Community Radio Pledge (pdf) - amarc

Concept of ethicsGoing by the definition of journalism in vogue, generally speaking therelationship between journalist and society is deemed to be built on the artof the disseminating information. But the role of community broadcasters ismuch more different than this. He is at first a social animal. He is the firstparticipating engineer in the campaign aimed at changing society.Community broadcaster is involved in definite community and society. Hemust face the impact of each and every incident which takes place in society.He has to imbibe the art of community journalism with the mission to turnthe potential adverse impact confronting society towards the right direction.This means a community based journalist cannot be a spectator, a critic andcommentator while an event is taking place under any circumstances. Hemust be able to draw up a strategy on the issue confronting him. Hisresponsibility is not to whip up mutual controversy but to identify commonground for consensus. A community journalist cannot be an independentanalyst of an incident; he can be a free person advocating inter-dependence.A community journalist should be looking to explore mutual equilibriumfrom qualitative point of view rather than from merely quantitative point ofview while exploring social complexities.One more thing is that traditional journalism has been adopting thepolicy of neutrality when confronting controversial issues. The governingpolicy of neutral journalism stresses that a journalist must not take sides oncontroversial issues. Just because of this absolute nature of policy, modernday journalism is down with intellectual paralysis. Community journalistshould not fall victim to intellectual paralysis. It is always good to initiatedebate, discussion and differences into controversial issues or incidentswithout criticizing anyone or taking sides so that one can facilitate theprocess of right decisions on realities of life.It is not enough for a community journalist to remain a close witness,spectator or eye-witness. He must involve himself in societal mainstream.One must know the society one is living in closely. He must work for itsprogress and prosperity. The necessities of day to day life must be identified.The social relations must be defined and expanded.The national census 2001 has publicized the statistics that as many as 91languages are spoken in Nepal. This suggests that Nepal is an inter-culturalsociety. The behavior which must be acquired or decisions taken whilenegotiating through the complexities of an inter-cultural dialogue can be different.A community radio must run on the investment and participation of thecommunity. Money must be raised from among listeners before conductinguseful chat on radio in a way that benefits them. Point must be made tofacilitate that they share their experience with each other. Looked at from this47