Thailand passes broadcasting bill

The Thailand House of Representatives has passed its first reading of a draft bill on setting up a broadcasting and telecommunications regulator, says The Bangkok Post.

A committee was set up to vet the proposed law which sought to combine the National Telecommunications and National Broadcasting commissions into a single regulator called the National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission.

Several Democrat MPs yesterday criticised the ICT Ministry's version, saying it gives investors leeway to dominate the commission.

ITV says it plans to cut 600 jobs as the troubled UK broadcaster attempts to deal with the sharpest downturn in advertising in decades, says Telegraph.co.uk.

ITV's executive chairman, Michael Grade, insists viewers won't suffer, despite big job cuts at the broadcaster. However, Grade says the current conditions in the advertising market are the most challenging he has experienced in over 30 years.

The deepest UK recession since at least the early 1980s is compounding the problems the once-dominant broadcaster already faces from an explosion of technology that is loosening its grip both on audiences and advertising revenues.

Some 18 tertiary institutions across Nigeria have received broadcast licences for campus FM radio stations, reports All Africa.com.

National Broadcasting Commission director-general, Engineer Yomi Bolarinwa, warned that chief executives of institutions would be held responsible if there was a breach in the rules of the Nigerian Broadcasting Code and that institutions which failed to begin transmission after a year would forfeit their licences.

Some of the institutions granted licences include University of Ibadan, Kaduna Polytechnic, Caritas University Enugu, University of Jos and Rivers State University of Science and Technology.