Colombo, 8^th of February: The Sri Lanka Development Journalists’ Forum (SDJF) invites all radio stakeholders to join it in celebrating the first world radio day – February 13^th - proclaimed by UNESCO. A network of community broadcasters, working towards community broadcasting for social development in Sri Lanka, the SDJF, brings together more than 30 broadcasters for the first World Radio Day.

These broadcasters hail from mainstream and community-based radio stations and include 15 radio practitioners and five former producers who have been working with community radios from 1980. The highlight of the celebration will consist in a one-day radio conference on February 13th.

The Information and Communication Technology Agency (ICTA) of Sri Lanka, the national ICT apex body, partners with SDJF in organizing the conference and other World Radio Day events.

During 1979 - 1980 Sri Lanka was the first country to produce a strong community broadcasting model to the world. It brought out the potential of radio in catering to the information needs of developing communities.

Unfortunately, the momentum gathered by the development agencies during this period in utilizing the power of the radio in social development, has dwindled. This could be attributed to the slackening of interest on the part of the prime stakeholders. In the backdrop of this, the first World Radio Day will bring a timely massage for Sri Lanka – strengthen radio movements and empower the communities.

The objectives of the World Radio Day Conference in Sri Lanka are: (1) to discuss about the potential of the World Radio Day, (2) planning out and celebrating the World Radio Day every year and (3) engaging in a dialogue about the attainment of the radio in Sri Lanka (4) to get the radio operators to share their views about what radio meant for them, (5) Strengthening the SDJF’s community broadcasters’ network in order to promote the radio as a powerful tool for social change and (6) to discuss the key social issues affecting the radio movements in Sri Lanka.

Sri Lanka Development Journalist Forum (SDJF) is the national platform and the representative body for Broadcasters who believe that community empowerment and positive social changes can be achieved through strategic use of community media – Radio. SDJF deeply concentrates on the gap between media and community. SDJF, facilitate quality improvement of media outputs to uplift the life standards of the disadvantaged and it encourage a media culture in which media could lead and facilitate the community towards development and empowerment. Community media, citizen journalism, training & research, monitoring & evaluation, and broadcasting for development are the core programme components, which SDJF has structured to attain its goals.

The Information and Communication Technology Agency of Sri Lanka (ICTA) was set up under the Information and Communication Technology Act No. 27 of 2003 of the Government of Sri Lanka. It was further strengthened by its ICT Amendment Act No.33 of 2008. Coming under the Ministry of Telecommunication and Information Technology, functioning under the Presidential Secretariat it is the apex body responsible for implementing the ‘e-Sri Lanka’ Development Initiative. ICTA implements this initiative via a six-pronged strategy which encompasses building the implementation capacity, building the information infrastructure and an enabling environment, developing ICT human resources, modernizing the government and delivering citizen services, and leveraging ICT for economic and social development through public-private partnerships.

On Tue, Jan 31, 2012 at 12:23 AM, Birgitte Jallov <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

Dear Colleagues,

For all of the reasons we all know so well, UNESCO last November announced 13th February as WORLD RADIO DAY.

2012 is the first time this new, international day is celebrated around the world. Background documentation is available here: http://www.unesco.org/new/en/communication-and-information/events/prizes-and-celebrations/celebrations/world-radio-day/ and here as well: http://www.worldradioday.org/ posted by the Spanish Radio Academy, initiating the proces

The number of events is growing including what UNESCO presents on their site, the Bangladesh NGO Network for Radio and Communication is celebrating, we are a group celebrating in London:

http://worldradiodaylondon.eventbrite.com/ These are highlighted here:

https://www.facebook.com/WorldRadioDay as we get closer. No doubt, next year will be more visible – or should we rather say: noisier? But let us do what we can, yes=

World Radio Day is OUR DAY – we all could and should do all we can to celebrate it, in all the many ways and forms we can!

***Do share activities planned by all of you on the FB site!

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