WUNRN
13 February is a date proclaimed by UNESCO to celebrate radio broadcast, improve international cooperation among radio broadcasters and encourage decision-makers to create and provide access to information through radio, including community radios. It’s an occasion to draw attention to the unique value of radio, which remains the medium to reach the widest audience and is currently taking up new technological forms and devices. _____________________________________________________________
PACIFIC COMMUNITY RADIO FOR WOMEN - FemLINKPacific
Fiji - As community radio stations around the world
mark World Radio Day on February 13, they will be joined by members of a
Pacific Island civil society network who in the coming week will reaffirm the
role of community radio in their work to bring about Gender Inclusive Conflict
Prevention and Non Violent Transformation.
From Nadi to Nausori and Labasa in Fiji, Nukualofa, Bougainville and Solomon
Islands they will be coming together in a space dedicated to Communicating a
Culture of Peace:
"We have collectively found community radio to be a vital tool for
interactive dialogue with rural women and young women which reaffirms that
community radios are an essential part of radio spectrum," says the
Executive Director of Fiji and the Pacific's first women-led community radio
network, Sharon Bhagwan Rolls:
"The key purpose of community radio is to contribute content from
the communities to enable pluralistic media landscapes. Participating in a
community radio broadcast has enabled market vendors from their stalls, rural
women from their homes, to exercise their communication rights. It ls because
the "suitcase radio station" travelled out to them such as during the
annual 16 Days of Community Radio Campaign:
"In Fiji our community radio process enables interactive dialogue. It
enables creativity. It enables women from remote communities, often more than
20 to 30 kilometres away from a local town to be heard. It is enabling women
with disabilities to be connected through technology as simple as a tape
recorder. Women who participate in the community radio process are inspiring
others and showing that you don't need to be silenced because you cannot afford
the price of a text, or because you are sidelined from decision making because
you happen to be young or a woman!"
And to mark World Radio Day, FemLINKPacific will be hosting a Community Radio
Roundtable in Suva at its community media centre.
World Radio Day will also mark the start of a production of 2 new radio series:
"Generation Next Fiji will be embarking on the production of a series on
Women in Leadership which will profile a diverse range of women (and young women)
who the producers believe epitomise the qualities of leadership they feel
strongly about."
And because FemLINKPacific uses community radio as bridge between urban and
rural women, a radio drama series which will highlight the issues raised
through the organisation's rural Women, Peace and Human Security consultations
will be written and produced by the young women:
"Titled "Keeping Up with the Kommunity" it does indeed serve to
challenge some of the notions of reality TV but more importantly it is the
young women creating a platform to highlight further some very real struggles
and challenges that have been raised through the radio interviews that we have
broadcast," says Bhagwan-Rolls.
This will be the third radio drama series produced by FemLINKPacific's
Generation Next Project who host weekend broadcasts in Suva, monthly broadcasts
in Labasa and mobile rural broadcasts using the suitcase radio technology.
According to Bhagwan-Rolls when FemLINKPacific first switched on their
community radio station in 2004, it was to enable women, young women, women
with disabilities, peace and human rights activists to take to the airwaves
without the worry of having to comply with commercial formats or even pay to
talk in-depth about their issues:
"What began as monthly broadcasts in Suva with a small team of student
volunteers is now a vibrant community radio network with young women in Ba and
Tavua, Nadi, Nausori, Labasa and Suva involved in producing indepth interviews,
creating radio dramas and other community media content. We are collectively
contributing to a transformation of the Pacific media landscape and showing
through our policy advocacy which is based on the media content, exactly what
values of human rights, peace and human rights mean to everyday women."
Today FemLINKPacific coordinates the operations of 3 community radio stations
in Fiji and has supported the development of Tonga's first women-led radio
station with partners Ma'afafine moe Famili.
This has been an important tool for a Pacific collaboration firmly grounded in
commitments to women's human rights including UN Security Council Resolution
1325 (Women, Peace and Security):
"The Generation Next Project for young women producers and broadcasters in
Fiji, Tonga as well as with our partners in Bougainville is also showing how
radio technology, and community media more broadly is also a tool for young
women's empowerment. They are the media practitioners. They are being supported
to develop, produce and broadcast content which relfects their own perspective
on critical issues from disability rights, sexual orientation, mental health
issues as well as relating realities from market vendors and rural community
leaders."
Since 2004 more than 100 young women have been trained as community radio broadcasters.
In November 2011 the Generation Next in Labasa, have been operating their own
community radio station:
"It is demonstrating that when you invest in young women, they can and
will rise to the challenge!"
FemLINKPacific operates FemTALK 89Fm and is a member of WACC and AMARC - the
World Association of Community Radio Broadcasters and the Global Partnership
for the Prevention of Armed Conflict.
Since 2007 the organisation has convened the Regional Media
and Policy Network on UN Security Council Resolution 1325 (Women, Peace and
Security)
World Radio Day seeks to raise awareness about the importance of radio, to
facilitate access to information through radio and to enhance networking among
broadcasters. UNESCO approved the creation of a World Day of Radio in 2011. The
initial idea came from the Spanish Academy of Radio four years earlier
Contact: Sharon Bhagwan Rolls, Executive Director, FemLINKPacific sharon@femlinkpacific.org.fj