The Palestinian Authority Broadcasting Corporation (PBC; ) or Palestine Authority Public Broadcasting Corporation ( ), also known as Palestine Authority TV, was established on 1 July 1994 and is within the jurisdiction of the

Palestinian Authority The Palestinian Authority (PA), officially known as the Palestinian National Authority (PNA), is the Fatah-controlled government body that exercises partial civil control over the Palestinian enclaves in the Israeli occupation of the West Bank, ...

. PBC has a subsidiary radio station known as the Voice of Palestine Authority and a satellite channel known as Palestinian Authority Satellite Channel. Palestine TV first began broadcasting in 1996 in Gaza.

History

The first head of the PBC was Fatah activist and Arafat loyalist Radwan Abu Ayyash, former head of the Arab Journalists' Association. PBC had a terrestrial television network, comprising channel 5 in Naplose, channel 21 in Khan Younis, channel 21 in Jericho (very low power), channel 23 in Kasser-Elhakim, channel 25 in the capital

Ramallah Ramallah ( , ; ) is a Palestinians, Palestinian city in the central West Bank, that serves as the administrative capital of the State of Palestine. It is situated on the Judaean Mountains, north of Jerusalem, at an average elevation of abov ...

, channel 30 in Halhul, channel 31 in Jenin and channels 4 and 34 in Betjala. The channel in its early years broadcast twelve hours a day, up to eighteen hours on holiday periods. On 19 January 2002, the

Israel Defense Forces The Israel Defense Forces (IDF; , ), alternatively referred to by the Hebrew-language acronym (), is the national military of the State of Israel. It consists of three service branches: the Israeli Ground Forces, the Israeli Air Force, and ...

used explosives to destroy the five-story main building and transmission tower of the PBC in

claiming retaliation for the killing of six people by a Palestinian gunman linked to Fatah. The Israeli Government later singled out PBC for broadcasting material deemed to be anti-Semitic or that incited violence. The broadcasting corporation is a former

European Broadcasting Union The European Broadcasting Union (EBU; , UER) is an alliance of Public broadcasting, public service media organisations in countries within the European Broadcasting Area (EBA) or who are member states of the Council of Europe, members of the ...

associate member, and was alleged to have held negotiations with the European Broadcasting Union to become a full active members. However,

is not a member of the required organizations, and thus does not comply with the criteria. Currently, the broadcaster is a member of the Arab States Broadcasting Union (ABSU).

Financing

The PBC was funded partially by the

US government The Federal Government of the United States of America (U.S. federal government or U.S. government) is the national government of the United States. The U.S. federal government is composed of three distinct branches: legislative, execut ...

until 1998. In 2010, the

Mahmoud Abbas Mahmoud Abbas (; born 15 November 1935), also known by the Kunya (Arabic), kunya Abu Mazen (, ), is a Palestinian politician who has been serving as the second president of Palestine and the President of the Palestinian National Authority, P ...

issued a decree converting the PBC into a public institution.

References

External links

* {{European Broadcasting Union Members Publicly funded broadcasters Television stations in Palestine Radio stations in Palestine 1994 establishments in Palestine Television channels and stations established in 1994 Mass media in Ramallah State media