EUROPE

• STRATEGIC PARTNERSHIP IN SWEDEN
  43 FM Radio Stations across Sweden (including three in Stockholm) are now broadcasting the Swedish version of “Thru the Bible ” in partnership with Norea Radio. “These broadcasts are costing us almost nothing”, said Norea’s Swedish Director, Lennart Johansson, “ and they enable us to have a powerful public ministry around the country. We also integrate Radio and TV broadcasts with other targeted media, such as CDs, DVDs, and USBs so that each Channel complements the others.” Now in many languages, “Thru the Bible” is regarded as “the most listened to “, Radio Programme in the world.
  Contact: lennart.johansson@norearadio.se
  

• EUROPEAN COMMISSION CALLS FOR IMPROVED CHILD SAFETY POLICIES 50% of 10 year-old, 87% of 13 year-old and 95% of 16 year-old children in the EU have a mobile phone, but half of European parents believe that mobile phone use might expose their children to sexually and violently explicit images or bullying by other children. The European Commission has called on Mobile Operators to do more to keep children safe by putting in place all the measures in the voluntary Code of Conduct, signed by 26 mobile operators in 2007. A report by the GSM Association shows that 80% of operators have put in place some measures to control child access to adult content.

  Source: www.europa.eu

• EUROPEAN ELECTION
  www.vote2009.eu is the new Christian website on the EU Elections (being held across the EU from 4th to 7th June). CARE for Europe has launched the website in collaboration with the European Evangelical Alliance (EEA). EU voters will find elections, papers on the issues at stake, and suggestions on criteria for voting wisely at the elections, which will shape EU politics for the coming 5 years! The site is available in 8 languages.
  Source: EEA
  
  

• FRANCE
  The draft law punishing the illegal downloading of files from the internet was rejected during the final vote at the French National Assembly. Members rejected the latest version of the text on the “protection of internet rights ” that had been written by the Mixed Party Commission and adopted the same morning in the Senate. The European Parliament was divided on this subject and its decision was against the will of the French Government and the majority of the French National Assembly.
  Contact: info@robert-schuman.eu

• BBC POLL
  A BBC poll suggests that most people want religion and the values derived from it to play an important role in British public life. Of 1,045 people questioned by ComRes, 62% were in favour. 63% of those questioned agreed that laws should respect and be influenced by the UK’s traditional religious values. The findings contrast with calls from some politicians and secularist groups to exclude faith from the public arena. Church leaders have warned that recent legislation has elevated goals such as freedom from discrimination for homosexual people, above the freedom of religion. The Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, warned that the government was using legislation to control people’s morals as well as their behaviour. The BBC poll indicates that even at a time when baptisms, church weddings and attendance at Sunday services are declining, people are unwilling for secularism to displace religion altogether.
  Source: BBC News

• EUROPEAN UNION
  The most common allegation examined by the European Ombudsman, P. Nikiforos Diamandouros, was lack of transparency in the EU administration. Mr Diamandouros said, “An accountable and transparent EU administration is key to building citizens’ trust in the EU. I therefore call on the European Commission to amend its proposals to reform the legislation on public access to documents in order to give the widest possible access to citizens and other stakeholders.” In 2008, the Ombudsman received 3,406 complaints from EU citizens, companies, NGOs and associations. In almost 80% of cases, the Ombudsman was able to help the complainant by opening an inquiry into the case, transferring it to a competent body, or giving advice on where to turn.
  Visit www.ombudsman.europa.eu/activities/annualreports.faces

• ESTONIA / RUSSIA
  Tartu Radio, a Christian broadcaster in eastern Estonia, is upgrading its medium wave AM transmitter from 100,000 to 200,000 watts. This will enable it to reach Western Russia, where most of the people live, with the gospel. The upgrade will cost about half a million Euros – but it will replace a number of programmes, with partner TWR, which were recently removed from the Russian national radio networks.
  Visit www.twr.org

• UK
  Communications firms are being asked to record all internet contacts between people as part of a “modernisation” of UK police surveillance. The new system would track all emails, phone calls and internet use, including visits to Social Network sites. The Home Secretary has scrapped plans for a permanent database but wants details to be held and organised for Security Services. Labour Ministers say police need new tools to fight crime, but opposition MPs and campaigners have raised privacy fears. The Home Office will ask communications companies – from internet service providers to mobile phone networks – to extend the range of information they currently hold on their subscribers and organise it so that it can be better used by the police.
  Source: BBC News
  

• NORWAY
  FEB Vice-Chairman, Geir Magnus Nyborg, currently General Secretary of the Christian Media Association “Familie & Medier” in Norway, has been appointed Vice President and Associate Professor at Gimlekollen School of Journalism and Communication in Kristiansand. He will take up the post on August 1st, 2009. He will also teach at the Norwegian Teacher Academy and continue to advise “Familie & Medier“. The Gimlekollen School of Journalism and Communication is a private Christian University College, with study programmes accredited by the Norwegian Educational Authorities. Nyborg also serves on a number of Boards nationally and internationally.
  Contact: feb@feb.org

• UK
  A report commissioned by Digital Britain has urged the UK Government to consider making Pay-TV companies such as Virgin Media and Sky pay to carry Public Service Broadcasters. The report investigates how the value from content commissioned by PSBs is shared. It rejects three common solutions – allowing broadcasters to make more shows in-house, reallocating media rights between broadcasters and producers, and adjusting the split of back end rights to content as “zero-sum solutions “. It argues that they re-distribute existing value rather than generating additional revenue and suggests the Government looks at forcing Pay-TV companies to pay for Public Service Broadcasting.
  Source: Broadcast
  
  

• GERMANY
  ERF Eins TV is airing “Joni and Friends” each Sunday at 8.00pm. The American Jonie Eareckson-Tada has been a quadriplegic for over 40 years. In a 1967 diving accident she broke her back when she was 17 years old. Joni has written 35 books, including her autobiography, “Joni” which has been translated into 40 languages and has sold over 3 million copies. Joni also enjoys painting. She guides the brush with her mouth and signs each piece, “PTL” – “Praise the Lord“. In 1979 she founded the “Joni and Friends International Disability Centre” a Christian relief organisation for the disabled, which produces a daily radio broadcast. The new TV series is to encourage disabled viewers and their families and to sensitise others to the dynamics of life with disability.
  Visit www.erf.de

• TURKEY
  Soner Tufan of Radio Shema in Ankara reports a significant increase of hits on their Website. Radio Shema can be heard in Turkey and 55 other countries via the internet. New programmes being produced include one based on Fox’s Book of Martyrs. The text has been translated into Turkish and is the basis of the programme. A second programme is a two-minute spot dealing with daily issues of life from the Bible.
  Contact: Sonertufan@gmail.com

• FACEBOOK AND TV
  Facebook EMEA’s commercial director Blake Chandlee says the world’s biggest online social network is making friends with TV. Mr Chandlee put in a brainstorming session with Sir Michael Lyons, Chairman of the BBC Trust. Facebook was one of a number of communications organisations to accept Sir Michael’s invitation to the BBC governing body’s brainstorming session on the future. BBC digital media supremo Anthony Rose has already said that 2009 is the year the iPlayer goes social. Could Facebook have a role to play in that? “Absolutely,” says Chandlee, adding swiftly that this isn’t something that will necessarily happen.
  Source: C21Media.net

• UK
  British clergy are working on their financial counselling skills as people head to churches, mosques and synagogues to cope with layoffs and debts. With a number of local religious leaders noticing an increase in the number of people seeking a helping hand, a “credit crunch network” of employment and financial experts has taken shape. Christians Against Poverty, a debt-counselling charity that gets 3,500 referrals a day, gave Clergy a workshop on how to provide support to parishioners in debt.
  Source: Financial Times