12 July 2007
EuroNews, Europe’s leading news TV channel, and Local Media Television, the largest local TV group in Spain, have signed an agreement to distribute one hour of the news TV channel through 191 member local TV stations every day.
From Monday to Thursday, from 0700 to 0800 and on Fridays from 0715 to 0815, Spaniards will be able to watch EuroNews through Local Media TV network stations throughout the country. Every day, EuroNews will broadcast the latest International news from an European perspective, including economy, press review, Europe, sports and a complete meteo info.
With this agreement, EuroNews has fully broken into the local TV market in Spain, where more than 15 million homes already receive the channel’s signal.
The agreement also strengthens Local Media’s position in the Spanish local TV market and its news offer with now more than 2 daily hours of news programmes (EuroNews and Diario Nacional at 1450 and 2150).
Local Media is the first independent local TV group in Spain. Created in 1994, today it has 115 affiliated terrestrial TV channels and another 76 cable stations in the country with a daily reach of more than 1.6 million viewers and 7.5 million on a month basis, according to Sofres.
Local Media is also present in the Spanish DTT market with 22 DTT licences in Galicia, Baleares Islands, Catalonia, Asturias, Aragon, Valencia and Murcia regions.
10 July 2007
We’re delighted that the BBC’s Gaza correspondent, Alan Johnston, has been freed and handed to Hamas officials after 114 days in captivity.
Interviewed immediately after his release, Johnston said he had been in the hands of “dangerous and unpredictable” people.
10 July 2007
A major power failure has resulted in the AIB UK headquarters being without power from 1422 GMT on Monday 9 July 2007.
As a result, our telephone, e-mail and fax systems are not operating correctly.
We apologise that at present, the AIB is not able to be contacted. We hope that power will be restored by first thing on Tuesday morning, 10 July.
10 July 2007
The AIB HQ lost power at 1422 GMT on Monday 9 July.
Power has been restored, but it is taking some time to get the AIB’s communications systems operational again.
Please bear with us during this period of disruption.
9 July 2007
The Armenian parliament has failed to pass a bill that would have placed severe restrictions on foreign broadcast media, particularly RFE/RL (Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty).
The legislation would have banned foreign broadcasts on Armenian public television and radio and heavily taxed their rebroadcast on private stations.
The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) had said the proposals, which passed its first reading on June 29, amounted to a “ban on RFE/RL” and could have made Armenia’s March 2008 presidential elections less free and fair.
The measure didn’t pass in its second and final reading because opposition, independent, and even some pro-government lawmakers blocked a quorum by boycotting two separate votes.
Human Rights Watch, meanwhile, had called the legislative package a potential blow to media freedom in general.
The failed vote in parliament, where just enough lawmakers boycotted the vote to prevent a quorum, means the government must start over if it wants to try again to pass the legislation. That involves redrafting the proposals and resubmitting them again for a new first reading.
Victor Dalakian, an independent member of parliament, was one of the more outspoken critics of the legislation introduced by the government.
“The minority proved that quality is more important than quantity, and this would be a lesson for the parliamentary majority, that it should respect one of the most important rights: liberty,” Dalakian told RFE/RL.
But it wasn’t just the minority that doomed the draft legislation. It didn’t pass its second and final reading because opposition, independent, and even some pro-government lawmakers blocked a quorum by boycotting two separate votes. In the first attempt, only 64 votes were cast (63 for, none against, one abstention) in the 131-member parliament. In the second try, 65 votes were cast (63 for, none against, two abstentions). Both fell short of the 66 votes necessary for a quorum.
Speaker Tigran Torosian and other officials had argued that the legislation would actually not have affected RFE/RL broadcasts. But that position, given the legislation’s wording, left observers both inside and outside the country puzzled.
That’s because the legislation clearly spelled out sharp disincentives for private Armenian radio stations to carry foreign broadcasters’ programmes. They would have had to pay more than 200 US dollars in taxes each time they retransmitted a programme produced by a foreign media organization. That is about 70 times more than broadcasters must pay for a locally made program.
6 July 2007
RFE/RL’s Armenian Service offered intensive coverage of the May 12
parliamentary elections in Armenia – work that’s been recognised by the OSCE.
On Election Day and the day after,
the Service broadcast live for over three hours, with special election
programmes produced in both Prague and Yerevan.
The coverage was singled
out for praise by the OSCE/ODIHR joint observation mission for its
balance and thoroughness (the OSCE/ODIHR “Statement Of Preliminary
Findings And Conclusions” can be found at
http://www.osce.org/documents/odihr/2007/05/24424_en.pdf).
The Director of RFE/RL’s Armenian Service, Hrair Tamrazian, may be
reached by email at tamrazianh@rferl.org. The Armenian Service’s website is at http://www.azatutyun.am/; English-language news about
events in Armenia can be found at
http://www.rferl.org/featuresarchive/country/armenia.html
