[Reader-list] Workshop on Community Radio in Mumbai (27, 28 Nov)

[Chintan]

Contact details at the end of the mail, in case this interests you.

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Altaf Makhiawala
**

Dear friends,

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), Frederich Ebert Stiftung (FES) and Centre for
Advancement of Philanthropy (CAP) 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.

Scheduled for the whole day on *27th November* and till *afternoon of the
28th*, the workshop would be of interest to those who wish to start CRSs to
support their community work. The workshop would also have room for those
who wish to contribute creatively to programming, to work out collaborations
to share air time, to discuss not only media reception and issues of
audiences, but also how media can be created so as to interest the
listeners.


*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 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