Category Archives: Edinburgh International Television Festival

Edinburgh: Media “bears some responsibility” for copycat school killings, says award winning novelist

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The media must bear some responsibility for copycat shootings in American schools if it insists on over hyping news stories, according to an award-winning novelist. Lionel Shriver, speaking at the Edinburgh International Television Festival, said she would never blame TV editors for incidents like Columbine and Virginia tech killings but added that sensationalistic, conspiratorial TV [...]

Edinburgh: Close BBC 3 and keep current affairs, says BBC’s Sweeney

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The BBC should kill its digital channels to prevent further cuts to its current affairs output, according to Panorama reporter John Sweeney. Speaking in a panel session on the state of current affairs programming at the Edinburgh Television Festival, Sweeney argued that further BBC cuts due this autumn could devastate the department and that BBC bosses [...]

“IPod moment” could render print extinct, predicts Guardian editor

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The newspaper industry could be rocked by its own “iPod moment” where a device reads text so well that renders print extinct, according to The Guardian editor. Alan Rusbridger at a session entitled Who’ll Win the Web? at the Edinburgh International Television festival said: “For the newspaper there will be an iPod moment where someone [...]

Edinburgh: Sky would go live with footage that threatens hostage’s life

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Sky News would broadcast live footage of a hostage situation, even if it knew it was likely to endanger the hostage’s life, according to its news editor, John Ryley. “We’re in the business of going live,” said Ryley, who added: “the key word is transparency – we’re in the business of giving people information.” In a session [...]

Edinburgh: Paxman challenges TV to rediscover its sense of purpose

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Jeremy Paxman has used the keynote speech of the Edinburgh TV festival to rally the industry to rediscover its sense of purpose. The Newsnight presenter, giving the annual James MacTaggart Memorial Lecture, attacked placed a particular emphasis on news and current affairs coverage, tackling the trust issue, which has dominated the annual festival’s agenda. He criticized [...]

Edinburgh: Broadcasters defend themselves against claims of ‘institutionalised racism’

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Broadcasters have been defending their coverage of Islam and Muslims in the face of accusations of “institutional racism” and a failure to show “context”. In a panel debate at the Edinburgh International Television Festival, Channel 4’s deputy head of news and current affairs, Kevin Sutcliffe, said the channel was attempting to provide a rounded approach in [...]