[cr-india] TRAI Open House in Delhi - first impressions

[Arun Mehta]

Two issues need urgent attention. Mr. Baijal explained why he needed a clear definition of community radio: they are charging license fees, entry fees, spectrum fees etc to the private sector. They are likely to move over to revenue sharing, but aren't yet there. In order not to charge community radio these fees, a clear distinction is needed. Now, what kind of definition can we live with? The kind that does not exclude any genuine entity wishing to start a community radio station?

Second intruiging possibility, we can claim, for community radio, public broadcaster status. That way, we get access to reserved frequencies, and other benefits that government seeks to secure for Prasar Bharati. Do we want to try for that now, or wait until community stations are stable?

Anyway, community radio definition first, and for good measure, of public service broadcasting.

At http://www.rabe.ch/kulturradio/kulturradio_eng.html I found


    Definition of a community radio    (in accordance with www.amrac.org)

    Community radios ...

    1. ... promote the right to communication and facilitate the freedom of speech, encourage creative and diverse statements and contribute to a democratic process and a pluralistic society.

    2. ... provide education and production possibilities and are responsible for the transmission. They encourage local creative talents, cultivate local traditions and broadcast an entertaining, educational and development promoting programme for its listeners.

    3. ... secure the ownership of the radio in a way, that it is owned by local representatives of a visible community or an interest community.

    4. ... are editorially independent of governments, trade, religious institutions and political parties in the compilation of their radio programme.

    5. ... make sure that marginalised groups and minorities have access to the radio and secure as well as promote cultural and linguistic diversity.

    6. ... make sure that the listeners receive information on the base of multiple sources and points of view and allow space for opposing points of view from each person or organisation.

    7. ... are organisations, which work on a non-profit basis in order to maintain their independency and are financed by a multitude of donors.

    8. ... recognise and respect voluntary work and acknowledge the right of paid work for organisational matters and for the elaboration of working structures, which are beneficial for all people involved.

    9. ... elaborate management forms, programme structures and working conditions, which rule out any discrimination and are accessible to all people involved, employees and voluntary helpers alike.

    10. ... maintain communication with other community radios in order to promote and raise understanding on peace questions, tolerance, democracy and development.

http://encyclopedia.thefreedictionary.com/Public%20service%20broadcasting says

Public service broadcasting (often abbreviated to PSB)

A public service broadcaster is not broadcasting for commercial ends but rather aims at social betterment. For this reason, PSB is often incompatible with commercial stations. For the same reason, it is often seen as being overly paternalistic in nature.

Perhaps the most famous example of a "public service broadcaster" (in theory if not in practice) is the BBC.

There is no standard definition of what PSB is exactly, although a number of official bodies have attempted to pick out the key characteristics. The Broadcasting Research Unit lists the following:

    * Geographic universality - that the stations' broadcasts are available nationwide, with no exception ..
    * Catering for all interests and tastes ...
    * Catering for minorities - much as above, but with racial and sexual minorities etc. ...
    * Concern for national identity and community - this essentially means that the stations should in the most part commission programmes from within the country, which may be more expensive than importing shows from abroad.
    * Detachment from vested interests and government - in other words, programming should be impartial, and the stations should not pander to the desires of advertisers or government. In practice however, such impartiality is questionable, even with the BBC. ...
    * One broadcasting system to be directly funded by the corpus of users ...
    * Competition in good programming rather than numbers - quality is the prime concern with a true public service broadcaster. ...
    * Guidelines to liberate programme makers and not restrict them - in the UK, guidelines, and not laws, govern what a programme maker can and cannot do, although these guidelines can be backed up by hefty penalties. 

Arun
> ------------Original Message------------
> From: sajan venniyoor <venniyoor at rediffmail.com>
> To: cr-india at sarai.net
> Date: Mon, Oct-18-2004 3:21 PM
> Subject: [cr-india] TRAI Open House in Delhi - first impressions
>
> Dear all,
> 
> The TRAI Open House discussion on CR just got over, and I’ll share some 
> first impressions with you. (I’m sure Ashish of OneWorld or someone 
> else will bring out a more detailed report by and by).
> 
> The meeting was fairly well attended – we counted some 26 heads (not 
> including two commercial FM operators) - OneWorld, Charkha, I4D, Sruthi, 
> Radiophony and a few others. TRAI was represented by Pradip Baijal 
> (Chairman), Rakesh Kacker (Advisor), Dr.DPS Seth (Member, TRAI) and AK 
> Bhatnagar (Advisor). There were also a few AIR Engineers in attendance. 
> 
> The four major issues that were discussed were (1) Eligibility criteria 
> (2) Licensing process (3) Funding and (4) Regulation and monitoring.
> 
> Pradip Baijal flagged the one central issue as far as TRAI is 
> concerned: with a new policy being framed for commercial FM, how does one 
> distinguish between commercial and community FM? TRAI wants to make a clear 
> distinction between commercial operators and community radio in terms of 
> area of coverage, transmitter power, foreign funding, advertisement 
> revenue and a host of other parameters. Otherwise, as Mr. Baijal says, 
> sooner or later someone will encroach upon the other’s territory and the 
> whole thing will land in court. “Give me figures that I can use,” he 
> said.
> 
> We have discussed these issues before, and even worked out some 
> figures, but we may have to tread warily around the territory being claimed by 
> commercial operators. And they claim the whole lot: the Radio Mirchi 
> team grandstanded all the way, and they seem determined not to concede a 
> single hertz of the spectrum without a fight.  
> 
> Of course, other issues were also debated at length (for instance, 
> eligibility criteria, where TRAI went along with the suggestion that 
> eligibility criteria should be kept open, and similar criteria should apply 
> that already apply to other media like print and TV.) 
> 
> TRAI has asked us to go through the Issues for Consultation once again, 
> work out some plausible figures for CR, and send our recommendations 
> without delay. Otherwise, it is pretty clear that they will do so 
> unilaterally. 
> 
> Vickram was here in Delhi to attend the TRAI meet. I hope someone in 
> Mumbai organizes a fair crowd on 20th Oct. Good luck.
> 
> Sajan. 
> 
> 
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