The
AMARC 10 Global Conference will be held in La Plata,
Argentina 2010
The International Board of Directors of AMARC announced
that the tenth World Assembly of Community Radio Broadcasters
will be held from 8 to 13 November 2010 in Ciudad
de la Plata, province of Buenos Aires, Argentina.
Community Radios have come together in AMARC Argentina
to host the first Global conference of community broadcasters
to be held in South America, where community radios
were born 60 years ago. Furthermore, Argentina and
the Latin America & Caribbean region is going
through dynamic social changes and has a rich in experiences
to share with the world movement of community radios.
More than 400 community broadcasters and stakeholders
from over 110 countries and all regions of the global
community radio movement will gather at the AMARC
10 Global Conference from 8-13 November to, among
other issues, improve good practice in community media;
explore strategies to facilitate the establishment
of enabling legal environments for community media
development, to define knowledge sharing and capacity
building models for action-research and mentoring;
to reinforce content development leading to social
change; to facilitate the inclusion of women and;
to encourage the empowerment of communities through
appropriation of community radio for social justice
and sustainable, democratic and participatory human
development. http://amarc10.amarc.org
2nd REGIONAL CONFERENCE OF AMARC ASIA PACIFIC:
Community Radio for Sustainable development and Good
Governance
The 2nd AMARC Asia Pacific Regional Conference: Community
radio for Sustainable Development and Good Governance”
will be held on February 20-23, 2010. The Conference
will bring together community radio broadcasters,
activists, academics, policy makers, and representatives
of the donor community and governments to review the
development of the community broadcasting in the Asia
Pacific region in the last 4 years. It will take a
careful look at thematic areas of development such
as the empowerment of women within the CR sector,
the role of community broadcasting in peace building,
it’s role in the face of global climate change and
at times of natural disasters as well as for poverty
eradication.
The regional conference will address practical issues
such as capacity building in areas of management,
technology, community participation, monitoring and
evaluation, media convergence, and networking and
the conference will recommend steps that will ensure
the way forward for the CR sector in the region. The
2nd Regional Assembly of AMARC Asia-Pacific will be
held in conjunction with the Regional Conference.
The Asia Pacific chapter of AMARC was formally established
in November 2005 by the 1st Regional Assembly of AMARC’s
members in the Asia Pacific region during the regional
conference held in Jakarta, Indonesia. The Conference
provided a significant push to Community Radio in
the Region by bringing together practitioners from
Asia-Pacific and beyond along with experts and NGO
representatives from the community media and communications
rights sector. The Jakarta Regional Assembly elected
a regional board and decided upon an action plan aimed
at developing the community broadcasting sector in
the region. As per the statutes of AMARC Asia Pacific,
the regional assembly is held every four years.
For information visit: http://asiapacific.amarc.org/index.php?p=2_Conference_Asia_Pacific_2010
Tribute to Thomas Kupfer (1964-2009)
Thomas Kupfer, a founding member of the Community
Media Forum Europe (CMFE), passed away on Sunday 2
August 2009, at the age of 45. Thomas has been a central
figure in helping gain recognition for community media
at the European level including recent important policy
achievements. He was the organiser, motivator and
supporter of a number of focal community media events
at the continental level in Germany, Austria and across
Europe in the last two decades. Steve Buckley, President
of AMARC, said “Thomas made a great contribution to
the recognition and development of community media
in Europe. His departure is a very sad loss to our
movement. Our thoughts go out to his family and friends.”
CMFE has published a memorial tribute at:
http://www.cmfe.eu/index.php?/Support/cmfe-pays-tribute-to-thomas-kupfer.html
CTA 2009 Seminar
AMARC delegates participated in the an international
seminar on the "Role of the media in agricultural
development in ACP countries (West, Central, East
and Southern Africa, the Caribbean and the Pacific)
in Brussels, Belgium between 12 and 16 October 2009.
The seminar was organized by ACP/EU Technical Centre
for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation (CTA), together
with its partners. The aims of the international seminar
were to: Contribute to the preparation of strategies
for media capacity building with regard to access
and dissemination of information on key issues for
the ACP agricultural sector; to strengthen communication
links between the media and the agricultural sector
and; to contribute to the identification of media
support programmes.
.
The meeting was attended by over 120 experts representing
the main professions at the interface of media, agriculture,
rural development and decision making. CTA intends
to use the Seminar to build on these initiatives,
thereby contributing to improving the role of the
media in agricultural and rural development in the
ACP countries by working with and for the media.
For further information visit: http://annualseminar2009.cta.int/
International Seminar: Voice and Empowerment
through Community Media:
Learning from good practice, strategies for development
on November 11, 2009
AMARC and UNESCO, together with other stakeholders,
held on November 11, 2009 an international seminar
«Voice and Empowerment through Community Media: Learning
from Good Practice, Strategies for Development», at
the UNESCO Headquarters in Paris.
The seminar gathered community radio practitioners
and stakeholders to analyse best experiences on the
social impact of community radio and of AMARC in building
up enabling environments for Community Radio; on poverty
reduction; on disaster management and preparedness
among other issues. The participants also shared common
perspectives for action to achieve sustainable, democratic
and participatory development.
For further information and to listen to the presentation
please go to: http://www.amarc.org/index.php?p=paris_seminar_2009
Policy Models on policies, Legislation and
Regulations : Successes in the Recognition of Community
Radios
Participants from all continents and regions of the
world shared knowledge on good practices on community
radio broadcasting. The French example caught attention
in regards to public financing of community radios.
Emmanuel Boutterin, president of the Syndicat National
des Radios Libres (SNRL), said that the article 29
of the 1986 legislation related to communication freedom,
established as constitutional law on freedoom of expression
requires that the regulation authority the CSA (Conseil
Supérieur de l’Audiovisuel) allocates 25% of the frequencies
to community or associated status radios.
The said legislation considers the distribution of
public support for the community radios that is financves
by taxes on the amounts paid by announcers paying
for publicity in radio broadcast or television.
This means that the Fonds de Soutien a l’Expression
Radiophonique (FSER) the Support Fund to radio expression
as it is known in France is financed by commercial
radio. The fund has 30 million euros per year.
M. Boutterin of SNRL, concluded its presentation
highlighting that «a good legislation is important
for the development of community radio ».
Other examples of good practices of sustainable community
radios and for the growth of community radios were
also shared by representatives of Chile, Jordan and
Senegal. The representatives of Haiti, Italy, Mali
and the United States, highlighted examples of the
social impact of community radio in their specific
countries.
«Voice and access to information are vital components
in the fight against poverty. The contribution by
community media and community radio has been particularly
effective in reaching the poorest communities in the
world and facilitate inclusion of the excluded. Community
media ensures access for people to communication tools,
allowing them to access their own ways for their cultural
expression, for dialogue, to information and news
creating the conditions for the necessary communication
processes to achieve sustainable, democratic and participatory
development », declared Steve Buckley, President of
AMARC
By Sony Esteus, Director of SAKS Association (Sosyete
Animasyon ak Kominikasyon Sosyal),abd Vice President
of AMARCC
.
The participants produced the following concluding
statement:
Concluding Statement of AMARC/UNESCO International
Community Media Seminar UNESCO, Paris, 11 November
2009
The International Seminar on “Voice and empowerment
through community media: learning from good practice,
strategies for development”, held at UNESCO, Paris
on 11 November 2009 and organized jointly by the World
Association of Community Radio Broadcasters (AMARC)
and UNESCO, brought together community media experts,
development partners and stakeholders. The seminar
discussed case examples of good practices in policy,
law and regulation; in sustainability and growth;
and in social impact. Participants analysed some of
the key characteristics of good practices in community
media and assessed some of the challenges of transferability,
adaptability and scalability in order to inform joint
strategies for community media development.
Participants concluded:
On models of policy, law and regulation
We applaud countries, such as France and South Africa,
which have demonstrated a sustained commitment to
policies, laws and regulation that positively enable
and support community broadcasting. Characteristics
of such policies include independent regulatory bodies,
recognition of community broadcasting as a distinct
sector, reservation of frequencies, public funding
arrangements, and the absence of licence fees.
We recognize, in the experience of countries such
as Nepal, the importance of effective country level
associations to defend and advocate for the community
broadcasting sector and the need to provide solidarity
and support to civil society coalitions for media
reform, as well as to document and learn from successful
experiences of country level advocacy.
We recognize the strategic importance of international
mechanisms such as the Universal Periodic Review Mechanism
of the Human Rights Council, the Inter-American Commission
on Human Rights and the international special mandates
on freedom of expression that can contribute to the
development and promotion of international standards
and the adoption of good practice in community media
policy, law and regulation.
On good practice in sustainability and growth
We note that community media often exist in economically
precarious conditions and are thus vulnerable to external
economic pressures as well as facing other external
challenges such as may result from political and social
change, and new technological developments.
Nevertheless we recognize that the sustainability
of community media is most often linked to the strength
of their social base and community participation through
mechanisms such as community contributions, listener
clubs, citizen reporters and engagement with broader
social movements and civil society organizations.
We also recognize that new media and communications
technologies present important opportunities for community
media to develop their mechanisms for participation
and interaction, for example using the mobile phone,
as well as enabling community media to establish on
platforms, such as the internet, that do not face
the same restrictions as communications services that
are dependent on access to radio frequency spectrum.
On achieving social impact
We note that the social impact of community media
is wide ranging including combating poverty and contributing
to sustainable development, defending human rights,
promoting women’s rights and gender equality, promoting
peaceful conflict resolution, campaigning for local
accountability, assisting disaster mitigation and
disaster relief, among others.
We note that the community media sector is closely
associated with movements for social change and its
impact and effectiveness often contingent on wider
political contexts and we assert the importance of
defending the freedom and independence of community
media from the influence of governments, political
parties and commercial interests.
We call on AMARC:
- to continue to promote and defend the community
media sector including supporting country level and
international advocacy, networking and knowledge sharing,
capacity building and training, research and analysis
We call on UNESCO
- to continue, as a priority, to provide direct support
to innovative and strategic community media initiatives,
through the International Programme for the Development
of Communications (IPDC) and other mechanisms, and
to document and share knowledge on community media
good practice
We call on UNESCO Member States
- to ensure policies, laws, regulations and funding
mechanisms enable and support development of community
media including in the transition to digital platforms
We call on development partners and community media
stakeholders
- to encourage and facilitate the contribution of
community media to sustainable development and human
rights through partnership and strategic support
.
AMARC International Annual Board Meeting
The AMARC International 2009 Board Meeting was held
in Paris on November 12 to 14 and brought together
Board members from Europe, the US, Latin America,
Asia and Africa along with Executive members and Coordinators
.
The Board Meeting discussed the strategic directions
of the main activities implemented in all AMARC regions
, Advocacy and Policy definition , Capacity building
committee and knowledge sharing, Content exchange
and International Campaigns, reviewed as well the
fund raising and management of funds strategies and
analyzed the membership.
It examined the financial report for 2009 and adopted
the AMARC Budget and Plan of action 2010 as well as
the strategic lines of action for 2011-2014.
GCRN is 10 years old
The Ghana Community Radio Network (GCRN) celebrated
its 10th anniversary at a festive gathering on 9 December
2009 at Radio Ada.
The most important participants were community representatives
from each of the nine on-air member stations of GCRN
and emerging Community Radio initiatives.
The latter included initiatives being kick-started
by GCRN under a project in partnership with the United
Nations Democracy Fund (UNDEF). Taken as a whole,
the reps were a cross-section of the various communities
– youths, farmers and fisherfolk, artisans, local
government functionaries, traditional authorities.
They joined reps from the volunteer corps of the stations
and partner civil society organizations co-facilitating
the start-up of the initiatives.
The celebration featured a photo exhibit by each
on-air station and the participatory process for the
design of the new initiatives. There was also a role-play
on the history of GCRN.
That history has been deep in community engagement
but hampered by regulatory constraints. After years
of advocacy even preceding the formation of GCRN,
history seems set to change.
Important statements made at the anniversary symposium
were considered irrevocable. Apart from the community
reps and station volunteers, they were witnessed by
scores of Community Radio advocates from government
and civil society and carried by the media.
The main statements were: (i) frequency authorizations
would be fast-tracked to enable each of the 168 Districts
in the country to be served by its own Community Radio
station, (ii) a Broadcasting Law, which will recognize
Community Radio as one of the three tiers of broadcasting
and for which GCRN has been a key mover, will be enacted
early in 2010.
The statements were made by the main speaker, the
Minister of Communications on his own behalf and representing
the Vice-President of Ghana. Corroborating them were
top-level representatives of the national regulatory
organizations, the National Media Commission and the
National Communications Authority, and the Minister
of Education. The Director of the School of Communication
Studies at the University of Ghana was the symposium
chair.
The anniversary theme was “The Right to Communicate
through Community Radio”. That right will soon be
more fully realized!
By Wilna Quarmyne, Coordinator, Ghana Community Radio
Network.
National Assembly of AMARC Haiti
On July 4th, 2009, AMARC Haiti had a National Assembly.
19 associates met to adopt the statutes of the AMEKA
(Haiti Community Media Association). In the meeting,
the associates reelected Sony Esteus as the National
representative for the next two years, until 2011.
On the other hand the members of AMARC Haiti adopted
a working plan for social awareness on the need for
project legislation for community media. This plan
includes immediate actions at the national and local
level, mean while the projects is being studied by
the chamber of deputies.
To contact AMARC Haití please write to its representative
Sony Esteus, to: haiti@yahoo.fr
¡Creation of AMARC Panamá!
In the context of a gathering of indigenous peoples
chiefs, of teachers, workers and professionalls united
by the objective of building a better country, AMARC
Panama was created last July 29th, 2009. The participants
elected Silvestre Díaz, a leader of the Frente Nacional
por la Defensa de los Derechos Económicos y Sociales
de Panamá (FRENADESO) as the national representative
of AMARC Panama. They also elected Adisvelky Martínez
as the representative to the women international network
and, Antonio Vargas as the focal point for the legislations
programme.
Nine civil society organisations participated in the
meeting. Among them, the Coordinadora Popular de los
Derechos Humanos en Panamá (COPODEHUPA), the Comarca
Ngabe Bublé, Celio Guerra,the Sindicato Único Nacional
de Trabajadores de la Industria de la Construcción
y Similares (SUNTRACS), the Comarca Kuna Ayala. These
organisations decided to initiate a founding process
of community radio stations, with the coonviction
thsat in order to democratise societies, there is
need to democratise the communications.
For the moment there is the pilot project FRENADESO
NOTICIAS, an Internet radio that has started working
to broadcast in the FM band. To listen to its broadcast
programs go to www.frenadesonoticias.org
African Networks Workshop in Ghana: African
Networks Share Knowledge to Increase Community Radio
Social Impact in Africa
AMARC Africa Board and network and community radio
representatives from eleven countries of Western Eastern
and Southern Africa met in Accra, Ghana to improve
knowledge sharing on best practices in order to develop
integrated sustainability models for Country Community
Radio Networks and to increase the social impact of
community radio in alleviating poverty and promoting
democracy and achieving the Millennium Development
Goals (MDGs).
The AMARC Africa Knowledge Sharing Workshop of Community
Radio Networks in Africa held from 16-18 December
in Accra, Ghana. The workshop is part of the strategic
action plan defined by AMARC Africa members in the
4th Pan African Conference in Abidjan, Côte d’ivoire
in April 2009 and was hosted by the Ghana community
Radio Network (GCRN) and counted on the financial
support of OSIWA and other AMARC partners.
The participatory workshop permitted to share knowledge
on the specific challenges of national networks, on
the diversity of national contexts, on their forces
and weaknesses and to define key areas for action
by AMARC Africa as they are key components of the
African community radio network. The recommendations
of the workshop come to reinforce the reconstruction
of AMARC Africa and its action plan including the
preparation for the AMARC10 global Conference of Community
Radio Broadcasters to be held in Argentina, November
8-13, 2010.
The participants met with community radio stakeholders
and Ghana authorities, thus having a better insight
of the work accomplished by the GCRN, following the
10th anniversary of Radio Ada, the first Ghana community
radio. They also expressed their solidarity for the
challenges ahead to the expansion of the community
radio sector.
The participants issued the Accra declaration calling
governments of Africa to work towards the licensing
of community broadcasting in their countries. The
AMARC Africa Board and the delegates expressed their
concern, meeting in West Africa, for the lack of Independent
Community Radio in the largest democracy in Africa,
Nigeria. AMARC Africa calls upon the Presidency and
the state to recognize the basic human rights to freedom
of expression and to fulfil the promise to establish
community radios in Nigeria.
Established in 1997, AMARC-Africa is the African
regional section of AMARC. It groups more than 400
direct members radios and federations from the entire
continent. For further information: http://africa.amarc.org
Accra Declaration
We the members of AMARC AFRICA gathered in ACCRA
16-18 December 2009, in the Knowledge Sharing Conference
of Community Radio Networks from Africa,
Reiterating our support to the Doha Declaration of
the UNESCO World Press Freedom Day conference in Doha,
Qatar, 3 May 2009,
Recalling the Universal Declaration of Human Rights,
which states in Article 19 that: “Everyone has the
right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right
includes freedom to hold opinions without interference
and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas
through any media and regardless of frontiers.”
Reaffirming that freedom of expression is a fundamental
right that is essential to the realisation of other
freedoms set forth in international human rights instruments,
AMARC Africa meets in Accra Ghana to improve knowledge
sharing, on best practices in order to develop integrated
sustainability models for Country Community Radio
Networks and Regions. The meeting attended by eleven
(11) countries from Western, Eastern and Southern
Africa, envisaged to consolidate the social impact
of community radio through strengthening country networks.
Recalling the Windhoek Declaration on promoting an
independent and pluralistic African press of 1991;
Recalling the African Charter on Broadcasting of
2001;
Recognize the importance of an enabling legal framework
and an independent regulator to promote the development
of free, independent and pluralistic media in Africa;
Call urgently, on the governments of Africa to work
towards the licensing of community broadcasting in
their countries;
Call on governments, international and regional intergovernmental
organisations, civil society and development agencies
in all regions of Africa not only to engage in dialogue
but to physically promote community media in alleviating
poverty and promoting democracy and achieving the
Millennium Development Goals (MDGs);
Recognize policy development and advocacy as key
program priorities for the region in promoting community
media;
Recognize the important role of information and communication
technologies in offering basic tools for introducing
and managing community-centred development and change.
• AMARC Africa Board and delegates at this meeting
held in West Africa, is very concerned by the lack
of Independent Community Radio in the largest democracy
in Africa, Nigeria. AMARC Africa calls upon the Presidency
and the state to recognize the basic human rights
to freedom of expression and to fulfill the promise
to establish community radios in Nigeria.
• AMARC Africa recognizing the importance of the
role played by community radio in building peace and
reconciliation in the region. We promote partnership
and collaboration between governments and local communities
in working together towards promoting of peace.
• AMARC Africa joins the voices of community broadcasters
within the developing countries in demanding that
a new climate treaty be signed and ratified by all
developed countries with clear targets on the reduction
of green house emissions and support to adaptation
to climate change effects in developing countries.
AMARC Africa will use community radio to advocate
for actions to reduce on the green house emissions
and educate local communities on the effects of climate
change.
•AMARC Africa participated in the 16 days of activism
against Gender Based violence (GBV) and strongly condemns
the practice. Community Radio has taken a lead in
breaking the silence and is speaking against this
violence in the community. We urge legislators to
take stronger measures and enact laws to stop this
practice and law enforcement departments to play their
part and prosecute the offenders.
Promoting Development and good governance
through community radio in Africa
Promoting Development and Good Governance through
Community Radio in Africa, is a 3 year project funded
by CIDA which seeks to ameliorate health in local
communities including VIH-SIDA, Malaria, and health
related issues; Water and Sanitation and Good Governance,
including Human Rights and Conflict Resolution and
thus to increase the social impact of community radio
in empowering the poor and the excluded.
The project is conceived as an integrated process
with specific activities that include:
A set of knowledge sharing and capacity building seminars
and mentoring activities;
Radio production activities by participating community
radios and
Content dissemination & and content exchange activities
amplifying the voices of the poor and excluded.
Organisation and evaluation activities which are
cross-cutting activities that allow for appropriate
monitoring and evaluation at all steps of the project
The 36 CR from Burkina Faso, Senegal, Ghana, Democratic
Republic of Congo, Kenya and South Africa have produced
during the first year of the project have produced
72 hours of radio programs on HIV/AIDS and other health
related topics during 2009.
After the evaluation of this first year, the project
will concern Water and Sanitation during 2010, its
second year. http://www.amarc.org
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