Community Media for Peace-building, Conflict Resolution and

Reconciliation: A Roadmap to Develop a Bi-Community Radio Station in

Cyprus
Vaia Doudaki, Cyprus University of Technology, Cyprus
and
Nico Carpentier, Loughborough University, United Kingdom / Vrije Universiteit
Brussel (VUB), Belgium

1. Introduction
Community media are described as those that serve the community, by providing
news and information relevant to the needs of its members, while promoting access
and participation of the latter (Jankowski, 2002). Community media are also regarded
as the third voice in comparison with or in opposition to the state and the private
commercial media, fostering the voice of the ordinary people and of civil society
(Carpentier, Lie and Servaes, 2003). Also, by encouraging the expression of
minorities and marginalized groups they are claimed to build alternative news
agendas to those of the mainstream media, which demonstrate a structural bias
(McNair, 1998) in favour of the elites. In addition, their capacity to foster diversity,
intercultural dialogue and tolerance has made community media privileged partners
in peace-building, conflict resolution and reconciliation (Rodriguez, 2011).
Purpose of the present study is to examine the role a community media organization
can play in Cyprus, and to develop a roadmap for action research into the
establishment of such a community media organization. It is explored whether
community media could give voice to and promote the dialogue between the
members of the Greek-Cypriot and the Turkish-Cypriot community, and in
combination with the generation of diverse and alternative representations of the
Cyprus problem.
Examining the characteristics community media should have in Cyprus to meet this
purpose and to better serve the particularities of the island, the idea of a bicommunity radio station based in Nicosia, the capital city that unites and divides at
the same time the two communities, is promoted. As a technology, radio is capable in
reaching large groups of people and is frequently used in Cyprus, whereas one of its
main advantages over other technologies is its familiarity, immediacy and materiality,
which are crucial elements in peace-building processes. At the same time, the
effectiveness and reach of a bi-community radio station can be enhanced by new
technologies that support (inter)connectedness, sharing and expression of opinion,
and have the dynamics to help re-establish an environment of co-existence based on
linguistic, religious and cultural diversity of the two communities.
Since its crucial for the success of such an endeavour to gain the support,
involvement and commitment of the two communities, it is considered important to
generate a dialogue-driven coalition of Cypriot stakeholders in the process, which
would set the foundations for a community radio station that would be both
sustainable (Internews, 2009) and participatory-democratic.

2. Community media: theory and practice

2.1 The basic principles of community media
Like all other types of media organizations, community media (CM) group a wide
variety of media organizational structures and practices. But despite their differences,
community media share a number of key characteristics, which distinguish them from
other types of media organizations like public service or commercial media.
Especially their close connection to civil society and their strong commitment to
participation and democracy, in both their internal decision-making process and their
content production practices, are important distinguishing characteristics that
establish community media as the third media type, distinct from public service and
commercial media.
These distinguishing features can for instance be found in the working definition of
community radio adopted by AMARC-Europe, the European branch of the World
Association of Community Radio Broadcasters 1. Attempting to avoid a prescriptive
definition, AMARC-Europe (1994: 4) labels a community radio station as a nonprofit station, currently broadcasting, which offers a service to the community in
which it is located, or to which it broadcasts, while promoting the participation of this
community in the radio. Also in the academic literature, we can find these distinctive
characteristics. For instance, Howley (2005: 2) defines community media as:
grassroots or locally oriented media access initiatives predicated on a profound
sense of dissatisfaction with mainstream media form and content, dedicated to the
principles of free expression and participatory democracy, and committed to
enhancing community relations and promoting community solidarity. Tabing (2002:
9) defines community media as operated in the community, for the community, about
the community and by the community, and a more recent study commissioned by
the European Parliament defines community media as media that are non profit and
owned by or accountable to the community that they seek to serve. community media
are open to participation in programme making and management by members of the
community (KEA, 2007: 1).
Community media are media organizations, but can take many different forms and
can use various technological platforms (print, radio, TV, web-based or mixed).
Another main characteristic is that they are usually operated by (and/or accountable
to) a community (which can be a community of interest, a geographical community or
an ethnic-linguistic community) and are characterized by the more maximalist
participation of that community in all processes of the organization. They have been
described through a variety of concepts, including citizens media, participatory
media, alternative media, associative media, free media, autonomous media,
rhizomatic media, radical media, civil society media and open media. Each of these
concepts is based on different political, cultural and social orientations and focuses
on certain aspects of community media (Servaes, 1999: 259). However, the term
community media is widely accepted to describe such plurality. Partially because of
diversity, the number of community media is difficult to capture. One indicator is the
membership of AMARC, which has around 4000 members. In some countries,
1

The World Association of Community Radio Broadcasters is usually referred to by its French
acronym AMARC, or the Association Mondiale des Radio diffuseurs Communautaires. The AMARC
website can be found at http://www.amarc.org.

community media are very successful. Meadows et al. (2007) mention the existence
of more than 400 community media in Australia only. In Columbia, there are more
than 600 community radio and more than 500 community television stations licensed 2
(Rodriguez, 2011: 28) Community media have also been officially acknowledged as
the third media sector (for example, in the UK, the Netherlands, Hungary, but also in
Australia and many Latin American and African countries).
In recent years the research interest in community media has greatly increased and
several publications on the subject have appeared, including: Hintz, 2000; Downing
et al., 2001; Rodriguez, 2001, 2011; Halleck, 2002; Atton, 2002; Couldry and Curran,
2003; Howley, 2005; Jankowski and Prehn, 2002; Rennie, 2006; Bailey, Cammaerts
and Carpentier, 2008 and Coyer, Dowmunt and Fountain, 2008; Cammaerts, 2009;
Peissl and Tremetzberger, 2010; Reguero Jimnez and Scifo, 2010. Even more
recently, European policy-makers have recognized the role and value of community
media. In a report on Community Media in Europe, adopted in 2008, the European
Parliament noted that community media fulfil a broad yet largely unacknowledged
role in the media landscape, particularly as a source of local content, and encourage
innovation, creativity and diversity of content (European Parliament, 2008). In the
European Parliaments Resolution of 25 September 2008 on Community Media in
Europe that followed after the publication of the Community Media in Europe report,
community media are endorsed as an effective means of strengthening cultural and
linguistic diversity, social inclusion and local identity. The resolution also stresses
that community media promote intercultural dialogue by educating the general
public, combating negative stereotypes and correcting the ideas put forward by the
mass media regarding communities within society threatened with exclusion, and the
member states are advised to give legal recognition to community media as a
distinct group alongside commercial and public media where such recognition is still
lacking. Furthermore, in 2008 the Council of Europe also commissioned a report on
the state of community media in Europe, and its Committee of Ministers issued a
declaration in 2009. In this Declaration on The Role of Community Media in
Promoting Social Cohesion and Intercultural Dialogue, the Council of Europe (2009)
emphasizes the role of community media in guaranteeing free expression of
opinions and ideas and in contributing to effective participation in democratic
processes by many groups and individuals.
The social gain stemming from community media activities includes enhanced
participation in the media system itself, and through community media in society, the
strengthening of media independence and pluralism and increased opportunities for
media literacy. Community media offer platforms for civic engagement and
opportunities for citizens to play an active role in community life as they act as a
catalyst of a diversity of activists, artists and civil society organizations. Community
media thus activate citizenship and have been called a significant component of
participatory democracy (KEA, 2007: 5). Moreover, community media are seen to
strengthen community identities and social cohesion but also inter-community
exchange across ethnic, linguistic and cultural frontiers (Fraser and Restrepo
Estrada, 2001: 18). The different aspects of the relationship between participation,
pluralism and community media can be illustrated by looking at the four different
approaches used in the literature for the study of community media (as discussed in
2

These numbers are complicated by the tendency of non-community media to hold community media
licenses.

Carpentier, Servaes and Lie, 2003; Bailey, Cammaerts and Carpentier, 2007).

The community approach focuses on access by and participation of the

community; the opportunity given to ordinary people to have their voices
heard; and the empowerment of community members through valuing their
skills and views.
The alternative approach stresses that these media have alternative ways of
organising (often using a more horizontal democratic structure), carry
alternative discourses and representations, and make use of alternative
formats and genres. They are seen as independent from market and state.
Participation and pluralism are accomplished through the mechanism of selfrepresenting this multiplicity of alternative voices.
The civil society approach incorporates aspects of civil society theory (e.g.
Walzer, 1998). Civil society agendas are concerned with enabling citizens to
be active in one of many (micro-)spheres relevant to everyday life, to exert
their rights to communicate, and facilitating macro-participation of different
societal groups through participation in public debate and self-representation
in public spaces.
Finally, the rhizomatic approach uses Deleuze and Guattaris (1987) metaphor
to focus on three aspects: community medias elusiveness, their
interconnections (amongst each other and [mainly] with civil society) and the
linkages with market and state. Community media act as meeting points and
catalysts for a variety of organizations and movements and, like rhizomes,
they tend to cut across borders and build linkages between pre-existing gaps.

However, those interconnections also uncover a number of difficulties that community

media face and which point to core challenges to these community media:

The development and sustainment of relationships with the community.

The development and sustainment of internal democracy.
Financial instability and vulnerability.
The unawareness of the varied democratic functions of community media in
media policy.
The threat caused by a media landscape that is characterized by increasing
concentration and homogenization.
The blurring of the rigid boundaries between civil society, state and market
producing fierce internal ideological conflicts, the threat of co-option by state or
market and the loss of the community medias independence.

These challenges refer to a set of core concerns within the community media sector,
namely effectiveness and sustainability. Moreover, these challenges also exemplify
the need for caution towards a too celebratory approach on community media.
Community media do not provide with catch-all solutions for all societal problems,
although they can play a significant role in strengthening the democratic tissue of a
society, and (as the following part will argue) contributing to peace-building, conflict
resolution and reconciliation.

2.2. Community media, diversity, intercultural dialogue and conflict resolution

The participatory nature of community media also facilitates their societal role as
producers of both internal and external diversity. As Fraser and Restrepo Estrada
(2001: 18) remark (in relation to community radio), [c]ommunity radio, through its
openness to participation to all sectors and all people in a community/ies, creates a
diversity of voices and opinions on the air. Community media are not homogeneous
organizations serving a homogeneous community, but allow a diversity of people to
produce media content which relates to a variety of societal groups and subcommunities, mixing minority and majority cultures, ethnicities and languages often in
the same community media (Barlow, 1988; Sussman and Estes, 2005; Reed and
Hanson, 2006; Baker, 2007; Ren and Antonius, 2009).
In order to deal with this complexity, different strategies have been developed to think
the relationship between the community media organization and its community. In
some cases, an expansion of the concept of community has been proposed, moving
away from the more traditional definitions of community as locality or ethnicity. One
example here is Lewiss (1993: 13) position that community should not be
exclusively defined geographically, as communities can cross geographic localities. A
less mediacentric approach tackles this issue by pointing to the diversity of
communities that a community media organization can serve. For instance, Santana
and Carpentier (2010) show the wide variety of activist, ethic-linguistic, subcultural
and art communities that are being served by two Belgian community / alternative
radio stations. Here, a considerable number of authors argue that community media
facilitate a dialogue between these sub-communities or segments of society
(Siemering, 2000; Forde et al., 2002; Martin and Wilmore, 2010; Gaynor and O'Brien,
2011).
Community medias ability to integrate a diversity of non-professional producers
embedded in a diversity of (sub-)communities, which generates in turn a variety of
voices to be heard (or read, or viewed), enabled through their participatorydemocratic ideology, also ideally positions community media as facilitators of
intercultural dialogue and tolerance. Here, the explicit commitment of community
media towards democratic values, which renders them different from open access
media, provides a protective environment for this diversity of voices. Internally,
community media can act as physical meeting places for different social groups, and
externally, as platforms for these different voices. To use Papoutsaki et al.s (2008:
201) words: Increased dialogue, collaboration, and respect for others ideas become
elements in community building and social cohesion. A similar argument is used by
the Council of Europe in its 2009 Declaration: Conscious that in todays radically
changed media landscape, community media can play an important role, notably by
promoting social cohesion, intercultural dialogue and tolerance, as well as by
fostering community engagement and democratic participation at local and regional
level.
Obviously, this capacity to stimulate intercultural dialogue is not to be taken for
granted, as it very much depends on the embeddedness of the media organizational
culture in a participatory-democratic ideology, and as it is for instance complicated by
linguistic differences. Moreover, organizing dialogue within a context of diversity
5

generates many thresholds and difficulties. One significant problem is generated by

the risk of non-democratic voices and actors entering and damaging these realms
devoted to democracy and participation. At the same time an equal number of
creative democratic practices have been developed to deal with these challenges.
For instance, having to deal with many different languages inhibits dialogue, but a
wide variety of techniques has been developed by organizations like the Swiss radio
school Klip+klang, which has been experimenting with organizing multi-linguistic
dialogues, in close collaboration with Swiss community radio stations like the Zurichbased Radio Lora.
One example is the Cross-Radio project, a cultural information network that connects
twelve radio stations and independent organisations, mostly from cities in former
Yugoslavia (Ljubljana, Maribor, Sarajevo, Mostar, Belgrade, Novi Sad, Zrenjanin,
Sombor, Skopje), with an extension to Zurich and Basel in Switzerland. The network
provides a platform for cross border exchange of information related to art and
culture, and enhances cultural dialogue in the region. Its program is multi-lingual.
According to the participants, the multi-lingual principle is of extreme importance, for
promoting the cultural and linguistic diversity of ex-Yugoslav regions. One of the aims
of Cross-Radio is to help in the redevelopment of the necessary common ground on
which to create a more promising vision of a shared, multicultural future. CrossRadio as a community radio supports the idea of multiculturalism of belonging not
only and exclusively to the nation-state but to different multicultures. This is the role
and importance of Cross-Radio in the former Yugoslav region not only to offer
multicultural perspectives but also to encourage the articulation of common multiidentities that used to be vivacious, powerful, and respectful of the cultural diversity of
the former Yugoslavia. (Plansak and Volcic, 2010: 83).
This capacity to foster diversity, intercultural dialogue and tolerance has made
community media privileged partners in peace-building, conflict resolution and
reconciliation projects. In contrast to the more general and widely recognized
capacity to stimulate intercultural dialogue, there is much less (academic) research
into the more specific role of community media to strengthen peace-building, conflict
resolution and reconciliation (a gap this paper explicitly aims to address3), although
there are many particular projects, mainly located in the global South. In one of the
rare publications, Anheier and Raj Isar (2007: 323-324) suggest that community
media can play a mediating role in conflicts. Also Rodriguez (2000: 147, 2011)
attributes a central role to community media 4 in peace-building efforts and conflict
resolution. In a ground-breaking research project in the Colombian Magdalena Medio
region, researchers from four universities and a regional network of community radio
stations joined forces and provided rare evidence for this central role of community
media in a struggle for peace (Cadavid and Moreno Martnez, 2009; see also
Rodriguez, 2011). One of Rodriguezs (2011: 255) key conclusions of her analysis of
Colombian community media activities stresses the performance of peace-building:
Instead of transmitting messages about peacebuilding to audiences, Columbian
citizens media involve audiences in, and subject audiences to, the felt, embodied
experience of peace.
The lack of attention from researchers does not imply that no community media
3
4

A few exceptions are listed in Rodriguez (2011: 20).

Rodriguez calls them citizens media.

projects aimed at peace-building and conflict resolution have been organized.

Different international institutions have been instrumental in supporting peacebuilding activities of community and especially UNESCO (with its Community Media
Programme) has been at the forefront of these initiatives. In their Mainstreaming the
Culture of Peace report, UNESCO (2002) included one part on community media.
Also, earlier, in the report for the United Nations System-wide Special Initiative on
Africa, Matoko and Boafo (1998: 17) pointed out that [c]ommunity media
organizations strengthen a communitys identity, culture and history, encourage
participation in decision-making processes and help to create a peaceful
environment. As there are many constraints that these community media have to
face, they continued that efforts will be made to remedy these problems by
supporting the efforts of non-governmental organizations to create such [community]
media outlets (1998: 17). In addition, AMARC has been actively promoting the
capacity of community media to support peace-building, especially through its
womens network(s). But not all initiatives have been sustainable, for instance the UN
peacekeeping radio stations have been critiqued for combining the lack of
sustainability with the lack of local embeddedness: Before setting up its own radio
stations, the UN should first consider partnerships with credible and capable local
media outlets, such as nonpartisan public broadcasters or community radio networks,
if such institutions exist (Orme, 2010: 10).
3. A bi-community radio station in Cyprus
3.1 The political and media context in Cyprus
Cyprus has been geographically and ethnically divided since 1974 when Turkey
invaded the north and occupied 38% of the island, after decades of inter-communal
tensions and violence. Since then, the two major communities, the Greek-Cypriot and
the Turkish-Cypriot have been living in two different parts of the country: the officially
recognized by the international community Republic of Cyprus in the South and the
Turkish-held auto-declared Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus in the North,
recognized only by Turkey. The majority of the population on the island is Greek
Orthodox (78%), with 18% of Muslims, and an overall 4% of Maronites, Armenian
Apostolics, Catholics, etc, and the official languages are Greek and Turkish. In 2006
the population was estimated at 780,000 in the south and around 200,000 in the
north.
During the past decades there have been ongoing negotiations for a peace solution.
The last peace plan proposed by the UN for the reunification of the island in 2004,
known as the Annan Plan, in the form of a federation of two constituent states, was
rejected by referendum in the Greek Cypriot community and accepted in the Turkish
Cypriot community. As it had to be accepted by both communities in order to be
applied, the island remains divided up today.
3.1.1 The media in Cyprus
The media in Cyprus share a lot in common with the media in other South European
and Mediterranean countries, and reflect, or are intertwined with the Cyprus Problem.
Cyprus attained independence in 1960, being until then a British colony. The
7

resulting delayed democratization and development of liberal institutions, as

manifested in many countries of southern Europe, is connected with a strong role of
the state in society, a strong role of political parties once the transition to democracy
is achieved, and a continuing importance of clientelism (Hallin and Mancini, 2004).
As Hallin and Mancini (2004: 135-136) define it, [c]lientelism is a pattern of social
organization in which access to resources is controlled by patrons and delivered to
clients in exchange for deference and various kinds of support. [] In clientelistic
systems, information is treated as a private resource, not shared publicly. It is a
symptom of a political culture that is relatively cynical about the notion of a general
public interest transcending particular interests (Hallin and Mancini, 2004: 138).
Even though in recent years clientelism has weakened, as unfavourable to the
structures of a free market economy, it continues to weigh on the organization of
media and journalistic practices in Cyprus, historically connected to the slower
development of the journalistic professionalization, having also a negative effect on
the autonomy of the journalists.
Another characteristic of the Cypriot media is their links (especially of television
stations) to those of Greece and Turkey. There are relays of Greek and Turkish
stations across the island, a number of channels from Turkey transmit directly to
Cyprus, whereas most of the local stations take part of their program from Greek and
Turkish television stations. It cannot be neglected that the Greek and Turkish Cypriot
communities share a lot with Greece and Turkey respectively, not only in terms of
language, religion and cultural proximity, but also in coordinated political agendas
concerning the Cyprus Problem. These two countries have, in their turn, a long
history of conflict and tension between them, with Cyprus being one of the issues of
conflict.
There is also high concentration of broadcast and print media per capita both in the
north and in the south, something that in theory could indicate a high degree of
pluralism. However, the high concentration of media is accentuated by the Cyprus
problem: The Cypriot media mirror the island's political division, with both parts of the
island operating their own press and broadcasters (Vassiliadou, 2007).
Like in other Mediterranean countries, in Cyprus also, there is a strong focus of the
media on political life and a tradition in commentary-oriented or advocacy journalism,
combined with close ties between the media (especially the newspapers) and the
political parties. And even though the partisan press is declining (in the Turkish
Cypriot community it is still alive), newspapers refrain from adopting a clear
ideologically neutral editorial line, especially as ideology in connection to positions on
the Cyprus Problem is still indicative of their identity (Christophorou, Sahin and
Pavlou, 2010: 6). Since journalism cannot always be differentiated from political
activism, its autonomy is often limited, with poorly developed professionalization of
journalists and weak self-regulation as characteristics of the profession (Mancini,
2005; Papathanassopoulos, 2004).
3.1.2 Media, nation representations and the Cyprus Problem
Not paradoxically, the Cyprus Problem is the main topic of discourse in the media on
both parts of the island. Apart from the preponderance of the issue and its systematic
8

priming in the news agendas of most media, a common reality both on the North and
the South is a rather similar way of coverage, not on the perspectives and positions,
as they often oppose each other, but on the practices resulting in the construction of
their respective mediated reality (Christophorou, S ahin and Pavlou, 2010). In
addition, the way Greek and Turkish media cover news about each other and present
the Cyprus Problem is largely reproduced in Greek Cypriot and Turkish Cypriot
media as well, as it regards agenda-setting, rhetoric, framing and interpretation of the
presented issues.
When the media reports on the Cyprus Problem, there is little or no
differentiation on either side; stereotypical phrases, expressions, and the
position that our side is the good one who strives for a solution, its the
others who are negative, characterize both media. The selection of news and
voices on most issues, i.e., who is given access and whose views are
presented, is similar in both the Greek and the Turkish Cypriot media
(Christophorou, Sahin and Pavlou, 2010: 7).
Also, as Bailie and Azgin (2008: 57) note, the Cypriot media embrace a conflictcentered approach to peace efforts by shaping news that contributes to the increased
mystification of the conflict and to a retrenching of divisive attitudes, sympathetic to a
cementing of division. The shaping takes place indirectly through the selection of
quotes from elite sources that re-present dominant points of view from within each
community.
Bailie and Azgin, agree with Wolfsfeld (2004), that the dominant criteria for editorial
decision making, that of immediacy, drama, simplicity and ethnocentrism, also
preeminent in Cypriot media practices, are far from favourable towards a peace or
conciliatory oriented coverage of the Cyprus problem. In the same direction, on her
analysis about the coverage of the Imia/Kardak Greek-Turkish crisis and the
depiction of the other, Kostarella (2007: 30) points that the editorials of the Greek
newspapers studied appeared emotional and aggressive, with lack of argumentation
and focus on provoking strong sentiments, while the framing of Turkey was episodic
and event dependent.
Studies on news values and newsroom practices have long shown that conflict,
negativity and crisis are inherently considered newsworthy, whereas specific events
and actions are preferred over processes, in favor of simplicity, and long-term
policies and complex issues are conveniently reduced in two-sided dispute (Epstein,
1973; Tuchman, 1973; McManus, 1994; Harcup and O'Neill, 2001; Soloski, 1989).
Intertwined with newsworthiness is the news gathering process. As the mainstream
media rely heavily on official sources, that is mainly members of the major elites of
society (political, economical, cultural, etc.) for news gathering (Gans, 1979;
Berkowitz, 1997; Ericson, Baranek and Chan, 1989) they demonstrate a structural
bias (McNair, 1998) in favour of these elites, not only as it regards the agenda of the
public issues, but also the framing and interpretation of the latter.
Especially in the coverage of news of national politics there are rarely systematically
divergent agendas and definitions between the media and the official state policies.
According to Tili (2006: 23), Greece and Greece-related issues tend to be
constructed in the Turkish media in a rather nationalistic way whereas changes in
9

the style and content of the Turkish media reports on Greek-Turkish relations were
mainly due to changes in the policy of the Turkish government and state officials and
how they currently engage with Greece [] The way that something is defined as
news and the way it should be reported are strongly influenced by the top officials of
Turkey when Turkish media report about Greece.
As Nossek (2004: 343) remarks, when a foreign news item is defined as ours then
journalists professional practices become subordinate to national loyalty; when an
item is theirs, journalistic professionalism comes into its own. Thus, [] there is an
inverse relation between professional news values and the national identity of the
journalist [] the more national the report is, the less professional it will be.
This last point brings into focus the notion of national identity and the role of the
media in its construction and preservation. The Cyprus Problem is inextricably
intertwined with the discourse on national identity. According to Anderson (2006: 3),
[n]ation-ness is the most universally legitimate value in the political life of our time
and media function as guards of the nation state idea (in multiple levels) and as main
mechanisms in the construction and legitimation of national identity. Anderson (2006:
37-46) argues that the nation is a construction enabled through the print media,
which generated a sense of simultaneity and created the possibility of imagined
communities.
National identity can be seen as a specific form of collective identity that is sustained
by a dual process: one of inclusion that provides a boundary around us and one of
exclusion that distinguishes us from them (Schlesinger, 1991: 300). According to
Kostarella (2007: 26), collective imagination depends on a dialectic opposition to
another identity, with the media serving this binary oppositional scheme of us
versus them in national identity building.
The media in Greece and Turkey, as Ozgunes and Terzis (2000: 408) note, are
used to reinforce the myth of the unitary state, on one hand by emphasizing the
similarities among the members of the nation, and on the other hand by creating a
fear of the other. Under this prism, the systematic use of stereotypes and negative
representations of the other by the Greek media has been used as a common
framework for approaching and explaining Greek-Turkish relations (Kostarella, 2007:
23).
Through the demonization of the other and the restriction of the possibilities of
recognizing internal complexity and plurality [] the Greek mass media have
been reinforcing the binary divisions between good and bad which prevail in
popular consciousness and in the nationalistic imaginary [.]. In this context
the other is perceived as the aggregate of internal and external opposition, in
the form of an imaginary enemy. Internal dissidents and political adversaries
are therefore transformed into national enemies (Tsagarousianou, 1997: 278279).
In Cyprus, nationalistic discourse through the media develops in similar patterns,
accentuated by the unresolved division of the island. Anastasiou (2002: 588-589),
building on the work of Ellul (1973: 34-38) argues that [i]n Cyprus, the nationalist
propaganda that has been either consciously or indirectly assembled and
10

disseminated over the years by the means of mass communication has transformed
the experiences, perceptions, and interpretations rooted in the history of the conflict,
from scattered suggestive tendencies, from implicit and individual references, to
collectivized, crystallized stereotypes and explicit meanings that in turn have come to
integrate and condition public culture.
An analysis of the programme of three radio stations on the north part of Cyprus in
2010 showed that they do not favour unification with the Republic of Cyprus, even
though it is, according to the author, currently highly popular with the majority of the
population, promoting thus discourses that do not reflect the peoples sentiment
(Way, 2011a: 29): To this end, stations recontextualise events to promote two
different discourses of national identity, one that is Turkish and one that is based on
an independent Turkish Cyprus (Way, 2011b: 15).
At the same time, the Cyprus problem is affecting the practice of journalism, putting
forward questions about the role of the journalist. Not rarely, in areas and countries
where there is conflict, issues of objectivity and fairness are juxtaposed to those of
providing service to the public/country. As Blsi (2004: 9) argues: [a]ctors on ones
side who question their countrys position and propose alternative forms of conflict
resolution are condemned and [o]ften they are denounced as disloyal.
There is a consensus in the Cypriot political scene, in society and largely in the
media that if someone is very open and conciliatory towards the other she/he may be
detrimental to the interests of the community, hence to the public interest. Under this
burden, journalists in Cyprus engage in censorship and self-censorship practices
(Sofokleous, 2008: 170; Vassiliadou, 2007: 211).
According to the study of Christophorou, Sahin and Pavlou (2010: 7), focussing on
the way the Annan Plan was presented by the Greek-Cypriot and Turkish-Cypriot
media: [w]ith the passage of time, intra- and inter-community polarization appears to
have deepened, with a blame-game directed by some not only against the other
side but also against those with different views as well. Any view diverging from the
official line was sometimes seen as damaging and undermining the communitys
cause to the benefit of the enemies; also, responsibility for unfavourable
developments in ones own community was attributed to those with views different
from the official view.
3.2 The potential contribution of a bi-community radio station in Cyprus to the
peace process
In the case of multi-community countries, as in Cyprus, the difficulty of identifying with
the nation state and create a unique national identity is greater. In such
environments, the media often engage in nationalistic discourse also as a result of
their lack of interest or inability of putting into context issues of (national) identity
outside the logic and rhetoric of the (well defined and clear) nation state. Creating
multi-community national spheres is arduous, not consistent with the commercial
nature of mainstream media, and incompatible with the dilemmatic, oppositional and
unconciliatory rhetoric both political actors and media espouse in national politics.
Given the capacity of community media to enhance communication, to organize
11

dialogue, to contribute to peace-building, conflict resolution and reconciliation, within

and amongst communities, the establishment of bi-community media in Cyprus,
serving both the Greek-Cypriot and the Turkish-Cypriot community could contribute in
the above task. As Plansak and Volcic (2010: 81) note [c]ommunity radio serves a
community, where community[] is not imposed from the top down but is an entity
shaped by its members, who dialectically frame its identity. It is exactly this
dialectical framing of identity that the mainstream media are incapable or unwilling to
serve, and which community media by principle and through practice foster and
promote.
Considering the type of a community medium that would better meet this purpose
and serve the particularities of the island, the idea of a bi-community radio station
based in Nicosia, the capital city that unites and divides at the same time the two
communities, is promoted. As a technology, radio is capable in reaching large groups
of people and is frequently used in Cyprus. As data from World Internet Project
Cyprus 2010 suggest, Greek Cypriots listen to the radio 13-14 hours weekly
(Demertzis et al., 2010)5. Moreover, radio is reasonably easy and cheap to produce,
in comparison, for example, to television. The main advantage of radio over other
technologies is its familiarity, immediacy and materiality, which are crucial elements
in peace-building processes. Producing radio broadcasts has a physical-material
dimension (e.g. radio studios) which allows bringing people together, whose
conversions can be captured immediately, because radio receivers are wide-spread
and again easy to operate. Also the organizational nature of a community radio
station matters, as their organizational cultures can be seen as cherishing a
participatory culture at the levels of both production and management, which renders
these organizations centres of expertise based on the considerable amount of
knowledge on the practical organization of participatory processes and on ways to
overcome the many problems these processes encompass (Carpentier, 2011: 228).
Besides, as discussed earlier in this paper, there are examples of community radio
stations in multiethnic regions and countries of conflict and post-conflict that work to
remedy the damage division and war caused in coexistence of groups and
communities previously based on linguistic, religious and cultural diversity.
3.2.1 A bi-community radio station facilitated by new media technologies
Although this paper advocates the choice for establishing a community radio station
in Cyprus, it cannot be ignored that traditional media operate in a more and more
converged environment and culture and incorporate or work with new media
technologies and practices. The effectiveness and reach of a bi-community radio
station can be enhanced by new technologies that support (inter)connectedness,
sharing and expression of opinion, and would be supported by an online presence.
The potential and dynamics of new tools of communications have been proven
beneficial for the purposes of community media. As the UNESCO Community Media
Centres programme illustrates, the internet has been used in combination with
community media. This hybrid approach, combining community radio and
telecentres, is built on an integration of both technologies, allowing for cross5

At the time of writing no data was available for the north of Cyprus.

12

fertilization between them. As was mentioned in the (positive) 2006 UNESCO

evaluation: The addition of Internet connectivity and other information technology
tools to an established community radio station or the addition of radio broadcasting
capabilities to a telecentre, can help the established facility to significantly increase
its contributions to community development [...] (UNESCO, 2006: 21).
As it would be crucial for the success of a bi-community radio station to overcome
both cultural, mental, as well as physical barriers, the culture of (the democratic
versions of) online communities developed on the internet, that transcend the fixed
boundaries of geography and allow for the development of alternative spaces outside
and beyond specific borders (Jones, 1997; Preece and Maloney-Krichmar, 2003;
Porter, 2004) could be beneficially combined with the long tradition of community
media participation and the community media movements explicit commitment
towards democratic values (including peace). Moreover, some people from both
communities might be hesitant at first to have physical presence in a bi-community
radio located in Nicosia (to physically cross the borders), but might be less reluctant
to use mobile and internet facilities and tools (sms, twitter, emails, blogs, etc) to
express their commitment towards peace and reconciliation, share their content, and
provide ideas. Furthermore, an internet presence might also engage people from
geographically remote areas or from abroad, as many Cypriots live abroad. In
addition, young people, who, at least in theory, would be a driving force of a
community radio station, frequently use new media and mobile technologies to fulfil
their communicational needs (Livingstone, 2002; Prensky, 2001; Jones et al, 2010),
as part of a multiplatform palette (Demertzis et al., 2010; Gross, 2004). Although the
levels of participation are often limited in the case of new technologies, for instance
by the corporate ownership of many participatory platforms (Dahlgren, 2011), young
people still experience the practice of active participation and citizenship largely
through the (mediated) use of these new technologies. They see themselves as
producers and disseminators of information through the use of mobile technologies
and the internet, in a digitally social networked and converged environment and
culture.
These dynamics can be used beneficially by a community radio station that is inviting
people to participate, create content and express opinions through a diversity of
channels they are accustomed to and most comfortable with, bringing along their own
skills, knowledge, literacies and sharing them with the other members of the (radio)
community. As the two communities of Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots live
largely isolated and the contemporary image they have of each other is mainly
through the mainstream media, a bi-community radio station can work towards
rebuilding bridges of multilingual and multiethnic communication and cooperation.
This bi-community radio station will need to have an organisational structure, with
objectives explicitly committed to participation, democratisation, peace-building,
conflict resolution and reconciliation. This organisational structure will also have to
gain a physical base in the divided capital of the island, so that it will bring people
from the two communities physically together. It will further be strengthened by the
implementation of new technologies, within the community medias democratic
framework, to overcome physical and mental barriers that have been built all these
years of division, to help re-establish an environment of co-existence based on
linguistic, religious and cultural diversity of the two communities.

13

4. The need for stakeholder research and societal support

A crucial mistake to avoid in the establishment of a community media organization
would be its quick and top-down implementation, which would lack the support,
commitment and psychological ownership of the two communities. For this reason, a
fairly stretched-out consultation and negotiation process will need to be organized, in
order to establish a community radio station that will prove to be both sustainable
(see, e.g. Internews, 2009) and participatory-democratic. As neither the participatorydemocratic nature, nor the sustainability of a community media organization can be
assumed, the establishment of a bi-community radio station will also require a
training period to familiarize the stakeholder-coalition with community medias
organizational participatory-democratic culture, structures and management.
In many cases, the establishment of community media organizations grew out of
(parts of) specific communities. Although this endogenous creation (to use a concept
from Ayedun-Aluma, 2011) is not without its problems either, the situatedness of
community media in their communities is considered crucial for their success. In
Ayedun-Alumas (2011: 64) words, the cultural and social origins of the media
technologies being defined as community media matter to a very high degree. This
raises structural issues for interventionist projects that aim to establish community
media organizations, as the risk exists that they create purely exogenous media
organizations, which are based on exogenous definitions of communities and the
imposition of narrow based solutions to the cultural communication [] (Opubor,
2000: 13, quoted in Ayedun-Aluma, 2011: 64). The number of problems that these
exogenous media organizations have to face is considerable, and the consequences
might be severe. Ayedun-Aluma (2011: 64) mentions the problems of incapacitation
of the host community, maladaptation of the media, and possible rejection of the
media by the community.
This does not imply that any intervention in a community, with the aim of establishing
a community media organization, is necessarily doomed to fail. It does create the
requirement for the interventionist strategies to take these potential problems into
account. In practice this means that members of the communities first of all need to
be informed about the nature and potential of community media, allowing them to
consciously decide on entering the interventionist project (or not). Secondly, this also
implies that the process of establishment needs to be participatory in itself, aiming for
high levels of community involvement in the community media construction at the
financial, organizational-structural, human resources, journalistic-editorial, political
and cultural level. This also positions the process facilitators in a specific way, as
they need to protect the community ownership, while still offering expertise and
guidance (on community media structures and cultures) and protecting the
sustainability of the project. Finally, given the complexity of these participatory
interventions, there is also a high need for a reflexive component, that supports and
corrects the intervention.
4.1 Action research
One method that combines these requirements is action research. This type of
research has been defined by Reason and Bradbury (2001: 1), in The Handbook of
Action Research as seeking: [...] to bring together action and reflection, theory and
14

practice, in participation with others, in the pursuit of practical solutions to issues of

pressing concern to people, and more generally the flourishing of individual persons
and their communities. A similar approach to action theory can be found in Dickens
and Watkins (1999: 127) description of action research, which consists of cycles of
planning, acting, reflecting or evaluating, and then taking further action.
Action research is a broad concept, and as Dickens and Watkins (1999: 127) remark,
it remains an umbrella term for a shower of activities to foster change on the group,
organizational, and even societal levels. In her overview, Sundin (2010) mentions a
series of variations, such as grounded action research, insider action research,
educational action research, but also participatory action research (PAR). PAR,
strongly associated with Fals-Borda, relies on (an) empathic researcher(s) to enable
communities to define their own research questions, to lead the research and to
develop their own solutions for change (Mertens, 2008: 182 see also Fals-Borda
and Rahman, 1991; McTaggart, 1997; Brydon-Miller et al., 2004; Kindon et al., 2007;
Pruulmann-Vengerfeldt, 2010). Fals-Borda (1998: 161) especially emphasizes the
radical-political nature of participation as always radically conceived as a struggle
against political and economic exclusion from exercising control over public
resources.
One crucial concept in (participatory) action research that will be used here, is the
notion of the stakeholder. This concept emerged from (social) marketing discourse in
the 1960s, and gained popularity by the work of Freeman (1984: VI) who defined it as
"any group or individual who can affect or is affected by the achievement of the
organisation's objective." Later, the stakeholder concept became defined in a much
broader way, and different categories, such as "organisational, economic, and
societal stakeholders" (Werther and Chandler, 2006: 4) were developed. Moreover,
the participatory dimension of stakeholdership became emphasized, as the relations
between an organization and its stakeholders are seen to be "interactive, mutually
engaged and responsive relationships that establish the very context of doing
modern business, and create the groundwork for transparency and accountability"
(Andriof et al., 2002: 9). Similarly, Morsing and Schultz (2006: 325) stress the
importance of bringing the notions "of participation, dialogue and involvement to the
centre of stakeholder theory, with a clear inspiration (and aspiration) from democratic
ideals."
4.2 A roadmap for research into Cypriot stakeholders and their position
towards community media
Following the logics of (participatory) action research, there is a need to combine
intervention with reflection. The interventionist, practice-driven component obviously
needs to be aimed at the facilitation of establishment of a bi-community radio station.
As sustainable community media are based on grassroots processes (and not
implemented in a top-down fashion) this requires a carefully elaborated process
aimed at generating societal and stakeholder support. For this reason, a variety of
political, legal, academic, civil society (including NGOs and cultural organizations)
and journalist stakeholders will need to be identified and consulted on the possibility
and desirability of establishing a community radio station, and on what Rodriguez
(2011: 233) calls the complex communication needs of real communities.

15

As no pre-established model of community radio should be implemented, but a series

of models should be developed and discussed with stakeholders, a second stage will
need to consist of the development of a number of scenarios (combining community
media models with public service and journalistic approaches in varying degrees).
These scenarios will need again to be consulted with all stakeholders, which will
allow fleshing out support, and establishing a coalition of stakeholders supportive
towards the realization of a bi-community radio station and explicitly committed to
participation, democratisation, peace-building, conflict resolution and reconciliation.
In the third phase, representatives of this coalition of stakeholders will need to be
trained to achieve the necessary skills to establish and sustain a radio station.
Tentatively, these trainings would need to consist of 1)community medias democratic
and participatory principles, 2)community media management and 3)programming
strategies, including multi-linguistic programming, 4)financial planning and gathering
resources. Also trainings to produce content are required, (again tentatively)
including 5)radio production, 6)journalistic practice in general and 7)focussed on
conflict resolution, 8)intercultural/intercommunity dialogue, and 9)internet and mobile
phone support for community media.
Here, it should be kept in mind that the produced community media content6 should
not be exclusively focus on news and information distribution, but that a wide variety
of fictional and non-fictional formats should be used. Also a propagandistic approach
to peace-building and participation should be avoided. As Rodriguez (2011: 255)
formulates it: the idea is not to persuade people of the value of mediation, nor
transmit mediation skills. Instead, [the idea is to create] communication spaces where
media producers, participations, and their audiences [can] actually experience
mediation.
In the final phase, the representatives of this coalition of stakeholders will then need
to be assisted by experts in drafting the financial, organizational and editorial plans,
again maximizing community ownership.
The second component of action research, the realization of a bi-community radio
station consists of an academic, reflection-driven approach, which allows
incorporating analytical phases. These analytical phases will not only facilitate (in line
with the tradition of action research) to reflect upon and correct the process of
establishing a bi-community radio station, but will also allow to report on the process
and to disseminate the knowledge that has been accumulated throughout the
process.
In sum, the research objectives could be summarized as follows:
1. To identify Cypriot stakeholders and their positions in relation to a bicommunity radio station in Nicosia, and to analyse the perceived thresholds
and opportunities in relation to such a community radio station.
2. To develop a series of scenarios for the structure of a bi-community radio
station in the divided capital city of Cyprus, at the financial, organizationalstructural, human resources, journalistic-editorial, political and cultural level.
6

The radio programmes produced during the content production workshops should be made available
as podcasts, giving early visibility to the project.

16

3.

4.
5.
6.

These scenarios will be based on the positions of the Cypriot stakeholders,

enriched by 1)the academic community media literature, 2)specific community
media practices, 3)the academic literature on public service and journalism,
and 4)public service media and journalistic practice.
To consult Cypriot stakeholders on the developed scenarios through a series
of interviews and focus groups in order to establish the level of support for the
developed scenarios and to establish a stakeholder-coalition seeking to
implement a bi-community radio station.
To organize trainings for the representatives of the stakeholder-coalition.
To publish a selection of the content of the training sessions (as podcasts) on
a website.
To provide assistance to the stakeholder-coalition to draft the financial,
organizational and editorial plans.

5. Concluding remarks
As argued in this paper, the Cypriot mainstream media do not foster reconciliation
between the Greek Cypriot and the Turkish Cypriot community. On the contrary, they
embrace a conflict-centered approach to peace efforts and help in the deepening of
intra- and inter-community polarization, serving the binary oppositional scheme of us
versus them in national identity building. Through their representational politics they
keep the wounds of a 40 (and more) year old (cultural) trauma open. In constructing
symbolic barriers between populations (how different they may be), they contribute to
the continuation of conflict and violence in Cyprus.
From a more humanist perspective we want to defend a societal model based on
dialogue, tolerance, human rights and other democratic values, looking for what
unites people, and less for what divides them. Within this societal model, it becomes
crucial to avoid the reduction of individuals to one (national) identity. In contrast, there
is a need to acknowledge and celebrate Cypriot diversity, and to come to terms with
the memory of pain, war and conflict, without forgetting it. In this context, given the
capacity of community media to enhance communication, to promote dialogue, and
to contribute to conflict resolution, within and amongst communities, the
establishment of bi-community media organization in Cyprus, serving both the GreekCypriot and the Turkish-Cypriot community (in all their diversities) could offer
alternative spaces of cultural and political dialogue and participation, fostering
(re)conciliation. As within community media the multiple identities of the community
are not imposed from the top down but are shaped collectively by its members, these
media organizations allow for environments of coexisting multicultural perspectives
within the realm of democracy, encouraging the articulation of common multiidentities and supporting the idea of multiculturalism of belonging not only and
exclusively to the nation-state but to different multicultures (Plansak and Volcic,
2010: 83).
Establishing such a bi-community media organization is far from easy, and requires a
slow process to ensure community ownership. One of the choices to be made
concerns which media technology will form the main basis of this media organization.
Easiness of radio to produce and to reach large groups, its familiarity, immediacy and
materiality, as well as existing examples of community radio stations in multiethnic
regions and countries of conflict and post-conflict, are amongst the reasons that we
17

like to promote the idea of a bi-community radio station as the type of community
medium that would better adapt to the Cypriot reality. A bi-community radio station
based in Nicosia could help bringing people from the two communities, which
currently live largely isolated, physically together, rebuilding bridges of multilingual
and multiethnic communication and cooperation. At the same time, the choice for
radio should not be exclusive. The community radio stations scope could be
enhanced by the implementation of new technologies, which would strengthen the
outreach and dialogical possibilities of the radio station.
However, any attempt for any kind of medium for and by the community lacking the
support, commitment and psychological ownership of the community/ies addressed
to or involved, is doomed to fail. Also, any attempt to swiftly impose a model is
equally problematic. For these reasons we think that the form of organisation and
structure of such a medium should be the product of a dialogue-driven coalition of
Cypriot stakeholders, allowing the Cypriot communities, facilitated through action
research (as described in this roadmap) to construct their own community radio
station.
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