Celebrate community radio

Peter Kuthan

12. Februar 2020 / 20:39

What we could learn from Africa (ORF schau oba)! : PANOS CALLS FOR RADIO CONTENT TO BE INCLUSIVE as the World observes World Radio Day tomorrow

The Panos Institute Southern Africa has proposed six recommendations to media owners in order for Radio content to be reflective of both majority and minority groups with a view to cater for all cultures and other interests.

Panos Chief Executive Director #MrVusumuzi Sifile, in his message on the commemoration of #WorldRadioDay which falls tomorrow, he called on radio stations in the region to provide platforms for a diversity of voices and viewpoints, covering diverse development issues and actors, and targeting diverse audiences.

This year’s World Radio Day is been held under the theme “Radio and Diversity”.

i. Political parties must limit their involvement in the affairs of radio stations, and allow radio stations to freely and fairly carry out their mandate in a manner that promotes diversity and upholds the various viewpoints within their audiences.

ii. Decision makers must develop/amend and implement laws and policies that uphold diversity in radio. Such laws and policies must promote diversity of voices and opinions in radio broadcasts, and also support diversity in media ownership, allowing for the coexistence of different types of radio stations, be they community, commercial or public broadcasters.

iii. State owned or controlled radio stations must function as public service broadcasters, embracing diverse opinions and providing content that is relevant to different stakeholders in society, not behaving like mouthpieces of governments and ruling parties. For this to be realised, we encourage governments to adopt and implement policies that enhance public service broadcasting. Panos is aware that some commitments have been made in the past, but there is a lack of political will to realise this.

iv. Radio stations should embrace new technologies, and bring diversity to the channels they use to gather, store and disseminate content. The transmission of radio content should not be limited to the airwaves frequencies, but should also be diversified to include streaming through online platforms. We are aware that this may be a challenge especially for under resourced community radio stations.

v. State and non-state actors must support radio stations, especially community broadcasters, to broadcast content that upholds diversity. We are aware that in some cases, the lack of diversity is as a result of limited access to alternative sources of information.

Mr. Sifile concludes by appealing to Radio stations to promote diversity in their staffing, ensuring fair and equitable representation of people from majority and minority groups that make up the target audience for a particular radio station.

“This representation must take into account factors such as gender, language proficiency, age and social background, among other factors” he said.

From our Team of Analysts, we say #Happy World Radio Day to all Radio Stations in Zambia and beyond.

© The Speech Analyst

12.02.2020