[WSIS CS-Plenary] Community Media for Sustainable Development Roundtable issues declaration

[aileen at isiswomen.org]

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Community Media for Sustainable Development Roundtable issues declaration

Montreal, November 22, 2004.  The World Association of Community Radio
Broadcasters (AMARC) has released today the Declaration of Marrakesh, a
document elaborated by participants to the first Roundtable on Community
Media for Sustainable Development held on November 21, in Marrakesh,
Morocco.

The purpose of the Roundtable was to facilitate an open dialogue among key
stakeholders in the communications and development sectors concerning the
achievement and monitoring of the Millennium Development Goals.
Discussions focused on Community Radio in Africa, with contributions and
insights from Latin America, Asia and the Middle East. AMARC's initiative
to create a Task Force leading to the constitution of a Development Fund
for Community Radio in Africa was one of the main topics examined during
the meeting.

The Roundtable also served as a preparation meeting for the second phase
of the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) to be held on
November 2005, in Tunisia.


______________________________________________________________________


Closing Declaration of the Round Table on Community Media and Sustainable
Development


Marrakesh, 21 November 2004


We, community media practitioners and stakeholders, meeting in Marrakesh,
the 21 November 2004, at the first Round Table on Community Media and
Sustainable Development;


Recognising that Community Media, that is media which are independent,
community-driven and civil society based, have a particular role to play
in enabling access and participation for all to information and
communications, especially the poorest and most marginalized communities;


Noting growing recognition of the crucial contribution that community
media can make to the achievement of the goals of the Millennium
Declaration and that Community Media can be vital enablers of information,
voice, and capacities for dialogue;


Recognising that legal, regulatory and policy frameworks that protect and
enhance community media are especially critical for ensuring vulnerable
groups access to information;


Call on Governments to ensure that legal frameworks for community media
are non-discriminatory and provide for equitable allocation of frequencies
through transparent and accountable mechanisms;


Call for targets to be established for the opening up of broadcast
licensing to allow for the operation of community broadcasting where this
is not currently permitted;


Insist that spectrum planning and regulation should ensure sufficient
spectrum and channel capacity, and appropriate technical standards, for
community media to develop in both the analogue and digital environment;


Call for a donor-civil society partnership to invest in and support
community-driven information and communication initiatives, using
traditional media and new ICTs including projects that make provision for
the poorest communities, for cultural and linguistic diversity and for the
equal participation of women and girls;



Propose that this should include:


* Engagement of community media expertise in planning for media and ICT
investment around development,

* inclusion of a community media element in all ICT investment,

* establishment of a Development Fund for Community Radio in Africa,

* encouragement of national level funds for community media support;


And agree to establish a Task Force on Funding and Resourcing Community
Media to take forward these proposals and to evaluate their
implementation.