Macedonian Regulator May Suspend 23 Broadcast Licences
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Text of report in English by Macedonian news agency Makfax  The National Broadcasting Council will urge the government to suspend the broadcasting concessions of 23 local television and radio stations due to unsettled concession fees.
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Some Venezuelan television channels began altering their programs Thursday, citing fears of penalties under a new law restricting violence and sexual content over the airwaves.
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The BBC has suspended several members of staff over a competition-rigging scandal, it said Thursday, as police revealed they  could investigate the controversy.
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Legislation allowing indecency fines against broadcasters to rise to more than 15 times their current level is approved.
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Macedonian Prime Minister Hari Kostov resigned Monday over a minority party dispute and Parliament is expected to decide on the resignation Thursday.
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(InfoWorld) - The European Union's 27 national telecom authorities must submit plans to regulate the single European market by Feb. 16Â or face ceding those powers to the European Commission, Telecommunications Commissioner Viviane Reding has warned. The Commission wants the national regulators to join forces to form an E.U.-wide independent body akin to the U.S. Federal Communications Commission. It gave them until mid February to submit plans so that it could draft legislation by July. "A European Union-wide regulator would be a temporary body. It would be disbanded once the transition to a single competitive telecoms market is over," said Martin Selmayr, Reding's spokesman, on Monday. Several of the national regulatory bodies have failed to prove they are independent from their governments and incumbent monopoly phone companies. Currently, the national regulators enforce Europe-wide telecom rules in their own countries. However, they take different positions in interpreting the same rules. The U.K., for example, has cracked down on former monopoly provider BT Group, while Commission officials complain that Germany has allowed Deutsche TelekomÂ to keep a grip on the fixed-line local loop and even receive permission to build a high-speed Internet network without sharing access with competitors. Some countries are creating their own telecom laws without consulting their E.U. neighbors. The German regulator, for example, has failed to stop the German government from proposing a law that would grant the former monopoly Deutsche Telekom protection from competition. Other countries have failed to transpose European telecom rules into their national statute books. In a letter to all national regulators sent at the end of last year, Reding warned that failure to submit a workable proposal for an FCC-type organization by Feb. 16 would leave her no choice but to propose greater authority for the Commission. Reding is conducting a review of all the laws agreed in the late 1990s designed to forge a single European telecom market out of all the national ones, with open competition throughout the E.U.
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The latest crackdown comes before a protest planned this week against new government curbs on the news media, a government official acknowledged Wednesday.
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The Venezuelan government has opened an investigation into news broadcasters for allegedly inciting the Venezuelan public to violence over the government's decision not to renew the broadcast license of an opposition television station.
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A referendum that would halt moves to give Albanians greater autonomy is under way in Macedonia.
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Text of report by Nepalnews.com website on 7 September  The visiting international media mission has recommended the government of Nepal for extensive amendments of media laws to strengthen the press freedom and democratic values.
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Turkey's Calik Holding is talking to  foreign media companies about selling part of newly acquired  ATV-Sabah, sources familiar with the situation said, as Ankara  plans raising a foreign-ownership limit in the sector.
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Europe : Czech Telecoms Regulator will offer its 3rd and last 3G UMTS license to Oskar Mobil said IT Minister Mr V Mlynar.
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Government tries to limit TV advertising and sales along highways
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U.S. communications regulators are expected to approve on Tuesday a plan to loosen media ownership restrictions, despite objections from consumer groups and a threat by some U.S. senators to revoke the action.
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European Union plans to regulate  moving images will threaten new services such as online games  and mobile phone clips, British media watchdog Ofcom said on  Wednesday.
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Text of report in English by independent USAID-funded Sudan Radio Service on 12 December  The minister of information in the government of Western Equatoria [State, southern Sudan] says that his state will allow the media to operate freely.
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Britain's media regulator said on  Tuesday it has concerns about competition in the pay-TV  industry and whether firms such as BSkyB have the incentive to  make premium content such as sports available to other  operators.