Asiavision is a daily exchange of news

News

News is the communication of selected information on current events which is presented by print, broadcast, Internet, or word of mouth to a third party or mass audience.- Etymology :...

 by satellite

Satellite

In the context of spaceflight, a satellite is an object which has been placed into orbit by human endeavour. Such objects are sometimes called artificial satellites to distinguish them from natural satellites such as the Moon....

 among television stations in 20 countries in Asia. Launched in January 1984, it brings together many of Asia's leading broadcasters. Its members are: RTA

Radio Television Afghanistan

Radio Television Afghanistan is an Afghan broadcasting organization. This governmental organ has a national TV station, RTA...

–Afghanistan

Afghanistan

Afghanistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country located in the centre of Asia, forming South Asia, Central Asia and the Middle East. With a population of about 29 million, it has an area of , making it the 42nd most populous and 41st largest nation in the world...

, Saba TV-Afghanistan

Afghanistan

Afghanistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country located in the centre of Asia, forming South Asia, Central Asia and the Middle East. With a population of about 29 million, it has an area of , making it the 42nd most populous and 41st largest nation in the world...

, BTV

Bangladesh Television

Bangladesh Television , also known by the acronym BTV, is the state-owned Television network in Bangladesh. It started broadcasting as Pakistan Television in what was then East Pakistan on 25 December 1964. It was renamed Bangladesh Television after the independence in 1971. Broadcasts in full...

–Bangladesh

Bangladesh

Bangladesh , officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh is a sovereign state located in South Asia. It is bordered by India on all sides except for a small border with Burma to the far southeast and by the Bay of Bengal to the south...

, BBS

Bhutan Broadcasting Service

The Bhutan Broadcasting Service is the national radio and television service in Bhutan. A public service corporation, it is fully funded by the State and it is currently the only service to offer both radio and television to the Kingdom, and is the only television service to broadcast from inside...

–Bhutan

Bhutan

Bhutan , officially the Kingdom of Bhutan, is a landlocked state in South Asia, located at the eastern end of the Himalayas and bordered to the south, east and west by the Republic of India and to the north by the People's Republic of China...

, RTB

Radio Television Brunei

Radio Televisyen Brunei is the state broadcaster of Brunei. Radio Brunei made its first broadcast on 2 May 1957, with a Television service starting in 1 March 1975...

–Brunei

Brunei

Brunei , officially the State of Brunei Darussalam or the Nation of Brunei, the Abode of Peace , is a sovereign state located on the north coast of the island of Borneo, in Southeast Asia...

, CTN

CTN

-Shortening of:*CTN, ICAO airline designator for Croatia Airlines*CTN , Confectionary, Tobacco, and News retailers-Television:*Christian Television Network, USA *mtvU, US...

-Cambodia

Cambodia

Cambodia , officially known as the Kingdom of Cambodia, is a country located in the southern portion of the Indochina Peninsula in Southeast Asia...

, CCTV

China Central Television

China Central Television or Chinese Central Television, commonly abbreviated as CCTV, is the major state television broadcaster in mainland China. CCTV has a network of 19 channels broadcasting different programmes and is accessible to more than one billion viewers...

–China

People's Republic of China

China , officially the People's Republic of China , is the most populous country in the world, with over 1.3 billion citizens. Located in East Asia, the country covers approximately 9.6 million square kilometres...

, TVB

Television Broadcasts Limited

Television Broadcasts Limited, commonly known as TVB, is the second over-the-air commercial television station in Hong Kong. It commenced broadcasting on 19 November 1967...

–Hong Kong

Hong Kong

Hong Kong is one of two Special Administrative Regions of the People's Republic of China , the other being Macau. A city-state situated on China's south coast and enclosed by the Pearl River Delta and South China Sea, it is renowned for its expansive skyline and deep natural harbour...

, DDI

DoorDarshan

Doordarshan is an Indian public service broadcaster, a division of Prasar Bharati. It is one of the largest broadcasting organizations in India in terms of the infrastructure of studios and transmitters. Recently, it has also started Digital Terrestrial Transmitters. On September 15, 2009,...

–India

India

India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...

, Metro TV–Indonesia

Indonesia

Indonesia , officially the Republic of Indonesia , is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania. Indonesia is an archipelago comprising approximately 13,000 islands. It has 33 provinces with over 238 million people, and is the world's fourth most populous country. Indonesia is a republic, with an...

, IRIB

Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting

Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcaster, or IRIB, , formerly called the National Iranian Radio and Television until the Islamic revolution of 1979, is a giant Iranian corporation in control of radio and television which is among the largest media organizations in Asia and Pacific region, and a regular...

–Iran

Iran

Iran , officially the Islamic Republic of Iran , is a country in Southern and Western Asia. The name "Iran" has been in use natively since the Sassanian era and came into use internationally in 1935, before which the country was known to the Western world as Persia...

, NHK

NHK

NHK is Japan's national public broadcasting organization. NHK, which has always identified itself to its audiences by the English pronunciation of its initials, is a publicly owned corporation funded by viewers' payments of a television license fee....

–Japan

Japan

Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...

, TDM

Teledifusão de Macau

Teledifusão de Macau , is a radio-television network serving the Chinese special administrative region of Macao. It was established on 1 January 1982 during Portugese administration....

–Macau

Macau

Macau , also spelled Macao , is, along with Hong Kong, one of the two special administrative regions of the People's Republic of China...

, RTM

Radio Televisyen Malaysia

The Department of Broadcasting, Malaysia, DBA Radio Televisyen Malaysia , is a Malaysian state-owned public broadcaster. It owns and operates a number of radio and television stations in Malaysia, based in Kuala Lumpur...

–Malaysia, TV5

TV5 Mongolia

TV5 Mongolia, or TV5, is a television broadcasting station in Mongolia.The station works closely with the Mongolian National Broadcaster and is financed by advertising, sponsoring, and government subsidies. The program is also available in streaming format online for a fee. This access method is...

–Mongolia

Mongolia

Mongolia is a landlocked country in East and Central Asia. It is bordered by Russia to the north and China to the south, east and west. Although Mongolia does not share a border with Kazakhstan, its western-most point is only from Kazakhstan's eastern tip. Ulan Bator, the capital and largest...

,Forever Group–Myanmar

Myanmar

Burma , officially the Republic of the Union of Myanmar , is a country in Southeast Asia. Burma is bordered by China on the northeast, Laos on the east, Thailand on the southeast, Bangladesh on the west, India on the northwest, the Bay of Bengal to the southwest, and the Andaman Sea on the south....

, NTV

Nepal Television

Nepal Television is the oldest and most watched television channel in Nepal.Nepal Television was for many years the only television channel native to Nepal, but several others have begun operation in recent years....

–Nepal

Nepal

Nepal , officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal, is a landlocked sovereign state located in South Asia. It is located in the Himalayas and bordered to the north by the People's Republic of China, and to the south, east, and west by the Republic of India...

, CNA

Channel NewsAsia

Channel NewsAsia is an English language pan-Asian news network based in Singapore and owned by MediaCorp. Started on 1 March 1999 based in Singapore by Television Corporation of Singapore, it was launched internationally on 12 February 2001 as the international broadcasting arm of Channel...

–Singapore

Singapore

Singapore , officially the Republic of Singapore, is a Southeast Asian city-state off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, north of the equator. An island country made up of 63 islands, it is separated from Malaysia by the Straits of Johor to its north and from Indonesia's Riau Islands by the...

, SLRC–Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka is a country off the southern coast of the Indian subcontinent. Known until 1972 as Ceylon , Sri Lanka is an island surrounded by the Indian Ocean, the Gulf of Mannar and the Palk Strait, and lies in the vicinity of India and the...

, MCOT

MCOT

MCOT Public Company Limited )) is a Thai media conglomerate. Its origins date back to the creation in 1955 of Thailand's first television broadcaster, The Thai Television Company Limited. In 1977, this company was reconstituted as a state enterprise, the Mass Communications Organization of Thailand...

–Thailand

Thailand

Thailand , officially the Kingdom of Thailand , formerly known as Siam , is a country located at the centre of the Indochina peninsula and Southeast Asia. It is bordered to the north by Burma and Laos, to the east by Laos and Cambodia, to the south by the Gulf of Thailand and Malaysia, and to the...

, RTTL

Radio-Televisão Timor Leste

Radio-Televisão Timor Leste is the national radio and television broadcaster in East Timor.-Radio:...

–Timor Leste, TRT

Turkish Radio and Television Corporation

The Turkish Radio and Television Corporation, also known as TRT , is the national public broadcaster of Turkey and was founded in 1964. Around 70% of TRT's funding comes from a tax levied on electricity bills and a sales tax on television and radio receivers...

–Turkey

Turkey

Turkey , known officially as the Republic of Turkey , is a Eurasian country located in Western Asia and in East Thrace in Southeastern Europe...

 and VTV

VTV

VTV can stand for the following:*Vaikundar Thirukkudumbam Version, one among the versions of the holy book of Ayyavazhi.*Valtiontalouden tarkastusvirasto — the Finnish State Audit Office* Vinnaithaandi Varuvaayaa, a Tamil movie released in 2010....

-Vietnam

Vietnam

Vietnam – sometimes spelled Viet Nam , officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam – is the easternmost country on the Indochina Peninsula in Southeast Asia. It is bordered by China to the north, Laos to the northwest, Cambodia to the southwest, and the South China Sea –...

.

Asiavision is a non-profit activity of the Asia-Pacific Broadcasting Union

Asia-Pacific Broadcasting Union

The Asia-Pacific Broadcasting Union , formed in 1964, is a non-profit, professional association of broadcasting organisations. It currently has 200 members in 57 countries and regions, reaching a potential audience of about 3 billion people....

 (ABU). It has no commercial or political aims; its purpose is to promote the free exchange of news among broadcasters in Asia.

Asiavision has its operations centre in the Malaysian capital, Kuala Lumpur

Kuala Lumpur

Kuala Lumpur is the capital and the second largest city in Malaysia by population. The city proper, making up an area of , has a population of 1.4 million as of 2010. Greater Kuala Lumpur, also known as the Klang Valley, is an urban agglomeration of 7.2 million...

, and is coordinated by ABU Secretariat staff. Asiavision has two satellite transmissions a day. The first is from 0830 to 0900 GMT and the second from 1215 to 1235 GMT. Transmission is on AsiaSat 5

AsiaSat 5

AsiaSat 5 is a Chinese communications satellite, which will be operated by the Hong Kong based Asia Satellite Telecommunications Company. It will be positioned in geostationary orbit at a longitude of 100.5° East of the Greenwich Meridian, where it will replace the older AsiaSat 2 spacecraft...

. More than 9,000 items are exchanged each year.Besides the daily transmissions, news flashes are arranged for important, breaking stories such as natural disasters or major political events.

Among the major news events covered by Asiavision in 2011 were the earthquake and tsunami in Japan on 11 March, which claimed more than 15 thousand lives. Japan's public broadcaster, NHK, has covered the aftermath on a daily basis for the news exchange. Asiavision members have expressed their admiration for the efforts of Japan’s broadcasters in covering the disaster, and full support for their role as providers of emergency information.

File transfer system

Asiavision has launched a file transfer system for exchanging news items online. It operates alongside the existing satellite-based news exchange. Members upload and download news stories by logging in to the Asiavision file transfer website. Members underwent file transfer training at a meeting of Asiavision news and technical coordinators in New Delhi in November 2009, hosted by DDI.

Training

Asiavision organises funded training courses for its members. The latest are the Asianews project, a series of regional news workshops being held in partnership with Canal France International (CFI), and a Sports News Workshop in Kuala Lumpur in June 2011.

Earlier events included a workshop on covering avian flu

Avian flu

Avian influenza, sometimes avian flu, and commonly bird flu, refers to "influenza caused by viruses adapted to birds." Of the greatest concern is highly pathogenic avian influenza ....

, a course on environmental journalism

Environmental journalism

Environmental journalism is the collection, verification, production, distribution and exhibition of information regarding current events, trends, issues and people that are associated with the non-human world with which humans necessarily interact...

, a broadcast news workshop for young journalists, a course on the responsibilities of a chief editor, a seminar on issues facing news directors in Asia and technical training on satellite uplinks, and a workshop on digital newsrooms, held in Mumbai

Mumbai

Mumbai , formerly known as Bombay in English, is the capital of the Indian state of Maharashtra. It is the most populous city in India, and the fourth most populous city in the world, with a total metropolitan area population of approximately 20.5 million...

 in December 2009 in partnership with CFI.

Asiavision Advisory Service

The Asiavision Advisory Service is an initiative under which Asiavision provides funding for in-house training and consultancies for members. Recent events have included a week of news training each for RTA and Saba TV in Kabul, training for news staff of RTM in Kuala Lumpur and Kuching, three weeks of training at BBS in Thimphu and a workshop for staff of TDM in Macau.

Asiavision awards

Each year, members hold a ballot to select the winners of the Asiavision Annual Awards, given for the quality of contributions to the news exchange. The 2011 winners are NHK

NHK

NHK is Japan's national public broadcasting organization. NHK, which has always identified itself to its audiences by the English pronunciation of its initials, is a publicly owned corporation funded by viewers' payments of a television license fee....

, MCOT

MCOT

MCOT Public Company Limited )) is a Thai media conglomerate. Its origins date back to the creation in 1955 of Thailand's first television broadcaster, The Thai Television Company Limited. In 1977, this company was reconstituted as a state enterprise, the Mass Communications Organization of Thailand...

 and CCTV..

An annual prize, the Dennis Anthony Memorial Award, is given for the best Asiavision news story of the year. The winner in 2011 was NHK

NHK

NHK is Japan's national public broadcasting organization. NHK, which has always identified itself to its audiences by the English pronunciation of its initials, is a publicly owned corporation funded by viewers' payments of a television license fee....

, for its coverage of the 11 March disaster.

Attachment scheme

Asiavision runs an attachment scheme under which journalists from member organisations spend up to one month at the Asiavision centre in Kuala Lumpur. They help Asiavision staff coordinate the news exchange. Since 2004, journalists from BBS, BTV, CCTV, CNA, IRIB, MCOT, NTV, RTB, SLRC and TV5 have taken part in the scheme.

ABU News Group

The ABU News Group sets policy for Asiavision. The group brings together heads of news and other senior journalists from ABU members. Its present chairman is Ms Prattana Nuntaratpun of MCOT-Thailand. The group's most recent meeting was in Kathmandu on 14-15 July 2011, opened by Nepal's Prime Minister, Mr Jhalanath Khanal.. It will next meet in Hanoi in mid 2012.

Journalist safety

Asiavision has taken a strong stand in support of the safety of journalists. Through the News Group it has endorsed the International News Safety Institute's wide-ranging safety code for journalists who work in hostile environments. Asiavision has also provided funding for journalist safety training in the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand. It held a seminar on news safety in Langkawi, Malaysia, on 1 April 2011 at which members drew up wide-ranging news safety guidelines. These were approved by the News Group in July 2011.

Partners

Asiavision works closely with a number of international partners, including CNN, Canal France International and Eurovision, the news exchange of the European Broadcasting Union.

History

Asiavision was launched on January 16, 1984, with seven members: BTV, RTB, CCTV, TVRI-Indonesia, RTM, PTV and SLRC. Three other founder members, NHK, KBS/MBC-Korea and IRIB, joined in April 1984. It went fully digital in January 2001. The news exchange had one daily satellite feed until May 2005, when a second feed was launched to handle the growing number of offers from members.

The Friedrich Ebert Foundation (FES) of Germany provided extensive support to the news exchange in its early years. In 1990 Dr Erich Vogt of FES wrote: "The launching of Asiavision has changed the whole scenario relating to the flow of information in the Asia-Pacific region."

External links

• Asia-Pacific Broadcasting Union