Malcolm Brabant

Malcolm J Brabant (born 1955 Willesden) is a freelance British journalist. Having trained with the BBC, he was employed by them for more than 20 years, reporting from various locations. Described as the "King of the Stringers", Brabant has also worked for UNICEF.

Early life

Brabant was born in 1955 in Willesden, in the London borough of Brent, and raised in and around the large town of Ipswich in Suffolk in the East of England.

Brabant was educated at Northgate Grammar School for Boys (now part of Northgate High School), a former state grammar school in Ipswich, from 1966 to 1973.

Career

After training with the BBC, Brabant worked on Anglia Today. He then went freelance to become an overseas correspondent. Working as a "Stringer" – a journalist paid by the news organisations on a per-piece basis – for 22 years he reported from various overseas territories and on numerous news stories, including Sarajevo,Montserrat,Denmark,Greece, the United States and the Middle East.

In 2008 following a BBC corporation wide review led by Mark Byford, BBC News introduced new money-savings contracts. Previously, BBC News had bought all material from their contract freelance journalists, in whatever form: written; sound recorded; television media; editorial. Under the new contract, it was proposed that the BBC would only buy the required pieces, while restricting contracted freelancers solely to working for BBC News. Brabant led the orchestrated opposition, which resulted in him and other freelance journalists being allowed to sell the non-required pieces to other news organisations. Hence in 2009, after BBC News bought Brabant's written follow-up piece on the Danish cartoon controversy for their website, Brabant sold the visual recording to other news organisations. Other freelance journalists later commented that Brabant had single-handedly saved British freelance journalism.

Desperate Journey

Desperate Journey is a 1942 American World War II action and aviation film starring Errol Flynn and Ronald Reagan, directed by Raoul Walsh. The supporting cast includes Raymond Massey, Alan Hale, Sr., and Arthur Kennedy. The melodramatic film featured a group of downed Allied airmen making their way out of the Third Reich, often with their fists.

Plot

Assigned to bomb a German railway, Flight Lt. Terrence Forbes (Errol Flynn) presses home an attack but flies too low and the RAF bomber is shot down near the former Polish border. Along with his crew, consisting of Flying Officer Johnny Hammond (Ronald Reagan), Flight Sergeant Kirk Edwards (Alan Hale, Sr.), Flying Officer Jed Forrest (Arthur Kennedy) and Flight Sergeant Lloyd Hollis (Ronald Sinclair) who is wounded, they are captured by the Germans.

Gestapo Major Otto Baumeister (Raymond Massey) interviews Hammond who gives a baffling account of their bomber's technology and suddenly knocks the major unconscious. Forbes then subdues the other soldiers, the group searches the major's office and find papers showing a hidden Messerschmitt aircraft factory. Setting out on their dangerous trip across enemy territory, they first obtain German uniforms and board a train heading west. On their route, they attack and destroy a chemical plant but realize they need a doctor for their wounded crew member. With the help of Kaethe Brahms (Nancy Coleman), a member of the underground, they locate a doctor, but it is already too late to save Hollis.

Peabody Award

The George Foster Peabody Awards (or simply Peabody Awards) program, named for American businessman and philanthropist George Peabody, recognizes distinguished and meritorious public service by American radio and television stations, networks, online media, producing organizations, and individuals.

Reflecting excellence in quality, rather than popularity or commercial success, the Peabody is awarded to about 25–35 winners annually from more than 1,000 entries. Because submissions are accepted from a wide variety of sources and styles, deliberations seek "Excellence On Its Own Terms".

Each entry is evaluated on the achievement of standards it establishes within its own contexts. Entries are self-selected by those making submissions, for which a US$350 fee (US$225 for radio) is required.

History

In 1938, the National Association of Broadcasters formed a committee to recognize outstanding achievement in radio broadcasting. Committee member Lambdin Kay, public-service director for WSB radio in Atlanta, Georgia, at the time, is credited for creating the award, named for businessman and philanthropist George Foster Peabody, who donated the funds that made the awards possible. Fellow WSB employee Lessie Smithgall introduced Lambdin to John E. Drewry, of the University of Georgia's Henry W. Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication, who endorsed the idea. The Peabody Award was established in 1940 with the Grady College of Journalism as its permanent home.

Refugees of the Syrian Civil War

More than four million refugees of the Syrian Civil War have left the country during the course of the war. Most of them fled to neighboring Turkey,Lebanon, Jordan, and Iraq, while thousands also ended up in more distant countries of the Caucasus, the Persian Gulf, North Africa and Europe. As of December 2015, Turkey was the world's biggest refugee hosting country with close to 2.5 million Syrian refugees; the nation had spent more than 8 billion Euros since 2011 on direct assistance to them according to estimates by Turkish Ministry of Education deputy secretary Yusuf Büyük.

The refugee crisis began in 2011, when thousands of Syrian citizens fled across the border to neighboring Turkey and Lebanon. By early July 2011, 15,000 Syrian citizens had taken shelter in tent cities, set up in the Yayladağı, Reyhanlı and Altınözü districts of Hatay Province, near Turkey's border with Syria. By the end of that month, 5,000 of the refugees had returned to Syria. However, by late June 2011, the number of Syrian refugees in Lebanon had reached around 10,000 people. By mid-July 2011, the first Syrian refugees found sanctuary in Jordan, with their numbers reaching 1,500 by December. On 21 September the European Union approved a plan committing itself to taking in 120,000 refugees. The newly elected Liberal Government announced that it would bring 25,000 Syrian refugees to Canada by the end of 2015 and struck a cabinet sub-committee chaired by the Minister of Health, Jane Philpott, to fast track their resettlement.