DFID is funding the BBCWST to re-establish local and regional radio and television broadcasting stations in southern Iraq. The stations will serve the 4 Governorates of Basra, Al Amara, Nasariyah and Muthanna province. Broadcasts will begin in 6 months via satellite across southern Iraq and reach an audience of 4 million people or 20% of the Iraqi population. 

After one year DFID and the BBC will review the project and at the end of the second year the BBC will leave to allow the stations to run themselves.

A team of Arabic-speaking BBCWST editors will manage the project and Iraqi personnel will staff the stations after receiving training. Representatives from local government, the private sector and civic groups including religious, tribal and women's groups will form a Consultative Committee that will have an input into the content of programmes. Regular listening groups will assess the programmes and question the programme makers. DFID officials and Coalition Provisional Authority-South in Basra will monitor the project.

This project supports the reconstruction of Iraq by providing information and allowing discussion of issues important to the local population. 

For further information visit the BBCWST website at www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/trust

International War and Peace Reporting (IWPR) : Iraq Humanitarian Reporting and Training Project - DFID funding £513,000

DFID support for the IWPR reporting and training programme helped to establish a training centre for journalists in the Mansoor district of Baghdad. This has facilities for 25-30 trainees and ten networked computers which are connected to the internet. Since it opened the centre has also become a meeting point for Iraqi reporters and visiting international journalists.

The IWPR has hired two full time international trainers who have been in Iraq since September 2003. Both trainers have previous journalistic experience and one is an Iraqi who has worked with the BBC in London. Other staff include translators and a media monitor.

Training courses and workshops have been attended by experienced newspaper staff who undergo journalism training while other publications have sent trainees with little or no experience in journalism. Some of these journalists have already contributed to the IWPR Iraqi Crisis Report web news service as well as to other local, regional and international media.

For further information visit the IWPR website at www.iwpr.net/iraq_index1.html

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