This week Dateline invites you into life inside a 24 hour TV station, Iraqi-style. The only difference is, Al Babaliya broadcasts out of Jordan – it’s the only way it can protect its journalists and operate without being targeted.

Dateline video journalist Sophie McNeill observes the station as it broadcasts 24-hour news into Iraq, about Iraq. The stories are deliberately nationalistic in tone – U.S. troops are called “the occupying force” – and station owner Sadeq Mitlak has no qualms about broadcasting graphic videos of attacks, supplied by the insurgents.

To Sadeq Mitlak, the station is his way of resisting what he sees as the occupation of his home country. He tells McNeill the Jordanian government has no problem with his provocative message, as it feels the same way.

Al Babaliya is neither a Shiite nor Sunni TV station. Instead, the message is one of unity, to fight the invaders together. Staff members come from both sects and while in Iraq they would be enemies, at Al Babaliya, they are colleagues and friends.

One staff member, the station manager, has good reason to hate the Americans. He worked for Iraqi state television (as one of Saddam Hussein's cameramen) but lost his job when the U.S. administrator sacked everyone who worked for the regime.

Also in this episode, a report on rebels in India and neighboring countries.

About International Dateline
SBS Dateline, which began in 1984, is Australia's longest-running international current affairs program. It has a well-earned reputation for authoritative and incisive reporting. Dateline has taken the traditional way of producing TV current affairs and turned it on its head. Reporters who used to travel with a cameraperson and sound recordist now travel alone and have the responsibility of both filming and reporting their stories. The reporters became video-journalists, gaining access to people and places that the conventional camera crews cannot.