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Watch part two
On The Listening Post this week, coverage of Barack Obama's trip to Norway, and Eritrea - off the radar of the global media. What is the story there?
We start this week's show in Oslo. Back in October, when Barack Obama, the US president, was announced as the surprise winner of the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize, the media went into overdrive.
Outlets across the political spectrum were united, for a change, but mostly in their bemusement at how a new leader of a country in the middle of two wars could win such a prestigious award for peace.
We are going to look at round two of the coverage, when Obama flew to Norway, to accept the accolade and deliver a speech, a message about how a just war could be fought in order to preserve peace.
There was a definite shift in the tone of the coverage - with the right wing media placated by Obama's decision to escalate the war in Afghanistan and the left wing media unsure, it seemed, of how to react.
Our report will look at the Nobel ceremony and the coverage of a speech that, even for a politician renowned for his eloquence, was a tall order.
Eritrea, the forgotten country
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| Isaias Afwerki, the Eritrean president, keeps a close eye on the media in his country |
In part two of The Listening Post, Sinead O'Shea went undercover to one of the most media reclusive countries in the world.
For most of the last decade, the African country of Eritrea has been one of the great untold stories.
Not that journalists are not trying, the government does not tolerate a free press, and has not since 2001.
For the last three years, when the media freedom group Reporters Without Borders compiled its annual press freedom ranking looking at every country in the world, it had Eritrea dead last - behind Iran, Myanmar, and even North Korea.
Our report will show the limitations on freedom of expression within the press and within the population of Eritrea. We also talk to Reporters Without Borders to find out why Eritrea is still at the bottom of their index on press freedom.
In this week's Newsbytes: Footage on Iran's state-run TV causes further protests, Sun-TV gets blocked in China, an editor's killer gets a two year prison sentence for negligent homicide in Russia, signs of a media war develop in the US between the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal, and pro golfer Tiger Woods' lawyers get an injunction on the British press.
'I'm yours'
Finally for our Internet video of the week, we feature a very young rising star. Jason Mraz is an American songwriter who had a huge hit this year with a song called I'm Yours.
The first time you hear it, you think 'that is a catchy little ditty'. But it has received so much airplay, that the 50th time you hear it, it is pretty annoying.
Now it has been reworked by a five-year-old Japanese boy on a ukulele, and all of a sudden, it is not so annoying anymore. Maybe because the boy does not know - and therefore cannot sing - the lyrics. The original version of the song is big in Japan but thanks to youtube, the kid on the ukulele it is big everywhere. Watch it here.
This episode of The Listening Post can be seen from Friday, December 18, at the following times GMT: Friday: 1230; Saturday: 1030, 2230; Sunday: 0300, 1930; Monday: 0030; Tuesday: 0630, 1630; Wednesday: 0130, 1430; Thursday: 0330, 2330.
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