BBC condemns Ethiopian jamming of Arabsat

The BBC, along with representatives of Germany’s Deutsche Welle, France 24 and Voice of America has condemned Ethiopia’s jamming of its signals from the Arabsat platform at 26° East.

BBC World Service acting director Liliane Landor condemned what the BBC described as a flagrant violation of international procedures.

“The BBC calls upon the Ethiopian authorities to end this interference. They are disrupting international news broadcasts for no apparent reason.  This is a deliberate act of vandalism that tarnishes their reputation,” said Landor.

Over the last week, BBC and other TV and radio broadcasts on the Arabsat satellites have been hit by uplink interference that the satellite operator’s engineers last week identified as coming from within Ethiopia. The interference appears to have been general and not targeted at any particular channel or channels on the satellites.