Journalism 101

Is the craft of conveying news, descriptive material and comment via a widening spectrum of media.

The Bank Job

The Bank Job is a British 2008 crime film directed by Roger Donaldson and starring Jason Statham, based on a 1971 true-life robbery of a bank in Baker Street, London, from which the money and valuables stolen were never recovered. The story was prevented from being told because of a D-Notice government gagging request, allegedly to protect a prominent member of the British Royal Family.According to the producers, this movie is intended to reveal the truth for the first time, although it includes significant elements of fiction and the extent to which it represents historical fact is difficult to determine. It also may be based upon the scandal causing Lord Lambton's resignation, with Lew Vogel representing the Soho porn baron Bernie Silver. The premiere was held in London on 18 February 2008, and the film was released in the UK on 28 February 2008. Petty-criminal-gone-straight Terry Leathers (Jason Statham) owns a failing car-sales garage being harassed by two debt-collectors. His old girlfriend Martine (Saffron Burrows) offers Terry a chance to earn enough money to never worry about debt again: a bank robbery in Baker Street, London. Terry gathers a bunch of petty-criminal friends to help execute the plan. They lease a shop two lots away from the bank and start digging a tunnel underneath the middle shop (a chicken fast-food restaurant) in order to reach the underground bank vault. Terry employs a "watchman" with a walkie-talkie to sit on the roof of the building opposite and keep a look out for trouble. What they don't know is that Martine, who has been caught smuggling heroin into Britain and desperately wants to avoid jail, is setting them up on behalf of MI5, which wants the contents of a certain safe deposit box within the bank. This safe deposit box contains compromising photos of a female member of the British Royal Family (identified in the film as Princess Margaret). The photos are in a box belonging to a black militant who calls himself Michael X; he is using the photos to avoid trouble with the Metropolitan Police, and MI5 is desperate to keep the photos out of circulation. As Terry and his crew dig, their radio chatter draws the attention of a local amateur radio operator, who listens in on the conversation and realises he's overhearing a bank robbery in progress. He calls the police, but with a 10 mile radius to search and a lack of concrete details, they fail to pin the robbery down. After they have broken in and begin looting the vault, Martine goes for the deposit-box with the photos. A suspicious Terry opens the box with her and, upon seeing the pictures, knows that Martine has a hidden agenda. In addition to those photos, further photos of a number of high-ranking government officials are found, at the top a senior MP in compromising positions in a local S&M brothel. The robbers pocket these with the money and other valuables. Terry arranges for alternate transportation to throw off MI5, allowing them to escape. Guy (James Faulkner) and Bambas (Alki David), leave with their share of the spoils. When Terry confronts Martine over the photos, she explains their predicament. Meanwhile, the robbery is discovered, and the police — both corrupt ones receiving payoffs and honest ones — start their investigation. MI5 is likewise searching. Lew Vogel (David Suchet), a local club owner, is worried about the contents of his ledger, which lists every payoff he's made to the police, which was stolen during the robbery. He also phones Michael X to inform him that his box containing the royal 'portraits' has gone missing. Michael X starts to get suspicious of a female British spy, who has befriended his brother and gone with the family to Trinidad and Tobago. The club owner manages to find one of the robbers, Dave (Daniel Mays) and tortures him for information. When he eventually tells Vogel everything, Vogel goes to the garage where Terry worked and kidnaps a Eddie (Michael Jibson), who was the lookout during the robbery, taking him to the same secret location and tying him down. At the same time, the senior MP is shown the photos of himself in the brothel, and agrees to try to help absolve the robbers of all wrongdoing and give them safe passage out of the country. Meanwhile, MI5 issues a D-Notice forbidding the press from reporting on the heist any longer. Police simultaneously release recordings from the walkie-talkie conversations, in the hope that someone will recognize the voices. These recordings are heard on the radio by Terry's family. The club owner goes on to shoot one of the robbers dead, around the same time as Michael X murders the British spy. MI5 makes an agreement with Terry, and agree to meet him at Paddington Station in London. Terry gives the same instruction to the officer in charge of the investigation, citing knowledge of corrupt officers under his control. He also convinces the club owner to go to Paddington Station at the same time, offering him the book with details of corrupt officers in return for the safe return of his mechanic. This results in a large meeting of all of the involved parties at the same time. During this time as well, Guy and Bambas are murdered by unknown people. Terry stands on the platform waiting for the others, while Martine meets up with her original contact within MI5 on a bridge overlooking the scene. The club owner and his corrupt police accomplices arrive with the mechanic, but recognize MI5 agents present and run. At the same time, the head of MI5 arrives (with Lord Mountbatten), handing over the documentation and passports that Terry bargained for, in return for the photos of the princess. Terry then chases the fleeing club owner and his aides. He starts to attack the club owner, and then fights with one of the aides, knocking them both out. The second aide appears with a gun, but Terry manages to avoid the shots and knock him out with a brick hastily dislodged from a wall. The police officer in charge of the investigation then arrives, and sees the robbers being arrested. He speaks with the MI5 officers present, who direct police to let the robbers go. When the officer approaches the car where Terry is being held to ask for the bribe payout ledger, Terry agrees to hand it over in exchange of freedom. Terry and the other robbers are then released, the policeman saying "I don't see any bank-robbers in here" upon looking in the car in which the robbers are sitting. The club owner and the corrupt officers are arrested, and the militant is arrested in Trinidad and Tobago. His house is then burnt down after orders from Tim Everett. In the epilogue, we find out that many members of the government resigned from office due to the brothel, Scotland Yard started going through many of the corrupt officers, Michael X was hanged due to the murder of Gail Benson and his personal archives are classafied until the year 2054, Vogel gets prisoned 8 years for crimes that were unrelated to the robbery, the murderers of Guy and Bambas have never been found, about $7 million (USD) worth of material and money was stolen from the robbery, people who lost their things in the robbery have never identified what was lost and the final note that shows on the screen explains that most of the people mentioned in this film were changed to protect the guilty. Critics gave the film good reviews....

Environment

Media for Environment, Science, Health and Agriculture in Kenya (MESHA) is an association of communicators who are specialized in science, environment, agriculture, health, technology and development reporting. It is a non-partisan and not for profit making organization

Ronaldo 'ashamed' over transvestite tryst

A man has a look at some Brazilian newspapers frontpages reporting the alleged affair between Brazilian soccer star Ronaldo and local transvestites.Ronaldo revealed Monday that he was "incredibly ashamed" over last weeks' encounter with a trio of transvestites which he believes will mark him for life.

people

reporting of LGU and etcd staff during the midyear review of production accomplishment at sariaya, quezon, june 12-13, 2008

Street Kings

Street Kings (originally titled The Night Watchman) is a 2008 film, directed by David Ayer. The film stars Keanu Reeves, Hugh Laurie and Forest Whitaker. It was released in theaters on April 11, 2008. Tom Ludlow (Keanu Reeves) is a disillusioned L.A. Police Officer haunted by the death of his wife who doesn't like to play by the rules. All of the cops in Ludlow's unit, including their captain Jack Wander (Forest Whitaker), bend and break the rules of conduct on a regular basis. Their intention is often to deal with crime in a manner that they perceive to be more efficient, which leads them to routinely lie, falsify reports and manipulate evidence to cover up for their wrong-doings. Ludlow's former partner Terrence Washington (Terry Crews) no longer approves of the deception and has gone straight, reporting the problems to Internal Affairs Captain Biggs (Hugh Laurie), who starts an investigation against Ludlow. Upset at Washington for "snitching", Ludlow follows him to a convenience store to confront him. However, Washington is executed in the store in an orchestrated hit, with Ludlow present. Though Ludlow is innocent, the circumstances heavily implicate him in the murder. DNA of two criminals known as Fremont & Coates is found at the scene, as well as drugs in Washington's car. It is assumed that Washington himself was corrupt, despite his seemingly changed attitude, and that he was stealing drugs from the department's evidence room and selling them to Fremont & Coates, who killed him over a bad deal. Ludlow convinces Officer Disco (Chris Evans) who has been assigned to the case to pursue Fremont & Coates. Their search for the two involves some tough interrogation of other known criminals, which eventually leads them to a house in the hills where they discover the bodies of Fremont & Coates buried in a shallow grave. The decomposition of the bodies is so severe that it becomes apparent that they were killed a long time before Washington's murder. Ludlow and Disco posing as corrupt cops who are willing to take over Washington's activity of stealing and selling drugs, are able to get a meeting set up with the two criminals masquerading as Fremont & Coats. The meeting goes bad when they recognize Ludlow from the convenience store and then realize he and Disco are off-duty and seeking revenge. One of the impostors, Coates (Common), shoots and kills Disco by a shot from his pistol to the throat when he realizes their connection. Ludlow kills Fremont & Coates and escapes back to his girlfriend's house where a news report reveals the criminals were undercover Sheriff's Deputies. Shortly afterward Ludlow is captured at his girlfriends house by Santos (Amaury Nolasco) and Demille (John Corbett), two fellow officers from his unit who admit that they planted Fremont & Coates DNA and the drugs in Washington's car at the scene of his murder, to prevent him from testifying against them in Biggs's investigation. The two cops take Ludlow out to the house where the two bodies were found earlier, for execution. However, Ludlow manages to escape and kills both of them, then heads to Washington's house to take care of Clady (Jay Mohr), whom he later kills. Ludlow is also piecing together the puzzle as he goes. He eventually learns that he has been a pawn in a plan masterminded by Captain Wander. Ludlow shows up at Wander's house in order to kill him, when Wander reveals that he has incriminating evidence on just about everybody in the department as well as judges and politicians. With so many people in Wander's pocket he has been able to quickly move up the department ranks as well as bury his unit's corruptions. Wander tries to convince Ludlow that he is his friend and best officer, and bribes him with a large amount of stolen money and incriminating documents hidden in a wall of his home. However, Ludlow kills Wander anyway. Internal Affairs Officer Biggs, who was "investigating" Ludlow, arrives to the scene and reveals that he used Ludlow to bring down Wander and get access to his files by opening Ludlow's eyes to the real corruption going on within his unit. As he leaves, Biggs tells Ludlow that the department needs men like him; police officers who are willing to bend the rules, but are ultimately honest at heart.

reporting about typhoon

I hate it!

My boring court reporting machine

stenography machine

Avril Lavigne

The rumors have started, and Canadian gossip blog IsThisHappening is reporting that Avril Lavigne is pregnant with hubby Deryck Whibley’s kiddo. Not sure if it’s true or not, but babies will definitely be the hot new accessory for 2008. How long until Paris Hilton jumps on board this train?

News

I heard Hamid Mir talking live (over voice) on the channel and reporting the attack on the Geo News building, and he scuffled with three armed policemen, two of whom he happened to overpower.