ASIA

FM radio broadcasts from Voice of America (VOA) and Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) stations in Afghanistan will be banned from December 1, according to a directive issued by the Taliban’s ministry of information and culture.The authorities have cited complaints they have received about programming content, but have not provided further details.Abdul Haq Hammad, an official at the Taliban’s Information Ministry, said in a tweet on December 1 that the move was made “due to noncompliance with journalistic principles and one-sided broadcasts.”It is also unclear whether the ban will apply to other international broadcasters that have used the same system for FM broadcasts in Afghanistan.VOA and RFE/RL are U.S. government-funded news organizations that operate with journalistic independence and aim to provide comprehensive, balanced coverage.VOA’s Afghan services broadcast 12 hours a day on 15 FM channels and two medium wave (MW) channels, with programming split between Pashto and Dari.Dari and Pashto radio programs, first started in the 1980s, reach millions of listeners across the country and are widely respected as credible and reliable.Since the Taliban reclaimed power in August 2021, dozens of private television channels, radio stations and print media have reportedly ceased operation because of economic hardships and Taliban restrictions.According to the press advocacy group Reporters Without Borders (RSF), 219 video, audio and print shops have been closed in Afghanistan since the return of the Taliban. […]

This year’s Radiodays Europe will feature a wide variety of speakers from around Europe and the rest of the World.Radiodays Europe will be held on 26-28 March 2023, Prague, Czech Republic. The conference this year starts at 9.00am on Sunday 26th March with the Free Radidoays Europe Inclusive (formerly Radiodays Europe Women), event followed by three Summits on the Sunday afternoon: Youth, Podcast and Data Research (75EUR + VAT). You can also network with all the delegates during the conference, at the evening events and during the conference.First speakers announced include:Jeremy Druker, Executive Director of Transitions (TOL)Meenal Thakur, Project manager, Solutions Journalism Trainer and JournalistChris Price, Head of Music, BBC Radio 1 and 1Xtra (UK)SR TikTok expert Parastro Saeidi, Sweden Roger Hofmann, Head of Digital, RADIO/TELE FFH  GermanySatu Keto, Innovation Lead for Yle Innovations, Yle Technology and Development, FinlandAndriy Taranov, Board Member of Ukrainian Public Broadcaster Company ‘Suspilne Movlennya’ responsible for marketing transformation of the companyNiall Power,Head of Station Sound with the market leading Beat 102-103; Ireland’s first regional radio station, based in Waterford city, IrelandAnna Vošalíková, Chief Producer in charge of the ground breaking mujRozhlas audioplatform, a cutting edge space for all content created by Czech RadioRegister here at Early Bird prices before December 31. […]

The broadcasting business environment has changed significantly because of the pandemic, the ABU President, Masagaki Satoru, has said.Speaking at the opening of the ABU General Assembly in New Delhi on 29 November, he said the pandemic had accelerated the digitalisation of society around the world and changed media consumption patterns.“As a result, competition among media platforms has intensified further and the broadcasting business environment has changed significantly.“This General Assembly will be a valuable opportunity to sum up our recent experiences. Now we must consider the way to face the post-COVID era, an era in which digitalisation has further deepened.”Masagaki, who is also Executive Vice President of Japan’s public broadcaster NHK, said the ABU itself had learned a great deal from the pandemic, with activities being held online for the past three years.This had enabled the ABU to broaden its participants, making activities more accessible to general staff members.“On the other hand, we were reminded once again that face-to-face meetings are essential for networking and deepening friendships among top management.“In the future, I believe we can organically combine physical and virtual means to create an efficient and effective way, suitable for the post-COVID era.” […]

The Asia-Pacific Broadcasting Union has appointed Ahmed Nadeem as its next Secretary-General.

The announcement was made by the ABU Administrative Council after a meeting in New Delhi on November 24, 2022.
Nadeem, who is from the Maldives, is currently Director, ABU Technology & Innovation.
He succeeds Dr Javad Mottaghi, who has been Secretary-General since May 2010 and completes his term at the end of March 2023. Mr Nadeem will take up the position on 1 April 2023.
An experienced electronic and ICT engineer, he has over 25 years of experience in the field of broadcasting and telecommunications. He has been working in the ABU Technology Department since 2008 and was appointed Director in May 2018.
He has previously worked as a Project Engineer at LSV Enterprises of Singapore from 2007 to 2008. Before that he was with Television Maldives, where he worked from 1996 to 2007 as Head of Engineering. […]

Radio Pakistan has launched Planet FM 87.6 – its first English language channel.It will broadcast programs on news, current affairs, entertainment, infotainment, education and interviews of renowned achievers from different walks of life.The transmission will initially air from Islamabad, Lahore and Karachi and will be be expanded nationwide later. It will also be available on all social media platforms for international listeners.Speaking to Radio Pakistan’s News and Current Affairs Channel today, founder of a social organization and entrepreneur Nouman Abbasi said: “It is a great initiative by Radio Pakistan which will provide an opportunity to engage and involve the English-speaking community and expats in Pakistan to have a flavour of the local perspective. It also is a great forum to share the narrative of Pakistan with the world through multi-dimensional broadcasting.“China Radio International (CRI) has also commended Radio Pakistan for the launch. A CRI team visited Planet FM 87.6 at the National Broadcasting House in Islamabad on Wednesday and expressed the desire to have a cooperative relationship with the channel.Planet FM 87.6 in-charge Imran Javed briefed the CRI team that the channel runs round the clock transmission to cater to the needs of the listeners of English language and the diplomatic community across the country.Radio Pakistan’s Director General Muhammad Tahir Hassan was also present on the occasion. […]

Content from BPRThe Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) in the US said the American economy gained 528,000 jobs in July. Consensus forecasts were for a gain of 258,000. This puts the unemployment rate at just 3.5%.By all accounts it was an incredible result. But as Joel Bowman, Managing Editor for Bonner Private Research, said:“Here’s the bad news. The real unemployment rate is 9.6%. Much of the gain in jobs came from people taking a SECOND or part-time job. The labor force participation rate is at the same level it was in March 1977. Don’t take it from me. The following facts come straight from the BLS report (emphasis added is mine):
The number of persons not in the labor force who currently want a job was 5.9 million in July, little changed over the month. This measure is above its February 2020 level of 5.0 million. These individuals were not counted as unemployed because they were not actively looking for work during the 4 weeks preceding the survey or were unavailable to take a job.

The labor force participation rate, at 62.1 percent, and the employment-population ratio, at 60.0 percent, were little changed over the month. Both measures remain below their February 2020 values(63.4 percent and 61.2 percent, respectively).”
So the US unemployment rate isn’t 3.5% but 9.6%? Maybe …maybe not…..it’s all in the way governments, bureaucrats and economists around the world slice and dice the numbers.Radio is no different. You have a great survey result so you don’t really want to dig too deep unless you find out that there were was a massive anomaly in the data that benefitted your station.You had a bad result so you spend hours trolling through the data, going down rabbit holes to come up with “but we did increase cume with 18-24’s!”… even though that demo is way outside your target.Every station gets a bad bounce occasionally. Equally, some will get a favourable spike that really doesn’t make sense. Therefore, don’t just look at two surveys back to back. Look at trends overtime. Don’t panic about one bad survey when your station is on an otherwise upward trend and don’t start popping the champagne corks over one up survey on what really is a downward trend.The important thing is that as a program director, you need to be honest with yourself about the numbers…. whether they are good or bad. Let the sales team polish up the less than optimum results for client presentations if they need to but as a programmer you must always look at the data objectively without bias or emotion. This applies to both the good news and the bad news.That is the only way correct strategic decisions are made.By David Kidd, BPR […]