More4 News Blog

What a difference a year makes

Happy Birthday to us. Yes, that's right - it's one year ago today since More4 launched as a channel, and More4 News made its debut at 8pm on a Monday evening, writes Mick Hodgkin.

The Kashmir earthquake, which had happened over the weekend, provided a strong hard news story to kick off the programme - Channel 4 news had sent Jon Snow to present from the quake zone, so Sarah was able to interview Jon as More4 News correspondent in the field. I hope that didn't generate unrealistic expectations! 

We also had a piece on the rescue efforts from Pakistani journalist Naziha Ali, flagging up our intention to view world news events from different angles. And as David Cameron - then a Tory leadership hopeful - wrestled with the drugs question, John Sparks considered what answer a politician should give to inquiries about past substance misuse. 

So how has it all turned out? More4 News quickly established itself as a fixture on the news scene, albeit a junior partner.  We may not have the spending power of the BBC, but we like to think we've made some impact nonetheless, with some strong international stories and challenging interviews -from breaking news of rape allegations against African Union peacekeepers in Darfur to the first interview with David Irving in his Austrian prison.

And while some of the early ideas - like getting viewers' comments via webcam - may have been a little bit ahead of their time, we've tried to push the technological boundaries with the odd interview by webcam, and user-generated content in the form of viewers' world cup songs sent in by email.

So cheers, and thanks to all our viewers - we'll be raising a glass to you, and to ourselves, over dinner after tonight's programme!

'I'm crossing Pyongyang off my holiday list'

North Korea: the bloggers' view...

North Korea claims it has carried out a nuclear test in an undisclosed underground location. Here's the blogosphere's response.

Catallaxy says: "I'm not a gun-slinging Texan intent on 'bringing democracy to the world', but I am a libertarian and am thus fundamentally against the North Korean autocracy."

James, meanwhile, is still in disbelief: "What is North Korea thinking?? Why make their people suffer? North Korea had every chance to surrender its nuclear ambitions and receive aid for its citizens, and now its people will suffer because of Kim-Jong Il. I just don't understand that idiot!"

Criticism of the America's foreign policy abounds.

Q&A: North Korea nuclear crisis

The key points of the North Korea nuclear crisis explained.

What is the background to the crisis?
Relations between the US and North Korea have been deteriorating since George Bush labelled North Korea part of an "axis of evil" in January 2002.

The following October, the US accused North Korea of developing a secret, uranium-based nuclear weapons programme.

Washington is not only concerned about the development of such weapons in North Korea, but also wants to curb Pyongyang's capacity to export missile and nuclear technology to other states or organisations.

Since the October 2002 confrontation, North Korea has restarted a mothballed nuclear power station, thrown out inspectors from the UN's International Atomic Energy Agency and pulled out of the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty.

It may be that North Korea has been trying to use the nuclear issue as a hard-line ploy to negotiate a non-aggression pact and improved economic aid from the US.

What is the immediate effect of North Korea's announcement?
If a nuclear test is confirmed, it will cement North Korea's place as a nuclear power, effectively ending hopes of resolving the stand-off through stalled six-nation talks.

Drama at the airport

We had just finished four days hard filming.  Two stories were in the bag and we were set to leave Turkey within the hour.  One of the films was about artists threatened by Article 301 that claimed they had insulted Turkey in their work.

The gate had been called and we were lining up to board.  Time passed as it does and I fell into a dream.  Then a voice broke the reverie.

"You let me on that bloody plane you b****.  My father is a member of the mafia and I am going to have you f****** killed".

An irate passenger had been refused access to the plane.  His four sports bags full of clothes beat the carry-on item allowance and he wasn't happy.

Cameron on Toynbee

David Cameron today at his party's conference quoted an article he had read, giving the example of the ludicrous way the NHS is managed in his eyes.  Hard to say for sure, but the most likely contender for the article he had read ran as follows: a "public health director for the south-west region (who) has held the same job since 1994, but has had to reapply for it seven times since then, due to reorganisations".

The author was that old liberal die-hard Polly Toynbee.  Wonder how she feels about being paraphrased by the Tories.

A 'Perfect Day' for Cameron?

David Cameron takes to the stage today for the second time, to tell us about the shape of Tomorrow's Party. The rumour is that he may even Take a Walk on the Wild Side unveil some policies.

If there are any facts in this speech, we'll be checking them out on our FactCheck website. In the meantime, while we're Waiting for our Man to speak, why not have a look at some more satirical photoshopping from the man behind this Lou Reed pastiche, Beau Bo D'Or?

That Thatcher soundbite

When George Osbourne evoked the words of Margaret Thatcher during his party conference speech yesterday, it was full marks to his researchers.

While it would have been much easier to find a Thatcher soundbite extolling the virtues of 'rolling back the frontiers of the state', Osbourne quoted the former Conservative prime minister in much more cautious mood. "I am not prepared ever to go on with tax reductions if it meant unsound finance," the shadow chancellor quoted her as saying.

But where does the quote come from? And in what context? Click here to find out.

The Church of the Latter Day Tories

Up on a hill above Bournemouth, there's an old church full full of eager young workers taking a few hours out of the Tory Party conference to turn it into a leisure centre.

A train of shadow cabinet ministers has been making its way up the hill to watch them sawing, beavering and drilling away - and a widescreen TV is helpfully placed there to help them keep up with the 24-hour news cycle.

Of course, the plan is to show how caring and sharing the erstwhile 'nasty party' now is; and to illustrate the right-wing idea that volunteering and charity can do a better job of looking after the needy than the welfare/nanny state. But there are layers upon layers of symbolism up there.

A deconsacrated church suggests how far the party's high command has changed since the days when Margaret Thatcher used to quote St Francis of Assisi. Would she ever have been seen actively dismantling a church?

And ironically, St. Mary's fell out of use ten years ago... more or less the time when a certain party fell out of government.

Welcome to Conservatives 2.0

Silly title aside, the Tories' new 'Webcameron' website is a clever step forward in the world of video webcampaigning.

It's fully compliant with all the latest fashions in internet design - known to the dot-cognoscenti as 'Web 2.0'. There are easy-to-play videos, just like YouTube. There are shortcuts to the trendy social bookmark service del.icio.us. (We have them too - see the column on the right). There's even a MySpace-style 'friends' section, called the Guest Blog, though there's only one friend so far - US senator John McCain.

But though the site is a slick professional bit of work, the videos are amateurish efforts, apparently shot on wobbly handheld cameras in two minutes flat.

And that's the beauty of them. As one of the Lib Dems behind the Ming Campbell conference vidcasts explained, one of the best things about video podcasts is that they only take five minutes of the candidate's time to do. The aide points a camera, the candidate talks for a couple of minutes, then gets back to work - or in the case of the first episode of Webcameron, the washing up.

It's even quicker than a blog to do (though the minions still have to spend hours posting them). And they give a quick, unmediated glimpse into what the candidate is like as a person, without a reporter shoving a microphone up his nose.

They aren't, perhaps, the ideal forum for exploring the minutiae of fiscal policy. But they could be just the way to present the candidate as a honest, decent, dishwashing sort of chap. You know, the kind of guy you could vote for.

Such is the theory - but will the public buy it? Will those elusive swing voters and non-voters tune in for these neatly presented slices of backstage political life? Who out there really wants to watch videos of the Conservative leader up to his arms in ecological soap suds?

If they don't, here's one sure way to get the YouTube generation to tune in - film politicians mixing mentos and diet pepsi. The results would be explosive.

Act your age!

Reuters reports that "New laws banning age discrimination at work contain legal grey areas". Well, that phrase clearly has to go for a start.

As the oldest person in the More4 Newsroom (don't ask, it's rude and probably illegal!), I intend to ensure it becomes a no-go area for ageism, writes Mick Hodgkin.

"Old hat", "old git", "dirty old man" - all such pejorative references to age will henceforth result in a swift email to human resources. Amusing comments such as "Which war was that then, the Boer war?" (a joke itself old enough to qualify for a bus pass) will attract an on-the-spot written warning. Faux-naive utterings like "the sixties - did you still have rationing then?" will mean a verbal reprimand.

Furthermore, action may be considered to root out overt displays of youth that could be taken as implicit ageism - such as boasting about how many pints you drank and how little sleep you had last night, excessive dexterity in operating computers, mobile phones, MP3 players etc.   

In fact, the word "News" could itself be considered ageist, in the way it contrasts the "new" - interesting, noteworthy, dynamic - with "old" - past history, yesterday's papers, boring, seen it done it got the t-shirt yadda yadda.

Time for a new name? Or am I getting too old for this game?