Journalists refuse AV law

The Yemeni Journalists Syndicate has expressed its refusal of an audio-visual draft law which is set to be presented by the Information Ministry to parliament soon, reports Sahwa Net.

They described the draft as disastrous and a clear decline of expression freedoms and press in Yemen.

While the draft law excluded the political parties from the rights of having satellites channels, it conditioned on others the payment of YR 30 million (R1 million) for obtaining satellite channels, 20 million (R718 000) for having an electronic news Web site, 15 million (R540 000) for having SMS, and 10 million (R360 000) for having SNG.

Yangaroo, a digital media distribution company, has signed a multi-year agreement with MTV Networks, a division of Viacom International, says Mi2N.

Under the agreement, MTV Networks Music Group will begin utilising Yangaroo's Digital Media Distribution System to have artist and music-related audio-visual content delivered to certain MTVN properties and to integrate DMDS into the company's internal workflow.

MTV Networks Music Group includes music video channels MTV, MTV2, VH1, VH1 Classic, VH1 Soul, and Country Music Television (CMT) and CMT Pure.

The upgrading of the audio-visual department of Fatima Jinnah Medical College (FJMC) has been completed at a cost of Rs 2 million (R176 000), according to The Nation.

The department has a great contribution in imparting training and providing education to the teachers as well as medical students.

Mian Mehboob Ahmed, who sits on the college management board, says there was a need to give university status to the FJMC as this college fulfilled all the criteria of a medical varsity. He added that since the FJMC had a complete infrastructure, which was required for a university, the government would not have to bear any additional financial burden.