7 August 2003
The Japan Broadcasting Corp (NHK), private TV broadcasters and the telecom ministry have adopted a policy of bringing forward the start of terrestrial digital TV broadcasts in the nation’s non-metropolitan districts from late 2006. The three metropolitan areas surrounding Tokyo, Osaka and Nagoya have agreed to start full broadcasts in December this year.
In districts other than those three areas, the broadcasters and ministry agreed to start, in fiscal 2004 in principle, the process of adjusting the antenna mechanisms of existing TV sets in households to avert interference of broadcast signals, which would otherwise occur after the start of digital broadcasts.
BBC Monitoring)
7 August 2003
A group of entrepreneurs which includes members of the Kibbutz Movement, left-wing Jewish activists and Palestinian businessmen, have announced that the Voice of Peace radio, closed in 1993, will start broadcasting again from Ramallah on 4 November 2003. The station says it has been allocated a frequency by the Palestinian Authority’s Ministry of Communications.
But the announcement has infuriated those close to the original station’s founder, Abie Nathan. The original Voice of Peace (VOP), a non-political humanitarian station, broadcast from a ship outside Israeli territorial waters. Israeli journalist Mike Brand, a friend and confidante of Abie Nathan, says that the new group calling themselves the Voice Of Peace have no legal right to use the name and its jingles.
Brand says the new group want their station to be a political station, whereas Nathan’s supporters are working on an alternative plan which avoids politics altogether, and adheres to the format of the old VOP, with a humanitarian slant.
7 August 2003
Radio For Peace International (RFPI), which has been operating since 1987 by mutual agreement on the university campus in El Rodeo, Costa Rica, has been served with an eviction notice from the university. The radio station’s access gate was locked with chains and patrolled by armed guards, and the radio station was advised to vacate its facilities in two weeks.
According to General Manager James Latham, the unexplained and legally questionable decision to evict RFPI threatens to silence the voice of peace on international airwaves. “This is more than an eviction, this is about the right to free speech,” he sais.”What is most shocking and sad is that this action comes from an international peace organization.”
University for Peace, a United Nations-mandated university established in 1980, invited RFPI in 1985 to build and manage its own office and studios on the university’s Costa Rica campus. Consequently RFPI constructed studios and transmitters, and has been broadcasting messages of peace and social justice as well as daily United Nations programming. Says James Latham: Instead of focusing on how to eliminate a fellow peace organization, we need to channel our energy toward eliminating war, poverty and hunger.
6 August 2003
OILspace, the global provider of online services for the energy industry, has partnered with BBC Monitoring to enhance the authority and scope of global energy-related news to the 600 international subscribers to OILspaces OILwatch service. A specially filtered energy feed from BBC Monitoring combined with OILwatchs current news feeds from Dow Jones newswires, Platts and Reuters now give OILwatch customers unprecedented access to essential energy and geo-political news from around the world. This is the first time that BBC Monitoring Energy News will be made available to such a large commercial audience and is offered to all OILwatch real-time news customers at no extra charge.
News from BBC Monitoring is often faster than from agency feeds, which can put energy professionals in an advantageous position. Local reports of pipeline explosions, rumours of coups, terrorist attacks, strikes or political strife in oil producing countries can cause fluctuations in oil prices and share valuation. Hearing this news more swiftly will enable energy professionals to make more competitive commercial decisions.
We were impressed at the speed with which BBC Monitoring reports key stories from important oil regions such as the Middle East as they break. We know that our customers will value this additional insight into developments in key oil markets. In the near future we hope to offer OILwatch subscribers access to country specific geo-political news from BBC Monitoring for the analyst and risk management communities, said Steve Hellman, CEO of OILspace.
6 August 2003
The Pakistan Television Corporation is shortly to expand its transmission to 157 countries by connecting its two channels to satellite, said Managing Director PTV Akhtar Waqar Azeem.
He also announced a number of developments in Pakistan TV, noting that efforts were being made to enter into an agreement with a foreign network for improving sports reporting with new equipment being purchased for the purpose.
3 August 2003
BBC World Service has started broadcasting on FM in Dubai, the latest in a network of FM operations in Gulf Co-operation Council States bringing BBC Arabic to its listeners in high quality sound.
The new service follows the launch in July of BBC Arabic’s FM transmission to listeners in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) capital Abu Dhabi on 90.3 MHz.
BBC Arabic is now available to listeners in the Gulf region in Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain, as well as in the United Arab Emirates. It can also be heard on FM in Amman, northern Jordan and neighbouring areas, as well as in Khartoum and Wad Madani in Sudan.
BBC Arabic broadcasts news and current affairs programmes to the region as well as several interactive discussion programmes which enable listeners and users of bbcarabic.com to take part in the discussions. BBC Arabic also broadcasts throughout the Arab world on shortwave and medium wave frequencies.
