[cr-india] reply to sateesh by sreedher circulated

Thu Nov 15 10:59:54 IST 2007

Reality check.

I do not think that anyone - no-one on this list, and certainly not anyone else commenting on the subject in the media - has ever said that the current CR stations are not doing their job. 

It is very painful to see that the government policy is having the effect of driving a wedge between the pioneers who theorised, fought and implemented CR in all its forms that exist in India today. I am not surprised, however, since divide and rule is a lesson we have imbibed with our mother's milk in India, though probably none of us are old enough to have personally witnessed its worst effects. Instead of wasting our energy in fighting each other, please let us focus on the entity who is causing us this pain, and has been doing so for nearly 60 years without even the excuse of being a colonial conqueror.  I have been personally and directly involved for over seven years now, far too long for such a simple issue - allowing people a voice in a democracy.  However, since I am also involved in several issues on other fronts, meaningful franchise for instance,  please take my word for it that radio is just one more arrow in the quiver.

As a technologist, or with qualifications that give the pretense of being one, please allow my analysis. The non-broadcasting options being availed by many today (including DDS) result in higher TCO (total cost of ownership), but the results have been heartening - even costs on the higher side are acceptable in many cases. Why the government persists in introducing such artificial costs, we can argue, but it is just one more irritant of life. Even the broadcasting criteria are unnecessarily onerous in many cases (of course there are some situations where they are acceptable). 

My point about the non-broadcasting solutions is that they demonstrate (the highest quality of learning) the variety of methods by which CR proves valuable. 

A long, long time ago, I did a rough back-of-the-envelope calculation that the capacity for local Indian FM (in the Indian and ITU agreed spectrum) exceeded one million stations (shall we call them nodes? to avoid the issue of the form), based on 100 stations per 5-km circle (for those who came in later, it avoided all water bodies and land near the country's borders, out of a sense of reality). As I now know, the practical number is actually 72 broadcast nodes per 5 km circle, not 100, so the total comes down from over 1.25 million to 900,000, or one node per 1,250 population roughly (based on July population estimates). More than enough space, don't you think, for us to focus on our work and forget about those who are doing their best (at whose bidding? why even ask?) to divide us, and restrict the target to 1,000, 6,000 or any other foolish number.  Especially since the non-broadcast nodes actually *increase* this target, and do not detract or
 subtract from it. 

Vickram
http://communicall.wordpress.com
http://vvcrishna.wordpress.com

From: sreedher ramamurthy <r.sreedher at gmail.com>
Date: Nov 6, 2007 9:58 PM

Subject: Re: [cr-india] cr-india Digest, Vol 47, Issue 7
To: periyapatna satheesh <satheeshperiyapatna at yahoo.com>
Cc: sajan venniyoor <
venniyoor at gmail.com>, Rukmini Vemraju <rvemraju at col.org>

 Dear Sateesh

 I am pasting the clip to which I objected to :

 As per the law existing in the country, and the GOI's CR policy does not differentitate between the CR stations set up various stake holders.

 There is no denying the fact that the community must own the radio station. All the present steps are milestones in the desitred direction.

 Sajan Venniyoor is one of the members of the screening committee of the GOi. Having accepted their membership of the committee, he has no business to comment on the existing CR stations situated in campuses. May be the stations in Delhi are bad examples and everyone wants to show case them to prove their point. Delhi is not India and you will definitely agree to it. 

 CR policy the worldover differes from country to country. Most of you are not aware of certain existing radio stations doing more or less the same service that DDS has been doing. They might have been inspired by your work. Seeing is believing. Branding all the existing stations as not CR stations even though the govt has given them license under CR policy, is not in good taste. 

 You have been a pioneer in CR movement in the country and I admire you and the group for constantly raising the issue.  Try your best to remove the CR stations from the CR policy and let the cabinet announces another Campus radio policy. Till such time these stations will work under the guidelines given by the government. 

 Sajan is very well aware of the screening committe deliberations and soon the GOI will be issuing licenses to civil society organisations. Knowing fully well of the fact he cannot say no one has been given a license. It may be a fact at that time of writing but it is not a true statement. 

 If you do not recognise CR stations in institutions it is your will. But if you represent CR movement in the country, as long as the law permits, the existing stations must also have a say in the forum. Otherwise your views expressed and communitcated to Government and media are only one sided. That is my view. 

 I am greatly pained to see that everyone closes their eye to the good work done by some stations and brand them as useless quoting some institutions in Delhi as a model. 

 regards sreedher

 sajan venniyoor <venniyoor at gmail.com> wrote: No community radio stations are operating in India as yet, though 27 educational institutions have operational campus radio stations according to the Ministry of Information & Broadcasting -   
http://mib.nic.in/CRS/web_status_old_scheme030807.htm. We are not sure how many of them are actually broadcasting programmes. 

 In his speech at the recent State Information Ministers' Conference, SIMCON-XXVI, the I&B Minister claimed that, under the new CR guidelines, "permission has been grated to five organizations".  This is not true. Five applicants under the new guidelines have been given Letters of Intent, of which four are Universities and one is an 'autonomous organisation of the Ministry of Youth Affairs & Sports, Govt of India'. Not one is a civil society or voluntary organization.   
http://mib.nic.in/CRS/WBSTNS030807.htm

 To quote the Minister, " The Community Radio policy, under which 26 stations of educational institutions are working has further been liberalized in December 2006 and   it has been decided to grant permission for setting up community radio stations to 'Non-profit' organizations viz. Civil Society and Voluntary organizations, State Agricultural Universities, Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR)   Institutions, Krishi Vigyan Kendras, Registered Societies etc.  It is an achievement of the UPA Government.   The Government has so far received 95 applications under the new guidelines and permission has been granted to five organizations." 
http://pib.nic.in/release/release.asp?relid=31319

 Sajan

 On 11/7/07, periyapatna satheesh <satheeshperiyapatna at yahoo.com> wrote: 

Dear Dr Sreedhar

I read your mail on the above subject with some sense of shock. Since it was not apparent to me what was the nature of this slanderous campaign against campus radio that you had alleged, I went back to some of the references to the Letter of Intent. I found nothing there which I could even dub as accusations, let alone slanderous campaign. 

therefore I am reverting back to you to kindly consider what is slanderous and what kind of campaign that you are referring. I am aware that the Community Radio Forum of which I am a founder member has taken a position that the Government of India should not confuse Campus Radio for Community Radio though both of them carry the same initials. The difference is as clear as between chalk and cheese. I am not making any value judgement here. Our position is that both Campus Radio and Community Radio have a critical relevance to the democratisation of air waves in this country. But the distinction should be kept clear and not be confused. Unfortunately since rural communities do not have the same level of clout and articulation enjoyed by universities, such distinction has to be articulated time and again, so that the government does not indulge in obfuscations. 

It is in this context, I would once again urge you to make it very clear what is the slander and what is the campaign against the Campus Radio and who is carrying it out?

And finally the peer review issue. I think since CR Digest is about community radio, the rural communities in this country are the ones who should be viewed as peers in this. If their place is occupied by the elite communication communities [to which I also belong], it will be a grave injustice. 

Therefore I request the CR India Digest producers to see if they can facilitate language versions of the Digest and form a peer review group from among the communities to see whether CR Digest is becoming a platform for slander. We are ready to take the responsibility for a Telugu version of CR Digest. I am also very sure that KMVS will be happy to take up the responsibility for the Gujarati version, VOICES for Kannada, AID for Tamil and Hindi versions etc. 

This could serve a very useful purpose.

with warm regards

satheesh 

sreedher ramamurthy <r.sreedher at gmail.com> wrote: 

 I think CR india communications need some peer review. 

 The slanderous campaign against radio stations in educationall institutions must end  one day. they dont talk about you. dont talk anything loose without knowing the facts.

 Even though the screening comittee has met for the civil society organisations, no one not even those 5 stated above has been given letters of intent. sreedher

-----Inline Attachment Follows-----

YOU CAN SUPPORT THE COMMUNITY RADIO FORUM (India) BY JOINING AND TAKING
 AN ACTIVE PART IN ONE OF THESE NETWORKS

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/crforum-awareness  (Awareness building)
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/crforum-helpdesk (Offering help)
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/crforum-policy-advocacy (Policy advocacy)
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/crforum-techoptions (Technical options)

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DEFANGED.1243>
----- Original Message ----
From: sreedher ramamurthy <r.sreedher at gmail.com>
To: cr-india at sarai.net
Sent: Thursday, 15 November, 2007 6:30:30 AM
Subject: [cr-india] reply to sateesh by sreedher circulated

Dear friends

 In order to straighten things, I am circulating my reply to PV Sateesh.

 ---------- Forwarded message ----------
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