Dear Bazlu, You may recall that i made a comment from the floor at the AMS in Bangkok last week about Radio Sagarmatha claiming that they are a public service broadcaster now and not a community radio. There was a strong objection (expressed to me personally after the session) to it from our community radio colleague from Nepal. AMIC will be releasing a book titled "Peoples' Empowerment Peoples' Voices: Community Radio in Asia and Beyond" next month in which there is a whole chapter written by Ghamaraj Luintel arguing that Radio Sagarmatha is now a PSB because they are performing a public service from the community perspective. So let me give my 10 lines to you as below:
Some of the universally accepted definitions of PSB includes paying particular attention to minorities; contributing to a sense of national identity and community; keeping a distance from vested interests; and guidelines to liberate rathar than restrict program makers. Other PSB guidelines include the funding model (direct government - or taxation - funding) and editorial independence from government inteference. If you look at the latter two issues (with respect to funding and independence) most of what we call PSBs in Asia are SSBs (State Service Broadcasters). Often in forums / seminars on PSB in Asia we are talking about SSBs not PSBs. If you look at the 4 criteria for defining PSBs which I have given above in the first sentence, they are also definitions of community broadcasting (especially community radio). So I would argue that a good community radio broadcaster is a public service broadcaster and a real public service broadcaster is also a community broadcaster. In Asia, we really need to draw a line between state service broadcasters and public service broadcasters. If we are able to do that, we will find that very few PSBs exist in Asia. The Thai PSB is one of the real PSBs in Asia and if we look at their citizen journalism projects in the northeast of the country that is also real community broadcasting. On the other hand, Radio Sagarmatha, Kothmale Community Radio (under Sunil Wijesinghe) and some Tambuli Community Radio stations in the Philippines could be categorised as public service broadcasting. Hope this is useful as a trigger for debate I hope. Regards Kalinga ----- Original Message ----- From: AHM Bazlur Rahman To: AMARC_AP_General_List ; Ashish Sen ; Suman Basnet ; CR India ; [email protected] ; [email protected] ; [email protected] ; amarc_south_asia ; Marcelo Solervicens Sent: Saturday, June 02, 2012 7:42 PM Subject: Is Community Radio Services part of Public Service Broadcasting (PSB), if yes why? If not, why [Maximum 10 line] Dear Community Radio Leader of Asia and Pacific, Greetings from Bangladesh NGOs Network for Radio and Communication (BNNRC) We would would be very happy if you brief Is Community Radio Services part of Public Service Broadcasting, if yes why? If not, why [Maximum 10 line] With best regards, Bazlu _______________________ AHM. Bazlur Rahman-S21BR Chief Executive Officer Bangladesh NGOs Network for Radio and Communication (BNNRC) [NGO in Special Consultative Status with the UN Economic and Social Council] & Head, Community Radio Academy House: 13/1, Road: 2, Shaymoli, Dhaka-1207 Bangladesh Phone: +88-02-9130750, +88-02-9138501, Cell: +88 01711881647 Fax: 88-02-9138501-105, E-mail: [email protected], [email protected] www.bnnrc.net
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