Posts from ‘December, 2004’

Prague, 20 December: Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL), will probably use the building of the former Czechoslovak parliament in the centre of Prague till the end of 2007, after which it is expected to move to another building, according to a Finance Ministry’s proposal.
The proposal extending the lease contract between RFE/RL and the Czech state [...]

If you were trying to access our main English Website (www.rnw.nl) between 1600 and 1700 UTC today, you will have been unsuccessful. We had some technical problems, which have now (hopefully) been fixed. Our apologies for the inconvenience.
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About 50 private cable operators in Beirut have stopped distributing the French public channel TV5 in retaliation for the French decision to ban the Arab TV channel al-Manar, seen as the mouthpiece of the Hizbollah group. The Arab channel has also been added to the US State Department’s list of suspected terrorist organisations. A spokesman [...]

The Dutch broadcasting foundation AVRO has informed the State Secretary for Culture and the Media, Medy van der Laan, that it wants to remain in the public broadcasting sector for the time being. Like TROS, AVRO is looking at the possibility of finding a partner and going commercial, but the State Secretary had insisted on [...]

Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi on Monday has warned the Japan Broadcasting Corporation (NHK) it must take action to restore public trust after corruption scandals led to a consumer boycott of the publicly financed network. “It must make efforts to restore the public’s confidence in it,” Koizumi told reporters.
The television network on Sunday evening aired [...]

BBC New Media has today announced how it proposes to reallocate investment from its current online budget to help fund new broadband and innovative projects that support the BBC’s public values. To achieve the 10% target set by the Governors, the BBC is to employ a range of solutions, including the closure of some sites, [...]

Martin Schoech of Clandestine Radio Watch has published his annual report on the activity of shortwave political clandestines:
During the year 2004 the activity of political clandestine stations broadcasting on shortwave has decreased by 28.5 % to 1229 Weekly Broadcasting Hours (WBHs). This is the lowest level of activity since 1999 and the second lowest ever [...]

The latest Dutch radio listening figures, covering October/November 2004, were released today by research bureau Intomart GfK. The figures, based on around 15,000 diaries, show an interesting trend: The two top commercial stations have together lost 1% market share, which seems to have been transferred to stations at the bottom end of the table: only [...]

Text of report by Radio Uganda on 19 December
Radio Uganda Blue and Butebo channels do not broadcast in Luo and could not possibly have been used to transmit any messages and announcements in the language to the rebels.
[Words indistinct] the programmes at Radio Uganda, Charles Viakwasavo [phonetic] said the channels broadcast for western and [...]

On 19th December 2004, it is exactly 100 years ago that the Dutch Coastal Station PCH Scheveningen Radio was founded. Sufficient reason, it seems, to organize an event for radio amateurs all over the world.
The 75th, 85th and 90th anniversary and the closure of the station on 31st December 1998 were celebrated with the opportunity [...]

Text of press release by the European satellite organization Eutelsat on 15 December
Eutelsat, one of the world’s leading satellite operators, today [15 December] announced the conclusion of a new agreement with MultiChoice Africa, for satellite capacity which will enable MultiChoice to expand its DStv pay-TV offering in sub-Saharan Africa.
Through capacity selected in 2000 by [...]

Dutch public broadcaster NOS has transferred the satellite contract for the controversial and now-defunct Colorful Radio to the young peoples’ station FunX, which currently broadcasts to the four largest cities in the Netherlands - Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Utrecht and The Hague. FunX, which produces different editions in each city, will broadcast the Amsterdam edition on [...]

The Dutch Media Commission says it is to investigate struggling commercial broadcaster ID&T Radio to check whether it is breaking the media law. The station has announced a new name and format from 1 January, and has already changed its playlist. In the past two weeks, about 50% of ID&T’s playlist consisted of artists performing [...]

The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) today announced a new approach to assessing requests for the delivery of foreign third-language television channels to Canadian viewers. “The Commission’s objective is to provide greater diversity and choice in services targeted to third-language communities in Canada” said Charles Dalfen, Chairman of the CRTC, “while fostering the viability [...]

German radio stations will be encouraged to play more German pop music in an effort to support the domestic music industry, officials said yesterday. A draft parliamentary motion drawn up by the ruling Social Democrats and Greens urges radio stations to play at least 35 percent German music, of which half should be devoted to [...]