ABC shines at the AACTA Awards

Six ABC (Australian Broadcasting Corporation) programs and documentaries were recognised at the Australian film industry awards on Sunday.

Chris Lilley was awarded best performance in a TV comedy for his series Angry Boys at the Australian Academy Cinema Television Arts (AACTA) Awards luncheon, while the ABC documentary Mrs Carey's Concert took out two awards.

Antony Maras' The Palace won the award for best short fiction film and cinematographer Don McAlpine received the prestigious Raymond Longford Award honouring his 40 years.

McAlpine, has worked on films such as Moulin Rouge, Predator and Don's Party. 

In feature film, The Eye of the Storm, The Hunter and Snowtown received two awards each, while Toomelah director Ivan Sen was presented with the Byron Kennedy Award.

Box-office hit Red Dog was given the AFI member's choice award.

(Source : Asia-Pacific Broadcasting Union)

Zimpapers to launch radio station within five months

The Zimpapers (1980) board chairman has congratulated the company’s management for successfully bidding for a radio licence in Zimbabwe as it moves to expand its national and regional market share both in the print and electronic media. Speaking during the company’s strategic planning workshop held in Vumba, Dr Paul Chimedza said equipment for radio programme production is already in the country. He said the station would be going on the air in about five months’ time.

“We are happy with the way we have worked hard to attain the super brand tag. After that, we are now focusing on a TV licence. We are saying that when the opportunity avails itself we want to go for the TV licence. I am looking at Zimpapers not just as a newspaper company but a media giant.”

However he said Zimpapers would not be competing with the Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation. “In other words, we want Zimpapers to be what CNN is to the Americans and what BBC and Guardian are to the British. We want to continue dominating this market as well as devise ways of dominating the regional market.” He said the company would also seek “to be the first media company to bring a truly regional TV broadcaster via satellite.

Dr Chimedza urged management to be innovative in the face of stiff competition. “You are the management and we are expecting you to be innovative. We expect you to interrogate the existing structures and see whether that could be the best way of doing business. We just do not want managers who will tell you that they have been doing this for the past 20 years. Dinosaurs failed to survive because they failed to adapt.”

Dr Chimedza expressed confidence of the company prospering despite economic challenges being faced in Zimbabwe. “We have the experience, the capacity and the confidence that we can do it,” he said.

(Source: The Herald, published by the Government of Zimbabwe via Media Network Weblog)

[RFI Update] RFI staff have launched a blog and a petition against the merger.

[RFI Update] RFI staff have launched a blog and a petition against the merger. The English version is here.

PETITION

We, the undersigned, listeners of RFI and its foreign language broadcasts,
colleagues in the public audiovisual field,
politicians,
union members,
citizens attached to free and fair information, as well as the values of the public service,
support the RFI staff and say with them:

No to the dismantling of RFI!
No to the layoffs!
Keep the language services open!
No to the “modernization plan” at RFI!
We, the undersigned, listeners of RFI and its foreign language broadcasts,
colleagues in the public audiovisual field,
politicians,
union members,
citizens attached to free and fair information, as well as the values of the public service,
support the RFI staff and say with them:
No to the dismantling of RFI!
No to the layoffs!
Keep the language services open!
No to the “modernization plan” at RFI!

Sign here 

(Source : RFI Riposte Blog via Media Network Weblog )

Japan introduces new mobile phone app for disaster communications

Japanese mobile phone carriers will start a service to use data communications for sending audio messages even when telephone service is disrupted following a severe disaster.

Mobile phone carriers developed the technology as data communications services were relatively easy to access after the March 11th earthquake and tsunami that hit northeast Japan. 

A large-scale disaster can disrupt telephone service and force authorities to restrict communications.

The technology enables users to record audio messages that are sent by e-mail to someone they want to contact.

The recipient can download the audio file and listen to the recorded message. The service will be available for Smartphone users for the time being.

(Source : Asia-Pacific Broadcasting Union)

RFI hit by new strike

RFI's broadcast and website may be disrupted by a strike, starting Monday 16 January. The stoppage is in opposition to the fusion of RFI with France 24 television. 

(Source : Radio France International)

VOV traffic channel helps foreigners retrieve lost things

A Singaporean couple has got back their wallet they left in a taxi thanks to the assistance of the VOV Traffic channel.

Malik Maksudi, a man from Singapore, and his wife Tran Thi Tra My, went by taxi to a shopping centre in Hanoi on January 5. Unfortunately Maksudi dropped his wallet on the cab but did not remember its plate number and company name. The wallet contained his passport and other important papers.

Maksudi was advised to contact the VOV traffic channel and ask for help.

Just one day after announcing Maksudi’s name, the channel got a call from a Mai Linh taxi driver who said he had found his passenger’s wallet.

On receiving his property, Maksudi expressed his sincere thanks to the VOV traffic channel for their assistance.

Over the past two years, a number of foreigners have been helped by the VOV traffic channel to retrieve their lost property.

(Source : Voice of Vietnam)

Voice of Vietnam (VOVWorld.vn) launched with numerous foreign languages

Radio the Voice of Vietnam (VOV) has launched a website providing listeners with the news and information in Vietnamese and 11 foreign languages.

 

The website, also at VOV5.vn, uploads writings and audio files in 12 different languages including English, French, Russian, Spanish, Japanese, Mandarin, and German, as well as Lao, Thai, Cambodian, Indonesian and Vietnamese.

According to Doan Thi Trung, head of the VOV overseas service department, the newly-launched website will broadcast audio files in 12 languages seven days a week so listeners can follow their favourite programs at any time.

Since the website debuted about a month ago, it has received a lot of positive feedback from listeners saying they find it very convenient for catching up on programs they missed during the week.

VOVWorld.vn is expected to become an important bridge between Vietnam and international friends.

(Source : Voice of Vietnam)

Save BNR Radio Bulgaria on shortwave and medium wave

Dear listeners and friends of shortwave and Radio Bulgaria, With a huge regret I'd like to inform you very bad news. 

After more than 75 years in the world broadcasting from January 31, 2012 at 2200UT Radio Bulgaria cease broadcasting on shortwave and medium wave.

The shortwave transmitters in Kostinbrod & Padarsko will be destroyed in the next few months.

Radio Bulgaria is not necessary now to its shortwave and medium waves listeners.

The reason

No money for broadcasting on shortwave and medium waves. And who listens to short waves today?
We have internet. Maintaining the shortwave transmitters was "Mission Impossible"! Hope dies last.

As a frequency manager in the last 19 years my main task was to provide best quality signal of Radio Bulgaria in worldwide coverage.
There will be no shortwave, there will be no frequency manager. For all people who work in Radio Bulgaria that bad news is shock and horror. Beginning of the end. But we expect your moral support.

What can you do?

• Sign the petition
• Contact BNR

Please sign the petition to save the broadcasts of Radio Bulgaria on shortwave and medium wave.

http://www.saveradiobulgaria.com/?page=sign

 

(Source : Via Yimber Gaviria, Colombia)

RFI's The Sound Kitchen Quiz

This week’s question is about a birthday, that of South Africa’s African National Congress, the ANC, founded 100 years ago. The ANC is South Africa’s governing party and has been since the first post-apartheid elections in 1994. But the ANC was not always called the ANC … the name was changed in 1923.

My question to you is, what was the original name of the ANC, founded on 8 January, 1912, in Bloemfontein, South Africa?

Send me your answer by 13 February; the answer and the winners will be announced on the 18 February programme. Be sure you send your postal address in with your answer … and be sure and tell me if you are a Mr. or a Mrs. or a Ms. or a Miss – I don’t want to get it wrong!

Send your answers to:
english.service@rfi.fr
or
Susan Owensby
RFI – The Sound Kitchen
BP 9516
75016 Paris
France

Valentine’s Day is just around the corner … send in your musical request and dedication for your sweetheart!

And remember, it’s not just the quiz which wins you a prize. If your essay goes on the air, you’ll find a package in the mail from the Sound Kitchen. Write in about your community heroes – the people in your community who are quietly working to make the world a better place, in whatever way they can.

I am still looking for your “This I Believe” essays, too. Tell us about the principles that guide your life … what you have found to be true from your very own personal experience. Or write in with your most memorable moment, and/or your proudest achievement.

Send your mini book reviews, your musical requests, your secret “guilty” pleasure (mine’s chocolate!), your tricks for remembering things, your favourite quotations and proverbs, descriptions of the local festivals you participate in, or just your general all-around thoughts to:

thesoundkitchen@rfi.fr

Include a phone number, if you can. I’d like to call you and put you on-the-air … and send you a thank-you gift for participating.

I look forward to hearing from you soon!

All the best,
Susan

(Source : Radio France International)

RFI's The Sound Kitchen winners (6 November)

 

 Hello everyone!

You’ve surely noticed by now we’ve been experimenting with the Sound Kitchen recipes … on Saturdays, at 5:16 universal time, tune in to hear if you are amongst the week’s winners. The winners' names are here on our website, too. Look for Short Features / Sound Kitchen Winners.

Tune in on Sundays, at 4:22, 5:52 and 7:22 universal time, for the quiz question ... and whatever else is cooking up in the Sound Kitchen.

This week’s question was read on 6 November and was about Greece, which was teetering on the edge of bankruptcy. The European Union had come up with a bailout package and it looked as if everything was heading in the right direction … but, to everyone’s surprise, Greek Prime Minister (now former prime minister) George Papandreou made a surprise announcement.

I asked you to tell me what that surprise announcement was. The answer is … a referendum. Papandreou proposed a referendum to see if Greek citizens were willing to accept the bailout plan, which required austerity measures to be put in place.

So the answer is: a referendum. By the way, the referendum never took place, and Papandreou is out. There is a coalition government in power and the new Greek prime minister is Lucas Papademos, the former vice-president of the Central European Bank. And there are widespread strikes in Greece against the austerity measures; most recently by doctors and pharmacists.

This winners this week are: Miroslav Siles from Kosice, Slovakia; NPK Pillai from Maseru, Lesotho; Toryila Shawon from Benue State, Nigeria; Paul Tilok from Murshidibad, India; and Gyani Kumar Chowdhary of the City Listener’s Club in Barnal, Punjab state, India.

Congratulations, winners!

(Source : Radio France International)