Dear friends,
Until now, the mention of the word radio would bring two contrasting images to mind, one would be the droning educational programmes of AIR FM, and the other is the ceaseless, ebullient banter of the cult of the radio jockeys of commercial FM stations - where content and music are only incidental to radio programming. In this duality of the past and the present, there is a third category that is little known and to be sure, little 'heard' of. This is the phenomenon of the Community Radio. But what is Community Radio?
Community Radio is not just about broadcast content, it is more about the process of community engagement. It is about ordinary people having a presence in the media landscape, seeking support for their views and becoming responsible for their own content. Community Radio is also about the process of developing a critical view of media by making media yourself. At the practical level, CR is a medium which is affordable, readily available and portable enough to fulfill the needs of listeners. It stands for community ownership and control, community participation and is non profit in nature.
In India, radio has been in the hands of the state ever since its inception. However, by the 1970s and 80s, with the attention of the government turning to television, radio had become a neglected medium, with AIR languishing in the shadows. A change came in 1995 when AIR launched FM broadcasts and allowed private producers to take slots on sponsorship basis.
1995 was also the year of the famous Supreme Court judgement: "Airwaves constitute public property and must be utilised for advancing public good". Justice PB Sawant went on to say "Diversity of opinions, views, ideas and ideologies is essential to enable the citizens to arrive at informed judgment on all issues touching them. This cannot be provided by a medium controlled by a monopoly – whether the monopoly is of the State or any other individual, group or organisation."
After a long-drawn series of negotiations between government and interested individuals and groups responding to the 1995 Supreme Court judgement, a set of Community Radio Guidelines, limited to educational institutions, was announced in 2003. Its scope was later expanded to include civil society organisations as the Community Radio Policy of 2006. According to the CR Policy, the government can issue a maximum of 4000 Radio Station (CRS) licenses in India. However, there have been less than 300 applications and as of October 2009, only 57 had actually got licenses in hand for starting their CRSs. It's time for those with public communication on their agenda to wake up to this hard-won advantage.
Comet Media Foundation, in collaboration with Media Information and Communication Centre of India (MICCI) and Frederich Ebert Stiftung (FES), is organising a community radio workshop to spread awareness about CR and to encourage eligible NGOs to apply for licenses.
This is where NGOs like you, who have been working in a particular field for more than three years,stand to benefit. You are eligible to apply for a licence to start a community radio station in your geographical area of operation. There are many advantages of initiating community media for development - it fosters the community diversity and provides a space for voices of the marginalised within that community to be heard. This is a great opportunity for civil society to hear these vibrant and diverse voices through the CRSs. For initiating the process, one has to go through a lengthy and rigorous process, but the fruits of media pluralism and democracy are to be realised through such initiatives.
The themes planned for the various sessions are as follows:
• The basics of community radio (CR), principles and practices
• Empowering community voices and navigating the regulatory landscape
• The back end: technology to support CRS
• Experiences of NGOs setting up and running CRSs
• Content creation: once you get started, how do you generate programming?
Among the speakers will be persons from the following list (arranged alphabetically), subject to their availability:
• Aaditeshwar Seth: works on digital technologies to promote community media, Delhi
• Amol Goje: heads VIIT campus station at Baramati
• Navin Chandra of Union Park Radio of Khar-Bandra-Santa Cruz Trust
• Sushama Shendge, MVSS Radio, Satara
• Chhavi Sachdev: radio producer, running two streaming audio channels
• Fr Richard Rego of Radio Sarang from St. Aloysius College, Mangalore
• Frederick Noronha, journalist and Community Radio activist
• Hemant Babu: Nomad Radio India
• Indira Mansingh or her colleague Anuja from Radio Bundelkhand
• Nandini Sahai: Honorary Director MICCI, Delhi
Neeraj Hatekar: MUST (Mumbai University Students Transmission)
• P V Satheesh or one of his colleagues from Sangham Radio, Deccan Development Society, Andhra Pradesh
• Bharatiben: Kutch-ri-Vani community radio of KMVS
• Rajeshwar Dayal: Frederich Ebert Stiftung, Delhi
• Ramnath Bhatt: Maraa, Bangalore
• Sajan Venniyoor: Community Radio Forum
• Shoba Ghosh: Professor of English and Film Studies, Mumbai Universty
Participation in Workshop on Community Radio
Please let us know if you are interested to take part in this unusual and intensive exposure. Confirm as early as you can, and tell us how many persons we could expect from your organisation.We request you to register yourself with a fee of Rs. 350/- to cover meals and refreshments for the two days.
The venue will be in Mumbai.
For latest updates please visit:
http://cometmediafdn.wordpress.com/
Here we will be regularly - for the next month till the workshop - be uploading readings, links, info about speakers, participants and the evolving content of the seminar. Please feel free to comment and add your suggestions.
For further details contact: Pooja/Sandeep - 022-2382 6674 /022- 2386 9052
Sincerely,
Chandita Mukherjee
Director, Comet Media Foundation
(Via cr-india mailing list)
