Community Radio across South Asia: Understanding its Potential in Addressing Voice Poverty

Commonwealth Educational

Media Centre for Asia

Community Radio across South

Asia: Understanding its Potential

in Addressing Voice Poverty

Dr Ankuran DuttaProgramme OfficerCEMCA, New Delhi

South

Asia

Overview of Community Radio in South AsiaCountry Policy Status of CR

Afghanistan No separate Policy on CR Community Radio exists, about 155

Bangladesh Community Radio Policy 2008 14 CRS Operational + Licensed to 18

more CRS = 32 CRS

Bhutan Baseline researches are going on.

No separate Policy on CR till date.

1 Campus Radio at Sherubtse College,

Trashigang

India First policy on CR in 2002

Revised policy in 2006

As on December 2014, 179

Maldives A research done by MBC as an UNDP

project. No separate Policy on CR.

No Community Radio exists

Nepal Napal Broadcasting Act 1993, No

separate Policy on CR

More than 253

Pakistan No separate Policy on CR. PTRA

Ordinance 2002 allows CR.

2 Commercial FMs providing slots for

community participation

Sri Lanka No separate Policy on CR Pioneer among SA countries. 2 CRS

under SLBC are operational

Afghanistan

• Afghanistan radio was launched in 1942 but from that time up

to 2003, radio was managed and owned by the government of

Afghanistan.

• In 2003 for the first a private radio station was established in

Bamyan, one of the central province

• By 2010, the country had more than 60 radio stations

• Now it is more than 160 while most of them is community radio

stations, almost 155 of them are community radio stations.

• Now about 85% of the population (app 30 million) are covered

by radio.

Bangladesh

• Community Radio Policy 2008

• 15 Operational Community Radio stations and 17

newly licensed CRS to be operational by 2015

• About 120 hours daily broadcasting

• Covers 13 districts including 67 sub-districts

• About 1000 CR broadcasters associated

• Reaching about 4.6 Million population

Bhutan

• Media in Bhutan has undergone considerable growth after the

establishment of democracy in 2008.

• Lack of policy and legal frameworks to support the growth of

media.

• “Community media is a new idea in Bhutan and, to this end, the

only community media is a radio that has been licensed to

Sherubtse College” (MDA 2010)

• Sherubtse Community Radio, launched on 8th May, 2009

• Selected 5 places for potential of setting up of CR (Tarayana

foundation, Ministry of Information and Communications, AMARC,

UNESCO)

India

• Supreme Court Judgment of 1995 – Airwaves are public property to be

used for public good

• First CR Guidelines in 2002 (For only educational institutions)

• Policy was broad based –New Policy 2006

• First CR station in Chennai – 2004

• Total CR stations in December, 2014- 179 (No. of applications received

1615, LoI issued 409)

• Covers 24 Indian states

• Union government’s target to set up 4000 CRS

• Govt. allotted 1 billion INR to support CR in 12th 5 Yr Plan

• CEMCA facilitated more than 100 CRS in India

Maldives

• The Maldives Broadcasting Commission, supported by the UNDP

pursued a research engaging Murray Green on exploring the

feasibility of introducing community broadcasting and the

regulatory framework in 2012.

• The report of the study was submitted with 13 recommendation.

• One of the recommendation was “The first community radio license

applications should be called by December 2013 with the first

stations on air in early 2014”.

• The commission is interested for setting up community radio in the

Maldives.

• CEMCA in association with the Commission organised a

consultation to discuss potential for CR in Maldives.

Nepal

• Pioneer in Community Radio in South Asia

• All radio stations are regulated under National Broadcasting

Act, 1993. No separate policy for CR

• In 1997, South Asia’s first community radio station, Radio

Sagarmatha went on air

• Total Community Radio stations – 253

• Covers 74 districts (out of 75 districts)

• Reaching about 24.8 Million population

Pakistan

• Pakistan Electronic Media Reg. Authority Ordinance 2002

allows setting up of community radio. No separate Community

Radio policy.

• An organisation named Community Media Pakistan has

started dialoguing for Community Radio.

• Commercial FM- FM100 Pakistan Network radio and DIL FM

started providing weekly hours to serve communities by

broadcasting various issues

• Exists Campus radio like FM Radio University of Punjab and

FM radio University of Peshawar

• Rawalakot Declaration 2008

Sri Lanka

• Sri Lanka was the first South Asian country to do community

broadcasting, starting with Mahaweli community radio (MCR) in 1981

under SLBC.

• MCR established small community radio stations focusing on particular

sectors of the Mahaweli Project, Giradurukotte (1985), Mahailluppalama

(1987), and Kothmale (1989).

• eTUKTUK - (KCMC) to the community’s doorstep.

• Uva Community Radio, began in 2003 outside the MCR under a pilot

UNDP.

• Dambadeniya Community Radio has been inaugurated in July 2007.

• No policy or legal framework existed to establish community radio

stations.

CR South Asia- Addressing Voice Poverty

• Break the information monopoly- democratise airwaves

• Independence and autonomy to community in

eradicating voice poverty

• Acknowledge Common(s)+Unity: ownership and

participation

• Empower community with responsibility and

accountability

• Balance economic, environment and social needs.

• Journey ahead towards enabling healthy communities.

Journey Ahead

Radio could be the most wonderful public

communication system imaginable, a gigantic system of

channels…capable not only of transmitting but of

receiving, of making the listener not only hear but also

speak, not of isolating him but of connecting him..

- Bertolt Brecht, Radio as a Means of Communication: A

Talk on the Function of Radio (1979)

Thank You

You may [email protected]

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