Topic: David Frost joins al-Jazeera TV

[Clive]

Veteran UK broadcaster Sir David Frost is to join Arab-language TV station al-Jazeera, the network has confirmed.

Sir David is to appear on al-Jazeera International, the pan-Arab news network's new English-language channel, due to be launched next spring.

The Qatar-based channel said Sir David, who broadcast his final Breakfast with Frost programme for the BBC in May, would be among the "key on-air talent".

Sir David was quoted as saying he felt "excitement" about his new role.

"Most of the television I have done over the years has been aimed at British and American audiences," he said.

Distinguished career

"This time, while our target is still Britain and America, the excitement is that it is also the six billion other inhabitants of the globe."

Sir David notched up 500 editions of Breakfast with Frost before bowing out.

An al-Jazeera statement called Sir David "the only person to have interviewed the last seven presidents of the United States and the last six prime ministers of the United Kingdom".

It said: "(He) has joined the line-up of key on-air talent at the new 24-hour English language news and current affairs channel."

Launched in 1996, al-Jazeera is best known outside of the Arab world for carrying exclusive al-Qaeda messages.

Sir David first came to prominence on television in the early 1960s, when he presented the satirical BBC show That Was the Week that Was.

Channel expansion

He presented a series of news and current affairs programmes in the UK and America.

Frost's interviews with Richard Nixon after Watergate were revealing, much acclaimed and achieved the largest audience for a news interview in history.

He worked for ITV breakfast station TV-am in the 1980s before rejoining the BBC in 1992.

Last month al-Jazeera launched a children's channel as part of its expansion plans.

It also has a sports channel and one dedicated to covering live events without a presenter.

 
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/tv_and_radio/4318284.stm

[Sandra]

I wonder if they will be giving Kilroy-Silk a job there too  :wink:

[Clive]

I think that David Frost was an apalling interviewer who should have been put out to graze years ago.  I just find it sad that with all the money he has earned over the years that he finds it necessary to work for a TV company which does not have the interests of the UK at heart.  Is it still a hanging offence to be a traitor?

[Sandra]

 Is it still a hanging offence to be a traitor?

Dont be silly Clive, that would be against their human rights  :shock:

[Clive]

I sometimes think that you are an even bigger cynic than me Sandra!

[GillE]

Is it still a hanging offence to be a traitor?

No, it is not.  The law of treason was enacted in 1351 and since there is no desuetude in English law, it remains active. There are four categories of treasonable offences:

* "when a man doth compass or imagine the death of our lord the King, or of our lady his Queen or of their eldest son and heir";

* "if a man do violate the King?s companion, or the King?s eldest daughter unmarried, or the wife of the King?s eldest son and heir";

* "if a man do levy war against our lord the King in his realm, or be adherent to the King?s enemies in his realm, giving to them aid and comfort in the realm, or elsewhere, and thereof be probably attainted of open deed by the people of their condition"; and

* "if a man slea the chancellor, treasurer, or the King?s justices of the one bench or the other, justices in eyre, or justices of assise, and all other justices assigned to hear and determine, being in their places, doing their offices".

In common law, it is also possible to be convicted of 'misprision of treason' when a person knows that an act of treason is being committed or is about to be committed and fails to report it to proper authority.  This crime is regarded as a felony and is punishable by any term of imprisonment, although it is not a capital offence.

The same laws apply to Scotland as apply to England, although the Scots will also convict for treason if the Great Seal of Scotland is counterfeited or if a Lord of Session or Lord of Justiciary is murdered.

The last person to be convicted and hung for treason was William Joyce (Lord Haw-Haw) on 3 January 1946.  The last person to be successfully prosecuted for treason was Michael Bettaney, a Russian spy who was sentenced to 23 years in 1984.

The Crime and Disorder Act of 1998 abolished the death penalty for treason but the death penalty remains for those who commit arson in the Queen's shipyards and for violent pirates.

Gill

PS  David Frost following in the footsteps of William Joyce?  How are the mighty fallen!

[Sandra]

* "if a man do violate the King?s companion, or the King?s eldest daughter unmarried, or the wife of the King?s eldest son and heir";

Looks like Dodi was going to be in big trouble then, conspiracy theories or not   :wink:

[GillE]

But Diana and Charles weren't married at the time... were they ?

James Hewitt not only committed treason - he confessed to it!

Gill