18 June 2013
European public service media (PSM) today welcomed a ruling by the top administrative court in Greece ordering the Greek government restore national broadcaster ERT to air immediately.
The Council of State suspended the government decree ordering the closure of ERT last Tuesday (11/6). It also recognized that the Greek public service broadcaster has a key role to play in providing information, education and entertainment to the Greek people and the diaspora.
The Council of State ordered the Greek government to restore the ERT signal and take all appropriate organizational measures to continue broadcasting through the ERT frequencies and internet sites until a new public service broadcaster is established.
Jean Paul Philippot, President of the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) – which has been at the forefront of international efforts to return ERT to air – said that the court had delivered the right result.
“This is a positive turn because it means public service media will return to Greece,” he said. “We welcome the news that ERT will reopen, and we offer our support to build a new, successful, independent and sustainable public broadcaster that will contribute to pluralism and diversity in Greek society.”
Since ERT’s dramatic shut-down, the EBU has consistently called for its Greek Member to be allowed to resume broadcasting services and give the Greek public rightful access to public service information.
The case against the government closure of ERT was brought by POSPERT, a union representing ERT employees – 2,700 of whom were laid off at a stroke last Tuesday night. (Source: EBU press release)
18 June 2013
TVC News, the first genuine 24-hour pan-African TV news channel from the stables of the Continental Broadcasting Service Ltd, Lagos, Nigeria, launched its signals on Monday, 17th June 2013, on the UK’s BSkyB platform (EPG 572).
The pan-African news channel aims to challenge stereotypes and correct factual inaccuracies and misperceptions about Africa and its peoples.
Nigel Parsons, the Chief Executive Officer TVC News and the former head of Aljazeera English, said: “Without shying away from reporting the conflicts or the corruption, the famines or the wars, the mission of TVC News is also to tell the many positive stories coming out ofAfrica.” He added: “Stories – good or bad – will be told ‘Through African Eyes’.”
The news channel serves as a medium for Africans in every part of the world to be heard on the global scene. Through its fair and fearless reporting, TVC News will tell the unreported stories from under-reported regions across the continent, all from an African perspective.
TVC News provides a mixture of news, current affairs and other informative programming from across Africa and beyond. The daily programming focuses on subjects such as politics and business, the arts & culture, health, youth and gender issues, sports and entertainment, and specially-tailored weather reports.
Using the latest state-of-the-art broadcasting equipment, TVC News has engaged the services of veteran broadcasters, experienced reporters and a top class managerial team. Supported by correspondents and reporters operating from bureaux across Africa and the world, the channel aims to provide its viewers with “breaking news as it happens” while setting new standards in African broadcasting.
With its mobile app, smartphone/tablet users can watch live news and follow latest happenings from around the world from its website, www.tvcnews.tv, clicking on the live streaming button or by downloading the TVC News mobile apps via: mobile.tvcnews.tv. They can also follow TVC News on its twitter handle @tvcnews_africa.
Since its launch in Africa at the end of February 2013, TVC News has provided comprehensive on-the-spot coverage of the 2013 Kenyan elections, the recent war in Mali, as well as an exclusive interview with South African icon Winnie Mandela and the former President of South Africa, Thabo Mbeki.
18 June 2013
Deutsche Welle honored the winners of its international competition “The Bobs- Best of Online Activism” at the Global Media Forum in Bonn. The “Best Blog Award” went to the Chinese social critic, Li Chengpeng.
“Authors in Chinahave a really difficult time speaking the plain truth” the 48- year old winner told Deutsche Welle. Li Chengpeng is an extremely well-known blogger, author and social critic in China. He is especially popular with the young generation in the country, where he has over seven million followers on the micro-blogging platform SinaWeibo. His blog Lichengpeng (www.blog.sina.com.cn/lichengpeng) has received over 300 million visits. Li Chengpeng has said that, “the melted water from the iceberg flows into the sea, without worrying about the many obstacles along the way. There is enormous strength in civil society. I would recommend that the government cooperates with civil society groups, instead of smearing us with baseless accusations.”
A role model for the younger generation
“He not only writes, he also acts: He conducts investigative research. For example, in 2008 he travelled to an earthquake zone inSichuanprovince to report on shoddy building materials in collapsed schools. He is a role model for the younger generation and demonstrates how the Chinese can create a better future for their country,” explained jury member Hu Yong.
Li Chengpeng tells the Chinese youth that they need to be more aware of censorship and encourages them to participate openly and actively in the political process. After publishing his most recent book, “The Whole World Knows,” he went on tour but was forbidden by authorities to speak with his fans. To show their solidarity, visitors to the tour wore masks over their faces similar to the one he wore for the “silent readings.”
“Every small initiative is important”
In the Best Social Activism category, Deutsche Welle’s jury members honored the work done to promote democracy and human rights in social media. The Moroccan youth initiative 475 (www.facebook.com/475LeFilm) took the jury’s award. It deals with the fate of women who, according to Moroccan law 475, are forcibly married to men who raped them so the rapists do not face criminal charges. The story of Amina, who committed suicide in 2012 at the age of 16, got the project started in a social media campaign on Facebook and Flickr. “The project shows that every initiative is important when it comes to stopping rape and all forms of violence against women,” the jury said.
The jury awarded the Chinese site FreeWeibo (www.freeweibo.com) in the Best Innovation category. The service offers censorship-free access to the micro-blogging platform SinaWeibo.com, one ofChina’s most popular social networks. “In China, censorship is completely normal and a daily occurrence,” the jury said. “Messages can be deleted without the people who wrote them ever knowing about it. FreeWeibo gives users a way to see the deleted posts and find out what is being censored.”
In the Most Creative & Original category, the jury gave its award to Me & My Shadow (www.myshadow.org). Written in English, the project shows people “in an entertaining and visually stimulating way what kinds of personal information they are revealing when they are online and gives simple tips on ways they can change their behavior to protect their privacy,” the jury said. Tactical Technology, an international association that shares information on digital issues with human rights groups around the world, produced the project.
This year’s Global Media Forum Award went to the project Infoladies (www.pallitathya.org.bd) from Bangladesh. Finalists in the category addressed issues tied to the Deutsche Welle Global Media Forum 2013, which looks at “The Future of Growth – Economic Values and the Media.” The Infoladies project equips women with digital cameras, mobile phones and solar-powered laptops to travel by bike to rural areas and answer questions related to health, agriculture and development. “Infoladies brings life-saving information about health, education and a number of other services to the poorest people in Bangladesh,” the jury said.
The Reporters Without Borders Award went to Fabbikouassi’s Blog (www.fabbikouassi.wordpress.com) fromTogo. DW awarded the prize in cooperation with the human rights organization Reporters Without Borders. The journalist and human rights activist Fabbi Kouassi reports in her blog about the dangerous situation facing journalists in her country and about the daily police violence that targets journalists. The blog symbolizes “the work being done for freedom of expression in an African country that often gets overlooked,” the jury said, adding, “we talk about problems in China and Iran, but can forget Africa, where fear of police brutality and suppression are a part of daily life.”
In addition to the jury awards, Internet users from around the world cast around 95,000 votes in an online poll for their favorite finalists in The Bobs. The Best Blog / English award went to Mideast Youth (www.mideastyouth.com), a collection of websites and applications that all amplify voices of dissent in the Middle East. All of the User Winners can be found at www.thebobs.com.
A competition in 14 languages
Deutsche Welle launched The Bobs – Best of Online Activism in 2004 with the goal of promoting an open exchange of ideas and freedom of expression online in digital media. More than 4,200 websites and online projects from around the world were submitted to this year’s contest. The competition was conducted in 14 languages, which included Hindi, Turkish and Ukrainian all for the first time this year. The “Best Person to Follow” was added to the contest as a new category for microblogging. Submissions to The Bobs reflected the wide spectrum of ways blogs and social media can be used to promote freedom of expression and to push for transparency and accountability.
The 15-member jury narrowed down the submissions to 364 finalists. Among the jurors in 2013 were Hu Yong of the People’s Republic of China, and Arash Abadpour, who writes one of the world’s most-read Farsi blogs.
Contest partners
This year’s premium partners are Reporters Without Borders and the re:publica conference. Media partners are Masrawy, Somewhere in…, Bdnews.com, iSun TV, Global Voices Online, Categorynet.com, Courrier International, Presseeurop, Gooya, Terra, Jetzt.de, Lenta.ru, Korrespondent, ntvmsnbc, MYNET, MEDYATAVA and webdunia.
www.thebobs.com
Photos: http://www.flickr.com/photos/deutschewelle/sets
17 June 2013
Intelsat S.A. (NYSE: I), the world’s leading provider of satellite services, announced today agreements with leading media customers in the Asia-Pacific region.
Hong Kong-based TVBI Company Limited (TVBI), the worldwide operating arm of Television Broadcasts Limited, one of the world’s largest producers and distributors of Chinese-language programming, recently renewed a multi-year agreement on Intelsat 19. TVBI will use the capacity to deliver its premier content to customers in the Asia-Pacific region.
In addition, KDDI, a Japan-based global telecommunications company, recently signed an agreement with Intelsat to deliver managed media services via the IntelsatOne network. With an IntelsatOne edge node at the company’s New York City location, the IP network will connect KDDI’s customer’s four U.S. bureaus, as well as a European bureau, with the customer’s Tokyo headquarters over KDDI’s fiber network, delivering multiple video, file transfer and voice services.
The scalable network connects seamlessly with legacy services, such as on-net video contribution for Japanese broadcasters, via Intelsat’s owned and operated teleports and customer affiliates in the United States.
Intelsat offers the premier video neighborhoods in Asia-Pacific, with excellent penetration throughout the region. Media providers continue to take advantage of Intelsat’s satellite fleet and IntelsatOne network to reach customers in Asia, Africa, Europe and the Middle East.
“These agreements exemplify the aggressive growth in media distribution services across Asia-Pacific,” said Intelsat RVP of Asia-Pacific Sales Terry Bleakley. “Major programmers in the region continue to turn to Intelsat’s premier video neighborhoods for the flexible delivery of unique content on multiple platforms, reinforcing our critical role in the global infrastructure.”
13 June 2013
The Board of Radio New Zealand has today appointed Paul Thompson as the next Chief
Executive and Editor-in-Chief of the national public service broadcaster.
The appointment follows the January announcement by Radio New Zealand’s CEO, Peter
Cavanagh, that he would be stepping down from the position when his contract expires at the end of the year. Paul Thompson is currently the Group Executive Editor of Fairfax Media in New Zealand and a former award winning editor of the Christchurch Press and the Nelson Mail.
The Chair of Radio New Zealand, Richard Griffin, says Thompson is a widely respected and experienced media executive with a track record of achievement and successful leadership. “The Board was encouraged by the quality of those individuals who responded to the request for expressions of interest in the position. The process of selection was thorough and competitive and we are sure we have now appointed a CEO who is ideally versed in the concepts of editorial integrity and executive management that have been the hallmark of Peter Cavanagh’s ten years at the helm.”
Paul Thompson says he feels privileged to be chosen to lead such a respected and influential organisation. “Radio New Zealand plays a pivotal role in New Zealand life and I’m immensely looking forward to the challenge”.
Mr Thompson will take up his new responsibilities with Radio New Zealand later in the year.
