Bangladesh is poised to become a model for systematic and sustainable Community Radio
Bangladesh
NGOs Network for Radio and Communication (BNNRC) has organized a conference on
‘Community Radio in Bangladesh: Lesson from International Practice, Moving from
Policy to Action in Bangladesh’, on 13th April 2010, in BRAC Inn,
Dhaka, Bangladesh, supported by USAID/PROGATI. International Expert on community
radio from U.S.A. Ms Terry Thielen was presented her keynote paper in the
conference.
She had traveled and interviewed number of community radio initiator, academic, researcher, advocacy leader, civil society leader, government official, journalist, media specialist and communication expert in Bangladesh, before preparing her paper. In her presentation, she applauded the systematic and sustainable course of actions for establishing community radio in Bangladesh.
Bangladesh
Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC) Chairman Maj Gen Zia Ahmed, psc (Retd.) was
presented as the chief guest and Dr. Akram Hossain Chowdhury Member of
Parliament (MP) moderated the conference. Information Commissioner of
Information Commission, Bangladesh Professor Dr. Sadeka Halim,
Dr. Mohammad Zainul Abedin, Country Representative, International Rice
Research Institute (IRRI) Bangladesh,
Syed Marghub Morshed, Former chairman, Bangladesh Telecommunication
Regulatory Commission (BTRC) were the Guest of Honor.
A number of community
radio advocates were there as guests . Among the participants there were
regulator, government official, civil society leader, academia,
community radio initiator, journalist, researcher, representative from corporate
sector, development partner representative, UN official, media think-tank, ICT4D
expert, media specialist, broadcast managers, etc.
Ms Terry Thielen has
worked with community radio since 2002, mostly as part of USAID funded projects
engaging community radio for democracy building in Haiti, Jamaica, Rwanda and
Sudan. She was contracted by PROGATI/ USAID to conduct an assessment of the
community radio environment to gain an understanding of the history of community
radio in Bangladesh, the role of key players in the movement, the existing legal
framework, and the ‘readiness’ of community radio initiators
themselves.
In her study, she
found ‘the Bangladesh community radio movement to be remarkably well prepared,
organized and ready to begin the process of establishing community radio
stations across the country. The long term advocacy and orientation efforts of
key grassroots civil society players such as Bangladesh NGOs Network for Radio
and Communication(BNNRC) and others, along with support from UNESCO, Cordaid,
Free Voice, UNICEF, CIDA, Article19 and various donors have laid a solid
foundation on which to build a vibrant, effective and sustainable community
radio sector.’ In her presentation, she offered few recommendations to different
player in community radio initiative.
For Community Radio
Advocates, her suggestions are mainly focused on capacity building activities.
She emphasized on Community Radio Academy for designing curriculum and approach
to help initiators for efficient operation of community radio
stations. Her recommendation for community radio
initiators was on the involvement of community people in the station. She
advised to hire employees from the community to operate community radio
stations.
For government, she
appealed for short-term, mid-term and long-term activities. In short-term, the
license should be issued immediately. In mid-term, she advocated modifying the
policy before the next round of applications. In this modification, a timeline
should include in the policy for issuing the license in time. For long-term she
suggested to develop a review process for applicants denied licenses so they
understand why their applications were rejected. She also recommended including
an appeals process in the community radio
policy.
Mr. S M Shameem Reza,
Associate Professor, Department of Journalism and Mass Communication, University
of Dhaka and Mr. Shahab Enam Khan, Assistant Professor, Jahangirnagar University
was the designated discussants on the keynote paper. Later the participants were
commented on the presentation.
Guest of Honor
Professor Dr. Sadeka Halim highlighted the role of community radio as an
instrument for promoting pluralism and good governance and Right to Information.
She suggested the initiators to put women, farmers and small entrepreneurs in
the community radio advisory committee. On monitoring issue, she appealed for
civil society involvement.
In line with ‘Digital
Bangladesh’ and ‘Vision 2021’, the present government has taken few progressive
attempts. Community radio should be considered as one of the component in this
regard. Chief Guest Maj Gen Zia Ahmed, psc (Retd.) has clarified the role of
BTRC concerning community radio initiatives. He assured the audience that BTRC
had already reserved the frequencies for the short listed community radio
applicants.
At the end of the conference, moderator Dr. Akram Hossain Chowdhury MP thanked the guests and participants for their lively involvement in the event. After the conference, a technical session on ‘Transparency, Accountability and Anti-Corruption Issues in Community Radio’ has held in the same venue, moderated by Dr. Akram Hossain Chowdhury MP.