A new television cop show has hit the airwaves in Afghanistan. Called Eagle Four, it tracks the fictional adventures of an elite police unit that chases terrorists, kidnappers and smugglers in the midst of a war zone. Loosely inspired by American TV thrillers such as 24, the show has plenty of cartoonish action, but the people behind it, including financial support from the U.S. Embassy in Kabul, are hoping it also conveys a message.

The latest round of WikiLeaks carried some bad news for Qatari public diplomacy, in the form of US embassy cables stating that the Qatari government is using Al Jazeera as a political bargaining tool. The leaked cables, from 2009, claim that Qatar has offered to stop Al Jazeera broadcasts in Egypt in return for Egypt’s cooperation in reaching a “settlement for the Palestinians”.

The latest round of WikiLeaks carried some bad news for Qatari public diplomacy, in the form of US embassy cables stating that the Qatari government is using Al Jazeera as a political bargaining tool.

MKs and members of both new and traditional media complained Tuesday that the government’s public diplomacy strategy was ineffective and did not meet the needs of modern communications or successfully represent Israel’s interests.

Mark Thompson last week used his first speech since the government's dramatic decision to freeze the licence fee for six years to welcome the World Service back into the BBC fold...The problem is that by the time it takes on responsibilty for the organisation, it may already have shrunk as a result of Foreign & Commonwealth Office (FCO) cuts.

The diplomatic cable urged US to consider a new raft of anti-Bin Laden propaganda through the Voice of America radio station, interviews with Bin Laden victims, "commissioned articles" in the local press and an anti-Bin Laden website.

At dinner in Prague with Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty’s president, Jeff Gedmin, and half a dozen RFE/RL staffers, Gedmin said, to no one in particular, “Do you think at any time in the future history will look back and say, ‘I wish they hadn’t broadcast so much information’?”