Maldives: New FM Radio to Serve Capital, Surrounding Islands

Text of report by Maldives newspaper Haveeru Daily website on 28 August

Male, [Monday] 27 August: Media Unlimited’s radio station HFM 92.4 has been given the licence to broadcast by the government on Sunday. In a ceremony held at the Information Ministry, the agreement was signed on behalf of Media Unlimited by the company’s director Abdul Rasheed Hussain. On behalf of the Information Ministry, the agreement was signed by the ministry’s deputy executive director, Maizaan Ahmed Manik.

Following the signing of the agreement, Media Unlimited’s chief executive, Vaail Zahir Hussain, said that the company, which had already started production work, will begin sending a test signal during the next month. He said that under the licence to broadcast to only Male Atoll, they would try to provide the service to the entire atoll by the end of the year.

“By the time we begin servicing Male area, most of the islands in the atoll will be able to receive our signal,” Vaail said. “Even at the start, we plan to broadcast for 24 hours every day.”

Vaail also said that the HFM radio station will provide news, information and entertainment programmes while at the same time try to provide other services through the medium.

“We are trying to provide cable TV and on-demand productions,” he said. “In that regard we need the support of independent productions to work with us to create such programmes to broadcast.”

Originally published by Haveeru Daily website, Male, in English 28 Aug 07.

(c) 2007 BBC Monitoring Media. Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights Reserved.