A group of women in Africa listen to their favorite radio program. Photo courtesy UNESCO.

By Ann Therese Ndong Jatta and Haron Mwangi
NAIROBI, Feb 13 2017 (IPS)

Over the last few decades, radio has played an important role in the realm of development. It has enabled the distribution of information on new policies, technology, products, and ideas with the potential of stimulating growth and development, largely in rural Africa.

Radio acquired the capacity to reach a mass audience in the period following World War I and grew steadily to become a powerful medium of communication. In just a couple of decades, it would equal, and eventually overtake the newspaper in popularity. In the long term, radio also grew from being a mere source of war propaganda and entertainment to being a credible source of news for all sectors of society.

With the coming of the information age however, reference to radio with regards to communication has dropped drastically with few people today appreciating the impact the advent of radio had in the twentieth century. The World Wide Web a much bigger technological breakthrough dwarfs the historical positioning enjoyed by radio in the last century. Many have even argued that the internet has swallowed much of radio’s territory and will soon preside over its farewell party.

In the contrary, Kenya’s case depicts a fruitful collaboration between radio broadcasting and one of the fastest growing information and communication technology sectors in Africa.  The capacity for radio to disseminate programmes to audiences beyond its attributed frequencies has been enhanced.

Kenya continues to experience growth in the ICT sector and has a growing number of broadcasting stations. According to the Communications Authority of Kenya (CAK) mobile penetration stands at  88 percent while its internet penetration is the highest in Africa at 68 percent.The increase in internet bandwidth capacity has bolstered the growth in internet connection and of mobile subscriptions.  There exists an upward trend with mobile handsets not only becoming the medium for communication but also for accessing other value added services like data and internet, entertainment, mobile money transfer as well as radio.

As Kenya joins the world in celebrating World Radio Day on 13th February 2017, stakeholders in the media industry have so far viewed ICT not as a threat but as an opportunity. An agent that will propel radio to the next level.
Considering that the combination of the mobile phones and the internet have the potential to disrupt the traditional role of radio, it is interesting to note that radio is still popular in Kenya. Out of 372 radio frequencies allocated by CAK, 233 are being utilized covering all major towns and rural audiences.

As Kenya joins the world in celebrating World Radio Day on 13th February 2017, stakeholders in the media industry have so far viewed ICT not as a threat but as an opportunity. An agent that will propel radio to the next level.

The Media Council of Kenya stands for a vibrant, dynamic and responsible media space and has thus continued to engage with radio stations on how ICT can be harnessed to achieve some of effectiveness in the context of sustainability.

The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization(UNESCO) is currently running a program “Empowering Local Radios with ICT” which aims to bridge the gap between the poor – especially women and girls – and the community to debate on issues of public concern. The program not only trains community radio station staff on the use of ICT but also runs a series of capacity-building activities in local radio stations to improve station programming quality and help increase the geographical range of news coverage with a network of correspondents.

Many stations currently run popular and highly interactive social media platforms which complement their messages on the airwaves. A robust ICT regime has given way to citizen journalism and enhanced the participation of the audience in content generation.

Even as ICT reverses radio’s century-old sender-receiver rules, adapting to the new environment requires facilitation and close monitoring so that no one is left behind. Indicators seem to be pointing at future growth, urbanization and a large generation of tech-savvy youth is already driving up the internet’s contribution to Africa’s GDP. The current estimates show that by 2025 this contribution to GDP could grow to at least 5 to 6 per cent, matching that of leading economies such as those of Sweden, Taiwan, and the United Kingdom. With radio tagging on ICT’s coat tail the boomerang effect is already underway.

Ann Therese Ndong Jatta is the UNESCO Representative and Regional Director of the UNESCO Regional Office for Eastern Africa

Dr. Haron Mwangi is the CEO, The Media Council of Kenya.

Excerpt:

Chandni, a LGBT community member in Bangalore, tunes in online to Qradio. Credit: Stella Paul/IPS.

By Stella Paul
BANGALORE, Feb 11 2014 (IPS)

It is Wednesday afternoon in Bangalore, known as India’s tech city for being the hub of information technology companies. In her small four by four-foot studio, Vaishalli Chandra, channel manager of QRadio which is dedicated to the Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) community, is in conversation with Ankit Bhuptani, a 21-year-old gay youth from Mumbai.

“I was 15 when I realised I was gay and it made me feel as though I had sinned against god. I began to condemn myself,” Ankit reveals. “But then I came to accept myself the way I am.”

Chandra, a straight person, smiles and calls out to her audience: “Yes, social acceptance is important and it begins with you accepting yourself. So let’s talk about that.”“We need no validation from others…our community is enough to validate itself.” -- Shaleen Rakesh

Thanks to opportunities to network, unburden themselves and celebrate, radio is clearly emerging as the choicest media of the LGBT community in India.

Priyanka Divakar hosts a show for the queer community titled “Yari Ivaru (who is this person?)”, aired on Radio Active, a Bangalore-based community radio station that started in 2010 that broadcasts on an FM channel, rather than through the Internet. Divakar comes from the same LGBT community that her programme is for.

Born a man, Divakar underwent sex reassignment surgery to become a woman after suffering for years what most LGBT people face in India: lack of civil rights, social ostracism, stigma and mockery. Gay sex is a criminal offence in the country.

Both Chandra and Divakar firmly believe that their shows increase freedom of expression by giving LGBTs a platform to be themselves. Guests here talk about their identity struggle, the reaction of their families to their sexuality and the opposition of society.

“Most of the time, parents themselves disown children after coming to know of their sexual identity. This drives them straight into a world of economic, social and emotional insecurity and it results in their joining the sex industry, begging or other criminal activities,” Divakar says.

But not all stories are bitter and sad. Some also share a happy message.

Besides sharing stories of the past, the community also uses radio shows to discuss the future, especially plans to end discrimination against the community.

Radio, says transgender activist Kalki Subramanium of Chennai, clicks with the young working class, to which most of the LGBT people belong.

“The radio these days [is] a new avatar; you can see young people listening to the radio when they are travelling to work or when they are at work. It is easy to access and doesn’t cost a lot,” says Subramanium who is an award-winning social worker and founder of Sahadari, a non-profit organisation that promotes gender equality in India.

Abhijay, a graphic designer in New Delhi who fears that revealing his last name might cost him his job, agrees with Subramanium. Abhijay often tunes into QRadio which he finds “very good at encouraging a person struggling with his/her sexual identity to open up.”

However, nearly five months after its launch, he feels the radio risks being repetitive, and ought to take up more serious issues like police atrocities, discrimination of LGBT people at the workplace and also lack of decent work opportunities.

“Look, identity is not the only issue we gay men have. What about the consequences of coming out in the open? How shall we deal with that? How to deal with discrimination everywhere?”

Akkai Padmashali, an LGBT rights activist from Sangam, a Bangalore-based NGO, says that access to QRadio is limiting, since a listener must have a stable Internet connection. There must be ways to reach out to those living on the other side of the digital divide.

Padmashali, who is planning to host a new show on QRadio, would like to see a “large number of community radio stations all across the country that address LGBT issues.”

But more stations would require more funding – a thorny issue. According to Chandra, QRadio received some of its funding from the United Nations Development Programme, but “sustainability remains a serious issue.”

Some point to a deficit of trust between aid agencies and the alternative media. Priya Darshi, a Hyderabad-based community member, says he had planned to set up a community radio station, but it didn’t happen as “nobody was willing to support a group of strange people talking about rights and rules.”

Padmashali says “the moral responsibility [of funding] should lie on the Indian state.” She has met with many political leaders and ministers in recent months, including Manish Tiwari, the federal minister for information and broadcasting, whom she describes as “very sympathetic to the LGBT community.”

Subramanium, on the other hand, feels that besides aid agencies and the government, the corporate sector should also invest in radio for the LGBT community.

“There are a number of private radio channels which have great funding by the corporate houses. The fund shortage exists only in community radios. But dialogue and sensitisation can help build new partnerships. Corporate social responsibility could very well include funding radios that promote gender rights,” she says.

Both Padmashali and Subramanium, however, say that despite financial and technical constraints, radio for LGBT people is here to stay.

Subramanium, who often promotes gender rights on a community radio station run by the students of Pondicherry University, says: “Despite the support shown by mainstream media, most of our community members remain misunderstood and unheard. There is a great yearning in the LGBT community today to break the silence and be heard. Radio is the greatest tool to do that.”

Meanwhile, over QRadio, the voice of Rakesh echoes: “We need no validation from others…our community is enough to validate itself.”

Radio Totopo was founded in February 2006 in the Pescadores neighbourhood, the oldest and poorest part of the city of Juchitán in the southern Mexican state of Oaxaca. But the authorities closed it down in late March, even though Congress is debating a constitutional reform that would recognise community radio stations.

Residents of Pescadores say the radio station belongs to all the people. Totopo, like most community radio stations in Mexico, has no official licence, and 90 percent of its programming is transmitted in Diidxazá, the language of the Zapotec indigenous people.

In recent years, Radio Totopo has supported campesinos (peasants) and fisherfolk of the local Zapotec people, who call themselves Binnizá, in resisting a wind park that the Spanish company Gas Natural Fenosa is planning to install on communal lands on the Isthmus of Tehuantepec.

Community radio stations in Mexico continue to fight for legal recognition. Credit: Zadie Neufville/IPS

The indigenous Assembly of Peoples of the Isthmus in Defence of Land and Territory denounced that deception was used in the presentation of the project to the campesinos, some of whom, unable to speak Spanish and not provided with a translation, signed contracts to rent out their plots at a complete disadvantage, violating the right of native peoples to information and prior consultation.

For six months, Radio Totopo translated contracts into the Zapotec language, broadcast them and ran campaigns on the project – until Mar. 26, when state police dismantled the radio station, removed power and audio cables and took away the transmitter and a computer as part of an eviction action in the disputed area.

One of the radio station coordinators, Carlos Sánchez, sustained a broken arm during the operation and he is now in hiding to avoid detention. Mariano López Gómez, the leader of the movement opposing the wind parks, was held for several days, accused of extorting government officials.

This happened while Congress debates a complex constitutional reform on telecommunications, promised by President Enrique Peña Nieto as part of the multi-party Pact for Mexico, a response to longstanding demands from civil society groups fighting for the right to information.

“This initiative reflects many demands that society as a whole has made for three decades, especially to change the current model of concentration of broadcasting and telecommunications ownership, and its contents are largely a product of expert studies and social mobilisation,” said the Mexican Association for the Right to Information (AMEDI) after its presentation to parliament on Mar. 11.

Among other issues, AMEDI highlighted the need for constitutional recognition of community radio stations, which under the reform would be entitled to concessions for social purposes, and the state’s obligation to guarantee the right to freedom of expression for all existing broadcasters.

“Constitutional recognition is very important, it is not a minor point,” lawyer Gisela Martínez, of the Mexican chapter of the World Association of Community Radio Broadcasters (AMARC), told IPS. “If (community radio broadcasters) are not named (in the constitution) it is as if they did not exist; that is why we are fighting for recognition under the law, because they say we are illegal.”

Martínez said the telecommunications bill was only the first step in the ongoing construction of people’s effective right to have their own broadcasting media.

On Apr. 30 the senate passed the telecommunications reform bill, designed to boost competition. It has now gone to the 32 state parliaments. Since it is a constitutional amendment, it will have to be approved by a majority of 17 of the states in order to become law.

If this majority approval is not achieved, an extraordinary congressional period will be required, or the bill will be on hold until September, when regular parliamentary sessions are due to resume.

In any case, “the mother of all battles will be over the secondary regulations,” said Martínez, as there has already been a negative precedent with indigenous community radio stations.

“In 2006, a constitutional amendment allowed indigenous communities to have their own radio stations, but seven years later there are still no secondary regulations permitting native people to exercise that right,” she said.

In AMARC’s view, if the law is finally approved, the next battle will be to ensure that the radio stations are not subject to power restrictions; can sell advertising; and are not confined to a specific geographical area; and that 33 percent of the radio spectrum is reserved for community and indigenous broadcasters.

Other major issues will include transparency in the permitting process, as well as the definition of effective mechanisms to guarantee the economic survival of the radio stations, without jeopardising their autonomy and independence.

Not everyone is optimistic. In Oaxaca and many other places in the country, community radio stations have played an essential role in the struggle for territories and culture and against large development projects.

“That law is useless to us,” Óscar Ledima Santiago, another of the coordinators of Radio Totopo, told IPS by telephone.

“That whole debate is a lie, because the radio stations are being subjected to repression for defending people’s rights, and by the time the secondary regulations are passed, there won’t be any land left to fight for,” he said.

Radio Totopo has already been off the air since Mar. 26, nearly six weeks, and the confiscated equipment is valued at over 5,000 dollars. Local people have mounted roadblocks and barricades around the area where the wind park is planned to be built.

And this is not an isolated case. Two journalists from Radio Voces de los Pueblos (Voices of the Peoples) were detained for several hours together with two reporters from the national newspaper La Jornada on Mar. 21.

A few days later Filiberto Vicente of Radio Xadani reported he had received death threats, and finally Radio Huave, a pioneer among community radio stations on the Isthmus, had its transmission equipment stolen.

Each of these cases involved radio stations that supported indigenous people’s resistance to the construction of energy or mining megaprojects.

“We demand a thorough investigation of these attacks, and punishment of the officials and company owners linked to the violation of our right to information,” the Assembly of Peoples of the Isthmus in Defence of Land and Territory said in a communiqué.

A community radio station in Thailand is helping migrant workers access crucial information about their rights. Credit: Simba Shani Kamaria Russeau/IPS

By Simba Shani Kamaria Russeau
CHIANG MAI, Thailand, May 2 2013 (IPS)

At the age of 23, Gao travelled to Thailand to escape intense fighting in his native Shan State in the east of Myanmar (Burma) and possible recruitment into the Shah army.

“When I arrived in Bangkok, I started working in a garment factory. We didn’t have proper food. I was surviving on a handful of rice and a half packet of ramen noodles,” Gao told IPS.

The young boy soon fell very ill but could not afford to see a doctor. It was not until his co-workers pooled all their resources together and put him on a bus to the northern city of Chiang Mai that he managed to get a free consultation through a Shan temple.

Gao was one of the lucky ones. Isolated by language and ethnic barriers, most migrants in Thailand lead secluded lives, unable to access resources or information that would help them secure their basic rights – such as healthcare, minimum wage, or proper food – in a foreign land.

To fill the gap, a local organisation known as the Migrant Assistance Programme (MAP) has created community radio stations in Chiang Mai and Mae Sot, a town on the Thai-Burma border, which have opened the doors of communication for a silenced community.

“Most of the migrant workers in Thailand, especially from Myanmar, come from various ethnicities – including the Kayin, Kayah, Shan, Mon, Rawang, Bama and Tavoyan – and speak different languages, so (our work) is really about breaking the isolation that many face when they come to Thailand to work,” MAP Director Jackie Pollock told IPS.

The broadcasts go out in four different languages – Shan, Burmese, Thai and Northern Thai. Listeners phone in requests for their favourite songs, find out about MAP’s work or how to take advantage of current migration laws and policies.

Most of the listeners are migrant workers from Myranmar who often take up what are locally referred to as ‘3D’ jobs (dirty, dangerous and demanding), and end up working on construction sites, as domestic workers, in the agricultural and fishing industry and in garment and textile factories around the country.

Mae Sot, where one radio station is based, houses an entire industrial zone along the Thai-Burma border, where garment, textile and furniture factories swallow up scores of migrants the minute they cross the border in search of work.

Women comprise the bulk of the workers in this town and are subjected to extremely poor working conditions for far less than the minimum wage, which is currently ten dollars a day.

The radio station has penetrated this community, offering programmes on occupational health and safety, women’s rights and cultural issues.

“Last year, we did three trainings with migrants who were interested in being broadcasters, DJs or journalists,” Burmese migrant worker and MAP community broadcaster Lan Moon told IPS.

Originally from the south of Shan State in Myanmar, Lan Moon came to Thailand 25 years ago at the age of six with his aunt and grandmother to escape fighting between the Shan army and the Burmese government.

He believes that radio forms a kind of “lifeline” between workers who would otherwise live and labour alone and whole communities that can offer support and information or simply commiserate about long hours or reminisce about home.

According to Pollock, cultivating a community of listeners did not happen overnight. MAP spent many years conducting weekly visits to areas where migrants live and work to distribute information about health and childcare, and used word of mouth to keep migrants up to date with national policies that might affect their jobs.

Now, in addition to the radio stations, the organisation has created 19 spaces along the border specifically for women to come together. “They organise themselves, sometimes invite speakers or hold discussion groups,” Pollock added.

Currently there are an estimated 2.5 million migrant workers in Thailand. The vast majority originates from Myanmar due to confiscation of land, human rights abuses or a lack of jobs and economic opportunities back home.

Although Article 2.2 of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR), to which Thailand is a signatory, ensures the equality of rights between nationals and non-nationals, the majority of migrants here are subjected to poor working and living conditions, lower wages and long working hours.

Registered migrants are also eligible for state health insurance schemes and are technically allowed to avail themselves of state medical services for a low fee. However, for most foreign workers, language barriers and the constant threat of discrimination or deportation hinders access to even these most basic rights.

For people like Gao, MAP has not only been a source of relief in times of distress – providing meals, shelter and necessary documents — it has also provided him an alternate occupation.

Following a crackdown on migrants in Chiang Mai, Gao says he “started volunteering with MAP’s crisis support group”.

“We help migrants get to the hospital or gain access to health care. It’s really important that migrants are informed about how to access proper health care because if one’s health isn’t good then life isn’t good.”

(END)

By Joan Erakit
UNITED NATIONS, Feb 25 2013 (IPS)

Lesedi Mogoatlhe has dedicated her life to empowering African youth by helping them to find their voices through radio journalism.

In a time of economic, cultural and political challenges, young South Africans face extraordinarily difficult issues. As teens, they worry about their friends, families, education and social standing, but must as South Africans also deal with the harsh realities of poverty, disease and violence.

Lesedi Mogoatlhe, a youth trainer with Children’s Radio Foundation, emphasises the need for young people to participate in journalism. Credit: Mimi Ng’ok

A trainer with Children’s Radio Foundation (CRF) in South Africa, Mogoatlhe focuses on building interest in social issues, provoking critical thinking and nurturing communication.

“It’s tempting to list the number of challenges and inequalities faced by the people on the continent, to talk about how the natural resources are being misused, or how corruption has become synonymous with African leadership,” Mogoatlhe told IPS, “but this seems like a futile exercise if I can’t contribute solutions to these problems.”

Having a voice is essential to having a livelihood, and through organisations like the Children’s Radio Foundation and trainers like Mogoatlhe, more and more youth are becoming equipped with basic communication skills that do more than simply allowing them to say how they feel.

Joan Erakit spoke with Mogoatlhe about her work in radio journalism for youth in South Africa and its impact on young people’s lives. Excerpts of the interview follow.

Q: You train youth to empower not only themselves but also their communities through radio journalism. What sort of trends have you begun to see?

A: Youth that come from rural environments are hungrier for knowledge than youth in urban environments. They seem to be more focused and curious about opportunities that come to them, and they tend to be better at organising themselves and using everything that the platform of radio brings their way.

I’ve also realised that the first moment of empowerment that occurs for the youth happens when they have a microphone to speak through. Something about having their voices amplified seems to also amplify everything else about them.

Q: How do the youth you work with respond to the various economic, cultural and political aspects of their country?

A: It is so difficult to answer for the youth of South Africa. In some communities, youth are worried about having running water and food. In other households, youth are worried about not being able to upgrade their iPhones.

But the one thing that is apparent in our collective paradigm is a lack of platforms for our voices to be heard—platforms where we can speak about the day-to-day issues that we face, whether they deal with education, racial discrimination, gender inequality, violence, stigma or lack of job opportunities.

Our struggle is not as black and white as that of our parents, who lived under Apartheid. Our parents were asking, “When until freedom?” We are asking, “What is freedom?”

Q: Do the youth feel that their voices are heard, either through the radio or outside of it?

A: For the majority of the youth in South Africa, some come from rural areas where they don’t have access to news, and what are challenging issues for them doesn’t make the news. They are underrepresented in the media. Questioning adults in their homes and communities is unheard of, and their opinions are not sought when important decisions need to be made for the whole society.

Through the radio projects that we’ve started, youth are talking about teenage pregnancy, alcohol abuse, living with HIV and what these things really mean to them. They are telling us that commonly held perceptions of them are changing since being on radio, instead of being labelled as misguided or lazy, they are now seen as leaders and ambassadors for their communities.

Q: In your work, how do you address the experience of living with HIV?

A: I am currently training a group of HIV-infected youth from Khayelitsha to become radio journalists. My contribution in the process is to encourage their sharing, to praise their learning, teach them skills and to remind them of the good or bad impact that their stories can have once they are broadcast.

If a student wants to disclose their status because they feel safe in the anonymity that radio provides, then I ask them if they would rather do it under a pseudonym. I do not necessarily get involved with trying to solve the issues that may come up.

In this particular project, the co-facilitator is a HIV counsellor and activist, someone that the youth trust. We also start the training workshop with a module on confidentiality and ethics; we create house rules that build a sense of trust between us.

Q: How necessary is an organisation like CRF?

A: The work that CRF does is important because it targets youth that are underprivileged and have very few opportunities. Through the radio projects, youth not only have a space to voice their stories and opinions, but they also learn communication skills, radio skills and researching skills that they can take into the future.

Through radio, youth can begin to question what doesn’t work for them in their communities, come to solutions and advocate for change; they become agents of social change. They are able to communicate in their indigenous languages and learn about what is happening in other communities as well.

We recently launched a Young Reporters Network in South Africa that includes 15 youth reporters from 12 different radio sites around the country. The youth are producing weekly shows focused on social issues, and they share these shows amongst each other via an audio sharing social media platform called Soundcloud. Through this model, they are able to report on what is happening with their peers in remote parts of the country that are not covered in mainstream media.

Some of the youth who may not have an opportunity to speak in a class of 40 students will have an opportunity to speak through a microphone and be heard by many. Radio helps youth to be seen and noticed, and it fuels confidence. In a country where youth make up the majority of the population, it is imperative for their opinions and voices to play a role in shaping the future they will inherit.

Excerpt:

Radio Mahananda, a local station, helps farming communities in Bangladesh to share research and best practices on crop production. Credit: Naimul Haq/IPS

By Naimul Haq
CHAPAINAWABGANJ, Bangladesh, Feb 21 2013 (IPS)

The sun is just beginning its descent as a knot of farmers gathers around a small, portable radio in the grounds of the Nachol Pilot High School in Bangladesh’s northwestern Chapainawabganj district, about 300 kilometres from the capital, Dhaka.

The voices of Kauser Ali and Dhiren Karmakaur — two farmers from Nachol who are sitting in a studio about 15 kilometres away from the crowd of eager listeners – come in clearly on the airwaves, welcoming their remote audience to ‘Krishi O Jibon’ (Agriculture and Life), a daily programme on Radio Mahananda.

The anchor begins by playing a popular song known as Gambhira, a blend of folk music performed in the native dialect by local artistes, before launching the farmers into a discussion about a common problem among this community of roughly 5,000 agriculturalists: pest attacks on maize crops.

I had a pest attack in my mustard field two years ago. Last season I avoided that by seeking advice in advance from experts who discuss these problems live on the air.” - Habibur Rahman, a local farmer in Bangladesh.
“The feeling here is absolutely electric,” says the anchor, Selim Kabir, a local farmer who uses this radio show to promote crop production in Chapainawabganj.

“Gambhira enlightens farmers about various aspects of agriculture,” Kabir told IPS, “so, we chose to use it throughout our programme, which delivers important messages and hosts live discussions on best practices to solve farm-related problems.”

Radio Mahananda, launched last April, has today become an indispensable communication tool in an almost entirely agriculture-dependent region, where illiteracy rates are as high as 50 percent.

The long fingers of development have not yet reached this part of the country, hundreds of miles from Bangladesh’s bustling industrial centres, where there is little infrastructure and few plans to build any.

Chapainawabganj lies partially within the 7,780-square-kilometre Barind region, an arid expanse of land located in northwestern Bangladesh. Here, extreme weather brought on by climate change has made crop production a huge challenge.

Characterised by an exceptionally high population density, Barind is also forced to contend with severe drought in the summer months, inadequate rainfall during the monsoon season, excessive withdrawal and depletion of groundwater, gradual loss in soil moisture and progressive deforestation.

In a bid to confront these challenges, the government set up the Agriculture Information Service (AIS), which resulted in the establishment of over 1,000 farmers’ clubs – each with between 30 and 50 members — in all 64 districts, to facilitate regular exchanges of information about boosting crop production and adapting traditional growing and planting cycles to a changing climate.

A group of farmers in northwestern Bangladesh tune into ‘Agriculture and Life’, a radio show on farming. Credit: Naimul Haq/IPS

Now, with the help of Radio Mahananda, the government initiative is having an even greater impact.

The rural community station reaches a 17-kilometre radius and helps farmers share their own crop research with listeners and even invites farmers to participate in studio discussions on capacity development, cultivating improved varieties of seeds, promoting use of organic fertilisers, using less water for irrigation and improving yields.

Ahmed Moin, producer of the 30-minute-long Krishi O Jibon show, told IPS, “Over 60 percent of our programmes are focused on developing agriculture. We use the benefits of radio transmission to build awareness and overcome crop production crises.”

Earlier this year, in response to massive popular demand, Radio Mahananda introduced another special programme – ‘a masher krishi’, meaning ‘agriculture this month’, which focuses on cultivating seasonal crops.

“We have seven hours of daily programmes,” Hasib Hossain, chief executive officer of Radio Mahananda, told IPS, “and since Chapainawabganj is an important agricultural zone we design our programmes to maximise benefits to local farmers.”

Radio shows typically begin after three p.m. to enable farmers to gather together at the end of the workday and tune in live. The programmes are interspersed with useful tips on how to avoid pest attacks or use drought-resistant seeds.

Television is a rare luxury in this part of the country, and a high illiteracy rate among farmers makes it almost impossible to disseminate agriculture-related news and information in print – the radio shows offer an excellent alternative to farming communities, who can even tune in using their cell phones.

Habibur Rahman, a local farmer and regular listener from Delbari village, told IPS, “We certainly benefit from listening to the radio programmes. For instance, I had a pest attack in my mustard field two years ago. Last season I avoided that by seeking advice in advance from experts who discuss these problems live (on the air).”

Farmers are encouraged to participate and send queries directly to the radio office through phone calls or text messages.

There has been “huge enthusiasm among the farmers. Requests for advice keep pouring in and many have reported better grain harvests” after the radio prgrammes came into existence, according to Moin.

Mohammad Mosharaf Hossain, senior scientific officer of a local mango research institute, told IPS, “We… teamed up with Radio Mahananda recently to disseminate information on our research and received an unbelievable response.”

In 2013 alone the institute has developed four new varieties of sweet mango, popularised among the local farmers through radio programmes. Such information is crucial in Chapainawabganj, home to over 90 percent of Bangaldesh’s mango production, with hundreds of square kilometres dedicated to growing and harvesting the fruit.

“We participated in regular live discussions to inform and encourage mango farmers to use the new varieties of mango seeds known as BARI-6, 7, 8 and 9,” Hossain told IPS.

According to Enayet Khan, a local farmer, “Mahananda has united the local farmers and has played a huge role in contributing to boosting regional crop production.”

(END)

In Bangladesh, Amal Chandra Sarker shares farming experiences over community radio. Credit: Naimul Haq/IPS

By George Gao
UNITED NATIONS, Feb 12 2013 (IPS)

In 1983, producers of popular radio, alternative radio and educational radio convened in Montreal to define a new genre of radio: community radio. Those dialogues led to the formation of the World Association of Community Radio Broadcasters (AMARC).

The ethos behind community radio, says Marcelo Solervicens, secretary-general of AMARC, is that it extends the public sphere to ordinary citizens, reducing the distance between those who speak and those who listen.

Through this service-oriented platform, community radio has empowered a variety of practitioners, ranging from farmers in rural villages, to university students and trade union workers.

“Community radio came from the need for people to express themselves at local (and national) levels… but from their own perspectives,” said Solervicens.

He cited the use of community radio by U.N. and civil society organisations in various aspects of development: by providing information for farmers facing climate change; by informing populations threatened by HIV AIDS; and by organising cholera-ridden communities in Haiti.

In the spirit of World Radio Day on Wednesday, Solervicens spoke with IPS correspondent George Gao. Excerpts from the interview follow.

Q: With all the communication platforms in the world today – television, newspaper, computers, etc. – what makes radio unique, and why has it stood the test of time?

A: The key element of radio is that it is the most accessible type of media. Calculations (show) that about 97 percent of people are using radio. Although nowadays there’s a discussion about what has become known as a convergence of different media, I think radio stands out in terms of carrying voice.

Radio (creates) a unique type of relationship between the speaker and the one who listens. That’s something very important.

Q: What is the philosophy behind community radio? How is it different than say commercial or public radio?

A: Community radio came from the need for people to express themselves at local levels, or even at the national level, but from their own perspectives. It creates a specific sector that is different from commercial and public radio, and completes the healthy media landscape – healthy in the sense that it completes it with ideas that come from the people themselves, their perspectives… and it may be diverse – in the sense that it will respond to the diversity of the communities inside.

Behind community radio sits this idea of extending the public sphere to people who are ordinary citizens, so that they can voice their opinions. In that regard, it becomes a specific media, totally different from the others.

I think this ethos of community radio is what makes (people) so passionate for it all over the world, and this has expanded… because it is ingrained in human nature, the factor of being able to speak in the public sphere. From this perspective, community radio reflects levels of democracy in a community.

Q: What is the role of community radio in development? How have international organisations, like the U.N., used community radio stations across the continents to promote development?

A: There have been studies that (highlight) the role of community radio in informing and also in organising the struggle against HIV AIDS… and this has been recognised by the U.N.

AMARC has worked with FAO for a long time so that local farmers can use radio to get information (about) crises of crops, temperature and weather conditions, and how to better confront (other) challenges (related) to climate change.

I would (note), with the U.N., the impact of community radio in safety management. We had a (productive) experience in this regard in Haiti, after the earthquake, in fighting cholera – giving information to how these types of problems that came after the earthquake could be confronted… So community radios worldwide are available readily when there is a catastrophe, as places of information for local people.

If we consider development as a complex and integrated type of work, community radio is recognised as a key component to achieving development objectives in every area, mainly as a mode to send facts.

There are people who find it very much difficult to confront development challenges when they don’t have information. I think community radio helps in showing that.

Q: Can you tell me about AMARC’s Women International Network and the Gender Policy for Community Radio?

A: AMARC created in 1992 the Women International Network, with a key objective of not only insuring that women has a place in community radio at all levels, but also to develop a gender programming strategy for community radio that contributes to eliminating stereotypes.

So it has three levels – one is the level of defending and promoting a gender policy for community radio… It’s the discourse of ‘what is the role of community radio in regards to gender (not only) within the radio stations, but also in society.’

Secondly, in terms of ensuring training and coalition building and activities being cleared and piloted between women and men… to ensure that there’s not only discourse, but also the practice of equality in gender when it comes to the organisation of activities or different works.

Finally, I would say, in terms of strategic planning… in terms of legislations, in terms of developing sustainability of community radio (and) in terms of the impact of community radio.

Q: What are some challenges around the world that prevent community radio stations from reaching their full potential?

A: There are practical difficulties and challenges because of the nature of the media (such as training community radio participants), but the key challenges that were analysed in our global evaluation that we did in 2006-2007 are the (challenges that come with) legislation.

Community radio exists today in more than 120 countries, but it’s level of recognition (varies) from one place to another. In some places, community radio has to work with “private” legislations, and has to pay fees that are similar to commercial radios. In other places, it is limited in its sustainability, because it cannot (develop) publicity, or it cannot develop social economy models, because it is not recognised in a specific sector in the legislation.

Excerpt:

Mario Martínez beginning broadcasts in the Radio Mangle studio in El Salvador. Credit: Edgardo Ayala/IPS

By Edgardo Ayala
JIQUILISCO, El Salvador, Jan 16 2013 (IPS)

For the first time in El Salvador, a community radio is broadcasting under its own licence. The struggle continues, however, for legislative change that will give these kinds of broadcasters more airspace.

After years of challenges, Radio Mangle finally began broadcasting this week to over 200 communities in the area known as Bajo Lempa, in the municipality of Jiquilisco, in the south of the province of Usulután.

“This is a historic moment, the result of years of hard work and social pressure,” radio presenter Mario Martínez, coordinator of the Mangle Association, which developed the project, told IPS. As of Jan. 14, the radio station is broadcasting on 106.1 FM from the community of Ciudad Romero, in the El Zamorán district of Jiquilisco.

In October, the state-run General Superintendence of Electricity and Telecommunications (SIGET) awarded this frequency to a public agency, which transferred it to Radio Mangle, making it the first community radio in the country to obtain a licence. Since then, the Mangle Association has been busy preparing for its maiden broadcast.

The emergence of community radios in El Salvador dates back to 1992, at the end of the 12-year civil war, when opportunities for sharing opinions and dissent opened up. But these radios have faced issues for lacking permits; some radio stations have been closed down and violently evicted from their premises by the police.

The Telecommunications Law of 1997 tacitly allows community radio stations to operate, but they must acquire their frequencies through public auctions, putting them at a disadvantage with respect to business media groups.

“It is one of the most anti-democratic and malicious laws ever approved in this country,” Leonel Herrera, head of the El Salvador Association of Participatory Radios and Programmes (ARPAS), told IPS.

Unable to afford individual frequencies, the 18 community radios belonging to ARPAS pooled their resources and with the help of international funding purchased the frequency 92.1 FM in 1998. They split it so that each radio station could broadcast in its specific location, but this method caused interference problems.

Since 2000, Radio Mangle has broadcast on the frequency of Radio Maya Visión, a station linked with the leftwing Farabundi Martí National Liberation Front (FMLN), the government party since 2009, when President Mauricio Funes took office. Funes was a popular television journalist who began his professional career in radio.

The Radio Mangle project was born as part of the early warning system promoted by the communities of Bajo Lempa, one of the country’s most vulnerable regions. Every rainy season, floods cause fatalities and crop losses and displace the population.

But interference prevented their broadcasts from working, and the radio shut down in 2010. The Mangle Association applied to SIGET for a broadcasting licence that same year, but the application was refused even though the frequency had not been offered at auction.

In 2011 the Association tried again to obtain 98.1 FM, but a commercial company won the auction with a bid of 20,000 dollars, Martínez told IPS during an interview at the radio station.

“Some people just wait for frequencies to be offered at auction, and then they show up,” he said. “It wouldn’t be the first time that they win a frequency and then do not use it. They do this just to block us,” he said.

In order to circumvent the auctions, Radio Mangle approached the Communications Secretariat of the Presidency, which in July 2012 asked SIGET for a frequency for official use. It then transferred the frequency to ARPAS, which handed it to the Mangle Association.

In August, ARPAS, the “José Simeón Cañas” Central American University (UCA) and the Foundation for Law Enforcement Studies (FESPAD) filed a constitutional appeal at the Supreme Court against several articles of the Telecommunications Law.

They requested that auctions be revoked as the only method of acquiring radio and television frequencies, claiming that the system violates constitutional principles such as equality under the law by not allowing community radios to compete equally with business groups for frequencies.

Other articles of the constitution that guarantee freedom of expression are also being breached when radio licences are blocked, they complained.

But commercial radios counter that if frequencies are allocated to community radios, interference from these would affect programmes on already established radios.

“I don’t understand why they want to do away with auctions, when there are no spare frequencies available on the spectrum; it’s a technical problem,” Ana María Urrutia, executive director of the Salvadoran Broadcasting Association (ASDER), told IPS.

ASDER represents over 210 commercial radios in El Salvador and as such defends the interests of commercial broadcasting.

Community radio stations point out that their main purpose is not to generate profits, and so there should be a different route for them to be granted licences.

ARPAS argues that if the frequency bandwidth were divided in two, with a reduction from 400 KHz to 200 KHz, there would be twice the space to allow room for new broadcasters.

But Urrutia disagreed, saying, “Dividing the bandwidth would mean repossessing some of the frequencies that are already occupied by owners, and that cannot be.”

SIGET Superintendent Luis Méndez did not respond to IPS’s request for a statement regarding this question.

In Martínez’s view, the broadcasting association’s refusal to share the spectrum with community radios is based on ideology rather than technical or commercial considerations. They do not want people voicing thoughts and discourse different from the dominant messages on commercial radios, which are mainly in the hands of business groups, he said.

In December, ARPAS, FESPAD and UCA jointly criticised SIGET for not including alternative media and community radios on a commission set up to determine how the Salvadoran frequency spectrum will be digitalised.

The organisations say that digitalising the spectrum is an opportunity to open up the space needed by community broadcasters, but worry that on the other hand it could strengthen business groups’ current domination of the spectrum.

“The debate on digitalisation is…essentially political, because it represents an opportunity to democratise access to the frequency spectrum, or the threat of greater concentration of media ownership,” the three organisations said in a statement.

Middle sign reads: "Community Radios Won't Be Shut Down!" Photo: M. Milfort/HGW

By Milo Milfort and Jane Regan
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti, Dec 10 2012 (Haiti Grassroots Watch)

A community radio station silenced by Haitian authorities is open again thanks to the mobilisation of other stations as well as organisations and associations both inside and outside of Haiti.

On Nov. 9, the state telecommunications agency – the Conseil National de Télécommunication or CONATEL – shut down Radio Voice of Claudy Museau (Vwa Klodi Mizo – RVKM), a radio station in the southern city of Les Cayes founded in 1996 by the Unified Popular Movement of Les Cayes (Mouvement Unité Populaire des Cayes – MUPAC).

RVKM is named after the high school teacher and democratic militant Claudy Museau who was killed during the bloody coup d’état against President Jean-Bertrand Aristide (1991-1994).

CONATEL authorities ordered police to seal off the station the day after President Michel “Sweet Micky” Martelly visited Les Cayes, and came as Martelly is coming under increasing criticism across the country, with rights groups, students, professors and others organising strikes and roadblocks almost every week.

RVKM is known in the city and the region for its educational, cultural and political programmes and for providing space for programming and guests critical of the current government.

“Our governments always show they would like to control the community radios,” says Professor Ary Régis of the State University’s Faculty of Human Sciences.

The shutdown was strongly denounced by local and international organisations, and in a demonstration on Nov. 28. Dozens of members of community radio stations from across the country, joined by students and representatives of various organisations, filled the streets in front of the CONATEL and Ministry of Communication buildings.

Marchers carried posters with slogans like, “Community radios are the result of struggles by democratic and popular sectors! You can’t just shut them down!” and “Long live freedom of the press – NO to censorship!”

Haiti’s 1977 telecommunications law dates from the brutal days of the François Duvalier (“Papa Doc”) dictatorship and does not recognise community radios, even though there are some 40 across the country. A new law – prepared with help from the World Association of Community Radio Broadcasters – has been ready since 2007, but so far parliamentarians have not considered it.

“CONATEL used a legal pretext to close VKM,” shouted Sony Estéus of a small institution that works with the stations, the Society for the Broadcasting of Social Communication (in Creole: Sosyete Animasyon Kominikasyon Sosyal – SAKS), into a megaphone during the Nov. 28 demonstration.

As marchers amassed in front of the Ministry of Communications, Minister Ady Jean Gardy invited representatives to an ad hoc meeting. That consultation, other negotiations and mounting pressure resulted in the re-opening of the radio on Dec. 1, and the decision that all community radios would be allowed to operate “until the publication of a law… thanks to an authorisation that will be published by CONATEL,” according to RVKM news director Jean Claudy Aristil.

“We are very pleased with the decision,” Aristil added. “This is an important step for freedom of the press in Haiti.”

Haiti’s community movement began in secret, during the 1991-1994 coup d’état regime. Pirate radio stations in the capital and a few timid beginnings in the countryside led to a flourishing movement in 1995.

With the help of equipment and training from SAKS and other groups, peasant, youth, labour and other organisations in Haiti’s democratic and popular movement founded stations across Haiti. Some have not survived due to financial challenges and to offensives from local politicians and foreign funders seeking to co-opt the stations.

But many – bearing names like “Radio Star of the Peasant,” “Radio Zèb Tenite” (named after a tenacious grass that survives droughts) and “Radio Working Together – are still on the air. In a country where most people get their news and information from the radio, and where a large percentage of the population lives in the countryside, community radios play many important roles.

“Haiti is dominated by economic and social problems, and by ‘communicational marginalisation,’” according to Professor Régis. “Community radios can help the country develop because they allow people to discuss problems, participate in debates and increase transparency.”

*RVKM is one of dozens of community radios across the country who partner with Haiti Grassroots Watch.

Donato Ayma in the Atipiri radio station booth. Credit: Franz Chávez /IPS

By Franz Chávez
EL ALTO, Bolivia, Dec 7 2012 (IPS)

Every morning from 6:00 to 8:00 AM, native people in this sprawling working-class suburb of La Paz, Bolivia listen to the programme broadcast by former education minister Donato Ayma in the Aymara language.

He starts his programme every day on the local Atipiri radio station saying “Mä amuyuki, mä ch’amaki” (“with one single thought, one single force,” in Aymara).

In an interview with IPS, Ayma explains the importance of the radio to Bolivia’s predominantly indigenous rural highlands population.

Ayma, one of Bolivia’s best-known native broadcasters, says “the radio is still the most accessible and easily operated media” in this geographically diverse country of high mountains peaks, altiplano, valleys, lowlands and Amazon jungle.

He describes campesinos ploughing their steep fields in the bleak Andes highlands, where the ploughs are still pulled by oxen, accompanied by the songs on their portable radios.

“The young women prefer to hear programmes in their mother tongue – they’re bilingual, but they tend to choose music that reflects the thinking and experiences of their people,” he says, describing life in the highlands.

Electricity is often unavailable and newspapers rarely reach remote villages, where the radio is listened to “by illiterate people; people can listen to each other, using their ears.”

The Aymara academic and researcher describes his childhood in the frigid altiplano, in Toledo, a village in the western department or province of Oruro. That is where he began his career behind a microphone, in 1969, and began to develop what he calls a New Model of Communication (NUMOCOM) for Bolivia.

“I’m a radio aficionado,” he says enthusiastically, discussing his seven-month stint in the cabinet of President Carlos Mesa (2003-2005), his 15 years at the San Gabriel Radio station, and his experience now in Atapiri, a station launched to discover radio broadcasting talent among indigenous people.

Since 2006, Atipiri has been putting into practice the ideas of the Centre of Education and Communication for Indigenous Communities and Peoples, of which Ayma is a founder. Like the San Gabriel station, it broadcasts from El Alto, a city of one million in the highlands next to La Paz.

El Alto is home to many of the indigenous Bolivians who have come to La Paz, the seat of government, from rural villages.

Initiatives to keep native culture and values alive and to help indigenous people in rural areas integrate have, paradoxically, mushroomed in El Alto.

Ayma pointed out that in the 2001 census, 62 percent of the population of Bolivia identified themselves as indigenous.

That census not only asked people for the first time whether they saw themselves as belonging to an indigenous group, but it also found that the mother tongue of half of the population was an indigenous language.

Based on these and other figures, the National Statistics Institute estimates that 66 percent of the population has an indigenous “ethnolinguistic” origin.

The 2009 constitution declared Bolivia a “plurinational” state, with 36 different ethnolinguistic groups.

Ayma bases his new model of communication, NUMOCOM, on the concept of “community radio stations as instruments of communication and development” which offer programming that comes from “the deep roots of the people.”

The first commercial radio station in this country was Radio Nacional de Bolivia, which began to operate in March 1929. But broadcasting in the Aymara language – the most widely spoken indigenous tongue in Bolivia, after Quechua – only dates back to the 1960s, when a programme in that language was on the air from 5:00 to 7:00 AM.

Under the NUMOCOM model, experienced, university-educated journalists become communicators speaking in their mother tongues and producing programming tailored to their communities.

The reality these communicators address and reflect in the community radio stations is ignored by the mainstream press and broadcast media, Ayma said.

“The pages of any Latin American newspaper are full of news about the European royalty, their weddings, their pregnancies,” he says. “But we don’t see news from
Charaña (on the western border with Chile), the foothills of Anallajchi (a snow-capped mountain), the llama grazing areas, or the Amazon jungle.

“At this very moment, a herder is coming home thirsty after a long day of work, and he’s listening to us,” says Ayma, who adds that the herder complains that his life isn’t reflected in the media, which are dominated by the homogeneous popular entertainment programming of the transnational media corporations.

Ayma criticises the commercial radio stations of El Alto because they ignore traditional Bolivian Andean music, played with pan pipes, charango, guitar and drums, and only play cumbia combined with techno and rap.

He cited Bolivian journalist Luis Ramiro Beltrán, 1983 winner of the McLuhan Teleglobe Canada award for his theories on communication for development, which were predominant in Bolivia in the 1960s and 1970s.

Taking these theories as a basis, Ayma developed his NUMOCOM model of communication, incorporating other values like environmental conservation, preservation of Pachamama or Mother Earth, and the appropriate use of water for human consumption and irrigation.

He also urges people to fight the use of synthetic products that end up in garbage dumps or the water, and kill livestock.

Finally, he advocates horizontal communication, to be used in the organising and empowerment of communities, in which the communicators are part of the action.

He says, for example, that while vertical communication gives orders, like “sweep the streets,” horizontal communication gets the broadcaster involved, who joins in the task and says “let’s sweep the streets.”

Trifonia Tordoya, two of her daughters, and a granddaughter during their last programme on women’s politics and rights. Credit: Jenny Cartagena/IPS

By Jenny Cartagena Torrico
CLIZA, Bolivia , Nov 27 2012 (IPS)

“Atispa mana atispa ñawpajman rinanchis tiyan” (“Power without power, we have to keep moving forward”) in the Quechua language, Ruth Rojas told her listeners at the end of a series of radio programmes on political culture, broadcast to indigenous women in Bolivia.

From the small booth in the Ecológica community radio station in the town of Cliza, located in one of the highland valleys in the central department (region) of Cochabamba, an intergenerational group of four women and girls sparked debate and reflection on topics linked to politics and women’s and indigenous rights.

They discussed the exercise of democracy, social control, gender equality, legal questions and other issues, based on their experience as indigenous women in South America’s poorest country.

Other community radio stations are involved in similar work empowering people in the highland valleys of this mainly agricultural region on the eastern side of the Andes mountains.

Throughout the department of Cochabamba, women who have never taken a course in radio broadcasting are using the airwaves to inform, empower and raise awareness, and to work for change in their communities.

They know from experience that radio is the best way to reach women in their homes in remote rural villages, where television is an inconceivable luxury due to the lack of electricity, and newspapers are impossible to get because of the distances involved.

In Bolivia there is no official list of community radio stations or stations run by trade unions or peasant associations, because most of them have a very limited range and operate without a licence. But the estimate is that there are at least 2,000 community stations.

Their impact in rural areas and poor neighbourhoods surrounding towns and cities is indisputable, thanks to their programming in Quechua, Aymara or Guaraní, the three most widely spoken native languages in Bolivia, where more than 60 percent of the population of 10.6 million belong to one of 36 different indigenous groups.

In some of the areas, there are bilingual or even trilingual programmes.

The biggest network of community stations is that of Educación Radiofónica de Bolivia (Erbol), with ties to the Catholic Church, whose chief focus is improving social conditions through grassroots communication.

For 21 Sundays in a row, 63-year-old Trifonia Tordoya led a two-hour programme broadcast live in Quechua along with her daughters Ruth, 25, and Tania, 30, both of whom are schoolteachers, and her 13-year-old granddaughter Madeleine Pereira.

The name of the programme was itself a declaration of intentions: “Wakichikuy wasiyuj allin kawsayta tarinapaj” (“Get ready to live well”, in Quechua).

In the Ecológica radio station, Tordoya told IPS in Quechua that the programme, which had just ended, was the result of her concern about the participation of women in productive activities and decision-making in her village.

She and other local women leaders took part in the programme on “Political culture and cultural diversity: Empowering citizens in Quechua-speaking populations of Peru and Bolivia”, carried out in this country by the non-governmental organisation Ciudadanía: Comunidad de Estudios Sociales y Acción Pública (Citizenship: Community of Social Studies and Public Action).

The aim of the programme is to foster an intercultural political dialogue and strengthen democratic values among women, while tapping into the knowledge of indigenous women.

For three years, women leaders of 20 rural community organisations from Quechua-speaking areas in the highlands valleys of Cochabamba worked to build their own definitions and concepts of key rights and issues, drawing on their own life experiences.

In the end, they chose 19 elements, including democracy, legitimacy, autonomy, rights, gender violence, exclusion, discrimination, transparency, corruption and justice, the coordinator of the programme, Olivia Román, told IPS.

“We didn’t know what exclusion was,” Tordoya said. “We asked each other what was the meaning of that word, which doesn’t exist in Quechua. Later, all together, we came up with a definition for that concept.”

She attended the workshops with her granddaughter Madeleine, who at the time was 10 years old. Madeleine was there to take notes for her, because she reads and writes with difficulty, having only gone to school through fifth grade.

After Tordoya was abandoned by her husband, she raised her six children on her own, farming a small plot of land.

None of the definitions were easy. “We had heard these words in Spanish, but we didn’t know exactly what they meant. So we discussed and debated, and defined them in Quechua,” said Norah Claros, another participant in the workshops.

They decided to call gender “qhari-warmi” (man-woman), because a key principle in the Quechua culture is the complementarity and parity of opposites. And their definition of gender is: “Men and women have the same rights, capacities and way of life, choosing and being chosen, helping each other in work and in life.”

The next step was to get the word out to other women, and help them incorporate these definitions and concepts in their daily lives, because the participants reached the conclusion that unless women were aware of their meanings, the rights would be neither demanded nor practiced.

Some of the participants suggested producing radio programmes, and others suggested workshops, or short radio spots, or radio plays. Tordoya’s idea for a radio programme prospered with the support of Ciudadanía: Comunidad de Estudios Sociales y Acción Pública, and she decided to get her daughters and her oldest granddaughter involved.

The four women from Villa El Carmen, a rural community outside the town of Cliza, decided to discuss one concept each Sunday, in 15 shows. But the enthusiasm of their listeners prompted them to produce six more shows.

They told IPS that they achieved their objective: reaching the homes in the rural communities around Cliza, and urging the local authorities to guarantee the rights of women and the exercise of democracy.

“The audience grew as the programme went on, and the public participated a great deal by calling in over the telephone,” the owner and director of the radio station, Roger Araoz, told IPS. “So we expanded it to two hours and produced another set of episodes.”

“Listeners have been calling in and asking the women to continue, because they did such a good job explaining the rights of women, and expressing constructive criticism of the authorities,” he said.

The Ecológica station belongs to the Erbol network, and reaches the entire rural area of the highland valley around Cliza, the town where it is located, 37 km from the capital of Cochabamba.

“Señora Trifonia is well-known and respected,” said Araoz. “She has participated in other programmes, and she would come to the station to discuss problems facing the community. So when the opportunity for the programme came up, we did not hesitate to give her air time.”

Her daughters Tania and Ruth agree that the general view, which not only prevails in their community, is that women don’t know how to think for themselves and should not participate in politics or be involved in decision-making.

For that reason, they said, many people were surprised to hear three women and a young girl speaking so articulately about these issues on the radio.

Both of them said they were grateful that their mother got them involved in the programme, because it helped them learn about their rights and how to exercise them, which they weren’t that clear about before despite the fact that they are teachers.

And more importantly, they said, the programme helped many Quechua women learn that they have rights, and demand that they be respected in their homes, their communities, and society in general.

Madeleine Pereira said she tried to put everything she learned in the workshops and on the programme “in practice in school, and I teach my schoolmates that they have rights.”

When an Egyptian court fined former president Hosni Mubarak and two aides a total of 90 million dollars for cutting mobile and Internet services during protests that led to his ouster, it indicated the value placed on communication services in this Arab country.

The 18-day uprising that toppled Mubarak in February 2011 was largely organised by groups creatively using social networking websites like Facebook and Internet radio. The fines were handed down three months later.

“In Egypt, if you want to start an ordinary radio station, the government demands a lot of licenses and money,” Youssef Mohamed, campaign and activities coordinator at the Egyptian Democratic Academy (EDA), told IPS. “Mubarak’s National Democratic Party controlled everything, but the Internet offered more freedom.”

EDA, a youth NGO aimed at fostering a culture of political participation, had, by 2009, established its online community-run radio station, Elma7rosa, to disseminate views gathered through community reporting, on subjects like freedom of speech, democracy, tolerance and human rights.

“In terms of Internet radio before the revolution there was Elma7rosa, and also Radio Horytna and Radio Bokra,” said Mohamed. “The relative freedom on the Internet allowed online radio stations to emerge as the voice of a new generation fighting for its place in society.”

Radio Horytna, established in 2007 by a group of young journalists as Egypt’s first Internet radio, was first on the scene during the 18-day revolt, providing uncensored news and taking controversial topics head on.

“We were open 24 hours during the revolution. We set up a tent in Tahrir Square so that those documenting the events could give us material to publish online,” Mostafa Fathi, editor-in-chief of Radio Horytna, told IPS.

“They tried to control our material, but we resisted,” recalls Fathi. “They would threaten us if we published material that wasn’t to their liking and they arrested one of our reporters, Mohammed Al Arabi, while he was covering a protest.”

Fathi said Radio Horytna managed to stay afloat “because we have a lot of partnerships with Egyptian and International non-government organisations (NGOs).”

Since the spring of 2011, the EDA has been expanding its role, conducting audio training to raise awareness on being active citizens and evaluate platforms of election candidates.

Prominent figures at EDA include Esraa Abdel Fattah, 29, who rose to prominence in 2008 as a co-founder of a Facebook group to support industrial workers. EDA’s editor-in-chief, Bassem Samir, is a prominent blogger who faced detention on several occasions.

“EDA’s ‘Political Academy’ is a programme about democracy where we teach the youth how to vote, their rights as citizens, how to be a politician, form a political party or join parliament,” Mohamed told IPS. “Another project that we initiated, ‘Free Egyptian’, offers training to women on how to participate in political life.”

Radio is seen as an important means of fostering community participation. Radio Horytna runs an array of workshops on tolerance between Christians and Muslims.

“We recently started a project called ‘Reporter’ where we gathered ten young people from all over Egypt and taught them how to use the new media tools and how to work as a digital journalist,” adds Fathi.

“Independent media is very important because it gives young people the opportunity to publish, create and broadcast their own programmes. We offer an alternative to traditional outlets like Al Masry Al Youm where it’s very difficult to get published,” Fathi said.

Banat wa Bass (Girls Only), which became the region’s first online radio station catering to the issues of Arab women when it was established in April 2008, now has a fan base of nearly five million listeners across the Arab world.

“On a daily basis, women in Egypt face a lot of harassment, violence and gender inequality,” editor-in-chief of Banat wa Bass, Amani Eltunsi, explained in an interview with IPS.

“Arab media and movies always portray women as being weak and it’s important to counter this by showing the positive side of Arab women, which also empowers us,” Eltunsi said.

“On one occasion, national security wanted to know what we were doing. I told them that I was running an Internet radio station. They didn’t understand so I showed them the website and they told me that I can’t talk about politics, sex or religion,” adds Eltunsi.

“Unlike bloggers whose material is archived online, Internet radio stations have more freedom because the officials can’t access us easily or know who our listeners are,” Eltunsi said.

Last March, Reporters sans Frontières moved Egypt from its ‘Internet enemies’ list to countries ‘under surveillance’ due to the success of the country’s uprisings.

“Before and after the revolution there was a lot of monitoring. The military council investigated us and many lives were lost. We are using our voices for Egypt. This means that we’ll do more and pay more if it means freedom,” adds Mohamed.

Citizen journalists and community media played a leading role in producing and disseminating news during the Arab uprisings as the expansion of digital technology provided innovative ways of expressing freedom.

Well before the wave of pro-democracy uprisings swept the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), Arab activists were harnessing the power of new media to circumvent the stifling of dissent by authoritarian regimes. Within MENA, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates continue to have laws regulating Internet activities.

*This story was produced with the support of UNESCO

Fishers benefit greatly from community radio. Credit: Malini Shankar/IPS

By Malini Shankar
BANGALORE, India, Apr 6 2012 (IPS)

Community Radio (CR) broadcasting in India, long bound by red tape, has received a fillip with the government announcing a hike in advertising tariffs and the auction of licenses.

“The increase in advertising tariffs will improve revenue generation for CR stations and make them sustainable,” Sajan Venniyoor, founder member of the New Delhi-based CR Broadcasters Forum, told IPS.

On Mar. 25, the Directorate of Audio Visual Publicity (DAVP) announced a quadrupling of advertising revenues for CR stations to Indian rupees 240 (4.5 dollars) per minute.

Venniyoor, who is on the expert committee of the government’s CR Broadcast Support Fund, said although CR stations have support from non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and multilateral funding, things will vastly improve once advertising revenues roll in.

“Besides, large infusions of money from government sources could prove to be a double-edged sword and completely skew the programming of a CR station,” Venniyoor said.

“As things stand CR growth has been stymied by security concerns and a telecom ministry which treats a wireless license application from a small, rural CR station in exactly the same way as it treats a mobile tower application from a telecom major, leading to a merry paper chase,” Venniyoor said.

R. Sreedhar, director of the Commonwealth Educational Media Centre for Asia (CEMCA), calculates that the new tariff will allow CR stations to more than break even, given that the average running expenditure is about 2,000 dollars per month.

CEMCA works to encourage the development and sharing of open learning, distance education knowledge, resources and technologies.

“A CR station is supposed to broadcast a minimum of eight hours, though the license is for 24 hours. Even if they manage to get advertisements for about 50 percent of the allowed time, the station becomes sustainable,” Sreedhar told IPS.

If a CR station gets advertisements for 20 minutes per day, it means it can earn about 2,838 dollars a month with enough to pay the advertisement managers, said Sreedhar, adding that advertising on CR has the potential to boost the local economy and human resources.

The reluctance of the government to allow expansion of CR can be seen from the fact it issued the first license seven years after a Supreme Court ruling in 1995 declaring airwaves to be public property.

News reporting has remained banned on CR and a new policy announced in 2006 stipulated that 50 percent of the content had to be created by and for the community.

Supporters of CR consider 2011 to be a landmark year because that was when CEMCA announced that as many as 231 licenses were in the pipeline and a CR Broadcast Support Fund was mooted.

Given the lack of ‘definition of news’, CR broadcasters fear that airing anything remotely connected to current affairs could result in the revocation of license.

Ajith Lawrence, who started Radio Alakal (Radio Waves) in 2006 on the strength of the Supreme Court ruling, came to grief after being on the air for just a few months, thanks to narrow interpretations of what constitutes news.

Lawrence said Radio Alakal was started with a view to providing fishers and their families living on the Thiruvananthapuram coastal belt with vital information such as weather conditions and the availability of catch along with music and entertainment.

Radio Alakal quickly caught on because the fishers were already sensitised to the value of timely information through having lived through the devastation of the December 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami.

“Even the tsunami experience did not stop local officials from withdrawing the license,” Lawrence told IPS. “It is time the government woke up to the huge potential of CR in disaster management and in improving the lives of marginalised coastal communities.”

In such circumstances, CR stations have desisted from reporting even earthquakes.

Ashish Sen, president of the World Association of Community Radio Broadcasters (AMRC) in Asia Pacific says that “without definition of what comprises news, confusion reigns – the digging of a well or a marriage can be news in a small village.”

Sreedhar believes that there is now new thinking in government on CR going by a bold plan to auction FM licenses and earn revenues. In a statement on Mar. 20, the DAVP announced that it expects to earn over 341 million dollars from the auctions.

There are fears, however, that some CR stations have huge advantages over others when it comes to attracting advertisers.

Arti Jaiman, station director of Gurgaon Ki Awaaz (Voice of Gurgaon), says that the mission of his CR, to articulate the rights of marginalised communities, is not likely to attract advertisement revenue.

On the other hand Gurgaon ki Awaaz, which started broadcasting in November 2009, is located in Gurgaon which falls in the state of Haryana but has the advantage of being part of the National Capital Region of Delhi.

Other CR stations do not have such advantages of location and, given the government’s restrictions on range and power of transmitters, may not reach the kind of audiences that will attract advertisers.

“We will just have to wait and see how all this plays out,” Venniyoor said.

*This story was produced with the support of UNESCO.

A broadcast session at Radio DC, Thiruvananthapuram. Credit: K.S. Harikrishnan/IPS

By IPS Correspondents
Mar 21 2012 (IPS)

The advent of mobile phones has given a fillip to CR because even the cheapest handsets come embedded with FM capability. But K.S. Hariskrishnan reports that red tape is still hampering the establishment of new community radio stations.

[podcast]http://traffic.libsyn.com/ipsaudio/20120302_communityradio_harikrishnan.mp3[/podcast]

A broadcast session at Radio DC, Thiruvananthapuram. Credit: K.S. Harikrishnan/IPS

By K. S. Harikrishnan
THIRUVANANTHAPURAM, India, Mar 21 2012 (IPS)

Security concerns appear to have stymied the growth of community radio (CR) in India, a vast and diverse country of 1.2 billion people, the bulk of them living in remote, rural areas.

“There are too many ministries and departments involved in the CR licensing process, and remote border states in the northeast adjacent to Burma have been left out, for example,” says Sajan Venniyoor, member of a government committee constituted to fund new stations.

Also left out are the Kashmir valley, racked by a separatist movement, and the largely tribal states of Jharkhand and Chattisgarh in central India that have been hit by Maoist insurgency.

Radio Ujjas, licensed to the non-profit Kutch Women’s Development Organisation, became India’s first CR station close to its international border when it started broadcasting on Mar. 10, 2012. Located in Gujarat’s Bhimsar village, close to the Pakistan border, it applied for a license five years ago.

Prof. Kanchan Malik, at the department of communication, University of Hyderabad, told IPS that the processes to set up CR stations should be simplified if they are to play their mandated role of empowering marginalised communities and helping conflict resolution.

“Cumbersome licensing processes, a ban on news programmes, lack of cost-effective technology, funding restrictions, inadequate capacity building and spectrum allocation delays or denials are some of the hurdles in the way of CR stations coming up,” she said.

The campaign to give space to CR in India – in addition to commercial and public broadcasting – began in earnest after the Supreme Court ruled in February 1995 that airwaves are public property and could not be government monopoly.

But, it was not until 2004 that India’s first CR could be launched, run by the Education and Multimedia Research Centre of Anna University in southern Chennai city.

The Information and Broadcasting (I&B) ministry has so far approved 363 proposals to set up CR stations in the country and, of these, 126 stations are operational.

Of those running, 76 are owned by colleges, institutes and other educational organisations, while only 36 are run by non-governmental organisations, showing limited civil society involvement.

Existing CR policy limits the award of licenses to not-for-profit organisations with a proven track record of community service and registered for not fewer than three years. Stringent restrictions have also been placed on fundraising.

CRs may operate a 100-watt radio station, with coverage limited to a 12-km radius and antenna height to 30 metres. Fifty percent of the programmes are expected to be produced locally and in the local language or dialect.

News programmes are banned, except items concerned with sports, traffic, weather conditions, cultural events and festivals, academic events, electricity and water supply, disaster warnings and health alerts.

Five minutes of advertising per hour are allowed, but CR programmes cannot be sponsored except by the government.

According to the ‘Compendium of Community Radio Stations in India’, published in 2011 by the New Delhi-based Commonwealth Education Media Centre for Asia in association with I&B ministry, restrictions on using high power equipment present a major difficulty.

Lack of training in handling equipment and creating programmes, inability to make strong content development, competition with mainstream commercial radio stations, limitation in airing advertisements and electricity failure are other hurdles, the compendium showed.

Activists say that women, tribal people, children, students, health workers and fishers could vastly benefit from CR, going by the experience of existing stations.

“With the arrival of CR, neglected groups have an opportunity for active participation in mainstream life,” says Chennai-based rights activist Mani Verma. “There has been, visibly, a revival of local culture and an increase in literacy rates.”

“For a thickly populated, predominantly rural country like India, reaching the masses and educating them is essential, and this can be achieved fastest by utilising CR effectively,” says P. Sajikumar, head of ‘Radio DC’ in Thiruvananthapuram.

A survey conducted by the DCSMAT School of Media and Business in this city found that there was a need to create awareness about CR and its capabilities. Often, the survey found, listeners failed to differentiate between CR and commercial radio.

“People tend to compare CR with commercial channels in every aspect,” the survey said. “Participation of listeners at every stage of production can be encouraged and importance given to young talent,” it suggested.

According to Venniyoor, the advent of mobile phones has given a fillip to CR because even the cheapest handsets come embedded with FM capability. “With digitisation, it may get even better. It will certainly get more interesting because of the explosive growth of mobile telephony.”

“Right now, however, we need to concentrate on getting licenses and setting up more stations,” Venniyoor said. “The government has promised support and we will just have to wait and see about actual implementation.”

*This story was produced with the support of UNESCO.

It is late afternoon and a group of men and women begin to converge under the shade of a huge mango tree in Yambio town, the capital of South Sudan’s western Equatoria state. The group is not gathering for an ethnic, political or religious meeting. They are here to listen to the radio.

A Let’s Talk listening group in Madhol Village in South Sudan. Credit: James Amuda/NDI

More specifically, they are here to listen to a community-based civic education programme on their local community station called Let’s Talk. It targets communities, and their leaders, to help promote dialogue on South Sudan’s political transition to an independent and democratic country.

And it introduces listeners to civic topics ranging from South Sudan’s transitional legal framework to strategies for combating corruption, and protecting children’s and women’s rights.
The 30-minute programme first hit the airwaves in January 2007 and uses a magazine format that includes drama, group discussions, and interviews to get its message across.

“The drama is used as a teaser segment that weaves rather complex issues or topics into the lives of characters in a fictional South Sudanese town of Jedida in a manner that is simple, humorous and more palatable to the audience. It helps ensure that the audience is entertained and informed about the topic of the day, but on a lighter note with lots of humour,” said Rehema Siama, Sudan Radio Service’s (SRS) scriptwriter for the programme.

Let’s Talk was created through a partnership between the National Democratic Institute (NDI) and SRS. It is broadcast in English, Arabic, and the two local languages of Dinka and Nuer. The programme is aired on a host of community radio stations including Sudan Radio Service, Bakhita FM, Radio Emanue, Naath FM and Nhomlau FM.

Today’s broadcast is an old one about defining free and fair elections. However, it has sparked the listeners’ apprehensions about a leader’s responsibilities. In addition to the programme, the NDI organises “listening groups” of ordinary people who gather across the country to listen to the programme and discuss its topics and themes and the impact on their communities, just like the group in Yambio.

“The session is intended to encourage democracy. If you get people together and they are able to tolerate each other’s views we believe it encourages democratic principles. We believe, in this way, people will learn to dialogue rather than to use violence to sort out issues,” said James Amuda, a programme officer at NDI.

After the broadcast in Yambio, James Gbakilingba, a listener in the group, talks about his concerns about the right to express one’s political views.

“For me, it is important that we talk to the people about political parties. We need to inform them what the views and objectives of each party are. And we need to inform people that the law allows anybody to belong to a party of his choice,” he said.

South Sudan is considered one of the most under-developed places in the world. And given the country’s vastness and biting poverty, coupled with its low level of literacy, radio is the surest way to reach the population.

In a country as remote as South Sudan, where there are only a few paved roads and many places can only be reached by air, and the airwaves, this community radio programme has been a hit.

“I think the Let’s Talk programme played a very instrumental role in the processes that led to the signing of the transitional constitution last July,” said Amuda. “We, as an institution working for democracy and good governance in South Sudan, realised that the process went well, but we realised that there was a lack of information among many people in the country about what was going on with the review. So we thought that it was important to inform people about what was happening with the constitutional review process in South Sudan.”

The programme is also helping disseminate information on new laws such as the Child and Land Acts. It is helping citizens to understand their roles in an independent country, Amuda said.

NDI has partnered with Free Voice Media to produce a new series of Let’s Talk. Marvis Birungi, a journalist involved in editing the features segment of the new programme, said there is still a need to address the information gap about the processes of democracy.

During last year’s review of South Sudan’s Interim Transitional Constitution, the Let’s Talk programme producers interviewed members of the technical committee to explain the review process and the role of citizens in it.

“So this programme will create awareness about the transitional constitution. Listeners will get to know the contents of that document. In addition, we know that a permanent constitutional review commission for the permanent constitution has been appointed, but the public need to know how they will participate in the review process,” Amuda said.

The new series will be piloted before the end of this month on four community radio stations: Radio Emmanuel in Eastern Equatoria state, Good News Radio in Lakes state, Radio Jonglei in Jonglei state, and Bakhita Radio in Central Equatoria state.

It will include a feature story, a short drama, a discussion segment, and a long interview with an expert or somebody who is knowledgeable about the particular topic.

“We know at the moment that the constitution contradicts certain customary laws. For example, the constitution says a woman has the right to have all the wealth of her dead husband but customary laws contradict this. So we will find someone knowledgeable about the constitution and somebody from the community with a cultural perspective, and they will discuss these issues,” said Amuda, about the new programme.

*This story was produced with the support of UNESCO.

Nancy Mweu, of Pamoja Radio, says she has been able to change the lives of women through her radio programme. Credit: Isaiah Esipisu/IPS

By Isaiah Esipisu
NAIROBI, Mar 12 2012 (IPS)

In a Kibera-bound mini-bus taxi, the driver changes the station just as he turns onto Ngong Road, kilometres away from the Kenyan slum. He tunes into Pamoja Radio 99.9 FM, a local community radio station that broadcasts only in Kibera.

“Wacha tupate ushauri,” the driver tells the passenger next to him in Swahili. Translated it means: “Let’s get some advice.”

“Whenever I tune in to Pamoja Radio, I learn something new, a new life lesson. They discuss family issues that are familiar to most of us, they address issues of unemployment, and mostly advocate for self-employment,” said the mini-bus taxi driver, adding that on the weekend he listened as a local young man explained how he had raised himself out of poverty using a loan from a microfinance institution.

It is mid-morning so local presenter Asmani Maringa is on the air, and the song emanating from the airwaves is one of the most popular Swahili songs in the country called “Umejuaje Kama si Umbea? ” or “How do you know it’s not gossip?”

It is from a music genre called Taarab, which is popular in Kenya and Tanzania.

As the song fades out, Maringa’s voice comes in re-introducing the theme of the day. “In case you have just tuned in, we are discussing peace in families. I want to understand why wives in some parts of the country have been battering their husbands of late,” he announced.

The topic, though emotive, leaves smiles on the faces of the passengers of the mini-bus taxi, or Matatu as they are locally called. The subject hit news headlines three weeks ago when a number of men from Nyeri in Central Province were hospitalised after their wives allegedly battered them.

“We use popular music genres to introduce subjects that promote peace among the residents of Kibera slum,” said Adam Hussein, the founder and managing director of Pamoja Radio.

“Apart from the news, all other programmes must have a theme for discussion, with a provision for listeners to contribute through phone calls, Facebook and short message services (SMS),” added the former journalist.

“Pamoja” is a Swahili word meaning “together”. The radio station was founded in 2007 to promote unity among those who live in Kibera and economically empower the youth here through education, information and entertainment.

The station is operated by nine volunteers from Kibera, and broadcasts over a radius of two kilometres.

Internews Network in Kenya, a non-governmental organisation that is dedicated to providing journalism training, has been instrumental in offering free instruction on the broadcast medium to the volunteers.

Following the post-election violence that rocked the country towards the end of 2007, the station had its work cut out for it trying to bring peace and understanding to the area. After incumbent President Mwai Kibaki won the elections, opposition candidate Raila Odinga’s supporters claimed electoral fraud. More than 1,500 people were killed in the resultant violence and over 500,000 displaced.

“Given that Kibera is in the constituency where Odinga comes from, it was one of the most volatile areas where houses were set ablaze, human beings were butchered, and properties were destroyed,” said Hussein.

At the time, the management of Pamoja Radio dedicated most of its airtime to peace messages broadcast in the various local languages represented in Kibera.

“We managed to quell the violence to some extent. We used to invite the most furious residents who were eager to express their opinions to the public through a channel like radio. We promised to give them airtime to do so. But upon arrival at the station, we put them through a short counselling session, after which we convinced them to go on air and preach peace to the rest of the community,” said Hussein.

As a result, Pamoja Radio has since developed programmes and activities geared towards promoting peace at the community and family level.

With support from the United States Agency for International Development, the station also sponsors football tournaments in Kibera “as a means of using sports as a tool to promote unity,” said Hussein.

Apart from sports, the station focuses on issues that affect the day-to-day lives of Kibera residents.

Nancy Mweu hosts a programme called Mwanamke ni Mwangaza, which is Swahili for “a woman is a source of light.” It is a live call-in programme with guests who are renowned members of society, or who have gone through particular experiences that Mweu feels need to be shared with other residents.

“Through real life experiences in the programme, I have been able to convince women that despite their state of poverty, they can still make it in life. That family planning works, and that being HIV-positive does not mean a death sentence,” said Mweu.

Habil Esiroyo Chitwa, a radio repairer in Kibera, is one such listener. He told IPS that until he listened to a programme on HIV in December 2011, he never bothered getting tested for the virus.

“My wife had been tested when she was pregnant, and she had turned out to be negative. But one day, a couple was invited to Pamoja Radio, where we learnt that the man was HIV-positive, while the wife was negative. But they had a kid. This got me thinking and as a result I had to go for the test despite the fact that my wife had tested negative,” said Chitwa.

*This story was produced with the support of UNESCO.

Since it first hit the airwaves more than 50 years ago, the University of the Philippines (UP)’s campus radio has evolved into a community broadcaster, serving as the voice of the people.

DZUP radio’s tower reaches communities outside the Philippines university campus. Credit: Kara Santos/IPS

DZUP 1602 Khz, the UP’s radio station, does not just air the voice of students and the academic community but also allows grassroots groups and the marginalised to use it as a platform for social change.

Josefina Santos, DZUP’s station manager, says the radio station started in 1957 as an “an experiment” of the UP’s college of engineering and the college of arts and sciences.

The station played a crucial role during the leftist unrest in the country and allowed students to voice their concerns during the years before the 1972 declaration of martial law by then president Ferdinand Marcos, cracking down on protests and agitations.

“Sometime in the late 60s until the 70s, before martial law, it really became the voice of the university and a dissenting voice of the people who really were for social change,” says Santos.

“When martial law was declared, one of the first stations that the military went after was DZUP. They destroyed all the equipment and UP went off the air,” says Santos.

In the 1980s, under the management of the UP’s college of mass communication DZUP was revived using an old transmitter borrowed from the Philippine Broadcasting Bureau.

Radio programmes focused on health, people’s rights and various other issues, provided an alternative perspective to mainstream media. There, however, were technical problems operating on a “very low-powered” transmitter.

“We didn’t have the financial support of the government at that time. It was so difficult. Sometimes just a clap of thunder would cut us off air,” recalls Santos.

“Every now and then, we had to borrow some parts from other stations just to operate DZUP… but still it became the voice of students and teachers at that time and we were able to generate support,” she adds.

When the UP was recognised as a public service university, DZUP was able to get the much needed financial support, and in 2010 it finally got a new transmitter capable of handling regular programming.

Now, broadcast communication students produce, write, and host the shows, while faculty members serve as executive producers and programme hosts.

Other departments also co-produce and air their own shows over the radio station. ‘Psych O’Clock Habit’ is a show anchored by professors from the department of psychology, while ‘That’s Entrep-tainment’ is run by the UP institute for small scale industries.

Similarly, ‘Itanaong kay Engineer’ (Ask the Engineer) is co-produced by the college of engineering; and ‘Abogado ng Bayan’ (Lawyer of the People) by the law college. Other programmes deal with health matters, economics, student concerns, sports and music.

The more powerful signals and wider reach beyond the campus opened up avenues for grassroots communities to come in.

DZUP is the only radio station with public service programmes that give a voice to ordinary people such as drivers, vendors and village leaders about concerns affecting the community.

The station works with a partner, Kodao Productions, a multimedia outfit that produces radio programmes and video documentaries on social issues in the country. Kodao Productions also provides training to community broadcasters.

“We conduct training for regional and sectoral organisations interested in putting up their own community radio stations or producing radio programmes to be aired in radio stations nationwide,” says Kodao’s director Raymund Villanueva.

Kodao is a member of the World Association of Community Radio Broadcasters, an alliance of about 5,000 community radio stations worldwide.

Kodao’s main public service radio programme, ‘Sali na, Bayan’ (Join us, Nation), broadcast over DZUP, Monday to Friday, from 2 to 3 pm is reserved for the marginalised sectors of society.

Villanueva says the universal challenge for community radio is financial difficulties due to its non-profit nature. Finding funds to pay for equipment, conduct training and maintain operations is a major hurdle.

Unlike other Asian countries like Indonesia and Nepal where “community radio stations define the news,” Villanueva says that the lack of legislation supporting community radio in the Philippines has been a hindrance.

“The government makes it very difficult for marginalised sectors to apply for permits to set up their own community radio stations.

“No one from the big stations generally cares for or consistently asks the marginalised sectors about what they think is happening in the country,” says Villanueva.

DZUP’s Santos agrees. “In ordinary radio stations, the masa (masses) will go there to ask for help. Here, the masa goes there to give their opinions, to give updates on what is happening in their community.”

While challenges remain for community radio, both Santos and Villanueva are optimistic that DZUP can provide a good platform for airing grassroots issues to a wider listenership.

The renovated facilities, new tower and transmitter now enable DZUP to broadcast on five kilowatts of power, expanding its reach throughout Metro Manila and nearby provinces.

The advent of the Internet has also allowed the station to expand its reach to include Filipino workers in various parts of the globe. Programmes, streamed online, are available through the Diliman Interactive Learning Centre under the UP.

“A portion of our current listeners in the United States is overseas Filipinos. We have overseas Filipino worker groups reporting from Hong Kong, Rome, Libya… They are able to listen to DZUP through live streaming,” says Villanueva.

DZUP is also turning to social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter and archiving episode for online reception.

*This story was produced with the support of UNESCO.

By IPS Correspondents
Mar 8 2012 (IPS)

Podcast by Catherine Wilson on Bougainville’s New Dawn community radio station which broadcasts to to nearly 50,000 listeners in Papua New Guinea.

[podcast]http://traffic.libsyn.com/ipsaudio/20120307_communityradio_wilson.mp3[/podcast]

By IPS Correspondents
Mar 6 2012 (IPS)

Nisaa FM is an almost entirely female-run Palestinian radio station based in Ramallah, West Bank and the only radio station in the Middle East devoted solely to women’s issues. Jillian Kestler-D’Amours asks director Maysoun Odeh Gangat what the radio station aims to achieve.

[podcast]http://traffic.libsyn.com/ipsaudio/20120306_community_jillian.mp3[/podcast]

The last broadcast antenna installed in Kingston in the 1990s by Power 106 FM, a subsidiary of the Jamaica Gleaner newspaper. Credit: Zadie Neufville/IPS

By Zadie Neufville
KINGSTON, Mar 3 2012 (IPS)

In the last 25 years, there has been an explosion of commercial radio stations in what Jamaican broadcast professionals describe as “a revolution” that has extended the “mobility of radio”.

Radio remains the island’s most effective and fastest growing communications medium. From four stations in the late 1990s, Jamaicans today are able to access more than 70 stations – 30 of them are owned and operated on the island.

Radio Jamaica‘s (RJR) Yvonne Wilks told IPS that the rapid growth in the number of radio stations is due primarily to two events: the deregulation of the local tele-communications sector in 1999 and the simultaneous but lengthy divestment of the state-owned Jamaica Broadcasting Corporation (JBC) and its three satellite stations.

The former opened the telecoms sector to competition and the rapid expansion of the mobile telecommunications and Internet sectors; and the latter gave birth in the 1980s and 1990s to new programming formats.

The more flexible licensing regime allowed programme producers to start their own radio stations and diversify their offerings. In the modern radio landscape, the stations offer a diet of music, religious broadcast, talk shows, news and information.

JBC’s original satellite stations have now evolved into KLAS FM Sports; Hot 102 FM – primarily a talk show format – and IRIE FM, a 24-hour reggae music station.

Divestment continued to stimulate the growth of radio stations in the 1990s as the original investors supplemented operational costs by “‘renting space” on their broadcast towers. This among other things, created a dynamic competitive market place by removing the costly investment needed for start-up.

Alongside the divestment, deregulation had fuelled a rapid increase in the use of cell phones in Jamaica. From 90,000 users in 1999 at the end of Cable and Wireless’s monopoly on telephone service, the number of cell phone subscribers had grown to an estimated 3.1 million active users in 2010.

After its April 2001 launch, the Irish mobile phone company Digicel grew its customer base by 100,000 in its first 100 days. Wooed by Digicel’s offerings of low-cost mobile telephones and instant connection, Jamaicans took to the new technology.

Today, the company reportedly has a customer base of more than two million active subscribers. The introduction of feature and smart phones have also revolutionised the way radio and TV are delivered.

The state-of-the-art outside broadcast (OB) units, once owned by only the richest station owners, have been replaced by a variety of tools including cell phones, laptops, wireless broadband modems, and wireless transmitters.

Obsolete too are the dedicated phone lines that were absolutely necessary if broadcasts were to be carried from locations outside the studio, and the costs associated with them, radio engineer Melvin Cummings told IPS.

“Set-up has been reduced to hours and in some cases minutes, instead of days,” the 16-year veteran of radio broadcasts noted, adding that beginning with the introduction of transistor radios, innovation has been rapid and non-stop.

Cummings agreed that the speedy pace of development in a climate created by the combination of communication technologies and equipment related to mobile phones, radio and computing often sees broadcast professionals playing catch-up.

It was RJR that first introduced mobile phones to live broadcasting. The technology helped the station to retain its number one status – usually the first to file breaking news – until the late 1990s when it was toppled by some of the very stations it enabled.

According to former broadcaster Michael Bryce, the introduction of mobile phones to live reports revolutionised broadcast radio. It enabled journalists to file reports faster and from places previously inaccessible to traditional transmission means.

Bryce, a member of the reporting team covering Nelson Mandela’s visit to Jamaica in 1991, explained that the team was able to transmit live along the entire route from the Norman Manley International Airport to the Mona Campus of the University of the West Indies via a mobile phone that had been “rigged into the mobile unit”.

The now head of Consumer and Public Affairs in the Office of Utilities Regulations further explained, “We had to say on air that we were speaking from places we wouldn’t have been able to transmit from before we got the phone.”

When RJR shut down Jamaica’s last functioning AM transmitter on Mar. 30, 2009, it completed almost two decades of transition which saw a move from the AM band to FM and digital broadcast.

RJR’s leadership in the development of local radio goes back to 1939 and the half-hour weekly wartime broadcasts made by John Grinan, via his ham radio from his home in Kingston. Radio VP5PZ – Grinan’s call sign- was renamed ZQI in 1940 and later Radio Jamaica.

Fast forward to 2001 when veteran radio talk show host Barbara Gloudon visited and beamed her show from New York, a month after the 9/11 terrorist bombing of the World Trade Centre.

Radio Jamaica’s Yvonne Wilks noted that the entire talk show was broadcast from Ground Zero via cell phone. It was, she said, an indication of how far the technologies had come and a demonstration of the continued interdependence between radio and telecommunication technologies.

“There has been a convergence of technologies that has helped to keep radio alive at a time when TV has become a dominant medium,” she noted.

Since its early beginnings, developments in tele-communications and radio broadcast have been inextricably linked. These days, it is not unusual to see live broadcasts being transmitted via a wireless broadband modem affixed to a laptop.

“Radio is no longer a box on the table,” Wilks added, pointing to the newest trends of listening to radio via cell phone, television, or Internet. Radio currently operates four (three on cable) and TV three radio stations under the banner RJR Communications Group.

But inspite of its reach and flexibility, local researchers note, that there has been a fragmentation of the markets, accompanied by a falloff in ownership of radio units and listenership.

Media specialist Marcia Forbes noted in an April 2010 article that radio has been losing its audience for years, falling from 1,763,000 in 1996 to 1,204,000 in 2000 – “almost a 30 per cent falloff over approximately 10 years”, she said.

Whilst the fragmentation of radio markets has been in attributed in part to the growth of alternative stations, Bryce notes that the alternative listening devices like mp3 players has resulted in a more selective audience.

Some believe that in certain respects, technology has pushed Jamaica backward, to a time when “nighttime radio was a playlist on a reel- to-reel”. As stations cut costs to stay competitive, the all-night disc jockey has virtually disappeared, to be replaced by a computerised play list; stations now depend on centralised news production teams and salaries are very low.

But in the words of one veteran, mobile technology has enabled broadcasters to be more responsive to their audiences and made coverage more immediate.

*This story was produced with the support of UNESCO.

By Inés Acosta and - -
MONTEVIDEO, Feb 29 2012 (IPS)

Uruguay took a giant step towards more democratic media when it passed a law on community radio broadcasting in 2007. But although regulations for the law were approved in late 2010, many broadcasters are now off the air and waiting to be assigned a frequency.

Community radio operator at La Cotorra. Credit: Courtesy of La Cotorra FM

“It establishes a community radio broadcasting sector which is assigned one-third of the radio spectrum in every frequency band,” he said. A draft decree on digital television being prepared by the government also “reserves one-third for community broadcasters.”

Martín Prats, head of the Honorary Advisory Council for Community Radio Broadcasting (CHARC) as the representative of the Ministry of Industry, told IPS the law “establishes a transparent process for assigning frequencies in different parts of the country, which is the stage we are at. It is a process that has just begun; the results will be more visible next year.”

Based on the law, a census was carried out in 2008 to assign frequencies to community radio stations that were already on the air. A total of 413 projects applied, but only 92 of them met the legal requirements.

This process ended in 2010, and it was only in 2011 that calls were opened for applications in different parts of the country to assign frequencies to radio stations that had not necessarily been on the air before.

Stations that apply – on the understanding they must not broadcast until they have been approved by the competent authorities – are scrutinised by CHARC, after which public consultations are held. If selected, they must wait to be assigned a frequency.

So far, calls for applications have been issued in five of the country’s 19 provinces, and the most headway has been made in Durazno, in the centre, Flores in the southwest and Lavalleja, in the southeast. In these provinces public hearings have already been held, and the stations are awaiting the assignment of frequencies.

“The plan is to finish the application process throughout the country this year. It’s a very gradual process,” said Prats. Only one frequency is made available in each geographic location, which “to a certain extent limits the aspirations of applicants,” but the political goal is “to regulate use of the spectrum.”

In 2013, “when the spectrum has been regulated, further calls for applications will be issued,” he said.

In March, public hearings will be held in the eastern provinces of Treinta y Tres and Cerro Largo.

José Imaz, of the Coalition for Democratic Communication and a member of the La Cotorra FM radio station in the Cerro neighbourhood of Montevideo, told IPS that “the law has set some very important precedents in terms of the democratisation of speech, which have been taken up in various decrees.”

But implementation of the application procedure “is excessively slow, and a major hurdle for future calls.”

Prats acknowledged there were administrative difficulties. “CHARC is an honorary body,” and therefore suffers from a “lack of resources,” he said.

Mega FM, a radio station in Vergara, a town of 4,000 people in the province of Treinta y Tres, had been broadcasting since 2008, one of the station’s members, Cristián Rodríguez, told IPS.

Two other community radio stations were also operating in Vergara. They all applied for frequency assignment and are awaiting a public hearing in March. “All three stations have shut down, they are all off the air,” Rodríguez said.

But “local people miss them, because Vergara is a small town and is accustomed to relying on the community radio stations,” he complained.

While it is unable to broadcast, Mega FM is posting on its web site videos of music concerts, sports events and other local activities on YouTube.

It is noteworthy that the Uruguayan law does not stipulate power limits for the frequencies, Kaplún said. “The limits will be set according to need and advisability.”

However, putting this guideline into practice raises difficulties. “The frequencies assigned in the first round are short range. Use of a 30-metre antenna and a power of 30 watts were established as general principles.”

In rural areas, where more wave bands are available and higher power is needed, “this general rule for frequency concession does not seem reasonable,” Kaplún said.

In contrast, in the capital city it is not easy to assign new frequencies on a spectrum that is overcrowded with private and public radio stations. “The spectrum should be redistributed, but this option was not chosen; instead, gaps in the spectrum are being used so as not to displace commercial and public broadcasters. This is untenable,” said Kaplún.

In Imaz’s view, the state should promote community radio stations and provide “economic aid for their installation, as well as distributing official advertising more widely to include community stations as well as commercial broadcasters.”

Prats said that in order to achieve “better implementation of the law, more economic and administrative resources should be allocated to CHARC.”

In future, he said, community radio stations “face a challenge: to be committed to playing a role in and for the community, without broadcasting political or religious propaganda.”

* This article was produced with the support of UNESCO.

Excerpt:

Uruguay took a giant step towards more democratic media when it passed a law on community radio broadcasting in 2007. But although regulations for the law were approved in late 2010, many broadcasters are now off the air and waiting to be assigned a frequency.

Community radio operator at La Cotorra. Credit: Courtesy of La Cotorra FM

Law 18.232 on Community Radio Broadcasting Service, promoted by civil society organisations, “is innovative and is regarded as one of the best of its kind,” Gabriel Kaplún, head of the degree course in communication sciences at the state University of the Republic, told IPS.

“It establishes a community radio broadcasting sector which is assigned one-third of the radio spectrum in every frequency band,” he said. A draft decree on digital television being prepared by the government also “reserves one-third for community broadcasters.”

Martín Prats, head of the Honorary Advisory Council for Community Radio Broadcasting (CHARC) as the representative of the Ministry of Industry, told IPS the law “establishes a transparent process for assigning frequencies in different parts of the country, which is the stage we are at. It is a process that has just begun; the results will be more visible next year.”

Based on the law, a census was carried out in 2008 to assign frequencies to community radio stations that were already on the air. A total of 413 projects applied, but only 92 of them met the legal requirements.

This process ended in 2010, and it was only in 2011 that calls were opened for applications in different parts of the country to assign frequencies to radio stations that had not necessarily been on the air before.

Stations that apply – on the understanding they must not broadcast until they have been approved by the competent authorities – are scrutinised by CHARC, after which public consultations are held. If selected, they must wait to be assigned a frequency.

So far, calls for applications have been issued in five of the country’s 19 provinces, and the most headway has been made in Durazno, in the centre, Flores in the southwest and Lavalleja, in the southeast. In these provinces public hearings have already been held, and the stations are awaiting the assignment of frequencies.

“The plan is to finish the application process throughout the country this year. It’s a very gradual process,” said Prats. Only one frequency is made available in each geographic location, which “to a certain extent limits the aspirations of applicants,” but the political goal is “to regulate use of the spectrum.”

In 2013, “when the spectrum has been regulated, further calls for applications will be issued,” he said.

In March, public hearings will be held in the eastern provinces of Treinta y Tres and Cerro Largo.

José Imaz, of the Coalition for Democratic Communication and a member of the La Cotorra FM radio station in the Cerro neighbourhood of Montevideo, told IPS that “the law has set some very important precedents in terms of the democratisation of speech, which have been taken up in various decrees.”

But implementation of the application procedure “is excessively slow, and a major hurdle for future calls.”

Prats acknowledged there were administrative difficulties. “CHARC is an honorary body,” and therefore suffers from a “lack of resources,” he said.

Mega FM, a radio station in Vergara, a town of 4,000 people in the province of Treinta y Tres, had been broadcasting since 2008, one of the station’s members, Cristián Rodríguez, told IPS.

Two other community radio stations were also operating in Vergara. They all applied for frequency assignment and are awaiting a public hearing in March. “All three stations have shut down, they are all off the air,” Rodríguez said.

But “local people miss them, because Vergara is a small town and is accustomed to relying on the community radio stations,” he complained.

While it is unable to broadcast, Mega FM is posting on its web site videos of music concerts, sports events and other local activities on YouTube.

It is noteworthy that the Uruguayan law does not stipulate power limits for the frequencies, Kaplún said. “The limits will be set according to need and advisability.”

However, putting this guideline into practice raises difficulties. “The frequencies assigned in the first round are short range. Use of a 30-metre antenna and a power of 30 watts were established as general principles.”

In rural areas, where more wave bands are available and higher power is needed, “this general rule for frequency concession does not seem reasonable,” Kaplún said.

In contrast, in the capital city it is not easy to assign new frequencies on a spectrum that is overcrowded with private and public radio stations. “The spectrum should be redistributed, but this option was not chosen; instead, gaps in the spectrum are being used so as not to displace commercial and public broadcasters. This is untenable,” said Kaplún.

In Imaz’s view, the state should promote community radio stations and provide “economic aid for their installation, as well as distributing official advertising more widely to include community stations as well as commercial broadcasters.”

Prats said that in order to achieve “better implementation of the law, more economic and administrative resources should be allocated to CHARC.”

In future, he said, community radio stations “face a challenge: to be committed to playing a role in and for the community, without broadcasting political or religious propaganda.”

* This article was produced with the support of UNESCO. (END)

By Milagros Salazar and - -
LIMA, Feb 29 2012 (IPS)

The Onda Rural communication for development initiative in Peru has come up with a range of strategies to get information out to remote villages, to help them with decision-making on questions like climate change adaptation or disaster preparedness.

Radio Pachamama is a community station in the highlands region of Puno. Credit: Radio Pachamama

But, he added, “they can help these communities have more information, to improve their practices and handle difficult situations better.”

Since 2004, AMARC, the Latin American Association for Radio Education (ALER) and the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) have been carrying out activities in several countries of Latin America that include communication for rural development and policy-making – in particular the Onda Rural communication for development project.

In Peru, the work has been carried out mainly through radio programmes in three southern highlands regions, Puno, Cuzco and Arequipa, usually as part of FAO projects involving agricultural activities in emergency situations, like floods, freezing weather, or drought.

“Our contribution is aimed at connecting issues that are important for these communities with different radio networks in the country,” Rivadeneyra said.

The programmes are broadcast in Spanish, as well as Quechua and Aymara, the two indigenous languages spoken in Peru’s highlands communities, located 3,400 metres above sea level and higher.

The activities are focused on the production of short radio programmes in which local peasant farmers talk about weather events and experts explain why they occur and what can be done to prepare for and deal with each specific emergency situation.

Workshops for journalists and radio producers are also held, to promote the inclusion of these issues in radio programming.

“Normally information and news arrive after emergencies occur,” Rubén Mori, coordinator of the FAO Emergency Rehabilitation and Coordination Unit in Peru, told IPS. “The workshops are a good way to get reporters interested in these issues, so they can inform the communities about preparedness and risk management.”

AMARC and ALER have also organised workshops on climate change and environmental protection in the same regions, where they have formed a network of allies.

Claudio Orós, producer of the Sisichakunaq Pukllaynin radio programme – the name means “game of the ants” in Quechua – that is broadcast by 12 stations in Cuzco, told IPS that one of the most important aspects of the workshops is the sharing of experiences with colleagues from other towns and regions, which helps to make it possible to respond better to the needs of rural communities.

The programme addresses the question of protecting the environment by keeping traditional knowledge and customs alive. And the target audience is primary school children.

Produced by Orós’s Pukllasunchis Association, the 15-minute programmes are used as a teaching tool for teachers in rural schools in the district of Lares, in Cuzco region.

Like a story-teller, the narrator describes different situations faced by local communities, speaking in both Quechua and Spanish.

“The people of Quishuarani believe the ancient Inca still live on in the oldest ‘quiwuña’ (Polylepis) trees in the community. These trees are taller and thicker and are respected by everyone,” the radio announcer says, describing the beliefs of the community and their respect for nature.

Quishuarani is a village in Lares that basically depends on agriculture and is located along an Inca trail in an area with a large variety of wild trees. Local native traditions are very much alive in the community.

The local radio station coverage of these issues promoted by Onda Rural has used different approaches and styles.

In the city of Puno, Juan Sotomayor, the administrator of the Pachamama (mother earth) 850 AM radio station, said the training workshops have enabled the station’s team of journalists to become familiar with new technological tools and formats, and especially to adapt local questions to social and political contexts of a national scope.

Sotomayor said the radio station, which also broadcasts online, reaches the entire region, and 80 percent of its programming has an educational focus and is tailored for rural audiences.

Although the impact of these communication strategies has not been assessed, the organisations behind Onda Rural and the journalists involved say the local population is increasingly interested in the programmes, and is keen on participating.

But the effort has also run into obstacles.

Rivadeneyra said several activities have come to an end because the projects “are limited and have a modest budget.

“The state should support this kind of initiative, but it regrettably has weak participation in communication for development, and even more so in the areas of agriculture and the environment,” he said.

For that very reason, the project for an early warning system for weather events developed in highlands towns in Arequipa, Cuzco and Puno came to an end in spite of its impact and innovativeness.

Communication played a key role in that initiative: local residents trained to read the data from the weather stations set up in their villages relayed the information to the government’s national meteorology and hydrology service.

The national meteorology and hydrology service in turn processed the data and placed it on a special web page available to radio stations, which used it to produce early warning messages.

Unfortunately, the project ended in April 2009, Rivadeneyra said.

Mori explained that FAO funds have an end date, because they are principally related to emergencies. But he also said that since 2010, the United Nations agency has been working to link these initiatives with development projects that the local authorities can take control of.

While these challenges are tackled, the organisations have new projects up their sleeves.

FAO is working on a national agricultural risk management and climate change adaptation plan that will have to be disseminated among the communities, while AMARC is involved in the production of radio programmes to help indigenous people in the Amazon region of Ucayali deal better with floods.

* This article was published with support from UNESCO.

Excerpt:

The Onda Rural communication for development initiative in Peru has come up with a range of strategies to get information out to remote villages, to help them with decision-making on questions like climate change adaptation or disaster preparedness.

Radio Pachamama is a community station in the highlands region of Puno. Credit:Radio Pachamama

“Neither radio nor television will change the way of thinking or the traditional way of life in highlands communities,” Carlos Rivadeneyra, the World Association of Community Radio Broadcasters’ (AMARC) representative in Peru, told IPS.

But, he added, “they can help these communities have more information, to improve their practices and handle difficult situations better.”

Since 2004, AMARC, the Latin American Association for Radio Education (ALER) and the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) have been carrying out activities in several countries of Latin America that include communication for rural development and policy-making – in particular the Onda Rural communication for development project.

In Peru, the work has been carried out mainly through radio programmes in three southern highlands regions, Puno, Cuzco and Arequipa, usually as part of FAO projects involving agricultural activities in emergency situations, like floods, freezing weather, or drought.

“Our contribution is aimed at connecting issues that are important for these communities with different radio networks in the country,” Rivadeneyra said.

The programmes are broadcast in Spanish, as well as Quechua and Aymara, the two indigenous languages spoken in Peru’s highlands communities, located 3,400 metres above sea level and higher.

The activities are focused on the production of short radio programmes in which local peasant farmers talk about weather events and experts explain why they occur and what can be done to prepare for and deal with each specific emergency situation.

Workshops for journalists and radio producers are also held, to promote the inclusion of these issues in radio programming.

“Normally information and news arrive after emergencies occur,” Rubén Mori, coordinator of the FAO Emergency Rehabilitation and Coordination Unit in Peru, told IPS. “The workshops are a good way to get reporters interested in these issues, so they can inform the communities about preparedness and risk management.”

AMARC and ALER have also organised workshops on climate change and environmental protection in the same regions, where they have formed a network of allies.

Claudio Orós, producer of the Sisichakunaq Pukllaynin radio programme – the name means “game of the ants” in Quechua – that is broadcast by 12 stations in Cuzco, told IPS that one of the most important aspects of the workshops is the sharing of experiences with colleagues from other towns and regions, which helps to make it possible to respond better to the needs of rural communities.

The programme addresses the question of protecting the environment by keeping traditional knowledge and customs alive. And the target audience is primary school children.

Produced by Orós’s Pukllasunchis Association, the 15-minute programmes are used as a teaching tool for teachers in rural schools in the district of Lares, in Cuzco region.

Like a story-teller, the narrator describes different situations faced by local communities, speaking in both Quechua and Spanish.

“The people of Quishuarani believe the ancient Inca still live on in the oldest ‘quiwuña’ (Polylepis) trees in the community. These trees are taller and thicker and are respected by everyone,” the radio announcer says, describing the beliefs of the community and their respect for nature.

Quishuarani is a village in Lares that basically depends on agriculture and is located along an Inca trail in an area with a large variety of wild trees. Local native traditions are very much alive in the community.

The local radio station coverage of these issues promoted by Onda Rural has used different approaches and styles.

In the city of Puno, Juan Sotomayor, the administrator of the Pachamama (mother earth) 850 AM radio station, said the training workshops have enabled the station’s team of journalists to become familiar with new technological tools and formats, and especially to adapt local questions to social and political contexts of a national scope.

Sotomayor said the radio station, which also broadcasts online, reaches the entire region, and 80 percent of its programming has an educational focus and is tailored for rural audiences.

Although the impact of these communication strategies has not been assessed, the organisations behind Onda Rural and the journalists involved say the local population is increasingly interested in the programmes, and is keen on participating.

But the effort has also run into obstacles.

Rivadeneyra said several activities have come to an end because the projects “are limited and have a modest budget.

“The state should support this kind of initiative, but it regrettably has weak participation in communication for development, and even more so in the areas of agriculture and the environment,” he said.

For that very reason, the project for an early warning system for weather events developed in highlands towns in Arequipa, Cuzco and Puno came to an end in spite of its impact and innovativeness.

Communication played a key role in that initiative: local residents trained to read the data from the weather stations set up in their villages relayed the information to the government’s national meteorology and hydrology service.

The national meteorology and hydrology service in turn processed the data and placed it on a special web page available to radio stations, which used it to produce early warning messages.

Unfortunately, the project ended in April 2009, Rivadeneyra said.

Mori explained that FAO funds have an end date, because they are principally related to emergencies. But he also said that since 2010, the United Nations agency has been working to link these initiatives with development projects that the local authorities can take control of.

While these challenges are tackled, the organisations have new projects up their sleeves.

FAO is working on a national agricultural risk management and climate change adaptation plan that will have to be disseminated among the communities, while AMARC is involved in the production of radio programmes to help indigenous people in the Amazon region of Ucayali deal better with floods.

* This article was published with support from UNESCO. (END)

Cleaning up a stream that used to be a garbage dump and restocking it with fish, or helping demobilised far-right paramilitaries reintegrate into society by returning to school, are some of the early outcomes of a project involving community radio stations in a remote area of northwest Colombia.

The project is called “Con-vivencias al dial: Radios para el encuentro” (roughly, “tuning in to shared experiences: radio stations bringing people together).

These social and environmental success stories stand in stark contrast to the long history of violence in the municipality of Tierra Alta, in the province of Córdoba, which has claimed countless victims, including Sergio Restrepo, a Jesuit priest killed by paramilitaries in 1989, after whom the community radio station that is a part of the project is named.

The agreement for the demobilisation of paramilitary groups, negotiated by the government of rightwing president Álvaro Uribe (2002-2010) and paramilitary commanders, brought about an improvement of the general situation.

But “there is still tension in the local area, and it will take 10 or 12 years to eradicate it, by developing educational and employment programmes, especially for young people,” Víctor Pantoja, a member of the programming committee for the Sergio Restrepo radio station, 105.0 FM in Tierra Alta, told IPS over the telephone.

“It’s also true that the messages of ‘Con-vivencias al dial’ are beginning to have an impact,” he said enthusiastically.

Of course, the initiative will not reach all 56,000 paramilitaries demobilised over the past decade, nor all of the victims of the armed conflict in this war-torn country.

But it is teaching radio production and broadcasting skills while producing 120 10-minute programmes that will be distributed to the radio stations participating in the project.

The plan was instigated by the Ministry of Information and Communications Technologies (MINTIC) and the Colombian Agency for Reintegration (ACR) – the government agency in charge of demobilisation and reinsertion strategies – with support from the Japanese fiduciary fund managed by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO).

“The Japanese fund contributed 113,000 dollars, the ACR 150,000 dollars and the ministry 130,000 dollars,” María Fernanda Ardila, the deputy director of methodologies, monitoring and evaluation at MINTIC, told IPS.

“The main goal is to provide tools for community radio stations to support social reinsertion processes and play the role of mediators in bringing about peaceful coexistence,” Esmeralda Ortiz, a journalist who has worked in community radio since 1990, told IPS.

Ortiz, who works in the Ministry of Culture, has been coordinating the project, which is to last one year, since August 2011.

“The Ministry of Culture’s mission is to create contents that are consistent with the social reality of the specific cultural contexts in the different regions, and programming that strengthens nationality, identity, social participation and democracy,” said Ortiz.

To develop the plan, 20 municipalities were selected out of 1,067 studied, with a particularly violent history resulting from the forced displacement of persons and later mass demobilisation, in the context of the decades-long war in Colombia between leftwing guerrillas and government forces and their paramilitary allies.

The municipalities are located in the provinces of Atlántico, Bolívar, César and Magdalena, in the northern Caribbean region; Antioquía, Córdoba, Sucre and Santander, in the centre and northwest; and Casanare, Huila, Meta, Cundinamarca and Tolima, in the east, centre and west of the country.

Participants in these 20 municipalities are developing their skills and capabilities, in order to produce the radio programmes on their own in the future.

In the municipalities of Soledad and Planadas, in Atlántico and Tolima provinces, respectively, the main goal is to discourage young people from joining illegal armed groups.

The community radio station participating in the project in Soledad is Madrigal 88.1 FM Stereo, and in Planadas it is Musicalia Stereo 106.0 FM.

“The radio programme has been very, very, very useful. The skills training courses are very interesting,” Efrén Silva, an observer for the NGO Cruzada Social (Social Crusade) in Planadas, told IPS over the phone.

“This project is like a light for us, because we have been living in the midst of war here since 1940, and we have been perpetually afraid of saying anything,” Silva said.

Planadas is in the south of the western province of Tolima, near the Cañón de Las Hermosas, a remote river canyon taken over by the insurgent Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC). It was in this area that the Colombian army killed the top FARC commander, known as “Alfonso Cano”, in a military operation in November 2011.

“I would say that 60 percent of the population of about 40,000 people has come together because of the project. Women, children, teachers are all participating, and many musicians come here once a week to make music and entertain people,” said Silva.

“People are so keen on the project that one member of a community action group walks for two hours to get to Planadas, because, he says, he is convinced of the importance of the work that can be done through the radio station,” said Ortiz, the coordinator.

“I am surprised by the mass participation of young people in most of the municipalities. But the thing is that local people want not only music, but also to know what is happening in the country, and to find out about ways of solving their problems without violence and with respect for different ways of thinking and doing things, and there is a great deal to be done in that area,” she said.

Once the radio programmes are made, in addition to distributing them to the community stations, “we will take them to be broadcast by the national police radio station, university stations, and as many other stations as possible,” said Ortiz.

“We have so many stories to tell about people who used to be armed combatants, but who are now working for the community,” she said.

“For example, in Montes de María (a mountain range in the northern provinces of Sucre and Bolívar) former combatants are clearing minefields, and demobilised women are now running soup kitchens for the elderly,” she added.

* This story was produced with the support of UNESCO.

Nisreen Awwad moves closer to the microphone as she signs off to her listeners, the words “Nisaa FM: music, change, success” displayed prominently over her left shoulder.

Nisaa FM radio’s morning show host Nisreen Awwad. Credit:Jillian Kestler-D’Amours/IPS

“The thing I love (most) in my programme is when I interview simple women from the villages, because they are successful and (are doing) something different in their society,” the 31-year-old radio producer, a native of the Qalandiya refugee camp in the occupied West Bank, tells IPS.

Host of the daily morning show on Nisaa (Women in Arabic) FM, Awwad explains that positively influencing the roles women play in Palestinian society, and changing the way Palestinian women view themselves, is what she strives for.

“I got involved here because I believe in the message of the radio station, and I wanted to make (a difference for) women in our society. Nisaa FM, I think, it’s something different,” Awwad said. “I like how my work in Nisaa FM makes me involved more in women’s issues.”

Launched in June 2010, Nisaa FM is an almost entirely female-run Palestinian radio station based in Ramallah, West Bank and the only radio station in the Middle East devoted solely to women’s issues. Its director Maysoun Odeh Gangat says that the station aims to inform, inspire and empower local women.

“Through the positive role that the women are playing in the society that we portray, we believe that we can empower women economically and then socially and politically. It could be any woman from the rural areas or the refugee camp, or a woman parliamentarian or minister,” Gangat told IPS.

In addition to suffering from a myriad of human rights abuses stemming from Israel’s occupation of the West Bank and siege of Gaza, Palestinian women face challenges from within their own society.

According to a 2009 report released by the Palestinian Women’s Information and Media Centre (PWIC) in Gaza, 77 percent of the women in Gaza had experienced some form of violence; 53 percent had been exposed to physical violence and 15 percent to sexual abuse.

In 2008, the Ramallah-based Arab World for Research and Development (AWRD) research centre found that 74 percent of survey respondents did not know of any organisation working on women’s rights. Some 77 percent of respondents also said that they supported enacting laws to protect women from domestic violence.

“This is a patriarchal society. This is a male-dominated society, so the change should come by addressing males, as well,” Gangat said, explaining that engaging Palestinian men on women’s issues is important to the station.

She added that talking about difficult issues – such as polygamy, divorce, abuse, early marriage, and poverty – and the ways in which women can assert their rights in these areas, is necessary for change to occur.

“Women were inspired by the fact that we bring some people or experts on issues that are contentious and negative. We’ve had some women calling and asking us, ‘Which organisation did you interview?’” Gangat said.

With hundreds of permanent and flying Israeli checkpoints throughout the West Bank, and with the Gaza Strip almost entirely sealed off, Palestinians are forced to deal with restrictions on their freedom of movement every day.

This difficult reality, combined with social and economic limitations within Palestinian society itself, makes radio stations like Nisaa that much more important, Gangat said.

“Radio can be accessible to all women in remote areas and it’s a very cheap and simple medium. I believe when women talk about their experiences in the Gaza Strip, they can pass it on to the women sitting in the West Bank, and vice versa,” she explained.

“Nisaa FM connects them together. Through the airwaves, we connect them together and they have a voice, a platform, which they can share and they can talk about their experiences.”

Today, the station’s impact is starting to be felt on the ground.

“(We) have been receiving hundreds of calls from workers who ask for clarifications about their rights after hearing the discussion on the radio,” wrote U’nwan Al-A’amel (“The Worker’s Address”), a Jenin-based organisation that protects Palestinian workers’ rights, in a press release.

“This only shows the great efficiency of media, and the speed and ease it offers in delivering information to a targeted group,” said the press release published in the Al Quds newspaper earlier this month.

In recent months, U’nwan Al-A’amel representatives have been invited to discuss issues related to workers’ rights under Israeli laws during Nisaa FM’s morning show.

“The working women in the agricultural branch in the Jordan Valley have also started to organise in groups and create committees that care to defend their usurped rights,” the group’s statement continued.

Presently, Nisaa broadcasts online and can be heard on the radio in the northern West Bank, Ramallah and Bethlehem. Finding a frequency to reach Hebron, the rest of the southern West Bank and the Gaza Strip, is the station’s next priority.

In the meantime, however, morning show host Awwad said the main focus remains changing local perceptions, and breaking through gender-based stereotypes in Palestinian society.

“Every day I interview unique and successful women. (In) the feedback, we always hear something nice, something different. We always hear, ‘Oh my God. You talk about these women… where (did) you find them?’” Awwad told IPS.

“Most of the time (women) are strong, (and) they can make the change. That’s what I hope.”

*This story was produced with the support of UNESCO

Irman Meilandi unhesitatingly attributes the return of birds, wildlife and the forests around his hilly village of Mandalamekar in West Java province to conservation advice streaming in over community radio.

“Thanks to Radio Ruyuk (meaning scrubland), the people of Mandalamekar have adopted a campaign to replant deforested areas and conserve forests around the village,” says Meilandi, referring to the yet to be licensed community radio station that specialises on environmental issues.

Broadcasting on FM 107.8 megahertz, Radio Ruyuk goes on air at 6 p.m. and signs off at 11 p.m. Its programmes discuss organic farming, herbal plants and medicines and village infrastructure, all in the local Sundanese dialect.

“Radio Ruyuk was designed to encourage local people to pay attention to the condition of the village’s forests and wildlife,” says Meilandi, co-founder of the Mitra Alam Munggaran (Nature’s First Partner) or MAM, a social movement concerned with shrinking water supply in Mandalamekar, a seven-hour drive from Jakarta.

Established in 2002 by a dozen local residents, the MAM movement started out by organising public discussions, distributing leaflets and putting up posters, urging people to protect the forests around the village.

While MAM was able to get local officials to ban the harvesting of rattan, hunting, and cutting down trees in protected forests, cooperation from local people was initially missing. Many were involved in tree felling and cultivation on lands designated as water-catchment areas.

Radio Ruyuk has been organising, on Sunday evenings, a live talk show from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. on various environmental issues confronting the 718-hectare village. The hosts and participants are mostly farmers and small traders, working voluntarily.

The issues discussed include tree-planting activities, with MAM activists occasionally joining in to explain local policies or provide updates on the status of Indonesia’s forests.

Indonesia, one of the world’s most densely forested countries along with Brazil and the Democratic Republic of Congro, saw extensive deforestation through the last century. Its estimated forest cover of 170 million hectares in 1900 was halved by the beginning of this century.

“The MAM programme aims to raise local people’s awareness and stimulate a sense of responsibility toward the environment,” says village chief Yana Noviadi. “We wanted more people to be aware of the dangers of deforestation and to participate in replanting.”

Radio Ruyuk, which hit the airwaves for the first time in October 2008, is run by the Mandalamekar Community Broadcasting Council, which manages the radio station with Meilandi serving as its secretary.

“In the beginning, Radio Ruyuk focused on environmental issues, the link between the shrinking of river waters and deforestation in the area and also local forest-related policies,” says Noviadi.

In 2008, a year after he was elected village chief, Noviadi declared forest conservation as one of his official programmes, further boosting people’s participation in tree-planting activities.

By 2011, Mandalamekar had replanted a total of 118 hectares of deforested area, including some 40 hectares located around water sources, and before long the volume of water flowing into the village’s rivers had increased.

“Paddy fields that once lay fallow are now irrigated and farmers grow paddy all year round,” says Meilandi, adding that Mandalamekar has 34 hectares of irrigated paddy fields.

“More importantly, stories of local residents picketing water irrigation structures or quarrelling over water resources are unheard off now,” Meilandi says.

Noviadi concurs with Meilandi, saying that he had heard stories of farmers setting up traps to discourage people trying to divert water. “While these are now told in a joking manner, they were disturbing,” Noviadi says.

Since 2008, local officials have made it a policy to ask every visitor to the village to plant trees in designated areas. “We want their support for our programme. The idea is to instill environment awareness among visitors so they can do the same in their villages,” Noviadi says.

By law, community radio is limited to a radius of two-and-a-half km, but Radio Ruyuk is received in six districts with a combined population of more than 10,000 people.

“A neighbouring district head once phoned in with a request for a talk on steps that can be taken at the grassroots level to conserve forests. When we asked where he was calling from, he replied that he was at a gathering of village heads in his district who were waiting to hear us over the radio,” Noviadi said.

Mandalamekar’s conservation efforts have not gone unnoticed. For two consecutive years, in 2009 and 2010, it won the prize for the best self-financed village forest management programme at the regional level. It was also runner-up at the provincial level in 2010.

“To the best of our knowledge, the regional government never made any assessment of our forest management, but I guess they listen to Radio Ruyuk,” Meilandi says.

Meilandi himself claimed the 2011 Seacology Prize for his efforts to preserve the environment and culture of Mandalamekar. “They told me that I was chosen from among candidates in 46 countries,” Meilandi says.

Seacology, a non-profit with headquarters in Berkeley, California, focuses on preserving island ecosystems and cultures around the world.

“Winning awards has never been our goal,” Meilandi said. “We take pride in the fact that we were able to replant deforested areas with our own resources, without external help,” he says.

*This story was produced with the support of UNESCO

(END)

MCRS, a government-approved community station, is one of a handful of localised radio stations providing China’s minorities with news and entertainment in their native languages. Presently, local state-run stations serve five out of 46 ethnic minorities and all programming is approved by the state.

[podcast]http://traffic.libsyn.com/ipsaudio/20120320_communityradio_tibet.mp3[/podcast]

Community radio stations in Chile continue to call for a legal framework that would allow them to operate without restrictions, because although a specific law was passed nearly two years ago, it has not yet entered into effect.

Web site of the Amanecer radio station in Caldera, Chile. Credit: Courtesy Radio Amanecer

Community radio stations began to mushroom in Chile in 1990, when the 17-year-old dictatorship came to an end, although there were stations operating since the 1970s.

“We started out with the idea of an alternative media approach, outside the official line, talking about the things that were really happening to people in poor areas,” the president of the National Association of Community and Citizen Radio Stations of Chile (ANARCICH), Alberto Cancino, told IPS.

Today 420 community radio stations are operating in this South American country of 17 million people, and 300 of them belong to ANARCICH.

Others receive support from the World Association of Community Radio Broadcasters (AMARC) or organisations like the Red de Medios de los Pueblos (Network of People’s Media), which also includes TV stations and alternative newspapers.

One of the most emblematic stations is Radio Amanecer of Caldera, a port 800 km north of Santiago in the arid region of Atacama. Founded in 1993 by the city’s association of neighbourhood councils, the station covers labour, social, cultural, environmental and religious issues and broadcasts at FM 93.7 and on the internet.

The first major crackdown on community radio stations occurred in mid-1991, driven by the powerful Association of Radio Broadcasters of Chile (ARCHI), which represents the large private stations.

“Their aim was to close us down because we weren’t legal, even though there was no law against us…There was persecution and some stations were shut down. They called us ‘media terrorists’,” Cancino said.

The first regulatory framework, passed in 1994, defined community radio stations as “limited range stations” and penalised stations that broadcast without a permit.

According to the community stations, the 1994 law had flaws and shortcomings involving both financing as well as coverage, because it limited the stations to one watt of broadcasting power.

A new law, on Free to Air Community and Citizen Radio Broadcasting Services, was passed in May 2010. But it has not gone into effect.

The biggest hurdle is that all of the radio stations that have been given a permit must move from the category of “limited range” to community stations, and in order to do so they must show that they belong to a non-profit organisation. Municipal and university stations are thus excluded.

The deadline to complete the process was originally Feb. 14, but ANARCICH secured an extension until November. The Undersecretariat of Telecommunications will then decide which radio stations will be given a permit – a process that could take six to 10 months.

The new law expands the limit on broadcasting power from one to 25 watts, the height of the station’s antennas from six to 10 metres, and the length of the concessions from three to 10 years.

But it assigns only five percent of the available FM broadcast frequencies to community stations – the last portion on the dial, between 105.9 and 107.9. It also keeps in place a ban on advertising that means the stations can only finance themselves by means of ads for businesses located within the station’s range.

While some see the law as a step forward, others say it does not represent a significant improvement.

“Community radio stations are now recognised, but with many restrictions that have to do with the assignment of broadcasting spectrum, the power with which they can operate, and problems of supporting themselves, of financing, and of location on the dial,” Perla Wilson, the vice president of the AMARC Latin America chapter’s Women’s Network, told IPS.

Cancino, on the other hand, says the law is “our great pride today…it may be limited, some people say it is bad, but it is a law that was passed specifically for community radio stations, and that didn’t exist before.”

Wilson said Chile is one of the few Latin American countries with legislation that makes broadcasting without a licence by community radio stations a crime punishable by prison, which is an attack on freedom of expression, according to United Nations and Organisation of American States special rapporteurs.

The origin of the problem, in Wilson’s view, lies in the concept that the broadcasting spectrum, sound waves and frequencies can be privately owned, when they are really “a public asset and should be distributed on the basis of social development criteria.”

Chile should follow in the footsteps of other Latin American countries, like Argentina, which reserves one-third of the broadcasting spectrum for community radio stations, Wilson said.

Laws on community radio stations passed in Uruguay and Colombia, recognition of community stations in the new constitutions of Bolivia and Ecuador, and citizen participation in the drafting of the law in Argentina all serve as examples of how Chile’s legislation could be improved, she added.

Under these laws, the state’s authority is limited to administering the radio spectrum, based on the view that access to radio frequencies should not be subject to major restrictions.

“We are pushing for a broad debate on the production of audiovisual services,” Wilson said. “Chile’s communications laws are piecemeal and fragmented. This law, as it stands, is not applicable.”

But in Cancino’s view, the previous law was “so bad, and at least now there is a new law of a kind that never existed before.”

Both Cancino and Wilson stress the importance of community radio.

In the district of Peñalolén on the east side of Santiago, the Encuentro 107.3 FM radio station is operated by an association of the same name, dedicated to narrowing the digital divide and promoting digital literacy by bringing information technology and telecommunications to different neighbourhoods.

The station, founded in 1998, has links to other non-profit projects, such as a network of community telecentres, computer courses, and primary and secondary school classes for adults.

The community radio movement demonstrated its influence in the 2011 student demonstrations held to demand reforms of the educational system – the largest wave of protests since the return to democracy in 1990.

“In 2011, we had enormous production of independent programming aired in a cooperative manner,” said Wilson.

“We kept open channels, principally in support of the student movement…the community radio stations will always be present to let people know what is happening,” Cancino said.

In November 2011, when the protests had been raging for six months and Congress was just a few hours away from approving the budget for 2012, the students and community and citizen radio stations provided 30 hours of continual programming.

The aim was to support and bring visibility to the social actors committed to the educational reform movement, and at the same time strengthen community radio stations.

In Wilson’s view, “the communication barrier was broken down by the charisma of the student leaders who drew the attention of the large media outlets. But community stations, local stations and social networks also helped break it down.”

“All of that came together in a way of communicating by the social movement that is obviously based on our history (as community stations),” she said.

* This article was produced with the support of UNESCO.

No road leads to Motuo County. There is no post office or newspaper. But, for the 10,000 residents of one of the planet’s remotest corners, a local radio station serves as the vital link to the outside world.

The Motuo County Radio Station (MCRS), broadcasting daily on FM 106.0 megahertz in the Tibetan language, is one way that the residents of China’s “island on the plateau”, mostly Monpa or Lhoba ethnic minorities learn of events outside the isolated county.

“It’s one of the main ways that we keep in contact with the outside world and know what is happening to the rest of China,” says Ai an ethnic Tibetan who works as a technician at the station.

“MCRS is the main channel for those who can’t speak Mandarin to learn what is going on outside the county,” Ai adds, asking that only his family name be used.

Founded in 1982, MCRS, which is government-approved, is one of a handful of localised radio stations providing China’s minorities with news and entertainment in their native languages. Presently, local state-run stations serve five out of 46 ethnic minorities with a population over 10,000.

Located on the southeast corner of the Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR), Motuo – which means “hidden and mysterious lotus” in Tibetan – is cut off for approximately half the year by ice and snow.

Apart from translating news and entertainment shows from China’s national stations (China National Radio, China Radio International and China Central Television), MCRS produces news and information programmes that directly affect the largely rural Motuo community.

“As it’s so remote, the radio programmes help to fill knowledge gaps for local farmers,” says Ai.

Agriculture is Motuo’s mainstay. “The agriculture programmes are mainly instructive, for instance teaching the farmers how to fix their machinery. They are eager for higher levels of technical skill,” says Ai.

For farmers working on the region’s isolated mountains, the station provides daily entertainment, radios being both cheap and portable.

Though it has been running for 20 years (with government funding), keeping the station alive is a challenge. “The conditions in which our station runs are poor… we have five to six staff and only some received training from outside provinces,” says Gao Jianling, director of MCRS.

Because of the remote location of Motuo, other media such as newspapers are too expensive to produce and distribute. “But conditions still don’t permit us to set up our own programmes,” says Gao.

As with all national media in China, the radio waves are controlled by the powerful Communist Party of China.

Failure to adhere to the rules set out by the watchdog State Administration of Radio, Film and Television – which bans discussions on democracy, the Dalai Lama, Taiwanese independence and references to the Tiananmen Square protests in 1989 – invites heavy punishment.

In 2008, an ethnic Uyghur woman, Mehbube Ablesh, 29, was removed from her post at Xinjiang People’s Radio Station and detained for apparently criticising the local government.

According to Radio Free Asia (RFA), which is supported by the United States government and broadcasts news to nine Asian countries with restricted media, Mehbube has not been heard of since.

Despite the censorship, radio is being utilised by news organisations and activist groups to deliver news to oppressed communities in China.

Spaces such as RFA and TibetOnline.tv – which are blocked in China but are accessible via a proxy server – host news bulletins in the Tibetan and Uyghur languages.

The East Turkestan Independence Movement – a separatist group advocating an autonomous East Turkestan, currently incorporated into Xinjiang province – hosts two radio stations on their (also blocked) website.

“(Tibetans do not) get news stories of events happening in other parts of Tibet that they simply didn’t know about, until they hear from us,” Dan Southerland, executive editor at RFA, tells IPS over phone from the U.S.

RFA broadcasts in three Tibetan dialects, Uke, Amdo and Kham, and while they cannot be sure how many listeners they have within the TAR, Southerland says the number is “significant”, with most listeners picking up broadcasts via satellite, despite the government’s efforts to block signals.

“We try to let people know what’s happening and try to get it accurate, which is very difficult,” says Southerland. “Our sources are quite often frightened, they talk to us for two minutes and then they hang up. A monk was arrested simply for telling people he was listening to RFA.”

“The thing that’s missing in coverage by state media,” says Southerland, “is that you can’t talk about Tibetan culture without talking about Tibetan Buddhism and the Dalai Lama.

“It’s a campaign (by the Chinese government); monks are being forced to renounce him. We report on the Dalai Lama. When he travels, we try to be there. Listeners tell us: give us more of the Dalai Lama, we want to hear his voice. It’s very touching.”

The Internet is one space that groups marginalised by mainstream Chinese culture are beginning to broadcast over. “Our radio station acted like a think tank for our audience,” says Xiaodai, an ethnic Uyghur from Ürümqi, Xinjiang province, requesting that only his first name be used.

In 2008, his non-government organisation founded the Colourful Xinjiang Gay Love Broadcast (CXGLB) – without seeking government approval – in response to the conservatism of state-run media.

Though CXGLB relied heavily on volunteers, it broadcast daily gay-themed programmes between 10-11pm online for nearly a year. But with the outbreak of rioting in Xinjiang in July 2009, a spooked Beijing cut off the region’s access to the Internet, and the station folded up.

(With additional research by Qiu Cheng)

*This story was produced with the support of UNESCO

“Welcome to Krishi (farming) Radio. You are listening to FM 98.8 megahertz and I am your hostess Shahnaz Parvin,” the local community radio crackles over the mobile phones and transistors of residents in coastal Barguna district.

Amal Chandra Sarker shares farming experiences over community radio. Credit: Naimul Haq/IPS

Parvin introduces her guest of the evening, Amal Chandra Sarker, 40, a farmer who has a story to tell about how he reaped a good harvest from growing a new variety of saline-resistant pulse, developed by Bangladeshi scientists.

During a 10-minute discussion Sarker tells avid listeners, most of them farmers, how he coaxed the ‘mugh’ harvest from soil that lay abandoned for years because of saline ingress.

“I learnt from the agriculture information service that ‘BARI-6’, a newly developed mugh variety, had excellent saline resistance and so I took a chance,” Amal said, as phone-in discussions continued.

The daily, two-hour evening programme is designed to address the many problems that farmers commonly face in these parts, particularly tidal flooding and salt ingress that have forced thousands to abandon traditionally arable lands.

Since November 2011, when Krishi Radio began broadcasting expert advice, hope has been building up that a good portion of abandoned land in six coastal districts can be recovered for farming.

Krishi Radio anchors regularly discuss best practices and encourage farmers to stay put on their lands in the face of climate change impacts that are already being felt.

The United Nations Inter-governmental Panel on Climate Change predicts that 17 percent of deltaic Bangladesh would be submerged by seawater by 2050 and several million people forced to migrate away from the coastal zone.

Some 75 percent of Bangladesh’s 145 million people depend on agriculture for a living, making authorities sensitive to events or situations that disrupt farming.

“We advice farmers on how best to use their land in the face of increasing salinity that is causing huge economic losses in the coastal region,” said Zakia Sultana Baby, an agriculture officer who also pays regular field visits to farmers.

“Such visits and demonstrations can now be reduced as we explain every aspect of cultivating a new crop during our live discussions over radio,” she told IPS.

“Agriculture is the worst affected by this silent killer (climate change) and so we thought relaying special programmes to farmers would be an excellent idea,” says Mohammad Sharif Iqbal, station manager of Krishi Radio.

The local agriculture department started out by organising a series of awareness programmes, distributing leaflets, posters and public announcements to inform the largely fishing and farming community about the new radio service.

Mohammad Haroon, a local farmer says: “I cultivated ‘BINA-7 dhan’, a saline resistant rice variety, successfully. I was encouraged to grow the new rice variety after I heard fellow farmers on Krishi Radio say they too got a good harvest from it.”

More than 100 local farmers in the district belong to a club that regularly tunes in to Krishi Radio and participates in live discussions.

“It was a challenge initially, but soon the response picked up and inquiries started streaming in about our programmes,” said Jahangir Alam, project director of the radio station, located some 340 km from the capital Dhaka.

Alam told IPS: “The radio station was sorely needed in this remote area where access to information is limited and electricity supply erratic so that watching television programmes regularly is out of the question.”

Alam said it helped greatly that mobile phones come with FM radio. “So, Krishi Radio programmes now reach over 60 percent of target audiences in a 17- km radius.”

In fact, the programmes have become so popular that from next month onwards the station, now manned by a team of ten people, plans to be on air for an extra four hours divided over the early morning and mid-afternoon.

“Although it is called Krishi Radio, and meant primarily for farmers, there are programmes that address social issues like health, family planning, fishing, education, adolescent needs, human rights, nutrition and legal matters,” Sharif said.

Krishi Radio also has plans to serve the fishing community that operates out of the Kua Kata harbour about 25 km away.

“This is one area that we want to concentrate on. When the sea suddenly turns rough the fishers’ lives are in danger. Keeping this in mind we regularly transmit special weather bulletins advising fishers to follow safety precautions,” said Atiar Ferdous, 24, a volunteer.

Financed by the Food and Agriculture Organisation, the radio station was set up on land donated by the local council of Amtali village and at a cost of about 300,000 dollars.

“The community radio’s growing popularity is owing to the fact that it really serves the needs of the rural poor people,” Salauddin Ahmed, union council chairman of Amtali village, told IPS.

A total of 14 such community radios are now on the air in Bangladesh, each focused on local needs and grouped under an umbrella called, Bangladesh NGOs Network for Radio and Communication.

*This story was produced with the support of UNESCO

Scene in north Bougainville Credit: Catherine Wilson/IPS

By Catherine Wilson
PORT MORESBY, Feb 13 2012 (IPS)

It was the decade-long civil war in the autonomous Bougainville region that inspired the founding of New Dawn FM, a community radio station recognised for contributing to the rebirth of civil society and development.

In 2001, a peace agreement ended a devastating conflict triggered by the destructive legacy of the foreign-operated Panguna copper mine. All radio broadcasting infrastructure on the island was destroyed during the war, which claimed 20,000 lives.

After Bougainville was granted autonomy in 2005, former broadcasting journalists overcame logistical hurdles to launch PNG’s first community radio station.

“Our biggest challenge starting New Dawn FM was actually finance, as we were just coming out of the crisis and we had no money,” recounted Aloysius Laukai, manager of the station. “But we received some assistance through UNESCO and the German government and we started the radio.”

The international funding paid for studio equipment and a transmitter.

According to the World Association of Community Radio Broadcasters, AMARC, ‘community radio is not about doing something for the community, but about the community doing something for itself.’ For many provincial communities separated by mountains and dense rainforest in Papua New Guinea (PNG), self-sufficiency is a necessity.

This is reflected in PNG’s strong community radio sector which dominates commercial radio services across the country. The National Information and Communications Technology Authority confirms that nationwide there are 62 licensed commercial radio stations and 133 community radio stations.

Today Bougainville has a population of approximately 300,000. New Dawn broadcasts in English and ‘Tok Pisin’, the lingua franca, to nearly 50,000 listeners across northern Bougainville and has plans to expand coverage to the central town of Arawa.

PNG’s National Broadcasting Corporation (NBC) operates in the autonomous region as well.

“New Dawn broadcasts during the day 18 hours, while NBC broadcasts just about 12 hours per day,” Laukai said, explaining the differences.

New Dawn also has a news blog accessible where there is mobile network coverage in Central and South Bougainville. This is a significant communication service to rural areas lacking basic public services.

The station prioritises community empowerment, local current affairs and supports reconciliation. It uses live broadcasts of reconciliation ceremonies and landmark events taking place in different parts of the province to build inter-community trust where once there was bitter division.

“We cover a lot of activities the government is doing for peace and reconciliation,” Laukai explained. “If there is a happening, like an inauguration in Arawa, we broadcast from there to our listeners on Buka Island. Because our aim is to make sure they are in tune; North Bougainville is in tune with what is happening in South Bougainville.”

Another challenge is addressing the generation that missed out on education during the conflict and many ex-combatants who feel excluded from mainstream society.

‘We are working with World Vision (an evangelical relief and development umbrella organisation) now on an education project of adult learning programmes,” Laukai said. The station will begin broadcasting to adult learners throughout Central Bougainville this year.

Following ten years of peace, development is the next priority, especially for 97 percent of Bougainville’s population that lives in rural areas. New Dawn encourages farmers to seek and share knowledge via the airwaves.

“We have had problems with cocoa pod borer in the last year,” recounted Laukai, “Many (farmers) cut off their trees and planted new ones. But one farmer did his own experiment in removing shade trees, chasing the insects away with sunlight.” The story helped recover production.

In other areas of social development, the community broadcaster has been drawing on the power of international collaboration.

In 2010, it initiated a programme design workshop with the Commonwealth of Learning – an intergovernmental organisation tasked with increasing access to education in developing Commonwealth countries – Bougainville’s ministry of community affairs and non-government organisations (NGOs).

An important outcome of the workshop was ‘Bougainville Women Today’, a community-based learning programme addressing women’s health issues such as teenage pregnancies as well as malaria.

To actively involve the community, “we have established listeners’ clubs, like women’s groups,” Laukai elaborated. “They come and we design the programmes. Every time we broadcast a programme, we put it on a CD and we send it out to these listeners’ clubs. Then they listen to them at their own location and at their own timing.”

The pioneering broadcaster has faced challenges, although lack of media freedom is not one.

“Since we started, we haven’t encountered any problems, even from the government or from the members,” Laukai stated. “We feel like we are free to do what we are doing, but we must be responsible reporters.”

The media in PNG operate in a self-regulatory environment. The 1989 censorship act sets general standards of broadcasting, but media laws are enabling and follows national policy that states: “All people have the right to be dynamically involved in the processes of their own development and should have the opportunity to participate in communication processes at all levels.”

The main challenge was financial. “Since we started, we were really struggling to run the station,” Laukai admitted. “In 2008, we got some funding after we covered the funeral service of the late president and the local government gave us Kina 50,000 (24,125 dollars). Last year, they gave us a grant of another 24,125 dollars. But we are building our own capacity.”

Some revenue is generated by broadcasting parliament sessions and giving members time on air for questions.

According to Helen, a listener who works with a local development NGO, “the government programme is very helpful. We learn what the President and his government are doing. Many people we work with want to know what the government is doing on the island, so we can tell them.”

Word of New Dawn’s achievements spread and, in 2009, it received the Communication and Social Change Award from the University of Queensland, Australia.

This year the station is set to make a significant contribution in the national election. At a recent meeting between the electoral commission and national media, the station put forward a proposal to use frontline short messaging service or SMS technology, which it has used in operations since 2011, as a tool in preventing election fraud.

“We really introduced a good network which the whole of PNG can use to monitor the election,” Laukai proudly claimed.

*This story was produced with the support of UNESCO.