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G0FTD > SWL 18.08.07 16:17l 159 Lines 8151 Bytes #999 (0) @ WW
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Subj: Russia bans the BBC
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Sent: 070818/1358Z @:GB7PZT.#24.GBR.EU [Kidderminster] #:15003 XSERV410h
[All stories sourced from Radio Nederlands Media Network website]
Reporters Without Borders dismayed at Russian decision to drop BBC from FM.
Reporters Without Borders says it is dismayed by the Russian government’s
decision to eliminate the BBC from the FM waveband in Russia. “There is
absolutely no justification, either political or technical, for this
censorship,ö the press freedom organisation said. “Is Russia taking the
lead from China or Zimbabwe, where the BBC is jammed? We hope a rapid
solution will be found to this problem and that the BBC will soon be
available on FM again.ö
Igor Ermachenkov, a spokesman for Finam, the company that owns Bolshoye
Radio, told the Associated Press: It's no secret that the BBC was
established as a broadcaster of foreign propaganda.
Relations between Russia and the United Kingdom have worsened considerably
since the start of an investigation into the death from poisoning of former
KGB officer Alexandre Litvinenko in London last November.
(Source: Reporters Without Borders)
BBC programming to be taken off FM station in Moscow today.
BBC World Service has been informed by the owners of the Moscow FM radio
station Bolshoye Radio [99.6 MHz] that BBC programming in Russian will no
longer be broadcast on the station, as of this afternoon. This was the BBC
Russian Service’s last FM distribution partner station in Russia. It
follows two other FM partner stations ceasing to take BBC programmes over
the last nine months.
The owners of Bolshoye Radio, financial group Finam, have told
representatives of the BBC Russian Service that they are required to remove
BBC programming at the request of Russian licensing authorities, or risk
the station being taken off-air. The BBC understands that this will take
effect in advance of its scheduled block of programmes this afternoon at
17:00 Moscow time.
The BBC intends to appeal to Russia’s Federal Service for the Supervision
of Mass Media, Communication and Protection of Cultural Heritage. It will
ask for the decision to be reviewed and for the original concept of the
station to be respected. According to official warnings received by Finam
from the regulatory body, the licence requires that all programming must be
produced by Bolshoye Radio itself.
However the BBC said that the detailed concept documents – the basis on
which the licence was awarded in February 2006 – clearly state that only
“60 per cent of the station’s total output will be original material
produced by Bolshoye Radioö. The BBC also stated that according to the same
concept documents, the station would also have up to 18 per cent foreign
produced content. This percentage of foreign content is reflected in the
station’s licence.
The concept documents of the station include the BBC and Voice of Russia as
content providers and as integral parts of the output – specifically in
order to enable the station “to reflect many and often contradictory views
on current affairsö. Richard Sambrook, Director of BBC Global News, said:
“We are extremely disappointed that listeners to Bolshoye Radio in Moscow
will be unable to listen to our impartial and independent news and
information programming in the high quality audibility of FM.
“The BBC has invested a great deal of energy and resources into developing
high quality programming for the station. The BBC has similar broadcasting
arrangements with partner stations around the world. Our services are
available on FM in over 150 capital cities – some 75 per cent of the global
total. He continued: “The BBC entered into the relationship with Bolshoye
Radio in good faith, and the licence was won in a competitive tender in
February 2006. We cannot understand how the licence is now interpreted in a
way that does not reflect the original and thorough concept documents. We
are appealing to Russia’s Federal Service for the Supervision of Mass
Media, Communication and Protection of Cultural Heritage. We will ask for
the decision to be reviewed and for the original concept of the station to
be respected.ö
The BBC and Voice of Russia have been on Bolshoye Radio since May this
year. The station, which was sold in July to financial investment company
Finam, was currently at a test signal stage ahead of an official launch
planned for the autumn. Bolshoye Radio’s test signal included the
broadcasts of BBC programming in Russian. The BBC was on-air from
07:00-10:00 and 17:00-20:00 Moscow time. The programmes included Utro na
BBC, London View, BBSeva (hosted by Seva Novgordosev) and a new interactive
programme Vam Slovo. A new current affairs programme is currently being
piloted, for launch in September.
The BBC has had previous problems with FM broadcasting in Russia. At the
end of 2006, Moscow station Radio Arsenal ceased taking BBC programming,
and in early 2006 the St Petersburg station Radio Leningrad also stopped
taking BBC programmes. Radio Leningrad informed the BBC that it had been
required to stop broadcasting BBC programmes by local licensing
authorities.
BBC Russian programmes continue to be audio streamed online at
bbcrussian.com. They are broadcast on the following medium wave
frequencies: St Petersberg – 1260 MW, Moscow – 1260 MW and Ekaterinburg –
666 MW. They are also available direct to home through New Day channel on
NTV+ satellite, as well as Hotbird 2 satellite. The BBC’s shortwave
broadcasts in Russian remain unaffected.
(Source: BBC World Service Publicity)
Russian regulator says BBC FM partner breached own programming plan.
Excerpt from report by Russian news agency Interfax
Moscow, 17 August: The BBC television and radio broadcasting corporation’s
FM-frequency broadcasts in Russia may resume, believes Boris Boyarskov,
head of Rossvyazokhrankultura [Russia’s Federal Service for Supervision in
Mass Communications, Communications and Preservation of Cultural Heritage].
“The BBC always has the opportunity to return to the FM frequency, if it
takes part in tenders that we will be organizing in Moscow. They can also
resume broadcasting once they have settled the matter with the actual
broadcaster itself, Bolshoye Radio,ö Boyarskov told Interfax on Friday [17
August], commenting on the termination of broadcasts of BBC programmes on
the FM radio station Bolshoye Radio.
According to Boyarskov, Bolshoye Radio’s programming plan did not indicate
that the BBC would be broadcasting on its frequency, while a whole BBC news
block was going out on air.
“The licensee who was organizing broadcasting on this frequency should have
indicated the name of the mass media outlet, the BBC, in its plan, which it
failed to do. We carried out checks on this and issued the broadcaster with
a warning that it should only be giving air time to those mass media
outlets which have been stipulated in the programming plan and that it
should bring its broadcasting into line with this programming plan,ö
Boyarskov noted.
According to Boyarskov, in order to settle the issue, Bolshoye Radio should
send Rossvyazokhrankultura its proposals on changing its programming plan
and include the name of the mass media outlet which will be broadcasting on
the frequency.
“We will consider this statement in the established procedure, including at
a session of the Federal Tenders Commission, and we may give our assent, or
we may not. But we must receive this sort of statement, and so far there
have been no such statements,ö the head of the agency said.
Discussing the possibility of the BBC obtaining an FM frequency in a
tender, he noted that “at the moment there are no plans to put Moscow
frequencies out to tenderö.
A statement from the press service of the BBC World Service, posted on the
TV and radio broadcasting corporation’s official website, points out that
Bolshoye Radio was the BBC Russian Service’s last FM partner in Russia.
The statement says that, over the course of the past nine months, two other
FM radio stations which were partners of the British radio corporation [as
received] have also stopped broadcasting its programmes.
(Source: Interfax news agency, Moscow, in Russian 1446 gmt 17 Aug 07 via
BBC Monitoring)
- Andy -
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