Removing Barriers, Increasing Effectiveness - amarc

More documents

Recommendations

Info

PART IV. Community Radio Practitioners Perspectives. 34IntroductionChapter 9: Community Radio and Empowerment 35Two years ago, UN agencies and leading NGO specialists in the field ofcommunications for development, gathered in Rome for the Ninth United NationsRound Table on Communications for Development. In their final Declaration theystated:“Governments should implement a legal and supportive frameworkfavoring the right to free expression and the emergence of free andpluralistic information systems, including the recognition of thespecific and crucial role of community media in providing access tocommunication for isolated and marginalized groups.” 36This is just one of several authoritative statements in recent years that haverecognized the particular role of community media in poverty reduction anddevelopment. Similar statements can be found in reports of several bilateraldonors and of UN specialist agencies including The World Bank 37 , United NationsDevelopment Programme 38 , UNESCO 39 and FAO. 40Community media can be understood as referring to media projects andorganizations which are independent, civil society based and operate for socialobjectives rather than for private financial gain. They are normally operated bycommunity-based organizations, local NGOs, workers organizations, educationalinstitutions, religious or cultural organizations, or by associations of one or moreof these forms of civil society organization.34Part III, presents some presentations by CR practitioners on challenges and experience of CR andAMARC during the World Evaluation of Community Radio: Removing Barriers, Increasing Efficiencyactivities, including Regional Roundtables, Electronic Forum Discussions, electronic Survey and AMARC9 World Conference.35Presentation of Steve Buckley, President of AMARC in Colombo, May 1 st 2007.36Ninth United Nations Round Table on Communications for Development, Rome, September 200337The World Bank has said: “Community radio stations can be critical enablers of information, voice andcapacities for dialogue”, in Social accountability and public voice through community radio programming,Social Development Notes No 76, The World Bank April 200338 UNDP has said: “Legal and regulatory frameworks that protect and enhance community media areespecially critical for ensuring vulnerable groups freedom of expression and access to information”, inAccess to Information: Practice Note, UNDP October 200339UNESCO has said: “Community radio is one of the most effective and least costly means ofcommunication for development, especially in rural communities” in Communication for Development,Report to the 58 th Session of the United Nations General Assembly, May 200340FAO has said: “Community radio activities can help in bridging the rural digital divide facilitating thelink with new information and communication technologies” in A Brief about FAO Communication forDevelopment, FAO Communication for Development Group, 2004AMARC Community Radio Social Impact Assessment 2007 Page 56 of 128
While community media can take many forms – for example, using cassette tape,video, public address systems and print – it is community radio which hasparticularly come to the fore as a medium which is accessible, low cost and,often, both popular and participatory. Today community radio is not only wellestablished in Europe and the Americas. It is widespread across Africa; it hasbecome a growing force in Asia and the Pacific; and it has entered themainstream discourse of development professionals and agencies.The growth of community radio is a story of people and communities striving tospeak out and to be heard. Community radio has provided a means ofempowerment and of self-reliance. It has enabled people to engage in dialogueabout their conditions and their livelihoods. And it has contributed to the defenceof cultural and linguistic diversity. It is a story in which the pursuit of social anddevelopment goals has been deeply entwined with the struggle for human andpolitical rights and particularly the right to freedom of expression. 41Over the last twenty years, as the global network of community broadcasters hasgrown it has been paralleled by the emergence of new communicationtechnologies - technologies that enable access to information globally andinstantaneously. The emergence of new information and communicationtechnologies has rightly been compared to the industrial revolution. It hascontributed to economic globalization and has enabled new international socialmovements to proliferate. But it also threatens to amplify the gross asymmetry inpeople’s access to information and communication. While enthusiasm for the41Mexico: Radio Jën Poj and Radio Uandarhi: On 6 December 2004, Radio Jën Poj in SantaMaria Tlahuitoltepec, Oaxaca and Radio Uandarhi of Uruapan, Michoacán became the firstindigenous groups in Mexico to be granted broadcast licences to operate their own communityradio stations. The move by the Mexican government followed three years of negotiations andlobbying by community media activists, human rights organisations and the Inter-AmericanCommission of Human Rights. When President Vicente Fox’s Partido Acción Nacional won theMexican election of 2000 one of the essential demands of citizen’s groups was reform of theRadio and Television Act, guarantees of the right to freedom of expression and the need for limitson private media concentration in the hands of corporations such as Televisa.At first it seemed there were good reasons to be optimistic but behind the scenes lobbying of thefederal government by commercial broadcast proprietors produced a new radio and televisiondecree weighted strongly in their favour together with renewed persecution of the communityradio stations. Community broadcasters, including Radio Jën Poj, reported military raids andviolently implemented closures. In 2003 both the United Nations Human Rights Commission andthe Inter-American Commission on Human Rights intervened with recommendations to theMexican government to cease the persecution of community radio and to provide proper licencesto operate.In March 2004, at a hearing of the Inter-American Commission of Human Rights, the Mexicangovernment gave undertakings to establish a process for legal recognition of not-for-profitcommunity radio stations serving indigenous people and farming communities. Despite last-ditchefforts by commercial broadcasters to persuade President Vicente Fox to abandon the licensingplans, the first two licences were awarded in December 2004 and more have been awardedsince. The newly licensed community radios have said they will emphasise indigenous languagesand culture and will seek to address the social and economic problems of the communities theyserve.AMARC Community Radio Social Impact Assessment 2007 Page 57 of 128
Page 1 and 2:
COMMUNITY RADIOSOCIAL IMPACTASSESSM
Page 3 and 4:
Chapter 10: Community Media by and
Page 5 and 6: ForewordThe World Association of Co
Page 7 and 8: monitoring and research process was
Page 9 and 10: organizations interviewed tell only
Page 11 and 12: The Roundtables, the electronic For
Page 13 and 14: good. It did not involve a traditio
Page 15 and 16: capabilities for monitoring, impact
Page 17 and 18: Each of these components of the ext
Page 19 and 20: Description of the ActivitiesThe th
Page 21 and 22: PART II. Global Challenges to Commu
Page 23 and 24: if we want to achieve poverty reduc
Page 25 and 26: Community Radio is part of a politi
Page 27 and 28: freedom of expression and military
Page 29 and 30: has abandoned those responsibilitie
Page 31 and 32: Chapter 5: The Amman Declaration 27
Page 33 and 34: 10. Independent media can play a si
Page 35 and 36: • Promote and support the trainin
Page 37 and 38: communication strategies within the
Page 39 and 40: This said, it becomes clear that in
Page 41 and 42: as rural black women, impoverished
Page 43 and 44: national languages. “For several
Page 45 and 46: Measuring ImpactChapter 7: The Impa
Page 47 and 48: meaningful social change indicator
Page 49 and 50: Chapter 8: Why Assess Community Rad
Page 51 and 52: doing the work they are chartered t
Page 53 and 54: B. Assessing the effectiveness of c
Page 55: • How do you participate in this
Page 59 and 60: From this perspective, communicatio
Page 61 and 62: affordable means to express their o
Page 63 and 64: At the same time there is growing r
Page 65 and 66: Chapter 10: Community Media by and
Page 67 and 68: Tallies from meetings showed that e
Page 69 and 70: Chapter 11: What role did community
Page 71 and 72: RM: [LAUGHS.] So we sang the news,
Page 73 and 74: commission, tasked with developing
Page 75 and 76: Most of the Eastern African countri
Page 77 and 78: need to constantly be guided by ask
Page 79 and 80: time are settled with custom law, i
Page 81 and 82: Chapter 14: Community Radio and Med
Page 83 and 84: ensuing global imbalance in informa
Page 85 and 86: platforms and technologies? How can
Page 87 and 88: CR should increase its role in faci
Page 89 and 90: Clarifying the nature of Community
Page 91 and 92: Amplify the voices of the poor and
Page 93 and 94: Harmonize AMARC bodies and structur
Page 95 and 96: (c) Solidarityactivitiesincludingre
Page 97 and 98: (d) Interactiveplatform forprogramm
Page 99 and 100: evaluation(d) Disseminationof resul
Page 101 and 102: expectations of AMARC relate to all
Page 103 and 104: Part VI : AnnexesAnnexe 1: Essentia
Page 105 and 106: One of the chapters is on “Progra
Page 107 and 108:
customs and practices of the tribal
Page 109 and 110:
http://portal.unesco.org/ci/en/file
Page 111 and 112:
Radio Douentza was one of the first
Page 113 and 114:
38. Querre, Francois. (1991). Les M
Page 115 and 116:
Handbook for Developing Countries.
Page 117 and 118:
The Pelican discussion, which has b
Page 119 and 120:
Through the opinions of 30 communic
Page 121 and 122:
andhttp://www.cfsc.org/pdf/measurin
Page 123 and 124:
www.urcm.netUnited Grassroots Radio
Page 125 and 126:
www.mci.gov.veZimbabwe So this is
Page 127 and 128:
Please indicate how this impact cou
show all

Removing Barriers, Increasing Effectiveness - amarc

Create successful ePaper yourself

Delete template?

Save as template?