[cr-india] no consensus at TRAI Open House

[sajan venniyoor]

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No consensus on community radio norms at Trai open house  

FINANCIAL EXPRESS
Posted online: Tuesday, October 19, 2004 at 0000 hours IST 

NEW DELHI:  The open house session on community radio on Monday failed to arrive at a consensus on whether there should be separate sets of rules for commercial and non-commercial segments, or if advertisements should be allowed in non-commercial operations. Community radio hopefuls attending the open house, organised by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai), could not even define the space for the segment. The only point where there was a consensus was content. Both private FM radio officials and potential community radio representatives agreed that news and current affairs must be permitted across networks. 

At present, news and current affairs programmes are allowed only on All India Radio (AIR). Even as an expert committee and later Trai recommended news and current affairs programmes for private FM radio, the government is yet to take a decision on the issue. 

The open house session here on Monday was a follow-up on the consultative paper on community radio, which was issued by Trai in August. According to Trai officials, the recommendations on community radio are likely to be ready sometime next month. 

Among the issues discussed at the session were definition of community radio, need for separate policies for commercial and non-commercial radio, managing spectrum, independent licensing body, simplification of licensing process, transmitter power and antenna height, funding, advertising, etc. 

One of the suggestions at the open session was that the concept of licensing should be removed. Also, that clearances to community radio station could be granted by a local body like the district collector, rather than moving from one ministry to another. The fact that AIR is sitting on a lot of frequencies also came up for deliberation. 

According to Trai chairman Pradip Baijal, the community radio space must be defined so that encroachment is prevented. The only private FM radio representative at the session was from Entertainment Network India Ltd (ENIL). An ENIL official pointed out that those who are paying hefty amounts as licence fee (read private FM) cannot be equated with non-commercial stations. So, there’s no case for community radio stations carrying ads, he said.