Building Community Radio

Community Radio is a powerful medium in Timor due to the literacy issues of the community and the passion for the historic and local language Tetum. Union Aid Abroad-APHEDA is supporting two community radio stations in East Timor.

Radio Rakambia (student-led youth community radio) and Radio Lorico Lian (a local NGO partnership community broadcasting model) are broadcasting on average 16 and 5 hours per day respectively in Dili and at community events/meeting outside of Dili when possible.

Radio Rakambia has a well-developed network of broadcasting volunteers and 'producers'. Their experience of broadcasting continuously for 12 months in Dili makes them one of the oldest community broadcasters in East Timor. They have participated in in-station training and equipment management, ethics in journalism (including defamation), and the role of independent media, which was especially useful during the constituent assembly campaign and elections.

Radio Rakambia has developed a strong programming structure of its broadcasts and demonstrated a solid commitment to disseminate information to community groups via district broadcasts. They are working effectively to achieve their aims of community radio in East Timor by providing regular information and education programs, and creating community radio training for community groups. Regular daily news, current affairs, talk shows, cultural discourse and voter education programs have been a feature of Rakambia's programming. Some of the important events covered include:

• mini seminar on war and peace
• people's participation in media
• interviews with leaders about poverty, gender, culture and civil society
• agriculture
• scope for small business

A schedule of district broadcasts using the Mobile Radio Unit has also been successfully accomplished, including community radio training in Suai, a reconciliation meeting in Viqueque, coffee growers meetings in Emera and Ainaro, a civic education program and a meeting on human rights, gender and land reform in Manatuto district.

An insight into the realities of district broadcasts comes from Jan McArthur, community radio volunteer:

"We did the first mobile broadcast of a public meeting of coffee growers in Ermera, enabling 1,000 odd coffee growers to hear the discussion about coffee prices from international coffee buyers. We taped an antenna to a long branch lying on the ground and propped it up, making it stand tall and stable with a mound of rocks. This enabled us to broadcast to nearby villages who had each been given a solar powered wind up radio."

Radio Lorico Lian is the newer of the stations being supported, and used the Union Aid Abroad-APHEDA supplied Mobile Radio Equipment to broadcast several election related events. Besides the historic election broadcast from Dili stadium in August 2001, four mobile broadcasts have been conducted in Hera, Dare and Dili (twice) in February 2002. They now have a set daily evening broadcast that includes news, media analysis, social issues discussions (economics, education, development, NGO Watch etc) and use volunteers from all participating NGOs. A formal structure for Lorico Lian has been finalised along with a broadcast schedule and equipment list. The station currently operates with borrowed equipment.

Radio Lorico Lian did a 2-day live broadcast of the East Timor Gap meeting, which was held from 15 - 16 March 2002. The meeting, one of the most important for the future of the new nation, had as its theme "Training = Ownership of the Future". Participants of the meeting included the governing authorities of East Timor, workers and unions from East Timor, as well as union members form Australia. The aim of the broadcast was to inform the East Timorese people of the event and to bring them up to date with the issue of the new nation's oil resource which will shape their future development.

The first study tour to Australia for the 5 radio stations were organised. Two staff from each station together with a local Union Aid Abroad-APHEDA office staff member from Dili visited community radio stations in Sydney and Melbourne to understand the concept and processes of community radio.

You can support this work in East Timor by becoming a donor today.

© Union Aid Abroad - APHEDA 2003.
Site proudly produced by Social Change Online

Last Modified: Monday, 02-Apr-2007 17:08:18 EST
This page: http://apheda.org.au/projects/easttimor/pages/1068704698_15221.html