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Despite not being there in person, Iranian director Asghar Farhadi won big at Sunday nights Oscars, taking home Best Foreign Language Film for his movie The Salesman. Farhadis victory was broadcast on Iranian TV, but not without a few alterations; according to The Hollywood Reporter, at least one outlet decided that presenter Charlize Therons Oscars dress needed some touch-ups before it could be broadcast to the people.

But the digital wizards at the Iranian Labour News Agency didnt content themselves with a mere blurring of Therons body; instead, someone at the state-run agency attempted to take advantage of the relative immobility of Oscar presenters to add their own flair to her outfit, filling in long black sleeves and a high neckline with what looked like the black spray paint tool from MS Paint. The effect wasless than convincing, especially when Theronpresenting with Shirley MacLaineabruptly moved, forcing her dress to trail a few seconds behind her.

As displayed in a video by Facebooks My Stealthy Freedom, the censor team at ILNA later reverted to a simple censorship bar for Therons body. But they got a little creative again when Iranian-American engineer Anousheh Ansari took the stage to accept the award on Farhadis behalf. (The director boycotted the ceremony in protest of the policies of President Donald Trump.) Rather than editing out all of Ansaris pretty modest dress, they simply filled in one exposed bit of skin with blurring, resisting the urge to add some earrings or a new pattern of their own devising to her ensemble as they did.

For the record, heres what Theron and Ansari were both wearing Sunday night:

(Photo: Kevin Winter/Getty Images)

(Photo: Kevin Winter/Getty Images)

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Iranian TV censors got creative with Charlize Theron's Oscars dress - A.V. Club (blog)

North Koreans have gained unprecedented connectedness with greater access to media and devices like cellphones over Kim Jong Un's five-year rule. But private citizens' embrace of a state-controlled network has opened the way to unparalleled state censorship and surveillance in the long-isolated, totalitarian country.

A U.S.-government-funded report, released Wednesday, said technology is giving North Korean authorities "more modern forms of control" as they step up efforts to stop foreign content creeping in.

"North Korea not only demonstrates technological sophistication but also has the ability to dictate what devices their citizens use, and they have complete control over hardware and software that essentially no other country does," said Nat Kretchun, co-author of the report by the consulting group Intermedia.

While the global explosion of network communications and internet use over the past two decades has provided surveillance opportunities for both authoritarian and democratic governments, North Korea's case is unique. The communist government prohibits public access to the World Wide Web. Outside media trickles in, but with significant challenges.

The state's stranglehold over the flow of information was first subverted during a famine in the 1990s when informal markets emerged and citizens began trading with each other. For the past decade or more, outside digital devices and content have flowed into North Korea across the border from China, enabling people to watch forbidden content, typically South Korean and Chinese soap operas.

The Intermedia report, which is based on interviews with North Korean defectors, refugees and travelers, found more such information making its way in over the past five years, notwithstanding Kim's intensified efforts to stop it. He took power after his father's death in late 2011 and has cracked down on smuggling and illicit viewing of foreign media.

Nearly every segment of society, from the elite in Pyongyang to farmers in inland areas, has access at least to televisions and DVD players, the report found. North Koreans have shifted toward using thumb drives instead of compact discs as they can hold more content and are easier to hide and share.

Viewing outside content, rather than the stodgy fare of state broadcasters, is shaping people's behavior.

The report quoted a 22-year-old construction worker who defected in 2014 as saying that South Korean and Chinese dramas have made men more willing to voice their affection to women. He said men increasingly marry women they date rather than having arranged marriages.

The report also cites respondents who have more than one TV. One is fixed to the state TV channel and put on display in the house; the other is concealed and dedicated to South Korean programing.

The government is finding new methods of control. Kretchun said North Korea was taking steps on regulation of cellphones "to regain control of the information climate." It can do so without relying on internet service providers to spy on people in its network, as other governments might.

There are now more than 3 million cellphone users in the North Korea-only network that was established in 2008. The growth has allowed authorities that traditionally relied on human surveillance to gain "a far greater ability to monitor the communications of its citizens," the report found.

Authorities have tried to stop people sharing and viewing nonsanctioned media content on their phones, the report said. Around three years ago, authorities updated software used by all phones, making nonsanctioned media files unplayable.

North Korea also uses a program that records the browsing history on the user's SD data card, making it harder to conceal illicit content. While laptops and computers are less widespread, the operating system they use "watermarks" files, allowing authorities to track their origin.

In effect, North Korean devices are "completely compromised," Kretchun said, creating options for state surveillance and censorship "much more effective than just about anywhere else."

To call outside the country, North Koreans need illicit phones that can tap into Chinese networks along the nation's northern border. Limiting that option is now a priority for North Korea, the report found, and its technological capability to locate users has improved.

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As North Koreans use phones, state finds new ways to censor - ABC News

SAN DIEGOMedia Control Systems specializes in television automation products and systems for program recording, playback and ad insertion. Our master control automation products are targeted toward lower-priced systems used for program origination of cable access, internet TV and low-power broadcast applications. We manufacture our own brand of products, but we also resell and integrate other TV-automation-related products. The latter was the case with our client the Community Media Center of Marin (CMCM).

CMCM is a nonprofit organization providing residents of Marin County, Calif., with access to communication technologies, media training and the latest digital tools to create original content for cable TV and online media. CMCM operates Marin TV, Marin Countys own noncommercial community, educational and governmental cable channels. Marin TV is available on Comcast and AT&T U-Verse as well as online via live streams. CMCM also offers special organizational services and fee-for-service production assistance for schools, nonprofits and government agencies.

FITTING FORMATS IN HD & SD Like many public, education and government stations, CMCM plays back a mix of legacy SD programs and new HD video files on their television channels. CMCM also takes in many external satellite and regional program feeds in both standard and high definition. Many of the sources have previously been converted from HD to SD or SD to HD, with conversion black bars on the top, bottom or sides of the programs.

CMCM has 23 different sources of programming played out on four television channels. The challenge CMCM faced was getting all the various incoming programs to play out on both HD internet-streamed channels and SD cable channels while maintaining the correct picture formats. Specifically, that meant figuring out how to take the sources of mixed formats and files and play them out correctly on HD and SD channels without double-converting, that is, putting black pillars on the sides of the picture and black bars on the top and bottom. Also, correct conversion prevents stretching, squeezing, or cutting off part of the picture.

Media Control Systems proposed and implemented a solution that uses a Cobalt Digital BBG-1002-UDX standalone cross-converter on the output of each channel. Unlike most converters, which require three to four seconds to react, the BBG-1002-UDX can recognize the input format so quickly it can convert the input to the desired output in just a few frames worth of time. The BBG-1002-UDX reads the AFD codes on the input source programs, so it knows if the source has been previously converted, which in turn means it can apply the correct output conversion without double converting.

ONE SIZE FITS ALL The Cobalt solution minimizes the number of converters required. Instead of having to put a converter on each of the 23 input sources, CMCM only needed one converter for each of the output channels. In other words, CMCM only had to invest in eight convertersone for each of four HD internet channels and one for each of the four SD cable TV channels.

In addition to the BBG-1002-UDXs cross-conversion capabilities, it also provides audio-level management and digital frame synchronization, features that make the unit even more valuable.

All in all, the Cobalt BBG-1002-UDX was the perfect choice for CMCM because it gives the broadcaster a professional-grade, multifunctional conversion solution with exceptional performance at an affordable price. The Cobalt UDX is also available as a high-density openGear card module.

Thomas Walsh is the CEO of Media Control Systems. He can be contacted at twalsh@mediacontrolsys.com.

For more information, please visit http://www.cobaltdigital.com or call 217-344-1243.

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MCX Mixes HD and SD Playout Via Cobalt - TV Technology

Israels media has repeatedly accused Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of wanting to control it. For example, his backtracking on the formation of the Israel Broadcasting Corporation (IBC), which had been supposed to replace the Israel Broadcasting Authority (IBA), was interpreted by his detractors as another attempt by Netanyahu to impose his will on the media. Since the IBC seemed to be filling up with anti-Netanyahu forces, the story was that Netanyahu had decided hed be better off with the old IBA, which would be forever thankful to him for preventing its dissolution. This perverted interpretation is but one of many fake news items to which the Israeli public has been subjected.

Who really controls Israels media? Is it the government, the politicians, the tycoons or, just perhaps, could it be those elements in the media that cry wolf loudest while doing all they can to assure the continuity of their influence and at the same time expand their own control.

Politicians can, at least in principle, exercise their influence mostly on the public media. This is why for years they would not close down the wasteful Educational TV network, or impose fiscal restraint on the IBA. Similarly, we suspect that Defense Minister Avigdor Libermans threat to shift control of the Galatz radio station to the Defense Ministry was just another political ploy aimed at assuring influence over the station.

In a similar vein, Israel has another public media station, the Knesset Channel, which costs the taxpayer only NIS 25 million a year.

The American system is simple. Congress televises its public proceedings and make them available to anyone who wants to use them, whether live or via the Internet.

C-span uses whichever proceedings it finds interesting and broadcasts it through the cable and satellite networks. The cost to the taxpayer is nothing. The consumer can, via the Internet, watch any congressional proceeding she or he desires. The American system is not predicated on many hours of studio broadcasting with panels, interviews and debates between politicians or public figures such as pundits, academics and social activists.

The Israeli system is very different. The Knesset provides a budget of NIS 25m. annually and contracts a company for a period of 10 years to take over Knesset broadcasting.

Although nowadays almost all Knesset proceedings are recorded by Knesset staff, the public can only access them through the filter of the Knesset Channel. In principle, the concessionaire has to be impartial, whereas in practice any broadcaster will always use some filter to provide what is perceived as interesting to the public.

This filter is very meaningful. Consider a typical Knesset committee debate. Does the Knesset Channel pick up all speakers? By no means only those considered acceptable by the concessionaire. Although many NGOs, companies, groups and private individuals exercise their democratic right and spend their precious time appearing in front of Knesset committees to testify and provide information, only a very small minority will ever be seen by the public since the Knesset Channel does not broadcast all the proceedings. Instead, it uses precious air time for useless, boring and repetitive debate, and biased commentary.

The concessionaire can choose, for example, to spend more time on someone from a company which advertises on the parent channel or whose goals benefit the parent channel by inviting the people involved to one of the talk shows. Owning a TV concession is about much more than just broadcasting. It is a source of power, influence and money.

It is not surprising then that the 10-year concession is highly valued. There are four finalists in the current bidding process. TV Channel 2, which operated the channel for the past 13 years, is one, as is TV Channel 10, which is under the aegis of the R.G.E. Group, a privately-held media operation whose main assets, besides Channel 10, are NOGA Communications and Sports Channel 5. The other two are smaller companies: on is TV Channel 20, the other is funded by Ami Giniger, owner of the Ulpanei Herzliya company.

The final decision will be made in the coming month, as the concession of Channel 2 runs out in May.

Logic would seem to have it that the concession should not be given to Channel 2 for, after all, government funding should be spread out and a chance given to other companies.

A monopoly is not healthy in general and certainly when it comes to the media. One would also have liked to think the concession would not be given to a company which has violated its previous fiduciary commitments to the state, in addition to bilking the public of over a billion shekels, which is the amount the company should have paid the government over the years but refused to. It did, however, provide outrageous salaries for its celebrity staff. In other words, TV Channel 10 should also not be in the running.

But thats not the way things are done in Israel. Both channels, that cry out that the government wants to control the media, actually not only control a sizable portion of the media market, but have an insatiable appetite for more. Any attempt by Knesset speaker Yuli Edelstein to assure that the new concessionaire does not use its power to show the Knesset at its ugliest was nixed. In fact, politicians had very little influence over how the new concession would be formulated or awarded. Those who really influenced the process in the Knesset, thus far, were the TV stations themselves. They can afford to peddle their wares for the politicians fear of them is deathly.

So, what have we got? The public, as usual, is the loser.

It not only pays the concessionaire but in the process loses the ability to really know what is happening in the Knesset. The politicians have no say in the operation of the channel. It is the concessionaire who has the power, who can focus the spotlight on politician A or B and who can further any agenda political, economic, cultural.

Israels democracy would profit if the media exercised a wee bit of self-control. The ideal situation would be for the Knesset itself to provide live coverage, available to all, at no cost. A media company or NGO that wants then to cover Knesset proceedings could do so. The only legislation needed would be to increase the number of legal TV stations in Israel, which means, for all intents and purposes, operating under free market conditions. This is precisely what the present concessionaires do not want; they prefer self-control.

The authors are members of Israels Media Watch. http://www.imediaw.org.il

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Desperately needed: Self control - Jerusalem Post Israel News

Twitter has another round of updates intended to combat abuse on the platform.

Twitter is working to identify accounts engaging in abusive behavior, even if the account hasn't yet been flagged, Twitter VP of Engineering Ed Ho wrote in a blog post. If an account is repeatedly tweeting at non-followers without solicitation, for instance, Twitter may make it so that only the tweeter's followers can see their tweets for a certain amount of time.

The rule will apply to accounts engaging in "patterns of abusive behavior," Ho wrote. "Our platform supports the freedom to share any viewpoint, but if an account continues to repeatedly violate the Twitter Rules, we will consider taking further action," he added.

The idea is to punish only abusive accounts but because the tools are new, Twitter might accidentally take action against a benign user. "We will sometimes make mistakes, but know that we are actively working to improve and iterate on them everyday," Ho wrote.

Twitter is also introducing new filtering options to give users more control over the notifications they see. You can now mute notifications from people you don't follow, so-called "egg" accounts without a profile photo, as well as users with unverified email addresses and phone numbers. To do that, click on the gear icon in the upper-left corner of the Twitter app, click through to Advanced filters, and select the norifications you want to mute.

"Many people requested more filter options for their notifications, and we're excited to bring these to everyone on Twitter," Ho wrote.

You can also now mute tweets with certain words, phrases, or entire conversations from appearing in your timeline, and decide how long that content is silenced: a day, week, month, or indefinitely. This new tool comes after Twitter in November started letting people mute this content from their notifications.

Finally, when you report abuse on the platform, Twitter will follow up to let you know it received the report, along with any action it's taking. This will be visible in your notifications tab.

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Twitter Wants to Find the Trolls Before You Do - PCMag India