31 August 2004
The Federal Government of Nigeria has appointed an Acting Director-General for Voice of Nigeria (VON). He is Mallam Abubakar Jijiwa, who has been the Corporations Director, Administration and Finance.
Mallam Abubakar Jijiwa succeeds Mr. Taiwo Allimi whose five year term expired on 29 July 29. Mallam Jijiwa will also act as the Chairman, Broadcasting Organisations of Nigeria (BON).
The new acting Director-General assures that VON will continue to respect all its obligations and commitments to all its partners across the world.
Mallam Jijiwa can be reached on: abubakarjijiwa@yahoo.com
Telephone Numbers: 234-9-2346972 or 234-803-4700001
30 August 2004
The AIB has protested the closure of the Baghdad bureau of Aljazeera on Saturday 7 August 2004 by the Iraqi government.
Above: An Aljazeera reporter being
escorted out of the office
The closure will do nothing to aid the establishment of democracy and civil society within Iraq, nor will it assist the free and fair reporting of events in the country to the Middle East. There is no credible evidence that the channel, a member – along with many other international radio and television broadcasters – of this Association, has encouraged criminals in Iraq or advocated or incited hatred and racial tension as the Iraqi authorities suggest.
Aljazeera, with a regular audience of well over 35 million people in the Arab-speaking world, is the only pan-Arab broadcaster to openly embrace and promote a code of ethics similar to that which journalists in international television and radio broadcasters worldwide work to. It is the only pan-Arab network that has engaged multiple trainers from western broadcasters and media training institutes to ensure that its rapidly growing staff are taught the need to be impartial, fair and accurate in their reporting and editing.
“The restrictions placed on Aljazeeras team working in Iraq may provide obstacles to the channels ability to report directly from the scene,” says Simon Spanswick, Chief Executive of the AIB. “However, the Iraqi government fails to understand the way in which modern television newsgathering operations function as Aljazeera will have continued access to video footage and correspondents reports from the country thanks to its long-standing arrangements with the mainstream news agencies and with other broadcasters.”
“This closure damages the Arab worlds perception of the fledgling Iraqi government,” Spanswick continues. “It suppresses factual news and information from high-quality journalists and harms the first freedom – that of free expression. We call on the Iraqi government to reverse its decision and allow Aljazeera to operate feely in the country.”
17 August 2004
Intelsat (AIB Member)is to be acquired by a consortium of private investors – valued at approximately $5 billion.Intelsat will be amalgamated under Bermuda law with Zeus Holdings Limited – a company formed by a consortium of funds advised by Apax Partners, Apollo Management, Madison Dearborn Partners and Permira. At closing, Zeus will be acquiring Intelsat, and Intelsat’s current shareholders generally will be entitled to receive $18.75 for each Intelsat share issued and outstanding immediately prior to closing.
Conny Kullman – CEO said, “this transaction comes at a time when Intelsat is successfully executing on its strategies for market leadership in the fixed satellite services sector. We believe that the acquisition of Intelsat by this consortium of well-respected private equity investors represents the best opportunity for Intelsat to achieve its strategic goals.”
9 August 2004
The AIB has protested the closure of the Baghdad bureau of Aljazeera on Saturday 7 August 2004 by the Iraqi government.
The closure will do nothing to aid the establishment of democracy and civil society within Iraq, nor will it assist the free and fair reporting of events in the country to the Middle East. There is no credible evidence that the channel, a member – along with many other international radio and television broadcasters – of this Association, has encouraged criminals in Iraq or advocated or incited hatred and racial tension as the Iraqi authorities suggest.
Aljazeera, with a regular audience of well over 35 million people in the Arab-speaking world, is the only pan-Arab broadcaster to openly embrace and promote a code of ethics similar to that which journalists in international television and radio broadcasters worldwide work to. It is the only pan-Arab network that has engaged multiple trainers from western broadcasters and media training institutes to ensure that its rapidly growing staff are taught the need to be impartial, fair and accurate in their reporting and editing.
“The restrictions placed on Aljazeeras team working in Iraq may provide obstacles to the channels ability to report directly from the scene,” says Simon Spanswick, Chief Executive of the AIB. “However, the Iraqi government fails to understand the way in which modern television newsgathering operations function as Aljazeera will have continued access to video footage and correspondents reports from the country thanks to its long-standing arrangements with the mainstream news agencies and with other broadcasters.”
“This closure damages the Arab worlds perception of the fledgling Iraqi government,” Spanswick continues. “It suppresses factual news and information from high-quality journalists and harms the first freedom – that of free expression. We call on the Iraqi government to reverse its decision and allow Aljazeera to operate feely in the country.”
7 August 2004
ND SatCom, a leading global supplier of satellite-based broadband VSAT, broadcast and military communication network solutions, announced that the Ministry for Communication and Informatics of Hungary has chosen to use the services of a satellite based communications network utilizing ND SatCom platforms. The contract comprises 500 remote stations as well as one redundant hub station. It will be operated by the Hungarian Service Provider Hungaro DigiTel (HDT) and is going to be implemented in summer 2004.
ND SatCom’s VSAT star network, SkyARCS, is a modular scalable, high performance satellite IP network solution. It is fully compliant with the ETSI/DVB standard DVB-RCS. Due to its ability to support each terminal with up to 2Mbit/s bursts in the return link, it is ideally suited for school applications with a high demand for information exchange of any kind.
“After comparing various vendor’s offerings, we found ND SatCom’s solution to be the most suitable for our prestigious national project and best in terms of cost effectiveness,”said Antonio Felizardo, Deputy General Manager at HDT.”ND SatCom’s expertise in providing customer tailored solutions using various terminal technologies as well as integrating state of the art application packages is only one of the reasons why we choose ND SatCom for this nationwide project. ND SatCom has proven to be a reliable partner for the project management. We are looking forward to a fruitful future relationship.”
“ND SatCom’s SkyARCS platform allows Service Providers such as HDT to serve the growing IP business application markets and is designed to provide optimal network performance whilst guaranteeing minimal cost of ownership. We are excited to be working with Hungaro DigiTel and are proud that HDT has chosen ND SatCom’s quality solutions for the Hungarian nationwide school project” commented Dr. Gerhard Bommas, CTO ND SatCom AG.
7 August 2004
Quantel and its representative company in Brazil, PRO TV, have announced that TV Record, Brazil’s second largest TV network, is to add four new generationQ systems two eQs and two QEdit Pros – to its already strong technological park. Additionally, the network has also purchased four QEffects software licenses for equipping assist stations.
Sao Paulo-based TV Record is one of the largest communications companies in Brazil and, in the past few years, new studios and new editing sites have been built to answer the high demand of new programming. Currently, TV Record has twelve state-of-the-art studios located in Barra Funda, all of them fully equipped to guarantee the complete production and generation of programmes, including drama, news, sports and live shows.
In early 2003, Record launched its new Digital Broadcasting Centre, consolidating its position at the technological vanguard of Brazil’s television. Now, with Quantel’s generationQ technology on board, TV Record takes another giant step in the same direction.
