By DAOUD KUTTAB

AMMAN, January 12, 2009 (MENASSAT) - Last Friday was a slow day at the
offices and studios of Radio al Balad in Amman. All the staff were off
for the weekly holiday leaving a minuscule skeleton staff to run the
station. But you would never have guessed it by listening to 92.4 FM
in the Amman metropolitan area.

The station ran field interviews from throughout the city during what
security sources said were some 30 protest actions on Friday. Play by
play coverage went out on the airwaves as a huge rally was held at
King Hussein Sports stadium, and as clashes with the Jordanian police
took place later in the day.

All of the coverage was from eyewitness accounts. Every hour, a live
interview was made with a person covering a tent protest near the
Israeli embassy in the upscale Rabbiya neighborhood.

Trial by fire

Sawsan Zaideh, Radio al Balad's station director said that the events
in Gaza and the public reaction to them forced the station to think of
more creative ways of covering events with the small number of
reporters working for the station.

"We were surprised in the number of individuals who were willing to
volunteer to help us out."

Radio al Balad already comes from a trendsetting mold for new media in
Jordan. The station was established first as an internet radio
(ammannet.net) before it obtained their terrestrial FM license. has
become a leading source of information on the ground.

Registered as a not for profit community organization, Radio al Balad
has won the confidence of activists as well as public officials.

Police spokesman Mohammad Khatib was a regular guest last Friday
answering questions and explaining the police actions against the
protesters.

Jibril a Palestinian high school graduate who had come to Amman from
Ramallah was in the right place at the right time. She came to visit
the station because her sister was a former employee, and during one
demonstration, station reporters were unable to cover the events.

Radio al Balad's veteran reporters Sawsan and Mohammad Shamma gave
Jibril a ten minute crash course in radio field reporting - and off
she went.

Within days, Dana Jibril became a radio star. "The directions Sawsan
and Mohammad Shamma gave me were very helpful and I was surprised at
how things turned out," she said.

Taxi cab confessions

The greatest number of volunteers came from the station's listener's
club. The club made up mostly of taxi drivers continues to be a
bonanza of information. Taxi drivers have contributed to the bulk of
our eyewitness reports.

Khaled Jaber a taxi driver and a member of the club was present at the
Rabiyya protests when stones were thrown at the police and the
security forces responded with tear gas. His live report as everyone
was running away gave listeners a colorful picture of how the
protestors were feeling.

On another occasion during last Friday's protests, the local police
began arguing with a protester as she was speaking live on the air
presenting her take on the protest actions.

Mohammad Shamma, Radio al Balad's anchor, said that like Jibril, he
conducted crash reporter courses with several volunteer reporters. He
recounted, "I know this young person named Ziad who has always wanted
to be a reporter and he called me saying he was planning to attend the
rally at the Sports stadium. I told him if he wanted to report he
should restrict his reports only to what he sees and hears and not to
make comments or give topics a value judgment."

Mohamad Abu Safia, the head of the radio club has been reporting for
some time, mostly on road accidents and traffic related issues. But
his reports during the January 9 protests actions last Friday were
presented with the confidence and details of a veteran reporter.

His reports included both eye witness details as well as analysis. In
one of his reports last week, he noted that of all the signs that were
raised in the protest, none were signed by the Islamic Action Front,
Jordan's leading Islamic opposition movement.

While he didn't explain the reason, it was obvious to listeners that
the Jordanian security and the Islamic movement had reached some type
of agreement to keep a lower profile during the Gaza solidarity
protests. Abu Safiah also reported on clashes that took place between
protestors and the police in the Nasser neighborhood of Amman.

Radio station manager Zaidah noted with some satisfaction that none of
the reports from the listeners club or other citizen reporters on the
scene have proven to be wrong or exaggerated.