6 January 2005
The Cable & Satellite Broadcasting Association of Asia (CASBAA) says it is time for the Hong Kong government to address the issue of criminalisation of the domestic use of unauthorized pay-TV decoders in the HKSAR. The Association, which represents all of Hong Kongs pay-TV operators as well as the regional pay-TV channels, notes that recent reports of the cracking of the encryption codes of Hong Kong pay-TV operator i-Cable only highlight the need for a multi-faceted approach to pay-TV signal theft, including technical solutions, legal remedies and public education.
We recognise that there will always be battles to stay ahead of the technology curve. The pay-TV industry regularly adopts new technical solutions to piracy as a matter of practice, said Marcel Fenez, Chairman of CASBAA. Investment in the latest encryption technology is just a part of the cost of doing business. However, the pay-TV industry and the community at large also need the support of regulators and enforcement agencies if the media industry is to continue to thrive in Hong Kong. Technical solutions cannot stand alone, said Mr Fenez.
Criminal sanctions for domestic pay-TV signal theft are in place in many jurisdictions, including Singapore, Australia, the United Kingdom, France, Canada and the United States. CASBAA believes that clearly identifying end-user piracy as a criminal offence will significantly reduce demand for unauthorised pay-TV distribution within Hong Kong, thus making the development and sales of illegal decoders a less attractive proposition for those involved in criminal activities. Its time for Hong Kong to face up to this issue, said Mr Fenez. Unless it does so, our industry and the HKSARs reputation as a respected regional media hub will suffer further damage.
CASBAA also believes the Hong Kong government needs to eliminate any gray areas with regards to pay-TV piracy that do not draw a clear distinction between what is the legally permitted distribution of pay-TV services and what is not. Another outstanding issue of significant concern in Hong Kong is the continued distribution of unauthorised pay-TV signals in public venues such as clubs and pubs.
Pay-TV signal theft in Hong Kong cost an estimated HK$195 million last year. There is also a cost to the government in uncollected license fees and taxes.
22 December 2004
VT Communications, part of VT Group plc has signed a significant broadcast contract with China Radio International (CRI) to deliver nine hours of daily programming into Southern Africa, Mexico and Brazil, providing CRI with the network coverage they require for new services.
VT Communications are able to provide CRI with the additional network coverage required by utilising its strategic relationships with other international broadcasters. Under the terms of the agreement VT Communications will deliver English and Chinese programming into Southern Africa, English and Portuguese into South America and Spanish programming into Mexico and Central America. CRIs language programming will be delivered via satellite to the transmitter sites.
The award of this one year contract reflects VT Communications commitment to developing high quality end to end solutions for complex service delivery for customers. It also underpins their increasing cooperation with other international broadcasting partners.
Mr Xia Jixuan, CRIs Deputy Director General speaks highly of the project and commented: This contract with VTC will ensure stronger, clearer signals and a better service for CRIs listeners.
VTCs Managing Director, Doug Umbers commented: We are proud to announce our first services for CRI, a very prestigious customer. We look forward to building on this initial contract and developing a broader relationship with CRI.
About China Radio International:
China Radio International (CRI) was founded on December 3rd, 1941.CRI aims at promoting understanding and friendship between the people of China and people throughout the world. CRI broadcasts 370 hours of programs each day to all over the world in 43 languages. CRI’s programs include news, current affairs, and features on politics, economy, culture, science and technology.
About VT Communications
VT Communications, part of VT Group plc, is a leading provider of critical communications and broadcast services to customers in the defence, broadcast, space communications and Government sectors worldwide.
VT Communications transmits over 1,000 hours of both short and medium wave broadcasts every day utilising its global network providing broadcasters with exceptional coverage of the worlds most populous regions. Broadcast customers include BBC World Service, NHK (Radio Japan), Radio Canada International, Radio Netherlands, Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) and Voice of America. VT Communications is a founder member of Digital Radio Mondiale (DRM), a consortium of broadcast related organisations working to bring digital AM radio to the market place.
Further information about VT Group, its services and products can be found at www.vtplc.com .
22 December 2004
GlobeCast, a leading global satellite services company, has launched AMTV (Australian Multicultural Television Network), Australias first full-time DTH channel dedicated to the local ethnic communities. Hosted on Optus B3 platform, the channel commenced broadcasting in December.
The Channel will comprise daily segments of programming focused on each of Australias main ethnic groups, and will provide locally produced, topical content. It will also feature community level programmes and events filmed directly by AMTV in the local area. There will be live community forums discussing various issues showcasing the cultural diversity of our Country.
AMTV will be locally produced from a consortium of program providers of the former Channel 31 Community TV in Sydney. Collectively the consortium has over 50 years experience in producing community Television, Radio and Print Media for Australias Multicultural Communities. Other professional community television providers are welcome to incorporate their services on the AMTV program line-up.
GIobeCast – a subsidiary of France Telecom – is a world leading satellite services company, operating a global network of satellite distribution platforms for DTH and cable broadcast, enterprise media and advanced IP-based content delivery. The companys global presence includes 15 teleports and technical operations centers throughout America, Europe, Asia, Australia, the Middle East and Africa. GlobeCast offers the complete range of satellite broadcast solutions, including TV channel distribution, secure satellite Internet delivery, webcasting, satellite newsgathering, direct-to-home distribution, sports programming backhaul, program origination, studio production, special events mobile production and audio distribution.
GlobeCast Australia, the local GlobeCast unit in Australia, is one of the country’s leading providers of satellite and fibre transmission and production services for professional broadcast, enterprise and Internet content delivery
AMTV is an Australian based company specializing in community based programming and delivery. The AMTV board comprises a consortium of local programme producers covering Arabic, European, Asian, Baltic and English language Groups. AMTV will be broadcasting live from a new purpose built HQ and production facilities in Liverpool, South West Sydney. A primary objective of the company is to represent the communities of interest of Australias diverse community groups.
22 December 2004
Broadcasters from across Pakistan participated in a Voice of America/Radio Aap ki Dunyaa (VOA) workshop that highlighted the role of the free press and featured a discussion with Sharmeen Obaid, a journalist who has reported religious fundamentalism in the country.
“The interaction between the group, the press conference and the discussions were among the best I’ve seen,” said Owais Aslam Ali, secretary-general of the Pakistan Press Foundation (PPF), which helped VOA organize the event. PPF is an independent media research, documentation and training center that promotes press freedom.
Arnold Zeitlin, a former Associated Press bureau chief in Pakistan, worked with VOA staff to conduct the sessions which included training in fair and balanced reporting, how to conduct an interview, use of research and the Internet and the role of the free press. The sessions were held Dec. 15-18, 2004.
Obaid, a native Pakistani who was educated in the United States, held a question-and-answer session with journalists on her new documentary, Reinventing the Taliban, which is about the rise of religious fundamentalism in Pakistan’s Northwest Frontier Province.
Workshop participants also attended a press conference by Senator Raza Rabbani, deputy secretary general of the opposition Pakistan Peoples’ Party Parliamentarians. Rabbani gave a detailed briefing on his party’s position on current issues, including Pakistan’s role as a frontline state in the war on terror.
Javed Jabbar, a former minister of information and broadcasting in Pakistan, was the speaker at the concluding session. He called for creating community-based radio stations across the country.
Last year, VOA launched a new Urdu-language service, Radio Aap ki Dunyaa, which transmits 12 hours a day of news and information to millions of Pakistanis and other Urdu speakers. The station is distributed on medium-wave at 972 kHz. It is also broadcast three hours a day on shortwave.
16 December 2004
Over 400 news professionals and executives gathered in Vilamoura, Portugal, in November 2004 for the third edition of the News Xchange conference. With media coverage of the Middle East in particular of the conflict in Iraq and of events in Israel and the occupied territories high on the agenda of every news organization, Arab media and safety of media workers in zones of conflict were two of the main topics. Participants in places as far apart as Doha, Beirut, Amman, Washington, London, and Paris, took part in the debates of the two-day conference via over 40 satellite link-ups ensured by the Eurovision network.
News Xchange 2004 opened with The Year in Pictures video report produced by APTN, followed by a keynote speech by HM King Abdullah of Jordan. Addressing delegates on a live link from Amman, King Abdullah stressed the importance of liberalizing the media in Jordan: We are enacting laws to restructure state media organizations and disengage the government from direct control. Laws have been drafted to liberalize the sector and to open the public airwaves to private TV and radio stations. In his speech and in answering questions from delegates, the king outlined a number of points around which the sessions debate was to develop. The sovereign paid tribute to the impact of Arab broadcast media which he described as a tremendously positive influence over the past several years. He stressed how dispassionate, knowledgeable reporting, fairness and credibility were essential on the part of Arab media if regional reform and peace are to succeed. He also emphasized the need for responsible journalists to deprive extremists of platforms and exposure.
King Abdullah also paid tribute to journalists and other media workers who died to tell the story.
Diversity
Western observers often fail to recognize the diversity of Arab media owing to a lack of knowledge of both the Arab world and language, several speakers noted. I feel very uncomfortable when I hear somebody saying, the western media because I dont know what we are talking about. If we are talking about the [British] print media you have the Sun and the Guardian and the Independent – its quite a diversity of views and treatments of information that we are receiving and the same thing applies in the Middle East and in every individual [Arabic] station, said Hosam El-Sokkari, head of the BBC World Services Arabic [radio] Service.
Abdallah Schleifer, director, Adham Centre for TV Journalism, Cairo, recalled how deeply Arab television journalism had changed in recent times: 14 years ago there was no such things as Arab TV journalism, it did not exist
There was an honourable tradition in print journalism which goes back to the 19th century, but not of television journalism, he said, adding: There were news bulletins. A cameraman would go out and cover a minister opening a factory, or perhaps a president receiving a guest or a cabinet meeting with people sipping coffee and that was the beginning and the end of television journalism. There were no reporters, the reader would simply take wire copy from the state news organization which maybe or maybe did not coincide with the pictures we were seeing. Schleifer went on to describe the change introduced with the arrival of CNN International in the Middle East in 1991 which provided coverage of the Gulf war at the time and marked the introduction of satellite television in the region.
The launch of the Doha-based Aljazeera, following the 1998 collapse of BBC Arabic television, a joint venture with Orbit, a Saudi-owned company, marked a watershed for Arab media. Aljazeera has since come to embody pan-Arab TV channels in the western world and has been followed by a number of such channels. However, Aljazeeras relations with many Arab governments have not been easy over the years, it is still banned in Algeria, Bahrain, Iraq, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Sudan and Tunisia. King Abdullah acknowledged this in his opening remarks: Weve had our good days and bad days with them [Aljazeera], we do close them down when they get to the point of being incorrect with their information, when they are inflammatory in creating hatred and distrust
but that doesnt last for very long because we do believe in the freedom of the press, he told delegates.
Professionalism
Pan-Arab TV channels have come under a lot of criticism in western countries for allegedly offering platforms to extremists, airing tapes of Usamah bin Laden or executions of hostages. Such claims were rejected by several broadcasters, not least by Ahmed Al-Sheikh, from Aljazeera. This is how we feel about the tapes of Usamah bin Laden: we feel that we have a moral responsibility of showing to our audience what is happening in the so-called camp of evil, so we judge these tapes by this and accordingly we put what we feel is newsworthy on air, he said.
As for footage of executions: Never before have we shown any beheading tape
we never showed these tapes, not a single frame. Its a policy, its a longstanding editorial policy of Aljazeera not to show these tapes, he stressed. A point reiterated by Nart Bouran, editor-in-chief, Abu Dhabi TV: Its a consistent policy
we decided it was not for us to act as a mouthpiece for any of these organizations that are kidnapping and killing hostages, he told delegates. Ibrahim Mousawi, news director of the Lebanon-based pro-Hezbollah al-Manar channel, also claimed his channel was working under the calibre of the standards of professionalism
You have to be smart enough to respect your audience
we dont need to make a lot of propaganda to convince others of our cause, he said.
The Arab-Western divide regarding the treatment of video material was highlighted by the way NBC and Aljazeera reported the shooting of an insurgent by a US Marine in a mosque in Fallujah in mid-November. Delegates were shown the reports based on the same footage as broadcast by both NBC and Aljazeera. Asked why NBC had not shown the actual shooting, Bill Wheatley, vice president NBC News, replied: Generally speaking NBC doesnt show specific acts of violence if too graphic
we think we properly informed people in the case of that report about what had happened. What we didnt do was show it in all its brutality and gruesomeness. It is not a question of bias, but one of taste
about making a judgment about whats appropriate to show. Bill Wheatley also argued that NBC had placed the shooting in context: We made a very strong effort to give complete editorial information to the entire pool prior to the members using the pictures, he said.
Ahmed Al-Sheikh defended Aljazeeras decision to show the shooting. We are like NBC, we do not show gruesome scenes or pictures. But when we looked at the shots, first of all the shot was a medium-wide shot and was not showing the actual shooting in the head of the man. It was a medium-wide shot and in this case our editorial policy is that we can show these things, he explained. Al-Arabiyas position was identical to that of Aljazeera, according to Salah Negm from the Dubai-based channel.
The approach at the US government-funded al-Hurra channel was closer to NBC, not because we are based in Washington, but as a matter of taste said Mouafac Harb, director of news at the channel. What is key here is to get the story out, not what kind of shots we have used or not, he added. This quest for professionalism can be observed throughout the region, said Abdallah Schleifer: Everywhere I travel now, whether Doha or Dubai, everybody is talking about striving for professionalism and I think they are striving for it.
Ethics
However, can professionalism exist when many obstacles prevent proper reporting? Certain channels are banned from many countries, Aljazeera in particular, which has also been banned from Iraq for weeks. Furthermore reporting on certain issues, such as corruption and democratization, can be very difficult.
Session chair Emad El Din Adeeb asked his hosts: If Aljazeera can talk about corruption in countries like Egypt or Jordan, if al-Arabiya can talk about corruption in Sudan – can al-Jazeera talk about corruption in Qatar? Can al-Arabiya talk about it in Saudi Arabia?
We are very good about being transparent in other Arab countries, but not transparent about the sponsors of our networks and we have to confess here that we are not one hundred per cent free doing our jobs. A point reinforced by Mohammed Gohar, managing director, Video CairoSat, Egypt: We have to admit that we cannot discuss
our little problems like handling power or democracy or implementing the Sharia law and we are facing many difficulties discussing these problems. Like our friend who criticised the minister of culture in Egypt, and has now spent three years in prison. He went on to quip: So these are little problems that we suffer, but we do have full democracy in criticising Bush and Sharon!
Salah Negm, from al-Arabiya argued that a distinction had to be made between pan-Arab channels or satellite channels and local channels, the former dealing with issues of interest to 22 countries, such as Palestine and democratisation in general, but not going into specifics. This, he said, was the role of local television channels which are financed by these governments and which should represent the diversity of that society, talking about local corruption, democracy, elections, about raising taxes, and actually being the fourth estate for supervising all the functions of government. Mohammed Gohar highlighted a more disturbing approach. Answering a question as to why Arab channels had been reluctant to air footage of the tragedy in Darfour, Sudan, he replied: If in Darfour, a Muslim kills non-Muslims, then it doesnt really interest the Arabic media but if its vice versa, it will be a hit for them and they will take it. This confession shows that a number of Arab broadcast media still have some way to go to be fully professional.
Media with a mission?
This quest for professionalism on the part of Arab media is further held back by their tendency of seeing themselves as invested with a mission, a need to mobilize forces against occupation or corruption. A trend rejected by the BBCs Hosam El-Sokkari. Although funded by a grant-in-aid of the British government, the BBC is not under any pressure to be friendly towards British policies or the policies of any country friendly to the British government, he stressed. As regards mobilizing forces, I think there is a third way, in the BBC we dont see ourselves as a medium with a political message. We are a platform for debate
We dont see that our job is to mobilize forces or mobilize the streets against governments, he said.
Safety
In these troubled times media professionals have suffered an ever growing number of casualties. News Xchange has now become a major forum to discuss safety issues and the International News Safety Institute (INSI) held its annual general meeting on the eve of News Xchange for the second year in a row.
Chris Cramer, managing director CNN International and honorary president of INSI told delegates: The death toll is three times higher than that of international humanitarian workers… This has been arguably the most terrible year for our profession – after I sat here and told you last year it had been the most terrible year.
Reporting extensively from zones of conflict, such as Iraq or the occupied territories, Arab media have suffered very significant casualties. An issue highlighted by Chuck Lustig, from ABC news, who paid tribute to the employees of Arab networks who are doing the dirty work in Iraq. For that we all owe them a great deal of gratitude because as it gets more and more dangerous for westerners to go out in Iraq, it is your employees who are covering what is going on in the country today. And for that we owe you a great deal of thanks, he said.
The safety session looked at the danger faced by Arab journalists in Iraq, underlined by the killing of a large number of Arab media professionals by both sides as well as by the treatment inflicted to three Reuters and an NBC Arab staff arrested in Fallujah and later then abused and humiliated in various ways by US forces for several days. David Schlesinger, global managing editor for Reuters, regretted that no proper investigation of the circumstances was ever carried out by the Pentagon. US Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense (Public Affairs) Bryan Whitman said the Pentagon was thoroughly investigating every case of violence against journalists and noted that a war zone was always dangerous, but that the vast majority of journalists killed had not been embedded with US forces. A number of participants rejected this approach as indicating the Pentagons willingness to manage the news agenda through the embed system.
A chilling reminder that some groups of insurgents were determined to cow the media into submission was the warning posted on the al-Qala web site: We are swearing allegiance to God that we will reach all the media and news agencies that are not at least neutral in reporting news. We swear to God that we will hunt all the workers in these news agencies one after another and we will slaughter them like sheep if they stand beside the Americans and not broadcast the truth about the number of soldiers killed in Iraq. Their fate will be the same as al-Arabiya who used to call the Mujahideen terrorists. Seven people were killed and several wounded on 30 October when a car bomb went off outside Al-Arabiya offices in Baghdad.
The session also looked at a lesser known, but nevertheless very significant collateral damage of the media coverage of the war: the traumatic impact on media staff in newsrooms and archives of viewing footage of a gruesome nature, such as beheadings and the execution of hostages. Mark Brayne, of the Dart Centre Europe, outlined a number of measures to be taken by broadcasting organizations to help their staff cope with this relatively new issue.
The large number and quality of contributors to the Arabic media and safety sessions have ensured a remarkably frank and fruitful exchange of views and opinions which should contribute to a better understanding of the many challenges and opportunities facing Arab media and the risks faced by media professionals.
Text by Morand Fachot, EBU Communications Service
News Xchange, a not-for-profit conference underwritten by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), has the backing of the 72 members of the EBUs Eurovision News Exchange and of the 29 members of European News Exchange (ENEX), the cooperative of commercial broadcasters. It is also supported by the major international broadcast news agencies and networks.
The European Broadcasting Union organizes Hostile Environment Safety Training (HEST) courses designed by journalists and developed by front-line media professionals and European special forces to raise journalists awareness and prepare them for hostile environments.
For details see: http://www.ebu.ch/ebu-training/bestw/events/05HEST/HEST2005_flyer.pdf
News Xchange:
http://www.Newsxchange.org
Eurovision:
http://www.eurovision.net
EBU: http://www.ebu.ch
INSI http://www.newssafety.com
Dart Centre Europe: http://www.dartcenter.org/europe/
