[cma-l] Community Radio in Europe: AMARC conference, Bucarest, 11-14 December

[Salvatore Scifo]

---Apologies for cross-posting---

Community Radio in Europe: Broadcasting on the Edge

http://europe.amarc.org/index.php?p=Pan_europeen_conference
(French version at http://europe.amarc.org/index.php?p=Conference_pan_europeenne&l=FR&nosafe=0 )

Hôtel Caro, Bucarest, 11-14 December 2008

AMARC Europe will hold a conference, Community Radio in Europe: Broadcasting
on the Edge, in Bucharest, Romania, 11-14 December 2008. The event will
offer an opportunity for almost one hundred community radio broadcasters
from more than 30 countries across Europe to meet and develop strategies to
strengthen community radio across the region ? particularly in Central and
Eastern Europe



    Supporting the development of citizens’ radio across Europe

AMARC Europe will hold a conference, *Community Radio in Europe: 
Broadcasting on the Edge, in Bucharest, Romania, 11-14 December 2008*. 
The event will offer an opportunity for almost one hundred community 
radio broadcasters from more than 30 countries across Europe to meet and 
develop strategies to strengthen community radio across the region – 
particularly in Central and Eastern Europe.

The conference draws its theme – /Broadcasting on the Edge/ – from the 
fact that the community radio sector is too often marginalized or even 
illegal in parts of Europe. It is unable to operate successfully in a 
number of countries because those countries have incomplete legal and 
statutory frameworks, thus leaving community radio in limbo.

Changes need to be made in several countries to open the door for 
community radio and its related technologies. With the emergence of new 
Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs), radio has expanded 
its potential as an information-sharing tool and for facilitating 
bottom-up articulation of development needs. Internet, mobile phones, 
satellite access and networking, are increasingly being used in 
combination with radio to offer unprecedented development opportunities 
for the exchange of new ideas, for highlighting the value of local 
know-how, and for fostering participation, cultural diversity and dialog.

While community radio increased their presence in some Western European 
countries becoming a fundamental element of the media landscape, it has 
grown much slower and is not as well acknowledged in the other two 
regions, Central and Easter Europe, where it is needed most. With 
improvements in community radio, and improved government regulations, 
hundreds of groups in the more than 15 least developed countries could 
operate stations and have an important social impact concerning issues 
such as community development, poverty reduction, health care, women’s 
rights, youth education, and many more issues.

In Western Europe, AMARC and local radio groups are organizing lobbying 
efforts towards government and international institutions aimed at 
gaining approval so that community stations can more easily network so 
they will be able to collectively work on national and region-wide 
social and developmental issues.


      Importance of the European Conference

The Bucharest conference will focus on how AMARC can most effectively 
contribute to help increase the impact of the community radio movement 
across Europe. Key will be the transfer of the rich experiences and 
campaigning strategies (on a national as well as international level) 
from some Western Europe countries to the Central and Eastern regions in 
order to strengthen their community radio sector as an important player 
in democracy building. Participants will analyze the role played by 
community radio in their respective countries, and look at how well 
radio is helping advance causes such as pluralism, cultural diversity, 
and the achievement of a new concept of local public service.

A major focus will be planning to meet the potential for the expansion 
of community radio across Europe. Thanks to improved and favorable 
social and political conditions (more democratic and pluralistic 
environments), along with a significant shift in the development 
paradigm towards more participatory approaches, horizontal information 
and knowledge sharing, community radio represents a tool for people’s 
ownership of development initiatives.

AMARC Europe and the Centre for Independent Journalism (CIJ) in 
Bucharest are the joint conference organizers. CIJ is one of the 
strongest advocacy groups in Romania, being involved in the preparation, 
adoption and implementation of critical legislation. CIJ facilitates the 
social dialogue by supporting democratic changes, encouraging the 
citizen’s participation and acting for the responsibility of decision 
makers. AMARC Europe is the regional branch of the world network that 
counts on more than 3,800 member stations around the world, 
www.amarc.org. AMARC Europe develops networking schemes in order to 
cover common events at the European level that facilitate the exchange 
of information and increasing the free flow of communication. Besides, 
the regional branch is actively involved in lobbying activities for the 
complete recognition of community media in Europe (i.e. Council of 
Europe, European Union institutions).

While there is an increased acknowledgment of the importance of the 
community media sector by the international institutions (at the UN 
level as well as the EU and Council of Europe level), in many European 
countries the sector suffers the lack of a favorable political 
environment. In addition, to the problem of too many countries not 
having proper legal and statutory framework, they also have not come to 
the forefront to help community radio successful transition from the 
outdated analog technologies to the new digital ones. This important 
switch demands clear and common strategies to overcome the increasing 
influence of commercial companies that dominate radio spectrum allocation.

For AMARC Europe, the conference will allow the organization to finalize 
its strategic plan and activities for 2009-2010, including reaching 
decisions on common strategies concerning digital broadcasting switch 
over, sharing information and programming across wide areas within the 
region, making plans for social action broadcasting in areas such as 
HIV/AIDS and the environment, and plans for training and capacity 
building for women broadcasters in Europe.