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Iraqis fill the Mosul airwaves after IS radio silence
MOSUL, Iraq, June 22, 2018 (BSS/AFP) – During the Islamic State group’s
rule in Mosul, radio stations were banned and replaced with broadcasts of
jihadist propaganda. Today, young Iraqis are filling the city’s airwaves.
One budding presenter is Nour Tai, who at 16 years old faces the
microphone with a confident tone and a professional style.
She hosts a weekly programme on One FM, a Mosul station launched in
February that broadcasts a mix of music, entertainment and current affairs
debates.
Her career began a year ago thanks to a talent show organised by Al-Ghad,
a station in the Kurdish city of Arbil which hosted many of those displaced
from Iraq’s second city.
She told AFP at the time that she was passionate about radio because “it
touches everyone”.
“I want to be part of it,” she said.
She now sits in the One FM studio, accompanied by her father, as a
degenerative illness left her blind three years ago.
She says her aim is to “give people hope, especially those who suffer from
a handicap.”
“I want to tell everyone that we can all contribute something and that we
can realise our dreams,” she says from the cramped studio.
– Erasing ‘terrorist ideology’ –
The launch of One FM came six months after Iraqi forces declared victory
over IS following three years of brutal jihadist rule in Iraq’s second city.
IS had shut down independent radio stations and anyone caught tuning in
could expect severe physical punishment.
The emergence of stations such as One FM is a step in the city’s
transformation since IS was ousted following a vast, months-long operation.
Young presenters are busy 24 hours a day, producing and broadcasting shows
which are also filmed for broadcast on the radio’s website and social media
accounts.
The channel is run by volunteers who bought the necessary equipment by
pooling their savings, some selling their own belongings to fund the station.
Yassir al-Qaissi, One FM’s head of communications, says their aim is to
“denounce violence and extremism, and broaden people’s minds.”
There is a need to “erase the terrorist ideology and end the sickness of
our society, such as sectarianism and racism,” the 28-year-old says.
Ahmad al-Jaffal, 30, says the jihadist occupation “created a vacuum of
thought”.
“With my programme, I try to promote ideas of coexistence, of mutual
understanding, and of acceptance of the other,” says Jaffal, who worked as a
journalist prior to the IS takeover in 2014.
– Volume up –
One FM is not the only ambitious new station on the local airwaves.
Mosul residents who took refuge in Arbil after the IS takeover of their
city launched two stations: al-Ghad and Start FM.
After Iraqi forces drove the jihadists from Mosul, One FM was launched and
Mosul FM started broadcasting from the nearby region of Dohuk.
That means it has more radio stations than the two state-run channels it
had under former dictator Saddam Hussein.
All currently broadcast analogue signals and can only reach Mosul and its
surroundings.
The US invasion in 2003 brought a multitude of new options for listeners,
although these were co-opted by American occupying forces or political
parties.
The period before the IS offensive was risky for journalists and
presenters in Mosul, who were regularly targeted by Al-Qaeda and other
jihadist groups.
Mohammad Salem, a sociologist, says the new stations will need government
supervision to ensure that this time they are not misused for political or
religious purposes — “especially as some of their funding sources are
unknown”.
On the streets of Mosul, the radio shows bring a distraction from the
struggles of life in the war-scarred city.
Taxi driver Mohammad Qassem, 27, says the music and entertainment shows
are a welcome addition to his long days.
“We can finally listen to all the songs that IS deprived us of for three
years,” he says happily, before pushing the volume up to maximum on his car
radio.
BSS/AFP/GMR/0929 hrs