Friday, June 20, 2008

VOICE OF TIGERS CEASES SATELLITE TRANSMISSIONS FROM SERBIA

The Voice of Tigers (VoT), the official radio of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), which started transmissions on 1 June from Serbia, ceased its transmissions on June 9. According to reliable sources, the Government of Serbia terminated the broadcast licence granted to VoT to retransmit to Europe, North Africa and Middle East via satellite, when the authorities came to know that VoT was the official broadcast organ of a banned terrorist outfit.It is reported that several influential contacts helped the LTTE to obtain the transmission licence for the broadcast of Tamil FM radio through a Serbian satellite.

However, the Serbian authorities were not aware of the true nature of the contents of VoT, and the moment they realised the connection between the VoT and the LTTE, the transmission was terminated.Previously the VoT, as well as the LTTE?s television service, the National Tamil Television (NTT) used the US-based Intelsat 12 for radio and television transmissions. Intelsat terminated the transmissions when it was pointed out that the LTTE was a listed terrorist organisation in the US. (Source: The Nation via Sri Lanka army website, June 15th, 2008 - 11:10 UTC by Andy Sennitt, Media Network blog via WORLD OF RADIO 1413, DXLD)