2010• (^) Media mogul Silvio Berlusconi again becomes
Italy’s Prime Minister.
• (^) Th e BBC launches a new Arabic TV channel
(BBC Arabic TV), estimated to cost 25m a year.
• (^) The Martha Gellhorn Prize for Journalism
is won by 24 year old Palestinian Mohammed
Omer. On his return from the London prize-
giving he was arrested by Shin Bet, Israel’s
security organization, emerging after 12 hours’
detention in need of hospital treatment.
• (^) After a nine-year legal battle, the European
Court of Human Rights rules that UK govern-
ment phone-tapping practices violate citizens’
right to privacy.
• (^) Indian Space Research Organization launches
record 10 satellites in one fl ight.
• (^) Times of India group acquire British Virgin
Radio, renaming it Absolute Radio.
• (^) The BBC refuses to transmit the Disasters
Emergency Committee Gaza Appeal in case it
would be seen to be ‘unbalanced’ in terms of its
professed neutrality.
• (^) Former KGB agent Alexander Lebedev
becomes owner of the UK London Evening Stan-
dard which shortly becomes a free sheet.
• (^) PolitiFact.com, online news and comment
service of the St. Petersburg Times, Florida,
becomes the first website to be awarded the
prestigious Pulitzer prize for journalism.
2010 March. For 1 Lebedev purchases the titles
of the UK Independent, Independent on Sunday.
In October, the Independent launches a new
daily, entitled ‘i’, a condensed version of the Indie
for readers in a rush.
• (^) April. Th e Apple Company of the US launches
the i-Pad, described by Apple’s chief executive,
Steve Jobs, as ‘our most advanced technology
in a magical and revolutionary device and at an
unbelievable price’.
• (^) America On Line (AOL) sells off Bebo, the
social networking platform, for a fraction of the
850m it paid for it in 2008.
• (^) December. Coronation Street (UK ITV), the
world’s longerst-running TV soap opera, cele-
brates its 50th anniversary, while BBC Radio’s
Th e Archers reaches 60.
• (^) Kuwait shuts the offi ces of the news network
al-Jazeera and removes its accreditation for
having broadcast news of an opposition member
of the country’s National Assembly, and its use
of film footage of police beating opposition
members and supporters gathered to discuss
government crackdowns on public freedom.
• (^) UK: Th e Video Recordings Act of 1984, having
been found to be in breach of European Union Law
in 2009, is reeneacted in one parliamentary day.
In short, Google subscribes to the Great Firewall
of China, restricting access to many Western
websites and blocking words such as ‘freedom’
and names such as ‘Tiananmen Square’.
• (^) In a US Congress House international rela-
tions committee meeting Yahoo! Cisco Systems,
Microsoft and Google are accused of collusion
with a repressive regime (China).
• (^) Following publication in Danish and Norwe-
gian newspapers of cartoons satirizing the
prophet Mohammed, widespread Muslim
protests occur across the arab world, the Danish
and Norwegian embassses in Damascus being
burnt to the ground. Crowds of protestors also
burn Danish flags in several other countries.
Violent demonstrations take place in Lebanon
and Afghanistan. In Jordan, two newspaper
editors who published the cartoons are charged
with off ences.
• (^) UK House of Commons votes to reinstate the
‘glorifi cation of terrorism’ clause in new anti-
terrorism legislation; this shortly following on
from parliament’s assent to New Labour plans to
introduce ID cards for British citizens.
• (^) Mexican goverenment admits that it staged a
kidnap and rescue operation as proof that it is
winning the war on organized crime.
• (^) Australia: Dateline, current aff airs programme
of the Special Broadcasting Service, publishes
images, previously unseen by the public, of
abuse of Iraqi prisoners by American military
personnel at the Abu Ghraib jail.
• (^) al-Jazeera, the Arab news station, begins news
service in English. British broadcaster Sir David
Frost is contracted to front a one-hour daily
programme.
• (^) UK: Government White Paper announces
that the BBC licence will be extended to 2016.
Th e govenors will be replaced by a trust with
sovereign control of the corporation, leaving
responsibility for the day to day running of the
BBC to an executive board. Th e White Paper
urges that entertainment be placed at the heart
of the corporation’s broadcasting mission.
• (^) Twitter is launched.
• (^) Reuters merges with the Th omson Organisa-
tion in an 8.7 billion deal.
• (^) Iran: Launch of English-speaking TV chan-
nel, Press TV; with British journalist Yvonne
Ridley employed to host live political show, Th e
Agenda.
• (^) July: Rupert Murdoch’s News International
acquires Wall Street Journal. December,
Murdoch makes over his newspaper empire to
his son James; including control of Sky Italia and
the Star TV Network in Asia.