[cr-india] On the air: a voice for the voiceless

[George Lessard]

On the air: a voice for the voiceless

Home / First Person /
May 21, 2008 - Posted by Brian Gabrial
by Kim Kierans

http://jsource.ca/english_new/detail.php?id=2449

[excerpt]

This story was more than a year in the making. It started in May 2006. I
was in Manila researching a paper on radio in Asia and teaching at the
Konrad Adenaeur Asian Centre for Journalism at Ateneo de Manila
University.  A student told me about a new community radio station opening
in the northern Philippines. The peasant farmers had saved for three years
to buy the equipment and open this station. The station gave them an
outlet to talk about issues that affected farmers, women, children and the
poor and unemployed in Cagayan province – “to give voice to the
voiceless.”

Radyo Cagayano sounded too good to be true in a country where it’s often
dangerous to speak out against authorities.

I was back in Canada when I got the email informing me that the middle of
the night on July 1, 2006, masked men wearing army uniforms kicked open
the door of the Radyo Cagayano, assaulted volunteer staff and set fire to
the station, a small metal building the size of shipping container. The
community’s hard work and dreams went up in smoke. At that moment I knew I
had to tell their story – the heartbreak and their instant resolve to
rebuild. ........

Listen to “Rising from the Ashes”
http://www.cbc.ca/thecurrent/2007/200710/20071022.html

The Current: Part 3

Philippines Radio Documentary

Radyo Cagayano is not your typical radio station. It was founded by
peasants, and it was to serve as a communal voice for many in a rural area
of the Philippines. The station was a way to agitate - on the airwaves -
for social change. For land reform and lower-interest loans.

That was, until the station was burned down. Before it even got up and
running. Allegations immediately surfaced that the Philippine military was
responsible. The Philippine government had long argued the station was run
by communist insurgents.

Kim Kierans was in the Philippines and has prepared a documentary about
the conflict and controversy surrounding Radyo Cagayano. Kim Kierans is
the director of the School of Journalism at the University of King's
College and she joined us from Halifax.


Listen to The Current:Part 3
http://www.cbc.ca/thecurrent/media/200710/20071022thecurrent_sec3.ram
(Due to various rights issues some segments may be edited for internet use)