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| Africa North | |
| Protest to Libya after satellites jammed | |
| 2005-12-03 | |
| British and US diplomats have protested to the Libyan government after two international satellites were illegally jammed, knocking off air dozens of TV and radio stations serving Britain and Europe and disrupting American diplomatic, military and FBI communications. Among stations hit were digital broadcasts by Five, BBC World, CNN International, US sports channels, cable TV networks and 23 radio stations. According to an email sent by one of the satellite owners, Loral Skynet, the US state department said it "would take it into their own hands" unless the interference stopped. Last night the Foreign Office confirmed it had raised the issue in talks between the British embassy in Tripoli and the Libyan government. Ofcom, the telecoms regulator, said it was considering taking a complaint to the International Telecoms Union. The jamming started on September 19 after the launch in London of a small British and Arab-owned commercial radio station broadcasting on human rights and freedom of speech issues to Libya. Ten minutes after the station - initially known as Sout Libya - went on air a transponder carrying the station was jammed for 50 minutes along with other stations. The jamming stopped when Sout Libya stopped broadcasting. The station relaunched as Sowt Alamel, this time through a new satellite called Telstar 12. As a precaution, the broadcasts were sent to the US first, and then beamed up to Telstar, making it impossible for anybody to jam it, except from America. Yet the moment it went on air, the jamming started again, knocking out the other stations without affecting Sowt Alamel. An anonymous email sent to a company which helped the station said: "We can tell you we know the reason for these problems, it is the presence of the so called 'ALAMAL' radio Audio channel on your satellite. This channel broadcasts terrorist propaganda, intended to spread terrorist ideas amongst the listeners mindes [sic]." The station has now voluntarily agreed to suspend its service. Its director, Jalal Elgiathi, said: "Our radio station had commercial advertising and altogether we have lost £250,000."
Industry sources confirmed that Five had lost its signal from the satellite, but said that the situation had been "quite quickly resolved". Other broadcasters were unaware their channels were affected. A BBC World spokeswoman said: "We're consulting with our cable and satellite partners in the region to clarify the situation." | |
| Posted by:Steve White |
| #4 OOOOooohhhhhh..... So that means the jammer is in America! Or Libya? Or on Saturn? I'm confused! |
| Posted by: Bobby 2005-12-03 20:47 |
| #3 Looks like they are jamming the uplinks. The US based uplinks likely go to another sat and then jump in space to the downlink sat. (sat to sat) |
| Posted by: 3dc 2005-12-03 14:07 |
| #2 As a precaution, the broadcasts were sent to the US first, and then beamed up to Telstar, making it impossible for anybody to jam it, except from America. ? Huh? SPoD? 3DC, anyone? |
| Posted by: Shipman 2005-12-03 12:01 |
| #1 Jammers create one heck of a radiation signal and make one big target for an anti-radiation missile. Maybe Libyia didn't get the Ronnie's last message. Appearently the little chicken sh*ts in Congress have encouraged you to stand up to George. You don't know George. You bugger our satellite and we'll bugger you. |
| Posted by: Hupeasing Ebback2494 2005-12-03 08:41 |