The Channel | 2006 | July

12 / 44

Global briefing
| 12
The Somali situation
In July the Al Jazeera Centre for Studies organised a meeting titled “The Current Status of the Somali
Situation: Dialogue, Reconciliation and Future Perspectives.” The meeting in Doha brought together
researchers and experts on the political situation in Somalia, as well as members of the Somali Islamic
Courts, the Transitional Somali Government, the Somali Land Government, and participants from Kenya.
Sessions covered a range of issues, including the question of the roots of the Somali crises, the current
situation, and future scenarios and solutions. The meeting concluded with a consensus on a number of
key recommendations, one of them stating that international media and especially Arab and Islamic
media should be accurate and objective when it comes to reporting what happens in Somalia in this
critical time, as media can play a key role in facilitating reconciliation in Somalia.
Network Europe on the web
Network Europe, the weekly European Affairs magazine
produced with input from Deutsche Welle, Radio France
International, Radio Netherlands, Radio Polonia, Radio Prague, Radio
Romania International, Radio Slovakia International, Radio Slovenia
International, Radio Sweden and Radio Ukraine International, now
has its own website. The website, , is
hosted by Radio Prague, and has RSS and podcasting facilities.
Visitors can listen to the latest programme, or individual items,
online, as well as an archive of previous programmes.
Incommunicado
The Broadcasting Board of Governors has called for
the release of a reporter for Radio Free Europe/Radio
Liberty arrested by authorities in Turkmenistan and held
incommunicado since June 18. BBG Chairman Kenneth
Tomlinson said a resolution condemning the arrest of
Ogulsapar Muradova and her three children received
unanimous approval by the Board. RFE/RL Acting
President Jeffrey Trimble asserted that RFE/RL will
maintain the focus of its Turkmen language broadcasts,
to “provide the credible news, analysis, and discussion of
domestic and regional issues expected by our listeners.”
The resolution also calls on the Turkmen government to
“cease all interference with the right of journalists in
Turkmenistan to gather and report information freely.”
Reporters Without Borders have also called for the
immediate release of Mrs Muradova. The RFE/RLTurkmen
service is the only alternative Turkmen-language radio
that can be heard in the country, where all media are
controlled by the state.
Cutting the cost of remote access
German public radio broadcaster Deutschlandradio has decided
to deploy NorCom’s NCPower news distribution system. NCPower is
the newsroom system within the NorCom Suite for Rich Media
Content Production & Management Systems, offering customers a
modern platform for uniform and transparent management of
multimedia content. NorCom will be providing DLR with a cost-
efficient solution allowing it to cut the cost of remote access by
external correspondents. Thanks to its flexible XML bus, NorCom’s
NCPower WebClient ensures remote access to a whole range of
content from anywhere in the world and at any time and is thus
particularly suitable for use by external correspondents and in-house
newsroom staff, irrespective of whether they are working in a hotel
room, at home or in an Internet café. Access is via a normal Internet
browser, meaning that no special software is required on the client
computer. The XML bus utilized by NCPower ensures investment
security as it can be integrated in many different kinds of legacy and
future applications and data sources.
Australia opens up media
ownership – or does it?
In June, the Australian government
announced an ambitious programme of
media reforms. Current foreign media
ownership restrictions would be removed by
next year with companies able to own print,
radio and television interests in the one
market. The changes are designed to steer
the media industry into the digital future and
boost investment in new technology and
services for consumers. It now seems that
most of the government’s planned media law
reforms package will be delayed indefinitely,
as Minister Helen Coonan admitted that
crucial areas “will need a great deal more
attention and detail”. As part of the proposed
package, Australia’s free-to-airTVnetworks
would no longer have to simulcast their services
in HD, and would instead be able to offer a
stand-alone HD channel. All genre restrictions
on public broadcasters ABC and SBS’s digital
channels were to be removed, and two new
digital channels opened for “new and innovative
services”such as mobile or interactiveTV. Full
multichannelling for commercial channels
would be allowed after analogue switch-off,
which is reset to 2010-2012.
It’s mine, only mine
The BBC will allow audiences to create personal radio stations from its
content, revealed director general Mark Thompson at the Radio Festival in
Cambridge, UK. The aim of the project, provisionally called MyBBCRadio, is to
create a BBC iPlayer that will combine existing online radio services, along with
TV on demand, to allow the audience greater flexibility and choice over when it
can view or listen to shows. Thompson said MyBBCRadio would use peer-to-peer
technology to provide ‘thousands, ultimately millions, of individual radio services
created by audiences themselves’. He added that the BBC hoped to share these
ideas with the commercial sector.
Nine into two in Zimbabwe
The Zimbabwe Government has dissolved and merged into two the nine
companies that were created from the then Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation
to form theZimbabwe Broadcasting Holdings under a leaner structure. The dissolved
companies are Power FM, Spot FM, On Air Systems, Zimbabwe Television, Radio
Zimbabwe, National FM, Newsnet, Sportnet andTransmedia – they are now operating
as Zimbabwe Television Services and Radio Services. Each entity will have a new
board of directors, one group chief executive officer and two managing directors.
Apple-based TVand media production solution from ingest to playout • Spanish-language broadcaster Univision agrees to
USD 12bn sale • • Chengdu TVupgrades digital infrastructure with Harris • Egypt passes divisive press law despite protests
•ABU-ITUDTVRoadmapProject off toagoodstart •BBC launchesArabice-newsletter•Egyptian journalistDinaAbdelMooti
Darwich wins new EU-funded press freedom award• European Commission consults public opinion on radio frequency
identification devices • Harris Corporation strikes multi-million DollarTVtransmission and turnkey services deal with ANTV