Karnataka - Bangalore   

Lending voice to oppressed classes in Himalayan kingdom

Staff Reporter

Community Radio facing extinction in Nepal

Raghu Mainali, President of Association of Community Radio Broadcasters, Nepal, in Bangalore on Friday. — Photo: K. Gopinathan

BANGALORE: Banned by the Nepali king through an Ordinance, the pioneering community radio network that gave voice to thousands of rural Nepalis faced extinction, early this year.

But a defiant resistance through mass protests, symbolic stoppages of broadcasts and strong bridges with the mass media there ensured that the country's Supreme Court issued an interim order against the Ordinance.

Raghu Manali, founding-director of Radio Sagarmata, the first independent community radio in South Asia, narrated the struggle to presspersons here on Thursday.

When the battle gathers strength in Nepal, community radio is still struggling to find its feet in India.

Over 50,000 people from across the country, including academics, activists, civil society organisations and rural communities, have now signed a petition urging the Centre to immediately announce a policy permitting community radio in India.

These groups will soon submit the petition to the Prime Minister.

A draft policy on community radio in India is awaiting the Union Cabinet's approval.

"The community radio movement strongly feels that this policy will unleash the potential of radio for community development and empowerment of marginalised groups in rural areas. This will create a three-tier system of broadcasting in India, with clearly demarcated public, private and community sectors, as in many other democracies," said Ashish Sen of Voices on behalf of Community Radio-India.

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