2009年12月23日水曜日

BBC Persian television broadcasting despite interference from Iran

BBC Persian television broadcasting despite interference from Iran

BBC Persian television is continuing to broadcast into Iran despite attempts to jam the station's signal.

The persistent interference began soon after BBC Persian began extended coverage of the death of leading reformist cleric Grand Ayatollah Hoseyn Ali Montazeri.

This includes the first airing of an exclusive interview with the grand ayatollah which was filmed before his death. The senior cleric, who had not been seen on Iranian television screens for 20 years, was one of Shia Islam's most respected figures and a leading critic of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

The jamming began on Sunday 20 December and affected the Hotbird 6 satellite which carries the BBC's international television and radio services in various languages as well as services from other broadcasters.

BBC Persian television is also carried on other satellite networks including Telstar and Eutelsat W2M.

The BBC is looking at ways to increase the options for its Farsi-speaking audiences in Iran, Afghanistan and Tajikistan, which may include broadcasting on other satellites.

In June this year, BBC Persian television suffered similar deliberate attempts to interfere with its signal when airing extended coverage of the Iranian elections. At that time, the satellite operator traced the interference and confirmed it was coming from inside Iran.

BBC World Service Director, Peter Horrocks, said: "The fact that someone would go to these lengths to jam BBC Persian television's signal is indicative of the impact we make in Iran. The Iranian people want to know the truth about what is happening in their country, and they know they will get impartial and independent news from the BBC. We'll do everything we can to give them that news."

Notes to Editors

BBC Persian is the BBC's integrated news and information service for Persian-speakers. It is available on-air and on-demand 24-hours a day, seven days a week.

It is designed to reach audiences on radio, television, the internet – on bbcpersian.com – mobile phones and handheld computers in whatever way best suits the audience. BBC Persian is one of the oldest of the BBC's non-English language services.

Launched on 28 December 1940, it has evolved into the Persian-speaking world's leading international broadcaster, covering the political, social and cultural issues that matter to its diverse audiences in Iran, Afghanistan, Tajikistan and across the world.

With its TV presence, BBC Persian is bringing the world to Persian-speaking audiences – reporting the news wherever it leads. The latest news from BBC Persian is now available on mobile phones, PDAs and other wireless handheld devices.

BBC World Service Publicity

2009年12月21日月曜日

BBC Persian television broadcasting despite interference from Iran

BBC Persian television is continuing to broadcast into Iran despite attempts to jam the station’s signal. The persistent interference began soon after BBC Persian began extended coverage of the death of leading reformist cleric Grand Ayatollah Hoseyn Ali Montazeri.

This includes the first airing of an exclusive interview with the grand ayatollah which was filmed before his death. The senior cleric, who had not been seen on Iranian television screens for 20 years, was one of Shia Islam’s most respected figures and a leading critic of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

The jamming began on Sunday 20 December and affected the Hotbird 6 satellite which carries the BBC’s international television and radio services in various languages as well as services from other broadcasters. BBC Persian television is also carried on other satellite networks including Telstar and Eutelsat W2M.

The BBC is looking at ways to increase the options for its Farsi-speaking audiences in Iran, Afghanistan and Tajikistan, which may include broadcasting on other satellites.

In June this year, BBC Persian television suffered similar deliberate attempts to interfere with its signal when airing extended coverage of the Iranian elections. At that time, the satellite operator traced the interference and confirmed it was coming from inside Iran.

BBC World Service Director, Peter Horrocks, said: “The fact that someone would go to these lengths to jam BBC Persian television’s signal is indicative of the impact we make in Iran. The Iranian people want to know the truth about what is happening in their country, and they know they will get impartial and independent news from the BBC. We’ll do everything we can to give them that news.”

(Source: BBC World Service Publicity)

BBC says Persian service being jammed

BBC says Persian service being jammed

LONDON — The BBC said Monday that its Persian television signal was being jammed, adding that it was continuing to broadcast into Iran.

The British Broadcasting Corporation said its service for Persian speakers began facing persistent interference after it began coverage of the death of Iran's top dissident cleric, Grand Ayatollah Hossein Ali Montazeri.

It said the jamming began Sunday, affecting the Hotbird 6 satellite which carries the BBC's international television and radio services in various languages as well as services from other broadcasters.

BBC Persian television is also carried on other satellite networks.

"The fact that someone would go to these lengths to jam BBC Persian television's signal is indicative of the impact we make in Iran," BBC World Service director Peter Horrocks said.

"The Iranian people want to know the truth about what is happening in their country, and they know they will get impartial and independent news from the BBC. We'll do everything we can to give them that news."

Montazeri, 87, a fierce critic of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, died of an illness on Saturday night.

It is not the first time the BBC has suffered such signal interference.

In June the broadcaster said the satellites it uses to broadcast in Persian were being jammed from Iran, disrupting its reports on the hotly-disputed presidential election.

The BBC said it was investigating ways to increase the options for its Persian-speaking audiences in Iran, Afghanistan and Tajikistan, which could include broadcasting on other satellites.

BBC Persian, launched in 1940, is one of the corporation's oldest non-English language services.

2009年7月1日水曜日

Persian news service becomes Iran’s scapegoat

Persian news service becomes Iran’s scapegoat

Beamed into Iranian homes via ‘un-Islamic’ rooftop satellite dishes, the BBC’s Persian-language service stands accused of urging protesters to take to the streets

By John Burns
NY TIMES NEWS SERVICE, LONDON
Wednesday, Jul 01, 2009, Page 9

ILLUSTRATION: MOUNTAIN PEOPLE

As Iran’s ruling ayatollahs tell it, the main strike force plotting to end Islamic rule in their country is not on the streets of Tehran but on the upper floors of a celebrated Art Deco building in central London.

The propagators of an “all-out war” against the Islamic republic, as Iran’s state-run news agency has called them, are a group of 140 men and women who work at the BBC’s Broadcasting House, a stone’s throw from the shopping mecca of Oxford Street in London. Mainly expatriate Iranians, they staff the BBC’s Persian-language television service, on air for only six months and reaching a daily audience of between 6 million and 8 million Iranians — a powerful fraction of TV watchers in Iran, with its population of 70 million.

The audience estimate, BBC insiders say, came from a leaked document prepared by Iran’s state-run broadcasting service, which warned before the current upheaval of the threat from the new channel.

PTV, as those in the London newsroom call it, is at the heart of a new kind of revolution that has played out in Tehran, where a disputed presidential election two weeks ago sent tens of thousands of protesters into the streets claiming ballot fraud in the re-election of the hard-line incumbent, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

“They don’t allow people to use their broadcasts to slander their opponents, which is more than you can say for the state broadcasting network in Iran.”

— Ali Ansari, professor of Iranian studies at the University of St Andrews


In the protests, an archaic political system has been shaken by the use of powerful new weapons: foreign-based satellite television channels like the BBC’s that beam into Iran, social networking tools like Twitter and sites like Facebook that act as running diaries on the upheaval and as forums for coordinating protest, and cell phone videos that have captured the confrontation in Tehran for worldwide audiences, perhaps most important in Iran itself.

“It’s a totally different country now because of the new media,” said Sina Motallebi, who oversees interactive elements of the BBC channel’s coverage in the London newsroom.

Motallebi, more than most, understands the new technologies’ power — and the Iranian government’s determination to suppress them. In 2003, as Iran’s most famous anti-government blogger, he was imprisoned in Tehran’s notorious Evin prison, along with murderers, rapists and other criminals. Many others working at the BBC channel gained their first experience working on opposition newspapers and blogs in Tehran.

The government has singled out several foreign news broadcasters for what it calls biased coverage: CNN, broadcasting in English, as well as the Voice of America and the BBC, which broadcast in Iran in Persian, the country’s national language.

But the BBC’S Persian channel has been cast as the main threat, partly, BBC officials say, because Britain’s colonial past has earned it a special place in Iran’s official demonography. Hamid Reza Moqaddamfar, chief of the state-run Fars news agency, has described the channel’s coverage as “psychological warfare,” and said its mission was “spreading lies and rumors and distorting facts.”

A pro-Ahmadinejad newspaper, Vatan Emrouz, even claimed that Jon Leyne, the BBC’s Tehran correspondent, expelled from Iran on June 21, paid “a thug” to kill Neda Agha-Soltan, the young woman who became a martyr to the protesters after she was shot dead during the demonstrations.

State-run television has interviewed protesters who said the Persian channel influenced them to take to the streets. One woman said the channel inspired her and her son to go out armed with hand grenades. Another woman said the channel’s report that the riot police had attacked protesters prompted her to go to the streets, where she said she had found that it was the protesters, not the police, who were “beating up people.”

The allegations prompt weary smiles among the staff in London.

“I wouldn’t be doing my job effectively if we were fomenting anything of a political nature,” said Rob Beynon, the BBC channel’s acting director, recruited two years ago to set up the channel and train Iranian and Afghan staff members who will eventually take control.

Although foreign-language radio and television broadcasts from the BBC’s World Service are financed by Britain’s Foreign Office, a practice that developed in the country’s days of empire, they are subject, like all BBC operations, to the corporation’s charter and its stipulation of political independence and impartiality. The Persian channel, which is also beamed to Persian speakers in Afghanistan and Tajikistan, has an annual budget of US$25 million.

Beynon, a 51-year-old Cambridge graduate, said evenhandedness became especially important during the upheaval in Iran. That has meant interviewing Ahmadinejad supporters whenever possible, a task made more difficult by a government ban on officials’ talking to the channel, he said. Often, the government view is taken from official news agencies or pro-government newspapers.

A typical 30-minute newscast last week was dominated by political developments in Tehran, although there were breaks for a report on a new US bombing policy in Afghanistan, sports and the weather forecast for Iran and Afghanistan. Many of the Iran-based stories were accompanied by cell phone videos e-mailed to the channel from Tehran.

Experts on Iran who have monitored the channel’s programming on the Internet say it has succeeded in a difficult task, giving a tempered account of developments that have been deeply divisive among Iranians. In that respect, they say, the new TV channel has made a better start than the BBC’s Persian-language shortwave radio broadcasts, started in 1941, which the BBC has conceded were used to promote British strategic interests in Iran during World War II.

“They are very cautious, reminding viewers of what they can confirm and what they can’t and of who their sources are,” said Ali Ansari, a professor of Iranian studies at the University of St Andrews in Scotland, whose father was a diplomat under the shah, Mohammed Reza Pahlavi.

“And they don’t allow people to use their broadcasts to slander their opponents, which is more than you can say for the state broadcasting network in Iran. The paradox is that it’s precisely because they are seen as objective and impartial by Iranians that they come under such severe attack,” he said.

With the rush of events in Iran, the channel has increased daily programming from eight hours to 11, signing off at 1am Tehran time. Roxanna Shapour, the channel’s spokeswoman, cited a cascade of interactive contacts with Iranians at the height of the protests: up to 10,000 e-mail messages a day, and an average of six video clips a minute arriving from people capturing the protests.

The channel’s Web site www.bbcpersian.com, registered 3 million hits the day after the election.

Like other foreign broadcasters, the BBC beams its programs to rooftop satellite dishes atop thousands of buildings across Iran. In itself, this is a defiance of the ruling ayatollahs, who long ago banned the dishes as un-Islamic. But they have abandoned enforcement as impractical and politically risky, given the wide popularity of foreign television.

Instead, the government has made fresh attempts at jamming the Persian channel’s signal, starting as vote-counting began on the night of the election. So far, the efforts have mostly failed, with BBC engineers moving the signal to two additional satellites that are more difficult to jam, they said.

BBC reporters have been kicked out of Iran, one by one, like those at other Western news organizations. The Persian channel has not been permitted to assign correspondents of its own to Tehran, and the main English-language BBC TV and radio network has barred its Tehran-based reporters from appearing on the Persian channel, in an attempt to shield them from the Tehran government’s hostility to the new channel.

John Simpson, the BBC’s best-known foreign correspondent, said he was given a hero’s greeting on the streets of Tehran when people learned he was from the BBC, not because people recognized him but because of enthusiasm for the Persian channel.

For years, Simpson said in a radio report on his return from Tehran, Iran’s Islamic rulers have believed the BBC was part of a wider British attempt to manipulate events in the country.

“The big irony, of course, is that, thanks to the Persian-language TV service, the BBC does have huge influence in Iran again, just like the hard-liners in Iran have always said it did,” he said.
This story has been viewed 471 times.

2009年6月30日火曜日

Iran media update

Kim's comments are in italics.
Iran media update for 28 June 2009. "In Iran, the Persian-language service of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty uses several different radio frequencies and the Internet, while Voice of America’s Persian television service claims to reach more than 15 million viewers. Accurate audience measures are hard to come by in places like Iran. But the fact that Tehran spends a huge amount of money jamming these channels and blocking their websites tells us something. These broadcast services are not well known to Americans, because of a 1948 law that forbids the domestic dissemination of all material created for foreign audiences. But this law is now moot, because like everyone else, Americans can access these services online. Do so, and you will see that, contrary to what many assume, these channels do not merely broadcast US government propaganda. Nor do they follow CNN and other 'global' media in hopscotching between hot spots. On the contrary, these channels maintain a consistent, steady presence, outwitting the censors and keeping brave reporters on the ground, so that the people living in those countries can know what is going on, even when the whole world is not watching." Martha Bayles, Boston Globe, 28 June 2009.
"Ironically, the Iranian government’s heavy-handed media crackdown — the Committee to Protect Journalists estimates that more than 40 journos have been arrested in Iran since the election — has spurred Iranians to get even more of their news from foreign sources than usual. U.S.-based Iranian satcasters — many of which beam from Hollywood — have long flooded Iranians with everything from anti-regime political diatribes to non-stop musicvids and sports, but the clampdown on the media operations of Iran’s opposition movement left Iranians little choice but to turn to the likes of the BBC for news of events." Ali Jaafar, Variety, 26 June 2009.
"Al-Jazeera, the still-popular Qatari pan-Arab satellite television channel, is concentrating mostly on the official Iranian version of events, while trying to have it both ways. Its English-language edition includes occasional close-ups of Iranian demonstrators and victims of the regime, along with some reprinted columns critical of Tehran. But the Arabic programs and website -- the ones that matter in the region -- almost never contain such material, instead giving pride of place to Iranian government allegations of foreign-media or other nefarious interference in Iran's internal affairs." David Pollock and Mohammad Yaghi, Washington Institute for Near East Policy, 26 June 2009.
"The TV 'experts' on the bbc, cnn and al jazeera are for the most part, completely out of touch, with the facts: this is way beyond ahmadi, the supreme leader and rafsanjani. Many of the Western press are just as out of touch: I recommend the Guardian from the UK if you must read something." Iranian alum of an American university, Leesean.net, 23 June 2009.
"The Iranian authorities and their lackeys in the state-controlled media are trying to launch a counter-offensive on the Neda phenomenon, writes Robert Tait. ... 'Javan, another pro-regime paper, blamed ... my friend and recently expelled BBC correspondent Jon Leyne. It claims that Leyne hired 'thugs' to shoot her so he could then make a documentary film.'" News blog, The Guardian, 24 June 2009.
"The doctor who tried to save an Iranian protester as she bled to death on a street in Tehran has told the BBC of her final moments." BBC News, 25 June 2009.
"Out of fear that history might repeat itself, the authoritarian governments of China, Cuba and Burma have been selectively censoring the news this month of Iranian crowds braving government militias on the streets of Tehran to demand democratic reforms." Ariana Eunjung Cha, Washington Post, 27 June 2009.
"I'm curious to see how the left responds to this from the realist realist in American today (and also unofficial adviser to Barack Obama) Brent Scowcroft: 'The US has intelligence agents in Iran but it is not clear if they are providing help to the protest movement there, a former US national security adviser has told Al Jazeera. ... ' Of all places to say something so foolish, Scowcroft choose Al Jazeera for maximum effect." Michael Goldfarb, The Blog, The Weekly Standard, 25 June 2009.
"During the [1979] revolution, news of protests, strikes and deaths was telephoned abroad by resistance networks, and broadcast back into the country by the BBC World Service and other short-wave radio stations." Paul Taylor, Reuters, 23 June 2009. See also Iran satellite update and Iran cyber update for 28 June. Posted: 28 Jun 2009

Foreign broadcasters walk a fine line in Iran

Foreign broadcasters walk a fine line in Iran

AP foreign, Monday June 29 2009

JILL LAWLESS

Associated Press Writer= LONDON (AP) — Inside the studios of BBC Persian television, dozens of journalists have been working around the clock at their computers and telephones, trying to report the news to Iran — or, according to the government in Tehran, stirring up trouble.

Since Iran's disputed election on June 12, the BBC and a handful of other Farsi-language broadcasters around the world, from Amsterdam to Jerusalem, have supplied millions of Iranians with independent reports in their own language about the country's most serious turmoil since the 1979 Islamic Revolution.

A 24-year-old student in Tehran said channels like BBC Persian and Voice of America "are the only true sources for the news for us inside Iran."

"During the demonstrations that happened on Saturday, which everybody in Iran knows what happened on the streets of Tehran and some other major cities, the state TV channels were showing comedy classic movies," said the student, who didn't want his name used for fear of reprisals.

Iran's religious government has accused foreign broadcasters — the BBC in particular — of fueling unrest during and after the contested election that returned hardline president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to power. The BBC, VOA and other broadcasters say Iran has been jamming their television signals and have added new satellite paths to get around the blockage. The BBC and VOA also broadcast to Iran on short- and medium-wave radio and through Web sites that are sometimes blocked.

"We provide independent news," said the BBC's Iranian affairs analyst, Sadeq Saba. "That is why we are so popular in Iran. And that is why the Iranian government doesn't like us."

Foreign-based Farsi radio and TV broadcasters have gained increased importance for millions of Iranians since the election, as the country's Islamic authorities have moved to deprive people of independent sources of news. Facebook, Twitter and other Web sites have been blocked, text messaging has been cut off and cell phone service in Tehran is frequently down.

"I don't fully trust VOA or BBC Persian, but at least they are much better than the state TV channels," said a 57 -year-old shopkeeper in the northeastern city of Mashhad. "At least they don't hide the news."

Inside BBC Persian's offices overlooking the stone buildings and red double-decker buses of central London, the station's young Iranian staffers interview Iranians over the telephone, try to check elusive facts and edit footage from international broadcasters and Iranian "citizen journalists" whose videos of protests and street clashes have provided some of the most powerful images of the conflict.

BBC Persian television began broadcasting in January and before the election produced eight hours of programing a day — since increased to 11. The station is getting more than 6,000 e-mails a day, along with a flood of calls and text messages.

"It's been an intense couple of weeks," said the station's special correspondent, Kasra Naji. "I'm working 10, 12, 13 hours a day."

Like other broadcasters, BBC Persian says it's hard to know how many people inside Iran are watching, but it believes its audience is in the millions.

Youth-oriented Dutch station Radio Zameneh has also seen its profile rise since it switched its focus from underground music and alternative literature to politics in the days since the election. The station's 90-minute daily broadcast by shortwave and satellite appears to have developed a significant following — an Iranian diplomat accused the Dutch government, which funds the station, of meddling in Iran's internal affairs and financing propaganda.

In Los Angeles, home to a large Iranian community, Farsi-language radio station KIRN has opened up its phone lines to let Iranians in the U.S. share news gleaned from friends and family back home.

There also is an appreciative audience for Menashe Amir's Farsi-language broadcasts on state-run Israel Radio. From a spartan radio studio off a narrow Jerusalem alleyway, broadcasts a mix of popular Persian music, interviews with exiled Iranian intellectuals and chats with Iranians themselves — via a switchboard in Germany to get around a ban on calls from Iran to the Jewish state.

Amir, 69, has hosted Israel Radio's only Farsi-language broadcast for the past 50 years, but says the last two weeks have been the most memorable in his career.

"Every human being in the world should be concerned with what is happening there," said Amir, who left Iran in 1959 and has not visited since the 1979 revolution.

It's difficult to know the size of Amir's audience, but his daily hour-and-a-half long broadcast reaches well beyond Iran's 25,000-strong Jewish community. It's enough of a presence that Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has name-checked the "Zionist broadcast" as among those behind the unrest.

The job of journalists in Iran has got a lot harder since Ahmadinejad's opponents began protesting against an election they claim was rigged. Hundreds of people have been detained, and at least 17 have been killed.

Foreign journalists in Iran have been prevented from moving around freely and told to stick to their offices. On Sunday — days after Khamenei singled out Britain as the most treacherous of the Western powers meddling in Iran's affairs — the BBC's full-time correspondent in Tehran was ordered to leave the country.

Iranian authorities refused BBC Persian permission to have journalists in Tehran, although BBC's English-language service has an office there.

Like the BBC, VOA says its TV signal has been jammed and has added three new satellite paths to allow transmission. It also is using YouTube, radio, Twitter and Facebook to help provide Iranians with information.

"We're coming up with a lot of different ways to get in there," said VOA's director of public relations, Joan Mower.

All the foreign broadcasters deny interfering in Iran's affairs. The BBC says it goes to great lengths to maintain standards of fairness and impartiality, even though many staff members are worried about close friends and family in Iran.

"It's not easy," said the BBC's Saba. "They are not covering a conflict in Russia or Ecuador. They are covering a conflict in their own country."

The BBC has been careful never to claim the election was rigged, and tries to verify images it gets from Iran by comparing different footage of the same event and interviewing eyewitnesses over the phone.

At Prague-based Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty — a U.S.-backed broadcaster which also is not allowed to have an office in Tehran — journalist Golnaz Esfandiari said it was "getting increasingly difficult to get information from Iran."

"People are facing pressure," she said, adding that despite that, "lots of them are willing to speak to us, because it's one of the only platforms where they can express themselves freely and where they can inform others about what's going on in their city, how they feel about this crisis."

---

Associated Press Writers Arthur Max in Amsterdam, Karel Janicek in Prague, Foster Klug in Washington and Aron Heller in Jerusalem contributed to this report.

2009年6月27日土曜日

◎中国SARFT管理のジャミング専用送信所判明
 NDXCによると、中国の国家広播電影電視総局(SARFT)管理の短波送信所の内ジャミング専用に使用されているのは以下の送信所である。
 海南省 東方 略称DOF 150kW1台 500kW5台
 江西省 南昌 略称NAN 100kW6台
 黒竜江省 斉斉哈爾 略称QIQ 100kW6台 500kW1台
 福建省 泉州 150kW1台 (WWDXC Topnews 910) この他北京郊外の顺义、内蒙古の呼和浩特、浙江省の寧波、広東省の広州、遼寧省の丹東等もジャミング送信所として使われていると言われていま す。これだけの設備があるのだから、国際的にジャミングの請負ビジネスも考えられます。またジャミングが不要となり、ロシアの旧ジャミング送信所が老朽化 した後は米国等の放送請 負も行うのでは? 

◎エチオピア向秘密放送に集中ジャミング

 ドイツのWolfgang Büschel氏によればロシアのSamara送信所からTDP仲介で250kW送信(方向188度)されている以下の各局にジャミングが集中的にかけら れている。何れも02:00-03:00に15350kHzである。
 月曜日 02:00-03:00  Radio Bilal アムハリ語
 火曜日 02:00-02:30 Radio Xoriyo Ogadenia ソマリ語 02:30-03:00 Radio Asena ティグリナ語
 水曜日 02:00-02:30 Ginbot 7 Dimts Radio アムハリ語 02:30-03:00 Denge Meselna-Delina ティグリナ語
 木曜日 02:30-03:00 Radio Asena ティグリナ語
金曜日 02:00-02:30  Ginbot 7 Dimts Radio アムハリ語 02:30-03:00 Denge Meselna-Delina ティグリナ語
土曜日 02:00-03:00  Radio Xoriyo Ogadenia ソマリ語 02:30-03:00 Radio Asena アラビア語
 日曜日 02:00-02:30 Ginbot 7 Dimts Radio アムハリ語 02:30-03:00 Denge Meselna-Delina ティグリナ語
(WWDXC Topnews 911)

月刊短波2009年6月

2009年6月24日水曜日

Iran Jams Foreign Satellite News In Bid To Isolate Public

Iranians are increasingly cut off from non-official sources of news on the ongoing protests against the reelection of President Mahmud Ahmadinejad.

June 23, 2009
By Charles Recknagel
At RFE/RL's Radio Farda, the e-mails and phone calls come in continuously from Iran.

"It's really important that Radio Farda send reports every moment to us, because we do not have any access to news inside Iran," says one listener in Tehran. "Now the VOA and BBC have been jammed."

The listeners are helping the U.S. Congress-funded Radio Farda, which broadcasts 24 hours a day in Persian from Prague, to play an escalating cat-and-mouse game with Iranian government censors.

The censors have been trying to black out both U.S. and British government-sponsored newscasts in Persian almost from the moment a week ago that people began protesting the July 12 presidential election results.

To black out a newscast, Iranian authorities beam their own signal up to the commercial satellite carrying the foreign program. The beam is on the same frequency as the newscast, only at much higher power. As a result, anyone in Iran trying to receive the newscast on their home satellite dish receives only the meaningless, substitute signal instead.

Similarly, the government is blacking out foreign news programming in Persian on shortwave and medium-wave radio, particularly within major population centers. Here, authorities set up a local high-power transmitter to again overwhelm the newscast with a stronger signal on the same frequency.

Game Of Frequencies

Iranian officials are aiming most at broadcasts during the peak evening listening hours. And it is during these hours that the feedback from the news program's audience in Tehran grows most frenzied.

Iran has blocked not only opposition and news websites, but social networks like Facebook as well.
Many listeners simply send messages noting their location and that they can no longer hear the program. That alerts the broadcasters to the moment the programming is blocked. The trick for the broadcasters then becomes to shift the transmission signal slightly to escape the blackout.

During the time it takes the censors to catch up and similarly shift their substitute signal, the programming can be received by listeners searching their dials.

As the game has escalated, foreign broadcasters have dramatically increased the number of satellites and short wave frequencies carrying their programs.

From broadcasting originally only on Hotbird 6, a satellite whose "footprint" covers the Mideast and South Asia, Radio Farda now also broadcasts on four more satellites covering the region: Telstar 12, Nilesat 101, Arabsat BADR4, and Asiasat 3-D.

TBBC said last week it was using two extra satellites to broadcast its Persian-language service. VOA's Persian News Network (PNN) television programs are now beamed through five satellites with six different distribution channels.

It is the kind of struggle once common during the Cold War. For decades, the Soviet government spent huge amounts of money to isolate its citizenry from outside news sources.

But it's not something seen often since then. Iran has periodically blocked U.S. broadcasting at critical moments -- including the student demonstrations of 1999 and the last presidential election in 2005 -- but never with such a sustained effort as now.

Legality vs. Sovereignty

Iran's activity raises some legal questions, because the jamming is also knocking out some transmissions to countries other than Iran itself.

The BBC says its Arabic-language service and other language services to the Middle East have also experienced transmission problems since the jamming of its Persian-language frequency began June 14.

Rod Kirwan, a communications law and regulation expert at the international law firm Denton Wilde Sapte in London, says that Iran has the right under international telecommunications treaties to control the use of the broadcast spectrum within its territory, including foreign satellite broadcasting.

But when there is a spillover effect into neighboring countries, it is creating a harmful interference with the same rights of other member states in the International Telecommunications Union (ITU).

Kirwan says that while the broadcast spectrum is a "sovereign right," it's up to each country "to decide how to best use the spectrum and, of course, nations have decided for the greater good to sign up to the ITU coordination arrangements in order that everything works and you have smooth international services."

But Kirwan adds that this "is a sort of voluntary restriction on your freedom to act as a sovereign body and that is the tension: national rights over sovereign territory or spectrum vs. international coordination rights."

Kirwan says that if other states complain, the case could become an escalating dispute. But it is not likely to result in clear penalties for Iran.

"It's one of the basic problems with public international law: who is around to enforce it? And, of course, there is nobody and so it ends in some kind of diplomacy and maybe bilateral pressure," Kirwan says. "But essentially these international treaty organizations operate on a voluntary basis."

SOS Calls For News

That makes jamming the foreign broadcasts a fairly cost-free political strategy for Iran. It is also not particularly expensive in financial terms. It only requires uplink equipment to reach the target satellite and the patience and manpower to play the cat-and-mouse game of shifting frequencies that follows.

Overall, the jamming effort falls into Tehran's larger goal of blocking out all key communications links that challenge the legitimacy of the presidential election results.

The government is blocking many international websites, including Facebook and Twitter, as well as local opposition sites. Text messaging has been cut off for the past week, and mobile-phone service in Tehran is frequently down.

No wonder, then that some of the messages Radio Farda receives from listeners sound like an SOS to the outside world from an increasingly cut-off populace.

"Today is Sunday, June 21. All sites, radios, and anything from which we could get true information have been jammed and now we can't get any news," one caller says.

"Now you need to show your higher technology. We are waiting to see whether you are able to overcome these parasites or not."

Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has accused international media of waging a "psychological war" against the country. It's a charge that millions of Iranians now can make against Khamenei himself.

Satellite receivers pulled down to block overseas Tibetan services

Satellite receivers pulled down to block overseas Tibetan services

(TibetanReview.net, Jun24, 2009) In further tightening of censorship over radio and television broadcasts, authorities in the Tibetan populated region of Kanlho (Chinese: Gannan) Prefecture in Gansu Province had been pulling down satellite dishes since Apr 2009 and had been installing cable lines, reported Radio Free Asia (RFA, Washington) Jun 21. The purpose of the pull down was stated to be to prevent the Tibetans from accessing overseas Tibetan broadcast services such as Radio Free Asia and Voice of America.

Cable lines were reportedly being laid to enable the people to access only Chinese government approved programmes.

“Local Tibetans were told by officials that they were carrying out the directives of central and provincial level authorities,” a Tibetan woman in the Labrang area was quoted as saying.

RFA said a prefectural document cites State Council document #129 in calling for an “unprecedented efforts to collect satellite dishes” to restrict access to long-distance broadcasts in Gansu province.

Earlier, prominent Beijing-exiled Tibetan writer and blogger Woeser wrote in a Jun 15 entry that hundreds of jamming towers had been built in Tibetan regions to block overseas Tibetan broadcast services. She said the airwave censorship was carried out vigorously in Kanlho in May’09.

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2009年6月20日土曜日

BBC enlisting new satellites to broadcast in Iran

BBC enlisting new satellites to broadcast in Iran

LONDON (AP) — The BBC said Friday it is using two extra satellites to broadcast its Farsi-language service after days of jamming it blamed on Iran, as several Western broadcasters seek to overcome obstacles to transmitting coverage of the country's political turmoil.

The British state-funded news organization said the move was meant to help it reach its Iranian audience as the crisis over their country's disputed election deepens. It is also a challenge to Iran's religious government, which has accused foreign broadcasters of stirring unrest, singling out the BBC in particular.

"This is an important time for Iran," BBC World Service Director Peter Horrocks said in a statement. "We hope that by adding more ways to access BBC Persian television, Farsi-speaking audiences can get the high quality news, analysis and debate they clearly desire."

As huge protests have followed the re-election of hardline President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Iran has moved to deprive people of independent sources of news.

BBC Farsi, Facebook, Twitter and other sites have been blocked. Text messaging has been cut off for the past week, and cell phone service in Tehran is frequently down. The BBC said the Hot Bird 6 satellite — which it and other broadcasters use to broadcast to the Middle East, North Africa, and Europe — has been subject to aggressive interference.

The BBC has covered the protests extensively. Its Farsi service, like that of U.S. broadcaster Voice of America, is followed by many Iranians.

The BBC said it was making its Farsi-language service available on satellite Eutelsat W2M, which it said Iranians could tune into by making a small adjustment to their satellite dishes. The BBC also said the service would soon be available on Egyptian satellite Nilesat and it was increasing the length of its Farsi radio program.

Joan Mower, Voice of America's director of public relations, said VOA began to see some jamming about a month ago and had added three new satellite paths, or channels, that allow transmission. VOA has a total of five paths. She said the VOA was still broadcasting to Iran despite intermittent jamming.

VOA broadcasts eight hours a day of TV programming on a 24-hour loop and began a new, hour-long morning show last week. Mower said VOA had been inundated with e-mail, videos and phone calls, and traffic to its VOA Persian sites rose more than 200 percent between June 10 and June 15.

U.S.-funded Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, based in central Europe, is also working to step up its satellite program, according to spokesman Julian Knapp. He said interference had increased "on all fronts" but said the service used a variety of ways to stream content into the country, including stepping up shortwave broadcasting.

Even before the presidential election, Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, blasted foreign broadcasters for their coverage of the campaign, accusing them of demoralizing voters and trying to drive down turnout. Shortly after Ahmadinejad's victory, he accused international media of waging a "psychological war" against the country.

Ahmadinejad has bristled at the coverage. His supporters were shown earlier this week wielding signs with "BBC" crossed out in red, and Britain's ambassador was summoned to hear complaints from Iranian officials. In a nationally broadcast speech Friday, Khamenei accused Western broadcasters stirring up chaos.

"Some of our enemies in different parts of the world intended to depict this absolute victory, this definitive victory, as a doubtful victory," Khamenei said. "It is your victory. They cannot manipulate it."

Associated Press Writers Foster Klug in Washington and Meera Selva in London contributed to this report.

BBC says its satellite broadcasts being disrupted from Iran

June 14th, 2009 - 15:30 UTC by Andy Sennitt

The BBC said today that the satellites it uses to broadcast in Persian were being jammed from Iran, disrupting its reports on the hotly-disputed presidential election. The corporation said television and radio services had been affected from 1245 UTC Friday onwards by “heavy electronic jamming” which had become “progressively worse”. Satellite technicians had traced the interference to Iran, it said.

The satellites its uses in the Middle East to broadcast BBC Persian television to Iran were being affected, meaning that audiences in Iran, the Middle East and Europe would likely experience disruption. BBC Arabic television and other language services had also experienced transmission problems, the corporation said.

“Any attempt to block BBC Persian television is wrong and against international treaties on satellite communication. Whoever is attempting the blocking should stop it now,” said BBC World Service director Peter Horrocks. “It seems to be part of a pattern of behaviour by the Iranian authorities to limit the reporting of the aftermath of the disputed election.

“In Tehran, (BBC world affairs editor) John Simpson and his cameraman were briefly arrested after they had filmed material for a piece,” he added. Iranian authorities today shut down the office of Arab news channel Al-Arabiya in Tehran for a week in the wake of the disputed election win by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the channel said.

(Source: AFP)

Reporters Without Borders adds: The blocking of access to foreign news media has been stepped up. In addition to the blocking of the BBC’s website, the Farsi-language satellite broadcasts of the VOA and BBC – which are very popular in Iran – have been partially jammed. The Internet is now very slow, like the mobile phone network. YouTube and Facebook are hard to access and pro-reform sites such as Khordadeno, AftabNews and Ghalamesabz are completely inaccessible.

Andy Sennitt says: Two of the three sites mentioned above gave the message “bandwidth limit exceeded” when I checked at 1550 UTC, suggesting that DOS attacks may have been carried out.

2009年6月18日木曜日

IRAN - News and information fall victim to electoral coup

IRAN - News and information fall victim to electoral coup

    MONTREAL, June 15 /CNW Telbec/ - The Iranian authorities are continuing a
crackdown on journalists and information that began after the announcement of
the disputed presidential election results. Journalists are still being
arrested and more censorship measures have been adopted as President Mahmoud
Ahmadinejad's allies try to suppress media coverage of fraud allegations.
"Independent sources of news and information find it very hard to make
their voice heard now in Iran because of the censorship," Reporters Without
Borders said. "The authorities are tightening their grip on all news media and
means of communication that could be used to dispute Ahmadinejad reelection
'victory'. They are doing everything possible to limit coverage of the
consequences of the election fraud."
Reporters Without Borders reiterates its appeal to the international
community not to recognise the results of the presidential election first
round held on 12 June.
"A democratic election is one in which the media are free to monitor the
electoral process and investigate fraud allegations but neither of these two
conditions has been met for Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's supposed reelection,"
Reporters Without Borders said. "We urge the international community,
especially European countries, not to recognise the results announced by the
authorities as long as the electoral process is subject to censorship. An
election won by means of censorship and arrests of journalists is not
democratic."

Media and Internet censorship

The security services have moved into the offices of newspapers where
they are reading articles and censoring content. Mehdi Karoubi, one of the
candidates, referred to the censorship in a press release. "I cannot even
publish my release in my newspaper Etemad Meli," he said.
The newspaper's front page (displayed on http://www.roozna.com/) shows a
photo of Ahmadinejad at a rally with columns left blank because of editing by
the censors. The newspaper Velayat in the province of Qazvin (north of Tehran)
has been suspended for publishing a cartoon of Ahmadinejad.
Even governmental news sources have been targeted in the crackdown. Four
interior ministry officials have been arrested for given results that were
different from those announced by Ahmadinejad's allies.
Four of the leading pro-reform newspapers have been closed or prevented
from criticising the official election results following a warning from Tehran
prosecutor general Said Mortazavi. Kalameh Sabaz, a daily owned by opposition
presidential candidate Mirhossein Mousavi, was one of these. Its distribution
was blocked and it was forced to change a front page announcing Mousavi's
victory. It has not been able to publish any issue since 13 June.
The authorities have also launched a broad offensive against the
Internet, controlling and blocking all news websites likely to challenge
Ahmadinejad's announced victory. Ten or so pro-opposition websites have been
censored.
They include www.entekhab.ir/ (inaccessible since 11 June),
www.ayandenews.com/ (inaccessible since 12 June), teribon.com/, the pro-reform
sites khordadeno.com/, aftabnews.ir/index.php and ghalamesabz.com/,
norooznews.ir (the news website of the pro-Mousavi Islamic Participation
Party) and www.ghalamsima.com/ (which also supports the Mousavi campaign). And
the women's rights website www.we-change.org/ has been blocked for the 20th
time.
The international websites YouTube and Facebook are hard to access. The
mobile phone network is being jammed. The service of the leading mobile phone
operator, which is state controlled, has been suspended since 10 p.m. on 13
June. The SMS messaging network has been cut since the morning of 12 June,
preventing use of Twitter.

Foreign media targeted

The blockage of the foreign media has been stepped up. In addition to the
blocking of the BBC's website, the Farsi-language satellite broadcasts of the
VOA and BBC - which are very popular in Iran - have been partially jammed. The
BBC reported that their Farsi broadcasts have been the target of significant
jamming "coming from Iran" since 1245 GM on 12 June, and that the jamming has
been getting steadily worse.
The authorities yesterday ordered the Tehran bureau of the Arab satellite
TV news station Al-Arabiya closed for a week after it broadcast video of the
first demonstration following the announcement of Ahmadinejad's reelection.
Foreign journalists have been prevented from covering the demonstrations,
some have been notified that their visas will not be renewed, and some have
been the victims of police violence. A member of a TV crew working for the
Italian station RAI and a Reuters reporter were beaten by police in the
capital. A BBC TV crew was threatened by police at one point, but
demonstrators chased the police away. The correspondents of the German TV
stations ARD and ZDF were forbidden to leave their hotel on 13 June.
Two Dutch TV journalists working for Nederland 2 were arrested and
expelled. Reporter Yolanda Alvarez of the Spanish television station TVE was
deported together with her crew today.

Journalists arrested

Eleven Iranian journalists have been arrested since 12 June. Reza Alijani
(winner of the 2001 Reporters Without Borders-Fondation de France press
freedom prize), Hoda Sabaer and Taghi Rahmani were arrested on 13 June.
Alijani and Rahmani were released yesterday evening. Freelancer Kivan Samimi
Behbani, the former editor of Nameh ("The Letter"), an independent monthly
closed in 2005, and Ahamad Zeydabadi were also arrested and then released.
Abdolreza Tajik was arrested at midday yesterday at the headquarters of
the newspaper Farhikhtegan by three men in plain-clothes. A member of the
Human Rights Defenders Centre, Tajik has worked for many Iranian publications
that have been closed by the authorities, including Bahar (closed in 2001),
Hambastegi (closed in 2003) and Shargh (closed in 2008).
Five of the journalists arrested in the past few days are still detained.
They include Said Shariti, the editor of the news website Nooroz, who is being
held by the police, and Mahssa Amrabadi of the daily Etemad Melli. She was
arrested at her home yesterday by intelligence ministry agents who came with a
warrant for the arrest of her husband, fellow-journalist Masoud Bastani. He
was not at home at the time.
Two women journalists working at the Mousavi campaign headquarters were
physically attacked on 12 June. The Mousavi campaign news centre was ransacked
on 13 June by Ahmadinejad supporters, who destroyed its computers. The Qalam
News agency operated out of this centre.
There is no word of about 10 other journalists who have either been
arrested or gone into hiding.


For further information: Reporters Without Borders

Stop the blocking now

Stop the blocking now

Post categories: ,

Peter Horrocks | 14:03 PM, Sunday, 14 June 2009

BBC audiences in Iran, the Middle East and Europe may be experiencing disruption to their BBC TV or radio services today. That is because there is heavy electronic jamming of one of the satellites the BBC uses in the Middle East to broadcast the BBC Persian TV signal to Iran.

Satellite technicians have traced that interference and it is coming from Iran. There has been intermittent interference from Iran since Friday, but this is the heaviest yet.

It seems to be part of a pattern of behaviour by the Iranian authorities to limit the reporting of the aftermath of the disputed election. In Tehran, John Simpson and his cameraman were briefly arrested after they had filmed the material for this piece. And at least one news agency in Tehran has come under pressure not to distribute internationally any pictures it might have of demonstrations on the streets in Iran.


However, the availability of witness material from Iran is enabling international news organisations to be able to report the story. Viewers of BBC Persian TV have been in touch (in Farsi), sending videos, stills and providing personal accounts.

It is important that what is happening in Iran is reported to the world, but it is even more vital that citizens in Iran know what is happening. That is the role of the recently-launched BBC Persian TV which is fulfilling a crucial role in being a free and impartial source of information for many Iranians.

Any attempt to block this channel is wrong and against international treaties on satellite communication. Whoever is attempting the blocking should stop it now.

Peter Horrocks is the director of BBC World Service.

2009年6月10日水曜日

北朝鮮、テレビやラジオ電波の遮断を指示

北朝鮮、テレビやラジオ電波の遮断を指示

150日戦闘の期間に‘非社会主義検閲’を推進…外部の思想の浸透を警戒
李尙龍記者
[2009-05-22 13:09 ]
北朝鮮の労働党が金正日の指示により、5月25日から国境や海岸付近で外部の電波の受信を事前に遮断する、「自動遮断装置」を各機関に設置すると、NK知識人連帯が21日にホームページ(www.nkis.kr)で伝えた。

同団体は消息筋の言葉を引用して、労働党はこの装置を使えば、一般の住民が外国のテレビやラジオ放送を聴取することを事前に遮断できると予想していると伝えた。

北朝鮮の住民はこの装置を郵便局で、6千ウォン(北朝鮮の貨幣単位)で購入しなければならないという。北朝鮮当局は住民に、「この装置を設置すれば、郵便 局で周波数を固定しなくても自動的に周波数が固定されるため、電波障害の現象がなくなって、画像もより鮮明になる」と言い、設置を促している。

同消息筋は特に、「これからは登録されたテレビや録画機器を除いた、中国や日本の中古品の輸入や販売は許可しない。平壌の大同江テレビ工場で生産された製 品だけを販売・購入できることになった。自動遮断装置を使用しない場合、理由を問わず没収する」と北朝鮮当局の方針を紹介した。

さらに、「5月15日から全国的に非社会主義の検閲事業が進められている。『帝国主義者の思想・文化的な浸透や、心理謀略戦を確実に踏み潰すことについ て』という労働党の方針を伝達する事業も推進された。不純な録画物や出版物、放送を見たり聞いたりする現象を、徹底的に流布する行為に対しては、厳しい処 罰が下される」と説明した。

今回の検閲は「150日戦闘」の期間に行われるという。検閲された人は公開裁判で法的な処罰を受けて、家族は追放される。

最近、北朝鮮ではテレビや録画機器、録音機、ラジオを登録する人が増えて、検閲班が昼夜を問わず、頻繁に家宅捜査を行っているという。

今回の措置で北朝鮮の住民は、「電気の状態もよくないから見れなかったので、むしろテレビや録画機器などない方がいい」と言っていると、同消息筋は現地の雰囲気を伝えた。

北朝鮮は19日にも、6.15共同宣言実践北朝鮮委員会や文学芸術文化委員会を通じて、韓国は反共的な映画やテレビドラマ、外国の映画を大々的に上映し て、北朝鮮の現実を深刻に歪曲していると非難しながら、「南北対決を促している不純な謀略策動を直ちにやめるべきだ」と主張している。

2009年6月7日日曜日

中国SARFT管理のジャミング専用送信所判明

◎中国SARFT管理のジャミング専用送信所判明
 NDXCによると、中国の国家広播電影電視総局(SARFT)管理の短波送信所の内ジャミング専用に使用されているのは以下の送信所である。
 海南省 東方 略称DOF 150kW1台 500kW5台
 江西省 南昌 略称NAN 100kW6台
 黒竜江省 斉斉哈爾 略称QIQ 100kW6台 500kW1台
 福建省 泉州 150kW1台 (WWDXC Topnews 910) この他北京郊外の顺义、内蒙古の呼和浩特、浙江省の寧波、広東省の広州、遼寧省の丹東等もジャミング送信所として使われていると言われていま す。これだけの設備があるのだから、国際的にジャミングの請負ビジネスも考えられます。またジャミングが不要となり、ロシアの旧ジャミング送信所が老朽化 した後は米国等の放送請 負も行うのでは? 

◎エチオピア向秘密放送に集中ジャミング

 ドイツのWolfgang Büschel氏によればロシアのSamara送信所からTDP仲介で250kW送信(方向188度)されている以下の各局にジャミングが集中的にかけら れている。何れも02:00-03:00に15350kHzである。
 月曜日 02:00-03:00  Radio Bilal アムハリ語
 火曜日 02:00-02:30 Radio Xoriyo Ogadenia ソマリ語 02:30-03:00 Radio Asena ティグリナ語
 水曜日 02:00-02:30 Ginbot 7 Dimts Radio アムハリ語 02:30-03:00 Denge Meselna-Delina ティグリナ語
 木曜日 02:30-03:00 Radio Asena ティグリナ語
金曜日 02:00-02:30  Ginbot 7 Dimts Radio アムハリ語 02:30-03:00 Denge Meselna-Delina ティグリナ語
土曜日 02:00-03:00  Radio Xoriyo Ogadenia ソマリ語 02:30-03:00 Radio Asena アラビア語
 日曜日 02:00-02:30 Ginbot 7 Dimts Radio アムハリ語 02:30-03:00 Denge Meselna-Delina ティグリナ語
(WWDXC Topnews 911)

(月刊短波2009年6月号)

2009年6月6日土曜日

North Koreans Get Jamming Devices

North Koreans Get Jamming Devices

2009-06-05

Nighttime raids and mandatory jamming devices curb North Koreans' already limited access to foreign media.

AFP

Video grab of a North Korean television broadcast, Oct. 09, 2006.

SEOUL—Authorities in North Korea are launching a campaign to have jamming devices installed in the home of anyone with a television or radio in a bid to block news reaching its citizens from foreign broadcasters.

As part of supreme leader Kim Jong Il’s “150-day Campaign” aimed at mobilizing North Koreans and boosting production, the North Korean authorities are expanding a crackdown on those who listen to overseas news, according to a defector group in South Korea.

North Koreans manage to gain limited access to foreign media broadcasts despite increasing interference from the isolated Stalinist state, and growing numbers are viewing or listening to media from rival South Korea.

The authorities are conducting an increasing number of nighttime inspections of households to crack down on those watching foreign TV or videos or listening to foreign radio broadcasting."

Defector

While channels are fixed on North Korean television sets, they have proved easy to alter, allowing access to South Korean programming.

Defectors at the Seoul-based nongovernment group, North Korea Intellectuals Solidarity, said authorities in Pyongyang had issued a directive that all households in these areas have to purchase and install a radio jamming device.

“If people listen to foreign broadcasting, the legitimacy of the official line and the official ideology is in jeopardy,” one defector, a North Korean computer science expert with in-depth knowledge of the media environment, said in an interview.

“That is why the authorities are going to great lengths to crack down on listening to foreign broadcasting, and that is why they are implementing the rather extreme measure of making it compulsory to install miniaturized jamming devices in each household in areas that are likely to have better reception of foreign broadcasts.”

One factory named

He said another directive appeared to have been issued, instructing North Koreans to buy only televisions manufactured at the Daedong-kang Factory in Pyongyang, and that no one should own a television set without a jamming device.

“Since the reception is better in the coastal and border areas, the miniaturized jamming devices are installed free of charge, but deeper inside North Korea households are required to purchase and install the devices,” the defector said.

Officials were telling people that the device would improve reception, and that manual tuning would no longer be necessary with the device installed, he said.

“As they proceed with the ‘150-day Campaign,' the North Korean authorities are cracking down on foreign visual, printed, or recorded material,” the defector said.

“People are now required to have their televisions, radios, and audio or video recorders registered.”

He added: “The authorities are conducting an increasing number of nighttime inspections of households to crack down on those watching foreign TV or videos or listening to foreign radio broadcasting.”

Technologically trained defectors said the devices were fairly low-tech, cheap to produce, and easy to install.

Growing audience

Some experts say as many as 20 percent of citizens in the isolated Stalinist state could now be tuning into overseas media.

A 2005 survey of 300 North Korean defectors in South Korea found that 18 percent had come into contact with South Korean media while still in North Korea.

South Korean videos are popular in North Korea, entering the reclusive country mainly through China. South Korean television drama VCDs and tapes are copied and distributed inside North Korea.

North Korea, one of the world's most reclusive and tightly closed countries, tightly controls its own media and prohibits all but the most elite from accessing foreign media. Punishment for anyone caught listening to foreign media is severe.

But nongovernmental organizations say a brisk trade exists nonetheless in smuggled DVDs from China and South Korea.

One report in 2008 suggested police were routinely cutting electricity to blocks of residential flats and then raiding them to see what DVDs had been jammed in the players.

Original reporting in Korean by J.W. Noh. Korean service director: Francis Huh. Translated by Grigore Scarlatoiu. Written for the Web in English by Luisetta Mudie. Edited by Sarah Jackson-Han.

2009年5月14日木曜日

The Issue of Radio Jamming

The Issue of Radio Jamming

According to Dawn, “…the [U.S.] administration is urging Congress to release $497 million of emergency economic assistance to Pakistan, hoping to make the lawmakers endorse the request as early as possible.” The UK has already pledged further aid to our country, promising £12 million for the increasing number of internally displaced persons. Richard Holbrooke, U.S. special envoy to Afghanistan and Pakistan spoke before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Tuesday, and stated, “Frankly, I don’t really trust what I hear from a situation like that until the dust of battle has settled, but one thing is clear: 900,000 refugees have been registered with the UN in that area, and we have a major, major refugee crisis.” Dawn, in its coverage, reported, “Holbrooke told the panel during a hearing on the situation in Pakistan that senior Obama aides met at the White House on Tuesday to rush emergency assistance to Islamabad. The US, he said, had already provided over $57 million for this crisis from emergency funds.”

While it is significant that the international community is recognizing the gravity of the IDP situation, [see past CHUP post] I wanted to also highlight another part of Holbrooke’s hearing that I found extremely interesting. According to Dawn, “the White House has also discussed a proposal to counter radio broadcasts by extremist clerics in Swat and jam their transmissions. President Obama has already approved the suggestion to jam their broadcasts and to fund counter-broadcasts in Pashto and Urdu.”

Last month, the Wall Street Journal also reported on the Obama administration’s “broad effort in Afghanistan and Pakistan to prevent the Taliban from using radio stations and Web sites to intimidate civilians and plan attacks,” noting, “As part of the classified effort, American military and intelligence personnel are working to jam the unlicensed radio stations in Pakistan’s lawless regions on the Afghanistan border that Taliban fighters use to broadcast threats and decrees.”

The strategy is part of a broader counterinsurgency effort, specifically using information operations (IO) to achieve objectives, [for e.g., to decrease support and influence of the Taliban]. Radio jamming specifically pertains to the use of electronic warfare, a core element of IO, while the funding and development of counter-broadcasts fall under another IO element – psychological operations (PSYOP), [read this guide for more information on IO]. A senior U.S. official in Afghanistan told the WSJ, “The Taliban aren’t just winning the information war — we’re not even putting up that much of a fight. We need to make it harder for them to keep telling the population that they’re in control and can strike at any time.”

Last week, Dawn’s Huma Yusuf commented on the recently unveiled U.S. strategy of radio jamming. She wrote,

In the past few days, the U.S. government has made alarmist statements about ongoing military operations and the fragility of the Pakistan government. Shoot-from-the-hip comments make it easy for Pakistanis to discredit the American understanding of ground realities. But an announcement in mid-April that American military and intelligence personnel are working to jam illegal radio stations in the tribal and settled areas indicates that they’re attuned to local dynamics. After all, winning the information war is a prerequisite to winning the war against terror.

Saesneg, on his blog, linked Yusuf’s commentary to the wider phenomenon of “hate radio,” particularly during the Rwandan genocide, noting, “These stations and how they were tackled by NGOs and locals on the ground could serve as examples for how the Pakistan government and military may be able to fight the voice of the FM Mullah.” And, although the U.S. has already begun jamming stations in FATA, the FATA Secretariat has worked to produce sterile community radio stations in their place.

While I agree that this strategy is a much-needed effort, my reading into the issue raised several questions I will try to address on this forum. First, why is the U.S. seen to be spearheading this effort and not the Pakistani military? Second, was the publicity surrounding the U.S. jamming efforts in effect damaging to its strategy? Finally, what exactly should “counter-broadcasts” entail?

Let’s tackle the first question. In February, the blog Grand Truck Road included an in-depth piece entitled, “Myths About Radio Jamming.” The post debunked the Pakistani military’s claims surrounding the “impossibility” of radio jamming, ultimately concluding the Army’s reasoning – from saying they might also jam their own communications to the Taliban constantly switching frequencies – were just excuses. While this conclusion makes sense given Pakistan’s ambiguous approach to the Taliban prior to the recent offensive, I wonder if this still holds true today. Is the U.S. counterinsurgency effort an attempt to support the Pakistani military’s offensive or because Washington is tired of the excuses and is finally taking the issue into its own hands?

Second question – Was the publicity surrounding the U.S. jamming efforts in effect damaging to its strategy? This is a continuation of the previous issue. Was it smart to publicly broadcast that the U.S. was spearheading the radio jamming effort? With anti-U.S. sentiment still high, it has been vital for the Pakistani state to brand the new offensive as our war. Obviously, foreign aid is greatly needed for these efforts as well as U.S. insight into COIN, but it also seems counterintuitive to have Washington so overtly involved in military matters, [overtly being the key word here]. It is a war of ideas after all, and perception management has been vital. What do you think?

Finally, what should the FATA Secretariat’s counter-broadcasts entail? According to Yusuf (and echoed by Saesneg), the current broadcasts “come saddled with programming restrictions that make the stations largely redundant…How can such a bland, disconnected mish-mash of programming compete with the drama of an FM mullah?” She instead advised,

There is an urgent need in FATA and the settled areas to fund and facilitate local radio programming that is secular, informative and culturally sensitive. The airtime that FM mullahs expend on hate speech and sermonizing, official community radio stations should utilize for hyper-local news reports generated by residents of the tribal areas for their communities. Instead of mobilizing the youth to wage jihad, community radio stations can help communities become civically engaged.

Ultimately, radio stations need to counteract the impact of Taliban propaganda. The messaging needs to be strategic, the content needs to engage the populace. Given frightening news today that only 38% of Pakistan’s northwest remains under full government control, we can no longer afford to be ambiguous or lazy in carrying out these objectives.

BBC News Map

BBC News Map

2009年4月30日木曜日

china jamming


WORLDWIDE DX CLUB
Top News

compiled by Wolfgang Büschel, Germany
April 24th, 2009 (BC-DX #909)


CHINA Program content of the "Firedrake" network jammers changed last
weekend, is rather a CNR/CRI satellite feed channel re-shuffle, see mail
below by Mark Fahey.

Puzzle -- Firedrake on 15635 kHz at 1300-1400 UT, against UNID service ?
Maybe another Xi Wang Zhi Sheng SOH-Sound of Hope service from Taiwan?
(wb, wwdxc BC-DX TopNews Apr 19)

Firedrake, 1514-1535, April 16. Scanned every 5 kHz. from 7000 to 19000,
but did not find any noticeable Firedrake. Are they really gone?
(Ron Howard-CA-USA, dxld Apr 19)

China jamming service now changed the format, continous playing of dragon
music via the JAMMING NETWORK stopped now.

Few and between advertising talk [Howard and Hauser said China National
radio 1st program relay] and music jammer but rather lyric Chinese love
songs played now, even Elton John sung in between. Some 3 to 4 very fast
echos of few un-synchronized transmitters appeared as 'new sound'. Modern
Chinese and international smooth love songs in between.

Is full in action like in past weekend log, - frequ against txions in
Mandarin, Cantonese, Tibetan, Uighur, Nepali etc. noted here in Europe on
45 shortwave channels:

7260 1700-2100 IBB TIN 7565 1600-1700 IBB UDO
9350 0100-0200 1600-1700 IBB UDO 9355 1700-2100 IBB SAI
9370 1500-1600 IBB TJK 9385 2100-2200 IBB TIN
9455 1500-2200 IBB SAI 9565 1600-1700 IBB Tinang
9845 1200-1500, 2200-2300 IBB SAI Tinang
9985 1300-1400 IBB SAI 11540 1500-1900 IBB TIN, SAI
11550 1500-1600 IBB KWT 11585 1500-1600 IBB TIN
11590 1200-1400 IBB KWT 11605 1200-1400 IBB TIN
11615 1400-1500 IBB SAI 11625 1500-1600 IBB TIN
11665 1100-1700 TWN Internat 11740 2000-2200 IBB TIN
11785 1900-2400 IBB TIN 11785 1100-1400 IBB UDO
11805 1230-1500 IBB UDO, Tinang, TIN
11825 0900-1300 IBB Tinang 11965 0900-1100 IBB UDO
11975 1400-1500 IBB KWT 11990 1100-1500 IBB TIN, NVS
12025 1500-1700 IBB SAI 12040 1000-1500 IBB UDO, Tinang
12140 1230-1500 IBB TIN -Burmese? different from Myanmar?
13675 1500-1700 IBB TIN 13740 0700-1000 IBB UDO
13760 0300-0700 IBB SAI 13830 1100-1400 IBB TJK
15250 0700-1100 IBB Tinang 15265 0300-0600 IBB UDO, echo
15285 1300-1530 BBC SNG 15412 1330-1400 VoTibet TJK
15490 0300-0600 IBB IRA, echo 15495 1500-1600 IBB TIN
15535 0600-0700 UNID, maybe 24 hrs service jammer.
15840*1000-1200 UNID, SoH TWN ? 17560 1330-1400 VoTibet MDG
17615 0300-0700 IBB TIN, echo 17635 0300-0700 IBB Irkutsk-RUS echo
17735 0400-0600 IBB UDO, echo 17775 0700-1000 IBB TIN
17855 0700-1100 IBB Tinang 17800 0300-0700 IBB SAI

All new multi ECHO "programme" format, except real Firedrake dragon music
marked by *.

Also transmissions of BBC London Mandarin on 15285, Uzbek, Kyrghyz; AIR
Delhi Mandarin Tibetan, Nepali; Taiwan domestic and international
broadcasts 11665 and 15270, - are subject of heavy jamming.
(wb, wwdxc BC-DX TopNews Apr 19-22)

Jamming from China to PEAK soon!
This year marks the 20th Anniversary of the Tiananmen Square crackdown and
the authorities in China are getting ready. The State Administration of
Film, Radio and Television (SAFRT) has already sent out a memo to CCTV
(Central China Television), CNR (China National Radio) and CRI (China
Radio International) as well as the thousands of local provincial radio
stations to inform them about the "special measures" that will be in place
from May 18th to July 31, 2009.

Jamming during this period will also be stepped up. So if you tune to the
SW dial starting on or around that date, the very popular FIREDRAKE [not
at present, see above, wb] will be heard just about everywhere and
anywhere in the world. As many of you might know, Firedrake does not just
interfere with signals beamed to China, but also with signals beamed to
other regions.
(Keith Perron-TWN, dxld Apr 22)

"Programme" content of the "Firedrake jamming network" changed last
weekend, all acc to observations of Ron Howard-CA-USA in dxld.

Only FOUR REAL Firedrake dragon music jammers noted here in Europe,
remained on air since Apr 19:

15150* approx. 0400-0600
15635* 1300-1400
15820* approx. 0400-0600
15840* 1000-1200

Formerly also on 13970, and 15900 kHz against Xi Wang Zhi Sheng SOH-Sound
of Hope service from Taiwan.

Somebody in the Pazifik, Far East, or South Asia should monitor the
shortwave bands in the 0000-0500 UT portion.

"Firedrake" jamming service now changed the format, continous playing of
dragon music stopped now. Few and between advertising talk [Howard and
Hauser said China National radio 1st program relay] and music jammer but
rather lyric Chinese love songs played now, even Elton John sung in
between. Some 3 to 4 very fast echos of few transmitters appeared as 'new
sound'. Modern Chinese and international smooth love songs in between.

Is full in action like in past weekend log, - frequencies against txions
in Mandarin, Cantonese, Tibetan, Uighur, Nepali etc., noted here in Europe
on 48 shortwave channels, like on additional:

15265 0300-0600 IBB UDO, echo 15490 0300-0600 IBB IRA, echo
17615 0300-0700 IBB TIN, echo 17635 0300-0700 IBB Irkutsk-RUS echo
17735 0400-0600 IBB UDO, echo

Who is Keith Perron, from Taiwan ?
Is a real character or an outlet of a western intelligence service?
(wb, wwdxc BC-DX TopNews Apr 22)

Re: new echo sound recording.
Thanks for the audio. You heard a typical CNR-1 echo jamming (operating
more than one jamming transmitter and out of sync, causing echo). It is
non-Firedrake jamming, i.e., not non-stop Chinese music jamming. There
have been many of these echo jammers used on many frequencies for some
time now. The attachment is a recording from March 9, 2009, at 1308 of
another typical CNR-1 echo jamming, in this case supposedly against Ming
Hui Radio on 6030. Heard // 5030, a standard non-jamming CNR-1 station.
Thanks again for sharing this information!
(Ron Howard-CA-USA, wwdxc BC-DX TopNews Apr 22)

Real Firedrake observations:
April 19 at 1312 on 9000, and at 1316 just barely audible on 8400. April
20 at 1227, good on both 9000 and 8400; at 1325 gone from 9000 but still
on 8400; ditto at 1346 and 1424 rechex. Firedrake, April 21 at 1325: on
8400 and weaker 9000 kHz.
(Glenn Hauser-OK-USA, dxld Apr 21)

Observed 0215-0245, April 23:
Firedrake (non-stop Chinese music jamming): 17300 and 18320, both // and
against SOH.

CNR-1 (assumed) distinctive echo jamming, all parallel: 11830 and 11925
(both against VOA), 17730 (against R. Free Asia) and 17765 (against VOA).

Assume the echo programming was CNR-1, due to the absence of a known non-
jamming CNR-1 to check these with during this time period.
(Ron Howard-CA-USA, dxld Apr 23)

I just now drove my dish across to Chinasat 6 to see if there had been
changes to the Firedrake transmitter feed. And I can report yes there has!

The circuit that carried Firedrake is right at the moment carrying what
sounds like a drama with some intervals of Mongolian Throat Singing, just
as I started typing they have gone to commercials and now at the top of
the hour the feed has gone silent. I will stick with this channel to night
and see if I can find some parallels on HF. It maybe that they have
reorganized some circuits, and what I am hearing is not feeding the
jammers - anyway within a day or so I should have it worked out.

[later] Our friends in Beijing seem to have done a major reorganization of
their satellite transmitter feed circuits on Chiniasat 6B. Where Firedrake
use to be it now seems to be a CRI feed, Firedrake now has it's own stereo
circuit labeled "ZY18 Stereo" - the program still seems to be in mono
though.

What is new is that now the CNR (China National Radio - Domestic) and CRI
(China Radio International) circuits are combined in same group of
channels. Previously I had to access one satellite for the CNR feeds
(Chinasat 6B) and another (Intelsat 8) for the CRI feeds.

At the moment on Chinasat 6B there are 50 separate stereo program
transmitter feed channels operating. CNR circuits are named "ZY xx" and
CRI are named "GJ xx".

Perhaps one or more of the more sleepy of the Firedrake jammer transmitter
sites are yet to catch up with the changes and at time "accidentally"
putting the old Firedrake circuit to air instead of the new Firedrake feed
of ZY18 Stereo.



2009年4月29日水曜日

Broadcast Jamming Continues in Post Cold-War World

Broadcast Jamming Continues in Post Cold-War World


13 October 2005


During the so-called Cold War, totalitarian regimes sought to block radio or TV broadcasts, except the ones they controlled. The Cold War is over, but those jamming efforts continue in some parts of the world. VOA Correspondent Gary Thomas reports from Washington on the 21st century battle of the airwaves.


Authoritarian governments still try to silence criticism and unfavorable news coverage in their countries by the age-old expedient of throwing critics in jail and shutting down their publications. But what does today's autocrat do about broadcasts being beamed into his country from sources outside his reach?

Simple. He jams them.

A longtime researcher on international broadcasting at the Voice of America, Kim Elliott, says the methods of jamming radio broadcasts are still much the same as they have been, even with new technologies.

"It is simply a matter of putting a noxious signal on the same frequency as the broadcaster that is trying to get into the country. And it was that way during World War II, it was that way during the Cold War, and it is still that way. If you tune across your short-wave radio, you will hear a raucous noise on one frequency, and you will hear the hapless international radio broadcaster in the background trying to get into the country," he said.

The result is rather like being in a crowded room watching a sporting event, with the cheering so loud that it is almost impossible to hear the person sitting right next to you.

Free speech advocates have always condemned jamming as an attempt to cut off the uninterrupted flow of information. Kenneth Tomlinson, the chairman of the U.S. government's Broadcasting Board of Governors that oversees VOA, Radio Free Asia, and other government-sponsored broadcast entities, has said it is illegal, and interferes with the free and open flow of international transmissions.

Experts say that, ironically, newer broadcast technologies, such as television, are actually easier to jam than old-fashioned short-wave radio, simply because radio can air on so many different frequencies at once.

Broadcast researcher Kim Elliott says jamming TV signals, especially from satellites, is relatively simple.

"Of all the media available to international broadcasting, short-wave is the most difficult to interdict. And that is because of the physics of transmission at short-wave frequencies," he said. "Signals from more distant transmitters come through better than signals from transmitters closer up. Television transmissions travel much shorter distances, and so those are much easier to jam. Or, if they are from a satellite, they are easy to jam because it only requires a few watts [of power]. And it does not have that kind of immunity [from jamming] that short-wave has."

Asia specialist Vincent Brossel, with the French media research group Reporters Without Borders, says radio still remains the main source of information for many people around the world.

"The radio is something like the most democratized and the most popular media in the world, due to the fact that many people cannot read, or do not have any access to Internet," he said. "The only way to touch millions, or billions of people around the world is radio."

Analysts say this is why China has become the biggest practitioner of international radio jamming in the post-Cold War world.

Mr. Brossel says Western firms, such as the French firm Thales', have sold broadcast equipment to China that also can be used for jamming.

"What is very interesting is that some Western companies are selling technology to the Chinese, and Chinese are selling technology for jamming to some Third World countries," he said. "So, it means that, just for business reasons, foreign companies like Thales' are helping the Chinese government to prevent millions, or billions of listeners from getting some free and independent radio programs."

Thales' officials have declined to comment on the company's sales. An American firm, Continental Electronics, also has sold transmission equipment to China, and to VOA, Radio Free Asia, and Taiwan, as well.

Experts say the term "jamming equipment" is really a misnomer, since a transmitter is something of a two-edged sword that can not only be used to broadcast, but can be easily converted to jam broadcasts.

Although Iran's theocratic government officially bans satellite television and has jammed foreign broadcasts, including those of exile Persian-language stations, the jamming has been sporadic, and is usually conducted during elections and other political events. Azadeh Moaveni, an Iranian-American journalist, who has reported from Iran, says the reality is different than official policy.

"Satellite television is technically banned," she said. "It is implicitly tolerated. And you could, I think, say comfortably that the majority of the country has access to satellite news."

Sometimes political jamming is tried as well.

Eutelsat, a European satellite operator, earlier this said it would not renew its contract to carry the signal of a new language broadcast outlet called New Tang Dynasty TV, or NTDTV Its links to the Falun Gong group, which is banned in China, earned it official Chinese displeasure. Mr. Brossel of Reporters Without Borders said Eutelsat was under what he called "tremendous pressure" from China to cancel the NTDTV contract. But last month Eutelsat agreed to renew it.

2009年4月20日月曜日

Pentagon Jams Web, Radio Links of Taliban

Pentagon Jams Web, Radio Links of Taliban

WASHINGTON -- The Obama administration is starting a broad effort in Pakistan and Afghanistan to prevent the Taliban from using radio stations and Web sites to intimidate civilians and plan attacks, according to senior U.S. officials.

[Soldier in Afghanistan] Associated Press

A U.S. soldier patrols Afghanistan's Korengal Valley. The U.S. is adding operations involving radio and the Web to its efforts against the Taliban.

As part of the classified effort, American military and intelligence personnel are working to jam the unlicensed radio stations in Pakistan's lawless regions on the Afghanistan border that Taliban fighters use to broadcast threats and decrees.

U.S. personnel are also trying to block the Pakistani chat rooms and Web sites that are part of the country's burgeoning extremist underground. The Web sites frequently contain videos of attacks and inflammatory religious material that attempts to justify acts of violence.

The push takes the administration deeper into "psychological operations," which attempt to influence how people see the U.S., its allies and its enemies. Officials involved with the new program argue that psychological operations are a necessary part of reversing the deterioration of stability in both Afghanistan and Pakistan.

The Taliban and other armed groups have carried out a wave of attacks in the two countries. U.S. officials believe the Taliban enjoy an advantage by being able to freely communicate threats and decrees.

In Pakistan, Taliban leaders use unlicensed FM stations to recite the names of local Pakistani government officials, police officers and other figures who have been marked for death by the group. Hundreds of people named in the broadcasts have later been killed, according to U.S. and Pakistani officials.

"The Taliban aren't just winning the information war -- we're not even putting up that much of a fight," said a senior U.S. official in Afghanistan. "We need to make it harder for them to keep telling the population that they're in control and can strike at any time."

The new efforts were described by an array of U.S. officials, several with firsthand knowledge of the technologies and tactics used to block the radio stations and Web sites. The Pentagon, the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the Central Intelligence Agency declined to comment.

Psychological operations have long been a part of war, famously in World War II when "Tokyo Rose" broadcast English-language propaganda to Allied troops. More recently, some militaries have used high-tech methods. During the December-January war in Gaza, Israeli forces sent cellphone text messages to alert Palestinian civilians to impending strikes and encourage them to turn against the militant group Hamas.

The Obama administration's recently released strategy for Afghanistan and Pakistan calls for sending 4,000 U.S. military trainers to Afghanistan and sharply expanding economic aid to Pakistan. The U.S. may also provide radio-jamming equipment to the Pakistani government, according to officials familiar with the plans.

[Soldiers set up a ladder by a watch tower at an operation post] Getty Images

U.S. Army soldiers from 1st Infantry Division set up a ladder by a watch tower at an operation post in Nishagam, Afghanistan's eastern Kunar province.

The new push reflects the influence of Gen. David Petraeus, who runs the military's Central Command and has long been a major proponent of using psychological operations to reduce popular support for armed Islamist groups.

Another supporter, Richard Holbrooke, the administration's special envoy for Pakistan and Afghanistan, publicly alluded to the new program late last month. He told reporters there were 150 illegal FM radio stations in Pakistan's Swat Valley, which allowed militants to go "around every night broadcasting the names of people they're going to behead or they've beheaded."

Mr. Holbrooke likened the Taliban radio stations to Rwanda's Radio Mille Collines, a virulently sectarian broadcaster widely believed to have helped fuel the Rwandan genocide. The U.S. considered jamming the station in the 1990s, but ultimately chose not to.

"Nothing has been done so far" about impeding the Taliban communications, Mr. Holbrooke said. "We have identified the information issue ... as a major, major gap to be filled."

Psychological operations can be controversial. In Iraq, the Pentagon at one point ran a program that paid Iraqi journalists to run articles and opinion pieces supportive of U.S. war aims and the Iraqi central government. Critics called it government-funded propaganda, while the Bush administration defended the effort.

Henry A. Crumpton, a former State Department counterterrorism chief who led the CIA's Afghanistan campaign in 2001 and 2002, warned against relying too heavily on high-tech solutions such as disrupting militant radio broadcasts. "Those can be very effective, but they're -- underscore -- short-term tactics," he said.

Still, many military officials believe that stabilizing Afghanistan and Pakistan requires gradually diminishing the Taliban's public standing while simultaneously building popular support for more moderate local political and religious institutions allied with the U.S.

"It's not an issue of trying to persuade your average Pakistani farmer to love the U.S.," a U.S. official said. "The idea, frankly, is to muddy the water a bit."

As part of this push, the U.S. has started U.S.-funded radio stations in many rural parts of Afghanistan. In one example, Army Special Forces teams in eastern Paktia, a restive Afghan province that abuts the Pakistani frontier, put on air a radio station late last year called "the Voice of Chamkani," referring to the village where the U.S. base is located, and distributed hundreds of radio receivers.

According to an account in the current issue of "Special Warfare Magazine," an Army publication on special operations, the U.S.-run radio station has worked to build support for the Afghan national government by highlighting local development projects that were approved by Kabul.

Write to Yochi J. Dreazen at yochi.dreazen@wsj.com and Siobhan Gorman at siobhan.gorman@wsj.com