Coming soon: Radio Free Iraq
By Nick Grace
September 18, 1998
Radio Free Iraq (RFI) will be launched during the last week of October, Paul Goble, Director of Communications for Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty (RFE/RL), has told CRW.
The "process of staffing is half-way there," he said Wednesday in a telephone interview with Nick Grace, and RFI should have 12 journalists and broadcasters for "beta-version programming" by mid-October. A Director for the service was already appointed
on September 9 and is Amb. David Newton, an expert on the Middle East and former U.S. ambassador to Iraq and Yemen.
A tentative schedule for the launch of RFI and the Persian-language service of RFE/RL will be added to the website on October 1. Listeners may access the site at www.rferl.org.
Radio Prague, however, reported Tuesday that "The Czech government has in fact yet to decide upon allowing the station to broadcast to Iraq..." Goble countered this report by stating "While there may be comments in the press, we've got the full support of the (Czech) government... RFI represents an expansion of our operations, and when something is new there will always be misunderstanding."
Although RFE/RL has been personally invited to begin the transmissions to Iraq and Iran by Czech president Vaclav Havel, the newly-elected Social Democratic government is raising concerns over potential terrorist risks should Radio Free Iraq eminate from Czech soil.
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