17 July 2007
ABC Managing Director Mark Scott has announced the appointment of Bruce
Dover as the new Chief Executive of Australia Network, the Corporation’s
international television service to Asia, the Pacific and the Indian
sub-continent.
“We are delighted that Mr Dover with his extensive media experience and
understanding of the region will be leading Australia Network”, Mr Scott
said.
“He joins the network as it continues to grow its audiences in 41 countries
– its mix of news, current affairs, education, lifestyle, drama and sport is
now available in more than 20 million homes across Asia, the Pacific and the
Indian sub-continent.”
Mr Dover’s career as a journalist, editor and business executive has
included senior appointments in print, television and new media. He has been
based in Asia on a number of occasions since the early 1980s whilst working
for Australian and international media companies. His activities in the
region have included executive roles with News Corporation and CNN. In 1986
he received the Graham Perkin Award as Australian Journalist of the Year.
“The ABC takes great pride in the role Australia Network plays in increasing
the awareness of Australia and Australian perspectives across the region”,
Mr Scott said.
“It is doing so in a crowded television landscape, with up to 200 other
satellite and subscription channels on offer and new digital media
technologies making rapid inroads. Mr Dover will bring the required
background experience and regional insights to this highly-competitive and
fast changing environment that will ensure the continued strength of the
network.”
Mr Dover said, “I look forward to building on the extraordinary work done to
date by the ABC in establishing this unique service promoting Australia’s
engagement in the Asia Pacific”.
“Australia Network represents an enormous opportunity to establish a
credible, authoritative Australian voice in the region. With the advent of
new distribution platforms and broadband technologies there is the potential
to bring the very best of Australian television to audiences living and
working in the most dynamic economies of the world today.”
Mr Dover will take up his appointment as Chief Executive of Australia
Network on 6 August and will be based in Sydney.
Mr Dover succeeds Ian Carroll, who was appointed the ABC’s Director of
Innovation earlier this year. He will report to the Director of ABC
International, Murray Green. ABC International brings together Radio
Australia, International Projects and Australia Network.
Australia Network is supported by funds from the Department of Foreign
Affairs and Trade as well as advertising revenue.
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.
