Health experts in the Midlands have produced a magazine specifically targetting British Asians to inform them about potentially fatal diseases.

The magazine, titled Apnee Sehat (Your Health), has been produced with help from the Department of Health and was was launched a fortnight ago by Prince Charles at an event in Coventry.

A number of DVDs and other educational pamphlets have also been produced to encourage older generation British Asians to learn more about a healthy lifestyle.
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Nearly 18 months after Poorna Shetty left the building for thelondonpaper, Asiana magazine has finally appointed a new editor, it told AIM Magazine this week.

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The Football Association is hosting an Ethnic Minority Media Day at Soho Square on April 18 which will highlight its work in areas such as Asians in Football and recruiting Black coaches. An Asian player is yet to play in the Premier League while there are just two black managers across 92 Football League clubs in England (Paul Ince at MK Dons and Keith Alexander at Macclesfield Town) so both topics are the subject of continuing debate.

The BBC’s Mark Bright will be hosting the event with Sir Trevor Brooking introducing and the likes of Brendon Batson, Hope Powell and Football League referee, Jarnail Singh, debating these issues and discussing how to take them forward for the future. There will also be a series of case studies from Asian and Black football coaches on how they carved out a career in the game, the issues they faced etc.

To attend contact Matt Phillips on: matt.phillips@thefa.com or 0207 745 4671.

It may be late to the party, following in footsteps already trodded by Maxim, Vogue and a growing list of publishers, but that is always better than never. The men’s magazine GQ has announced it will launch a version for the Indian market.

The Guardian today reports that it will be edited by Sanjiv Bhattacharya, a former features and contributing editor of the British GQ.

“Bhattacharya has worked in America for the past eight years and contributed to the Los Angeles Times, Marie Claire, the Daily Telegraph and the Observer, as well as completing a documentary for Channel 4,” GQ stated in its press release.

The magazine is published by Condé Nast and is launching on the back of “overwhelming success” of Vogue India, also part of its stable, said Condé Nast International chairman Jonathan Newhouse.

by Sabuhi Mir
Freelance journalist

Starting a career in journalism can be a little daunting for anyone, but particularly so if you are an ethnic minority.

Why? Because so few ethnic minorities work across print and online media. Is this just because most Asians brought up in the UK prefer to follow other career paths which are deemed more “traditional” or “safe” in the eyes of they Asian community like law, medicine, accountancy or banking.
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Reena Combo has left as editor of Ikonz magazine, the young writer has confirmed to AIM magazine. She launched the magazine with the help of her team around 18 months ago. It is not certain whether it has a future and AIM has learnt that there is no indication when its next issue will be published.

In a statement to AIM, Reena said: “Yes, there were a lot of differences of opinions and I felt it was time for me to move on after 18 months. It was a really hard decision as Ikonz was my concept, my idea, but sometimes we have to do what’s best for us and I honestly do feel like I have made the right decision.”

Prior to Ikonz, Reena was editor of Desi Xpress newspaper. She has now taken over as channel controller for the Birmingham based Punjabi World TV. The new station, which launches on 10th March on Sky, will broadcast free-to-air and aim its content at Britain’s Punjabi population.

Journalist and writer Poorna Shetty has been hired by the magazine Grazia ahead of its launch in India in March.

Her title is deputy editor / features editor and she will contribute to the first few issues, based from Mumbai.

27 year old Poorna is taking a break from her commissioning editor position at thelondonpaper.

Prior to that she was editor of Asiana magazine.

Picture at the launch of the Britstar mag, at the High Commission of Pakistan, with High Commissioner Dr. Maleeha Lodhi, on the 14th Aug 07.
Tailor Imtaz Khaliq was honoured. Also pictured are MP Shahid Malik, boxer Amir Khan and writer Sarfraz Mansoor.

The Guardian reporter Vikram Dodd has been appointed Crime Correspondent for the paper, covering a maternity leave.

A minor storm has cooked up over in the United States over the “cross-over” film Marigold, starring Salman Khan and Heroes actress Ali Larter.

According to the American South Asian Journalists Association (SAJA) blog, two journalists attracted the ire of Marigold’s director Willard Carroll after they wrote not-so-flattering reviews of the film.

In the e-mails, Carroll speaks of “morally bankrupt journalists” and appears to threaten Tsering and another SAJAer, Aseem Chhabra, with a ban from most Hollywood movie screenings.

To support his point, Chhabra describes Khan’s performance in “Marigold,” a movie about an American actress trying to make it in Bollywood.

Khan is very dull and he almost sleepwalks through the film. He suffers from the same flaw as Rai - the inability to match English dialogues with Bollywood acting.

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Carroll then sent Chhabra an e-mail accusing the reporter of violating press rules by printing his opinion before the review date. “We’ll make certain that you’re on the no-screening list for as many studios as possible,” the director wrote in the email.

We have no doubt that it probably happens in the UK too. Though the sentiment on this side of the pond seems to be that most journalists in the Asian media fall over themselves to publish positive reviews on anything that comes their way. True or not? What do you think?

Incidentally, Marigold was partially reviewed in the Observer newspaper too here. The critic could barely bring himself to devote more than a paragraph, dismissing it as: “the worst of both worlds”. So much for cross-over appeal.

With Salman Khan now facing legal problems back in India, maybe he thought this film would be his ticket out of the country? Maybe not.

Young journalists need support, encouragement and inspiration and sometimes those from a minority background need that little bit more coaxing. Newsrooms still remain underrepresented, despite the best efforts of everyone to recruit talented and dynamic young ethnic minority reporters.

In association with the Daily Mail, the Asian Media and Marketing Group (AMG) is launching a hunt to find the country’s best young journalist from an ethnic minority background. We are looking for you to nominate a journalist (or several) who you feel has already shown great commitment, flair and enterprise. The only criteria other than ability and talent is that they must be under the age of 30.

Closing date is Monday 6th August 2007. Forms can be obtained from calling: 020 7654 7745.
The winner will receive a week’s internship at the Daily Mail.

The former editor of west-Yorkshire based newspaper Asian Leader has launched a new freesheet starting this month. Anasudhin Azeez edited the Johnston Press owned paper before resigning from the newspaper when it lost a court battle.

His new venture, Asian Lite, will be a monthly title launching in June. Though it will have a cover price of 70p, it will be distributed free for the first six months.The editorial office is situated in Manchester, with production being run out of Rochdale and printing across in Leeds. He said the paper would differentiate itself by running positive stories on Asian achievement in Britain.

London’s Evening Standard newspaper has promoted Rob Singh to crime reporter, it announced today. Singh was previously a new reporter on the Standard and its sister newspaper London Lite. He replaces Rich Edwards, who left to join the Telegraph.

Writing for the Media Guardian last week, journalist Sara Wajid uncovers goings-on in East London, illustrating not only a fight for ethnic minority readers but also a glimpse into their media habits:

A council-owned local paper aimed at ethnic-minority readers in east London has been accused of wasting taxpayers’ money and jeopardising independent local journalism. Award-winning East End Life (EEL), published by Tower Hamlets Council , costs £1.3m a year to produce and has a circulation of 90,000.

It looks like a conventional local paper with unusually high production values, attracts more Bangladeshi readers than the Bangladeshi papers produced in the area, and promotes positive representations of black and Asian youth.
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He ascribes the paper’s popularity among ethnic-minority readers to the rounded and positive representations in the paper, the Somali and Bangladeshi language pages, and the fact that young Bangladeshis are not necessarily attracted to Sylheti language papers.

Read the full article to find out more.

The Guardian journalist Riazat Butt presented another edition of Islamophonic yesterday. That is the title given to their weekly Muslim podcast which covers a whole range of issues.

This edition focused on British Muslim magazines, with a short interview with Sarah Joseph of Emel. There’s also a discussion between AIM editor Sunny Hundal and writer / journalist Sarfraz Manzoor on the content of such magazines.
Listen from here.

The Chartered Society of Designers has launched the CSD Student Awards 2007, an international design competition with prize money of £7000. Entries will be accepted from any second year student studying on any full-time design course anywhere in the world.

Students studying in year three of a four year design course are also eligible to enter.
Entries are welcome from students in any of the following design disciplines: Exhibition Design, Fashion Design, Graphic Design, Interactive Media Design, Interior Design, Product Design, and Textile Design

For more details or to download the PDF Entry Form, please visit the CSD website.

The new Asiana magazine features a list of the 50 most eligible Asian bachelors in the country.

The Daily Star may have backed off on poking fun at Shariah law, but it seems that the idea may originally have been Zoo’s. The lads magazine came out on Thursday, a day before the Daily Star tried the same stunt.

As the Media Guardian reports, the weekly magazine had no such qualms though:

The double-page spread in this week’s edition of the Emap magazine features headlines including “Public stonings!”, “Beheadings!” and “Absolutely nobody having any fun whatsoever”.

It also features a full-page picture of a woman in a niqab, or full veil, alongside the headline, “A girl! As you’ve never seen her before!”

“We hop in to the debate of the moment/burning fires of Hell with our very own pro-veil edition,” says the Zoo editorial, next to a spoof rubber stamp, “Pending approval under shariah law”.

Where are Anjem Choudhary and Abu Izzadeen? Surely getting ready for one of their infamous placard-holding marches?

The article adds:

“Maybe shariah law isn’t so controversial after all,” suggests the Zoo piece, which doesn’t have a byline. “Muslims who practise it to the letter are able to divorce their wives (up to four allowed) by text message. Wives are banned from being in a car with a man who is not a blood relative. And - common sense a-go-go - women aren’t allowed to drive cars anyway!

“And hey, maybe the stricter Muslim woman is happy to hide her face and fleshy bits from public view? Been getting it all wrong with bikini-wearing babes, all-seeing Sex-Ray Specs and the pro-flesh Hot List? So for one week only, we proudly present your all-new, veil-friendly Zoo…”

Oh dear… Amusingly, the front cover of the magazine or the website has no reference to the Shariah law page.