12 November 2004
All four categories in the Rory Peck Awards were announced on 10 November, with a strong emphasis on highlighting the crucial role of freelancers in the television newsgathering industry in a year when, as the agencies and broadcasters are admitting, almost the only news footage coming out of Iraq has been from freelance camera people.
Sony International Impact Award Winner 2004
Philip Cox, Inside Darfur: The First Images of the Crisis, a self-funded piece, Shown by Channel 4 News, February 2004
Philip was the first westerner to film inside the war-torn region of Darfur, reporting on the ethnic cleansing reportedly taking place. His pictures alerted the world to the crisis, and showed a clear link between the barbarity taking place and the Sudanese government. At great risk he interviewed government troops, SLA Rebel Group members and refugees to build up an accurate picture of the events taking place. For four weeks he endured sand storms, gunfights and a starvation diet to film the unfolding events. His footage was subsequently shown to the UN and the European Commission and prompted calls across Europe for immediate action.
Hard News Winner 2004
Martin Adler, On Patrol with Charlie Company, a self-funded piece, shown by Channel 4 News, December 2003
Martins film presented a shocking observational account of the US Armys modus operandi in Samarra, Iraq in late November 2003. Martin Adler was with Charlie Company (1-8 Mechanised Infantry Battalion) whose base was on Highway One, just south of Samarra, in the heart of the Sunni Triangle. Their mission: to secure the highway, now considered to be the most dangerous stretch of road in the world with the constant threat of improvised explosive devices, and combat the insurgency which had broken out in the area. Most of the men had been in the country for 7 or 8 months and were showing signs of fatigue and stress.
Features Award Winner 2004
James Miller, Death in Gaza, made by Frostbite Films for HBO, Shown on
Channel 4
Filmed in Rafah, the footage, shot by James Miller, was for an HBO documentary showing the effect of war on the lives of Palestinian children. The main character, Ahmed, had begun working with the paramilitaries after he witnessed an older friend being shot by the Israelis. The film ends with the devastating footage showing how James Miller was killed. Ironically, it was not a war film. It centred on the lives of ordinary children, such as Ahmed, trying to grow up in an extraordinary environment. The night before the crew were due to leave Rafah, James was killed by an Israeli soldier despite the fact that he was wearing a helmet with TV on it, and carrying a white flag.
Freelancers Choice Winner 2004
Ron McCullagh has been chosen by the freelance community for the role he has played in supporting and enabling freelancers to develop their work. As Managing Director of Insight News Television Ltd he has ensured that the company remains focussed on in-depth international current affairs programming. McCullagh has made hundreds of documentary films and news features and the majority have involved the use of freelancers. This award is made via a vote amongst freelancers it honours individuals that have had a significant, positive impact upon the freelance community.
The Rory Peck Awards is an annual ceremony held by the Rory Peck Trust. As well as acting as a major fundraising event, is the only ceremony that highlights and celebrates freelance achievement in television newsgathering around the world. For the last four years, Sony has been the sponsor of this event.
11 November 2004
SES ASTRAs TechCom unit and HELLAS SAT S.A. announced on 9 November that the control of the Hellas-Sat 2 satellite has been successfully handed over from the SES ASTRA control center in Betzdorf, Luxembourg, to the HELLAS SAT control center in Athens, Greece.
SES ASTRA had been contracted by HELLAS SAT on 30th April 2003, to provide satellite control services for the Hellas-Sat 2 satellite, launched on 12th May 2003, after completion of its launch and early-orbit phase. For a period of 16 months since 20th June 2003, SES ASTRAs TechCom unit had been ensuring full control of the satellite from its headquarters in Luxembourg, using Thermopylae Earth Station, Greece, which is owned and operated by OTE, and had been in charge of the continuous operation of the satellite on-station, including spacecraft bus, payload and orbital control management.
Since 26th October 2004, HELLAS SAT now assumes full control of the Hellas-Sat 2 satellite from its spacecraft control center in Athens, Greece, which has been installed turn-key by SES ASTRA as part of another contract. In addition, SES ASTRA has provided spacecraft operations training to the Hellas Sat technical personnel in all domains of spacecraft operations and flight dynamics management.
Christodoulos Protopapas, Managing Director and Chairman of the Board of Directors of HELLAS SAT S.A., stated: We are very proud that the Hellas-Sat 2 satellite is now being operated by Greek Engineers and Scientists. From this moment, Greece really enters to the club of countries which have access to space. We want to thank SES ASTRA for the cooperation and the first class services they provided during the last 16 months and I congratulate the technical teams of both companies for the successful hand-over.
Pascal Rogiest, in charge of SES ASTRAs TechCom unit, added: During 16 months, SES ASTRA has been committed to provide top-quality satellite operations services for the Hellas-Sat 2 satellite. We are glad that HELLAS SAT is now in a position to assume those services on its own, based on the extensive training, and using the spacecraft control centers that SES ASTRAs engineers have successfully provided. We are satisfied that the quality of our services has been recognised by HELLAS SAT all along the project. Our objective is that SES ASTRAs TechCom Unit continues to share its technical expertise in the same way with many other satellite operators.
10 November 2004
According to current plans, Belgian broadcaster Radio Vlaanderen Internationaal will cease radio broadcasts in English, French and German from 26 March 2005. The only remaining shortwave transmissions will be to southern Europe.
Wim Jansen, netmanager Rvi told the AIB: “Of course we at RVi are very sorry about these developments. It is a sad thing that this announcement coincides with the end of “radio” at Swiss Radio International, after we have seen the end of international broadcasting in Austria, Norway, Denmark… Times are hard for international broadcasters in smaller nations. Nevertheless we hope we will be able to serve our international audience via our website rvi.be, which will be thoroughly reworked by April 2005. In the meantime please continue listening to rvi, we will be going on for one more season.”
But there is a glimmer of hope the Flemish Media Minister Geert Bourgeois has invited comments from listeners. The Minister is preparing an evaluation of the Flemish public broadcaster VRT, of which RVI is part.
Please write to:
Media minister Geert Bourgeois, Alhambra building, Emile Jacqmainlaan 20, B-1000 Brussels, Belgium; e-mail: kabinet.bourgeois@vlaanderen.be
10 November 2004
Leaders and experts of journalists’ unions and associations from over 20 countries, who met at the beginning of November in Tallinn, Estonia, condemned poor social standards in the media sector in Central and Eastern Europe. Now journalists’ unions are planning to challenge media companies, many of them foreign-owned, over what they perceive to be unacceptable “double standards” of wages and conditions applied at home and abroad, such as non payment for overtime, refusal to provide journalists with access to professional education, and sacking trade unionist activists and those who seek to organize European Works Councils. Participants of the “East Meets West: Social Dialogue in the Media Sector” Conference, organised by the European Federation of Journalists (EFJ), noted that “The process of EU enlargement is strengthening European democracy, but also carries some threats to fundamental rights, as set out in the new European constitution, including freedom of the press”.
10 November 2004
On 8 November, leading satellite services company GlobeCast announced that a further three channels have signed up to its global distribution network. New horse-racing channel Racing UK and TWC Re:loaded a spin-off from The Wrestling Channel will be available on BSkyBs platform, uplinked via Eurobird 28.5°E from GlobeCasts Brookmans Park teleport.
GlobeCast has also struck a third deal with Discovery Networks Europe to deliver, via its London to Paris fibre connection, the broadcasters flagship channel in France. Discovery Channel launched in September on Canal Satellite, France Telecom Cable and NC Numericable in France as well as on Parabole Reunion within the French-speaking territories in the Indian Ocean. The launch, with a potential subscriber base of 3.2 million, completes the channels footprint in Western Europe.
GlobeCast head of UK channel distribution Juliet Bayliss said: It is a measure of GlobeCasts flexibility and range of services that such a wide variety of broadcasters have chosen us for their DTH delivery requirements. We now deliver more than 500 channels worldwide and many of those are looking to expand into new territories. We are well-placed to help them.
Racing UK, broadcast by Setanta Sport, is available on Sky Digital EPG 432 as well as via cable on Telewest channel 537. The channel, which launched in May 2004, broadcasts racing from 31 UK racecourses. At launch, it shared its satellite channel location with iSport but moved to its own channel (432) in September. It introduced subscription in October, signing up 50 per cent of its year one target audience in a week. GlobeCast also broadcasts North American Sports Network (NASN) for Setanta.
The Wrestling Channel, run by Dolphin TV, is broadcast on Sky Digital EPG 427 while TWC Re:loaded launched on 25 October on EPG 428.
5 November 2004
The AIB has published a completely new Directory of Global Broadcasting for professionals in the broadcasting industry.
This new publication provides extensive contact data for key personnel at television and radio broadcasters – domestic and international – around the world. Whether you need to know who’s in charge of technology strategy at RAI or VRT, who’s head of news at NTV Tokyo or MTV Finland, or who’s head of sport at Estonia TV or Swedish Radio, the AIB Directory of Global Broadcasting will give you the names, the phone numbers and the addresses you want.
Combine that with details of suppliers to the industry, and key industry associations, and you’ve got an indispensible guide to broadcasting worldwide.
Order today,
by clicking here for a one-year subscription that will give you the current copy and the edition that will be published in December, or phone the AIB on +44 (0) 20 8297 3993.
