Israele, stazioni che chiudono

Sull'ultimo DXLD Glenn Hauser riporta il commento di Kim Andrew Elliot sulla sua column nel bollettino del NASWA, la North American SW Association. Sulla chiusura delle trasmissioni internazionali di Kol Israel Kim dice giustamente che quando gli ascoltatori della stazione, sopravvissuta solo su Web, cercheranno di sintonizzarsi durante la prossima crisi mediorientale (una merce che non manca mai), il rischio è che gli stream Web non possano soddisfare tutte le richieste. Sulle onde corte, scrive Kim, abbiamo intereferenze, evanescenze e rumori, ma mai "net congestion". Meditate, gente, meditate.

This is a case, like that of RAI Italy last year, of an international broadcaster giving up shortwave altogether. The shutting down of Kol Israel's various shortwave broadcasts had been threatened for years, but this year it happened (save for a last-minute reprieve). At least Kol Israel's Farsi broadcasts were given the funding to remain on the air. And that means that Kol Israel must keep at least one transmitter in good working order, along with at least one engineer who knows how to operate it and maintain it.
I remember listening to Israel's home service shortwave relays during the first Gulf War. This was during Iraq's Scud missile attacks on Israel. Often shortwave is advertised as a way to "hear news while it's happening." Usually that's not the case, but during that listening to Israel in 1991, I heard the warning signals, the
directions to listeners to put on their gas masks, or to take them off, and other urgent information.
If a similar crisis occurs in Israel, I guess we'll all have to log into an internet audio stream. But if we all do it, the infamous "net congestion" could cut off access to the audio. With shortwave we had poor signal strength, fading, interference, but never net congestion.

A questo proposito il Jerusalem post informa di una iniziativa in favore dell'emittenza pubblica promossa ieri a Tel Aviv da alcuni giornalisti e broadcaster israeliani. In gioco c'è il futuro assetto dell'attuale ente pubblico IBA. Con l'occasione è stato anche presentato un volume sui 70 anni di Israel Radio.

Broadcasters to gather in TA to speak up for public radio
Greer Fay Cashman , THE JERUSALEM POST Apr. 7, 2008

A last-ditch advocacy conference on behalf of public radio is due to take place Thursday at Beit Sokolov, the headquarters of the Tel Aviv Journalists Association. Both veteran and newer broadcasters are expected to speak up on behalf of what appears to be a dying cause.
The conference, a joint venture of the Israel Broadcasting Authority, the Tel Aviv Journalists Association and the University of Haifa, is intended to stress the need to maintain public radio.
This is not just a struggle for ratings in a bid to pit quality content against drivel, but a battle for survival.
Immediately after the conference, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, Finance Minister Ronnie Bar-On, Minister Isaac Herzog- whose portfolio includes responsibility for the IBA, IBA chairman Moshe Gavish and IBI director general Moti Sklar are scheduled to meet in Tel Aviv to determine the future of the IBA. Talks have made little headway since the IBA's management entered into negotiations with union authorities approximately six months ago.
The only real progress that has been made from the unionists' standpoint is that those IBA employees who agree to take early retirement will be able to retire in dignity and with some measure of financial security.
It is still not certain how many employees will be given early retirement or fired, but it looks as if some 300 to 350 employees will be let go, about half the original figure projected.
Negotiations on new collective agreements for IBA employees and the introduction of new technologies have not yet begun.
Gavish has more than once threatened that if the proposed reforms for the IBA are not implemented, the IBA will have no choice but to close down.
Yet while Gavish has been issuing doomsday calls, the IBA has been introducing new programs - more television than radio, but new programs nonetheless - and has found ways to involve the public in its recent nostalgia programs. It has also published a 70th anniversary book about Israel Radio, which was founded in 1936 as the Palestine Broadcasting Service.
Ahead of Thursday's public radio conference, the Tel Aviv Journalists Association has issued a booklet that includes several articles about the significance of public radio, while the IBA has been running extensive promos on air.

Il libro citato dal Jpost è disponibile online, ma purtroppo è solo in ivrit.

Mentre Kol Israel chiude per mancanza di fondi, la polizia israeliana chiude RAM FM che trasmetteva news pacifiste (ne ho parlato qualche tempo fa). La motivazione, dice Haaretz è la solita: "trasmissione senza autorizzazione", "interferenze alle comunicazioni aeree", ma anche se io sono mostruosamente di parte quando si tratta di Israele non posso fare a meno di osservare che se la polizia chiude con la forza una stazione radio controcorrente, qualunque motivazione appare pretestuosa e sospetta. Ovunque la cosa accada. Ci sono stazioni che diffondono solo odio e propaganda e su quelle si può intervenire con la legge, ma quante emittenti non vengono autorizzate, anche nelle democrazie mature come è Israele, semplicemente perché sono scomode?

07/04/2008
Police close English radio aimed at Israeli-Palestinian coexistence
By Haaretz Service and News Agencies

Police on Monday closed the Jerusalem studio of Ram FM, an English-language West Bank radio station that plays Western music in a stated mission to bring Israelis and Palestinians together.
"We instructed the police to close the station in Jerusalem because they were broadcasting without a permit," said a Communications Ministry official. "They interfere with airwaves and endanger airport signals," he added.
The station replied in a statement that it had not broken the law.
Police shut down the transmitter and closed the studio, taking staff for questioning and hauling away equipment in Monday's raid, but the station remained on the air via its West Bank frequency 93.6.
Owned by a South African Jewish businessman, it is modeled after a South African station that provided a venue for reconciliation after apartheid. The station's tens of thousands of listeners include Palestinians, settlers and foreign diplomats, a portion of whom participate in its talkback segments.
There are numerous pirate radio stations broadcasting throughout Israel. They are often blamed for dangerous disruptions in airport air traffic communications and interference in regular radio broadcasts.