Nigeria: Community radio seminar held in Abuja

COMMUNIQUE ISSUED AT THE END OF A 3 – DAY NATIONAL VALIDATION SEMINAR ON BUILDING COMMUNITY RADIO IN NIGERIA HELD AT CHIDA INTERNATIONAL HOTEL,
ABUJA, 5th –7th April 2005

Preamble

A 3-Day National Validation Seminar “on Building Community Radio in Nigeria” jointly organized by Panos Institute West Africa (PIWA), World Association of Radio Broadcasters-Africa Region (AMARC Africa), and Institute of Media and Society with the financial support of OSIWA, was held at the Chida International Hotel, Abuja from April 5 to 7 2005.

Participants were drawn from the NGOs, CBOs, Development and Donor organizations, the mass media, academia, and Government Agencies. Presentations at the seminar focused on issues of Policy, Legislation and Regulation, Ownership and Editorial Independence, Sustainability and Training.

The seminar observes as follows:

1. While commending the ongoing review of National Communication Policy it was noted that government should initiate the process of reviewing the legal and regulatory framework of Mass Communication Industry in Nigeria.

2. The seminar further observes that by June 2005, Nigeria will remain the only country within the ECOWAS sub-region without a Community Radio. Deriving from these observations, the seminar resolved that:

i. The establishment of Community Radio can serve as catalyst for people centred development and further safeguard the democratic process;

ii. The National Mass Communication Policy should make express provisions for the establishment of a people –centred and public service focused community radio in Nigeria;

iii. Application charges, licensing fees and tax on turn over for community radio should be removed;

iv. For accountability and transparency, the membership of the NBC board should be broadened to include all stakeholders in broadcasting;

v. The time frame for processing applications should not exceed 3 months;

vi. The ongoing National Political Reform Conference should ensure that guidelines for licensing of community radio should be fair and equitable to all concerned and the NBC should be the final approving and issuing authority of community radio license;

vii. Nigeria should comply with, and domesticate, the African Charter on Broadcasting as well as other relevant International Conventions and instruments;

viii. The NBC should manage the allocation of frequencies in such a way that would accommodate all requests that meet licensing requirements;

ix. The National Communication Policy should have a gender component, while community radio should be seen as a platform for promoting gender equity in the society;

x. The ownership, management and operations of Community radio should reflect the culture, interests and aspirations of the community establishing it for the promotion of community dialogue and popular participation in the development process;

xi. Editorial content in news and programming must be non-partisan, as such it must give coverage to all political, ethnic, religious and gender issues, concerns and tendencies;

xii. An Independent Trust Fund should be set up to assist the take-off and sustenance of approved community radio stations;

xiii. Government should remove import tariff on communication and broadcast equipment;

xiv. A proper mechanism for generating fund to sustain the operations of community radio without compromising the essence of community broadcasting should be established;

xv. A continuous research and training programme targeted at the core staff and community based volunteers should be designed and should address technical and management issues;

xvi. Higher institutions offering Mass Communication studies should incorporate community broadcasting in their curricular;

xvii. Conscious efforts should be geared towards the development of appropriate technology which should be within the available resources and technical competence of the community;

xviii. In line with current development in ICT world over, the participants called on government to merge the NCC and NBC;

xix. Community radio should take cognizance of the ethnic, political, religious and gender sensibilities of their operating environment;

xx. Community radio operators as an interest group should develop a national platform, appropriate code of conduct and practice for community radio in Nigeria in the spirit of self-regulation.

Issued in Abuja, Nigeria, this 7th day of April 2005.