Vatican Tells Clergy Not to Show Off on Television
TIMES ONLINE: Media-friendly priests and bishops beware: the Vatican has warned clergy who appear on television to remember they are not glamorous “stars" or “showmen" but only communicators bringing the Christian message to a mass audience.

Archbishop Mauro Piacenza, secretary of the Vatican Congregation for the Clergy, said “evangelisation does not need showmen priests who go on television." He was speaking after a conference on “Communication and the Mission of the Priesthood" at the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross in Rome.

“Communication should foster communion in the Church," Monsignor Piacenza said. Television and radio were “not a platform for individuals showing off" and becoming “the centre of attention".

Such behaviour not only interfered with the message itself but “what is more serious still, it introduces division".

He urged priests “not to improvise" on television, and to avoid “banal sentimentality", saying that their message should be based on “2000 years of communion in the faith," a message which “can only be transmitted through one's own experience and interior life". >>> Richard Owen in Rome | Thursday, December 10, 2009

Muammar Gadaffi’s Son to Move to Britain
THE SUNDAY TIMES: SAIF GADAFFI, the son of the Libyan ruler, is moving his burgeoning media empire to London as he seeks to capitalise on blossoming trade ties with Britain.

Gadaffi, who escorted Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al-Megrahi, the freed Lockerbie bomber, from Scotland to Tripoli, has bought a £10m home in Hampstead, north London.

Staff at Gadaffi’s television news company, Al Mutawassit, are moving to the UK — with the first broadcast planned this week — and their boss is expected to follow. Ultimately, it aims to rival Al-Jazeera, the leading Arab news channel, with the launch of a website and newspaper.

Whitehall sources confirmed that Gadaffi, 37, had been granted a UK visitor’s visa that allows him to stay in Britain for up to six months. >>> Kevin Dowling | Sunday, August 30, 2009

Britons Are Just a Bunch of Barbarians!
'Barbarians': Jeremy Paxman speaking at the Hay on Wye Festival. Photo courtesy of MailOnline
MAIL Online: TV presenter Jeremy Paxman says Britons are a 'bunch of barbarians' - for watching so much television.

The Newsnight and University Challenge star made the astonishing attack last night on the very people whose viewing habits provide him with his living.

Appearing at the Hay on Wye Festival, Paxman could not hide his contempt for the British love of TV viewing.

He was at the festival to speak about his passion for Victorian art and it was the final question he received from the audience that sparked off his vitriolic rant.

A woman questioned him about why so few people visit art galleries in Britain these days and asked if he thought fuller explanations of paintings on the walls alongside them would bring in more visitors.

Paxman, who had been telling the audience how hugely popular paintings and art galleries were in Victorian times, replied: 'I think the basic problem is that we are a bunch of Barbarians, really.

'It is immensely depressing. Watching TV is the most popular leisure activity in this country now. I find this very depressing. Very depressing indeed. TV Presenter Jeremy Paxman Brands Britons 'Barbarians' for Watching Too Much Television>>> | Sunday, Mail 31, 2009

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