Wednesday, August 02, 2006

'Palestinian Voice' segment heard on anti-Hezobollah Radio Mashriq

Radio Mashriq has been monitored carrying an Arab-language program called “Palestinian Voice Corner” on a live audio stream accessed from its website at www.almachrek.org. This was observed at 0430-0600 UTC on 30 July 2006.

The programme opened with an identification announcement voiced over the strains of “Mawtani” [My Homeland], which was written by Palestinian poet Ibrahim Hefeth Touqan and adopted as the new Iraqi national anthem in 2004. The announcement went on to state that they were broadcasting on a trial frequency of 756 kHz AM/mediumwave, and gave their website address as www.pal-voice.org.The website has a very similar layout to that of Radio Mashriq, and offers a separate live audio stream when the programme is aired. According to information on the site, this is at the following times daily: 0730-0900 AM [local time, equivalent to 0430-0600 UTC in summer] and 1300-1430 PM [local time, 1000-1130 gmt in summer]. The frequency of 756 kHz is given as “temporary”.

Radio Mashriq is a pro-Israeli anti-Hezbollah radio station which has operated on 756 kHz from the Lebanon/Israeli border region under various names since 1985.

(Source: BBC Monitoring research, 1 Aug 06/R. Netherlands media Network Weblog)