18 June 2013
TVC News, the first genuine 24-hour pan-African TV news channel from the stables of the Continental Broadcasting Service Ltd, Lagos, Nigeria, launched its signals on Monday, 17th June 2013, on the UK’s BSkyB platform (EPG 572).
The pan-African news channel aims to challenge stereotypes and correct factual inaccuracies and misperceptions about Africa and its peoples.
Nigel Parsons, the Chief Executive Officer TVC News and the former head of Aljazeera English, said: “Without shying away from reporting the conflicts or the corruption, the famines or the wars, the mission of TVC News is also to tell the many positive stories coming out ofAfrica.” He added: “Stories – good or bad – will be told ‘Through African Eyes’.”
The news channel serves as a medium for Africans in every part of the world to be heard on the global scene. Through its fair and fearless reporting, TVC News will tell the unreported stories from under-reported regions across the continent, all from an African perspective.
TVC News provides a mixture of news, current affairs and other informative programming from across Africa and beyond. The daily programming focuses on subjects such as politics and business, the arts & culture, health, youth and gender issues, sports and entertainment, and specially-tailored weather reports.
Using the latest state-of-the-art broadcasting equipment, TVC News has engaged the services of veteran broadcasters, experienced reporters and a top class managerial team. Supported by correspondents and reporters operating from bureaux across Africa and the world, the channel aims to provide its viewers with “breaking news as it happens” while setting new standards in African broadcasting.
With its mobile app, smartphone/tablet users can watch live news and follow latest happenings from around the world from its website, www.tvcnews.tv, clicking on the live streaming button or by downloading the TVC News mobile apps via: mobile.tvcnews.tv. They can also follow TVC News on its twitter handle @tvcnews_africa.
Since its launch in Africa at the end of February 2013, TVC News has provided comprehensive on-the-spot coverage of the 2013 Kenyan elections, the recent war in Mali, as well as an exclusive interview with South African icon Winnie Mandela and the former President of South Africa, Thabo Mbeki.
18 June 2013
Deutsche Welle honored the winners of its international competition “The Bobs- Best of Online Activism” at the Global Media Forum in Bonn. The “Best Blog Award” went to the Chinese social critic, Li Chengpeng.
“Authors in Chinahave a really difficult time speaking the plain truth” the 48- year old winner told Deutsche Welle. Li Chengpeng is an extremely well-known blogger, author and social critic in China. He is especially popular with the young generation in the country, where he has over seven million followers on the micro-blogging platform SinaWeibo. His blog Lichengpeng (www.blog.sina.com.cn/lichengpeng) has received over 300 million visits. Li Chengpeng has said that, “the melted water from the iceberg flows into the sea, without worrying about the many obstacles along the way. There is enormous strength in civil society. I would recommend that the government cooperates with civil society groups, instead of smearing us with baseless accusations.”
A role model for the younger generation
“He not only writes, he also acts: He conducts investigative research. For example, in 2008 he travelled to an earthquake zone inSichuanprovince to report on shoddy building materials in collapsed schools. He is a role model for the younger generation and demonstrates how the Chinese can create a better future for their country,” explained jury member Hu Yong.
Li Chengpeng tells the Chinese youth that they need to be more aware of censorship and encourages them to participate openly and actively in the political process. After publishing his most recent book, “The Whole World Knows,” he went on tour but was forbidden by authorities to speak with his fans. To show their solidarity, visitors to the tour wore masks over their faces similar to the one he wore for the “silent readings.”
“Every small initiative is important”
In the Best Social Activism category, Deutsche Welle’s jury members honored the work done to promote democracy and human rights in social media. The Moroccan youth initiative 475 (www.facebook.com/475LeFilm) took the jury’s award. It deals with the fate of women who, according to Moroccan law 475, are forcibly married to men who raped them so the rapists do not face criminal charges. The story of Amina, who committed suicide in 2012 at the age of 16, got the project started in a social media campaign on Facebook and Flickr. “The project shows that every initiative is important when it comes to stopping rape and all forms of violence against women,” the jury said.
The jury awarded the Chinese site FreeWeibo (www.freeweibo.com) in the Best Innovation category. The service offers censorship-free access to the micro-blogging platform SinaWeibo.com, one ofChina’s most popular social networks. “In China, censorship is completely normal and a daily occurrence,” the jury said. “Messages can be deleted without the people who wrote them ever knowing about it. FreeWeibo gives users a way to see the deleted posts and find out what is being censored.”
In the Most Creative & Original category, the jury gave its award to Me & My Shadow (www.myshadow.org). Written in English, the project shows people “in an entertaining and visually stimulating way what kinds of personal information they are revealing when they are online and gives simple tips on ways they can change their behavior to protect their privacy,” the jury said. Tactical Technology, an international association that shares information on digital issues with human rights groups around the world, produced the project.
This year’s Global Media Forum Award went to the project Infoladies (www.pallitathya.org.bd) from Bangladesh. Finalists in the category addressed issues tied to the Deutsche Welle Global Media Forum 2013, which looks at “The Future of Growth – Economic Values and the Media.” The Infoladies project equips women with digital cameras, mobile phones and solar-powered laptops to travel by bike to rural areas and answer questions related to health, agriculture and development. “Infoladies brings life-saving information about health, education and a number of other services to the poorest people in Bangladesh,” the jury said.
The Reporters Without Borders Award went to Fabbikouassi’s Blog (www.fabbikouassi.wordpress.com) fromTogo. DW awarded the prize in cooperation with the human rights organization Reporters Without Borders. The journalist and human rights activist Fabbi Kouassi reports in her blog about the dangerous situation facing journalists in her country and about the daily police violence that targets journalists. The blog symbolizes “the work being done for freedom of expression in an African country that often gets overlooked,” the jury said, adding, “we talk about problems in China and Iran, but can forget Africa, where fear of police brutality and suppression are a part of daily life.”
In addition to the jury awards, Internet users from around the world cast around 95,000 votes in an online poll for their favorite finalists in The Bobs. The Best Blog / English award went to Mideast Youth (www.mideastyouth.com), a collection of websites and applications that all amplify voices of dissent in the Middle East. All of the User Winners can be found at www.thebobs.com.
A competition in 14 languages
Deutsche Welle launched The Bobs – Best of Online Activism in 2004 with the goal of promoting an open exchange of ideas and freedom of expression online in digital media. More than 4,200 websites and online projects from around the world were submitted to this year’s contest. The competition was conducted in 14 languages, which included Hindi, Turkish and Ukrainian all for the first time this year. The “Best Person to Follow” was added to the contest as a new category for microblogging. Submissions to The Bobs reflected the wide spectrum of ways blogs and social media can be used to promote freedom of expression and to push for transparency and accountability.
The 15-member jury narrowed down the submissions to 364 finalists. Among the jurors in 2013 were Hu Yong of the People’s Republic of China, and Arash Abadpour, who writes one of the world’s most-read Farsi blogs.
Contest partners
This year’s premium partners are Reporters Without Borders and the re:publica conference. Media partners are Masrawy, Somewhere in…, Bdnews.com, iSun TV, Global Voices Online, Categorynet.com, Courrier International, Presseeurop, Gooya, Terra, Jetzt.de, Lenta.ru, Korrespondent, ntvmsnbc, MYNET, MEDYATAVA and webdunia.
www.thebobs.com
Photos: http://www.flickr.com/photos/deutschewelle/sets
17 June 2013
Intelsat S.A. (NYSE: I), the world’s leading provider of satellite services, announced today agreements with leading media customers in the Asia-Pacific region.
Hong Kong-based TVBI Company Limited (TVBI), the worldwide operating arm of Television Broadcasts Limited, one of the world’s largest producers and distributors of Chinese-language programming, recently renewed a multi-year agreement on Intelsat 19. TVBI will use the capacity to deliver its premier content to customers in the Asia-Pacific region.
In addition, KDDI, a Japan-based global telecommunications company, recently signed an agreement with Intelsat to deliver managed media services via the IntelsatOne network. With an IntelsatOne edge node at the company’s New York City location, the IP network will connect KDDI’s customer’s four U.S. bureaus, as well as a European bureau, with the customer’s Tokyo headquarters over KDDI’s fiber network, delivering multiple video, file transfer and voice services.
The scalable network connects seamlessly with legacy services, such as on-net video contribution for Japanese broadcasters, via Intelsat’s owned and operated teleports and customer affiliates in the United States.
Intelsat offers the premier video neighborhoods in Asia-Pacific, with excellent penetration throughout the region. Media providers continue to take advantage of Intelsat’s satellite fleet and IntelsatOne network to reach customers in Asia, Africa, Europe and the Middle East.
“These agreements exemplify the aggressive growth in media distribution services across Asia-Pacific,” said Intelsat RVP of Asia-Pacific Sales Terry Bleakley. “Major programmers in the region continue to turn to Intelsat’s premier video neighborhoods for the flexible delivery of unique content on multiple platforms, reinforcing our critical role in the global infrastructure.”
13 June 2013
The Board of Radio New Zealand has today appointed Paul Thompson as the next Chief
Executive and Editor-in-Chief of the national public service broadcaster.
The appointment follows the January announcement by Radio New Zealand’s CEO, Peter
Cavanagh, that he would be stepping down from the position when his contract expires at the end of the year. Paul Thompson is currently the Group Executive Editor of Fairfax Media in New Zealand and a former award winning editor of the Christchurch Press and the Nelson Mail.
The Chair of Radio New Zealand, Richard Griffin, says Thompson is a widely respected and experienced media executive with a track record of achievement and successful leadership. “The Board was encouraged by the quality of those individuals who responded to the request for expressions of interest in the position. The process of selection was thorough and competitive and we are sure we have now appointed a CEO who is ideally versed in the concepts of editorial integrity and executive management that have been the hallmark of Peter Cavanagh’s ten years at the helm.”
Paul Thompson says he feels privileged to be chosen to lead such a respected and influential organisation. “Radio New Zealand plays a pivotal role in New Zealand life and I’m immensely looking forward to the challenge”.
Mr Thompson will take up his new responsibilities with Radio New Zealand later in the year.
11 June 2013
GlobeCast and SES (NYSE Euronext Paris and Luxembourg Stock Exchange: SESG) announced today that they are providing services to Orange Romania for the launch of a high-quality direct-to-home satellite TV package this month. The package will use multiple transponders on ASTRA’s 31.5 degrees East orbital position and will be broadcast in the DVB-S2 and MPEG4 technical standards. GlobeCast will provide contribution, encryption, and encoding for SD and HD channels in the package.
Orange Romania will launch the new TV package to complement its existing mobile service, enabling the company to offer full multi-device communication services to its customers. Orange Romania booked this service through GlobeCast, which is providing a complete solution to bring Orange Romania’s channels to the point of uplink and prepare them for broadcast on capacity that GlobeCast has leased from SES.
“Today OrangeRomaniais ready to provide high-quality television services and to offer our Romanian customers truly attractive packages,” said Jean-Francois Fallacher, Chief Executive Officer of OrangeRomania. “Orange TV means the highest number of HD TV channels, the best satellite beam strength and coverage, dedicated customer care, multiscreen access, a smaller and efficient dish, and other remarkable features that will allow us to offer an amazing TV experience. All these were brought to life with Orange Group’s expertise and solid partnerships we developed with world-renowned companies in the TV industry.”
“Our offices worldwide collaborated to ensure a full technical solution for GlobeCast’s customer, OrangeRomania, beginning with reception of the channels fromBucharestand ending with handoff to our partner SES for uplink to their powerful satellite,” said Philippe Fort, Chief Operating Officer of GlobeCast. “We are proud of the result and will continue to ensure excellent quality of service on the platform, leading to a high-quality experience for the viewer.”
“Telecommunication operators increasingly invest in content distribution in order to complement their existing services,” said Ferdinand Kayser, Chief Commercial Officer of SES. “This agreement shows the growing importance of satellite as a technical infrastructure for linear television packages of telecommunication operators. In addition to its unrivalled technical reach, satellite offers a fixed cost structure that is not dependent on the number of households receiving a TV service. We are delighted that Orange Romania decided to launch its new service via ASTRA. This confirms the leading role that SES plays in central and Eastern Europe and shows that our orbital slot 31.5 degrees East is becoming a new hot spot in this region.”
10 June 2013
Arab Satellite Communications organization – Arabsat – was awarded “Best Satellite Operator of the Year” while participating at SATCOM Africa 2013 inJohannesburg,South Africa.
Arabsat was chosen for this year’s award since it has met the criteria for the award by being the service provider who has made a difference to the satellite industry in Africa, also being the satellite operator who made new and innovative services available and accommodated the changing needs of the system inAfrica.
Eng \ Khalid bin Ahmed Balkhyour, President & CEO of Arabsat said “We are very pleased with this award, as it crowned the efforts of Arabsat to expand the geographical coverage to serve all customers in the African continent and in all coverage areas, as well as the services offered by Arabsat through its up to date fleet, which is considered the youngest in the region, the latest of which is Badr -7, the first satellite of the 6th generation satellites, which was designed according to the latest technologies including satellite broadcast and telecommunications, creating a new era of convergence between satellite communication and TV broadcasting at Arabsat 26° East (Hot Spot), due to be launched in 2015.”
Arabsat previously won the award for best satellite service provider at Satcom Africa 2010.
About Arabsat: Founded in 1976, Arabsat has been serving the growing needs of the Arab world for over 30 years. Now one of the world’s top satellite operators and by far the leading satellite services provider in the Arab world, it carries over 450 TV channels, 160 radio stations, 4 Pay-TV networks and wide variety of HD channels reaching tens of millions of homes in more than 80 countries across the Middle East, Africa, Europe—and way beyond around the world—including an audience of over 170 million viewers in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region alone tuned into Arabsat’s video “hotspot” at 26° East.
Operating a growing fleet of owned satellites at the 20° East, 26° East, 30.5° East and 34.5° East positions of the geostationary orbit, ARABSAT is the only satellite operator in the MENA region offering the full spectrum of Broadcast, Telecommunications and Broadband services. This capacity will continue to expand with the launching of new satellites, making the ARABSAT satellites’ fleet the youngest in the region.
www.arabsat.com
