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Adam Boulton
Adam Boulton (born 15 February 1959 in Reading, Berkshire) is political editor of the British television channel Sky News, a post he has held since being asked to establish the politics team for the launch of the channel in 1989.
http://wn.com/Adam_Boulton -
Anna Botting
Anna Elizabeth Botting (born 4 May 1967 in Surrey, England, United Kingdom) is a news anchor with Sky News, a broadcasting network based in the United Kingdom. She currently presents Sky News at Ten, Sky News at Eleven and Sky Midnight News from Monday to Thursday. Prior to the channel's rescheduling in July 2006, Botting presented The Sky Report, and from this time, until February 2007, presented Sky News from 6pm until 8pm alongside Jeremy Thompson.
http://wn.com/Anna_Botting -
Beijing
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http://wn.com/Beijing -
Carla Bruni
Carla Bruni-Sarkozy (born Carla Gilberta Bruni Tedeschi, 23 December 1967) is an Italian-born French songwriter, singer, and former model. Since February 2008, she has been married to the President of the French Republic, Nicolas Sarkozy.
http://wn.com/Carla_Bruni -
Colin Brazier
Colin Brazier is a news presenter for Sky News, who currently presents The Live Desk. Prior to this, he fronted Sky News Today's afternoon shift between 2:00pm and 5:00pm.
http://wn.com/Colin_Brazier -
Dermot Murnaghan
Dermot Murnaghan (born 26 December 1957) is a British journalist and television presenter.
http://wn.com/Dermot_Murnaghan -
Eamonn Holmes
Eamonn Holmes (born 3 December 1959 in Belfast, Northern Ireland) is a Northern Irish journalist and broadcaster. He is known for his work on UK and Irish television, notably presenting GMTV and This Morning.
http://wn.com/Eamonn_Holmes -
James Rubin
James Philip "Jamie" Rubin (born 1960 in New York City) is a former diplomat and journalist. He is currently an adjunct professor at Columbia University's School of International and Public Affairs and an informal foreign policy advisor to U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and President Barack Obama. Having served in the State Department during the administration of President Bill Clinton, he became a Sky News television news journalist and commentator. He is married to former CNN chief international correspondent and current anchor of ABC's This Week Christiane Amanpour.
http://wn.com/James_Rubin -
Jeremy Thompson
Jeremy Gordon Thompson (born 1950) is a presenter on Sky News, regularly presenting Live at Five weeknights at 5pm.
http://wn.com/Jeremy_Thompson -
Julie Etchingham
Julie Etchingham (born 1969 in Leicester, England) is an English television newsreader and journalist. She is currently co-presenter of ITV News at Ten and is the presenter of the current affairs programme Tonight, replacing Sir Trevor McDonald.
http://wn.com/Julie_Etchingham -
Kay Burley
Kay Burley (born 17 December 1960) is an English television newsreader, presenter and journalist. She currently anchors the Afternoon Live programme on the Sky News station.
http://wn.com/Kay_Burley -
Kelvin MacKenzie
Kelvin Calder MacKenzie (born 22 October 1946, South London) is an English media executive and former newspaper editor. He is best remembered for being editor of The Sun newspaper between 1981 and 1994, an era in which the paper was firmly established as Britain's best selling tabloid. His period as Sun editor was marked by high controversy – MacKenzie is remembered as the man responsible for the paper's "Gotcha" headline after the sinking of the Argentinian light cruiser General Belgrano during the Falklands War, as well as its notorious coverage of the Hillsborough disaster which was dismissed as "entirely inaccurate" by both the Press Council and the official government inquiry into the tragedy. Throughout much of his career, MacKenzie has been an associate of international media magnate Rupert Murdoch.
http://wn.com/Kelvin_MacKenzie -
Louise Woodward
http://wn.com/Louise_Woodward -
Martin Stanford
Martin Stanford is a news anchor at Sky News who currently presents SkyNews.Com. Stanford had his own interactive show on the channel, Sky News with Martin Stanford from July 2006 to February 2007. Sky News began the show Technology Unplugged with Martin Stanford in December 2009.
http://wn.com/Martin_Stanford -
Michael Jackson
Michael Joseph Jackson (August 29, 1958 – June 25, 2009) was an American recording artist, entertainer, and philanthropist. Referred to as the King of Pop, Jackson is recognized as the most successful entertainer of all time by Guinness World Records. His contribution to music, dance and fashion, along with a much-publicized personal life, made him a global figure in popular culture for over four decades. The eighth child of the Jackson family, he debuted on the professional music scene along with his brothers as a member of The Jackson 5 in the mid-1960s, and began his solo career in 1971.
http://wn.com/Michael_Jackson -
OJ Simpson
http://wn.com/OJ_Simpson -
Peter Horrocks
Peter Horrocks (born 1959) is Director of BBC World Service. He was educated at King's College School in Wimbledon and at Christ's College, Cambridge.
http://wn.com/Peter_Horrocks -
Rupert Murdoch
Keith Rupert Murdoch, AC, KSG (; born 11 March 1931) is an Australian-American media magnate and the founder, chairman, and chief executive officer of .
http://wn.com/Rupert_Murdoch -
Sir Richard Branson
http://wn.com/Sir_Richard_Branson -
Soham murders
The Soham murders was a high profile murder case in August 2002 of two ten-year-old girls in Soham, Cambridgeshire, England. The victims were Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman. The convicted killer was a local school caretaker, Ian Huntley.
http://wn.com/Soham_murders
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Astra 1L
http://wn.com/Astra_1L -
Astra 28.2°E
Astra 28.2°E is the name for the group of communications satellites co-located at the 28.2° East position in the Clarke Belt that are owned and operated by SES Astra, a subsidiary of SES based in Betzdorf, Luxembourg. It is one of the major TV satellite positions serving Europe (the others being at 19.2° East, 13° East, 23.5° East, and 5° East).
http://wn.com/Astra_282°E -
Auckland
The Auckland metropolitan area (commonly ), in the North Island of New Zealand, is the largest and most populous urban area in the country with a population approaching 1.4 million residents, percent of the country's population. Demographic trends indicate that it will continue to grow faster than the rest of the country. Increasingly cosmopolitan, Auckland also has the largest Polynesian population of any city in the world, and has seen many people of Asian ethnicity move there in the last two decades. In Māori Auckland's name is Tāmaki-makau-rau, or the transliterated version of Auckland, Ākarana.
http://wn.com/Auckland -
Beijing
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http://wn.com/Beijing -
Belfast
Belfast () is the capital of and the largest city in Northern Ireland. It is the seat of devolved government and legislative Northern Ireland Assembly. It is the largest urban area in Northern Ireland, the second-largest city in Ireland and the 15th-largest city in the United Kingdom. It is the main settlement in the province of Ulster. The city of Belfast has a population of 267,500 and lies at the heart of the Belfast urban area, which has a population of 483,418. The Belfast metropolitan area has a total population of 579,276. Belfast is also the 100th-largest urban zone in the EU. Belfast was granted city status in 1888.
http://wn.com/Belfast -
Belgium
Belgium (, ), officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a state in Western Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts the EU's headquarters, as well as those of several other major international organizations such as NATO. Belgium covers an area of , and it has a population of about 10.8 million people.
http://wn.com/Belgium -
Birmingham
Birmingham ( , locally ) is a city and metropolitan borough in the West Midlands county of England. It is the most populous British city outside London with a population of 1,028,700 (2009 estimate), and lies at the heart of the West Midlands conurbation, the United Kingdom's second most populous Urban Area with a population of 2,284,093 (2001 census). Birmingham's metropolitan area, which includes surrounding towns to which it is closely tied through commuting, is also the United Kingdom's second most populous with a population of 3,683,000.
http://wn.com/Birmingham -
Boston
Boston (pronounced ) is the capital and largest city in Massachusetts, and is one of the oldest cities in the United States. The largest city in New England, Boston is regarded as the unofficial "Capital of New England" for its economic and cultural impact on the entire New England region. Boston city proper had a 2009 estimated population of 645,169, making it the twentieth largest in the country. Boston is also the anchor of a substantially larger metropolitan area called Greater Boston, home to 4.5 million people and the tenth-largest metropolitan area in the country. Greater Boston as a commuting region includes six Massachusetts counties, Essex, Middlesex, Norfolk, Suffolk, Plymouth, and Worcester, all of Rhode Island and parts of New Hampshire; it is home to 7.5 million people, making it the fifth-largest Combined Statistical Area in the United States.
http://wn.com/Boston -
Brisbane
Brisbane () is the capital and most populous city in the Australian state of Queensland and the third most populous city in Australia. Brisbane's metropolitan area has an approximate population of 2 million. A resident of Brisbane is commonly known as a "Brisbanite".
http://wn.com/Brisbane -
Bristol
Bristol () is a city, unitary authority area and ceremonial county in South West England, with an estimated population of 433,100 for the unitary authority in 2009, and a surrounding Larger Urban Zone (LUZ) with an estimated 1,006,600 residents, it is England's sixth, and the United Kingdom's eighth most populous city, one of the group of English Core Cities and the most populous city in South West England.
http://wn.com/Bristol -
Brussels
Brussels (, pronounced ; , pronounced ), officially the Brussels Region or Brussels-Capital Region (, Dutch: ), is the de facto capital city of the European Union (EU) and the largest urban area in Belgium. It comprises 19 municipalities, including the City of Brussels proper, which is the constitutional capital of Belgium, the seat of the French Community of Belgium and of the Flemish Community.
http://wn.com/Brussels -
Cheshire
Cheshire ( ); also known, archaically, as the County of Chester) is a ceremonial county and former principality in North West England. The traditional county town is the city of Chester, although Cheshire's largest town is Warrington. Other major towns include Congleton, Crewe, Ellesmere Port, Widnes, Runcorn, Macclesfield, Winsford, Northwich, and Wilmslow. The county is bordered by Merseyside and Greater Manchester to the north, Derbyshire to the east, Staffordshire and Shropshire to the south, and Flintshire and Wrexham in Wales to the west.
http://wn.com/Cheshire -
Chicago
Chicago ( or ) is the largest city in the state of Illinois. With over 2.8 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous city in the country. Its metropolitan area, commonly named "Chicagoland," is the 26th most populous in the world, home to an estimated 9.7 million people spread across the U.S. states of Illinois, Wisconsin, and Indiana. Chicago is the county seat of Cook County.
http://wn.com/Chicago -
Dubai
Dubai ( ; ) is one of the seven emirates of the United Arab Emirates (UAE). It is located south of the Persian Gulf on the Arabian Peninsula and has the largest population with the second-largest land territory by area of all the emirates, after Abu Dhabi. Dubai and Abu Dhabi are the only two emirates to have veto power over critical matters of national importance in the country's legislature.
http://wn.com/Dubai -
European Commission
The European Commission is the executive body of the European Union. The body is responsible for proposing legislation, implementing decisions, upholding the Union's treaties and the general day-to-day running of the Union.
http://wn.com/European_Commission -
Glasgow
Glasgow ( (); (pronounced )) is the largest city in Scotland and third most populous in the United Kingdom. The city is situated on the River Clyde in the country's west central lowlands. A person from Glasgow is known as a Glaswegian, which is also the name of the local dialect.
http://wn.com/Glasgow -
Hampstead
Hampstead is an area of London, England, located north-west of Charing Cross. It is located in Inner London. It is part of the London Borough of Camden. It is known for its intellectual, liberal, artistic, musical and literary associations and for the large and hilly parkland Hampstead Heath. It is also home to some of the most expensive housing in the London area, or indeed anywhere in the world, with large houses selling for up to £50m (2008). The village of Hampstead has more millionaires within its boundaries than any other area of the United Kingdom.
http://wn.com/Hampstead -
Hot Bird
Hot Bird is the name of a popular family of satellites operated by Eutelsat, located at 13°E over the Equator (orbital position) and with a transmitting footprint over Europe, North Africa and the Middle East.
http://wn.com/Hot_Bird -
Intelsat
Intelsat, Ltd. is a communications satellite services provider. Originally formed as International Telecommunications Satellite Organization (INTELSAT), it was an intergovernmental consortium owning and managing a constellation of communications satellites providing international broadcast services. As of 2007, Intelsat owns and operates a fleet of 51 communications satellites.
http://wn.com/Intelsat -
Isleworth
Isleworth is a small town of Saxon origin sited within the London Borough of Hounslow in west London, England. It lies immediately east of the town of Hounslow and west of the River Thames and its tributary the River Crane. Isleworth's original area of settlement, alongside the Thames, is known as 'Old Isleworth'. The north-west corner of the town, bordering on Osterley to the north and Lampton to the west, is known as 'Spring Grove'.
http://wn.com/Isleworth -
Israel
Israel (, ''Yisrā'el; , Isrā'īl), officially the State of Israel (Hebrew: , Medīnat Yisrā'el; , Dawlat Isrā'īl''), is a parliamentary republic in the Middle East located on the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea. It borders Lebanon in the north, Syria in the northeast, Jordan and the West Bank in the east, Egypt and Gaza on the southwest, and contains geographically diverse features within its relatively small area. Israel is the world's only predominantly Jewish state, and is defined as A Jewish and Democratic State by the Israeli government.
http://wn.com/Israel -
Italy
Italy (; ), officially the Italian Republic (), is a country located in south-central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and Slovenia along the Alps. To the south it consists of the entirety of the Italian Peninsula, Sicily, Sardinia — the two largest islands in the Mediterranean Sea — and many other smaller islands. The independent states of San Marino and the Vatican City are enclaves within Italy, whilst Campione d'Italia is an Italian exclave in Switzerland. The territory of Italy covers some and is influenced by a temperate seasonal climate. With 60.4 million inhabitants, it is the sixth most populous country in Europe, and the twenty-third most populous in the world.
http://wn.com/Italy -
Jerusalem
Jerusalem ( , ; Arabic: , al-Quds Sharif, "The Holy Sanctuary") is the capital of Israel, though not internationally recognized as such. If the area and population of East Jerusalem is included, it is Israel's largest city in both population and area, with a population of 763,800 residents over an area of . Located in the Judean Mountains, between the Mediterranean Sea and the northern edge of the Dead Sea, modern Jerusalem has grown far beyond the boundaries of the Old City.
http://wn.com/Jerusalem -
London
London () is the capital of England and the United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its founding by the Romans, who called it Londinium. London's core, the ancient City of London, largely retains its square-mile mediaeval boundaries. Since at least the 19th century, the name London has also referred to the metropolis developed around this core. The bulk of this conurbation forms the London region and the Greater London administrative area, governed by the elected Mayor of London and the London Assembly.
http://wn.com/London -
Los Angeles
Los Angeles ( ; , Spanish for "The Angels") is the second most populous city in the United States, the most populous city in the state of California and the western United States, with a population of 3.83 million within its administrative limits on a land area of . The urban area of Los Angeles extends beyond the administrative city limits with a population of over 14.8 million and it is the 14th largest urban area in the world, affording it megacity status. The metropolitan statistical area (MSA) is home to nearly 12.9 million residents while the broader Los Angeles-Long Beach-Riverside combined statistical area (CSA) contains nearly 17.8 million people. Los Angeles is also the seat of Los Angeles County, the most populated and one of the most multicultural counties in the United States. The city's inhabitants are referred to as "Angelenos" ().
http://wn.com/Los_Angeles -
Manchester
Manchester () is a city and metropolitan borough of Greater Manchester, England. In 2009, the population of the city was estimated to be 483,800, making it the seventh-most populous local authority district in England. Manchester lies within one of the UK's largest metropolitan areas; the metropolitan county of Greater Manchester had an estimated population of 2,600,100, the Greater Manchester Urban Area a population of 2,240,230, and the Larger Urban Zone around Manchester, the second-most-populous in the UK, had an estimated population in the 2004 Urban Audit of 2,539,100. The demonym of Manchester is Mancunian.
http://wn.com/Manchester -
Melbourne
Melbourne (, locally also ) is the capital and most populous city in the state of Victoria, and the second most populous city in Australia. The Melbourne City Centre (also known as the "Central Business District" or "CBD") is the hub of the greater geographical area (or "metropolitan area") and the Census statistical division—of which "Melbourne" is the common name. As of June 2009, the greater geographical area had an approximate population of 4.00 million. Inhabitants of Melbourne are called Melburnians.
http://wn.com/Melbourne -
Milan
Milan (, ; Western Lombard: Milan, ) is a city in Italy and the capital of the region of Lombardy and of the province of Milan. The city proper has a population of about 1,310,000, while the urban area is the first in Italy and the fifth largest in the European Union with a population of 4,345,000 over an area of . The Milan metropolitan area, by far the largest in Italy, is estimated by the OECD to have a population of 7,400,000.
http://wn.com/Milan -
Moscow
Moscow ( or ; ; see also ) is the capital, the most populous city, and the most populous federal subject of Russia. The city is a major political, economic, cultural, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the world, a global city. Moscow is the most populous city on the continent of Europe and the seventh largest city proper in the world, a megacity. The population of Moscow (as of 1 January 2010) is 10,563,038.
http://wn.com/Moscow -
New Delhi
New Delhi (, naī dillī) is the capital city of India. It serves as the centre of the Government of India and the Government of the National Capital Territory of Delhi.
http://wn.com/New_Delhi -
Nilesat
Nilesat is an Egyptian company, and the name of a series of Egyptian communications satellites. It was established in 1996 with the purpose of operating Egyptian satellites and their associated ground control station and uplinking facilities. The company is owned by The Egyptian Radio & Television Union with a 40 per cent share, the Arab Organization for Industrialization with a 10 per cent share, the Egyptian Company for Investment Projects with a 9 per cent share and the rest is owned by the general public, Egyptian financial institutions and other investors. The company has two ground stations, a primary one in 6th of October City and a secondary ground station in Alexandria. The two ground stations were built by EADS Astrium. Nilesat operates multiple geosynchronous communications satellites all of which are stationed at 7 degrees West. Nilesat includes as of January 18 2008 415 video channels, 300 of which are free-to-air.
http://wn.com/Nilesat -
Ofcom
The Office of Communications () or, as it is more often known, Ofcom, is the independent telecommunications regulator and competition authority for the communication industries in the United Kingdom. Ofcom was initially established in the enabling device, the Office of Communications Act 2002, but received its full authority from the Communications Act 2003. At this point, technical standards regulation seems to have disappeared from the regulatory landscape.
http://wn.com/Ofcom -
Orbit Showtime
Orbit Showtime Network (OSN) is the dominant subscription television service in the Middle East and North Africa. It is a joint venture between the Kuwait-based KIPCO (50% stake) and Saudi Arabia-based Mawarid Holding (50% stake), the company was founded through a merger between Orbit Communications Company and Showtime Arabia. The company has its headquarters at Dubai Media City in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. Orbit Showtime Network broadcasts in Arabic, English, and Filipino.
http://wn.com/Orbit_Showtime -
Osterley
Osterley is a district in the London Borough of Hounslow in west London. It is situated approximately west south-west of Charing Cross.
http://wn.com/Osterley -
Rome
Rome (; , ; ) is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . In 2006 the population of the metropolitan area was estimated by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development to have a population of 3.7 million.
http://wn.com/Rome -
Singapore
{{Infobox Country
http://wn.com/Singapore -
Sydney
Sydney () is the largest and most populous city in Australia and the state capital of New South Wales. Sydney is located on Australia's south-east coast of the Tasman Sea. With an approximate population of 4.5 million in the Sydney metropolitan area the city is the largest in Oceania. Inhabitants of Sydney are called Sydneysiders, comprising a cosmopolitan and international population of people from numerous places around the world.
http://wn.com/Sydney -
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (commonly known as the United Kingdom, the UK, or Britain) is a country and sovereign state located off the northwestern coast of continental Europe. It is an island nation, spanning an archipelago including Great Britain, the northeastern part of the island of Ireland, and many smaller islands. Northern Ireland is the only part of the UK with a land border with another sovereign state, sharing it with the Republic of Ireland. Apart from this land border, the UK is surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean, the North Sea, the English Channel and the Irish Sea. Great Britain is linked to continental Europe by the Channel Tunnel.
http://wn.com/United_Kingdom -
Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C. (), formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, the District, or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States, founded on July 16, 1790. Article One of the United States Constitution provides for a federal district, distinct from the states, to serve as the permanent national capital. The City of Washington was originally a separate municipality within the federal territory until an act of Congress in 1871 established a single, unified municipal government for the whole District. It is for this reason that the city, while legally named the District of Columbia, is known as Washington, D.C. The city shares its name with the U.S. state of Washington, which is located on the country's Pacific coast.
http://wn.com/Washington_DC -
Westminster
Westminster is an area of Central London, within the City of Westminster, England. It lies on the north bank of the River Thames, southwest of the City of London and southwest of Charing Cross. It has a large concentration of London's historic and prestigious landmarks and visitor attractions, including Buckingham Palace and Westminster Abbey.
http://wn.com/Westminster
- 20/20
- 20th Century Fox
- 30 St Mary Axe
- 4 Digital Group
- 576i
- Adam Boulton
- Afternoon Live
- Al Jazeera English
- Anna Botting
- Asian Tsunami
- Astra 1A
- Astra 1L
- Astra 28.2°E
- Astra 2B
- Auckland
- audio channel
- BAFTA
- BBC
- BBC News
- Beijing
- Belfast
- Belgium
- Birmingham
- blogs
- Boston
- Boulton & Co
- breaking news
- Brisbane
- Bristol
- Bruce Hammal
- Brussels
- Canal Digital
- CanalSat
- Carla Bruni
- CBS News
- Channel 4
- Channel Five
- Cheshire
- Chicago
- Chrysalis Group
- CNN
- Colin Brazier
- Com Hem
- Crisis Command
- Cyfra+
- DAB ensemble
- Dead Set (TV series)
- Dermot Murnaghan
- DStv
- Dubai
- Eamonn Holmes
- European Commission
- European Union
- Five News
- flash video
- Fox Business Network
- Fox News Channel
- Freebox
- Freeview (UK)
- Glasgow
- Global Radio
- Hampstead
- Hot (Israel)
- Hot Bird
- In the Loop (film)
- Indovision
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- Iraq War
- Isleworth
- Israel
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- ITN
- James Rubin
- Janson Design Group
- Jeff Randall Live
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- Jerusalem
- Johnny English
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- Kabel Deutschland
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- London
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- Lunchtime Live
- Magnet Entertainment
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- Martin Stanford
- MediaNet
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- messageboards
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- Milan
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- Murnaghan (Sky News)
- Naxoo
- New Delhi
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- News broadcasting
- News Corporation
- Nilesat
- Nine Network
- now TV
- NTV Russia
- Ofcom
- OJ Simpson
- Orbit Showtime
- Osterley
- Peter Horrocks
- Pick TV
- radio station
- Rome
- Rupert Murdoch
- satellite television
- SDTV
- second
- Shaun of the Dead
- Singapore
- Sir Richard Branson
- Sky (UK & Ireland)
- Sky Anytime
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- Sydney
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- The Observer
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- The Sun (newspaper)
- The Thick of It
- TV Cabo Portugal
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Christmas Dog Loose In Newsroom
A dog is for life, not just for Christmas. Carlton Spears from Battersea Dogs home with a very special dog called Ed.
http://wn.com/Christmas_Dog_Loose_In_Newsroom
Government Gives High Speed Rail Link The Green Light
It's being hailed as the ambitious new project which will finally make Britain's rail network fit for the 21st century -- and provide a much needed boost to the economy . But critics say the Government's plans for a new High Speed rail link are flawed, citing evironmental damage, a massive 32-billion-pound price tag, and the length of time -- 15 years -- it will take to build. Sky's Alistair Bunkall reports.
http://wn.com/Government_Gives_High_Speed_Rail_Link_The_Green_Light
George Galloway Savages SKY NEWS!
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 9:20
- Published: 06 Aug 2006
- Uploaded: 12 Jan 2012
- Author: djandiiiviper
George Galloway on his usual warpath, this time about the Israeli / Palestine Battle. Sky News is the current target.
http://wn.com/George_Galloway_Savages_SKY_NEWS!
Sky News - Interview with Rupert Murdoch
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 37:13
- Published: 07 Nov 2009
- Uploaded: 10 Jan 2012
- Author: SkyNewsAustralia
Sky News political editor David Speers talks to News Corporation chairman and CEO Rupert Murdoch about paywalls, politics, and more.
http://wn.com/Sky_News__Interview_with_Rupert_Murdoch
Adam Boulton (Sky News) v Alastair Campbell (Labour) - FIGHT FIGHT FIGHT!
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 6:20
- Published: 10 May 2010
- Uploaded: 11 Jan 2012
- Author: craigbrass
Adam Boulton stops short of fighting Alastair Campbell live on Sky News. Have I Got News for You material! 10th May ~5:45PM
http://wn.com/Adam_Boulton_Sky_News_v_Alastair_Campbell_Labour__FIGHT_FIGHT_FIGHT!
#SKY2011 - Year in Review - Politics
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 12:07
- Published: 27 Dec 2011
- Uploaded: 30 Dec 2011
- Author: SkyNewsAustralia
Part 1/2: Sky News political editor David Speers takes a look at the year in politics.
http://wn.com/#SKY2011__Year_in_Review__Politics
Clapham Junction Looting - SKY NEWS
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 2:03
- Published: 08 Aug 2011
- Uploaded: 11 Jan 2012
- Author: MarkStoneSkyNews
Looters steal in quantity from numerous shops in Clapham Junction, South London. I ask some of them: "Why?" Filmed on my phone at 10pm on 8th Aug 2011. COPYRIGHT: SKY NEWS (www.skynews.com)
http://wn.com/Clapham_Junction_Looting__SKY_NEWS
Tottenham Riots, London | 6th August 2011 | Sky News
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 6:00
- Published: 07 Aug 2011
- Uploaded: 10 Jan 2012
- Author: PeaceNikUK
Sky News reports live on the anti-police riots taking place in Tottenham, North London (UK). The riots consisting of around 200-300 people began after a peaceful protest of around 150 individuals gathered outside the police station earlier in the day to protest at the shooting dead on Thursday night (4th August, 2011) of 29-year-old Mark Duggan, during a Trident operation in Tottenham Hale.
http://wn.com/Tottenham_Riots,_London_|_6th_August_2011_|_Sky_News
Harry Cole vs Lee Jasper on Diane Abbott's 'racist' Twitter tweet (05Jan12)
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 8:29
- Published: 05 Jan 2012
- Uploaded: 12 Jan 2012
- Author: liarpoliticians
Blogger HarryCole for Guido Fawkes website (order-order.com) versus Lee Jasper, debating the 'racist' comment Labour MP Diane Abbott posted on Twitter. Jasper comes out very badly from this debate. This video has been upscaled from 576i to 720p. Recorded from Sky News, 05 January 2012.
http://wn.com/Harry_Cole_vs_Lee_Jasper_on_Diane_Abbott's_'racist'_Twitter_tweet_05Jan12
London Violence: Second Night Of 'Copycat' Looting
news.sky.com There has been a second night of violence in parts of London with police blaming the disorder on small groups of copycat criminals. There was more looting with at least 100 arrests. The latest disorder follows the riots on Saturday night in Tottenham. On Sunday, riot police and dog handlers were called to Enfield after a group of youths caused damage to shops. Disorder then spread to Brixton in the early hours, where some shops were also attacked and looted. There was violence in other areas including Walthamstow Central, Waltham Forest and Islington.
http://wn.com/London_Violence_Second_Night_Of_'Copycat'_Looting
Ian Neale interviewed on Sky News after meeting Snoop Dogg
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 4:08
- Published: 09 Oct 2011
- Uploaded: 01 Jan 2012
- Author: MrWinstonBulldog
Ian Neale interviewed on Sky News after meeting Snoop Dogg for a "smoke" backstage at his welsh gig. Ian, from Cardiff grew the world's biggest swede vegetable and Snoop wanted some help with his own home grown !!!!!
http://wn.com/Ian_Neale_interviewed_on_Sky_News_after_meeting_Snoop_Dogg
Robert Pattinson on sky news
Robert Pattinson on sky news at the UK Breaking Dawn Premiere. Sorry it's so out of focus!
http://wn.com/Robert_Pattinson_on_sky_news
Dr Wendy Piatt (Director General of the Russell Group) on Sky News Sunrise 12 July 2011
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 3:22
- Published: 12 Jul 2011
- Uploaded: 29 Oct 2011
- Author: russellgroupuk
Dr Wendy Piatt, Director General, The Russell Group of Universities, interviewed on Sky News Sunrise about university funding 12 July 2011
http://wn.com/Dr_Wendy_Piatt_Director_General_of_the_Russell_Group_on_Sky_News_Sunrise_12_July_2011
M5 Crash Footage - Sky News Coverage 04/11/2011 BREAKING NEWS PILE-UP
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 5:14
- Published: 04 Nov 2011
- Uploaded: 09 Jan 2012
- Author: HighlightsMusic1
Terrible Crash and probably many dead. M5 Crash Footage deaths dead injuries injury lost their lives junction 25 23 26 Sky News Coverage
http://wn.com/M5_Crash_Footage__Sky_News_Coverage_04/11/2011_BREAKING_NEWS_PILE-UP
Gaddafi Killed, NTC Tells Sky News
Ousted Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi has been killed and his body is being taken to the city of Misratah, National Transition Council spokesman Abdullah Berrassali told Sky News. "Gaddafi is dead, absolutely dead. He was shot in both legs and in the head," he said. There have been conflicting reports about how the alleged capture happened.
http://wn.com/Gaddafi_Killed,_NTC_Tells_Sky_News
Joel and Cap'n Pat on Sky News
Joel and Pat talk about their 'David and Goliath' struggle against Coca Cola . Did they steal their song and and video?
http://wn.com/Joel_and_Cap'n_Pat_on_Sky_News
Sky News report on racist farm murders in South Africa
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 3:06
- Published: 19 Jul 2006
- Uploaded: 15 Dec 2011
- Author: rudiprinsloo
www.farmmurders.com http Since 1994 close to two thousand farmers have been murdered in tens of thousands of farm attacks in South Africa, many brutally tortured and/or raped, often in front of family members also taken hostage. The South African government calls it crime but often nothing is stolen. These brutal attacks are carried out by well armed organised (often very young) blacks against defenceless white farmers and their families and not even infants or the elderly are spared. Zimbabwe pales in comparison. Where is the world-wide outcry? Mandela, wipe that smile off your face.
http://wn.com/Sky_News_report_on_racist_farm_murders_in_South_Africa
UKIP Nigel Farage - Sky News Dec 2011
UK Independence Party Leader Nigel Farage is interviewed by Sky news Adam Boulton on a Europe special
http://wn.com/UKIP_Nigel_Farage__Sky_News_Dec_2011
UK Riots 2011: Sheldon Thomas (Target Against Gangs) / Gavin McKenna (Ex-Gang Member)
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 14:20
- Published: 10 Aug 2011
- Uploaded: 11 Jan 2012
- Author: BhamUrbanNewsUK
This piece first broadcast on 10 Aug 2011. Televised on UK's satellite television Sky News.
http://wn.com/UK_Riots_2011_Sheldon_Thomas_Target_Against_Gangs_/_Gavin_McKenna_Ex-Gang_Member
Adam Boulton from Sky News comparing the OccupyLSX protesters to the Nazi occupation of France.
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 3:40
- Published: 25 Oct 2011
- Uploaded: 20 Dec 2011
- Author: vennytyson
Adam Boulton from Sky News comparing the OccupyLSX protesters to the Nazi occupation of France.
http://wn.com/Adam_Boulton_from_Sky_News_comparing_the_OccupyLSX_protesters_to_the_Nazi_occupation_of_France
Sky News: Moving Picture Highlights Of 2011
Sky News takes a look back at 2011, one of the most dramatic years for news in decades.
http://wn.com/Sky_News_Moving_Picture_Highlights_Of_2011
Rebel Fighter Bags Gaddafi's Hat
One of the rebel fighters managed to get some of the Gaddafi's most prized possessions.
http://wn.com/Rebel_Fighter_Bags_Gaddafi's_Hat
Masked Looter Live On Sky News - Please Do Not Swear
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 2:33
- Published: 09 Aug 2011
- Uploaded: 09 Jan 2012
- Author: MaxFarquar
maxfarquar.com http Live interview on the streets of Manchester with what appears to be one of the recreational rioters or, as I prefer to call them, mindless looting morons. More ... wp.me
http://wn.com/Masked_Looter_Live_On_Sky_News__Please_Do_Not_Swear
![All Zeros involved in the attack on Pearl Harbor were light-coloured (JN grey-green) early series A6M2 Model 21s.[14]](http://web.archive.org./web/20120114040458/http://cdn5.wn.com/pd/6d/40/722f86bf591a0cdbdaa7bfea31ad_medium.jpg "All Zeros involved in the attack on Pearl Harbor were light-coloured (JN grey-green) early series A6M2 Model 21s.[14]")
![Omid Djalili (pronounced /əˈmiːd dʒəˈlɪli/; Persian: امید جلیلی; born 30 September 1965)[1] is a British stand-up comedian and actor.](http://web.archive.org./web/20120114040458/http://cdn5.wn.com/pd/ba/e9/b1abd63a9212a83d0a23a5e1cc71_medium.jpg "Omid Djalili (pronounced /əˈmiːd dʒəˈlɪli/; Persian: امید جلیلی; born 30 September 1965)[1] is a British stand-up comedian and actor.")
photo: Creative Commons / Matt Yohe (talk)
12 Jan 2012
SHARE AND DISCUSSTweetApple's visionary co-founder Steve Jobs has been immortalised again, this time in a new comic book that documents his life. WASHINGTON: Apple's visionary co-founder Steve Jobs...
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photo: Creative Commons / Tom Raftery
11 Jan 2012
Al Gore's Current TV channel is under the threat of closure in the UK after Sky axed the network from its pay-TV platform. The satellite broadcaster, part-owned by Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation,...
size: 7.0Kb
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photo: Public Domain / BotMultichillT
06 Jan 2012
US employers across the economy are hiring again Unemployment in the US - the world's largest economy - has fallen to its lowest level in nearly three years. The jobless rate has dropped to 8.5% in...
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| name | Sky News |
|---|---|
| logofile | Sky_News.svg |
| logosize | 250px |
| slogan | First for breaking news |
| launch | 5 February 1989 |
| share | 0.8% |
| share as of | July 2011 |
| share source | BARB |
| owner | British Sky Broadcasting |
| Picture format | 576i (SDTV 16:9)1080i (HDTV)International 576i (SDTV 16:9) |
| sister names | Challenge,Pick TV,Sky1,Sky2,Sky Arts,Sky Atlantic,Sky Living,Sky Livingit,Sky Living Loves,Sky Movies,Sky Movies Box Office,Sky Sports,Sky Sports News |
| web | Official Website Live Stream (UK & Ireland only) |
| terr serv 1 | Freeview |
| terr chan 1 | Channel 82 |
| sat serv 1 | Sky |
| sat chan 1 | Channel 501 (SD/HD) |
| sat serv 2 | SKY Italia (Italy) |
| sat chan 2 | Channel 512 (SD) Channel 517 (HD) |
| sat serv 3 | Cyfra+ |
| sat chan 3 | Channel 677 |
| sat serv 4 | Astra 1L |
| sat chan 4 | 11597 V / 22000 / 5/6 |
| sat serv 5 | Astra 2B |
| sat chan 5 | 12207 V / 27500 / 2/3 |
| sat serv 6 | DStv |
| sat chan 6 | 402 |
| sat serv 7 | Thor 5 (Canal Digital) |
| sat chan 7 | 11862 H / 28000 / 7/8 |
| sat serv 8 | Yes (Israel) |
| sat chan 8 | Channel 103 |
| sat serv 9 | TV Vlaanderen Digitaal (Belgium) |
| sat chan 9 | Channel 54 |
| sat serv 10 | ZON TVCabo |
| sat chan 10 | Channel 205 |
| sat serv 11 | Orbit Showtime |
| sat chan 11 | Channel 47 |
| sat serv 12 | CanalSat(France) |
| sat chan 12 | Channel 362 |
| sat serv 13 | MEO (Portugal)| |
| sat chan 13 | Channel 202 |
| sat serv 14 | Indovision (Indonesia)| |
| sat chan 14 | Channel 336 |
| sat serv 15 | Astro (Malaysia)| |
| sat chan 15 | Channel 514 (SD) Channel 534 (HD) |
| cable serv 1 | Virgin Media (UK) |
| cable chan 1 | Channel 602 |
| cable serv 2 | StarHub TV (Singapore) |
| cable chan 2 | Channel 703 |
| cable serv 3 | Com Hem (Sweden) |
| cable chan 3 | Channel 126 |
| cable serv 4 | UPC Telemach, others (Slovenia) |
| cable chan 4 | Channel 25 |
| cable serv 5 | UPC Ireland (Ireland) |
| cable chan 5 | Channel 202 |
| cable serv 6 | KDG (Germany) |
| cable chan 6 | Channel 839 |
| cable serv 7 | HOT (Israel) |
| cable chan 7 | Channel 68 |
| cable serv 8 | ZON TVCabo (Portugal) |
| cable chan 8 | Channel 205 |
| cable serv 9 | Magnet Entertainment (Ireland) |
| cable chan 9 | Channel 202 |
| cable serv 10 | Naxoo (Switzerland) |
| cable chan 10 | Channel 61 |
| cable serv 11 | MediaNet (Maldives) |
| cable chan 11 | Channel 111 |
| cable serv 12 | Smallworld Cable (United Kingdom) |
| cable chan 12 | Channel 501 |
| adsl serv 1 | now TV Hong-Kong |
| adsl chan 1 | Channel 323 |
| adsl serv 2 | TalkTalk TV |
| adsl chan 2 | Channel 505 |
| adsl serv 3 | TrueIPTV (Thailand) |
| adsl chan 3 | Channel 12 |
| adsl serv 4 | Freebox (France) |
| adsl chan 4 | Channel 87 |
| adsl serv 5 | MEO (Portugal) |
| adsl chan 5 | Channel 202 |
| online serv 1 | skynews.com |
| online chan 1 | Live Video Streaming (24/7) |
| online serv 2 | skynews.com |
| online chan 2 | News BulletinsEvents ChannelSky News Simulcast |
| online serv 3 | Jalipo |
| online chan 3 | SubscriptionAvailable only in Europe and United States. |
| online serv 4 | Vingo.tv Alpha |
| online chan 4 | Registration RequiredNarrowband Stream |
| online serv 5 | TVCatchup |
| online chan 5 | Watch live (UK only) |
| online serv 6 | Sky Go |
| online chan 6 | Watch live (UK & Ireland only) |
The service places emphasis on rolling news, including the latest breaking news. Sky News also hosts localised versions of the channel in Australia and in New Zealand, as well as their previously operated version in Ireland. Sky News is also offered in an international version without the British adverts under the name Sky News International available in Europe and Asia.
Based at a news centre in London, Sky News started broadcasting on 5 February 1989 as part of the then four-channel Sky Television service. Sky News provides an hourly news radio service to multiple radio networks in the UK and Ireland. The channel currently has seven UK bases each with their own correspondents, and the channel can also call upon a wide range of resources and global bureaux provided by its parent company News Corporation such as reporters from Fox News Channel and Fox Business Network (its sister news and business channels).
Sky News has built its schedule around the main anchors with appointment to view broadcasts regularly being supplemented by landmark broadcasts. Although most of its programmes feature one main presenter, when major breaking news reaches the channel it has recently started to revert to the old double-headed style with two presenters anchoring. Sky News is known for its innovations in news broadcasting and regularly wins awards for this and also for its broadcasting in general.
Sky News has started to revamp its graphics almost every year, with the latest revamp unveiled on 6 May 2010.
In late December 2008, Sky News began broadcasting from Studio B at Sky News centre, while work on the main newsroom was being carried out. On 4 February 2009 at 6am broadcasting resumed from the revamped newsroom. This coincided with the channel's 20th anniversary on 5 February 2009.
From 30 March 2010, Sky News again began broadcasting from Studio B as the final preparations took place for the launch of Sky News HD. Broadcasting returned to the main newsroom at 9pm on 6 May 2010, for the launch of Sky News HD and the results of the 2010 UK general election.
Overview
Although owned by British Sky Broadcasting, Sky News is partially-owned by Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation, which holds a minority stake in BSkyB. Murdoch said of Sky News in March 1992, when he was the full owner:
The station's headquarters are in Osterley, West London, employing well over 50 on-screen staff (anchors, weather forecasters, correspondents and reporters) and over 600 behind-the-scenes staff. The station has eight of its own bureaux outside the United Kingdom and shares many more with other News Corporation stations.
According to numerous articles published online at the time that Sky Sports News moved to the newly opened Sky Studios, the articles also mentioned that Sky News will soon be moving to the new studios.
Sky also produces a website (Sky News Online) and has a library sales division. Since 2005 Sky News has produced bulletins for Five News on British TV channel Channel 5, after winning the contract to supply the channel's news bulletins held by ITN since the channel's launch in 1997. Following a change in ownership at Channel 5 however, there is some doubt as to how long the contract will continue, as new owner Richard Desmond seeks to make his mark on the channel's strategy.
Spin-off proposal
Jeremy Hunt - the secretary of state for culture, media and sport - announced on 3 March 2011 that under News Corporation's proposal to take full control of BSkyB, Sky News would be "spun off" into a separate company. As part of a series of undertakings, the company's chairman and a majority of the board of directors would be required to be independent, but News Corp would continue to hold a 39.1 per cent stake in the new company. However, that concession was withdrawn in the wake of the News of the World phone hacking affair, allowing the U.K. government to contest the merger on competition grounds, instead of whether News Corp. would be a "fit and proper" owner for BSkyB. Withdrawing the concession was "probably the (lesser) of the bad options" for News Corp., said Louise Cooper, markets analyst for London-based BGC Partners.
History
Establishment and early years
On 8 June 1988, Rupert Murdoch announced to the British Academy of Film and Television Arts that he would provide a new television news service. Sky News started broadcasting at 6pm on 5 February 1989.}}
In the early days the channel operated on a £40 million budget (plus £10 million share of overheads), which led Sam Chisholm to propose to Murdoch the station be closed, but Rupert was "pleased with its achievements ... there were overriding reasons of prestige and politics for keeping it ... the final hurdle of the Broadcasting Bill had still to be overcome and the case for the acceptability of Sky would collapse if suddenly there was no news channel." - former deputy Prime Minister Viscount Whitelaw said to the House of Lords in 1990 that Sky News had "a very high reputation ... I admire it, as do many other people, it will certainly waken up both the BBC and ITN and ensure that they compete with that is a very important news service". The channel has never been run for a profit, and has considered using ITN to supplement the service.
By March 1992 Sky turned from loss to profit, when Murdoch would say Sky News, has quietly, if expensively, become the first building block of what we envision will become the premier worldwide electronic news-gathering network anywhere. Ask anyone in Europe, and particularly the BBC and you will be told that Sky News has added a new and better dimension to television journalism.
Sky News was the only UK 24 hour news channel (aside from CNN International on Astra 1A, BBC World Service Television started in 1991 but has never been broadcast in the UK) until November 1997 when BBC News launched a new 24 hour channel, BBC News 24, now known simply as BBC News. In September 1999 the European Commission ruled against a complaint by Sky News which argued that the publicly funded BBC News 24 was unfair and illegal under EU law. The EC ruled that the television licence fee should be considered state aid (within the meaning of Article 87) and that it was justified due to the public service remit of the BBC and that it did not exceed actual costs of the channel.
Sky News since 2000
In March 2000 Sky News Active was launched, a 24-hour interactive service providing headlines (and other services which ranged from weather, the top story of the day and showbiz) on demand. ''' In March 2004 it was announced that Sky News had won a 5-year contract to supply news bulletins to Channel 5, taking over from ITN in January 2005.On 24 October 2005, Sky News moved to new studios in Isleworth, London, and underwent a major on-screen revamp. The new studio was integrated with the newsroom and boasted the biggest video wall in Britain; it was designed by New York architects Janson Design Group. New music was scored by Adelphoi Music and recorded with a full orchestra at Air Studios, Hampstead, and mastered at Metropolis Studios. New on-screen graphics were''' launched and the channel began broadcasting in Widescreen (16:9) format.
The 2005 relaunch also saw the introduction of a new schedule designed around "appointment to view" programmes rather than continuous rolling news. James Rubin joined to present a new evening programme called World News Tonight, Julie Etchingham presented another new "hard-hitting" evening show called Sky Report, Eamonn Holmes joined to present Sunrise, Kay Burley presented a new programme called Lunchtime Live from 12 to 2pm, and the daytime show Sky News Today saw the introduction of a three-presenter format. However the relaunched schedule was unsuccessful, and from October 2005 the BBC News channel overtook Sky News in the ratings.
In response to the schedule's unpopularity with viewers, changes took place in July 2006, with the removal of the evening programmes Sky Report and World News Tonight with James Rubin in favour of rolling news and an interactive programme, Sky News with Martin Stanford, and the return to a two-presenter format on Sky News Today. On 25 February 2007 the channel changed its graphics scheme to include the display of breaking news in yellow.
On 1 October 2007 Sky introduced another new schedule, extending Kay Burley's Lunchtime Live programme and renaming it Afternoon Live. They also switched to a Sunrise format for much of the day, with a solo lead presenter and a summary newsreader. Sky News put more emphasis on interactive news with Martin Stanford's new Sky.com News programme. And it introduced an early evening financial news programme presented by Jeff Randall, initially on Mondays only. On 8 January 2008 Dermot Murnaghan joined Sky to present Sky News Today from 9am to 1pm.
Further changes were made to the Sky News schedule on 8 September 2008, with Colin Brazier presenting a new show from 1pm - 2pm, The Live Desk, Martin Stanford's Sky.Com News became SkyNews.com and moved to 7pm every weeknight, and Sky Midnight News was introduced.
More changes took place during the early part of 2009. These changes involved major changes to the layout of the newsroom/studio, the introduction of a morning edition of The Live Desk and the extension of the financial news programme Jeff Randall Live to run for 4 nights each week, Monday to Thursday.
From sunrise to midnight on 8 March 2010, Sky News was presented and produced exclusively by women to mark International Women's Day.
In preparation for the start of high-definition broadcasting, Sky News moved to its second studio (Studio B) on the morning of the 30 March 2010. Broadcasting from Studio B continued until 9pm on 6 May, when they moved back to the main newsroom and launched Sky News HD in time for the 2010 General Election results. Sky News received a graphics refresh to coincide with the launch of the new HD channel - this was trialed during the soft launch for Sky News HD on 22 April; Sky News' distinctive orchestral theme music, in use since 2005, was also replaced on 6 May 2010. The new logo for both the SD and HD versions of the channel was released before launch - the main change being adopting a new logo to go with the modified Sky logo.
The new title music, composed by David Arnold, was recorded with a 60-piece Royal Philharmonic Orchestra in Angel Studios, London and uses more than 132 audio channels for 18 second of audio.
Programmes
The following are current and former Sky News programmes:
Reception
Sky News is free-to-air on the Astra 28.2°E satellites carrying Sky. It is also available on Freeview and analogue and digital cable. In 2007 BSKyB announced its intention to cease broadcasting Sky News as well as other BSkyB channels over Freeview pending Ofcom approval.
Sky News International
Sky News is also shown internationally, sometimes under the name Sky News International, and can often be seen in hotels as well as being offered by some cable and satellite providers as part of their English-language line-up. While the UK feed is broadcast in 16:9, the international version was until Mid-August 2010, still in 4:3 with portions of the picture being cut out.The international version is shown as free-to-air on Astra 1L at 19.2° east. It is also carried encrypted on a number of satellites for international reception–including but not limited to Hot Bird, Nilesat, Amos 1 and Intelsat 10-02. It is also usually carried on cable systems in Europe, particularly (but not only) in Northern Europe especially in the Scandinavian countries.
Most of Europe, the Middle East and Asia receive the same version of Sky News as the Astra 28.2°E transmission, though with localised advertising. These feeds are sometimes known collectively as "Sky News International" and carry a break filler, the same as that of BBC World News, which is used on the UK and Ireland feed of its sister channel Fox News Channel.
From mid-August 2010 Sky News International is broadcast in 16:9.
Regional variations
Sky News Australia and Sky News New Zealand are different channels that carry variable amounts Sky News UK programming, and share some of its style, but also have local programming and advertising. In Australia, a Sky News UK feed is also available at all times, on Sky News Active. From 2004 to 2006 Sky News Ireland similarly carried local programming. This was then discontinued, the Irish feed reverting to a local advertising only service. Sky News weather also give forecasts for The Republic of Ireland as well as the UK.
Sky News HD
Sky released the high definition version of Sky News on 6 May 2010 to coincide with the 2010 election results. In the build-up to this launch, they have been upgrading their studios and several bureax both in the UK and around the world to be able to broadcast in HD.Since early 2008, Sky News has been using cameras in the field which can shoot in HD. Some one-off programmes have been made available in high definition to Sky+ HD viewers through the Sky Anytime feature, under the branding Sky News HD. These programmes have included Technofile, Diana: The Final Word, Canoe Man: Rise and Fall of John Darwin and Pathfinders: Into The Heart Of Afghanistan.
At 5pm (GMT) on 20 January 2009, Sky News' live coverage of the Inauguration of Barack Obama was carried in high definition on Sky Arts HD. right|thumb|250px|Sky News HD graphics This was the first ever live broadcast of Sky News in HD. Jeremy Thompson fronted the coverage from Washington DC. Michael Jackson's memorial service was also presented in HD, with Kay Burley presenting.
Sky News moved operations to a chroma-key "green screen" set in Studio B from 30 March 2010 so that final preparations could take place in the main newsroom.
Sky News HD launched on Sky Channel 517 for the channel's election debate which was held on 22 April 2010. For the 10 days leading up to the debate, channel 517 displayed a countdown clock to launch. The Debate coverage was hosted in HD by Kay Burley and Adam Boulton. Following the end of the coverage for the evening, channel 517 moved to show a looping preview tape. This tape included the shows that were mentioned above as being available on Sky Anytime. This continued until Sky News HD was launched in full on the evening of 6 May 2010, to coincide with the coverage of the results for the 2010 General Election hosted by Adam Boulton.
On 26 July 2010, Sky News HD launched on the Orbit Showtime Network, broadcasting to the Middle East and Africa.
Sky News Radio
Sky News Radio is a provider of news bulletins for radio stations in the United Kingdom.In March 2007, BSkyB and Chrysalis Group announced a joint partnership to launch a dedicated Sky News Radio station on the proposed bid by Channel 4's 4 Digital Group for the second DAB multiplex in the United Kingdom. However, two months later Chrysalis sold its radio stations to Global Radio, and in October 2007 following a business review Global's chief executive announced that they would be withdrawing from the joint venture. Sky have announced plans to find a partner elsewhere.
The feed is available FTA at 28.2 East by manually tuning it in: 12118.00 H 27500 2/3
Regular presenters
See: Sky News reporters and presentersWhen elections, either national or international, take place, Sky edits its schedule to focus on them. Recent examples have been the 2010 United Kingdom general election, the 2006 Israeli legislative election, the 2008 United States Presidential Election and the 2008 United Kingdom local elections. Sky also often shows long interviews; for example, Anna Botting's exclusive half-hour interview with Carla Bruni in early 2010. At the end of each year, in December and January of the new year, a series of special 'Year in Review' shows are shown which look back at memorable news stories from the past year.
In-depth Series
The channel regularly focusses on specific areas of society and current affairs, which allows for further indepth analysis and debate. In the past examples of these series have included Inside Iraq, Green Britain and Crime Uncovered.Pakistan: On Terrors Frontline was shown throughout the week beginning Monday 23 March 2009. The Sky News press release stated;
The series of reports has since won the 2009 RTS Award for Foreign News Coverage.
Identification and stings
Bruce Hammal has long been the voice of Sky News' identification announcements. Since October 2005 he has been heard at the top of each hour introducing programmes by announcing, "Live from the Sky News Centre, this is Programme name with presenters" or "This is programme name with presenter/s".Several years earlier, after the merger between Sky Television plc & British Satellite Broadcasting, Hammel's introduction was "This is Sky News a part of the British Sky Broadcasting Network"; in 1993 the introduction was "From the Sky satellite network this is Sky News"; and by 1995 "This is Sky News, part of the Sky Television Network" - or just "This is Sky News".
Criticism and perception
Sky News operates under the requirements of United Kingdom broadcasting regulations that require neutrality although there are occasional claims that Sky News may be inherently biased due to the fact that it is a News Corporation company; most of News Corporation's news outlets have an openly conservative or right-wing outlook. Ofcom received complaints regarding the network's lack of neutrality ahead of the 2010 General Election.In early 1994 Kelvin MacKenzie, former editor of The Sun newspaper, was appointed Managing Director of BSkyB. MacKenzie's proposed changes to Sky News lead to clashes with CEO Sam Chisholm and the head of Sky News, Ian Frykberg, who protested what they saw as an attempt to take its news values down market. The most ferocious battle occurred when Mackenzie wanted Sky News to run an interview with Lady Bienvenida Buck. Frykberg refused to air the interview and resigned shortly afterwards - the interview was put on Sky One. MacKenzie announced his resignation in August 1994, but not until Sky News had transmitted live pictures of the freeway chase of OJ Simpson white bronco on 17 June 1994 bringing US helicopter journalism to the UK.
Sky News covered the trial in Boston US trial of Louise Woodward with live coverage. When Sky returned to a regular schedule, viewers demanded the trial coverage. From Woodward's home in Elton, Cheshire Sky broadcast locals reactions, but this brought criticism of maintaining a pro-Louise Woodward stance, as she was found guilty but sentenced to time served.
In November 2005 the then head of BBC News, Peter Horrocks acknowledged that Sky News remained the first choice for "key opinion formers".
Ofcom received 652 complaints regarding the network's neutrality after it hosted the second Leaders' debate in the 2010 General Election.
On Saturday, 8 May 2010, Sky News presenter Kay Burley was heckled by a few protestors during an interview on College Green, one of whom demanded Burley be sacked. The channel cut the interview to go to a commercial break. Ofcom received 832 complaints about the incident.
Ofcom received 696 complaints over Sky News journalist Adam Boulton's conduct during an interview with Alistair Campbell.
Awards
From 2000 onwards, Sky News expanded its international coverage, opening bureaux in Africa, Europe, and the far East. It won awards from the Royal Television Society., the latest being 'News Channel of the Year' in 2011.Sky News has won BAFTA awards for coverage of the 11 September 2001 attacks and the 2003 Soham Murders.
Coverage of the 7 July 2005 London bombings won the 2006 International Emmy Breaking News award commending the "fast and accurate" reporting.
In June 2007 Sky News was named the "Best News Channel" at the Broadcast Digital Channel Awards. It beat several other national and international broadcasters including Al Jazeera English and the BBC but failed to beat them every other year.
Bureaux
Sky News bureau locations: some are independent, others are shared with News Corporation networks or other international affiliates.
United Kingdom
Worldwide
Additional Live Studios
Online
Skynews.com is the channel's main website. It provides news, sport, weather, showbiz, and business stories with help from other divisions such as Sky Sports.In 2009 the website underwent a largely cosmetic change to bring it in line with the on-screen look of Sky News TV. The site makes use of flash video encoding to match the visual style of the TV channel with pictures and breaking news.
Interactivity: Blogs and Forums
Since 2005, with the relaunch of the TV channel, a greater emphasis has been placed upon interactivity. With a growing selection of news blogs written by staff and guests, Sky News now has a tailored selection targeted towards each demographic of its audience. A recent addition to Sky News Online has been messageboards or forums.
Virgin Media dispute
On 1 March 2007, the contract for Virgin Media to provide Sky's basic channels (including Sky News) on their cable TV service expired after a dispute between Virgin Media and BSkyB. At Midnight, Sky News was removed, the electronic programming guide changed to "Sky Snooze Try BBC" until Sir Richard Branson demanded the message be removed saying I have asked them to take it down. We do not mean any disrespect to Sky News. I think it is a very good news channel.Sky News returned to Virgin Media Network along with all the other "Sky Basics" channels that were removed in March 2007. This deal between BSkyB and Virgin Media was confirmed on 4 November 2008. Sky News reappeared on Virgin Media on 13 November.
Former Logos
Other information
In popular culture
See also
References
External links
Other Websites
Category:BSkyB television channels Category:Television channels and stations established in 1989 Category:Television channels in the United Kingdom Category:24-hour television news channels in the United Kingdom
da:Sky News de:Sky News es:Sky News eo:Sky News fa:اسکای نیوز fr:Sky News hi:स्काई न्यूज id:Sky News it:Sky News he:סקיי ניוז ms:Sky News nl:Sky News no:Sky News nn:Sky News pl:Sky News pt:Sky News ru:Sky News simple:Sky News sv:Sky News tr:Sky News yi:Sky News zh:天空新闻台This text is licensed under the Creative Commons CC-BY-SA License. This text was originally published on Wikipedia and was developed by the Wikipedia community.
| name | George Galloway |
|---|---|
| birth date | August 16, 1954 |
| birth place | Dundee, Scotland, United Kingdom |
| residence | London, England, United Kingdom |
| office | Vice President of theStop The War Coalition |
| term start | 21 September 2001 |
| president | Tony Benn |
| predecessor | Office created |
| office2 | Member of Parliament for Bethnal Green and Bow |
| majority2 | 823 (1.9%) |
| term start2 | 5 May 2005 |
| term end2 | 6 May 2010 |
| predecessor2 | Oona King |
| successor2 | Rushanara Ali |
| office3 | Member of Parliament for Glasgow Kelvin |
| term start3 | 1 May 1997 |
| term end3 | 5 May 2005 |
| predecessor3 | Constituency created |
| successor3 | Constituency abolished |
| majority3 | 7,260 (27.1%) |
| Office4 | Member of Parliament for Glasgow Hillhead |
| term start4 | 11 June 1987 |
| term end4 | 1 May 1997 |
| predecessor4 | Roy Jenkins |
| successor4 | Constituency abolished |
| majority4 | 4,826 (12.3%) |
| party | Respect (2004–present)Labour (1967–2003) |
| nationality | Scottish |
| citizenship | British |
| religion | Roman Catholic |
| website | www.georgegalloway.com |
| footnotes | }} |
Galloway is also known for his vigorous campaigns in favour of the Palestinians in the Israeli–Palestinian conflict. He attempted to both overturn economic sanctions against Iraq in the 1990s and early 2000s and to avert the 2003 invasion. He is also known for a visit to Iraq where he met Saddam Hussein and delivered a speech, which ended in English with the statement "Sir, I salute your courage, your strength, your indefatigability." Galloway opposed Saddam's regime until the United States-led Gulf War in 1991 and has always stated that he was addressing the Iraqi people in the speech. Galloway is known in the US for his testimony in the Senate in 2005, where he turned a defence of allegations against him into an attack against US foreign policy.
Early and personal life
Galloway was born in the Lochee area of Dundee, Scotland, to a Scottish trade unionist father and Irish republican mother. He grew up in Charleston and attended Charleston Primary and then Harris Academy, a non-denominational school. During his school years at Charleston Primary and Harris Academy, he used to play football for the school team. As an amateur footballer, he went on to play for West End United U12s, Lochee Boys Club U16s and St Columbus U18s.From 1979 to 1999, he was married to Elaine Fyffe, with whom he has a daughter, Lucy. In 2000, he married Amineh Abu-Zayyad. Zayyad filed for divorce in 2005. He married Rima Husseini, a Lebanese woman and former researcher, who in May 2007 gave birth to a son, Zein.
Galloway was raised as a Roman Catholic. He turned away from the church as a young man, but returned in his mid-20s. By his own account he decided to never drink alcohol at the age of 18, disapproves of it, and describes it as having a "very deleterious effect on people".
Galloway is a lifelong supporter of Celtic Football Club.
Labour Party organiser
Galloway joined the Labour Party at 13 years old and, within five years, was secretary of the Dundee West constituency party. His enthusiasm led him to become vice-chairman of the Labour Party in the city of Dundee and a member of the Scottish Executive Committee in 1975. On 5 May 1977, he contested his first election campaign in the Scottish district elections, but failed to hold the safe Labour seat at Gillburn, Dundee. He was beaten by the Independent candidate Bunty Turley, who was a trade unionist running on the campaign slogan "enough is enough" after allegations were made about Galloway's personal and financial behaviour. Galloway became the secretary organiser of Dundee Labour Party—the youngest ever Scottish chairman—in March 1981 at 26 years old.His support for the Palestinian cause began in 1974 when he met a Palestinian activist in Dundee; he supported the actions of Dundee City council which flew the Palestinian flag inside the City Chambers. He was involved in the twinning of Dundee with Nablus in 1980, although he did not take part in the visit of Lord Provost Gowans, Ernie Ross MP and three city councillors to Nablus and Kuwait in April 1981.
In 1981, Galloway wrote an article in Scottish Marxist supporting Communist Party affiliation with the Labour Party. In response, Denis Healey, deputy leader of the Labour Party, tried and failed to remove Galloway from the list of Prospective Parliamentary Candidates. Galloway successfully argued that this was his own personal viewpoint, not that of the Labour Party. Healey lost his motion by 13 votes to 5. He once quipped that, in order to overcome a £1.5 million deficit which had arisen in the city budget, he, Ernie Ross and leading councillors should be placed in the stocks in the city square: "we would allow people to throw buckets of water over us at 20p a time."
Parliamentary career and public profile
War On Want
From November 1983 to 1987, Galloway was General Secretary of War On Want, a British charity that campaigns against poverty worldwide. In this post he was much travelled, writing eye-witness accounts of the famine in Eritrea in 1985 which were published in The Sunday Times and The Spectator.The Daily Mirror accused him of living luxuriously at the charity's expense. An independent auditor cleared him of misuse of funds, though he did repay £1,720 in contested expenses. He later reportedly won £155,000 from the Mirror in an unrelated libel lawsuit.
More than two years after Galloway stepped down to serve as a Labour MP, the UK government investigated War on Want. It found accounting irregularities from 1985 to 1989, but little evidence that money was used for non-charitable purposes. Galloway had been General Secretary for the first three of those years. The commission said responsibility lay largely with auditors, and did not single out individuals for blame.
Member of Parliament, Glasgow
He fought for a place on the Labour Party National Executive Committee in 1986; in a large field of candidates he finished second from the bottom. At the 1986 Labour Party Conference, he made a strong attack on the Labour Party's Deputy Leader and Shadow Chancellor Roy Hattersley for not favouring exchange controls.In the 1987 election, Galloway won Glasgow Hillhead constituency for the Labour Party from Roy Jenkins of the Social Democratic Party (who had briefly led that party earlier in the decade) with a majority of 3,251. Although known for his left-wing views, Galloway was never a member of Labour's leftist groupings of MPs, the Tribune Group or the Campaign Group.
Troubles within the Labour Party
Asked about a War on Want conference on Mykonos, Greece during his previous job, the new MP Galloway notoriously replied "I travelled to and spent lots of time with people in Greece, many of whom were women, some of whom were known carnally to me. I actually had sexual intercourse with some of the people in Greece." The statement put Galloway on the front pages of the tabloid press and in February 1988 the Executive Committee of his Constituency Labour Party passed a vote of no confidence in him.He went on to win re-selection over Trish Godman (wife of fellow MP Norman Godman) in June 1989, but failed to get a majority of the electoral college on the first ballot. This was the worst result for any sitting Labour MP who was reselected; 13 of the 26 members of the Constituency Party's Executive Committee resigned that August, indicating their dissatisfaction with the result.
In 1990, a classified advertisement appeared in the Labour left weekly Tribune headed "Lost: MP who answers to the name of George", "balding and has been nicknamed gorgeous", claiming that the lost MP had been seen in Romania but had not been to a constituency meeting for a year. A telephone number was given which turned out to be for the Groucho Club in London, from which Galloway had recently been excluded (he has since been readmitted). Galloway threatened legal action and pointed out that he had been to five constituency meetings. He eventually settled for an out-of-court payment by Tribune.
The leadership election of the Labour Party in 1992 saw Galloway voting for the eventual winners, fellow Scot John Smith for Leader and Margaret Beckett as Deputy Leader. In 1994, after Smith's death, Galloway declined to cast a vote in the leadership election (one of only three MPs to do so). In a debate with the leader of the Scottish National Party Alex Salmond, Galloway responded to one of Salmond's jibes against the Labour Party by declaring "I don't give a fuck what Tony Blair thinks."
Although facing a challenge for the Labour nomination for the seat of Glasgow Kelvin in 1997, Galloway successfully defeated Shiona Waldron. He was unchallenged for the nomination in 2001.
In the 1997 and 2001 elections Galloway was the Labour candidate for the seat of Glasgow Kelvin, winning with majorities of over 16,000 and 12,000 respectively. During the 2001 Parliament, he voted against the Whip 27 times. During the 2001-02 session he was the 9th most rebellious Labour MP.
Expulsion from the Labour Party
Galloway became the Vice President of the Stop the War Coalition in 2001. He is actively involved, often speaking on StWC platforms at anti-war demonstrations. From this position Galloway made many aggressive and controversial statements in opposition to the 2003 invasion of Iraq. These were the formal reasons for his expulsion from the Labour Party. He reportedly said in a 28 March 2003 interview with Abu Dhabi TV that Tony Blair and George W. Bush had "lied to the British Air Force and Navy, when they said the battle of Iraq would be very quick and easy. They attacked Iraq like wolves...." and added, "... the best thing British troops can do is to refuse to obey illegal orders." He called the Labour government "Tony Blair's lie machine." His most controversial statement from the interview may have been "Iraq is fighting for all the Arabs. Where are the Arab armies?". The Observer reported in 2003 that the Director of Public Prosecutions was considering a request to pursue Galloway under the Incitement to Disaffection Act, 1934, though no prosecution occurred.On 18 April, The Sun published an interview with Tony Blair who said: "His comments were disgraceful and wrong. The National Executive will deal with it." The General Secretary of the Labour Party, citing Galloway's outspoken opinion of Blair and Bush in their pursuit of the Iraq war, suspended him from holding office in the party on 6 May 2003, pending a hearing on charges that he had violated the party's constitution by "bringing the Labour Party into disrepute through behaviour that is prejudicial or grossly detrimental to the Party". The National Constitutional Committee held a hearing on 22 October 2003, to consider the charges, taking evidence from Galloway himself, from other party witnesses, viewing media interviews, and hearing character testimony from Tony Benn, among others. The following day, the committee found the charge of bringing the party into disrepute proved, and so expelled Galloway from the Labour Party. Galloway called the Committee's hearing "a show trial" and "a kangaroo court".
2005 election
In January 2004, Galloway announced he would be working with members of the Socialist Alliance in England and Wales, and others, under the name Respect - The Unity Coalition, generally referred to simply as Respect. This was despite Galloway having a track record of antipathy toward Trotskyists, and the largest component of Respect being the Socialist Workers Party, which broadly identifies itself as part of the Trotskyist political tradition.Some former members of the Socialist Alliance, including the Workers Liberty and Workers Power groups, objected to forming a coalition with Galloway, citing his political record, and his refusal to accept an average worker's wage, with Galloway claiming "I couldn’t live on three workers’ wages."
He stood as the Respect candidate in London in the 2004 European Parliament elections, but failed to win a seat after receiving 91,175 of the 115,000 votes he needed.
Galloway later announced that he would not force a by-election and intended not to contest the next general election in Glasgow. Galloway's Glasgow Kelvin seat was split between three neighbouring constituencies for the May 2005 general election. One of these, the redrawn Glasgow Central constituency, might have been his best chance to win, but had his long-time friend Mohammad Sarwar, the first Muslim Labour MP and a strong opponent of the Iraq War in place; Galloway did not wish to challenge him. After the European election results became known, Galloway announced that he would stand in Bethnal Green and Bow, the area where Respect had its strongest election results and where the sitting Labour MP, Oona King, supported the Iraq War. On 2 December, despite speculation that he might stand in Newham, he confirmed that he would be the candidate for Bethnal Green and Bow.
The ensuing electoral campaign in the seat proved to be a difficult one with heated rhetoric. The BBC reported that Galloway had himself been threatened with death by extreme Islamists from the banned organisation al-Ghurabaa. All the major candidates united in condemning the threats and violence.
On 5 May, Galloway won the seat by 823 votes and made a fiery acceptance speech, saying that Tony Blair had the blood of 100,000 people on his hands and denouncing the returning officer over alleged discrepancies in the electoral process. When challenged in a subsequent televised interview by Jeremy Paxman as to whether he was happy to have removed one of the few black women in Parliament, Galloway replied "I don't believe that people get elected because of the colour of their skin. I believe people get elected because of their record and because of their policies."
Oona King later told the Today programme that she found Paxman's line of question inappropriate. "He shouldn't be barred from running against me because I'm a black woman ... I was not defined, or did not wish to be defined, by either my ethnicity or religious background."
"It's good to be back", Galloway said on being sworn in as MP for Bethnal Green after the May election. He pledged to represent "the people that New Labour has abandoned" and to "speak for those who have nobody else to speak for them."
Parliamentary participation statistics
After he was suspended and later expelled from the Labour Party, Galloway's participation in Parliamentary activity fell to minimal levels. After speaking in a debate on Iraq on 25 March 2003, Galloway did not intervene in any way in Parliamentary debates or ask any oral questions for the remainder of the Parliament and his participation in House of Commons Divisions was among the lowest of any MP.Following the 2005 election, his participation rate remained low, at the end of the year he had participated in only 15% of Divisions in the House of Commons since the general election, placing him 634th of 645 MPs - of the eleven MPs below him in the rankings, one is the former Prime Minister Tony Blair, five are Sinn Féin members who have an abstentionist policy toward taking their seats, three are the speaker and deputy speakers and therefore ineligible to vote, and two have died since the election. Galloway claims a record of unusual activity at a "grass roots" level. His own estimate is that he has made 1,100 public speeches between September 2001 and May 2005.
As of September 2009, he still had one of the lowest voting participation records in parliament at 8.4% as a total of 93 votes out of a possible 1113 divisions.
Suspension from the House of Commons
On 17 July 2007, following a four-year inquiry, the House of Commons Select Committee on Standards and Privileges published its sixth report. The committee concluded that there was "no evidence" that Galloway gained any personal benefit from either the former Iraqi regime, or from the Oil-for-Food Programme. It did not examine the bank account of Galloway's former wife or their joint account.}} However, it found that Galloway's use of parliamentary resources to support his work on the Mariam Appeal "went beyond what was reasonable."
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In response, Galloway stated At a press conference following publication of the report, Galloway stated "To be deprived of the company for 18 days of the honourable ladies and gentleman behind me [in parliament] will be painful ... but I'm intending to struggle on regardless ... What really upset them [the committee] is that I always defend myself.
The 2010 general election
On 10 August 2007, Galloway confirmed he would stand in newly created constituency of Poplar and Limehouse where the Labour Party had a notional majority of 3,942. The Labour candidate was the current Poplar and Canning Town MP Jim Fitzpatrick. Galloway said he had planned to stand down from Parliament at the next election, but was prompted to stay on and fight to win the neighbouring east London constituency after he felt he was unfairly suspended from Parliament for 18 days.In the election Galloway was defeated, coming third after the Labour and Conservative candidates. He received 8,460 votes.
Victim of News of the World phone hacking
Galloway says that the Metropolitan Police Service told him they had evidence he was targeted by Glenn Mulcaire, a private investigator working for the News of the World who was jailed for phone hacking in 2007. Galloway is now taking legal action for breach of privacy, and has issued proceedings against the NOTW and Mulcaire. Galloway claims he has been offered "substantial sums of money" by NOTW ahead of his court action.
2011 Scottish Parliament election
Galloway ran for the Glasgow regional list in the Scottish Parliament Elections held on 5 May 2011. Despite running for the Respect party, he stated that he would have backed the Labour Party in the parliament, and that he might end his political career in his native Scotland should he be elected. Galloway did not get sufficient votes and thus failed to obtain a seat.
Political views
Galloway advocates greater spending on welfare benefits, and some nationalisation of large industries. Galloway is opposed to abortion, although he supports Respect's pro-choice stance. He opposes Scottish independence but supports the right of the people to vote on the matter via a referendum. He also supports the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament. In the 2007 Scottish Parliament election, George Galloway supported Solidarity, despite not supporting all their policies, such as Scottish independence. Galloway has attracted most attention for his comments on foreign policy, taking a special interest in Libya, Pakistan, Iraq, and the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. According to the report "Preventing terrorism, where next for Britain?" from the counter-extremism think tank Quilliam, which receives private and public funding, Galloway is "Islamist backed". Inayat Bunglawala, chair of Muslims4Uk and a former MCB spokesperson, said: "This is just like something straight out of a Stasi manual. The advice from Quilliam is frankly appalling and incredibly self-serving."
Iraq and Saddam Hussein
Galloway opposed the 1991 Gulf War and was critical of the effect the subsequent sanctions had on the people of Iraq. He visited Iraq twice and met senior government officials. His involvement caused some critics to deride him as the "member for Baghdad North". In 1994, Galloway faced some of his strongest criticism on his return from a Middle-Eastern visit during which he had met Saddam Hussein "to try and bring about an end to sanctions, suffering and war". At the meeting, he reported the support given to Saddam by the people of the Gaza Strip and ended his speech in English with the statement "Sir, I salute your courage, your strength, your indefatigability,". Galloway's most recent public statement on the matter was in a January 2007 edition of the BBC's Hardtalk in which he states that he was saluting the "Iraqi people". Galloway's speech was translated for Hussein. Anasal-Tikriti, a friend of Galloway's and a Respect candidate, spokesman for the Muslim Association of Britain said: "I understand Arabic and it [Galloway's salutation] was taken completely out of context. When he said "you" he meant the Iraqi people, he was saluting their indefatigability, their resolve against sanctions. Even the interpreter got it right and, in Arabic, says salutes the stand of the Iraqi people'."In 1999, Galloway was criticised for spending Christmas in Iraq with Tariq Aziz, then Iraq's Deputy Prime Minister. In the 17 May 2005, hearing of the United States Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, Galloway stated that he had had many meetings with Aziz, and characterised their relationship as friendly. After the fall of Saddam, he continued to praise Aziz, calling him "an eminent diplomatic and intellectual person". In 2006 a video surfaced showing Galloway enthusiastically greeting Uday Hussein, Saddam's eldest son, with the title of "Excellency" at Uday's palace in 1999. "The two men also made unflattering comments about the United States and joked about losing weight, going bald and how difficult it is to give up smoking cigars," according to The Scotsman.
In a House of Commons debate on 6 March 2002, Foreign Office Minister Ben Bradshaw said of Galloway that he was "not just an apologist, but a mouthpiece, for the Iraqi regime over many years." Galloway called the Minister a liar and refused to withdraw: "[Bradshaw's] imputation that I am a mouthpiece for a dictator is a clear imputation of dishonour" he said, and the sitting was suspended due to the dispute. Bradshaw later withdrew his allegation, and Galloway apologised for using unparliamentary language. In August 2002, Galloway returned to Iraq and met Saddam Hussein for a second time. According to Galloway, the intention of the trip was to persuade Saddam to re-admit Hans Blix, and the United Nations weapons inspectors into the country.
Giving evidence in his libel case against the Daily Telegraph newspaper in 2004, Galloway testified that he regarded Saddam as a "bestial dictator" and would have welcomed his removal from power, but not by means of a military attack on Iraq. Galloway also pointed that he was a prominent critic of Saddam Hussein's regime in the 1980s, as well as of the role of Margaret Thatcher's government in supporting arms sales to Iraq during the Iran/Iraq war. Labour MP Tam Dalyell said during the controversy over whether Galloway should be expelled from the Labour Party that "in the mid-1980s there was only one MP that I can recollect making speeches about human rights in Iraq and this was George Galloway." When the issue of Galloway's meetings with Saddam Hussein is raised, including before the U.S. Senate, Galloway has argued that he had met Saddam "exactly the same number of times as U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld met him. The difference is Donald Rumsfeld met him to sell him guns and to give him maps the better to target those guns." He continued "I met him to try to bring about an end to sanctions, suffering and war".
During a 9 March 2005 interview at the University of Dhaka campus Galloway called for a global alliance between Muslims and progressives: "Not only do I think it’s possible but I think it is vitally necessary and I think it is happening already. It is possible because the progressive movement around the world and the Muslims have the same enemies. Their enemies are the Zionist occupation, American occupation, British occupation of poor countries mainly Muslim countries."
Israel and Palestine
At a 22 July 2006 demonstration (and later in a Socialist Worker op-ed), Galloway stated "Hezbollah has never been a terrorist organisation!" The National Union of Students of the United Kingdom passed a motion condemning Galloway for this statement.In an interview with the American radio host Alex Jones, Galloway blamed Israel for creating "conditions in the Arab countries and in some European countries to stampede Jewish people ... into the Zionist state". Jones then alleged that the "Zionists" funded Hitler, to which Galloway replied that Zionists used the Jewish people "to create this little settler state on the Mediterranean," whose purpose was "to act as an advance guard for their own interests in the Arab world..."
In a series of speeches broadcast on Arab television, Galloway described Jerusalem and Baghdad as being "raped" by "foreigners," referring to Israel's illegal annexation of East Jerusalem, and the war in Iraq.
Galloway was introduced as “a former member of the British Houses of Parliament” during a live interview with Qatari Al-Jazeera television, to which he responded: “I am still a member of parliament and was re-elected five times. On the last occasion I was re-elected despite all the efforts made by the British government, the Zionist movement and the newspapers and news media which are controlled by Zionism.”
Galloway expressed support for the Syrian presence in Lebanon five months before it ended, telling the Daily Star of Lebanon "Syrian troops in Lebanon maintain stability and protect the country from Israel". In the same article he expressed his opposition to United Nations Security Council Resolution 1559, which urged the Lebanese Government to establish control over all its territory.
In an interview with the Hizbullah run Al-Manar TV, which aired on July 26, 2011 (as translated by MEMRI), Galloway accused Israel of being responsible for the assassination of Rafiq Al-Hariri, stating that "Israel was the only country with any interest and any benefit to gain from the assassination of the martyr Rafiq Al-Hariri. They are the ones who had the capability to do so, they are the ones who had the motive for doing so, and they are the ones who had the criminal record for doing so. How many hundreds of people has Israel killed in Lebanon? Assassination squads of people landing on the beach, and people planting bombs of one kind or another…" He further stated that "When this inquiry [the Special Tribunal for Lebanon] refused to lead in that direction, I knew it was a fake inquiry" and that "this process and all these individuals are completely discredited."
Several months earlier in a speech given in Edmonton, Alberta in November 2010, Galloway stated that
“I believe, and I don’t know anybody who is objective in this matter who does not believe, that Hezbollah are absolutely innocent of this crime, and it is time that the tribunal looked to the people who benefited from this crime…..in Israel."
Blair and Bush
At the national conference of the National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers, on 30 June 2003, Galloway apologised for describing George W. Bush as a "wolf", saying that to do so defamed wolves: "No wolf would commit the sort of crimes against humanity that George Bush committed against the people of Iraq."On 20 November 2004, George Galloway gave an interview on Abu Dhabi TV in which he said:
On 20 June 2005, he appeared on Al Jazeera English to lambast these two leaders and others.
On 3 February 2006, Galloway was refused entry to Egypt at Cairo Airport and was detained "on grounds of national security", where he had been invited to 'give evidence' at a 'mock trial' of Bush and Blair. After being detained overnight, he said Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak "apologised on behalf of the Egyptian people", and he was allowed to enter the country. After initial derogatory comments from Galloway and a spokesman from his Respect party regarding Mubarak's pro-Western stance and ties to Bush and Blair, Galloway later commented: "It was a most gracious apology which I accept wholeheartedly. I consider the matter now closed."
In an interview with Piers Morgan for GQ Magazine in May 2006, Galloway was asked whether a suicide bomb attack on Tony Blair with "no other casualties" would be morally justifiable "as revenge for the war on Iraq?". He answered "Yes it would be morally justified. I am not calling for it, but if it happened it would be of a wholly different moral order to the events of 7/7. It would be entirely logical and explicable, and morally equivalent to ordering the deaths of thousands of innocent people in Iraq as Blair did." He further stated that if he knew about such a plan that he would inform the relevant authorities, saying: "I would [tell the police], because such an operation would be counterproductive because it would just generate a new wave of anti-Muslim, anti-Arab sentiment whipped up by the press. It would lead to new draconian anti-terror laws, and would probably strengthen the resolve of the British and American services in Iraq rather than weaken it. So yes, I would inform the authorities." Some news analysts, notably Christopher Hitchens, took this to be a call for an attack while appearing not to.
The July 2005 London bombings
In the House of Commons, on the day of the 7 July 2005 London bombings that killed 52 people and injured hundreds, and following a visit to the Royal London Hospital in his constituency where many of the victims had been taken, Galloway condemned the attacks strongly, but argued that they could not be separated from the hatred and bitterness felt among Muslims because of injustices in Palestine, Iraq, and Afghanistan, including injustices, he said, suffered as a result of British foreign policy: }}Winding up the debate for the government in the last moments allotted, Armed Forces Minister Adam Ingram described Galloway's remarks as "disgraceful" and accused Galloway of "dipping his poisonous tongue in a pool of blood." No time remained for Galloway to intervene and he ran afoul of the Deputy Speaker when trying to make a point of order about Ingram's attack. He later went on to describe Ingram as a "thug" who had committed a "foul-mouthed, deliberately timed, last-10-seconds smear." The men had previously clashed over claims in Galloway's autobiography (see below).
Pakistan coup of 1999
At the time of the 1999 Musharraf coup in Pakistan, he wrote, "In poor third world countries like Pakistan, politics is too important to be left to petty squabbling politicians. Pakistan is always on the brink of breaking apart into its widely disparate components. Only the armed forces can really be counted on to hold such a country together... Democracy is a means, not an end in itself and it has a bad name on the streets of Karachi and Lahore." Nonetheless, on his TalkSport talk radio show, Galloway has been outspoken in criticising the former Pakistani leader Pervez Musharraf.
Record on LGBT issues
In 1994, Galloway voted in support of the equalisation of the age of consent for homosexuality (which was then 21 years) with that for heterosexuality at 16 years. He also voted against a reduction of the homosexual age of consent to 18. He voted in favour of permitting unmarried and gay couples to adopt children. Critics have claimed that his involvement in the leadership of Respect - which made no explicit mention of gay rights in its 2005 election manifesto and accepted donations from Islamic Party members - raise questions about commitment to those issues, as does his rather poor voting record in parliamentary divisions, 80% of which he missed, during the 2001-5 parliament while still a Glasgow MP. However, Respect's 2005 conference, in which Galloway took part, resolved that explicit defence of equal rights and calls for the end to all discrimination against lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people would be made in all of its manifestos and principal election materials.Galloway's assertion on The Wright Stuff chat show (13 March 2008) that the executed boyfriend of homosexual Iranian asylum seeker Mehdi Kazemi was executed for sex crimes rather than for being homosexual received criticism from Peter Tatchell, among others. Galloway also stated on The Wright Stuff that the case of gay rights in Iran was being used by supporters of war with Iran.
2009 Iranian elections
Galloway has encouraged Western governments to accept the election of the conservative President of the Islamic Republic of Iran, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
Humanitarian work
Mariam Appeal
In 1998 Galloway founded the Mariam Appeal, intended "to campaign against sanctions on Iraq which are having disastrous effects on the ordinary people of Iraq". The campaign was named after Mariam Hamza, a child flown by the fund from Iraq to Britain to receive treatment for leukaemia. The intention was to raise awareness of the suffering and death of hundreds of thousands of other Iraqi children due to poor health conditions and lack of suitable medicines and facilities, and to campaign for the lifting of the Iraq sanctions that many maintained were responsible for that situation.The fund received scrutiny during the 2003 invasion of Iraq, after a complaint that Galloway used some of the donation money to pay his travel expenses. Galloway said that the expenses were incurred in his capacity as the Appeal's chairman. Although the Mariam Appeal was never a registered charity and never intended to be such, it was investigated by the Charity Commission. The report of this year-long inquiry, published in June 2004, found that the Mariam Appeal was doing charitable work (and so ought to have registered with them), but did not substantiate allegations that any funds had been misused.
A further Charity Commission Report published on 7 June 2007 found that the Appeal had received funds from Fawaz Zureikat that originated from the Oil For Food programme, and concluded that: "Although Mr Galloway, Mr Halford and Mr Al-Mukhtar have confirmed that they were unaware of the source of Mr Zureikat’s donations, the Commission has concluded that the charity trustees should have made further enquiries when accepting such large single and cumulative donations to satisfy themselves as to their origin and legitimacy. The Commission’s conclusion is that the charity trustees did not properly discharge their duty of care as trustees to the Appeal in respect of these donations." They added: "The Commission is also concerned, having considered the totality of the evidence before it, that Mr Galloway may also have known of the connection between the Appeal and the Programme". Galloway responded: "I've always disputed the Commission's retrospective view that a campaign to win a change in national and international policy—a political campaign—was, in fact, a charity."
Viva Palestina aid convoy
In response to the 2008–2009 Israel–Gaza conflict, in January 2009 Galloway instigated the Viva Palestina aid convoy to the Gaza Strip. On 14 February 2009, after raising over £1 million-worth of humanitarian aid in four weeks, Galloway and hundreds of volunteers launched the convoy comprising approximately 120 vehicles intended for use in the Strip, including a fire engine donated by the Fire Brigades Union (FBU), 12 ambulances, a boat and trucks full of medicines, tools, clothes, blankets and gifts for children. The 5,000-mile route passed through Belgium, France, Spain, Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya and Egypt.
On 20 February, Galloway condemned Lancashire Police after they arrested nine of the volunteers under the Terrorism Act a day before the convoy's launch. Galloway said: "The arrests were clearly deliberately timed for the eve of the departure of the convoy. Photographs of the high-profile snatch on the M65 were immediately fed to the press to maximise the newsworthiness of the smear that was being perpetrated on the convoy." Viva Palestina reported an 80% drop in donations following the broadcast of the arrests and the police allegations on the BBC.
The convoy arrived in Gaza on 9 March, accompanied by approximately 180 extra trucks of aid donated by Libya's Gaddafi Foundation. All the British aid was delivered with the exception of the fire engine and boat which were blocked by the Egyptian government. The boat is to be delivered later in a flotilla of craft which Viva Palestina! intends to take into Gaza harbour. On 10 March 2009, Galloway announced at a press conference in Gaza City attended by several senior Hamas officials: "We are giving you now 100 vehicles and all of their contents, and we make no apology for what I am about to say. We are giving them to the elected government of Palestine," adding he would personally donate three cars and 25,000 pounds to Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniya.
The Charity Commission opened a statutory inquiry into Viva Palestinia! on 23 March 2009, citing concerns over the finances, use of funds for non-charitable purposes, and the lack of "substantive response" to their repeated requests. George Galloway admitted that the appeal had not responded to the requests, but argued that a substantive response was anyway due to be passed to the Charity Commission only hours after they launched the inquiry. He argued that the Charity Commission's actions were suspicious, hinting that they might be politically motivated. On 8 April 2009, Galloway joined Vietnam War veteran Ron Kovic to launch Viva Palestina US.
A third Viva Palestina convoy began at the end of 2009. On 8 January 2010, Galloway and his colleague Ron McKay were deported from Egypt immediately upon entry from Gaza. They had been attempting to help take about 200 aid trucks into the Gaza Strip. They were driven by the police to the airport and put on a plane to London. The previous day an Egyptian soldier had been killed during a clash at the border with Hamas loyalists. Several Palestinians were also injured.
Controversy
Oil for Food
Daily Telegraph libel case
On 22 April 2003, the Daily Telegraph published news articles and comment describing documents found by its reporter David Blair in the ruins of the Iraqi Foreign Ministry. The documents purported to be records of meetings between Galloway and Iraqi intelligence agents, and state that he had received £375,000 per year from the proceeds of the Oil-for-Food Programme. Galloway completely denied the story, and pointed to the nature of the discovery within an unguarded, bombed-out building as being questionable. He instigated legal action against the newspaper, which was heard in the High Court from 14 November 2004.On 2 December, Justice David Eady ruled that the story had been "seriously defamatory", and that the Telegraph was "obliged to compensate Mr Galloway ... and to make an award for the purposes of restoring his reputation". Galloway was awarded damages of £150,000 plus, after a failed appeal in 2006, legal costs of about £2 million.
The libel case was regarded by both sides as an important test of the Reynolds qualified-privilege defence. The Daily Telegraph did not attempt to claim justification (where the defendant seeks to prove the truth of the defamatory reports): "It has never been the Telegraph's case to suggest that the allegations contained in these documents are true". Instead, the paper sought to argue that it acted responsibly because the allegations it reported were of sufficient public interest to outweigh the damage caused to Galloway's reputation. However the trial judge did not accept this defence saying the suggestion such as Galloway was guilty of "treason", "in Saddam's pay", and being "Saddam's little helper" caused him to conclude "the newspaper was not neutral but both embraced the allegations with relish and fervour and went on to embellish them". Additionally Galloway had not been given a fair or reasonable opportunity to make inquiries or meaningful comment upon the documents before they were published.
The issue of whether the documents were genuine was likewise not at issue at the trial. However, it later transpired that the expert hired by Galloway's lawyers, a forensic expert named Oliver Thorne, said "In my opinion the evidence found fully supports that the vast majority of the submitted documents are authentic." He added "It should be noted that I am unable to comment on the veracity of the information within the disputed Telegraph documents, whether or not they are authentic."
Others
The Christian Science Monitor also published a story on 25 April 2003, stating that they had documentary evidence that he had received "more than ten million dollars" from the Iraqi regime. However, on 20 June 2003, the Monitor reported that their own investigation had concluded the documents were sophisticated forgeries, and apologised. Galloway rejected the newspaper's apology, asserted that the affair was a conspiracy against him, and continued a libel claim against the paper.The Christian Science Monitor settled the claim, paying him an undisclosed sum in damages, on 19 March 2004. It emerged that these documents had first been offered to the Daily Telegraph, but they had rejected them. The documents' origin remains obscure.
In January 2004, a further set of allegations were made in al-Mada, a newspaper in Iraq. The newspaper claimed to have found documents in the Iraqi national oil corporation showing that Galloway received (through an intermediary) some of the profits arising from the sale of 19.5 million barrels (3,100,000 m³) of oil. Galloway acknowledged that money had been paid into the Mariam Appeal by Iraqi businessmen who had profited from the UN-run programme, but denied benefiting personally, and maintained that, in any case, there was nothing illicit about this:
The report of the Iraq Survey Group published in October 2004 claimed that Galloway was one of the recipients of a fund used by Iraq to buy influence among foreign politicians. Galloway denied receiving any money from Saddam Hussein's regime. The Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards had begun an investigation into George Galloway but suspended it when Galloway launched legal action. On 14 December, it was announced that this investigation would resume.
U.S. Senate
Allegations
In May 2005, a U.S. Senate committee report accused Galloway along with former French minister Charles Pasqua of receiving the right to buy oil under the UN's oil-for-food scheme. The report was issued by the US Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, chaired by Senator Norm Coleman, a Republican from Minnesota. The report cited further documents from the Iraqi oil ministry and interviews with Iraqi officials.
Coleman's committee said Pasqua had received allocations worth from 1999 to 2000, and Galloway received allocations worth from 2000 to 2003. The allegations against Pasqua and Galloway, both outspoken opponents of U.N. sanctions against Iraq in the 1990s, have been made before, including in an October report by U.S. arms inspector Charles Duelfer as well as in the various purported documents described earlier in this section. But Coleman's report provided several new details. It also included information from interrogations of former high-ranking officials in U.S. custody, including former Foreign Minister Tariq Aziz and former Vice President Taha Yassin Ramadan. Among the claims is that there is new evidence to suggest that the Mariam Appeal, a children's leukaemia charity founded by Galloway, was in fact used to conceal oil payments. The report cites Ramadan as saying under interrogation that Galloway was allocated oil "because of his opinions about Iraq."
Socialist Worker reported what they say is evidence that the key Iraqi oil ministry documents regarding oil allocations, in which Galloway's name appears six times (contracts M/08/35, M/09/23, M/10/38, M/11/04, M/12/14, M/13/48) have been tampered with. They published a copy of contract M/09/23 and allege that George Galloway's name appears to have been added in a different font and at a different angle to the rest of the text on that line. In these documents (relating to oil allocations 8-13), Galloway is among just a few people whose nationality is never identified, whilst Zureikat is the only one whose nationality is identified in one instance but not in others. Galloway combatively countered the charges by accusing Coleman and other pro-war politicians of covering up the "theft of billions of dollars of Iraq's wealth... on your watch" that had occurred under a post-invasion Coalition Provisional Authority, committed by "Halliburton and other American corporations... with the connivance of your own government."
Galloway's response
On 17 May 2005, the committee held a hearing concerning specific allegations (of which Galloway was one part) relating to improprieties surrounding the Oil-for-Food programme. Attending Galloway's oral testimony and enquiring of him were two of the thirteen committee members: the chair (Coleman) and the ranking Democrat (Carl Levin).Upon Galloway's arrival in the US, he told Reuters, "I have no expectation of justice from a group of Christian fundamentalist and Zionist activists under the chairmanship of a neo-con George Bush". Galloway described Coleman as a "pro-war, neo-con hawk and the lickspittle of George W. Bush", who, he said, sought revenge against anyone who did not support the invasion of Iraq.
In his testimony, Galloway made the following statements in response to the allegations against him:
He questioned the reliability of evidence given by former Iraqi Vice President Taha Yassin Ramadan, stating that the circumstances of his captivity by American forces call into question the authenticity of the remarks. Galloway also pointed out an error in the report, where documents by The Daily Telegraph were said to have covered an earlier period from those held by the Senate. In fact the report's documents referred to the same period as those used by The Daily Telegraph, though Galloway pointed out that the presumed forgeries pertaining to the Christian Science Monitor report did refer to an earlier period.
Galloway also denounced the invasion of Iraq as having been based on "a pack of lies" in his Senate testimony. The U.S. media, in reporting his appearance, emphasised his blunt remarks on the war. The British media gave generally more positive coverage; TV presenter Anne Robinson said Galloway "quite frankly put the pride back in British politics" when introducing him for a prime time talk show.
A report by the then-majority Republican Party staff of the United States Senate Committee on Investigations published in October 2005 asserted that Galloway had given false "or misleading" testimony under oath when appearing before them. The report exhibits bank statements it claims show that £85,000 of proceeds from the Oil-for-Food Programme had been paid to Galloway's then-wife Amineh Abu-Zayyad. Galloway reiterated his denial of the charges and challenged the U.S. Senate committee to charge him with perjury. He claimed Coleman's motive was revenge over the embarrassment of his appearance before the committee in May.
Stance on the Islamic Republic of Iran
Galloway has attracted criticism from both the Left and the Right for his comments relating to the regime in Iran, and his work for the state-run satellite television channel, Press TV. Scott Long, writing in The Guardian, criticized Galloway's claim that "homosexuals aren't executed in Iran, just rapists", pointing out that current law in the country stipulates that "Penetrative sex acts between men can bring death on the first conviction". Long-time Gay Rights activist Peter Tatchell, also writing in The Guardian, accused Galloway of spouting "Iranian Propaganda", continuing: "His claim that lesbian and gay people are not at risk of execution in Iran is refuted by every reputable human rights organisation, including Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission and the International Lesbian and Gay Association."The Trotskyist Workers' Liberty also condemns Galloway, largely on the basis of his support and work for the current Iranian regime. In "No vote for Galloway - an open letter to the left", he is quoted from his Press TV interview with President Ahmadinejad as stating that he requires "police protection in London from the Iranian opposition because of my support for your election campaign. I mention this so you know where I’m coming from."
Controversies at university debating societies
On 2 November 2006, The Times reported that Galloway was in a fracas at the Oxford Union. He was there to discuss his book. () In his speech to the Union, Galloway claimed "that democracy in Cuba is more “free” than in the UK", and when questioned on this, he mentioned "that Oxford students are too privileged to understand what he was talking about". Three former state school students who met him afterwards and disputed this description, allege that Galloway said: "I don’t represent anyone’s views. I represent me. I don’t give a fuck what anyone else thinks." and: "You are confusing me with someone who gives a fuck". When the students tried to get Galloway to apologise, he asked for them to be removed from the room, but they left of their own accord. His assistant, Kevin Ovenden, alleged that the students Galloway swore at carried offensive placards, which was the cause of his behaviour, although the students denied this. His comments were criticised by several MPs, including Boris Johnson, who said: "there’s no need to swear" and Stephen Pound said: "If he wishes to be respected by anyone other than Fidel Castro he should apologise." A response to the incident on the Oxford Student website can be found.
Sectarian attack at airport
On 10 June 2007, Galloway claimed that he was the victim of a sectarian attack at Glasgow Airport. He believes that his attackers were on the way home from attending an Orange Order parade in London and that they attacked him because he is a Celtic fan. However, no arrest was made in connection with this.
Support for the Soviet Union
Galloway once stated "I am on the anti-imperialist left... If you are asking did I support the Soviet Union, yes I did. Yes, I did support the Soviet Union, and I think the disappearance of the Soviet Union is the biggest catastrophe of my life. If there was a Soviet Union today, we would not be having this conversation about plunging into a new war in the Middle East, and the US would not be rampaging around the globe."
Forbidden to enter Canada
On 20 March 2009, Galloway was advised by the Canada Border Services Agency he was deemed inadmissible to Canada on "security grounds" due to his involvement in the Viva Palestina aid convoy to the Gaza Strip following the 2008–2009 Israel–Gaza conflict. The Gaza Strip is governed by Hamas, which is on Canada's list of terrorist organisations. This resulted from a personal donation of £25,000 made by Galloway ten days earlier. The Canadians ruled (and maintained on appeal) that this constituted explicit support for Hamas, although Galloway argued it was not the case as the money was intended to be used for aid purposes.Galloway was on a lecture tour of North America, and was due to speak on war prevention and Gaza for a United Church congregation in Toronto, as well as for events in Mississauga, Ottawa and Montreal. Galloway was also described as an "infandous street-corner Cromwell" by Alykhan Velshi, communications director for Jason Kenney, Canada's Minister of Citizenship, Immigration and Multiculturalism. Galloway described the ban as "idiotic" and Immigration Minister Jason Kenney was accused by Jack Layton, leader of Canada's New Democratic Party (NDP), of being a "minister of censorship." Toronto Coalition to Stop the War, the group who invited Galloway to Canada, sought an emergency injunction to allow for his entry into Canada for the first speech in Toronto citing their rights to freedom of association and freedom of expression. On 30 March 2009, the Federal Court of Canada upheld the decision of the Canada Border Services Agency. Justice Luc Martineau cited non-citizens "do not have an unqualified right to enter in Canada. The admission of a foreign national to this country is a privilege determined by statute, regulation or otherwise, and not as a matter of right." The judge also noted "a proper factual record and the benefit of full legal argument...are lacking at the present time." Subsequently, Galloway canceled his Canadian tour and instead, delivered his speech over video link from New York to his Canadian audiences.
Galloway was allowed entry into Canada in October 2010, after a judge concluded that the original ban had been undertaken for political reasons. He continued to criticise Jason Kenney, saying that the minister had "damaged Canada's reputation" and had used "anti-terrorism" as a means of suppressing political debate. Galloway has also threatened to sue the Canadian government for the banning incident.
Forbidden to enter Egypt
On 8 January 2010, Galloway and his colleague Ron McKay were deported from Egypt immediately upon entry from Gaza. He had been attempting to help take 200 aid trucks into the blockaded Gaza Strip. They were driven by the police to the airport and put on a plane to London. The previous day an Egyptian soldier had been killed during clashes at the border with Hamas loyalists. Several Palestinians were also injured. The Foreign Ministry of Egypt released a statement reading: "George Galloway is considered persona non grata and will not be allowed to enter into Egypt again". Shortly after his deportation Galloway said, "It is a badge of honour to be deported by a dictatorship" and "I've been thrown out of better joints than that." He also vowed to go back to the Gaza strip. The Daily Record described his mood as "defiant".
Publishing / media activities
Autobiography
His autobiography, I'm Not The Only One, was published on 28 April 2004. The book's title is a quotation from the song "Imagine" by John Lennon. Armed Forces Minister Adam Ingram applied for an interim interdict to prevent the book's publication. Ingram asserted that Galloway's text, which stated that Ingram "played the flute in a sectarian, anti-Catholic, Protestant-supremacist Orange Order band", was in bad faith and defamatory, although Ingram's lawyers conceded that for a year as a teenager he had been a member of a junior Orange Lodge in Barlanark, Glasgow, and had attended three parades. The Judge, Lord Kingarth, decided to refuse an interim interdict, that the balance of the arguments favoured Galloway's publisher, and that the phrase "sectarian, anti-Catholic, Protestant-supremacist" was fair comment on that organisation. Although Ingram was not and never had been a flute-player, the defending advocate observed that "playing the flute carries no obvious defamatory imputation ... it is not to the discredit of anyone that he plays the flute." The judge ruled that Ingram should pay the full court costs of the hearing.
Fidel Castro Handbook
Galloway also published the Fidel Castro Handbook, a biography of the former Cuban President in 2006 (MQ Publications. ISBN 1-84072-688-1).
Friction Books
In 2005 Galloway established Friction Books, an imprint for fiction and non-fiction, with longstanding associate Ron McKay. Friction claimed its purpose was to publish "books that burn, books that cause controversy and get people talking". it has released at least two books: Paco Ignacio Taibo II novel An Easy Thing and Topple the Mighty by Leon Kuhn and Colin Gile.
Celebrity Big Brother
In January 2006 Galloway appeared on the fourth series of the reality show for three weeks. During his time on the programme he appeared in a scene where he licked milk from the cupped hands of another housemate in an incident that drew a large amount of criticism and mockery. This situation attracted further controvesy as Galloway was a sitting member of parliament at the time leading to the allegation that he was bringing parliament into disrepute.
Big Brother's Big Mouth
Galloway acted as the guest presenter for the E4 companion programme to the 2007 edition of Big Brother, Big Brother's Big Mouth, from 5 June to 8 June 2007.
talkSPORT
| Show name | The Mother of All Talk Shows |
|---|---|
| Italic title | no |
| Format | Political discussion |
| Runtime | Friday 22:00-01:00Saturday 22:00-01:00 |
| Country | UK |
| Language | English |
| Home station | talkSPORT |
| Syndicates | Talk 107 |
| Presenter | George Galloway |
| Rec location | Central London |
| Opentheme | The theme from Top Cat |
| Podcast | }} |
On 11 March 2006, Galloway started broadcasting on Britain's biggest commercial radio station, the UTV-owned talkSPORT, and two weeks later started a simultaneous broadcast on Talk 107, TalkSPORT's Edinburgh-based sister station.
Billed as "The Mother Of All Talk Shows", Galloway began every broadcast by playing the theme from the Top Cat cartoon series. UTV said that Galloway was pulling in record call numbers and the highest ever ratings for its weekend slots, even pulling in more than the station's Football First programme.
On 3 January 2009, after Galloway was manhandled by riot police in London at the demonstration in protest over the Israeli offensive in the Gaza strip, the director of programming replaced Galloway with Ian Collins, saying that this would allow for more balanced reporting of the situation.
Galloway halted presenting the show on March 27, 2010, due to campaign commitments in the 2010 UK General Election. During this time, he was replaced by Mike Graham.
In August 2010, Galloway returned to the radio station with a new show bearing a similar format to his original, but this time titled The Week with George Galloway, described by the station as a "No-holds barred review of the past seven days around the world". The show is broadcast during the 10pm-1am slot on Friday nights .
The Real Deal
On 21 May 2007, Galloway began presenting a programme titled The Real Deal on Raj TV, a satellite channel, broadcasting on Sky 171, primarily aimed at the British Asian community. Following a break, the show was resurrected on 10 February 2008 on Press TV, a Tehran-based news channel controlled by the government of Iran.
Comment
Galloway also hosts a 45-minute weekly current affairs show that invites the viewers to engage in lively debate on international political issues. The show is also filmed and broadcast from the London-bureau of Iranian state-controlled news channel Press TV. In 2009, the British telecommunications regulator Ofcom criticised Galloway "for breaking impartiality rules" regarding his coverage of the Israeli/Palestinian conflict and accused him of promoting "Iranian propaganda".
Mazher Mahmood
In March 2006 Galloway claimed in a statement that Mazher Mahmood, an undercover reporter for the News of the World who uses a disguise as a sheikh to frame celebrities, targeted him in an alleged sting operation. Galloway claims that Mahmood and an accomplice tried but failed to implicate him in illegal party funding, and to agree with anti-Semitic statements. Galloway wrote to the Metropolitan police commissioner and the Speaker of the House of Commons about the incident. He also released photographs of Mahmood and revealed other aspects of his activities. The News of the World lost a High Court action to prevent publication of photographs of Mahmood.
Asian Voice
Galloway has been involved in several publishing companies. He owned Asian Voice, which published a newspaper called East from 1996. It later transpired that the Pakistan Government was funding Galloway's company Asian Voice with several hundred-thousand-pounds. "Documents show that the Pakistan government agreed an initial budget for the weekly newspaper of £547,000. According to a memorandum dated 2 January 1996, the Pakistan government proposed to "covertly sponsor" the publication, with money allocated to "the Secret Fund of the High Commissioner for Pakistan in the UK as a special grant for the project". The Commons Committee cleared Galloway of any wrongdoing in this matter.
Daily Record column
As of 25 June 2007, Galloway has contributed a weekly column in the Daily Record giving his views on politics and popular culture. He used this column to reveal he was considering running for a seat in the Scottish Parliament in the May 2011 election.
The Guardian
Galloway is also a regular contributor to The Guardian, writing for both the newspaper and Comment Is Free, its sister political opinion forum at guardian.co.uk.
TV and film appearances
INN World Report (US) (2009) (TV)
As an orator
According to the Boston Globe, Galloway is "known, even in the highly articulate world of British politics, for his memorable turns of phrase", whereas The Times finds that he has "the gift of the Glasgow gab, a love of the stage and an inexhaustible fund of self-belief." The Guardian finds him "renowned for his colourful rhetoric and combative debating style" and the Spectator once awarded him Debater of the Year.).Galloway has not, however, received ubiquitously positive reaction to his use of rhetoric. On Friday 6th May, 2005, in an interview with Jeremy Paxman during the BBC election coverage, he was accused of being a demagogue; a term originally used by Labour Member of Parliament Nick Raynsford. The term was also used by Hugo Rifkind in The Times, in a satirical dissection of Respect's 2005 manifesto.
See also
References
External links
Video
General
Articles and news reports
US Congressional testimony & related
|-
Category:Anti-poverty advocates Category:Anti-Zionism in the United Kingdom Category:Big Brother UK contestants Category:British anti–Iraq War activists Category:British anti-war activists Category:British radio personalities Category:British columnists Category:British political writers Category:Labour Party (UK) politicians Category:Labour Party (UK) MPs Category:Members of the United Kingdom Parliament for English constituencies Category:Members of the United Kingdom Parliament for Scottish constituencies Category:People from Dundee Category:People from Glasgow Category:Personae non gratae Category:Respect Party politicians Category:Scottish Christian socialists Category:Scottish columnists Category:Scottish political writers Category:Scottish people of Irish descent Category:UK MPs 1987–1992 Category:UK MPs 1992–1997 Category:UK MPs 1997–2001 Category:UK MPs 2001–2005 Category:UK MPs 2005–2010 Category:United Nations Oil-for-Food scandal Category:1954 births Category:Living people Category:Deported people Category:People educated at Harris Academy
ar:جورج غالاوي cy:George Galloway de:George Galloway eo:George Galloway fa:جورج گالوی fr:George Galloway he:ג'ורג' גאלאוויי la:Georgius Galloway no:George Galloway nn:George Galloway pl:George Galloway ru:Гэллоуэй, Джордж fi:George Galloway sv:George Galloway tl:George Galloway uk:Джордж ҐалловейThis text is licensed under the Creative Commons CC-BY-SA License. This text was originally published on Wikipedia and was developed by the Wikipedia community.
| name | Rupert Murdoch |
|---|---|
| birth date | March 11, 1931 |
| birth name | Keith Rupert Murdoch |
| birth place | Melbourne, Australia |
| nationality | United States |
| citizenship | United States (naturalized 1985) |
| occupation | Chairman and CEO ofNews Corporation |
| networth | US$7.6 billion (2011) |
| spouse | (divorced) (divorced) |
| children | Prudence Murdoch (b. 1958) Elisabeth Murdoch (b. 1968) Lachlan Murdoch (b. 1971)James Murdoch (b. 1972)Grace Murdoch (b. 2001) Chloe Murdoch (b. 2003) |
| parents | Keith Murdoch (1885–1952)Elisabeth Joy (née Greene, b. 1909) |
| relatives | Matthew Freud (son-in-law)Sarah Murdoch (daughter-in-law) |
| awards | Companion of the Order of Australia (1984). |
| footnotes | Australian citizenship lost in 1985 (under S17 of Australian Citizenship Act 1948) with acquisition of US nationality }} |
Keith Rupert Murdoch, AC, KSG (born 11 March 1931) is an Australian American business magnate. He is the Chairman and CEO of , the world's second-largest media conglomerate.
In 1953, Murdoch became managing director of News Limited, inherited from his father. He acquired troubled newspapers in Australia and New Zealand during the 1950s and '60s before expanding into the UK in 1969, taking over the News of the World and then the The Sun, which he built into Britain's best selling daily. He moved to New York in 1974 and expanded into the US market, and in 1985 he became a US citizen. In 1981, he bought The Times, his first British broadsheet. In 1986, keen to adopt newer electronic publishing technologies, he consolidated his UK printing operations in Wapping, causing bitter industrial disputes. His News Corporation acquired Twentieth Century Fox (1985), HarperCollins (1989) and The Wall Street Journal (2007). He formed BSkyB in 1990 and during the 1990s expanded into Asian networks and South American television. By 2000 Murdoch's News Corporation owned over 800 companies in more than 50 countries with a net worth of over $5 billion.
In July 2011 Murdoch faced allegations that his companies including the News of the World, owned by News Corporation, had been regularly hacking the phones of private citizens. He also faces police and government investigations into bribery and corruption in the UK and FBI investigations in the US.
Murdoch has been listed three times in the Time 100 as among the most influential people in the world. He is ranked 13th most powerful person in the world in the 2010 Forbes' The World's Most Powerful People list. With a personal net worth of US$7.6 billion, he was ranked 117th wealthiest person in the world in March 2011.
Early life
Rupert Murdoch was born in Melbourne, the only son of Sir Keith Murdoch (1885–1952) and Elisabeth Joy (née Greene) (b. 1909). Elisabeth is of English and Scottish ancestry. They were both born in Melbourne. Keith was a renowned war correspondent and later a regional newspaper magnate. He asked for a rendezvous after seeing her debutante photograph in one of his own newspapers and they married in 1928, when she was aged 19 and he 23 years her senior. In addition to Rupert, the couple had three daughters: Janet Calvert-Jones, Anne Kantor and Helen Handbury (1929–2004).Rupert Murdoch attended the elite Geelong Grammar School, where he had his first experience of editing a publication, being co-editor of the school's official journal The Corian and editor of the student journal If Revived. He worked part time at the Melbourne Herald and was groomed by his father from an early age to take over the family business. Murdoch read Philosophy, Politics and Economics at Worcester College, Oxford University in England, where he supported the Labour Party. After his father's death from cancer in 1952, Elisabeth Murdoch went on to invest herself in charity work, as life governor of the Royal Women's Hospital in Melbourne and establishing the Murdoch Children's Research Institute. At 102 (in 2011) she has 74 descendants. Rupert Murdoch did an MA before working as a sub-editor with the Daily Express for two years.
Activities in Australia and New Zealand
Following his father's death, when he was 21, Murdoch returned from Oxford to take charge of the family business News Limited, which had been established in 1923. Rupert Murdoch turned its newspaper, Adelaide News, its main asset, into a major success. He began to direct his attention to acquisition and expansion, buying the troubled Sunday Times in Perth, Western Australia (1956) and over the next few years acquiring suburban and provincial newspapers in New South Wales, Queensland, Victoria and the Northern Territory, including the Sydney afternoon tabloid, The Daily Mirror (1960). The Economist describes Murdoch as "inventing the modern tabloid", as he developed a pattern for his newspapers, increasing sports and scandal coverage and adopting eye-catching headlines.Murdoch's first foray outside Australia involved the purchase of a controlling interest in the New Zealand daily The Dominion. In January 1964, while touring New Zealand with friends in a rented Morris Minor after sailing across the Tasman, Murdoch read of a takeover bid for the Wellington paper by the British-based Canadian newspaper magnate, Lord Thomson of Fleet. On the spur of the moment, he launched a counter-bid. A four-way battle for control ensued in which the 32-year-old Murdoch was ultimately successful. Later in 1964, Murdoch launched The Australian, Australia's first national daily newspaper, and its first broadsheet, which was based first in Canberra and later in Sydney. In 1972, Murdoch acquired the Sydney morning tabloid The Daily Telegraph from Australian media mogul Sir Frank Packer, who later regreted selling it to him. In 1984, Murdoch was awarded the Companion of the Order of Australia for services to publishing.
In 1999, Murdoch significantly expanded his music holdings in Australia by acquiring the controlling share in a leading Australian independent label, Michael Gudinski's Mushroom Records; he merged that with Festival Records, and the result was Festival Mushroom Records (FMR). Both Festival and FMR were managed by Murdoch's son James Murdoch for several years.
Political activities in Australia
Murdoch found a political ally in John McEwen, leader of the Australian Country Party (now known as the National Party of Australia), who was governing in coalition with the larger Menzies-Holt Liberal Party. From the very first issue of The Australian Murdoch began taking McEwen's side in every issue that divided the long-serving coalition partners. (The Australian, 15 July 1964, first edition, front page: "Strain in Cabinet, Liberal-CP row flares.") It was an issue that threatened to split the coalition government and open the way for the stronger Australian Labor Party to dominate Australian politics. It was the beginning of a long campaign that served McEwen well.After McEwen and Menzies retired, Murdoch threw his growing power behind the Australian Labor Party under the leadership of Gough Whitlam and duly saw it elected on a social platform that included universal free health care, free education for all Australians to tertiary level, recognition of the People's Republic of China, and public ownership of Australia's oil, gas and mineral resources. Rupert Murdoch's backing of Whitlam turned out to be brief. Murdoch had already started his short-lived National Star newspaper in America, and was seeking to strengthen his political contacts there.
Asked about the Australian federal election, 2007 at News Corporation's annual general meeting in New York on 19 October 2007, its chairman Rupert Murdoch said, "I am not commenting on anything to do with Australian politics. I'm sorry. I always get into trouble when I do that." Pressed as to whether he believed Prime Minister John Howard should be re-elected, he said: "I have nothing further to say. I'm sorry. Read our editorials in the papers. It'll be the journalists who decide that – the editors." In 2009, in response to accusations by Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd that News Limited was running vendettas against him and his government, Murdoch opined that Rudd was "oversensitive" Murdoch described Howard's successor, Labor Party Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, as "...more ambitious to lead the world [in tackling climate change] than to lead Australia..." and criticised Rudd's expansionary fiscal policies in the wake of the financial crisis of 2008 as unnecessary. Although News Limited's interests are extensive, also including the Daily Telegraph, the Courier-Mail and the Adelaide Advertiser, it was suggested by the commentator Mungo MacCallum in The Monthly that "the anti-Rudd push, if coordinated at all, was almost certainly locally driven" as opposed to being directed by Murdoch, who also took a different position from local editors on such matters climate change and stimulus packages to combat the financial crisis.
Activities in Britain
Business activities in Britain
In 1968 Murdoch entered the UK newspaper market with his acquisition of the populist News of the World, followed in 1969 with the purchase of the struggling daily broadsheet The Sun from IPC. Murdoch turned it into a tabloid format and reduced costs by using the same printing press for both newspapers. In 1997 The Sun attracted 10 million daily readers. In 1981, Murdoch acquired the struggling Times and Sunday Times from Canadian newspaper publisher Lord Thomson of Fleet. Ownership of The Times came to him through his relationship with Lord Thomson, who had grown tired of losing money on it as a result of much industrial action that stopped publication. In the light of success and expansion at The Sun the owners believed that Murdoch could turn the papers around. Harold Evans, Editor of the Sunday Times from 1967, was made head of the daily Times, though he stayed only a year amidst editorial conflict with Murdoch.
During the 1980s and early 1990s, Murdoch's publications were generally supportive of Britain's Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. At the end of the Thatcher/Major era, Murdoch switched his support to the Labour Party and its leader, Tony Blair. The closeness of his relationship with Blair and their secret meetings to discuss national policies was to become a political issue in Britain. Though this later started to change, with The Sun publicly renouncing the ruling Labour government and lending its support to David Cameron's Conservative Party, which soon after came to form a coalition government. Former Prime Minister Gordon Brown's official spokesman said in November 2009 that Brown and Murdoch "were in regular communication" and that "there is nothing unusual in the prime minister talking to Rupert Murdoch".
In 1986, Murdoch introduced electronic production processes to his newspapers in Australia, Britain and the United States. The greater degree of automation led to significant reductions in the number of employees involved in the printing process. In England, the move roused the anger of the print unions, resulting in a long and often violent dispute that played out in Wapping, one of London's docklands areas, where Murdoch had installed the very latest electronic newspaper purpose-built publishing facility in an old warehouse. The bitter dispute at Wapping started with the dismissal of 6,000 employees who had gone on strike and resulted in street battles and demonstrations. Many on the political left in Britain alleged the collusion of Margaret Thatcher's Conservative government with Murdoch in the Wapping affair, as a way of damaging the British trade union movement. In 1987, the dismissed workers accepted a settlement of £60 million.
Murdoch's British-based satellite network, Sky Television, incurred massive losses in its early years of operation. As with many of his other business interests, Sky was heavily subsidised by the profits generated by his other holdings, but convinced rival satellite operator British Satellite Broadcasting to accept a merger on his terms in 1990. They were quick to see advantages of direct to home (DTH) satellite broadcasting that did not require costly cable networks and the merged company, BSkyB, has dominated the British pay-TV market ever since. By 1996, BSkyB had more than 3.6 million subscribers, triple the number of cable customers in the UK.
In response to print media's decline and the increasing influence of online journalism during the 2000s, Murdoch proclaimed his support of the micropayments model for obtaining revenue from on-line news, although this has been criticised by some.
News Corporation has subsidiaries in the Bahamas, the Cayman Islands, the Channel Islands and the Virgin Islands. From 1986, News Corporation's annual tax bill averaged around seven percent of its profits.
Political activities in Britain
In Britain, in the 1980s, Murdoch formed a close alliance with Margaret Thatcher, and The Sun credited itself with helping John Major to win an unexpected election victory in the 1992 general election. In the general elections of 1997, 2001 and 2005, Murdoch's papers were either neutral or supported Labour under Tony Blair. This has led some critics to argue that Murdoch simply supports the incumbent parties (or those who seem most likely to win an upcoming election) in the hope of influencing government decisions that may affect his businesses. The Labour Party, under Blair, had moved from the Left to a more central position on many economic issues prior to 1997. Murdoch identifies himself as a libertarian, saying "What does libertarian mean? As much individual responsibility as possible, as little government as possible, as few rules as possible. But I'm not saying it should be taken to the absolute limit."In a speech delivered in New York, Rupert Murdoch said that the British Prime Minister Tony Blair described the BBC coverage of the Hurricane Katrina disaster as being full of hatred of America.
In 1998, Rupert Murdoch failed in his attempt to buy the football club Manchester United F.C. with an offer of £625 million. It was the largest amount ever offered for a sports club. It was blocked by the United Kingdom's Competition Commission, which stated that the acquisition would have "hurt competition in the broadcast industry and the quality of British football".
On 28 June 2006 the BBC reported that Murdoch and News Corporation were flirting with the idea of backing Conservative leader David Cameron at the next General Election. In a later interview in July 2006, when he was asked what he thought of the Conservative leader, Murdoch replied "Not much". In a 2009 blog, it was suggested that in the aftermath of the News of the World phone hacking scandal which is still ongoing in 2011 and might yet have Transatlantic implications Murdoch and News Corporation might have decided to back Cameron. Despite this, there had already been a convergence of interests between the two men over the muting of Britain's communications regulator Ofcom.
In 2006, Britain's Independent newspaper reported that Murdoch would offer Tony Blair a senior role in his global media company News Corporation when the prime minister stood down from office.
He is accused by former Solidarity MSP Tommy Sheridan of having a personal vendetta against him and of conspiring with MI5 to produce a video of him confessing to having affairs – allegations over which Sheridan had previously sued News International and won. On being arrested for perjury following the case, Sheridan claimed that the charges were "orchestrated and influenced by the powerful reach of the Murdoch empire".
In August 2008 British Conservative leader and future Prime Minister David Cameron accepted free flights to hold private talks and attend private parties with Murdoch on his yacht, the Rosehearty. Cameron has declared in the Commons register of interests he accepted a private plane provided by Murdoch's son-in-law, public relations guru Matthew Freud; Cameron has not revealed his talks with Murdoch. The gift of travel in Freud's Gulfstream IV private jet was valued at around £30,000. Other guests attending the "social events" included the then EU trade commissioner Lord Mandelson, the Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska and co-chairman of NBC Universal Ben Silverman. The Conservatives have not disclosed what was discussed.
In July 2011 it emerged that Cameron met key executives of Murdoch's News Corporation 26 times during the 14 months that Cameron had served as Prime Minister. It was also reported that Murdoch had given Cameron a personal guarantee that there would be no risk attached to hiring Andy Coulson, the former editor of News of the World, as the Conservative Party's communication director in 2007. This was in spite of Coulson having resigned as editor over phone hacking by a reporter. Cameron chose to take Murdoch's advice, despite warnings from Nick Clegg, Lord Ashdown and The Guardian. Coulson resigned his post in 2011 and was later arrested and questioned on allegations of further criminal activity at The News of the World, specifically the News International phone hacking scandal.
News International phone hacking scandal
In July 2011 Rupert Murdoch along with his son James gave testimony before a British parliamentary committee regarding phone hacking. In the U.K his media empire remains under fire as investigators continue to probe reports of other phone hacking.On 14 July, the Culture, Media and Sport Committee of the House of Commons served a summons on Murdoch, his son James, and his former CEO Rebekah Brooks to testify before a committee on 19 July. After an initial refusal, the Murdochs confirmed they would attend after the committee issued them a summons to Parliament. The day before the committee, the website of the News Corporation publication The Sun was hacked, and a bogus story was posted on the front page claiming that Murdoch had died. Murdoch described the day of the committee "the most humble day of my life". He argued that since he ran a global business of 53,000 employees and that the News of the World was "just 1%" of this, he was not ultimately responsible for what went on at the tabloid. He added that he had not considered resigning, and that he and the other top executives had been completely unaware of the hacking.
On 15 July Rupert Murdoch attended a private meeting in London with the family of Milly Dowler, where he personally apologised for the hacking of their murdered daughter's voicemail by a company he owns. On 16 and 17 July, News International published two full-page apologies in many of Britain's national newspapers. The first apology took the form of a letter, signed by Rupert Murdoch, in which he said sorry for the "serious wrongdoing" that occurred. The second was titled "Putting right what's gone wrong", and gave more detail about the steps News International was taking to address the public's concerns. In the wake of the allegations Murdoch accepted the resignations of Rebekah Brooks, head of Murdoch's British operations, and Les Hinton, head of The Wall Street Journal who was chairman of Murdoch's British newspaper division when some of the abuses happened. They both deny any knowledge of any wrong-doing under their command.
Activities in the United States
Murdoch made his first acquisition in the United States in 1973, when he purchased the San Antonio Express-News. Soon afterwards, he founded Star, a supermarket tabloid, and in 1976, he purchased the New York Post. On 4 September 1985, Murdoch became a naturalised citizen to satisfy the legal requirement that only US citizens were permitted to own American television stations. This resulted in Murdoch losing his Australian citizenship. Also in 1985, Murdoch purchased the 20th Century Fox movie studio.In 1986, Murdoch purchased six television stations owned by Metromedia. These stations would form the nucleus of the Fox Broadcasting Company, founded on 9 October 1986, which would go on to have great success with programmes such as The Simpsons and The X-Files. In 1987 in Australia, he bought The Herald and Weekly Times Ltd, the company that his father had once managed. By 1990 News Corporation had built up debts of $7 billion (much from Sky TV in the UK). forcing Murdoch to sell many of the American magazine interests he had acquired in the mid-1980s. In 1993 took exclusive of the National Football League (NFL) from CBS and increased programming to seven days a week. In 1995, Murdoch's Fox Network became the object of scrutiny from the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), when it was alleged that News Ltd.'s Australian base made Murdoch's ownership of Fox illegal. However, the FCC ruled in Murdoch's favour, stating that his ownership of Fox was in the best interests of the public. That same year, Murdoch announced a deal with MCI Communications to develop a major news website and magazine, The Weekly Standard. Also that year, News Corporation launched the Foxtel pay television network in Australia in partnership with Telstra. In 1996, Murdoch decided to enter the cable news market with the Fox News Channel, a 24-hour cable news station. Ratings studies released in 2009 showed that the network was responsible for nine of the top ten programs in the "Cable News" category at that time. Rupert Murdoch and Ted Turner (founder and former owner of CNN) are long-standing rivals. In late 2003, Murdoch acquired a 34 percent stake in Hughes Electronics, the operator of the largest American satellite TV system, DirecTV, from General Motors for $6 billion (USD). His Fox movie studio would go on to have global hits with Titanic and Avatar.In 2004, Murdoch announced that he was moving News Corporation headquarters from Adelaide, Australia to the United States. Choosing a US domicile was designed to ensure that American fund managers could purchase shares in the company, since many were deciding not to buy shares in non-US companies. Some analysts believed that News Corporation's Australian domicile was leading to the company being undervalued compared with its peers.
On 20 July 2005, News Corporation bought Intermix Media Inc., which held Myspace, Imagine Games Network and other social networking-themed websites, for $580 million USD, making Murdoch a major in online media concerns. In June 2011, it sold off Myspace for US$35 million. On 11 September 2005, News Corporation announced that it would buy IGN Entertainment for $650 million (USD).
In May 2007, Murdoch made a $5 billion offer to purchase Dow Jones. At the time, the Bancroft family, who had owned the Dow Jones for 105 years and controlled 64% of the shares at the time, firmly declined the offer, opposing Murdoch's much-used strategy of slashing employee numbers and gutting existing systems. Later, the Bancroft family confirmed a willingness to consider a sale. Besides Murdoch, the Associated Press reported that supermarket magnate Ron Burkle and Internet entrepreneur Brad Greenspan were among the other interested parties. In 2007, Murdoch had acquired Dow Jones, an acquisition which gave Murdoch such publications as The Wall Street Journal, Barron's Magazine, the Far Eastern Economic Review (based in Hong Kong) and SmartMoney.
Support for American politicians and political positions
McNight (2010) identifies four characteristics of his media operations: free market ideology; unified positions on matters of public policy; global editorial meetings; and opposition to a perceived liberal bias in other public media.On 8 May 2006, the Financial Times reported that Murdoch would be hosting a fund-raiser for Senator Hillary Clinton's (D-New York) Senate re-election campaign. In a 2008 interview with Walt Mossberg, Murdoch was asked whether he had "anything to do with the New York Post's endorsement of Barack Obama in the democratic primaries." Without hesitating, Murdoch replied, "Yeah. He is a rock star. It's fantastic. I love what he is saying about education. I don't think he will win Florida... but he will win in Ohio and the election. I am anxious to meet him. I want to see if he will walk the walk." Murdoch is a strong supporter of Israel and its domestic policies.
In 2010 News Corporation gave $1 million to the Republican Governors Association and $1 million to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.
Murdoch also served on the board of directors of the libertarian Cato Institute.
Italy
Murdoch owns controlling interest in Sky Italia, a satellite television provider in Italy. Murdoch's business interest in Italy have been a source contention since they began.ref Name="BW"/> In 2010 Murdoch won a media dispute with Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi. A judge ruled the Italian Prime Minister's media arm Mediaset prevented News Corporation's Italian unit, Sky Italia, from buying advertisements on its television networks.
Expansion in Asia
In 1993, Murdoch acquired Star TV, a Hong Kong company founded by Richard Li for $1 billion (Souchou, 2000:28), and subsequently set up offices for it throughout Asia. The deal enables News International to broadcast from Hong Kong to India, China, Japan and over thirty other countries in Asia, becoming one of the biggest satellite TV networks in the east.However, the deal did not work out as Murdoch had planned, because the Chinese government placed restrictions on it that prevented it from reaching most of China.
Family
Marriages
In 1956 Murdoch married Patricia Booker, a former shop assistant and flight attendant from Melbourne and they had their first child, Prudence, in 1958. Rupert and Patricia Murdoch divorced in 1967. In 1967 Murdoch married Anna Torv, a Scottish-born cadet journalist working for his Sydney newspaper The Daily Telegraph (not to be mistaken for the actress Anna Torv of Fringe who is the elder Torv's niece). During his marriage to Torv, a Roman Catholic, Murdoch was awarded the KSG, a papal honour. Torv and Murdoch had three children: Elisabeth Murdoch (born in Sydney, Australia on 22 August 1968), Lachlan Murdoch (born in London, UK on 8 September 1971), and James Murdoch, (born in London on 13 December 1972). Murdoch's companies published two novels by his then wife: Family Business (1988) and Coming to Terms (1991), both widely regarded as vanity publications. They divorced in June 1999. Anna Murdoch received a settlement of US$ 1.2 billion in assets.On 25 June 1999, 17 days after divorcing his second wife, Murdoch, then aged 68, married Chinese-born Deng Wendi (Wendi Deng). She was 30, a recent Yale School of Management graduate, and a newly appointed vice-president of his STAR TV. Murdoch has two children with her.
Murdoch's children and their business interests
Murdoch has six children. His eldest child Prudence MacLeod was appointed, on 28 January 2011, to the board of Times Newspapers Ltd, part of News International, which publishes The Times and The Sunday Times. Murdoch's eldest son Lachlan, formerly the deputy chief operating officer at the News Corporation and the publisher of the New York Post, was Murdoch's heir apparent before resigning from his executive posts at the global media company at the end of July 2005. Lachlan's departure left James Murdoch chief executive of the satellite television service British Sky Broadcasting since November 2003, as the only Murdoch son still directly involved with the company's operations, though Lachlan has agreed to remain on the News Corporation's board.After graduating from Vassar College and marrying classmate Elkin Kwesi Pianim (the son of Ghanaian financial and political mogul Kwame Pianim) in 1993, Murdoch's daughter Elisabeth, along with her husband, purchased a pair of NBC-affiliate television stations in California, KSBW and KSBY, with a $35 million loan provided by her father. By quickly re-organising and re-selling them at a $12 million profit in 1995, Elisabeth emerged as an unexpected rival to her brothers for the eventual leadership of the publishing dynasty's empire. But after divorcing her first husband in 1998 and quarrelling publicly with her assigned mentor Sam Chisholm at BSkyB, she struck out on her own as a television and film producer in London. She has since enjoyed independent success, in conjunction with her second husband, Matthew Freud, the great-grandson of Sigmund Freud (the founder of psychoanalysis) whom she met in 1997 and married in 2001.
It is not known how long Murdoch will remain as News Corporation's CEO. For a while the American cable television entrepreneur John Malone was the second-largest voting shareholder in News Corporation after Murdoch himself, potentially undermining the family's control. In 2007, the company announced that it would sell certain assets and give cash to Malone's company in exchange for its stock. In 2007, the company issued Murdoch's older children voting stock.
Rupert Murdoch has two children with Wendi Deng: Grace (b. New York, 19 November 2001) and Chloe (b. New York, 17 July 2003). There is reported to be tension between Murdoch and his oldest children over the terms of a trust holding the family's 28.5 percent stake in News Corporation, estimated in 2005 to be worth about $6.1 billion. Under the trust, his children by Wendi Deng share in the proceeds of the stock but have no voting privileges or control of the stock. Voting rights in the stock are divided 50/50 between Murdoch on the one side and his children of his first two marriages. Murdoch's voting privileges are not transferable but will expire upon his death and the stock will then be controlled solely by his children from the prior marriages, although their half-siblings will continue to derive their share of income from it. It is Murdoch's stated desire to have his children by Deng given a measure of control over the stock proportional to their financial interest in it (which would mean, if Murdoch dies while at least one of the children is a minor, that Deng would exercise that control). It does not appear that he has any strong legal grounds to contest the present arrangement, and both ex-wife Anna and their three children are said to be strongly resistant to any such change.
Portrayal on television, in film, books and music
Rupert Murdoch and rival newspaper and publishing magnate Robert Maxwell are thinly fictionalised as "Keith Townsend" and "Richard Armstrong" in The Fourth Estate by British novelist and former MP Jeffrey Archer.Rupert Murdoch has been portrayed by Barry Humphries in the 1991 mini-series Selling Hitler, Hugh Laurie in a parody of It's a Wonderful Life in the television show A Bit of Fry & Laurie, Ben Mendelsohn in the film Black and White, Paul Elder in The Late Shift and by himself on The Simpsons first in "Sunday, Cruddy Sunday" and most recently in "Judge Me Tender".
It has been speculated that the character of Elliot Carver, the global media magnate and main villain in the 1997 James Bond movie Tomorrow Never Dies, is based on Rupert Murdoch. The writer of the film, Bruce Feirstein, has stated that Carver was actually inspired by British press magnate Robert Maxwell, who was one of Murdoch's rivals. Since both Rupert Murdoch and Robert Maxwell had the same initials they were often confused by the public. This confusion was exploited by the writers of the British situation comedy 'Drop the Dead Donkey' which was set in a TV newsroom who chose to name the fictional proprietor Sir Roysten Merchant (initials RM). The writers state on their DVD commentares that it was "fortunate" for them that the two men shared the same initials.
In the 1997 film Fierce Creatures, the head of Octopus Inc. Rod McCain (initials R.M.) character is likely modeled after Rupert Murdoch.
In 1999, the Ted Turner owned TBS aired an original sitcom, The Chimp Channel. This featured an all-simian cast and the role of an Australian TV veteran named Harry Waller. The character is described as "a self-made gazillionaire with business interests in all sorts of fields. He owns newspapers, hotel chains, sports franchises and genetic technologies, as well as everyone's favorite cable TV channel, The Chimp Channel." Waller is thought to be a parody of Murdoch, a long-time rival of Turner's.
In 2004, the movie Outfoxed included many interviews accusing Fox News of pressuring reporters to report only one side of news stories, in order to influence viewers' political opinions.
Remuneration and wealth
According to the 2011 list of Forbes richest Americans, Murdoch is the 38th richest person in the US and the 117th-richest person in the world, with a net worth of $7.6 billion.
See also
Notes
References
External links
Category:Living people Category:1931 births
Category:Alumni of Worcester College, Oxford Category:American businesspeople Category:American billionaires Category:American publishers (people) Category:American mass media owners Category:American people of Australian descent Category:Australian billionaires Category:Australian businesspeople Category:Australian emigrants to the United States Category:Australian mass media owners Category:Australian people of Scottish descent Category:Businesspeople from Melbourne Category:Companions of the Order of Australia Category:Critics of the European Union Category:Fox Broadcasting Company executives Category:Los Angeles Dodgers owners Category:Major League Baseball owners Category:Major League Baseball executives Category:Murdoch family Category:Naturalized citizens of the United States Category:New York Post people Category:News Corporation people Category:News International phone hacking scandal Category:Newspaper publishers (people) Category:People educated at Geelong Grammar School Category:People from Adelaide
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| name | Adam Boulton |
|---|---|
| birth date | February 15, 1959 |
| birth place | Reading, Berkshire |
| education | Oxford UniversityJohns Hopkins University |
| occupation | Journalist |
| spouse | Anji Hunter |
| credits | Political Editor Sky News |
| url | }} |
Adam Boulton (born 15 February 1959 in Reading, Berkshire) is political editor of the British television channel Sky News, a post he has held since being asked to establish the politics team for the launch of the channel in 1989.
Biography
Boulton attended Westminster School and has Masters degrees from the University of Oxford and Johns Hopkins University.
Career
Before joining Sky News, Boulton worked as a journalist in the parliamentary "lobby." He was then political editor for TV-am, where his colleague Kay Burley also worked for TV-am and she too joined Sky News. It was during the 1987 general election that he was punched by Denis Healey after Anne Diamond asked Healey about his wife using private healthcare; the incident was witnessed by gossip columnist Nigel Dempster.Boulton presents Boulton & Co from 1pm to 2pm Monday to Friday on the channel and also maintains a blog on the Sky News website. While he does not have a regular weekday show of his own, he does frequently appear during the week to report on breaking political stories. He has interviewed every British Prime Minister from Gordon Brown back to Sir Alec Douglas-Home, international stars and influential figures. On 15 June 2008 he became the first British television reporter to conduct a joint interview of U.S. President George W. Bush and his wife Laura.
He also presents PMQs, on a Wednesday evening with regular guests to discuss the performance of ministers involved in the House of Commons earlier in the day and more seriously, the legislation and ideas that they present to the house.
He has written for newspapers and magazines including The Times, Sunday Times, Guardian, Spectator, New Statesman and Independent. He has been a guest of programmes such as Newsnight, Bremner, Bird and Fortune and Have I Got News For You.
He is a winner of the Royal Television Society's supreme Judge's Award and was elected 2007 Chairman of the Parliamentary Lobby.
Boulton was based in Washington, D.C. from January 2009, covering the First 100 days of Barack Obama's Presidency of the United States for Sky News.
On 22 April 2010, during the UK General Election campaign, Boulton hosted Sky News' 'Leaders' Debate' live from Bristol, the second in a series of three televised debates between Gordon Brown, David Cameron and Nick Clegg produced, in turn, and on consecutive Thursdays, by ITV News, Sky News and the BBC.
On 10 May 2010, while covering events on the aftermath of the 2010 general election Boulton lost his composure with former 10 Downing Street Director of Communications, Alastair Campbell defending his impartiality in a live on-air interview after Campbell accused Boulton of political bias in favour of the Conservatives. Boulton shouted at Campbell: "Don't tell me what I think". At the time both Labour and the Conservatives were trying to broker a deal with the Liberal Democrats aimed at forming a coalition government. An extremely similar disagreement occurred later on that evening in an exchange with Ben Bradshaw. The media regulator Ofcom received several hundred complaints about the Campbell incident from viewers. During the campaign he had been asked to calm down by Peter Mandelson when he questioned him about possible spending cuts that the Financial Times believed would have to be made following the election. He was also accused of bias for the way he questioned Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg, it was claimed in contravention of the pre-established rules, during the Leader's debate hosted by Sky News. Ofcom rejected the complaints On the 20th January 2011 Boulton once again interviewed Alastair Campbell on Sky News, ahead of Tony Blair's appearance in front of the Iraq Inquiry. Both apologised about the incident and shook hands at the end of the interview.
Personal life
Boulton divorced his first wife after his affair with Tony Blair's spin doctor Anji Hunter became front page tabloid news in 2002. Both have children from their previous marriages. The couple married at St James's Church, Piccadilly on the 22 July 2006, in a wedding attended by Blair and a number of current and former ministers, including David Blunkett, Tessa Jowell and Peter Hain, as well as Mick Hucknall and BP boss Lord Browne.
Bibliography
References
External links
Category:1959 births Category:Living people Category:Old Westminsters Category:Alumni of the University of Oxford Category:Johns Hopkins University alumni Category:People from Reading, Berkshire Category:English political pundits Category:English television journalists Category:English television presenters Category:Sky newsreaders and journalists
cy:Adam BoultonThis text is licensed under the Creative Commons CC-BY-SA License. This text was originally published on Wikipedia and was developed by the Wikipedia community.
| Name | Alastair Campbell |
|---|---|
| Office | Downing Street Director of Communications and Strategy |
| Term start | 15 July 2000 |
| Term end | 29 August 2003 |
| Primeminister | Tony Blair |
| Office2 | Downing Street Press Secretary |
| Term start2 | 2 May 1997 |
| Term end2 | 15 July 2000 |
| Primeminister2 | Tony Blair |
| Birth date | May 25, 1957 |
| Birth place | Yorkshire, England, UK |
| Alma mater | Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge |
| Party | Labour |
| Occupation | Journalist, author, broadcaster |
| Partner | Fiona Millar |
| Children | 3 |
| Religion | Atheist |
| Signature | AlastairCampbellSignature.gif }} |
Early life
Alastair John Campbell was born on 25 May 1957 in Yorkshire, son of a Scottish veterinary surgeon, Donald Campbell, and his wife Elizabeth. Campbell's parents had moved to Keighley when his father became a partner in a local veterinary practice. Donald was a Gaelic-speaker from the island of Tiree; his wife was from Ayrshire. Campbell has two elder brothers, Donald and Graeme, and a younger sister, Elizabeth. Even though Alastair was born in Yorkshire, he would go over the county border to Lancashire to watch Burnley Football Club with his father, Donald.He attended City of Leicester Boys' Grammar School and Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge, where he studied modern languages, French and German, for which he received an upper second (2:1). He later claimed he wrote essays based solely on works of literary criticism, often rather than having read the works themselves. He spent a year in the south of France as part of his degree course.
Campbell became interested in journalism. His first published work was Inter-City Ditties, his winning entry to a readers' competition in the pornographic magazine Forum. This led to a lengthy stint writing pieces for the magazine with such titles as Busking with Bagpipes and The Riviera Gigolo, written in a style calculated to lead readers at the time to believe they were descriptions of his own sexual exploits.
Campbell became a sports reporter on the Tavistock Times. His first significant contribution to the news pages was coverage of the Penlee lifeboat disaster. As a trainee on the Plymouth-based Sunday Independent, then owned by Mirror Group Newspapers, he met his partner Fiona Millar, with whom he has three children, two sons (born November 1987 and July 1989) and a daughter (born May 1993).
National newspapers
Campbell moved to the London office of the Daily Mirror, England's sole remaining big-circulation supporter of the Labour Party. He became a political correspondent. His rapid rise and its accompanying stress led to alcohol abuse.
Alcoholism and depression
Campbell was admitted to hospital in 1986 when he travelled to Scotland to cover Neil Kinnock's visit to Glasgow. He was detained by the police for his own safety after being observed behaving oddly. Police contacted his partner and following her calls to friends in Scotland the police let a family friend take Campbell to Ross Hall Hospital, a private BMI hospital in Glasgow where she and her father visited him. Over the next five days as an inpatient he was given medication to calm him, and he realised that he had an alcohol problem after seeing the psychiatrist. Campbell said that from that day onwards he counted each one that he did not drink alcohol, and did not stop counting until he had reached thousands.Campbell returned to England, preferring to stay with friends near Cheltenham, rather than return to London (and his partner) where he did not feel safe. His condition continued with a phase of depression, and he was reluctant to seek further medical help. He eventually cooperated with treatment from his family doctor.
Return to work
His first son was born in 1987; and when Campbell returned to the Daily Mirror, he had to restart at a low grade again and work nightshifts, but rebuilt his career and became political editor.He was a close advisor of Neil Kinnock, going on holiday with the Kinnocks, and worked closely with Robert Maxwell. Campbell's loyalty to Maxwell was demonstrated when he punched The Guardian journalist Michael White after White joked about "Captain Bob, Bob, Bob...bobbing" in the Atlantic Ocean shortly after Maxwell's drowning in 1991. Campbell later put this down to stress at the thought of himself and others losing their job following the demise of the Daily Mirror proprietor.
After leaving the Mirror, Campbell became political editor of Today, a full-colour tabloid newspaper which had launched in 1986, but was now trying to turn leftward. He was working there when John Smith died in 1994. He was a well-known face and helped to interview the three candidates for the new Labour Party leader; it was later revealed he had already formed links with Tony Blair.
Politics and government
Shortly after Blair won and became leader of the Labour Party in 1994, Campbell left the newspaper to become his spokesman. Having recovered and become teetotal, he told Blair about his illness, which Blair did not see as a problem. He played an important role in the run-up to the 1997 general election, working with Peter Mandelson to co-ordinate Labour's campaign. He also worked hard to win support from the national media for the Labour Party, particularly from the newspapers who for many years had been anti-Labour. By March 1997, many of the leading newspapers - including The Sun, once a staunch Thatcherite paper - had declared their support for Labour.He moved into government when Labour won the general election in May 1997 and was the Prime Minister's chief press secretary until 2000. He then moved to the post of Prime Minister's Director of Communications which gave him a strategic role in overseeing government communications. He was sponsored by the US President George W. Bush to complete the London marathon in aid of a cancer charity, Leukaemia Research.
Iraq War
In the runup to the Iraq War Campbell was involved in the preparation and release of the "September Dossier" in September 2002 and the "Iraq Dossier" in February 2003. These documents argued the case for concern over possible weapons of mass destruction (WMDs) in Iraq. Both have been criticized as overstating or distorting the actual intelligence findings. Subsequent investigation revealed that the September Dossier had been altered, on Campbell's orders, to be consistent with a speech given by George W. Bush and statements by other United States officials. On 9 September 2002, Campbell sent a memo to John Scarlett, the chairman of the Joint Intelligence Committee, in which Campbell directed that the British dossier be "one that complements rather than conflicts with" the U.S. claims.Later in 2003, commenting on WMDs in Iraq he said, "Come on, you don't seriously think we won't find anything?". He resigned in August 2003 during the Hutton Inquiry into the death of David Kelly. (Kelly's view that the government grossly exaggerated the Iraqi threat in the notorious 'dodgy dossier', told to BBC journalists Andrew Gilligan and Susan Watts, had led to Campbell battling with the BBC. "The government was determined to use Dr Kelly in its battle against the BBC, and he and Defence Secretary Geoff Hoon had taken the decision, in Campbell's words, 'to fuck Gilligan'. The counsel for the Kelly family said to Lord Hutton: 'The family invite the inquiry to find that the government made a deliberate decision to use Dr Kelly as a pawn as part of its strategy in its battle with the BBC.')
Campbell gave evidence to the Iraq Inquiry on 12 January 2011.
Later career
Campbell worked again for the Labour Party in the run-up to the May 2005 General Election. Sir Clive Woodward recruited Campbell to manage relations with the press for the British and Irish Lions tour to New Zealand in 2005. Campbell wrote a column for The Times during the tour.Throughout his time in Downing Street, Campbell kept a diary which reportedly totalled some two million words. Selected extracts, entitled The Blair Years, were published on 9 July 2007. Subsequent press coverage of the book's release included coverage of what Campbell had chosen to leave out, particularly in respect of the relationship between Blair and his Chancellor and successor, Gordon Brown. Campbell expressed an intention to one day publish the diaries in fuller form, and indicated in the introduction to the book that he did not wish to make matters harder for Brown in his new role as Prime Minister, or to damage the Labour Party.
Campbell has his own website and blog, as well as several pages on social networking websites. He uses these platforms to discuss British politics and other topics close to his heart. So far, Campbell's commentaries and views have garnered media attention and generated ample interest among various on-line communities. In October 2008, he broadcast the personal story of his mental illness in a television documentary partly to reduce the stigma of that illness. He has written a novel on the subject entitled All in the Mind.
Campbell appeared as a mentor in the BBC Two series The Speaker in April 2009 offering his advice on persuasive speaking. He is a lifelong supporter of Burnley Football Club and writes about their exploits in a column called "Turf Moor Diaries" for the FanHouse UK football blog . He is regularly involved in many different events with Burnley Football Club.
Campbell made his first appearance on the BBC One political discussion programme Question Time on 27 May 2010. At the opening of the edition, presenter David Dimbleby said that Downing Street would not allow a front bench member of the government to appear on the show unless Campbell was dropped. The BBC refused to do this. The Government later accused the BBC of behaving improperly for allowing Campbell to appear as a more in-depth version of his diaries was due to be published the following week, and a Downing Street spokesman told The Guardian, "Campbell seemed to be on because he's flogging a book next week, so the BBC haven't behaved entirely properly here." Campbell said that he had waited until Labour were in opposition before appearing on the show and that the date was a coincidence as it was the only time he was free. He suggested the discord was part of a Conservative anti-BBC agenda. The Minister who had been scheduled to appear was the then Chief Secretary to the Treasury David Laws who Campbell produced a picture of during the programme. Three days later Laws resigned his post following revelations about possible irregularities in his expenses claims in The Telegraph the day before.
Campbell appeared on BBC's Top Gear in July 2010 and set a time of 1:47 around the Top Gear Test Track in the Star in a Reasonably-Priced Car segment, setting the second fastest time around the track at that time.
He also took part in the 2011 Channel Four television series Jamie's Dream School.
In 2011, Campbell contacted the Metropolitan Police with suspicions that his phone was hacked by the News of the World in 2003.
Stage and screen portrayals
A regular feature of Bremner, Bird and Fortune is a satirical version of Campbell's discussions with Tony Blair, in which Rory Bremner plays Blair and Andrew Dunn plays Campbell. In 2005, Campbell was played by Jonathan Cake in the Channel 4 television film The Government Inspector, based on the David Kelly Case. The following year, he was portrayed by Mark Bazeley in the Stephen Frears film The Queen - a role reprised by Bazeley in 2010 follow-up The Special Relationship, also written by Peter Morgan but this time directed by Richard Loncraine. Alex Jennings, who portrayed Prince Charles in The Queen, portrayed Campbell in the television drama A Very Social Secretary. In an episode of Dead Ringers his close relationship with Tony Blair is satirized in an imaginary scenario where Tony is divorcing his wife. He is asked if it will be difficult to sack the person he most loves and cherishes replying "I'm not sacking Alistair Campbell"It is also hinted that the character of Malcolm Tucker from the BBC political satire comedy The Thick of It is loosely based on Campbell. Tucker is famous for his short fuse and use of very strong language. Campbell himself seems to have a few qualms about being associated with the character. In an interview with Mark Kermode on BBC2's The Culture Show, he denied that the two are similar in any relevant way, but admitted to his liberal use of profanities in the workplace.
Selected works
The Blair Years (2007). Random House. ISBN 0-09-951475-3 All in the Mind (2008). Hutchinson. ISBN 0-09-192578-9 Maya (2010). Hutchinson. ISBN 0-09-193087-1
References
Further reading
External links
Category:1957 births Category:Living people Category:Alumni of Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge Category:English people of Scottish descent Category:British newspaper editors Category:British public relations people Category:British special advisers Category:English atheists Category:Labour Party (UK) officials Category:People from Leicester Category:Witnesses of the Iraq Inquiry
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