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COMMUNITY RADIO MOVEMENT IN BANGLADESH: WILL THEY WORK AS CITIZENS’ MEDIA?

By Mohammad Sahid Ullah
Associate Professor Department of Communication and Journalism Chittagong University, Chittagong, Bangladesh Email: [e-mail]

Abstract: Community radio as the citizens’ media is capable of harnessing its unique nature for upholding the surpass voices because of its participatory ownership pattern. Bangladesh, a South Asian nation is going to initiate community radio broadcasting with its new policy through providing guarantees the access to information, free expression and increases participation, ensures democracy and governance, protects the rights, facilitates the poverty alleviation process and to secure people’s interest with their active participation. Considering some significant benefits, demand for community radio has also been augmented among various civil society activists, right groups and NGOs in Bangladesh. A total of 116 NGOs have applied to set up community radio stations in their respective working areas and have been lobbying to obtain license since 2008. This article focuses on how community radio can find legitimacy by the law of the land as citizen’s media, saga for obtaining license and setbacks in lobbying strategies by the applicants where government continues to hold sway over the broadcasting arena. Introduction: Community radio as citizens’ media is becoming a new opportunity and challenge for media practitioners in Bangladesh as well as some other Asian countries. Sri Lanka, Nepal, India and the Philippines are among the countries that have been running different models1 of community radio stations with a significant degree of success in terms of raising public awareness and promoting dialogue, widening media pluralism and the flow of information, supporting local governance, achieving sustainability and self reliance. India and Pakistan have licensed campus radio in different educational institutions as part of the process of diversifying their broadcast sectors. Different groups and organizations in the diverse Indian society have been establishing community radio after getting license aimed to enhance democratisation of media and ensure people’s rights to know in their respective regions and communities. Bangladesh has begun opening up its airwave from the absolute state monopoly to privatisation by granting licenses to the commercial broadcasters and state broadcast is being decentralised through establishing regional radio stations.

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Broadcast media in Bangladesh is now completely controlled either by urban centered business firms or government. Participatory media system is thus disappearing and people’s interests are quite neglected where they do not have any participation at any level of this media climate. Commoners are excluded from getting sufficient benefits in the urban biased media system. With a view to coming out of the existing controlled media scenario, community radio as citizens’ media is essentially get its importance among diverse community groups. In this wave, the demand for community radio has augmented among various civil society groups, particularly development activists and NGOs. Besides, the prospect and cost- related consideration boosted interest among NGOs in Bangladesh to establish community radio in their respective working areas (Ullah and Chowdhury 2006: 20). Upon call from the government in 2008 more than 200 NGOs applied for permission to set up community radio stations and have been lobbying to obtain license from the government. According to the Ministry of Information of the Government of Bangladesh the National Regulatory Committee recommended 116 applicants for issuing license for community radio broadcasting in early 2009 (Azad: 2010). But the government is yet to consider the issuance of license to the applicants due to some apprehensions. By analyzing the prevailing conventional (state-run and private) radio broadcasting scenario, and the potential and constrains of the community radio broadcasting in Bangladesh, this article examines the needs of community radio in the given socio- economic and cultural conditions and lobbying strategies for obtaining license from government authority and probability of community radio as citizens’ media. Radio broadcasting: A brief account Radio broadcasting began in Bangladesh territory in 1939, when the British government set up the first radio station in Dacca (now Dhaka) as a complement to the Calcutta (now Kolkata) station. The listening range of the 5kW Dhaka station was 64km and it covered about eight percent of the area surrounding Dhaka (Bhuiyan and Gunaratne: 2000: 54). Bangladesh Betar (official name of the state-run radio) along with its 15 stations is the nation’s sole countrywide broadcaster. Bangladesh Betar broadcasts for approximately 3,285 hours per month altogether including external services. Programmes generally consist of entertainment (63 percent); cultural and religious (9 percent); educational (5 percent); news (3 percent) and others 18 percent. Radio broadcasts Parliament proceedings directly from the Parliament since 1996 (Bhattacharjee: 2007:32) Radio broadcasting crossed a history of 60 years with its single state- run channel Bangladesh Betar now covers total country area. Four private radio stations- Radio Today, Radio Furti, Radio Metro and the Radio Amar transmitting their programmes through FM band surrounding Dhaka and Chittagong along with the state-run radio (Ullah and Chowdhury: 2006:21). Bangladesh Betar runs external service beamed in seven languages includes English, Urdu, Hindi, Arabic and Nepalese. The total transmission period per day is around 170 hours. Fortyfour news bulletins with national, local including nine in external services go on air everyday. The percentage of spoken words broadcast is 55 and the musical programme is 45 (Rahman: 2006:15). Though all private channels bear considerable popularity among the city dwellers, particularly teenaged, Bangladesh Betar has very low popularity due to its credibility concerned. According to official data (2006) around 2.39 million licensed radio sets had been used throughout the country that means around 41 percent households have radio. However, the actual use of radio sets is much higher than that of official figure as the radio owners in a larger number dodge the license fees (Ullah and Chowdhury: 2006:21). Countrywide penetration of radio is quite enough to disseminate news and other issues for thousands of people instantly. 2

However, radio broadcasting in Bangladesh territory was from the outset, a government monopoly and was used as a propaganda tool of government. Al- Mujahid (1978) observed four decades back that Bangladesh Betar appeared to be constrained by staff limitations and pressures to present programming slanted by the government’s viewpoints. This situation still applies to a large degree. Frequently, the president or prime minister addresses to the nation by radio. Using celebrities or popular speakers, especially at the time of national or governmental crises, to propagate the government viewpoint is commonplace. Generally it is believed that people of rural and remote areas across Bangladesh possess at least one radio set each in their home and it is considered a vital medium for the government to disseminate development news and programmes with good effects (Salam: 1997:122 and Bhattacharjee: 2007:37). Bangladesh Betar has been following the 34 official policy guidelines2 that the defunct National Broadcasting Authority promulgated in January 1986 for its programmes and news. Besides, the Ministry of Information issues directives to the radio broadcasters and monitors their execution through an informal mechanism. Additionally the functionaries of Bangladesh Betar themselves exercise a high degree of self-regulation and are answerable to the parliamentary standing committee on information. The state-run radio does not provide balanced coverage of news is an inherent complains from different sections of people and even the ordinary citizen cannot imagine getting access in any state– run radio to express their opinion. Bureaucrats control Bangladesh Betar and run its programmes produced by the urban middle class (Ullah and Chowdhury: 2006:27) Bangladesh government uses Wireless and Telegraph Act 1885, The Telegraphy Act 1933 and Bangladesh Telecommunications Regulatory Commission Act 2001, to allocate frequency and oversee technological aspects of the broadcast channels. Government prepared the ‘Community Radio Installation, Broadcast and Operation Policy 2008’ through a gazette notification on March 12, 2008 aimed to initiate community radio broadcasting climate in Bangladesh. However, it is observed that initially, most of the community radio applicants will require technical support and assistance from expert organisations and it will take some times for the applicant organisations to make people interested in community radio as they are not yet to aware of any benefits of the community broadcasting. Needs for Community Radio: Bangladesh context There is an inherent complaint from various quarters in regard to the existing radio broadcasting climate of Bangladesh that the airwave has been guarded strongly by the political forces in power for ages. Therefore, radio has been largely used for state sponsored propaganda service since its journey from British rule. Though commercial radio is permitted to broadcast under licensing, community radio is yet to be legitimated here and this concept is very difficult to sell among politicians, bureaucrats and even community members in existing media environment. Resistance is coming from many quarters; politicians consider community radio a potential threat to their power balance, professional broadcasters who believe radio is only for those with micro-phonic voice apprehend that the potential use of community radio will diminish their supremacy in the community. The media bureaucrats think there is enough radio in Bangladesh; commercial broadcasters feel their stations may lose listeners when community radio will emerge. Experiences of some community radio initiators are not be sufficient enough in operating a radio station. In addition, the recent emergence of countrywide religious fanatics raise apprehension among liberal politicians about the misuse of community radio and they play down the necessity of community radio in Bangladesh. In this context, questions are arising among the media professionals and people from different walks of life... why do NGOs urge for community radio and what benefits will people get from community radio? Will those community radios truly work similar to citizens’ media as claimed by applicants? Community 3

radio does not exist in Bangladesh; people of this country still remain at the stage of the community radio utopia. Therefore, it is needed to discuss the prospective benefits of community radio in the context of Bangladesh from worldwide experiences. The importance and positive impact of community radio in any developing nation are well documented which proves that community radio is capable of harnessing its unique nature of upholding surpassed voices, practices and traditions. As a tool for social change, community radio has several advantages over the other media: (1) it allows true participatory communication [which is essential for sustainable development]; (2) it serves a specific community which is recognizable [as regards its characteristics and needs]; (3) its programmes are relevant to the community; (4) it is an ideal communication tool for the illiterate population [which is still huge in many countries]; and (5) it is cost-efficient in terms of investment which will facilitate its sustainability. Last but not least, the convergence of community radio with Internet is providing new content, new services and new networking opportunities for the community members (Virtanen: 2005:1). Considering these benefits3 it is believed that a conventional community radio can contribute in various ways in Bangladesh. Bhattacharjee (2007), Ullah and Chowdhury (2006) identified some major areas that include; (a) facilitate rural development and agricultural promotion, (b) ensure local level good governance and accountability, (c) disaster and crisis management, (d) women empowerment and promote gender sensitivity (e) establish demographic and participatory media scenario,4 (f) minimize divide through bridging between local and national issues, (g) community empowerment and promoting the right to know, (h) ensuring social progress and curbing injustice in the society and (i) protect and promote local and community culture and traditions. Drawbacks in Lobbying Strategies: Considering the above-mentioned prospect of community radio in development activities, some more than 200 NGOs have applied for setting up radio stations in Bangladesh. The demand for establishing community radio was raised first by the media experts and representatives of the civil society over a decade back. In 1998, for the first time in Bangladesh history, Mass Line Media Centre (MMC), a media NGO, submitted a proposal to the Ministry of Information for setting up a community radio station- Community Radio for Grassroots People- in the southern coastal Patuakhali district. The aims of the radio as stated in the application is “to bridge the gap between people and the policy makers, create an interactive environment of communication, serve as a platform for debate, exchange of ideas and reactions to plans and projects, preserve cultural identity, enhance emancipation and self-worth and uses as the voice of the voiceless, the mouthpiece of the oppressed and as a tool of development” (Snigdha: 2002:5). DANIDA gave consent to provide the necessary 20 million Taka ($300 thousand) financial support for setting up the proposed 5 kW FM community radio station. MMC demonstrated its proposed plan for setting up community radio in the conference on Media, Communication and Technology in 1999. Considering the merits of community radio in remote rural areas, MMC got numerous supports from media people and experts during the conference. Later, Bangladesh NGO’s Network for Radio and Communication and some other organizations joined the movement. The demand for community radio in Bangladesh came into the forefront again in 2002 during the ‘South Asian Broadcasting and Development’ workshop organized by Institute of Development Studies of the University of Sussex in Dhaka. Participants strongly voiced for establishing community radio to ensure a well–balanced information flow in Bangladesh. Department of Journalism of Chittagong University also conducted a small-scale survey on ‘the public perception on community radio in two upa-zillas (sub-districts) of Chittagong’ in 4

2002. The survey revealed that though respondents have very limited knowledge about community radio, 96 percent of them showed their interest for setting up community radio in their respective areas after discussing the benefits among them (Chowdhury: 2002:27). In 2002, at a seminar- Journalism and Prospect of Community Radio in the Coastal Region of Bangladesh- demanded for at least three community radio stations in the most vulnerable regions- Chittagong, Noakhali and Barisal- was raised to ensure easy communication with people by broadcasting news, disseminating warning bulletins and other instructions in local dialects to protect life and property from cyclone and tidal surges. In that backdrop, FOCUS, in association with MMC, produced the Bangla translation of UNESCO’s -‘Community Radio Handbook’ Edited by Colin Fraser and Sonia Restrepo Estradsa in May 2004 with support from DANIDA. FOCUS also published Bangla version ofHow to Do Community Radio- by Louie Tabing in 2005 with support from UNESCO. Many articles have been published in different newspapers by this time in support of community radio. Intended organizations arranged some consultation meetings separately with political parties, journalists and government officials to dispel confusion and apprehension about the purpose and functions of community radio and to persuade the authorities for issuing license under a legal framework. To convince the government for incorporating community radio in a comprehensive broadcasting legislation, a united platform was formed in 2005 through organizing a two- day consultation meeting in December, 2005 with support from UNESCO, UNDP and UNICEF. Warning dissemination during the cyclone ‘Sidr’ in 2008 helped enormously raise the voice again for the necessity of community radios not only the applicants but also among the interim caretaker government 's policy makers. But the interim government did not take any steps in support of initiating the community radio in Bangladesh. The present Awami League government, which is widely known as ‘A Charter for Change’ among common Bangladesh nationals put the necessity of community radio in their election pledge but does not show adequate interest to the demand for establishing community radio stations by NGOs understandably indicates that the lobbying strategies are not enough to pursue relevant authority for licensing community radio. Some major reasons include; i). To establish a true community radio, it needs to bring community into the center stage. But the community is not at the core in context of Bangladesh movement; rather a few NGOs take initiative driven by donors. Influential NGOs, professional groups and civil society groups are still silent about the necessity of community radio in their respective areas, which is the key drawback of community radio lobbying. ii). The demand for community radio should be raised among the public in a wide and stronger manner through networking and collaborating between NGO’s and community radio lobbyists. Politicians, both from government and opposition, as well as bureaucrat need to feel the necessity of community radio which is now far from the reality. Because lobbyists cannot pursue all of these decision-making parties standing for community radio from their platforms. iii). A community radio station would provide the permanent base for programme production with the involvement of local people. Chitradurga experience of India showed that participation as a volunteer, reporter, personality and staff in and through radio has allowed community people to realize or reaffirm their relationship with the community, thereby contributing to increased interest toward their community. By sharing information, they understand what people in the community really want to know and tell. Survey (Chowdhury, 2002) showed that people in Bangladesh are yet to prepare themselves to understand the nature 5

of community radio and its necessity in their own community. Applicants need to understand the mindset of the common people. iv). To build up a viable community radio, due funding and a clear mandate from the communities are necessary to change their prevailing social, political and economic status. However, funding cannot mean a clear mandate; rather awareness campaigns ensure the success and sustainability of community radio. Linking community, media and mandate evolves from within the communities, not the outside private investors. Applicants cannot ensure the involvement of local communities or prepare them to come forward for arranging necessary fund from themselves. v). Society in Bangladesh is highly polarized, class and caste system and political rivalry exists across the rural areas, where poor people can hardly raise their voice in front of local elites. Thailand’s experience with thousands of FM community radios found that leaders in each community were interested to participate at the beginning but the success of community radio’s expectations failed to reach up to the mark due to conflicts among local elites and their dominating characters. Thus the main purpose of community radio, that is to enhance the surpass voice, will diminish at the very beginning in the Bangladesh context. Community Radio as a Citizens’ Media: controversy and drawbacks Carlos Arnaldo writes “Community radio is a social process or event in which members of the community associate together to design programmes and produce and air them, thus taking on the primary role of actors in their own destiny, whether this be for something as common as mending fences in the neighbourhood”(Fraiser and Estrada: 2001:1). Tambuli project of the Philippines tried to find ‘Community radio in the commercially dominated media system means radio in the community, for the community, about the community and by the community. There is a wide participation from regular community members with respect to management and production of programmes. Stations collectively operated by the community people. Stations dedicated to development, education and people empowerment. These definitions clearly indicate that community radio is owned, managed and operated by a local community and citizens. Its key characteristics are; • it is non-profit distributing (in difference to non-profit making), • it has a community ownership and control, • it has a high level of community participation, • it serves a certain community which is recognizable either geographically or based on common interests; and • its programmes are relevant to the community. On the other hand, though the citizens’ media concept is still relatively new and its meaning is yet to be crystallized Javed Jabbar (Jabber, 2005: 15-17), defines citizens’ media as Media that is influenced by citizens, Media that serves the interests of citizens (rather than the interests of corporations or governments), and Media that represents a part of civil society, or civil society as a whole.

According to the definition, “citizens’ media embody the best principles and practices of editorially independent public service broadcasting. The term ‘community media’ is partly covered by the term ‘citizens’ media’, whilst the ‘citizens’ media’ specifically does not include 6

state-owned or government-controlled media nor do they describe media owned or private commercial media”. ‘Citizens’ media’ would be a process to ensure that, at regular intervals, citizens are able to conduct a discussion amongst citizens about media issues (such as programmes, media institutions or media policy); and conduct dialogue with the media on issues of shared concerns deserving media attention. These could be education, health, culture, economics, etc. Finally on the citizens’ media associations: the primary objectives of citizens’ media associations would include the attempt - to create and sustain a dialogue with media; - to inform and educate the civil society at large on media issues and - to sensitize (governments, legislators, media and opinion-makers and decision-makers) on aspects of media with the aim of securing public interest. The citizens’ media movement is a logical response to the ever-increasing presence of the communication media in all parts of human life. The communication media employ people, make a profit and effect economic development. As a democratic institution, the media provide information on political processes and events, allow for debate and communicate public opinion to governments, or vice-versa. The media also provide a place for cultural expression and give us ideas and images that shape our values, norms, attitudes and behavior (Quoted by Tarja Virtanen from “Media Matters, Citizens Care – The who, what, when, where, why, how and buts of citizens’ engagement with the media” by Ammu Joseph). The emphasis is on the ownership of democratic and development efforts by members of the community themselves and the use of the media to achieve it. In every sense this is participatory communication (not programmes made about them by somebody else!). It is above all a process, not a technology, not merely a means, because the people are part of that means and so are the message and the audience. With this in mind and as mentioned here, the concepts of “community media” and “citizens’ media” are partly covering the same ground. For the rest, they are mutually complementary. Moreover, both of them are essential in aiming towards the human rights as enumerated in Article XIX of the Universal Declaration; or in making true the Declaration of Principles of the World Summit of Information Society which expressed a “common desire and commitment to build a people-centered, inclusive and development-oriented Information Society, where everyone can create, access, utilize and share information and knowledge, enabling individuals, communities and peoples to achieve their full potential in promoting their sustainable development and improving their quality of life”. The Question: Community radio as Citizens’ media in Bangladesh Radio during the last two decades has seen an emergence of radio stations where they never existed before. The diversity of the ownership [including the state or government model; the public broadcasting model; the commercial model; and the community model] reflects also the diversity of goals expected from a radio broadcaster. Where the commercial radio model is market- driven and government broadcasting is subject to the government of the day, the public service broadcasting seeks to create and maintain nationwide public values based on pluralistic democratic principles; whilst the community radio is focused on the common citizen’s day-to-day concerns and local aspirations. Having started in Latin America 40-50 years ago, community radio is present in all continents of the world. Since late 80s, many countries in Africa such as Burkina Faso, Mali, 7

Mozambique, Namibia, Senegal or, South Africa, have embarked on a course of freeing their airwaves and promoting community radio. South African legislation contains a firm commitment for community broadcasting, and thus community radio is recognized as playing an important role in the development process. In Asia-Pacific, Australia has a diversified practice with a well-established ‘three-tier’ approach to broadcasting regulation in its legislation. The Philippines and Nepal in Asia have been leading the way for the community radio practice, followed by many other countries. There are now hundreds of FM radios in Thailand, most of which are considered unauthorized. It is not exactly known as to how many of them are community radios, and which other possible operators are involved. However, these community- based initiatives have had an important place in the development process though they have proved very vulnerable to macro- political processes and interference, notably in the election period, which in the long run has led to the loss of community motivation and subsequent social and financial sustainability of the initiatives. Sri Lanka has been one of the pioneers in involving community members in radio broadcasting under the umbrella of the national broadcaster SLBC; for example, the multimedia innovations of Kothmale are known worldwide. However, the ownership structure has made these sites vulnerable for political changes at the national level. Though community radio is well–established in many regions, experience from these countries and continents indicate that the success of community media ventures rests solely on the needs as assessed and performed by the local stakeholders within the confines of the social group. Therefore, any community interested to develop their radio, which intends to contribute as true citizens’ media, might ask the following questions: 1. Are the people prepared to incept a community radio to serve their community demand? 2. Is there any potential coalition of religious, civic, educational or cultural groups to provide necessary resources? 3. Is there any local group of ‘activists’ who would contribute their energies and constitute the stable core of staffers needed for community radio? 4. Are there enough local businesses to provide some advertising support on a regular basis? Or, to rephrase the question, are there any enough business, which need to communicate with community residents about their products and services? Understandably, community radio would not sustain when they fail to obtain support from listeners directly through subscriptions or indirectly through advertisements. Besides, a population may doom about media which are initiated with the ‘best of development intentions’ and even a good pricing strategy but which fail to establish patterns of use and gratifications that sustain people’s media participation over time. Central governing elites also consider the emergence of community media, which would pass on local culture as conflicting with efforts at national integration. On this tight rope, applicants are facing difficulties to obtain community radio license; but licensing is not the major consideration whenever Bangladesh intends to link community radio as citizens’ media. All initiatives focus that common citizens are still beyond the central stage for establishing and running a true community radio in Bangladesh. Therefore, for reaching the commons, instead of city- based NGOs, community radio movement needs to be run by village or sub-urban level NGOs. But it is in doubt because local NGOs have very limited ideas about the potential of community radio and command very thin credibility within their own community. Similarly, the community radio in the hand of NGOs could hardly act as citizens’ media in the context of Bangladesh, because they would be interested to publicize their own activities or disseminate information from donors. So, government need to rethink about issuing licenses right now and incorporate related legislation as a step for the democratisation of its radio broadcast culture. Conclusion: 8

The overall broadcast climate indicates that the restoration of democratic polity in 1991 promote private radio for making an entry into the broadcast arena of Bangladesh. But community radio still gets legitimacy due to various reasons particularly confusion and apprehension of the authority and insufficient lobbying and campaign strategies of the applicants. Cyclone Sidr, that left over three thousand people in the south-western coastal belt in 2007 and Aila in 2009 help to get community radio issue more importance among the interim government as well as major political parties. Thus, Bangladesh Awami League government had to put community radio issue in their 2008 election manifesto as it said, “Initiatives will be taken community radio services besides national radio network”. In this perspective, civil society groups, development activists, media experts and practitioners including NGO’s are trying to raise their voice in support of community radio. All of these groups with the help from different donor agencies consider community radio is an essential tool in transmitting development messages to people in a participatory way, which in turn play role for development. Community Radio can also operate at relatively low costs and has the ability to function as an interface to reap the benefits of new technology as well. Understandably, prospect and cost related observation boost interest among NGOs in Bangladesh to establish community radio in their working areas. Different UN bodies particularly UNESCO and Denish donor agency DANIDA extend their hands to establish community radio in Bangladesh. It is true that media system in Bangladesh is undergoing a major transformation. Electronic media such as radio, television, movie, telegraphy, telecommunication and computer based Information and Communication Technology are becoming the integral part of life, especially in the urban Bangladesh. These electronic media are playing significant role in people’s lives now than before. Through providing recreation and entertainment to a person or family media also enhance consumption, changes people’s thought paradigm and breaking cultural traditions and uniformity. The industry is gradually a growing concern in urban Bangladesh in regard to print media and using advanced technology but still at the local level it is almost unknown how one can get benefit through using advanced technology or how can community media serve better to people prioritising their own issues. Thus, it is needed to consider that the authorities concerned must approve the proposed community radio stations and broadcasting because authority need to understand that the field of radio broadcasting has come a long way in Bangladesh territory, though the medium has often been "written off" by some time and again. Poor and marginal people also felt interest to listen latest news from radio for their livelihoods. Therefore, almost every country in the South Asian region came forward to incept community radio in their land. Bangladesh should also join the process of selling up community radio through providing license to the applicants at least as pilot basis. Bangladesh government thus need making progress over the community radio issue through considering community radio is the next logical extension of traditional broadcast media based on the concept of community participation in governance and development. Notes:
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State-run cooperative Model (Kothmale in Sri Lanka), Co-operative Model (Radio Lumbini in Nepal), NGO- Model (Tambuli Radios in the Philippines), Local Administrative Model (Madan Pokhara in Napal). See for translated version of the policy guidelines, Salam, S. A. (1997). Mass Media in Bangladesh: Newspaper, Radio and Television, SANA, Dhaka, Pp93-96. 9

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See for numerous example Fraser, C. & Estrada, R. S. (2001).“Community Radio Handbook”; UNESCO, Paris.

For experiences see Trixie, A & Vellani, S. (1999). “Community Radio in India”; The Journal of Development Communication, 10(2) 65-71 References: Azad, A. K (2010), Speech of Mr. Abul Kalam Azad, The Minister of Information at ‘Community Radio Training Workshop- 2010’ organised by Unesco, AMIC, UNB, and BNNRC March 1, 2010 at Dhaka. Bangladesh A.L (2008) ‘Election Manifesto -2008’, Dhaka, Bangladesh Awami League (A.L), Article 19.1, p 17. Bhattacharjee, N. K (2007), ‘Reaching People through People 's Network: Prospect of Community Radio in Bangladesh ', Unpublished Masters Thesis, KDI School of Public Policy and Management. Bhuiyan, S.I and Gunaratne, S.A (2000). ‘Bangladesh’ in S. A. Gunaratne (ed), Handbook of the Media in Asia, (p39-66) Sage: Delhi. Chowdhury, S (2002). Popularity of Community Radio concept: Study on two villages in Bangladesh, MA Research Monograph. Department of Journalism, Chittagong University, 2002. David, M. J (Undated). In Search of Strategy: Lobbying for Community Radio in South Asia, Undated –draft, London. Fraser, C and Estrada, S.R (2001).Community Radio Handbook, UNESCO, Paris. Jabbar, J (2005). Citizens’ Media Dialogue: the Book of website; Decent Print Enterprise, Karachi, Pakistan. Rahman, M. G (2006). ‘Mass Media in Bangladesh: an overview’ in M. Golam Rahman, Communication in Bangladesh: media response and campaign strategy (Pp11-22), Shrabon, Dhaka. Salam, S. A (1997). Mass Media in Bangladesh: Newspaper, Radio and Television, SANA, Dhaka. Snigdha, Z. F (2002). “MMC Planning for Rural Radio”; Workshop Presentation on ‘Broadcasting and Development: Communication Strategies in South Asia’-Organised by Institute of Development Studies, The University of Sussex- UK and ProsikaBangladesh; Manikgonj, Bangladesh, March 1-3, 2002. Trixie, A and Vellani, S (1999). Community Radio in India; The Journal of Development Communication, 10(2) 65-71

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Ullah, M. S and Chowdhury A.A (2006). ‘Community Radio Movement in Bangladesh: In Search of Lobbying Strategies ', The Journal of Development Communication, 17(2), 20-32. Virtanen, T (2005). “Community Radio and Video Narrow-casting”, Workshop presentation, AIBD/ UNESCO/ FES/ WRTVC Workshop on Citizens Media, Asia Media Summit2005, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia; 8 –11 May 2005.

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References: Azad, A. K (2010), Speech of Mr. Abul Kalam Azad, The Minister of Information at ‘Community Radio Training Workshop- 2010’ organised by Unesco, AMIC, UNB, and BNNRC March 1, 2010 at Dhaka. Bangladesh A.L (2008) ‘Election Manifesto -2008’, Dhaka, Bangladesh Awami League (A.L), Article 19.1, p 17. Bhattacharjee, N. K (2007), ‘Reaching People through People 's Network: Prospect of Community Radio in Bangladesh ', Unpublished Masters Thesis, KDI School of Public Policy and Management. Bhuiyan, S.I and Gunaratne, S.A (2000). ‘Bangladesh’ in S. A. Gunaratne (ed), Handbook of the Media in Asia, (p39-66) Sage: Delhi. Chowdhury, S (2002). Popularity of Community Radio concept: Study on two villages in Bangladesh, MA Research Monograph. Department of Journalism, Chittagong University, 2002. David, M. J (Undated). In Search of Strategy: Lobbying for Community Radio in South Asia, Undated –draft, London. Fraser, C and Estrada, S.R (2001).Community Radio Handbook, UNESCO, Paris. Jabbar, J (2005). Citizens’ Media Dialogue: the Book of website; Decent Print Enterprise, Karachi, Pakistan. Rahman, M. G (2006). ‘Mass Media in Bangladesh: an overview’ in M. Golam Rahman, Communication in Bangladesh: media response and campaign strategy (Pp11-22), Shrabon, Dhaka. Salam, S. A (1997). Mass Media in Bangladesh: Newspaper, Radio and Television, SANA, Dhaka. Snigdha, Z. F (2002). “MMC Planning for Rural Radio”; Workshop Presentation on ‘Broadcasting and Development: Communication Strategies in South Asia’-Organised by Institute of Development Studies, The University of Sussex- UK and ProsikaBangladesh; Manikgonj, Bangladesh, March 1-3, 2002. Trixie, A and Vellani, S (1999). Community Radio in India; The Journal of Development Communication, 10(2) 65-71 4 10 Ullah, M. S and Chowdhury A.A (2006). ‘Community Radio Movement in Bangladesh: In Search of Lobbying Strategies ', The Journal of Development Communication, 17(2), 20-32. Virtanen, T (2005). “Community Radio and Video Narrow-casting”, Workshop presentation, AIBD/ UNESCO/ FES/ WRTVC Workshop on Citizens Media, Asia Media Summit2005, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia; 8 –11 May 2005. 11