunker at Wood Norton, near Evesham.

Labour's shadow culture secretary that "The 大象传媒 is too important to be left to dubious deals made in undue haste and a PM who is cavalier about its independence from government".

Mr Lewis was responding to that David Cameron "ignited a furious row about the funding of the 大象传媒, after he described the corporation's six-year funding freeze as "delicious" and poked fun at it sending three reporters to his Brussels press conference"

The [subscription required] ITV is set to lose 拢10 million in ad revenue after Daybreak, its breakfast show, suffered a slump in ratings. Media buyers representing companies such as Unilever, Procter & Gamble and Kellogg's are to demand a reduction in ad rates.

The 大象传媒's newspaper review shows the screening of air freight comes under scrutiny in the papers, following the discovery of two bombs on US-bound cargo flights.

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Commentators consider the appropriate reactions to the airline bomb plot stopped in the UK on its way from Yemen to the US.

politicians are "twisting" the incident:

"The target may have been an aircraft. The culprits could not have known when or where they'd go off. Why is it that our leaders now react as if a terrorist atrocity has taken place when it appears to have been avoided?
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"Did our wartime leadership go public on every single threat from our German and other enemies? Of course not. So why do they do it now? To ramp up our fear. Do they think this will make us support them and their 'war on terror' policies?"

Director of the Centre for Security and Intelligence Studies at the University of Buckingham Professor , arguing that politicians were downplaying the incident, notably not raising the official threat level from severe to critical:

"One explanation for the weekend's mystifying lack of urgency is that there was no specific intelligence in the UK that indicated a plot might be unfolding. The key intelligence came from the Saudis who had passed it to the Americans, not us. But there is another: it is that the Government and our opinion- formers, for obvious political reasons, have moved far too quickly to dismantle past security measures."

that he thinks talking up confrontation is a "stupid response" and exactly what terrorists want to hear:

"There is another danger we need to be aware of too: the symmetry of self-interest between the would-be bombers and the security services assembled to stop them. Both have a tendency to magnify serious but isolated incidents into one great interconnected global battle. The American military likes to describe the arc of terror that supposedly runs from Afghanistan through Pakistan into Yemen and down through Somalia. The British security services warn us, as Sir John Sawers did in a generally wise speech last week, about 'the plotting of terrorists who are bent on maiming and murdering people in this country'.
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"These people aren't making it up. But they are part of a mentality that encourages us to believe there really is a clash of civilisations under way and that if we don't give them the tools to destroy the other side first, they will destroy us."

The against the continued presence of Nato forces in Afghanistan:

"What this failed attack does illustrate, however, is the threat posed by Yemen, where the bombs were made and sent from. It is clear that al-Qa'ida has spread well beyond the Afghanistan/Pakistan border. The militants now have a base in the Arabian Peninsula and the Horn of Africa. The argument that the presence of Nato forces in Afghanistan is crucial in thwarting terror attacks on Western targets is left looking threadbare. And the idea that military interventions abroad are effective in stemming terror attacks also sounds increasingly implausible - not least because the individual suspected of being behind this attack, Anwar al-Awlaki, was born and educated in the US."

[registration required] that Yemen needs aid as well as military support:

"The danger now is that this limited help is dwarfed by new, much larger packages of security aid. Too much attention devoted, for example, to more military assistance, or to allowing the CIA to operate its drone programme in the country, is likely to inflame the internal tensions that attracted al-Qaeda in the first place."

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