Story number 1 for 26 Jun 2003

(Iraq)–Our newscast begins today in post-war Iraq, where officials are trying to reverse the damage from three weeks of war and the month of looting that followed. Faced with the effects of a12 year regime, the people are starved for hope. SAT-7’s Debbie Brink. “Satellite broadcasts are the only source of uncensored information in the region. So, it’s very important for people to have a satellite dish. Under Saddam, it was illegal. But now that there’s freedom to have it, they’re buying it rapidly and they are watching.” In the post-war state, Brink says they took a hit from the struggling global economies. For SAT-7, it’s an issue of prayer. “One of the things that you could pray for are the finances that we need to keep broadcasting. We’ve had to cut down a little bit of our broadcast in the last couple of months, on one satellite, from seven days to four days per week. We really want to get that back up to seven days and be able to reach all of our viewers.”