News Broadcasting
British PM Tony Blair on MTV’s global forum
LONDON: MTV’s global forum has chosen British prime minister Tony Blair to field questions from 40 young people hailing from Europe, the Middle East and the United States during the hour-long programme.
MTV Networks Europe will produce the special titled “An MTV Forum with Tony Blair: Is war the answer?” It is scheduled to begin airing on MTV channels in Australia, Asia, Latin America, the Middle East and the United States starting 7 March 2003. The forum will be hosted by Trevor Nelson of MTV Base.
The forum will likely follow the same format and tone as last year’s “Be heard: an MTV global discussion with Colin Powell,” in which young people from around the world spoke with the US secretary of state Powell about the threat of terrorism and the United States’ military action in Afghanistan.
A digitalsky report adds that Viacom, MTVNE’s parent company, says that the audience will reflect a “balanced cross-section” of MTV’s 16-24 target demographic.
MTV Networks Europe president and CEO Brent Hansen says: “MTV Europe’s philosophy is to offer young people from all over Europe the opportunity for open dialogue on a number of issues, regardless of race, religion or political standpoint. This forum will not be a vehicle for any political message; instead, we wish to offer an open and unscripted dialogue between Prime Minister Tony Blair and young people in Europe. MTV’s European audience are particularly attuned to the issue of war and an MTV forum will offer a lively debate with a truly pan-European perspective.”
Tony Blair: a profile
At the age of 43 , Tony Blair became the youngest Prime Minister since Lord Liverpool in 1812. The son of a barrister and lecturer, Blair was born in Edinburgh, but spent most of his childhood in Durham. At the age of 14 he returned to Edinburgh to finish his education at Fettes School. He studied law at Oxford, and went on to become a barrister himself.
After standing unsuccessfully for the Labour Party in a by-election, Blair went on to win the seat of Sedgefield in the 1983 General Election, aged 30.
Blair made a speedy rise through the ranks, being promoted first to the shadow Treasury front bench in 1985. He subsequently served as a trade and industry spokesman, before being elected to the shadow cabinet in 1988 where he was made shadow secretary of state for Energy. In 1989 he moved to the employment brief.
After the 1992 election Labour’s new leader, John Smith, promoted Blair to shadow home secretary. It was in this post that Blair made famous his pledge that Labour would be tough on crime, tough on the causes of crime.
Blair immediately launched his campaign for the modernisation of the Labour Party, determined to complete the shift further towards the political centre which he saw as essential for victory. The debate over Clause 4 of the party’s constitution was considered the crucial test of whether its members would commit to Blair’s project. He removed the commitment to public ownership, and at this time coined the term New Labour.
The Labour Party won the 1997 General Election by a landslide, after 18 years in Opposition.
The government began to implement a far-reaching programme of constitutional change, putting the question of devolution to referendums in Scotland and Wales.
An elected post of Mayor of London was established at the head of a new capital-wide authority, and all but 92 hereditary peers were removed from the House of Lords in the first stage of its reform. The government has also implemented an investment programme of ?42 billion in its priority areas of health and education.
Blair was re-elected with another landslide majority in the 2001 General Election.
Blair is married to the barrister Cherie Booth QC, and they have four children. Their youngest, Leo, was the first child born to a serving prime minister in over 150 years.
One hopes that the Indian audiences will also get a chance to view the proceedings of the MTV Global Forum live from 10 Downing Street.
News Broadcasting
CNN-News18 to air live counting day coverage for five state election results on May 4
The channel is rolling out its biggest election coverage machinery yet for results day on 4th May
NOIDA: The votes have been cast. Now comes the reckoning. CNN-News18 is pulling out all the stops for results day on 4th May, when counting begins across five battleground states — West Bengal, Assam, Kerala, Tamil Nadu and the Union Territory of Puducherry — in what promises to be one of the most closely watched electoral verdicts in recent memory.
The channel’s coverage, titled Battle for the States: The Verdict, kicks off at 7am and runs through the day across linear TV, connected television and YouTube. It is the culmination of CNN-News18’s multi-format editorial initiative, Battle for the States, which has tracked the polls from the beginning under the theme Road to Power.
At the operational heart of the coverage will be the Live Results Hub, the channel’s central command centre built to collate, verify and process real-time data flowing in from reporters stationed at counting centres across constituencies. The hub combines newsroom intelligence, analytics and on-the-ground reporting to deliver what the channel promises will be the fastest and most accurate results coverage in English news.
Leading the on-air charge will be primetime anchors Rahul Shivshankar, Anand Narasimhan, Aman Sharma, Nabila Jamal and Shivani Gupta. They will be joined by a wide panel of commentators including author Chetan Bhagat; GVL Narasimha Rao, senior leader of the BJP; Smita Prakash, editor of ANI; activist Saira Shah Halim; political analyst Sumanth C Raman; Abhijit Iyer Mitra, senior fellow at IPCS; Amitabh Tiwari, founder of VoteVibe; columnist Abhijit Majumdar; Nalin Mehta, managing editor of MoneyControl; political analyst Tehseen Poonawalla; senior journalist Subir Bhaumik; and political analyst Manojit Mandal.
Shivshankar, who serves as editorial affairs director at CNN-News18, set out the stakes plainly. “Counting day is one of the most watched events in the electoral cycle, where speed and credibility are tested in real time,” he said. “Battle for the States: The Verdict is built on that promise, combining ground reporting, sharp analysis and cutting-edge election technology to give viewers the clearest and fastest route to the verdict. On May 4, CNN-News18 will once again be the nation’s most trusted channel to witness democracy in action.”
Smriti Mehra, chief executive of English and Business News at Network18, framed the coverage in broader terms. “Elections are defining national events, and audiences turn to brands they trust in moments that matter,” she said. “CNN-News18 has consistently led from the front in every election coverage, and this special programming reflects the scale of our ambition and editorial strength.”
The channel has form here. It claims to have been India’s most preferred English news destination for election results for the past 20 years, covering everything from the 2024 general elections to the Delhi, Maharashtra, Bihar and BMC polls on the back of what it calls an “Always First, Always Right” record. Five states, one day, and a nation waiting for answers. The clock starts at 7am on 4th May.
