27 February 2006
On 23 February Al Jazeera issued the following statement:
It is with great sadness that Al Jazeera Channel received news on the death of our colleague Atwar Bahjat and two of her associates Adnan Khairalla and Khalid Mahmood.
Atwar was currently a correspondent for Al Arabiya but had previously worked for Al Jazeera as a correspondent in Baghdad from July 2003 until January 2006. She was a distinguished journalist and an extremely popular and well-known personality across the Arab world. Al Jazeera condemns in the strongest manner possible Atwars killing and the targeting of journalists in Iraq and elsewhere in the world.
Atwar is remembered here as extremely brave, said Wadah Khanfar, Managing Director of Al Jazeera, Journalists from all nations are increasingly being targeted in conflict zones and journalists like Atwar have to walk a fine line in presenting the truth while understanding the sometimes dangerous consequences they face. Atwar is sadly the latest in a series of killings of journalists in Iraq. Journalists go to places and report on matters which the ordinary citizen cannot be expected to have first-hand knowledge and this role for journalists is essential for the proper functioning of democratic societies across the world. If a balanced journalist like Atwar could be killed while practicing her profession, we have to ask what has become of journalism in Iraq. More measures need to be in place to protect journalists from across the world.
Atwar Bahjat distinguished herself at Al Jazeera covering the formation of several Iraqi governments, the daily life of Baghdad amidst unrelenting violence, ethnic tensions in Kirkuk, over a month of clashes in Najaf and Karbala, events in Kirkuk, Falluja, Erbil, and many other Iraqi cities.
Al Jazeera mourns the loss of Atwar Bahjat a beloved journalist, friend, and colleague.
27 February 2006
On 23 February Al Arabiya issued the following statement:
With a heart laden with sadness, Al Arabiya News Channel announces the death of its Iraq correspondent Atwar Bahjat, 30 years of age, and cameraman Khaled Mahmoud Al Falahi (39) and technician Adnan Khairallah (36), both of whom work for Wasan Media in Iraq.
According to eye witness accounts, a yet-to-be-identified armed group intercepted Atwar and her media team on the Dor road, north of Samarra. Iraqi security reports state the journalists were kidnapped and then killed as Atwar Bahjat was heading a team covering the attack on the holy sites of the two Imams – Ali Al Hadi and Hasan Al Asakari – in Samarra.
The last live broadcast by Atwar took place at 15:00 GMT, while Al Arabiyas newsroom last heard from her at 15:30 GMT.
Once again, Al Arabiya News Channel pays the ultimate price for persistently pursuing the truth. Until this new tragedy, Al Arabiya lost a total of eight colleagues in Iraq. Five of whom died in a car bomb that targeted Al Arabiyas bureau in Baghdad, while three lost their lives as a result of US fire. Also, Jawad Khathem, Al Arabiyas reporter in Iraq, was the target of an armed kidnap attempt that resulted in him being paralyzed from the waist down.
Al Arabiya wishes to extend its sincere condolences to the families of Atwar and her two colleagues. The channel also calls upon the authorities mandated with maintaining security – Iraqi and well as American – to look closely into measures to enhance the safety of journalists active in Iraq. Al Arabiya further calls on the Iraqi authorities to embark on an in-depth and transparent investigation into this triple-murder, and to bring the perpetrators to justice.
27 February 2006
At NAB 2006, leading content management and delivery company GlobeCast will demo the next generation of its WING content management solutions, a suite of IP-based services and applications for broadcast, enterprise and digital retail signage. The multi-product WING showcase will feature WING Content Exchange for content contribution and exchange; WING Store & Broadcast for tapeless playout and channel management; and, WING Captive Audience, the newest WING offering for the delivery of retail advertising and digital display, being debuted at NAB 2006.
The WING Showcase will be on display at GlobeCast Booth C1530 and will feature:
WING Content Exchange video contribution from any Internet connection
Developed specifically for global video contribution, WING Content Exchange provides a powerful but user-friendly tool to capture, upload and share video between studio and field. A camera, a laptop and any wired or wireless connection allow authorized users to upload and exchange media in a unicast or multicast environment on this secure platform. WING Content Exchange is the winner of Cable and Satellite Internationals 2005 Product of the Year Award for best outside broadcast solution.
WING Store & Broadcast tapeless playout and program substitution via the Internet
An IP-based remote-controlled playout and playlist management tool for broadcasters, WING Store & Broadcast simplifies tasks such as regional customization, ad insertion, program substitution and rights management. Content is uploaded to secure WING Store & Broadcast servers at GlobeCast facilities in Paris, London, Miami, Los Angeles and Singapore. The service then allows remote playout of content via fiber or satellite to broadcast distribution platforms worldwide using an improved, user-friendly online interface.
WING Captive Audience compelling advertising delivery at the point of sale
Playlist management and customizable advertising delivery over retail signage networks are at the heart of WING Captive Audience. This latest WING solution combines all of the necessary hardware and asset management applications to initiate a new digital display network or upgrade an existing network, bringing video or multimedia content to television or PC screens at any number of retail points-of-presence.
More about the WING concept
Launched at NAB 2005, GlobeCast WING is network agnostic, user-friendly and is based on in-house developed applications built with OEM (original equipment manufacturer) components and Plug-and-Play technology for easy integration into any existing broadcast architecture. WING servers based at GlobeCast POPs in Paris, London, Miami, Los Angeles and Singapore provide a global ring, facilitating easy access into the WING platform from wireless or dedicated networks. From these access points, WING does the rest by ingesting, storing and delivering content to any network around the globe for truly flexible content management.
27 February 2006
Harris Corporation announced the appointment of Said Bacho as general manager in the Middle East for its Leitch Business Unit. The creation of this key position solidifies the company’s sales presence in a fast-growing market and provides support for an expanding customer base with leadership from an industry veteran.
Harris high-profile customers in the region include Arab Radio & Television
(ART) in Jordan Media City in Amman, Jordan; Al-Rai in Kuwait; PAYC in Qatar; and the Iraqi Media Network. This expansion of the companys broadcast sales force will ensure its current and future customers have local sales support as this significant broadcast market continues to surge.
The Middle East broadcast industry has been thriving for a number of years, and it has been a major objective of Harris to strengthen its presence in the region, said Dave Dougall, vice president, Europe, for Harris Broadcast Communications Divisions Leitch Business Unit. We are delighted to have Said join our team, as he brings a wealth of industry experience. We now have the support we need to strengthen our reseller channels, as well as to supply local sales and service support in the Middle East.
With more than 12 years of experience in the broadcasting arena, Bacho comes to Harris from Pinnacle Systems, where he established and ran their Middle East operations from Beirut, Lebanon. Prior to this, Bacho worked for TekVideo, a Tektronix and Grass Valley dealer; the Tutunjian Corporation, a Panasonic distributor in Beirut; and at Future Television, Lebanons terrestrial television channel and satellite broadcast station.
27 February 2006
Intelsat announced it has been granted rights by The Brazilian National Telecommunications Agency (ANATEL) to operate its powerful, new Intelsat Americas-8 (IA-8) satellite in the Brazilian market. The IA-8, a hybrid Ku- Ka- and C-Band satellite launched in June 2005, is now available to serve a wide range of customers in Brazil, including broadcasters and telecom carriers.
The IA-8’s high power, linear C-Band and Ku-Band payloads, broad coverage area and connection to Intelsat’s hybrid network combine to offer the Brazilian market seamless satellite coverage within and outside of Brazil.
Because of the large coverage area of IA-8, Brazilian broadcasters and channels carried on the satellite have access to large numbers of viewers – both in Brazil and in most other Latin American countries. Additionally, the satellite’s power enables reception in DTH antennas as small as 65 centimeters in diameter.
IA-8 is the newest and most powerful satellite in the Intelsat system, which includes 28 satellites (14 of which cover Latin America and the Caribbean) and a terrestrial network with Points Of Presence in six countries. It operates from the 89°W orbital position and offers coverage of South America, the Caribbean and North America, including Alaska and Hawaii.
For coverage of South America, IA-8 employs six 72 MHz C-band and twelve 36 MHz Ku-band transponders with linear polarization for easy deployment. The high power and coverage area of IA-8 enables it to support broadcast content distribution, corporate VSATs and broadband applications, including high-speed Internet access, multicasting and streaming.
Broadcasters using IA-8 can take advantage of Intelsat’s large satellite network, allowing them to transmit programming to an extended audience and give their customers access to a large international programming community.
“The IA-8’s payload is optimally designed to cover Brazil,” said Erwin Mercado, Intelsat’s Regional Vice President, Latin America and Caribbean. “We expect our customers across the region will benefit from the higher power, robust network and reliable hybrid capacity IA-8 offers – allowing them to grow their businesses with greater efficiency.”
Mercado added, “IA-8’s coverage is also favorable to mobile operators who will be able to extend their networks into very remote regions, using a satellite-backhaul solution.
Similarly, Brazilian-based telecom service providers can use IA-8 capacity to deliver voice, broadband data and Internet to consumers in the region’s most remote locations.”
He concluded, “In addition, enterprise network service providers can use the highly efficient IA-8 platform to connect their corporate networking clients. These service providers will benefit from IA-8’s increased power and broad Brazilian coverage area, along with the high reliability for which the Intelsat system is well known.”
Intelsat has been a leading provider of satellite capacity to Latin American countries for 40 years. Its customers include Brazil’s largest broadcaster, major telecommunications companies and enterprise network service providers. Every day, more than 140 telecommunications providers and broadcasters in Latin America rely on Intelsat connectivity services to support their businesses wherever they operate.
27 February 2006
Representatives of Freedom House and RFE/RL, Inc. came together late last week to discuss the major challenges they and other NGOs face in continuing their operations in Uzbekistan. Branka Sesto and Thomas Melia of Freedom House, and Jeffrey Trimble of RFE/RL agreed that their organizations will not abandon their mission to promote democratic reform in Uzbekistan and other countries in Central Asia.
Branka Sesto, Uzbekistan Project Director for Freedom House, said the Uzbek government shut down all of Freedom House’s operations in the country within recent weeks, after a sustained campaign that included bringing a criminal case against the organization for providing Internet access to Uzbek human rights activists. Although Freedom House fought the government’s charges in Uzbek courts, it lost its appeals. Sesto noted that civil society programs Freedom House supported in Uzbekistan included a “civil coalition against torture,” since there is “systematic torture in Uzbekistan” and the government engages widespread human rights violations. She pledged that Freedom House will continue to try to assist the human rights movement of Uzbekistan, since “human rights is not a question of sovereignty, but an achievement of civilization” from which the people of Uzbekistan also deserve to benefit.
Thomas Melia, Deputy Executive Director for Freedom House, said “there is a coordinated campaign” across a number of countries, even continents, to question the “very premises of democracy promotion,” so that what has happened in Uzbekistan should not be viewed as an isolated assault on human and civic rights. Melia said that authoritarian governments are known to correspond with each other and discuss each other’s laws. For example, Melia said, the recent bill on non-governmental organizations (NGOs) passed by the Russian government is part of this campaign to criminalize NGO activities and de-legitimize them in Russian society. In addition, Melia said, the Uzbek government is seeking “to isolate [Uzbek] human rights groups from the international support network,” which includes Freedom House. Melia said that he believes the Uzbek government had “pretended” to support the development of a civic society in the past, but has now stopped.
Jeffrey Trimble, Acting President of RFE/RL, said a feeling of “back to the future” exists today in Uzbekistan and the surrounding region. The Uzbek government, in a letter dated December 12, Trimble said, officially notified RFE/RL that it was not renewing the accreditation of RFE/RL’s Tashkent bureau. He noted that, although RFE/RL’s Uzbek correspondents had been harassed, even beaten, over the last few years, the political climate had “changed dramatically after Andijon.” RFE/RL’s correspondent Nosir Zakirov had received a six month sentence and is still in prison for allegedly insulting an Uzbek government official over the phone, he added. Trimble said RFE/RL will continue to broadcast, despite the loss of access to the country: “We remain determined to work for the people of Uzbekistan.” He agreed with his Freedom House colleagues that it is becoming more difficult for journalists to work in the wider region, citing conditions at RFE/RL’s Moscow bureau, where correspondents working for the Uzbek Service have faced intimidation and physical threats from Russian officials.
