title: Saint Patrick's Day

text: From 1878 to 1955, St Patrick's Day was recognised as a public holiday in New Zealand, together with St George's Day (England) and St Andrew's Day (Scotland). Auckland attracted many Irish migrants in the 1850s and 1860s, and it was here where some of the earliest St Patrick's Day celebrations took place, which often entailed the hosting of community picnics. However, this rapidly evolved from the late 1860s onwards to include holding parades with pipe bands and marching children wearing green, sporting events, concerts, balls and other social events, where people displayed their Irishness with pride. While St Patrick's Day is no longer recognised as a public holiday, it continues to be celebrated across New Zealand with festivals and parades at weekends on or around 17 March.


title: Saint Patrick's Day

text: Saint Patrick's parades are now held in many locations across Japan. The first parade, in Tokyo, was organised by The Irish Network Japan (INJ) in 1992.


title: Saint Patrick's Day

text: The Irish Association of Korea has celebrated Saint Patrick's Day since 1976 in Seoul, the capital city of South Korea. The place of the parade and festival has been moved from Itaewon and Daehangno to Cheonggyecheon.


title: Saint Patrick's Day

text: In Malaysia, the St Patrick's Society of Selangor, founded in 1925, organises a yearly St Patrick's Ball, described as the biggest Saint Patrick's Day celebration in Asia. Guinness Anchor Berhad also organises 36 parties across the country in places like the Klang Valley, Penang, Johor Bahru, Malacca, Ipoh, Kuantan, Kota Kinabalu, Miri and Kuching.


title: Saint Patrick's Day

text: Astronauts on board the International Space Station have celebrated the festival in different ways. Irish-American Catherine Coleman played a hundred-year-old flute belonging to Matt Molloy and a tin whistle belonging to Paddy Moloney, both members of the Irish music group The Chieftains, while floating weightless in the space station on Saint Patrick's Day in 2011. Her performance was later included in a track called "The Chieftains in Orbit" on the group's 2012 album, "Voice of Ages".


title: Saint Patrick's Day

text: Chris Hadfield took photographs of Ireland from Earth orbit, and a picture of himself wearing green clothing in the space station, and posted them online on Saint Patrick's Day in 2013. He also posted online a recording of himself singing "Danny Boy" in space.


title: Saint Patrick's Day

text: Saint Patrick's Day celebrations have been criticised, particularly for their association with public drunkenness and disorderly conduct. Some argue that the festivities have become too commercialised and tacky, and have strayed from their original purpose of honouring St Patrick and Irish heritage. Irish American journalist Niall O'Dowd has criticised attempts to recast Saint Patrick's Day as a celebration of multiculturalism rather than a celebration of Irishness.


title: Saint Patrick's Day

text: Saint Patrick's Day celebrations have also been criticised for fostering demeaning stereotypes of Ireland and Irish people. An example is the wearing of 'leprechaun outfits', which are based on derogatory 19th century caricatures of the Irish. In the run up to St Patrick's Day 2014, the Ancient Order of Hibernians successfully campaigned to stop major American retailers from selling novelty merchandise that promoted negative Irish stereotypes.


title: Saint Patrick's Day

text: Some have described Saint Patrick's Day celebrations outside Ireland as displays of "Plastic Paddyness"; where foreigners appropriate and misrepresent Irish culture, claim Irish identity, and enact Irish stereotypes.


title: Saint Patrick's Day

text: LGBT groups in the US were long banned from marching in Saint Patrick's Day parades in New York City and Boston, resulting in the landmark Supreme Court decision of "Hurley v. Irish-American Gay, Lesbian, and Bisexual Group of Boston". In New York City, the ban was lifted in 2014, but LGBT groups still find that barriers to participation exist. In Boston, the ban on LGBT group participation was lifted in 2015.


title: Phil Lynott

text: Philip Parris Lynott (, ; 20 August 1949 – 4 January 1986) was an Irish singer, bassist, and songwriter. His most commercially successful group was Thin Lizzy, of which he was a founding member, the principal songwriter, lead vocalist and bassist. He was known for his distinctive plectrum-based style on the bass, and for his imaginative lyrical contributions including working class tales and numerous characters drawn from personal influences and Celtic culture.


title: Phil Lynott

text: Lynott was born in the West Midlands of England, but grew up in Dublin with his grandparents. He remained close to his mother, Philomena, throughout his life. He fronted several bands as a lead vocalist, including Skid Row alongside Gary Moore, before learning the bass guitar and forming Thin Lizzy in 1969. After initial success with "Whiskey in the Jar", the band had several hits in the mid-1970s such as "The Boys Are Back in Town", "Jailbreak" and "Waiting for an Alibi", and became a popular live attraction combining Lynott's vocal and songwriting skills with dual lead guitars. Towards the end of the 1970s, Lynott embarked upon a solo career, published two books of poetry, and after Thin Lizzy disbanded, he assembled and fronted the band Grand Slam.


title: Phil Lynott

text: In the 1980s, Lynott increasingly suffered drug-related problems, particularly an addiction to heroin. In 1985, he had a final chart success with Moore, "Out in the Fields", followed by the minor hit "Nineteen", before his death in 1986. He remains a popular figure in the rock world, and in 2005, a statue in his memory was erected in Dublin.


title: Phil Lynott

text: Phil Lynott was born in Hallam Hospital in West Bromwich, England, and christened at St Edward's Church, Selly Park, Birmingham. His mother, Philomena Lynott, was born in Dublin and his father, Cecil Parris, was from Georgetown, British Guiana. Philomena met Parris, who had moved to England to seek work, in Birmingham in 1948 and they were in a relationship for a few months, until Parris was transferred to London. Shortly afterwards, Philomena found she was pregnant and, after Lynott was born, she moved with her baby to a home for unmarried mothers in Selly Park, where he was baptised on 4 September. Philomena subsequently moved to Manchester but stayed in touch with Parris who helped pay towards his son's support. She subsequently had two other children who were given up for adoption. Though he suffered no serious racism, Lynott felt different from his school-mates and was more self-conscious.


title: Phil Lynott

text: Lynott first attended school in Moss Side, Manchester. In 1957, due to accounts of racism and Lynott being mixed race, his mother sent him to live with his grandparents, Frank and Sarah Lynott, in Crumlin, Dublin. The move was important as the presence of Frank gave him a father figure for the first time in his life. His mother stayed in Manchester and remained close to her son. She later took over the management of the Clifton Grange Hotel in Whalley Range with her partner, Dennis Keeley. The hotel, nicknamed "The Biz", became popular with showbusiness entertainers, and was later referred to in a song on Thin Lizzy's debut album. Lynott had a happy childhood growing up in Dublin and was a popular character at school.


title: Phil Lynott

text: Lynott was introduced to music through his uncle Timothy's record collection, and became influenced by Motown and The Mamas & the Papas. He joined his first band, the Black Eagles in 1965 as a lead singer, playing popular covers in local clubs around Dublin. He attended the Christian Brothers School in Crumlin, where he became friends with Brian Downey, who was later persuaded to join the band from the Liffey Beats. The group fell apart due to the lack of interest of manager Joe Smith, particularly after the departure of his two sons, guitarists Danny and Frankie.


title: Phil Lynott

text: Lynott then left the family home and moved into a flat in Clontarf, where he briefly joined the group Kama Sutra. It was in this band that he learned his frontman skills, and worked out how to interact with an audience. In early 1968, he teamed up with bassist Brendan 'Brush' Shiels to form Skid Row. Downey was not interested in Shiels' request to be the drummer, so the job went to Noel Bridgeman. The band signed a deal with Ted Carroll, who would later go on to manage Thin Lizzy, and played a variety of covers including "Eight Miles High", "Hey Jude" and several numbers by Jimi Hendrix. Because Lynott did not play an instrument at this point in his career, he instead manipulated his voice through an echo box during instrumental sections. He took to smearing boot polish under his eyes on stage to draw attention to himself, which he would continue to do throughout Lizzy's career later on, and regularly performed a mock fight with Shiels onstage to attract the crowd. In mid-1968, guitarist Bernard Cheevers quit to work full-time at the Guinness factory in Dublin, and was replaced by Belfast-born guitarist Gary Moore.


title: Phil Lynott

text: Despite increased success, and the release of a single, "New Faces, Old Places", Shiels became concerned about Lynott's tendency to sing off-key. He then discovered that the problem was with Lynott's tonsils; he subsequently took a leave of absence from the band. By the time he had recovered, Shiels had decided to take over singing lead and reduce the band to a three-piece. Feeling guilty of having effectively sacked one of his best friends, he taught Lynott how to play bass, figuring it would be easier to learn than a six-string guitar, and sold him a Fender Jazz Bass he had bought from Robert Ballagh for £36, and started giving him lessons.


title: Phil Lynott

text: Lynott and Downey quickly put together a new band called Orphanage, with guitarist Joe Staunton and bassist Pat Quigley, playing a mixture of original material alongside covers of Bob Dylan, Free and Jeff Beck. Still learning the bass, Lynott restricted himself to occasional rhythm guitar alongside singing lead.


title: Phil Lynott

text: At the end of 2006, a number of Skid Row and Orphanage demo tapes featuring Lynott were discovered. These were his earliest recordings and had been presumed lost for decades.


title: Phil Lynott

text: Towards the end of 1969, Lynott and Downey were introduced to guitarist Eric Bell via founding member of Them, keyboardist Eric Wrixon (Bell had played in a later line-up of Them). Deciding that Bell was a better guitarist, and with Lynott now confident enough to play bass himself, the four formed Thin Lizzy. The name came from the character "Tin Lizzie" in the comic "The Dandy", which in turn came from the nickname for the Ford Model T car. The H was deliberately added to mimic the way the word "thin" is pronounced in a Dublin accent. Lynott later discovered the saying attributed to Henry Ford, "Any colour you like as long as it's black," which he felt was appropriate for him. Wrixon was felt by the others to be surplus to requirements and left after the release of the band's first single, "The Farmer", in July 1970.


title: Phil Lynott

text: During the band's early years – and despite being the singer, bassist and chief songwriter – Lynott was still fairly reserved and introverted on stage, and would stand to one side while the spotlight concentrated on Bell, who was initially regarded as the group's leader. During the recording of the band's second album, "Shades of a Blue Orphanage" (1972), Lynott very nearly left Thin Lizzy to form a new band with Deep Purple's Ritchie Blackmore and Ian Paice, called Baby Face. "Ritchie turned up in the studio one day to jam," recalled Downey. "I was asked to play drums to Phil and Ritchie jamming… Me and Eric looked at each other like, 'Well, that's the end of the band then.' It lasted a week, then Phil came back as if nothing had happened. He wanted to be the leader of his own band, not the singer in someone else's." Due to being in dire financial straits Lizzy did, however, soon record an album of Deep Purple covers under the name Funky Junction. Lynott did not sing on the album as he felt his voice was not in the same style as Ian Gillan.


title: Phil Lynott

text: Towards the end of 1972, Thin Lizzy got their first major break in the UK by supporting Slade, then nearing the height of their commercial success. Inspired by Noddy Holder's top hat with mirrors, Lynott decided to attach a mirror to his bass, which he carried over to subsequent tours. On the opening night of the tour, an altercation broke out between Lynott and Slade's manager Chas Chandler, who chastised Lynott's lack of stage presence and interaction with the audience and threatened to throw Lizzy off the tour unless things improved immediately. Lynott subsequently developed the onstage rapport and stage presence that would become familiar over the remainder of the decade.


title: Phil Lynott

text: Thin Lizzy's first top-ten hit was in 1973, with a rock version of the traditional Irish song "Whiskey in the Jar", featuring a cover by Irish artist and friend Jim Fitzpatrick. However, follow-up singles failed to chart and, after the departure of Bell, quickly followed by Moore replacing him and, briefly, Downey, Thin Lizzy were near collapse by mid-1974. It was not until the recruitment of guitarists Scott Gorham and Brian Robertson and the release of "Jailbreak" in 1976 that Thin Lizzy became international superstars on the strength of the album's biggest hit, "The Boys Are Back in Town". The song reached the top 10 in the UK, was No. 1 in Ireland and a hit in the US and Canada. However, while touring with Rainbow, Lynott contracted hepatitis and the band had to cancel touring.


title: Phil Lynott

text: Lynott befriended Huey Lewis while Lewis's band, Clover, was supporting them on tour. Lewis was impressed with Lynott's frontman abilities and was inspired to perform better, eventually achieving commercial success in the 1980s. Lynott's songs, including "Cowboy Song" and "Massacre", were particularly influenced by the band's US touring. He had a particular affinity for Los Angeles.


title: Phil Lynott

text: Having finally achieved mainstream success, Thin Lizzy embarked on several consecutive world tours. The band built on "Jailbreak"s success with the release of a string of hit albums, including "Johnny the Fox" (1976), "Bad Reputation" (1977), "" (1979), and the live album "Live and Dangerous" (1978), which features Lynott in the foreground on the cover. However, the band was suffering from personnel changes, with Robertson being replaced temporarily by Moore in 1976, and then permanently the following year, partly due to a personal clash with Lynott.


title: Phil Lynott

text: By the early 1980s, Thin Lizzy were starting to struggle commercially, and Lynott started showing symptoms of drug abuse, including regular asthma attacks. After the resignation of longtime manager Chris O'Donnell, and with Gorham wanting to quit, Lynott decided to disband Thin Lizzy in 1983. He had started to use heroin by this stage in his career, and it affected the band's shows in Japan when he was unable to obtain any. He managed to pick himself up for the band's show at the Reading Festival and their last gig (with Lynott as frontman) in Nuremberg on 4 September.


title: Phil Lynott

text: In 1978, Lynott began to work on projects outside of Thin Lizzy. He was featured in "Jeff Wayne's Musical Version of The War of the Worlds", singing and speaking the role of Parson Nathaniel on "The Spirit of Man". He performed sessions for a number of artists, including singing backing vocals with Bob Geldof on Blast Furnace and the Heatwaves' "Blue Wave" EP.


title: Phil Lynott

text: Lynott took a keen interest in the emergence of punk rock in the late 1970s, and subsequently became friends with various members of the Sex Pistols, The Damned and Geldof's band The Boomtown Rats. This led to him forming an "ad-hoc" band known as "The Greedies" (originally "The Greedy Bastards", but edited for public politeness). The band started playing shows in London during Lizzy's downtime in 1978, playing a mixture of popular Lizzy tracks and Pistols songs recorded after John Lydon's departure. In 1979, The Greedies recorded a Christmas single, "A Merry Jingle", featuring other members of Thin Lizzy as well as the Pistols' Steve Jones and Paul Cook. The previous year, he had performed alongside Jones and Cook on Johnny Thunders' debut solo album "So Alone". Lynott became friends with Midge Ure of the Rich Kids, who deputised for Thin Lizzy during 1979 shortly after joining Ultravox. Lynott persuaded Thin Lizzy's management to sign Ultravox.


title: Phil Lynott

text: In 1980, though Thin Lizzy were still enjoying considerable success, Lynott launched a solo career with the album, "Solo in Soho": this was a Top 30 UK album and yielded two hit singles that year, "Dear Miss Lonelyhearts" and "King's Call". The latter was a tribute to Elvis Presley, and featured Mark Knopfler on guitar. His second solo venture, "The Philip Lynott Album" (1982) was a chart flop, despite the presence of the single "Old Town". The song "Yellow Pearl" (1982), was a No. 14 hit in the UK and became the theme tune to "Top of the Pops".


title: Phil Lynott

text: In 1983, following the disbanding of Thin Lizzy, Lynott recorded a rock'n'roll medley single, "We Are the Boys (Who Make All the Noise)" with Roy Wood, Chas Hodges and John Coghlan. Lynott regularly collaborated with former bandmate Moore on tracks including the singles "Parisienne Walkways" (a No. 8 UK hit in 1979) and "Out in the Fields" (a No. 5 UK hit in 1985, his highest-charting single). In 1984, he formed a new band, Grand Slam, with Doish Nagle, Laurence Archer, Robbie Brennan and Mark Stanway. The band toured The Marquee and other clubs, but suffered from being labelled a poor version of Thin Lizzy owing to the inclusion of two lead guitar players, and split up at the end of the year due to a lack of money and Lynott's increasing addiction to heroin.


title: Phil Lynott

text: During 1983–1985, Lynott co-wrote songs with British R&B artist Junior Giscombe, although nothing was officially released and most remain as demos. However, one song, "The Lady Loves to Dance", was mastered with producer Tony Visconti and nearly released before being pulled by the record company, Phonogram. Lynott was particularly upset about not being asked to participate in Live Aid, which had been organised by his two friends, Geldof and Ure, the latter of whom had briefly stood in as a guitarist for Thin Lizzy. Geldof later said this was because the Band Aid Trust could only accommodate commercially successful artists selling millions of albums, which neither Lynott nor Thin Lizzy had done. In 1984, Lynott appeared as team captain (against Alvin Stardust) on the 1980s BBC quiz show "Pop Quiz", hosted by Mike Read.


title: Phil Lynott

text: His last single, "Nineteen", co-written by Laurence Archer and Mark Stanway and produced by Paul Hardcastle, was released a few weeks before his death. It bore no relation to the producer's chart-topping single of the same title some months earlier. "This was a guy whose records I used to play when I was at school," said Hardcastle. "He was a hero of mine – I couldn't work out why he wanted to work with "me". He said to me, 'You're at the top of your game technically right now, so can you help me?'" The producer played the bassline on Lynott's Fender. "He walked in on me playing it and I thought, 'Shit!' said Hardcastle. "But he said, 'That's fokken great – we're keeping that on there."


title: Phil Lynott

text: Throughout December 1985, Lynott promoted "Nineteen", performing live on various television shows. The same month, he gave his final interviews in which he promulgated his possible plans for the near future; these included more work with Moore and even the possibility of reforming Thin Lizzy, something which he had privately discussed with Gorham previously. He recorded some material with Archer, Lewis, and members of the News in 1985, which was not released.


title: Phil Lynott

text: Lynott's first book of poetry, "Songs for While I'm Away", was published in 1974. It contained 21 poems which were all lyrics from Thin Lizzy songs, except one titled "A Holy Encounter". Only 1,000 copies of the book were printed. In 1977, a second volume was released, titled "Philip". In 1997, both books were brought together in a single volume, again titled "Songs for While I'm Away". This compendium edition featured illustrations by Tim Booth and Jim Fitzpatrick, and the original introductions by Peter Fallon and John Peel.


title: Phil Lynott

text: A , featuring interviews with people who knew Lynott and worked with him, and some of his admirers such as U2's Adam Clayton, was released in 2020.


title: Phil Lynott

text: Born in England and raised in Ireland, Lynott always considered himself to be Irish. His friend and Thin Lizzy bandmate Scott Gorham said in 2013: "Phil was so proud of being Irish. No matter where he went in the world, if we were talking to a journalist and they got something wrong about Ireland, he'd give the guy a history lesson. It meant a lot to him." In the early 1980s, he purchased several properties in Howth, County Dublin, one of which, White Horses, was a 50th birthday present for his mother.


title: Phil Lynott

text: On 14 February 1980, Lynott married Caroline Crowther, a daughter of British comedian Leslie Crowther. He met her when she was working for Tony Brainsby in the late 1970s. They had two children: Sarah (born 19 December 1978), for whom the eponymous 1979 song was written, and Cathleen (born 29 July 1980), for whom the eponymous 1982 Lynott solo song was written. The marriage fell apart during 1984 after Lynott's drug use escalated. Lynott also had a son, born in 1968, who had been put up for adoption; in 2003 Macdaragh Lambe learned that Lynott was his biological father, and this was confirmed by Philomena Lynott in a newspaper interview in July 2010.


title: Phil Lynott

text: Lynott was a football fan and supported Manchester United. He was good friends with United and Northern Ireland footballer George Best, and the pair regularly socialised at the Clifton Grange Hotel. Lynott later became a shareholder of the club.


title: Phil Lynott

text: Lynott's last years were heavily affected by drug and alcohol dependency, leading to his collapse on 25 December 1985 at his home in Kew. He was discovered by his mother, who was not aware of his dependence on heroin. She contacted his wife, Caroline, who knew about it and immediately identified the problem as serious. After Caroline drove him to a drug clinic at Clouds House in East Knoyle, near Shaftesbury, he was taken to Salisbury Infirmary where he was diagnosed as suffering from septicaemia. Although he regained consciousness enough to speak to his mother, his condition worsened by the start of the new year and he was put on a ventilator. He died of pneumonia and heart failure due to septicaemia on 4 January 1986 at the age of 36.


title: Phil Lynott

text: Lynott's funeral was held at St Elizabeth's Church, Richmond, on 9 January, with most of Thin Lizzy's ex-members in attendance, followed by a second service at Howth Parish Church, Fingal, on 11 January. Leslie Crowther was present. He was buried in St Fintan's Cemetery in Sutton, Dublin.


title: Phil Lynott

text: Thin Lizzy regrouped for a one-off performance in 1986, with Bob Geldof taking lead vocals, and subsequently reformed as a touring act in 1996. In 2012, the members of Thin Lizzy decided to record new material, but chose to do so under the name of Black Star Riders as they and Lynott's widow felt uncomfortable about new Thin Lizzy recordings without Lynott.


title: Phil Lynott

text: Each year since 1987, Lynott's friend Smiley Bolger has hosted a festival for him on the anniversary of his death, called the Vibe for Philo. A number of musicians perform at the festival, including Thin Lizzy tribute bands and, occasionally, former Thin Lizzy members. On 4 January 1994, a trust in Lynott's name was formed by his family and friends to provide scholarships for new musicians, and to make donations to charities and organisations in his memory.


title: Phil Lynott

text: In 2005, a life-size bronze statue of Lynott by Dublin sculptor Paul Daly was unveiled on Harry Street, off Grafton Street in Dublin. The ceremony was attended by Lynott's mother Philomena, and former band members Moore, Bell, Robertson, Downey, Gorham and Darren Wharton, who performed live.


title: Phil Lynott

text: Both Lynott's and Thin Lizzy's back catalogues have been re-released in expanded editions. In April 2007, the 1996 film "The Rocker: A Portrait of Phil Lynott", which consisted mainly of archive footage, was released on DVD in the UK. In August 2010, "Yellow Pearl" was released. This is a collection of songs from Lynott's solo albums, B-sides and album tracks.


title: Phil Lynott

text: Philomena struggled to come to terms with her son's death and visited his grave on a regular basis. In September 2012, she, Scott Gorham and Lynott's widow objected to Mitt Romney's use of "The Boys Are Back in Town" during his election campaign. In an interview with Irish rock magazine "Hot Press", Philomena said, "As far as I am concerned, Mitt Romney's opposition to gay marriage and to civil unions for gays makes him anti-gay – which is not something that Philip would have supported."


title: Phil Lynott

text: On 27 November 2019, the Central Bank of Ireland issued 3,000 €15 silver commemorative coins as part of the 'Modern Irish Musicians' series, commemorating the 70th anniversary of Lynott's birth in 1949. On 17 December 2020 a plaque was unveiled at his childhood home on Leighlin Road, Crumlin.


title: Phil Lynott

text: A bronze portrait bust of Lynott was installed in his birth town of West Bromwich, and unveiled on what would have been his 72nd birthday on 20 August 2021. It was designed by local artist Luke Perry and crowdfunded by Thin Lizzy fans. However, it has been criticised for its lacking a likeness to Lynott. In 2019 a plaque had been put up at Sandwell Hospital where Lynott was born.


title: Phil Lynott

text: Lynott purchased a Fender Jazz Bass from Brush Shiels when starting Thin Lizzy. He used other basses early in the band's career, including a bi-amped Rickenbacker. His signature instrument was a black Fender Precision Bass, furnished with a mirror pickguard and used frequently on stage and in videos. In the later part of Thin Lizzy's career onwards, he used an Ibanez Roadstar RS900.


title: Phil Lynott

text: When playing bass, Lynott always used an attacking style with a plectrum, favoring eighth notes or triplets. His bass lines could be heard in the foreground and on top of the beat, signalling a "pushed" chord played slightly before the first beat of the next bar.


title: Phil Lynott

text: Lynott wrote the majority of Thin Lizzy's lyrics, often refining the words up until the last minute, when vocals were ready to be recorded. A variety of themes and characters were featured, drawing from the Celtic heritage of Irish history. Death was a common theme, such as "Soldier of Fortune", "Massacre", "Killer on the Loose" and "Angel of Death". Early material in particular drew on personal experiences and family around Dublin. He began to include American themes into his lyrics, such as "Cowboy Song" and "Massacre", after Thin Lizzy began regularly touring the US. Several songs feature the character "Johnny", which Lynott used as an alter ego for himself. "The Boys are Back in Town" was written from the point of view of the band and the audience being in a gang together, which contributed to its success.


title: Phil Lynott

text: Lynott's singing style set him apart among hard rock musicians, with a seemingly casual sense of off-the-beat phrasing "closer to folk or jazz."


title: Brody Jenner

text: Sam Brody Jenner (born August 21, 1983) is an American television personality, model and disc jockey. He was born and raised in Los Angeles, California. In 2005, Jenner appeared in the reality television series, "The Princes of Malibu", which additionally featured his older brother, musician Brandon Jenner, and his former best friend, Spencer Pratt.


title: Brody Jenner

text: In 2007, he began dating Lauren Conrad, a primary cast member of "The Hills", and subsequently came to prominence after being cast in the series during the second season. Their brief relationship ultimately ended his friendship with Pratt. The following year, Jenner was commissioned in his own spin-off series, "Bromance", in which he was intended to find another companion in Pratt's absence. However, it was canceled after its inaugural season after receiving underwhelming ratings.


title: Brody Jenner

text: In 2009, Conrad left "The Hills" to pursue other career opportunities and was replaced by Jenner's ex-girlfriend, Kristin Cavallari. Their rekindled relationship became the central focus of the series until its conclusion the following year. In 2013, Jenner returned to reality television, appearing on "Keeping Up with the Kardashians" during its eighth season, which featured: his parent Caitlyn Jenner and his stepmother Kris Jenner; his step-siblings, Kourtney, Kim, Khloé, and Rob Kardashian; and his half-sisters, Kendall and Kylie Jenner.


title: Brody Jenner

text: Sam Brody Jenner was born in Los Angeles, California, on August 21, 1983, to reality television personality and retired Olympics champion Caitlyn Jenner and actress Linda Thompson. He is the half-brother to Burton "Burt" and Cassandra "Casey" Jenner through Caitlyn's marriage to Chrystie Crownover, which lasted from 1972 until 1981. Jenner is the younger brother of Brandon Jenner, also a reality television personality.


title: Brody Jenner

text: After Jenner's parents divorced in 1985, Caitlyn Jenner married Kris Kardashian, the ex-wife of attorney Robert Kardashian, in 1991. Consequently, Jenner became a stepbrother to Kourtney, Kim, Khloé, and Rob Kardashian. Kris gave birth to his half-sisters Kendall and Kylie Jenner in 1995 and 1997, respectively.


title: Brody Jenner

text: In 1991 Jenner's mother Linda Thompson remarried to composer and record producer, David Foster. In 2005, Thompson, Foster, the Jenner brothers and their friend Spencer Pratt starred in the reality television series, "The Princes of Malibu". However, the series was cancelled soon after its premiere when Thompson filed for divorce from Foster.


title: Brody Jenner

text: In 2006, MTV developed the reality television series, "The Hills" as the spin-off of "". It originally chronicled the lives of Lauren Conrad, who had appeared on its predecessor, her housemate Heidi Montag, and friends Audrina Patridge and Whitney Port. In 2007, Jenner began dating Conrad, which led to the deterioration of his friendship with Pratt. After Conrad established relationships with Jenner and Frankie Delgado, Pratt severed ties with both men.


title: Brody Jenner

text: In 2009, Jenner hosted and executive produced his own reality show, "Bromance", in which young men competed to become part of his entourage. Jenner has modelled for Guess clothing, Agent Provocateur underwear, OP and the magazine "Cosmogirl".


title: Brody Jenner

text: In 2016, he proposed to girlfriend Kaitlynn Carter in Indonesia. They had an intimate ceremony in Bali in 2018. Neither Brody's parent Caitlyn Jenner, nor his best friend Spencer Pratt were in attendance. In 2019, the couple appeared together on "" where they confirmed that they were not legally married in the US. In 2019, they separated after five years together.


title: Cambridge

text: Cambridge ( ) is a university city and the county town in Cambridgeshire, England. It is located on the River Cam approximately north of London. As of the 2021 United Kingdom census, the population of Cambridge was 145,700. Cambridge became an important trading centre during the Roman and Viking ages, and there is archaeological evidence of settlement in the area as early as the Bronze Age. The first town charters were granted in the 12th century, although modern city status was not officially conferred until 1951.


title: Cambridge

text: The city is most famous as the home of the University of Cambridge, which was founded in 1209 and consistently ranks among the best universities in the world. The buildings of the university include King's College Chapel, Cavendish Laboratory, and the Cambridge University Library, one of the largest legal deposit libraries in the world. The city's skyline is dominated by several college buildings, along with the spire of the Our Lady and the English Martyrs Church, and the chimney of Addenbrooke's Hospital. Anglia Ruskin University, which evolved from the Cambridge School of Art and the Cambridgeshire College of Arts and Technology, also has its main campus in the city.


title: Cambridge

text: Cambridge is at the heart of the high-technology Silicon Fen, which contains industries such as software and bioscience and many start-up companies born out of the university. Over 40 per cent of the workforce have a higher education qualification, more than twice the national average. The Cambridge Biomedical Campus, one of the largest biomedical research clusters in the world includes the headquarters of AstraZeneca, a hotel, and the relocated Royal Papworth Hospital.


title: Cambridge

text: The first game of association football took place at Parker's Piece. The Strawberry Fair music and arts festival and Midsummer Fair are held on Midsummer Common, and the annual Cambridge Beer Festival takes place on Jesus Green. The city is adjacent to the M11 and A14 roads. Cambridge station is less than an hour from London King's Cross railway station.


title: Cambridge

text: Settlements have existed around the Cambridge area since prehistoric times. The earliest clear evidence of occupation is the remains of a year-old farmstead discovered at the site of Fitzwilliam College. Archaeological evidence of occupation through the Iron Age is a settlement on Castle Hill from the 1st century BC, perhaps relating to wider cultural changes occurring in southeastern Britain linked to the arrival of the Belgae.


title: Cambridge

text: The principal Roman site is a small fort (') Duroliponte on Castle Hill, just northwest of the city centre around the location of the earlier British village. The fort was bounded on two sides by the lines formed by the present Mount Pleasant, continuing across Huntingdon Road into Clare Street. The eastern side followed Magrath Avenue, with the southern side running near to Chesterton Lane and Kettle's Yard before turning northwest at Honey Hill. It was constructed around AD 70 and converted to civilian use around 50 years later. Evidence of more widespread Roman settlement has been discovered including numerous farmsteads and a village in the Cambridge district of Newnham.


title: Cambridge

text: A Roman coffin for Etheldreda was found next to the Roman town, and taken back by river for her burial in Ely. (Bede)


title: Cambridge

text: Following the Roman withdrawal from Britain around 410, the location may have been abandoned by the Britons, although the site is usually identified as , as listed among the 28 cities of Britain in the "History of the Britons" attributed to Nennius. Evidence exists that the invading Anglo-Saxons had begun occupying the area by the end of the century. Their settlement – also on and around Castle Hill – became known as Grantebrycge. ("Granta-bridge"). (By Middle English, the settlement's name had changed to "Cambridge", deriving from the word 'Camboricum', meaning 'Passage' or 'ford' of stream in a town or settlement, and the lower stretches of the Granta changed their name to match.) Anglo-Saxon grave goods have been found in the area. During this period, Cambridge benefited from good trade links across the hard-to-travel fenlands. By the 7th century, the town was less significant and described by Bede as a "little ruined city" containing the burial site of Æthelthryth (Etheldreda). Cambridge was on the border between the East and Middle Anglian kingdoms and the settlement slowly expanded on both sides of the river.


title: Cambridge

text: The arrival of the Vikings was recorded in the "Anglo-Saxon Chronicle" in 875. Viking rule, the Danelaw, had been imposed by 878 Their vigorous trading habits caused the town to grow rapidly. During this period the centre of the town shifted from Castle Hill on the left bank of the river to the area now known as the Quayside on the right bank. After the Viking period, the Saxons enjoyed a return to power, building churches such as St Bene't's Church, wharves, merchant houses and a mint, which produced coins with the town's name abbreviated to "Grant".


title: Cambridge

text: In 1068, two years after the Norman Conquest of England, William the Conqueror built a castle on Castle Hill, the motte of which survives. Like the rest of the newly conquered kingdom, Cambridge fell under the control of the King and his deputies.


title: Cambridge

text: The first town charter was granted by Henry I between 1120 and 1131. It gave Cambridge monopoly of waterborne traffic and hithe tolls and recognised the borough court. The distinctive Round Church dates from this period. In 1209, Cambridge University was founded by Oxford students fleeing from hostility. The oldest existing college, Peterhouse, was founded in 1284.


title: Cambridge

text: In 1349 Cambridge was affected by the Black Death. Few records survive but 16 of 40 scholars at King's Hall died. The town north of the river was severely affected being almost wiped out. Following further depopulation after a second national epidemic in 1361, a letter from the Bishop of Ely suggested that two parishes in Cambridge be merged as there were not enough people to fill even one church. With more than a third of English clergy dying in the Black Death, four new colleges were established at the university over the following years to train new clergymen, namely Gonville Hall, Trinity Hall, Corpus Christi and Clare.


title: Cambridge

text: In 1382 a revised town charter effects a "diminution of the liberties that the community had enjoyed", due to Cambridge's participation in the Peasants' Revolt. The charter transfers supervision of baking and brewing, weights and measures, and forestalling and regrating, from the town to the university.


title: Cambridge

text: King's College Chapel, was begun in 1446 by King Henry VI. The chapel was built in phases by a succession of kings of England from 1446 to 1515, its history intertwined with the Wars of the Roses, and completed during the reign of King Henry VIII. The building would become synonymous with Cambridge, and currently is used in the logo for the Cambridge City Council.


title: Cambridge

text: Following repeated outbreaks of pestilence throughout the 16th century, sanitation and fresh water were brought to Cambridge by the construction of Hobson's Conduit in the early 1600s. Water was brought from Nine Wells, at the foot of the Gog Magog Hills to the southeast of Cambridge, into the centre of the town.


title: Cambridge

text: Cambridge played a significant role in the early part of the English Civil War as it was the headquarters of the Eastern Counties Association, an organisation administering a regional East Anglian army, which became the mainstay of the Parliamentarian military effort before the formation of the New Model Army. In 1643 control of the town was given by Parliament to Oliver Cromwell, who had been educated at Sidney Sussex College in Cambridge. The town's castle was fortified and garrisoned with troops and some bridges were destroyed to aid its defence. Although Royalist forces came within of the town in 1644, the defences were never used, and the garrison was stood down the following year.


title: Cambridge

text: In the 19th century, in common with many other English towns, Cambridge expanded rapidly, due in part to increased life expectancy and improved agricultural production leading to increased trade in town markets. The Inclosure Acts of 1801 and 1807 enabled the town to expand over surrounding open fields and in 1912 and again in 1935 its boundaries were extended to include Chesterton, Cherry Hinton, and Trumpington.


title: Cambridge

text: The railway came to Cambridge in 1845 after initial resistance, with the opening of the Great Eastern Railway's London to Norwich line. The station was outside the town centre following pressure from the university to restrict travel by undergraduates. With the arrival of the railway and associated employment came development of areas around the station, such as Romsey Town. The rail link to London stimulated heavier industries, such as the production of brick, cement and malt.


title: Cambridge

text: From the 1930s to the 1980s, the size of the city was increased by several large council estates. The biggest impact has been on the area north of the river, which are now the estates of East Chesterton, King's Hedges, and Arbury where Archbishop Rowan Williams lived and worked as an assistant priest in the early 1980s.


title: Cambridge

text: During World War II, Cambridge was an important centre for defence of the east coast. The town became a military centre, with an R.A.F. training centre and the regional headquarters for Norfolk, Suffolk, Essex, Cambridgeshire, Huntingdonshire, Hertfordshire, and Bedfordshire established during the conflict. The town itself escaped relatively lightly from German bombing raids, which were mainly targeted at the railway. 29 people were killed and no historic buildings were damaged. In 1944, a secret meeting of military leaders held in Trinity College laid the foundation for the allied invasion of Europe. During the war Cambridge served as an evacuation centre for over 7,000 people from London, as well as for parts of the University of London.


title: Cambridge

text: Cambridge was granted its city charter in 1951 in recognition of its history, administrative importance and economic success. Cambridge does not have a cathedral, traditionally a prerequisite for city status, instead falling within the Church of England Diocese of Ely. In 1962 Cambridge's first shopping arcade, Bradwell's Court, opened on Drummer Street, though this was demolished in 2006. Other shopping arcades followed at Lion Yard, which housed a relocated Central Library for the city, and the Grafton Centre which replaced Victorian housing stock which had fallen into disrepair in the Kite area of the city. This latter project was controversial at the time.


title: Cambridge

text: The city gained its second University in 1992 when Anglia Polytechnic became Anglia Polytechnic University. Renamed Anglia Ruskin University in 2005, the institution has its origins in the Cambridge School of Art opened in 1858 by John Ruskin. The Open University also has a presence in the city, with an office operating on Hills Road.


title: Cambridge

text: Cambridge is a non-metropolitan district – one of six districts within the county of Cambridgeshire – and is administered by Cambridge City Council. The district covers most of the city's urban area, although some suburbs extend into the surrounding South Cambridgeshire district. The city council's headquarters are in the Guildhall, a large building in the market square. Cambridge was granted a Royal Charter by King John in 1207, which permitted the appointment of a mayor, although the first recorded mayor, Harvey FitzEustace, served in 1213. City councillors now elect a mayor annually.


title: Cambridge

text: For electoral purposes the city is divided into 14 wards: Abbey, Arbury, Castle, Cherry Hinton, Coleridge, East Chesterton, King's Hedges, Market, Newnham, Petersfield, Queen Edith's, Romsey, Trumpington, and West Chesterton. At the 2019 election, Labour retained its majority.


title: Cambridge

text: Each of the 14 wards also elects councillors to Cambridgeshire County Council, which is responsible for services including school education, social care and highways.


title: Cambridge

text: Since 2017, Cambridge has also been within the area of the Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Combined Authority, which is led by a directly elected Mayor. The city is represented on the authority by the leader of the City Council.


title: Cambridge

text: The parliamentary constituency of Cambridge covers most of the city; Daniel Zeichner (Labour) has represented the seat since the 2015 general election. The seat was generally held by the Conservatives until it was won by Labour in 1992, then taken by the Liberal Democrats in 2005 and 2010, before returning to Labour in 2015. A southern area of the city, Queen Edith's ward, falls within the South Cambridgeshire constituency, whose MP is Anthony Browne (Conservative), first elected in 2019.


title: Cambridge

text: The University of Cambridge formerly had two seats in the House of Commons; Sir Isaac Newton was one of the most notable MPs. The Cambridge University constituency was abolished under 1948 legislation, and ceased at the dissolution of Parliament for the 1950 general election, along with the other university constituencies.


title: Cambridge

text: Cambridge is situated about north-by-east of London and 95 miles (152 kilometres) east of Birmingham. The city is located in an area of level and relatively low-lying terrain just south of the Fens, which varies between above sea level.<ref name="https://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/90641/Cambridge"></ref> The town was thus historically surrounded by low-lying wetlands that have been drained as the town has expanded.


title: Cambridge

text: The underlying geology of Cambridge consists of gault clay and Chalk Marl, known locally as Cambridge Greensand, partly overlaid by terrace gravel. A layer of phosphatic nodules (coprolites) under the marl was mined in the 19th century for fertiliser; this became a major industry in the county, and its profits yielded buildings such as the Corn Exchange, Fulbourn Hospital, and St. John's Chapel until the Quarries Act 1894 and competition from America ended production.


title: Cambridge

text: The River Cam flows through the city from the village of Grantchester, to the southwest. It is bordered by water meadows within the city such as Sheep's Green as well as residential development. Like most cities, modern-day Cambridge has many suburbs and areas of high-density housing. The city centre of Cambridge is mostly commercial, historic buildings, and large green areas such as Jesus Green, Parker's Piece and Midsummer Common. Many of the roads in the centre are pedestrianised.


title: Cambridge

text: Population growth has seen new housing developments in the 21st century, with estates such as the CB1 and Accordia schemes near the station, and developments such as Great Kneighton, formally known as Clay Farm, and Trumpington Meadows currently under construction in the south of the city. Other major developments currently being constructed in the city are Darwin Green (formerly NIAB), and University-led developments at West Cambridge and North West Cambridge, (Eddington).


title: Cambridge

text: The entire city centre, as well as parts of Chesterton, Petersfield, West Cambridge, Newnham, and Abbey, are covered by an Air Quality Management Area, implemented to counter high levels of nitrogen dioxide in the atmosphere.


title: Cambridge

text: The city has an oceanic climate. (Köppen: "Cfb"). Cambridge has an official weather observing station, at the Cambridge University Botanic Garden, about south of the city centre. In addition, the Digital Technology Group of the university's Department of Computer Science and Technology maintains a weather station on the West Cambridge site, displaying current weather conditions online via web browsers or an app, and also an archive dating back to 1995.


title: Cambridge

text: The city, like most of the UK, has a maritime climate highly influenced by the Gulf Stream. Located in the driest region of Britain, Cambridge's rainfall averages around per year, around half the national average, The driest recent year was in 2011 with of rain at the Botanic Garden and at the NIAB site. This is just below the semi-arid precipitation threshold for the area, which is 350mm of annual precipitation. Conversely, 2012 was the wettest year on record, with reported. Snowfall accumulations are usually small, in part because of Cambridge's low elevation, and low precipitation tendency during transitional snow events.


title: Cambridge

text: Owing to its low-lying, inland, and easterly position within the British Isles, summer temperatures tend to be somewhat higher than areas further west, and often rival or even exceed those recorded in the London area. Cambridge also often records the annual highest national temperature in any given year – in July 2008 at NIAB and in August 2007 at the Botanic Garden are two recent examples. Other years include 1876, 1887, 1888, 1892, 1897, 1899 and 1900. The absolute maximum stands at recorded on 19 July 2022 at Cambridge University Botanic Garden. Before this date, Cambridge held the record for the all-time maximum temperature in the UK, after recording on 25 July 2019. Typically the temperature will reach or higher on over 25 days of the year over the 1981–2010 period, with the annual warmest day averaging over the same period.


title: Cambridge

text: The absolute minimum temperature recorded at the Botanic Garden site was , recorded in February 1947, although a minimum of was recorded at the now defunct observatory site in December 1879. More recently the temperature fell to on 11 February 2012, on 22 January 2013 and on 20 December 2010. The average frequency of air frosts ranges from 42.8 days at the NIAB site, to 48.3 days at the Botanic Garden per year over the 1981–2010 period. Typically the coldest night of the year at the Botanic Garden will fall to . Such minimum temperatures and frost averages are typical for inland areas across much of southern and central England.


title: Cambridge

text: Sunshine averages around 1,500 hours a year or around 35% of possible, a level typical of most locations in inland central England.


title: Cambridge

text: The city contains three Sites of Special Scientific Interest (SSSIs), at Cherry Hinton East Pit, Cherry Hinton West Pit, and Travellers Pit, and ten Local Nature Reserves (LNRs): Sheep's Green and Coe Fen,


title: Cambridge

text: Coldham's Common, Stourbridge Common, Nine Wells, Byron's Pool, West Pit, Paradise, Barnwell West, Barnwell East, and Logan's Meadow.


title: Cambridge

text: Cambridge is completely enclosed by green belt as a part of a wider environmental and planning policy first defined in 1965 and formalised in 1992. While some small tracts of green belt exist on the fringes of the city's boundary, much of the protection is in the surrounding South Cambridgeshire and nearby East Cambridgeshire districts, helping to maintain local green space, prevent further urban sprawl and unplanned expansion of the city, as well as protecting smaller outlying villages from further convergence with each other as well as the city.


title: Cambridge

text: At the 2011 Census, the population of the Cambridge contiguous built-up area (urban area) was 158,434, while that of the City Council area was 123,867.


title: Cambridge

text: In the 2001 Census held during University term, 89.44% of Cambridge residents identified themselves as white, compared with a national average of 92.12%. Within the university, 84% of undergraduates and 80% of post-graduates identified as white (including overseas students).


title: Cambridge

text: Cambridge has a much higher than average proportion of people in the highest paid professional, managerial or administrative jobs (32.6% vs. 23.5%) and a much lower than average proportion of manual workers (27.6% vs. 40.2%). In addition, 41.2% have a higher-level qualification (e.g. degree, Higher National Diploma, Master's or PhD), much higher than the national average proportion (19.7%).


title: Cambridge

text: Centre for Cities identified Cambridge as the UK's most unequal city in 2017 and 2018. Residents' income was the least evenly distributed of 57 British cities measured, with its top 6% earners accounting for 19% of its total income and the bottom 20% for only 2%, and a Gini coefficient of 0.460 in 2018.


title: Cambridge

text: The town's river link to the surrounding agricultural land, and good road connections to London in the south meant Cambridge has historically served as an important regional trading post. King Henry I granted Cambridge a monopoly on river trade, privileging this area of the economy of Cambridge The town market provided for trade in a wide variety of goods and annual trading fairs such as Stourbridge Fair and Midsummer Fair were visited by merchants from across the country. The river was described in an account of 1748 as being "often so full of [merchant boats] that the navigation thereof is stopped for some time". For example, 2000 firkins of butter were brought up the river every Monday from the agricultural lands to the North East, particularity Norfolk, to be unloaded in the town for road transportation to London. Changing patterns of retail distribution and the advent of the railways led to a decline in Cambridge's importance as a market town.


title: Cambridge

text: Cambridge today has a diverse economy with strength in sectors such as research and development, software consultancy, high value engineering, creative industries, pharmaceuticals and tourism. Described as one of the "most beautiful cities in the world" by "Forbes" in 2010, with the view from The Backs being selected as one of the 10 greatest in England by National Trust chair Simon Jenkins, tourism generates over £750 million for the city's economy.


title: Cambridge

text: Cambridge and its surrounds are sometimes referred to as Silicon Fen, an allusion to Silicon Valley, because of the density of high-tech businesses and technology incubators that have developed on science parks around the city. Many of these parks and buildings are owned or leased by university colleges, and the companies often have been spun out of the university. Cambridge Science Park, which is the largest commercial R&D centre in Europe, is owned by Trinity College; St John's is the landlord of St John's Innovation Centre. Technology companies include Abcam, CSR, ARM Limited, CamSemi, Jagex and Sinclair. Microsoft has located its Microsoft Research UK offices in West Cambridge, separate from the main Microsoft UK campus in Reading, and also has an office on Station Road.


title: Cambridge

text: Cambridge was also the home of Pye Ltd, founded in 1898 by W. G. Pye, who worked in the Cavendish Laboratory; it began by supplying the university and later specialised in wireless telegraphy equipment, radios, televisions and also defence equipment. Pye Ltd evolved into several other companies including TETRA radio equipment manufacturer Sepura. Another major business is Marshall Aerospace located on the eastern edge of the city. The Cambridge Network keeps businesses in touch with each other.


title: Cambridge

text: Due to its rapid growth in the 20th century, Cambridge has a congested road network. The M11 motorway from east London terminates to the north-west of the city where it joins the A14, a major freight route which connects the port of Felixstowe on the east coast with the Midlands. The A428 connects the city with the A1 at St Neots: the route continues westwards towards Oxford (as the A421) via Bedford and Milton Keynes. The A10 connects the city to King's Lynn to the north via Ely and is the historic route south to the City of London.


title: Cambridge

text: , the Greater Cambridge Parternship is consulting on plans comprising: transforming the bus network; investing in other sustainable travel scheme; and creating a sustainable travel zone, which includes the introduction of a congestion charge.


title: Cambridge

text: As a university town lying on fairly flat ground and with traffic congestion, Cambridge has the highest level of cycle use in the UK. According to the 2001 census, 25% of residents travelled to work by bicycle. Furthermore, a survey in 2013 found that 47% of residents travel by bike at least once a week.


title: Cambridge

text: Cambridge has five Park and Ride sites, all of which operate seven days a week and are aimed at encouraging motorists to park near the city's edge. Since 2011, the Cambridgeshire Guided Busway has carried bus services into the centre of Cambridge from St Ives, Huntingdon and other towns and villages along the routes, operated by Stagecoach in the Fens and Whippet. The A service continues on to the railway station and Addenbrookes, before terminating at a new Park and Ride in Trumpington. Since 2017, it has also linked to Cambridge North railway station.


title: Cambridge

text: Although Cambridge has its own airport, Cambridge City Airport, it has no scheduled services and is used mainly by charter and training flights and by Marshall Aerospace for aircraft maintenance. London Stansted Airport, about south via the M11 or direct rail, offers a broad range of international destinations.


title: Cambridge

text: In February 2020, consultations opened for a transport system known as the Cambridgeshire Autonomous Metro. It would have connected the historic city centre and the existing busway route with the mainline railway stations, Cambridge Science Park, and Haverhill. In May 2021 the newly elected mayor said he was focused instead on a "revamped bus network" but would not yet abandon the work done.


title: Cambridge

text: Cambridge railway station was opened in 1845, initially linking to Bishopsgate station in London, via Bishops Stortford. Further lines opened throughout the 19th century, including the Cambridge and St Ives branch line, the Stour Valley Railway, the Cambridge to Mildenhall railway, and the Varsity Line to Oxford. Another station was opened in Cherry Hinton though, at the time, this was a separate village to Cambridge. Several of these lines were closed during the 1960s.


title: Cambridge

text: Today, Cambridge station has direct rail links to London with termini at (via the Cambridge Line and the East Coast Main Line), (on the West Anglia Main Line) and St Pancras (on the Thameslink line). Commuter trains to King's Cross run every half-hour during peak hours, with a journey time of 53 minutes. Trains also run to and (via the Fen Line), (via the Breckland Line), , Birmingham, , , , Stansted Airport, Brighton and Gatwick Airport railway stations.


title: Cambridge

text: A second railway station, Cambridge North, opened on 21 May 2017, having originally planned to open in March 2015. A third railway station, , near Addenbrooke's Hospital, has been proposed; it is expected to open in 2025.


title: Cambridge

text: Cambridge's two universities, the collegiate University of Cambridge and the local campus of Anglia Ruskin University, serve around 30,000 students, by some estimates. Cambridge University estimated its 2007/08 student population at 17,662, and Anglia Ruskin reports 24,000 students across its two campuses (one of which is outside Cambridge, in Chelmsford) for the same period. ARU now (2019) has additional campuses in London and Peterborough. State provision in the further education sector includes Hills Road Sixth Form College, Long Road Sixth Form College, and Cambridge Regional College.


title: Cambridge

text: Both state and independent schools serve Cambridge pupils from nursery to secondary school age. State schools are administered by Cambridgeshire County Council, which maintains 251 schools in total, 35 of them in Cambridge city. Netherhall School, Chesterton Community College, the Parkside Federation (comprising Parkside Community College and Coleridge Community College), North Cambridge Academy and the Christian inter-denominational St Bede's School provide comprehensive secondary education. Many other pupils from the Cambridge area attend village colleges, an educational institution unique to Cambridgeshire, which serve as secondary schools during the day and adult education centres outside of school hours. Independent schools in the city include The Perse School, Stephen Perse Foundation, Sancton Wood School, St Mary's School, Heritage School and The Leys School. The city has one university technical college, Cambridge Academy for Science and Technology, which opened in September 2014.


title: Cambridge

text: Cambridge played a unique role in the invention of modern football: the game's first set of rules were drawn up by members of the university in 1848. The Cambridge Rules were first played on Parker's Piece and had a 'defining influence on the 1863 Football Association rules' which again were first played on Parker's Piece.


title: Cambridge

text: The city is home to Cambridge United FC, who play at the Abbey Stadium. Formed in 1912, as Abbey United, they were elected to the Football League in 1970 and reached the Football League Second Division in 1978, although a serious decline in them in the mid-1980s saw them drop back down to the Football League Fourth Division and almost go out of business. Success returned to the club in the early 1990s when they won two successive promotions and reached the FA Cup quarter finals in both of those seasons and, in 1992, they came close to becoming the first English team to win three successive Football League promotions which would have taken them into the newly created FA Premier League; however, they were beaten in the play-offs and another decline set in. In 2005, they were relegated from the Football League and, for the second time in 20 years, narrowly avoided going out of business. After nine years of non-league football, they returned to the Football League in 2014 by winning the Conference National play-offs.


title: Cambridge

text: Cambridge United WFC is a women's only football club based in Cambridge. The team compete in the FA Women's National League South East. The club plays home games at St Neots Town F.C. and the Abbey Stadium.


title: Cambridge

text: Cambridge City FC of the Southern Football League Premier Division now play in the adjoining village of Histon. Formed in Cambridge in 1908, as Cambridge Town, the club were Southern Premier League champions in 1962–63, the highest they have finished in the English football pyramid. After a legal dispute with their landlords, the club left their home ground in Cambridge in order to groundshare with fellow Southern League Premier club Histon FC in 2013-14 and intend to construct a new ground outside the city, in Sawston.


title: Cambridge

text: Parker's Piece was used for first-class cricket matches from 1817 to 1864. The University of Cambridge's cricket ground, Fenner's, is located in the city and is one of the home grounds for minor counties team Cambridgeshire CCC. The Cambridgeshire Cricket Association operates an amateur club cricket league with six adult divisions, including numerous clubs in the city, plus junior divisions. Most of the university colleges also operate their own teams, and there are several casual village cricket teams that play in the city suburbs.


title: Cambridge

text: The city is represented in both codes of Rugby football. Rugby union club Cambridge R.U.F.C. were founded in 1923 and play in National League 1 at their home ground, Grantchester Road, in the south-west corner of the city. Cambridge Lions represent the city in rugby league and are members of East Rugby League.


title: Cambridge

text: The River Cam, which runs through the city centre, is used for boating. The university and its colleges are well known for rowing and the Cambridgeshire Rowing Association, formed in 1868, organises competitive rowing on the river outside of the university. Rowing clubs based in the city include City of Cambridge RC, Cambridge '99 RC, Cantabrigian RC and Rob Roy BC. Parts of the Cam are used for recreational punting, a type of boating in which the craft is propelled by pushing against the river bed with a quant pole.


title: Cambridge

text: Cambridge Swimming Club, Cambridge Dive team and City of Cambridge Water Polo Club are all based at Parkside Swimming Pool.


title: Cambridge

text: Home and training ground to many influential traceurs, Cambridge is well known for its vibrant, and at times high-profile, parkour and freerunning scene.


title: Cambridge

text: Cambridge is home to two real tennis courts (out of about 50 in the world) at Cambridge University Real Tennis Club. Cambridgeshire Cats play American football at Coldham's Common. Cambridge Royals are members of the British Baseball Federation's Triple-A South Division. Cambridge has two cycling clubs: Team Cambridge and Cambridge Cycling Club. Cambridge & Coleridge Athletic Club is the city's track and field club, based at the University of Cambridge's Wilberforce Road track. Cambridge Handball Club compete in the men's England Handball National Super 8 League and the women's England Handball National Super 7 League. There are three field hockey clubs; Cambridge City Hockey Club, Cambridge South Hockey Club and Cambridge Nomads.


title: Cambridge

text: The city is also represented in polo by Cambridge Polo Club, based in Barton, just outside the city. The Romsey Town Rollerbillies play roller derby in Cambridge. Speedway racing was formerly staged at a greyhound stadium in Coldhams Lane.


title: Cambridge

text: Cambridge is known for the sporting events between the University of Cambridge and the University of Oxford, especially the rugby union Varsity Match and the Boat Race, though many of these do not take place within either Cambridge or Oxford.


title: Cambridge

text: Cambridge's main traditional theatre is the Arts Theatre, a venue with 666 seats in the town centre. The theatre often has touring shows, as well as those by local companies. The largest venue in the city to regular hold theatrical performances is the Cambridge Corn Exchange with a capacity of 1,800 standing or 1,200 seated. Housed within the city's 19th century former corn exchange building the venue was used for a variety of additional functions throughout the 20th century including tea parties, motor shows, sports matches and a music venue with temporary stage. The City Council renovated the building in the 1980s, turning it into a full-time arts venue, hosting theatre, dance and music performances.


title: Cambridge

text: The newest theatre venue in Cambridge is the 220-seat J2, part of Cambridge Junction in Cambridge Leisure Park. The venue was opened in 2005 and hosts theatre, dance, live music and comedy The ADC Theatre is managed by the University of Cambridge, and typically has 3 shows a week during term time. It hosts the Cambridge University Footlights Dramatic Club which has produced many notable figures in British comedy. The Mumford Theatre is part of Anglia Ruskin University, and hosts shows by both student and non-student groups. There are also a number of venues within the colleges.


title: Cambridge

text: Within the city there are several notable museums, some run by the University of Cambridge Museums consortium and others independent of it.


title: Cambridge

text: The Fitzwilliam Museum is the city's largest, and is the lead museum of the University of Cambridge Museums. Founded in 1816 from the bequeathment and collections of Richard, Viscount FitzWilliam, the museum was originally located in the building of the Perse Grammar School in Free School Lane. After a brief housing in the University of Cambridge library, it moved to its current, purpose-built building on Trumpington Street in 1848. The museum has five departments: Antiquities; Applied Arts; Coins and Medals; Manuscripts and Printed Books; and Paintings, Drawings and Prints. Other members of the University of Cambridge Museums are the Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, The Polar Museum, The Sedgwick Museum of Earth Sciences, Museum of Classical Archaeology, The Whipple Museum of the History of Science, and the University Museum of Zoology.


title: Cambridge

text: The Museum of Cambridge, formerly known as the Cambridge & County Folk Museum, is a social history museum located in a former pub on Castle Street. The Centre for Computing History, a museum dedicated to the story of the Information age, moved to Cambridge from Haverhill in 2013. Housed in a former sewage pumping station, the Cambridge Museum of Technology has a collection of large exhibits related to the city's industrial heritage.


title: Cambridge

text: Pink Floyd are the most notable band with roots in Cambridge. The band's former songwriter, guitarist and vocalist Syd Barrett was born and lived in the city, and he and another founding member, Roger Waters, went to school together at Cambridgeshire High School for Boys. David Gilmour, the guitarist who replaced Barrett, was also a Cambridge resident and attended the nearby Perse School. Bands that were formed in Cambridge include Clean Bandit, Henry Cow, The Movies, Katrina and the Waves, The Soft Boys, Ezio The Broken Family Band, Uncle Acid & the Deadbeats, and the pop-classical group the King's Singers, who were formed at the university. Solo artist Boo Hewerdine is from Cambridge, as are drum and bass artists (and brothers) and Logistics. Singers Matthew Bellamy, of the rock band Muse, Tom Robinson, Olivia Newton-John and Charli XCX were born in the city. 2012 Mercury Prize winners Alt-J are based in Cambridge.


title: Cambridge

text: Live music venues hosting popular music in the city include the Cambridge Corn Exchange, Cambridge Junction and the Portland Arms, as well as The Blue Moon.


title: Cambridge

text: Started in 1991, the annual Cambridge Music Festival takes place each November. The Cambridge Summer Music Festival takes place in July.


title: Cambridge

text: Cambridge contains Kettle's Yard gallery of modern and contemporary art and the Heong Gallery which opened to the public in 2016 at Downing College. Anglia Ruskin University operates the publicly accessible Ruskin Gallery within the Cambridge School of Art. Wysing Arts Centre, one of the leading research centres for the visual arts in Europe, is associated with the city, though is located several miles west of Cambridge. Artist-run organisations including Aid & Abet, Cambridge Art Salon, Changing Spaces and Motion Sickness also run exhibitions, events and artists' studios in the city, often in short-term or temporary spaces.


title: Cambridge

text: Several fairs and festivals take place in Cambridge, mostly during the British summer. Midsummer Fair dates back to 1211, when it was granted a charter by King John. Today it exists primarily as an annual funfair with the vestige of a market attached and is held over several days around or close to midsummers day. On the first Saturday in June Midsummer Common is the site for Strawberry Fair, a free music and children's fair, with various market stalls. For one week in May, on Jesus Green, the annual Cambridge Beer Festival has been held since 1974.


title: Cambridge

text: Cambridge Folk Festival is held annually in the grounds of Cherry Hinton Hall. The festival has been organised by the city council since its inception in 1964. The Cambridge Summer Music Festival is an annual festival of classical music, held in the university's colleges and chapels. The Cambridge Shakespeare Festival is an eight-week season of open-air performances of the works of William Shakespeare, held in the gardens of various colleges of the university. Started in 1977, the Cambridge Film Festival was held annually in July, moving to September in 2008 to avoid a clash with the rescheduled Edinburgh Film Festival.


title: Cambridge

text: The Cambridge Science Festival, typically held annually in March, is the United Kingdom's largest free science festival. The Cambridge Literary Festival, which focusses on contemporary literary fiction and non-fiction, is held bi-annually in April and November. Between 1975 and 1985 the Cambridge Poetry Festival was held biannually. Other festivals include the annual Mill Road Winter Fair, held the first Saturday of December, the E-luminate Festival, which took place every February from 2013 to 2018, and The Big Weekend, a city outdoor event organised by the City Council every July.


title: Cambridge

text: Three Cambridge Free Festivals held in 1969, 1970, and 1971 that featured artists including David Bowie, King Crimson, Roy Harper, Spontaneous Combustion, UFO and others are believed by the festival organiser to have been the first free multiple-day rock music festivals held in the UK.


title: Cambridge

text: The city has been the setting for all or part of several novels, including Douglas Adams' "Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency", Rose Macaulay's "They Were Defeated", Kate Atkinson's "Case Histories", Rebecca Stott's "Ghostwalk" and Robert Harris' "Enigma", while Susanna Gregory wrote a series of novels set in 14th century Cambridge. Gwen Raverat, the granddaughter of Charles Darwin, talked about her late Victorian Cambridge childhood in her memoir "Period Piece", and "The Night Climbers of Cambridge" is a book written by Noel Symington under the pseudonym "Whipplesnaith" about nocturnal climbing on the colleges and town buildings of Cambridge in the 1930s.


title: Cambridge

text: Fictionalised versions of Cambridge appear in Philippa Pearce's "Tom's Midnight Garden" and "Minnow on the Say", the city renamed as Castleford, and as the home of Tom Sharpe's fictional college in "Porterhouse Blue".


title: Cambridge

text: News and television programmes are broadcast from the BBC East studio in Cambridge that is home to BBC Look East (West) which covers the city, Cambridgeshire, Northamptonshire, Bedfordshire, Milton Keynes (Buckinghamshire) and parts of Hertfordshire. ITV Anglia is another TV news which broadcasts from Norwich.


title: Cambridge

text: Cambridge is served by Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, with several smaller medical centres in the city and a teaching hospital at Addenbrooke's. Located on the Cambridge Biomedical Campus, Addenbrooke's is one of the largest hospitals in the United Kingdom and is a designated regional trauma centre.


title: Cambridge

text: The East of England Ambulance Service covers the city and has an ambulance station on Hills Road. The smaller Brookfields Hospital stands on Mill Road. Cambridgeshire Constabulary provides the city's policing; the main police station is at Parkside, adjacent to the city's fire station, operated by Cambridgeshire Fire and Rescue Service.


title: Cambridge

text: Cambridge Water Company supplies water services to the city, while Anglian Water provides sewerage services. For the supply of electricity, Cambridge is part of the East of England region, for which the distribution network operator is UK Power Networks. The city has no power stations, though a five-metre wind turbine, part of a Cambridge Regional College development, can be seen in King's Hedges. The Cambridge Electric Supply Company had provided the city with electricity since the early twentieth century from Cambridge power station. Upon nationalisation of the electricity industry in 1948 ownership passed to the British Electricity Authority and later to the Central Electricity Generating Board. Electricity connections to the national grid rendered the small 7.26 megawatt (MW) coal fired power station redundant. It closed in 1965 and was subsequently demolished; in its final year of operation it delivered 2771 MWh of electricity to the city.


title: Cambridge

text: Following the Public Libraries Act 1850 the city's first public library, located on Jesus Lane, was opened in 1855. It was moved to the Guildhall in 1862, and is now located in the Grand Arcade shopping centre. The library was reopened in September 2009, after having been closed for refurbishment for 33 months, more than twice as long as was forecast when the library closed for redevelopment in January 2007. As of 2018 the city contains six public libraries, run by the County Council.


title: Cambridge

text: Cambridge has a number of churches, some of which form a significant part of the city's architectural landscape. Like the rest of Cambridgeshire it is part of the Anglican Diocese of Ely.


title: Cambridge

text: Great St Mary's Church has the status of "University Church". Many of the university colleges contain chapels that hold services according to the rites and ceremonies of the Church of England, while the chapel of St Edmund's College is Roman Catholic. The city also has a number of theological colleges training clergy for ordination into a number of denominations, with affiliations to both the University of Cambridge and Anglia Ruskin University.


title: Cambridge

text: Cambridge is in the Roman Catholic Diocese of East Anglia and is served by the large Gothic Revival Our Lady and the English Martyrs Church at the junction of Hills Road and Lensfield Road, St Laurence's on Milton Road, St Vincent De Paul Church on Ditton Lane and by the church of St Philip Howard, in Cherry Hinton Road.


title: Cambridge

text: There is a Russian Orthodox church under the Diocese of Sourozh who worship at the chapel of Westcott House, the Greek Orthodox Church holds services at the purpose-built St Athanasios church under the Archdiocese of Thyateira and Great Britain, while the Romanian Orthodox Church share St Giles' with the Church of England.


title: Cambridge

text: There are two Methodist churches in the city. Wesley Methodist Church was built in 1913, and is located next to


title: Cambridge

text: Christ's Pieces. The Castle Street Methodist Church is the oldest of the two, having been built in 1823, and was formerly a Primitive Methodist church.


title: Cambridge

text: There are three Quaker Meetings in Cambridge, located on Jesus Lane, Hartington Grove, and a Meeting called "Oast House" that meets in Pembroke College.


title: Cambridge

text: An Orthodox synagogue and Jewish student centre is located on Thompson's Lane, operated jointly by the Cambridge Traditional Jewish Congregation and the Cambridge University Jewish Society, which is affiliated to the Union of Jewish Students. The Beth Shalom Reform synagogue which previously met at a local school, opened a purpose-built synagogue in 2015. There is also a student-led egalitarian minyan which holds services on Friday evenings.


title: Cambridge

text: Cambridge Central Mosque is the main place of worship for Cambridge's community of around 4,000 Muslims. Opened in 2019, it is described as Europe's first eco-friendly mosque and is the first purpose-built mosque within the city. The Abu Bakr Jamia Islamic Centre on Mawson Road and the Omar Faruque Mosque and Cultural Centre in Kings Hedges are additional places of Muslim worship.


title: Cambridge

text: Cambridge Buddhist Centre, which belongs to Triratna Buddhist Community, was opened in the former Barnwell Theatre on Newmarket Road in 1998. There are also several local Buddhist meditation groups from various Buddhist including Samatha Trust and Buddha Mettā Society.


title: Cambridge

text: Cambridge is twinned with two cities. Like Cambridge, both have universities and are also similar in population; Heidelberg, Germany since 1965, and Szeged, Hungary since 1987.


title: China Central Television

text: China Central Television (CCTV) is a Chinese state- and political party-owned broadcaster controlled by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). Its 50 different channels broadcast a variety of programing to more than one billion viewers in six languages. However, news reporting about topics sensitive to the CCP is distorted and often used as a weapon against the party's perceived enemies, according to Freedom House and other media commentators. CCTV is operated by the National Radio and Television Administration which reports directly to the CCP's Central Propaganda Department.


title: China Central Television

text: CCTV was established on 1 May 1958 as a state-owned propaganda outlet. CCTV has a variety of functions, such as news communication, social education, culture, and entertainment information services. As a state television station it is responsible to both the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party and the State Council. It is a central player in the Chinese government's propaganda network.


title: China Central Television

text: In 1954, CCP chairman Mao Zedong put forward that China should establish its own TV station. On 5 February 1955, the central broadcasting bureau reported to the State Council and proposed the program of establishing a medium-sized television station, later on premier Zhou Enlai included in China's first five-year plan the planned introduction of television broadcasts. In December 1957, the central broadcasting bureau sent Luo Donghe and Meng Qiyu to the Soviet Union and the German Democratic Republic for the inspection of their TV stations (see Television in the Soviet Union and Deutscher Fernsehfunk), then the duo returned to Beijing to prepare for the establishment of the TV station.


title: China Central Television

text: On 1 May 1978, Beijing Television was officially renamed China Central Television in time for its 20th anniversary and a new logo debuted.


title: China Central Television

text: Until the late 1970s, CCTV held only evening broadcasts, usually closing down at midnight. During the summer and winter academic vacations, it occasionally transmitted daytime programming for students, while special daytime programs were aired during national holidays. In 1980, CCTV experimented with news relays from local and central television studios via microwave. In 1984, CCTV established the subsidiary China International Television Corporation (CITVC).


title: China Central Television

text: By 1985, CCTV had already become a leading television network in China. In 1987, CCTV's grew due to the adaptation and presentation of "Dream of the Red Chamber," the first Chinese television drama to enter the global market. In the same year, CCTV exported 10,216 show to 77 foreign television stations.


title: China Central Television

text: Initially, the CCP's Central Propaganda Department issued directive censorship of programs. During reform in the 1990s, it adopted new standards for CCTV, "affordability" and "acceptability", loosening the previous government control. Affordability refers to purchasing ability of programs, while acceptability requires that a program has acceptable content, preventing the broadcast of material that contains inappropriate content or expresses views against the CCP.


title: China Central Television

text: On 17 June 2013, CCTV announced that most of the broadcast facilities for the CCTV network have been relocated to the current headquarters building.


title: China Central Television

text: In March 2018, as the nation began marking the 60th year of television, CCTV ownership changed hands to a new state holding group, the China Media Group, as the television arm of the newly launched multimedia broadcasting conglomerate operated by both the Central Committee of the CCP and the State Council.


title: China Central Television

text: In 1990, CCTV subsidiary, CITVC, established China Television Corporation in California to distribute CCTV content in the U.S. In 2000, CCTV's all-English channel, known as CCTV-9 or CCTV International, was launched.


title: China Central Television

text: In 2001, the Great Foreign Propaganda Plan was launched by Xu Guangchun, the head of SARFT, also the deputy head of the Publicity Department of the Chinese Communist Party after the urgency of bringing the voice of China to the world was presented by Jiang Zemin, former General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party. The idea of an English channel was brought out in 1996. CCTV-4 had three half-hour English news broadcasting every day, but later, on 25 September 2000, CCTV-9 a satellite channel was set up to be the first 24-hour English channel, aimed to establish the overseas market. In October 2001, CCTV partnered with AOL Time Warner and other foreign news corporations, giving them access to the Chinese media market in exchange for cable delivery in the US and Europe, mainly delivering CCTV-9 programs.


title: China Central Television

text: The CCTV-4 channel split into three separate channels on 1 April 2007—each serving different time zones: China Standard Time (CST), Greenwich Mean Time (GMT), and Eastern Standard Time (EST)—in order to improve service for audiences around the world.


title: China Central Television

text: On 25 July 2009, CCTV launched its Arabic-language international channel, stating that it aims to maintain stronger links with Arab nations.


title: China Central Television

text: In December 2016, CCTV's foreign language services were spun off into China Global Television Network (CGTN).


title: China Central Television

text: China Network Television (CNTV) was an internet-based broadcaster of China Central Television which launched on 28 December 2009.


title: China Central Television

text: On 9 February 2009, the Beijing Television Cultural Center caught fire on the last day of the festivities of Chinese New Year, killing one firefighter. The blaze rendered the 42-story structure unusable, as the zinc and titanium alloy of the outer skin was burnt.


title: China Central Television

text: The fire had implications for the credibility of CCTV, which was already unpopular because of its dominance in the media. The incident was mocked by netizens who reproduced photoshopped photos of the fire and criticized CCTV for censoring coverage. Pictures of the fire are widely distributed on the internet, as a result of citizen journalism.


title: China Central Television

text: During the 2011 military intervention in Libya, reports from CCTV tended to support Muammar Gaddafi's arguments, claiming that the coalition forces attacked Libyan civilians and the military intervention was no different from an invasion. In some of the news reports, CCTV used images of demonstrators and said that they were against NATO's military intervention. CCTV also mislabeled a person holding a banner which said "Vive la France" ("long live France" in French) and claimed that he was a supporter of Gaddafi. Later on 27 March, a Chinese banner that said "Muammar Gaddafi is a lier. " was shown in some Libyan demonstration videos on the Internet.


title: China Central Television

text: In 2019, CCTV announced that they were cancelling the broadcast of two National Basketball Association preseason games in response to a tweet by the General Manager of the Houston Rockets, Daryl Morey, in support of pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong. After Adam Silver defended the General Manager's right to free speech, CCTV responded with, "We express our strong dissatisfaction and opposition to Silver's stated support of Morey's right to free speech. We believe any remarks that challenge national sovereignty and social stability do not belong to the category of free speech," and continued, "We will also immediately examine all other cooperation and exchanges with the NBA."


title: China Central Television

text: During the 2022 Winter Paralympics, CCTV censored a speech by International Paralympic Committee president Andrew Parsons condemning the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine. CCTV promoted Russian disinformation such as unsubstantiated claims of biological weapons labs in Ukraine. In April 2022, CCTV repeated Russian claims that the Bucha massacre was staged.


title: China Central Television

text: During the 2022 COVID-19 protests in China, CCTV's coverage of the 2022 FIFA World Cup censored scenes of maskless fans in the stadium. CCTV avoided coverage of the protests directly.


title: China Central Television

text: China Central Television, as a component of the CMG, falls under the supervision of the National Radio and Television Administration which is in turn subordinate to the State Council of the People's Republic of China. A vice minister of the State Council serves as chairman of CCTV, which has relationships with regional television stations run by local governments, which must reserve up to two channels for the national broadcaster.


title: China Central Television

text: The organization is considered one of the "big three" state media outlets in China, along with the "People's Daily" and Xinhua News Agency.


title: China Central Television

text: CCTV produces its own news broadcasts three times a day and is the country's most powerful and prolific television program producer. Its thirty-minute evening news, "Xinwen Lianbo" ("CCTV Network News" or "CCTV Tonight", ), goes on air daily at 7:00 pm Beijing time. All local stations are required to carry CCTV's news broadcast. An internal CCTV survey indicates that nearly 500 million people countrywide regularly watch this program.


title: China Central Television

text: "Focus", first introduced in 1994, is a popular CCTV show which regularly exposes the wrongdoings of local officials, which attracts serious attention from higher levels of government. It also exposes the Chinese government's response to charges of corruption.


title: China Central Television

text: The "CCTV New Year's Gala" ()—a yearly special program for the Chinese New Year—is the most-watched CCTV show.


title: China Central Television

text: In 2007, China's television audience rose to 1.2 billion. The 2008 Summer Olympics coverage on CCTV resulted in an aggregate 41% audience share across its network. As content becomes more diversified, there have been concerns about the audience share, as CCTV is losing out to cable, satellite and regional networks. In Guangzhou for example, CCTV programming only accounts for 45% of the weekly audience share, while in Shanghai, local stations also have share over CCTV. However, the "CCTV New Year's Gala" remains extremely popular; it acquires more than 90% audience share over the nation.


title: China Central Television

text: Producing a variety of different programming, China Central Television has a number of different program hosts, news anchors, correspondents, and contributors who appear throughout daily programing on the network.


title: China Central Television

text: The network's principal directors and other officers are appointed by the State, and so are the top officials at local conventional television stations in mainland China; nearly all of them are restricted to broadcasting within their own province or municipality. Editorial independence is subject to government policy considerations, and as a result, its history and news channels have been charged with being "propaganda aimed at brainwashing the audience" in a letter written by a number of Chinese intellectuals who also called for a boycott of state media was posted on a US-based website and has circulated through Chinese websites. The network often publishes misleading and false information, particularly as it pertains to issues considered sensitive by the Chinese government. However, only a small percentage of the Network's programming can be described as "abusive or demonizing propaganda."


title: China Central Television

text: Journalists working for the network's English-language international channel, CGTN, as well as of the other non-Chinese language TV channels under the CGTN banner, are under constant pressure to present a positive account of China, according to Anne-Marie Brady's study published in 2008. "In August 2005, a series of items reported factually on the coal mining disaster in China; soon after the channel's leaders received a warning from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs that its reports were harming China's international image. Following this incident, senior editorial staff and journalists were all forced to write self-criticisms."


title: China Central Television

text: Brady says that while the channel's equipment is state-of-the-art, the employees are not well trained in how to use it, so there are frequent errors during a broadcast. "The political controls on the station contribute to a generally low level of morale and initiative among station staff," she writes.


title: China Central Television

text: A study done by the observer of Chinese film and television, Ying Zhu, suggests that "CCTV is full of serious-minded creators who regularly experience bouts of self-doubt, philosophical ambivalence, and in some cases, clinical depression." During her extensive interviews with key CCTV players, Zhu notes that "Certain common themes, about ideals, distorted or altogether thwarted by commercial and political pressure, emerged."


title: China Central Television

text: According to Freedom House, CCTV "has a consistent record of blatantly and egregiously violating journalistic standards and encouraging or justifying hatred and violence against innocent people. CCTV is an essential component of the CCP's brutal authoritarian regime and should be treated as such."


title: China Central Television

text: In 2020, the United States Department of State designated CCTV as a foreign mission, which requires it to disclose more about its operations in the U.S.


title: China Central Television

text: Since its inception CCTV has served as a tool of state power and as such has been complicit in human rights abuses. They have a history of demonizing and inciting hatred against those perceived as foes by the CCP, in this way they can be used to mobilize against threats as diverse as Falun Gong and international human rights groups.


title: China Central Television

text: In 1999, during the first crackdown on Falun Gong, CCTV's "Focus Talk" ran 28 episodes over a 32-day period which defamed practitioners and incited hatred against them. In 2001, they deceptively claimed that a group of people who had set themselves on fire in Tiananmen Square were Falun Gong adherents, a claim which was characterized as "clearly abusive" by the Canadian regulatory commission.


title: China Central Television

text: On 27 December 2007, Xinwen Lianbo aired a report about the wide and easy availability of explicit content on the internet. The report appealed to juristic institutions and government to hurry to make relevant legislation in order to purify the internet environment. In the report, a young student described a pop-up advertisement she saw as being "very erotic very violent". After the airing of the report, many parodies were posted by internet users ridiculing the comment and CCTV's credibility in part. The incident also questioned the reliability of "Xinwen Lianbo", noting the unlikelihood of a web page being both violent and erotic at the same time (even though such pages do exist), and the age of the student interviewed. Personal information of the interviewed girl was later also leaked, identifying the girl in the report by name. Online message boards were populated by large threads about the incident, and a satirical work even stated that CCTV's website was the number one "very erotic very violent" website on the internet, with some users even creating their own toplists of sites which meet these criteria, the "top 8 very erotic very violent sports events" and even identifying things that are yellow as being erotic (since 黄, "huáng", the Chinese character for "yellow", also means "erotic").


title: China Central Television

text: On 23 January 2011, Xinwen Lianbo showcased the Chengdu J-10 firing a missile at a plane, causing it to explode. The footage lasted half a second and the destroyed plane shown was later identified as that of an F-5E, a US fighter jet. The clip was later revealed to have been taken from the 1986 US movie "Top Gun".


title: China Central Television

text: In 2011, the new CCTV head Hu Zhanfan "was found to have proclaimed in July [or January, both before the CCTV appointment in November] that journalists' foremost responsibility is to 'be a good mouthpiece'" (当好喉舌工具). Internet posts of the comment blossomed after the appointment, one "juxtapos[ing] CCTV's ... "Xinwen Lianbo" (新闻联播) and photos of Chinese crowds waving red flags with black-and-white images from Nazi-era Germany". Comparisons with the Nazi propaganda chief Joseph Goebbels (gepei'er () also spread. Official media coverage of the Zhanfan's presentation focused on his call to avoid "fake news and false reports (失实报道)" but also incorporated the "mouthpiece" comment.


title: China Central Television

text: CCTV regularly broadcasts the forced confessions of accused or convicted criminals and produces programming to go along with them. These programs are often filmed before the beginning of formal judicial procedures. Domestic dissidents such as lawyers, journalists, and activists as well as foreigners have been the victim of this practice.


title: China Central Television

text: In 2013 Peter Humphrey and Charles Xue's forced confessions were aired on CCTV. Since being freed, Humphrey has been highly critical of CCTV and the practice of airing forced confessions. In 2020, the British media regulator Ofcom sided with Humphrey and announced sanctions against CGTN, which aired Humphrey's confession and was branded as CCTV News at the time.


title: China Central Television

text: In 2016, Peter Dahlin and Gui Minhai's forced confessions were aired on CCTV. In 2019 Dahlin filed a complaint against China Global Television Network (CGTN) and China Central Television-4 (CCTV-4) with Canadian authorities.


title: China Central Television

text: On 21 November 2019, CCTV's international arm CGTN aired a video of a forced confession from Hong Kong activist Simon Cheng. Within a week, Cheng had filed a new complaint to Ofcom over the broadcast.


title: China Central Television

text: In 2020, the forced confession of Taiwanese citizen Lee Meng-chu was aired on a CCTV program. A day later, the same program aired the forced confession of an academic from Taiwan accused of espionage and separatist activities.


title: Vietnamese language

text: Vietnamese () is an Austroasiatic language originating from Vietnam where it is the national and official language. Vietnamese is spoken natively by over 70 million people, several times as many as the rest of the Austroasiatic family combined. It is the native language of the Vietnamese (Kinh) people, as well as a second language or first language for other ethnic groups in Vietnam. As a result of emigration, Vietnamese speakers are also found in other parts of Southeast Asia, East Asia, North America, Europe, and Australia. Vietnamese has also been officially recognized as a minority language in the Czech Republic.