Why journalists should respect witnesses' privacy

Journalist -  "a person who writes for newspapers or magazines or prepares news to be broadcast on radio or television."

The description clearly states what the contribution of the professional is to the society. Respectively, journalists have given a lot to the world in terms of information on contemporary global and/or local issues, not neglecting the danger sometimes these freelancers, people like us all, have been put up against. However, it is their own decision to be at risk on daily basis. Nobody else has the right to tell them 'stop, you should not do that, it threatens your life'. Everyone should respect each others decision, without harming nobody's life, it is our human right to do so.

Now, why would I bring up words like respect, harm, human right and all of it linked with journalism. As much as journalists have delivered useful and mostly credible (recently this has become a strong debatable topic) information to the world society, they have neglected the privacy of people. In some cases where police and crime has been in the spotlight that gathering and distribution of information and facts has put innocent people in danger, which is disrespectful, harmful and against their human rights.

To clear all this mess stated above I will introduce you to a case, recently happened in Bulgaria. Briefly, without mentioning the names of the newspaper where the article appeared, the journalist name who wrote the article and the witnesses' names, the story is about the so called 'King of the Gypsies' in Bulgaria. He has threatened to take the life of two people (husband and wife), as stated in the article, while they were having a talk in live area surrounded by other people (more than 10 so called witnesses). It is arguable if this whole situation is due to a previous unknown conflict between the two parties. However, other sources say, it has all happened because of the elections and the power that might get them in to. The whole story has escalated and has been taken to the police. Now the 'King of the Gypsies' together with his family are under investigation and himself, powerful within his community, is threatened to be put in jail for 6 years. Coming to an end of the story, only 2 out of 10, possibly more, witnesses' names have been mentioned in the newspaper. After this statement those two, which names have been shared with the public have now been threatened by obviously the people of the 'King of the Gypsies'. Immediate questions are raised: How these threateners know that the names are real? And why would the journalist write, at first place, any names in his/her article?

Coming to an end, journalists as any other professionals have to deal with their job and that is to provide information to the media - newspapers, magazines, television and so on. Nevertheless, they must have at least a little respect for themselves and the people who are involved in their story by not neglecting the importance of human life and the harm they could possibly do by sharing names of witnesses, in this case, on a crime that is not even clear who is responsible for what.

Ps. I give my sincere apologies to the readers of not giving out any sources, names, etc. as this might additionally harm innocent people. Nevertheless, readers have their own right to agree or disagree with the blogger's opinion on the topic.

Victoria's Secret in another thrilling fashion performance

New York City aka The Big Apple.. and what an apple it is. Victoria's Secret has delivered another thrilling fashion show. This annual event in the city of lights was yet another sexy and rhythmic, passionate and inspiring, but unique as in each year, for all their fans, customers and VIP guests. 

There is nothing much more to say besides, enjoy the eleven and a half minute video, highlights of the magical night.

For full time VC fashion show click on video.

Beckham on the spotlight

David Beckham is again on the spotlight. Started as a football player in Manchester United, transferred in Real Madrid, becoming a brand on its own, and finally winning the US soccer title in his last game for LA Galaxy, Beckham has not finished with his world stage performance yet.

Sainsbury's, the official sponsor of London Paralympics 2012, has signed Beckham earlier this month. He immediately have been appointed to participate in an ongoing campaign called '1 million children'. The aim of the campaign is to persuade children with or without disabilities to play sports together. First video has already been released where Beckham plays with a blindfold.

Will this campaign achieve its aim? And how strong the influence of Beckham in England has remained? We will follow and see the end result. Until then we will hope for 'the more, the better'.

Why PR books and cultural difference interfere between each other

When a question is asked about PR and its history and meaning, many refer to books. Some argue that history have started millenniums ago, others say it has began when job itself has appeared at different times in different countries and cultures.

If most Western nations work of books examples, Eastern cultures play against them. In literature, manipulation is less used by PR practitioners because of its negative influence if uncovered, which then raises bad reputation. That has its main concern in this new developing industry. However, manipulation is well known in Eastern Europe, and more specifically Bulgaria.

The most recent case was a month when elections had taken places. And manipulation and corruptions were the main tools for success. Bulgaria has now a new president and new mayors in the cities of the country. The nation of roses is considered by many foreign research groups and financial investigators, to be the poorest of all EU countries. Now you most likely ask yourself the question, so why would a person want to be a mayor or a president of such a country, when prosperity is at the bottom of a box? I personally would add, and why would you be manipulative and using corruptive manners to achieve that?

If you can not answer at least one of the two questions, let me help you. Bulgaria might be the poorest country on paper, but not by facts. Tourist all over Europe, Russia and even off seas and oceans travel to visit God's beautiful creation. In not so many places you can see all the four seasons on their most prettiest vision and where else than Bulgaria you can have a perfume made from roses, which grow everywhere in the country. The sea and mountains do not make exception, only some people do. The way to understand all of what have been said is to live in the country and experience all negative impact wealthy people do in order to become wealthier. And do not get me wrong, they get richer not by mind or soul, but by materialism.

The hunger for property, money and power is a trend that some are fighting agains, others are fighting with, thirds are supporting it. 

Mr Plevneliev is the newest 7th (4th long-term) president of the Bulgarian Republic. And while he gives important interviews and building up awareness around the media on how to improve the country and the lifestyle of the Bulgarian citizens, the National Railway Services are on strike. BDZ is a one of the structures that has left under the country's management and supervision. Previously national banks, telecommunications and others have been sold to private corporations, which now dictate a monopoly in the country. However, Bulgarian Railways strike is due to unpaid salaries and while people are getting together to stand against this inhumanity, railway transportation is becoming slower, out of date and out of schedule. This can be as well taken as a conspiracy, because people use of transport shifts towards other private transportation like the bus lines. That would be the logical move and decision by publics, but have thought that in a poor country where people do not have much money and use trains, instead of yet slower bus transportation for long distances gets on strike in such a moment. And this is not the only time that has happened, referring to previous years when train delays and strikes have appeared, pushing people to use buses a lot more then travelling with BDZ.

To conclude as this seems to be a long story already, There will be many years yet to come before Bulgaria start using the real purpose of PR and that would be building up brand's reputation before destroying it indefinitely.

The jog of London's 2012 Olympic torch

It is wonderful how today's information floats in the deep ocean of social media. Inspired by a tweet, this morning decided to slightly change the topic of my blog, going direction Olympics and the symbol of all - the famous flame of ancient Greece.

The pictures shown above are from the Sport, Leisure and Events Management (GIHE, Switzerland) program's field trip in winter (2006) of IOC's headquarters in Lausanne, Switzerland.

In about an year London is hosting the 30th summer Olympics, the city's third one after 1908 and 1948. The tradition of carrying the Olympic flame (Video), in which participation of 8'000 torchbearers and 1000 communities in UK, will start its relay in Greenwich Maritime.

Simple things in life make people smile..

 In times of poverty, crimes, unhappiness and not only in one country but around the world. Small things can make a person, group of people, or even a whole nation, smile. Now what would that be..

Fireworks is linked with emotions. Used by people to celebrate happiness. This is what happened tonight - 5.11.2011 - in Blackheath. The bonfire fireworks as well known have gathered few thousands of London citizen from the area. The only noise that was heard was children's happy screams, adults excitement and the booming of the astonishing fireworks. The tremendous event continued for over 15 minutes, starting with the countdown of the viewers and finishing with loud applause.

The only disturbing fact of the night was the London traffic. This brings out questions for another topic - London Olympics and its Logistics - which is coming soon during a month of summer 2012. However even negative was not enough to break the positive spirit spread around the area for the evening's show. People, family, friends came with excitement and left with the same amount of it, including the happy walk on the way back with a smile on all of their faces.

Happiness and love is what brings people together. Once more we all showed that simple things make that happen.

P+M=C (Part 2) A shift to a new or a remain to an old era

Elections have finished.. Emotions has spread in depth before, during and after those important votes were given. At the end, all remained the same. Whoever pays more, stays more (longer).. At least in the small seaside city.

Now there are two options that citizens could possibly take. One is thinking of the Mayor as the same person as during the 4 years of his leadership: corrupted, self-beneficial, blind-sider (in terms of giving/showing his contribution without logically thinking of the consequences, which afterwards prove his irresponsible behaviour). However, some might think I the writer is too harsh, others would probably think of jealousy, thirds may decide to think it through and figure out that some of this can be actually true.

Second option, would be, the Mayor has changed the way of thinking. Well that for most of us would not be real, however the theory of assumptions allows the writer to give examples of alternatives. Moreover this means, the Almighty Mayor will start contributing to the city's development. So many projects are yet to be re-introduced by educated people who think of the future such as: University of Tourism; Sports Hall; Local boy/men playing in the city's football, from there the development of the Youngsters' teams; Theatre Hall, etc. Well could that be only a dream or should it be a reality!?

Whatever happens, old or new, new and old, all depends on the Mayor and the councillors of the sea city. Could they benefit while the whole society benefits is another questions they might decide to think of? Would that put them on a pedestal, not really, but it would bring a good word of mouth through out the locals. Now is the time to change. The Mayor did not change, however his behaviour could and build up something unique.

Nevertheless, Bulgaria had got a new president. Rossen Plevneliev is his name and he will be representing the country of roses for the next 5 years. The president himself will carry the social responsibility of giving his nation a notion for a better future. In this sense, linking the local with the presidential elections, corruption has major role to play. New and/or developed solutions would be of a greater help for the nation's growth.

In this small but also powerful on its own country, leaders' elections are of an extreme importance for a change. Unfortunately tempted by others and materialism may slightly delay that most wanted change. However, no one knows what the future hold, only hope and patience has left to carry humans soul.

P+M=C aka (Politics+Money=Corruption)

Politics and money walk hand in hand for a long time. However, the ultimate end of this story is not always positive, in fact is right on the opposite side. 

Politician is described as a person who acts in a manipulative and devious way. On its own, that does not appear to be a plus for the society. Influence is a characteristic, which leaders have. Nonetheless, manipulation is a side of influence that politics use, which is characterized by unscrupulous control of a situation or a person. Politics perceive manipulation as a tool for raising capital on private or group matter. From here without spending too much time in describing a politician there is an association with money.

Leaders have been elected for centuries and millenniums by the rest of the population in a territory. Nowadays, this is happening in countries, each one more significant and more powerful then others. Moreover, those leaders are locally, nationally or globally elected and every single one of them has the power to change circumstances. “With great power comes great responsibility” are the words of Socrates, a philosopher of Ancient Greece. That opens another topic for discussion, however this will be for another time.

Recently, in Bulgaria, there were elections for local mayors and counselors, as well as president’s elections. As the author is Bulgarian and has already the experience in latest elections, has much to say, but less to write (due to certain circumstances). Nevertheless, sharing knowledge with society is the path to infinity as argued by Dalai Lama, Tibetians leader.

At these local elections, politicians if I may say, as more often this word is filled with negativism and dirt all over, has turned to be dramatic and surprisingly shocking. A previous mayor of a small prosperous city has done much but nothing but making himself rich and powerful, has also brought the anger of the citizens on his head. Nevertheless, last weekend elections showed that people have still voted for this manipulative leader, positioning in danger the future of the city and its inhabitants. Researchers found that through dirty money spent for buying votes and dust in people’s eyes by promising unachievable dreams, this candidate is endangering with his selfishness everyone around him.

Nevertheless, the elections came to an end with a hope of another choice, another candidate, known by many but unknown for the city’s demands. However this gives confidence that anew start is around the corner. It gives stronger hope that politician is actually not a bad word but also a successful leader in a society full of corruption.

This weekend elections will share the hope of a new future or dawn of another 4 years, whoever will be chosen. With this the author finishes its first part of: P+M=C (Politics+Money=Corruption)

With or Without Technology

Politics and Technology. Those two topics appear on regular basis, every single day, around the world on the Social Media. Heavy headlines on this matter come out in newspapers, online articles, TV, radio, internet, etc. and have enourmous impact on consumers' behaviour. Leaving the politics topic on a side for now, let's look up the effect of technology and more specifically the networking that happens to be crucial.

In the past weeks news about BlackBerry mobile phones, which system crashed, and simultaneously are killing slowly customers' confidence in their brands' image. That story has made almost a world chaos in between people using their phones and within the company that was loosing those affected ones' trust. A week later Mr Lazaridis co-CEO of the brand, came out apoligizing and giving an update of the improvements BlackBerry system is making and stabilising its network. However, the fact that so many people cried out on this issue is unbelievable. Networking, internet and technology are important for business. Nevertheless crying out for such an issue shows only that people have forgotten what the real world problems are: such as poverty, hunger, etc. Has it happen to you that while on a dinner in a restaurant with friends, on the table right next to yours comes a couple and instead starting socialising, the first thing they do is getting on their mobile phones and that continues for quite a while until they even look at their eyes?

As a matter of fact social networking seems to become dangerous for children. Moreover Google have actually created an online educational program that is under development but when is finalised will introduce free and basic instructions on how internet consumers should share their information and pay attention on the risk when sharing. Free knowledge on how to distribute information, this sounds handy? However, the problem has been around since Facebook and Twitter basically came out respectively in 2004 and 2006. Both online networks had issues on this matter and still working on it with improvements on regular basis. Now how is that helping humanity? It does, creating groups like WWF, Earth Hour, etc. and building up awareness through those social media about solutions for better world future. 

Online networking is used to spread a global issue quicker then it was years ago. Only in a month of time, Occupy Wall Street Movement, has been appearing and recently it is all over the news, reaching massive levels of protests around the Globe. Starting at Times Square, New York City, with the outrage of the NY police department. Then continuing in Rome, where riots have always been a problem no matter what the issues are and yet campaigns are developing in Asian and African countries. That is meant to be a non-end of the world economical crisis which is the main reason of the movement's start.

Continuing to follow the world news and especially last events, Social Media is building up its impact on peoples' behaviour, where online networks are the main source to spread global issues around the continents of Planet Earth. With or Without Technology, social network would still be a heavy bridge that bounds humanity and their believe in greater good.

Branding: Trust and Forgiveness

The week is set to be a memorable, one happy because an innovator was born, half a decade ago, in 1955, building and changing the world of technology, and one sad because that same person, the creator of an unique brand died at 56 years of age. Steve Jobs (1955-2011), Apple co-finder, great opportunist and innovator.

Having Brands in mind, could not leave without paying a tribute to Mr Apple. Creating a brand that everyone loved, giving the opportunity to be "anywhere at anytime" (Casserly, 2011) that same person built up an empire of technology that was made for the people who love technology, not neglecting of course the contribution of Bill Gates and his Microsoft of course. However Apple created a brand that all people who wanted to be involved with innovations were in included in the process of testing and evaluating from where the company itself developed through out the time.

Leaving The Big Apple for a moment, and focusing on brands that make people not like them but love them was the purpose of the story, inspired by Casserly's article on The Happiest Brands In The World (Forbes, 2011).

Facebook, as like Apple was also made for the people of the world. Finally a website that not only gets people together, but also gives the joy of sharing, playing, involving, etc. online. Some use the website simply to chat, talk or meet other people around the world, others use it for marketing purposes, third - creating groups, representing a common goal, aim or belief. This is not something new for the readers, it is just a summarise of how a brand is being loved by millions of people around the globe.

It is wonderful when a company thinks about you as a person. It is amazing when a brand you have been using for years, makes a mistake, then realises the problem it created and immediately fixes it and notifies you personally in order to let you know that you are special. And then you think.. So, they actually do care.. and the reply on that matter is your further use of the brand, because you have just bounded even more.

This last example was of a company I have been using for a while, did a mistake, and then after a notification did everything to fix the problem that has occurred. In other words, built its trust with a customer. I will not say the name of the brand but will continue using it and my questions towards you is: Have you trusted a brand, that has disappointed you in a way and then just after a sincere apology you have given your forgiveness and continued the relationship by using that same brand which was representing you before?