News Outlets Bust Digital Blackouts

Michael Hedges August 25, 2019 Follow on Twitter

Certain to amaze - even horrify - Millennials not everything is digital. Indeed, there are means of communication not dependent on ones and zeros, anything in between or bots. Analogue platforms, hardly extinct, have certain advantages.

With the effective shutoff of all communications within, to or from India-controlled Kashmir UK international broadcaster BBC World Service (BBCWS) powered up its shortwave transmitters to fill the void. Shortwave radio is, to the surprise of smartphone-affixed, analogue, not digital. One advantage is that high-powered, high frequency analogue signals jump right over mountains, which dot Kashmir. Digital signals just crash right into them. Add to that, all the Indian government had to do to plunge Kashmir into media blackout was flip a switch.

“The provision of independent and trusted news in places of conflict and tension is one of the core purposes of the World Service,” said BBCWS director Jaime Angus in a statement (August 15).  “Given the shutdown of digital services and phone lines in the region, it’s right for us to try and increase the provision of news on our short wave radio services.” Hindi, Urdu and English language news programs offered on shortwave platforms will be expanded. (See full BBC World Service statement here)

The Indian government imposed a communications “blackout” in Kashmir, reported Reuters (August 8), that included mobile and landline telephony, internet and broadcasting. This followed Prime Minister Narendra Modi effectively ending the limited self-rule of Indian administered Jammu and Kashmir. Some internet and mobile phone service was briefly restored in Jammu but the blackout returned within a day, said Reuters (August 18), after violent clashes between citizens and security forces. The Indian government intends to fully integrate the region with India, much to the protest of Pakistan.

News reporting from the region under the communications blackout has been a test of stamina and innovation. A “media facilitation center” was set up in a regional capital Srinagar hotel, reported CNN-affiliate News18 (August 16), that provided four work-stations and a very slow internet connection. Some reporters were recording material on flash-drives and paying couriers for hand-delivery to New Delhi. Bigger TV broadcasters moved in satellite trucks.

US-funded international broadcaster Voice of America (VOA) began using the shortwave platform in July to reach Rohingya-speaking Muslim refugees in camps on the Myanmar-Bangladesh border. A five-day per week 30 minute program in the Rohingya language is being produced by the VOA Bangla service. “What they tend to do, and I saw this in the camp myself, a group will sit around a radio and listen to it all together,” said VOA director Amanda Bennett to NPR (July 30).

Earlier this year China’s international broadcaster China Radio International (CRI) returned to its former transmission site in Mali for expanded shortwave broadcasts in several languages, reported German public broadcaster RadioEins (March 4). The original site had been off the air for a year, primarily to upgrade the facility. The old Radio Peking began using the Mali site in 1987 for high-power nighttime transmissions beamed to North and South America as well as Europe.

Several western international broadcasters have abandoned the shortwave platform in recent years. Last year CRI took over shortwave frequencies abandoned a year earlier by Australian international broadcaster Radio Australia. Target audience for CRI are listeners in Asia/Pacific islands. New Zealand’s international broadcaster RNZ also assumed several Radio Australia shortwave frequencies to reach Pacific Islanders.

See also...

• Hot Topics - International Broadcasting

Media in Spain - Diverse and Challenged – new

Media in Spain is steeped in tradition. yet challenged by diversity. Publishers hold great influence, broadcasters competing. New media has been slow to rise and business models for all are under stress. Rich in language and culture, Spain's media is reaching into the future and finding more than expected. 123 pages, PDF. January 2018

Order here

The Campaign Is On - Elections and Media

Elections campaigns are big media events. Candidates and issues are presented, analyzed and criticized in broadcast and print. Media is now more of a participant in elections than ever. This ftm Knowledge file reports on news coverage, advertising, endorsements and their effect on democracy at work. 84 pages. PDF (September 2017)

Order here

Fake News, Hate Speech and Propaganda

The institutional threat of fake news, hate speech and propaganda is testing the mettle of those who toil in news media. Those three related evils are not new, by any means, but taken together have put the truth and those reporting it on the back foot. Words matter. This ftm Knowledge file explores that light. 48 pages, PDF (March 2017)

Order here

More ftm Knowledge files here

Become an ftm Individual or Corporate Member to order Knowledge Files at no charge. JOIN HERE!