On Wednesday 14th July, Sheffield Indymedia participated in a live link-up to the first Internet radio stream from Baghdad.
Media activists from Radio LoRa in Zurich and the StreamTime Foundation have travelled to Iraq to set-up a number of community radio initiatives starting with a stream on 30th June from Halabja in the Kurdish region of Iraq. Halabja was the scene of chemical genocide on the 16th of March 1988, which saw 5000 dead and 10000 injured, and the remaining 36000 inhabitants were forced to flee their homes. The program was produced by Streamtime in collaboration with the Kurdish Communist Party and can be be heard here.
Bagdhad radio studio
Wednesday 14th July saw the first ever Internet radio stream from Baghdad and Sheffield Indymedia relayed the audio on the community radio station, SheffieldLive broadcasting on 87.9FM until the end of July and on the Internet.
The Sheffield studio was hit with a massive power cut 45 minutes before the Indymedia show was due to air but electricity was restored. The Baghdad link then failed but at 12:30pm London time communication was established with the Iraqi studio and the live relay could proceed.
Salam sent the best wishes of Baghdad to listeners and inhabitants of Sheffield, and even sent some messages to family members living in our city. There was studio talk about the current situation in Iraq after the US 'handover' and how life is different there after the overthrow of the Hussein administration. The broadcast was made in English, German, Spanish and Farsi. Archives of the broadcast can be heard here and here.
We communicated to the Baghdad studio using Internet Relay Chat and media activists from Amsterdam, Switzerland, Germany and elsewhere all participated in the live event to relaying the audio stream to listeners in their home cities around the world.
The rest of the Indymedia show focused on interviews recorded at the recent festivals in Sheffield with speakers from the Sheffield Palestinian Solidarity Campaign, Concert For Palestine and MC RebelBase from the political rap combo Double Negative. Kev from Sheffield Social Forum was also in the studio talking about his experiences at being arrested under 'anti-terrorism' laws at last September's protests against the arms fair, DSEI.
Sheffield Indymedia hopes to link up to more community radios worldwide in the next two weeks with links again to Iraq, to the US and possibly to Chiapas, Mexico.
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