| NEW YORK
- October 20 - Free Speech Radio News (FSRN) says that with hundreds of
Afghani citizens killed in the first weeks of U.S./British-led
bombing, it has positioned reporters across the Middle East and South
Asia to cover this potentially global conflict--much of which is not
accurately reported in the corporate press.
Flying routinely under government censors, and anchored by former
Pacifica Network News veteran Verna Avery Brown, the newscast
challenges the information blackout sweeping the mainstream media
with a pool of over 100 progressive journalists around the
world--filing from every continent except Antarctica.
In a climate of increasing political repression, FSRN is one of the
few remaining independent sources for real information about the U.S.
government's so-called war against terrorism--information not owned
by a corporation, controlled by the Pentagon or vetted by the White
House.
This daily, ground-breaking, half-hour newscast, airing on more than
50 community radio stations, over the Internet and beamed to 120
countries via short-wave, is proud to bring you:
- Fariba Nawa in Islamabad, providing first-hand accounts of U.S. air
strikes, plus coverage of the Pakistani refugee crisis.
- Jeremy Scahill, the youngest-ever Polk Award winner offering
critical analysis of the political alliances being sought by the U.S.
- Sputnik Kilambi reporting from South Asia, with deep contacts among
Indian and Pakistani peace activists.
- James Smoot on the ground in Istanbul, reporting on violent police
repression of civilian protest.
Other international coverage includes Rafael Krafft in Occupied
Palestine; Steve Negus in Egypt; Rory Mulholland in Turkminestan;
Rupert Cook in the Sudan and Sam Olukoya in Nigeria.
Kata Mester on Capitol Hill covers the clampdown on civil liberties.
An impressive pool of journalists, including Polk-Award winner Robert
Knight, Geoff Brady, Miranda Kennedy and Eileen Sutton bring daily
news from "the first ground zero" in New York. Susan Wood weighs in
from the United Nations, while FSRN is also keenly focused on the
U.S. peace movement and other domestic issues.
"This daily newscast is breaking new ground with fresh, tough-minded
reportage," said media critique and syndicated columnist Norman
Solomon. "Born out of the censorship of Pacifica's top managers,
Free Speech Radio News shows that radio still has a chance to live up
to its potential as a source of news and views connecting
people--from the grassroots--across the country and around the world."
FSRN, which supporters say features the best of progressive reporting
from around the country and around the world, is twenty months old
and was first created by dozens of freelance reporters who struck
Pacifica Network News (PNN) last year over rampant censorship.
Critics say PNN has long-abandoned its progressive mission in tone
and content, often sounding indistinguishable from mainstream media.
Most of the stations carrying FSRN are Pacifica affiliates, and most
have cancelled PNN. (For a list of those stations, see www.fsrn.org.)
FSRN will continue to uplink to a satellite at 5:00 p.m., Eastern
Time, at coordinates A72.7M [b67.4]. MP3 and Real Audio files are
posted to the strikers' web site daily at www.fsrn.org.
FSRN is produced in Washington D.C., San Francisco and Tampa. Aaron
Glantz produces the cast, Randi Zimmerman is Headlines Editor. FSRN
also receives critical production support from the Independent Media
Center in New York (http://www.nyc.indymedia.org) and community
station WMNF in Florida.
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