Morality v reality

A television ad in Kenya led to a public outcry and a national debate over how to encourage condom use. The ad features two women who are gong about their daily routine. One of the women is having an extramarital affair. The second advises her to use a condom to prevent spread of sexually transmitted infections like HIV.

Chef, scientist come to blows

A bird scientist interviewed by celebrity chef Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall for his TV series has posted a letter on Facebook saying she was portrayed in an “unfair light” on Fish Fight.

BBC feels the heat

In a climbdown, BBC has admitted getting its facts wrong in its flagship TV series Africa. In the episode broadcast on February 6, iconic presenter David Attenbourg told viewers: “Some parts of the continent have become 3.5°C hotter in the past 20 years.” BBC has since admitted “that is disputable” and has re-edited the episode.

Pause for polls

Kenya’s high court has ordered that the date for switch off of the analogue TV signal be delayed, preferably until after the March poll. The court believes an immediate move to digital would be unfair to those keen to follow the polls on TV.

His master’s voice

Nearly three years after it came to power promising to uphold press freedom, Trinidad and Tobago’s government is under fire for demanding free airtime from broadcasters. Under a licensing agreement between radio and TV broadcasters and the telecommunications authority, the government may use 14 hours of airtime weekly to “reasonably declare any matter or event to be of public interest and require the concessionaire to broadcast”. But the clause was not invoked, until now.

News Snippets

>> Children who watch a lot of TV between the ages of two and four years could risk larger waistlines by age 10. Every extra weekly hour watched may add half a millimetre to their waistline, says a Canadian study that tracked above 1,300 children.

Letters - August 15, 2012

It’s business as usual

Confusing signal

Come July, TV screens in several households in the metros will either go blank, or people will find their energy metres ticking fast. As per a notification issued by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) on April 30, cable TV networks in Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai and Kolkata will have to be digitised by June 30 under the first phase of the digitisation programme. The programme will be applicable across the country by 2014.

Kitchen uprising

When an Egyptian news channel reflecting the aims of the Tahrir Square revolutionaries introduced some light relief to the schedules, it inadvertently created a new star more popular than the news coverage, reports the BBC.

A bird gets noticed

In the last week of March, TV studios in Guwahati displayed a concern for a bird that does not figure on priority list of ornithologists: the Common Indian Crow. According to journalist Teresa Rahman, “Politicians of all hues and political analysts argued whether the word ‘crow’ was unparliamentary”.