[cma-l] 25 Anniversary of AMARC Declaration

[CMA-L]

The AMARC 25th Anniversary Declaration – The Montreal Declaration

In August 1983, community radio broadcasters and community media
advocates gathered here in Montreal to establish the World Association
of Community Radio Broadcasters (AMARC).

Today, 25 years on, we are here again in Montreal, representing a
global movement of radio producers, communication rights activists,
academics, researchers, NGO practitioners, women and men working
together to create a more just and humane world through communications
and specifically through community radio.

The world has changed in 25 years, and not always for the better. New
information and communication technologies have helped the development
of community radio but we face the challenge of building a human
rights based information society. The expansion of transnational
corporate media conglomerates and the concentration of ownership
threatens pluralism and diversity of media contents. New challenges
such as the environment and climate change accompany social exclusion,
poverty, food insecurity, access to clean water and democracy
building. The world is confronted with a global financial crisis and a
crisis of the neoliberal globalization that will increase social
inequalities and the distance between the rich and the poor.

We are here not only to celebrate what we have achieved in the last 25
years but to deliberate and reflect on our political strategies for
the future. Radio remains extremely crucial and important in the world
today. AMARC has grown to a network of thousands of community radios
representing a distinct and dynamic community radio sector advocating
for communication rights in more than 118 countries and facing the new
challenges of the 21st century. Nonetheless, the absence of legal
recognition by governments in many parts of the world and
sustainability issues still hinder community radio's potential
contribution.

One role for AMARC will definitely remain: AMARC will continue to be a
space where people—women and men, young and old, with different needs
and abilities, from different political persuasions, religions, sexual
orientation, social class, castes and ethnicity—can articulate their
views, listen to others and dialogue with each other. It will continue
to be a gathering place, a venue for open debates on human rights,
gender equality, peace, armed conflict, and a broad range of issues
relevant to undeserved and underrepresented communities. Issues that
otherwise will not find space in corporate and government-run media.

On our 25th anniversary, we reaffirm our commitment to reach out to
more people around the world in local communities to encourage more
diverse expressions to come together and promote ideals of freedom,
democracy, equality, justice and peace.

We thank the city and people of Montreal, the home of our
international secretariat and where we held our International
Symposium on Empowerment and Development through Community Radios. The
symposium allowed us to analyze and reflect on community radio's role
in creating an environment where people's empowerment and
people-oriented development takes precedence over the political and
business interests of the few. It has also provided us an opportunity
to exchange views and ideas on how to increase community radio's
effectiveness as an instrument in combating poverty, exclusion,
intolerance and at the same time as a tool for promoting communication
rights, human rights, gender equality, good governance, transparency,
peace and social justice.

WE, the representatives and members of AMARC from Africa, Asia and the
Pacific, Latin America and the Caribbean, Europe and North America,

TAKING INTO ACCOUNT the Amman Declaration, ratified by participant
community radio broadcasters members of AMARC during its 9th General
Assembly in Amman, Jordan, November 16th 2006.

TAKING INTO ACCOUNT the Joint Declaration on Diversity in Broadcasting
adopted on 12 December 2007 by the UN Special Rapporteur on Freedom of
Opinion and Expression, the OSCE Representative on Freedom of the
Media, the OAS Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Expression and the
ACHPR (African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights) Special
Rapporteur on Freedom of Expression and Access to Information.

DECLARE:

State Obligations

That the principles set out in AMARC's Principles on Democratic
Regulation in Community Broadcasting (May 3, 2008) should be respected
by governments as appropriate standards in this area. As such, they
should be integrated into legal and policy frameworks, taking into
account different cultural and development contexts.

Specifically,

* States should ensure respect for their international obligations in
the area of freedom of expression, including in relation to community
media.

* Community broadcasting should be recognized in national laws and
policies as having distinct characteristics, and community
broadcasters should be guaranteed fair and equitable access to the
radio frequency spectrum and other broadcast distribution platforms,
including digital platforms.

* Procedures for allocating licences and frequencies to community
broadcasters should be fair, open and transparent, and the
implementation of these procedures should be overseen by an
independent regulatory body.

* Community broadcasters should have access to a diversity of funding
sources free of unreasonable restrictions. This may include public
funds which are administered in a manner that does not compromise
their independence.

* States should take adequate measures to end the climate of impunity,
and such measures should include devoting sufficient resources and
attention to preventing attacks of governments and others on
journalists, community radio stations and independent media and
newspapers exercising their right to freedom of expression,
investigating such attacks when they do occur, bringing those
responsible to justice and compensating victims.

* States should take appropriate steps to ensure that community radio
and television broadcasters have access to digital and all new
technologies to assist them in their work. States should also take the
steps needed to ensure reasonable and equitable access by community
broadcasters to satellite radio.

Community Broadcasters

We commit ourselves to challenge the dominant negative and
stereotypical images of women in the media. We reaffirm our commitment
that women's access to and participation in decision-making in the
media should be guaranteed at all levels and that producing programs
that celebrate women's diversity and highlight their contribution to
society should be promoted.

We remain committed to addressing the specific needs of children and
youth both in our programming and through promoting the participation
of children and youth in the production of community broadcast
programming.

We are committed to supporting the development of community radio in
new countries and to developing solidarity and lobbying for further
international and national recognition of community radio's social
contribution where it is in jeopardy.

We are committed to enhancing the role of community radio in achieving
the millenium development goals, conflict resolution, peace building,
poverty alleviation and confronting disaster management, climate
change and environment deterioration by reinforcing the links and
coordination between community radios and NGOs, researchers, civil
society movements and stakeholders .

We stress the critical importance of community radio in empowering
local communities through education, learning knowledge exchange and
building capacities in communities.

We stress the role of community radio as a producer of culture, in
strengthening cultural rights and, in particular, the rights of
linguistic and cultural minorities. We recognize that community radio
plays an important role in helping particularly to communicate and in
protecting francophone culture in Canada.

We conclude this event by reaffirming our commitment to realize our
demands in this Declaration and we pledge to continue our work for the
promotion and protection of people's communication rights and all
rights embodied in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

Montreal, 7 November 2008.

For further information visit http://www.amarc.org/montreal