23 November 2005
Future of Community Radio at Risk in Guatemala
22 November 2005
For the majority of Guatemala's indigenous populations, community radio plays a vital role in keeping communities informed and giving them a platform for debating their issues.
National police use it to broadcast health and safety alerts. Municipal governments use it to announce public meetings. Environmentalists use it to educate farmers about sustainable agricultural methods, and educators use it to provide distance learning programs. Across the country, there are 250 indigenous-run stations.
But Cultural Survival reports that the long-term survival of community radio in Guatemala is in peril unless changes to the country's telecommunications law are implemented now.
A bill has been drafted to amend the country's broadcasting laws to ensure equal access to the country's airwaves, but it is stalling in the legislature.
Under current legislation, community radio stations are charged US$28,000 to purchase bandwidth, an exorbitant amount for stations that are mostly run by volunteers and have a 2-5 mile broadcast range.
Consequently, the country's airwaves are rapidly being bought up by wealthy evangelical Christian broadcasters and commercial radio stations that broadcast only in Spanish, a language foreign to many indigenous Guatemalans.
Read the full story here:
http://tinyurl.com/9p7fd
Find out more about community radio in Guatemala here:
- Knight Center for Journalism in the Americas: http://knightcenter.utexas.edu/knightcenternews_article.php?page=5078
- Global Exchange: http://americas.irc-online.org/am/1015
- AMARC: http://tinyurl.com/73mra
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