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Sat-ND, 3.9.96

Sat-ND 96-09-03 - Satellite and Media News

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"(c) Copyright 1996 by Sat-ND, http://www.sat-net.com/pck/"
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Peter C. Klanowski, Fax +49-451-5820055, pck@LyNet.De

This issue is sponsored by TELE-satellite, Europe's Satellite Magazine 
Have a look at their homepage! >> http://www.TELE-satellit.com/ <<

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AIT to launch soon
A Nigerian company will by the end of the year launch its world-wide
television channel that has been announced for some years. 
Following the deregulation of Nigerian broadcast media in 1991, licenses
for commercial TV and radio stations were issued. But it proved difficult
to even set up a commercial radio station. The first started just two years
ago, broadcasting on FM to the Lagos area and parts of neighbouring
countries. Ray Power 100, owned by the Daar Communications Company of
multi-millionaire Raymond Dokpesi, is also the owner of "Africa Independent
Television (AIT)," as the satellite channel will probably be known.
Marking their second on-air anniversary, Ray Power directors announced
yesterday that their TV channel will begin operations before the end of the
1996. That, of course, does not mean it will instantaneously be receivable
all over the world. Instead, it will likely distributed to Africa at first.

What goes up, must come down
A 165 metre steel mast used to transmit an AM radio station in Langenberg
near Wuppertal, Germany, fell over yesterday during maintenance work.
Nobody was hurt but some workers are reported to have suffered a shock. The
damage is estimated at some million DM. FM radio and TV channels are not
affected -- their services had been transferred to a 300 metre mast six
years ago (cf. Radio-Skala 2/1990.)


Zeroes and ones
By Grandpa Zheng

Singapore Special
Singapore wants to integrate its existing on-line networks into an
Internetwork Hub (I-Hub) by December. It will be built upon the existing
backbone of the country's three Internet providers. So far, connections
using different providers sometimes had to be routed via the United States.
Anybody outside the US, however, will have noticed a similar behaviour when
using a programme called 'tracert' with Windows 95 (there may be other
programmes for different operating systems.)
However, it would be interesting to know how the move affects the
censorship efforts of the Singapore government. On July 19, Associated
Press reported that "material blocked in Singapore can be obtained by
anyone elsewhere with access through a different gateway." No longer?
The government has reserved the right to issue annual licenses to Internet
providers as well as to political parties that maintain Web sites and
groups and individuals who run discussion sites on politics and religion.
About ten officials of the Singapore Broadcasting Authority (SBA) check the
net for objectionable material day by day. A government-appointed panel of
prominent citizens decides what is objectionable, said Goh Liang Kwang, the
SBA's chief executive, adding that "we are not censoring discussion
groups."
The SBA guidelines say it will not allow contents that "tend to bring the
government into hatred or contempt." There is also a ban on a lot of other
topics, mostly hinging on religion and sexuality. For example, the
government also regards homosexuality a "sexual perversion" (which, of
course, it isn't) that won't be allowed to be depicted on the net.
Now for the official view, although you probably won't find any word on
censorship here. The more or less official Website for Singapore, called
Infomap, has probably the simplest URL I've encountered so far:
http://www.sg/
To get an overview of the country's media landscape, point your browser at
http://www.sg/infomap/martc/martc.html

All the lies that are fit to print
The dirty smear campaign run by the British tabloid paper "The Observer"
against the Internet provider Demon and the Finnish remailer anon.penet.fi
is now available to a world-wide audience. There are some pretty large
scans of the articles in question, but also an ASCII text version. Included
are some links enabling you to send e-mail to the persons involved,
including the Observer's editor, to tell them what you think. 
http://scallywag.com/


That's all?
Sorry! There's really not much more, I'm afraid. Should you agree with me
that this issue wasn't too exciting, just remember that contributions are
always welcome although I may not have the time to thank you individually.
By the way, I don't expect any sensations, just what you read in your local
newspaper -- that's still news to 95 or 99 percent of Sat-ND readers.
Cheers!

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Copyright 1996 by Peter C. Klanowski, pck@LyNet.De. All rights reserved.

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