13 January 2005
Arabic-language satellite news channel Al Jazeera has launched a campaign to collect donations for the victims of the Asian tsunami disaster.
The Qatar-based broadcaster said the campaign is being organised in coordination with the International Committee of the Red Cross and the Red Crescent.
A spokesperson for the Channel commented: Al Jazeera felt that it is its duty, as prescribed by Article 9 of its Code of Professional Ethics, to actively assist in alleviating some of the human suffering caused by one of the most unfortunate disasters since Al Jazeeras inception as a news organization. We are not a charity, and hence are not equipped to handle the relief effort ourselves. We decided to take this initiative in co-operation with the International Red Cross and Red Crescent. We enhanced the appeal for donations by hosting on our screen, at peak hours during the day, renowned Arab dignitaries in fields ranging from politics, social, cultural etc. calling on our audience to donate. We have had appeals from Moslem as well as non-Moslem dignitaries. Al Jazeera has been the first Arab media organisation to undertake this effort.
12 January 2005
The Radio Netherlands Board of Governors has appointed Jan Hoek as the new Director General of Radio Netherlands. The appointment has the formal approval of the Dutch State Secretary for Culture and Media, Mrs Medy van der Laan.
Jan Hoek is the successor to Lodewijk Bouwens who retired at the end of last year. Jan Hoek has been Acting Director General of Holland’s international broadcasting service since the start of 2004.
Jan joined the Dutch external broadcasting service in 1994 as Financial Controller, becoming Director of Finance and Logistics a year later. He has previously worked for the Wegener publishing group and for KLM. He holds an MBA from Webster University.
Radio Netherlands is the international public broadcasting organization of the Netherlands. Via radio, television (BVN-TV) and internet, Radio Netherlands offers news, information and culture in eight languages. With its various activities, it reaches some 50 million people a week.
12 January 2005
Zimbabwes President Robert Mugabe has signed into law a measure that sets prison terms of up to two years for any journalist found working without accreditation from the government-controlled Media and Information Commission. On its web site, the Committee to Protect Journalists urges Mugabe and his government to turn away from such measures, including another piece of repressive legislation still pending.
The newly enacted measure stiffens the 2002 law known as the Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act (AIPPA). The measure, titled the AIPPA Amendment Act, took effect on January 7.
Parliament passed the AIPPA Amendment Act in November as one in a series of measures adopted in advance of general elections scheduled for March. Critics say the measures are intended to intimidate the last vestiges of the independent press: Two independent weekly newspapers still operate in Zimbabwe, and some local correspondents work for foreign news agencies.
10 January 2005
From 6 January the Arabic programmes of DW-RADIO can be heard on FM in Lebanon. The 60 minute programmes which are broadcast late in the evening can be received in most parts of the country via 11 transmitters in Beirut and other cities. DW director-general Erik Bettermann says that by broadcasting on FM the programmes will reach younger listeners, and he sees the new development as an important contribution to dialogue with the Islamic world.
Germanys international broadcaster signed an agreement with the Voice of Lebanon (VDL) in the autumn of 2004 which made the FM broadcasts possible. The broadcasts reach into neighbouring Syria and its capital Damascus.
DW-RADIOs Arabic Service produces 3 ½ hours of programming daily, broadcast via short wave, in part via medium wave, and via satellite (Nilesat 101). Every day at 19.00 hours UTC, viewers in over 20 countries from Morocco to Saudi-Arabia can also tune into a three hour long Arabic-language TV programme of DW-TV.
10 January 2005
Here are two perspectives Deutsche Welle and Radio Netherlands.
A comment from the Financial Times newspaper of 9 January 2005 on coverage by Germanys international broadcaster Deutsche Welle:
Where other international channels tried to grapple with the delicate isue of giving an appropriate balance between covering local deaths and missing tourists, the Berlin-based network did the best job tackling this difficult balancing act. It delivered the facts about the destruction, to all nations hit by the catastrophe, made viewers aware of what was being done by the federal government and what Gerhad Schröder was up to throughout and made a point of delivering a message that the Luftwaffe had been deployed to bring aid in and take German nationals out.
A comment from Radio Netherlands:
“Here at Radio Netherlands, we are very much aware of the consequences of the tsunami. Our colleague Marijke van der Meer was holidaying in Sri Lanka, and found herself helping to care for the injured as well as sending reports to Radio Netherlands. Victor Goonetilleke has been busy in his role as president of the Radio Society of Sri Lanka, helping to provide communications links. And our colleagues in the Indonesian department of Radio Netherlands are busy organising efforts to restore local broadcasting services in Aceh, which have been devastated. Radio Netherlands’ Hans-Jaap Melissen is also reporting from Aceh. His reports, and Marijke’s, are on our web site.”
“Here in Hilversum, commercial and public broadcasters work together providing fundraising programmes on radio and TV. Radio 555 is the first time in Dutch broadcasting history that so many broadcasters from stations that are normally rivals have come together as friends to raise money for a good cause, and this unprecedented initiaitive has caught the public’s imagination. Already more than 2.5 million euros have been pledged today as a direct result of the radio broadcasts, and the eventual total is expected to be much higher. It’s sad that it takes a tragedy to bring the broadcasters together, but at times like this they can do far more together than separately.
Four radio stations destroyed by the tsunami in Aceh – Muhammadiyah and Prima FM in Banda Aceh, Dalka Radio in Meulaboh and Megaphone in Sigli – will be rebuilt by the Indonesian news radio station 68H, and at least two of them will be back on the air by the end of this month. The cost, some 1.2 billion rupees, will be paid by the US-based Media Development Loan Fund. 15 technicians have already started their work in Banda Aceh. After the work is completed on these four radio stations, there is a plan to rebuild other damaged stations in Simelue, Meulaboh and Banda Aceh, with help from Radio Netherlands and Deutsche Welle.
Many staff of radio stations in Aceh, journalistic colleagues of the Radio Netherlands Indonesian department, people with whom Radio Netherlands had regular contact, are missing. Some stations in Aceh with which Radio Netherlands had worked for many years have been totally destroyed one of them is Radio Nikoya FM in Banda Aceh. Radio Netherlands is starting an action programme to set up a number of emergency radio stations, which will in due course be built up into permanent stations. The Head of the Indonesian department of Radio Netherlands, Indra Titus, said: “We want to help to get the radio stations back on the air, because radio is a very important means of communication in the stricken areas. As help is beginning to flow, communications must be restored to help the search for family members and make information accessible. Even under normal circumstances, radio in Indonesia is a vital means of communication that people cannot be without.” Radio Netherlands will also appeal to its 6000 partner stations around the world to collect money and equipment.
10 January 2005
Neural Audio Corporation, a leading provider of digital signal processing technology for the broadcast industry, and iBiquity Digital Corporation, the sole developer and licensor of HD Radio technology, have approved the Neural Audio 5.1 surround sound digital audio system as compatible with its HD Radio(TM) System. With this approval, Neural is the first spatial audio codec available for HD Radio use.
Neural Audio, teaming with Harris Corporation’s Broadcast Communications Division, has developed the 5225 Mix-Edit Transcoder 5.1 surround sound system, which is scaleable and ensures backward and forward compatibility allowing analog, digital, lossy, linear, stereo, and 5.1 to co-exist in the broadcast environment. The Neural 5225 enables broadcasters to mix, edit and save 5.1 content via Neural’s proprietary “watermarking” system on existing 2.0 stereo equipment. With Neural technology, reception or input at the receiver end of the content is selectively and automatically post-processed and “up-mixed” by the Neural Audio Spatial Environment Engine (SEE) to the available number of speakers (from 2 to 256 channels) in the automotive environment.
HD Radio technology is the digital broadcasting system for terrestrial radio, and is the only digital technology authorized by the FCC for broadcasting in the AM and FM band in the United States. iBiquity has developed and patented HD Radio technology that transmits digital audio and data alongside existing AM and FM analog signals, allowing listeners to enjoy CD-quality sound and virtually eliminating the static, hiss, and pops associated with today’s analog radio signals. Nearly 300 radio stations in more than 100 U.S. markets across 38 states (reaching 67 percent of the U.S. population) have already licensed HD Radio technology.
