The effectiveness of Sri Lankan regional radio stations in rural citizenry

Abstract

Abstract submitted and selected for e-Asia international conference.

Though the community radio movement in Sri Lanka has been losing its energy and strength, in catering the development needs of the rural community, the regional radio stations which function from various rural villages of Sri Lanka, can play an energetic role in terms of addressing the issues effecting the democratic rights of citizens – rights to know information’s that needs for their empowerment, rights to involve in decision making, rights to participate in governance, right to hold their leaders transparent and accountable and ultimately right to receive an efficient service as citizens.

The first regional radio station Rajarata, started in 1979 in parallel to the Mahaveli community radio. Since then, 8 regional Radio stations are active averagely with over 12 hours of airtime per day. When it comes to Regional radio stations, 12 hours of airtime is relatively a vast time. In Sri Lanka, 99% of the regional radio stations are governed by the Ministry of Media and Information, through Sri Lanka broadcasting corporation which is the National radio in Sri Lanka. From the initial survey it has been observed the regional radio stations play more than 94% of cinema and songs. No programmes are being produced on ICT, Education, Health, rural democracy and governance. The whole purposes of setting this regional level radio stations are keeping the community informed at the village level and give them an opportunity to engage with governance.

This is a new era for development and reconciliation in Sri Lanka. After terrorism being wiped out, enormous actions are taken place in terms of rural development. Times to time local elections are held. New development policies being implemented. In most of the public sector news people are being accommodated. Entire political system is changed and power and supreme authority is practice by very slim number of people. At this juncture, it’s very important to assess the impact of the regional radio stations, effectiveness of the their programmes in terms of maximizing the citizen participation with the process of governance , nature of listener’s behaviors, public participation, access, contents, major constrains, new community programming models used and other important aspects. This research will bring insights to the entire radio industry and the key media stakeholders in order to enrich and empower the service of regional radio stations while analyzing the major challenges.

The role of citizen journalism in promoting good governance in Sri Lanka

An Abstract submitted to e-India

Background
Citizen Journalism can help move the country towards peace. The potential of citizen journalism, however, is its ability to provide a forum for all citizens - male and female, of all ethnicities, castes, classes and religions - to express themselves freely, society will better accommodate ideas and measures that engender peace. Also it has a potential to hold the Government officials accountable and answerable to the citizens through the process of citizen journalism - Web-based public forum the government’s performance will be scrutinized and monitored. Since it’s operated by the citizen its can simply play watchdog role in attaining public involvement with governance. In Sri Lanka numbers of active citizen journalism movements are on action in terms of promoting good governance and rural democracy.
Some considerations in Sri Lanka
Though the government of Sri Lanka announced its glory and victory over the three decades of terrorism, sustainable peace, sense of democracy, strengthen process of governance are yet to be achieved. Child sexuality, displacement, violation of human rights, violence and crushing of aspirations of individual and those detained continue to occur. Some citizen media movement such as Groundview (www. groundview.org) is continuing to record above injustice crimes and create forum for public debate on the issues affecting their life. www.vilakpa.org, another active citizen media, is continues to disseminate public woes and report on the effectiveness of local government activities at the rural level.
Blogs including www.kottu.org, http://negombonews.blogspot.com/ continue to disseminate people’s views considerably with zest. Personnel of the Dambadeniya Community Radio continue to record people’s views in the voice record www.dambadeniya.org and disseminate them in the form of CD’s free of charge. Dambadeniya community Radio continuously produces stories of the activities of Kurunegala local government authorities. It also play a vital role in promoting public participation in the local decision making process.
Print website related publications like www.meepura.com demonstrate somewhat a strong stance with regard to citizen journalism and good governance. Meepura mostly involve in investigating the nature of decision taken by the government authorities. The investigative reports of the meepura have had created at the ministerial level when meepura investigate about the Gunathmaka school development budget was misused by the school development board.
At this juncture, it has very important to assess the Role of citizen media in Sri Lanka in promoting good governance. The full paper is involve in SWOT analyze current citizen media, in order to offer its proposals for the efficient move of CJ in promoting good governance and heard the citizens.

Head of SDJF bagged Annual peace award of the Colombo Rotary club – West.

Director/CEO of the Sri Lanka Development Journalist Forum (SDJF), M C Rasmin, bagged the annual Peace Award of the Rotary Club – West recently.

He received the annual Peace Award from the current Chairmen of the Rotary Club – West, Mr. Doulat Kundan Mal. For the year 2011 Rotary club facilitates two winners. Rasmin was awarded for his contribution towards peace, reconciliation and ethnic harmony through the use of media. The first award winner was Ms. Pushpie Wijeykoon who has been working for various development and peace related organizations holding different senior positions.

Addressing the Rotarians M C Rasmin stated “I don’t agree with the fact that we have attained peace, because peace is something which cannot be achieved through weapons. To simply cultivate the sense of ethnic integrity, harmony, engagement and sustainable peace, space has to be created for the awareness of diversity and pluralistic values”.
M. C. Rasmin throughout his journalistic career has involved in enormous peace building activities. In 1998 Rasmin started his career as a sub-editor for a monthly magazine published by the Centre for Children and Youth Development (CCDY). Being a young sub-editor Rasmin has thrown in several pages to foster the values of ethnic harmony. In the same year he passed SLBC auditions to become a radio drama artist. Since then, he has been holding the position of sub-editor for a number of newspapers such as IDI, Ilavarasy, Tamil Kesary and Virakesary. With the exposure he had from these newspapers.

Rasmin made 9 publications, more than 5 novels and 6 research papers. Most of the fictions written by Rasmin reflect the context of ethnic crisis and its damages.
Being a community media activist, Rasmin has presented a number of research papers in various international conferences focusing on media pluralism, diversity and media, gender and media, community media and social development, online platform and community development etc. From 2004 to 2006 Rasmin produced a dedicated radio programme Called Adavar Arangam (platform for youth), through Sri Lanka Broadcasting cooperation where directed over 60 Radio plays focusing peace, ethnic relation and pluralistic values. In 2010 he directed a radio drama called “Though Its Paradise” a dedicated series of radio dramas focusing the issues faced by the IDPs of Sri Lanka and funded by internews Sri Lanka. In 2011 he directed a series of radio dramas (20 episodes) addressing the gender based issues of the Muslim community in Sri Lanka. Apart from this, Rasmin has written and produced over 250 radio dramas emphasizing the need of sustainable peace. Having assessed these contributions Rotary has awarded him.

SDJF on behalf SDJF staff extends its appreciation to Rotary Club-West.