1 August 2017
A journalist working with RT Arabic, Khaled Alkhateb, has been killed in shelling from co-called Islamic State in the eastern suburb of Homs, Syria. The journalist was filming a report on the Syrian Army’s operations against IS terrorists.
He and a Syrian Army official were killed in a rocket attack by so-called Islamic State militants near a village called Bghailiyah, in Homs province, according to the head of RT Arabic’s office in Damascus, Abdelhameed Tawfiq.
Khaled Alkhateb was just 25 years old and had recently started to work with RT.
“Today RT Arabic lost a young colleague, journalist Khaled Alkhateb. This is very painful news for all of us,” the head of RT Arabic, Maya Manna, said in a statement.
Saying that Khaled had just recently become a stringer for RT Arabic, Manna added that he had been on assignment to cover the Syrian Army fighting IS in the Homs region.
“This morning, together with soldiers of the Syrian Army, he was heading to the town of al-Sukhnah, where heavy fighting is currently underway to free it. On their way there, not far from Homs, the convoy was attacked by IS militants,” she explained.
“We express our condolences to family and friends of Khaled, and will support them in any way possible. We thank Khaled for his courage and bravery,” Manna said.
Khaled’s father, Gasan Alkhateb, told RT his son loved his work and was always ready to risk his life for the sake of telling the truth.
1 August 2017
RFE/RL Turkmen correspondent Soltan Achilova has said that she was threatened with death on July 29, while en route to take photos documenting Turkmenistan’s “Day of Bicycles.” Achilova has also said that the man who made the original threat on 29 July identified himself to her as a police officer tasked to watch her wherever she goes, and again warned her against taking photos, or she will be “finished.” The threats follow an assault last week when a man tried to steal her cellphone as she was about to take a picture.
The recent attacks on Achilova, 68, resemble assaults she experienced in November 2016, when two women approached her, yelling “This is the one who takes pictures and pours dirt on Turkmenistan” in the cafeteria at a rehabilitation centre northeast of the capital, Ashgabat. This attack came one day after Human Rights Watch issued a statement decrying an October 25 assault on Achilova, saying “Achilova’s ordeal was clearly yet another orchestrated attempt to silence a critic.”
“Journalism is not a crime, in Turkmenistan or elsewhere in the modern world. Soltan’s life has now been explicitly threatened in an effort to stop her from doing her job in Turkmenistan,” said RFE/RL President Thomas Kent. “The Turkmen government must immediately put an end to the persecution of Soltan Achilova and assure her safety.”
Achilova’s reports appear regularly on the website of RFE/RL’s Turkmen Service, known locally as Azatlyk radiosy. According to Turkmen Service director Farruh Yusupov, she is one of the main contributors to the website of photos and videos from within Turkmenistan. Recently, the focus of her reporting has been the government’s preparations for the Asian Games, including a story on the removal of a statue of former Turkmen president Saparmurat Niyazov from a major thoroughfare in the capital, Ashgabat.
Attacks on RFE/RL contributors in Turkmenistan, one of the world’s most closed societies, have intensified over the past three years. Saparmamed Nepeskuliev, a video journalist who contributed to the Turkmen Service, disappeared more than two years ago, and is now in prison on narcotics charges that rights groups say were “trumped up” in retaliation for his reporting on decrepit infrastructure and economic inequality in the country’s western region. After filing video reports about local life in Turkmenistan’s northern Dashoguz province, correspondent Khudayberdy Allashov was taken into custody and severely beaten in December, 2016; he and his mother were subsequently jailed for three months on charges of possessing chewing tobacco, a product that is widely used in Turkmenistan and is not known to have led to any previous arrest. In December 2014, Achilova was questioned by unidentified men in civilian clothing, as she interviewed people waiting to purchase fresh meat that had suddenly became available in shops around the country.
The United States, the OSCE, and media advocacy organizations have expressed concern about Turkmenistan’s persecution of journalists.
Turkmenistan is ranked “not free” in Freedom House’s 2017 press freedom survey of 199 countries and territories, tied with North Korea at the bottom of the scale with 98 points out of 100.
Because of political conditions, RFE/RL has no bureau inside Turkmenistan, instead working through a local network of contributors to provide the country’s only Turkmen-language alternative to state-controlled media. Its Turkmen Service website logged a monthly average of 440,000 visits and 800,000 page views in 2016, and it has 175,000 followers on Facebook.
27 July 2017
Newstag, the award-winning Stockholm-based media-tech company, will launch a new experience that is especially designed for the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region later this year. Newstag Arabic نيوزتاج عربية will be available in Arabic and will provide a stream of video news stories each day covering international and regional news, culture and entertainment.
Newstag Arabic نيوزتاج عربية will feature professionally produced news content from suppliers including the Associated Press, AFP and Euronews. Talks are also taking place with prominent news providers from the region. Newstag Arabic نيوزتاج عربية is currently being marketed on Facebook ahead of its launch.
Newstag is an exciting new mobile first application that enables users to create and watch their own personalised video news channels consisting of news and causes they find relevant. Together, all the users create a crowd curated news experience. Newstag is the largest platform for professionally produced news in the world and suppliers range from CNN to CCTV; Bloomberg to RT.
But Newstag is not just about understanding the world it also offers an opportunity to make a difference through its relationship with NGOs and research organisations.
Henrik Eklund and Camilla Dahlin-Andersson
Newstag co-founder, Camilla Dahlin-Andersson, says: “Newstag creates an environment for modern social engagement and offer a relevant, personal, news experience empowering an audience that takes news seriously and wants to make a difference.”
Henrik Eklund, co-founder and CEO, continues: “Currently 60% of existing Newstag users are based in the MENA region which is what prompted us to set up Newstag Arabic. 6% global population live in the Middle East and yet the region accounts for only 0.6% of the global advertising market. We believe there is potential for enormous growth in the coming years.”
26 July 2017
Following a statement of intent in February, leading UK communications infrastructure company Arqiva and Samsung Electronics announced on 25 July that the first field trial of 5G Fixed Wireless Access (FWA) technology in the UK and Europe is now live in central London.
Powered by Samsung’s 5G network solution and customer premises equipment (CPE), and using Arqiva’s 28GHz millimetre wave (mmWave) spectrum, the 5G FWA system consists of three main components:
A Radio Access Unit located on the rooftop of Arqiva’s Fitzrovia office wirelessly links to an easily installable CPE – or router – located by a window inside Arqiva’s nearby headquarters. Samsung’s system – which implements intelligent beam-forming technology and high-frequency mmWave spectrum – then provides high bandwidth connectivity. In commercial implementations, the compact access unit can be mounted on lampposts or similar street furniture to provide reliable gigabit-per-second service to neighbourhoods and businesses alike. The final component is Samsung’s virtualised core – responsible for managing user connections and data routing from Arqiva’s network to the internet – which is running on Arqiva’s data centre servers.
The primary aim of the trial is to demonstrate the stability of the FWA service, and its potential as a fast-to-market and cost-effective alternative to fibre for connectivity to homes and businesses. Despite a link distance of several hundred meters, the system has established a stable two-way mmWave link with downlink speeds of around 1GB per second at the CPE. Allowing for simultaneous streaming of more than 25 UHD 4K TV channels as an illustration, this more than meets the needs of today’s typical household with considerable room for future growth.
As the trial progresses, both companies look forward to further maximising the performance capability of the system, improving the value of future network infrastructure and spectrum investments.
Paul Kyungwhoon Cheun, Executive Vice President and Head of the Next Generation Communications Business Team at Samsung, said: “One of the most exciting prospects that 5G is expected to bring to the table is the exploration of powerful new use cases outside of traditional smart device mobile connectivity. Our trial efforts with Arqiva give us the chance to demonstrate this first hand, and we view this demonstration as a door-opener for new and compelling connected service opportunities in the UK, Europe and worldwide.”
Simon Beresford-Wylie, CEO of Arqiva (pictured), commented: “This trial is the first of its kind in Europe, let alone the UK – and we are hugely excited about the high data rates, low latency and growth potential we’re going to be able to demonstrate. Though only a proof of concept at this stage, we are confident that this trial with Samsung will showcase not only 5G FWA’s potential for delivering ultrafast broadband but also the value of the 28GHz band in helping achieve this.
“We’ve seen a great level of response so far from our entire customer base, including leading mobile operators, fixed broadband providers, broadcasters and media companies. This trial will be particularly interesting for this audience as it looks to a future of ubiquitous UHD, and the file sizes that go with it.”
The showcase consists of a series of six stations. These include an overview of FWA technology and how it works, examples of 5G use cases, demonstrations of 4K UHD and Virtual Reality (VR) content streaming, and a look at possible applications of 5G in the future.
The trial will run for a four-month period, during which time anticipated visitors include representatives from the UK Government, Mobile Network Operators (MNOs), Fixed Network Operators, media companies, analysts and more. There are also plans to extend the trial’s coverage to additional nearby buildings over its duration.
For more information visit Arqiva5G.com or samsungnetworks.com. To register interest visit Arqiva5G.com.
5 July 2017
Journalists covering the refugee crisis have been affected by moral injury, according to a report published by the International News Safety Institute (INSI), which warns that this issue has the potential to have a significant impact on their mental health if nothing is done to prevent or treat it.
“The Emotional Toll on Journalists Covering the Refugee Crisis” is the first study of its kind into the response of news media professionals covering a humanitarian crisis and was prompted by the arrival in Europe by sea of more than one million migrants in 2015.
Published by the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism, it shows how moral injury – a condition linked to experiencing events and behaviour that violate one’s moral compass – emerged as the biggest psychological challenging faced by those covering the refugee crisis.
“We recognise that the trauma experienced by journalists as witnesses could never be equated with the suffering endured by the migrants, but we wanted to try to better understand what some journalists were experiencing so we could ensure those covering the refugee crisis could continue their important work of recording history,” said Hannah Storm, INSI director, and co-author of the report with neuropsychiatrist Professor Anthony Feinstein.
Nine major European and North American news organisations took part in the survey, which included 114 journalists. In addition to the quantitative survey, various industry-wide interviews and meetings were carried out which corroborated the survey findings.
Yannis Behrakis (pictured left) turned his camera on his home country of Greece where he began covering the story in April 2015.
“A lot of times you are not sure what to do: leave the camera and actively help people come out of the sea or do practical things for them, drive them up the road, or give them clothes, or take their pictures,” said Behrakis, who works for Reuters, in an interview for the report.psiphon apk download
“Of course, I always think this is the way I help and this is my job to make sure that everybody around the world knows what is happening and that is my mission.”
Key findings from the survey included:
- Local journalists, parents and those working alone with no previous experience covering war are more likely to experience moral injury.
- Moral injury is linked to an increased workload and a perceived lack of support from employers.
- Neither post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) nor depression posed a significant risk for journalists covering the refugees.
“Moral injury is not a mental illness, which can be reassuring, but it should not be taken lightly for it comes with its own set of challenges,” said Feinstein. “It is to be hoped that the results of our study act as the impetus for an industry-wide discussion on how moral injury can be addressed and what changes need to take place,” Feinstein added.
The report concludes with a set of considerations for the news industry on how to support and educate those at risk of developing moral injury, and shows how its findings could have relevance to those working in other stories in non-conflict areas that have a traumatic content, such as domestic terror threats.
5 July 2017
Two major industry associations to work on cyber security and other key issues; AIB endorses NABA/DPP Security Requirements
The Association for International Broadcasting, the trade association for television, radio and online across the world, announces that it is to collaborate closely with the Digital Production Partnership (DPP),
DPP’s membership represents the whole media supply chain: production companies, manufacturers, suppliers, service providers, post production facilities, consultancies, broadcasters, distributors, and not-for-profit organisations. Besides working on the development of specifications and best practice in content exchange, a major DPP focus is the issue of cyber security.
Cyber security is also a key issue for the Association for International Broadcasting. The AIB has been working on the subject for the past three years and its specialist Working Group brings together broadcasters and key suppliers from across the globe, ranging from New Zealand to the USA. As a result of this new collaboration, the AIB is announcing that it is endorsing and backing the NABA/DPP Broadcaster Cyber Security Requirements for Suppliers.
Through this new collaborative venture, DPP will become an associate member of the AIB, and the AIB will become a DPP member.
“This new collaboration between the AIB and DPP is important for the whole broadcasting industry,” comments Simon Spanswick, AIB chief executive (pictured right). “There is much commonality between the aims and the work programme of our two organisations and cyber security is at the top of both organisations’ agendas. In endorsing the NABA/DPP security requirements document, the AIB is reaffirming its commitment – and that of its Members – to driving the media industry towards increased security to protect broadcasters from devastating cyber attack. We will work closely with our DPP colleagues over the coming months on this critical issue.”
Mark Harrison, Managing Director DPP, added “There are few more important areas for change in the media sector than the improvement needed in security practices throughout the supply chain. The DPP believes that pan-industry change such as this can only be delivered by collaboration. So we are really delighted to be working more closely with the AIB, who are just as committed to this area as we are. The North American Broadcasters Association (NABA) defined some important, pragmatic cyber security requirements in broadcasting; and now the DPP and AIB will work together to drive their implementation.”
The new collaboration between the AIB and DPP will also allow the exchange of information on a wide range of other issues, and lead to closer co-operation between Members of the two organisations.
