Frederick Noronha on Sun, 19 Nov 2006 06:37:19 +0100 (CET) |
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<nettime> Campaigners for 'freeing airwaves' welcome new CR policy |
Campaigners for 'freeing airwaves' welcome new CR policy By FN In Cyberspace, Nov 18, 2006: One decade and a year after the Supreme Court directed New Delhi to "open up the airwaves", campaigners who battled long for this to happen gave a sigh of relief when India finally opened up its broadcasts to community radio this week. "The decision by the Indian government to allow civil society organisations and community groups to own and operate radio stations will give an additional tool to the civil society to empower people it works with," commented Rahul Kumar of OneWorld South Asia, a civil society and non-government organisation network working in 11 languages, and in Delhi too. On Thursday, Cabinet decided to grant permission for setting up of Community Radio Stations to non-profit organizations -- apart from the already-permitted educational institutions -- provided they had a proven record, no links to political parties and fulfilled some other criteria. Community radio is a type of radio service that caters to the interests of a certain area, broadcasting material that is popular to a local audience but is overlooked by more powerful broadcast groups. In South Asia, Nepal is the only country where community radio stations have surprisingly flourished. In India, citizens' groups have long argued for a 'third layer' of broadcasters, apart from the State-run and commercial FM networks. Said Dr Vinod Pavarala, a US-educated Hyderabad-based academic who solidly supports the idea of community radio: "On Saturday, we are organizing a media tour of the Deccan Development Society radio station at Machnoor (Andhra Pradesh, that has been waiting for years to get a license). I can't go on asking (village women there) to be any more patient." "The new policy will now allow civil society organizations, NGOs and other non-profits to apply for Community Radio licenses making 'citizens radio' a reality. Members of the Forum have congratulated this move that will brign about democratization of India's airwaves," commented Gujarat based citizens' media campaigner and videographer Stalin K. of the Community Radio Forum, India. Backed by influential players like UNESCO and the UNDP -- both United Nations bodies -- as also the experiences of even poorer, less tech-skilled countries in Africa and East Asia, the campaigners have long made a case for promoting community radio in India too. But the news was tempered with caution. Campaigners were cautions, after many false starts -- including a BJP-government drafted policy for 'community radio' that only allowed prominent educational centres to launch their own stations, that too under strict conditions, more on lines of campus radio. IIT-educated Delhi engineer, whose company radiophony.com offers circuits to create ultra low-powered FM transmitters for a few hundred rupees, questioned the new policy. Mehta commented, in an online discussion forum: "Wait a second! No news or current affairs (under the new policy)? (Delhi-based varsity) Jamia's community radio has a surfeit of Urdu poetry, because without news and current affairs, they don't have much else (to broadcast)." "I agree (that this technology) will have so many spin offs. There are exiciting times ahead!," commented Rajen Varada, director of the Bangalore-based Technology For The People network, also a non-profit organisation. "(Those who have regularly campaigned in cyberspace have probably) pushed it really hard lobbying offline as well. You all really deserve a round of applause," commented Isteyaq Ahmed Manager-Marketing of RED FM 93.5 Bajate Raho in Mumbai. The Kuala Lumpur-based Asia-Pacific Broadcasting Union noted this decision, and said the move came "aiming to put in place a vibrant community radio system in the country". It noted such radio stations by non-profit organisations would be allowed "after ensuring security clearances from the Defence and Home Ministries." Community radio outlets may also carry news and information programming geared toward the local area, particularly smaller population or language groups poorly served by other media outlets. Its proponents argue that community stations can be valuable assets for a region. Technology and economics have made it possible to set up a large number of low-powered FM stations, catering to local needs, and more importantly offering information that could play a crucial role in the lives of the poor, via a device -- a radio -- the bulk can today easily afford. Does this mark the beginning of the end of a regime where the "world's largest democracy's" airwaves have been controlled by rigorous oversight -- as against the only nominal controls over its Press, cinema and internet, and moderate control over cable TV and satellite TV? (ENDS) Join: CR-India [http://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/cr-india] -- FN 9822122436 +91-832-240-9490 (phone calls after 1 pm please) [http://fn.goa-india.org] [http://groups.yahoo.com/group/bytesforall_readers] # distributed via <nettime>: no commercial use without permission # <nettime> is a moderated mailing list for net criticism, # collaborative text filtering and cultural politics of the nets # more info: majordomo@bbs.thing.net and "info nettime-l" in the msg body # archive: http://www.nettime.org contact: nettime@bbs.thing.net