[cr-india] GOVERNMENT KEEN TO ENCOURAGE COMMUNITY RADIO

[Alokesh Gupta]

Press Information Bureau, Govt. Of India - Press Releases
Ministry of Information and Broadcasting
Wednesday, May 05, 2004

GOVERNMENT KEEN TO ENCOURAGE COMMUNITY RADIO
14:19 IST
The Government is keen to encourage community radio and has already opened access to
community radio for communication to well established educational institutes.
Inaugurating the two day workshop on Designing and Enabling Framework for Community
Radio in India jointly organized by the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting and
UNDP and UNESCO here today, Shri Pawan Chopra, Secretary, Ministry Information and
Broadcasting said that the opening up of radio as a medium of community
communications reflect the responsiveness of Government to the voices who believe
that improvement of communication at community level was essential for the rapid and
homogeneous growth.

Sh. Chopra said that limited spectrum and growing number of players in the field of
broadcasting had to be kept in mind while evolving new policy initiatives aimed at
popularizing community radio. Another issue of concern for the Government is security
as community radio can also be used as a mode to fan disruptive activities. He said
the development paradigm in India has always placed great importance on mass media as
an agent of public service and social change but pitfalls and constraints have to be
born in mind while encouraging expansion community radio.

In his comments, CEO Prasar Bharti Sh. K.S. Sarma said the expansion of community
radio would supplement the public broadcasters" efforts to reach to the masses and
meet their aspirations. He said public broadcaster can help the prospective community
radio operators with providing technical and infrastructure know-how.

The Workshop provided a platform to share the experiences of other countries and
organizations and to come out with a policy framework that takes into account all the
issues. The basic purpose of the Workshop is to study and share the experience of
other stakeholders about successful community radio frameworks and practices as well
as to identify and brainstorm on key issues of concern while formulating a national
policy framework on Community Radio in India.

The participants include Shri W. Jayaweera of UNESCO, Dr Maxine Olson, UN Resident
Coordinator and UNDP Resident Representative, Prof. M. Tawfik, Director and UNESCO
Representative, Shri Brijeshwar Singh, Director-General, All India Radio, Shri Bharat
Koirala from Nepal, Shri Peter Rice from South Africa, Shri Ashish Sen of VOICES, Dr
R. Sridher of Anna University, Shri K. R. P. Verma, CMD, BECIL, Shri Giles Tanner
from Australia and Shri Rakesh Kakar of TRAI.

(From Ministry of Information and Broadcasting-PIB Mailing List)

Regds,
Alokesh Gupta
New Delhi, India.



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