Campaigners for 'Freeing Airwaves' Welcome New CR Policy

This article reports on a new development that could spur the expansion of the community radio (CR) medium in India, a country where "technology and economics have made it possible to set up a large number of low-powered FM stations, catering to local needs, and more importantly offering information that could play a crucial role in the lives of the poor." Author Frederick Noronha observes that a radio is a form of information and communication technology (ICT) that the majority of Indians can today easily afford. The community-based stations they listen to on these devices may carry news and information programming geared toward the local area, which could be crucial for smaller populations or language groups poorly served by other, more powerful broadcast groups and/or larger media outlets.

Growth in this means of sharing information and empowering the economically poor may be enhanced, Noronha explains, by a November 2006 decision by the Indian government to allow civil society organisations and community groups (beyond the already-permitted educational institutions) to own and operate radio stations. The decision came 11 years after the Supreme Court directed New Delhi to "open up the airwaves". Backed by influential players like United Nations bodies, campaigners have been lobbying in cyberspace and offline for democratisising the airwaves and making "citizens radio" a reality in India, as it is in Nepal, which Noronha describes as the only country in South Asia where CR stations have, to date, "surprisingly flourished".

Some, like the Delhi engineer heading up Radiophony (which offers circuits to create ultra low-powered FM transmitters for a few hundred rupees), are dubious of the impact of the new developments. He commented, in an online discussion forum, "Wait a second! No news or current affairs (under the new policy)?" He questions, that is, Noronha's hope that the November 2006 decision indeed "marks the beginning of the end of a regime where the 'world's largest democracy's' airwaves have been controlled by rigorous oversight - as against the only nominal controls over its Press, cinema and internet, and moderate control over cable TV and satellite TV."