21 April 2011
21st April 2011
The Association for International Broadcasting (AIB) today announced that Russian Travel Guide (RTG) TV have joined as a Platinum member.
RTG TV is a dynamically growing international TV channel that targets both Russian and Western audiences. It broadcasts international documentaries about Russia, dedicated to culture, art, the unique nature of the country, traditions of native peoples, contemporary cities, scientific and technical achievements. All films broadcast on the RTG TV channel are produced by wholly-owned production companies and are exclusive to RTG TV.
We are delighted to welcome RTG TV to the AIB family. Its membership reflects the growing importance and breadth of Russian broadcasting in general, as well as the energy and ambition of RTG TV itself. The AIB continues to increase its worldwide membership, enabling us to provide even greater networking opportunities for members and deeper insight into international broadcasting said Simon Spanswick, CEO of the AIB.
Membership of the AIB brings prestige and importance to any TV channel. RTG TV is proud to become a part of this influential and independent association commented Fedor Strizhkov, CEO of RTG TV.
RTG TV is also sponsoring the Best TV Current Affairs Documentary category at the 2011 AIBs, the seventh international media excellence awards, which are open for entries until1st July. The Best TV Current Affairs Documentary category is for single documentaries, or an extended themed series, covering a topic in an interesting and perhaps unusual way and providing insight that is difficult to get elsewhere.
For more details of RTG TV please visit
target=_blank>www.rtgtv.com
15 April 2011
15th April 2011
The Association for International Broadcasting is delighted to announce OASYS as the first sponsor for its seventh international media excellence awards. OASYS has been delivering software-based automated playout solutions for two decades delivering reliable on-air operation and providing productivity gains by allowing quick and easy creation, management and assembly of content for playout.
OASYS has chosen to sponsor the Most Innovative Technology category at the AIBs. The demands of new platforms and cross-media publishing mean that new technological solutions need to be employed in broadcasting centres that allow producers and journalists to craft programmes for multiple outlets. At the same time, the production process needs to be as simple as possible. This award therefore will recognise the company that has developed the most appropriate, useful and transferable technological solution for the international broadcasting industry, in production, scheduling, distribution or in content repurposing.
Describing the decision to sponsor the awards, OASYS CEO Mark Errington commented OASYS is honoured to work with the AIB in promoting excellence and innovation in the media industry. It is always nice to celebrate success and the winners of the annual AIB International Excellence Awards should feel justly proud that they have been acknowledged for their hard work, dedication and creativity, by both their peers and experts. We look forward to seeing a record level of entries in 2011 and very much look forward to meeting all the entrants in London in November.
Simon Spanswick, CEO of the AIB, commented We are delighted to welcome a company of OASYS reputation and background in the broadcasting industry as a sponsor for the awards, and especially for the Most Innovative Technology category given their standing in this area. Further sponsors will be announced in the near future.
For more details of OASYS and its Channelled Information please visit
target=_blank>
www.on-air-systems.com
12 April 2011
More than 90,000 votes cast online
Facebook group We are Khaled Said takes award for Best Social Activism Campaign
Bahrain website wins in Special Award for Human Rights
The blog A Tunisian Girl won the seventh annual Deutsche Welle Blog Awards: The BOBs, Deutsche Welle announced Tuesday (April 12). An international jury of blog and media experts awarded honors in six multilingual categories. The awards will be presented as part of the Deutsche Welle Global Media Forum on June 20, 2011 in Bonn, Germany.
Lina Ben Mhenni, a 27-year-old assistant professor at the University of Tunis, has blogged about repression and censorship in her country since 2007 – long before a popular uprising unseated former president Ben Ali. During the protests in December 2010 and January 2011 she traveled to places including Sidi Bouzid and Kasrine to document the repression and killings occurring there. She now keeps a careful watch on political developments in the new Tunisia on her blog (http://atunisiangirl.blogspot.com).
“The reactions to this year’s competition show how prominently bloggers in countries with limited freedom of expression deal with issues of human rights,” DW Program Director Christian Gramsch said. “They bravely make use of their fundamental right to share their views on everything from the details of their daily lives to major political upheaval and they do it despite the great personal danger it puts them in.”
In its multilingual online and radio report, Deutsche Welle reports on the debates occurring in the international blogosphere and presents them to readers and listeners around the world.
“The importance of blogs when it comes to freedom of expression and promoting a civil society can be clearly seen by event occurring in the Middle East and North Africa,” Gramsch added. “The imprisonment of influential bloggers by repressive regimes can slow down progress toward individual freedoms but cannot stop it in the long term.”
Social networks have been particularly important recently in promoting freedom of expression. For this reason, The BOBs introduced the category Best Social Activism Campaign.
The Facebook group We Are Khaled Said (www.facebook.com/ElShaheeed) won the jury’s award in this category. Currently with more than 1 million members, the group emerged after the Egyptian man Khaled Said died as a result of police brutality and played a prominent role in the January protests at Tahrir Square.
In the Special Topic Human Rights category, the jury members decided to honor Migrant Rights in the Middle East (www.migrant-rights.org). The site from Bahrain addresses the plight of migrant workers looking for physical and domestic work in the Middle East to improve their lives and those of their families only to be treated like slave labor. The site calls for an end to this “new form of slavery”.
The Best Video Channel award went to the Iranian Stand With Fist (www.youtube.com/user/standswithfist60). The jury said the artist makes use of a mix of seriousness and shock in the video critiques and analysis of life in Iran.
The award for the Best Use of Technology for Social Good went to the Russian website Rospil (http://rospil.info). The site’s online community tracks public calls for tender and looks for irregularities that could indicate public authorities are trying to enrich themselves by abusing state funds. Internet users register especially expensive and short-term public calls for bids that are then followed by other users and passed on to prosecutors if deemed potentially illegal.
The 2011 Reporter Without Borders Prize went to the blog “Ciudad Juárez, en la sombra del narcotráfico” (http://juarezenlasombra.blogspot.com/) by Judith Torrea. She writes courageously and publically about the power of drug cartels and the northern Mexican city Juárez. The journalist tells victims’ stories and uses her blog to describe the devastation caused by drug trafficking.
Internationally established award
Internet users around the world suggested some 2,100 sites in 11 languages to the contest this year. The jury trimmed the list down to 187 finalists.
This year’s 12-member jury included: Chinese blogger Isaac Mao, one of the Organizers of the Chinese Blogger Conference; as well as blogger Amira Al Husseini from Bahrain.
In addition to the jury’s decisions, more than 90,000 ballots were cast in an online vote for the contest’s 17 User Prizes one in each of the six multilingual categories as well as one for the best blog in each of The BOBs 11 languages.
In the Best Blog / English category, Internet users chose Rantings of a Sandmonkey (www.sandmonkey.org/) as the winner. Mahmoud Salem promised at least once to give up his blog. And the world is a more well-informed place because he broke that promise. The activist blogger’s witty and courageous writing has called for freedom and democracy in Egypt long before this year’s uprising.
A list of all the User Prize winners can be seen online at:
http://thebobs.dw-world.de/en/winner
BOBs partners
Reporters Without Borders joined the BOBs again as a the competition’s premium partner. Other media partners involved in this years BOBs are Global Voices, Clarin.com, Gooya News, Lenta.ru and Lainformacion.com.
11 April 2011
Deutsche Welle (DW) has condemned the latest case of jamming of its Amharic service for Ethipoia. Germanys international broadcast has appealed to the Ethiopian administration to ensure that an undisturbed shortwave signal remain available for listeners in the region. The latest infringement has made it difficult for Deutsche Welle to deliver fair and balanced news about the political, economical and social developments in the target area.
DWs shortwave signal for Ethiopia has been jammed since April 6. Programming from Voice of America has also been affected. This has lead DW officials to believe that it is a concentrated effort to block critical international media. Several individual broadcasters were also jammed in Ethiopia in May 2010 around the time of the local elections.
The latest case of jamming is occurring at a point in time in which more than 200 from the alleged opposition of the Oromo Group have been arrested and journalists who have voiced criticism of the administration have been silenced. The Ethiopian administration is apparently concerned that the so-called Jasmine Revolution in North Africa will spread into their country. A call for protest has been popping up on social media platforms over the last few weeks using the motto Beka (enough).
After being approached by Deutsche Welle on Thursday, April 7, a spokesman from the Ethiopian government has denied any jamming attempts. The Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi has publicly acknowledged the jamming of international broadcasters in the past.
German development organizations will be meeting on Monday, April 11 in Bonn ahead of the bilateral negotiations between Germany and Ethiopia under the direction of the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ). For the first time, DW will use this opportunity to report on the current media landscape in Ethiopia and expand on jamming and the restrictions put on its correspondents in the country.
DW has been broadcasting its Amharic service in Ethiopia since 1965 and is along with Voice of America the most popular international source of information.
8 April 2011
AIB is seeking a researcher for a short-term project at our headquarters in rural Kent.
A job specification is online at www.aib.org.uk/researcher.asp and applications are open until 21 April 2011.
