News of the week 5

A brief look at the past weeks news.

Ida Aagenaes

The Leveson Inquiry
The Leveson report was released on Thursday after a 17 months long inquiry into British press ethics and how the press should be regulated in the future.
The report suggested a self-regulated press, backed and underpinned by the Government, which is a change from the now self-regulated press independent from any Government involvement.
Lord Leveson’s decision does not seem to please anyone as members of the Hacked Off campaign, the group that were demanding a stronger regulated press, feel self-regulation, even when underpinned by Government, is too mild.
Prime Minister David Cameron, however, refused to fully endorse the report as he is not convinced Government involvement is necessary.
Labour leader David Miliband has given the Prime Minister a Christmas deadline to deal with the issue.

World Aids Day
Saturday was the 25World AIDS Day marked to raise awareness of AIDS and HIV.
The Prime Minister said the day should be used to “spread the message of education, testing and early diagnosis”, as figures show a record number of Brits are infected by the HIV virus unknowingly.
An estimated 25,000 are living with the virus without knowing it which means a quarter of the people in Britain who are infected are not being treated.
On a world basis the number of new people infected and dying from the virus is falling, however there is still a significant lack in treatment.

Australia strictest on cigarettes
Australia has become the first country to enforce plain cigarette packaging after the law came into force on Saturday.
This means that all cigarette packages are now olive green with gruesome pictures displaying various dangers of smoking with the brand’s name and cigarette type printed in small, plain writing.
The country has the strictest laws on smoking and advertisement for it, proclaiming this legislation to be “the last gasp of a dying industry”.