ITV

Tag: CNN

  • CNN to air startling documentary on Christianity

    CNN to air startling documentary on Christianity

    MUMBAI:Was Jesus Christ born on December 25? Was He the founder of Christianity? Ask some basic questions, and the answers will be there for you at the programme “CNN Presents -After Jesus: The First Christians”, premiering on December 22 at 8.30 pm.

    The documentary is a surprise almost at every step, saying things like the fact that the followers of Christ would have thought themselves as Jews, not Christians!

    Then, take this quote from the documentary:”The simplest things (about Christianity), like the date when Jesus was born, was totally fluid through the second and into the third century. It only appears for the first time on a Christian calendar in the fourth century as December 25. So you get the feeling that the entire coalescing of the religion of Christianity is taking place over 100 to 200 years after Jesus is no longer walking the face of the earth.”

    Startling, but that is what Richard Freund, PhD, an ordained rabbi and director of the Maurice Greenberg Center for Judaic Studies at the University of Hartford, says.

    “After Jesus: The First Christians” is a major CNN effort that was filmed for four months across nine countries, United States, England, Italy, Israel, Jordan, Egypt, Syria, Turkey and Greece, CNN Productions executive producer and director Jody Gottlieb tells indiantelevision.com.

    The documentary deals more with how Christianity evolved over the centuries to become what it is now today: a faith ruling two billion people across the world in diverse countries and cultures.

    In fact, the early followers of Jesus Christ did not even call themselves Christians. Amy-Jill Levine, PhD, and an expert, says: “Jesus’ first followers – Mary Magdalene and Peter, Martha and the sons of Zebedee, etc. – did not think of themselves as ‘Christians’. The word was not invented until the movement Jesus founded took root outside of Judea and the Galilee.”

    In fact, Jesus was by no means founding a new religion, Levine says. To the contrary, his mission was to prepare his own people for the Kingdom of Heaven. The borderlines between “Judaism” and “Christianity” remained fluid for the next several centuries. Given the diversity in each movement, we can only speak in very general terms.So, is there something that is true about the book “Holy Blood, Holy Grail”, which questions the basic role of the Church in many ways?

    “No, we do not deal with the book at all in the feature,” said Gottlieb. In fact, answering a specific query about whether the film refers to the Dead Sea Scrolls, which too are controversial for their content, Gottlieb says it does not, but adds, “We do deal with the discovery of the Gnostic Gospels.”

    These Gospels are associated with the early mystical trend of Gnostic Christianity. They are not accepted by mainstream Christianity as authentic, and are therefore declared heresy.

    It was a massive effort, and Gottlieb says, “The film was conceived last November and we began filming in January 2006. She led the production team with the assistance of religion writers, David Gibson and Michael McKinley.”

    The centre of the film would be Saints Peter and Paul, so who played the roles? “We filmed a number of the scenes at Nazareth Village, a working village that recreates a Jewish community at the time of the first century. We used the re-enactors to help cast our scenes. One tour guide had played the Apostle Peter before, and slid into his role with genial ease; another played the mercurial Apostle Paul, and worked with us to reveal the character of this complex man, who is often seen as second only to Jesus in the foundation of Christianity,” Gottlieb says.

    “I think most people imagine that after Jesus died, the Church just emerged suddenly and that you had Christians confessing the Nicene Creed, reading the canon of the 27 books of the New Testament, and that it was all in place right after Jesus’ death. And, in fact, it took centuries for these things to fall into place,” says Bart Ehrman, PhD, James A. Gray Distinguished Professor in the Department of Religious Studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

    In fact, Saint Paul could have been the person to start developing the movement that is now known as the Christian religion. “On a more controversial note, it has been argued that while Jesus preached the good news of the Kingdom of Heaven, Paul preached the good news of Jesus himself. In this understanding, Paul changed the message and so created a movement distinct from what Jesus taught. The relationship between Jesus’ message and Paul’s continues to be a matter of debate,” Levine says.

    These are some of the surprises that are revealed, and CNN is keeping the rest, as it is about how much it cost to make the film or revenue generation issues. But nonetheless, it would be a great journey, it seems, from whatever the channel has said so far.

  • CNN Young Journalist Award 2006 winners announced

    CNN Young Journalist Award 2006 winners announced

    NEW DELHI: While Tejeswi Pratima Dodda and Rohit Vishwanath won this year’s CNN Young Journalist Awards, announced at a glittering function yesterday punctuated by rank bad compering, it was the inevitable choice of Ajit Jaykar as the CNN Citizen Journalist Awardee that drew the loudest applaud from the audience.

    Jaykar had done the ‘biggest story of the year’ shooting from his video camera, the first person to capture footage of the Mumbai blasts. It was thus sad that Jaykar was unable to collect his award at the function, for as Rajdeep Sardesai of CNN-IBN said, “like all good Indian journalists, he must be working somewhere on a Friday evening.
    Jaykar will receive a trophy, citation, Rs 20,000 in cash and a digital camera.

    Dodda – from NDTV 24×7, Hyderabad bagged the TV category award for her reporting “Children for hire”, on kids being used as domestic help, which was aired on CNN-IBN and which provoked the CM of AP to order a probe into the issue.

    Vishwanath, who works for Business World from Mumbai, won the runner-up award for his report on “Shop floor jobs are hot once again” a report on the fact that engineering jobs and not just those in IT, are still a favourite among Indian youth.

    Sonia Faleiro of Tehelka (Mumbai) won the runner up award in the print and online category and Poonam Agarwal from NDTV Delhi won the runner up in the TV category.

    CNN Aspiring Journalist Award was won by Raksha Kumar from Lady Shri Ram College in the TV category.

    The jury decided to give a special mention to Piyush Bhatia from Indian Institute of Mass Communication for his notable performance in the final rounds of the selection process.

    Satinder Bindra, CNN’s Senior International Correspondent, along with Rajdeep Sardesai and other jury members said the selections were a tough fight between young people who had at least two things in common: passion and determination.

    For the Young Journalist Awards, the contestants were given repeated inputs from incidents taking place in Iraq and were asked to report – depending on the medium – either stand in front of a live TV camera and report, or file in print or online.

    The winners in all categories were given a trophy and citation. The winners of the YJA will be sent to the CNN headquarter to work for a month.

    However, as Gurbir Singh, media editor of Hindustan Times, pointed out, despite the fact that there was a lot of zeal and passion, somehow, in terms of print, basic things like grammar, syntax, writing skills and expression remain to fulfil the highest standards, and “the industry needs to look inwards and see what can be done about this”

  • CNN goes on a ‘Quest’ for magic

    CNN goes on a ‘Quest’ for magic

    MUMBAI: News broadcaster CNN has announced that its show Quest seeks out magic. The show’s host Richard Quest seeks to discover the truth behind the dark arts of illusion. The Las Vegas glitz and glamour of David Copperfield contrasts with the cauldrons of English witches as Quest prepares to emulate the magicians with a trick all of his own. The show airs on 23 December at 12:30 pm, 8:30 pm, 24 December at 12:30 pm.

    Topping the bill is American magician and illusionist, David Copperfield. During the past decade, his shows have grossed over one billion dollars, and his television performances have won him 21 Emmy Awards. He has vanished the Statue of Liberty, walked through the Great Wall of China and levitated over the Grand Canyon. Constantly redefining the realms of possibility, he has become the best-known illusionist of our time. The program reveals that he also covets a more secret passion – preserving the history of magic for future generations. With a few surprises along the way, Quest gets a guided tour of the Copperfield private collection, containing 80,000 objects of magic memorabilia, some dating back to the 16th century.

    From the grandest of stages, the program moves to the intimate surroundings of the dinner table, with Fay Presto. This British magician plies her trade on the London restaurant scene, entertaining customers between courses, and she shares her passion for close up magic with Quest, and gives him an insight into the trials and tribulations of the nomadic ‘magician-for-hire’.

    Aside from entertainment, it’s worth pausing to remember that there is perhaps a darker, mythical origin to the modern art of magic. In the quaint Cornish village of St. Buryan in the UK, lives certified witch Cassandra Latham, who could be described as a throwback to the village ‘wise woman’. Working from her cottage, she receives all manner of visitors, who request everything from a love spell to an old school cure for warts. With Cassandra providing Quest with a glimpse at ancient rituals, who has to question whether real magic exists!

    Next, the show’s host visits ‘Sin City’, Las Vegas, where there’s ample scope to uncover what motivates the master magician. On stage at the Monte Carlo Hotel, Lance Burton creates a world in which gloves turn to doves and girls levitate across the stage. From sleight-of-hand tricks to grand illusions, Burton does it all and has been the hottest act in Vegas for over ten years. He describes his deep connection to magicians of the past, his philosophy of performance and why some tricks are timeless.

    In addition to meeting some of the biggest names in the business, Quest faces his own ordeal as he seeks out the ‘magic touch’. Not content just to stare in wonder, he takes to the stage at London’s Magic Circle, alongside some of Britain’s top magicians.

  • CNN doc to examine the early days of Christianity

    CNN doc to examine the early days of Christianity

    MUMBAI: As two billion Christians prepare to celebrate the Christmas season, news broadcaster CNN offers a broad-ranging documentary on the tumultuous early years of Christianity – from the crucifixion of Jesus Christ to the conversion of Constantine, the Roman emperor who first legalised Christianity in 313 A.D.

    The special CNN Presents: After Jesus – The First Christians airs on 22 December at 8:30 pm, 26 December at 8:30 am, 30 December at 7:30 pm. It examines how the earliest Christians spread their message, despite internal strife over the faith and violent persecution by Rome.

    Immediately following Jesus’ crucifixion and resurrection, the first Christians were challenged to define their faith. Two of Jesus’ disciples – Peter, who preached that the followers of Jesus had to be Jewish, and Paul who argued that this new faith must be available to all – would emerge as Christianity’s first and most influential leaders.

    Their eventual consensus, that Christianity would be available to all through conversion, and their missionary zeal throughout the Roman Empire, helped the new faith to spread rapidly. But Christianity’s growing power was also a threat to the empire, so the Romans killed Peter and Paul and other early leaders.

    Christians were so brutally persecuted that Christianity’s survival was repeatedly in danger. That Christianity eventually became the world’s largest religion is perhaps the faith’s second biggest miracle.

    CNN examined archaeological evidence and spoke with the most renowned authorities on the ancient church to answer “the” question at the heart of the story: How did Jesus, a wandering rabbi from the hinterland, and his illiterate followers, triumph over Roman persecution and establish a worldwide faith?

    Viewers may be surprised to learn that followers of some early branches of Christianity believed in morethan one god; that there were many more Gospels than those included in the New Testament; and that Christmas was originally a springtime celebration.

    There was also a group of Christians – the Gnostics -who believed that man’s existence on Earth was a mistake and that salvation required a mystical experience of self-discovery and self-realisation. They wrote their own Gospels, and their power struggle with the orthodox Christians was a threat to the new faith.

    The special also examines the Biblical history of Israel, the destruction of the Temple of Jerusalem and the events during the Council of Nicaea that have come to define modern Christian orthodoxy.

  • CNN Young Journalists Award coming up mid-December

    CNN Young Journalists Award coming up mid-December

    NEW DELHI: CNN here is in top gear for this year’s “Young Journalists Awards” (YJA), with many more entries than in the previous three years and two exciting new categories of awards having been added in the fourth edition, slated to be held on December 15.

    And though the channel is expectedly keeping the list of winners closely guarded, there is obvious excitement about the two new categories, “CNN Aspiring Journalists Award” and the “CNN Citizen Journalist Award”, Satindra Bindra, Senior International Correspondent told indiantelevision.com.

    Bindra revealed: “Entries received this year, have very poignantly brought to light several social issues such as farmers’ suicides, child trafficking, corruption in school admissions, anti-national activities, animal rights and protection and many such issues. The stories, by and large, are extremely well researched, and have adequately highlighted the issues they dealt with.”

    Asked what seems to concern young Indian journalists, Bindra said: “Going by the entries received, clearly, Indian reporters are highlighting social injustice, corruption, anti-national and anti-social activities, and other issues that impact the nation.”

    What kind of reportage came in this time?

    It was all sorts, Bindra said, from automotive writing to medical journalism, from social causes to business and even entries from film, fashion, politics and sports journalists.

    He added that the Indian and Pakistani media are growing at very fast paces and this is reflected in the high number of entries received over the last four years.

    “There has been an improvement in the quality of filming as well as reportage and this has been reflected in the entries received for the television category as well,” Bindra said. Technically, the entries are slightly better than before and the issues highlighted are relevant to modern India, he added.

    This year’s finalists have displayed good journalism, he felt, but more than anything else, some of them are remarkable for their great resourcefulness and ingenuity while pursuing the story.

    The CNN Aspiring Journalist Award is meant for those just who have just appeared or appearing in their final year of journalism college. This award is being given jointly with Hindustan Times, while the CNN Citizen Journalist Award is being given together with CNN-IBN.

    Bindra said that the student community had indicated an interest in the earlier editions of CNN YJA and also comprise an important segment of our viewership, which is reflectedin the queries and feedback on programming and current affairs that we receive through our website, and hence the addition of this new category.

    “We hope CNN Aspiring Journalist Award will encourage and hone budding journalistic talent in India,” he said.

    For this category, the participants had to submit an essay in 1,000 words, on the topic, ‘Are sting operations justified?’ The short-listed participants will be invited to New Delhi to participate in an on-the-spot contest. The winners of this contest will then be declared as the CNN Aspiring Journalist of the Year

    “CNN Young Journalist Awards aims to promote young emerging journalists in India. We endeavour to provide them with the right platform to ensure their success. The journalists and the students, who have participated this year, have displayed good potential and as they grow, are capable of creating a mark for themselves in the industry,” he said.

    The CNN Citizen Journalist Award too is a new category introduced this year. Bindra said that Citizen Journalism has been a distinctive and definitive identity of CNN-IBN since its launch in India earlier this year. “At CNN, we have expanded ‘Citizen Journalism’ by recently launching I-Report initiative. This initiative allows a CNN viewer who captures compelling content with a personal cell phone, camera or other device to be a part of telling the world what is happening through the unsurpassed reach of CNN.

    CNN Citizen Journalist Award aims to acknowledge and recognize these citizens who are, in a manner of speaking, journalists. This Award will recognize and celebrate the inseparable partnership between citizens and media in influencing and shaping the course of developments in the world around us.

    For the CNN Citizen Journalist Award, the winner will be chosen from the images/video files received from citizens and broadcast on CNN-IBN.

    All the entries are judged equally on the basis of content and presentation. The jury comprises of distinguished personalities from the field of media and journalism, and this year senior scribes at CNN-IBN were also part of the evaluation team.

    After receiving all the entries from India and Pakistan, the top entries are short-listed and the winners and runners up are then chosen from this list.

    The winners of the CNN Young Journalist Award will spend a week at CNN’s headquarters in Atlanta, where they will meet with CNN International’s editors and anchors, and experience first-hand the workings of CNN’s editorial and programming teams.

    The runner up in the Television and Print/Online Category will be given the opportunity to visit and assist the CNN news bureau in New Delhi for a week.

    The winners of ‘CNN Aspiring Journalist Award’ in the Television category will also earn an opportunity for an internship with the CNN-IBN bureau either in New Delhi or Mumbai for a month, and the winner in the Print category will get an internship with the Hindustan Times bureau in New Delhi or Mumbai for the same period, Bindra added.

  • CNN clicks with Konica Minolta in online campaign

    MUMBAI: News broadcaster CNN International has launched Digital Biz. This is an online initiative in association with Konica Minolta looking at the impact of cutting edge technology on business. Digital Biz appears on CNN’s international website, http://edition.cnn.com/specials/2006/digitalbiz and provides a look at the world of digital business with news, analysis and features on areas including blogging, personal and business technology and gadgets and even gaming.

    Within the Digital Biz section, Konica Minolta’s six-month ad campaign features branding and sponsorship exposure that drives traffic to their own website, The Future is Here, as part of the company’s drive to draw attention to their digital business.

    CNN ad sales Asia Pacific VP William Hsu says, “This partnership allows Konica Minolta to reach an upscale audience across one of the world’s most successful and popular online platforms. CNN has consistently offered the audience of well-travelled business decision-makers that advertisers seek and we are delighted to work alongside Konica Minolta to this end”.

  • CNN unveils ‘Paging Dr. Gupta’ blog

    CNN unveils ‘Paging Dr. Gupta’ blog

    MUMBAI: News broadcaster CNN International says that in an attempt to answer the call for more consumer-friendly health and medical news, CNN senior medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta and CNN’s Medical Unit has launched the Paging Dr. Gupta” blog on CNN.com. The blog offers be a behind-the-scenes look at the latest medical news stories while providing insights on current health and medical trends.

    CNN’s Medical Unit director Carol Kinstle says, “Sanjay’s style of reporting is simple, factual and engaging and has earned him credibility with his audience director. It’s only natural to extend that same rapport across CNN’s digital platforms with the launch of this blog.”

    Gupta’s new blog stands as one new feature of a revamped CNN.com Health section, located at CNN.com/Health. The page offers Gupta’s work a more prominent placement with easier access to his videos, podcasts and special reports, which are also available at www.CNN.com/Health/blogs/paging.dr.gupta/. Through partnerships with Heathology, a leading online producer of physician-generated medical and health information, and with MayoClinic.com, an award-winning consumer health and medical information site, CNN.com and the CNN Medical Unit will be able to provide even more health-related news and important, practical health information to viewers and online users.

    Dr. Sanjay Gupta is senior medical correspondent for the health and medical unit at CNN. Gupta, a practicing neurosurgeon and an assistant professor of neurosurgery, plays an integral role in the network’s medical coverage, which includes daily packages, the half-hour weekend show House Call with Dr. Sanjay Gupta and coverage of breaking medical news.

  • CNN wins best channel at ATF ’06; NDTV takes best news award

    CNN wins best channel at ATF ’06; NDTV takes best news award

    MUMBAI: In the recent 11th Asian Television Awards held in Singapore, CNN and NDTV 24X7 have scooped various awards for India.

    CNN in the Asia Pacific region won Cable and Satellite Channel of the Year, CNN Today was selected as the Best news program, Kristie Lu Stout won the Best news presenter or anchor award, while Stan Grant won for Best current affairs presenter and also for Rising from the Ruins in the Best news/current affairs special category, asserts an official release.

    Commenting on the win CNN International’s senior vice president Rena Golden said, “To take home the prestigious Cable and Satellite Channel of the Year award on top of four other honours is simply a brilliant achievement and testament to our world class on-air and behind-the-scenes teams across the Asia Pacific region.”

    CNN International managing director Chris Cramer added, “This success is particularly sweet when you consider the proliferation of competition and the fact that these awards are voted for by our peers. Twenty one years after we launched, we continue to lead by example.”

    NDTV 24X7 won The Best News Programme for Waves of Destruction, a runner-up for Best Single News Story/Report for Bihar Floods – Forces of Nature, a runner-up for Best Live Event Coverage for Blast in Srinagar Transport Office and a runner-up for Best News/Current Affairs Special for Inside Pakistan Occupied Kashmir.

    Barkha Dutt was a runner-up for The Nation Tonight and Nidhi Razdan for The X-Factor in the Best News Presenter or Anchor category.

    Bennett, Coleman and Co. Ltd’s Zoom TV India won the Best Entertainment Programme award for Dangerous.

  • CNN special reveals the connect between happiness and health

    CNN special reveals the connect between happiness and health

    MUMBAI: News broadcaster CNN will air the special Happpiness And Your Health: The Surprising Connection on 9 December at 1230 pm, 8:30 pm and on 10 December at 1230 pm.

    CNN senior medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta joins the eternal search for happiness. Talking with doctors, philosophers, teachers, business leaders and comedians, Dr. Gupta asks where happiness comes from, how to get it and whether people need it.

    Joined by guests including US comedian Richard Lewis Curb Your Enthusiasm and motivational speaker Tony Robbins, Dr. Gupta reveals the surprising secrets of happy people, the ways in which happiness affects health and the intriguing results of an exclusive CNN poll.

    ‘Born Happy’ – Happiness experts say that personality has deep roots in genetics. The programme features identical twins who despite growing up without knowing of each other’s existence for 25 years, noticed more than a few similarities when they first

    ‘Power of Laughter’ – “Laughing is halfway to healing” is the motto of laughter yoga. This movement, created by a Mumbai doctor, today claims more than 3,000 clubs in 40 countries. Dr. Gupta laughs along with a club in California, finding intricate links between happiness and health.

    ‘Unnatural Highs’ – Psychiatrist Julie Holland and Nora Volkow, head of the National Institute on Drug Abuse in the US, explain the effects that drugs – legal and illegal – have on the brain and compare these effects to natural highs.

    ‘How to be Happy’ – Viewers will hear surprising research into what really makes people happy, as well as a life lesson from someone who found himself paralysed in a car accident at the age of 29, and who subsequently suffered the deaths of his second wife, sister and parents, yet emerged from those struggles happier and wiser than ever.

    Dr. Gupta says, “There is more than one route to happiness and well-being. This special will take viewers on a journey and hopefully help them live happier, healthier and more fulfilling lives.”

  • CNN travels to Dubai next month

    CNN travels to Dubai next month

    MUMBAI: News broadcaster CNN anchor Hala Gorani hosts the special Inside The Middle East from Dubai in December as she takes viewers on a journey to Lebanon and Tunisia to meet a singing legend and one of the most prolific film producers from the Middle East. The special airs on 2 December 2006 at 2 pm, 8 pm, 3 December at 6 pm and on 7 December at 8 pm.

    In Beirut, CNN correspondent Brent Sadler meets 82-year old tarab singer, Nahawand, one of the most elderly performers in the Middle East. Twice a week she rocks her audiences in the aisles of Music Hall, a trendy Beirut nightclub where the Lebanese glitterati dance on tables to the powerful voice of ‘the nightingale’. Now, with age, she suffers mentally but never forgets her lyrics. Her doctors remark that this frail woman in her trademark black suit and red scarf literally lives to sing, and that those few minutes on stage every week may be her motivation to stay alive.

    Gorani then explores the history of Western film production in Tunisia, where much of the country’s movement can be attributed to Tunisian-born Tarak Ben Ammar, who is today a major international film broker and movie producer. Currently producing the upcoming ‘Hannibal Rising’ movie, he also took part in producing popular films like ‘Star Wars’ and the ‘Raiders of the Lost Ark’ movies. Ben Ammar shows INSIDE THE MIDDLE EAST around his magnificent Greco-Roman film set north of Tunis, revealing how he convinced Hollywood legends Steven Spielberg and George Lucas to shoot their movies in his native Tunisia, helping transform the small North African country into one of Hollywood’s favourite film sets.

    The show also looks at a specific problem affecting life in the Middle East: iodine deficiency disorder. Just a pinch of iodised salt with a meal is known to be enough to eliminate the primary cause of preventable learning difficulties and brain damage. But mental retardation, dwarfism and speech defects due to IDD have yet to be eliminated in the region despite efforts to get salt producers to add iodine to their product. In Egypt’s rural Nile Delta, the show looks at one anti-IDD programme targeting babies that is proving successful and follows an Egyptian health minister in his battle against IDD as he seeks to rid the souks, shops and stores of illegally produced, un-iodised salt.