The first community radio station of Bhola Island of Bangladesh Community Radio Meghna 98.4 is going on-air from Charfashion Upazila sadar. Community Radio Meghna 98.4 will continuously broadcast programs on diversified resources of the Bay of Bengal and in protecting lives and livelihood of small fishermen and the small islanders.
Coastal Association for Social Transformation (COAST) Trust initiated community radio Meghna. Presently, 14 community radio stations are on-air and they are broadcasting 120 hours programs per day. A total of nearly 1000 young youth and youth women are involved as broadcasters in those stations. Community radio stations are going to be popular in our country; it’s approximate audience number is 4.6 million.
Now the poor and marginalized community people of Char fashion sadar will have direct access to discuss their own issues through Community Radio Meghna 98.4 Having a radio at their doorsteps, now the poor community people will have scope to reflect on their problems and prospects in their local dialect. Community Radio Meghna will now contribute in poverty reduction of the people around its community and audience area by ensuring their access to social, economic, cultural and political information and their participation in operating communication outlets.
Potentials of Community Radio in Bangladesh: Community Radio has created scope for the poor and marginalized community to raise their own voice; it becomes the voice for the voiceless. This neo-media outlets opened scope to establish their rights of Information and communication in social, political, cultural and environmental arena, Scope widened for poverty reduction and sustainable development because of the rights to raise voice of the community and accessibility to knowledge and information, Scope opened for exchange of dialogue between local elected representatives, govt. and NGO professionals for the sake of establishing good governance, Direct linkage established between the community and the main sectors reflected in MDGs and 6th 5-year plan, Scope created for Social debate, inclusion and preservation of cultural diversity by ensuring the inclusion of the marginalized community and Community Radio is now able to play more active role in Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) due to establishment of effective linkage between the govt. departments and local/rural community.
Bangladesh NGOs Network for Radio and Communication is promoting the advocacy with the government in relations to community radio with other organizations since its emergence from 2000. BNNRC has been addressing the community radio and community TV access issue for over a decade, helping to bridge the information gap of rural Bangladesh with the support from Free Press Unlimited.
By bnnrc
AHM Bazlur Rahman-S21BR is Chief Executive Officer and founder Secretary of Bangladesh NGOs Network for Radio and Communication (BNNRC). He has more than 20 years experience in leveraging community media and right to communication to create successful policy advocacy in Bangladesh in line with community media development. His areas of expertise straddle community media policy advocacy, training, project management especially in the area of community media.
He founded Bangladesh NGOs Network for Radio and Communication (BNNRC). BNNRC Devoted Entirely to Promote Community Media for Development (CM4D). BNNRC Leads Supports and Advocates for the Initiators to actively provide independent community broadcasting in Bangladesh since 2000. BNNRC represent the community electronic media sector to Government, Industry, Regulatory Bodies, Media, Academia and Development Partners from 2000. The BNNRC provides leadership and support for rural initiators to facilitate independent electronic community broadcasting services and to build and strengthen rural communities.
He actively works to improve recognition of the community electronic media sector [Community Radio | Community TV | Community Film] & its work in and involvement with the communities it seeks to serve. BNNRC's outreach extends to local, national and international forums for communicating Knowledge for Development (KM4D). In this backdrop, communication is recognized as an essential human need and, therefore, as a basic human right. Our working strategies are:
1. Communicating on the Public Sphere: The role of communication and media in exercising democratic political participation in society
2. Communicating Knowledge: The terms and means by which knowledge generated by society is communicated, or blocked, for use by different groups.
3. Civil Rights in Communication: The exercise of civil rights relating to the processes of communication in society &
4. Cultural Rights in Communication: The communication of diverse cultures, cultural forms and identities at the individual and social levels.
BNNRC now strives for the following core interventions to contribute in achieving 6th five Years Plan, UN World Summit on the Information Society (UN WSIS) Action Plan and Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) through:
Right to Information- RTI for ensuring improved livelihood of the marginalized
ICT for Development- ICT4D for Bridging the Digital Divide in rural areas &
Community Radio/Community TV/ Community Film for amplifying voices for the voiceless and Amateur Radio for Disaster Risk Reduction
He graduated from University of Dhaka and Post graduated from Asian University of Bangladesh in the field of Social Science (MSS) in Government & Politics and Participated in certificate course on Development Management by Participatory Research in Asia (PRIA) New Delhi, India
He currently founder member of Bangladesh Working Group on UN World Summit on the Information Society (UN WSIS) headed by Bangladesh Government, Community Radio Monitoring Committee of Ministry of Information, People’s Republic of Bangladesh, founder member of Bangladesh UN Internet Governance Forum( UN IGF) Headed by Minister, Ministry of Information, Multi-stakeholder Steering Group Members of Asia Pacific Regional Internet Governance Forum (AP-RIGF) & Distinguish Fellow, Center for e-Parliament Research. Contact: ceo@bnnrc.net www.bnnrc.net
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