It is 40 years since US Senator created the first Earth Day by holding an environmental teach-in. There are nowadays events in nearly every country in the world each 22nd April.
Here is ex-President Bill Clinton’s responses today to environmental questions posed by people using Digg
AP Global Media Services, the video newsgathering facilities arm of The Associated Press, has announced that it is to build a major new studio and production space in the heart of central London.
The state-of-the-art broadcast facility will comprise five HD compatible studios, two of which will be multi-camera. The studios will overlook many of central Londons most famous and recognisable landmarks. These include Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament, Trafalgar Square and the West End theatre district, the City financial district, the London Eye, The Mall and Buckingham Palace. Located in Haymarkets New Zealand House, the studios will also be within walking distance of Leicester Squares red-carpet events, Whitehall and 10 Downing Street.
As well as providing breathtaking views for broadcasters and production companies needing London backdrops, the studios will also provide editing facilities and high-speed fibre transmission links to the APs global satellite and fibre network.
Mr. Alla Salehian, director of AP Global Media Services said, These studios represent a huge investment and vote of confidence in the industry by the AP and highlight its commitment to providing the best facilities for its clients. We believe the studios will quickly become the premier live shot facility in London. Their location and elevation above the London skyline will give clients multiple live backdrops and camera angles. Theres nothing like it and broadcasters and the viewing public will be treated to vistas of central London they have never seen before.
The studios will be fully-operational in time for the United Kingdom general elections on 6th May 2010. The facility will be able to transmit both High-Definition (HD) and Standard-Definition (SD) live video signals to newsrooms worldwide, as well as service the production requirements of clients needing both video editing facilities and immediate access to APs video news, entertainment and sports news content.
Salehian continued, The UK elections are just the beginning. Our plans for broadcaster support include all major London events in the coming years including the 2012 Olympic Games, movie premieres, cultural events, and, possibly, even a Royal wedding or two. Were confident these studios will become the UK base for British and international broadcaster and production companies who want to produce and anchor regular strands or one-offs programmes from London. Furthermore, its ideal for film and entertainment companies and PR firms organising celebrity press junkets, as its just a stones throw from Leicester Square.
AP is working in partnership with the studio design and construction company WTS Broadcast, who will build and maintain the studios, whilst AP will handle all client bookings and enquiries.
Radio Netherlands Worldwide is launching an extensive, interactive web dossier in seven languages on human rights and political prisoners today: www.rnw.nl/political-prisoners.
The dossier, which focuses on the families of political prisoners, is being launched during the ‘Human Rights & (New) Media’ conference in The Hague. It features a series of film portraits made in cooperation with IDTV.
The ‘Political Prisoners’ dossier is in seven languages. It includes powerful videos, insightful articles and discussions on human rights and political prisoners. In eight film portraits, family members of prisoners from Cuba, Uzbekistan, China, Iran, Eritrea, Indonesia, Azerbaijan and Colombia tell their stories. The web dossier is published in Dutch, English, Spanish, Indonesian, Chinese, Arabic and French.
Radio Netherlands Worldwide Editor-in-Chief Rik Rensen says: “The prisoners in the films are not normally in the spotlight and come, without exception, from regions where there is a lack of freedom of speech and the press. It is in precisely these regions that Radio Netherlands Worldwide is active and their personal stories deserve attention.”
The web dossier focuses mainly on unknown political prisoners. Why are they being held and under what kind of circumstances? How do family members experience the detention of their loved ones, with whom, in some cases, they have not been allowed contact for many years? Radio Netherlands Worldwide provides a platform using social media networks in which family, friends and organisations are able to exchange news and experiences.
It is ironic that some attendees due at the Peoples Climate Summit called by Bolivian President Evo Morales should be delayed by the volanic eruption in Iceland: climatic conditions are preventing aircraft travel, which is responsible for high carbon emissions per person, and yet stopping people coming together to discuss how to reduce the impact of carbon emissions.
Hopefully the conference will not be badly affected, since it is aiming to bring together and respresent the views and concerns of the poorest two billion people in the world on the subject of climate change. It is often the poorest who are worst affected by climatic disasters – witness how the recent Haiti earthquake killed 250,000 while the earthquake in Chile just afterwards killed under 500, with better infrastructure in Chile being a major factor. The poorest also live in the lands most likely to be flooded and live precariously with little or no reserves against poor harvests, drought and famine.
Morales points out that 75 percent of historical emissions of greenhouse gases originated in “the countries of the North that followed a path of irrational industrialization”.
The summit should provide an interesting contrast to the views of the industrialised and newly industrialising countries which tended to dominate at Kyoto and Copenhagen.
The AIB is looking forward to providing access to some of the very divergent views on climate change in its People’s Choice category at the 2010 AIBs – international media excellence awards
NHK/NHK Educational Corporation, and Al Jazeera Children’s Channel have announced the co-production of the ultimate science entertainment series, which will show the rules of nature through spectacular experiments. Discover Science will give viewers a unique chance to understand science by showing it in action on a massive scale.
Production is being led by NHK Educational Corporation (NED), an NHK affiliate that produces a vast number of programs for NHKs educational channel. NED is well known for childrens programs but also produces a wide range of programs for adults. NEDs expertise in creative visualization will be paired with NHKs latest shooting techniques to yield fascinating ways to visualize scientific phenomena. The production team has made it a rule not to use CGI or talking heads. The visual focus is the experiments, which will be easy for viewers to understand and presented in an entertaining way on a massive scale.
NED and Al Jazeera Children’s Channel (JCC) have enjoyed a fruitful relationship through exchanges of childrens programs since JCC was launched in 2005. The joint development of Discover Science is a response to dwindling interest in science among children in Japan and to JCCs shared need for good science programming for children. The series is intended mainly to rekindle childrens curiosity about science, but it will be enjoyable for a wider audience including people who are already science lovers.
Discover Science is the first series to be co-produced by NHK, NED, and JCC.
NHKs Executive Managing Director, Hidemi Hyuga, said: We respect JCCs commitment to offering high-quality programs to the Arab world. As a public broadcaster with a designated educational channel, NHK shares JCCs goal of enlightening childrens minds through television. I believe Discover Science is a wonderful way to achieve that goal, and I hope it will reach other territories as well. NHK Educational Corporations CEO, Kenichi Murakami, also expressed his enthusiasm: Im thrilled that our relationship with JCC has led to this wonderful project. This is the first major international co-production for NED, and were delighted to be able to contribute our expertise.
Mahmoud Bouneb, the Executive General Manager of Al Jazeera Childrens Channel (JCC), stated: Completing a co-produced scientific program of this scale was not a simple task, and in order to provide children with credible scientific material that is delivered in an impressive and entertaining manner, we chose to co- produce the program with a company that has extensive experience. Bouneb added, Discover Science, which JCC will begin to air in September, is a step in the path to enhancing our production capabilities and diversifying our sources of income and programs making. Bouneb continued by expressing his appreciation and gratitude for the continuous and fruitful cooperation between JCC and its Japanese partner.
The Discover Science series is being produced as 26 editions of 14 minutes each. The completion target is the fall of this year.
FRANCE 24 has launched a new application exclusively developed for the iPad.
Accessible on the App Store, FRANCE 24s application is free and allows users to tailor their approach to the news, choosing from a variety of innovative functions.
iPad users can enjoy the live broadcast of FRANCE 24s three channels as well as watch the latest newscast (updated every half hour), business report, world weather forecast and sports flash. The application also offers them a wide range of videos available on demand in three languages (magazines, debates, special reports).
In addition, an innovative mapping tool allows users to find news according to their location thanks to FRANCE 24s automatic and geographical referencing of news articles and videos.
Building on its multimedia strategy FRANCE 24 was the first international news channel to broadcast live on the iPhone FRANCE 24s iPad application will evolve in the coming weeks to include more features and new services.
FRANCE 24s application was developed by the LAB, FRANCE 24s Multimedia Studio, in cooperation with Backelite.