Page 14 - AIB | The Chanel | Issue 2 2012

IN BRIEF
RRI ON-DEMAND
Radio Romania International
has extended its online on-
demand streaming service
in all its 12 broadcasting
languages/dialects. At
www.rri.rousers can listen
to more than 30 shows daily
for up to seven days after
the shows air. RRI’s total
on-demand archive includes
over 8,750 minutes weekly.
RRI is also expanding its
digitally-transmitted
programmes; its English
programme to India is
transmitted simultaneously
by RADIOCOM via DRM and
analogue. Digitally, RRI now
offers English, German, French,
Russian, Italian and Chinese.
SOUTH AFRICA
SWITCHOFF
When earlier this year South
African TV signal carrier
Sentech was ordered by the
courts to encrypt its signal,
many Zimbabweans feared
losing access to South
Africa's FTA TV channels,
such as SABC 1, 2 and 3.
Now the May deadline has
expired and viewers are
gripped by anxiety. If they
are disconnected, viewers
face the dismal prospect of
either going back to state-
owned Zimbabwe TV or the
costly option of paying for
digital satellite TV. Viewers
in Malawi, Lesotho, Namibia,
Angola and Mozambique
will also be affected by the
loss of South African TV
channels.
MORE CHOICE ON
TVN X-NEWS
TVN Agency and Agencja
Gazeta have signed an
agreement that will see TVN
Agency act as broker in the
sale of Agencja Gazeta's
photographs, while Agencja
Gazeta will promote video
content available at x-news
among its clients. TVN
Agency's x-news platform
distributes video news content
originating from the TVN
Group TV channels and
external partners like CNN
Newsource to Polish and
international media and
news agencies.
China's diverse censors
Abu Dhabi launches
production incentive scheme
THE CHANNEL | MEDIA MARKETS
Japan’s PSB NHK is looking at
upgrading its disaster coverage
domestically and globally, ABU
members from Asia-Pacific
countries attending the ABU
News Group Workshop were told.
Takehiko Kusaba from NHK's
newsroom said lessons had been
learnt and NHK has now set up
an Automatic Disaster Warning
System, an Automatic Script
Generating System, an NHK
Helicopter Network and a
Backup System which will help
NHK with its disaster coverage
and reporting in the future.
NHK is also improving its
announcements to urge people
to evacuate by stressing a sense
of crisis. Currently NHK has 470
remote controlled cameras
nationwide and 14 helicopters at
12 stations around the country.
Disaster
coverage
A media feature by BBC
Monitoring highlights the fact
that China's government-
controlled traditional media are
being marginalised and are
ceding their territory to the
Internet. Some incidents are
widely discussed on the internet,
with microblogs including photos
and witness accounts, while
often traditional media do not
give any coverage.
But, as CPJ's Madeline Earp
points out, attempts to rein in
microblogs like Sina Weibo are a
huge part of China's
sophisticated information control
strategy these days. Censorship
takes many forms – cutting out
with scissors the China section
from The Economist magazine
on sale in Shanghai airport, or
CCTV News pixelating out the
genitals of Michelangelo's David
to shield viewers from "a
negative [emotional] impact".
China's regulator SARFT is
stepping up regulations on
"micro films," China's audio-
visual equivalent of microblogs,
saying that online programming
will be subject to pre-approval
before broadcast. It is not clear
how that would be enforced as
the films are features and
documentaries filmed on mobile
phones and distributed to
potentially mass audiences
through social media.
Just as Sina is held
responsible for user content,
distributors of print media and
CCTV producers interpret
censorship guidelines for
themselves, with widely different
results. And the new micro film
regulations explicitly hold
distributors of online video
programming responsible for
violations of propaganda
discipline. China's censors are
not one, uniform entity. Their
diversity is one of the keys to
China's continuing control of
information, despite highly
engaged communities of online
activists and journalists.
So quite who is responsible
for 'the truth' disappearing from
the Chinese Internet is unclear –
Chinese characters for 'the
truth' could not be searched for
on Sina Weibo.
twofour54, the MENA region’s
leading media and
entertainment hub, and the Abu
Dhabi Film Commission have
launched the region’s first
incentive scheme to make Abu
Dhabi the first choice for
international and regional
producers needing location,
production and post-production
services. The scheme goes live
on 1 September 2012.
The incentive, in the form of a
rebate of up to 30% of qualifying
spend in the Emirate of Abu
Dhabi, will be available for
feature films, TV, documentary,
advertising and music video
production. The qualifying spend
relates to goods and services
sourced from Abu Dhabi and for
relevant expenditure on location
or studio filming and post-
production. It will also cover
costs relating to the contracting
of any UAE registered crew and
services for activities in Abu
Dhabi.
Wayne Borg, Deputy CEO and
COO of twofour54, said the
scheme is focused on attracting
international and regional
productions to Abu Dhabi, as
well as providing the opportunity
for Arab filmmakers, crew and
production support companies
to work alongside their
international counterparts.
Twofour54 is also
collaborating with digital
production company Digital
Domain Media Group to drive
development of the local film,
TV and media production
industry.
DDMG will begin production
of visual effects and animation in
studios in twofour54 in early
2013, and develop a purpose-
built 150,000 sq foot state-of-
the-art entertainment
production complex by end 2015.
This marks the first time a
major global studio has
established a presence in the
region, highlighting the impact
that twofour54 has had on the
media industry in the Arab world.
14 | ISSUE 2 2012 | THE CHANNEL