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

cial capitals, Oruro and Cochabamba. Together, all three stationsare part of the network Pio XII. In the 1980s, the miners’unions were disbanded and 34,000 workers had to abandonthe highlands. Since then, Pio XII has focused much more onlocal development issues, on the issues of indigenous peopleand on democratization matters, but it still has a very activelistening community of ex-miners who migrated to otherplaces in Bolivia.Pio XII is the only broadcaster offering continuous programmingfor the northern part of the department of Potosiand is the preferred news and information channel of 85 percentof the 245,000 inhabitants of the region. 47 It broadcasts 8hours every day in Spanish and in the indigenous languagesQuechua and Aymara. The core team in Siglo XX consists of 6journalists and the director, and about 30 local reporters in thecommunity, most of them trained by Pio XII. The combinationof FM, MW, and SW broadcasting together with Real Audio anda complete internet platform assures a good access to differenttarget groups.Besides local and international news and information,the focus is on local development news and social participation.Recent issues are the implementation of a new constitutionwhich strengthens the rights of indigenous peoples, e.g.,through local self-government. Pio XII produces pilots withsmall FM stations in other rural communities. More than 50percent of the content is locally produced; a lot of the news isshared with or taken from the Catholic national radio networkERBOL, which connects more than 100 radio stations nationwide.Its colorful history means the station is very well known,as a report by the Institute of Development Studies in Brightonconfirms: “Pio XII is one of the leading popular radio stationsin Latin America.” 48Vokaribe (Colombia): Urban Community Radio in MarginalizedNeighborhoodsIn contrast to Radio Pio XII as a consolidated rural broadcaster,we would like to look here at a recent urban project from Colombia.Radio Vokaribe is based on a community project in marginalizedneighborhoods of Barranquilla on the Caribbean coast.In 1995, a small interdisciplinary group of artists, journalists,anthropologists, and local representatives foundeda neighborhood association to promote local culture in thesouthwestern part of Barranquilla, notorious for its problemswith gangs and various types of violence. After several yearsof experimenting with the production of participative audioformats and its publication in parts of the neighborhood andon the internet, in 2008 the association decided to initiate theofficial certification process for community radio.In 2012, Vokaribe finally obtained the authorization for a50-watt broadcast station and began its test run with a fourhourproduction three days a week. The focus was on localidentities, a sense of remaining relevant in a conflictive context,and the local culture to mobilize citizens against violenceand discrimination. After a technical problem with the radiomast in December 2013, Vokaribe stopped transmitting as FMradio and shifted back to the internet. It maintained, however,a strong community educational involvement, a training programfor young community reporters, for instance. “Our radiostation was suddenly switched off but it continues to resonate.We decided to bring it out onto the streets,” explains the projectmanager. 49 As the culmination of research conducted withthe inhabitants of the area on local culture and the historyof the neighborhood, Vokaribe launched several public radioevents with local figures like hip-hop singers, and is now preparingto restart with a new mast.Radio Intag (Ecuador): Engagement for the Community andthe EnvironmentRadio Intag, 60 km distant from the city Cotacachi, ImbaburaProvince in Ecuador, was founded in 2006 as a private radiostation with a strong community approach. The audience isthe local peasant population. As in the case of Radio Pio XII,Intag fills a communication and information gap in the regionand was until recently the only source of local news forthe communities. Programming is 18 hours every day mainlyin Spanish. In addition, it broadcasts music and national andinternational news which they get from support networks.Almost all contents are produced by local initiatives andschools, especially background information. In 2012 the collaboratorsof the Foundation Casa Palabra y Pueblo, whichis a direct partner of Radio Intag, stopped printing a localnewspaper because of financial constraints and transformedits popular reportage format into an audio report for RadioIntag. Today, you can call up 95 installments of these audioreports, called “Radio Revista.” The main issues of Radio Intagare local news, live stories, and ecology. In election timesit promotes debates between local candidates. As in the twoother cases, Radio Intag has a direct community approach,training, for instance, peasant leaders and farmers in radiocommunication for their own organizations.“We want to raise awareness for preservation and conservation.But we do not adhere to any political platform,”affirms the director. 50 “Radio Intag has been threatenedand even suffered sabotage, possibly because it publishedsensitive information about the environmental impacts ofa planned mining project. Now that the views of the localpopulation can be heard worldwide through Real Audio andinternet, these actions have stopped,” says Andreas Postrachfrom the German support group INTAG e.V. 51 At present, RadioIntag is dealing with serious challenges related to politicalrestrictions and financial limitations: “Our main goal isjust to continue broadcasting.” 52236