24 September 2014
SES S.A. announced today that is has become a member of the Clinton Global Initiative (CGI), an initiative of the Clinton Foundation.
At the 2014 CGI Annual Meeting, held in New York City, SES announced its Commitment to Action, in the form of the e-health platform SATMED.
SATMED is a satellite-enhanced, cloud-computing based Telemedicine platform that aims to improve the access to and simplify the use of e-health. SATMED will provide a range of e-health services at different levels: satellite connectivity for remote areas with no internet connectivity, e-health and m-health tools developed with the support of doctors, and tools developed by international communities for providing universal access to e-care, e-learning, e-health administration, and e-health financing. SATMED will also provide access to cloud services for secure data storage, exchange, and data backup.
SES is developing SATMED in close cooperation with several Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs), namely Friendship, German Doctors, Médecins Sans Frontières, Archemed, and Fondation Follerau Luxembourg. During a pilot phase, the complete system, incorporating satellite terminal equipment and software platform, will be deployed to partner organisations, including NGOs, hospitals, medical universities, and other health care providers that are active in resource-poor areas. Up to 15 satellite terminals will be installed in project locations in Bangladesh, Benin, Eritrea, Guinea, the Philippines, and Sierra Leone. Partner organisations will use SATMED to improve access to medical care, reinforce their medical training programmes, make health management more effective and quality assured, and/or upgrade their collection, management, and visualisation of data.
24 September 2014
Starting today, BlackBerry® 10 smartphones users around the world can access the latest news and thoughtful analysis on Middle Eastern affairs through a whole new and dedicated Al Arabiya News app which is available through BlackBerry® World™ storefront.
Al Arabiya News is the English language platform of Al Arabiya News Channel, the region’s leading 24 hour news channel based in Dubai.
The Al Arabiya News app works perfectly on the new BlackBerry® Passport, a new device purpose-built for productivity with a boundary breaking design that challenges the status quo. The new app will make the most of the unique features of the BlackBerry Passport, such as the large square touch screen which enables enhanced viewing of articles and videos.
“The new app will offer the most optimal content viewing experience and ensure our content becomes even more accessible and available for influential decision makers who need to conveniently access their news and analysis while on the go,” said Faisal J. Abbas, Editor-in-Chief of Al Arabiya News.
“The new app, which is available through BlackBerry World, is an extension of our existing English website and users of the app will be able to benefit from all of our existing features and sections, such as our ‘View More’ video-on-demand service which enables users around the world to access Al Arabiya News Channel bulletins and flagship programs with full English subtitles and transcripts,” added Abbas.
“It’s great to welcome the Al Arabiya News App in BlackBerry World,” says Mike Al-Mefleh, Senior Director, Product Management and Services at BlackBerry. The apps make the most of the unique features of our newly launched BlackBerry Passport such as the large square touch screen and the new QWERTY touch-enabled keyboard.”
The BlackBerry Passport was launched earlier today at simultaneous events held at Dubai’s Armani Hotel as well as in Toronto and London.
Al Arabiya News can be accessed by visiting www.alarabiya.net/English and is available on BlackBerry World storefront. (Source: Al Arabiya press release)
24 September 2014
Eurosport.com’s updated application for Android phones and tablets sets an ambitious benchmark for all other sports apps. This next edition provides fast and intuitive access to the latest sports news and results. It also features responsive design for all devices.
Now available via Google Play Store, the updated app allows sports fans to access the complete real-time coverage of their favourite sports, to consult fixtures and results for all major events and to follow matches and races live.
Eurosport.com’s unrivalled depth of content and the new user-friendly interface make this the ultimate app for any sports fan on the move. The app is easier on the eye than the previous edition thanks responsive design, high definition imaging and the new navigation bar, giving access to all the major features. The sports offer is as broad as any sport fan can expect from the leading sports entertainment group with over 100 new stories and over 30 videos added each day. Over 40 live text commentaries per week, exclusive web chats with players, pundits and journalists and expert analysis, all underlining Eurosport’s editorial expertise, are also published.
True to Eurosport’s international status as the n°1 pan-European TV channel, the app is available in French, German, Italian, Spanish, Swedish, Turkish, Polish, Russian and Chinese. There are two versions available in English, one for the UK market and an international version.
The next step in the digital strategy of the pan-European broadcaster’s online offer will be the launch of a new application for iPhone and iPad in the coming days via the App store. (Source: EUROSPORT press release)
23 September 2014
The Broadcasting Board of Governors announced today that it intends to hire respected journalist and media executive Andrew Lack as Chief Executive Officer of the federal agency that oversees the five networks and broadcasting operations of U.S. international media. Those networks include Voice of America, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, Radio and TV Martí, Radio Free Asia, and the Middle East Broadcasting Networks.
“Andy Lack has an unmatched record as a journalist and media executive, and he has successfully steered large organizations through changes in competitive media environments,” BBG Chair Jeff Shell said. “We are incredibly excited that Andy has decided to serve his country and lead the BBG as it fulfills its critical mission in this ever-changing and more complicated world.”
Once his appointment is finalized, Lack will serve as the first-ever CEO of U.S. international media. Creating the position of a CEO has been a key objective of the agency’s governing board and the Administration.
Lack’s selection follows an extensive search process launched in October 2013, when the Board formed a special committee on the creation of a CEO. Earlier this year, the agency engaged an executive search firm to identify candidates.
“Andy is a great leader, a great communicator, and a great journalist,” said Richard Stengel, Under Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs, who serves as the delegate to the Board for Secretary of State John Kerry. “He is the perfect person – and I really mean the perfect person – to be this organization’s first CEO in the 21st century. We are lucky to have him, and we at State look forward to working with him.”
Chairman of the Bloomberg Media Group for the past year, Lack joined Bloomberg in October 2008 as CEO of its Global Media Group. In this position, he was responsible for expanding television, radio, magazine, conference and digital businesses. Under his leadership, Bloomberg LP has enhanced the quality of its media properties, expanded internationally, and built out services to bring information to more people, in more places, on more platforms than ever before.
Prior to joining Bloomberg, Lack was Chairman and CEO of Sony Music Entertainment, where he led the company’s roster of prominent international artists and vast catalog of recorded music from around the world. Before joining Sony Music Entertainment, he was president and chief operating officer of NBC, where he oversaw entertainment, news (including MSNBC and CNBC), NBC stations, sales and broadcast and network operations. He was responsible for expanding the Today show to three hours and creating the show’s street-side studio in New York’s Rockefeller Center.
From 1993 to 2001, Lack was president of NBC News, which he transformed into America’s most-watched news organization through NBC Nightly News, Meet the Press, Today and Dateline NBC.
Before going to NBC, Lack spent much of his television career at CBS News. After joining in 1976, within a year, he became a prominent producer for 60 Minutes and subsequently, senior executive producer of CBS Reports. Lack’s broadcasts at CBS earned numerous honors, including 16 Emmy Awards and 4 Alfred I. DuPont-Columbia University Journalism Awards.
Lack received a bachelor’s degree from the College of Fine Arts at Boston University, where he is currently a trustee.
He lives in Bronxville, NY with his wife, Betsy, and their two sons. (Source: BBG press release)
22 September 2014
The BBC World Service is launching special Ebola broadcasts for West Africa starting today (Monday 22nd September). Each evening shortwave transmissions to the region will be increased. There will be a round-up of News concentrating on efforts to combat the virus particularly to the three worst affected countries: Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea.
News About West Africa will be a 9-minute daily programme (Monday to Friday) broadcast live at 19:50 GMT around the world and presented by BBC Africa’s Kim Chakanetsa. Through local stories, correspondents and interviews, the broadcast will include the latest information about local, regional and international effort to contain and combat the disease. There is a great deal of new information emerging about how best to respond to Ebola and the programme aims that to share that with an African and global audience.
BBC Africa in conjunction with the BBC’s international development charity, Media Action, has since August been broadcasting two weekly Ebola bulletins on the BBC’s English, French and Hausa services.
BBC Media Action has also been helping to tackle dangerous misinformation about the disease in a new radio programme. Kick Ebola Nar Salone (Kick Ebola out of Sierra Leone), is a 30-minute show produced weekly and broadcast three times a week on 35 partner stations across the country.
Peter Horrocks, Director, BBC World Service Group says: “Lack of knowledge and myths about the disease are killing people as surely as Ebola is. Quality information from both within and outside the countries affected about how the risks of Ebola can be safely managed will save lives. The range of emergency activities on Ebola from the BBC World Service are in the finest traditions of the humanitarian instincts of our broadcasting.”
This week’s programming includes:
Assignment (Thursday 25th September) will hear from a wide variety of people living through the three-day lock-down in Sierra Leone as the authorities hope to restrict the spread of the disease.
A special edition of BBC Africa Debate (Friday 26th September) from Ghana will look at the state of Africa’s health systems in the light of the Ebola outbreak. The debate will be hosted by BBC Africa’s Akwasi Sarpong, and broadcaster and health practitioner, Dr Graham Easton.
Over the weekend, Mike Williams asked why people risk their lives for strangers as they talk to health workers who return to the packed West African hospitals to help those with the disease in The Why Factor. (Source: BBC press release)
19 September 2014
Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty’s Ukrainian Service marked its 60th anniversary on September 18 at an event in Kyiv, attended by Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk and Kyiv Mayor Vitaliy Klitschko and hosted by the Prague Freedom Foundation.
In keynote remarks, Yatsenyuk said, “Empires collapsed, walls fell, dictators disappeared, but Radio Svoboda exists and will exist, as well as freedom.” The Prime Minister told the audience of diplomats, members of the Ukrainian parliament, civil society leaders, and journalists, “I wish all of us to listen to Radio Svoboda and be free people thanks to the truth and thanks to Radio Svoboda.”
Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko, currently visiting the U.S., sent a written statement that was read at the event. “Generations of modern Ukrainian politicians grew up listening to your programs, despite artificially created obstacles,” he wrote. “Your many years of work are an example of how to care for the interests of the society, independent of party interests and political regimes.”
Also attending the anniversary celebration were Karel Schwarzenberg, Chair of the Committee on Foreign Affairs of the Czech Chamber of Deputies; Laima Andrikiene, a former member of the European Parliament’s Committee on Foreign Affairs and Subcommittee on Human Rights; Ukrainian parliament members Iryna Gerashchenko and Hryhoriy Nemyria; and Hromadske TV founder Mustafa Nayem, all of whom participated in a panel discussion on the role of propaganda and the power of independent journalism in situations of conflict and war.
Service director Maryana Drach said the Service’s accomplishments draw on a distinguished history, citing the service’s support of dissidents during the Soviet period and its reporting on issues long hidden by the Soviet government and media, such as Holodomor (the man-made Great Famine of 1932-33, which resulted in the death of millions of Ukrainians). Drach added, “Today Radio Svoboda reports on the seizure of the [Crimean Tatar parliament] Mejlis, the closure of Ukrainian schools in Crimea, and alleged torture of captives in Eastern Ukraine,” always remaining faithful to its mission to provide journalistically sound news and analysis.
RFE/RL’s Ukrainian Service, known locally as Radio Svoboda, began its first broadcast from Munich, West Germany on August 16, 1954 with this call: “Brothers and sisters! Ukrainians! We live abroad, but our hearts and minds are always with you. No Iron Curtain can separate us or keep us apart.” The Service has enjoyed dramatic growth among local audiences this year as a result of its live-streamed coverage of events relating to the Euromaidan demonstrations. Its on-site reporting from Crimea and the conflict zones in eastern Ukraine, and investigations into the properties and finances of the Yanukovych regime is regularly cited by major international and local media.
About RFE/RL
RFE/RL is a private, independent international news organization whose programs — radio, Internet, television, and mobile — reach influential audiences in 21 countries, including Russia, Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, the republics of Central Asia and the Caucasus. It is funded by the U.S. Congress through the Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG). (Source: press release)
