One of the most critical impediments to community radio is inadequate
legislation says the World Association of Community Radio Broadcasters
(AMARC) in its latest report.
Community radio facilitates public discourse and confrontation of
development challenges but a significant barrier is the "lack of
recognition of the social importance of community radio in the legislation"
which limits the human, financial and technical resources needed to sustain it, says AMARC, in its 2008 annual report.
The report tackles several other obstacles for community radio, such as
repression of journalists, training and knowledge of content development
due to the high turnover of volunteers and journalists, and the transition
from FM band to digital radio. "This calls for knowledge exchange and
better coordination of action alerts, solidarity alerts and international
missions of observation," the report says.
The report marks 25 years of the community media movement and a commitment to media diversity and social change. Some of the key successes over the years include the adoption of the Principles for a Democratic Legislation for Community Radio. As well, community media was recognised in UNESCO's Maputo Declaration on World Press Freedom Day last year, which noted, "in particular, the role of community broadcasters in fostering underrepresented or marginalised populations" access to information, voice and participation in decision making processes."
AMARC also discusses the necessity of challenging those who decide on
legislation as well as providing support on a grassroots level to help
sustain democratic free speech through community radio.
To read the report in full, AMARC Annual Report 2008: The Year of Community Radio:
http://www.amarc.org/documents/rapports/annual_reports/AMARC-ANNUAL_REP_2008.pdf
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