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.
10 July 2017
Africanews is a leading multilingual, pan-African news outlet. Africanews is available in sub-Saharan Africa via its complete offer (TV + digital: website, social media, mobile applications).
Now available on the App Store, Africanews app offers free access to all iPhone and iPad users to catch up all the news published on africanews.com, all programmes as well as Live TV.
The first Africanews app allows to follow pan-African and international news anywhere and at any time.
Africanews app is available for free on the App Store, both English and French languages.
To download the application, click here
Africanews application for iOS devices also offers:
- Push notifications for Breaking News
- Africanews Live to watch the channel 24/7
- Constantly updated timeline so you don’t miss any event
- The editor’s choice for global news
- Highlighted videos with thematic playlists
- A rich content (media content with pictures, tweets and videos, live blogging)
- Special features (Widget iOS, Data Savings feature to save your Data package, Offline mode feature)
Michael Peters, CEO of Euronews and President of Africanews says: “Since its launch, we have positioned Africanews as a news platform dedicated to the challenges and opportunities of a Digital Africa. Today, I’m delighted to announce the launch of the app for Apple devices. The iOS app complements our bilingual digital services, with our website, our YouTube channels, and our Facebook and Twitter accounts. Besides the app enables news from a sub-Saharan perspective to spread even more around the world, we have also designed Africanews app specifically for our African audience who can choose the means through which they want to be informed, from Breaking News push notifications to TV in live streaming.”
(Source: Euronews press release)
10 July 2017
Arabsat announced the launch of its Free-To-Air DVB-S2 platform which carries exclusively many premium and widely viewed HD international channels, broadcast as Free-to-Air across the Middle East, North Africa & Europe via Arabsat BADR-4 which can be received with minimum dish size. Viewers across the Middle East, North Africa & Europe will continue to receive an extensive offering of prime Free-To-Air international and regional HD channels on Arabsat hotspot at 26⁰ East.
Khalid Balkheyour, Arabsat President & CEO said: “We are delighted to announce the launch of Arabsat brand new added-value DVB-S2 video offering to our clients and audience. This service is especially significant and valuable for our worldwide top brands of satellite TV channels, of which delivers cost-effective transmission platform, in parallel with developing the performance of our broadcasting product. Arabsat viewers can enjoy the modern television broadcasting events, with our portfolio of first class exclusive channels, such as; BBC World News HD, France 24 Arabic HD, TV5 Monde Style HD, and other high definition exclusive channels showing excellent quality of picture and sound, to ensure best Free-To-Air viewing experience at homes.”
(Source: Arabsat press release)
