Chinese advisor calls for improved broadcast coverage in border areas

Chinese advisor calls for improved broadcast coverage in border areas

March 9th, 2009 - 13:31 UTC by Andy Sennitt

Text of report in English by official Chinese news agency Xinhua (New China News Agency)

BEIJING, March 9 (Xinhua) - A Chinese political adviser has urged the government to improve TV and radio coverage in border areas to counteract infiltration by hostile foreign forces and protect national political and cultural security.

“Border areas lived by minor ethnic groups still face a grave situation in counteracting infiltration through TV and radio broadcasting,” said Ma Qingsheng, member of the 11th National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), at the annual session the political advisory body Monday in Beijing.

“Hostile and secessionist forces from overseas have been changing their tactics in infiltrating the border areas lived by minor ethnic groups, by increasing the power of projectors, the hours of broadcasting, and changing the venues of frequencies of broadcasting constantly,” said Ma, vice director of the Committee of Ethnic and Religious Affairs of the CPPCC National Committee.

According to him, among border villages with 20 households each, 23,000 are yet to be covered by TV and radio programmes. In the border areas of Yunnan province alone, 3.5 million people have no access to radio broadcasts, while three million people have no access to TV programmes.

Improving TV and radio coverage in the border areas is utterly necessary to raise awareness of government policy, prevent the infiltration of hostile foreign forces, consolidate ethnic unity, safeguard stability in the border areas, and enrich the cultural life of minor ethnic peoples, said Ma.

He urged the government to build more powerful projectors and strengthening the jamming of hostile foreign radios. The government must increase its financial support to radio and TV services in border areas and encourage the production of programmes in the languages of minor ethnic groups, he said.

(Source: Xinhua news agency, Beijing, in English 1108 gmt 9 Mar 09 via BBC Monitoring)

Andy Sennitt comments: The phrase “strengthening the jamming of hostile foreign radios” is interesting. It’s widely known that China has a considerable radio jamming operation, but it’s rare to see that openly admitted by an official news agency.

SLBC jamming FM broadcast prompts BBC to suspend partnership

[TamilNet, Monday, 09 February 2009, 23:21 GMT]
Sri Lankan state run SLBC, which airs BBC World Service programmes in FM, has deliberately jammed BBC Tamil 17 times and BBC Sinhala 8 times, between 27 November and early January 2009, according to a statement by the BBC World Service Press Office Monday. The BBC said it was suspending the programming agreement with the SLBC from Tuesday.

Full text of the statement issued by the BBC World Service Press Office follows:

BBC World Service is suspending its FM programming to the Sri Lankan national broadcaster SLBC from Tuesday 10 February due to deliberate interference of its broadcasts by the Sri Lankan network.

BBC programmes and individual news reports in the English, Sinhala and Tamil languages have been blocked by SLBC and have not been broadcast to listeners in Sri Lanka.

The BBC noted 17 instances of interference to BBC Tamil and eight similar instances to BBC Sinhala broadcasts between 27 November 2008 and early January 2009. Sometimes whole current affairs segments of BBC programming were not broadcast on SLBC.

The BBC expressed its concern directly to SLBC Chairman Hudson Samarasinghe in a series of letters and meetings throughout December and early January.

The BBC made it clear to SLBC that such interference and blocking meant that BBC programming was being editorially compromised by SLBC's actions and this was contrary to the BBC's contractual agreement with SLBC.

Despite the warnings, last week there were several further instances of interference to BBC programming in all three languages being broadcast on SLBC. There have been three instances of interference on BBC Tamil output, one on BBC Sinhala and two instances on the English language programming in the past 10 days.

BBC World Service Director Nigel Chapman says: "We are dismayed that the BBC's programmes in the English, Sinhala and Tamil languages have been interrupted on the SLBC network. We are equally disappointed to see that our programmes continue to be interfered with even after our representations.

"We have no choice but to suspend broadcasts until such time as SLBC can guarantee our programming is transmitted without interference," he says.

"In order to cover news events in the most comprehensive and balanced way for our audiences, the BBC adheres to specific editorial values that include impartiality, editorial independence and seeking a relevant range of views on any topic. In this way we can meet our audiences' high expectations and maintain our reputation as the world's most trusted international broadcaster."

He said: "The BBC has had a very cordial and effective partnership with the SLBC since 1998 – part of a strong relationship with listeners in that country that goes back to the 1940s. We are keen to keep this relationship going provided that SLBC adheres to the agreements we have with it. But at the heart of these agreements is the guarantee that our programmes in English, Sinhala, and Tamil are broadcast uninterrupted. If this can not be guaranteed we can not continue our relationship.

"We are prepared to have further discussions to resolve this issue and will investigate any specific detailed complaint SLBC may have about BBC output. So far, no specific complaint has been raised."

The BBC's services in all three languages remain in Sri Lanka via short wave; on bbc.com/news, bbcsinhala.com and bbctamil.com via the internet; and news bulletins in English are available via the Sri Lankan commercial broadcaster MBC.

Monday, December 29, 2008
RADIO JAMMING IN KOREA

Radio jamming on the Korean Peninsula makes the border region one of the world's busiest places for radio signals. MW jamming is dominant in the Korean Metropolitan area including Seoul and the DMZ (the border area between South and North Korea). South Korea jams broadcasts from North Korea, but does not jam broadcasts from other countries. However North Korea jams both South Korean broadcasts and foreign shortwave broadcast services which it believes to be against the North Korean regime. These include the Korean-language service of the Voice of America (VOA), Free North Korea Radio (which originates from US transmitters in Guam), and several other services and broadcasts.

Radio jamming in South Korea

The South Korean government constantly jams most radio broadcasts from North Korea on medium-wave. According to the National Security Law in South Korea, it is illegal to tune into or publish frequencies of North Korean broadcasts. Despite the fact, one cannot be easily punished for just listening to those broadcasts individually. However, public listening and distribution of the recordings are criminal offences. A listener in the South Korean Metropolitan area (Seoul, Incheon, and Gyeonggi Province) or near the DMZ who tunes across the MW band may hear strange signals on several MW frequencies, mixing with North Korean radio broadcasts. These include 657 kHz (PBS Pyongyang), 720 kHz (KCBS Wiwon), 819 kHz (KCBS Pyongyang), 882 kHz and 1080 kHz (KCBS Haeju).

The South Korean government broadcasts several bizarre-sounding jamming sounds (usually warbling or chugging) in an attempt to prevent their citizens from hearing radio broadcasts from the North. The medium-wave jamming by the South is sometimes too weak to completely block the North Korean broadcasts (the jamming transmission power seems to be between 20 and 50 kilowatts, while the targeted North Korean transmissions are of much higher transmission power -- typically over 500 kilowatts).

Radio jamming in North Korea

Since it is illegal for North Koreans to listen to anything other than state-run radio, all legal radio receivers are sold fixed so they can play only channels approved by the government. Because the receiver channels are fixed, North Korea does not need to jam any South Korean private television and radio broadcasts (such as MBC, SBS, etc). North Korea does jam some of South Korea's state-owned radio and television broadcasts. Before the (early 2007) closure of South Korean shortwave domestic radio broadcasts (which were often targeted at the North) 3930 kHz KBS Radio 1 and 6015 and 6135 kHz KBS Radio Korean Ethnicity (formerly KBS Radio Social Education) had been severely jammed by the North.

The type of the jamming on shortwave is 'Jet Plane Noise', which makes it very hard to hear the radio broadcasts. North Korea also jams South Korea's clandestine shortwave broadcast, Echo of Hope, and the South Korean international shortwave broadcasts of KBS World Radio on 5975 kHz (discontinued as of early 2007) and 7275 kHz. The South Korean national radio channel, KBS Radio 1 on 711 kHz medium-wave is also jammed by the North. Before the bilateral declaration in 2000, KBS Radio 1 used to deliver certain programmes (merged with then KBS Radio Social Education) which condemned the North Korean regime during at midnight. A visitor to coastal areas of the Yellow Sea (covering coastal parts of Gyeonggi Province, Incheon, Chungcheong, and sometimes Jeolla regions) who tunes into 711 kHz (KBS Radio 1 Seoul) may hear strange beeping sounds, which seem to be jamming signals from the North.

Strangely, the North does not usually jam the medium-wave transmissions of South Korea's broadcast towards-the-North, KBS Radio Korean Ethnicity (formerly KBS Radio Liberty Social Education) on 972 and 1134 kHz. It should be noted that KBS Radio Korean Ethnicity actually no longer targets North Koreans since the North-South Korea Joint Declaration on 15 June 2000. As of 15 August 2007, the radio channel has changed to a special radio broadcast for ethinic Koreans in Northeast China and Far Eastern Russia.

North Korean jamming of television broadcasting is relatively unusual, although the North Korean regime once severely jammed a South Korean state-owned television broadcast (KBS TV1 on VHF ch. 9 in Seoul) in the 1970s. Currently there seem to be some strange signals on VHF ch. 9 in Seoul which seem to be North Korean's jamming, especially in the evening. This jamming is not very effective.

Because of electricity shortages in North Korea these days, the radio jamming activities are not always consistent and are sometimes interrupted by power failures.

Protest to Libya after satellites jammed

• David Hencke and Owen Gibson
• The Guardian, Saturday 3 December 2005
• Article history

British and US diplomats have protested to the Libyan government after two international satellites were illegally jammed, knocking off air dozens of TV and radio stations serving Britain and Europe and disrupting American diplomatic, military and FBI communications.

Among stations hit were digital broadcasts by Five, BBC World, CNN International, US sports channels, cable TV networks and 23 radio stations. According to an email sent by one of the satellite owners, Loral Skynet, the US state department said it "would take it into their own hands" unless the interference stopped.

Last night the Foreign Office confirmed it had raised the issue in talks between the British embassy in Tripoli and the Libyan government.

Ofcom, the telecoms regulator, said it was considering taking a complaint to the International Telecoms Union.

The jamming started on September 19 after the launch in London of a small British and Arab-owned commercial radio station broadcasting on human rights and freedom of speech issues to Libya.

Ten minutes after the station - initially known as Sout Libya - went on air a transponder carrying the station was jammed for 50 minutes along with other stations. The jamming stopped when Sout Libya stopped broadcasting.

The station relaunched as Sowt Alamel, this time through a new satellite called Telstar 12. As a precaution, the broadcasts were sent to the US first, and then beamed up to Telstar, making it impossible for anybody to jam it, except from America.

Yet the moment it went on air, the jamming started again, knocking out the other stations without affecting Sowt Alamel.

An anonymous email sent to a company which helped the station said: "We can tell you we know the reason for these problems, it is the presence of the so called 'ALAMAL' radio Audio channel on your satellite. This channel broadcasts terrorist propaganda, intended to spread terrorist ideas amongst the listeners mindes [sic]."

The station has now voluntarily agreed to suspend its service. Its director, Jalal Elgiathi, said: "Our radio station had commercial advertising and altogether we have lost £250,000."

Last night 10 parliamentary questions were tabled by Andrew Mackinlay, Labour MP for Thurrock and a member of the Commons foreign affairs committee. "We need a full explanation of what has happened and whether Britain has insisted as part of its trade talks with the Libyans that it respected international law."

Industry sources confirmed that Five had lost its signal from the satellite, but said that the situation had been "quite quickly resolved". Other broadcasters were unaware their channels were affected. A BBC World spokeswoman said: "We're consulting with our cable and satellite partners in the region to clarify the situation."

Joint Statement on the 60th Anniversary of the Human Rights Declaration

Joint Statement on the 60th Anniversary of the Human Rights Declaration

PRESS RELEASE - Washington, D.C., December 10, 2008 - Sixty years ago, the U.N. General Assembly adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The representatives of international broadcasters - BBC World Service, Deutsche Welle, Radio France Internationale, Radio Netherlands Worldwide and the Voice of America – meeting in Paris today, recognized the important contribution the Declaration has made to promoting a better-informed world.

The meeting, at Radio France Internationale, noted the importance of Article 19 of the Declaration, which states, "Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers."

They said that their organizations must continue to maintain the highest journalistic standards of accuracy, objectivity and truth in upholding the Declaration.

They noted that some governments have been implicated in harassing, detaining, expelling, threatening or - in extreme cases - killing journalists, committed as they are to freedom and information. They also expressed, with regret, the efforts by some governments to contravene the Declaration by interfering with international broadcasts through deliberate blocking of transmitters ("jamming") and blocking of websites.

The broadcasters underlined the continued determination of their broadcast organizations to overcome these obstacles in order to reach the largest possible audiences worldwide, through traditional means - radio and television - as well as the Internet and other emerging digital media.

These new media, they noted, offer unprecedented opportunities for interaction across national borders and between diverse groups of people, in keeping with the spirit of the Declaration, which enshrines the right to "receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers."

Alain de Pouzilhac, CEO of Radio France Internationale said "Our meeting in Paris was very constructive and I am delighted that the five major international broadcasters share the same desire to broadcast objective and impartial news broadcasts to all publics."

The Voice of America, which first went on the air in 1942, is a multimedia international broadcasting service funded by the U.S. government through the Broadcasting Board of Governors. VOA broadcasts approximately 1,500 hours of news, information, educational, and cultural programming every week to an estimated worldwide audience of more than 134 million people. Programs are produced in 45 languages.

For more information, call VOA Public Relations at (202) 203-4959, or e-mail askvoa@voanews.com.

Ethiopia: Ginbot 7 radio program jammed

Ethiopia: Ginbot 7 radio program jammed

November 20th, 2008 | Categories: Ethiopia | 10 Comments

DebreTsion is in charge of the Ethiopian Information & Communicatiion Technology Development Agency, but his main job is to block most Ethiopians from having access to information.

The Meles dictatorship in Ethiopia has jammed a radio program that was being broadcast to Ethiopia from Europe by the Ginbot 7 Movement for Freedom and Democracy, according to Ethiopian Review sources in Addis Ababa.

Voice of Ginbot 7 was launched on September 11, 2008, and had been heard through out Ethiopia and most countries in eastern Africa.

Similar attempt by the Woyanne regime to jam the Voice of America (VOA) Amharic program had been successful only for a few days. The VOA countered by running its program on multiple frequencies, each with 500 kilowatt, making it too expensive to jam them. VOA's transmission power can go up to 100 megawatt per frequency when supplemented with powerful antennas.

According to experts, it costs up to U.S. $10,000 per kilowatt to jam a radio program. To build and operate a facility that is capable of jamming multiple frequencies with 100s of kilowatt each, the Meles regime could be spending tens of millions of dollars. This is the money that could have been used to feed and cloth so many of Ethiopia's starving children who are unable to attend school because they are too weak from hunger.

Sources inside ETC say that the facility that the Chinese built for the bloodsucking Woyanne regime can jam frequencies only up to 100 kilowatt.

The Meles dictatorship is also unable to jam Eritrean Radio's Amharic Service, which uses both Short and Medium wave frequencies.

The jamming of radio programs and blocking access to web sites that are deemed critical of the dictatorship in Ethiopia is being carried out by Ato DebreTsion GebreMichael, a central committee member of the ruling Tigrean People Liberation Front (TPLF) and a protoge of Meles Zenawi.

Ato DebreTsion is chairman of the Ethiopian Telecommunication Corporation (ETC) and Director General of the Information and Communication Technology Development Agency (EICTDA). His main assignment, however, is not the development of information technology in Ethiopia. His primary objective as Ethiopia's chief IT officer is to restrict access of such technology to most Ethiopians. He has been good at it. Under his watch, out of 80 million Ethiopians, only 2 million use mobile phones. There are only 20,000 internet service subscribers in Ethiopia — the lowest in Africa.

19 August 2008

China continues to jam international radio stations during Olympic Games

The Chinese authorities are continuing to jam the Chinese, Tibetan and Uyghur-language broadcast of several international radio stations although they promised to respect press freedom and the free flow of information during the Olympic Games, Reporters Without Borders said today.

"An international media outcry forced the Chinese government to stop blocking access to websites, but there has been no similar gesture towards the international radio stations such as the BBC, Voice of America, Radio Free Asia and Voice of Tibet, which are being jammed within China," Reporters Without Borders said.

"The right of foreign journalists to unrestricted Internet access has been partially guaranteed, but what about the hundreds of millions of Chinese, Tibetans and Uyghurs who are denied independent news and information," the press freedom organisation said. "How will the Olympic Games have helped to loosen the government’s grip on the news media."

The organisation added: "It was partly in order to draw attention to this censorship that Reporters Without Borders organised a clandestine FM broadcast in Beijing on 8 August."

Reporters Without Borders has confirmed from various sources in China that the jamming of Chinese-language broadcasts by the BBC, VOA, RFA and Sound of Hope (a station linked to the Falun Gong) and Tibetan and Uyghur-language broadcasts by RFA and Voice of Tibet has not stopped before or during the Olympic Games. The jamming of Tibetan-language programmes has even been stepped up in recent months.

Except for one reporter with RFA’s Tibetan service, journalists with the BBC, VOA and RFA have been able to get visas to go to China during the Olympic Games but their potential listeners have not been permitted audible reception of their broadcasts.

The staff of Voice of Tibet, a station based in Norway that broadcasts Tibetan and Chinese-language programmes to Tibet, report an increase in jamming of their three short-wave frequencies. The Chinese authorities use eight broadcasts from six different points within China (Beijing, Xian, Urumqi, Kashi, Hainan and Fuzhou) to make Voice of Tibet inaudible. Around 100 antennae have been installed in Tibet to jam international radio broadcasts.

"Our three frequencies are registered internationally for exclusive use for the broadcasting of our station’s programming," Voice of Tibet director Oystein Alme said. "But no one is capable of defending us against the Chinese jamming and, what’s more, our website is still blocked."

Complaints have been filed with the international body that regulates broadcasting but the Chinese government cites "technical problems" and has never kept its promises to respect the relevant international regulations.