BBC Monitoring

Text of report by independent, non-governmental Palestinian Ma'an News Agency website

Bethlehem, 19 Nov: The management of Ma'an Network has signed a new contract with MEPI [the US State Department's Middle East Partnership Initiative] to fund a modern central television studio.

State-of-the-art TV cameras, production, lighting and sound systems will be provided as part of the project. The project will also include special TV production, exclusive to Ma'an TV Network, and talk shows and interviews created using advanced audio and video teleconference systems.

SFCG [Space Frequency Coordination Group] will also participate in the implementation of the project. It should be noted that Ma'an Network has successfully completed dozens of projects, funded using Ma'an Network, Arab and international resources. The most famous of these project include the establishment of Ma'an News Agency, training of more than 500 journalists, creating courses in different fields of journalism, broadcasting sessions of the Palestinian Legislative Counc! il and many radio and sports programmes, and producing two albums for the Syrian artist Samih Shuqayr. Ma'an Network's management has expressed optimism about carrying out numerous projects to serve its partner television channels, providing employment to more than 120 journalists and television crew members.

Source: Ma'an News Agency website, Bethlehem, in Arabic 19 Nov 07