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Why Zimbabwe should have community radio stations
Givemore Chipere and Petronilla Samuriwo, Community Radio Harare
April 08, 2009

Community radio may not boast of the celebrity trendy status associated with bigger and more established radio stations but, this growing broadcast sector is surely making its mark in developing nations in Africa, Asia and Latin America. Sadly though, while all this action and development is taking place in the area of information dissemination across the nations, here in Zimbabwe our media laws still do not permit anyone other than the state owned national broadcaster ZBC, to go on the airwaves.

Therefore, one finds that although there are many issues not addressed by the national broadcaster, but all the same affecting ordinary citizens, people remain voiceless. People are voiceless not because Zimbabwe is a nation of dumb idiots. Apparently, Zimbabwe is second only to Tunisia, as the most educated nation on the African continent. But this nation of very educated Africans still remains voiceless precisely because there are no alternative platforms to speak out. The state-owned media is more engulfed in the fight for political hegemony and no-one wants to rock the boat. For too long, Zimbabweans have been inculcated into a culture of silence and fear. Ordinary Zimbabweans with no access to satellite television or the internet have thus been trapped in a hallway of silence and segregation on the basis of political affiliation. They find themselves forced to rely on state media which is awash with propaganda.

Given such a scenario, the argument for community radio stations becomes even stronger. As Community Radio Harare (CORAH), an independent media initiative formed in 2003, we argue that the key strength of community broadcasting lies in the fact that it is not driven purely by commercial or political motivations. A crucial and significant mandate of community broadcasting is to offer a platform for community participation and decision making. Community radios are a means of education, self expression and communication, while also promoting community values, history, music, and oral tradition. This ability of community radio to engage ordinary people to communicate with each other also helps promote democracy and good governance.

Not only is community radio an effective and informative development tool, but also a powerful medium for peace recovery and restoration. Community radio has proved to be an essential and empowering element in post conflict communities. For example, Mega FM, a community radio station in Uganda, successfully broadcast peace campaigns encouraging rebels to come out of the bush in areas brutalized by decades of insurgency by the Lord's Resistance Army in Uganda. The same campaigns also appealed to the return of child soldiers and contributed to their rehabilitation in society.

In the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), where thousands were killed during the country's civil war, another project called the Interactive Radio for Justice (IRFJ) seeks to raise awareness of human rights and the options of dealing with crimes during and after war. The IRFJ radio programmes aimed at helping communities to make informed decisions are distributed in the DRC, southern Sudan and western Uganda.

In West Africa, the NGO search for Common Ground (SFCG) produces and airs programmes on peace, disarmament and reconciliation in Liberia, using 22 partner radio stations: 10 in the capital Monrovia and 12 in rural communities.

Our southern neighbour, South Africa, boasts of well over 100 community radio stations. Mali has 86 such stations and Mozambique, Zambia and Tanzania are rapidly growing in community broadcasting.

On a recent fact finding and familiarization tour, members of Community Radio Harare toured South Africa's Johannesburg city. The CORAH delegation composed of two Executive Committee members, Gift Mambipiri, Petronilla Samuriwo, Stewart Musiwa and Givemore Chipere, toured four community radio stations in Johannesburg, namely Jozi FM, Rainbow FM, Thetha FM and Alexander FM. Individual members of this team were assigned tasks that focused on station management and policy, marketing and advertising, programming and other technical issues. The team also held important meetings with the South African National Community Radio Forum (NCRF).

The NCRF in South Africa is quite important as it has two major roles: to listen to the concerns and views of the 120 constituent community radio stations in South Africa and; policy engagement on behalf of the stations. They also invite speakers in specialized fields to address annual conferences of community radio stations. This year, the conference theme looks at the symbiotic relationship between community radio and civil society.

Our visit also revealed that the community radio sector in South Africa is not without challenges. According to the NCRF, community broadcasting is faced with survival challenges. Since they do not survive on donor funds, some of these stations have to survive from government grants while the rest survive as business entities using mainly advertising revenue. Because of this business focus the stations' programming tend to be driven by market forces than by the needs and aspirations of the communities they purport to serve. It was civil society that formed and pushed for the licensing of community radio stations in South Africa, but these stations, because of the need to survive, have become market driven. So there is that dilemma between surviving as a station and serving the community.

So here we are - an off-air community radio initiative waiting in the wings to get a broadcast licence and gunning for your support. As an organisation, we recognize the disadvantaged position of people in the 'ghetto" and rural areas to raise their concerns. Under normal circumstances people should be able to openly discuss on air issues that are central to their livelihood. One missing factor in the development of our country is the critical component of local engagement and voice. Our leaders have created an 'exclusion of the majority' scenario where they think that only they have got all the solutions to all the problems facing our country. But what we are saying and arguing for is that there is need to create space in Zimbabwe for alternative approaches and views in the media.

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