WUNRN
FIJI - UN RADIO PROGRAMME
"WOMEN" TO FEATURE
ON WOMEN'S COMMUNITY RADIO IN FIJI
17 September 2008
The iconic United
Nations Radio Programme WOMEN is back on air in Fiji, this time with the
women's community radio station, femTALK 89.2FM, a women's media initiative
operated by femLINKPACIFIC.
WOMEN has been a
programme produced by UN RADIO for more than 20 years, however,
earlier this year, there was concern within women's networks that the
programme ran the risk of being cancelled, and so for the Suva based women's
media NGO, the availability of this radio programme is indeed a celebration of
the retention of women centred media, as well as a critical way to link its
listeners as well as its team of young women community radio broadcasters and
producers with the stories of women based on their own women's equality agenda:
"The programme is something that many of
us grew up with here in Fiji before the airwaves became corporatized, but
thankfully this programme has and continues to be a benchmark of radio
programme production and the development of radio content which serves to
inform listeners about women's human rights and gender equality commitments
from the UN system to the community level," says femLINKPACIFIC's
Coordinator, Sharon Bhagwan Rolls, "And for our women's community radio
station, it is a wonderful opportunity to link listeners of our Women's
Weekend Broadcasts in Suva with global commitments to gender equality and
women's human rights in a form that literally gives voice to the world's
women."
femLINKPACIFIC was offered the programme by
WOMEN radio producer Diane Bailey, who has also arranged to have the programme
distributed to the organisation's regional women's media network partners -
Vois Blong Mere Solomons and Leitana Nehan Women's Development Agency for
incorporation into their weekly radio programmes airing on national radio in
Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands:
"And we certainly hope that mainstream
radio stations in the Pacific will also take advantage of the availability
of the programme to broadcast to a broader audience," says Bhagwan Rolls,
"because the issues that are being raised in these programmes are of vital
importance for the advancement of commitments to Pacific women."
femLINKPACIFIC's Women's Weekend Broadcasts on
89.2FM transmits within a 10 to 12 kilometre radius from the
organisation's community media centre at Bayly House in Suva from 4 to 7pm on
Fridays, 730am to 6pm on Saturday and Sunday. The station is operated by the
members of the "Generation Next" project team, young women aged
beween 16 and 30 years.
Sharon Bhagwan Rolls
Coordinator: femLINKPACIFIC - Media Initiatives for Women
P O Box 2349 Government Buildings Suva
Phone (O) 679 3310303 (Fax) 679 3307207 (M) 679 9244871
Website: www.femlinkpacific.org.fj
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