The Hindu : Karnataka / Bangalore News : More community radio stations in the offing

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Tuesday, Aug 14, 2007
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Karnataka

Karnataka - Bangalore

More community radio stations in the offing

Staff Reporter

— Photo: Bhagya Prakash K.

All smiles: K.V.R. Tagore, Commissioner, Information Department, and Vishukumar, Director, Information Department, releasing a book in Bangalore on Monday.

BANGALORE: With the hope that those in rural areas can empower themselves through the medium of radio, the Government will assist in the setting up of 12 community radio stations in the State.

Speaking to The Hindu on the sidelines of the workshop “Namma Banuli”, organised by the Information Department here on Monday, K.V.R. Tagore, Commissioner, said that three stations would be started in the each of the dis tricts of Bangalore, Mysore, Belgaum and Gulbarga.

Onus on community

“The Government will be providing only minimal assistance in form of funds, technical expertise, infrastructure and content programming, depending on what the community requests for.

The impetus is on the community to come forward and take up the initiative of setting up the station,” said Mr. Tagore.

As part of spreading awareness about community radio, the Information Department held one of the first workshops here. “Many more are being planned across the State,” he said.

Community radio caters to people living within certain geographical limits, mostly in the range of 10 km to 15 km. Content generation, programming and operation are all managed by the community itself.

The movement

Advocates of community radio have been demanding that the Union Government legitimise it and allow communities to start their own radio networks.

The movement, if one may call it, gained momentum when the Supreme Court in 1995 ruled that airwaves are public property.

It received yet another boost in 2006 when the Union Government broadened its guidelines to include non profit organisations such as civil society and voluntary organisations “to allow greater participation by the civil society on issues relating to development and social change”.

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