Fast Facts Radio Free Iraq is the most trusted radio station in Iraq and reaches a weekly audience of almost 20% of the Iraqi adult population through radio and the Internet. Language: Arabic Coverage: 17 hours daily Established: 1998 Distribution: Radio (FM, MW, Satellite), Internet (www.iraqhurr.org) Locations: Prague headquarters, Baghdad Staff: 12 in Prague, 38 stringers in Baghdad and major Iraqi cities

Media Environment

• Freedom House Freedom of the Press Index, 2010: Not Free (144th/196)
• Reporters Without Borders Press Freedom Index, 2009: 145th/175
• Media in Iraq has blossomed since the fall of Saddam Hussein’s regime in 2003. The former state-controlled publications have been replaced by hundreds of privately owned media outlets, many of them linked to various political, ethnic, or religious groups. However, security concerns have become the primary limitation on industry growth. Countless journalists and media workers have perished in the sectarian violence that continues to wrack the country.

Highlights

• Radio Free Iraq reaches approximately 20 percent of the Iraqi population and is the most trusted radio station in the country.
• On several notable occasions, Radio Free Iraq has been 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.
• Top-ranking Iraqi politicians and officials are interviewed by Radio Free Iraq almost on a daily basis about the most important issue facing Iraqis.
• The Baghdad Bureau won the 2008 David Burke Distinguished Journalism Award in recognition of courage, integrity and originality in reporting by journalists.
• Radio Free Iraq Director Sergei Danilochkin: “The primary goal [is] to keep delivering objective, balanced, unbiased information. In Iraq, there are so many different shades of opinion, opinions are so intolerant of one another, and there are so many news organizations that belong to political groups and deliver predominantly these groups' political agenda. It is very rare to see something that is not involved in this, that is above it, that cares to bring to the listeners as much information as possible without trying to bend this listener to one side or the other...the idea is that we are trying to present as many points of view as we can, and put them in a civilized debate.”
• In 2007, two Radio Free Iraq correspondents were killed while carrying out their journalistic assignments in Iraq: Khamail Muhsin Shalaf and Nazar Abdulwahid al-Radhi. A third, Jumana al-Obaidi, was kidnapped in Baghdad and held for two weeks before being released.

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Population
30.7 million (World Bank estimate, 2008)

Most Common Languages:
Arabic, Kurdish, Turkoman, Assyrian, Armenian

Press Freedom Index (Freedom House):
Not Free, ranked 145 out of 196 (2010)

Press Freedom Index (RSF):
145 out of 175 (2010)

Corruption Index (Transparency Int.):
145 out of 175 (2010)

Global Peace Index (IES):
149 out of 149 (2010)

Human Rights Watch:
Report on Iraq (2010)

Amnesty International:
Iraq Report (2009)