Posts from ‘June, 2011’

The Dutch parliament has voted against two motions which might have blunted the effect of the budget cuts facing Radio Netherlands Worldwide. One motion called for a separate debate devoted to the future of RNW. Previous debates tackled the cutbacks facing all public broadcasting. The other criticised the decision-making as hasty and called for a [...]

Our report on the closure of the German mediumwave transmitter at Wachenbrunn on 882 kHz erroneously added that the high power transmitter on 1323 kHz at the same location was also due to close tomorrow (1 July). This is incorrect and we apologize for the factual error, which has now been removed. According to the [...]

Dutch commercial radio station Kink FM will stop broadcasting on 1 October. The Veronica organisation has decided to end funding for the station. In May, it was decided that V-Ventures, part of the Veronica group, would not submit a bid for an FM package for the station due to the high licence fee. Without a [...]

Privatization of parts of the public broadcaster RTP is in the program of the new Portuguese Government, delivered on Tuesday in Parliament. The privatization of RTP was a campaign promise of Prime Minister Pedro Passos Coelho. Portugal is to receive a €78bn bailout package from the European Union.
The program says that the RTP group [...]

Over seventy percent of Nigerians will not be able to pay for digital broadcasts in the country from 2015 when migration fromanalogue is completed, a lawyer and IT activist, Chukwuemeka Okereafor, has said. Speaking at a workshop on digital broadcast migration in Nigeria yesterday in Abuja, Mr Okereafor said that because at least 50 dollars [...]

Polskie Radio has just launched its own mobile application for Android and iOS, bringing all domestic channels and the External Service to the palm of your hand wherever you are. Users of Google Android and Apple’s iOS operating systems now have the opportunity to listen to all four domestic channels of Polskie Radio, as well [...]

Tunisian authorities signaled today that 12 new private radio stations are likely to be granted broadcasting licences soon. Neji Bghouri, president of the National Union of Tunisian Journalists, told AFP that the 12 stations are expected to get the green light “in a few days”.
Kamel Laabidi, who heads the national panel supervising the reform of [...]

Proposals to transfer broadcasting powers to Scotland have been set out in a paper published today by the Scottish Government. It is one of six papers, prepared by Ministers, proposing amendments to the Scotland Bill that aim to support Scotland’s economic recovery.
The broadcasting paper identifies priority areas:

To have the right to establish public service broadcasting [...]

Google Inc is making its boldest move to take on Facebook in the fast-growing social networking market and to maintain its dominance on the Web. Google, which has been frustrated by a string of failed attempts to crack the social networking market, introduced a full-fledged social network on Tuesday dubbed Google+. It is the company’s [...]

The board of directors of the Swiss Broadcasting Corporation (SBC), swissinfo’s parent company , accepted on 28 June a new strategic plan for swissinfo.ch. The online service will now focus mainly on readers abroad interested in Switzerland as well as the Swiss abroad. swissinfo.ch will offer background information on Swiss politics, the economy, culture and [...]

The United Nations-African Union Mission in Darfur (UNAMID) Communications and Public Information Division (CPID) has signed an agreement with the National Public Radio Corporation (NPRC) for the broadcast of UNAMID Radio programmes on Al Salaam Radio and Darfur state radio stations. This is an interim arrangement whilst the Government of the Sudan reviews the Mission’s [...]

On 31 August, 2011, it will have been 75 years since the Czechoslovak company Radiojournal launched its regular shortwave broadcast. That’s considered to be the beginning of Radio Prague. To mark the anniversary, Radio Prague will be doing some special programmes and is preparing various events.
An exhibit covering the past and present of Radio Prague [...]

Fiji’s Communications Ministry has now given another ten days from the 1 July deadline for the change in frequencies for certain FM radio stations to ensure there is no interference and that every operator complies with the National Spectrum Decree. The Minister, Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum, believes that after the ten day period there will be no [...]

In southern Chile, young speakers of Huilliche, a language that’s in peril of extinction, produce hip-hop videos and post them on the Internet. Across the globe in the Philippines, teenagers think it’s “cool” to send mobile phone text messages in regional languages that show signs of endangerment, such as Kapampangan.
Technology, long considered a threat to [...]

The Dutch parliament was due to vote today on three motions affecting RNW that were submitted during yesterday’s debate on public broadcasting. The government opposes all three motions, the most significant one being from Martijn van Dam of the PvdA (the Dutch Labour Party). In the motion he denounces the abrupt manner of the proposed [...]