Gayle VH
Freetown, Sierra Leone, 14 February 2007
A newly created CTN team of journalists will produce - starting from Monday, 19 February 2007, - a daily service of live news and information broadcasts. The sequences will run simultaneously on Radio Mount Aureol and UN Radio Sierra Leone.
They will be also fed by satellite to leading community radio stations throughout the country. News in English, Krio, Limba, Mende and Temne will be heard on short wave for listeners out of range of FM transmitters. In addition, news bulletins and programmes will be posted on an interactive website.
CTN will cover the whole country and its correspondents will file daily reports from the provinces. Programs are to reflect the election process and explain the mechanics of registration and voting to the public. Radio journalists are determined to provide up-to-the minute coverage of the 28 July elections day and the elections results. The work of government ministries, the United Nations and non-governmental organisations are further subjects to be aired in CTN output. Public access programmes are planned to feature regularly. Within six months the studios will produce six hours of daily broadcasts in the five main languages of Sierra Leone.
The CTN studies and newsroom at Mount Aureol are equipped with state-of-the-art broadcast technology. The production and editorial staff in Freetown and the provinces receive professional training. Journalists from other radio stations will be invited to take part in training seminars.
CTN is an independent radio production studio. It respects the media laws and institutions of Sierra Leone and its news and programmes are not subject to outside control. Directed by Fondation Hirondelle, Media for Peace and Human Dignity, COTTON TREE NEWS is funded by DFID, the European Commission, Irish Aid and the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation.
For all additional questions:
Anne Bennett, project co-ordinator in Sierra Leone, +232 76 53 63 94
Dario Baroni, FH vice director, +41 21 654 20 20
Jean-Marie Etter, FH President, +41 79 287 36 46
http://www.hirondelle.org
(Source: Hirondelle)
Correspondence may be directed to:
Cotton Tree News
Foundation Hirondelle
Fourah Bay College
P.O. Box 766
Freetown, Sierra Leone
Africa
Thank you for the recent logs of CTN, contributed by Ron Howard, CA
ASCENSION (broadcasting to Sierra Leone), 9525, Cotton Tree News (CTN), 0734-0800* May 13, news in English & African languages, items about: HIV/AIDS (soundtrack of the Sierra Leone National AIDS Director); "This news comes to you from CTN, Freetown"; the United Nations Development Program Goodwill Ambassador (soundtrack of I assume Adisa Jelani Andwele, who was visiting Freetown this past week and held a workshop at the Fourah Bay College branch), drums, "This is CTN", drums, followed by the same news items in their "local languages", no sign-off announcement, mostly fair. (Ron Howard-CA)
9525, Cotton Tree News (CTN) via Ascension, 0743-0758* May 10, OM & YL in African language (assume news), 0757 drums, sign-off announcement by YL in English, goes something like: This is CTN with news and information from Freetown, Sierra Leone and mentions Media for Freedom and a UN agency, more drums and off, mostly fair. Thanks to tip from Jerry Berg. (Ron Howard, CA)
ASCENSION (broadcasting to Sierra Leone), 9525, Cotton Tree News(CTN), received an e-mail from George Bennett, Editor in Chief, CottonTree News, Freetown, Sierra Leone( gbennett76@yahoo.co.uk ): "Thank you very much for your email. I amimpressed that you picked up our transmission in Monterey. We are inthe early stages of our project and don't yet have a card [QSL].Bernadette Cole has done a wonderful job with the Mass Communications Department here and we are very happy to be working alongside her, thefaculty members and students". I believe Mrs. Cole is the Director of the Institute of Library Information and Communications Studies atFourah Bay College, Mount Aureol, Freetown. (Ron Howard-CA
photo courtesy of Ron Howard and George Bennett