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Home Affairs Minister Ignatius Chombo

According to The Herald edition of 24 May 2017, the Minister of Home Affairs, Ignatius Chombo, made the appointment in terms of the Censorship and Entertainment Controls Act.

The minister said while the Constitution provides for free artistic expression, cultural beliefs and association, it was in the same vein, the boards constitutional responsibility to ensure these same freedoms are reasonably limited to curb infringement of other peoples rights.

MISA-Zimbabwes position

While the minister said the new board had been entrusted with safeguarding peoples rights and trusts, this can only be achieved by amending or repealing offensive sections of the Act which are inconsistent with the countrys 2013 Constitution.

Some of the objectionable provisions on the regulation, censorship or state-control of the mass media and other forms of private or public entertainment, fall under Sections 13 and 14 of the Act.

For instance, Section 13 makes use of wide and subjective parameters in the constitution of offences pertaining to pictures, statutes or publication of material that is indecent, obscene and offensive as undesirable content to public morals.

The determination of what is indecent and offensive is not clearly defined. This leaves the Censorship Board with wide and unfettered discretion on what is undesirable as provided for under Section 14. The Boards powers should be narrowed to at least match the limitations that are spelt out in the Constitution of Zimbabwe.

Sections 13 and 14 of the Act should therefore be repealed as they are inconsistent with constitutional rights to freedom of expression, media freedom and access to information and other regional and international instruments voluntarily ratified by Zimbabwe.

Read more here:
New censorship board to 'regulate and control' media - The ... - The Zimbabwean

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You can now turn off network-wide Google Cast media control notifications 9to5Google Love it or hate it, when you use Google Cast to cast content to your big screen, a notification usually pops up on every Android device on the network. While this is great because it allows you to quickly pause, mute, or stop the media from playing, it ... Google's Cast notification can finally be disabled - GSMArena.com ...GSMArena.com all 5 news articles »

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You can now turn off network-wide Google Cast media control notifications - 9to5Google

Allowing the telemarketing industry to self-regulate the Do Not Call Register and identifying more ways to reduce industry red tape are among recommendations for transforming the media and internet regulator.

While the Australian Communications and Media authority has performed its regulatory role "efficiently and well over the last 10 years", the Department of Communications' review found its governance should be restructured to include five full-time members, including a deputy chair as chief executive, rather than two part-time members and a chair and deputy.

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An American man sick of getting calls from telemarketers invents a phone robot to waste their time.

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One of those to be charged is the son of the Australian Taxation Office Deputy Commissioner Michael Cranston, who will appear in court.

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The families of the victims of the Lindt Cafe siege are scathing of the police decision to delay storming the cafe. In an interview with ABC's Four Corners, they say they were devastated to hear during the inquest that police only planned to enter the Lindt Cafe if gunman Man Monis killed or seriously injured a hostage.

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Key crossbench senator Nick Xenophon has made his support for the government's new bank levy conditional on the tax applying to foreign banks.

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Unveiling a $400 million donation to charities and cancer research, mining magnate Andrew "Twiggy" Forrest stood with politicians in Canberra to celebrate the biggest private donation in Australian history.

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Some of the statements made by Commissioner Andrew Scipione and his deputy Catherine Burn at the time of the Lindt cafe siege in 2014.

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Survivors of the Lindt Cafe siege reveal how they managed to escape the terror of being held by Man Haron Monis.

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Fourteen people are taken to hospital after dozens of passengers were injured after a truck and a Melbourne tram collided Monday morning.

An American man sick of getting calls from telemarketers invents a phone robot to waste their time.

The ACMAhas not had a permanent chair since Chris Chapman left in 2016, with Richard Bean acting as chair for the past 15 months.

The review was commissioned in mid-2015 by Malcolm Turnbull when he was communications minister. current Communications MinisterMitch Fifieldsaid the government supports all 27 recommendations.

Having a five-member full-time authority will "ensure that the ACMAis equipped for the complex task of regulating a dynamic and increasingly integrated communications sector", Senator Fifield said on Monday.

Among the 27 recommendations are that the ACMAexamine whether four roles it currently provides can be referred to industry for self-regulation, including the Do Not Call Register and taking action on spam.

The Do Not Call Register is 10 years old and holds about 10 million landline and mobile numbers. It is managed by Salmat under contract to the ACMA, which investigates complaints. The review suggests compliance is high enough that the telemarketing industry could take over management of this register with the ACMA staying on as regulator.

It is recommended that enforcement and investigation of breaches of the Interactive Gambling Actbe given to the ACMA. Currently the ACMAcan only referbreaches. It has referred more than 120cases to the Australian Federal Police, which has previously declined to investigate complaints.

Interactive gambling is illegal in Australia, it includes activities such as placing betswhile a game is in playand online casino-style games.

The authority may take control of classification from the existing Classification Board. The current scheme is fragmented and split between too many bodies, the review found. The Tax Office may be given responsibility for collecting spectrum and licencefees.

However, the ACMAmaylose its cybersecurity programs, which the review recommends be transferred to the Attorney-General's Department, where the Australian Cyber Security Centre is located.

The report also recommends the ACMApublish a report every two years on "initiatives undertaken to identify and reduce regulatory burden on industry and individuals".

Labor's communications spokeswomanMichelle Rowlandcriticised the department for taking so long to release the report, which she said was "of such modest and unremarkable substance".

She said the ACMA needs to be properly funded with capacity to promote principles-based legislation so laws are not outdated too quickly.

"The underlying problem was that this government never really knew why it commenced theACMAreview in the first place, and neither did stakeholders," she said.

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Telemarketers may be given control of Do Not Call Register in regulator shake-up - The Sydney Morning Herald

Politics

19:38 19.05.2017(updated 19:39 19.05.2017) Get short URL

Speaking toRadio Sputnik onthe sidelines ofa forum forRussian-speaking broadcasters, Kosachev said that unfortunately, many Western countries' information policy today is broadly aimed atdiscrediting Russia and limiting its opportunities inthe international arena.

The senator explained that today, ordinary Western readers, viewers and listeners are bombarded byan information policy developed and implemented bytheir states. "It is a policy they accuse us ofpursuing, butwhich they themselves implement withoutany inhibitions. This is a policy ofdiscrediting Russia, a policy ofeliminating, or atleast restricting Russia's opportunities asa competitor inthe international arena," Kosachev noted.

Photo: RUSSIAN FOREIGN MINISTRY

At the same time, the senator said that attempts are being made tocut readers, viewers and listeners offfrom objective information, "of the kind that comes tothem fromSputnik, throughother authoritative broadcasters operating inRussian and withRussia."

"This is a very unfortunate situation, and it has nothing todo withthe freedom ofspeech or the freedom ofinformation," Kosachev noted.

The senator said that the current drama surrounding Russia inthe American media was a perfect example ofthe kind ofgross distortion ofreality that's being manufactured.

AFP 2017/ POOL / Kim Hong-Ji

"The US media is not any sort offourth estate. They are governed bythe first, second and third estates inthe interests ofthese authorities. And US authorities today are openly divided and disjoined; we see what is being done withPresident Trump, and just how much this manipulation ofpublic consciousness throughthe media contradicts what Americans themselves and the world asa whole are accustomed toassociating withthe 'American values' offreedom ofspeech, democracy, freedom ofthe press, and so on."

In the senator's view, US information policy went overboard oncensorship some time ago already.

"All that remains forthem todo is resort tothe Soviet-style tradition (which we see inthe US, and inUkraine, incidentally) ofsimply cutting offaccess toalternative sources ofinformation, and thus preventing people fromunderstanding the essence ofwhat is really going on," Kosachev said.

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Russian Senator to Sputnik: 'West Using Soviet-Style Methods of Media Control' - Sputnik International

On Thursday, the NBA will reveal its all-NBA first, second and third teams for the 2016-17 campaign, and with the unveiling, the futures of both the Utah Jazz and the Indiana Pacers franchises hang in the balance, and to me, the overarching media control over professional athletes contract salaries and franchise roster flexibilities is absolutely baffling in the modern NBA.

Essentially, the whole issue stems from the newly negotiated NBA Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) that details a new class of player contracts dubbed the Designated Veteran Players. The qualifications for this new category of players center around two main subjects; first, the upcoming player must either be entering their eighth or ninth NBA season (or just completed his ninth in the case of free agents) with the team that drafted said player or acquired said player in a trade within his first four years of NBA experience.

Secondly and more contentiously, the player must either have completed one of the following performance qualifications:

1) Made one of the three all-NBA teams in either the previous season or the prior two.

2) Won Defensive Player of the Year in either the previous season or the prior two.

3) Won MVP in one of the previous three seasons.

Outside the theoretical and regarding the real-world implications, this new category establishes another tier of max contract for the top NBA players up for contract renegotiations, increasing these players potential salaries up to 35 percent of the salary cap from the prior tier two player salary cap of 30 percent.

Ultimately, this means that in this upcoming free agency, Jazz forward Gordon Hayward and Pacers icon Paul George are waiting to see whether the two will make substantially more money. ESPN senior writer Brian Windhorst wrote earlier this season, If a player is voted to the all-NBA team and has eight or nine years of experience, then he qualifies for a special exception to sign a massive contract with his team for about $75 million more than any other team can pay him.

Beyond the players financial future, the special contract intricacies affect the franchises who now are at the mercy of these qualifications and ultimately shackling the teams front office who face a choice between a rock and a hard place when considering the impact of resigning these specially designated players.

For instance, Utah failed to renegotiate a long-term extension for their biggest offseason pickup last season, guard George Hill, due in large part to concerns about the teams roster future if the organization decides to lock down over $80 million in cap space for the upcoming season. With Hill being offered max contracts from teams with cap room to burn (i.e. the Brooklyn Nets and the 76ers), the Jazz now are locked in a conundrum created from the very rule aimed at helping small market teams retain superstars.

And if the player, such as Gordon Hayward this offseason, fails to make the All-NBA team, then any team with the capability around the league can match Utahs max offer sheet at 30 percent the cap space. Essentially, if Hayward doesnt earn this relatively innocuous award, the superstar youngster will surely opt out and test waters in unrestricted free agency, where an exit for nothing in return would surely cripple the Jazzs future situation.

Whats baffling to me then is, with all the money and organizational future at stake, why the NBA both league offices and players union allows these monumental league decisions to be decided by a panel of sportswriters. Who in a right and sane mind would allot so much control to the media?

Honestly, any other resolution than the external media outlets controlling these arbitrary-turned-critical end of season awards that essentially decide large-scale changes in the future. From making the all-NBA awards computer automated and entirely statistically based to an unbiased committee impervious to connections with teams, literally anything seems better than resting this power amongst a group of media affiliates.

I immediately am remembered of a story from the former TrueHoop podcast in which NBA analytical writer Tom Haberstroh recounted a story of a player literally asking him for recommendations on his game after the ESPN sportswriter kept the player off his article featuring an early midseason ballot for the awards.

Let me repeat that: A professional basketball player, one of the best in the NBA (the highest echelon of basketball competition in the world), asked Haberstroh for tips on his game in order to make sure that Haberstroh voted for him for all-NBA at the end of the season. I guess $75 million in potential contract value would make me do the same.

Ultimately, this story shows just how ridiculous this process has become. While Im definitely in the analytical camp of basketball fans and would enjoy a purely statistical representation of the all-NBA teams, any change in this rule honestly seems less ludicrous than whats in place now. But until then, Thursdays selection will see some organizations exalting with joy while others miss out on a chance at a superstar.

Contact Lorenzo Rosas to congratulate him on the Lakers drafting Lonzo Ball on June 22 at enzor9 at stanford.edu.

Read more from the original source:
Rosas: Let's move past the media control in Designated Player ... - The Stanford Daily