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AMARC Europe Newsletter 06/2019 |
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| Dear AMARC members,
Dear colleagues and friends,
Sometimes working for Community Radio’s legal acceptance and recognition feels like Sisyphus must have felt rolling his stone uphill day after day. Last month in Germany there was the final audition for the legal framework for electronic media of Berlin-Brandenburg.
Representatives of the public service media, the media authority and the Community Radio sector were invited to comment on the treaty regulating the media landscape in Berlin-Brandenburg. After 25 years of fighting for legal recognition and substantial financial funding the treaty is only mentioning Free Radios in Berlin and Brandenburg as one kind of community media to be licenced, however, financial funding for our sector is not mentioned. At the end the media authority is allowed to continue the neglection of the existing six free radios in Berlin-Brandenburg. We’ll see how this will impact the momentum of the radio activists who again have to campaign and wait for a changed legal framework for electronic media of Berlin-Brandenburg.
In moments like these it helps to see examples for success such as the result of the struggles Cuac FM in A Coruna had to go through to reach an important victory for the whole Spanish Community Radio scene. We also put a spotlight on the current situation in Austria, Honduras and much more in the current edition of the AMARC Europe newsletter. Enjoy the read.
Yours sincerely
Michael Nicolai
President AMARC Europe |
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MORE MONEY FOR AUSTRIAN PRIVATE BROADCASTERS. HOWEVER, WHY ONLY FOR COMMERCIAL BROADCASTERS? On 6 May 2019 the Austrian government increased the funding for the private media sector by € 5 million. However, this substantial increase will solely benefit the commercial private media sector – the funding for the community media sector remains the same. AMARC Europe addressed this issue in a statement to the Austrian Federal government (statement can be downloaded in English and German via the AMARC Europe website) and demanded a strong commitment to support the future development of the Austrian non-commercial broadcasting sector and “fully supports the demands of the Federation of Community Radios in Austria (VFRÖ – Verband Freier Radios Österreich) and calls for an increase of the fund for the promotion of non-commercial broadcasting from €3 million to €5.5 million in order to guarantee the safeguarding and expansion of non-commercial broadcasting in Austria, media diversity, low-threshold access to local media and information offerings and the mediation of critical media skills.” |
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Josef Seethaler, Deputy Director of the Institute for Comparative Media and Communication Studies at the Austrian Academy of Science, states in an article for the June edition of the AMARC Europe newsletter that Community Media are an essential part of democratic development in Austria and an important sphere for political participation and that “participation […] will be feasible above all in the local space: in our own living environment, whose advantages and problems we know. If we experience democracy there, we will have confidence in it. Let us strengthen the role of non-commercial media!” |
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AMARC Europe Projects and Activities |
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| Grassroots Wavelength: FM broadcasting in Sfantu Gheorghe |
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 | Romania: the 30th of May at 12h20 local time, it was a small step for radiophony but a huge step for the Romanian community of Sfantu Gheorge. On the 89.9 Mhz FM frequency, on air operations have officially started. The RootIo technology, still in its experimenting phase, reacted very well to the diversity of inputs although local networking problems have sometimes cut the parallel internet streaming. We welcome a new community radio in Europe. |
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Community Media and Disaster Risk Reduction: AMARC at the UN Global Platform on Disaster Risk Reduction |
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 | The sixth session of the Global Platform for Disaster Risk Reduction (GP2019) took place in Geneva, Switzerland from 13 to 17 May, 2019, convened and organized by the UN Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR) and hosted by the Government of Switzerland. In this framework, AMARC was invited to represent the community radio sector on the panel discussion, organized by WBU (Worldwide Broadcasting Unions), on the role of media in disaster risk reduction and how accurate and timely information through tv, radio and printed media could impact positively populations, preparing them against disasters and alerting them on increasing disaster risk. |
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International Community Mediascape |
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| Spain: Spanish Supreme Court confirms FM transmission for Cuac FM |
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AMARC in Latin America and the Caribbean issues Statement on the situation of Community Radios in Honduras |
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 | The World Association of Community Radio Broadcasters in Latin America and the Caribbean (AMARC ALC) expresses its concerns about the situation of its associated Community Radio stations operating in the highly conflicted areas of the community of Guadalupe Carney, in the department of Colón in Honduras. Honduras is currently facing a wave of social protest as a reaction to the attempts to privatize the country’s health and education systems. Read the full statement in Spanish of AMARC ALC. |
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Argentina: Community Media demand to ENACON the respect of the audio-visual law. |
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 | Several community media organizations in Argentina made an official request to the National Communications Agency (ENACOM )to be fully compliant with the Audiovisual Communication Services Law and pay the funds due for the promotion of community media. Specifically, community radio and TV stations expressed their concerns about the accumulation of debts of the legally established budget for the defense and promotion of community media, as established by Law 26,522. “In addition to non-compliance with the law, this means an economic suffocation that affects sustainability and generates job. |
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340 Hours Emergency broadcasting on Cyclone “FANI” through 13 Community Radio Stations in Bangladesh |
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 | 13 Community Radio stations continuously broadcasted radio programs on emergency situation caused by “FANI”. Along the coastal belt, Community Radios situated at the North and South Western Bangladesh have initiated emergency broadcasting, as the extremely severe cyclonic storm FANI had hit the North Western Bangladesh with heavy wind speed and rainfall. Around 100 youth and youth women are working with Community Radio as Broadcasters. |
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Radio Art Residency – An International Fellowship Program for Radio Art |
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 | The Radio Art Residency invites artists from non-German speaking countries two times a year for a period of three months to reside in the non-commercial community radio Radio CORAX in Halle (Saale), Germany. After hosting the international radio art festival Radio Revolten in 2016, and being engaged in the radio art network Radia since its beginning, Radio CORAX intended to create a continuous space for radio art on another level. |
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Calls – Deadlines – Interesting Gatherings |
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|  | SAVE THE DATE: Zukunftswerkstatt Community Media 7-10 Nov 2019 in Rostock
From 7-10 November 2019 the BFR – Bundesverband Freier Radios in Germany organises their annual congress, the „Zukunftwerkstatt Community Media / #ZWCM2019 in Rostock, Friedrichstraße 23 at Radio LOHRO from 7 until 10 November 2019. More info and the documentations of the previous editons is available here |
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 | Deadline for Submission for 12th OURMedia Conference and 20th Anniversary IndyMedia on 15 June 2019 The Université libre de Bruxelles invites submissions for abstracts for papers and panels for the 12th OURMedia Conference to be held 26-30 November in Brussels, Belgium. The conference will be held under the general theme ‘Mediactivism – Scholactivism’. We encourage the submission of papers that focus on the (real or imagined) gap between academia and society, exploring how academic scholarship could be useful for (alternative) media (activists) and the myriad ways in which media scholars can be committed to equality, social justice and progressive social change. The general theme ‘Mediactivism – Scholactivism’ refers to how both media practitioners and media scholars, rather than being impartial or partisan, can be ‘committed’ by actively and openly campaigning for particular ideals. As the conference will coincide with the 20th anniversary of Indymedia, we encourage the submission of papers specifically focusing on analysing its legacy, achievements, shortcomings and influence on contemporary (online) media activism. The deadline for submissions has been extended to 15 June 2019. For more information see the conference website here |
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 | Rest and Refuge Scholarship of Reporters Without Borders Germany and taz Panter Foundation Rest and Refuge Scholarship is a project run by Reporters Without Borders Germany and taz Panter Foundation, a non-profit organization linked to „die tageszeitung“ (taz), a daily newspaper from Berlin. Both the ZEIT Foundation Ebelin and Gerd Bucerius and the Evangelical Church in Germany (EKD) support the scholarship financially. More info here |
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Team AMARC Europe Newsletter
Coordination: Alexander Vojvoda
Editorial team: Francesco Diasio, Alexander Vojvoda
Articles: Francesco Diasio, Michael Nicolai, Josef Seethaler, Alexander Vojvoda
AMARC Europe is looking forward to your comments, critics, complaints, feedback and suggestions for the AMARC newsletter. Please send your comments to members@amarceurope.eu |
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