27 January 2005
Faced with a rising number of viewers refusing to pay their licence fees due to embezzlement scandals, Japans public broadcaster NHK’s President Katsuji Ebisawa tendered his resignation on 25 January.
The 2005 budget endorsed by the management committee showed the first decrease in subscription fee income in NHK’s history. The broadcaster has recently also been embroiled in a scandal over claims that it censored a documentary of a mock trial on Japan’s wartime atrocities, bowing to political pressure.
NHK has appointed Gen-ichi Hashimoto as its new President with immediate effect. Mr Hashimoto has been General Managing Director/Executive Director-General for Engineering since September 2004. An engineer by training, he joined NHK in 1968.
27 January 2005
EICTA, the European industry organisation representing the information and communications technology and consumer electronics sectors, has published its Conditions for HD Labelling of Display Devices and associated HD ready label.
The HD ready label is introduced as a quality sign for the differentiation of display equipment, capable of processing and displaying high definition signals, awarded on the basis of minimum functionality requirements detailed in the EICTA conditions for HD Labelling of Display Devices.
The EICTA Conditions for HD Labelling of Display Devices are the result of a concerted effort from the European high technology industry, elaborated in close dialogue with representatives from the European public and private broadcasters,
infrastructure and service providers, as well as national HDTV-related initiatives. The conditions embody a carefully sought after balance between technology and business drivers. I am pleased to announce that EICTA is taking the lead in driving the dynamic changes we are seeing in what is undoubtedly one of Europe’s most exciting and revolutionary industry sectors . Setting the Conditions for HD Labelling of Display Devices marks real progress in the rollout of HDTV in Europe and demonstrates the organisations commitment to actively creating the conditions for the digital economy as well as fully embracing the challenges and benefits of innovation, says Rudy Provoost, CEO Philips Consumer Electronics, as President of EICTA and Chairman of the Executive Board.
In an early response, some of the parties that were involved in the process that led to the definition of the EICTA Conditions for HD Labelling of Display Devices commented: It is critically important that the public is informed about the capabilities of home displays to provide high definition television – and that broadcasters understand what will happen to their content. The HD ready label is fully supported by Europes national broadcasters, the Members of the European Broadcasting Union (EBU). The EICTA Conditions for HD Labelling of Display Devices offers a well balanced approach which responds to viewers and broadcasters needs for certainty regarding interoperability with future HD receiver products. says Daniel Sauvet-Goichon, Chairman, EBU Technical Committee.
Ferdinand Kayser, President and CEO of SES ASTRA, states: The HD ready label provides consumers with the guarantee that displays from different manufacturers are genuinely future -proof and fully compliant with commonly agreed technical standards for state-of-the-art High Definition broadcasts. In combination with ASTRAs unique 24 hour HD promo channel which is available for live demonstrations on HD displays at points of sales all across Europe, it provides a powerful marketing tool to educate millions of end-consumers about the single most important technological development in broadcasting since the introduction of color TV: HDTV!
The issues addressed by the EICTA HD ready label are critical to fostering growth, guaranteeing confidence in the Consumer Electronics sector, and achieving the goals of putting Europe on the worldwide HDTV map. The EICTA Conditions for HD Labelling of Display Devices offers a carefully balanced approach which preserves the incentives for European innovation in broadcasting technologies, while also responding to the consumers call for certainty and clear messaging regarding interoperability with future HD receiver products. The HD ready label should introduce consumer assurance and confidence when purchasing new display devices assumed to be ready for use with High Definition broadcasts and other HD equipment. The label is awarded within a self-certification regime.
25 January 2005
Deutsche Welle is supporting the reconstruction of radio stations in the tsunami-stricken province of Aceh on the Indonesian island of Sumatra. This was announced on 20 January in Bonn by Erik Bettermann, the Director-General of Germanys international broadcaster.
Bettermann said that Deutsche Welle has been working in partnership with a number of broadcasters, primarily small FM stations, in northern Sumatra for over 40 years. Most of the stations eight in the provincial capital of Banda Aceh and in the city of Meulaboh were entirely destroyed by the tsunami and the quake. In the regions most affected by the catastrophe on the western coast of Sumatra, the devastation has left the survivors with no access to information about aid measures and the general situation in their homeland.
Radio 68 H is one of DWs partner stations in Indonesia. This internationally funded news broadcaster distributes its programmes via satellite to over 400 private radio stations throughout Indonesia. Every day, Radio 68 H broadcasts one hour of the DW-RADIO / Indonesian Service and is planning to rebuild a number of radio stations in Aceh.
Director-General Bettermann announced that DW will provide funds for the construction of up to nine new radio transmitters. In addition, with the help of sponsors, Germanys international broadcaster is planning to purchase 1,000 radios and distribute them in the reception camps of the province. In view of the destruction of the media infrastructure, this measure is aimed to help get information to the people about developments in the region.
A staff member from the Indonesian Service of DW-RADIO has journeyed to the northernmost province of the island of Sumatra to coordinate the aid measures, reported Bettermann.
Expansion of the broadcasting time of DW-RADIOs Indonesian Service would be desirable under these circumstances. Deutsche Welle is capable of satisfying the enormous interest of the population in reliable information on local events. As soon as additional funds are made available for this, we will temporarily expand the Service, said DWs Director-General.
The current programmes of the Indonesian Service of DW-RADIO report exhaustively about the situation in the crisis region. DW-RADIO / Indonesian broadcasts 50 minutes of programming twice a day via shortwave and satellite (ASIASAT 2) and is also present on the Internet (www.dw-world.de/indonesia). The province of Aceh, which continues to be assailed by civil war, will remain a focal point of reporting. Deutsche Welle hopes to continue its close cooperation with its partner stations there and hence also make an important contribution to media and freedom of information in the region. Three weeks after the catastrophe, according to international observers, the situation in northern Sumatra is again intensifying. Aid workers are apprehensive about the initial clashes between Indonesian military leadership and rebel groups in the catastrophe region in spite of the ceasefire agreed in late December.
25 January 2005
The OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media, Miklos Haraszti, expressed his concern about recent cases in Poland in which journalists have been sentenced to prison terms for criminal libel. In a letter to the Polish Minister of Justice Marek Sadowski, he said that the current provisions may constitute legal precedents curtailing freedom of the media in Poland in the future. “The trend in most of the democratic world is to offer less protection to public figures than to private individuals,” Miklos Haraszti wrote. “However, the recently applied Polish speech laws do not even offer equal protection to private individuals and public figures. The latter enjoy an elevated level of protection from criticism. These laws should be repealed.”
The case of Jerzy Urban, editor of the magazine Nie, is an example of how Polish speech laws work. On January 14, a Warsaw prosecutor requested that Mr. Urban be sentenced to a 10-month suspended prison term and fined the equivalent of 5,000 Euros for insulting a foreign head of state in an “offensive” editorial. A court in Warsaw is due to give its verdict. This case follows the sentencing of two Polish journalists to prison terms in May and July last year for slandering a public official. These were the first cases of applying criminal libel in democratic Poland.
Haraszti acknowledged the full independence of the courts deliberating in those cases. However, he expressed his disappointment with the lack of action in trying to change the inadequate libel and insult provisions of the Polish law. In most EU countries such laws have not been used for many years, even if they remain on the statute book. In this regard, Haraszti recalled that the European Court of Human Rights has on many occasions stated that elevated protection for public officials and applied prison sentences for journalistic opinions were contrary to Article 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights.
“Our joint recommendation with the freedom of expression Rapporteurs of the United Nations and the Organization of American States, issued in November 2002, states: “Where libel is still a criminal offence, courts should refrain from imposing prison sentences, including suspended ones,” wrote the OSCE media freedom representative. Haraszti urged Polish authorities to put in force a moratorium on the use of the restrictive laws and to introduce laws to decriminalise libel and defamation.
24 January 2005
PanAmSat Corporation announced on 19 January that its subsidiary, PanAmSat Asia Pty. Ltd. had acquired certain of the business assets from the receivers of TARBS World TV Australia Pty. Ltd. The agreement includes the subscriber list, intellectual property and subscriber-installed equipment of TARBS, an Australian pay TV provider. Concurrently, PanAmSat announced that PanGlobal TV had opened for business as Australias new multi-ethnic Direct-To-Home (DTH) platform.
The assets we have obtained will help facilitate the growth of the PanGlobal TV platform by assisting our channel partners to reach the ethnic TV audience in Australia, said David Ball, vice president, Asia-Pacific. “PanGlobal TV is up and running offering Arabic, Serbian and Russian channels and is capable of reaching all of the homes formerly served by TARBS. Additional channels are planning to join the platform shortly.
PanGlobal TV is hosted on the PAS-8 Pacific Ocean Region satellite. MySAT, the Arabic Pay TV service, offers the following networks through PanGlobal TV: ART, LBC, Al Jazeera, ART Movies, Future TV, MBC and Noursat. Horizon World Plus TV Pty Ltd is distributing a bouquet of four Russian television channels on the PanGlobal TV platform in Australia. They are: RTVi, Teleklub/Detski Mir, Nashe Kino and RTR Planeta. TV Plus offers Serbian services Pink TV, BN and BK Sat.
PanGlobal TV is a joint marketing alliance between PanAmSat and GlobeCast Australia, which offers a range of transmission services to international broadcasters who wish to reach Australias diverse multi-cultural communities. The service transmits digital television channel signals from either GlobeCast Australias Sydney teleport or the PanAmSat Napa Valley, California teleport to the PAS-8 Ku-band Australia beam. The teleports offer digital encoding, signal processing and transport services in addition to the uplink service to the satellite. PanGlobal TV offers backhaul to either the Napa teleport or the Sydney teleport by satellite, fiber or hybrid satellite/fiber contribution. TARBS had antennas serving more than 50,000 Australian homes. These antennas are included in the assets that were acquired from the TARBS receiver. The relationship with the subscriber is directly between the programmer and the consumer.
21 January 2005
Harris Corporation announced on 20 January that it has been awarded a three-month, $22 million contract by the Iraqi Media Network (IMN). The contract scope includes training, programming support, systems integration and deployment work for IMN, the country’s public television and radio broadcasting organization. The network has operating locations in Baghdad and in more than 30 other locations throughout the country. Funding for the contract will be provided solely by the Iraqi government.
“We’re pleased to support Iraq’s public broadcasting network at such a crucial point in this country’s transition to democracy,” said Howard L. Lance, chairman, president, and chief executive officer of Harris Corporation. “IMN will play an important role in reporting on the upcoming national elections, and Harris and its local partners will provide vital support services through this contract.”
Work on a previous IMN contract was successfully completed in early January. Originally awarded to Harris in January 2004 by the Defense Contracting Command, that contract scope included requirements for broadcast and printing equipment, broadcast studio and transmission systems design and integration, network operations, and employee training. “In spite of the obvious security challenges, the Harris team created a world-class broadcast environment and successfully upgraded the production capabilities of Al Sabah, the national newspaper,” Lance said. “As the capabilities of the media network have grown, so have the dedication and professionalism of the more than 1,000 IMN employees, who are all Iraqi citizens.”
The Harris team completed construction of a news studio and an entertainment studio in central Baghdad. The public television network, named Al Iraqiya, now has a 24-hour news desk and programming that features 80 percent Iraqi content including news, sports, business, and weather coverage. Public radio programming includes both “talk” and “music” formats. IMN has full capability to produce live entertainment and news commentary programs. New equipment and facilities for the Al Sabah newspaper helped to increase production capabilities from 60,000 to 350,000 copies per day. Harris Corporation was supported by two important teammates on the contract: the Lebanese Broadcasting Corporation International (LBCI) and Al Fawares, a Kuwaiti company with Iraqi ownership.
Harris Corporation is an international communications technology company focused on providing assured communications products, systems and services for government and commercial customers. The company’s four operating divisions serve markets for government communications, tactical radio, broadcast, and microwave systems. Harris provides systems and service to customers in more than 150 countries.
