edition-dw-akademie-in-the-service-of-the-public-functions-and-transformation-of-media-in-developing-countries-pdf

Despite its mission statement, many are skeptical how independentthe Council is and if it can really fulfill its role as awatchdog. The chairman of the council for example is appointeddirectly by the government which led in last year’s appointmentof former Supreme Court Justice Avadesh Kumar Yadavto serious controversies. Moreover internal reforms are overdue.75 Despite that, the Nepal Press Council is for many communityradios the only acknowledged entity that gives themguidance and orientation. That is why Radio Sagarmatha’scurrent station manager Tika Ram Rai states that the stationis “strictly following the code of conduct that the Nepal PressCouncil has prepared” and that there are “other directivesdealing with journalistic standards especially for the news editorsat Radio Sagarmatha in place.” 76 Besides the Press CouncilNepal, the Federation of Nepalese Journalists (FNJ) also aimsto engage itself in the “development of a responsible and accountablemedia and promote the idea of press freedom.” 77 FNJwas formed back in 1956, then under the name of Nepal JournalistsAssociation. Today more than 8.000 journalists andmedia persons that work in print, electronic, and online mediaall over the country are represented by this body.The Nepal Press Institute (NPI) is the only notable Nepaleseinstitution that offers training to journalists and acts as aresearch institution for the media of Nepal. This NGO has itsheadquarters in Kathmandu, but the institute also runs threeregional media resources centers in Biratnagar, Butwal, andNepalgunj. 78 It is a membership-based organization. It fundsitself from fees for services, membership dues, grants and donations.NPI emphasizes that it does not receive any grantsor subsidies from the Nepalese government. On its website,the NPI further states that it receives funding from DANIDAwhich is its most important international partner and donoras well as the Danish School of Journalism, UNESCO, PanosSouth Asia and Save the Children US. 79 Its mission is to promote“the development of independent media, free accessto information, human rights and pluralism of thoughts andideas” and of “upholding the ideas of press freedom, humanrights and democracy.” 80Capacity Building and Human ResourcesCurrently, some 80 people work for Radio Sagarmatha. The stationmanager is heading the station and is represented in hisabsence by the deputy station manager. The station is dividedthen further into six departments: the program section withthe chief producer as its head, the news section with the newseditor as its head, the technical section headed by a technicalmanager, the finance section with a finance manager as itshead and the human resources section headed by the humanresources manager. According to the organization chart 20people work in the program section and 22 in the news section.The interviewees emphasized the fact that Radio Sagarmathaespecially values the participation and the capacity building ofwomen. Station Manager Tika Ram Rai stated that about 60%of the journalists and program contributors at Radio Sagar-matha are women. 81 Tirtha Koirala as chairman of the RadioSagarmatha board said that out of 31 journalists that are employedin one way or the other with the station, 17 are maleand 14 are female, but that there are more female volunteersthan male volunteers. 82 Radio Sagarmatha’s own website talksof about 40% women. 83 Whatever the true number is, it is a bigsuccess for gender equality, for in the beginning, staffers andcontributors were primarily men.Generally speaking, Community Radio stations have todeal with a great fluctuation among their staff. The reasonsare that community radio stations usually cannot pay greatamounts of money to their staffers and volunteers. ACORABstrongly emphasizes that there are no salaries, 84 and it estimatesthe average compensation amount for contributorsfor a feature program of 20-25 minutes in a small communityradio station based in a remote district to be about 300–400Nepalese Rupees which is about 3 Euros. If the station is a bitbetter off it can also pay up to 800 Nepalese Rupees for a weeklyprogram. According to ACORAB, small community radiosrun operations with just 20–25 staffers.Financial sustainability is one of the biggest challengesthat these stations are facing. Radio stations that have a bitmore resources would have altogether some 40–50 staffers. 85Operations with 80 employees, such as in the case of RadioSagarmatha, are only possible in the big cities such as in Kathmandu,Pokhara or Biratpur.Generally there is quite a big interest to work for a communityradio station, despite the fact that the amount of moneypaid as a fee for transportation or research bears no proportionto the time and efforts volunteers put in their work forthe community radio station. The background of the volunteersis quite diverse and ranges from teachers to advocates,health workers, doctors, housewives or students. 86 In the caseof Radio Sagarmatha at least 10 university students per year dotheir internship at the station for 45 days. 87 After finishing theirinternship and completing their undergraduate degree, RadioSagarmatha gives them the opportunity to apply at the stationas volunteers. The best are selected and receive an amount ofabout 6,000 Nepalese Rupees monthly for transportation andas compensation for their efforts. 88Staffers and contributors are qualified by senior colleaguesin the different stations through trainings that range from 10to 15 days. Within this time, issues such as “how to identify topicsof programs, criteria for radio journalism, and voice training”are discussed. 89 ACORAB also sends trainers to conducttrainings in remote areas in order to help small communityradio stations to improve the quality of their programming. 90Since they are operating isolated from national news and informationin local languages other than Nepali, professionalizingprogramming and management remains a big challenge.Also the question of establishing regional training and resourcecenters was discussed many times but they could neverbe satisfactory established. 91 But what must be noted is that asRadio Sagarmatha has been a pioneer in the community radio212