Algeria complains about nagging broadcasting confusion created by Spanish radio stations

Algeria has lodged 160 complaints since 2011 with the Spanish authorities against numerous Spanish broadcasting stations for overflowing into the Algerian coast, a head engineer at the national broadcasting body Mr. Ait Aljat Abdelkarim revealed on Thursday.

 Mr. Ait Aljat, who was the guest of a morning program of channel 1 of the national radio, said that the Spanish administration responded to the complaints filed by the national broadcasting body, adding that 18 Spanish stations had been closed for this reason.

He pointed out that since 2011,  the national broadcasting body has been carrying out coordination procedures with representatives of similar bodies in other countries including  Tunisia, Morocco, France and Spain in order to  resolve the nagging problem of confusion and scrambling caused by the broadcasts of some foreign stations all along the Algerian coast.

He pointed out that the national radio and television broadcasting bodies had briefed the International Telecommunications Authority, which controls the transmission and frequency on the matter, but the latter asked the two parties at issue  to settle the lingering dispute bilaterally.

 “Since the biggest problem was with some Spanish stations, we filed complaints with the Spanish administration against the Spanish radio stations we receive in Algeria, which cause significant disruption to the normal broadcasting of Algerian radio channels”, Mr. Ait Aljat underlined.

“At first, we asked for a third party to  curb the technical problem before filing the complaint to Spain because we did not have the necessary technical means, at that time, but after acquiring these technical tools in the last two years, we set up our own inventory of the adverse vibrations and then filed complaints to the Spanish side totaling about 160 since the year 2011,” he further explained.

“The Spanish administration then acted by halting 18 Spanish stations, while discovering 17 other stations working in ways that are inappropriate, despite having the proper license to broadcast,” he noted to this effect.

On the other hand, Mr Ait Aljat Abdelkrim added that the problem of shadow points for the analogue radio broadcasting has been largely controlled.

“As for the problem of shadow points, it was initially complicated by the security problem that prevented the establishment of devices known as re-broadcasting devices, which are usually held in shadow spots, and today we have re-conducted a comprehensive study of all shadow points after purchasing very sophisticated software and hardware, stressing that  the relevant shadow points in the analogue radio broadcasting system have now been controlled at a rate of 98 percent,” he underscored in this respect.