Community Media Look for Ways to be Heard

In mid-November, the police were ordered to arrest the 52-year-old Satien for a programme he broadcast from a community radio station in Ang Thon province, central Thailand. Earlier, the local police had seized the radio station's transmitter. Satien's act, according to officials at the post and telegraph department, was a violation of the rules governing the airwaves in this South-east Asian country.

Communities cannot set up such stations and take to the airwaves because parliament has not yet passed laws overturning feudal arrangements that give government authorities control over them. This is despite the 1997 constitution that recognises a community sector -- separate from the government and commercial ones. However, the outpouring of support for Satien from some academics and media reform activists has given him a reprieve. The police have still to act on the arrest order.

But the most significant backing has come from the over 150 local communities who for about a year now have turned away from the diet of information served by the mainstream media to set up their own radio stations. The first such station to go on air was in Kanchanaburi, in western Thailand, in December 2001.

''This is to be expected,'' says Supinya Klangnarong of the Campaign for Popular Media Reform, a Bangkok-based non-governmental organisation (NGO). ''Communities want a medium to express their voice, their views and to gain information that matters to them, and the government is denying them that.''

''The growth of so many community stations this year is also a challenge to the mainstream media, which does not serve local community needs,'' adds Ubonrat Siriyuvasak of the faculty of communication arts at Bangkok's Chulalongkorn University. ''There is a heavy Bangkok focus in the mainstream media.''

Satien's case -- one that will determine if the Thai authorities will stick to their threat to silence the community radio revolution or recognise communities' right to their own media - is emblematic of a drama being enacted in a few other countries across Asia. An increasing number of communities in the region are struggling to assert their right to gain space, a voice and recognition by establishing their own media, be it via radio or on the Internet.

''Community radio stations and other forms of community media are still at a pilot stage and are struggling to assert themselves in Asia,'' says Pradip Thomas, Director of Studies and Publications for the World Association for Christian Communication. ''In some places it reflects the political realities of the countries, where civil society groups and communities are involved in pushing for more space to establish community media,'' he adds. ''In spite of good things that have happened, it is always a one-step-forward-two-steps-back situation.''

A seminar held here provided snapshots of the struggles of community media as well as the inroads they have made so far. In South Korea, gay and lesbian communities have had to endure government pressure. A popular gay and lesbian website was shut down by the country's Information Communication Ethics Committee. In India, communities aspiring to set up radio stations cannot do so due to laws that give the government control over the airwaves. This has continued, says Thomas, despite a Supreme Court decision in the mid-1990s declaring that the airwaves are owned by the public.
The rest of South Asia has little to offer by way of community radio stations thanks to its political climate, say experts at the seminar. The few community stations that exist include one in Sri Lanka and two in Nepal. As a result, many in India are turning to small newspapers, Internet sites and videos to ''create space for their voices to be heard,'' says Gargi Sen of the Magic Lantern Foundation, a New Delhi-based NGO supportive of local communities creating their own media outlets. ''Through such efforts communities are trying to fight for their right to communicate,'' she adds, pointing to examples in places like Goa and Madurai.

The Philippines ''is a special case in Asia'' where communities have turned to their own media outlets to assert their rights and identity, says Alan Alegre of the Foundation for Media Alternatives, a Quezon City-based NGO. ''There is the free media tradition that has helped, and the law.'' A typical example is that of the farmers in Negros Occidental province in central Philippines, where they used community media to help get land back from the region's landlords.

But on the whole, Asian communities have still to chalk up the impressive achievements of their counterparts in regions such as Latin America, says Bruce Girard of the Campaign for Communication Rights in the Information Society Campaign (CRIS Campaign).

Community media ''is widespread in Latin America'', he says, but there is growing interest in some Asian countries about its significance. The best example is war-ravaged Afghanistan, where President Hamid Karzai backs the introduction of community radio stations, Girard reveals. ''There are only two community radio stations now, but with plans to promote growth of local communities, the stations could grow.''

But those like Girard and Thomas do not expect community media to dent the monopoly on information held by the mainstream media. ''These are little drops in the ocean,'' says Thomas.

So activists are looking to the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS), to be held in Geneva, Switzerland in December 2003, to gain recognition of communities' right to have their own media.

''The WSIS will be the ideal place for this issue to gain legitimacy,'' Sen asserts. ''A community's right to communicate must be recognised as part of the human rights language.'' More information:

Faculty of Communication arts at Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok, Thailand:
http://www.commarts.chula.ac.th/

Magic Lantern Foundation, New Delhi, India:
http://www.magic-lantern.org/

Foundation for Media Alternatives, Quezon City, Philippines:
http://www.sdcn.org/members_fma.htm

Mentioned in this article: Supinya Klangnarong (Thailand) and Gargi Sen (India) have been WACC TAP scholars; Ubonrat Siriyuvasak is a member of ANWIC women’s network.