Text of report in English by Egyptian news agency MENA
A radio programme in the Arabic language for Iraq and produced in Berlin will start up on 10 July in a six-week pilot project supported by the German Foreign Ministry, the initiators disclosed Tuesday. The programme is to be called “Telephone FM”, said Klaas Glenewinkel and Anja Wollenberg, the project initiators. They said three Iraqis, two men and a woman, will moderate the 90-minute daily programme, which will be transmitted to Baghdad via the Internet for local transmission, [the German news agency] DPA reported.
The show is to be broadcast by the private station “Hot FM” which at the moment can only be heard in Baghdad. The three moderators have been in Berlin the past two weeks, but have asked not to be shown on television or to be photographed for their own security, Glenewinkel said. In Iraq itself, a freelancer is to stay in cellphone contact with the Berlin studio and conduct interviews with local residents - explaining the name of the programme, “Telephone FM”.
The Foreign Ministry is providing 83,000 euros (100,000 dollars) to help support the six-week project.
(Source: MENA news agency, Cairo, in English 1716 gmt 29 Jun 04 via BBC Monitoring)
