FSN REPORTERS BLOG - NEWS COVERAGE AND ANALYSIS

VIDEO: Will swing state go for US's first 'gay president'?

Our Colorado correspondent Steve Mort reports on how Barack Obama's declaration in favour of same-sex marriage might affect his chances in the crucial swing state.

 

Listen: UK urges European leaders to act over eurozone crisis

With Spanish banks being downgraded by Moody's, Greece heading for new elections (and a possible exit from the euro), and eurozone growth grinding to a halt, the UK is making loud calls for action.

I filed this report for Radio New Zealand's Morning Report. Listen here.

Olly Barratt - UK correspondent

VIDEO: G8 leaders gather amid eurozone, economic crisis

Our Priscilla Huff reports from Washington on the upcoming G8 summit with the eurozone crisis high on the agenda.

FSN OPENS NEWS BUREAUS IN MIAMI, HOUSTON, LOS ANGELES, AND SAN FRANCISCO

IMMEDIATE RELEASE: May 16, 2012
Full release here. 

FEATURE STORY NEWS OPENS NEWS BUREAUS IN MIAMI, HOUSTON, LOS ANGELES AND SAN FRANCISCO

Feature Story News (FSN), the world's leading independent broadcast news agency, is opening 4 new bureaus across the United States in a unique partnership with several of the country's leading public broadcasters.

Building on a relationship created in 2011 with Rocky Mountain PBS in Denver, FSN is now opening additional full-time news bureaus in:

 

-- HOUSTON, TX based in the newly-merged TV/Radio newsroom of Houston PublicMedia;

-- MIAMI, FL based at WPBT-TV;

-- LOS ANGELES, CA, with offices at Marketplace in downtown Los Angeles, and PBSSoCal in Orange County;

-- SILICON VALLEY, CA based at non-commercial KMVT TV 15 in Mountain View, CA.

 

FSN's news bureaus provide customized, ready-to-air coverage for a wide range of global TV, radio, and web-based news networks.

An on-air Correspondent and a VideoJournalist will staff each of the companyʼs new bureaus, and each office will assist in the creation of content for FSNʼs public media partners.

Each bureau will also be equipped with cutting-edge broadband technology that permits “live” broadcasts to be transmitted in full HD quality over the public internet.

FSNʼs new bureaus expand the companyʼs existing global infrastructure, and strengthen the companyʼs ability to offer engaging, multi-platform coverage of the worldʼs most compelling issues for a wide range of clients worldwide.

Once each bureau is operational, FSN will offer coverage from 12 separate locations worldwide, with a 13th bureau opening shortly in southern Africa.

 

"This all began right here in Denver last year", said FSN's President and Chief Correspondent Simon Marks.

"Working closely with RMPBS and its editorial team, we quickly realized that FSN could help create content for the weekly ʻColorado State ofMindʼ, and simultaneously cover events in Colorado and the western United States for our clients worldwide".

"As FSN celebrates its 20th anniversary year, weʼre now establishing a network of bureaus across the country that will enhance our ability to tell the American story for international broadcasters, and simultaneously enhance the abilities of our public media partners to generate additional network-quality video journalism for their own broadcastand digital news offerings”.

“Weʼre delighted to be working with some of the nationʼs pre-eminent non-commercial broadcasters, each of whom shares our desire to produce engaging, serious-mindedand impartial coverage of the major events of our time”.

 

The new bureaus are 100%-funded by FSNʼs existing business, and will be sustained without any public or foundation financing.

Doug Price, President & CEO of Rocky Mountain PBS, who crafted the original arrangement with Feature Story News last year, said:

"FSN, with its deep roots in public media, understands how to add value as Public Television faces the future".

 

For more information, contact FSNʼs President and Chief Correspondent, Simon Marks at: markss@featurestory.com or by phone on (202) 210 1631.

 

 

About FSN: Established in 1992, Feature Story News is an Emmy award-winningsupplier of ready-to-air news content for a wide range of TV networks, radio stations andwebsites worldwide.

The company is headquartered in Washington DC, and now operates news bureaus in New York (Midtown Manhattan and the United Nations), Miami, Denver, Houston, San Francisco, Los Angeles, London, Paris, Brussels andMoscow.

FSN's reports are broadcast daily by a wide array of global publicbroadcasters, including France 24, Channel NewsAsia, CCTV, South AfricanBroadcasting, Radio New Zealand, Deutsche Welle, Vatican Radio and RadioNetherlands Worldwide.

The company also provides production facilities for commercialclients including The Daily Beast, Al Jazeera, Fox News, Newsmax, GeorgeWashington University and many others.

For more information about FSN, visit:
www.featurestorynews.com
www.fsnreportersblog.com
and follow us on Twitter: @featurestory

VIDEO: US - Colombia Trade Deal

Our Washington correspondent Daniel Ryntjes on the US-Colombia FTA and its significance.

 

LISTEN: European stocks slump on Greece, Spain, Grexit etc

European shares have opened the week sharply lower with Greece still unable to form a government and concerns persisting over Spain.

I spoke to Michael Hewson of CMC Markets about what exactly is behind Monday's sell-off, whether a Greek exit from the euro would be a disaster, and how Brussels is 'dealing' with the crisis.

Listen here.

Olly Barratt - UK correspondent

Maastricht coffee shops shut doors over drug tourism ban

The Netherlands' era of drug-tourism has come to an end in the country's south, where cannabis sales have been restricted in 'coffee shops' to Dutch residents only. In the border city of Maastricht, coffee shop owners have shut their doors in protest at the ban on selling soft drugs to foreigners, insisting the new law [which takes nationwide effect next year, and was upheld by a judge on Friday]- amounts to discrimination, and they're taking their case to court. Here's one of our TV reports from earlier in the week:

Listen: Boris v Ken in London

With Boris Johnson expected by most to be returned as London Mayor later on Friday, I joined Radio New Zealand to discuss the election and got rudely interrupted by a district line tube train.

Listen here.

Olly Barratt - UK correspondent 

French elections 2012: the view from Brussels

France will wake up to a new president on Monday morning, assuming Sunday's presidential election goes the same way as the latest polls, which hand 53 per cent of the vote to Socialist, Francois Hollande.

I am in Brussels at the moment, where EU officials are watching the election closely, in a bid to figure out what the results could mean for the Euro.

I managed to catch Radio France International's EU correspondent Pierre Benazet, for a chat on what to expect on Sunday out of France.

You can listen to the interview in full (recorded outside the European Commission) here:

Nina-Maria Potts

VIDEO: China, US ties strained over Chen Guangcheng

Chief Correspondent Simon Marks filed this report for Channel News Asia.