Mediaboss Marketing

Blacked out ... a temporary shield was erected last year at a Christmas Island detention centre to prevent media from photographing detainees. Photo: James Brickwood

THE Immigration Department developed its new, highly restrictive policy on media visits to detention centres with reference to US military arrangements governing media access to the Guantanamo Bay terrorist detention centre.

Documents released under freedom of information show the ''deed of agreement'' that Immigration insists journalists and media organisations visiting detention centres must sign was ''informed by the current US Department of Defence media access policy for its detention facility at Guantanamo Bay''.

The department also justified extremely tight media control and censorship to the Immigration Minister, Chris Bowen, as ''the right balance'' in circumstances that included ''the current climate associated with media ethics, media 'phone hacking' [in Britain]''.

Advertisement: Story continues below

Access denied ... media have argued it was easier to visit Guantanamo Bay (pictured) than to gain access to an Australian immigration facility. Photo: Reuters

In an email to a reporter who was consulted on the policy, Immigration's national communications manager, Sandi Logan, said, ''I reckon while the phone hacking scandal is all the rage, what else would the media expect of us? Trust you say? Gimme a break, sorry!''

The Greens' immigration spokeswoman, Sarah Hanson-Young, said yesterday ''the idea that [media access] guidelines have, even in part, been inspired by Guantanamo Bay is absolutely appalling - it really shows the attitude of Immigration and [the] government - they have forgotten that they are dealing with asylum seekers, not criminals or terrorists.''

The policy requires that journalists visiting detention centres must be escorted at all times by Immigration officers. There is a bar on any ''substantive communication'' with detainees, a right for officials to censor recordings, and the right for Immigration to immediately end any visit.

The chief executives of the largest media organisations, including Fairfax Media's Greg Hywood, News Ltd's Kim Williams and the heads of all TV broadcast networks last month condemned the agreement as ''unacceptable censorship''.

View original post here:
Detention centre policy based on Guantanamo

Customers can now control their Roku players using their Android smartphones.

With this free software, users can turn their mobile devices into a control center wherethey can launch Roku channels, navigate the Roku player, control media playback, and find new channels to view.

Theapp also turnsthe Android-running handset into a touch remote control that includes instant replay, back, and option buttons as well as a keyboard.It can also be usedto control and switch between multiple Roku players.

To use this app, just simply download it from the Google Play store, install, connect to the same network as the Roku player, and sign-in witha Roku account. Once signed in,users willbe able to controlany Roku player on the same network.

Roku released a Roku App for iPhone late last year that acts similarly to the Android app.

More about RokuRoku boxes are specially-designed devices for streaming video from online services. They offer channels such as Netflix, Hulu Plus, Amazon Instant Video, Crackle, and many more, and have become popular among those who have given up cable television service.

Related Articles:

See the original post here:
Control Your Roku Player with the Free Roku App

The new policy was partly based on rules governing journalists' access to the Guantanamo Bay prison. Photo: Reuters

THE Immigration Department's tough new policy restricting media visits to detention centres was partly modelled on US military rules governing journalists' access to the Guantanamo Bay prison.

Documents released under freedom of information show that Immigration's new ''deed of agreement'' that must be signed by journalists and media organisations visiting immigration detention centres was in part ''informed by the current US Department of Defence media access policy for its detention facility at Guantanamo Bay''.

The department justified tight media control and censorship to Immigration Minister Chris Bowen as ''the right balance'' in circumstances that included ''the current climate associated with media ethics, media 'phone hacking' [in Britain]''.

Advertisement: Story continues below

In an email to a journalist who was privately consulted on the new policy, Immigration's national communications manager, Sandi Logan, explained: ''I reckon while the phone hacking scandal is all the rage, what else would the media expect of us? Trust, you say? Gimme a break, sorry!''

Greens immigration spokeswoman Sarah Hanson-Young said it was ''absolutely appalling'' that Australian media access guidelines had been at all inspired by arrangements at Guantanamo Bay.

''It really shows the attitude of Immigration and [the] government - they have forgotten that they are dealing with asylum seekers, not criminals or terrorists,'' she said.

Under the new media access policy, conditions of entry to detention centres include that journalists be at all times escorted by Immigration officers, a prohibition on any ''substantive communication'' with detainees, a right for officials to censor audio and video recordings, as well as the right for Immigration officials to immediately terminate any visit.

Last month the chief executives of Australia's largest media organisations, including Fairfax Media chief executive Greg Hywood, News Limited CEO Kim Williams and the heads of all TV broadcast networks condemned the deed of agreement as ''unacceptable censorship''.

Original post:
US prison inspired media rule

Version 3.0 includes several new features that extend the console's capabilities along with a number of enhancements that both programmers and designers will appreciate. The Media Display has been moved to the Function Palette on the front panel of the console for easy access to media clips. The Console now includes CITP Media Protocol Control.

Along with an expansion to 4,000 channels of control, v3.0 has a revised Patch spreadsheet that provides an improved interface for editing and tagging data, as well as the ability to view multiple dimmer addresses patched to a single control channel. Other programming features in the v3.0 release include: Group Copy by parameter, Copy and Move Subs, Copy Channel Using Group, and Manual Data Undo. There are also a number of new tools provided in the Group Super Palette such as Multi-Level Ad Hoc Selecting by filtering Channels, Palettes, Presets, Dynamics, Cues, and Intensity States. A smart grouping feature provides user-definable channel selection.

The Vx76 software application provides an integrated 3D programming environment, which includes real-time status and off-line editing. The v3.0 software Layers feature adds functionality to the Plan View and provides the user with many different "views" of the system. In the Plan View, users may also draw Regions, which can be easily manipulated.

A new Basic Profile Editor is also now available on the V676/V476 product pages of the PRG website http://www.prg.com/product/v676-contr.... The Profile Editor application is used for creating a basic profile definition for a fixture that does not currently exist in the console, as well as importing fixture profiles. This is a stand-alone application that runs on any Macintosh operating on Snow Leopard or Lion.

For more information on the Vx76 v3.0 Software, please visit: http://www.prg.com/wp-content/uploads...

For more information on PRG, please visit http://www.prg.com.

About Production Resource Group - Production Resource Group, L.L.C., (PRG) is the world's leading supplier of entertainment and event technology to a wide range of markets, including corporate and automotive events, concerts, special events, theatre, television and film, trade shows, and installations, such as theme parks, museums, retail stores and performing arts centers. PRG provides integrated services and equipment, including audio, video, lighting, rigging, scenery, and rigging and automation systems, for these markets from more than 40 offices in North America, South America, Europe, Africa, Asia and Australia.

Continued here:
Lighting Control Consoles offer software-based programming.

Independent Newspapers

File Photo: Jennifer Bruce

All news on rhino poaching in SA national parks will now come from the national government, raising suspicions about further curbs on news of the national rhino poaching crisis.

SA National Parks spokesman Wanda Mkutshulwa issued a statement on Monday that until further notice all matters related to rhino poaching will be addressed by the Environmental Affairs Department (DEA).

This will include the updates that SANParks has been giving to the media about rhino poaching statistics, all interviews related to rhino poaching and all issues of clarity or information.

Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife chief executive Bandile Mkhize said he was unaware of the policy change and thought it applied to SANParks only.

For the past few months SANParks has been co-ordinating information on national rhino poaching statistics on its website and reporting on the involvement of its rangers in the crisis.

Last week, when The Mercury tried to confirm that the poaching toll had risen to more than 100 rhinos in the past 68 days, Mkutshulwa said: I would not know. But we are told there are people who keeps tabs on these reports so we are not releasing any other stats. We do it once a month. That is the instruction we have We will release towards the end of March.

Responding to the latest change in the rhino information policy on Monday, Mkutshulwa said: There is nothing sinister to have all rhino poaching media and public issues go through the Department of Environmental Affairs as they have been going through SANParks.

It is an administrative arrangement which makes sense because this is a national issue. The department will be conducting this matter the same way SANParks has been doing.

Read more from the original source:
Government to control rhino poaching news