Former Swedish Prime Minister Carl Bildt says control of the Internet should remain in the hands of the United States, rather than allowing theocrats or autocrats around the world to seize control.

Writing in the “International Herald Tribune” on Tuesday, Bildt says a critically important battle for control of the Inter net is being played out, as part of the run-up to the World Summit on the Information Society, scheduled to be held in Tunis next month.

Bildt, who was one of the first world leaders to use e-mail, and Internet mailing lists, says that in the wake of the American invasion of Iraq there have been concerns about heavy-handed U.S. efforts to retain control over everything.

But, he says, it would be dangerous to let such complaints take us down the path towards handing important powers to closed regimes.

The Swedish police have asked the Data Inspection Board if it is legal to post recordings from police interrogations on the Internet.

Last spring the police in Ljusdal, north of Stockholm, questioned a person over the telephone twice. That person apparently recorded both interviews and has posted the sound on a website, along with extracts from a letter from the police.

The police say the recordings have nothing to do with case investigations, but they wonder if putting the phone call sound on the Internet violates the privacy of the officer involved.

The Data Inspection Board has not responded but a board lawyer tells the newspaper “Ljusdals-Posten” that harmless material can be put on the Net, but it should be removed if someone feels insulted and asks for its removal.

The first trial against a person accused of file-sharing begins here Tuesday.

The new law against downloading copyrighted material went into effect here on July 1st. This first case is against a 28 year old from Västerås, west of Stockholm. A police complaint has been filed against him by the Anti-Pirate Bureau, a controversial music and film industry lobby group. The bureau says the defendant made a popular Swedish film available over the Internet through a file-sharing program.

The 28 year old has admitted downloading music and films, but denies distributing anything further.

If he is convicted, the court’s ruling can set precedents. According to press reports, if he is only fined, the crime would not be regarded as serious enough for the police to obtain search warrants or to demand information from Internet Service Providers. That would make any future convictions difficult.

On Swedish Radio Tuesday morning a representative from a website that supports file-sharing warned against the repercussions if the court accepted the evidence gathered by the Anti-Pirate Bureau. He pointed out that the screenshots that have been offered could be easily faked.

The lobby group has already come in for considerable criticism for illegally gathering IP addresses of those it has pursued, as well as planting files on ISP servers to give the false impression of illegal downloading.

The National Hockey League, fighting to attract fans and find new revenue after a season-long hiatus, has cast its eye overseas by signing a four-year broadcast deal with a fledgling European network devoted to North American sports.

The NHL's agreement with the North American Sports Network (NASN), which also recently landed rights to show National Football League games in 21 European countries, is to show more than 200 games each season including over high-definition TV, broadband and wireless formats.

The exclusive deal across Europe is effective immediately. NASN has an option to extend it by two years and an option for Asia-Pacific rights, although the channel has no presence there. The NHL, like the National Basketball Association before it, is hoping to capitalize on increasing European interest in U.S. sports.

The league has a built-in advantage because about one-third of NHL players are from Europe -- more than any other major U.S. sport, it said -- including superstars Jaromir Jagr from the Czech Republic and Peter Forsberg from Sweden.

NASN launched three years ago in Britain and shows baseball, basketball, Nascar and other U.S. sports programs. It is also available now in Ireland, Germany, the Netherlands, Switzerland and Iceland. (Reuters)

This is a summary of selected updates at LyngSat the week above.
For more details and daily updated satellite info, please visit
LyngSat at http://www.lyngsat.com/ or click on the links below.

All channels in this mail are DVB-S/MPEG-2/clear, unless otherwise stated.


--- Optus B1 at 160E: http://www.lyngsat.com/optusb1.html
Seven Central has moved from 12354 H to 12365 H, SR 5100, FEC 3/4.


--- Optus B3 at 152E: http://www.lyngsat.com/optusb3.html
Jame-Jam TV Network 3 has left 12564 H.


--- AsiaSat 3S at 105.5E: http://www.lyngsat.com/.html
Palestinian Satellite Channel has started on 3880 H.
Beijing TV 1 and Shanxi TV have left 12660 V.


--- Insat 3A at 93.5E: http://www.lyngsat.com/in3a.html
DD Mizoram has started on 4101 V, SR 6250, FEC 3/4.
DD Tripura has started on 4109 V, SR 6250, FEC 3/4.


--- Measat 1 at 91.5E: http://www.lyngsat.com/mea1.html
RPN 9 has started on 4118 H, Digicipher 2/clear.


--- Insat 2E at 83E: http://www.lyngsat.com/in2e.html
Kairali People has started on 3696 V.


--- Thaicom 3 at 78.5E: http://www.lyngsat.com/thai3.html
Perviy kanal Vsemirnaya setj has left 3640 H.


--- Telstar 10 at 76.5E: http://www.lyngsat.com/t10.html
ETTV Asia has started on 12528 V.
Global TV (Taiwan) has started on 12278 V.


--- LMI 1 at 75E: http://www.lyngsat.com/lmi1.html
Al Masriyah has left 12700 V.


--- Eurasiasat 1 at 42E: http://www.lyngsat.com/eurasia1.html
Dogu TV has started on 11963 V, SR 2300, FEC 5/6, West beam.


--- Express A1R/AM 1 at 40E: http://www.lyngsat.com/e40.html
Chechenskaya GTRK has moved from Express A1R: 3626 R to Express AM 1: 3873 R,
SR 4896, FEC 2/3.


--- Paksat 1 at 38E: http://www.lyngsat.com/pak1.html
PTV Bolan has started on 3435 H, SR 3255, FEC 3/4, North beam.


--- Eurobird 1 at 28.5E: http://www.lyngsat.com/eb1.html
Choices UK has started on 11307 H.
Passion TV has started on 11260 V.
Telemodena has started on 12546 V.


--- Arabsat 2C at 26.2E: http://www.lyngsat.com/arab2c.html
Aljazeera Channel has replaced Rotana Khalijiah on 4116 H, PAL.


--- Astra 3A at 23.5E: http://www.lyngsat.com/astra3a.html
TV 6 has left 12730 V.
Giga TV has started on 12688 V, SR 3617, FEC 3/4.


--- Astra 1G at 19.2E: http://www.lyngsat.com/astra1g.html
Giga TV has started on 12670 V.


--- Astra 1H at 19.2E: http://www.lyngsat.com/astra1h.html
TV 6 has left 12610 V.
SR Sudwest Fernsehen has started on 12266 H.


--- Eutelsat W2 at 16E: http://www.lyngsat.com/ew2.html
Balkanika Music TV has started on 11554 V.


--- Hot Bird 1 at 13E: http://www.lyngsat.com/hb1.html
Challenger TV has started on 11304 H.
TVP Kultura has started on 11513 H.


--- Hot Bird 2 at 13E: http://www.lyngsat.com/hb2.html
Univ TV has started on 11727 V.


--- Hot Bird 4 at 13E: http://www.lyngsat.com/hb4.html
Palestinian Satellite Channel has started on 12654 H.


--- Hot Bird 6 at 13E: http://www.lyngsat.com/hb6.html
VenetoSat has started on 10971 H.
Telemodena has started on 11200 V.


--- Nilesat 101 at 7W: http://www.lyngsat.com/nile101.html
Music Time has started on 11862 V.


--- Nilesat 102 at 7W: http://www.lyngsat.com/nile102.html
Alnas has started on 11919 H.


--- Hispasat 1C at 30W: http://www.lyngsat.com/hispa1c.html
Palestinian Satellite Channel has started on 12132 H.


--- NSS 806 at 40.5W: http://www.lyngsat.com/nss806.html
TV Chile has moved from 4181 R to 3758 R.


--- PAS 3R at 43W: http://www.lyngsat.com/pas3r.html
XHG - Canal 4 has started on 11956 V, SR 3125, North American beam.


--- Intelsat 805 at 55.5W: http://www.lyngsat.com/i805.html
Telesistema has left 3436 H.


--- DirecTV 1 at 72.5W: http://www.lyngsat.com/dtv1.html
DirecTV 1 has arrived at 72.5 West.


--- Intelsat Americas 5 at 97W: http://www.lyngsat.com/ia5.html
Palestinian Satellite Channel has started on 12146 V.


--- SatMex 5 at 116.8W: http://www.lyngsat.com/sm5.html
XHTV - 4 TV, XHGC - TV 5 and XEQ - TV 9 have started on 3940 H,
Digicipher 2/clear.


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Updates/general: webmaster@lyngsat.com
Advertising: advert@lyngsat.com or advert@lyngsat.info
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All info in these update mails is copyrighted Lyngemark Satellite.
Publication is not allowed without permission from the webmaster.

Christian Lyngemark Lyngemark Satellite
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We're testing the new Radio Sweden SMS (text message) service. It's only supposed to work within Sweden (or possibly the Nordic region), but I would love to see if anyone outside can actually reach us.

Anyone outside Sweden with SMS is welcome to try. Your message should begin "RS eng" followed by the message and it would be nice if you included the name of your country. Send the message to:

+4672250

("+" being the international access code, "46" being Sweden.)

The official press release:

The Swedish Radio Board of Directors has, in connection with the regular language review, determined which languages SR International will broadcast during 2006. The decision means:

• Radio Sweden will broadcast in Swedish, English, German, Russian, and Belarusian
• Programmes in the immigrant languages Kurdish and Assyrian/Aramaic, as well as the minority language Romany will be relayed as part of the Radio Sweden schedule, on short and medium wave
• Broadcasts in Estonian and Latvian will end

With the this decision the board is following its previously declared intention that broadcasts abroad shall focus on promoting the development of democratic processes in the world on one hand (Russian/Belarusian) and providing information and service in a few languages (English, German, Swedish) on the other hand.

The decision to continue, and to some extent expand, broadcasts in these languages, technical developments have also been taken into account, that is, Radio Sweden’s international cooperation in digital techniques, DRM (Digital Radio Mondiale), as well as podcasting of the major languages, English and German.

Relays of Kurdish, Assyrian/Aramaic, and Romany on short and medium wave are in line with our duty to provide cultural and linguistic support to ethnic groups and minorities without states of their own. Those departments will during the year produce special programmes for an audience abroad.

The board’s decision that broadcasting in Estonian and Latvian shall end is based on changes in the geo-political situation in Europe. The language departments which were started in 1998 have had an obligation to contribute to the development of democracy in the Baltic republics after their liberation.

For more information:
Kerstin Brunnberg, Programme Director SR
Tel: +46(0)70 598-5017 or +468 784 5000

The TT news bureau reports that interest has increased among TV channels here to sign up for the terrestrial digital network. What apparently encouraged them to change their mind is the decision by the government that all analog transmitters will be turned off by 2008, and the switch-off of the first transmitters, on the island of Gotland, a couple of weeks ago.

TT says the 33 channels currently on offer want to extend their contracts, and another 34 channels want in. The only problem is that there is only space for half of them. The government is to decide in December which applications are approved.

Swedish terrestrial digital TV differs from Britain’s Freeview in that it isn’t free, or rather very little is free. Once you buy your digital box (Swedish public television wanted to encourage people to make the switch by giving away free boxes, but the government refused to fund the project) you only have access to a handful of free channels. The current analog channels, SVT1 and SVT2 from public broadcaster Swedish Television and the commercial TV4 are included. Swedish Television offers another three digital channels, and there are a couple of local channels available in different parts of the country. You have to pay for the rest, around 20 dollars a month for the basic 17 channel package, with the other channels on an a la carte basis.

It hardly compares to cable or satellite.

TT says the government is trying to encourage more channels to switch to the free category by giving them priority in application approval. After all, most of these channels finance their activities with commercials. Why should they also expect subscription fees?

The Nordic region’s largest banking group, Nordea, has reported a phishing attack aimed at tricking customers into revealing their account details. E-mails in flawed Swedish encourage people to log in to a purported Nordea site and update their account information. Besides the poor Swedish, the e-mail is so poorly written technically that the link doesn’t work, and anyone wanting to use it would have to cut and paste the link into a browser.

Nordea responded to the threat by closing its website. This was of course useless, since the false site is not the Nordea site. Since phishing is very common now, the attention given to this particular and very clumsy attempt seems a bit excessive.

Many of the media stories say that the e-mail was sent to Nordea customers. That would be a concern, because it would indicate that hackers had gained access to a list of bank customers. But this is not true, the e-mail was just sent to many Swedish e-mail addresses. I received one, and I am not a Nordea customer, just as I received earlier phishing e-mails concerning banks I do not have accounts with.

The false site is reported to be in Korea.

Here's the official press release (note that this only covers Immigrant Languages and not the changes at Radio Sweden):

Press Information 2005-09-23

SR Expands Schedules for Several Immigrant Languages, including Kurdish and Romany

Swedish Radio has, in connection with the regular language review, determined which languages SR International will broadcast during 2006. The decision means:

• Schedules will increase for six of eight immigrant/minority languages. The biggest increase is for Kurdish and the minority language Romany
• English will be added as an immigrant language
• Turkish and Spanish will no longer be broadcast
• New staff will be recruited outside Stockholm, including Gothenburg and Malmö

Broadcasts in the various languages are aimed primarily at relatively newly arrived immigrants, who are in great need of news, information about public services, and understanding of Swedish culture in their own languages.

Reducing the number of languages means that there will be more broadcast time and resources for the remaining languages, and thus greater opportunities to reach their listeners with qualified and relevant content. At the same time, opportunities will improve to cover the lives and living conditions of the various audience groups, through the recruitment of new staff.

“I am looking forward to improving the quality of our programmes, and establishing ties with new staff outside Stockholm,” says Anne Sseruwagi, head of SR International.

The new P2 network schedule, which goes into effect on January 16, 2006, includes programmes from SR International’s Immigrant Languages Department in the following languages: Arabic, Assyrian/Aramaic, Kurdish, Serbo-Croatian-Bosnian, and Somali, along with English and the minority language Romany. The Spanish programme “Panorama”, “Merhaba” in Turkish, and the Swedish-language programme “Passet” are leaving the schedule. Swedish Radio’s webpage with news in Polish is also closing.

“You can tell the Turkish immigrant group has been in Sweden for a long time,” says Anne Ssseruwagi, “since the audience for Swedish Radio’s Turkish programmes has declined.”

Swedish Radio has taken into account the following factors in its decision: The size of the language group in Sweden, how many people speak the language as their mother tongue and cross-over language, and also the number of years in Sweden, how new is the group to this country? Reasons for asylum, and the degree of integration, cultural, and linguistic separation from Sweden have been other criteria, along with the need to support and develop their culture and their language. This means primarily people without a country of their own, and oppressed minorities, such as the Kurds, Assyrians/Syriac Christians, and Roma

Swedish Radio and the multi-cultural department SR International have an important democratic commission to create forum for news, current affairs, and debate for that part of the population which does not speak Swedish well, and has limited knowledge of Swedish society. The department’s programmes in immigrant languages, which total 13 hours a week, are broadcast on the P2 network outside Stockholm, and on P6 International 89.6 FM in Greater Stockholm.