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Commentators discuss arts funding cuts which became known yesterday.

In the theatre industry magazine the day's news unfolding:

"Talk about theatre! (And that's what we were doing all day yesterday, thanks to Arts Council England's announcement of who was here to stay, who have been knocked off their funding perches, and who was being newly embraced). There was more drama and tension, of course, between 7.30am and 10am yesterday - the hours when existing and prospective clients amongst the 1,333 who had submitted applications - were told their fate, than in most nights in the theatre...
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"What was compelling, watching the news unfold on Twitter (where, by following the hashtag artsfunding and ACEfunding, tweets were arriving by the dozens every second) and slightly more soberly on The Guardian's live blog, was the mixture of anguish, relief and surprise, but also the carefully manipulated message that came out: there was definitely a concentration of good news, as those who had been given good news (or at least weren't entirely chopped) expressed their relief and in some cases jubilation. Yet there was an underlying concern that such good fortune would not be the fate of everyone, so it was not appropriate to celebrate too loudly."

that the cuts have been over-dramatised:

"If we are going to blame anyone, we should perhaps look at the Arts Council and its obsession with political correctness. The organisation moans about cuts of 30 per cent, but Culture Secretary Jeremy Hunt insisted that only half of that should come from 'front-line' arts."...
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"This takes us down to 15 per cent, and that applies only to the money that comes directly from the Government. Arts organisations have other sources of cash: the Lottery, ticket sales and sponsorship. They could be looking more realistically at a reduction of 5 per cent over four years."

The the cuts were well executed:

"They took away from the strong and gave to the weak, operating on the correct assumption that institutions with good business models and alternative funding could best afford to lose out. Crucially, they made everyone, from the Royal Opera House to the Bureau of Silly Ideas, apply from scratch: no exceptions, nothing taken for granted....
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"In the end there were 695 winners and 206 casualties. It wasn't pretty but it was not a disaster. Others would do well to examine this model: an example of skilled pruning which, while undoubtedly painful, provides plenty of scope for growth."

The that in the long-run arts funding may increase as a result of publicity of the cuts:

"Yesterday was a black day for the arts. Yet paradoxically the arts are not entering a new dark age. The old argument about whether the arts should be publicly funded has been won, not lost. There is far wider recognition today, including among politicians of all parties, of the creative dynamism and economic vibrancy of the arts sector than a generation ago. The arts have taken a hit. But they are still standing. It is time to start preparing the case for better public arts funding when conditions allow."

Opera critic that the arts have got off relatively lightly, and now they have to learn how to treat their donors:

"[T]he sector still has a lot to learn about wooing and nurturing patrons. Last year, I parceled a small legacy out to some of my favourite arts organisations. I was shocked at how slow most of them were at the basic business of sending a brief letter of thanks, and even more shocked when requests for at least an acknowledgement were met with something like rudeness. If the arts want our money, they will have to do more to charm us into giving it."

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Commentators discuss the US and UK announcement that they do not rule out supplying weapons to Libyan rebels.

the arguments for providing arms to rebels:

"One reason is that weapons are probably going to pour in anyway, perhaps from Egyptian stockpiles or factories and perhaps paid for by Gulf Arab states (indeed, the Wall Street Journal has reported that this is already happening, though Egypt denies it). Another is that the West, or the United States, will have more influence with the rebels if it is arming them than if it doesn't - and thus may be better placed to shape events going forward. And, of course, the most straightforward reason for giving the rebels weapons is because they may not be able to protect themselves - let alone defeat Gaddafi's forces - without them. And given that Obama has said that Gaddafi must go, the United States has staked its prestige on the rebels' victory."

the West to finish what it started in the Arab world:

"Three months later the genie is not only out of the bottle, it has shattered the bottle. I said of Libya in an earlier column: Be ruthless or stay out. So now the West is in, be ruthless. Arm the resurgent rebels. Incapacitate Gaddafi. Do everything short of putting troops on the ground. Gaddafi, as President Obama has said, 'must leave'. So that Libya can be an Arab country that is imperfect but open. "

Also double standards involved in arming Libyan rebels:

"In Libya, we have to figure out whether to help rebels we do not know topple a terrible dictator we do not like, while at the same time we turn a blind eye to a monarch whom we do like in Bahrain, who has violently suppressed people we also like - Bahraini democrats - because these people we like have in their ranks people we don't like: pro-Iranian Shiite hard-liners. All the while in Saudi Arabia, leaders we like are telling us we never should have let go of the leader who was so disliked by his own people - Hosni Mubarak - and, while we would like to tell the Saudi leaders to take a hike on this subject, we can't because they have so much oil and money that we like. And this is a lot like our dilemma in Syria where a regime we don't like - and which probably killed the prime minister of Lebanon whom it disliked - could be toppled by people who say what we like, but we're not sure they all really believe what we like because among them could be Sunni fundamentalists, who, if they seize power, could suppress all those minorities in Syria whom they don't like."

about the unknown effects of arming rebels:

"I can't think of another uprising in the Arab world where the opposition asked the international community to arm them. Yes, in Libya Gaddafi threatened a massacre, we're all well aware of that. But arming rebels takes this to an entirely new level. And we simply do not have the kind of information about the rebels, as virtually everyone associated with this mission admits, to make informed decision about the consequences of that."

that rushing to back Libyan rebels is "foolhardy" at a time when more hints emerge of al-Qaeda links:

"Mrs Clinton has always shown she knows her history, and above all her movie history. Her unwritten text yesterday was that the follies of an enterprise like the infamous 'Charlie Wilson's War' - when the US backed the Taliban's Mujahideen predecessors in Afghanistan - were not for her or her boss President Obama. The same spirit of enlightened caution does not seem to have spread to Whitehall and the Elysee Place...
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"When fighting first erupted over a month ago, Gaddafi accused 'al-Qaeda and foreign elements' of being at play. Despite his bizarre speeches, and the psycho violence of his militias, his pronouncements may not have been as far off the dial as first appeared."

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As Syria's President Bashar al-Assad is expected to unveil reforms in first public speech since security forces curbed anti-government protests, commentators discuss how the country has been run and predict what comes next.

the ruling Assad family a mafia whose regime brainwashed her at school and protesters are now paying a high price to get their voices heard:

"Their protest has a very high cost. They are subjected to arbitrary arrest and imprisonment without trial, or trial by military court. Despite having no independent judiciary to defend them, no freedom of speech and no right to demonstrate, they are resolved to change their country for the better, whatever it may take. The most recent concession is the resignation of the cabinet. This and the staged pro-regime demonstrations that have just taken place are an indication not of how strong the Assads actually are, but rather of how weak and surpassed by political events they have become - much like the Mubaraks, Ben Alis, Gaddafis and Salehs of this new Arab world, which has been suddenly sentenced to hope."

that there is no going back to the days of accepting without question what the Syrian president decides:

"[E]ven if Al-Assad does succeed in containing the current wave of protests using different methods, the situation in the country will definitely not go back to what it was; and he will be forced to deal with the Syrian demands on the domestic level after the "foreign level" depleted its role."

that the Syrian president Bashar al-Assad's faults can be blamed on the US:

"Assad's failure so far to pursue a reform agenda, and the crisis confronting him now, could be laid in part at the door of the US, Israel and European countries that were hostile to Syria and had weakened it through economic sanctions and trade embargoes,Ìý[Sami Khiyami, Syria's ambassador in London] said. Syria was a proud, dignified country that was 'difficult to tame'. Despite what they claimed, the great powers would actually prefer the Middle East to remain a 'buffer zone' between the west and Asia, an excluded, unrepresented, under-performing, second-class region with no real say in international affairs, he said."

Professor of Middle East history at Trinity University, that he knows the Syrian president and maybe it would be best for the country if he stayed in power:

"Even with the escalating violence there, it's important to remember that Syria is not Libya and President Assad is not Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi. The crackdown on protesters doesn't necessarily indicate that he is tightening his grip on power; it may be that the secret police, long given too much leeway, have been taking matters into their own hands.
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"What's more, anti-Assad elements should be careful what they wish for. Syria is ethnically and religiously diverse and, with the precipitous removal of central authority, it could very well implode like Iraq. That is why the Obama administration wants him to stay in power even as it admonishes him to choose the path of reform."

that, unlike other leaders, in Syria the unrest is an opportunity for Bashar al-Assad:

"Unlike in Egypt and Tunisia, Syrians see Assad as part of the solution in their country, and not, like Hosni Mubarak and Zein al-Abidine Ben Ali, as part of the problem. He is young, closer to their age than both presidents had been to young Egyptians and Tunisians, and has not been around for too long, as the case with Colonel Muammar Gaddafi in Libya or Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh.
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"Additionally his positions vis-a-vis Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas in Gaza, two topics that are dear to the hearts of grassroots Syrians, have given him a protective shield that other Arab leaders do not enjoy. It is a golden opportunity for the Syrian president to make history - and Syrians are betting on him, rather than on mob violence, to bring change to their country."

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Commentators discuss President Barack Obama's speech on intervention in Libya.

• Watch the speech in full

The the timing of the speech:

"President Obama made the right, albeit belated, decision to join with allies and try to stop Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi from slaughtering thousands of Libyans. But he has been far too slow to explain that decision, or his long-term strategy, to Congress and the American people...
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"To his credit, Mr. Obama did not sugarcoat the difficulties ahead. While he suggested that his goal, ultimately, is to see Colonel Qaddafi gone, he also said that the air war was unlikely to accomplish that by itself."

the speech powerful but incomplete, leaving it unclear what the strategy to get rid of Col Gaddafi is:

"What does 'assist the opposition' mean? Money? Training? Arms? A robust embargo against Gaddafi and his henchmen? Kind words? So far, America hasn't seemed enthusiastic about much beyond the last two.
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"The 'time and space' that the coalition is providing the Libyan rebels are the results of a large coalition effort; will the varied nations involved be able to sustain it as Gaddafi 'tries desperately to hang on to power'? Or will America have to decide whether it can shoulder more of the cost when others lose interest?"

there are some contradictions in President Obama's thinking:

"The most obvious question is how Obama can reconcile his stated desire to see Muammar Qaddafi leave office with his insistence that our military actions are not designed to foment regime change in Libya. Obama's attempt to resolve this contradiction was his statement that he intended to usher Qaddafi out of power via 'non-military means.' In part, Obama seemed to be reassuring the American people that there would be no U.S. ground troops in Libya - a position with which we agree. But was he also foreclosing the possibility that NATO might continue to use its airpower to aid the rebels in their advance toward Tripoli? If so, why? And how does this square with the fact that we currently appear to be waging, in the description of The New York Times, 'an all-out assault on Libya's military'?
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"Would it not be in our interest to see the rebels victorious? And if we can help them to achieve this from the air, why should we demur?"

that there was a vital element missing:

"The president talked plainly and persuasively about the inputs and why he ordered them. But he avoided talking about outcomes. He said the administration has 'fulfilled the pledge' it made to the American people. And he reiterated the point 'So for those who doubted our capacity to carry out this operation, I want to be clear: the United States of America has done what we said we would do.' (Note to research assistants: who in the world doubted the U.S. capacity? I heard many doubts about will, but I can't imagine there is anyone who has even the faintest familiarity with American military power who doubted our capacity to do what we have done, namely establish air supremacy over Libya and conduct precision strikes against vehicles.) But these are all the inputs. He is right to note that we deserve credit for delivering on the inputs, but strategy is about accomplishing outcomes. No one expects the outcomes to be achieved already, but I did expect more discussion about what outcomes the military must achieve for him to declare mission accomplished."

why the goals may be obscured:

"What else have we learned? To cut to the chase, according to the president, we learned to keep our goals more modest than regime change. This was, for me, the most powerful and direct part of tonight's speech: where he said openly and plainly that the goal of this exercise was not to oust Muammar Gaddafi. 'To be blunt,' he said, 'we went down that road in Iraq.' It took eight years and cost 5,000 American lives - and many tens of thousands more Iraqi lives. Regime change isn't our job. But this could be a hard sell, in no small part because of the way both his political foes and the media tend to simplify things: if Gaddafi is still in there, Mr President, doesn't that mean you've failed?"

the wider context and predicts this intervention is the last of its kind:

"But the reality is that the Libyan war is more likely to mark a last hurrah for liberal interventionism than a new dawn. For the brutal truth is that the western powers that are the keenest promoters of the idea will not have the economic strength or the public backing to sustain many more overseas interventions. And the rising economic powers - China, India, Brazil and others - are deeply sceptical about the whole concept.
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"Britain, France and the US all voted in favour of the UN resolution authorising force in Libya. But the fashionable grouping known as the Brics - Brazil, Russia, India and China - all abstained. None of them have much time for Colonel Gaddafi. But countries like China, India and Brazil see little to gain, and much to lose, by risking money, men and influence in foreign interventions. Their instinct is to mind their own business and to concentrate on the long-term goal of building up their own economic strength. A massacre in Libya might be unfortunate, no doubt - but Benghazi is a long way from Beijing or Brasilia."

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Commentators speculate about the outcome of Saturday's TUC protest against government spending cuts.

that until Ed Miliband explains what his alternative to cuts would be he cannot be taken seriously:

"He compared himself with the suffragettes. He likened himself, emetically, to Nelson Mandela. He announced that he was 'friends' with absolutely everyone there and that he supported their 'March for the Alternative', and just when I thought he was going to tell us what this might actually be - he vanished! We know that Labour now thinks it politic to accept that they made a disastrous hash of the economy, and indeed even Ed Balls was on telly the other night to say as much. We know that the Labour leadership also accepts that in order to be 'credible' it has to agree that some cuts to state spending are necessary and desirable, and we know that Alistair Darling himself was planning at least 80 per cent of the savings now being proposed by the Coalition. All we need to know is how Labour would make these cuts, and in what ways Labour's programme differs from that of the Government. And if they won't come clean and say what they would cut, then their very presence at the march - and Miliband's speech - is the most disgusting cheat and fraud."

that the protesters deserve to be listened to, not sneered at:

"Over the past year we have heard reasoned arguments and genuine concern from nurses, teachers, doctors, academics, and charity workers; from bosses, local government staff, arts organisations, writers, journalists, civil servants, students and their parents; from socially conscientious entrepreneurs, childcare experts, psychologists and other mental-health workers; from Keynesian economists, environmentalists, refugees and asylum-seekers; from black and Asian equality and human rights activists; from actors, playwrights, comedians, school governors, trustees, funders, the police, fire-fighters, industrial workers, ordinary bank staff and on and on. Individuals from all these groups gathered and walked on Saturday. Are they all mad, bad and dangerous, then?"

The the violence of a few hundred rioters should not become an excuse for framing Saturday's march as a law and order issue rather than an issue of politics and economics:

"The overwhelming majority of marchers, Ed Miliband and the TUC included, had nothing whatever to do with smashing windows, throwing things at the police or behaving badly. They were there to make a peaceful protest. Most of them only learned about the rioting when they got home. The march was well stewarded and well policed. Unfortunately, there will always be a fringe who prefer to riot. It was ever thus. They irresistibly attract the attention of the police and the television cameras. They should probably have been factored into the planning better; on another occasion, some shops might be more sensible to close in advance. But the public are not stupid. They know the rioters are a minority. They can tell the difference between the grown-ups and the trouble-makers. In the end, it is this wider public that matters most of all. The TUC campaign was, or should be, a campaign to win their support."

that young protesters don't believe peaceful protest can make a difference:

"There are an awful lot of unheard voices in this country. What differentiates the rioters in Picadilly and Oxford Circus from the rally attendees in Hyde Park is not the fact that the latter are 'real' protestors and the former merely 'anarchists' (still an unthinking synonym for 'hooligans' in the language of the press). The difference is that many unions and affiliated citizens still hold out hope that if they behave civilly, this government will do likewise.
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"The younger generation in particular, who reached puberty just in time to see a huge, peaceful march in 2003 change absolutely nothing, can't be expected to have any such confidence."

that it is troubling that the 4,500 police on duty appear to have been powerless to stop the violence:

"After the debacle of last year's student fees riot, the Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Paul Stephenson said the force should have anticipated the level of violence 'better' and that its failure to do so was 'not acceptable'. Yet last weekend the police once again failed to prevent several hundred thugs from trashing a number of businesses and terrorising the public... Well, yes, of course; once upon a time such elementary precautionary action would have been considered essential to any policing worthy of the name. Yet, today, the police appear not to have a clue."

I'm the 91Èȱ¬'s media correspondent and this is my brief selection of what's going on.

Arianna Huffington is to launch a UK edition of the Huffington Post this summer. The multi-millionaire, who sold Huffington Post to AOL for $315m (£195m) in February, Changing Media Summit that the takeover meant she could accelerate plans to hire journalists and create a UK-specific site.

According to the 91Èȱ¬, a senior Met Police officer has denied conspiring with the News of the World to protect its journalists from phone-hacking allegations. Acting Deputy Commissioner John Yates told MPs that claims by Labour MP Chris Bryant had been "materially wrong". He said prosecutors had advised that it was necessary to prove a voicemail message had been intercepted before the phone's owner accessed it. The Crown Prosecution Service has denied defining this "narrow approach".

that economist Diane Coyle has been appointed number two to the new chairman of the 91Èȱ¬ Trust, Lord Patten. Coyle, who is already a 91Èȱ¬ trustee, has been chosen by culture secretary Jeremy Hunt to be the Trust's vice-chairman. A former economics editor of the Independent and Treasury adviser, she is married to the 91Èȱ¬'s technology correspondent Rory Cellan-Jones.

MPs have been given the all-clear to tweet in the House of Commons in a shake-up aimed at modernising Parliament, . A report by the Commons Procedure Committee has ruled smartphones and iPads can be used, but MPs' faces must be visible.

Former Archers actor Graham Seed has been named radio broadcaster of the year at the Broadcasting Press Guild (BPG) Awards. Seed, who played Nigel Pargetter for 27 years until the character's death in January, is the first actor to receive the honour. The BPG said the award was in recognition of the affection in which Nigel was held by Archers fans, reports the 91Èȱ¬.

musician turned cosmologist Professor Brian Cox has confirmed his status as one of the hottest properties in television with a double win at the Broadcasting Press Guild Awards. ITV1's drama series Downton Abbey and Channel 4's Mo Mowlam biopic Mo are also double winners at the awards to be presented at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, at lunchtime today.

The 91Èȱ¬'s newspaper review says the conviction of the rapist known as the Night Stalker prompts several newspapers to question Scotland Yard's failure to catch him sooner.

There will be no Media Brief next week. Service resumes on Monday 4 April.

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I'm the 91Èȱ¬'s media correspondent and this is my brief selection of what's going on.

91Èȱ¬ licence-fee payers face a bill of over £900m to plug the deficit in the corporation's pension scheme - "enough to fund all of 91Èȱ¬ Two's programmes for two years". It quotes Emma Boon of the Taxpayers' Alliance: "With huge pressures on the licence fee at the moment, it is extremely worrying that so much money will go on the 91Èȱ¬ pension fund deficit. It's a staggering sum of money."

the 91Èȱ¬ pensions "black hole" is less than some had feared and has been reduced by "the controversial reforms agreed with the broadcasting unions last autumn". It quotes director general Mark Thompson: "The effect of the reforms is that half a billion pounds which would otherwise have had to be paid into the pension fund to reduce the deficit can instead be used on programmes and services for the public. Without the reforms, many hundreds of 91Èȱ¬ jobs would have been lost."

Louise Bagshawe, an MP on the Culture Media & Sport Committee, is to complain about the 91Èȱ¬'s "shocking" lack of coverage of the Fogel family's murder in an Israeli settlement in the West Bank, saying it reflects apparent bias against Israel. In the Daily Telegraph she writes "I found out about the barbaric attack not on 91Èȱ¬ news, but via Twitter on Monday... a link to a piece by Mark Steyn entitled 'Dead Jews is no news'." She says the 91Èȱ¬ chairman-designate Lord Patten denied to their committee that there was bias against Israel, .

the 91Èȱ¬ is unlikely to bid to renew its contract to screen the National Lottery draw next year, as it seeks to cut costs.

the new 91Èȱ¬ studios at Salford Quays will be used for their first live broadcast today - as school children take over the TV and radio airwaves. The 91Èȱ¬'s annual School Report programme will be the first to broadcast live from MediaCityUK. Radio 5 Live, Radio Manchester, North West Tonight and Newsround will also broadcast live from the site.

Today schools across the country will be taking part in the annual . They will be creating video, audio and text-based news reports, and publishing them on their school's websites.

the first episode in the new series of Midsomer Murders. He says that after Brian True-May's comments on the all-white casting the programme now feels soiled.

Extensive coverage of George Osborne's Budget, and its consequences for households across the UK, dominates Thursday's newspapers. There are also many tributes to Dame Elizabeth Taylor, "the last, great Hollywood star", as featured in the 91Èȱ¬'s newspaper review.

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I'm the 91Èȱ¬'s media correspondent and this is my brief selection of what's going on.

Some overnight programmes on 91Èȱ¬1 and 91Èȱ¬2 could be axed, and 91Èȱ¬1 dramas repeated more often, as part of a series of cost-saving ideas being considered by the 91Èȱ¬. Director General Mark Thompson unveiled 21 of the proposals so far put forward by staff but admitted: "Some, frankly, aren't going to fly." He would not be drawn on which, saying the 91Èȱ¬ is still "engaging" with staff and the corporation's policy will not be finalised until the summer.

popular 91Èȱ¬ shows could be repeated up to four times in quick succession under the corporation's plans to save money. Mr Thompson yesterday unveiled 21 of the ideas put forward to slash spending by 20%. He said: "Is there a case for showing our best programmes more often in their premiere week?"

late night programmes such as Graham Norton's chat show could be axed from 91Èȱ¬1, and 91Èȱ¬2 could be converted into a repeats channel, under radical cost-cutting proposals being considered by the corporation. Mr Thompson said he currently had no view on the proposals, which he described as a "set of open questions".

published yesterday.

the Midsomer Murders producer who claimed its success was due to its all-white cast is quitting: "Brian True-May was reinstated on the show yesterday after apologising for his racial gaffe. But ITV said he will step down at the end of the current series to pursue other projects. It quotes an ITV spokesman: "We welcome the apology and understand he will step down from his role on Midsomer Murders at the end of the current production run."

The Athena "tennis girl" poster sold more than two million copies, . Fiona Walker, who posed for the picture taken by her boyfriend, has been reunited with the image to promote an exhibition on lawn tennis as a subject in art.

More than 85% of mobile and PC users access the web while watching TV, according to Nielsen research, as reported by 91Èȱ¬ News. The report looks at the challenge of integrating social media with old-style TV.

The Budget is previewed on nearly all of Tuesday's front pages, as summarised in the 91Èȱ¬ newspapers review. The Daily Mail, the Sun and the Daily Express all claim millions will benefit from the chancellor's decision to raise personal allowances.

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Commentators discuss the ultimate aim of the current military action in Libya.

, says the no-fly zone is only a means to an end:

"What is the end? Ostensibly, it is to protect Libyan civilians, in which case we'll have to keep the no-fly zone operating forever. In practice, it means we'll have to keep the no-fly zone in place until a new government takes power in Libya that does not have a score to settle with rebellious citizens. Thus, the goal is implicitly the overthrow of the Libyan government.

"If Gaddafi hangs on, Libya will be effectively partitioned, isolated from the world, and splintered into failed statelets, of which those held by the rebels become an international protectorate like Kosovo, or Iraqi Kurdistan in the 1990s. What's the strategy then?"

the coalition must act decisively to ensure Gaddafi is defeated:

"There is no perfect formula for military intervention. It must be used sparingly - not in Bahrain or Yemen, even though we condemn the violence against protesters in both countries. Libya is a specific case: Muammar Gaddafi is erratic, widely reviled, armed with mustard gas and has a history of supporting terrorism. If he is allowed to crush the opposition, it would chill pro-democracy movements across the Arab world."

, discusses the "potential gains" from removing Col Gaddafi from power:

"The first goal is humanitarian. The Gaddafi regime is extremely brutal and would have extracted a horrible revenge on the people and cities involved in the rebellion... If things go well, intervening in Libya might also help to turn the tide against the gathering forces of reaction in the Middle East. A democratic Middle East remains in the long-term interests of its people, and of the rest of the world. If Col Gaddafi succeeds in hanging on, unlike neighbouring leaders in Egypt and Tunisia, a powerful message would be sent to despots from Iran to Syria to Saudi Arabia - violence pays, compromise is folly."

the real challenge for the coalition will be to create a coherent government when the fighting stops:

"There is good reason to fear that the people's own government of which Col Gaddafi spoke won't be much better than the dystopia that preceded it. Power in Libya's rebel-held regions now lies with a disordered mosaic of tribal patriarchs and mid-ranking military officers who have abandoned the regime for more primordial allegiances. Eastern Libya's Zuwaya and Misratah tribal chieftains, who enjoyed great power before Col Gaddafi took over, sense an opportunity to seize control of oil revenues. In the west, the Warfala, under pressure from the regime since an abortive 1993 rebellion, see a chance to settle scores. For the most part, this leadership seems to have a moral compass that points in much the same direction as that of the regime."

, asks what will the allies do if the rebels cannot dislodge Col Gaddafi from Libya entirely:

"If Gaddafi cannot be beaten by the rebels, are we prepared to supply their military deficiencies? And if the decapitation of his regime produces what the removal of Saddam Hussein did - bloody chaos - what then are our responsibilities regarding the tribal vendettas we may have unleashed? How long are we prepared to police the partitioning of Libya?"

I'm the 91Èȱ¬'s media correspondent and this is my brief selection of what's going on.

The Libyan government freed four New York Times journalists on Monday, six days after they were captured while covering the conflict between government and rebel forces in the eastern city of Ajdabiya. they were released into the custody of Turkish diplomats and crossed safely into Tunisia, from where they provided a harrowing account of their captivity.

Lawyers for the group of newspapers opposing News Corp's bid for BSkyB have written to the Culture Secretary Jeremy Hunt, . Slaughter and May said a proposal to split off Sky News would not be enough to address fears that Rupert Murdoch would dominate British media once his News Corp bought all of the satellite broadcaster. The consultation on the bid closed yesterday.

Radio 3 is to air an adaptation of Emily Bronte's Wuthering Heights "complete with foul language", . Romantic figures Heathcliff and Cathy will be heard using strong swear words. A Radio 3 spokesman said: "The use of strong language by some characters was not undertaken lightly. Language warnings will be broadcast at the beginning of the drama."

Andy Coulson, David Cameron's former director of communications, who resigned in January, is to take a PR role "providing strategic advice" to a global conference for future world leaders.

Google has been fined by France's privacy watchdog CNIL over the personal data it mistakenly gathered when setting up Street View, the 91Èȱ¬ reports. The £87,000 (100,000 euro) penalty is the largest ever handed out by CNIL.

Julian Fellowes, who turned ITV's Downton Abbey into one of TV's hottest properties, is to create a mini-series about the sinking of the Titanic, . ITV said the series will delve into the "unique perspectives" of the passengers on the "unsinkable" ship that was holed by an iceberg on its maiden voyage in 1912. Lord Fellowes is also to adapt Agatha Christie's Crooked House for a film.

The ongoing enforcement of a no-fly zone over Libya by a coalition of countries, which includes the UK, features prominently on several front pages, the 91Èȱ¬ newspaper review shows. The Times, Daily Mirror and Daily Star lead on the use of human shields by Colonel Gaddafi's regime to foil air attacks.

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I'm the 91Èȱ¬'s media correspondent and this is my brief selection of what's going on.

The the 91Èȱ¬ World Service will receive a "significant" sum of money from the US government to help combat the blocking of TV and internet services in countries including Iran and China:

"In what the 91Èȱ¬ said is the first deal of its kind, an agreement is expected to be signed later this month that will see US state department money - understood to be a low six-figure sum - given to the World Service to invest in developing anti-jamming technology and software."

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Jeremy Hunt is considering extending the public interest rules that govern the UK media industry. It is so that Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation could face further sanctions if it grows without making any more acquisitions. he will publish a discussion document next month to kickstart a consultation ahead of a green paper towards the end of this year. Ofcom has pointed out that, under current law, the tests can only be applied in a merger.

Twitter is five years old today. An analysis by a Texas market research firm, Pear Analytics:

"38% of Twitter traffic is conversation, 9% is recommendations, 6% is self-promotion and 4% is news. But 40% is 'pointless babble'."

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that the Times is an outstanding newspaper but not a good business, having lost nearly 12% of its circulation in the year to February, more than any other quality title.

The 91Èȱ¬ reports Comic Relief on Friday night raised £74.3m, the highest figure reached on the night of the TV show in its 23-year history.

. It quotes his review of 91Èȱ¬ output,:
"All sorts of ideas are bubbling to the surface. We need to look at our daytime TV service." He says local radio will not be abolished but resources "should be concentrated on the most important parts of the day" with "more hours devoted to 5Live".

The that on Friday a Cabinet Office report proposed cutting 1,000 staff as part of a dramatic scaling-back of the Government's £1bn a year communications budget. It said the Central Office of Information should be scrapped after more than 60 years and replaced with a new body to oversee marketing and advertising activity.

The 91Èȱ¬'s newspaper review says Libya still dominates the front pages. Several papers seize on comments by the defence secretary that Col Muammar Gaddafi could be targeted.

•

•

Ìý

Ìý

Commentators make their suggestions about what should be in Wednesday's budget.

the significance of this budget:

"Reforms that are not done now will have minimum opportunity of making an impact before the next Election because things take so long to get through the system. The challenge for Osborne is that he has little money to play with. There's no room for spending increases or significant tax cuts."

that it doesn't matter if the Budget makes George Osborne unpopular:

"Mr Osborne still struggles to connect with the public and although voters may never really warm to him, they never warmed to Margaret Thatcher either. They respected the Iron Lady and, in time, they may respect him if he fixes the broken economy. That is the hope of the loyal circle that surrounds him. Osborne-ites hope to convince commentators, MPs and the Tory grassroots first. This ripples strategy is slowly producing results."

that it's not the cuts but the alternative vote (AV) referendum that will test the coalition:

"The budget will neither give nor take more away, restricting the chancellor's ability to compensate people hit by the cost of living - politically more toxic than cuts to the public sector. It will push for growth by simplifying regulation, but that is as economically effective as it is unmarketable.
Ìý
"Popular or not, the budget will not break the government. The event that matters least to the public is the one that will test the coalition the most: the AV referendum. Whatever happens, one part of the government will soon feel defeated and trapped."

that this Budget was the government's great hope for getting itself back on track, but Libya took over the news agenda:

"Grabbing the newspaper headlines, resetting the narrative etc. Now, the budget will be overshadowed by war. These Tomahawks don't come cheap and Osborne has pitifully few cards to play. He knows that his budget will not live up to David Cameron's deeply unhelpful description of it as the "most pro-growth in a generation. I suspect it will be more of a Paul Daniels budget: you'll like it, but not a lot."

The despite inevitably bad PR from merging national insurance and income tax, George Osborne should go ahead with the plan:

"Such punitive taxation would be very hard to defend to the electorate. Left-wing politicians would face one of their nightmares - real popular pressure to reduce the size of the state; meanwhile, advocates of small government would be required to turn their rhetoric into legislation, something they are not good at doing. This is precisely the kind of audacious thinking we expect of Mr Osborne, and therefore we hope he will press ahead with it on Wednesday."

that the Budget will attempt a radical social re-engineering of the UK:

"It is becoming increasingly clear that, from cuts to tax breaks, the coalition is taking all the steps it can to refashion the country along pro-market, anti-equality lines. Against such accusations, the government claims it is merely being level-headed: paying off all that burdensome debt and warding off the markets that prowl about our neighbours. But just as Margaret Thatcher proselytised the virtues of private ownership to cover her clawing away at public institutions, so today does David Cameron preach about devolved responsibility to hide the true intention behind making the cuts."

a way around the dilemma of stimulating growth without the money to do it:

"The chancellor's Budget should expand on existing plans, and consult on establishing a new UK National Investment Bank. This should have a mandate to finance not only "green" projects, but also other that can contribute to the rebalancing of the economy - particularly transport infrastructure, social housing, and export-oriented small and medium-sized enterprises."

Commentators discuss the Libyan government declaration of an immediate ceasefire. It came after a UN Security Council resolution backed "all necessary measures" short of occupation to end fighting in the country.

, giving a cautious response to the announcement:

“We are going to be not responsive or impressed by words, we would have to see actions on the ground and that is not yet at all clear,� Mrs Clinton said. “We will continue to work with our partners in the international community to press Gaddafi to leave and to support the legitimate aspirations of the Libyan people.�

, says the ceasefire marks a success for the UN, but the future of both Libya and Gaddafi remains uncertain:

"Libya's surprise announcement of a ceasefire... suggests that the resolution has succeeded in warning Gaddafi off risking [an invasion of Benghazi]... [But] over a longer term Gaddafi's response to limitations on Libya's sovereignty are unpredictable... Over the past week Gaddafi promised that "If the world gets crazy with us, we will get crazy too. We will respond. We will make their lives hell because they are making our lives hell. They will never have peace'... as long as Gaddafi remains in power the medium/long term impact of this decision could have a host of impacts..."

Kyle Wingfield, , says the announcement by Gaddafi's government comes too late to celebrate:

"Victory without firing a shot, right? Not exactly... [Gaddafi's] forces have beaten back the rebels from Zawiya (just outside the capital Tripoli), Ras Lanuf, Brega and Ajdabiya... In other words, [Gaddafi] has already accomplished most of what he set out to do when he began attacking the rebels. Had the UN action come two weeks ago, the balance of forces might have produced an outcome in which [Gaddafi] had to step down and the Libyan people had a chance to form a new, more representative government."

the ceasefire does little to help the allied forces achieve their aim of removing Libya's leader from power:

"It complicates the implementation of the no-fly zone, which in logistical terms is already quite complex enough. Then there is the question of the extent to which it affects the dynamic of the conflict currently being fought between rebel forces holding out in Benghazi and those loyal to Muammar Gaddafi. Will a stalemate develop - and if so, what other 'necessary means' will be used to end the Libyan colonel's rule? Cameron suggested sending in an African Union force. In these circumstances, nothing is certain. The strategic goal is Gaddafi's removal. How long will that really take - and how far will the international community have to go to secure it?"

I'm the 91Èȱ¬'s media correspondent and this is my brief selection of what's going on.

The Telegraph Media Group this morning unveils an 11% increase in profits to almost £60m, thanks to a rebound in advertising markets and continuing cost savings from putting print and digital operations together, .

The New York Times has said it will start charging North American users for some of its online content, the 91Èȱ¬ reports. It will initially charge readers in Canada, with US users facing charges from 28 March. Charges will vary depending on whether readers use a smartphone, a computer or an iPad. Each month, the first 20 articles will be free.

Media regulator Ofcom is to review how airtime deals are struck in the £3.5bn UK TV advertising market. it could result in a fundamental change to the way commercial broadcasters do business. The review is the first in-depth look since the contract rights renewal regime was introduced in 2003 governing ITV1's deals with advertisers.

It's Red Nose Day and Chris Moyles has broken the record for Radio 1's longest ever show. The record was broken at 1930 GMT on Thursday as Moyles and on-air partner Dave Vitty, also known as "Comedy Dave", passed the 37-hour mark. They are now aiming to set a new Guinness world record for a team DJ show by staying on air for 51.5 hours, the 91Èȱ¬ reports.

Meanwhile, Radio 4's The Reunion brings together the founders of Comic Relief - Richard Curtis, Lenny Henry, Griff Rhys Jones, Helen Fielding and Paddy Coulter, who was Head of Media at Oxfam.

diligently preserved magazine collections are being liberated from darkened lofts, painstakingly scanned into computers and posted online for other mag-fanatics to enjoy. "I went home for Christmas a couple of years ago and saw that my mum was clearing out all my old Melody Makers," says Charles Batho, a 39-year-old digital creative director. "I saw the boxes by the back door and said, 'Noooooo!' So I took them home and decided to start scanning them all in."

The looming prospect of military action against Col Gaddafi's forces makes some front pages - although the UN vote came too late for the earlier editions, as featured in the 91Èȱ¬ newspapers review.

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Commentators discuss the no-fly zone established over Libya. This follows the UN Security Council vote.

that the UN Security Council "hit the right target" by voting for the no-fly zone. He says it can protect rebels from atrocities by Libya's leader:

"There is little doubt that, in light of his 41-year tyranny and what he has said and done to repress and kill his opponents during the uprising, [Gaddafi] will commit atrocities against a large portion of the Libyan population if he prevails. His recent pledge to grant amnesty to rebels who disarm is laughable. The same is true if his regime merely survives, crippled but in control of much of Libya."

that the price of inaction would have been far too high:

"If we don't bomb Gaddafi's tanks, Europe is likely to face a wave of refugees and a new generation of jihadis...
Ìý
"If we don't stop the man who will become known as the Butcher of Benghazi, then we'll suffer for it. But paradoxically, I don't at all think that it would mean the end of the Arab Spring. A Gaddafi victory would be an enormous setback - but only compared with where we were a month ago. Compared with this time last year, we have still seen remarkable, wonderful changes, whose impact we haven't even begun to comprehend."

if the US and its allies are too late to help Libya:

"The belated US decision to support Anglo-French proposals for a Libyan no-fly zone seems no more than a cynical gesture.
Ìý
"Washington concedes that merely grounding the Tripoli regime's aircraft and helicopters may not change outcomes.
Ìý
"But the situation today is where it always was: once Muammer Gaddafi showed himself determined to fight, only direct ground intervention by the US and its allies would have enabled the ill-armed rebels to prevail."

Even before the announcement, that the US change of heart may have come too late to stop Muammer Gaddafi:

"Behind closed doors in western capitals, talk about support for the uprising has been making way for strategic planning about how to contain a reinstated Gaddafi regime.
Ìý
"The west is left in disarray. Once familiar positions on the merits or otherwise of intervention have been upended. Barack Obama has considered the legacy of Iraq and insisted that nothing could be done without the sanction of the UN Security Council. France's Nicolas Sarkozy has argued for shooting first and checking the legal fine print later. Britain has leaned more towards Paris than Washington.
Ìý
"Divisions within the European Union have been mirrored by temporising in Washington. Just about everywhere, collisions between the realism that prizes short-term stability and the enlightened self-interest that supports Arab democracy have been excruciatingly painful. Has the west got it right? Probably not. Were there any easy choices? Certainly not."

that a Bahrain rebellion is a bigger threat to the west:

"Saudi Arabia's support for the Gulf state risks drawing Iran into the conflict... Iran has responded to the Saudi intervention by cutting diplomatic ties with Bahrain and denouncing the reinforcements as "unacceptable". There is considerable concern within British security circles that the situation could spread into a wider conflict between Iran and Saudi Arabia, with calamitous consequences for the West."

that the west still labours under the shadow of Iraq:

"Political constraints are now placed on Western action anywhere - especially in an Arab country, even when the cause might seem unimpeachably just...
Ìý
"It is a bitter irony that the anniversary of the start of the Iraq war should fall precisely this weekend. Eight years after the battles for Baghdad and Basra, the UN Security Council has given approval for an exclusion zone over another Arab land. The legacy of Iraq haunts every move. This much Barack Obama at least has recognised."

Commentators discuss US President Barack Obama's strategy over the Libyan uprising.

Mr Obama appears in no hurry to see Gaddafi go, perhaps because the president fears that a revolution in Libya could open the door to Islamist terrorism:

"Would Obama prefer a Gaddafi victory? If that sounds implausible, then just look at the record. On March 3, Obama announced that Gaddafi "must go". Two weeks have passed since then - and more than a month since the uprising began on February 15. In the interim, the tide of war has turned in Gaddafi's favour. Yet Obama has done nothing to make his own words reality. Every proposal - from the no-fly zone and aid to rebels, to recognition of a provisional government - has somehow become bogged down... The Obama administration may not care to admit it, but it did make a decision, and one of benefit to Gaddafi. Why? Perhaps President Obama reasoned something along these lines: "Yes, Gaddafi is a very bad guy... But things could be worse. Tribal leaders, fighting each other, inspired by Islamic ideology - all just 300 miles from the coast of Sicily?"

The director of the Foreign Policy Initiative, that the American president "continues to dither" over Libya:

"Although [Obama] insists that all options are on the table, his administration has failed to outline a plan that could conceivably help the Libyan rebels oust Qaddafi and end the bloodshed. The weak American response pales in comparison with countries such as France - which has recognized Libya's revolutionary council as the country's legitimate government and has contemplated airstrikes - and even the Arab League, which endorsed a no-fly zone over the weekend... It is not too late. Obama should listen to those inside his administration and in the international community who believe that the United States should act to prevent further bloodshed. If he does not, Libya will become the latest in a long list of cases in which the United States, once again, ends up on the wrong side of history."

In :

"Increasingly, US and European politicians and media hawks are insisting it's all because the west has shamefully failed to intervene militarily in support of the Libyan opposition. The Times on Wednesday blamed Barack Obama for snuffing out a "dawn of hope" by havering over whether to impose a no-fly zone in Libya... But Saudi Arabia's dangerous quasi-invasion of Bahrain is a reminder that Libya is very far from being the only place where hopes are being stifled. The west's closest Arab ally, which has declared protest un-Islamic, bans political parties and holds an estimated 8,000 political prisoners, has sent troops to bolster the Bahraini autocracy's bloody resistance to democratic reform."

But ÌýMr Obama to intervene:

"Of course, no one in Europe or the United States wants another quagmire in the Muslim world, and the latest polls drive that point home. According to the Pew Research Center a resounding 63 percent of Americans say the U.S. has no responsibility to act in Libya. A plurality opposes a no-fly zone, a huge majority is against airstrikes, almost half are against sanctions... So what's a leader like President Barack Obama to do? Well, one might say, "lead." Because, whether war-weary Americans want to believe it or not, the lack of direction in American policy right now - opposing Gaddafi but finding every excuse not to act against his forces - is going to be hugely damaging to their interests. As Jane Kinninmont of Chatham House in London put is, "The United States faces a crisis of credibility in the Arab world." And that translates into all sorts of dangers."

a conversation between Mr Obama and a White House foreign policy adviser:

Adviser: "The Brits are pressing for a no-fly zone over Libya."
Obama: "That's pretty easy to do when you've abolished the Royal Air Force What's he planning to police it with, a British Airways 737? Thank you for joining us on this routine patrol; we will be circling Benghazi for a few hours. Insurgents are invited to help themselves to snacks and drinks from our trolleys."
Adviser: "The French are also demanding actual intervention, Mr President."
Obama: "We're being out-hawked by the French?"
Adviser: "We think it's empty rhetoric, Sir."
Obama: "I'm being outgunned on rhetoric?"

I'm the 91Èȱ¬'s media correspondent and this is my brief selection of what's going on

Sky News is launching its iPad app this morning. In his blog, : "This is the most dramatic single technological advance we have made yet. I've seen nothing like our app from anyone else. It brings you TV news for the tablet generation."

is wasting nearly £80m a year through poor management of under-performing staff and erroneously paying a salary top-up to thousands of employees who do not qualify for it, according to an internal report. The leaked study by the 91Èȱ¬'s People department identified a range of savings that could be made as part of plans to slash £400m from budgets.

The 91Èȱ¬ has denied a Guardian report that it is planning to cut 25% of its workforce. , the 91Èȱ¬ chief operating officer: "It is simply not true to say that the 91Èȱ¬ is planning a 25% cut in its workforce. As we have said repeatedly, just because we are making 20% savings does not mean we need to cut 20% of jobs."

The 91Èȱ¬ announced yesterday that it is launching Ambridge Extra, a new series to be broadcast on the 91Èȱ¬ Radio 4 Extra digital channel and as a podcast. Episodes will follow directly after the main Archers episode on Radio 4 itself. The spin-off will be set in Ambridge but will also follow characters further afield, including Alice Carter at university, .

Duncan Bannatyne of Dragons' Den will be the guest editor of The Northern Echo next Monday, with current editor Peter Barron stepping aside to become his deputy, . Profits from the sale of any newspapers above average that day and the next will be donated to the Bannatyne Charitable Trust, along with 10% of the proceeds from an advertising feature.

The 91Èȱ¬'s newspapers review says the workers at the Japanese nuclear plant at the centre of its crisis provide a new focus for some of the papers. The workers known as the Fukushima Fifty have become the country's "faceless heroes" reports the Guardian.

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Ìý

Commentators discuss how the Japanese are coping after the earthquake.

that the earthquake will hurt the global economy a lot. He gives the example of a fire at a small factory in Niihama which previously "sent shock waves" through the world because the factory produced a resin essential in making most semiconductors:

"Last week's destruction was greatly exacerbated by one of the biggest tsunamis in Japanese history, which destroyed everything in its path. Moreover, industry has changed dramatically in the last two decades. Technological progress and globalization have both tended to encourage increasingly specialized production. In a world where national markets are no longer protected, the toughest competitors with the newest production processes, as well as the most patient shareholders and bankers (like the Japanese), have tended to win - while others fall by the wayside, unable to finance the move to the next stage of technology. This concentration is risky: Because of it, the Niihama incident, in which a fire in a single Japanese factory brought an entire industry to its knees, could be repeated a hundredfold."

that the combination of the tsunami, oil prices, European debt and conflicting monetary policy could prove deadly:

"What makes all these risks particularly frightening at present is that the world economy is still in a state of convalescence after the 2008-09 crisis and may be too weak to withstand any one of these shocks, never mind all four hitting together...
Ìý
"The world today certainly faces a 'battalion of sorrows' but, like Hamlet, international leaders have a choice. They can do nothing and accept fatalistically that the world economy could go to hell. Or they can 'take arms against a sea of troubles and by opposing end them'".

The the slump in stock markets around the world is irrational:

"While there are some genuine supply chain fears because of Japan's dominant role in manufacturing computer and car components, it is also true that the investment needed to rebuild the tsunami-ravaged regions will offer a sorely-needed fiscal stimulus. After the devastating Kobe earthquake in 1995, the economy rebounded strongly. Here, at least, is one potential silver lining to this baleful cloud."

The that global investors may return to Japan in the long term:

"Some of the market reaction to the situation is undoubtedly reflective of the uncertainty involved. So long as it isn't clear what the total cost of the disaster will be, markets will price in the possibility of the worst occurring. If the worst does not then occur, they'll snap back. And some of the market reaction to the situation is probably a panic generated by the sharp fall in share prices. That too is recoverable."

Japan can recover from the earthquake:

"It is in adversity that a country shows its mettle. The Japanese will surely do just that, on this occasion. It is for the leaders to match the mettle of the people. If they are able to do so, out of a great disaster may yet come a rebirth."

I'm the 91Èȱ¬'s media correspondent and this is my brief selection of what's going on in the industry.

Professor Brian Cox was a double winner at the Royal Television Society Awards last night, the 91Èȱ¬ reports. The physicist won best presenter and took the science and natural history prize for Wonders Of The Solar System. Also taking two prizes was comedian Miranda Hart, who has won huge acclaim for her 91Èȱ¬ sitcom Miranda.

The creator of Midsomer Murders last night claimed he was being treated like a 'criminal' following his suspension from the show, the . Brian True-May, the ITV drama's executive producer, provoked fury after admitting he deliberately keeps ethnic minority characters out of the show's storylines.

Mr True-May has been suspended for implying that rural England is the sole preserve of Anglo-Saxons. "finds a very different picture in the town where it's filmed".

A shake-up of libel laws in England and Wales will ensure people can state honest opinions with confidence, Justice Secretary Ken Clarke says. The draft Defamation Bill, published on Tuesday, also aims to reduce "libel tourism" by overseas claimants, the 91Èȱ¬ reports. It follows concerns that libel laws are crushing freedom of expression in scientific and academic debate.

the 91Èȱ¬ faced calls from MPs last night to disclose how much public money it spent on hiring private detectives to work on its current affairs programmes. It says: "The demands came after the 91Èȱ¬ was forced to admit that it paid detectives to work on programmes such as Panorama, which this week broadcast allegations about illegal activities by private investigators hired by the News of the World."

In : "Note how The Times's story (about the 91Èȱ¬ hiring private detectives) is angled to fit two News International agendas. It throws mud at the 91Èȱ¬, yet again. It minimises the misbehaviour by the News of the World, yet again...The real story revealed by Panorama is that a sixth News of the World executive was involved in the commissioning of illegal activities."

Regional accents are as problematic as background music for viewers who struggle to hear programmes perfectly, according to a 91Èȱ¬ study . The corporation surveyed 20,000 people to understand the cause of viewer complaints. It identified four key factors: unfamiliar accents, clarity of delivery, background music and background noise.

The controller of 91Èȱ¬ One, Danny Cohen blogs: "The result of the (91Èȱ¬ audibility) research is that we now have a 'best practice' guide for programme makers available on the 91Èȱ¬ Academy's College of Production website. This gives clear guidance on the small things that programme makers can do to make a big difference to the audience's ability to hear."

Five days on from the Japan earthquake and tsunami, most newspapers still devote several pages to the destruction there, as well as the related nuclear crisis, according to the 91Èȱ¬ newspapers review.

I'm the 91Èȱ¬'s media correspondent and this is my brief selection of what's going on in the industry.

The creator of ITV1's Midsomer Murders has been suspended after claiming in the Radio Times that the detective series is "the last bastion of Englishness" because it has no black faces. The Mr True-May gave the interview to promote the 14th series of the show, which has been sold to 231 territories around the world.

The 91Èȱ¬ is reconsidering plans to close digital station the Asian Network. A 91Èȱ¬ spokesperson said the corporation was "exploring whether the Asian Network should remain on the national DAB", the digital radio network: "No decisions have been made and any proposals will be subject to approval by the 91Èȱ¬ Trust." In December, the 91Èȱ¬ Trust said management's plans to close the station could go ahead.

The the 91Èȱ¬ has reversed its decision to close the Asian Network digital radio station - but will look to cut its budget in half. It says "the corporation's critics will view it as its second embarrassing U-turn, a year after the 91Èȱ¬ Trust rebuffed management plans to close its sister digital station, 6 Music".

Physicist Professor Brian Cox has said the 91Èȱ¬ made a mistake by agreeing to turn down the music volume for his scientific series Wonders of the Universe. The 91Èȱ¬ agreed to lower the sound after receiving 118 complaints about the background music on the first episode being too loud and/or intrusive. The 91Èȱ¬ reports that Mr Cox said on Radio 4's Start the Week he thought it was an error.

The Controller of 91Èȱ¬ One Danny Cohen blogs on the issue of background music. The 91Èȱ¬ has published the findings of an extensive study. 91Èȱ¬ Vision's Audibility project found a combination of factors could really create problems - for example a mumbling actor, recorded in a noisy environment with added music. Mr Cohen says many of the problems could be resolved long before a single frame is shot if more emphasis was placed on planning for clear sound.

Major changes to Britain's defamation laws will be outlined by ministers today with the publication of a bill to provide greater protection for free speech and an end to "libel tourism". The the draft Defamation Bill will propose a new defence of "honest opinion", which will protect academics from being sued by companies and special-interest groups for damaging their reputations.

The 91Èȱ¬'s newspaper review says many of the headlines make grim reading as Japan's nuclear emergency shows no sign of abating. "Nuclear meltdown alert" says the Daily Telegraph, the Guardian's headline is "race to save the reactors". "Japan prepares for the worst", says the Independent; the Mirror says "48 Hours To Stop A Nuke Disaster".

Ìý

Commentators consider the pros and cons of nuclear power and question the facts following explosions at the nuclear plant in Fukushima in Japan.

the consequences of the explosions are still unclear:

"There are conflicting accounts of the radiation levels being measured in the vicinity of the Fukushima Daiichi plant - where sea water is being injected into at least two of the reactors in an attempt to prevent the nuclear fuel from melting as the temperature continues to rise.
Ìý
"There was an explosion at the plant's number one reactor on Saturday - but the government says the massive concrete containment structure surrounding the nuclear core remains intact.
Ìý
"But it has also been confirmed that the temperature is continuing to rise in at least one of the other reactors due to a failure of the back-up cooling systems."

that not all nuclear power plans will stop:

"[F]acts disappear into the cloud of fear that nuclear accidents produce. In the US and Europe, the building of new stations will be delayed and older ones will be closed sooner rather than later. In the developed world, the main business opportunity will be in decommissioning as the old stations come to the end of their lives. For the energy sector as a whole, events in Japan complicate an already divergent story. Unless the current problems at Fukushima spiral out of control and undermine all confidence in nuclear power as a source of electricity generation, building plans in China and India are likely to remain in place. Both countries need electricity to sustain the economic growth that has become the raison d'être of both governments. For now, both countries define energy security in terms of continuity of supply and cost."

German Chancellor Angela Merkel has put all plans for nuclear power in the country up for review. that it's time to pull the plug:

"After the earthquake and tsunami in Japan followed by the ever-worsening stream of terrible news relating to the countries nuclear power facilities, even the last remaining advocates of the technology must realize that we can't go on like this. It is over. Done. Finished. Nuclear energy cannot be controlled by humans, no matter how good the arguments might be in its favor. The danger of disaster is real, and it can happen at any time - even in a super high-tech country like Japan."

The the tendency in Britain to postpone politically painful choices about building new nuclear stations is dangerous:

"For all the emotive force of events in Japan, though, this is one issue where there is a pressing need to listen to what our heads say about the needs of the future, as opposed to subjecting ourselves to jittery whims of the heart. One of the few solid lessons to emerge from the aged Fukushima plant is that the tendency in Britain and elsewhere to postpone politically painful choices about building new nuclear stations by extending the life-spans of existing ones is dangerous. Beyond that, with or without Fukushima, the undisputed nastiness of nuclear - the costs, the risks and the waste - still need to be carefully weighed in the balance against the different poisons pumped out by coal, which remains the chief economic alternative."

that nuclear power plants are dangerous. But argues that, for Britain, the alternative is to "start hoarding candles":

"To be sure, if Fukushima releases lethal radiation affecting thousands of people, it will become much harder politically for any government to push through a new nuclear programme. But, today, this still seems unlikely.
Ìý
"What could be a catastrophe for Britain, however, is the crisis that will fall upon us ten years hence unless this Government comes to its senses, and starts to plan for a credible energy future which must include nuclear power."

Ìý

Commentators look at the consequences of Japan's earthquake and tsunami.

Japanese resilience:

"As a rule, I'm not a guy who tends to offer a lot of Japanese proverbs. Yet there's one I saw today that struck me as possibly being one of the secrets to life, so I thought I might share it with you all here. The proverb offers this advice: 'Fall seven times, stand up eight.'

that the world's nuclear fate rests in Japan:

"When nuclear plants go bang on live television - however unrepeatable the causes and controllable the consequences - all the industry's promises about safety and economic logic, and all the arguments for the necessity of building plants to mitigate climate change, are blown away in a scary cloud of caesium dust.
Ìý
"It took three decades to undo the emotional consequences of Three Mile Island and Chernobyl. It may take something similar to forget the calamity of Fukushima Daiichi."

Economist about Japan's nuclear policies:

"In fairness, the government has so far been doing a reasonably good job in communicating with the public and steering the rescue effort. Given the exasperation we were all feeling with their witlessness and gutlessness before the disaster, maybe it is just low expectations that make them look better than they actually are. All the same, they have been looking sort of in control up to now.
Ìý
"The true test comes hereafter, however, now that the nuclear power plant damage has come into play. The government needs all the wits at its disposal to ask the right questions of the experts. It needs more than its customary show of guts to tell the story as it is to the public. Yukio Edano, chief cabinet secretary, sounds as if he is trying to do the questioning in an intelligent way. The guts are a trickier matter. Panic should be avoided, but shadows of doubt about the forthrightness of people in charge always provoke the worst response, not least in the media."

work by :

"The average time between magnitude 8 and larger Cascadia earthquakes is about 240 years (see page 8, Cascadia earthquake timeline, based on Chris Goldfinger's data, Oregon State University). The last megaquake, estimated as a magnitude 9, occurred in 1700 - that's 311 years ago. In geologic terms, Cascadia is "9 months pregnant" and overdue.

Even though geologists identified 41 past Cascadia megaquakes, they cannot pinpoint exactly when the next Cascadia earthquake will strike. Nonetheless, engineers can design and build to withstand earthquake shaking. Now is the time to take preparations seriously, safeguard those in harm's way, and strengthen aging critical infrastructure."

the consequences would have been worse if the earthquake hit another country:

"Had an earthquake of comparable scale hit just about any other Asian country, the loss of life would almost surely have been dramatically higher. The Japan quake was more than 500 times stronger than the temblor that hit Haiti in January 2010, which was not followed by a catastrophic tsunami, and yet the death toll in Haiti was 100 times higher than it appears to be in Japan. The ultimate consequences of the disaster on Japan's society and economy will be staggering, but few countries in the world are better positioned to recover."

Others focus on the geographical consquences. that the earthquake that fueled the tsunami appears to have moved the main island of Japan by 8ft (2.4m) and shifted the Earth on its axis.

The that it has "shortened the length Earth's day by a fraction and shifted how the planet's mass is distributed".

Ìý

I'm the 91Èȱ¬'s media correspondent and this is my brief selection of what's going on

The a 91Èȱ¬ Panorama programme tonight will name "the sixth and most senior journalist yet to be implicated in illegal newsgathering" in the News of the World phone-hacking scandal. It says an executive "commissioned a specialist snooper who illegally intercepted email messages from a target's computer".

91Èȱ¬ News reports that a senior News of the World executive obtained e-mails hacked into by a private detective, Panorama has found. Then Irish edition editor Alex Marunchak was sent ex-British intelligence officer Ian Hurst's private e-mails in 2006, it found. The paper's owner News International said it would act if shown new evidence of wrong-doing. Mr Marunchak denied involvement.

Today's the 91Èȱ¬ is re-editing its flagship science series, Wonders of the Universe, presented by Professor Brian Cox, after bowing to viewer complaints about the show's incessant background music. It quotes the producer: "I think we clearly have made an error of judgment...so we are remixing the sound for all the films."

The the 91Èȱ¬ will retaliate against cuts in its budget this week by claiming that its contribution to Britain's economy grew 5.6% to top £8bn last year. A Deloitte analysis says it delivers well over £2 of value for every pound in fees from TV licences.

Saturday's "91Èȱ¬ bosses have identified abandoning coverage of Formula One and Wimbledon as one way of saving money". It quotes a 91Èȱ¬ insider: "Wimbledon costs tens of millions, is a very expensive contract, and costly to cover. No one is saying, definitely exit, but it is being looked at. Or perhaps....this is a contract that could be shared with another broadcaster".

On Saturday, Lord Patten's appointment as the chairman of the 91Èȱ¬ Trust was approved by a Commons committee, the 91Èȱ¬ reports. Culture Secretary Jeremy Hunt said he welcomed the MPs' conclusion and would now recommend Lord Patten for the job. My analysis: "Many will applaud Lord Patten's championing of cultured and civilised values. But the 91Èȱ¬ Trust represents all licence-payers, including the millions who prefer EastEnders and the celebrities he says he's never heard of."

On Friday, Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg defended the future of 91Èȱ¬ local radio, saying it was "unbelievably important", the 91Èȱ¬ reports. He was responding to reports that local radio programming could be cut back as part of the 91Èȱ¬'s cost-saving.

As events in Japan continue to grip the world after the earthquake, the Financial Times says the country is fighting to contain a rapidly escalating nuclear emergency, as featured in the 91Èȱ¬ newspapers review. "After the wave, the grief" is the headline in the Guardian, whose reporters are watching the search for bodies in the ruins of Sintona. The Japanese people are bracing themselves for their most brutal ordeal since WWII, according to the Times.

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I'm the 91Èȱ¬'s media correspondent and this is my brief selection of what's going on in the industry.

The on its front page that the 91Èȱ¬ has been accused of planning "the death of local radio", as it "prepares to replace almost all its local programming with the national station Radio 5 Live". Quoting the NUJ, it claims that staff at the 91Èȱ¬'s 40 local radio stations will be briefed today on the plans. This was denied late last night by a 91Èȱ¬ spokesperson, who said the idea was one of many put forward at the Delivering Quality First sessions: "It is not true that any decisions have been made so there are no plans to inform staff of any changes tomorrow.... The Delivering Quality First sessions are designed to provoke discussion amongst staff about the way the 91Èȱ¬ works and any decisions coming out of the process would be subject to approval by the 91Èȱ¬ Trust."

The cost-cutting at the 91Èȱ¬ will provoke fierce protests when the public see programmes cancelled and channels closed, the incoming Chairman of the 91Èȱ¬ Trust has warned MPs. "In a dire assessment of the financial challenges", according to The Times, Lord Patten of Barnes said he and Mark Thompson, the 91Èȱ¬'s Director-General, would become hugely unpopular.

Lord Patten told MPs yesterday that if he was confirmed as the new chairman of the 91Èȱ¬ he would expect to be unpopular. The he and predicted that "there will be all hell let loose" as the corporation is forced to cut spending on programming.

Lord Patten would give up the Tory whip but remain a Conservative Party member if confirmed as 91Èȱ¬ Trust chairman. Questioned by culture, media and sport committee MPs, he said he would quit a BP advisory board only if it came to be seen as a conflict of interest, reports the 91Èȱ¬.

Prospective 91Èȱ¬ chairman Lord Patten last night criticised the corporation's 'swagger' and its bosses' apparent belief that they should be earning as much as bankers. The the former Tory minister and governor of Hong Kong told MPs considering his appointment that it was wrong to pay executives 'as if they were at Barclays'.

"a fearful 91Èȱ¬ must regain its nerve" under its new chairman.

The 91Èȱ¬'s newspaper review says as Colonel Gaddafi's forces intensify their onslaught against Libyan rebels, Deborah Haynes of the Times reports from Zawiya, 30 miles from Tripoli.

Commentators discuss the change to pensions.

In his blog, former Labour party employee Lord Hutton of pilfering and understands why people are angry:

"Compulsory enrolment (or even an opt out system) in pensions twenty years ago would have done me the world of good, I suspect. So I understand why public sector workers are keen to protect their pensions, and why others have little sympathy with their fears. At the risk of sounding wet and weedy, I'm going to let those who know whereof they speak lead on this one."

that Lord Hutton merely reflects the widespread view that individuals should take responsibility for their families' future:

"Hutton shares an increasingly widespread view that individuals should take more responsibility for their own and their family's future if they wish to advance beyond some guaranteed welfare minimum. British taxpayers are no longer prepared, even if they are able, to sustain a secure retirement lifestyle for 20% to 30% of the workforce, which they themselves cannot hope to enjoy. They see it as simply unfair. Redistribution should concentrate on the poor. But pensions are just a beginning. The government is demanding that every corner of the welfare state come out and face reform. Those who flunked it for 40 years can hardly complain."

that the recommendation to replace final salary pension by schemes based on career-average salaries makes sense. But he's worried about the difference between public sector workers' and private sector workers' pensions:

"[T]he proposed reforms of public pension provision would leave several anomalies unresolved. First, the discrepancy between the pension position of private and public employees would be cemented. At present, more than 80 per cent of public employees enjoy defined benefit pensions, while only about 35 per cent of private employees are members of employer-sponsored pension schemes. Worse, fewer than 10 per cent of private employees are now members of any defined benefit scheme, down from about 35 per cent in 1997. Overall, in 2008-09 there were roughly 5m public employees in defined benefit pension schemes, against fewer than 2m in the private sector. Thus, government employees will continue to gain the benefit of the pooling of investment risk that characterises defined benefit schemes supported by a financially strong employer. Meanwhile, the majority of private employees, who ultimately pay for this government guarantee, do not benefit in any such way."

The on balance the deal is fair for public and private sector workers:

"The wage gap has all but disappeared - in many cases state employees earn more money for shorter hours than their private sector counterparts. And final salary pension schemes, once the norm across Britain, mostly survive only in the public sector. It cannot be fair for some Britons to retire earlier and more comfortably than the rest.
Ìý
"So Lord Hutton is right to argue that public sector workers should retire later, make higher contributions, and have their pensions calculated on the basis of average earnings rather than final salary."

The the deal is long overdue:

"It is of little consolation to those affected to say that all of this should have been done long ago. The impact of an ageing population was known to previous governments but they were too craven to do anything about it. The Coalition needs to buck this trend. It should not allow turmoil to weaken its resolve. Labour, which failed to rise to the challenge in office, should behave responsibly (despite its disappointing pronouncements yesterday) and support these overdue reforms. As Lord Hutton said, inaction is no longer an option."

the press coverage of the pensions reform was influenced by the prime minister's new head of communications, Craig Oliver:

"Infuriated hacks seeking to cover John Hutton's pension review for this morning's editions of the papers were under a strict embargo of 8 a.m., meaning the coverage could be crafted on the airwaves by interviews this morning. A grumpy spinner said last night "It's meant to be for broadcast tomorrow and the papers the next day", something the Mail and Express promptly ignored. Seems someone is getting the hang of this string pulling malarkey."

I'm the 91Èȱ¬'s media correspondent and this is my brief selection of what's going on in the industry.

Libyan leader Col Muammar Gaddafi's security forces detained and beat up a 91Èȱ¬ news team who were trying to reach the strife-torn city of Zawiya, the 91Èȱ¬ reports. The three were beaten with fists, knees and rifles, hooded and subjected to mock executions by members of Libya's army and secret police. The men were detained on Monday and held for 21 hours, but have now flown out of Libya.

The the most extreme case of the Gaddafi regime's harassment of international journalists.

Outgoing 91Èȱ¬ chairman Sir Michael Lyons used his last major speech to launch a scathing attack on the Jonathan Ross and Russell Brand obscene phone call scandal.

The in its entirety.

The he said its 'toxic combination' made people think the 91Èȱ¬ had lost its moral compass.

The 91Èȱ¬'s report says the speech reflects the past few years have been one of the 91Èȱ¬'s strongest periods despite some "memorable" gaffes. In a speech at the LSE, he praised the 91Èȱ¬'s comedy, factual and news output but said the corporation had "shot itself in the foot" several times.

The 91Èȱ¬'s global news director Peter Horrocks has indicated a further U-turn over planned cuts to the 91Èȱ¬ World Service in response to the political crises in Africa and the Middle East, . He told MPs on the Foreign Affairs Committee that reductions in the distribution of the 91Èȱ¬ Arabic service would not be as severe as originally planned. But he ruled out a wholesale reversal of the changes, which will see the loss of 60 jobs and an estimated 5.7 million listeners.

The Daily Mail's headline - "Work for longer and get a smaller pension" - gives a flavour of what public sector workers can expect from Lord Hutton's final report on their pensions according to the 91Èȱ¬'s newspaper review. The Hutton review is also the lead for the Times, Guardian and Daily Express.

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Commentators discuss whether or not it is a good idea for other countries to intervene in Libya and bring in a no-fly zone.

Senior lecturer in Middle East politics at the University of Exeter why it's taken this long for western governments to start criticising Libya's regime:

"But the Gaddafi regime should have fallen at the turn of the new millennium, around the same time when Baghdad was sacked by the US-led 'coalition of the willing'.
Ìý
"However, Western political establishments chose to subdue Gaddafi's Libya and conquer it economically, thus giving Gaddafi's failed state a longer lease on life. There is no surprise here: economic gain often prevails over moral principles in the international relations of the Middle East. "Western academics were complicit in all of this, giving the 'butcher of Tripoli' an undeserved respite."

Columnist that the former US Air Force chief of staff backs up his case for a no-fly zone:

"I called General McPeak to get his take on a no-fly zone, and he was deliciously blunt:
Ìý
"'I can't imagine an easier military problem,' he said. 'If we can't impose a no-fly zone over a not even third-rate military power like Libya, then we ought to take a hell of a lot of our military budget and spend it on something usable.'"

Academics at the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessment, that a no fly zone should be easy to implement:

"The U.S. and its allies successfully implemented no-fly zones against Slobodan Milosevic and Saddam Hussein in the 1990s, so why not against Moammar Gadhafi's remaining security forces in Libya today? U.S. military and defense officials have offered various arguments against a Libyan no-fly zone--but their reasoning doesn't necessarily apply to this case...
Ìý
"While a host of political and strategic considerations could lead U.S. and NATO leaders not to impose a no-fly zone, there is no insurmountable operational hurdle. The U.S. and its allies will likely face future dilemmas about whether to intervene in a country to prevent mass atrocities. In the near term, continued advances in extended-range precision-guided weaponry will offer various options for projecting power.
Ìý
"In the longer-term, as guided weapons proliferate more widely, other countries may use them to constrain U.S. power-projection and deny it regional access. But for the time being at least, the U.S. continues to have the advantage, should U.S. leaders choose to exploit it."

Former commander of UN forces in Bosnia that a no-fly zone over Bosnia was ineffective and isn't an easy option in Libya either:

"To my mind an effective no-fly zone has to satisfy several clear conditions. It should be established by the highest international authority, which means a UN Security Council resolution. But Security Council decision-making often occurs at the speed of a striking slug and coalition building is slow.
Ìý
"If the US is prepared to lead - and the Obama Administration does not seem keen - any action will most certainly require others, not just the UK and France, to make a firm commitment as well. Other European nations must step up to the plate too."

the "liberal do-gooders" who want to establish a no-fly zone to protect anti-government protesters:

"What I find particularly amusing about this debate is that many of those now calling for a no-fly zone in Libya were the same people who bitterly opposed the invasion of Iraq to rid the world of another brutal dictator - Saddam Hussein - who had brutalised his people for decades. But what, pray, is the difference between invading Iraq with ground forces and invading Libya's air space with warplanes?"

The a no-fly zone on the grounds that it could lead to another war:

"While compassion may ultimately demand action, a word of caution before the Coalition further cranks up its threat to impose a no-fly zone over Libya: this is how nations get sucked into wars."
Ìý
"It may sound like a straightforward humanitarian measure to prevent Colonel Gaddafi from annihilating his ill-equipped opponents from the air."
Ìý
"In fact, it would mean the destruction of Libya's air defences - itself an act of war, of questionable legality. And even if most of the burden was carried by the Americans -who are distinctly chillier than the UK about a no-fly zone - could our desperately overstretched forces really afford to take on yet another indefinite commitment?"

Former diplomat that a no-fly zone may unnecessarily aggravate Libya into a war:

"The Libyan regime of Muammer Gaddafi must be stopped from killing its own people. No-fly zones are one option, but carry considerable risks. They imply a major attack on Libyan air defences, causing casualties. Colonel Gaddafi would depict this as an act of war, with highly uncertain political consequences. But even without removing the military option, there are non-violent measures that can and should be implemented now.
Ìý
"As a British diplomat I worked on sanctions and no-fly zones in Iraq and Libya. Both episodes offer lessons about what works, and stress the crucial importance of avoiding harm to civilians. A push on non-violent measures, therefore, could make real progress in Libya, and set a positive precedent to assist those fighting dictatorship elsewhere."

The non-violent methods Mr Ross talks about are boycott, isolation and sabotage.

Commentators continue to speculate about which country will be next to revolt and the international ramifications.

what will happen next in Saudi Arabia:

"This Friday, 11 March, Saudi opposition groups have called for a 'day of rage'. The kingdom has responded with what local sources describe as the biggest deployment of armed force seen since the foundation of Saudi state. Eyewitnesses describe truckloads of soldiers moving through key centres of population. The government has banned all demonstrations. The troops have orders to fire on anyone who attempts to gather in a public place... The ingredients are set for a good deal of blood to find its way into the Saudi oil supply.

says that a new generation is finding its voice in Angola. She adds the relatively small scale of protests there may be misleading:

"[S]tate-sponsored violence, coupled with the fact that the 27-year civil war ended only in 2002, helps explain why opposition parties in Angola have been so reluctant to support this week's demonstration. Unita leader Isaias Samakuva has described the protest as "a trap" set by the government to test the political temperature of the country. He is also suspicious of the fact the organisers are anonymous. Smaller political parties agree it would be foolhardy to participate in a demonstration called for by unknown figures. The Democratic Block, which comprises several respected political figures, said it would be 'extremely naïve' to participate in a protest that could lead to the sort of purges that took place in 1977 and 1992.
Ìý
"The response from the political class this week may indicate a growing generation gap within Angolan society. Luaty Beirao, a popular Angolan rapper also known as Ikonoklasta, was one of the protesters arrested on Monday morning. He believes the political parties are out of touch with the majority of Angolan people, and are either too lazy or too old-fashioned to take action for their political beliefs."

Najma Al Zidjaly, assistant professor of linguistics at Sultan Qaboos University, that he was shocked that Oman found itself part of the "youthquake" sweeping the Middle East and has an explanation:

"Never would I have imagined that demonstrations in our peaceful, media-shy nation would end up on the front pages of newspapers around the world and mentioned in the same breath with the uprisings in Egypt, Tunisia and Libya... I finally got it. There is a clear disconnect between Oman's forward-thinking government and the young people who grew up with - and thus take for granted - free education and free health care. My own university is a cutting-edge institution in the Middle East thanks to the foresight of the government.
Ìý
"Somewhere along the way, the older generations of Omanis forgot how to talk to our young, to instill responsibility and to share our story of the trials and tribulations we went through to make Oman not only one of the most beautiful places in the Arab world, but also a better place to live. In our zeal to protect a generation from the hardships of the past, we failed to impart a sense of appreciation."

that the contagion may not be limited to the spread of protests. He predicts Libya's crisis may lead to the break up of the organisation which agrees oil prices, OPEC:

"[B]reaking up with OPEC may be pulled off without the Western nations having to fire one shot. That old Neil Sedaka song 'Breaking up is hard to do' comes to mind when you realize our love-hate relationship may finally lead to a divorce that will relieve the U.S. from our dependency on imports from some hostile countries. This leads to the reason for this article on why OPEC's existence may be in its final throes and coming to an end.
Ìý
"'Ummah' means unity among Muslims - one nation and one people. Many have tried to bring Ummah to the Muslim nations.....and failed, with oil prices spiking tick-by-tick."

Meanwhile , notes China's unique and conflicting role in the protests:

"Egypt's pro-democracy revolt may have been buried on the wrong side of the Great Chinese Firewall - the Beijing authorities filtered out news of the uprising from online searches and censored comments about it on web forums - but that hasn't stopped China's vast manufacturing industry from making a fast buck out of regime change in Cairo. ... Bandanas jostle with car licence plates, martyrs' calendars are on sale next to 'freedom pendants' and t-shirts, and flags - Egyptian, Libyan, and beyond, all made in China - are for sale by the bucket-load on every city corner. The revolution has been well and truly merchandised."

I'm the 91Èȱ¬'s media correspondent and this is my brief selection of what's going on in the industry.

Labour has demanded that 91Èȱ¬ chairman designate Lord Patten should cut back on his business activities and leave the Conservative party, . On Thursday, the peer appears before MPs tasked with ratifying his appointment to the £110,000-a-year role.

says the 91Èȱ¬'s budget for foreign news is so stretched by the uprisings in Libya, Tunisia and Egypt that it is having to cut back on less pressing events - including the Oscars and the Cannes Film Festival. Fran Unsworth, the 91Èȱ¬'s head of newsgathering, told the in-house magazine Ariel: "We can't just say that there's not enough money to cover these stories. The way round it is to take money from somewhere else."

a row has broken out between the 91Èȱ¬ and the Labour party over the corporation's use of the word "savings" to describe what senior Labour officials insists are government cuts. Labour lodged a complaint after 91Èȱ¬ London News ran a report about NHS cuts in a bulletin broadcast after the 10 O'Clock News on 91Èȱ¬1.

Pinewood Shepperton, the film and TV studios group, has unveiled a 31% rise in pre-tax profits to £5.8m, and said it will invest millions of pounds in British films. In 2010, Pinewood's facilities were used for the latest Pirates of the Caribbean and Harry Potter films. But the firm has unveiled an investment plan for small-budget British films, reports the 91Èȱ¬.

As featured in the 91Èȱ¬'s newspaper review the Sun says it has every sympathy with police who are about to take a pay cut - but "Labour left Britain on the brink of ruin and cuts are being made everywhere". The Times says the government has no choice but to be resilient on the question of pay. The Daily Telegraph agrees that "the time has come to reform police pay".

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I'm the 91Èȱ¬'s media correspondent and this is my brief selection of what's going on in the industry.

The 91Èȱ¬ World Service could reverse its decision to axe short-wave broadcasts of its Hindi radio news output, listened to by 11 million people in rural India, after a public outcry led by veteran journalist Sir Mark Tully. The service will continue for an hour a day, , while the 91Èȱ¬ conducts talks with "a number of commercial parties" to continue funding it.

that Lord Sugar has been hired by the 91Èȱ¬ and the other major terrestrial broadcasters "to save ailing internet-connected set-top box venture, YouView". He'll replace Kip Meek as non-executive chairman.

The 91Èȱ¬'s new "face of religion" is an atheist who claims that God had a wife and Eve was "unfairly maligned" by sexist scholars, . Dr Francesca Stavrakopoulou has been given a primetime 91Èȱ¬ Two series, The Bible's Buried Secrets.

David Cameron was forced to try to head off a rift with Buckingham Palace last night after his new spin-doctor appeared to question the Duke of York's future as a British trade envoy. Downing Street sources - understood to be Craig Oliver, the Prime Minister's new director of communications - briefed the 91Èȱ¬ that Prince Andrew's position might become "untenable" if further revelations about his links to the controversial American billionaire Jeffrey Epstein came to light.

David Cameron's hapless new spin doctor looked seriously out of the loop yesterday, .

"Bungling ex-91Èȱ¬ news chief Craig Oliver was forced to grab a cab when he missed the PM's motorcade ...for a Cabinet away day in Derby."

Downing Street sources played down Mr Oliver's difficulties, saying he still managed to catch the train with Mr Cameron.

Charlie Sheen, the highest paid actor on US television, has been fired from the hit sitcom Two and a Half Men by Warner Bros Television, reports 91Èȱ¬ News. The studio said it had acted after "careful consideration", amid a frenzy of US media reports on Sheen's controversial personal life. No decision has been made on the future of the series.

On the front pages of the newspapers, the Daily Telegraph speaks of a blame game starting in Whitehall over the botched SAS mission to Libya. The Daily Express describes Mr Hague as being "on the ropes", while the Daily Mail says No 10 hung him out to dry.

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The detention of a British SAS unit sent to Libya has been described as "humiliating" by many newspapers, after the team were detained by rebel fighters near Benghazi. The SAS soldiers and MI6 officer were released after two days.

says the SAS "has now suffered the most damaging blow to its reputation in its proud regimental history".

"The role of the SAS is to fight, not to make peace, and to put the regiment's soldiers in a position where, for reasons of diplomacy, they are required to surrender their weapons without so much as a whimper is not what they are trained to do... But it is not the SAS that should hang its head in shame over this fiasco: it is the idiots who authorised the operation in the first place."

who helped capture the SAS officers and explained why the unit aroused so much suspicion.

"We fired into the air, and said 'Hands up, don't move'. They did as we said. It was not very difficult, we just asked them to move away from their bags to the side, and they did... "We do not want to make enemies but this is no way to make friends, dropping in, in the dead of the night, with espionage equipment, recording devices and multiple weapons and passports."

, says the incident showed the "gung-ho and arrogant attitude" of the SAS, at a time when the government has highlighted the elite unit's growing importance.

"Official secrecy surrounding SAS operations is acknowledged by many senior defence and military officials to be a nonsense, characterised in practice by hypocrisy and inconsistency... The potential for more transparency, without endangering lives, should be one of the lessons to come outÌýof it."

"A monumental cock-up" is how The Independent's Mary Dejevsky describes the mission and she calls for those responsible to be held to account.

"Let's start with the basics: Who on earth dreamt up this catastrophically misconceived mission and who signed off on it? And I don't mean only which department, but names - real names."

The Mirror quotes a former SAS soldier who says the mission "was badly planned and under-resourced." The paper calls the incident a "fiasco" which has put the government under the spotlight.

""Defence Secretary Liam Fox tried to distance himself from the bungled ­operation. But an ex-SAS soldier told how it exposed shocking gaps in the Tory-led ­Government's ­commitment to our armed forces."

I'm the 91Èȱ¬'s media correspondent and this is my brief selection of what's going on.

91Èȱ¬ Two's daytime schedules could be axed in favour of rolling news under plans being drawn up by the 91Èȱ¬ as programme budgets bear the brunt of a 20% savings drive. He says the proposals will be put to the 91Èȱ¬ Trust in the early summer - and it would be the first time the 91Èȱ¬ has introduced significant programming cuts on a mainstream channel. He quotes Will Wyatt, managing director of 91Èȱ¬ TV from 1991 to 1996: "You have to keep daytime [programming] on 91Èȱ¬1 but cutting it right back on 91Èȱ¬2 is sensible." The 91Èȱ¬ said: "These are early proposals which need to be put to the trust."

For those who can't access the Sunday Times, the 91Èȱ¬ Two story is .

John Prescott is to read the Shipping Forecast for Comic Relief. Lord Prescott - and those at sea - will be hoping that calm weather prevails when he takes on the task. "As a famed mangler of the English language, the former deputy prime minister will need all his experience in the merchant navy to steer a course through the potential pitfalls."

Rupert Murdoch will be 80 on Friday. The , with articles by Roy Greenslade, Michael White, Dan Sabbagh and others.

Rupert Murdoch will be 80 on Friday. For R4's Archive on Four, Steve Hewlett looks back and assesses his impact.

Research by ICM for TV Licensing shows people underestimate how much TV they watch, . People said they watched about three hours a day. We actually tune in for more than four hours, according to official BARB ratings. Viewers are also buying more TV sets - twice as many last year as in 2002 - and bigger screens, belying reports that TV is in decline because of the internet.

The 91Èȱ¬ is promoting its production trainee scheme on the 91Èȱ¬ website. Applications close on 14 March.

Highlighted in the 91Èȱ¬ newspaper review the Daily Telegraph says the Duke of York will pay the price for his association with a convicted paedophile because the government is to downgrade his role as Britain's trade ambassador. The Times quotes government sources as saying Downing Street would "shed no tears" if the Duke of York resigned.

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Jeremy Hunt's decision to allow Rupert Murdoch's takeover bid for BSkyB is picked up by many papers, many of which are in direct competition and make clear their opposition. They say that the culture secretary's decision will have a detrimental effect on the industry with wider implications on cost and competition.

the government's decision may not reflect well on David Cameron but could also harm the coalition:

"If Cameron has decided, like his predecessors in Downing Street, that Murdoch's support is the key to electoral success, however craven it might make him look, he may find that now the opposite is the case. Not only will the Sun's and the Times' approval be at least balanced by the disapproval of all the rest of the British press, but an electorate weary of political sleaze may feel badly let down by him."

In the that "Rupert Murdoch has got his way - again" and warns that the takeover has wider implications for British society:

"To allow News Corp further to entrench its position in the British media will only make government more beholden to the company's commercial and political agenda. It's not fair on rivals, advertisers or consumers. Worse still, it's a threat to democracy."

the decision and says it is as an opportunity for other media organisations to benefit and thrive:

"Other UK print publishers might be seen as losers, faced with a potential behemoth. But they can now seek out new mergers and commercial partnerships across different forms of media.
Ìý
"Newspapers are going through the same sunset traumas as steel and shipbuilding before them. The titles in the News International stable will be fortunate to be on a train pulled by such a powerful engine. Other UK media can argue for equally light regulatory touches. And we, as consumers, can expect neat stuff on our tablet computers."

about Mr Hunt's acceptance of News Corps plan to make Sky News a separate entity:

"[S]imilar promises of editorial independence were made after Rupert Murdoch was permitted to buy The Times newspaper group in 1981. They were soon ignored. This proposal is a fig leaf; its purpose is to give the impression of a serious response to concerns about plurality, while avoiding any substantive action.

it as a "smelly deal" and questions why Jeremy Hunt didn't refer the decision in the first place:

"The sadness is that Mr Hunt had no need to intercede. His safest and most straightforward option should have been to pass this takeover - which would not have been allowed in virtually any other country -- to the Competition Commission. It could then have conducted a comprehensive and transparent investigation."

Mr Hunt's role but is critical of the process itself:

"It is unfortunate that there has not been a full review of News Corp's bid. Its absence may confirm suspicions held in some quarters that Mr Murdoch's preponderance in the UK media market has put him beyond the control of British politicians. This is unfair, at least in the case of Mr Hunt's review. The problem is not with his application of the rules; but with the rules themselves."

I'm the 91Èȱ¬'s media correspondent and this is my brief selection of what's going on.

Marketing group WPP this morning announced that profits in 2010 rose by almost a third to £851m, thanks in part to a rebound in US advertising in the final quarter, reports the 91Èȱ¬. WPP's chairman Sir Martin Sorrell spoke to .

Jeremy Hunt, the Culture Secretary, came under fire from MPs for his decision to clear the way for Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation to take over BSkyB, .
the culture secretary was accused of a "whitewash" last night as he approved Rupert Murdoch's controversial attempt to seize full control of broadcaster BSkyB.

Mr Hunt is to be congratulated for having preserved the independence of Sky News. "However, there is no disguising that Mr Murdoch's commercial power will greatly increase if BSkyB's other shareholders agree terms, as they are very likely to do. He will then own all of a very profitable company. Its most recent annual profits were £878m."

Mr Hunt must look again at the UK's media ownership rules as a matter of urgency. "A proper definition of media plurality is needed. It is illogical to regulate it only when there is a change of control. Factors such as organic growth and technological change do lead to big shifts in media consumption - and hence plurality."

Lord Prescott, the former deputy prime minister, used parliamentary privilege in the debate over the BSkyB takeover to claim in the House of Lords: "The investigation into phone hacking (at the News of the World) has been extended now to the Sunday Times." The claims were echoed in the Commons by Tom Watson, Labour MP for West Bromwich East. News International vigorously denied that any of its titles apart from the NoW were under investigation.

that Trinity Mirror shares plummeted 22% as the publisher of the Daily Mirror newspaper said economic pressures have made 2011 challenging. Investors took flight despite a rise in full-year pre-tax profits to £123m, up from £42m in 2009, boosted by cost savings following the acquisition of regional titles from Guardian Media Group.

The "girl in the spotted dress" in one of the world's most-published photos has come forward. Pat Stewart, now 77, was 17 when the photo was taken on Blackpool beachfront in 1951 by Bert Hardy of Picture Post. She revealed her identity on The One Show after another woman had claimed the credit, .

Highlighted in the 91Èȱ¬ newspaper review is the resignation of the director of the London School of Economics over links to Gaddafi's regime is the Times' lead. The Guardian's Simon Jenkins is sympathetic to Sir Howard Davies's plight. "Pity the poor university," he says. "Told for 25 years to get into bed with big money", the LSE found that "big money sometimes stinks," he says.

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I'm the 91Èȱ¬'s media correspondent and this is my brief selection of what's going on.

The 91Èȱ¬ reports that Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation has been given government approval for its controversial takeover of BSkyB. The green light follows News Corp's offer to spin-off Sky News as an independent company. The decision follows concerns about the concentration of media outlets in the hands of one organisation.

The Culture Secretary Jeremy Hunt has confirmed that News Corp can buy all BSkyB's shares, without a Competition Commission inquiry, if it spins off Sky News as a separate company with an independent chairman and shareholders. News Corp would still have 39% of the shares and would fund the loss-making company for several years. I summarised the details on R4's Today at 08:10, ahead of a discussion with Andrew Neil, who launched Sky News, and David Elstein, former ITV, Sky and Channel 5 executive.

to the Stock Exchange from the Department of Culture Media & Sport.

the undertaking details last night.

91Èȱ¬ Trustee Diane Coyle is the favourite to become vice-chairman of the Trust. The appointment process was suspended while the search for a 91Èȱ¬ chairman took place. Lord Patten is the government's preferred candidate for the chairmanship.

Kevin Marsh, the editor of R4's Today programme when it broadcast Andrew Gilligan's controversial report on the government's Iraq dossier, is to leave the 91Èȱ¬ after 33 years. Marsh said he will "finally" be able to give his own account of the corporation's titanic row with Downing Street in 2003. He is taking voluntary redundancy and stepping down as editor of the 91Èȱ¬ College of Journalism, .

As featured in the 91Èȱ¬ newspaper review most papers have in-depth reports on what the Daily Telegraph calls "Gaddafi's bloody onslaught". It describes how pro-Gaddafi forces launched an offensive in the east of Libya to try to regain ground.

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A look at the stories ranking highly on various news sites.

that coconut oil is back in favour with the health food world having once resembled "the devil himself in liquid form, with more poisonous artery-clogging, cholesterol-raising, heart-attack-causing saturated fat than butter, lard or beef tallow".

Wikileaks founder Julian Assange, in a phonecall to Private Eye editor Ian Hislop, accused parts of the UK media of a "Jewish conspiracy" against his website, .

Seven Canary Wharf workers who were trapped in a lift following a "boozy night out" have had to explain themselves to bosses after e-mails about the incident made their way around the City, .

"The men shouted for help and pressed the emergency button, but were forced to spend about three hours curled up together like dormice... An investigation is under way into whether the lift malfunction was caused by members of the group jumping up and down."

. The sports car, which costs a cool $379,000 (£232,000) has been named the Aventador, "for the bull that won the Trofeo de la Peña La Madroñera in 1993 for 'outstanding courage'".

on the story of a French chateau which, at the behest of former owner Louis Mantin, has been closed up since his death in 1905, as a sort of "time capsule". Thanks to a £2.9m refurbishment, the property looks exactly as it would have at the turn of the century:

"On his death its doors remained closed and rats and insects were given free reign within its dusty corridors and vast rooms."

I'm the 91Èȱ¬'s media correspondent and this is my brief selection of what's going on.

ITV has reported this morning that pre-tax profit almost tripled last year to £321m, but its programme making division struggled as earnings dropped more than 10%. ITV reported total revenues up 10% to £2.06bn in 2010, fuelled by a 16% rise in TV ad revenues thanks to hit shows such as The X Factor and Downton Abbey.

Ofcom is seeking to stop internet service providers from advertising unrealistic broadband speeds. "There is a substantial gap between advertised speeds and the actual speeds people get in their homes," Ofcom chief executive Ed Richards told the 91Èȱ¬.

The 91Èȱ¬ is to give public access to the archive of Radio 4's Desert Island Discs, allowing downloads of the past 500 editions and listing the choices made by every guest since the programme began in 1942, . It will coincide with the launch of the re-branded digital network Radio 4 Extra, which replaces Radio 7 next month.

it's hard to fault the digital radio strategy that the 91Èȱ¬'s head of audio and music, Tim Davie, announced yesterday - "it'll be popular... it is clearly designed to be a tempting digital radio carrot rather than a threatening digital radio stick... and it's cheap."

Luke Johnson, the former chairman of Channel 4, has teamed with former 91Èȱ¬ and ITV executive Paul Jackson to bid for culture secretary Jeremy Hunt's new national TV channel. their group, Local6, is the ninth bidder to publicly declare an interest in running the channel, which is intended to provide a national spine for Hunt's initiative to create a new network of local TV services. Tuesday was the deadline for initial submissions of interest to Hunt.

Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation is close to finalising a remedy with Ofcom and the Office of Fair Trading which could enable it to bid for the 61pc of BSkyB it does not already own. She expects Sky News to be hived off into an independent trust that News Corp will agree to fund with tens of millions of pounds a year in the long-term and says "Essentially, the arrangement will see Mr Murdoch's News Corporation cede control of Sky News."

The government's announcement of cuts in the armed forces comes in for a great deal of criticism. The Times says the weakness of Britain's defences was exposed as the government confirmed thousands of jobs losses across the services - just hours after David Cameron attempted to take a lead role in the Libyan crisis, as highlighted in the 91Èȱ¬'s newspapers review.

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A look at the stories ranking highly on various news sites.

poses the question: do tyrants fear America anymore? The piece by Nile Gardiner, a Washington-based foreign affairs analyst and political commentator, accuses the Obama administration of having a "timid" foreign policy.

"Just a few years ago the United States was genuinely feared on the world stage, and dictatorial regimes, strategic adversaries and state sponsors of terror trod carefully in the face of the world's most powerful nation. Now Washington appears weak, rudderless and frequently confused in its approach."

Riding high at , published last week but seeing resurgence in interest following the Oscars on Sunday. The film, says writer Christopher Hitchens, is "riddled with gross falsifications of history". Hitchens, who has been one of the most vocal critics of the accuracy of the film, picks apart the allegiances and friendships in the film, particularly those of Winston Churchill, which he says are presented incorrectly.

The career of actor Charlie Sheen could be harmed by a series of "bizarre" interviews, . The actor produced "samples of his blood and urine for a drugs test" during one interview on NBC. Other interviews, which covered topics including "his past indulgence with drugs and porn stars" proved too much for his publicist, who announced that he would resign, the paper says.

Facebook is about to embark on the latest of its "controversy-fraught efforts to encourage users to be more liberal in sharing their data", . The social network is "moving ahead" with plans to give external developers access to its users' mobile phone numbers and home addresses, despite the firm already doing one u-turn on the decision in January.

with Nobel Prize winning biologist Christian de Duve who argues that natural selection means that humans are now riddled with "noxious traits" that could eventually kill us off. The answer, he says, could involve population control and giving more power to women.

A plastic that doesn't burn even under extreme temperatures and that acts protects from nuclear blasts and radiation may never see the light of day, . The material known as Starlite was invented by former hairdresser Maurice Ward, who had "no formal training, no academic background, no special equipment, no funding and no help other than from his wife Helen and daughters Jane and Caroline". Despite debuting on 91Èȱ¬ show Tomorrow's World two decades ago and winning plaudits from Nasa and the Ministry of Defence, Mr Ward's invention has never been bought or produced commercially. So what happened?

And finally, that it claims could be the elusive graffiti artist Banksy. The photographs, showing him wearing "a pulled-down green cap, a brown T-shirt and grey Adidas tracksuit bottoms" were taken in Santa Monica. The paper says the artist's work has been springing up around LA in the run up to the Oscars, where his film Exit Through The Gift Shop was nominated for best documentary.

I'm the 91Èȱ¬'s media correspondent and this is my brief selection of what's going on.

that the UK's Advertising Standards Authority (ASA)is going to vet sites like Twitter and Facebook for the first time after receiving thousands of complaints about misleading online adverts.

Craig Oliver is pictured arriving in Downing Street on his first day as its communications supremo. he looks like "a man who was late for his Cycling Proficiency Test", carrying an iPad, trendy head-phones, cycle helmet and "manbag".

An historic day for British television yesterday passed with a disappointing lack of hullabaloo, . ITV1's This Morning featured the inaugural paid-for product placement, a Dolce Gusto coffee machine, positioned with "conspicuous inconspicuousness" behind the presenters in the programme's kitchen.

Financial Times owner Pearson is "on a collision course with Apple" over the onerous terms it is demanding for print app subscriptions, . Announcing full-year results, chief executive Marjorie Scardino said that as new tablet devices increased competition, publishers would no longer have to cave in.

, the growth of electronic books is closing the technology age gap, as more over-55s turn to Apple iPads and Amazon Kindles. Six per cent of over-55s own an e-book reader, compared with 5% of those aged 18-24, according to a survey of 4,000 people by Silver Poll.

that Blue Peter presenter Helen Skelton yesterday became the first person to walk a high-wire between two of Battersea Power Station's chimneys. She trained for two months for the stunt in aid of Comic Relief's Red Nose Day.

Richard Desmond is to promote the Health Lottery through his media outlets, aiming to raise at least £50m a year. "It was a no-brainer for me" . "Between Channel 5, the Daily Express, the Daily Star, OK! magazine, etc, there are 37 million people who watch or read our products each week, so we felt we could help with the promotional marketing of this". Tickets will cost £1, with 20.5p going to health-related charities across the UK.

The Daily Telegraph says Western leaders are "on the brink of ordering military action" against Col Gaddafi. The Daily Mirror detects the "growing sound of sabres being rattled in Downing Street" and isn't happy. "We must not invade," it says, warning that deploying troops in Libya would risk an "Iraq-style disaster". Both articles feature in the 91Èȱ¬'s newspaper review.

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