The Irish Times
May 31, 2003

By HARRY BROWNE

While the unlicensed Dublin stations I wrote about in last week’s column start to crawl from the wreckage of their transmitter raids (Kiss came back to 94.4 this week; Phantom is due on 91.6 over the weekend), it seems a few soon-to-be ex-licensed stations around the State have been having a well-earned whinge to the joint Oireachtas committee on communications.

Committee “rapporteur” Senator Kathleen O’Meara hails from Tipperary, one scene of the “crimes” against local radio committed by the Broadcasting Commission of Ireland (BCI). On Morning Ireland (RTE Radio 1, Monday to Friday) she had the BCI dead to rights for its still-opaque licensing procedure for local stations; she raised the right questions too about the co-ops that ran stations but ran afoul of the re-licensing process, and about the lack of an appeals mechanism. On the other hand, and despite the protestations of spurned broadcasters, for as long as we regard the airwaves as a public asset there should never be automatic renewal for licence-holders, however “successful” in attracting listeners and/or money. BCI complaints about being unconsulted on the report are a bit rich, given its own overwhelming power in this sector. It’s a bit like Donald Rumsfeld, also on Morning Ireland, saying: “Interference in Iraq . . . will not be permitted.” In Rummy’s dictionary, “interference” obviously doesn’t include sanctions, bombing and invasion - at least when perpetrated by the US.

Salon.com
May 24, 2003 Saturday
BYLINE: By Michelle Goldberg

Iraq’s only independent newspaper is run by high school and college students out of an alcove in the lobby of Baghdad’s Al Fanar Hotel. Working with a $5,000 grant from the nonprofit peace group Voices in the Wilderness, 14 unpaid writers, editors, photographers and publishers labored for a month to create the debut issue of Al-Muajaha, the Iraqi Witness, which hit the streets five days ago. In its pages, budding reporters and essayists examine the violent, chaotic but cautiously hopeful world being born around them, expressing outrage at the Americans even as they revel in their newfound freedom.

Newspapers have proliferated in postwar Iraq, but most are the organs of political parties. Al-Muajaha’s staff, though, treasure their autonomy. They learned journalism during the war, working as translators and fixers for the legions of foreign reporters who descended on Iraq. Some of them have been interview subjects as well, and they studied the way professionals found their angles and formulated their questions. Now they’re turning these new skills back on the Americans, demanding accountability from their would-be rulers.

Modesto Bee

May 19, 2003, Monday, ALL EDITION
SECTION: LOCAL NEWS; Pg. B1
BYLINE: BY BLAIR CRADDOCK

A longtime peace activist who stayed in Baghdad during the U.S.-led war on Iraq brought her message to a small but receptive audience at California State University, Stanislaus, on Sunday.

“One of the best ways to prevent a next war is to tell the truth about this war,” said the speaker, Kathy Kelly, co-founder of Chicago-based activist organization Voices in the Wilderness.

For Kelly, the central issue is the impact that both the war and a dozen years of economic sanctions have had on the health of Iraqi children.
“Forty-six percent of the Iraqi population are children,” Kelly said. “They did not commit any crime. They never wanted to harm anyone in the United States.”

Modesto Bee
May 17, 2003, Saturday, ALL EDITION
SECTION: FAITH & VALUES; Pg. G1

Founder of Voices in the Wilderness, Kathy Kelly, will speak today and Sunday about her recent trip to Iraq. Kelly, 49, of Chicago, recently spent five months in Iraq — part of 15 trips to the country since 1996. She helped start Voices in the Wilderness, which opposes sanctions against Iraq, and violated sanctions herself to take medicine and toys into the country.

Kelly will speak at 3 p.m. today at Christ Unity Baptist Church, 1320 L St., Modesto; at 2 p.m. Sunday at California State University, Stanislaus, Mary Stewart Rogers Building, Room 130, 801 W. Monte Vista, Turlock; and at 7 p.m. Sunday at Church of the Brethren, 2301 Woodland Ave., Modesto. Admission is free. Call 529-5750 or 526-9588.