Professional Documents
Culture Documents
July 2011
No 6
AMARC
Africa
Quaterly
Bulletin
Content
AMARC ACTIVITIES & EVENTS
l AMARC in Haiti
l Declaration of the Conference
l Amarc meets with newly elected FAO Director General
l AMARC and UNICEF sign a partnership agreement
l International Media Support (IMS) and AMARC formalize their partnership
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Global Events
l The Istanbul 4th UN Conference on Least Developed Countries (LDCs), a setback ?
l RIO 2012: Moving from principles to rights
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Useful Links
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ronment to free the full potential for community radio social impact in disaster
management and climate change mitigation and adaptation of populations under
risk. The participants gathered in workshops to discuss topics such as communication strategies to ameliorate the prevention of cholera in rural areas, organized by FAO; on humanitarian information in post catastrophe
situations; on the need for womens participation for increased
social impact in disaster management.
The Conference debated orientations and strategies for
strengthening community radio networks in the Caribbean.
The participants denounced the criminal attack against radio
Tet Ansanm of Carice and called upon the Haitian government
to hold an investigation and called upon the Haitian government to hold an investigation and to prosecute those found
guilty.
The Conference was organized by the World Association of
Community Radio Broadcasters, AMARC, in collaboration with
SAKS (Sosyete Animasyon ak Kominikasyon Sosyal), REFRAKA (Rezo Fanm Radyo Kominot Ayisyen) and AMEKA
(Asosyasyon Medya Kominot Ayisyen), and was supported
by UNESCO, FAO, Commonwealth of Learning, (COL),
International Media Support (IMS), EED, Oxfam Novib, and
other community radio stakeholders.
have contributed to weaken the social fabric and abandoned public policies that would permit an economic model
that favour the amelioration of living conditions of the population.
The Haitian tragedy highlight the profound inequalities of
globalization that condemn local populations to live in
dependency and paternalism. These considerations lead
us to analyze international cooperation and the Committee
for the Reconstruction under the light of their real contribution to development and social justice
We affirm the exercise of communication rights as a guarantee to the recognition and respect of all human rights that
are essential to the reinforcement of the State and of social
organizations, particularly those of women in the country.
We call for transparency and accountability in the use of the
resources for the reconstruction of the country and for that,
there is need for independent and community media to
guarantee that the reconstruction will be inclusive, participatory and have a gender perspective.
We call for public policies that legislate for enabling environments for community radios that guarantee their existence as social actors for democratic development with an
equitable access to radio frequencies and the support of
public resources for their promotion and development.
We call upon the Haitian government to make an investigation and to prosecute those found guilty of the attack on
community radio Carice in the Nord East of Haiti.
AMARC call upon the states , civil society and international
organizations to come together in fighting vulnerability and
climate change in the Caribbean and elsewhere enhancing
democratic process, social justice respect for human rights,
peace building and growth with social equity.
Port au Prince, May 6, 2011
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"I could imagine that within our commercial radio station we opened up windows for community radio produced by
civil society associations," said aid
Kamel Robbana, of Oxygene.FM, from
Birzeite
The workshops held last week will be
followed up by IMS/AMARC with
concrete support to certain pilot projects and collaboration with existing
community media projects as well as
new initiatives.
The objective is to support decentralization and diversification of the media in
Tunisia and strengthen the community
media sector.
The energy and the desire for positive
change in Central Tunisia is tangible.
There is a lot of frustration outside the
capital; People have only experienced
censured and centralized media
coming from Tunis. Its like we dont
exist, one of the workshop participants
in Kasserine said. But the frustration can
be channeled positively.
Local media, community media can
give large parts of the rural population a
Voice. And as a young man put it, we
have to be the change we want to see"
indicated Lotte Grauballe, of IMS
"The development of community radio in
the smaller towns has great potential to
reach out to the large sectors of society
who do not have access to the internet
such as women and agricultural workers. Its important to involve women
from the very beginning of any community media project" indicated Bianca
Miglioretto, of AMARC.
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NIGERIA
President Goodluck Jonathan signing the FOI Bill into law (Photo, courtesy NEXT newspapers).
igerian
President
Goodluck
Jonathan has approved a freedom
of information law, giving Nigerians
the power and resources to unearth
facts, battle corruption and hold officials
and institutions accountable. Nigerian
civil society groups, including IFEX member Media Rights Agenda (MRA), have
fought for years to institutionalise transparency and accountability.
President Jonathan signed the bill into
law the day before he was sworn in to
begin his first full elected term on 29 May.
MRA has been advocating for the passage of the law for 12 years. The signing of the freedom of information bill into
law is the clearest demonstration ever of
the power of civil society working together to influence public policy and initiate
reform, said Edetaen Ojo, executive
director of MRA. We are committed to
continuing our concerted efforts to
ensure that the new law achieves its ultimate objective of making government
work for the people.
Under the new law, institutions spending
public funds will have to reveal the facts
about their operations and expenditure
and citizens will have the right to access
information about their activities. Whistleblowers who report on wrongdoing by
their employers or organisations will be
protected from reprisals.
The law also makes provisions aimed at
meeting the information needs of illiterate
and disabled applicants. Plus, the law
gives government bodies a week to produce requested information and makes it
a criminal offense to destroy records.
The new law will profoundly change
how government works in Nigeria. Now
we can use the oxygen of information
and knowledge to breathe life into governance. It will no longer be business as
No 6
July 2011
Global Events
The Istanbul 4th UN Conference on Least Developed Countries (LDCs), a setback ?
he glass isnt exactly halffull, but it certainly is not
entirely empty either. Within
the broad failure of the weeklong Fourth UN Conference on
the Least Developed Countries
(LDC-IV) in Istanbul that concluded on Friday, many delegates are taking heart in a
strengthening south-south front
that has emerged.
That front failed to secure a trade
agreement to the satisfaction of
the LDCs. But delegates say the
very act of joint and unified
negotiations by the group has
put them in a stronger position
for bargaining in years ahead.
There was no hiding the disappointment over the conference,
though. We were looking for a
bold, forward looking and ambitious programme of action,
Arjun Karki, chair of the LDC-IV
civil society forum, told IPS. We
thought member states would
learn from past three conference
failures.
The LDC conference, organised
through the UN, is held every 10
years. That gives countries a lot
of time to prepare progressive
policies for the LDCs and then just a
week to give expression to them. The
developed world largely failed, despite
progress at this conference on some
counts.
We had really been looking for a new
aid architecture for the LDCs, said
Karki. The present structure is not really helping LDCs. That is based on the
principle of market fundamentalism and
neo-liberal policies that have privatised
profits and nationalised losses.
But looking at the silver lining, Karki
said: we are also encouraged by the
political spirit of the LDC member
states. They are working unified, very
close together, and they tried to defend
their interests until the very last minute.
So there is some political achievement
in terms of building and strengthening
the LDC group as a political bloc.
The partnership between the LDCs and
civil society has really improved, Karki
said. So we can work together as a
political group and as a pressure group
in days to come so that our voices are
heard by key development voices who
make policies and programmes.
There are deeper gains that others point
to, even if these were not shown in a
deliverable new trade deal for the LDCs.
South-south is really picking speed
Source : www.trt-world.com
because the latest Unctad [United
Nations Conference on Trade and
Development] report for the least developed countries for 2010 says the south
is now the major market for LDC
exports, Demba Moussa Dembele,
chairperson of LDC Watch, told IPS.
Most foreign direct investment
received by LDCs comes from the
south, he said. Not only in terms of
financial resources but technology
transfer. The emerging companies are
becoming major players in the LDCs
economies. And loans given by emerging economies are mostly on a concessional basis, or grants.
That new cooperation was strongly confirmed and strengthened at the Istanbul
conference, Dembele said. We would
like to push for greater south-south
cooperation because, in our opinion, its
one way for LDCs to have more political
autonomy to design their own policies
and formulate their own priorities, and to
implement policies that are in the best
interests of their citizens.
A clear sign of progress is what is not
taking place, or at the least not being so
confidently pushed, to corner the LDCs.
Prime among these are the Economic
Partnership Agreements (EPAs) that the
EU has been seeking with many African,
No 6
July 2011
By Sanjay Suri
IPS
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Useful Links
UNICEF:
www.unicef.org
International
Support (IMS):
www.i-m-s.dk/
Journalistes En Danger :
www.jed-afrique.org
Media
UNESCO:
http://www.unesco.org
Article 19:
http://www.article19.org/
Source : ARTICLE 19
AMARC Africa Quartly Bulletin
No 6
July 2011
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