Media Network

When a financial crisis threatened the existence of Africa’s oldest community station, Bush Radio, an outpouring of sympathy and appeals went viral on social networking sites like Twitter and Facebook. In the end, it was this outspoken support that showed financial backers that the station was worth saving.

Bush Radio broadcasts to at least 260,000 listeners, predominantly in the poor Cape Flats, formerly an apartheid housing area for black people. But thanks to social media such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and a blog, Bush Radio now maintains a strong presence in the community.

• Read the story from IPS

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• Bush Radio urgently needs financial support

China Network Television (CNTV), owned by China Central Television (CCTV), and Radio and Television Shanghai signed an agreement on 1 February to integrate their IPTV broadcasting control platforms. Radio and Television Shanghai’s IPTV platform will be integrated into the Central IPTV Broadcasting Control Platform, which was built and operated by CNTV, as a backup platform.

The two sides seek to build China’s only IPTV broadcasting control platform by integrating their IPTV channels and programs. The integrated IPTV broadcasting control platform will be operated by a joint venture between the two sides, which will conduct close cooperation with CNTV and BesTV IPTV Technology Company in related areas.

The integration will greatly enrich the content of China’s IPTV platform, make unified management of IPTV users, accelerate the country’s tri-network integration, and help the country build the world’s largest IPTV platform.

(Source: People’s Daily)

The Huffington Post on Thursday marked the first anniversary of its acquisition by AOL with an announcement that it plans to launch an online video streaming network. The HuffPost Streaming Network will launch this summer with 12 hours a day of original programming, to be increased to 16 hours a day by the end of 2013, Huffington Post founder Arianna Huffington said in a blog post.

Ms Huffington said the network will “live on every platform - computer, smartphone, tablet, Over-the-Top TV - with the goal of creating the most social video experience anywhere.” She said the network “will be built around segments spotlighting the biggest, hottest, most engaging stories HuffPost is covering at any given moment.”

The Huffington Post was launched by Ms Huffington, a Greek-American author and columnist, in May 2006 and sold to AOL last February for $315 million. Ms Huffington said that over the past year, the number of unique monthly visitors to the Post has increased by 47 percent to 36.2 million.

The Huffington Post also launched Canadian, British and French editions, she said, and has plans to launch Spanish and Italian versions.

(Source: AFP)

The Vienna-based South East Europe Media Organisation (SEEMO), an affiliate of the International Press Institute (IPI), has expressed concern at the State appropriation of the Hungarian media landscape.

The Hungarian Media and Telecommunication Authority and its Media Council are controlled by the parliament in which the governing party, Fidesz, has a majority. Although the law prescribes a two-thirds majority of votes in parliament for the council members to be elected, all four members were nominated by Fidesz. The legal procedure was respected but Fidesz controls two thirds of parliament seats in the parliament and can easily choose its candidates. The political independence of the Chairperson of the Media Council is not guaranteed.

The Chairperson appoints, dismisses and remunerates the Director of the Programming Service Support and Property Management Fund. The Fund may be considered ”the public service media company”, because it disposes over the employees, the property and the funding of the public service broadcasters Hungarian Television (MTV), Hungarian Radio, and Danube Television.

From 1 January 2011 all assets and most of the staff of the three public service media organisations (Hungarian Television (MTV), Hungarian Radio, and Danube Television) and the National News Agency (MTI) were allocated to the Media Support and Asset Management Fund (MTVA). The fund is solely supervised by the Media Council which controls all incomes and properties of the broadcasters. The director of the fund and the supervisory board are appointed by the President of the media authority who in turn is appointed by the Prime Minister. This structure creates the possibility of direct governmental control and direct political influence over public service media.

The national news agency, MTI now operates as the single concentrated newsroom for public service television in Hungary. According to observers, MTI operates as a government service. Public media must buy news from MTI, which publishes its news online for free, and offers media service providers to download and republish them. “This leads to an unprecedented market dominance and power of MTI, destroying the business model and viability of other agencies and is contrary to the European rules of fair competition,” concluded the International Partnership Mission on Press Freedom to Hungary (November 14-16, 2011), in which SEEMO and IPI participated.

In other words, the state controls public broadcasters politically and economically, and the Media Council can prescribe the content, as well: In December 2011, liberal talk radio Klubrádió had to renew its licence and lost its frequency to a less experienced broadcaster that offered mainly music programmes.  The Media Council published the frequency tender and set out that the applicants should offer mainly music, and not more than five minutes of news per hour. Klubrádió was known for its talk shows.

The above mentioned decisions generated street protests as well as a hunger strike by MTV journalists. Further, although the Constitutional Court annulled certain parts of the controversial media law, some questionable regulations remained. This led a group of Hungarian media experts to write:”The Hungarian legal system is not capable of protecting the principles of freedom of expression anymore.”

SEEMO Secretary General Oliver Vujovic said: “I urge the international organisations to do everything they can in order to underscore that people in Hungary have the same right to information and professional public service as in the rest of Europe, and to guarantee that right.”

SEEMO and the International Press Institute will continue to closely monitor the media situation in Hungary and organise further regular visits to the country.

(Source: SEEMO)

Balochistan Chief Minister Nawab Aslam Raisani, while taking serious notice of the blocking of news channels by Baloch nationalists in the provincial capital and other areas, termed it against the freedom of Press. In this connection, he ordered the provincial home secretary, Quetta Division Commissioner and Deputy Inspector General of Police (Operations) to provide protection to the cable operators and ensure resumption of news channels. The Balochistan chief minister said no one will be allowed to forcibly block the news channels broadcast, hindering information to the people.

(Source: thenews.com.pk)

Related story:

• Pakistan: Baloch nationalists close down broadcasts

The upper house of the Polish Parliament, the Senate, has declared May 2012 the Month of the Polish Section of Radio Free Europe. The station, a crucial source of information during the communist era in Poland, first broadcast from Munich on 3 May 1952 and a series of events is planned to the mark the 60th anniversary of the event.

The Senate resolution expresses gratitude to Radio Free Europe journalists and reporters, those based abroad and in Poland, recalling that cooperation with the Munich station was treated by the communist authorities as an involvement in American propaganda whose aim was a change of the political system in Poland. The resolution stresses that Polish-language broadcasts from behind the Iron Curtain were a source of hope for the Polish nation and laid the foundation for the regaining of freedom in 1989.

The first director of the Polish Section of Radio Free Europe was the legendary war-time ‘Courier from Warsaw’ Jan Nowak-Jezioranski. He held the post until 1976. He was succeeded by Zygmunt Micha?owski, Zdzislaw Najder, Marek Latynski and Piotr Mroczyk. The Polish Section terminated its activity in the middle of 1994, after which its archives were handed over to Polish State Archives.

(Source: thenews.pl)

Al Jazeera has been awarded the Freedom of Speech and Expression Medal by the Roosevelt Foundation for its “longstanding efforts to provide independent, impartial news for an international audience”. According to mediamughals.com the Middle East broadcaster is dedicating the award to journalists fallen in the line of duty, including Ali Hassan Al-Jaber, the Al Jazeera cameraman who was shot dead while filming the uprising in Libya in March 2011.

Al Jazeera’s director general Ahmed bin Jassim Al-Thani will accept the award at a ceremony on 12 May 2012 in Nieuwe Kerk in Middelburg, Netherlands in the presence of Queen Beatrix.

The Roosevelt Institute and the Roosevelt Stichting have awarded Four Freedoms medals each year since 1982 to individuals who exemplify the vision of the Four Freedoms that President Roosevelt outlined in his famous 6 January 1941 speech. Previous winners of Freedoms Medals have included Nelson Mandela, J. William Fulbright, Arthur Miller, Desmond Tutu, Terry Waite, Jimmy Carter and John F Kennedy.

(Source: Asia-Pacific Broadcasting Union)

European Broadcasting Union (EBU) Members will be offered  generic applications to deploy Hybrid Broadcast Broadband TV (HbbTV) during the Olympics and the Eurovision Song Contest (ESC), when audiences peak. Three ‘white label’ interactive applications will be provided free to participating EBU Members* to customise generic content for entertainment, news or sport.

The applications from EBU members ARD/IRT and commercial partners DOTSCREEN and Abertis Telecom will provide a basic level of hybrid interactivity to promote the adoption of HbbTV, which combines traditional viewing with the added value of the Internet and smart device applications.

Through the adoption of HbbTV, consumers will be able to access new services from online providers including catch-up TV, video on demand (VoD), interactive advertising, personalisation, voting, games and social networking, as well as programme-related services such as digital text and Electronic Programme Guides (EPG).

EBU Director General Ingrid Deltenre says: “More than 20 EBU members have agreed to collaborate to unlock the full potential of Hybrid TV for a European rollout of the technology in 2012. Underlying this co-operation is the shared conviction that only high quality creative content can breathe life into the promise of hybrid technology - and only a flexible, cross-border approach will make it happen quickly.”

The EBU is hosting a Creative Content Workshop today at its Geneva headquarters to enable EBU members to share experiences and ideas for hybrid applications. During the event, members will agree common approaches to issues relating to the deployment of successful hybrid TV services, such as colour-coded buttons and a common market for hybrid television applications.

(Source: EBU)

* The Members of this initiative are ARMTV (Armenia), ORF (Austria), RTBF (Belgium), HRT (Croatia), CyBC (Cyrus), Czech TV (Czech Republic), DR (Denmark), YLE (Finland), France Televisions, ARD & ZDF (Germany), MTV Magyar Radio (Hungary), RTE (Ireland), RAI (Italy), Radiotelevizija Crne Gore (Montenegro), NPO (Netherlands), NRK (Norway), TVP (Poland), TVR (Romania), Rozhlas (Slovakia), RTVSLO (Slovenia), RTVE (Spain), TRT (Turkey), NTU (Ukraine).

France 24, the international news channel available in 235 million households in over 200 countries, is launching a new application for connected television sets. This move marks another milestone in its technological development as well as major step towards worldwide multimedia presence. The new application will enable users to watch France 24 live in its three language versions and also tune into its global on-demand programmes.

Another major innovation is that this application will be “multi-screen” (mobile, tablets, etc.). It is part of a wider multimedia strategy that enables users to create their own “basket” of programmes, regardless of the type of terminal and operating system they are using. Users will also be able to share all the content made available to them on the social networks using the Twitter and Facebook buttons located on the right hand side of the main screen.

A first version of this application is already being deployed by several eminent manufacturers (Philips, Toshiba, Sharp, Technisat, Boxee) and is available on one HBB TV interactive portal in France (MesServicesTV). France 24 has also signed several agreements with other television manufacturers which will integrate the application in the first quarter of 2012.

(Source: France 24)

Taiwan will complete the transition to digital television one year ahead of schedule in 2014, the National Communications Commission announced on 1 February.

The switch from analogue TV to digital TV will be completed in two main stages, according to NCC Commissioner Chen Cheng-tsang. “During stage one, which will be completed this July, the nation’s five terrestrial TV stations will stop broadcasting in analogue and will only transmit signals digitally,” Chen said. Stage two of the process, he added, will be finalized when cable television stations also make the switch to digital broadcasting at the end of 2014.

The decision to move the digitalization process ahead of schedule is in accordance with a campaign promise made by ROC President Ma Ying-jeou during his recent re-election campaign, according to the NCC. Taiwan still lags behind its neighbours to the north when it comes to digital television, Chen said, noting that in Japan 100 percent of all broadcasts are already made in digital format, while in South Korea the rate is 30 percent.

(Source: Taiwan Today)

US-based SC Johnson has distributed 225 MP3-enabled Lifeplayer radios to remote farm communities in northern Rwanda. SC Johnson is the first to use this new technology in an educational project to support pyrethrum (py) farmers. Initially, the project will benefit more than 5,000 py farmers, which is approximately 60 percent of the total number of py farmers in Rwanda, by sharing farming news, market trends and wellness information.

To help alleviate past problems around communication access, the Lifeplayer radios will allow farmers to listen to pre-loaded, pre-recorded programming and broadcasts that impact their livelihood and quality of life. Topics covered include best practices for pyrethrum cultivation from seed propagation to planting, harvesting and drying, the function of farming cooperatives, as well as the role of members in these cooperatives and health topics important to Rwandan farming communities such as reproductive/maternal health, early childhood diseases and HIV/AIDS.

The Lifeplayer, developed by Lifeline Energy, is a revolutionary solar-powered, wind-up device that combines AM/FM/SW radio with an MP3 player. In addition to providing traditional radio broadcast opportunities, programming can be pre-loaded onto flash drives and then played back for farmer listening groups. Radio Lifeline, a Wisconsin-based non-profit organization, produces all broadcasts and podcasts to support the project.

“Using communication technologies, traditional pyrethrum farmers will, for the first time, be able to share in the same pool of information, bringing rapid change not only to the quality of their crops, but also to the lives of their families and communities,” said Kristine Pearson, Lifeline Energy Chief Executive Officer.

Farmers will have an opportunity to offer their feedback over the next year. In this way, their responses to messaging and delivery can be monitored and adjustments can be made as needed to ensure that they are benefiting.

(Source: SC Johnson)

The Voice of America turned 70 on Wednesday, and VOA Director David Ensor says the international broadcast agency is aggressively moving forward with new programmes that ensure it remains an “information lifeline to people in closed societies like Iran.”

Addressing VOA journalists at the agency’s Washington headquarters, Mr Ensor pointed to a television news show for Burma that began airing in January, a popular video blog that has been viewed more than 7 million times in China, expanded TV broadcasts to Iran, and new health programmes on radio in Africa.  He also described plans for a Russian language TV programme that will harness popular social media programs to make citizen journalists and the audience a key part of the show.

Ensor said the one-time cold war broadcaster is “as relevant today as it was February 1st, 1942,” the date of the first shortwave radio broadcast to Germany.” Created by the US government in the opening days of [US involvement in] World War Two, the Voice of America has evolved into a global multimedia organization, broadcasting balanced and comprehensive news in 43 languages to an estimated weekly audience of 141 million.

The first shortwave radio transmission, spoken in German just weeks after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbour, began with the words “Here speaks a voice from America.”  The broadcast went on to promise, “The news may be good.  The news may be bad.  We shall tell you the truth.” Mr Ensor, the 28th Voice of America director, says the agency continues to be guided by those words.

VOA radio remains highly popular in many markets, including Somalia, parts of Pakistan and Haiti.  Mr Ensor says the agency is moving forward with new television and Internet programmes that target countries like Iran, where the government restricts the free flow of information.

VOA programmes are delivered on satellite, cable TV, mobile, shortwave, FM, mediumwave, the Internet, and on a network of about 1,200 affiliate stations around the world.  In addition to more than 1,100 employees in Washington, VOA works with contract journalists in trouble spots around the world.  Last month the Taliban claimed responsibility for the murder of a reporter working for VOA in Pakistan.

(Source: VOA)

Baloch nationalists on Wednesday closed down the broadcast of private news channels in Balochistan, saying that their real issues were not being pointed out by them. According to sources, Baloch nationalists were involved in the closing down of broadcasts of private news channels that highlighted kidnapping and murder cases.

President of the Balochistan Cable Television Association Babrak Khan said the nationalists have threatened to damage private news channels and cable operators’ property and equipment if they broadcast the channels. He appealed to the media to bring the matter to the notice of the government.

(Source: thenews.com.pk)

WikiLeaks investors are in the process of purchasing a boat to move the organisation’s servers offshore in an attempt to evade prosecution from US law enforcement, FoxNews.com has learned. Multiple sources within the hacker community with knowledge of day-to-day WikiLeaks activities say that Julian Assange’s financial backers have been working behind the scenes on the logistics of moving the servers to international waters.

One possible location is the Principality of Sealand, a rusty, World War II-era, former anti-aircraft platform off the coast of England in the North Sea. Based on a 1968 British court ruling that the facility is outside the jurisdiction of the United Kingdom, Sealand’s owner has declared the facility a sovereign state, or “micro-nation.”

• Read the full story from Fox News

Christiane Amanpour returns to CNN Worldwide this spring and will broadcast her signature programme, ‘Amanpour’, in primetime in Europe and throughout the world in more than 200 countries and territories, as the centerpiece of a new CNN International lineup, it was announced today by Tony Maddox, executive vice president and managing director of CNN International.

Each weeknight on CNN International, ‘Amanpour’ will deliver the definitive international news and interview programme that CNN’s worldwide audience has come to expect of the preeminent global journalist. ‘Amanpour’ will air weekdays at 2000 UTC and replay 2200 UTC. The half-hour show will air twice during European primetime, providing viewers with an additional opportunity to tune in for a distinct take on the challenging issues facing the world.

Liza McGuirk, an award-winning producer who has more than two decades of experience in television journalism both producing and reporting, will be the executive producer of ‘Amanpour.’ Ms McGuirk will be based in New York along with Ms Amanpour.

In the unique relationship announced in December, Ms Amanpour’s primary role is as global affairs anchor for ABC News blazing a trail in international reporting for American viewers.  Ms Amanpour will also report on new conflicts, natural disasters and humanitarian crises, anchor four primetime specials on ABC and continue ‘Around the World with Christiane Amanpour’, her recently launched video series for ABCNews.com and Yahoo News.

Christiane Amanpour spent more than 25 years reporting from around the globe for CNN. Most recently, she was CNN’s chief international correspondent and anchored ‘Amanpour’ on CNN International from September 2009 to April 2010. In the summer of 2010, Amanpour joined ABC News and became host of ABC News’ ‘This Week’, where she was the only Sunday morning anchor nominated for an Emmy award. Her body of work has earned nine News and Documentary Emmys, four George Foster Peabody Awards, two George Polk Awards, three duPont-Columbia Awards, the Courage in Journalism Award, an Edward R. Murrow award, an inaugural Television Academy Honor and nine honorary degrees.

CNN International’s new European primetime lineup:

• 1800 UTC International Desk
• 1900 UTC Quest Means Business
• 2000 UTC Amanpour
• 2030 UTC new Isha Sesay-anchored show
• 2100 UTC Connect the World with Becky Anderson
• 2200 UTC Amanpour (repeat)
• 2230 UTC World Sport
• 2300 UTC Piers Morgan Tonight

(Source: CNN)