Prince Harry interview, Guardian hack, Koala Man
Prince Harry interview
Prince Harry defends all memoirs in furious ITV interview
Prince Harry launched a broadside against the king, the queen consort, his brother and other royals in a furious ITV interview in which he defended his revealing memoir, claiming that remaining silent “only allows the abuser to abuse”, reports The Guardian’s Caroline Davies and Ed Pilkington.
In excerpts from his book, Reserveread aloud during an interview with ITV Tom Bradby on Sunday evening, Harry wrote that his interests had been “sacrificed” to Camillaits “PR altar”.
When asked if he was “quite consistently scathing” about his stepmother and the press, Harry replied: “Scathing? There’s no part of any of the things I’ve said that’s scathing towards any member of my family, especially my stepmother. It’s things that have happened that have been incredibly hurtful, some past, some present.”
He accused the royal family of “a truly appalling reaction” to the day of the Queen’s death, saying the family was on the “back foot” and that he had witnessed “leaking and planting”. His words came after he was reported to have claimed in the memoir that Meghan was “not welcome” at Balmoral.
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Highlights from Prince Harry’s US interview with 60 Minutes
Prince Harry spoke on American television for the first time about his upcoming memoir, “Spare,” in a 60 minutes Interview with Anderson Cooperreports CBS News.
These were some of the revelations from their chat.
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Prince Harry versus the press: Changing British media now his ‘life’s work’
Prince Harry has revealed that reforming the British press is now his life’s work, a project he said his father – King Charles – has described as a “suicide mission”, reports Press Gazette’s Dominic Ponsford.
He said it afterwards Jeremy Clarksonhis misogynistic attack on his wife in The sun last month there is a campaign for “responsibility” that he is leading on behalf of the whole world.
He also said he believes negative headlines against him are being driven by threats on behalf of Britain’s three biggest newspaper groups – the publishers of The Sun, Daily Mail and Daily Mirror – because he believes his ongoing legal action could shut them down.
Talking to ITV Tom Bradby before the publication of his memoirs Reserve, Prince Harry revealed how he holds the British press responsible for everything from his mother’s death in 1997 to his current rift with the rest of his family. He described the paparazzi as follows Dianaher car in Paris as one link in the chain of events that led to her death.
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Business of Media
Guardian Australia staff in the dark as global hack shutdown continues
Online and print news company Guardian has asked its Australian staff to continue working from home until January 23, disabling printers, Wi-Fi and the network while they work to recover from a suspected ransomware attack, reports Nine Publishing. Sam Buckingham-Jones.
Precious few details have emerged about the incident, which hit globally on December 20 and crippled some key IT systems – but has allowed the local news website to continue publishing.
Staff were asked to work from home until January 9, but the CEO of the Guardian Media Group Anna Bateson sent a memo to staff last week asking them to stay on for another fortnight. Reporters working from remote locations using a different network, including Brisbane and the NSW Parliament, can work as normal. Offices in Sydney, Melbourne and Canberra remain closed.
“To reduce the load on our networks and help enterprise technology, ESD and other involved teams focus on the most important solutions, everyone must work from home until at least Monday 23 January in the UK, US and Australia, unless you are specifically asked to work from our offices,” Bateson wrote. “We have disabled Wi-Fi, network and printer access in all offices to enable the technology teams to get us up and running.”
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Hopes rise for press freedom in Tanzania as number of censored journalists falls
The number of journalists who are censored for their work in Tanzania has fallen slightly, which raises hopes that press freedom will improve in the country, reports The Guardian’s Caroline Kimeu.
Last year, 17 “press violations”, which include threats, arrests, denial of access to information and seizure of equipment, were reported in the East African nation, the media council of Tanzania told guardian. This compared to 25 in 2021 and 41 in 2020.
The country’s previous president John Magufuli, who died in March 2021, was considered “hostile” to the media. During his tenure, Tanzania fell down the world press freedom index, from 71 in 2016 to 124 in 2021, out of 180 countries. The new president, Samia Suluhu, has taken a more progressive stance. In her first month in office, she announced that she did not want Tanzania to continue to be notorious for press freedom violations, and instructed the Minister of Information to lift some media bans imposed during Magufuli’s tenure.
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Julian Assange refused permission to attend Vivienne Westwood’s funeral
Julian Assange has been refused permission to leave prison to attend the funeral of Dame Vivienne Westwoodaccording to her family, reports The Guardian’s Ben Quinn.
Westwood’s family said they were “deeply disappointed that we were unable to fulfill Vivienne’s wishes but are not surprised by the decision, which is unfair and in line with the inhumane treatment [Assange] have received from the British authorities up to this point”.
They added: “Julian has not been convicted of any crime but he is being treated as if he is a terrorist, the only thing he is guilty of is publishing the truth.”
Westwood, a pioneering fashion designer and activist who played a key role in the punk movement, was a prominent supporter of the WikiLeaks founder. She died “peacefully, surrounded by her family” in Clapham, south London, on 29 December.
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Television
The Last King of the Cross: First look at TV show about nightclub mogul John Ibrahim
In our exclusive first look at The Last King of the Crossone thing is clear: Sydney nightclub identity John Ibrahim wants to tell a story about brotherhood, reports News Corp Mikaela Wilkes.
The 10-part made-for-TV series based on John Ibrahim’s 2017 book opens with a tense exchange between John and his and his older brother Sam.
“I don’t know how to help you anymore,” a young adult John (played by Lincoln Younes) says.
The trailer, which was posted below Bachelor Australia premiere, cut to a dramatic montage of Ibrahim’s childhood in war-torn Lebanon.
Then back: “Don’t worry. The last thing I ever wanted in the world was for you to help me,” Sam (Claude Jabbour) answers.
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“Why not Wollongong?” Disney supports irreverent Australian superhero spoofing
It’s been years Michael Cusack lived in Dapto, the Wollongong suburb where he was born and raised. But even now that the 32-year-old writer and animator divides his time between Melbourne and Los Angeles, the voices, attitudes and humor instilled in him remain. Most of his previous animated series take place in what Cusack describes as “a bizarre Dapto”, and his latest, Koala manis no different, reports Nine Publishing Craig Mathieson.
“I thought about superheroes: Batman has Gotham, Spider-Man has New York. If you were in a small Australian suburb it would be fun, says Cusack, calling in from a short holiday on Kangaroo Island in South Australia before Disney’s global launch of Koala man kicked into motion. “I think it’s funny to put Dapto on the screen because growing up you always see American stuff – so many movies with Los Angeles. Why not Wollongong?”
Peppered with crazy language, serious endeavors and absurdist events, Koala Man is a superhero show where the hero is pretty average. Voiced by Cusack with just the right tone of bowls club self-delusion, Kevin is a suburbanite obsessed with making a difference in his neighborhood. Donning a mask and cape to become Koala Man, the husband and father-of-two cracks down on littering, regulates unkempt front lawns and generally lets the locals know “what you’re doing here isn’t on”.
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Sports media
Will Break Point do for tennis what Drive to Survive did for F1?
In the third episode of BreakpointIn Netflix’s behind-the-scenes exploration of the international tennis tour, an autograph-seeking child holds up the pen and the big yellow ball to an adult in athletic gear and asks: “Are you a player?”, reports Nine Publishing. Malcolm Knox.
This is the elephant in this 10-episode room. The men’s tour in 2022 remained the domain of Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovicwhile the biggest female names were Ash Barty and Serena Williams, although they withdrew from the game. No one would ever ask any of them if they were a player.
Netflix didn’t have access to these household names, and so, in their shadow, it has recast its narrative as a search for the next big thing. Who will break into that club?
The producers found themselves at a disadvantage compared to the hugely popular Netflix Formula 1: Drive to survive and Amazon’s cricket series The testwho had access to the sport’s biggest attraction.
Drive to survivewith its fly on the very fast-moving wall of motorsport’s premier division, outstanding production values and fresh access, has revived interest in Formula 1.
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