17 June 2009
A report on the Reporters Without Borders website reads:
The Iranian authorities are continuing a crackdown on journalists and information that began after the announcement of the disputed presidential election results. Journalists are still being arrested and more censorship measures have been adopted as President Mahmoud Ahmadinejads allies try to suppress media coverage of fraud allegations.
Independent sources of news and information find it very hard to make their voice heard now in Iran because of the censorship, Reporters Without Borders said. The authorities are tightening their grip on all news media and means of communication that could be used to dispute Ahmadinejad reelection victory. They are doing everything possible to limit coverage of the consequences of the election fraud.
Reporters Without Borders reiterates its appeal to the international community not to recognise the results of the presidential election first round held on 12 June.
A democratic election is one in which the media are free to monitor the electoral process and investigate fraud allegations but neither of these two conditions has been met for Mahmoud Ahmadinejads supposed reelection, Reporters Without Borders said. We urge the international community, especially European countries, not to recognise the results announced by the authorities as long as the electoral process is subject to censorship. An election won by means of censorship and arrests of journalists is not democratic.
The security services have moved into the offices of newspapers where they are reading articles and censoring content. Mehdi Karoubi, one of the candidates, referred to the censorship in a press release. I cannot even publish my release in my newspaper Etemad Meli, he said.
The newspapers front page (displayed on http://www.roozna.com/) shows a photo of Ahmadinejad at a rally with columns left blank because of editing by the censors. The newspaper Velayat in the province of Qazvin (north of Tehran) has been suspended for publishing a cartoon of Ahmadinejad.
Even governmental news sources have been targeted in the crackdown. Four interior ministry officials have been arrested for given results that were different from those announced by Ahmadinejads allies.
Four of the leading pro-reform newspapers have been closed or prevented from criticising the official election results following a warning from Tehran prosecutor general Said Mortazavi. Kalameh Sabaz, a daily owned by opposition presidential candidate Mirhossein Mousavi, was one of these. Its distribution was blocked and it was forced to change a front page announcing Mousavis victory. It has not been able to publish any issue since 13 June.
The authorities have also launched a broad offensive against the Internet, controlling and blocking all news websites likely to challenge Ahmadinejads announced victory. Ten or so pro-opposition websites have been censored.
They include www.entekhab.ir/ (inaccessible since 11 June), www.ayandenews.com/ (inaccessible since 12 June), teribon.com/, the pro-reform sites khordadeno.com/, aftabnews.ir/index.php and ghalamesabz.com/, norooznews.ir (the news website of the pro-Mousavi Islamic Participation Party) and www.ghalamsima.com/ (which also supports the Mousavi campaign). And the womens rights website www.we-change.org/ has been blocked for the 20th time.
The international websites YouTube and Facebook are hard to access. The mobile phone network is being jammed. The service of the leading mobile phone operator, which is state controlled, has been suspended since 10 p.m. on 13 June. The SMS messaging network has been cut since the morning of 12 June, preventing use of Twitter.
The blockage of the foreign media has been stepped up. In addition to the blocking of the BBCs website, the Farsi-language satellite broadcasts of the VOA and BBC which are very popular in Iran have been partially jammed. The BBC reported that their Farsi broadcasts have been the target of significant jamming coming from Iran since 1245 GM on 12 June, and that the jamming has been getting steadily worse.
The authorities yesterday ordered the Tehran bureau of the Arab satellite TV news station Al-Arabiya closed for a week after it broadcast video of the first demonstration following the announcement of Ahmadinejads reelection.
Foreign journalists have been prevented from covering the demonstrations, some have been notified that their visas will not be renewed, and some have been the victims of police violence. A member of a TV crew working for the Italian station RAI and a Reuters reporter were beaten by police in the capital. A BBC TV crew was threatened by police at one point, but demonstrators chased the police away. The correspondents of the German TV stations ARD and ZDF were forbidden to leave their hotel on 13 June.
Two Dutch TV journalists working for Nederland 2 were arrested and expelled. Reporter Yolanda Alvarez of the Spanish television station TVE was deported together with her crew today.
Journalists arrested
Eleven Iranian journalists have been arrested since 12 June. Reza Alijani (winner of the 2001 Reporters Without Borders-Fondation de France press freedom prize), Hoda Sabaer and Taghi Rahmani were arrested on 13 June. Alijani and Rahmani were released yesterday evening. Freelancer Kivan Samimi Behbani, the former editor of Nameh (The Letter), an independent monthly closed in 2005, and Ahamad Zeydabadi were also arrested and then released.
Abdolreza Tajik was arrested at midday yesterday at the headquarters of the newspaper Farhikhtegan by three men in plain-clothes. A member of the Human Rights Defenders Centre, Tajik has worked for many Iranian publications that have been closed by the authorities, including Bahar (closed in 2001), Hambastegi (closed in 2003) and Shargh (closed in 2008).
Five of the journalists arrested in the past few days are still detained. They include Said Shariti, the editor of the news website Nooroz, who is being held by the police, and Mahssa Amrabadi of the daily Etemad Melli. She was arrested at her home yesterday by intelligence ministry agents who came with a warrant for the arrest of her husband, fellow-journalist Masoud Bastani. He was not at home at the time.
Two women journalists working at the Mousavi campaign headquarters were physically attacked on 12 June. The Mousavi campaign news centre was ransacked on 13 June by Ahmadinejad supporters, who destroyed its computers. The Qalam News agency operated out of this centre.
There is no word of about 10 other journalists who have either been arrested or gone into hiding.
16 June 2009
The AIB is building dialogues with leading technology and service providers such as Microsoft, Google, Yahoo and Real Networks to be able to provide advice on different solutions and help members decide on possibilities and priorities. We are reporting on the initiatives taken by members and reporting on overall trends and developments.
Our most recent Market Intelligence Briefing (for members only) analysed the uses of microblogging in broadcasting and reported on the Media140 event which studied the effect of Twitter and other tools on frontline journalism
Over the next few months we will continue to publish more information and conclusions on technologies and opportunities for AIB members. Watch out for updates on the website as new knowledge is made available
UPDATE 16TH JUNE 2009
Iranians protesting at the results of Iranian elections last week are using online and mobile technology to organise gatherings and spread information. At the same time, government officials have been trying to prevent communications by shutting down websites and monitoring who is spreading information. The microblogging site Twitter has been heavily used by supporters and commentators (using the hashtags of #iranelection or #gr88) so much so that they petitioned, successfully, for Twitter to postpone scheduled maintenance during this key period.
Protestors are posting information, government sources are countering with their responses and there is also misinformation being deliberately input and then innocently spread. There are also lots of informative tweets warning those outside Iran against spreading the names of protestors inside the country. More aggressively, there are tweets discussing the organisation of DoS attacks (Denial of Service attacks where servers are bombarded with so many messages that they are brought virtually to a standstill) to hamper government operations.
Keeping an eye on Twitter is an important method for finding out what is going on in Iran at present, but as usual there is reliable and less reliable information so it does have to be cross-referenced as much as possible.
16 June 2009
Quantel today launched a web initiative that enables Freelancers with experience of operating Quantel systems to offer their services to prospective customers via the new Freelancers section on the Quantel website.
Quantel has launched this new service in response to numerous requests from Quantel system owners looking for experienced freelance talent to cover events such as sudden spikes in demand, holidays, general staff turnover and a host of other short-term challenges. Many Freelancers have also expressed an interest in having their details made available to the widest possible audience.
Were confident that this initiative will attract rapid take-up from Quantel-experienced freelancers around the world, said Steve Owen, Quantel Director of Marketing. We hope that it will turn out to be a really useful and productive resource for our customers and freelancers.
The Quantel Freelancers page can be found at: http://tinyurl.com/kjc8ym, or, when visiting the Quantel website at www.quantel.com by simply clicking on the Community navigation bar at the top right of the page.
16 June 2009
Safaricom subscribers can now watch DStvs menu of TV programs from certain Nokia mobile phones.
And as part of an introductory offer, they do not have to pay any extra cost for the service till April, 2010, as long as they have the right devices.
This follows the signing of a partnership between Safaricom, Nokia and DMTV. This will enable the subscribers to access the service, dubbed DStv Mobile, through Digital Video Broadcast Handheld (DVB-H)-enabled Nokia phones.
To receive the service, which will give them access to TV channels offered by pay TV firm DMTV, Safaricom subscribers will be required to have a Nokia handset specially configured to receive DVB-H broadcasts and programmed for that purpose in Kenya.
Speaking during the launch, Safaricom Chief Commercial Officer Peter Arina said activating the handsets would be easy because unlike the past when subscribers had to get a special SIM card, this time they only needed to buy a DVB-H capable handset and insert their usual SIM card to activate the service.
Upon purchase of an enabled handset, one will enjoy the services without paying a fee until the end of April next year. Coverage is currently available in Nairobi and Mombasa and plans are already underway to extend this to other parts of Kenya.
Speaking at the event, Digital Mobile TV (DMTV) General Manager Felix Kyengo said the partnership with Safaricom and Nokia was an indication of the companies responsiveness to customer needs and devotion to continually improve service delivery.
We are very excited that the delivery of the DStv Mobile service to Kenyans will become even easier and more affordable. Kenya has now joined the first few countries that have a fully commercial DVB-H based mobile service, he said.
The new service will allow Safaricom subscribers to watch live matches of the FIFA Confederations Cup being currently being held in South Africa, ongoing World Cup qualifiers, English Premier League and Spanish La Liga games LIVE on DStv Mobile when the leagues resume in August.
Mr. Kyengo said with DStv Mobile, Kenyans would also be able to watch proceedings in Parliament wherever they might not have access to a television set, ensuring that they miss nothing.
Mobile TV is an emerging technology that allows people to view live television content on their mobile phones or other mobile devices that they ordinarily would only get through traditional cable or pay TV subscription.
Research indicates that mobile phones will remain the central multi-purpose device for the foreseeable future, especially in Africa, outnumbering any other mobile devices like digital media players and pocket PCs. 84 per cent of mobile phone users in countries where Mobile TV has been launched have shown willingness to use the service provided it is commonly available and affordable.
DVB-H is regarded as the worlds leading mobile broadcast technology standard and allows for digital terrestrial broadcast of live television channels to a mobile phone. DVB-H is a one-to-many transmission on a linear basis, unlike 3G that delivers point-to-point services. 3G and DVB-H can, however, be complementary, especially in the provision of return path service for live television for instance, viewer voting for TV shows.
16 June 2009
Reporter Without Borders reports that Radio Erena (‘Our Eritrea’), a Tigrinya-language station broadcasting by satellite to Eritrea, has begun operating in Paris.
The result of an initiative by Eritrean journalists based abroad and supported by Reporters Without Borders, the station is offering freely-reported, independent news and information to Eritreans in Eritrea. Independent of any political organisation or government, Radio Erena is offering news, cultural programmes, music and entertainment. A network of contributors based in the United States, Italy, Britain and the Netherlands is providing the Paris-based staff with Tigrinya-language programmes that are broadcast via Arabsat’s Badr-6 satellite. Eritreans can tune into Radio Erena on the 11,785 Mhz frequency with vertical polarisation (SR 27500, FEC 3/4). The station’s programming will soon be broadcast on the Internet as well, so that the Eritrean diaspora will also be able to listen to it.
Eritrea has had no free press since September 2001, when the few Asmara-based independent newspapers were closed down and their publishers and editors were arrested as part of a wave of round-ups ordered by President Issaias Afeworki. Since then, the only news available to Eritreans in their national language has been provided by the state media – Eri-TV, Radio Dimtsi Hafash and the government daily Hadas Eritrea – which are all closely supervised by the information ministry.
16 June 2009
Iranians today flooded the Voice of America (VOA) with videos, pictures, e-mails and calls from inside Iran as the popular U.S. broadcaster’s Persian News Network (PNN) launched a morning show to cover the country’s tumultuous post-election events.
“We’re leading all the Persian News Network (PNN) shows with news from Iran, giving our viewers the latest information and interacting with our audience inside the country,” said Alex Belida, acting director of PNN, whose original satellite-television broadcasts reach almost 30% of Iranian adults every week.
PNN’s new breakfast show aired for two hours today, from 7 a.m. to 9 a.m. Tehran time, and will continue as an hour-long special for the foreseeable future, examining events in Iran in the aftermath of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s declared victory. Supporters of Mir Hossein Mousavi have protested the election results. In advance of the election, VOA created new TV satellite paths to circumvent jamming by the Iranian government.
Besides news videos, PNN has received and aired home-made videos and pictures delivered to a YouSendIt address. The videos provide on-the-spot accounts of events inside Iran, including protests which have turned violent in some cases.
PNN’s viewers have emailed comments that are posted on PNN blogs, Facebook, a dedicated YouTube channel and other social media sites. Callers have phoned in to various PNN shows.
PNN journalists have fanned out to cover expatriate communities in the United States, Dubai and Malaysia, and interviewed constitutional experts about the election and its aftermath.
In addition to the new morning show, VOA’s PNN broadcasts seven hours of television daily, repeated in a 24-hour format, and five hours of radio. Broadcasts are available on demand on the Internet at www.VOANews.com/Persian.
Currently, one in four adults in Iran watches or listens to PNN broadcasts at least weekly. Research indicates 96 percent of Iranians daily watch TV, which is the preferred medium for getting news and information.
