[WSIS CS-Plenary] Regarding Peoples Voices, Peoples Participation and Community Radio in Bangladesh

[BNNRC]

Community Radio to give voice to the voiceless people 

Dhaka, 05 May 2008
The community radio network could give the marginalized people of the country access to information and thus play immense role in the development of particular communities, speakers at a daylong international seminar said on Sunday. They said, the prospect of the Community Radio is that it could give voice to the voiceless people, but the rules and procedures of the licensing system should have provisions to ensure that the ownership of the information really remain within the community. 

Asian Media Information and Communication Centre (AMIC), Bangladesh NGO's Network for Radio and Communication (BNNRC) and United News of Bangladesh (UNB) jointly arranged the seminar with the theme "Peoples Voices, Peoples Participation and Community Radio" at the conference room of UNB. 

Information Secretary Jamil Osman as Chief Guest inaugurated the seminar while former Chairman of Bangladesh Telecommunication and Regulatory Commission (BTRC) and former Secretary of the Government Syed Margub Morshed was in the chair. Country Director and Representative of UNESCO in Bangladesh Dr Malama Meleisea and Assistant Country Director of UNDP in Bangladesh K A M Morshed addressed the inaugural session as Special Guests. 

Among others, Secretary General of AMIC Dr Indrajit Banerjee, Professor of International Institute of Communication, UK Dr Andrew Taussig, Director General of Press Institute of Bangladesh (PIB) Mohammad Nazrul Islam and Chairman of UNB Amanullah Khan addressed the session. AMIC Head of Research Dr Kalinga Seneviratne presented the keynote paper of the session titled "Overview of Community Radio across Asia: Opportunities and Challenges". 

Information Secretary Jamil Osman said, the present Care Taker Government, as part of its series of reforms, has formulated and announced the Community Radio policy on March 12. "We have received a huge response from our community stakeholders to obtain license to install, broadcast and operate community radios within specific communities", he said. 

A regulatory committee, a national monitoring committee and a technical sub-committee have been formed, which would scrutinize the applications and select the successful applicants, provide guidance to them for installation and broadcasting of community radios and monitor their operational activities, the Information Secretary added. 

In the first plenary session on "Mobilizing Communities for Community Radio" Assistant Professor of Department of Mass Communication and Journalism of University of Dhaka S. M. Shameem Reza and Director of Centre for Media Rights, Nepal Vinaya Kasajoo presented papers while Chairperson of Bangladesh NGOs Network for Radio and Communication (BNNRC) Md. Rafiqul Alam was in the chair.

Head of Research of Asian Media Information and Communication Centre (AMIC) Dr. Kalinga Seneviratne presided over the second plenary Session.  Station Manager of Radio Sagarmatha, Nepal Ghamaraj Luintel and Community Media Consultant of Sri Lanka Kapila Gamage presented papers respectively on "How to Make Community Radio Popular" and "Radio, Internet and Digital Technology Connecting Communities". 

Deputy Director (Liaison and Research) of Bangladesh Betar Faroha Suhrawardy chaired the roundtable on "Peoples Voices, People's Participation and Community Radio". Country Representative of Article 19 in Bangladesh Tahmima Rahman, Director of School of Social Sciences of University of Liberal Arts, Bangladesh (ULAB) Professor Dr Brian Shoesmith, Director, Centre for Media Rights, Nepal Vinaya Kasajoo, and Community Media Consultant of Sri Lank Kapila Gamage addressed the session as panel discussants. About one hundred representatives from Government, media, academia, NGOs, policy-makers, research organizations and private sectors of home and abroad took part in the seminar. 


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Bazlu

_______________________
AHM. Bazlur Rahman-S21BR
Chief Executive Officer
Bangladesh NGOs Network for Radio and Communication(BNNRC)
&
Member, Strategy Council
UN-Global Alliance for ICT and Development (UN GAID)

House: 13/1, Road:2, Shaymoli, Dhaka-1207 
Post Box: 5095, Dhaka 1205 Bangladesh

Phone: 88-02-9130750, 88-02-9138501
01711881647 Fax: 88-02-9138501-105

E-mail: ceo at bnnrc.net, bnnrc at bd.drik.net
www.bnnrc.net
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