Talk Radio Comes to Baghdad

[GreenPartyVoter]

BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) - The calls come in a flurry - a race by residents of Baghdad and the surrounding areas to dial one of Radio Dijla's two call-in lines.

"Hello, hello. Yes, so what do you think?" asks program host Majid Saleem. "Should there be a curfew on the day of the handover?"

As Iraq's interim government assumed sovereignty Monday, two days ahead of schedule, the country remained plagued by blackouts, security woes, overflowing sewers, a lack of clean drinking water, unemployment and doubts about whether it is headed toward democracy.

Amid that litany of despair, what Iraqis do have is the region's first independent, uncensored talk radio station. And, after 35 years of Saddam Hussein's dictatorial rule, where voicing the wrong opinion could lead to a beating or even execution, Iraqis are eating it up.

http://apnews1.iwon.com/article/20040628/D83FV7G80.html

[Sweetpea]

1. Uncensored? Hmmmmmm

[GreenPartyVoter]

2. Yeah, I figure the don't have the equivilent of AAR or radio pacifica

[Mayberry Machiavelli]

3. First clue: was the topic of the first show Clinton's sexual escapades?

[SoCalDem]

4. When did Rush have time to learn arabic??

:)