The World's Most Expensive Magazine

Kohl is a new ITP lifestyle magazine which caters to Asian women. UAE jeweller Damas joined forces with Kohl to create the worlds most expensive magazine.

The special edition front cover contains 91 grams of gold and is encrusted with 622 diamonds. It is valued at over $10,000 American dollars. It was auctioned for charity last October.

In order to create this gold edition it took Damas craftsmen more than 86 hours to hand-apply numerous layers of gold leaf. Beyond it's precious exterior the magazine contains it's usual content. It would be a fantastic present for a devout humanitarian or a fan of the magazines cover girl, Bollywood actress Katrina Kaif.

The proceed's of the Kohl gold cover was donated to Rahid Pediatric Centre in Dubai. Editior Faarah Metha commented "we want to recognise and support the work of the centre in providing quality education and therapy services to children with special needs,".

CentCom's Choice of Media Information

Central Commands (CentCom) choice of information that they released to the media during the war in Iraq is really in my opinion a tale of two story's.

First of all how CentCom went aound their news briefings was completley astounding. The occassion where the general showed the waiting press the deck of cards which showed the most wanted terrorists in Iraq is an example of this. Only one card was shown! Of course Saddam was going to be the ace of spades, but he isnt the only one. Showing those journalists one card before retreating created unrest. Even when asked to see them placed on the wall they were rejected.

The case of the army entering Baghdad was another similar to this. CentCom released information claiming they had entered the capital days before they actually did. This annoyed the already cranky journalists, who had now broadcast false information.

On the other side of the spectrum though I can see where CentCom was coming from. Looking out for the wellfare of their soldiers has to be priority number one. So this makes sense about the Baghdad controversy. Why would CentCom give details of their mens locations when it would spread the lenght and breath of Iraq and probably into the hands of insurgents. As for the card situation, if those names and photos were released then the named Iraqis would simply flee the country or go into deeper hiding.

Television Censorship

The responsibility of television censorship in America is placed squarely under the FCC's control. The FCC stands for the Federal Communications Commission. The FCC is in place to regulate what it sees as indecent material, and will hand out fines if it sees it as necessary.

The FCC however cannot regulate satellite or cable television stations such as HBO. Which is the reason that shows like CSI are allowed to air at early times during the day. Films of all ratings are also playing throughout the day. I came home from class at noon a few weeks ago and the Texas Chainsaw Massacre was playing!

In Ireland television has a watershed hour of nine pm. Before this hour no shows with offensive language or content can be shown, no exceptions. In my opinion this is the best way for television to be regulated as it gives parents a time to know when television becomes suitable and also means that children can browse without coming across indecent content.

In recent times in this country the biggest incident related to television censorship occured at Superbowl XXXVIII's halftime show. During the halftime entertainment Justin Timberlake revealed Janet Jacksons breast in what backstage called a wardrobe malfunction, it is known in the media as nipplegate! This was a live broadcast being viewed by millions of people across the country. This was of course completley distasteful and many children had seen it. The FCC fined CBS over half a million dollars after recieving about five hundred thousand complaints.