Iran has banned its citizens from having contact with 60 organizations including the BBC, Human Rights Watch and opposition website Rahesabz as well as US-funded broadcasters, Ynet reports.
Iran#s deputy intelligence minister in charge of external affairs said that the 60 blacklisted groups were suspected of being involved in efforts by Western governments to topple the Islamic regime as part of a “soft war” and that it was an offence to communicate with them.
“Any kind of …

Despite the decade not being over yet, Top Gear has been voted the greatest television programme of the decade.
Top Gear emerged as the greatest TV programme in a Channel 4/YouGov nationwide survey.
“I could never say what the reason is for Top Gear doing so well since we started it but I think there’s always a sense that we’d still be doing it even if the cameras weren’t here and that makes it real,” Top Gear …

At least 37 BBC executives earn more than the Prime Minister, it was revealed yesterday, as the corporation disclosed the scale of their senior salaries for the first time, The Times reports.
The broadcaster said that their 107 “most senior decision makers” earn £22 million a year and said that the disclosures made it the nation’s most transparent public body. This claim was undermined when it emerged that hundreds of their highest earners were hidden from …

The British National Party will be granted up to one appearance on Question Time each year if they maintain their current level of public support, The Times reports.
Director-General of the BBC, Mark Thompson said today that the party’s showing in the European elections earlier this year, when they gained two MEPs, meant that the BBC had no choice but to include them in some editions of Question Time.
He said that inviting BNP’s leader Nick Griffin to …

Yesterday’s Question Time on BBC, which drew a record of eight million people to their TVs, was certainly anything but dull. For the first time, much-hated BNP got their appearance in the programme and MEP Nick Griffin, who’s incidentally also the leader of the BNP, took the stand.
I actually stayed up longer than usual yesterday to watch the show. And in spite of feeling quite sleepy today, I don’t regret – the show was worth …

Top Gear host Jeremy Clarkson criticised BBC management’s obsession with political correctness, implying that despite the fact that Top Gear is led by men, it’s still setting new records.
“The problem is that television executives have got it into their heads that if one presenter on a show is a blond-haired, blue-eyed heterosexual boy, the other must be a black Muslim lesbian,” he wrote in the Top Gear magazine. “Chalk and cheese, they reckon works. But here we …

Culture secretary Ben Bradshaw said yesterday that the BBC licence fee should be cut and the corporation’s dramatic expansion halted, he also called for their governing body to be scrapped, The Times reports.
The £5 billion corporation “probably has reached the limits of reasonable expansion”, he said, and hinted that the “multimedia empire” needed to be cut down in size.
Speaking at the Royal Television Society’s biennial convention in Cambridge, Bradshaw said that “there may indeed be …

Sir Terry Wogan has confirmed he is to quit his BBC Radio 2 breakfast show, with Chris Evans taking over the slot, ITN reports.
The veteran radio and TV voice told listeners of the long-running and much-loved “Wake Up to Wogan” that he would be stepping down at the end of the year.
But the 71-year-old said that he was not quitting the airwaves altogether and had an exciting new show lined up.

Last weekend I had the pleasure of watching State of Play. Both versions of it – the American two-hour film from 2009, starring Russell Crowe, Dame Helen Mirren and Ben Affleck, and BBC’s six-episode mini-series from 2003, starring David Morrissey, Bill Nighy and John Simm. And I’m glad to say that the eight hours I spent on watching the both versions were not a waste in any regard.
The plot of both the series and the …

The BBC’s share of Britain’s TV viewing audience has slumped to a historic low as more people switch to commercial rivals, the Daily Telegraph reports.
Across all its channels from the flagship BBC One to digital news and children’s stations the corporation’s output now accounts for only one third of all TV viewing.
The corporation’s critics will seize on the figures as proof that the BBC’s share of the overall TV market is now in terminal decline …

Senior Tory figures are looking at changes to BBC finance, such as the licence fee being collected through council tax bills, the Daily Mail reports.
A Tory advisory group, led by former BBC director general Greg Dyke has suggested that the license fee should in future be collected by a third party. This could mean the fee would become part of council tax bills, alongside funding for the police and fire service.
I think that the TV licence …

Top Gear presenter Jeremy Clarkson, famous for his hatred towards the “one-eyed Scottish idiot”, called Prime Minister Gordon Brown a “c***”, although it occurred while off the air.
The Daily Mail reports that on Wednesday, Clarkson is understood to have told fans: “I get into trouble talking about Gordon Brown, he is a silly c***.”
Although some of the audience burst out laughing at his comments, BBC2 controller Janice Hadlow later gave Clarkson a “dressing down” in …

Microsoft has been voted the country’s top brand, swapping places with Google, last year’s winner, the Telegraph reports.
The software company moved from second to first place in a list of the 500 brands that the public thought were reliable, distinguished and the best quality.
In second place was Rolex, the watch manufacturer, followed by Google, then British Airways and the BBC.
The list, voted by 2,100 consumers, is compiled by a company called Superbrands, who use an expert …

Remember this famous quote? Of course you do. And we all know what happened afterwards.
BBC’s claim that Sir Alan Sugar’s post as government’s “enterprise tsar” would not compromise the network’s impartiality is worth exactly as much as this quote.
Now the Tories have formally complained to the BBC Trust over the decision to let Sir Alan continue in his role on The Apprentice. The network say that according to Shadow Culture Secretary Jeremy Hunt, Sir Alan’s …

What is the key to having a film made after your life or a part of it, and having this film show you in negative light? Well, one option is to be a Conservative leader, or even “worse”, a Conservative Prime Minister.
For some peculiar reason I anticipated “Margaret” to be something else. Something better, something different, something realistic. But a part of me was afraid it’s going to end up just another liberal propaganda film …