October
15, 2001
NEWS
ANALYSIS
Stopping Signals From Satellite TV Proves Difficult
By SETH SCHIESEL
When the White House suggested that five major United States
television news organizations use caution before airing raw
video statements from Osama bin Laden and his Al Qaeda followers
last week, government officials said Mr. bin Laden's statements
could include hidden messages to terrorists.
The networks agreed not to run raw footage of Al Qaeda
statements as they are broadcast by the Al Jazeera network from
Qatar, which appears to be Mr. bin Laden's preferred conduit for
communicating with the world.
As recently as a decade ago, such an agreement between the
government and broadcasters might have prevented Mr. bin Laden
from communicating by television with any followers in the
United States. No more. The global village simply has too many
pathways.
Because of the privatization and deregulation of the
international satellite business in recent years, along with the
proliferation of advanced satellite technologies, control of the
nation's television signals is by no means limited to the
coterie of United States companies that the White House turned
to last week. Instead, the images now reaching American living
rooms from Central Asia and the Middle East are delivered by a
loose amalgam of companies from around the world. And many of
those companies may not be so willing to follow the White
House's suggestions.
In fact, the great majority of homes in the United States
have the option of receiving Al Jazeera directly using a
satellite dish antenna not much bigger than a pizza pan. If any
terrorists are in the country waiting for televised word from
Mr. bin Laden — with or without hidden messages — last
week's steps by the White House did next to nothing to thwart
them.
It is just one of the many complications that advances in
satellite technology have created. Even as new satellite systems
dilute the government's ability to influence what Americans
watch and read, they also allow television networks to deploy
cameras and crew to remote areas more easily than ever before.
The images of tracer fire and khaki-clad correspondents from
places like Kabul in Afghanistan and Islamabad in Pakistan are
generally bouncing from at least three different satellites
before reaching living rooms in America's heartland. And those
three or four satellites may be owned by three or four different
multinational companies.
The wrinkles in the newly changed satellite skyscape perhaps
become most clear in the context of Al Jazeera.
For about four years, the EchoStar Communications Corporation
(news/quote)'s
Dish Network operation has been carrying Al Jazeera, in Arabic,
as a part of a premium tier of international channels. Any home
or apartment in the United States with a view of the southern
sky can sign up for Dish Network and receive Al Jazeera. Dish
Network has more than six million subscribers over all. An
EchoStar spokeswoman would not specify how many Dish Network
subscribers receive Al Jazeera, but said the figure was "substantially
less" than six million. (EchoStar's main competitor, the
DirecTV unit of General Motors (news/quote)'
Hughes Electronics division, does not carry Al Jazeera.)
After asking the five broadcast and cable news networks to
stop retransmitting Al Qaeda statements from Al Jazeera, the
United States government asked the government of Qatar last week
to consider trying to influence the station's coverage. (In
recent years, Al Jazeera has also provoked the ire of some Arab
governments for covering their critics.) In light of the Bush
administration's efforts, it may appear curious that the White
House has not asked EchoStar to stop carrying Al Jazeera.
"We have been in communication with them," said
Judianne Atencio, the Echostar spokeswoman, referring to
government agencies. "They are aware that we are
broadcasting it 24 hours a day and they have not given us any
specific directions. For now, it's business as usual."
A spokesman for the National Security Council declined to
comment specifically on why the administration has not asked
EchoStar to stop carrying Al Jazeera. On condition of anonymity,
some media and satellite executives said last week that the
White House had not asked EchoStar to shut off the signal
because some government agencies are relying on its service to
monitor Al Jazeera.
Al Jazeera's technical staff in Qatar was not for comment,
but satellite and media executives in the United States provided
an outline of how Al Jazeera's signals reach United States homes.
From Kabul, Al Jazeera bounces its signals off a satellite to
Qatar, several hundred miles away. In Qatar, the overall Al
Jazeera progamming package is assembled and then uplinked to the
Arabsat 2A satellite over Central Africa. Arabsat satellites are
operated by the Arab Satellite Communication Organization, which
was formed by member nations of the Arab League in 1976.)
From Arabsat 2A, the Al Jazeera signal is relayed by a major
European satellite station in Fucino, Italy, maintained by
Telespazio, an affiliate of Telecom Italia, the dominant
telecommunications carrier in Italy.
From Fucino, the Al Jazeera signal is uplinked to satellites
including PAS 9, a satellite over South America that is owned by
the PanAmSat Corporation (news/quote),
based in Wilton, Conn.
The PAS 9 signal is available in much of the Western
Hemisphere. It is the means by which CNN receives its own feeds
from Al Jazeera, for example. EchoStar receives Al Jazeera at
its satellite center in Cheyenne, Wyo. From Cheyenne, Al Jazeera
is assembled with the rest of the Dish Network programming and
beamed up to one of EchoStar's own satellites, for receipt by
small dish antennas on homes.
If the government asked EchoStar to stop carrying Al Jazeera,
the signal would be lost to viewers in the United States who use
the small dish antennas operating on a frequency known as the
KU-band. But Al Jazeera would still be available to at least
some of the nearly a million households in the United States
that have larger satellite dishes, which receive signals on a
the so-called C- band frequency. Some of these dishes, often six
feet in diameter or bigger, could receive Al Jazeera directly
from PAS 9.
Were the government to persuade PanAmSat to stop relaying Al
Jazeera from PAS 9, many C-band owners could receive Al Jazeera
from at least one of the half-dozen different satellites that
receive the signal from Fucino, according to satellite and media
executives.
Were the government to convince Telespazio to stop relaying
Al Jazeera from Fucino, most anyone with a satellite dish in
Europe, Africa or the Middle East could receive the signal
directly from Arabsat 2A or another Arabsat satellite.
In all, keeping satellite television signals out of the homes
of those who make an effort to receive them may be a nearly
impossible task. Unless Al Jazeera itself decides to stop
broadcasting Al Qaeda statements, there may be little White
House can do — in technical terms, at least — to prevent Al
Qaeda from spreading its message by television.