The Broadcasting Board of Governors applauded a resolution emanating from recent ITU Plenipotentiary Conference in Busan, Korea, concerning an effort by the ITU to investigate interference with satellite transmissions.
A release says, “The resolution invites the ITU to enter into agreements with satellite monitoring facilities in order to detect the sources of interference, a process known as ‘geo-location’ and it calls upon the ITU to create a database on interference.”
The release notes, “Broadcasters have complained that interference has cut them off from audiences in numerous countries and regions over the past several years.” And adds, “that countries are increasingly relying on space-based communications for a wide variety of services, including remote sensing, communications, and weather forecasting, as well as for bridging the digital divide.”
Chairman of the Broadcasting Board of Governors Jeff Shell said, “We welcome this important step from the ITU to identify the source of satellite interference … We see it as a prerequisite to ending this deplorable practice, which is in violation of Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights — that defends the freedom ‘to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media regardless of frontiers.’”
Members of the motivating coalition included: Australia, France, Germany, Japan, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom and the United States, along with the European Broadcasting Union and Arab States Broadcasting Union.