An independent panel of respected media professionals from Africa, Asia, Australasia, Europe, North and South America has been appointed to judge the 2011 AIBs. Their expertise covers TV, radio, satellite & online broadcasting as well as broadcast technology & marketing.

The AIBs, the International Media Excellence Awards run by the Association for International Broadcasting (AIB) are unique in being judged by an independent panel of respected professionals drawn from the broadcasting and international media industries across the whole world. Today the AIB is delighted to announce that the panel of judges for the 2011 AIBs is made up of media leaders representing every continent and 23 different countries – from Russia to South Africa, from Brazil to China, and from Australia to Norway. They have a vast range of experience in radio, TV and satellite broadcasting as well as online and cross-media production.

“We are delighted that the reputation of the AIBs has convinced such an eminent group of broadcasting and media experts to volunteer to judge entries to the awards and to ensure an independent choice of the best in each category” said Simon Spanswick, CEO of the Association for International Broadcasting. “The judges bring knowledge from diverse media landscapes – including France, Germany, UK, USA, Russia, Brazil, China, Korea, South Africa, Turkey , Qatar and UAE.”

This year’s judges are:

Nashwa Al Ruwaini, CEO, Pyramedia, UAE

Salim Amin, Chairman, A24 Media, Kenya

David Astley, Executive Chairman, Asia-Pacific Media Alliance for Social Awareness, Singapore

Nigel Baker, VP Business Operations EMEA and Asia, APTN, UK

Wayne Borg, Deputy CEO and COO, twofour54, UAE

Julian Clover, Editorial Director, Broadband TV News, UK

Eugen Cojocariu, Director, Radio Romania International, Romania

Helle Dale, Senior Fellow for Public Diplomacy, The Heritage Foundation, USA

David Dufresne, Writer/Director, DufLab, Canada

Hosam El Sokkari, Head of Audience, Yahoo! Middle East, UAE

Mark Errington, CEO, OASYS, UK

Adelheid Feilcke-Tiemann, Director International Relations, Deutsche Welle, Germany

Monica Fritz, Producer/Director, 6 news, Turkey

Angela Fung, Deputy Head, Phoenix Chinese Channel, Phoenix Satellite TV, Hong Kong

Regina Goh, Executive Editor, Channel NewsAsia, Singapore

Peter Goldstein, Director of Communications, InterMedia, USA

Mohamed Ali Harrath, CEO, Islam Channel, UK

Mondher Kalai, Commissioning Executive, JCC, Qatar

Kim Hyuk-dong, Deputy Director, KBS World Radio, Korea

François Laborie, Chief Commercial Officer, Vizrt, Norway

Paulo Markun, Consultant, TV Escola, Brazil

Chris Maroleng, Africa Editor, e.tv, South Africa

Michael McCluskey, CEO, ABC Radio Australia, Australia

Marcus Metzner, Head of Marketing Services & Communication, arvato systems GmbH, Germany

Olivier de Montchenu, Commercial & Marketing Director, Euronews, France

Dick van Motman, President & CEO, DDB Greater China Group, P.R.China

Alexey Nikolov, Deputy Editor in Chief, RT Channel, Russia

Ian O’Reilly, Producer/Director, BBC News – TV, UK

Nader Sh. Rad, Director Programmes Department, PressTV, Iran

Julia Ragona, Chief Broadcast Operations Officer, RFE/RL, Czech Republic

Dick Rempt, CEO, TalentsMedia, The Netherlands

Paul Robinson, MD, KidsCo, UK

Karim Sarkis, Executive Director of Broadcast, Abu Dhabi Media Company, UAE

Vatche Sarkisian, Director of Research and Program Review, Middle East Broadcasting Networks, USA

Danny Schechter, Executive Producer, Globalvision, USA

Simon Spanswick, CEO, AIB, UK

Fedor Strizhkov, CEO, Russian Travel Guide TV, Russia

David Treadway, Managing Director, WRN Broadcast, UK

Jeff Trimble, Executive Director, Broadcasting Board of Governors, USA

Laeed Zaghlami, Journalist/Writer, Algerian Broadcasting, Algeria

Biographies of all the judges, together with the full list of the award categories, entry details and information on the awards ceremony will be found on theaibs.tv

The AIBs, now in their seventh year, are independent of commercial interest and attract entries from throughout the world, representing the best of international radio, TV and cross-media broadcasting. The 16 different categories to be judged cover the broad spectrum from single news events to long-term investigation and from traditional terrestrial broadcasting to innovative use of multi-platform formats, with new awards this year in the categories of science, business and sports coverage. The categories also include awards for best marketing strategy, for most innovative technology and for radio and television personalities of the year. The one category not judged by the panel is the People’s Choice award, which this year is for programmes dealing with “Democracy Uprisings” and which is awarded on the basis of online viewing and voting.

The winners of the AIBs will be announced at the AIB awards gala on Wednesday 9th November 2011 which is held in the stunning visual and acoustic space of LSO St Luke’s in London.

The currently announced sponsors for the 2011 AIBs are Russian Travel Guide (RTG) TV, Eurosport and OASYS.