Posts from ‘May, 2007’

Telesur will begin free-to-air broadcasting in Nicaragua by the end of the year, Sergio Rodriguez, Telesur international affairs consultant announced yesterday. Rodriguez said they are presently analyzing whether Nicaraguan Channel 4 will carry Telesur broadcasts, but did not rule out rescuing Channel 6, a state TV channel abandoned by previous governments.
When the decision is made, [...]

The European Commission reaffirmed its attachment to media freedom today when asked about a Polish plan to investigate the Teletubbies children’s television show for allegedly promoting homosexuality. The move by children’s rights watchdog Ewa Sowinska appeared to be the latest step in the conservative Warsaw government’s drive to curb what it sees as homosexual propaganda, although [...]

Radio Sila, based in the village of Goz Beida in Chad, is funded mostly by US taxpayers broadcasts into a violence-region suffering the spillover from the Darfur conflict next door. “People follow our car in the streets, shouting ‘radio, radio,’” said Fiacre Munezero, the station’s supervisor. “It’s a good start.”
Broadcast from a metal cargo container converted [...]

America’s international broadcasting is designed to serve cultures that are not primarily English speaking. That’s according to outgoing Chairman of the Broadcasting Board of Governors, Kenneth Y Tomlinson, writing in Arab Media and Society. Tomlinson also says that “Congress has never funded VOA to serve Americans living abroad—and now this responsibility is increasingly irrelevant because [...]

Aubrey Singer, a distinguished former Managing Director of both BBC Television and Radio, has died aged 80. He founded science programmes including Tomorrow’s World and Horizon and led the modernisation of BBC Radio in the Seventies. He spent his career at the BBC, and was Head of Science and Features for BBC TV in 1961; [...]

This morning, RTL Nederland accidentally published too early a ‘Media Special’ which it has prepared for its website. A teaser says that “Now that Tien has become part of RTL Nederland, the Dutch media landscape has been turned on its head. RTLNieuws.nl puts order into the chaos in this media special. The deal with John de Mol’s [...]

Southeast Asian ministers responsible for information have endorsed the Digital Video Broadcasting-Terrestrial (DVB-T) as the uniform standard for the region, a move which is expected to make digital broadcasting technology affordable in Southeast Asia. The ministers arrived at the decision during the Ninth Conference of the Asean Ministers Responsible for Information which was held in [...]

Guinea will grant broadcasting licences to more than a dozen private radio stations this year in a widening of media freedom in the West African country, the government said yesterday. The move follows the ending of a state broadcasting monopoly last year. It was taken at a four-day government seminar held by Prime Minister Lansana Kouyate [...]

Zimbabwe plans to launch an international TV channel by the end of 2007, a government-owned newspaper has reported.
On 27 May the Harare newspaper the Sunday Mail reported the start of tests by the new Zimbabwean international radio station, Voice of Zimbabwe, based in the Midlands city of Gweru.
The report said: “General manager of the new [...]

Brajeshwar Singh, Director-General of All India Radio, thinks it will take 7-8 years to complete the transition from analogue to Digital Radio Mondiale (DRM) technology. “Although 38 countries in the world have used digital mode for external transmission, India would be the first country to use the technology for national transmission,” says AIR’s Chief Engineer AS [...]

Venezuelan Minister of Telecomunications and IT Jesse Chacón yesterday said the broadcast licences for all of the AM radio stations operating in the country have expired, and added that his office is currently reviewing the legal framework governing their broadcast licences. The Venezuelan Telecommunications Commission (CONATEL) recently renewed the broadcast licences of five AM radio stations, and [...]

Mobile operator T-Mobile Czech Republic intends to sue the Czech Radio and Television Broadcasting Council (RRTV) to draw the attention of the Constitutional Court to the discriminatory nature of the Czech media law.
“We plan to file the lawsuit in a very short time; we will file it by the end of May at the latest,” [...]

Last week Maldivian opposition radio station Minivan Radio failed to secure a frequency to broadcast in the Maldives, leading local media, and the station itself, to question its viability. Reflecting on the failed frequency bid, the radio’s editor Shaheeda Fathimath tells Minivan News there are no plans to close the station. Returning to shortwave is one [...]

A station playing continuous African music without identification or other announcements was observed on shortwave 4828 kHz from tune-in at 2345 gmt on 27 May 2007 until fade-out around 0400 gmt the following day.
This shortwave frequency of 4828 kHz has been used sporadically in the past by ZBC for relays of its domestic networks.
Presumably this [...]

A bill that would save the Internet radio industry from a dramatic increase of fees webcasters pay to play music has gained the support of its 100th member of the US House of Representative. Introduced by Representatives Jay Inslee (D-WA) and Donald Manzullo (R-IL), the Internet Radio Equality Act (H.R. 2060) would vacate the Copyright Royalty [...]