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Climate change documentary – media self censors the facts

Broadcasters lose their nerve over BBC’s climate change program, Environmental News Network, 15 Nov 11 The final episode of the BBC’s Frozen Planet documentary series that focuses on climate change has been canned in the US and other countries, prompting fierce criticism. All seven episodes of the multi-million pound nature series, written and presented by Sir David Attenborough, will be screened in the UK — but the final show, entitled ‘On Thin Ice’, has been shelved by several foreign TV channels, including the Discovery channel in the US.

The last programme in the series looks at the man-made threat to the environment and examines how Earth’s ice caps are changing and the likely consequences for the rest of the planet.  But US audiences will not be shown the final episode, where many fear a show that promotes the theory of global warming could upset viewers.

The package of six episodes has been sold to 30 countries and networks were provided with the option to buy a seventh ‘optional extra’ episode, along with behind-the-scenes footage. The documentary series is said to be an epic portrait of two disappearing wildernesses — the Arctic and the Antarctic – before they change forever, and is already hugely popular with viewers in the UK. However, according to the BBC, ten countries have chosen not to screen the final episode.

In the US, Frozen Planet is being aired by Discovery, which was jointly involved in the production of the series. The seven programmes cost £15 million to produce and took four years to film and edit.It is understood the Frozen Planet DVD will be sold overseas, including the US, containing all seven episodes as broadcast in the UK.

Ben Stewart of Greenpeace today said: “It’s regrettable that millions of viewers in the US won’t be getting the full story when they watch this mesmerising series. It’s like pressing the stop button on Titanic just when the iceberg appears. http://www.enn.com/ecosystems/article/43567

November 16, 2011 Posted by | 2 WORLD, climate change, media | Leave a comment

USA debating how to censor the Internet

Right now, the US Congress is debating a law that would give them the power to censor the world’s Internet — creating a blacklist that could target YouTube, WikiLeaks and even groups like Avaaz!

Under the new law, the US could force Internet providers to block any website on suspicion of violating copyright or trademark legislation, or even failing to sufficiently police their users’ activities. And, because so much of the Internet’s hosts and hardware are located in the US, their blacklist would clamp down on the free web for all of us.  Continue reading →

November 16, 2011 Posted by | media, USA | Leave a comment

Rupert Murdoch’s secret moves to destroy public broadcasting in Australia

In hours, Murdoch could secure his stranglehold on the Australian media by acquiring our public international TV news network — and rob a struggling ABC of $223 million in funding. Communications Minister Stephen Conroy is under pressure to give control over the network to Murdoch instead of the ABC – Murdoch’s mouthpiece The Australian has been leaking details of insider support for Murdoch in a blatant attempt to force Labor into backing his bid. Conroy knows that giving the network to Murdoch would greatly increase the media mogul’s corrupting influence and hurt the ABC, and is looking for a way out.

Rupert Murdoch already owns 70 percent of Australia’s newspapers. Now he’s on the hunt for more media control, and he’s hoping we won’t notice. Through his stake in Australian News Channel, he’s been pushing hard to take over the crucial but low-key ‘Australia Network’: an Australian international public broadcaster that’s available in 44 countries. Murdoch has shown that his empire ruthlessly puts profits above all else — even hacking a murdered school girl’s phone to increase sales. With this extra network, Murdoch would vastly increase his power and take control of Australia’s public image abroad. 

The move is also a key part of his strategy to destroy public broadcasting and silence independent voices. Murdoch knows that the loss of $223 million in funding would severely weaken an already stretched ABC. It would mean the loss of many ABC journalists, and potential closures of overseas news offices. If we let Murdoch win, Australia will become the first country in the world to privatise its international news service…. Continue reading →

October 31, 2011 Posted by | AUSTRALIA, media | Leave a comment

How the media underplays seriousness of Fukushima radiation

Radioactive contamination of soil, tap water, rain water, groundwater, beef, fish, vegetables, animal feed and incinerator ash are almost always said to be of little or “no immediate” danger, which helps explain why Fukushima has faded from public consciousness.

Radiation Reporting: Blind, Idiotic, Corrupt — or All Three Huntington News, , October 26, 2011  BY JOHN LAFORGE The ongoing radiation catastrophe stemming from three out-of-control nuclear reactors in Fukushima, Japan has taken a back seat to far graver news events of late: Michael Jackson’s doctor, fund-raising by presidential hopefuls, the World Series, and Netflix stock.

Meanwhile, reporting about the on-going disaster relentlessly repeats the minimization and trivialization of radiation risk that began March 11, Continue reading →

October 27, 2011 Posted by | media | Leave a comment

Japan’s media sacrificed journalistic integrity for money from TEPCO

the Japanese media which for years accepted TEPCO’s advertising cash in exchange for compromising their journalistic integrity……TEPCO used hundreds of millions to silence any possible media criticism of the company and nuclear power. 

TEPCO media strategy questioned ABC Radio A.M. Toney Eastley, Mark Willacy reported this story on  October 5, 2011 

TONY EASTLEY: To Japan, and more revelations have emerged about the machinations of TEPCO, the giant company that operates the Fukushima nuclear power plant.
It splashed $350 million a year on advertising and took journalists on junkets just to promote its products.

AM has spoken to Japanese politicians and journalists who describe how TEPCO used its wealth to strangle any opposition to the company. Continue reading →

October 6, 2011 Posted by | Japan, media | Leave a comment

The catastrophic level of radiation to Japanese from Fukushima nuclear disaster

 In March, 2006, 20 years after the accident, the people whose health had been damaged in Russia, the Ukraine and Belarus numbered 7,000,000. 

excerpt from: Fukushima Meltdown: The World’s First Earthquake-Tsunami-Nuclear Disaster[Kindle Edition] Takashi Hirose http://www.amazon.com/dp/B005OD75J2/?tag=theasipacjo0b-20

Japan’s Earthquake-Tsunami-Nuclear Disaster Syndrome: An Unprecedented Form of Catastrophe, Japan Focus 26 Sept 11, Hirose Takashi  “……From day one the situation had reached the highest level for nuclear accidents, Level 7, and from day one the government knew this, but it concealed that information from the people, thus causing far more people to be irradiated than otherwise would have been the case.

Continue reading →

September 27, 2011 Posted by | health, Japan, media, Resources -audiovicual | 1 Comment

Murdoch’s media monopoly misinforms Australia on Climate Change

Nowhere has the reliance on spin been more apparent than during the coverage of the climate “debate” by the Murdoch media and allied shock jocks.

Australia’s climate scientists expose shock-jock distortion tactics, Academics catalogue the deluge of spin and misinformation of climate science by various Murdoch-owned papers, Stephan Lewandowsky   1 September 2011, Guardian UK,  Australia has unwittingly become a social experiment. A ruthless experiment on the fate of a society when a single media conglomerate, Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp, owns 167 newspapers and controls around 70% of the printed media market. Continue reading →

September 7, 2011 Posted by | AUSTRALIA, media | Leave a comment

Editor resigns over sloppy anti climate change publication

 Journal editor resigns over ‘problematic’ climate paper, BBC News, Richard Black, 2 September 2011 The editor of a science journal has resigned after admitting that a recent paper casting doubt on man-made climate change should not have been published. Continue reading →

September 5, 2011 Posted by | 2 WORLD, media | 1 Comment

Only independent media gives information on Fukushima radiation fallout

due to the media blackout of Fukushima and its fallout in the United States,  ”We’re really dependent on indymedia these days.”
St. Louis raining Fukushima hot particles: Radiation 178 times normal(video)Examiner,21 Aug 11  

Heeding nuclear expert Arnie Gundersen’s call to monitor and share radiation data, a St. Louis citizen reporter has demonstrated with a Geiger counter on Saturday that background radiation in St. Louis Missouri was 178 times normal after the rainout according to ENEWS. Gundersen predicted that as Japan burns contaminated materials, radiation levels in the United States and Canada would escalate in rainouts for another year.

“St. Louis rain sample shows radiation dose on August 20 almost triple previous high reading,” ENEWS reported Sunday.  Continue reading →

August 22, 2011 Posted by | media, USA | Leave a comment

How the mainstream media influences public opinion against renewable energy

press coverage is important because it can influence not only “what people perceive and believe” but also “what politicians think they believe”. Indeed, politicians take the temperature of public opinion partly through the barometer of the press, and consistently negative coverage of renewables will doubtless “limit the perception of political space and impetus for political action”

How UK newspaper coverage is skewed against renewables, More than half of the coverage of renewable energy solutions in the mainstream British press is negative...The Guardian, by   5 August 2011 “….. previously unpublishedanalysis of British newspaper coverage of renewable energy. Carried out by the Public Interest Research Centre (Pirc), the research confirms the Mail’s unusually anti-green stance, though it also highlights the remarkable degree of negativity that renewable energy receives in the UK press more broadly – including in the Sun. Continue reading →

August 7, 2011 Posted by | media, UK | Leave a comment

Japanese media self censorship on Fukushima nuclear crisis

Journalist Takeharu Watai warned that many media organizations have been indulging in what appears to be “self-censorship” in covering the no-go zone around the crippled nuclear power station and its premises due to various constraints.

Symposium critical of media coverage on nuclear plant crisis, Mainichi Daily News, Japan) July 26, 2011, A symposium themed on nuclear power plants and the media was held in Tokyo on the heels of the accident at the Fukushima No. 1 Nuclear Power Plant. Continue reading →

July 28, 2011 Posted by | Japan, media | 1 Comment

International media downplays Fukushima’s continued radiation spread

what actually happened on March 11th and in the weeks and months afterward that was for the most part either downplayed or withheld from international news. 

Fukushima’s radiation spreads globally amidst Elite complicity, THE CANADIAN, 23 JULY 2011 – What happened in Fukushima, Japan on March 11, 2011 may be the most sinister global disaster in the recorded history of our planet. The repercussions of this historic disaster will remain for centuries to come. The manifestations of nuclear radiation from the meltdown of the reactors in Fukushima will haunt humanity in ways that we’ll only discover over time. Continue reading →

July 24, 2011 Posted by | 2 WORLD, media | Leave a comment

Australian govt to question Rupert Murdoch’s media monopoly

Phone hacking: Australian PM promises ‘hard questions’,BBC News, 20 July 11,   The Australian branch of Rupert Murdoch’s media empire will face “hard questions” in the wake of the phone hacking scandal in Britain, Prime Minister Julia Gillard has said.

She said she was “disturbed” by revelations about his UK business.

The company dominates Australian media – it controls 70% of the newspaper readership and has extensive holdings in television, the internet, and other media….

The Greens, which hold the balance of power in the upper house, have called for a parliamentary inquiry into News Limited, Mr Murdoch’s Australian firm.,,,,, http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-14212954

July 21, 2011 Posted by | AUSTRALIA, media | 1 Comment

Silence of Australian,and other, media on the extent of Fukushima nuclear crisis

Something similar is going on in Japan and the US. In Japan, the nuclear industry has been actively promoted by the Government since inception in the interests of Japanese nuclear security.  The nuclear regulator is almost entirely made up for former Tepco employees and is described as being almost an arm of the power company. Criticism of nuclear power has long been strongly suppressed in Japan.

Independent Australia has reported before about plans for the world’s  nuclear waste to be shipped to Australia and the fact this agreement with the US was actively suppressed by the Australian media, perhaps because some media proprietors have strong vested interests in the nuclear industry. It seems that Australia’s overly concentrated media industry is not only a crisis for our democracy, but can potentially even threaten our children’s health.

(VIDEOS) Fukushima: Caldicott says Japan may become uninhabitable – media silent |Dr Helen Caldicott says that the Fukushima nuclear disaster has the potential to make Japan “uninhabitable”, yet the mainstream media in Australia continue to ignore the crisis Independent Australia, David Donovan May 31

Yesterday – the same day Germany announced it would close all its nuclear plants because of Fukushima, and dangerous levels of radiation were reported in Japanese clean-up workers – Independent Australia did a straw poll of 50 random people at a metropolitan shopping centre in Queensland. Each of them was asked: “were you aware that there had been a nuclear meltdown at Fukushima in Japan”. Almost all of these respondents recognised the name Fukushima but only 4 of the 50 – a mere 8 per cent – said they had heard of any meltdown. Continue reading →

June 4, 2011 Posted by | AUSTRALIA, media | Leave a comment

Wikileaks reveal France’s fears about safety of Pakistan’s nukes

France unsure about Pakistan’s nuclear deterrent: WikiLeaks  | The Times of India May 29, 2011, ISLAMABAD: France, not sure about the safety of Pakistan’s nuclear weapons, has decided against supplying nuclear energy technology to it, according to a secret US diplomatic cable released by WikiLeaks. Continue reading →

May 30, 2011 Posted by | Wikileaks | Leave a comment

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