I thought the Brits had no money

[D-Mack]

'You decide how safe it is,' BBC tells viewers of new Persian channel
Leigh Holmwood
guardian.co.uk, Thursday 8 January 2009 16.29 GMT
Article history

The BBC has said that viewers of its new Persian language television channel in Iran will have to decide for themselves whether it is safe enough for them to interact with it when it launches next week.

BBC Persian, which will be run by the BBC World Service, is officially illegal in Iran and authorities in Iran have denied the free-to-air satellite channel clearance to have a presence in the country.

The country's official news agency, Irna, has even claimed that British intelligence will use the BBC to recruit Iranians for "espionage and psychological warfare".


....

London-based BBC Persian will cost £15m a year and is funded by money from the Foreign Office, which pays for the BBC World Service. It will have 150 staff and has recruited 100 new journalists, mostly from the Middle East. It will air for eight hours a day and broadcast a mix of news and other programming aimed at the more than 100 million Persian speakers worldwide.

BBC Persian's main focus will be on Iran, where around 70 million people speak Persian; Afghanistan, with 20 million Persian speakers; and Tajikistan, with its 10 million speakers. The channel has a target of 10 million viewers within two years, with 7 million of them in Iran.

...

I guess you can run the printing press for a couple of seconds longer, if it's for a good investment....

[Chris]

Re: I thought the Brits had no money

We don't - except for the state. The Beeb (Al'beeb) has free reign while the Labour party are in power. They pay one TV presenter, Jonathan Ross, over $20M in basic salary, all courtesy of the taxpayer.

You can find a wealth of material on our rapidly collapsing socialist utopia at this very amusing blog.

[GRG55]

Re: I thought the Brits had no money

'You decide how safe it is,' BBC tells viewers of new Persian channel

I guess you can run the printing press for a couple of seconds longer, if it's for a good investment....

Rather this than the US example of more and more [and more!] money to AIG to support the executive bonus program...;)

[labasta]

Re: I thought the Brits had no money

We don't - except for the state. The Beeb (Al'beeb) has free reign while the Labour party are in power. They pay one TV presenter, Jonathan Ross, over $20M in basic salary, all courtesy of the taxpayer.

You can find a wealth of material on our rapidly collapsing socialist utopia at this very amusing blog.

Very good blog.


I couldn't believe the McDonalds apprenticeships blog. Wow.

It seems that the Thatcher service economy is finally coming home to roost.

I don't know if I mentioned it here, but my uncle-in-law is a maths phd having worked 30 to 40 years in the oil industry as one of those people who calculates the probablity of finding oil in a said location. I stayed with him in 1984 I think it was (I was only 10 or 11). I remember Thatcher coming on the tv saying that we were now becoming a service economy. He shouted (hot-headed Greek fellow) at the tv something to the effect, "What are we all going to do... sell each other hamburgers?"

Well, turns out he was correct. He forgot to mention houses as well of course.

[D-Mack]

Re: I thought the Brits had no money

We don't - except for the state. The Beeb (Al'beeb) has free reign while the Labour party are in power. They pay one TV presenter, Jonathan Ross, over $20M in basic salary, all courtesy of the taxpayer.

You can find a wealth of material on our rapidly collapsing socialist utopia at this very amusing blog.

Well, he lost a couple of months pay and it seems the gov. will approve his jokes.

I don't know who he is btw.,but I might have heard or seen him on Top Gear.

Jonathan Ross comeback show confirmed

Ross was suspended without pay after leaving a series of obscene answerphone messages for the Fawlty Towers star Andrew Sachs during a recording of Russell Brand's radio show. The episode sparked 45,000 complaints and led to the resignation of both Brand and Radio 2's controller, Lesley Douglas.

Ross plans to joke about his enforced absence in his opening monologue. However, nervous BBC bosses will vet the content beforehand to ensure that no further offence is caused to Mr Sachs. The show is pre-recorded a day before broadcast.

The BBC intends to keep Ross on a tight leash and has demanded that the presenter tone down his risque act. In the past, he has caused a storm by asking Tory leader David Cameron whether he had enjoyed sexual fantasies about Lady Thatcher, and by propositioning Gwyneth Paltrow.

Rather this than the US example of more and more [and more!] money to AIG to support the executive bonus program...;)

Imagine a FOX News Farsi, that would be interesting.... although the US has experience with this stuff like Radio Free Europe

[Spartacus]

Re: I thought the Brits had no money

Except that within that socialism, some abusive monopolists are still asserting their power, even within the most allegedly leftist circles.

I specifically refer to MS and the tens of millions paid to Microsoft to develop a player that ties BBC content to MS operating systems.

Interesting that the socialists cannot clearly see the wolf in their midst, and pay the wolf cash for his "help" (an illegal payment under EU rules, apparently) AND give him a future revenue stream (an illegal reveneu stream under EU rules, apparently) AND sell your own content for nothing to the wolf for his future use.

These things are against EU rules because there was no competitive bid and by ignoring standards the government is elevating one vendor above others.

We don't - except for the state. The Beeb (Al'beeb) has free reign while the Labour party are in power. They pay one TV presenter, Jonathan Ross, over $20M in basic salary, all courtesy of the taxpayer.

You can find a wealth of material on our rapidly collapsing socialist utopia at this very amusing blog.