[cr-india] Fw:Community Radio campaign

[Alokesh Gupta]

>From Mike Terry via "DXLD" -

Regds,
Alokesh Gupta
New Delhi, India.
----------------------------------------
25.05.2004

The community radio movement has grown worldwide over the last 30 years
establishing a new tier of broadcasting that is challenging the traditional
public and commercial sectors.

http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2004/05/292182.html

But just as community radio in the UK is starting to finally get a foothold,
intense lobbying from the commercial sector to restrict community radio
could limit its growth and even possibly kill it at birth.

Community radio is characterised by public access to and public
participation in radio production - the management of a community radio
station is in the hands of its listeners and users.

Community radio's emphasis on participation allows listeners to become
involved in their station to a degree not possible with local public or
commercial stations. Community radio breaks down the traditional divide
between broadcaster and listener. With community radio, the listener can
become the broadcaster and get engaged in the production of media and in the
process of communication.

Community radio can also bridge the communications divide in other ways.
Radio is a cheap, established and effective communications medium and is
able to reach the poorest communities in the most remote of localities -
poor communities in the North as well as the South, from marginalised
populations on the fringes of urban environments to small rural communities
in remote locations.

In Europe, community radio has largely grown out of the pirate radio
movement and many former pirate stations are now completely legal. In
Germany Radio Z is one of the oldest free radio stations being founded in
1984 and starting broadcasting in 1987, and now the community radio stations
are sharing their programmes in an internet archive for non-commercial use.

Whileas the media law in Germany principally supports community radio with
the demand for "diversity of opinions", and "programs have to contribute to
literacy, education, culture and entertainment" and "that significant
political, social and philosophical groups are to be given a say, too", the
main difficulties for community radios lies in insufficient funding.

Some like Radio Patapoe in Amsterdam and Contrabanda FM in Barcelona remain
unlicensed in continued opposition to legal restrictions. In this country
Radio4@ recently celebrated five years of broadcasting no-budget community
pirate radio in Brighton despite several attempts by the DTI to take them
off the air over the years.

In North America community radio has developed as a licensed service in the
main, though a few community stations are deemed illegal due to the
restrictive regulatory framework and a lack of available frequencies - see
Free Radio Berkeley and San Fransisco Liberation Radio. The Microradio and
Low Power FM projects have also played a part in developing community radio
in the US.

In Latin America, the community media sector has grown in the last fifty
years to become thousands of radio stations. In the 1980's, there were only
a handful of independent radio stations in Africa - now hundreds of
community broadcasters are on air. Asia is now starting to open up - Nepal
has been a shining example in South Asia where there are now seven community
radio stations on air and fifteen more that are about to start. Countries in
South-East Asia, the Phillipines in particular, have had a strong tradition
of community broadcasting that continues to grow. Community media is all
over the world in every continent but not yet in every country.

In the UK, community radio is under attack just as it is getting
established. The UK Government's Access Radio pilot scheme has seen 15
community radio stations broadcasting - including Resonance FM in London -
successfully for over two years now. Recently the creation of a £500,000
Community Media Fund has been announced to help finance the community
sector. However, the Commercial Radio Companies Association (CRCA), a
powerful industry-sponsored lobbying agency, is seeking to stifle the growth
of community radio by arguing for a regulatory framework that would bar
certain areas in the UK from having the right to set up a Community Radio
station. In other areas, Community Radio stations would not be able to carry
advertising and sponsorship at all - thus depriving them of much-needed
income.

More information on the campaign to promote community radio in the UK and
oppose the commercial lobby can be found here
http://www.commedia.org.uk/campaign/index.htm




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