Community Radio across South Asia: Understanding its Potential in Addressing Voice Poverty

1. Commonwealth Educational
Media Centre for Asia
Community Radio across South
Asia: Understanding its Potential
in Addressing Voice Poverty
Dr Ankuran Dutta
Programme Officer
CEMCA, New Delhi

2. South
Asia

3. Overview of Community Radio in South Asia
Country Policy Status of CR
Afghanistan No separate Policy on CR Community Radio exists, about 155
Bangladesh Community Radio Policy 2008 14 CRS Operational + Licensed to 18
more CRS = 32 CRS
Bhutan Baseline researches are going on.
No separate Policy on CR till date.
1 Campus Radio at Sherubtse College,
Trashigang
India First policy on CR in 2002
Revised policy in 2006
As on December 2014, 179
Maldives A research done by MBC as an UNDP
project. No separate Policy on CR.
No Community Radio exists
Nepal Napal Broadcasting Act 1993, No
separate Policy on CR
More than 253
Pakistan No separate Policy on CR. PTRA
Ordinance 2002 allows CR.
2 Commercial FMs providing slots for
community participation
Sri Lanka No separate Policy on CR Pioneer among SA countries. 2 CRS
under SLBC are operational

4. Afghanistan
• Afghanistan radio was launched in 1942 but from that time up
to 2003, radio was managed and owned by the government of
Afghanistan.
• In 2003 for the first a private radio station was established in
Bamyan, one of the central province
• By 2010, the country had more than 60 radio stations
• Now it is more than 160 while most of them is community radio
stations, almost 155 of them are community radio stations.
• Now about 85% of the population (app 30 million) are covered
by radio.

5. Bangladesh
• Community Radio Policy 2008
• 15 Operational Community Radio stations and 17
newly licensed CRS to be operational by 2015
• About 120 hours daily broadcasting
• Covers 13 districts including 67 sub-districts
• About 1000 CR broadcasters associated
• Reaching about 4.6 Million population

6. Bhutan
• Media in Bhutan has undergone considerable growth after the
establishment of democracy in 2008.
• Lack of policy and legal frameworks to support the growth of
media.
• “Community media is a new idea in Bhutan and, to this end, the
only community media is a radio that has been licensed to
Sherubtse College” (MDA 2010)
• Sherubtse Community Radio, launched on 8th May, 2009
• Selected 5 places for potential of setting up of CR (Tarayana
foundation, Ministry of Information and Communications, AMARC,
UNESCO)

7. India
• Supreme Court Judgment of 1995 – Airwaves are public property to be
used for public good
• First CR Guidelines in 2002 (For only educational institutions)
• Policy was broad based –New Policy 2006
• First CR station in Chennai – 2004
• Total CR stations in December, 2014- 179 (No. of applications received
1615, LoI issued 409)
• Covers 24 Indian states
• Union government’s target to set up 4000 CRS
• Govt. allotted 1 billion INR to support CR in 12th 5 Yr Plan
• CEMCA facilitated more than 100 CRS in India

8. Maldives
• The Maldives Broadcasting Commission, supported by the UNDP
pursued a research engaging Murray Green on exploring the
feasibility of introducing community broadcasting and the
regulatory framework in 2012.
• The report of the study was submitted with 13 recommendation.
• One of the recommendation was “The first community radio license
applications should be called by December 2013 with the first
stations on air in early 2014”.
• The commission is interested for setting up community radio in the
Maldives.
• CEMCA in association with the Commission organised a
consultation to discuss potential for CR in Maldives.

9. Nepal
• Pioneer in Community Radio in South Asia
• All radio stations are regulated under National Broadcasting
Act, 1993. No separate policy for CR
• In 1997, South Asia’s first community radio station, Radio
Sagarmatha went on air
• Total Community Radio stations – 253
• Covers 74 districts (out of 75 districts)
• Reaching about 24.8 Million population

10. Pakistan
• Pakistan Electronic Media Reg. Authority Ordinance 2002
allows setting up of community radio. No separate Community
Radio policy.
• An organisation named Community Media Pakistan has
started dialoguing for Community Radio.
• Commercial FM- FM100 Pakistan Network radio and DIL FM
started providing weekly hours to serve communities by
broadcasting various issues
• Exists Campus radio like FM Radio University of Punjab and
FM radio University of Peshawar
• Rawalakot Declaration 2008

11. Sri Lanka
• Sri Lanka was the first South Asian country to do community
broadcasting, starting with Mahaweli community radio (MCR) in 1981
under SLBC.
• MCR established small community radio stations focusing on particular
sectors of the Mahaweli Project, Giradurukotte (1985), Mahailluppalama
(1987), and Kothmale (1989).
• eTUKTUK - (KCMC) to the community’s doorstep.
• Uva Community Radio, began in 2003 outside the MCR under a pilot
UNDP.
• Dambadeniya Community Radio has been inaugurated in July 2007.
• No policy or legal framework existed to establish community radio
stations.

12. CR South Asia- Addressing Voice Poverty
• Break the information monopoly- democratise airwaves
• Independence and autonomy to community in
eradicating voice poverty
• Acknowledge Common(s)+Unity: ownership and
participation
• Empower community with responsibility and
accountability
• Balance economic, environment and social needs.
• Journey ahead towards enabling healthy communities.

13. Journey Ahead
Radio could be the most wonderful public
communication system imaginable, a gigantic system of
channels…capable not only of transmitting but of
receiving, of making the listener not only hear but also
speak, not of isolating him but of connecting him..
- Bertolt Brecht, Radio as a Means of Communication: A
Talk on the Function of Radio (1979)

14. Thank You
You may contact-
adutta@col.org
ankurandutta@gmail.com
Blog: comcomm.blogspot.in
Web: www.cemca.org.in