Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Politics : Politics for Pros- moderated -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: John Carragher who wrote (16023)	11/13/2003 8:19:26 AM
From: LindyBill	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 793600

Healing Iraq Blog Iraqis and the Media Alaa made some interesting observations last Saturday on the urgency of setting up an independent, objective, and neutral Iraqi news station. CPA and the GC have failed to do so till now, for what stupid reasons I cannot fathom. There is a local coalition backed amateurish tv station called IMN (Iraqi Media Network) which started broadcasting about a month after the war, it has supposedly been upgraded lately and renamed Al-Iraqiyah. Iraqis use it mainly for entertainment, to follow football matches, Egyptian serials, Arabic music video clips, and late night movies but NEVER for their daily news. They prefer Al-Jazeera or Al-Arabiyah for that largely due to the apparent professional style of these stations. But of course not every Iraqi here owns a satellite receiver, so the majority of Iraqis get their news from radio stations. For years now we have been accustomed to listening to the arabic editions of BBC, Voice of America, Radio Monte Carlo, Kuwait, Iran, and Iraqi opposition stations. We can now get these stations on FM for the first time in years. There is also a local coalition radio station, its news aren't very different from the IMN's, they both give a feeling of propaganda rather than balanced news. In addition to IMN there is a Kurdish station from Suleimaniyah, 'Al-Huriya' or Freedom Channel, and 'Ashur' an Assyrian language channel which I really haven't been able to receive on my tv. Both are similarly awful. A little history. Before April 9 we had Uday's infamous 'telvizion Al-Shabab', Youth TV. Hailed by some humorous Iraqis as the world's best channel, seemingly because it displayed the latest pirated box office movies at the same time they were being shown in US theaters. It ripped off all the exclusive Egyptian tv shows from other Arab satellite channels. Its 9 o'clock news featured footages from every known news station in the world, scientific reports and documentaries from Discovey channel, sports and live matches, music clips requests, a special cartoon period for children. In other words it was a channel for everything and everyone. Even Saddam once addressed the Iraqis "What do you need satellite receivers for when you have telvision Al-Shabab?". Along that, there was the Iraqi Channel One, the oldest in Iraq which older generations followed, and the Iraqi Satellite Channel which people rarely ever watched but Iraqi expatriates were fond about. And another Sports channel which came and went. What bothered most about these stations was the incessant praising of the 'The leader, the neccessity', or when there was a speech or any stupid event or meeting related to Saddam. All stations would broadcast the event suddenly at once in the middle of a crucial football game, favorite program, or whatever you were watching. You would have to endure the face and voice of the despised tyrant and his goons for a couple of hours, only for the event to be replayed at the next news hour for another two or three hours, this might go on the next day as well. The last few months before the war, he had a meeting every day, so tv was literally unwatchable. Rest At healingiraq.blogspot.com