AFRICA

• ETHIOPIA
  Ethiopia’s first FM English Language Radio Station began pre-test broadcasting in June. The Station, run by Paconet Media plc is owned by Addis Alemayehou and his wife, Martha Wondimu. Addis is the chief of VEGA Ethiopia, a USAID programme that assists private companies to exploit the AGOA (African Growth Opportunities Act). The station will work with other local media organisations for content development. The target audience is emerging foreign investors and expatriates in Addis Ababa – the seat of the African Union (AU), United Nation Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA) and Africa’s largest diplomatic community.
  Source: East African Business Week

• SOUTH AFRICA
  Dr Emmanuel Mbennah has been commissioned as TWR Africa’s International Director in Johannesburg, South Africa, succeeding Rev. Stephen Boakye-Yiadom. Lauren Libby, International President gave the message at the Commissioning Service.
  Contact: hcombe@twr.org.uk
  

• AFRICA
  Many Radio/CD players are being delivered to Morocco and Algeria, along with a CD of programmes. TWR-Africa also distributes wind-up radios to Namibia, where electricity is nonexistent in many rural areas and batteries are too expensive. Wind-up radios fit this need and people in these nations can now hear broadcasts in their own languages.
  Source: Listening Word
  

ASIA

• CAMBODIA
  TWR-Asia is airing five programmes over 13 FM Stations in Cambodia to address issues faced by church leadership, women, children and young people. TWR began ministry in Cambodia in 2000, and have a new Media Centre and 19 staff. They also work with 51 co-ordinators who manage children’s listening clubs and radio distribution. In 2008, around 600 radios were distributed.
  Source: TWR Snapshots

• NEPAL
  According to Christian Freedom International (CFI) Nepal is now home to an estimated 800,000 believers and there are approximately 170 churches in the capital, Kathmandu. HCJB Global staff have recently worked with local partners to install two Christian radio stations in Nepal. HCJB’s Australia shortwave station in Kununurra also airs a daily 15 minute Nepali programme to South Asia.
  Source: www.hcjb.org

AUSTRALIA

• DIGITAL RADIOS
  Sales of Digital Radios are expected to soar in Australia, after many metropolitan radio stations including ABC and SBS began DAB+ digital broadcasting at the beginning of July. Digital radio signals are available in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth so far, but regional broadcasters are discussing plans for trials in Canberra, Hobart and Townsville by the end of the year.
  Source: Australian IT News

• COMMUNITY PARTICIPATION REQUIREMENTS
  Draft Community Participation Guidelines for community broadcasters have been released by the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA), and include suggestions for encouraging community participation in operations and programming. They can be reviewed on the ACMA website www.acma.gov.au and any submissions should be sent by 31st August 2009.
  Source: Christian Media Australia
  

EUROPE

• FINLAND
  The Cabinet of Ministers of Finland have issued a free-to-air, terrestrial, nation-wide Television Licence to Family Channel of Finland. The Channel will be carried by all 87 television towers and all cable networks as “must carry” providing free 100% coverage to every home in Finland. The channel is owned and run by Christian Media people and businessmen. Its I.D. on air will be “STV” – Suomi TV, meaning Finland TV. Hannu Haukka has been appointed as Managing Director/CEO. A national terrestrial television broadcast licence for a Christian group is rare in Europe. Only Evangelische Omroep (EO) in Holland has a similar licence. There were 9 competitors for two licences. They included BBC World News, Disney, Discovery, Eurosport, and two large commercial TV channels in Finland, none of which received a licence. Family Channel was granted a maximum long-term licence extending to 2016. It will carry between 3-9 hours per week religious programming on the channel.
  Contact: hannu.haukka@irrtv.fi
  

• EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT
  Joseph Daul has been re-elected to the Chairmanship of the European People’s Party Group (EPP) in the European Parliament. Daul has chaired the Group since January 2007. He expressed his determination to continue work on implementing a programme based on the priorities of the EPP: values, social market economy, security, immigration policy and Europe, and said, “The EPP won the European Elections. It is up to us to drive the European agenda in the 5 years to come.”
  Source: www.eppgroup.eu

• IRELAND
  Ireland has set 2nd October 2009 as the date for the country’s repeat referendum on the Lisbon Treaty. Irish voters rejected the Treaty in the first referendum last June by 53.4% to 46.6%. Irish Prime Minister Brian Cowen has said that legal guarantees have been given to Ireland on issues which concerned voters in the first round.
  Source: European Voice

• GERMANY
  ERF Medien’s new 24-hour satellite TV channel “ERF Eins” is now airing “Joni and Friends” each Sunday evening at 8.00pm with German voiceovers. The American Joni Eareckson-Tada has been a quadriplegic for over 40 years. In a 1967 diving accident she broke her back at age 17. She has written 35 books, including her autobiography, “Joni” which has been translated into 40 languages and has sold over 3 million copies. Joni also enjoys painting, guiding the brush with her mouth and signing each piece “PTL” – “Praise the Lord“. In 1979 she founded the “Joni and Friends International Disability Centre ” a Christian relief organisation for the disabled. The new TV series is to encourage disabled viewers and their families and to sensitise others to the dynamics of life with disability.
  Email: lothar.ruehl@erf.de

• UK
  OFCOM has launched a review of its Broadcasting Code which sets rules for TV and radio stations. The Code covers areas such as the protection of children, harm and offence, fairness,  privacy and commercial references in programmes. The consultation will ask whether not-for-profit organisations should be permitted to fund programmes about their own activities or interests. These programmes, called “Public Information Programming” would cover subjects in the public interest but could not deal with controversial matters. Currently such programming is not permitted. The revised Code will also include mandatory changes as a result of new European legislation (the Audio Visual Media Services Directive).
  Source: www.ofcom.org.uk

• UK
  The Digital Britain Report says that the UK government has earmarked £200m of the money handed to the BBC to help with digital switchover and provide universal broadband access by 2012. This money will be enhanced by other sources, including contributions from private and public sector organisations who benefit from increased connectivity, consumers who upgrade and the value of wider coverage obligations on mobile operators arising from the wider mobile spectrum package.
  Source: Broadcast

• TURKEY
  Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan is trying to revive a European Union entry bid that is facing new signs of hostility from some Member States. Membership talks are almost at a standstill, raising doubts over whether Turkey’s dream of joining the EU is possible. In the June European Parliament Election, EU “enlargement fatigue ” and hostility to Turkey became a campaign issue in a number of countries. Demands of the EU, such as reforming the military-inspired constitution, have fallen prey to political infighting – and an alleged plot by the Turkish army to undermine Erdogan’s Islamist-rooted AK Party, if proved authentic, would confirm critics’ fears of the “old Turkey ” with generals meddling in politics. The EU unanimously agreed in 2005 to open accession talks with Turkey, a large, relatively poor Muslim country of 70 million people, but since then reforms have slowed to a halt and the bloc now appears divided about accepting them.
  Source: Reuters UK
  

• UK
  After more than 30 years, John Beyer has announced his retirement from the Directorship of Mediawatch UK. He said, “There remain many challenges in the digital age, not least the need to regulate the internet and to place effective controls over online material that causes offence and harm”. Mediawatch-UK was founded in the 1960s by the late Mary Whitehouse and campaigns for decency and accountability in the media. A new Director will be appointed in the next few weeks.
  Visit www.mediawatchuk.org

• POLAND
  Radio CCM is searching for more helpers to train as e-coaches for the Polish Internet Courses “WhyJesus?” and “Looking for God” led by TopChretien in France and Evangelische Omroep in Netherlands.
  Contact: Henryk Krol hkrol@ccm.pl

• EUROPEAN COMMISSION
  EU Leaders have backed Jose Manuel Barroso for a second term as President of the European Commission. His priorities are a Europe “which refuses all types of protectionism but which is clearly determined to protect and promote European interests in the world.” He also says that he believes in a Europe as a political project built on a strong partnership between Member States and the European Institutions. The European Parliament’s Plenary Sessions began on 14th July. when Jerry Buzek was elected as President.
  Source: Robert Schuman Foundation

• ARMENIA
  Armenia is getting its first IPTV service after local telecoms company Ucom partnered with technology firm Ericsson. Ucom will begin rolling out the new service from July, with a range of broadcast channels and video-on-demand.
  Source: C21Media.net

• UK
  The Church of England is turning away trainee clergy for the first time in history after £1.3 billion of its investments were wiped out in the financial crisis. Up to a dozen graduates of theological colleges will miss out on their ordination and may end up on the dole as there are no parish jobs for them. The Church has previously given all graduates placements in parishes as curates, which they need before they can become ordained as priests. But now, to the anger of senior clerics, a spending squeeze means the number of junior clergy posts has been reduced and some trainees may leave the church.
  Source: Mail on Sunday

• FRANCE
  French Telecoms Regulator ARCEP says that 6.2 million French homes now have IPTV subscriptions – an increase of 36.8%. France telecom was France’s largest IPTV provider, with its Orange TV brand having 2.2 million digital TV subscribers.
  Source: C21Media.net

• UK
  GBS Radio has decided that the teaching ministry of the “Discovery” programme should both continue, and be expanded to reach and teach many more people. The literature ministry through the “Discovery ” booklet will also be made more widely available and their presentation changed in line with this aim. To move in this direction, GBS is recruiting volunteers and beginning Deputation work to Churches.
  Contact: enquiries@gbsradio.org.uk
  
  

GLOBAL

• MYSPACE
  MySpace is to axe 300 further jobs, reducing its international workforce to just 150, and closing at least 4 of its offices outside the United States. London, Berlin and Sydney will become the primary regional hubs. CEO Owen van Natta said that the company had become too big and cumbersome to be sustainable.
  Source: C21Media.net

• GOOGLE TO LAUNCH OPERATING SYSTEM
  Google is developing an operating system for personal computers, in a direct challenge to market leader Microsoft and its Windows system. Google Chrome OS will be aimed initially at netbooks, the low-cost portable computers, and will be on sale around the middle of 2010.
  Source: BBC News

MIDDLE EAST

• TURK-7 TO MERGE WITH SAT-7
  During its tri-annual meeting in Beirut, Lebanon, the SAT-7 International Board voted to integrate TURK-7 fully into the ministry’s network of TV channels by January 2010. David Middleton, TURK-7 Executive Director, said, “We at TURK-7 are excited about this merger. SAT-7, with its similar ethos, its years of experience in Christian broadcasting and its significantly larger operational and support staff, will help raise us up to a higher level of broadcasting“. TURK-7 was created as an independent Turkish Christian television ministry in 2003. Based in Istanbul, the ministry uses locally-based Christians and other TV professionals to create both original programming and dubbed programming. It is largely funded by a group of 28 partners, half of which are local churches and ministries. SAT-7 is a founding member of the partnership.
  Contact: Ruth Lancaster, Tel: +44 1249 765865 or press@sat7trust.org

• JORDAN
  Blooming Productions in Jordan are producing 28, five-minute spots for SAT-7 Kids, to teach them basic Arabic letters and Bible verses at the same time. They will begin airing this summer.
  Visit www.sat7.org

• ARABIC BIBLE DOWNLOADS
  Middle East Media has made the Bible available in Arabic as a free download for mobile phones and there has been a consistent 10,000 downloads every month over the last year.
  Visit www.bebalash.com

NORTH AMERICA

• USA
  Last month, the USA made the transition from analogue TV signals to digital without visible major hitches. On Friday 12th June more than 900 full-power TV stations shut down their analogue signals and are now broadcasting only in digital. The switch was due to take place in February but was delayed by Congress after regulators reported that some five million US households were unprepared.
  Source: USA Today

• USA
  Dr M.G. “Pat” Robertson, the Broadcast Leader and Founder of the Christian Broadcasting Network (CBN) is also the Founder and President of Regent University in Virginia Beach. Robertson recently announced his plans to retire as the University President effective July 1, 2010. Regent’s Board of Trustees has appointed a search committee that will name a new president, expected to join the university no later than autumn 2010. Dr Robertson will continue to serve as the university’s Chancellor and a member of the Board of Trustees.
  Source: Inside NRB

• USA
  The National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) has produced a radio spot for NRB as part of their “Radio Heard Here” campaign, an initiative to “reignite the passion for radio“. As part of NAB’s “Radio 2020“, the “Radio Heard Here” initiative is designed to “change consumers’ and advertisers’ perception about radio’s future“.
  Source: Inside NRB

• USA
  

  Official Country Name	United States of America
  Region	North & Central America
  Population	278,058,881
  Languages	English, Spanish
  Literacy Rate	97%
  Size	9,629,091 sq. km
  GDP	9,837,406 (US$ millions)
  Number of TV Stations	1,500
  Number of TV sets	219,000,000
  TV Sets per 1,000	787.6
  Number of Radio Stations	10,322
  Number of Radio receivers	575,000,000
  Radio Receivers per 1,000	2.067.9
  Number of individuals with computers	161,000,000
  Number of individuals with Internet access	95,354,000
  Internet access per 1,000	342.9

DIARY DATES

NETHERLANDS: The World Congress of Families V will be held at the RAI Centre in Amsterdam from 10-12 August 2009. Visit www.worldcongress.org