Radio on Internet from Baghdad

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S T R E A M T I M E  - - - F R E E  M E D I A  F O R  I R A Q

P U B L I  C   A N N O U N C E M E N T   July 15th 2004

Radio on Internet from Baghdad has begun
International crew of media activists create new outlet for people in Iraq.

On Wednesday 14th. of July, between 11 a.m. and 1.30 p.m (CET) the first
live streaming radio transmission has been realized by Streamtime from Baghdad.
Streamtime is a loose network of media activists dedicated to assist local
media to get connected. Two
weeks before, the first ever internet radio program came from the village
of Halabja, which
suffered a poison gas attack by order of former Iraqi president Saddam
Hussein. Streamtime
will produce further programs from Baghdad on Sundays and Wednesdays,
starting between 11 and
12 a.m. Central European Time.

Salam Khedher, who returned from Switzerland to start an independent and
alternative radio station called Radio Nas, presented the program from a
private house with
internet connection in Baghdad. In the 2 hour program, interrupted for 20
minutes by a power
cut, children, a businessman, a man who makes a living installing
sattellite dishes were
speaking to the world through a hand held microphone, connected with a
computer.

Radio activist Michel, from Radio Lora in Zuerich, operated the GNU/Linux
software called Dynebolic, to make the sound heard on the internet. Servers
in Europe were
used to distribute the stream. The stream was picked up by various radio
stations
in Europe: Naples (It), Zuerich (CH), Munich (DE), Sheffield (UK), Bern
(CH) and
Amsterdam (NL) and broadcast either directly, or in an edited version later on.
Ironically, when in Baghdad electric power returned after the cut, the radio
in Sheffield couldn't transmit the program due to ... a power cut in
Sheffield.

In different languages Arabic, English, German and Spanish, the people in
the studio talked first of all about their security problems. A big
explosion killing 10
people had occurred a few hours before. The significance of the 14th of
July for Iraq -and
France- and children's dreams of electricity, 'unning water and a swimming
pool.

Salam Khedher informed listeners about Radio Nas, which is about to start
regular broadcasting soon. Michel explained the essence of the
www.streamtime.org project:
solidarity between free media makers around the globe.

In a chat parallel to the transmission the people involved from the
various locations followed interactively the how's and why's of hick-ups,
bugs, buffering
problems, up-and-down connections, and of course the program itself.

The program can be listened to or downloaded from the following sites:

http://www.streamtime.org

http://kriegste.vh.guad.de/theorie/audio/wet_040714.mp

info: irakdesk@xminy.nl and radiob04-list@yahoogroups.com