BBC linked to equipment seized from SA men

Tag : LNB Supply

By Lindie Whiz

SOME of the broadcasting equipment seized by Zimbabwean police fromthree South African men last week may belong to the BritishBroadcasting Corp. (BBC), New Zimbabwe.com has learnt.
Three South African men were jailed for six months each on Mondayafter they were intercepted at a police roadblock ferrying theequipment to South Africa.
Britain’s Sky News has admitted it had hired the men totransport the equipment from a warehouse in Bulawayo where it hadbeen since general elections on March 29.
Zimbabwean authorities believe Sky News – which was barredfrom covering the elections alongside dozens of other foreign TVnetworks – was broadcasting live from the country using theindustrial location as its base.
New Zimbabwe.com has obtained an inventory of the equipmentrecovered by police, and it includes a US$100, 000 Norsat News Link3200 and an integrated laptop both bearing the BBC logo.
The BBC has yet to publicly claim any of the equipment, but SkyNews, stung by the punitive sentences passed against the SouthAfricans, accepted in a statement that it had hired the men to movethe equipment to Johannesburg due to the deteriorating securitysituation in Zimbabwe.
A magistrate forfeited all the equipment and a vehicle used by themen to the state after no-one came forth to claim ownership.
The seized equipment, most of it bearing the Sky News logo,includes a video camera HDTV (P2-HD) high definition, a microphone,battery, lens and control, battery charger, video camera memorycards, video camera batteries, a wireless microphone for aSennheiser video camera, and a video lighting kit.
There was also satellite transmission equipment, a laptop, outdoorpower supply cables, a test pattern generator labelled ‘MickHammond Sky News’, reporter’s ear pieces, a GPS unit, acompass, a test meter and a satellite transmitter unit.
Police also seized a power generator, a spectrum analyser, RFconnectors, a video distribution amplifier, a notebook withequipment calibration/set up instructions, Sky News stickers and anLNB 1508 HB Norsat with wave guide connector.
Sky News has come under criticism for failing to provide adequatesecurity guarantees for the men who have complained they wereforced to take a direct and well-monitored route to South Africa.Their preferred exit route was via Zimbabwe’s westernneighbour, Botswana.
Studyington Madzudzo, the Principal Immigration Officer forMatabeleland said the men -- Bernet Hasani Sono 34, Resemate BoyChauke 46 and Simon Maodi alias Musimani 38 -- would be deportedafter serving their sentences.
Sono and Musimani will server a further six weeks in jail forbreaking immigration laws.
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