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i ndependent, non-commercial broadcasting, but not far enough.

Suspicious Government

Opening up the airwaves to wider communities was clearly somewhat troublesome to the government. Ministers talked of security fears, should powerful media tools fall into the hands of secessionists, militants, subversives. Pavarala considers this a “bogey” or smokescreen created by the government which simply did not want to hand over a section of the airwaves to civil society organisations and local communities. This might be somewhat dismissive, since there are examples of the misuse of airwaves, such as with clandestine or “hate radio” experienced through Angola’s UNITA radio, Rwanda’s Radio Mille Collines, the Democratic R epublic of Congo’s Voice of the Patriot, Burundi’s Radio Rutomorangingo, and the current misuse of FM radio by the Taliban to issue decrees. While there is a lack of clear evidence that subversive elements in India are interested in radio, one need only to look at neighbouring Sri Lanka where the government granted a broadcast licence to LTTE radio station Voice of Tigers, during the peace talks, only to rescind that licence earlier this year. The prospect of village women in Andhra Pradesh broadcasting the benefits of o rganic crops and health issues is surely somewhat different

– but still, it indicates the government’s understanding that radio is a powerful medium. And this, paradoxically, is precisely why lobbyists fought so hard for legislation to allow use by communities in rural India. Radio’s power could be harnessed for development. Adequate and appropriate policy and legislation was needed to ensure it does just this.

Corporate or Community

The authors question why Rupert Murdoch is more trusted than poor dalit women to broadcast to their own local communities. Of course, the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (MIB) has had other things on its mind during the last few years in r elation to radio, with the multi-crore commercial radio industry getting started in 1999-2000, and expanding in 2005 to over 300 licences in 90 cities. Meanwhile, community initiatives such as those

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discussed in this book were “struggling” to harness the power of radio against a restrictive legislative regime. It is not hard to agree with the authors that this situation, in a country such as India, where rural poverty is widespread, just does not seem fair. It is generally accepted that radio, which is incredibly cheap to operate, is well suited for broadcasting in local languages and dialects. Further, where literacy is a barrier to some forms of communication, is an obvious tool to aid d evelopment. To be countered by arguments about security while observing the rapid growth of commercial radio was d ecidedly inconsistent with democratic notions, the constitution, and ideas about freedom of expression. In this context, the book tells the story of how communities and non-governmental organisations (NGOs) won the right to broadcast “ other voices”.

In this respect, this book works within a clearly defined and internationally accepted concept of “community radio” as nonprofit making, community-owned and

o perated, with widespread community participation. Community radio is a response, the authors say, to media globalisation and to state and commercial “dominant” media which is operated by the elite, for the purposes of profit, propaganda, power, politics and privilege (p 18). While dominant media, they say, is neither a ccountable nor accessible, community media is both. Of course it cannot be guaranteed to be so without adequate legislation and regulation. Given this, 10 years of struggle is actually a relative concept. One might consider that in the UK it took 30 years of struggle to achieve the same end result in 2004, with many years of restricted services (regulated community broadcasting over low power transmitters for a month or so, for a fee), and a strong illegal tradition of pirate radio (widespread since the late 1950s, with at least 200 pirates on air in the early 2000s). There are significant differences in the UK and other countries, such as Nepal for example, which has a fairly mature network of community radio stations but no specific legislation or regulation – in itself a far from ideal situation.

This is not to suggest that 10 years should not be classified as a struggle, since clearly there was a struggle, with some

vol xliv no 36

interesting experiments in community radio along the way that we can learn from, and which this book describes. It is simply to state that success in changing the legislative environment came about relatively quickly compared to, at least, one other country. The authors make the point that, in the longer history of broadcasting, the largely dormant intention to be open, participatory and work towards development was nevertheless present right from the start. In terms of the 10-year struggle for community radio, the questions of why it took this length of time compared to other countries’ struggles, along with more d etail on how it came about, who the main players were, and what the pressure points were, would be hugely interesting for the authors to delve further into. For instance, there is no mention of the role of commercial private radio in the debates about the introduction of community radio in India. Is this because it played no role? In the UK the commercial sector was strong and well established, well organised and coordinated and it effectively lobbied to protect its interests as community radio was d eveloped. Did the emergent status of commercial radio in India mean it had less power to lobby against or restrict the purview of community radio? I suspect a recurrent thought for the reader of this book is likely to be that they want more information – such is the lack of literature on issues such as these, and the way this book, very effectively, whets the appetite. The book does provide some interesting international comparisons, which I return to below. Before this, I want to explore how the book tells an important story at the local level.

Grounded in the Local

Community radio, by most definitions, implies local. This is a strength of community radio that is promoted strongly in this book – along with its ability to establish

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alter native or counter public spheres. Things are changing fast, so it is important to have a record of local radio initiatives in India. The four case studies of l ocal community-based radio were undertaken during the struggle for and lead up to legislation. In the future these can serve as a sort of benchmark, from which to gauge the development of this new sector. One thing that comes out strongly from reading this book is precisely the need for follow up work. For example, how effective have the policy guidelines, included in the appendix, proved in practice? How many of the radio initiatives described in this book have made a successful transition to community radio stations? Already one senses the challenges inherent in grow ing a community radio sector through the development paradigms which appear to make up its framework in India. Words and phrases such as participation, bottom-up, grass roots, self-reliance, control, are used often in the case study and analysis chapters. Four community radio initiatives are examined, using a variety of approaches and technologies – narrowcasting or broadcasting through time slots on AIR stations. They present examples of participatory communication for social change that grew despite the legal restrictions on broadcasting.

The authors measure and compare the degree and nature of participation of the four case study examples, reinforcing the view that this is an ultimate goal of community media. In other settings these measures would not be quite so straightforwardly appropriate. For an examination of models of community radio in countries with more mature community broadcasting sectors, one would need to be more open minded and appreciative of the need for different models in different contexts and for different purposes. That is to say, for example, that the community radio sector in Australia consists of a whole range of different iterations of community radio, including large metro stations that compete with commercial stations in terms of audience. These exist in the sector alongside tiny, totally volunteer-based rural stations with reaches of may be a couple of thousand people, alongside “ethnic” stations that share frequencies and allocate airtime to a range of ethnic groups who broadcast to their communities, in their languages.

This variety appears in a mature sector, and one suspects that similar variety will emerge in India. This, then, requires regular follow up work to chart the sector over time.

Globally Relevant

A final reason I want to mention the importance of this book is its internationally relevant story. There are many countries without legislation for community media, who would fare very badly if submitted to measurement against UNESCO’s media d evelopment indicators. The book firmly locates community radio in India in an i nternational development framework that promotes participatory approaches and processes. Indeed, communication, dialogue and debate are considered to be at the core of participatory development. It dedicates a chapter to presenting the p olicy frameworks for community broadcasting in five other countries – Australia, Ireland, South Africa, Canada and the United States. The authors present the definitions of community radio, licensing procedures, frequency allocations, management, ownership, funding, regulation and content. This helps to give a broader frame for the discussion of community r adio in India and the particular framework adopted by the MIB. It could have gone further in the comparisons to highlight the very different experiences and e xpressions of community radio across such countries. Australian community r adio has some similarities to Indian community radio in terms of legislation, regulation, funding, and so on, which are brought out well in the book, but on the ground it is substantively different as noted above. Furthermore, community radio in India is particularly linked to notions of development – this is not the case in most of the countries presented in the comparison (at least, not the same notion of development, even though most of the rhetoric resonates across national boundaries). It would be interesting to broaden it out to more comparable situations with this close link with development. Community radio in India has been dubbed by some as “NGO radio” and I think this needs to be examined in relation to different experiences and expressions of community radio in follow up work.

I must recommend this book as essential reading for anyone interested in community radio in south Asia and globally. My request to the authors and the publisher is to ensure there are follow up studies, covering the development of the sector, delving deeper into its processes and i nternational comparisons. Now that the policy and legislation are in place, the s tory is just beginning.

Email: j.tacchi@qut.edu.au

in New Delhi.