2 June 2003
A French parliamentary commission has produced a report on the setting up of a 24-hour international satellite TV channel.
RFI, the French international radio station, reports that the new channel will be called CFI24 – the letters standing for Canal France International – and its initial annual budget will be in the area of 80 to 100 million Euros. All French state radio and TV outlets will be involved in the enterprise, as well as two private ones – TF1 and Canal Plus.
CFI24 will initially broadcast to Europe, Africa and the Middle East in French, English and Arabic,” the radio said, “and in five to seven years’ time the coverage area is expected to be extended to include the USA, South America and Asia, with the range of languages widened to include Spanish, Portuguese, Chinese and others.
The parliamentary commission wants the new channel to be, like Radio France Internationale, neither servile nor hostile. It is not supposed to be the voice of France – which would serve absolutely no purpose – but rather an independent French outlet like RFI.
The satellite cover will be provided by Euronews, TV5 and Media Overseas, the radio said.
Source: BBC Monitoring
2 June 2003
AIB member VT Merlin, part of the VT Group, had a good year to the end of March 2003, delivering on current contracts and winning important new business.
VT Merlin has successfully completed the design and build of a new short and medium wave transmission station in Oman for the BBC World Service. Work on this contract started in March 2000 and the station is now providing a 24 hours broadcast service.
VT Merlin is also a 20% shareholder in the Alert JV that won the 30 year PFI contract with the Defence Communications Services Agency (DCSA) for a new Submarine Communications Facility. In March VT Merlin was selected as preferred bidder for the Defence High Frequency Communications Service contract further strengthening its relationship with the DCSA. The fifteen-year Public Private Partnership contract is expected to be finalised by June 2003 and will be worth £220m. Under the contract VT Merlin will operate, maintain and enhance the MOD’s High Frequency Communications Facilities in the UK and overseas that are used by all three armed services.
2 June 2003
A conference to design the legal framework for democratic media in Iraq, is taking place June 1-3, 2003 in Athens, Greece. It is the first multilateral forum to address post-war reconstruction.
Organised by Internews Network, a non-profit organization supporting open media worldwide, and hosted by the Greek Foreign Ministry, which currently holds the presidency of the European Union, the conference’s other major sponsors include UNESCO, the US Agency for International Development, the German Foreign Office, and the Russian Ministry of the Press.
The three-day symposium has brought together leading Iraqi, Arab and Western media experts to develop a set of policy recommendations for legal and regulatory reforms in Iraq. These reforms are meant to foster free, pluralistic media in post-Saddam Iraq.
29 May 2003
In a global first this August, the German capital will become a digital-only city for television, when the licensing body MABB switches off the analogue signal completely.
BBC World – an AIB member – the BBC’s 24-hour international news and information channel, is the only foreign TV network to be awarded a digital terrestrial (DVBT) frequency in Berlin.
To date, 25 stations have won licences to broadcast on the new digital spectrum but BBC World will be the only non-German channel to have been granted a frequency.
BBC World has been broadcasting on terrestrial analogue television in Berlin since 1996, when it broke new ground as the first and only overseas station ever to be given such a licence.
Patrick Cross, BBC World Managing Director says: “It is a great honour and a reflection of the quality of BBC World that we are the only news channel to have been granted this highly sought-after digital frequency in Berlin. I am delighted that viewers will continue to have access to our unrivalled, impartial news coverage.”
BBC World Service radio – also an AIB member – broadcasts in Berlin on FM.
28 May 2003
Britain’s Independent newspaper reported 28 May that Jasseem Alli, the chief executive of the Al-Jazeera Arabic television news service, is to return to his post with Qatar television. Qatar TV owns Al-Jazeera.
Mr Alli has spent eight years in the job at al-Jazeera. The report quoted a spokesman as saying that Mr Allis return was unconnected with documents procured by British intelligence services in Baghdad which had appeared to link him with Iraqi intelligence services.
28 May 2003
EuroNews, the pan-European television news channel, has appointed Luis Rivas as Editorial Director.
Luis Rivas, 45, joined EuroNews in 1993 as Chief Editor and in January 2003 he became acting Editorial Director. Luis is an experienced journalist who has held several editorial roles with the Spanish state broadcaster TVE, most notably as correspondent in Moscow and Budapest. Luis has also worked for the Spanish weekly magazine El Tiempo and for the audio-visual department of the Spanish press agency EFE, where he produced news programs for Latin America.
Philippe Cayla, President of EuroNews said: “I’m delighted to see Luis Rivas apppointed as Editorial Director of EuroNews, composed of 160 multilingual journalists working in 7 different languages. Luis has led the channel through its excellent coverage of the Iraq war and seen our European audience more than double.”
Luis Rivas said: “In 10 years of existence, EuroNews is today a major player among news channels in Europe. We intend to reinforce this role and develop it outside the borders of our continent. EuroNews is a unique and fascinating project, because it’s the only information channel offering news from a European, rather than a national, perspective.”
