Radio Sawa
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Radio Sawa is an Arabic language radio station, funded by the United States government. The station's goal is to provide balanced news and information to youth in Arabic-speaking countries, as local news in many Middle Eastern countries is considered by the U.S. government as biased.
The station's playlist includes popular Arabic, English and Spanish songs so as to attract the Arabic listener.
Radio Sawa's first broadcast was on March 23, 2002. Its broadcasts are recorded in Washington, DC, Morocco, Jordan, Iraq, Egypt, Lebanon, Dubai, and United Arab Emirates.
Radio Sawa is controlled by the Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG), an independent agency of the U.S. government, such that staff are not civil servants under direct government control.
[edit] Criticisms
Radio Sawa has been considered by some as a US attempt to control the Iraqi media, made most evident by the frequent addresses made by President Bush resembling post apocolyptic sci-fi thrillers. What further undermines its reputation is that Al Jazeera, its other main competitor, was attacked and removed from Iraq by US soldiers and Iraqi government officials respectively.[1]
