What Happened to Hawa?
Almost a year ago, we included news on the creation of Hawa, an Egypt-based, Orascom-owned Iraqi television station. A reader recently wrote to point out that nothing has been mentioned about Hawa since then:
Do you know if the station planned by Orascom, Hawa, ever actually went on air? All I can find on the internet are stories saying that the launch was planned for June 2004, but as far as I can tell, it never actually happened...
She followed up with this:
They are registered as a licensee on the NCMC website with Jan 1, 2004 listed as their date of first broadcast. I suppose that just because they were granted a license doesn't mean they actually ever started broadcasting, and it's not clear from the site if this is a list of stations that have been granted licenses or stations that are actually broadcasting.
Has anyone heard more about Hawa?
Posted by Matthew Burton on March 28, 2005 at 11:16 PM in New television | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack (263)
The Guardian on "Grip of Justice"
The Guardian
March 28, 2005
Media: Trial by television: In Iraq, captured rebels are shown confessing live on air.
Rory Carroll
Twenty minutes to showtime and studio technicians are loading the tape for transmission to Baghdad when mortars thud outside. Four hit the lawn, three hit the motorway, carving craters but causing no casualties. The staff resume work, unfazed by the latest assault on the televison station.
Aired twice a day, Terrorism in the Grip of Justice is a popular reality show but those firing 62mm mortars do not like it and have made the Mosul headquarters of the state channel Al-Iraqiya arguably the most dangerous posting in broadcasting.
Continue reading "The Guardian on "Grip of Justice""
Posted by Matthew Burton on March 28, 2005 at 03:12 PM in Prisoner Confessions | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (257)
Interrogation broadcasts expand to "common criminals"
Looking cowed and frightened, a bruised young man looks into the television camera and stammers replies to questions from an unseen interrogator. Yes, he says, he was paid to kidnap foreigners in Baghdad. No, he was not a mujahid (holy warrior); just a common criminal cashing in on Iraq's climate of fear.
Continue reading "Interrogation broadcasts expand to "common criminals""
Posted by Matthew Burton on March 24, 2005 at 08:52 PM in Prisoner Confessions | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (21)
Confessions rivet Iraqis - Fight for minds uses a TV show as battleground
The Boston Globe website shows footage of what they describe as "the Iraqi government's slick new propaganda tool". A television show called "Terrorism in the Hands of Justice" is Iraq's wildly popular new television hit featureing a nightly parade of men, most with bruised faces, confessing to all kinds of terrorist and criminal acts.
Click here to go to the article and view the footage.
Posted by Vanessa Hetherington on March 22, 2005 at 04:10 PM in Al-Iraqiya/Iraqi Media Network, Prisoner Confessions | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (282)
UN and Reuters launch agency project for Iraqi media
A new project aims to help Iraqi news media pool their efforts and assemble a more complete daily picture of events in their country.
The Reuters Foundation, with support from the UN Development Program (UNDP), launched the project on March 16. It aims to connect Iraqi media outlets so they can share their work, filling the gap left by the lack of a national news agency.
Click here to go to this IJNet article.
Click here for more information on Voices of Iraq (website mainly in Arabic).
Posted by Vanessa Hetherington on March 21, 2005 at 11:01 AM in Internet, Links and Announcements, Native media | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (216)
U.S. Planning Arab-Language TV Broadcasts to Europe (Alhurra)
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Bush administration plans to begin Arab-language satellite-television broadcasts to Europe later this year in a new escalation of its information war against Islamic extremism, officials say.
Three-and-a-half years after Islamic militants based in Germany helped mount the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, U.S.-backed TV channel Alhurra expects to transmit 24-hour programing to European Muslim communities seen as potential breeding grounds of extremism. More
Posted by Matthew Burton on March 1, 2005 at 11:31 PM in Alhurra, Public diplomacy | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (131)
Iraq turns to TV ads to recruit
BAGHDAD - To confront the daily images of violence, Iraq has launched a new media war — trying to win Iraqi hearts and minds and battle insurgents with the power of American-style advertising.
One slick commercial, used to recruit police, conveys the message: It's safe enough to join, even though insurgents attack every day. Another ad shows police as heroes — the chance to save a school from a bomber seen as an incentive for police who earn only $200 a month. More
Posted by Matthew Burton on March 1, 2005 at 11:25 PM in Advertising, Al-Iraqiya/Iraqi Media Network | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (189)
Iraqi TV Airs Tape of Purported Confession
BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP)
By MAGGIE MICHAEL
The bearded man in a gray jacket and shirt who appeared on the U.S.-funded Iraqi state television station Wednesday had a stark message about the insurgency - he was a Syrian intelligence officer who helped train people to behead others and build car bombs to attack American and Iraqi troops.
Continue reading "Iraqi TV Airs Tape of Purported Confession"
Posted by Matthew Burton on March 1, 2005 at 11:22 PM in Al-Iraqiya/Iraqi Media Network, Prisoner Confessions | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (152)
