Colors

Blackout (Media)

How It's Used

"It's a Friday afternoon and [Thilo] Sarrazin, the German central bank board member whose controversial book about integration and Muslim immigration in Germany has dominated the headlines for the last 10 days, is back home in Berlin. On the previous evening in Frankfurt, Sarrazin met with his attorney to discuss his challenge against the Bundesbank, which is currently seeking to oust him.

"He also made a brief appearance in his office, but his secretary tells anyone who asks that he isn't in. All the calls, letters and e-mails Sarrazin has been receiving at the Bundesbank are simply too much to process. 'It's 99 percent support and letters of congratulation,' he says proudly.

"Following two recent appearances on German talk shows, Sarrazin has decided to keep a lower profile for awhile. He still communicates with friends and acquaintances—and had a technician come by to fix a problem with his Internet at home—but aside from that he has imposed a 'media blackout' on himself."

"With an almost total news blackout, and cell-phone and Internet connections severely disrupted, video uploads and text messages over the weekend reported spectacular clashes in Libya's second biggest city Benghazi and several other cities in eastern Libya, including large-scale massacres in Benghazi and al-Baida on Sunday, some during funeral processions for those shot by snipers and regular security forces. Human-rights groups, battling to patch together the gruesome details from shaky telephone connections to hospital doctors and eyewitnesses, estimated the death toll at 233 as of Monday morning."

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