Thanks to its position and experience, Radio Nacional del Paraguay (RNP) is best suited to train community radio broadcasters on a regular basis. However, RNP's technical equipment is not sufficient to offer quality training courses. For this reason the training purposes require the purchase of additional studio equipment. In its operational planning objectives RNP declared to contribute to the improvement and democratic distribution of information and consequently joined forces with Asociación para la Educación y Comunicación Radiofónica (the association of broadcast education and...
IPDC project priority: Community radio
The lack of adequate means of communication and information is an acute problem in the DRC in general, and particularly in the South Kivi province, whose population is forecasted at 4,101,249 inhabitants by 2010. Despite the presence of 2 public radio stations, 6 commercial stations, 2 newspapers, and the 5 foreign radio stations which broadcast in this area, information is only received by a tiny proportion of th epopulation, because practically all these broadcasters are based in Bukavu and only provide coverage for the town and privileged areas on its periphery. The media environment...
The first community radio in Senegal was licensed in 1996, and the number of stations has grown since then. Senegalese community radios play a very important role and are strongly rooted in the local communities. They have a strong commitment to provision of information, to raising local awareness of social and economic affairs and to encouraging participation in local life. Some of them have thematic programme campaigns on issues such as HIV/AIDS awareness, prevention of malaria, adult literacy, women's rights, peace in Casamance and care of the environment. The community radios broadcast...
The Chama district is far away (more than 330 km) from Lusaka, Zambia's capital city where the media industries and institutions are located. The national radio signal barely reaches this province and newspapers: monthlies, weeklies and dailies are a rarity. Most of the citizens of this area end up listening to Malawian radio, even reading newspapers from the same country, which is not ideal for the building of a national identity. The illiteracy rate is very high because of the long distances to schools and the natural barriers like hills and rivers, which lead pupils to drop out of...
In Malawi, severe floods occur regularly in six river basin systems. The highest flood frequency has been recorded in the Lower Shire Valley, covering Nsanje and Chikwawa Districts. For the communities living in these areas, better information could considerably lessen human suffering: improved meteorological services giving accurate and timely information about the weather patterns can alert the population to be better prepared for the coming of rains, and hence enable them to move to higher grounds with their livestock to carry educational and medical equipment to safer areas. The...
A three tiered media structure comprising public, private and community is now in place. However, there are critical issues of concern. First, the guidelines subsume campus radio, community radio and agricultural universities under the same umbrella. This is unrealistic, particularly in the context of management and ownership. Community radio stations in most parts of the world are managed and owned by communities, in contrast to campus and agricultural university radio stations. Other issues of concern are that the guidelines do not permit community radio stations to broadcast news. This...
Nkhata Bay (and Usisya, the location where the radio will be installed), are in a 'shadow area' of the communication and information services. Radio signals from the Malawi Broadcasting Corporation and other radio stations barely reach the district, and the citizens have now resorted to Tanzanian Radio stations, thus adversely affecting a sense of belonging to the Malawi nation. The lack of a relevant medium of communication has meant that the population cannot meaningfully participate in issues relating to the rule of law, human rights, development and decision-making. Rural women and...
Radio XHFCE 105.5 FM La Voz de los Campesinos, former Radio Huayacocotla, is one of the few community radio broadcasts with legal permission that has survived the political and social struggle. Radio has been a communication link among the communities in this region, their cultural manifestation and their day-to-day life, their social issues as well as their projects and achievements. Communications in these areas are relatively restrained. This makes radio transmissions crucial for communication in the region. However, the radio for these communities represents more than a service for...
The community radio sector in West, Central, Eastern and Southern Africa suffers from sustainability and capacity shortcomings to actually implement the community radio mission of public service to provide communities with self-help for social, economic and cultural development. Furthermore, national community radio networks organised with the goal of strengthening the organisational development of their members have so far been effective only in a few countries: Ghana, Mali and South Africa. While some national networks have been highly successful in mobilising the community radio...
The Chilean mass media, and particularly radio broadcasting stations, are well developed and perhaps exist in sufficient number to allow community members to have several options to choose from. However, they are almost all of regional or national reach and therefore not very useful for those who live and work in rural areas, because they do not correspond to the local reality and needs. These regional and national radios are mainly used to listen to music in those areas. The borough of Romeral although near to the provincial capital Curicó, consists of 71% rural area. Therefore local...
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