RFE/RL's NORTH CAUCASUS SERVICE

In Brief

• Languages: Avar, Chechen, Circassian
• Coverage: Two hours: (UTC) 1500 –1600, 0300 – 0400
• Frequency: SW and Satellite

History

• The North Caucasus Service launched its first broadcast on April 3, 2002.
• Service broadcasts were initially 15-minute segments in Avar, Chechen, Circassian, and Russian languages, but the Russian segment was dropped in favor of three, 20-minute segments of the three other languages.

Highlights

• In March 2005, the North Caucasus Service interviewed Chechen President Aslan Maskhadov, in what was the last time he spoke to the media before he was killed days later. The service was also the first and only media outlet to interview his successor, Abdul-Khalim Sadullayev.
• In a video sent to the North Caucasus Service in October 2007, Chechen rebel leader Doku Umarov declared himself the head of an emirate of the North Caucasus and expanded his battle against Russian forces to include the United States, Britain, and Israel. After the resulting furor when that declaration of "holy war" was picked up by international media, he felt constrained to drop it from his later official statement.
• Correspondent Aslanbaek Dadayev was awarded the David Burke Award in 2005 for his reporting of the Beslan school hostage taking. In September 2004, Dadayev was one of the few correspondents to witness the hostage tragedy from beginning to end. An ethnic Chechen, he took an enormous risk just by working in the area, and his reportage of the events in Beslan was among the best offered by any media outlet. As usual, his effort did not go unnoticed; while the drama in Beslan was unfolding, six of his close relatives in Chechnya were arrested. Thankfully, after several days of intensive interrogation, they were released.