The Danish Shortwave Club International

OVERVIEW OF THE MEDIA | Text of editorial analysis by Peter Feuilherade of BBC Monitoring Media Services on 28 February 2003
 

Introduction

The Iraqi government exercises absolute control over the domestic media, except in the Kurdish enclaves in the north.

President Saddam Husayn's son Uday runs two of Iraq's broadcast outlets. In the view of French media watchdog Reporters Sans Frontieres in February 2003, "his influence over Baghdad's media is even more decisive today than that of the Minister of Information". Iraqi radio's domestic service broadcasts in Arabic, Kurdish and other languages, which in the past have included Assyrian, Persian and Turkmen. The authorities are reportedly preparing to maintain broadcasts from mobile installations in the event of attacks.

Radio Iraq International, the foreign service, has in the past broadcast in Arabic, English, German and French. However, since 1991 broadcasts from Iraq have been highly erratic and almost inaudible outside its borders. Considerable damage was done to Iraq's once impressive broadcast installations. Radio Iraq International has never recovered from the battering it took during the 1991 Gulf war.

In the UN-mandated Kurdish enclaves in northern Iraq, which are not controlled by the government, rival Kurdish factions such as Mas'ud Barzani's Kurdistan Democratic Party and Jalal Talabani's Patriotic Union of Kurdistan operate their own radio and TV stations and newspapers beyond the reach of official Iraqi control.

The Communist Party of Iraqi Kurdistan and other small groupings also have their own media outlets in northern Iraq and abroad.

Iraq's airwaves are saturated with transmissions beamed to the country from abroad, whether those of established international broadcasters in the USA and Europe, or clandestine media operated by opposition groups or foreign intelligence agencies.

Baghdad officially forbids the reception of satellite broadcasts, although a commercial service to allow controlled viewing of selected foreign Arabic entertainment and sports channels has been introduced. Some foreign radio broadcasts are jammed.

Private internet access and email services are still in their infancy. In autumn 2002 a public company received permission to open private internet cafes in Baghdad. The same company plans to open internet centres at schools, universities and other educational institutes. The official Iraqi News Agency has an extensive English-language site.

Foreign correspondents who are permitted to enter Iraq are required to travel with government minders from the Ministry of Information. Travel outside Baghdad requires written approval, and travelling to a location not specified in the request is forbidden.
 

Domestic radio and TV

Audience research data from Iraq is virtually non-existent, which makes it difficult to assess the impact of any individual programme, broadcaster or nation.

State-run radio and TV are assumed to be accessible in the parts of Iraq controlled by Saddam Husayn.

The main domestic TV service and Uday Husayn's Youth TV are available terrestrially.

The Iraqi Information Ministry had plans to launch two new TV channels, including one in English for foreigners living in Iraq, the Baghdad newspaper Al-Rafidayn reported in November 2002.

Baghdad radio's main service in Arabic has been heard on six mediumwave frequencies. The station has also announced six different regional FM frequencies. Baghdad radio has reportedly also used mobile transmitters, probably on FM frequencies.

Other domestic services heard recently have been Voice of Youth (run by Saddam's son Uday) and Holy Koran Radio. Services that have not been heard recently are Voice of the Masses, the domestic and Persian and Kurdish services from Baghdad and Mother of Battles Radio (set up during the 1990-91 Gulf conflict).

Given the erratic operation of some Iraqi broadcasts, there is little evidence of an infrastructure that could jam incoming radio or TV services to any great effect.
 

External broadcasts

The state-run Iraq Satellite Channel broadcasts via a number of satellites to viewers across the Middle East and Europe.

For several years, Iraqi radio has had only one, and occasionally two, operational shortwave transmitters. These have been heard only intermittently and with a highly variable schedule, often with extremely poor audio modulation.

Therefore, broadcasts by Radio Iraq International are highly erratic. In recent months audio modulation has become so poor that it has often not even been possible to determine what languages are being broadcast.
 

Broadcasts to Iraq from abroad

Shortwave and mediumwave radio listeners inside Iraq have access to a wide range of general Arabic-language services from the Middle East and from international broadcasters. The main international stations heard in Iraq are the BBC, the USA's Radio Sawa (which has a strand of programmes beamed to Iraqi audiences) and US-funded Radio Free Iraq (operated by Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty from studios in Prague).

In June 2002 the Iraqi press reported that a subscription-based service providing a selection of foreign satellite broadcasts (probably through some form of local cable or MMDS network) would be available to Iraqis, who would have to apply through the Information Ministry.

The annual subscription for a service offering over a dozen channels including films, sports, cartoons and documentaries was set at about 60 dollars (the equivalent of a civil servant's salary for 10 months). After its launch in Baghdad, the service would be extended to Basra and Ninawa before being rolled out to other regions of Iraq.

In December 2002 President Saddam Husayn said curbs on viewing foreign satellite TV channels would remain in force. He told an Iraqi cabinet meeting "the majority of Iraqi people were not interested in satellite channels but were seeking to earn a living and improve their conditions".

Kurdistan, opposition and clandestine services

There are several Kurdish, opposition or clandestine stations representing various factions and ethnic groups within Iraq broadcasting from different locations on a mixture of frequencies in a combination of Arabic and Kurdish. The major ones include:
 

Radio

Voice of Iraqi Kurdistan - broadcasts from Salah al-Din in Kurdish and Arabic in support of the Kurdistan Democratic Party, led by Mas'ud Barzani.

Voice of the People of Kurdistan - broadcasts from Sulaymaniyah in Kurdish and Arabic in support of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, led by Jalal Talabani.

Voice of Kurdistan Socialist Democratic Party - mouthpiece of the Kurdistan Socialist Democratic Party, a member of the Democratic Alliance of Kurdistan, an alliance of five parties under the leadership of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, formed in December 1996.

Voice of the Iraqi People in Arabic - mouthpiece of the Iraqi Communist Party.

Radio Freedom - mouthpiece of the Communist Party of Iraqi Kurdistan. Voice of Kurdistan Toilers - mouthpiece of the Iraqi Kurdistan Toilers party.

Voice of the Islamic Revolution in Iraq - opposition radio sponsored by the pro-Iranian Supreme Council of the Islamic Revolution in Iraq.

Radio Tikrit, launched in February 2003, is the latest clandestine radio targeting listeners in Iraq. When monitored in early February, its initial programming was critical of the USA. But over the next two weeks the content of Radio Tikrit's two-hour broadcasts from 1900-2100 gmt every night shifted sharply to a vehemently anti-Saddam Husayn line.

The US Central Intelligence Agency's favoured opposition grouping, the Iraqi National Accord (INA), operates two radio stations: Radio of the Land of the Two Rivers and Al-Mustaqbal (The Future). These use a 50-kw Voice of America transmitter in Kuwait.

Other radio stations that have broadcast to Iraq include Voice of the Brave Armed Forces. It targets listeners in the Iraqi military, inciting officers to launch coup attempts. According to US-based analyst Michael Knights of Global Information System, "the latter station is part-run by Jordanian intelligence. Saudi intelligence, meanwhile, has run the Jeddah-based Voice of the Iraqi People since 1991."
 

Television

Kurdistan TV - based in Salah-al-Din, mouthpiece of the Kurdistan Democratic Party.

Kurdsat - based in Sulaymaniyah, mouthpiece of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan.

In September 2001 the London-based Iraqi National Congress (INC), a US-funded umbrella organization of groups opposed to President Saddam Husayn, launched Hurriyah or Liberty TV - aimed at Iraq. It broadcast on a westerly trans-Atlantic satellite in a digital format unlikely to be available to many Iraqi viewers. Liberty TV broadcasts were suspended in May 2002 owing to concerns expressed by its US backers over the INC's financial management practices.

Updated information on external broadcasts to Iraq can be found on the web sites of Clandestine Radio Watch - http://www.clandestineradio.com - and Dxing.info http://www.dxing.info

US radio propaganda broadcasts

On 12 December 2002 the USA started radio broadcasts targeted at the Iraqi military as well as civilians. The broadcasts are transmitted by US planes flying over southern Iraq.

Leaflets printed in Arabic and English dropped over Iraq say the American "Information Radio" broadcasts are on the air from 1500-2000 gmt on five separate frequencies in the FM, mediumwave and shortwave bands.

The frequencies listed are: 693 and 756 kHz mediumwave, 9715 and 11292 kHz shortwave, and 100.4 MHz FM. These are all frequencies that have been used at some stage by Republic of Iraq Radio.

The broadcasts come from Commando Solo aircraft operated by a specialist US psy-ops unit. The EC-130E Commando Solo is a modified four-engine Hercules transport aircraft that can broadcast simultaneous high-power mediumwave, shortwave, FM and TV signals. The planes can also jam or override local transmissions, in an effort to persuade listeners to tune to propaganda frequencies.
 

Publications

While the 1968 Constitution provides for freedom of the press, the government tightly controls all news media. Iraqi newspapers are all pro-regime. The Journalists' Union is headed by Uday Saddam Husayn. The two Iraqi papers that are most daring in criticizing domestic government policies are Babil and Al-Zawra, both of which are headed by Uday.

Babil is the only newspaper that reports what international news agencies say. To a certain extent, it uses complete and unedited reports from the BBC, Reuters and newspapers in the Arab world. However, in November 2002, the publication of Babil was suspended for a month by the Information Ministry, reportedly for publishing articles critical of certain Arab countries such as Egypt and Jordan and their relations with Israel.

According to Taha al-Basri, former chief editor of Al-Thawrah, the paper used to print 250,000 copies daily but this number was reduced by 92-94 per cent after the trade embargo imposed by the United Nations. More than 130 periodicals ceased publication after the embargo. All Iraqi papers continue to carry a front-page picture of Saddam Husayn, either separately or in the context of a previous day's activity.

There are five major daily newspapers (Al-Iraq, Al-Thawrah, Al-Jumhuriyah, Al-Qadisiyah, and Babil) and one English-language newspaper (Iraq Daily) and one sports daily called Al-Ba'th al-Riyadi. There are also nine Iraqi weeklies. These are: Al-Zawra, Nabd al-Shabab, Sawt al-Talabah, Al-Rafidayn, Al-Iqtisadi, Al-Ra'y, Al-I'lam, Al-Ittihad, and Alif Ba. Uday Saddam Husayn is the board chairman of the first four weeklies, in addition to the daily newspaper Babil and Al-Ba'th al-Riyadi. All these Iraqi dailies and weeklies have an Internet version that is updated regularly. Many of them post a version in PDF format, in addition to the usual selections posted from each paper. Other hard-copy publications are issued in the Iraqi governorates, but they do not have Internet versions.
 

Internet

Baghdad has over 30 public internet centres, and other major cities have several each. Surfing the Net costs the equivalent of 50 US cents an hour. Subscription to e-mail costs about 80 US dollars per year; these services are reportedly heavily scrutinised by Iraqi security agencies.

The web site of the Iraqi National Olympic Committee - http://www.iraq2000.com - is host to web sites for several Iraqi publications and organizations affiliated with Uday Saddam Husayn. They include the dailies Babil and Al-Ba'th al-Riyadi; all the Iraqi weeklies and monthly newspapers and magazines, except Alif Ba; and the web sites of the National Olympic Committee, the Iraqi Journalists Union, the National Union of Iraqi Students, and the General Union of Iraqi Youth.
 

US "psychological operations"

In addition to the Information Radio broadcasts carried since December 2002 by US Lockheed Martin EC-130E Commando Solo aircraft flying over southern Iraq, other psy-ops campaigns under way in March 2003 reportedly include the sending of e-mails to prominent Iraqi officials offering them clemency after the fall of the regime, in return for assistance in finding weapons of mass destruction; and swamping mobile phones of senior officials close to Saddam Husayn with calls urging them to disobey orders.

Intelligence analysts say future steps could include the jamming of Iraqi broadcasts and the start of TV broadcasts produced by US military psy-ops specialists.  (BBC Monitoring research,Feb 28, via DXLD)