ITV

Tag: North Korea

  • North Korean government fumes over CNN doc

    North Korean government fumes over CNN doc

    MUMBAI: On 19 November 2005 CNN International aired the documentary Undercover In The Secret State. It featured secretly filmed footage of public executions and people struggling for life in North Korea. The government of that country is upset at the same. Media reports indicate that North Korea may ban CNN media personnel from entering the country as a retaliatory measure.

    In a comment by its official Korean Central News Agency, the government said the footage was “full of sheer lies”. It has accused CNN of airing the tape at the instigation of the US government as part of an alleged psychological campaign to overthrow the regime.

    The government has also warned that it will not show any mercy to those parties who are hostile to the country. It has also expressed confidence that its people would rally around their leader Kim Jong Il in order to frustrate the hostile forces’ ever-more undisguised moves to isolate and stifle the country.

    The Korean government further noted that last year the US had engaged the Washington Post to spread rumors of experimenting on human bodies with poisonous gas, using so-called North Korean defector’s testimony.

  • CNN’s 2 docs focus on political strife in North Korea and Aids

    CNN’s 2 docs focus on political strife in North Korea and Aids

    MUMBAI: News broadcaster CNN will air two documentaries-Undercover In the Secret State and Living With Aids.

    Undercover In The Secret State features secretly filmed footage of public executions and people struggling for life in North Korea. This airs on 19 November 2005 at 5:30 pm and on 20 November at 10:30 am and 6:30 pm.

    Grainy footage, never before seen on television, shows a crowd being ordered to gather in a dusty field in North Korea . A public official tells the people that those who go against their country will end up with a fate like this one. Minutes later, a man is tied to a pole and shot by a firing squad, his body slumping lifelessly to the ground. His alleged crime: trying to make contact with the outside world.

    This rare video of a public execution—likely the first ever smuggled out of North Korea —is an example of how dissidents are using technology as a new weapon in their battle against North Korean leader, Kim Jong Il. In North Korea , protest is both difficult and dangerous. But now, dissidents are using hidden digital cameras and cell phones to record, as never before, images of life inside the country. In chilling detail, these images show the world what conditions are really like there.

    Korean journalist ,Jung-Eun Kim, tracks down dissidents doing the dangerous work of making these secret films and smuggling them out of the country. In furtive meetings on the Chinese border and safe houses in Bangkok , Thailand , she learns firsthand how these images are captured and at what risk.

    The documentary footage includes the cursory trials and public executions in two different border towns. Also captured on hidden camera: emaciated, dirty, homeless children steal and scrounge for scraps in the markets. In the bleak, frigid North Korean countryside, political prisoner labor in a concentration camp the government says doesn’t exist. And, under a bridge in a factory town, a dissident defaces a poster of “The Dear Leader,” films his anti-government protest and runs for his life. His act of protest has cost him everything: his home, his country, a life with his wife and daughter.

    North Korea is one of the world’s last Stalinist societies, a tightly closed state that strictly controls its people. There is no freedom to travel, to speak openly, to question or oppose the regime. The government of North Korea describes the nation as a paradise, but refugees speak of famine, prison, torture, lack of food, safety and even the most basic freedoms. The images now being captured by dissidents are some of the first to show what life is really like there.

    The documentary also shows how information threatens North Korea ‘s rigid isolation and seeps into North Korean culture as never before. Smuggled DVDs of South Korean soap operas and movies from the West are showing citizens that North Korea may not be the paradise the government indicates. An Internet radio station in Seoul , South Korea , run by North Korean defectors broadcasts news to those on the border. A smuggled cell phone allows Jung-Eun to speak personally with a young man she met years ago at the border, and who now struggles to survive in North Korea .

    Another documentary is called Living With Aids. Filmmaker, Sorious Samura’s documentary reveals the horrifying backdrop to the spread of HIV in Africa It airs on 30 November 2005 at 7.30 pm, on 1 December 2005 World AIDS Day at 7.30 pm, on 3 December 2005 at 5.30 pm and on 4 December at 10:30 am and 6:30 pm.

    Samura travels to Mongu, Zambia to find out how Aids is destroying Africa and what Africans are doing to cope with its merciless impact on day to day life. Living with a family beset by Aids, and working in the region’s largest hospital for four weeks, Samura discovers that the complex African culture is exacerbating the spread of the disease and its social toll.

    Through conversations with hospital patients, wives and mothers, party-goers and sex workers, Samura uncovers the shocking truth behind the rate of infection amongst the young, procreating generation: recklessness towards knowingly infecting sexual partners, a disdain for using condoms for personal protection, and an ingrained reticence to educating offspring about safe sexual relations. Samura speaks frankly about living conditions and their impact on children’s understanding of intimate relations. “Parents need their own bedrooms. We all know that children model their behaviour on their parents. Exposure to adult intimacy means some girls are losing their virginity as early as six years old.”

    CNN International senior VP ,Rena Golden, says, “Living With Aids has the kind of editorial value and educational impact that work side by side as a vital piece of journalism that heeds the responsibility of CNN and other news networks to bring such important issues to the fore. CNN is pleased to be a part of the awareness drive”.

    The documentary will be seen internationally on CNN by a potential audience of more than 186 million television households and hotel rooms, whom Samura is hoping will be uncomfortable with what it sees. “The global premiere of my documentary is an important opportunity to communicate to a wide audience how easily HIV can be spread, and to gain international recognition of the sensitive issues involved. This is crucial to changing the statistics in the fight against Aids,” he says.

  • ‘Don’t spend a scanty 2 per cent on POP, spend at least 10 per cent’ : Harish Bijoor – POP ASIA 2005 chairman (Steering Committee)

    ‘Don’t spend a scanty 2 per cent on POP, spend at least 10 per cent’ : Harish Bijoor – POP ASIA 2005 chairman (Steering Committee)

    He talks of a “marketing meltdown” in the country. FMCGs are his real targets. Harish Bijoor does not mince words while reasoning a greater ‘autonomy’ for the POP industry, especially in India.

    Acoustically buoyant about the first POP Asia, he is the Chairman of the steering committee POP Asia, Harish Bijoor CEO Harish Bijoor Consults carves a case for a greater focus on one is to one branding. He justifies this by giving example of the imminent failure of advertising to sustain the top line and the bottom line of a brand.

    Indiantelevision.com caught up on the sidelines of the recently concluded two day expo POP Asia at Nehru Centre, Mumbai.

     

    Excerpts:

    How did POP Asia go? Has it been successful enough to meet your expectations?

    It has certainly met my expectations. I have been looking at creating some degree of evangelism in it. POP as an industry has always been a neglected medium. We have always been besotted, as a country, with above the line. Several years ago I started talking about below the line propositions. Everything we did was below the line oriented. It convinced me that it is hard work but it is very very efficient. And therefore what I was looking forward with POP Asia as forum was to bring more and more people on to a unified platform. This year we have had 450 odd people. I am sure it will be much more next year.

    Why POP Asia? Why not POP India or say POP International?

    Fundamentally Asia is where the problem is. I do work in Vietnam which is a very nascent market in terms of POP. I work in Korea where North Korea is an advanced market while South Korea is completely a different place for POP industry. Singapore has a very advanced POP market. But you see these are just the top three numbers we are looking at. There are core markets like Indonesia and China except for Shanghai. Therefore as you see Asia is evolving as a big economic battle ground. The potential is enormous for the POP industry to grow. And we are at a junction where POP is evenly poised to arrive in a big way.

    What is your take on the Indian POP scenario? Investments in POP are more or less stagnant.

    We all know 70 per cent of the purchase decisions happen in store. But 80 per cent of the spend takes place out of stores. Now logic needs to meet somewhere. I am not saying that marketers start spending 70 per cent of their budgets on POP. All I am saying is let there be a better equity. Don’t spend a scanty 2 per cent as you do today on POP. Spend at least 10 per cent. I believe that is the right direction to go. I have been watching Indian marketing at a very micro level. The issues are really deep and big. There is this great marketing meltdown which is hitting the oldest marketed categories in India. They are in deep trouble because top line is not growing; the bottom line is also not growing. Then what’s the purpose of the brand.

    What is the reason for this ‘marketing meltdown’? Especially in the FMCG sector. HLL has become quite a case for this.

    You see all of us need to be besotted with brands and we must protect the bottom line of the brand come what may. Overall what is really happening is ‘the discounting mania’. The mania to get the top line at whatever cost. I feel these are big issues. And they need to be avoided at all cost.

    Then how do you fight the competition?

    I think you need to build brands which are on the ground levels. Don’t build it with media. Build it with customer interface. There is something called one is to one branding and there is something called one is to many branding.

    What is your understanding on brand building through POP?

    POP creates excellent one is to one branding. You go to a store you look at a POP, you get swayed by it and buy the product. I have done a study in seven centers of India. Out of every 100 people who walked into the store 83 got swayed by POP. Only 17 came to the store pre decided to buy. So the question is that “Is Advertising working”? No. Advertising has stopped working. It is not working as efficiently as before. I think in today’s context and with the amount of clutter around advertising is only good for awareness.

    But there is so much of clutter in an average Indian retail outlet?

    Look at clutter which happens in the retail outlet today. Our kirana stores are full of clutter. Despite that there are many entities who are able to make a very focused pitch for your retention. Look at what Surf is doing in the retail outlet. Creativity plays a key role. I think there will be more clutter on advertising than POP.

    Are you giving direction to advertising?

    Today the advertising pie in this country is Rs 117 billion. Out of that 46 per cent goes to Television, 41 percent goes to print and rest goes into outdoor, rural publicity vans and POP. I am just saying that bring some method to madness. You are already having a problem of top lines not growing; bottom lines not growing. Apply what is more efficient and cost effective.a
  • Entries open for Animation Super Pitch 2002

    Entries open for Animation Super Pitch 2002

    Announcing entries open, Asia Animation Super Pitch 2002 has said that for the first time in the region animation content creators will get a chance to reach a panel of at least 10 commissioning editors and broadcasters at the same time this year.

    Organised by Asia Image and Canada’s BANFF Television Festival, the session will be moderated by industry veteran Pat Ferns. Five finalists will be given five minutes to pitch their best ideas to the panel of commissioning editors and broadcasters; each pitch will be followed by a five-minute Q&A session. The winning pitch will receive a cash prize towards the programme’s production.

    Asia Animation Super Pitch is open to all animation studios and production houses whose primary base is in any of the following countries: Bangladesh, Bhutan, Brunei, Cambodia, North Korea, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Japan, Laos, Malaysia, Mongolia, Myanmar, Nepal, Pakistan, Papua New Guinea, People’s Republic of China, the Philippines, Singapore, South Korea, Sri Lanka, Taiwan, Thailand, and Vietnam.

    Only official Asia Image/BANFF Television Festival entry forms will be accepted. An entry fee of $100 entitles three entries but separate forms must be used for each entry. A single entry costs $50.

    The last date for receiving entries is 31 October. A pre-selection process will take place between November 1-5 and finalists will be contacted by 15 November.

    Those selected must be prepared to pitch projects in person at Asia Animation 2002 on the morning of 5 December, Thursday at the Shangri-La Rasa Sentosa Resort in Singapore. Projects must be pitched in English. All presenters of shortlisted pitches will be offered two complimentary passes, worth $600, to Asia Animation 2002