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CNN LIVE AT DAYBREAK

Euro Edition: Morning Papers

Aired December 19, 2003 - 05:45   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

CAROL LIN, CNN ANCHOR: In the meantime, news about Michael Jackson is not limited to the States. Let's see how the charges against him are playing in the overseas newspapers.
Joining us for this morning's 'Euro Edition' is Tony Campion in London.

Tony, what are the front pages looking like today? Anything about Michael Jackson headed your way?

TONY CAMPION, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning to you, Carol.

Plenty, plenty about Michael Jackson. You know there's an interesting aspect of this story. Obviously you know they can't, papers in the U.S., I think, they refer to the alleged victim of all this as John Doe, don't they, to keep the identity of the victim secret.

But the court order that means that they have done that doesn't apply on this side of the Atlantic. So I'm actually, you know, I've got to be a bit careful about this. I've got a couple of papers here. I'm going to hold up that side of this newspaper to you.

This is a picture of the attorney who bringing the charges. I'm actually looking on this paper facing me at a picture of the alleged victim. His identity has been published here. I could tell you his name. Of course I'm not going to because that would be illegal. But nonetheless, it's kind of odd, isn't it, that you know in one country here we are being terribly careful not to reveal the identity of the victim and it's just common knowledge on this side of the Atlantic.

And you know I think probably everywhere it's known that this is a boy who was featured in a documentary by a television journalist about Michael Jackson. And that documentary was shown here in Britain several months ago and did cause a lot of interest about Jackson's personal habits and his relationships with people, with young people and so on, a lot of interest and speculation and so on. So it's certainly, you know it's huge news on this side of the country. I mean you have got to remember who Michael Jackson is.

And of course there is one other aspect to this. That was the "Daily Star" that I was holding up just a couple of seconds ago. And here another tabloid, the "Daily Mirror," Jackson flees to Britain. Remember he's been given his passport back by the court, hasn't he? And he's actually coming here over Christmas to escape from the media frenzy. Ironically, he's coming to a country where we know more about the case because of the laws surrounding the protection of the alleged victim than in Jackson's home country. It strikes me as kind of ironic.

LIN: So how do you think the tabloids are going to be covering this from there?

CAMPION: Well, I think there's going to be a lot of close attention to it. I mean perhaps not the nitty-gritty of the court process, because obviously that's not something that everybody here in this country would understand. Our courts work differently from yours. But you know, obviously everybody wants to know what happens to Michael Jackson out of this. And a lot of speculation, you know, is there any gold digging going on? You know people want to know and it's got to be followed step by step, actually, no mistake about it.

You know what, there's one more story...

LIN: Yes.

CAMPION: ... I thought I could sort of mention to you while we've got a couple of seconds, and this is kind of funny. In "The Daily Telegraph," one of the sort of broad sheets, right wing broad sheet papers, here we got a picture of the Pope and here we got a picture of the actor James -- I always get this guy's name wrong, is it James Caviezel? I think that's how you pronounce it, isn't it? And this is -- you know the controversial movie by Mel Gibson, produced by Mel Gibson about the passion of Christ?

LIN: Yes.

CAMPION: Now this has really kicked up, you know, a hell of a fuss. And obviously a lot of people have said it's unremittingly brutal, it's anti-Semitic, very, very controversial.

Well, the Pope actually got hold of the copy. He asked the production company, Mel Gibson's company, if he could see a video of it. And he has declared -- and this is a quote from the Pope as reported by "The Telegraph," "It is as it was." You know he seems to like it.

He says, according to Vatican officials, that the film appears to sort of accurately represent the suffering of Christ in the final 12 hours of his life. And that what they are sort of saying is that that's really what the Pope meant when he said that. He's not necessarily saying that the times were as anti-Semitic as the film perhaps portrays them to be. But you can imagine seeing that quote on a few reviews of the film and a few publicity posters, can't you?

LIN: Well you know, Tony, he's one of the few people who actually speak Latin, so he's one of the few people who will understand the film because it's all...

CAMPION: Exactly.

LIN: ... it's all written in Latin.

CAMPION: It's in Latin and Aramaic, isn't it?

LIN: Yes.

CAMPION: And he'll get that, yes, sure.

LIN: All right. Thank you so much for sharing those headlines with us. You have a good day out there.

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