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THE CHANNEL
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ISSUE 2 2009
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07
IN BRIEF
TINY MOVIES
Walt Disney in Japan plans
to sell movies on flash
memory cards the size of a
fingernail so that people can
watch them on mobile phones
and other portable devices
such as car navigation
systems. The movie studio
plans to package pre-recorded
Panasonic microSD cards
together with DVDs holding
the same movie content,
allowing customers to watch
at home as well as on the
go. Titles include 'Pirates of
the Caribbean' and the
'National Treasure' series.
JAZEERA iPHONE
Al Jazeera English, already
firmly established as one of
the most viewed news
channels on YouTube, is now
part of the iPhone apps
phenomenon.
The 24 hour news channel
has launched AJE Live, a
software application which
gives viewers access to the
channel live on their Apple
iPhones and iPods
anywhere in the world, on
both Wi-Fi and 3G networks.
The application, developed
with online TV specialist
Livestation, is available on
all Apple App Stores, which
are accessible via iPhone
and iPod touch devices or
via iTunes.
TELEVISA ON HI5
Mexican media giant Televisa
and the social networking
website hi5 plan to provide
TV programming free online
in Latin America. Registered
hi5 users will be able see
Televisa programming on a
new hi5 page and the
partnership is intended to
boost both companies'
audience. The page won't be
accessible in the US where
Televisa is embroiled in a
battle over Internet
distribution rights. Televisa
and hi5 already reach more
than 33m users in Spanish-
speaking Latin America,
63% of the market.
Iranian reporting successes a
hybrid of old and new media
The Economist newspaper in
June said that the winner in
reporting the Iranian post-
election protests was "neither old
nor new media, but a hybrid of
the two", writes
Alan Heil
, former
deputy director of VOA.
Among the major players on
the scene were VOA's Persian
News Network [PNN], the BBC's
Persian TV service and Radio
Farda, from Prague-based
RFE/RL. According to Alex
Belida, Acting Director of PNN,
“We are getting hundreds of
videos, thousands of calls,
probably tens of thousands of
emails. It’s the most incredible
thing I have ever experienced.”
PNN is on the air for eight
hours a day, with the
programmes repeated around
the clock and streamed on line in
addition to satellite distribution.
Five hours are simulcast on
radio, supported by a one hour
radio-exclusive programme. In a
2009 survey carried out by
InterMedia Survey, PNN reached
at least 29.5% of Iran's adult
population, over 15m in number.
The impact of PNN was
demonstrated by the huge traffic
increase to PNN's website - up
800% since early June.
From London, the new BBC
Persian TV service expanded its
schedule to 13 hours a day
during the crisis – its estimated
audience in Iran is 7m.
Radio Farda's 24/7 network
increased the number of its
shortwave frequencies, with ten
on the air simultaneously at peak
hours to combat jamming. While
Iran is much more oriented
towards TV viewing than radio
listening, a survey in February
showed Farda reached 2.5% of
Iranian adults weekly (about
1.33m people), but despite the
attempts by Tehran to jam its
broadcasts, its is believed that
the audience is somewhat higher
today.
Iranian official attacks against
Western media, particularly the
VOA and BBC, intensified greatly
during June with Iran jamming
PNN and BBC Persian TV as well
as Radio Farda intermittently.
But it was impossible for the
authorities in Tehran to put an
end to the flow of information,
with Iranian citizens using the
Internet and mobile phones to
get news from the country out to
broadcasters abroad.
On 22 June a young woman
was murdered in a Tehran plaza
by a bystander deployed by the
regime. Hundreds of thousands
of channels and delivery systems
- digital, print, websites, TV and
radio - relayed the video images
of her last moments. Juan
Mercado of the Philippines Daily
Inquirer reported that the Agha-
Soltan video was transmitted
from Tehran through server
proxies to evade government
censors. “An Iranian,” he wrote,
“slipped copies to The Guardian
in London, to the VOA, and to five
contacts in Europe. CNN
broadcast the film. In less than
24 hours, Neda was transformed,
on the web, from a nameless
victim into an icon of the Iranian
protest movement.”
The Khamenei regime struck
back. Iran expelled the BBC’s
Tehran bureau chief and accused
Britain and the US of fomenting
the country’s most explosive
uprising in Iran in 30 years. It
accused the BBC and VOA of
orchestrating the uprising and
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seeking to divide Iranians. On 25
June, in an interview with News
Talk on PNN, VOA Director
Danforth W. Austin denied Iran’s
allegations that international
broadcasters, including VOA,
worked to threaten the country’s
territorial integrity. He said the
Voice would continue to give
Iranians a full and balanced view
of events inside their country and
around the world. "Right now, the
VOA is the only way many people
in Iran can find out what is going
on in their own country. A free
flow of information is a
fundamental human value
regardless of religion or
background.”
“Internet,” Austin told a
Congressional committee in late
July, “is VOA’s newest frontier,
along with mobile technology and
social media. We’re very aware
that this is the future, the place
we are going to capture the next
generation of VOA users. VOA-
branded Twitter, Facebook, and
YouTube channels in Persian all
helped VOA broaden its audience.
Results from a post-election
survey in Iran suggest that many
millions of Iranians continued to
follow the election results and
the ensuring protests through
one or more VOA programmes.”
Many other media have
focused on the role of
international broadcasters in
Iran. Among them AP, UPI, the
Washington Post, the Wall Street
Journal, Christian Science
Monitor, The Times of London,
AFP, CNN, NBC Nightly News,
NPR and the Pittsburgh Tribune-
Review. In an editorial, that paper
concluded: “US cable news
channels are carrying first
person reports from inside Iran,
too. But what distinguishes VOA
is its long experience in reaching
foreign audiences living under
regimes that prohibit the free
flow of information."