Pirate Radio Gives Voice to Syrian Opposition

Subject: Pirate Radio Gives Voice to Syrian Opposition Tue Feb 11, 2014 5:37 pm

The engineer gave the cue that the station was on the air, and the keyboard player began a mournful tune. Then the night’s guest joined in, his rich baritone filling the small, rooftop studio here as it was being broadcast by pirate transmitters in pockets across Syria, his war-torn home.

Pirate Radio Gives Voice to Syrian Opposition RADIO-master675

Pirate Radio Gives Voice to Syrian Opposition RADIO-master675

“The traitor’s army kills us / it fires bullets at us,” he sang. “We are unarmed, nothing in our hands / our blood flows in the streets.”

The broadcast was the premiere of a music show on Radio Watan, one of more than a dozen opposition radio stations that have sprung up since the start of the revolt against the Syrian president, Bashar al-Assad.

The stations are run by young civilian activists who played an important role early in the uprising but have since been targeted by government forces, sidelined by Islamist rebels and attacked by extremist groups who consider them infidels for airing music and women’s voices.

As these activists have lost ground inside Syria, they have increasingly resorted to the airwaves to maintain their voice.

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/11/world/middleeast/pirate-radio-gives-voice-to-opposition-fighting-assad.html?google_editors_picks=true&_r=0

Pirate Radio Gives Voice to Syrian Opposition

Pirate Radio Gives Voice to Syrian Opposition

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