regulation & policy

Given that Cameroon adopted the Geneva 2006 Agreement which sets 17 June 2015 as the switch-over-date beyond which analogue TV broadcasting will no longer be protected from overspill of signals from neighbouring countries that have completed the transition, a practical guide to help with the process of implementation is inevitable. It is for this reason that the World Bank hired the services of a consultant, Russell Southwood, to draft a practical guide for Digital Switch Over (DSO) in Cameroon.

The National Communications Authority (NCA) announces the release of the Minimum Specifications for Receivers of Free to Air Digital Terrestrial Television (DTT) in Ghana. This is in pursuance of the Authority’s mandate under Section 3(a) of the National Communications Authority Act, 2008, Act 769 to establish and monitor the implementation of national communications standards and ensure compliance accordingly.

Vision Group chief executive Robert Kabushenga has announced a campaign of zero-tolerance to corruption to ensure professionalism among the company's staff attached to the various platforms. Below is his statement:

I have decided to come clean with you, our readers/ audiences, to acknowledge publicly that indeed, there are some among our staff who are engaged in extortion either as blackmail or in return for guaranteeing favorable publicity.

The President of the National Communication Council says they should respect the regulation. Nowadays, it is common to watch several Cameroonian television channels in the country broadcasting nationwide. However, some are operating illegally. The President of the National Communication Council (NCC), Mgr Joseph Befe Ateba in a recent communique warned eight clandestine TV channels which are broadcasting their programmes within the national territory, mostly in Yaounde and Douala.

South Africa: The Presidency has noted media reports about government media advertising and a subsequent call made by the Leader of the Democratic Alliance, Ms Helen Zille for the establishment of a Judicial Commission of Enquiry to investigate government advertising. Government undertakes advertising in all mediums across the board which reaches a variety of targeted audiences. The government advertising is spent in newspapers across the country, radio stations, television and digital media.

In Tanzania, DSTv is already digitalised, operation manager  said.

MultiChoice Tanzania has cleared confusion regarding its place in digital migration in the country assuring its subscribers that through its pay TV services, DStv, there will be no interruption during the process.
This move comes 10 days since Dar es Salaam residents migrated from analogue to digital broadcasting after the government switched-off analogue transmitters.

Confusion around the encryption and control of set-top boxes, and the complexity of subsidies of the boxes for poorer households, are threatening South Africa’s migration to digital terrestrial television. By Craig Wilson.

Lack of certainty around the encryption and access control mechanisms to be used for digital terrestrial television, along with how millions of set-top boxes will be subsidised for poorer households, looks set to throw South Africa even further off track in the already long-delayed, multibillion-rand project.

Minister-designate for Communications, Dr. Edward Omane Boamah says government will strictly enforce the law banning importation of analog television sets into the country, in accordance with the Antalya and Geneva Conventions.

Ghana has set herself a December 2014 deadline for all radio and television broadcasters to migrate onto a digital platform, ahead of the global deadline of June 17, 2015.

Irdeto revealed it has been working undercover with MultiChoice Africa and the Botswana Police Serious Crime Squad to investigate and disrupt the illegal distribution of pay TV content in Africa. Together, the Irdeto Anti-Piracy and Forensics Unit and MultiChoice Africa Anti-Piracy Department continuously monitor for and investigate signs of pirate activity and illegal broadcast redistribution across the continent.

- On January 10, 2013, APO reported that a journalist was found murdered in northwestern Tanzania on Tuesday, three days after he went missing from his home, according to local journalists and local reports. The body of Issa Ngumba, 45, a reporter for Radio Kwizera, was found in Kajuhuleta Forest with a gunshot wound in his left arm and evidence that he had been strangled.