20 September 2010
Jean Lesieur graduated from the Journalism School of Columbia University (1974) and started his career in Canada as a reporter for the French Canadian weekly La Liberté (Winnipeg, Manitoba).
In 1976, he started working in France as a reporter for the Sports Daily LEquipe.
One year later he joined the weekly news magazine Le Point as an international correspondent and soon became Associate Editor.
He moved to LExpress in 1989 as a senior reporter and was appointed Managing Editor of the magazine in 1994. In 1995, he was named Executive Editor of the French magazine, GALA.
From 1999 to 2004, he headed the largest-selling TV magazine in France, Télé 7 jours and then joined the Executive board of HACHETTE-FILIPACCHI Magazine Group as Editorial Advisor in New York and Paris.
Jean Lesieur had joined FRANCE 24 in 2006 to take part in the launch of the channel as Executive Producer in charge of magazines and talk shows. In 2009, he had left FRANCE 24 to pursue other interests in the United States.
Jean Lesieur is also the author of an investigative novel published in 2008 Laffaire Carolyn Black (JC Lattès).
17 September 2010
The AIB has announced the first short list for the 2010 AIBs. In the Peoples Choice category, for Best Coverage of Climate Change, the selected entrants come from broadcasters in Belgium, China, UK and the USA as well as from the United Nations, making it a truly international selection.
Unlike the other categories at the AIBs, the Peoples Choice, sponsored by ADB (Advanced Digital Broadcast), allows individuals to view the short list online, vote for their favourite and so decide the winner of the award.
The short listed entries are:
Going Green The Climate Summit from CNN International. At the time of the UN Climate Summit in Copenhagen CNNs programme looked at a broad range of the major issues on the table from the impact of the Climategate scandal to the effects of melting glaciers in Greenland and rising sea levels in Asia, from deforestation in Indonesia to efforts to combat pollution in countries as widely spread as Argentina, China, Sudan and the USA
Low Impact Man from VRT, the public broadcasting authority of the Flemish community in Belgium. This is a humorous but telling look at the struggles of one man to reduce his ecological footprint and the impact on his family and life
Earth Rescue Operation from Phoenix Satellite Television in Hong Kong, China. The programme examines the major problems of pollution, carbon dioxide emissions and increasing demand for resources, but looks optimistically at new technological solutions and mans ingenuity in solving problems
Hard Talk on the Road to Greenland from the BBC. Hard Talks format of probing questioning of interviewees is set against the background of a country covered by rapidly melting ice. In the programme ministers from developed and developing countries are asked how differences can be overcome in order to agree inter-governmental action on climate change
Ross Kemp: Battle for the Amazon from Sky Television. The interviewer looks at how the production of two highly-valued commodities, cocaine and gold, is destroying and polluting the countryside in Peru, with farmers and workers struggling for existence, middlemen making vast profits and neither group caring about the long-term consequences
21st Century from the UN. This special programme in the series looks at striking evidence of how the glaciers of Bolivia are disappearing and the effect on water supplies to the cities, as well as the strains on food resources in Vietnam and the increasing problems of flooding in low lying areas of the world such as Jakarta
We are delighted with the quality of entries in this the first year of the Peoples Choice award comments Simon Spanswick, CEO of the AIB. It demonstrates how broadcasters are responding to the changing viewing environment and the need to engage viewers online and particularly via social media. The chosen topic, climate change, is one that generates fierce debate and great interest. Voting will collect the viewers’ direct feedback to climate change coverage by broadcasters in different parts of the world.
The short list will be available to view on major online viewing platforms in the next two weeks as well as on the AIBs website (theaibs.tv). The AIBs site will also have a page) with 2 minute highlights from each short listed entry with buttons to register and vote. In addition the page will have links to allow voters to comment on the entries and share their views on major social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter.
Visitors to the AIBs website who register by Monday 20th September will be invited to a Première viewing allowing them one day to view and vote for the short listed entries before general voting begins.
Because the quality of entries to the award was so high, the AIB is also making available to view four other entries that come from CNN International, Deutsche Welle, France24 and Voice of America. They are already available on the aiblondon channel of YouTube as well as embedded on the AIBs website.
The Peoples Choice is one of 16 categories at the 2010 AIBs, the international media awards. Full details of the award categories, judging and information on the awards ceremony can be found on theaibs.tv.
The 2010 AIBs are sponsored by: 1GOAL (Education for All), ADB (Advanced Digital Broadcast), Bloomberg Television and Eurosport. The 2010 AIBs will be presented at a gala evening in London on 9 November.
16 September 2010
RFE’s programs in the Pashtun regions of Pakistan and Afghanistan are expanding from six to nine hours a day, starting today. Amid the growing number of extremist-controlled radio stations in the area, Radio Mashaal (“Torch” in Pashto) covers local and international news with independent reports on terrorism, politics, women’s issues, and health care.
Recently, a mother who was the sole survivor of a Taliban attack on a prominent anti-Taliban family in the Swat Valley told her story on the air. Radio Mashaal also interviewed the only survivor of a Taliban attack on a local jirga that killed 30 people.
“People don’t know these stories,” says Acting Radio Mashaal Director Amanullah Ghilzai. “The more we broadcast Taliban atrocities, the more people come forward to share their experiences.”
In May, Radio Mashaal’s Daud Khattak interviewed a 26 year-old Pakistani father of two whose hands were chopped off by the Taliban after being accused of theft. Two others had their hands cut off, but local residents – including the men’s families – never reported the incidents to authorities for fear of Taliban retribution.
Radio Mashaal’s extensive coverage of the devastating floods in Pakistan last month included live reports from affected areas, interviews with government officials, and reaction from the international community. One Radio Mashaal correspondent, Shah Nawa Tarakzai, reported on the devastation from Pakistan’s remote northwest, venturing further into isolated areas than any other journalist in the region.
One of Radio Mashaal’s most popular programs, My Home, My Village, takes an in-depth look at the people, history, and culture of villages across the region. Because of limited means, difficult terrain, and a dangerous security environment, listeners often know little about other people and places in the tribal areas.
RFE President Jeffrey Gedmin calls Radio Mashaal’s increasing popularity “proof that people will never fail to choose truth over falsehood when given a fair chance to decide.”
About Radio Mashaal
Radio Mashaal was established in January 2010 to broadcast nine hours of independent news and information in the local Pashto dialect of the tribal areas of Pakistan and Afghanistan. It operates out of a new bureau in Pakistan and broadcasts from RFE’s Prague headquarters. Radio Mashaal shares a frequency with VOA’s Radio Deewa and transmits via FM and shortwave. Online, Radio Mashaal’s website provides audio downloads of its broadcasts.
16 September 2010
In December 2009 TeleBiel, the largest private TV channel in Switzerland, successfully implemented NCPower. Now another TV channel in Switzerland has decided to work with NCPower. Again, NorCom was able to prove their advantage against nameable competitors.
Partner for the winning and the realization of the mandate from TeleZüri is once more the Jordi AG Communication from Zürich, the specialist for communication-systems in Switzerland.
TeleZüri is going to use NCPower in an Apple MacIntosh-periphery for the Newsroom-System and furthermore the components, which are integrated in the NorCom product for the Media Asset Management (MAM).
Peter Canale, leader of business and technology at TeleZüri, explains the decision for NorComs NCPower: It was most important to us, to seam-lessly dock on with our new news-content-management-system on existing actions and systems operating the station should not be disturbed. And we want to use the innumerable possibilities of NCPower as soon as possi-ble: This starts by the typical workflow-steps for our broadcast-business, thus from ingest of the information as far as to playout. Now we have the most modern newsroom system that is available at the moment. And, says Canale further, NCPower enables TeleZüri to save their multimedia based on contents like graphics, images, sound and videos, selfcontained from the medium. We produce structured metadata of our contents, as far as possible automated and standardized. Media Asset Management is emi-nently important for our business success.
TeleZüri belongs to Tamedia AG, one of the leading media companies of Switzerland, which has beside TeleZüri and other local TV-Stations also daily- and weekly newspapers, magazines, online-platforms and regional radiostations in its portfolio. TeleZüri, one of the first Swiss regional TV-Station to be on air, informs the whole region Zürich with news- and talk shows.
TeleZüri is a picture-perfect project for NorCom. Especially for a me-dium-sized broadcast station NCPower can bring a measurable increase of efficiency. On the one hand NorCom smoothly represents the whole jour-nalistic workflow on the other hand existing systems are easily being inte-grated. The results are lean, efficient structures, comments Dr. Tobias Abthoff, managing board of the NorCom AG. We are also pleased, that we can realize this project with our partner and integrator, the Jordi AG Com-munication.
16 September 2010
Following the success of the two previous editions, the Eurosport Group has signed a new 5-year deal for the digital and TV rights to the prestigious MCE British Superbike Championship.
On-air, the championships will be available across Europe and Asia and the Pacific, and will feature on
Eurosport’s award-winning network of 11 websites.
