RFE/RL's RADIO FREE IRAQ 

In Brief

* Language: Arabic

* Coverage: 17 hours a day, including news, talk shows, roundtables, and analytical programming

* Frequency: FM on transmitters located in Baghdad, Irbil, Al-Basrah, Kirkuk, Mosul, Al-Nasiriyah, Samawah, Al-Sulaymaniyah, Al-Najaf, Al-Hillah, Tikrit; cross-border MW, and Satellite

* Internet: www.iraqhurr.org

History

* Radio Free Iraq was established by the U.S. Congress in 1998 and began broadcasting in October of that year. 

* In 2007, two Radio Free Iraq correspondents were killed while carrying out their journalistic assignments in Iraq: Khamail Muhsin Khalaf and Nazar Abdulwahid al-Radhi. A third, Jumana al-Obaidi, was kidnapped in Baghdad and held for two weeks before being released.

Highlights

* On several notable occasions, Radio Free Iraq (RFI) was ahead of local media in reporting events (for example, the visit of the Al-Anbar Awakening Council delegation to the United States) or covered stories on topics such as human rights abuses and corruption that the local media tried to avoid.

* RFI has a unique format with a lot of serious content, compared to the entertainment offering of its competitors. Its audience has indicated that this is a strong, positive feature of the radio. Top-ranking Iraqi politicians and officials are interviewed by RFI almost on a daily basis about the most important issues of the Iraqi situation.

* Listeners appreciate RFI's distinctive musical format, which emphasizes classical Iraqi music and songs, in contrast to the contemporary, pan-Arab fare of competing stations.

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