[cr-india] FEATURE: India learns from SAfrica's experiment with cradio

[Frederick Noronha]

INDIA LEARNS FROM SOUTH AFRICA'S EXPERIMENT WITH COMMUNITY RADIO

By Frederick Noronha

UDUPI, South India: This country which prides itself as the 'second largest
democracy in the world' is learning a lesson or two on deploying radio from
the young nation of South Africa.

This distant nation, that emerged from Apartheid barely a decade back, has
useful lessons on how community radio could be a powerful tool in countries
where poverty and illiteracy are still un-vanquished enemies.

"Community radio is definitely more accessible than public or commercial
radio. People at the grassroots can go to the station and say, 'This is what
we want'," says Johannesburg-based Institute for the Advancement of
Journalism radio department head Jacob Ntshangase.

Ntshangase was visiting India, where he helped in a camp meant to promote
community radio, in this small educational town on the country's west coast.
Campaigners in this country have been campaigning, so far unsucessfully, for
the past half-decade and more to legalize community radio. 

Ntshangase's IAJ works to partner the University of the Witwatersrand,
primarily to enhance journalists skills. They also support training in
neighbouring countries like Swaziland, Zambia, Zimbabwe and Lesotho. 

Ntshangase believes that if South Africa could make community radio work in
a decade, so could India. Possibly more easily.

"Community radio came out of efforts of media activists, and part of the
gust of the liberalisation of the airwaves, around 1994, with the
installation of a democratically-elected government," says he. 

"There were prophets of doom who said 'Give them a month and they
(community-run radio stations) are going to collapse.' But they were made to
eat their hat," says he.

Ntshangase offers insights into how community radio manages to retain its
independence while still being critical of the powers that be, and about the
functioning of the broadcasting authority. 

Citing case studies of successful and not-so-successful community stations
in his part of the globe, he passes on a message -- during a Ford
Foundation-supported workshop -- that the same is possible here too.

Radio Maritzburg in Kwazulu-Natal, the first licensed station in 1995, is
fading away, he believes. Bush radio, started illegally, has proven to be
very successful, he says. Others like Radio 786 in Cape Town are religous
stations. 

(Bush Radio's logo shows a broadcaster carrying a transmitter and literally
running -- a hint of its not-so-legal origins, which later compelled the
reluctant authorities to issue it a licence!)

Ntshangase told a surprised audience, in this country of 1000+ million, that
South Africa itself -- which has less than one-twentieth the population --
itself has about 120+ radio stations. 

India itself has long been fairly closed over radio broadcasting, and only
in the past couple of years has been opening up to commercial FM, while
there are plans for building up educational radio in this country.

Hoping for an eventual opening-up, campaigners like Ntshangase and local
lobbyists discussed issues like frequency plans, regulation of licences,
allotting limited frequencies to different claimants, and the like. 

"What is making community radio powerful in South Africa is that it is
accessible to the people. It's closeness to the people is making it more
strong," says Ntshangase.

Ntshangase had a few tips for campaigners here. 

Community radio had to take into account the dialects of the local
communities. "South Africa has 11 official languages... it's a crazy
country," he pointed out. 

If that's so, India might rate higher, having 18 officially-recognised
national languages and some 1652 mother tongues (of which 33 are spoken by
over a 100,000 people).

He suggested that campaigners "need to be united and speak with one voice"
before they could get governments to realise the relevance and importance of
legalizing community radio. And he spent time focussing on the economics,
and need for sound-management training, for community radio. 

Some radio stations in South Africa have been studied internationally for
different reasons. These include Soul City focussing on health and women's
rights, Radio Zibonele run out of an old container truck, Bush Radio which
is sometimes called "the mother of community radio in Africa", the Rural
Women's Movement-founded Moutse Community Radio, among others. 

All these were recently featured in 'Making Waves', a report to the
Rockefeller Foundation, on using communication for social change (published
2001).

Recent reports from South Africa point out that for decades, during the
apartheid era, South African radio stations were divided along racial lines
and the media industry was used as a tool of propaganda. 

But now, the airwaves are undergoing a dramatic transformation. Racial
divisions are fading as wealth changes hands in South Africa. (ENDS)

NOTE: Jacob Ntshangase can be contacted via email jacob at iaj.org.za, or tel
11 484 1765/6/7/8 and the IAJ's website is at http://www.iaj.org.za