13 Feb World Radio Day 2019 – Dia­logue, Tol­er­ance and Peace

Today we join the Radio world in cel­e­brat­ing the World Radio Day (WRD), whose theme this year is “Dia­logue, Tol­er­ance and Peace”. We share the mes­sage that the World Asso­ci­a­tion of Com­mu­ni­ty Radio (AMARC) – part­ner of the Grass­roots Radia project – has deliv­ered for the occa­sion, reaf­firm­ing the cru­cial role of the com­mu­ni­ty broad­cast­ing sec­tor.

Free­dom of com­mu­ni­ca­tion and expres­sion are always crit­i­cal in many Regions of the World. While engag­ing for dia­logue, tol­er­ance and peace, com­mu­ni­ty radios are still and too often endan­gered by the lack of clear leg­isla­tive frame­works, and equal oppor­tu­ni­ties in terms of access to the fre­quen­cy spec­trum, broad­cast­ing pow­er and access to infor­ma­tion.

Com­mu­ni­ty radios are agent of change. The extreme diver­si­ty of this move­ment and its hyper-local approach don’t under­mine the uni­ver­sal val­ues of social cohe­sion it pur­sues. Dia­logue, tol­er­ance and peace are the ethos of the com­mu­ni­ty radio sec­tor. The chang­ing tech­no­log­i­cal envi­ron­ment and the cross-media approach between tra­di­tion­al radio, online appli­ca­tions and mobile tele­pho­ny can offer unprece­dent­ed oppor­tu­ni­ties for the devel­op­ment of the com­mu­ni­ty radio sec­tor, pro­vid­ing the capac­i­ty to fill the gap between those who have and those who have not access to the resources.

In this world of dual­i­ties, through var­i­ous part­ner­ships and projects, AMARC works towards improv­ing the con­di­tions of com­mu­ni­ty radios as a par­a­digm for a full plu­ral­is­tic media envi­ron­ment.  Men­tor­ing and train­ing are con­duct­ed in sev­er­al regions to improve the capac­i­ties of jour­nal­ists, new tech­no­log­i­cal solu­tions are approached and exper­i­ment­ed, dia­logue, cam­paigns and demo­c­ra­t­ic debates over issues, such as migra­tion, cli­mate change or vio­lence against women, are pro­mot­ed in order to raise aware­ness among lis­ten­ers and inspire under­stand­ing for new per­spec­tives. AMARC advo­cates and acts, on the inter­na­tion­al scene, for the improve­ment of the secu­ri­ty of local and com­mu­ni­ty jour­nal­ists, and for the com­mu­ni­ca­tion rights of com­mu­ni­ty broad­cast­ers.

Let’s cel­e­brate com­mu­ni­ty radio togeth­er! Join us and the Unesco cam­paign! Thank you for your par­tic­i­pa­tion!