Hackers play ISIS song on Swedish radio

STOCKHOLM • Some listeners to commercial radio station Mix Megapol in Sweden heard 30 minutes of an Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) propaganda song after hackers took over the station's frequency, the station's owners said.

Mix Megapol is one of Sweden's biggest radio stations with around 1.4 million listeners daily, although the problem affected only listeners in the southern city of Malmo on Friday.

"Somebody interfered with our frequency using a pirate transmitter," Mr Jakob Gravestam, marketing director at Bauer Media Group, which owns Mix Megapol, said in a press release.

"We will report the incident to police and to the National Post and Telecom Agency."

The song, with male voices singing in English, featured lyrics such as: "For the sake of Allah we will march to gates of the paradise where our maidens await. We are men who love death just as you love your life, we are soldiers who fight in the day and the night."

The hosts of popular morning show Anders & Gry with Friends did not notice the problem until listeners called in and asked what was going on.

"A lot of people have called us about this.

"We are very happy that people are vigilant and we treat this very seriously," Mr Gravestam told website 24Malmo.

REUTERS

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A version of this article appeared in the print edition of The Sunday Times on November 12, 2017, with the headline Hackers play ISIS song on Swedish radio. Subscribe