ASIA

This story first appeared on RadioInfo.asia

Taliban have arrested Hikmat Aryan, the director of Radio Khushhal, a private radio station in Ghazni, according to the Afghanistan Journalists Center (AFJC).Radio Khushhal began operations approximately seven months ago.AFJC reported that Aryan was apprehended on Sunday, September 29, at his office by the Taliban’s Directorate of Intelligence (GDI), which has accused him of discussing past Taliban suicide attacks in an audio recording that was subsequently broadcast by the radio station.

The audio book, Suicider, was recorded by Aryan years ago and is popular on social media. The book is against the Taliban’s attempt to show the positive side of suicide attacks.The Taliban’s intelligence agency has deemed this broadcast as disrespectful to Taliban members. However, Aryan’s family has rejected these allegations, asserting that his work adheres to journalistic standards and ethics.To date, no information has been released about his condition or whereabouts.The Afghanistan Journalists Support Organization (AJSO) condemned the arrest of Aryan and demanded his immediate release.AFJC stated: “We are gravely concerned that the whereabouts and current situation of Hekmat Aryan have not been disclosed to his family as of the time of this release, which constitutes a violation of their visitation rights.”AFJC further emphasized: “We call on the Taliban authorities in Ghazi to immediately and unconditionally release Hekmat Aryan and to cease the use of force against journalists. Media workers must be allowed to perform their duties without the fear of arrest, threats, or attacks.” […]

The provincial capital of Malaita Province, Auki in the Solomon Islands, and surrounding communities, now can receive their national service of the Solomon Islands Broadcasting Corporation (SIBC) on FM 96.3 and ABC Radio Australia on FM 107. This follows the installation of an FM96.3 transmitter on a Solomon Telekom transmission tower in Auki.SIBC Chief Executive Officer, Johnson Honimae said:“This great milestone has been achieved as SIBC celebrated its 72nd anniversary of broadcasting in this country early this week. Our listeners in Auki and surrounding communities will now listen to programmes from the national service in Honiara through livestream with much clearer digital audio.

This is another step forward in the implementation of the Unity FM service that has been part of the strategy of the Corporation in the past several years. This adds on to the FM96.3 in Honiara and in Gizo in the Western Province.SIBC would not have achieved the FM service in Auki without the great support of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation through the supply of equipment and engineers supported by SIBC’s own engineers who set up the two FM transmitters in the past several days.”As part of a three-year Memorandum of Understanding between the two networks, SIBC and ABC are sharing technical expertise, including SIBC infrastructure, to enable ABC to broadcast in Solomon Islands, and content like news and current affairs, sport, music, lifestyle and general interest information.ABC International Head Claire M. Gorman said:“We are delighted that our two teams were able to come together to execute this exciting new development in FM transmission, connecting communities across Auki and the Malaita Province. The collaboration between our technical teams encapsulates the true spirit of our longstanding friendship and partnership with SIBC. We congratulate them on the tremendous milestone of their 72nd anniversary and look forward to future opportunities to support one another’s work as public broadcasters.” SIBC is in discussions with the Malaita Provincial Government for land to establish an FM studio in Auki. Listeners can still receive the National Service on AM 1035khz, SW 5020 khz and at sibconline.com.sb. […]

The Israel-Gaza war has taken an unprecedented toll on journalists since Israel declared war on Hamas following its attack against Israel a year ago, on October 7, 2023.As of September 30, 2024, the Committee to Protect Journalists’ (CPJ) preliminary investigations showed at least 116 journalists and media workers were among the more than 40,000 death toll on both sides, since the war began.It is the deadliest period for journalists since CPJ began gathering data in 1992.

CPJ Program Director Carlos Martinez de la Serna said: “Since the war in Gaza started, journalists have been paying the highest price – their lives – for their reporting. Without protection, equipment, international presence, communications, or food and water, they are still doing their crucial jobs to tell the world the truth. Every time a journalist is killed, injured, arrested, or forced to go to exile, we lose fragments of the truth. Those responsible for these casualties face dual trials: one under international law and another before history’s unforgiving gaze.”

Journalists are civilians and are protected by International Law. Deliberately targeting civilians constitutes a war crime. In May, the International Criminal Court announced it was seeking arrest warrant applications for Hamas and Israeli leaders for war crimes and crimes against humanity.
Full list of journalists killed in this current conflict, which is the most recent violence in the decades old tensions in the region. […]

Nepal’s House of Representatives has passed the Public Service Broadcasting Bill for a planned merger of the two national broadcasters, Radio Nepal and Nepal Television, which will then be run as the National Public Service Broadcasting Agency.The legislation, which has been two decades in the making, was initially designed to establish a public service broadcaster more “robust, efficient and strong” than what already existed. Stakeholders looked at other public media models such as the BBC or NHK to bring Radio Nepal and Nepal Television under one publicly-funded umbrella.However, the final bill does not provide for atonomy. A council shall be formed under the leadership of the Minister for Communications and Information Technology to offer policy guidelines and formulate the policies for the National Public Service Broadcasting Agency.The institution will have a three-member board including the chairperson appointed from the government, a first-class officer assigned by the ministry and at least a woman appointed from the ministry.One month after the bill is authenticated, a public call for applications will be made for the position of Executive Chairperson. The selection will be based on the submitted action plan and an interview process. The appointed Executive Chairperson will serve a four-year term. According to the bill, the existing positions at Radio Nepal and Nepal Television will be merged.The National Public Service Broadcasting Agency will have a separate fund to deposit the grants it receives as well as its income.“Passage of the PSB bill from Nepal’s parliament is a milestone on media development and lawmaking in this sector,” said Taranath Dahal, the Chief Executive of Freedom Forum, which has been advocating for the bill since 2007. “Still, there are some provisions to be standardised. But the progress made by the parliament carries much significance.” […]

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has released a consultation paper on ‘Formulating a Digital Radio Broadcast Policy for private Radio broadcasters’.At present, analogue terrestrial radio broadcast in India is carried out in Medium Wave (MW) (526–1606 KHz), Short Wave (SW) (6–22 MHz), and VHF-II (88–108 MHz) spectrum bands. VHF-II band is popularly known as FM band due to deployment of Frequency Modulation (FM) technology in this band.All India Radio (AIR) – the public service broadcaster – provides radio broadcasting services in MW, SW and FM bands. Private sector radio broadcasters are licensed to transmit programs in FM frequency band (88-108 MHz) only.Digital Radio broadcasting will provide a number of advantages over analogue radio broadcasting. The major advantage of Digital Radio broadcasting is capability of broadcasting three to four channels on a single frequency carrier, while ensuring excellent quality of audio for all the channels, whereas in the analogue mode only one channel broadcasting is possible on a frequency carrier.In a competitive environment, digital radio broadcasting can provide exciting new opportunities to radio broadcasters as well as a host of value-added-services to the listeners.All India Radio (AIR) has initiated digitization of its analogue MW and SW radio broadcast network and replaced its existing 38 analogue transmitters with digital transmitters. AIR has conducted trials for digital radio technologies in FM band also. However, any initiative in digitization of FM band by private FM radio broadcasters is still awaited.In order to develop an eco-system, which can facilitate deployment of digital radio broadcasting, TRAI suo-motu gave its recommendations on “Issues related to Digital Radio Broadcasting in India” on 1st February 2018.In its recommendations, the Authority recognized that there was a need to bring all the stakeholders – radio broadcasters, transmission equipment manufacturers, and digital radio receiver manufacturers – on one platform and to encourage them to work collectively for developing the ecosystem for digital radio broadcasting.The Authority also emphasized that the government should come out with a detailed policy framework for Digital Radio Broadcasting in India, which should provide detailed roadmap for rollout of digital radio broadcasting services in a time bound manner.Now, MIB vide its reference dated 23rd April 2024 has sought recommendations of TRAI on formulating a digital radio broadcast policy for private Radio broadcasters. MIB has mentioned that in order to cater to technology shift, some existing provisions under FM Phase-III policy may require a relook. MIB has also highlighted certain issues that may be considered while formulating recommendations for digital radio broadcast policy.Accordingly, TRAI has initiated this consultation process in order to seek stakeholders’ comments on various issues relating to formulation of digital radio broadcast policy for private Radio broadcasters.Written comments on the consultation paper are invited from the stakeholders by 28th October 2024. Counter comments, if any, may be submitted by 11th November 2024. […]