According to the Center for International Media Assistance (CIMA), free media play an integral role in fostering democracy and development and have the ability to transform a number of critical areas, including government accountability, empowerment of women and minorities, and education. At this June 2009 CIMA event with "Developing Radio Partners" who spoke on their projects, the speakers examined radio’s role as a communication tool in promoting democracy and explored the following questions: How does radio play a fundamental role in democracy and development? How can civil society organisations tap into its potential more effectively? In the advent of broadband, text messaging, and other new information technologies, is radio still a relevant medium in which stakeholders should invest?

According to CIMA, the "dominant communication medium in much of the world, radio is inexpensive, available to citizens at all levels of society, including the illiterate, and due to its pervasiveness, is well-placed to reach out and give voice to marginalized groups.... As governments and foundations have increasingly embraced the role of democratisation in development, they have begun to direct more assistance into independent media in their efforts to hold governments accountable, foster free and fair elections, and strengthen civil society. As Developing Radio Partners notes, independent radio stations, in particular, have attracted increased funding in recent years."

The event, moderated by Voice of America's Joan Mower, included: Santoso, the founder and managing director of KBR68H Radio News Agency (Indonesia); Tasneem Ahmar; and Grace Githaiga.

In brief:

• This MS PowerPoint presentation by Santoso began with station KBR68H Indonesia's goal statement: “Assist Indonesia’s transition to democracy by producing reliable information and encourage citizen participation through increased information access.” The station calls itself Indonesia's first independent national news agency, producing 8 hours a day of interactive programming for 650 radio stations across the country serving 18 million listeners. The agency sees itself as a network for development which has "created a new paradigm for democratic engagement by establishing an effective means of interaction between citizens and decision makers regardless of their economic or social status or their location across the archipelago. KBR68H produces hourly news bulletins and news analysis, as well as regionally-based news programs for Aceh, Papua and Maluku. KBR68H is also pioneering investigative journalism through its daily program, SAGA. KBR68Hs popular talk shows cover topics such as legal reform and human rights, education, religious tolerance, decentralisation, environment, and health."
  
  
  The station uses interactive debates and interactive discussions on its education programmes that include toll-free calls and text messaging that sometimes generate hundreds of responses per programme. The organisation includes training, building local stations to increase reach, and providing emergency disaster outreach assistance. Forward-looking partnerships include: environmentally focused Green Radio; Tempo TV, a public interest TV station; and Asia Calling, a weekly current affairs radio programme promoting tolerance, developed in partnership with stations across Asia.

• Tasneem Ahmar’s MS PowerPoint presentation, Giving Voice to the Voiceless, reviewed the history since 1997 of Uks - A Research, Resource and Publication Center on Women and Media in Pakistan. Through awareness, monitoring, advocacy, and mobilisation on various issues, the organisation focuses on the following: women’s rights; training in gender sensitisation for media; working on social, economic, health, and political issues through an understanding of gender bias; analysis of negative language in reporting on women in the media; and development of alternative concepts, approaches, and language that is gender-sensitive and bias-free. Uks works through training focus groups, publications, workshops, and radio programmes on: Portrayal of women in the media; HIV and AIDS - Gender perspective; Women in disaster situations; Drug abuse and women; Violence against women; and Women’s rights as human rights.
  
  

  Radio is used because it is "cost-effective, reaches people effectively, reaches remote areas of Pakistan, and holds a place of rising popularity". As a means of generating awareness, featuring women in a variety of roles, reporting on issues - including disaster reporting - in an unbiased manner, and countering gender stereotypes while promoting democracy, tolerance, and freedom of opinion, Uks claims to have had success via the medium of radio. Among the projects presented were the following: the 2003 Meri Awaz Suno, a 15-minute bi-weekly women’s radio programme in Urdu; 2004 Ghurbat Amn Aur Insaf-Ektikon (The Triangle of Poverty, Peace and Justice), a series of 10 radio programmes with reporting from across the country focusing on issues such as democracy, good governance, and poverty; 2005 Mujhay Bolnay Do (Let me speak), a series of 16 radio programmes on issues related to violence against women; 2006 Pani ki Kahani – Aurat ki zubani (Women and water issues), 10 radio programmes on women in rural and urban areas facing problems in livelihood due to water; and Aao Sunain Unkahi Batain, Unsuni Kahanian (Let Us Hear Unheard Voices, Untold Stories), 8 programmes on women's empowerment during earthquake reconstruction.

  The presentation also covered Uks training programmes in radio journalism, including training women to present women's perspectives and voices. Uks has published its own research on Pakistani media analysis, as well as a guide on best practices in raising women's voices and concerns through radio. It collaborates with international news organisations, with women's universities in Pakistan to promote careers in journalism, and with international data gathering organisations studying bias and change in the news in Pakistan. It is currently pursuing a number of projects including one entitled: "Best Journalist Practices Leadership for Women Journalists".

• Grace Githaiga, the Executive Director of EcoNews Africa (ENA) in Kenya, gave an MS PowerPoint presentation entitled Radio’s (Community) Role in Democracy and Development discussing ENA's role in placing East Africa’s non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and citizen-based organisations (CBOs) at the centre of decision-making on issues of economic justice, environment, and community media through promoting information flow. Radio - public, commercial, and community - is an instrument in this work. ENA has focused on the establishment of community radio. "Community radio is a sector that allows communities to develop and own communication structures through generation of content, and managing the systems." Community radio stations debate issues (at times taboo subjects), produce weekly programmes, and develop “talkback” radio programmes by phone or mail. Stations have produced broadcasts on reproductive health, nutrition, campaigns to stop illegal substance production and use, and gender violence, which has developed, through one community radio station, into a rapid response unit for abused women. "Community radio programming is engendering a process, where [economically] poor constituencies isolated and marginalized are becoming energized, developing informed opinions, and becoming more adept at using information to protect themselves, to make informed decisions and to get results."
  
  

  ENA participated in the Voter Education Project supported by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). The project, entitled Community Media for Voter Education, was focused on making the election process understandable to enable citizen choice in the 2007 elections. In addition to radio programme production, this included recording listening groups, distributing print newssheets, and creating puppet and music and dance shows promoting democratisation through elections. The audiences requested continuous voter education, rather than election-focused voter education, with teaching materials in simple vernacular languages. The topics that attracted the most discussion and debate were those on good leadership. Further, there was an interest in radio for promotion of leader accountability and information dissemination allowing for independent scrutiny. The document points out that "It is important to address not just what information radio provides and what audiences learn, but what they do with that information...One way of assessing whether the public is informed enough for democracy is to evaluate if info provided by radio is sufficient to motivate audiences to intervene in ongoing political and social processes, civic engagement and political interest, knowledge about politics and attitudes."

CIMA website accessed on September 28 2009.