Free Republic

Rebuilding Iraq's media By Stephen King Director, BBC World Service Trust In the British-controlled southern region of Iraq there is a cautious welcome. Groups of children wave and sometimes adults give a thumbs-up sign. A youth standing between the carcasses of two rotting camels on the side of the main highway between Safwan and Basra stuck two fingers up. "They even know the one-finger salute now," commented our driver. Iraqis are sceptical about some of the channels set up by the coalition This was my first visit to Iraq - as part of a BBC team organised by the...

KIRKUK, IRAQ – Seven years ago, a customer walked intoFalah Abdulrahman Mohamad Salih's television store and insisted on a barter: One of your televisions for one of my satellite dishes. Under Saddam Hussein, who kept an almost Orwellian lid on information, satellite dishes were banned. So Mr. Salih tried to hide the round, white saucer inside some laundry lines. A few days later at 4 a.m, security police came to his door and, with his wife and children crying, hauled him off to prison. The six grueling months there in 1996 makes these days all the sweeter. Salih was the...

<p>April 28, 2003 -- THE five hours of nightly U.S. news programming that began airing in Iraq last week is merely a prelude to a much larger U.S. government-sponsored TV blitz in the Middle East.</p> <p>A 24-hour, American-based satellite network that should be up and running region by year's end is the centerpiece of a U.S. plan to compete head-on with the region's government-controlled media, including the Arab news channel Al-Jazeera.</p>

Now starring on Iraqi TV: news the American way. Tom Brokaw, Peter Jennings and Dan Rather hit the Iraqi airwaves this week as part of a U.S.-led effort to use television to educate Iraqis about democracy. Freed for the first time in decades from state-controlled television, Iraq can now receive a nightly dose of "Iraq and the World." "It's not the kind of media they're used to seeing," said Norman Pattiz, chairman of the federal Broadcasting Board of Governors. The initial two-hour broadcast included news clips from ABC, CBS, NBC and PBS translated into Arabic. Fans of Fox news can...

U.S. Army Occupies Key Buildings in Mosul By KIMBERLY HEFLING .c The Associated Press MOSUL, Iraq (AP) - The U.S. Army occupied Mosul from the air and on the ground Tuesday with little resistance except scattered small-arms fire, taking custody of a northern city they said was in good shape for quick rehabilitation once the security situation improves. Troops occupied key government buildings, medical clinics, a television station and power plants as they moved in. Mosul, Iraq's third-largest city, is home to several ethnic groups, including Arabs and ethnic Kurds, who share it uneasily. Marines had been holding parts of...

Iraq TV: No Propaganda CNN Refuses to Participate But TV Channel Chairman Says it Will be Unbiased By Michele Greppi A new U.S. government-backed television service in Iraq will air American news programming with Arabic-language captioning. But it is not meant to improperly influence anyone or spread any false information, according to Norm Pattiz, chairman of radio distributor Westwood One and chairman of the government-backed Broadcasting Board of Governors. Rather, Mr. Pattiz said, it will offer unfettered news coverage in the region, which will be a first for many viewers accustomed to state-controlled broadcasts. "What we are going to do...

The US Government will be beaming US Broadcast and CABLE news to the newly FREED Iraki public. In a segment from CNN tonight (4-15) Paula Zahn spoke with Norm Pattiz from Westwood1 Radio and and Georgetown Professor Mamoun Fandy. Pattiz is PRO and Fandy is CON. The telecasts will include ABCCBSNBC and FOXNEWS nightly news broadcasts in the hope that by viewing a "free and OPEN" news media system, this will aid the creation of a free Iraki media too..."the benefits of a FREE PRESS" as Zahn put it. Fandy also said that viewing the US news broadcasts would bias...

U.S. sends broadcast team to Baghdad airport AS SAYLIYA CAMP, Qatar, April 12 (Reuters) - The U.S. military said on Saturday it is planning to start television and radio broadcasts from Baghdad international airport early next week. A military plane has begun flying over Iraq broadcasting to Iraqi televisions even though shortages of electricity meant most people in the country were unable to watch. "We do have a ground-based broadcasting team headed up to Baghdad International Airport," spokesman Captain Frank Thorp told reporters at Central Command headquarters in Qatar. "They'll be able to broadcast radio and television, we expect to...

The Bush administration took over Iraqi state television yesterday, replacing tributes to Saddam Hussein with conciliatory greetings from President Bush, the Pentagon and British Prime Minister Tony Blair. The shows were beamed onto Baghdad's Channel 3, one of the deposed government's frequencies. The Pentagon-controlled programming is part of a multimedia campaign to persuade Iraqis -- sometimes by using the abandoned infrastructure of Hussein's propaganda networks -- that their country is being liberated, not occupied, and that self-government and free enterprise are on the way. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A5428-2003Apr10.html

Britain and the US beam 'Freedom TV' into Iraqi homes By Paul Waugh Deputy Political Editor 11 April 2003 George Bush and Tony Blair broadcast directly to the Iraqi people last night via a new television channel set up by US and British forces. "Towards Freedom TV", was beamed from a specially-equipped American aircraft as it flew over Iraq. It will transmit five hours of programming – spoken in Arabic or subtitled – every day, carrying everything from news bulletins,information about water supplies to arts features. It got off to an inauspicious start when power cuts in Baghdad ensured no...

Nothing follows.

KUWAIT, April 8 (KUNA) -- Office of the Arab Al-Jazeera satellite station was hit and its reporter severly injured, Abu Dhabi T.V, network operating in Baghdad said ina live broadcast as coaltion warplanes unleashed rockets in the city and artillery gunfire and machingun were clearly heared live. Abu Dhabi's reporters said he saw the reporter of the Al-Jazeera on the ground sustaining severe injury but can not rescue him. The network said the office is damaged and other office enarby including abu Dhabi and other networks were also hit in the attck. The reproter said it appeared to be...

Just saw report from Jordan. FNC correspondent is monitoring Abu Dhabi TV. The reporter states that Al Jazeera is reporting that their facility near the Iraqi Ministry of Information has been hit and damaged.

Two blasts near Iraq Info Ministry, planes overhead BAGHDAD, April 8 (Reuters) - Two loud explosions shook an area near the Iraqi Information Ministry on Tuesday as U.S. planes were seen flying overhead, a Reuters witness said. "They have hit a target near the Information Ministry and black smoke is now rising into the sky," reporter Samia Nakhoul said. "Planes are flying very low overhead. The sound of fighting is very loud and seems to be intensifying." 04/07/03 23:59 ET

US Troops Fire At Al Jazeera Vehicle - Itar-Tass NEW YORK (Dow Jones)--U.S. soldiers fired on Monday at a car belonging to the Al Jazeera TV channel on the highway going to the Baghdad airport, the Itar-Tass news service reported. There was only one person in the car - an Iraqi driver employed by Al Jazeera. Itar-Tass reported the driver said the U.S. patrol opened fire at the car, which had on it the emblem of the TV channel, damaged it and forced it to stop. When the car stopped, the soldiers searched both the car and the driver, but...

DUBAI (AFP) - Iraqi satellite television has been off the air since Sunday evening amid intense fighting between Iraqi forces and US troops inside Baghdad. No picture or sound was being picked up Monday from the satellite channel, whose programming had been interrupted only for brief periods since the war began March 20. However, state television was on the air as normal in Baghdad. Youth Television, run by President Saddam Hussein's elder son Uday, has been silent since a missile attack late last month on the information ministry.

Just announced, practically as a joke. No further details.

The Arabic broadcaster Al-Jazeera has suspended reporting from Iraq after Baghdad barred two of its correspondents from reporting there. "Al Jazeera regrets this surprising and sudden stand which is not justified," the broadcaster said in a statement. The Iraqi Information Ministry barred Diyar al-Omari - an Iraqi - from reporting, and ordered correspondent Tayseer Alouni to leave the country. Al-Jazeera said the Iraqis gave no reason for their decision. The station interrupted a regular broadcast to make its announcement. They cannot dictate to us who can and cannot work Editor-in-chief Ibrahim Helal Its correspondents will remain in Baghdad, editor-in-chief Ibrahim...

Just reported on CNN Al Jazeera is being asked to leave Iraq by the Iraqi government. Presumably this means only Baghdad as this is the only city under their control. I wonder why? Coverage not slanted enough?