Palestinian Broadcasting Corporation
The Palestinian Authority Broadcasting Corporation 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.
PBC has a subsidiary radio station known as the Voice of Palestine and a satellite channel known as Palestinian 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, channel 23 in Kasser-Elhakim, channel 25 in the capital Ramallah, 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 used explosives to destroy the five-story main building and transmission tower of the PBC in Ramallah 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 corporation is a former associate member of the European Broadcasting Union, and was reportedly seeking to become an active member. However, the Palestinian Authority 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.