Media brief
I'm the ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ's media correspondent and this is my brief selection of what's going on in the industry.
Professor Brian Cox was a double winner at the Royal Television Society Awards last night, the ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ reports. The physicist won best presenter and took the science and natural history prize for Wonders Of The Solar System. Also taking two prizes was comedian Miranda Hart, who has won huge acclaim for her ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ sitcom Miranda.
The creator of Midsomer Murders last night claimed he was being treated like a 'criminal' following his suspension from the show, the . Brian True-May, the ITV drama's executive producer, provoked fury after admitting he deliberately keeps ethnic minority characters out of the show's storylines.
Mr True-May has been suspended for implying that rural England is the sole preserve of Anglo-Saxons. "finds a very different picture in the town where it's filmed".
A shake-up of libel laws in England and Wales will ensure people can state honest opinions with confidence, Justice Secretary Ken Clarke says. The draft Defamation Bill, published on Tuesday, also aims to reduce "libel tourism" by overseas claimants, the ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ reports. It follows concerns that libel laws are crushing freedom of expression in scientific and academic debate.
the ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ faced calls from MPs last night to disclose how much public money it spent on hiring private detectives to work on its current affairs programmes. It says: "The demands came after the ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ was forced to admit that it paid detectives to work on programmes such as Panorama, which this week broadcast allegations about illegal activities by private investigators hired by the News of the World."
In : "Note how The Times's story (about the ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ hiring private detectives) is angled to fit two News International agendas. It throws mud at the ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ, yet again. It minimises the misbehaviour by the News of the World, yet again...The real story revealed by Panorama is that a sixth News of the World executive was involved in the commissioning of illegal activities."
Regional accents are as problematic as background music for viewers who struggle to hear programmes perfectly, according to a ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ study . The corporation surveyed 20,000 people to understand the cause of viewer complaints. It identified four key factors: unfamiliar accents, clarity of delivery, background music and background noise.
The controller of ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ One, Danny Cohen blogs: "The result of the (³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ audibility) research is that we now have a 'best practice' guide for programme makers available on the ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ Academy's College of Production website. This gives clear guidance on the small things that programme makers can do to make a big difference to the audience's ability to hear."
Five days on from the Japan earthquake and tsunami, most newspapers still devote several pages to the destruction there, as well as the related nuclear crisis, according to the ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ newspapers review.