Report prepared by Dr Kalinga Seneviratne, Head of Research, AMIC with assistance from M.C Rasmin, Media Coordinator of ICTA, Sri Lanka.
Do we need to have a transmitter to broadcast community radio? Can community radio be solely a development tool? Could universities set up community radio and give a voice to the people? These were some of the issues discussed during a one-day workshop conducted by the Singapore based Asian Media Information and Communication Centre (AMIC) in Colombo on November 21st 2009 in collaboration with the ICT Agency of Sri Lanka and the Sri Lanka Development Journalists Forum (SDJF).
This training workshop on ‘Principles of Community Radio’ was conducted by Dr Kalinga Seneviratne, Head of Research at AMIC and a former Australian community radio broadcaster. He was assisted by Dr. W.A.D.P Wanigasundara, Head, Department of Development Communication, Postgraduate Institute of Agriculture, University of Peradeniya and Asoka Dias, AMIC country representative and the Station Director of Sirasa Radio. The official website of the SDJF was launched during the opening session.
This workshop was the first activity of an UNESCO-IPDC funded project in ‘Streamlining Community Radio Capacity Building in Asia’. AMIC will be conducting more community radio training workshops with the assistance of Tambuli Community Radio in India, Indonesia, Laos, Bangladesh and the Philippines in the coming 6 months.
The inaugural workshop in Colombo was attended by 35 community radio activists and practitioners from across the country, including Matara in the south, Ampara in the east, Uva in the hill country and Jaffna in the north. This reflected the fact that there is great enthusiasm shown by Sri Lankan young community radio activists for the establishment of independent community radio in the country.
“Within the contemporary environment of Sri Lanka, we can’t expect genuine and deep support from the mainstream media of Sri Lanka in-terms of social empowerment. Even if we close the mainstream electronic media stations, specially radio channels (in the island) it will make no difference to the life of the rural people. Our mainstream media don't have visionary aims to give a platform to the voiceless community. So, we have to work hard in order to create an alternative community radio culture in Sri Lanka” said Athula Pushpakumara, Head of Media and Communication of the ICT Agency of Sri Lanka, in his introductory speech.
Representatives from UVA Community Radio and Kothmale Community Radio that are functioning under the purview of Sri Lanka Broadcasting Corporation (SLBC) and internet based community radios such as Dambadeniya Community Radio, Ransara Community Radio, Prabavi Community Radio were among those who participated in the workshop. Representatives from universities, media training institutes, NGO's and media institutions also participated in this workshop.
In the morning session, Dr Seneviratne focused on definition, principles and characteristics of community radio, and in the post-lunch session on evaluation, functions and essential features of community radio. There was also discussion on successful community radio model in the world and community participation, funding and sustainability of community radio.
An inter-active round-table style discussion took place in the late afternoon session on how to set up and develop community radio in Sri Lanka, in an environment where the government seems reluctant to provide broadcasting licenses to community radio broadcasters.
Among the views expressed included the argument supported by a number of participants that the existing community radio under the SLBC banner is too rigid and they have failed to understand the social changes among the communicators. Thus there is a generation gap between the policy makers and the community radio activists. In community radio the main emphasis is laid upon cinema and songs. Empowerment of the society is lacking and there is very little contribution from the public. These stations need to be upgraded to work towards increasing the desire for broadcasting among the community they serve.
Most participants objected to FM frequencies being sold to the politicians and private companies, and the government’s lack of clear policy in allocating frequencies for community radio. In fact, the government tends to view free community radio as a challenge to their authority. Thus, the only community radio allowed to function are those which satisfy the government agenda.
Uva community radio facilitator Ajith Epa said: “ In Sri Lanka no community radio was started by the people. It was forced or purposefully started by the government. The intention of the government was not providing a platform to the public to express their voice, but localizing the government development projects”.
Internet radio operators Nelan Dahanayaka and Mahesh from Ransara and Prabavi internet radio said that no accreditation has been provided for the internet based community radio. Also, the acceptance among the government authorities for Internet based community radio is low and their listenership is also very low, only 5000 people listening per day. The models to bring the Internet based contents to the public has not been developed.
There was also discussion about whether it is feasible to create an Internet based community radio network across the island using the Nenasala Centres (community computer and internet centres provided by the government). Sri Lanka has over 650 Nenasala centers of which over 500 posses Internet facilities. Many of these are in rural areas. But there is no proper network and connection among them in order to share the community contents. So these types of centers can be networked or linked via a radio-streaming network.
Dr. Wanigasundara and the lecturers from the University of Kelaniya suggested the possibility of university based community radios, based on models from the Philippines and Australia (as discussed earlier in the workshop by Dr Seneviratne). Now the war is over in the country and terrorism is not a major issue as before, the government can issue the free licenses to universities. Thus, they recommended that this is an ideal time to start university based community radio. However, one lecturer warned that because of strong party politics among students on campuses there is a risk that student movements can dominate university radio for their own propaganda purposes.
Some of the participants, such as the Muslim group described how they have got windows on the SLBC and other radio stations to broadcast programmes produced by them, such as during the Ramadhan fasting month. One participant mentioned that a public service PR system is ‘broadcast’ by the Vauniya Bus station with local advertisement, and this type of model could be used for community radio.
The workshop ended with broader agreement that more such workshops should be held to galvanise community radio practitioners across the country towards collective action to initiate community radio products with or without broadcast licenses. In the latter aspect, the ICT agency may well be a good conduit to explore community radio networking via Internet, but with an interface to the traditional radio broadcasting technology.
