WORKSHOP ON COMMUNITY RADIO
WORKSHOP ON COMMUNITY RADIO
Organised by COMET MEDIA FOUNDATION
Date: 27 &28th November 2009
Place: Mumbai
(For details contact: Pooja/Sandeep - 022-2382 6674 /022- 23869052)
Background
Until now, the mention of the word radio would bring two contrasting
images to mind, one would be the droning educational programmes of AIR
FM, and the other is the ceaseless, ebullient banter of the cult of
the radio jockeys of commercial FM stations - where content and music
are only incidental to radio programming. In this duality of the past
and the present, there is a third category that is little known and to
be sure, little 'heard' of. This is the phenomenon of the Community
Radio. But what is Community Radio?
Community Radio is not just about broadcast content, it is more about
the process of community engagement. It is about ordinary people
having a presence in the media landscape, seeking support for their
views and becoming responsible for their own content. Community Radio
is also about the process of developing a critical view of media by
making media yourself. At the practical level, CR is a medium which is
affordable, readily available and portable enough to fulfill the needs
of listeners. It stands for community ownership and control, community
participation and is non profit in nature.
In India, radio has been in the hands of the state ever since its
inception. However, by the 1970s and 80s, with the attention of the
government turning to television, radio had become a neglected medium,
with AIR languishing in the shadows. A change came in 1995 when AIR
launched FM broadcasts and allowed private producers to take slots on
sponsorship basis.
1995 was also the year of the famous Supreme Court judgement:
“Airwaves constitute public property and must be utilised for
advancing public good”. Justice PB Sawant went on to say “Diversity of
opinions, views, ideas and ideologies is essential to enable the
citizens to arrive at informed judgment on all issues touching them.
This cannot be provided by a medium controlled by a monopoly – whether
the monopoly is of the State or any other individual, group or
organisation.”
After a long-drawn series of negotiations between government and
interested individuals and groups responding to the 1995 Supreme Court
judgement, a set of Community Radio Guidelines, limited to educational
institutions, was announced in 2003. Its scope was later expanded to
include civil society organisations as the Community Radio Policy of
2006. According to the CR Policy, the government can issue a maximum
of 4000 Radio Station (CRS) licenses in India. However, there have
been less than 300 applications and as of October 2009, only 57 had
actually got licenses in hand for starting their CRSs. It's time for
those with public communication on their agenda to wake up to this
hard-won advantage.
Comet Media Foundation, in collaboration with Media Information and
Communication Centre of India (MICCI) and Frederich Ebert Stiftung
(FES), is organising a community radio workshop to spread awareness
about CR and to encourage eligible NGOs to apply for licenses.
This is where NGOs like you, who have been working in a particular
field for more than three years,stand to benefit. You are eligible to
apply for a licence to start a community radio station in your
geographical area of operation. There are many advantages of
initiating community media for development - it fosters the community
diversity and provides a space for voices of the marginalised within
that community to be heard. This is a great opportunity for civil
society to hear these vibrant and diverse voices through the CRSs. For
initiating the process, one has to go through a lengthy and rigorous
process, but the fruits of media pluralism and democracy are to be
realised through such initiatives.
The themes planned for the various sessions are as follows:
• The basics of community radio (CR), principles and practices
• Empowering community voices and navigating the regulatory landscape
• The back end: technology to support CRS
• Experiences of NGOs setting up and running CRSs
• Content creation: once you get started, how do you generate
programming?
Among the speakers will be persons from the following list (arranged
alphabetically), subject to their availability:
• Aaditeshwar Seth: works on digital technologies to promote community
media, Delhi
• Amol Goje: heads VIIT campus station at Baramati
• Navin Chandra of Union Park Radio of Khar-Bandra-Santa Cruz Trust
• Sushama Shendge, MVSS Radio, Satara
• Chhavi Sachdev: radio producer, running two streaming audio channels
• Fr Richard Rego of Radio Sarang from St. Aloysius College, Mangalore
• Frederick Noronha, journalist and Community Radio activist
• Hemant Babu: Nomad Radio India
• Indira Mansingh or her colleague Anuja from Radio Bundelkhand
• Nandini Sahai: Honorary Director MICCI, Delhi
Neeraj Hatekar: MUST (Mumbai University Students Transmission)
• P V Satheesh or one of his colleagues from Sangham Radio, Deccan
Development Society, Andhra Pradesh
• Bharatiben: Kutch-ri-Vani community radio of KMVS
• Rajeshwar Dayal: Frederich Ebert Stiftung, Delhi
• Ramnath Bhatt: Maraa, Bangalore
• Sajan Venniyoor: Community Radio Forum
• Shoba Ghosh: Professor of English and Film Studies, Mumbai Universty
Participation in Workshop on Community Radio
Please let us know if you are interested to take part in this unusual
and intensive exposure. Confirm as early as you can, and tell us how
many persons we could expect from your organisation.We request you to
register yourself with a fee of Rs. 350/- to cover meals and
refreshments for the two days.
The venue will be in Mumbai.
For latest updates please visit:
http://cometmediafdn.wordpress.com/
Here we will be regularly - for the next month till the workshop - be
uploading readings, links, info about speakers, participants and the
evolving content of the seminar. Please feel free to comment and add
your suggestions.
For further details contact: Pooja/Sandeep - 022-2382 6674 /022- 2386
9052
Sincerely,
Pooja Das Sarkar
Workshop Co-ordinator
Comet Media Foundation
