LTTE’s illegal TV transmissions terminated

‘We are clear in our resolve to ending this terrorist organisation’s unauthorised use of our satellite’:

COLOMBO: The LTTE’s illegal television transmissions to Europe, through the Tamil Television Network (TTN), has been terminated, following representations made by the Government.

Globecast, the satellite service provider for TTN, has confirmed to the Sri Lankan Embassy in France that it has stopped the TTN transmission using Eutelsat from May 2.

The TTN is a pay channel and upto now was beamed to European subscribers through the service provider Globecast, a subsidiary of France Telecom. The TTN, which was uplinking and broadcasting programmes of NTT had come under investigation by French authorities for broadcasting in France illegally and had been charged in courts, a Foreign Ministry release said.

Since its launch in 2005, the LTTE’s so called official television channel, ‘National Television of Tamil Eelam’ (NTT) originating from an undisclosed location in northern Sri Lanka, was uplinked to Europe and Asia using Intelsat12, owned by Intelsat Ltd. based in the USA, and beamed across Europe using TTN based in Paris.

On March 2007, on the sidelines of the International Telecommunication Satellite Organisation (ITSO) meeting in Paris, the Sri Lankan Embassy in France made representations to the delegations from Intelsat, the US State Department and ITSO drawing their attention to the use of Intelsat by the LTTE, and pointing out the connection between the LTTE and its clandestine television channel NTT. Sri Lanka telecommunications authorities also communicated with the CEO of Intelsat Ltd., David McGlade.

Following representation made directly with Intelsat headquarters in Washington DC by the Sri Lankan Embassy in Washington, in a press release issued on April 11, 2007, on the illegal use of Intelsat12 by the LTTE for its TV and radio transmissions to Europe and Asia, the Executive Vice President and General Counsel of Intelsat Phillip Spector, said: “Intelsat does not tolerate terrorists or others operating illegally on its satellites. Since we first learned of the LTTE’s signal piracy, we have been actively pursuing a number of technical alternatives to halt the transmissions. We are clear in our resolve to ending this terrorist organisation’s unauthorised use of our satellite.”

The matter was also raised with the US Department of State and the Department of Justice.

Subsequently, Intelsat informed the Sri Lankan Embassy in Washington that over the April 21/22 weekend, it had shut down the transponder, which the LTTE had used for its ‘unauthorised’ NTT transmissions.

These combined actions, by US based Intelsat and France based Globecast to terminate use of its facilities by the LTTE and its front organisations, is expected to cause a significant blow to the LTTE’s global dis-information campaign.