2 June 2003
AIB member VT Merlin, part of the VT Group, had a good year to the end of March 2003, delivering on current contracts and winning important new business.
VT Merlin has successfully completed the design and build of a new short and medium wave transmission station in Oman for the BBC World Service. Work on this contract started in March 2000 and the station is now providing a 24 hours broadcast service.
VT Merlin is also a 20% shareholder in the Alert JV that won the 30 year PFI contract with the Defence Communications Services Agency (DCSA) for a new Submarine Communications Facility. In March VT Merlin was selected as preferred bidder for the Defence High Frequency Communications Service contract further strengthening its relationship with the DCSA. The fifteen-year Public Private Partnership contract is expected to be finalised by June 2003 and will be worth £220m. Under the contract VT Merlin will operate, maintain and enhance the MOD’s High Frequency Communications Facilities in the UK and overseas that are used by all three armed services.
2 June 2003
A conference to design the legal framework for democratic media in Iraq, is taking place June 1-3, 2003 in Athens, Greece. It is the first multilateral forum to address post-war reconstruction.
Organised by Internews Network, a non-profit organization supporting open media worldwide, and hosted by the Greek Foreign Ministry, which currently holds the presidency of the European Union, the conference’s other major sponsors include UNESCO, the US Agency for International Development, the German Foreign Office, and the Russian Ministry of the Press.
The three-day symposium has brought together leading Iraqi, Arab and Western media experts to develop a set of policy recommendations for legal and regulatory reforms in Iraq. These reforms are meant to foster free, pluralistic media in post-Saddam Iraq.
2 June 2003
The Russian state broadcasting company Voice of Russia, which broadcasts in 32 languages, is launching video broadcasting on the Internet.
A special section is to be opened on the Voice of Russia website in which the most significant and interesting programmes and interviews will be posted in a video format.
“In those conditions when the electronic mass media are developing fast” it is necessary to provide listeners, through the Internet and the worldwide web, with “the most up-to-date news product, a balanced combination of audio and video components, as well as textual and graphic information”, says Voice of Russia broadcasting company chairman Armen Oganesyan.
Source: BBC Monitoring
2 June 2003
AIB Member Swedish Radio International (SRI) will commence its live, daily Digital Radio Mondiale broadcasts on 16 June 2003. Its transmissions will debut in conjunction with DRM’s inaugural broadcasts event in Geneva, during the International Telecommunications Union’s (ITU) World Radiocommunication Conference (WRC 2003). The precise moment of the world’s first DRM broadcasts will be marked at a spectacular reception at Geneva’s Chateau de Penthes on 16 June.
“We are proud and happy to be among the first DRM broadcasters. I think cooperation, the way DRM consortium and its members are developing it, is an efficient way to secure DRM’s future success, which is a must for AM radio to survive in a digital media environment,” said Anne Sseruwagi, director of SR International
SR International will broadcast three-and-a-half programme hours per week in English to the east coast of the United States, covering Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Washington and Baltimore. The RS International broadcasts will be relayed via CBC/Radio Canada International’s site in Sackville, Canada.
Deutsche Welle and Radio Netherlands have also announced their participation in DRM’s inaugural broadcasts. In the coming weeks, more of the world’s best-known broadcasters and network operators will confirm their participation in DRM’s historic moment.
Source: BBC Monitoring
29 May 2003
In a global first this August, the German capital will become a digital-only city for television, when the licensing body MABB switches off the analogue signal completely.
BBC World – an AIB member – the BBC’s 24-hour international news and information channel, is the only foreign TV network to be awarded a digital terrestrial (DVBT) frequency in Berlin.
To date, 25 stations have won licences to broadcast on the new digital spectrum but BBC World will be the only non-German channel to have been granted a frequency.
BBC World has been broadcasting on terrestrial analogue television in Berlin since 1996, when it broke new ground as the first and only overseas station ever to be given such a licence.
Patrick Cross, BBC World Managing Director says: “It is a great honour and a reflection of the quality of BBC World that we are the only news channel to have been granted this highly sought-after digital frequency in Berlin. I am delighted that viewers will continue to have access to our unrivalled, impartial news coverage.”
BBC World Service radio – also an AIB member – broadcasts in Berlin on FM.
28 May 2003
Britain’s Independent newspaper reported 28 May that Jasseem Alli, the chief executive of the Al-Jazeera Arabic television news service, is to return to his post with Qatar television. Qatar TV owns Al-Jazeera.
Mr Alli has spent eight years in the job at al-Jazeera. The report quoted a spokesman as saying that Mr Allis return was unconnected with documents procured by British intelligence services in Baghdad which had appeared to link him with Iraqi intelligence services.
