8 December 2003
News Corporation is reported to be in talks over the purchase of a stake in commercial Polish TV channel Polsat.
Rzeczposplita, the Polish newspaper, reported on Monday “Murdoch’s group is in negotiations to buy 33 per cent of the shares in Polsat,” saying that the information came from sources close to the discussions.
Polsat, the only commercial television network in Poland, has denied the rumours. However Nicolas Weinstock, News Corp’s spokesman, says that Central and Eastern Europe are of interest to the group.
8 December 2003
Ernest Wong, CEO of Singapore’s MediaCorp Group, has said that there is no question of a merger between state-owned MediaCorp and rival broadcasting owner, Singapore Press Holdings.
Rumours have been rife in the city state that there is about to be consolidation in Singapore’s media industry following the government saying that fierce competition in such a small market was leading to difficulties in achieving profitability in the sector.
“What I don’t understand is why the media keeps harping on the merger of SPH and MediaCorp. This is not on the cards,” Wong said.
Wong said that MediaCorp is ahead of its competition with over 77 percent of viewers.
2 December 2003
An anoymous Czech businessman has launched a project to build a private television station in southern Iraq. ” We have agreed to establish a private television station called the Voice of the South, based in Basra,” says the owner of the firm, whose name is also withheld.
The Czech-Iraqi television station may start broadcasting in southern Iraq as early as February, three hours a day at the beginning. The broadcast will focus mainly on news but will also contain animated films for children.
The joint television station is supported not only by Czech officials but also by the British, in whose sector the broadcasting will take place, says Czech news agency CTK. Interest in the project has also been shown by some Kuwaiti companies. The Voice of the South owners expect the station to be profit-making within two years.
2 December 2003
DW TV has won the German Business Film Award for the ninth time.
Ulrike Sommer, freelancer for DW-TV, was awarded first prize for her half-hour feature “Career à la française ? Women at the Top of French Business” in the category “Documentary films on business and economic trends in the social market economy.”
The award-winning film is part of the series “At the top ? Businesswomen in
Europe.” This series portrays top women managers and entrepreneurs from Germany, France and Poland. Next March, all three features will be broadcast by Deutsche Welle as a series in German, English and Spanish.
30 November 2003
The situation at Radio for Peace International in Costa Rica has gone from bad to worse. Not only is the station requested to leave the campus of the University for Peace, with chains having bee placed on the main gate and armed guards posted, the University has now cut off water and power supplies.
RFPI station chief James Latham stated that RFPI staff did not intend to leave the station premises. He said that if food were blockaded too, the staff would be forced into a hunger strike. RFPI volunteers have been supplying food through a hole in the fence that surrounds the university site.
“We are not moving until this whole thing is over,” stated Latham.
30 November 2003
Pro-Hezbollah Lebanese satellite TV channel Al-Manar has been pulled off the air in Australia while the Australian Broadcasting Authority (ABA) investigates whether it has broken new anti-terrorism laws
The ABA is investigating Al-Manar “for possibly funding terrorism,” the report said. Al-Manars director of foreign news Ibrihim Musawi, based in Beirut, denied the channel had been seeking donations for Hezbollah. “We do ask for donations, we do put an ad to help get donations for the Palestinian people and I believe this is something completely legal and legitimate – they are not terrorist organizations,” he said.
Al-Manar is available by subscription on Television and Radio Broadcasting Services (TARBS) World TV service, which was established in 1995 to provide television and radio services within Australia and internationally.
