SacredFacts

Groundport....

The delays at JFK airport in New York - one of the World's busiest - are now close to impossible. Unsurprisingly there are moves to limit flights there. Landing a week ago, we waited TWO HOURS on the ground between touching down and finding a spare gate to disembark. Leaving yesterday, there was more than an hour between pushback from the gate and take off. At one point the pilot announced "Good news we're now 20th in line - should be no more than 30 minutes or so". And this was midnight - hardly peak hours.

Ben's adventures at the Pole

I went to the Frontline Club last night and bumped into Ben Saunders. He doesn't know me and I didn't know who he was. But I do now - quite a story.

I especially like the school report at the end.

Cape Town

It's smaller - and a lot wetter - than I expected. But, as advertised, a spectacular setting. The storms blowing in meant I was unable to do the one thing I'm determined to do in the couple of days I'm here - visit the Robben Island Prison museum, where Nelson Mandela was held. The sea was too rough for the ferries - but I'll try and take a couple of hours tomorrow if it's calmer. You're guided round by a former prisoner and I'm told it's an extraordinary experience.

A full write up of the sessions from the World Association of Newspapers conference is here - including a message from Mandela, a call for African press freedom and the Golden Pen award to a jailed Chinese journalist. I'm speaking tomorrow - and was interviewed earlier by John Burke from The Editors Weblog. Check the podcast interview with Bill Keller of The New York Times.

Six Days in Cornwall

...without any web access. Which was good. Back now - but here's a flavour:

Bad Karma?

I'm in Athens for a meeting of the EBU. The politics of european broadcasting closely mirrors all other aspects of european politics and reform - on today's agenda - is difficult to deliver. The trip did not start well when my plane arrived at 3am, the hotel had no trace of my booking, the city was full of football fans for the European final - and there was not a room to be had. But I found a hospitable floor in a cafe for three hours. Liverpool's failure to capitalise on their opportunities against AC Milan also bodes ill for the trip. Sometimes, there's just bad karma.

Vignettes

Regular rail commuters into London know how important it is to select the right carriage.

Two scenes from this morning:

Carriage 1 - packed but totally silent. The rustling of several copies of the FT and the Economist. Two people gently snoring. Atmosphere akin to the reading room at the British Library.

Carriage 2 - also packed. Glasses of bucks fizz being passed around with  homemade mince pies, lots of laughter and chatter. A party atmosphere establishing itself at 8am.

Both very British somehow.

Glowing in the dark?

It's slightly disconcerting to find I was a passenger on one of the radioactive contaminated BA planes - a flight from Istanbul to London earlier this month. Of course we are told the risk is "very low" but to consult NHS Direct, BA or your GP. BA tell me they have no details and to contact NHS direct, but the risk is "very low". NHS Direct say they have no details, and no idea what the symptoms may be, but the risk is "very low". I'm not convinced the average GP would know much about Polonium-210 or the symptoms of contamination. But they could probably tell me the risk is "very low". I'm sure it is, and am not seriously concerned - but there is still a difference of some significance between "very low" and none...and the complete absence of public information about symptoms or prudent action means that confidence in how it's being handled is also, perhaps, on the low side.

Where East meets West

If it's Wednesday it must be Istanbul. My arrival on an early morning flight was interesting. The landing was aborted at the last moment as another plane was still on the runway. A steep climb combined with a sharp turn let us know something was amiss. But the Olympic Airlines pilot seemed very calm and went round for another, successful, go. My first time in Istanbul - here primarily for the NewsXchange conference. However I also had a day of meetings and press interviews in support of the BBC Turkish service and launched the Turkish edition of the BBC Editorial Guidelines. In a country struggling with freedom of expression issues, new broadcast regulation, 238 TV channels and the EU's eye upon them in the light of possible accession there is a lot of interest in what they see as "best practise".
My first time in Turkey, Istanbul looks like a wonderful city - albeit mainly viewed from a taxi window so far. However I did finish the evening with a drink in a water tank. Well, actually it was the Cistern of 1001 columns and part of the Byzantine Empire's spectacular water system.
There I met Jan Egeland, UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator. He will tell the conference tomorrow that news organisations need to cover a far greater range of international stories and issues. He will be preaching to an audience of the converted - NewsXchange is a gathering of the international news community. It may also be a good moment for such a message. My sense is that international news was once a "turn off" for mainstream audiences but there is a new appetite to understand the world in the light of war, terror, climate change and other points of inter-connection.

Migration and immigration

Nieman Reports is the journal of the Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard. The latest edition is a collection of writing and pictures about Global Migration and Immigration -- from the Mexican border, to Europe and taking in questions about language and statistics inherent in reporting the issue. It's a really thoughtful and thought provoking collection. Whatever your political attitude to it, migration looks set to increase and is defining our future.

Zimbabwe

Ethan Zuckerman has been blogging his holiday in Zimbabwe. It gives real insight into life in a country where independent news is hard to come by.