Community Radio in Bangladesh: An overview of the Advocacy Coalition

Faroha Suhrawardy

Research Student

Public Policy and Governance

North South University

Dhaka, Bangladesh

Community Radio is an emerging media in Bangladesh. In 2008, government declared Community Radio Installation, Broadcast and Operation Policy. After two years, among 116 short listed applicants 14 initiators got final approval from authority for installing station. There is an obligation in the policy to start broadcasting within one year after getting the approval from the government. So, it is high time for the approved initiators for doing necessary arrangement for starting community radio station in time.

Different donor/international agencies now are showing interest for assisting communities in establishing stations. Each donor has its own agenda and priority to focus in the area. Some come up with women and children issues, some with fighting corruption and ensuring transparency, while other talk about empowerment of the community through developing livelihood. Government has its own agenda like poverty reduction or ensuring community participation in national development. So, it is clear to us that community radio is a vibrant media sector in the country in this moment.

In a recent seminar, organized by Bangladesh NGOs Network for Radio and Communication (BNNRC) (5^th May 2010), fourteen finalist initiators were gathered to discuss the challenges and opportunities for installing, operating and broadcasting community radio stations. The major challenges they pointed out are as follows:

·         Capacity building

·         Financial sustainability

·         Political influences

·         Content for broadcasting

·         Technical difficulties

·         Fund shortage

·         Linkage with different government and non-government development initiatives

·         Hands-on experience

·         Lacking of strategic planning

·         Community participation

·         Addressing women issue

·         Baseline survey for programming needs

For capacity building issue USAID/PROGATI has initiated a project run by BNNRC for develop competence of the initiators, station managers, broadcasters, volunteers, and divisional level government officials. Ensuring financial sustainability is a big challenge in this moment. It addressed in a recent training workshop jointly organized by BNNRC and Community Radio Academy on “Community Radio Installation, Broadcast and Operation” where the business plan prepared in participatory way. In that three days long training, possible station managers of fourteen community radio and executives from concern organizations were present.

Political influence is very common here, but in community radio policy it has blocked by strong prohibitions. Political party or their wings can’t apply for community radio (3.2). Political publicity or propaganda is strictly forbidden, and there is no way to do election campaign through community radio (7.8). A central monitoring committee is there to look after these matters with the help of local level advisory committees. In that case a pragmatic monitoring framework is needed for efficient implementation of the policy. ChangeMaker and BNNRC supported by Article 19, two NGOs have been working for designing a monitoring framework for community radios in Bangladesh.

Content for broadcasting is a diverse issue based on local needs. With the help of UNICEF-Bangladesh, BNNRC is designing a web based content portal for everyone. The community radio handbook has reprinted by BNNRC with the help of Canadian International Development Agency. Other than that, there are government and non-government organizations with potential contents on development issues. Even the state runs media could be a good source of content for community broadcasting.

To mitigate technical difficulties, last July 2010 BNNRC, Jadavpur University Community Radio Station and  Webel Mediatronics Limited  jointly organized one hands-on training workshop in Kolkata, India for the initiators for learning about the technical matter related to community radio broadcasting. 20 participants for 10 initiating organization from Bangladesh attended that event.  There is a provision in the policy to create one trust fund for smooth operation of community radio stations. On the other hand the donor agencies are coming up for assisting for this. UNESCO, UNDP, FAO, CIDA, UNICEF and Free Voice and some other international bodies are willing to provide fund on different issues for the initiators. So, crisis of fund is not that much crucial for establishing community radio in Bangladesh.

BNNRC with the help of different agencies are doing network for creating liaison between initiators, and government and non-government organizations. A series of consultations have been going on from the very beginning of the community radio movement in Bangladesh.

Strategic planning from both demand and supply side have addressed in due respect by the community radio supporters. UNICEF have been devising one for the government, and consulted with the government, civil society organizations, expert, initiators and advocacy coalition members for community radio. BNNRC is in the process to develop one for the initiators and in the same time it is assisting UNICEF to prepare the macro one. For ensuring community participation, most of the supporters have been pressing the initiators to develop volunteer management guideline and exit plan as well. In the community radio policy it has clearly stated that community radio is for, by and of the communities. The monitoring framework will allow the supply side to see the matter with specific indicators.

Addressing women issues is a concern, and should be incorporated in the programming, management other areas in the station. UNICEF is pretty much interested in the area, though everyone is putting emphasize on that with due attention. Conducting need assessment is well addressed by BNNRC.

It has already conducted one survey with the support from FreeVoice. And now region specific need assessment is under process by the help of UNICEF.

Based on the needs and inspiration, community radio supporters are trying to network different organizations and the stakeholders with each other for getting to a win-win situation. When we say about the supporters of community radio in Bangladesh, it is something special to us.  The supporter of the community radio movement in Bangladesh is unique in nature. They may call `Advocacy Coalition for Community Radio’.

The advocacy coalition is twelve years old. It consists of members from civil society, media, government, education institute, cultural organization, policy making bodies, legislative, think tank organization, etc. with a core belief system on community broadcasting. Based on that belief system they went through a policy learning process, and influence the policy makers to put the agenda in policy process. Bangladesh doesn’t have any broadcast policy yet. Most of the media have been broadcasting on different government orders or interim instructions. This is the first time in Bangladesh history a media is preparing to operate with a policy. Subsequently, a series of preparation and assistance are showed up regarding the new media as well. All these happen due to the active role of the policy advocacy coalition for community radio. The evolution and activities of the coalition could be interesting for other developing country in the globe to accelerate their process. A brief historical background is required to talk about the said concern.

The coalition has been working since 1998. As part of a training program on Development Management in New Delhi, India organized by Participatory Research In Asia (PRIA), Mr. AHM Bazlur Rahman designed an advocacy plan for community radio establishment. The advocacy plan was published as a handbook where he described the differences between three tier media system (Public, Commercial and Community). It identified the potential personals for forming an advocacy coalition. That document also provides short and long term strategic planning for advocacy.  This is the first planned document on community radio in Bangladesh.

The formation of Bangladesh NGOs Network for Radio and Communication (BNNRC) was one of the turning points for the coalition. BNNRC is a national networking body on alternative mass media working for building a democratic society based on the principles of free flow of information, equitable and affordable access to Information and Communication Technology for Development (ICT4D) and Right to Communication of remote and marginalized population.

The organization was registered with NGO Affair Bureau and Ministry of Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs, Government of Bangladesh as Network and established in 2000 as per Article 19 charter of Universal Declaration of Human Right, where freedom of speech and access to information was recognized as basic human rights.

BNNRC’s outreach extends to local, national and international forums. Communication is recognized as an essential human need and, therefore, as a basic human right. In this backdrop, its working strategies are:

1.      Communicating in public sphere

2.      Communicating knowledge

3.      Civil rights in communication

4.      Cultural Rights in communication

The network developed a vast network with all concerned government ministries/bodies, political leaders, NGOs, CBOs, private sector, civil society actors, media, national and international agencies and other stakeholders to promote ICT4D. A set of advanced learning and knowledge were disseminated by BNNRC such as Rural Knowledge Volunteers (RKV), ICT4D, Right to Information (RTI), Bridging the Digital Divide/ Information Divide/ Knowledge Divide through Community Radio, Rural Knowledge Center (RKC), Tele Center, Radio Amateur Civil Emergency Services (RACES) for Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) through Amateur Radio (HAM Radio) Promotion, People’s Right to Telecommunication/ Global Commons/ Country Commons, Adoption of Free/ Open Source Software (FOSS), Open Standard and Open Content for Development, and so on.

A number of influential members (at least six among thirty-six) in the core coalition were took part in the formation of BNNRC. There were two other significant groups involved in the coalition; one is the Amateur Radio Operator (HAM Radio) and Fan Club of International broadcasters (especially VOA, BBC, DW  Fan Club). Some of the members of these groups have overlapping affiliation with different interests.

The members of the coalition attracted other actors with their enhanced learning on media, communication and communication technologies.

Community radio was discussed as a national issue for the first time in 1998 in the first National Mass Media Conference in Dhaka, Bangladesh arranged by Centre for Development Communication (CDC). In 2000, Bangladesh NGOs Network for Radio and Communication was established as a centre point for that coalition, and started its advocacy activities.

In 2005, BNNRC, MMC, FOCUS, YPSA and VOICE jointly organized a three-day long ‘National Consultation on Designing and Enabling Framework for Community Radio in Bangladesh’. Joining that consultation, UNICEF, UNESCO and UNDP officially enrolled into the advocacy coalition. In that event a numbers of civil society leaders, think tank organization, research organizations, iconic personality, media personnel, cultural activists, journalist, government officials, policy makers and other important persons assembled from home and abroad, and promote community radio issue from their point of views. That was a major ice-breaking event for the community radio movement in Bangladesh.

Dhaka Declaration of Community Radio 2006 was declared from that event which was a guideline for the activists for promoting community radio in the country. That declaration was prepared by broadcast lawyers, university teachers, development communication expert, NGOs representatives, donor and development partner’s representatives and civil society leaders in a three days conference. That declaration was recommended government to formulate a community radio policy in priority basis.

Following the reformist caretaker government came into power (2007-2009), a letter campaign had taken by the BNNRC regarding community radio. The objective of the campaign was to open up the community radio as a pilot bases. As the outcome of the initiative, Chief Advisor sent a directive to the Ministry of Information to start scheme for community radio. Followed by that directive a high authority meeting was held in the ministry on community radio.

After a comprehensive discussion regarding community radio the meeting takes decision to form a ministerial committee of 8 members convened by the Director General of Bangladesh Betar in May 2008, who prepared the concept paper, regulatory framework and application form in relation to community radio and submitted that to the ministry by a month. CEO of BNNRC Mr. AHM Bazlur Rahman and Mr. Kamrul Islam Manju from MMC were two members of the committee from NGOs family. The Draft Committee officially presented the concept paper, policy and application form in October 2007. Finally, government announced the Community Radio Installation, Broadcast and Operation Policy 2008 on 12^th March 2008.

Community Radio is an alternative mass media for community people. It’s an unconventional media, which allow common people in establishing, broadcasting and managing, and thus owning broadcasting system. In Bangladesh, Community Radio movement ripened with development issues rather than revolutionary attempts. It is in line with Asian practice as it considered an agent for community development. NGOs are the dominant actors in the process but there are other social actors as well. It seems to be an area of national consensus which is very rare in Bangladesh context and for other developing nations as well.

From government side the permission has given to the operators. Now it is a challenge for the initiators for establishing community radio in appropriate approaches. There are South Asian experiences and local considerations both to take into account. Government has its agenda like  Poverty Reduction Strategy(PRS), `Vision-2021’, ‘Digital Bangladesh Concept’, and other development issues. UNICEF has women and child right issues. FAO has issues related to agriculture development. MDG is common for all. But the initiators should look after the communities needs first, and make those synchronized with others. Because, community radio is media for giving voice to the voiceless people in Bangladesh.  

Reference/ Literature:

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