Community media, whether broadcast or online, is crucial to ensuring media pluralism and freedom of expression and is an indicator of a healthy democratic society. As an alternative medium to public and commercial media, as well as social media, they are characterized by their accountability to, and participation of, the communities they serve. They have a greater focus on local issues of concern and facilitate public platforms for debate and discussion.
UNESCO advocates strongly for community media that are independent and which are run for and by the community. UNESCO supports this through capacity-building and training activities, including through Empowering Local Radio through ICTs.
Community radio, in particular, is crucial for providing an outreach mechanism for increased access to education, self-expression, and communication among rural and hard-to-reach populations. Such stations allow communities a sense of ownership about their own development agenda, becoming self-empowered to publicly express an opinion, debate issues, and promote the culture, history, and language of their community.
In more than two decades of their existence in Nepal, the community radios have time and again proved that they are capable partners of the government for the development of the country.
Objectives
- To strengthen the role of the Member States that have strengthened through practices and policies for pluralism and diversity in media, including community media, and observe World Radio Day
- Support and capacity building of the community media stakeholders to adopt policies on youth and gender equality in media, and the number of institutions piloting the Gender-Sensitive Indicators for Media