The National Museum of American History recently celebrated one of the most iconic American filmmakers of the past 25 years: Wes Anderson. From life-sized movie-scene backdrops to organized discussions, live music and drinks, the festival had something to offer for faithful fans and newcomers alike. Masha Morton filed this report.
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A new church in South Africa celebrates drinking, and not just the communion wine. Worshippers at the Gabola church attend services in bars and taverns, where a pastor blesses their alcoholic beverages. From Washington, VOA’s Jill Craig has more on this unorthodox church.
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President Donald Trump said Saturday that he was considering “a Full Pardon!” for boxing’s first black heavyweight champion, more than 100 years after Jack Johnson was convicted by an all-white jury of “immorality” in connection with one of his relationships.

Trump tweeted that actor Sylvester Stallone had called him to share Johnson’s story. The president said Johnson’s “trials and tribulations were great, his life complex and controversial.” 

The president added: “Others have looked at this over the years, most thought it would be done, but yes, I am considering a Full Pardon!”

Johnson was convicted in 1913 of violating the Mann Act, which made it illegal to transport women across state lines for “immoral” purposes. 

The boxer died in 1946. His great-great-niece has pressed Trump for a posthumous pardon.
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Elmore Bolling defied the odds against black men and built several successful businesses during the harsh era of Jim Crow segregation in the South. He had more money than a lot of whites, which his descendants believe was all it took to get him lynched in 1947.

He was shot to death by a white neighbor, according to news accounts at the time, and the shooter was never prosecuted.

But Bolling’s name is now listed among thousands on a new memorial for victims of hate-inspired lynchings that terrorized generations of U.S. blacks. Daughter Josephine Bolling McCall is anxious to see the monument, located about 20 miles from where her father was killed in rural Lowndes County.

The National Memorial for Peace and Justice, opening Thursday, is a project of the nonprofit Equal Justice Initiative, a legal advocacy group in Montgomery. The organization says the combined museum and memorial will be the nation’s first site to document racial inequality in America from slavery through Jim Crow to the issues of today.

“In the American South, we don’t talk about slavery. We don’t have monuments and memorials that confront the legacy of lynching. We haven’t really confronted the difficulties of segregation. And because of that, I think we are still burdened by that history,” said EJI executive director Bryan Stevenson.

The site includes a memorial to the victims of 4,400 “terror lynchings” of black people in 800 U.S. counties from 1877 through 1950. All but about 300 were in the South, and prosecutions were rare in any of the cases. Stevenson said they emphasized the lynching era because he believes it’s an aspect of the nation’s racial history that’s discussed the least.

“Most people In this country can’t name a single African-American who was lynched between 1877 and 1950 even though thousands of African Americans were subjected to this violence,” Stevenson said.

The organization said a common theme ran through the slayings, which it differentiates from extrajudicial killings in places that simply lacked courts: A desire to impose fear on minorities and maintain strict white control. Some lynchings drew huge crowds and were even photographed, yet authorities routinely ruled they were committed by “persons unknown.”

McCall, 75, said her father’s killing still hangs over her family. The memorial could help heal individual families and the nation by acknowledging the painful legacy of racial murders, she said.

“It’s important that the people to whom the injustices have been given are actually being recognized and at least some measure – some measure – of relief is sought through discussion,” said McCall.

Combined, the memorial and an accompanying museum a few miles away at the Equal Justice Initiative headquarters tell a story spanning slavery, racial segregation, violence and today’s era of swollen prison populations. With nearly 7 million people behind bars or on parole or probation nationwide – a disproportionate number of them minorities – the NAACP says blacks are incarcerated at a rate five times that of whites.

E.M. Beck, who studied lynching for 30 years and has written books on the subject, said the memorial might actually understate the scope of lynching even though it lists thousands of victims.

“I think it’s an underestimate because the number and amount of violence in early Reconstruction in the 1870s will probably never be known. There was just an incredible amount of violence taking place during that period of time,” said Beck, sociology professor emeritus at the University of Georgia.

The memorial’s design evokes the image of a racist hanging, featuring scores of dark metal columns suspended in the air from above. The rectangular structures, some of which lie flat on the ground and resemble graves, include the names of counties where lynchings occurred, plus dates and the names of the victims. The goal is for individual counties to claim the columns on the ground and erect their own memorials.

Not all lynchings were by hanging. The Equal Justice Initiative says it scoured old newspapers, archives and court documents to find the stories of victims who were gunned down, drowned, beaten and burned alive. The monument is a memorial to all of them, with room for names to be added as additional victims are identified.

The monument’s April 26 opening will be marked by a two-day summit focusing on racial and social justice, to be followed by an April 27 concert featuring top acts including Common, Usher, the Dave Matthews Band and The Roots.

McCall plans to view the memorial with her five living siblings. She says they suffered more than she did, since she was only 5 when their father was slain.

A newspaper account from the time said the 39-year-old Bolling, who owned a store and trucking company and farmed, was shot seven times on a road near his store by a white man, Clarke Luckie, who claimed Bolling had insulted his wife during a phone call.

McCall, who researched the slaying extensively for a book about her father, said it’s more likely that Luckie, a stockyard employee, resented her father, who had thousands of dollars in the bank, three tractor-trailer rigs and employed about 40 people.

“He was jealous and he filled him with bullets,” she said.

Luckie was arrested, but a grand jury issued no indictment and no one was ever prosecuted. McCall believes the white people who controlled the county at the time purposely covered for the killer, who died decades ago.

One of Alabama’s oldest black congregations, Old Ship A.M.E. Zion Church, sits across the street from the memorial. Its pastor plans to offer prayer and conversation to help visitors who are shaken by the experience of visiting the site.

Church members have mixed feelings about the memorial, she said. They want to acknowledge and honor the past, McFadden said, but some are wondering how they’ll personally react to visiting the memorial the first time.

“It’s something that needs to be talked about, that people need to explore. But it’s also something that has the potential to shake people to the core,” said Rev. Kathy Thomas McFadden.
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We’re firing up the five most popular songs in the Billboard Hot 100 Pop Singles chart, for the week ending April 21, 2018.

Things really jump on this week’s lineup as we welcome two new tracks — including the Hot Shot Debut.

Number 5: BlocBoy JB Featuring Drake “Look Alive”

BlocBoy JB crashes the Top Five party in fifth place, as “Look Alive” featuring Drake rises one slot. BlocBoy JB is James Baker, a 21-year-old rapper from Memphis, Tennessee. He started loading music on his SoundCloud page in 2012, and dropped his first mix tape in 2016. Last year, his song “Shoot” touched off a viral dance craze, and another single, “Rover,” caught Drake’s ear … leading to this collaboration.

Number 4: The Weeknd “Call Out My Name”

Things really heat up in fourth place, where The Weeknd opens with “Call Out My Name.” 

It’s a huge week for the Canadian artist: His EP “My Dear Melancholy” becomes his third chart-topping album, while all six songs open on the Hot 100. “Call Out My Name” is his eighth Top 10 hit, and his highest debut.

 

Number 3: Post Malone Featuring Ty Dolla $ign “Psycho”

While the new music is behind us, the news is still good for Post Malone and Ty Dolla $ign: “Psycho” jumps a slot to third place. Post had an unenviable task at last weekend’s Coachella Festival.

On April 14, Post performed at the Coachella Festival in Southern California … in an unenviable time slot. He essentially opened for Beyonce, who dominated the evening with a headline-making performance. Post returns to Coachella on April 21 … as will Beyonce.

Number 2: Bebe Rexha & Florida Georgia Line “Meant To Be”

Bebe Rexha and Florida Georgia Line spend yet another week in the runner-up slot with “Meant To Be.” Speaking with Billboard at last weekend’s Academy Of Country Music Awards, Bebe says the song’s success has changed her approach to her upcoming full-length album, “Expectations.” Bebe said the new album will be more stripped-down, with honest songs and more guitar than she originally planned. Bebe cited such early influences as Alanis Morissette, No Doubt, and Lauryn Hill. “Expectations” drops on June 22.

That’s not the only new album coming our way.

Number 1: Drake “God’s Plan”

Drake bookends this week’s Top Five lineup, as “God’s Plan” spends an 11th week at No. 1. It’s now Drake’s longest-lasting countdown champ. On April 16, Drake went on Instagram wearing a jacket bearing the words “Scorpion, June Twenty Eighteen, by Drake.” Rolling Stone confirms that “Scorpion” is the title of his next album.

So … there’s something to look forward to. We’re looking forward to seeing you next week on an all-new Top Five!
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The Swedish-born producer and DJ known as Avicii has been found dead in Oman.

 

Publicist Diana Baron said in a statement that the 28-year-old DJ, born Tim Bergling, was in Muscat, Oman.

 

Avicii was a pioneer of the contemporary Electronic Dance Movement and a rare DJ capable of worldwide arena tour. He won two MTV Music Awards, one Billboard Music Award and earned two Grammy nominations. His biggest hit was “Le7els.”

 

His death comes just days after he was nominated for a Billboard Music Award for top dance/electronic album for his EP “Avicii (01).”

His hits include “Wake Me Up!”, “The Days'” and “You Make Me.”
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Bill Cosby’s lawyers are scrambling to make sure jurors at his sexual assault retrial hear from accuser Andrea Constand’s confidante before deliberations get under way next week — but they’re having trouble getting the woman to cooperate.

Sheri Williams isn’t responding to subpoena attempts, Cosby’s lawyers said. Now they’re seeking a judge’s permission to read parts of her deposition into the record just as prosecutors did with Cosby’s old testimony.

The TV star entered the courthouse Friday for Day 10 of the retrial, which is expected to go to the jury next week.

Judge Steven O’Neill was expected to rule Friday on his lawyers’ request to use Williams’ deposition.

Constand testified at Cosby’s first trial last year that she and Williams were good friends and would speak “at all hours of the day: morning, noon, and night” and were in touch as she went to police in January 2005 with allegations Cosby drugged and molested her about a year earlier.

Cosby’s lawyers said they expected Williams’ testimony to refute Constand’s claims that she was unaware he was romantically interested in her. They said she’d show that Constand “could not have been the unwitting victim” prosecutors have portrayed.

Williams’ deposition was part of Constand’s 2005 lawsuit against Cosby, who wound up settling for nearly $3.4 million.

Two weeks in, Cosby’s case is rapidly winding down.

O’Neill told jurors that there are only a few more days of testimony. Cosby lawyer Tom Mesereau went into the case predicting it would last about a month.

Drug experts

A pair of drug experts — one for the prosecution and one for the defense — spent Thursday debating one of the case’s enduring mysteries: What drug did he give his chief accuser on the night she says he molested her?

Cosby has insisted he handed 1 ½ tablets of the over-the-counter cold and allergy medicine Benadryl to Andrea Constand to help her relax before their sexual encounter at his mansion outside Philadelphia. Constand testified he gave her three small blue pills that left her incapacitated and unable to resist as he molested her.

The experts agreed that paralysis isn’t known to be a side effect of Benadryl, though its active ingredient can cause drowsiness and muscle weakness, among other side effects.

Cosby’s expert, Harry Milman, said he didn’t know of any small blue pill that could produce the symptoms Constand described.

The Cosby Show star has previously acknowledged under oath he gave quaaludes — a powerful sedative and 1970s-era party drug that’s been banned in the U.S. for more than 35 years — to women he wanted to have sex with, but denied having them by the time he met Constand in the early 2000s.

Dr. Timothy Rohrig, a forensic toxicologist called by prosecutors, testified Thursday that quaaludes can make people sleepy. But he and Milman said the drug came in large white pills — not small and blue.

Prosecutors rested their case after Rohrig got off the witness stand.

The defense immediately asked Judge Steven O’Neill to acquit Cosby and send jurors home, arguing prosecutors hadn’t proved aggravated indecent assault charges. O’Neill refused.

Upcoming testimony

Cosby’s lawyers are expected to call several people who worked for him, including an executive assistant and employees of his talent agency and publicity firm. It’s likely part of a bid to challenge the prosecution’s contention that the alleged assault happened within the 12-year statute of limitations.

Williams’ deposition testimony could have insights into what led Constand to accuse Cosby and whether the encounter was a factor in her leaving her job a few months later as the director of women’s basketball operations at Temple University.

A private investigator working for the defense said he attempted to serve Williams at least six times at her North Carolina home before sending her a FedEx package containing a subpoena and instructions to call Cosby’s legal team.

Williams’ name already has come up several times at the retrial.

Constand testified that Williams was the friend she cut and pasted emails from for a business that Cosby’s lawyers described as a Ponzi scheme.

Cosby lawyer Kathleen Bliss questioned Constand’s mother about her daughter’s friendship with Williams and suggested that they were on the outs about a month before Constand went to police.

“What has Sheri got to do with this?” Gianna Constand replied.

Charles Kipps, a writer who worked with Cosby, testified he met Constand and Williams for dinner in New York as Constand was moving back to Canada in March 2004.

The Associated Press does not typically identify people who say they are victims of sexual assault unless they grant permission, which Constand has done.
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Some of Prince’s closest confidants had grown increasingly alarmed about his health in the days before he died and tried to get him help as they realized he had an opioid addiction — yet none were able to give investigators the insight they needed to determine where the musician got the fentanyl that killed him, according to investigative documents released Thursday.

Just ahead of this weekend’s two-year anniversary of Prince’s death, prosecutors announced they would file no criminal charges in the case and the state investigation was closed.

“My focus was lasered in on trying to find out who provided that fentanyl, and we just don’t know where he got it,” said Carver County Attorney Mark Metz. “We may never know. … It’s pretty clear from the evidence that he did not know, and the people around him didn’t know, that he was taking fentanyl.”

Metz said Prince had suffered from pain for years and likely believed he was taking a common painkiller.

Prince was 57 when he was found alone and unresponsive in an elevator at his Paisley Park studio compound on April 21, 2016. His death sparked a national outpouring of grief and prompted a joint investigation by Carver County and federal authorities.

An autopsy found he died of an accidental overdose of fentanyl, a synthetic opioid 50 times more powerful than heroin.

The investigative materials — including documents , photos and videos — were posted online Thursday afternoon. Several images show the music superstar’s body on the floor of his Paisley Park estate, near an elevator. He is on his back, his head on the floor, eyes closed. His right hand is on his stomach and left arm on the floor.

The documents include interviews with Prince’s inner circle. That included longtime friend and bodyguard Kirk Johnson, who told investigators that he had noticed Prince “looking just a little frail,” but said he did not realize he had an opioid addiction until he passed out on a plane a week before he died.

 “It started to all making sense though, just his behavior sometimes and change of mood and I’m like oh this is what, I think this is what’s going on, that’s why I took the initiative and said let’s go to my doctor because you haven’t been to the doctor, let’s check it all out,” Johnson said, according to a transcript of an interview with investigators.

Johnson said after that episode, Prince canceled some concerts as friends urged him to rest. Johnson also said that Prince “said he wanted to talk to somebody” about his addiction.

Johnson asked his own doctor, Michael Todd Schulenberg, to see Prince on April 7, 2016. Schulenberg told authorities he gave Prince an IV; authorities said he also prescribed Vitamin D and a nausea medication — under Johnson’s name. Johnson then called Schulenberg on April 14, asking the doctor to prescribe a pain medication for Prince’s hip. Schulenberg did so, again under Johnson’s name, Metz said.

On the night of April 14 to April 15, Prince passed out on a flight home from Atlanta, and the private plane made an emergency stop in Moline, Illinois. The musician had to be revived with two doses of a drug that reverses effects of an opioid overdose.

A paramedic told a police detective that after the second shot of naloxone, Prince “took a large gasp and woke up,” according to the investigative documents. He said Prince told paramedics, “I feel all fuzzy.”

A nurse at the hospital where Prince was taken for monitoring told detectives that he refused routine overdose testing that would have included blood and urine tests. When asked what he had taken, he didn’t say what it was, but that “someone gave it to him to relax.” Other documents say Prince said he took one or two pills.

The documents show that Johnson contacted Schulenberg again on April 18, and expressed concern that Prince was struggling with opioids. At that time, Schulenberg told investigators, Johnson apologized for asking the doctor to prescribe the previous painkiller.

An assistant to Prince told investigators he had been unusually quiet and sick with the flu in the days before he was found dead. Meron Bekure said she last saw Prince a day earlier, when she was going to take him to the doctor for a checkup but that Prince told her he would go with Johnson instead.

On that day, Schulenberg saw Prince and ran some tests and prescribed other medications to help him. A urinalysis came back positive for opioids. That same day, Paisley Park staffers contacted California addiction specialist Dr. Howard Kornfeld. The doctor sent his son, Andrew, to Minnesota that night, and the younger Kornfeld was among those who found Prince’s body. Andrew Kornfeld was carrying buprenorphine, a medication that can be used to help treat opioid addiction.

Andrew Kornfeld told investigators that Prince was still warm to the touch when he was found, but that rigor mortis had begun to set in.

The documents also show that Prince’s closest confidants knew he was a private person and tried to respect that, with Johnson saying: “That’s what pisses me off cause it’s like man, how did he hide this so well?”

Metz said some of Prince’s friends might have enabled him as they tried to protect him.

“There is no doubt that the actions of individuals will be criticized, questioned and judged in the days and weeks to come,” Metz said. “But suspicions and innuendo are categorically insufficient to support any criminal charges.”

The U.S. attorney’s office also said Thursday it had no credible evidence that would lead to federal criminal charges. A law enforcement official close to the investigation told The Associated Press that the federal investigation is now inactive unless new information emerges. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because the federal case remains open.

But federal authorities announced that Schulenberg had agreed to pay $30,000 to settle a civil violation from the allegation that he illegally prescribed the opioid oxycodone for Prince in Johnson’s name. Schulenberg admitted to no facts or liability in the settlement, which includes stricter monitoring of his prescribing practices, and authorities said he is not the target of a criminal investigation.

Oxycodone, the generic name for the active ingredient in OxyContin, was not listed as a cause of Prince’s death. But it is part of a family of painkillers driving the nation’s addiction and overdose epidemic, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Nearly 2 million Americans abused or were addicted to prescription opioids, including oxycodone, in 2014.

A confidential toxicology report obtained by the AP in March showed high concentrations of fentanyl in the singer’s blood, liver and stomach. The concentration of fentanyl in Prince’s blood alone was 67.8 micrograms per liter, which outside experts called “exceedingly high.”

Prince did not have a prescription for fentanyl.

Metz said several pills were found at the Paisley Park complex after Prince died, and some were later determined to be counterfeit.

The underground market for counterfeit prescription pain pills is brisk and can be highly anonymous, said Carol Falkowski, CEO of Drug Abuse Dialogues, a Minnesota-based drug abuse training and consulting organization. Buyers often don’t know who they’re dealing with or what’s in the drugs they purchase, she said.

The likelihood of people buying pain pills on the street or online that turn out to be counterfeits laced with fentanyl is “extremely high,” said Traci Green, a Boston University Medical Center epidemiologist who focuses on the opioid epidemic.
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For every man, woman and child on Earth, there is roughly 1 ton of plastic trash, according to a recent study. Advocates say tackling such a huge problem can start with a tiny step. With Earth Day coming up April 22, they are asking people to “skip the straw.” VOA’s Steve Baragona has more.
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Comedy is a field still dominated by men, but that’s changing. Among the trendsetters is Suzie Afridi, a Palestinian-American stand-up comedian. Afridi says she’s probably not living the life her parents had wanted for her when she was growing up in the West Bank. But she says how else would a feminist Palestinian, married to a Muslim man, trying to raise a cross-cultural 9-year-old express herself, except by making people laugh? VOA’s Samina Ahsan takes a look at Afridi’s unlikely journey.
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No criminal charges will be filed in the 2016 death of pop star Prince from an opioid overdose, a Minnesota prosecutor said on Thursday.

“We simply do not have sufficient evidence to charge anyone with a crime related to Prince’s death,” Carver County Attorney Mark Metz told a news conference following a two-year inquiry.

Prince, 57, was found dead at his Paisley Park home and recording studio complex near Minneapolis on April 21, 2016. The official cause of death was a self-administered overdose of the painkiller fentanyl, which is 50 times stronger than heroin.

Metz said the musician died after taking a counterfeit Vicodin pill laced with fentanyl.

“Nothing in the evidence suggests Prince knowingly ingested fentanyl,” Metz said, adding that there was “no evidence that the pills that killed Prince were prescribed by a doctor.”

“There is no reliable evidence showing how Prince obtained the counterfeit Vicodin laced with fentanyl or who else may had a role in delivering the counterfeit Vicodin to Prince,” Metz said.

Investigators found evidence that Prince suffered from severe pain for a number of years and that hundreds of various sorts of painkillers were found in his residence, according to Metz.

The probe included searches of Prince’s computer, mobile phone records of his friends and interviews with associates. Some of the pills were prescribed to his bodyguard, Metz said, to protect the singer’s privacy.

Prince, known for his androgynous style and sexually charged songs, crafted a public image of living a clean and healthy vegan lifestyle.
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It’s the closest thing yet to an ABBA reunion: computerized avatars of Sweden’s legendary disco group will perform during a televised tribute to the quartet to be broadcast this autumn, ABBA member Bjorn Ulvaeus said Thursday.

Agnetha Faltskog, Anni-Frid Lyngstad, Bjorn Ulvaeus and Benny Andersson split up in 1982 after dominating the disco scene for more than a decade with hits like “Waterloo”, “Dancing Queen”, “Mamma Mia” and “Super Trouper”.

The group, which has sold more than 400 million albums, has not sung together on stage since 1986.

The avatars will perform an as yet unnamed ABBA song during the tribute show, produced by British broadcaster BBC and US network NBC. Other top musical artists are also expected to perform.

“It’s a kind of ABBA tribute show, but the centerpiece … will be something I call ‘Abbatars’. It is digital versions of ABBA, from 1979,” Ulvaeus told AFP.

“It’s the first time it’s ever been done.”

In order to create the avatars, “techno artists” from Silicon Valley measured the heads of the four ABBA members and photographed them from all angles.

“With videos and lipsynching, they’ll create digital copies of us from 1979,” he said, referring to the year the album “Voulez-vous” was released.

Ulvaeus was in Brussels on Thursday to try to persuade European Broadcasting Union (EBU) member networks to sign on to the show.

The EBU is the broadcaster of the Eurovision Song Contest, the competition that launched ABBA on the international scene when it won in 1974 with the hit “Waterloo”.

“I hope that some of them (European broadcasters) will join us and make this … a global program at the end of this autumn,” Ulvaeus said.

The show is expected to go on tour the following year.
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Life is good at NICE TV.

Staff enjoy generous benefits at the new Chinese network and their flashy building, directly inside Cambodia’s Ministry of Interior, boasts an elegant restaurant on the fifth floor with 360 degree views of the city’s political heartland.

News manager Seang Sophorn is busy directing from the control room as reporter Khoun Leakana, formerly of The Phnom Penh Post, beams in live from the scene of a reeking chicken processing factory that has residents up in arms.

“We are journalists so we are like the bridge to make the government aware of people’s needs or also to bring what government needs from people,” said Sophorn, who cut her teeth as a reporter at Radio Free Asia before a stint at the PNN network of ruling party Senator Ly Yong Phat.

Ministry of Interior

The news menu includes stories about preparations for the upcoming water festival and the types of stories NICE TV producers say are their standard fare: residential complaints about floods and traffic.

The key to NICE TV’s “bridge to the people” is an app the company has developed called Tutu Live, which allows viewers to beam themselves into the program, the television equivalent of talk-back radio.

Through it they are pushing user-generated content from their currently small audience, including NICE TV’s partners at the Ministry of Interior.

“The ministry has a police network all around Cambodia so we want to create social news and we can use this resource to create the best social news in Cambodia,” Nice TV Chief Operations Officer Jason Liu told VOA, speaking through an interpreter.

Limit the scope of media?

Others are less optimistic about the partnership.

This type of partnership between a foreign firm and a ministry responsible for Cambodian state security looked “not good” said Nop Vy, acting head of the media conservator the Cambodian Center for Independent Media.

“The image of the location in the ministry itself and the work of the private company interferes into the work of the ministry and [the] Ministry of Interior’s role is very important,” he said.

“So we just thought that so through this support it will limit the scope of the media team working at their station because they will [be] working under the internal policy of the TV station and the policy I know that it maybe say something for example not doing something against China,” he added.

Certain topics avoided

Despite their close relationship with the ministry, which holds an unspecified but apparently small share in the venture, Sophorn and Lui insist they are free to report whatever they want.

For Lui, the fact that the station tends to avoid sensitive political stories or opposition perspectives is more indicative of viewer appetites than any state enforced restriction.

“The role of TV is to make people’s living better, it is not to make conflict,” he said.

But a casual chat with some of the producers at the network suggests it is well understood that anything that could provoke the ruling Cambodian People’s Party is not to be touched.

Traditional journalism gone

Meanwhile their opportunities to do traditional journalism are evaporating as government critical news organizations fall one after another under increasing government pressure on the free press.

Gone are The Cambodian Daily, an obstinate dissenter for more than two decades, the broadcasts of Radio Free Asia and more than 30 radio frequencies that relayed their own shows as well as those of others, including Voice of America. Rumors that The Phnom Penh Post will soon be shuttered are swirling, but persistently denied by the bilingual paper.

In this void, outfits more in line with the Chinese model of media-state relations are on the verge of taking over the press entirely in Cambodia.

In an interview with VOA, Huy Vannak, an under-secretary of state at the Ministry of Interior, suggested that though the content at NICE TV will predominantly focus on entertainment, the station will also work “to inform the people about how to enforce the better public service.”

“That’s the purpose to have the TV because the ministry is run and has a big task to the people basically at the grass-roots level because we have the police department on the security side and we have the public service on the administration side,” he said.

VOA has sought to clarify the ministry’s relationship with NICE TV, but after months of efforts no comment has been forthcoming.

Liu conceded it was unusual for a foreign company to hold such a partnership with a government ministry. But he stressed NICE TV was an entirely private operation that has simply been the beneficiary of blossoming relations between Cambodia and China.

“Because we come from private enterprise so the Cambodian government allow us to come and invest on the media sector, but if we come from Chinese government the Cambodian government I think they will not allow us to come and invest in the media sector,” he said.

He refused to comment on the record about whether the Chinese government held any influence over the station.

Reporter Sun Narin in Washington contributed to this report.
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Advocates of free speech recently honored about a dozen U.S. journalists who uncovered widespread sexual misconduct in politics, sports and movies, as well as a pair of Olympians who used their fame in a controversial bid to bring injustices to light half a century ago. In 1968, U.S. Olympians John Carlos and Tommie Smith bowed their heads and raised their fists on the medal stand at the Summer Olympics to protest injustices toward African Americans. VOA’s Mariama Diallo reports.
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Saudi Arabia has ended a 35-year ban on movie theaters with a private screening of the Hollywood blockbuster Black Panther.

The invitation-only screening, held Wednesday at a concert hall converted into a cinema complex in the capital, Riyadh, was attended by both women and men. 

“This is a landmark moment in the transformation of Saudi Arabia into a more vibrant economy and society,” Saudi Minister of Culture and Information Awwad Alawwad said in statement ahead of the screening.

It’s a stark reversal for a country where public movie screenings were banned in the 1980s during a wave of ultraconservatism that swept Saudi Arabia. Many Saudi clerics view Western movies and even Arabic films made in Egypt and Lebanon as sinful.

The opening marked another milestone for reforms spearheaded by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman to open the country culturally and diversify the economy.

The prince, 32, has already eased restrictions in the last two years, on such matters as permitting public concerts and allowing women to drive and attend sports events. 

The Saudi government projects there will be 300 movie theaters with around 2,000 screens built across the kingdom by 2030.

Movies screened in Saudi cinemas will be subject to approval by government censors, as is the case in other Arab countries. Scenes of violence are not cut, but scenes involving nudity, sex or even kissing often get axed. 

It was not clear whether Black Panther underwent similar censorship for Wednesday’s screening. 
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Sweden’s king wants to change the statutes of the Swedish Academy, which awards the Nobel Literature Prize each year, to allow its life-appointed board members to resign.

Academy head Sara Danius stepped down last week amid turmoil at the academy over the alleged sexual misconduct of a man married to an academy board member, Swedish poet Katarina Frostenson.

The latter left the academy when Danius withdrew. A week earlier, three male members had resigned over the academy’s vote not to remove Frostenson.

King Carl XVI Gustav — the body’s patron who must approve any of its secret votes — said Wednesday “that anyone who no longer wishes to be a member of an association should be able to withdraw.”

Members of the 18-seat board now are not technically permitted to leave.
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