Dubai |By Duraid Al Baik, UAE Editor and Jay B. Hilotin, Staff Reporter | 25-11-2003

Three foreign powers are engaged in an airwaves war in the UAE and the Arab world.

BBC Arabic of the UK, Radio Sawa of the US and Radio Monte Carlo, France's Arabic radio station, are slugging it out to to win over hearts and minds in the region.

BBC Arabic and Radio Monte Carlo have been on the airwaves longer, mostly in low-quality AM and shortwave frequencies. But Radio Sawa's entry two years ago with clear digital radio technology has led to an industry shake-up.

\"Radio listeners vote with their ears. The youngsters go for the clearest broadcast. Radio Sawa is winning this game because they're offering better quality FM. But as for the credibility of their newscasts, that's another story,\" said S. Abdullah, a UAE-based journalist.

Radio Sawa (\"Together\") offers an eclectic mix of Arabic and English music and fast-paced, crisp and no-nonsense news bulletins.

BBC Arabic is playing catch-up. It started broadcasting in FM recently over Abu Dhabi and Dubai, with the same content broadcast via Nilesat.
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Sawa's edge, however is its significant investments in digital technology. An offshoot of the September 11 attacks, Radio Sawa is funded by US Congress.

By combining Arab pop music with Western hits, many listeners agree they sound so good together.

\"I listen to it everyday, even my son likes it. He loves the songs. I hate the news bulletins,\" said Rasha Al Karim, a working mother. \"Propaganda is packaged as news. They also use very bad Arabic.\"
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July 6, 2004

VOA staffers seek Hill probe
By Tom Sullivan

Nearly half the staff of the Voice of America (VoA) has signed a petition that will be sent to members of Congress today accusing the Broadcasting Board of Governors of “dismantling the nation’s radio beacon” and calling on Congress to investigate the board.

The petition also accuses the board, an independent entity responsible for all government-sponsored broadcasting, of launching new services in the Middle East with no editorial accountability at the expense of VoA programs serving the same areas and cutting back on broadcasts to Eastern Europe and in English around the world.

“We’re being bled white to support this expensive and ill-advised operation to the Middle East,” a VoA English-language editor and supervisor told The Hill. The VoA employee, who said he feared reprisals if he were identified, added, “It’s shameful and also very sad that we’re missing an opportunity to be doing what we should be doing.”
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The petitioners also expressed concerns about increasing politicization of the VoA itself. Both Heil and another VoA journalist who spoke on the condition of anonymity said reporters and editors are convinced that the demotion of Andre DeNesnera as news director in a reorganization announced Thursday is evidence that is happening.
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Middle East scholar Juan Cole noted ... \"So in the wake of Sept. 11, 2001 and the US occupation of Iraq, the big media move of the Bush administration was to abolish the Arabic Service of the Voice of America. It boggles the mind.\"
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As a consequence, quality audiences - educated and influential leaders and reformers - are \"out.\" Mass audiences - youths primarily attracted by entertainment - are \"in.\" The losers are not only the US, which needs to have a substantive voice in the global marketplace of ideas, but intellectually curious listeners the world over.
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