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<H1 class=title>Challenges for community radio in the 21st century</H1>
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<P>By: Arne Hintz</P>
<P><A
href="http://media.mcgill.ca/en/AMARC10_challenges">http://media.mcgill.ca/en/AMARC10_challenges</A></P>
<P>In a keynote speech to the AMARC10 congress in La Plata, Frank LaRue, United
Nations Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of the right to
freedom of opinion and expression, dicussed a set of key challenges to freedom
of expression which apply, particularly, to community media.</P>
<P>Censorship laws in many countries (including the North and West), he said,
penalize freedom of expression. In this context he also rejected the
criminalization of the unauthorized use of radio frequencies (or, 'pirate
radio'). Secondly, physical violence against journalists is persistent around
the globe, particularly violence against non-professionals from community
radios, blogs and other grassroots media. Thirdly, he said that media
concentration and the links between media power and political power (in
countries such as Guatemala, Italy and elsewhere) reduces media pluralism. LaRue
rejected limits to transmission power for community radio which assign these
media a role as 'second-class media' and 'poor people's radio'. Finally, he
pointed to increasing surveillance by state and private sectors.</P>
<P>His points were mirrored by Sergio Fernández Novoa, President of the World
Council of News Agencies, who - despite representing mainstream media - offered
a strong critique of the established communication system. He charged that
freedom of the press is often mistaken as freedom of the enterprise, which
contradicts the freedom of the majority of people to communicate and to speak
out their truth. He said that pluralism and diversity does not exist in Latin
America because of media ownership concentration, and he called for true
democratization of the media and access to media, including frequencies as well
as funding for community media. </P>
<P>In a further keynote speech on Thursday, Manuel Chaparro reminded
participants of the persistent social and economic problems that characterize
the overall environment of community radio. Despite the recent "quantum leap in
community radio recognition" through new laws in Argentina and elsewhere, the
challenge remains how to democratize communication and how to deal with the
striking contradictions that people are facing everywhere around the globe. He
pointed out environmental destruction, wars for resources, the culture of waste,
ethnocentricity, and the predominant concept of development which is oriented
towards economic criteria, based on exploitation, and continues to divide rich
and poor. He demanded to re-think notions of development fundamentally.</P>
<P>The challenge for community media remains, not least, in marginalization and
fragmentation. Recent gains in the recognition of community media in national
and international policy mean that, in the words of Oumar Seck Ndiaye from
Senegal, "radios are now finding the place that they ought to have at the
beginning". However, as Mario Lubetkin from Inter Press Service pointed out, the
majority of alternative and community media worldwide mostly work in isolation,
and he suggested that their social and political impact would increase
significantly if they worked together and expanded as well as strengthened
existing collaborations.</P>
<P>Wilna Quarmyne from Ghana concluded: "We cannot afford to remain
'alternative'. We represent the majority of the world population but we remain
on the fringe." She criticized that community radio are too often "clones" of
the public service and commercial media models, and she asked: "How can we
develop a model that truly builds on the social capital of our communities?"
</P>
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<DIV><FONT face=Verdana size=2>Bazlu<BR>_______________________<BR>AHM. Bazlur
Rahman-S21BR<BR>Chief Executive Officer<BR>Bangladesh NGOs Network for Radio and
Communication (BNNRC)<BR>[NGO in Special Consultative Status with the UN
Economic and Social Council]<BR>& <BR>Head, Community Radio Academy
<BR> <BR>House: 13/1, Road: 2, Shaymoli, Dhaka-1207 <BR>Post Box: 5095,
Dhaka 1205 Bangladesh<BR> <BR>Phone: 88-02-9130750, 88-02-9138501<BR>Cell:
01711881647 Fax: 88-02-9138501-105<BR>E-mail: <A
href="mailto:ceo@bnnrc.net">ceo@bnnrc.net</A> <A
href="http://www.bnnrc.net">www.bnnrc.net</A><BR></DIV></FONT></BODY></HTML>