Posts from ‘May, 2006’

Israeli President Moshe Katzav has granted a total pardon to four members of Arutz-7 and in effect voided their criminal convictions. Justice Minister Haim Ramon accepted the decision and signed the pardon for Ya’akov Katz (Katzelah), Shlomit Melamed, who is the wife of Rabbi Zalman Melamed, Yoel Tzur and Yair Meir.
The four were [...]

Mike Brand writes: The Indian military attaché arrived at the Israeli Army radio station “Galei Zahal” on Monday to learn about the station, with the intention of setting up a similar station in India. The Indian Defense Minister was impressed by the structure of the station, and is intending to set up an army radio [...]

Germany’s four mobile phone operators yesterday began trials of broadcasting television pictures, including coverage of World Cup football matches, on handsets. Clients of T-Mobile, Vodafone, O2 and E-Plus with specially equipped phones will be able to receive television programmes and 16 radio stations until August 31. The pilot project is only being operated in [...]

Two members of a CBS News team were killed, and a correspondent seriously injured today, when the Baghdad military unit in which they were embedded was attacked. Their vehicle, part of a patrol by the 4th Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division, was struck by a roadside bomb. Cameraman Paul Douglas, 48, and soundman James [...]

Japanese broadcaster NHK is having to make changes to its international TV schedules during the World Cup in Germany. The station’s website explains:
“We regret to inform you that NHK cannot broadcast images from the 2006 FIFA World Cup in Germany from Friday, June 9 to Monday, July 10 on NHK World TV nor NHK World [...]

Radio New Zealand International says that it expects to launch its DRM service to the Pacific Islands on ‘Sunday 3rd June’ [sic]. 3 June is actually Saturday, but we presume that the service will commence on 3 June UTC date, 4 June NZ date. The station says the DRM schedule will be published later this [...]

A UK radio station said today it has banned songs by British crooner James Blunt from its airwaves after listeners said they were fed up with hearing “You’re Beautiful” and “Goodbye My Lover”. Chris Cotton, programme controller of local radio Essex FM in southern England, said: “We don’t have anything against James Blunt and we’re [...]

SES Global has contracted with the Sea Launch Company for a mission on its Land Launch system, to send the AMC-21 spacecraft into orbit in mid-2008. Land Launch will use a Zenit-3SLB vehicle to launch the AMC-21 satellite into geosynchronous transfer orbit from the Land Launch site at the Baikonur Space Center in Kazakhstan. Both [...]

The proposed satellite broadcasting service by the Swaziland Television Authority will not only help to improve the currently tarnished image of the country regionally and beyond, but it will also promote investment and develop the tourism industry, writes the Swazi Observer. On Friday, the station presented a proposal for a joint effort in planning, organising [...]

PanAmSat Holding Corporation announced on Friday that it has been informed that the United States Department of Justice is closing its antitrust investigation of the Company’s proposed merger with Intelsat Ltd. The Justice Department is not seeking to condition, and is not otherwise commenting on, the proposed merger. The transaction remains under review by the [...]

A heavy-lift Ariane-5 rocket put telecommunications satellites into orbit for Mexico and Thailand after a launch from French Guiana late on Saturday, space officials said. The rocket blasted-off from Europe’s space base in Kourou, on the northeast coast of South America at 6:09 p.m. (2109 UTC).
Twenty-seven minutes after the launch, the rocket released into a [...]

Those broadcasters who wonder if it’s worth continuing to use shortwave will be interested in a story published today in Tasmania. It’s about farmer Alan Braid, who uses shortwave radio, amongst other things, to entertain his cows. Apart from a collection of cows, Mr Braid has about 400 radios. He says his radio in the [...]

Pakitan’s Federal Minister for Information and Broadcasting, Muhammad Ali Durrani, has told managers of the Pakistan Television Corporation (PTV) that the broadcaster should utilize all its resources to air quality programme, keeping in mind national interests and maintaining its prestige. Mr Durrani was speaking at a general managers conference at the PTV headquarters yesterday.
The Federal [...]

French language commercial radio stations in Quebec have petitioned the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) to change the rule stating that 65 per cent of music played on French-language stations must be in French. The stations want that figure reduced by at least 20 per cent, saying that there’s not enough good French-language product, [...]

Legislators in Taiwan have ratified the statute governing electronic media to extend the validity of licences for radio and TV broadcasters to six years from the present two years. This brings the rest of the broadcasting industry into line with cable TV companies, which already have six year licences.
However, all the electronic media will be [...]