IPS-English MEDIA-INDIA: Community Radio Stifled With Red Tape
 
Date: Wed, 13 Feb 2008 15:08:43 -0800


 
Keya Acharya

BANGALORE, Feb 13  (IPS)  - Aspiring community radio operators from
various parts of the country are complaining of long delays, frustration
and bureaucratic red tape in obtaining licenses to run radio stations.

Following a landmark Supreme Court judgment in 1995 that declared
airwaves to be public property for public good, members of civil society
organisations as well as United Nations agencies such as UNESCO and
UNDP held several consultative meetings to expand the eligibility
criteria for community radio. 

In 2006, the Indian government amended its broadcasting rules to
allow independent radio operators set up non-commercial, community-based
stations in rural and urban areas.

But the new rules do not allow community radio stations to network
with one another and limited broadcast range; no news content is allowed
and only five minutes per hour is allowed for advertisements. 

”The low 100-watts capacity is fit only for a 10-km distance while
urban community radio does not come about because of a lack of frequency,''
says Stalin K, founder-member of a networking organisation called
Community Radio Forum and of the Drishti Media Collective in Gujarat.


The radio frequency allowed by the government in urban areas has
to be shared with commercial FM radio, wireless and cell phone operators,
leaving community radio with very little frequency bandwidth to operate.


”It is clearly better to have specific frequencies to be allocated
for community radio, like other countries such as Thailand or the
United States,” says Stalin. 

Steve Buckley, Asia-Pacific president of the World Association of
Community Radio, (AMACR) says Australia has an active and lively tradition
of community-based radio, while Indonesia follows as actively despite
political upheavals. 

The Philippines too has active community-radio, but with legal constraints,
says Buckley. 

In India, the Community Radio Forum, a network of NGOs in community
radio had been advocating for some years for the Indian government
to free the airwaves, still under State control, in spite of the Prasar
Bharati Act 1990 which set up an ostensibly independent broadcasting
corporation in India. 

Though the government had intentions of allowing 4,000 community
radio stations by 2008, no operators have yet been given licenses
to broadcast.  Seven community radio stations have been given a ‘letter
of intent' by the government to operate, pending final approval. 

”The government is also a ‘first-timer' in community radio, just
as you are,” explained Sajan Venniyoor, a broadcast consultant to
the government, at the annual conference of the Community Radio Forum,
held in Bangalore this year. 

”With four ministries involved in the procedure, the mechanisms for
permits have still not evolved,” says Venniyoor. 

UNESCO's Asia Adviser for Communication and Information based in
New Delhi,  Jocelyn Josiah, says she understands the government's
caution in issuing operating licenses. ”In a country as big as this,
with its many languages and ethnic considerations, it is understandable
that the government would have security concerns”, she told IPS. 

UNESCO actively promotes community-based radio as a means of cultural
interaction and media development. The organisation published, in
2008, a technical manual authored by N. Ramakrishnan, on how to set
up community radio, ‘keeping in mind the government of India's intention
to establish 4,000 community radio stations by 2008', according to
the UNESCO-New Delhi website. 

One of the country's first ventures in community radio was a UNESCO-sponsored
cabled system called Namma Dhwani (our voices), set up in 2000 by
a media NGO, Voices in collaboration with Myrada, a respected rural-development
NGO. The station is now being run independently by the community at
Budikote in Kolar district, 50 km outside Bangalore. Namma Dhwani
uses television cables, with tape recorded programmes being aired
either through loudspeakers, television sets or computers, depending
on the location. 

The station generates its operating expenses through charging fees
for training services and programmes related to the community's needs,
from airing the local administrative election details to legal advice
and banking training. 

”We are waiting for the government to give us permission to go on
air through radio,” says Ashish Sen, director of Voices, ”and gearing
up our technology for that.” 



*****
+ MEDIA-SRI LANKA: Building Ethnic Harmony With Community Radio (http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=38019)
+ MEDIA-THAILAND: Community Radio Refuses to Go Silent  (http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=37815)
+ MEDIA-THAILAND: Interference Mars Community Radio (http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=40752)
+ Asia Media Forum  (http://www.theasiamediaforum.org)


(END/IPS/AP/IP/IC/PF/DV/CS/CR/KA/RDR/08) 





 
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Infoshop Forums: Discussion Forums for Anarchists and Anti-authoritarians
 
Date: Sat, 16 Feb 2008 21:02:23 -0600 (CST)


Infoshop Forums: Discussion Forums for Anarchists and Anti-authoritarians

February 16, 2008

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