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Across The Media Universe: Bad News Abroad Edition

(AP)
Johnston Ordeal Continues: The horrific ordeal involving kidnapped BBC correspondent Alan Johnston continues with the release of a video in which Johnston is outfitted with an explosive vest. "The situation now is very serious," he says in a video you can watch over at the BBC. "As you can see I have been dressed in what is an explosive belt, which the kidnappers say will be detonated if there was any attempt to storm this area. They say they're ready to turn the hideout into what they describe as a death zone if there is an attempt to free me by force."

Hostage In A Toy Factory: New York Times reporter David Barboza went to a Chinese toy factory to meet the maker of a toy that had been recalled in the US. And then he was detained for nine hours. There were "hours of negotiations, the partial closing of the factory complex and the arrival of several police cars, a handful of helmet-wearing security officers and some government officials, all trying to free an American journalist and his colleagues from a toy factory." The takeaway? That for all the rhetoric about everything in China being government-controlled, factory bosses have more power than one might think. Argues one business professor: "China effectively has no oversight over anything."

The Mess In Iran: Speaking of the Times, if you haven't read the grim Iran story that was printed yesterday, you really should check it out. Notes the paper: "Iran is in the throes of one of its most ferocious crackdowns on dissent in years, with the government focusing on labor leaders, universities, the press, women's rights advocates, a former nuclear negotiator and Iranian-Americans, three of whom have been in prison for more than six weeks." And what, with all that going on, is the Iranian news media focused on? "…attention has been strategically focused on [President Mahmoud ] Ahmadinejad's political enemies, like the former president, Mohammad Khatami, and the controversy over whether he violated Islamic morals by deliberately shaking hands with an unfamiliar woman."

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