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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
CONTACT: Doug Green
Cultural Survival at
Guatemala Radio Project Report
The Project and Goals
Cultural Survival supports the rights, the voices and the visions of indigenous people around the world. In Guatemala we are building for a future in which indigenous people will both keep their traditions and participate as equals in public life.
The five-year Guatemala Radio Project (GRP) is a partnership with 150 indigenous community radio stations and their associations. Our goals are to 1) press for reform of the nation’s telecommunications law; 2) strengthen the stations’ ability to produce professional quality content; 3) help the stations acquire equipment; and 4) build local capacity to sustain the project after the partnership ends.
Meeting Today’s Greatest Challenge - Legalization
Ten years ago, the Peace Accords that ended over 30 years of civil war guaranteed indigenous people the freedom to use community media. So far, the government hasn’t made good on this promise. Nearly every radio and television outlet is controlled by the government or by large corporations. Yet more than a thousand unlicensed stations broadcast throughout the Guatemalan countryside: religious, partisan, commercial, or community-based. Any “man of influence” can have the police raid a station, arrest the operators, and confiscate equipment – simply because they are broadcasting without a license . Therefore, legalization of our 150 community stations is our first priority. Here’s what we have done so far:
Lobbying and Learning
In October, community radio supporter Congressman Marcelino Nicolas Moscut introduced a bill to legalize, regulate, and protect community radio the Congressional Committee on Communications, Transportation, and Public Works. From November through December 2006, two community radio volunteers, Abraham Baca Davila (a professional lobbyist) and Cesar Gomez (an office manager) worked full-time to have the bill voted out of committee – bringing station volunteers and supporters to Guatemala City to meet with their representatives.
Baca and Gomez met party leaders and initially gained the support of 14 members of the 20-person Committee. They learned that the deputies didn’t object to legalizing stations that truly represented their communities. But they would not support legislation to give partisan, religious, or commercial stations free access to the airwaves.
Defining “Community Radio"
In February, Cultural Survival hosted a community radio “summit” in Chimaltenango. Representatives of the radio associations met to hammer out a definition that would express their vision of community radio and answer the objections heard in Congress. They defined the stations as non-profits that would allow freedom of expression of all viewpoints, and would promote the use of indigenous languages, true democracy, and multiculturalism. They elected a majority-indigenous Board of Directors that included non-indigenous members. The Board’s new president works as a correspondent for La Prensa Libre, the nation’s most influential newspaper.
This month, a deputy from San Marcos will introduce a new piece of legislation based on this definition. There is a chance that it could pass before Easter. If not, then very likely during this year’s session.
Creating New Content
Soap Operas. Our Content Director Jorge Molina, an experienced broadcaster who teaches radio communication at the University of San Carlos, produced and distributed eight episodes of a Spanish language social issues radionovela titled Aura Marina (the adventures of a feisty young village girl). With funding from Fundacion Soros, Molina, using dozens of community radio volunteers as actors and technicians, will produce another radio drama called La Heredera, both in Spanish and three indigenous languages.
Health “Spots.” Molina will begin recording 52 spots on public health issues starting in mid-March, under a grant from the Sociedad San Martin de Porres in Houston, Texas.
“Coffee Talk,” underwritten by Dean’s Beans Organic Coffee, will help small growers “go organic.” The program debuts this month, just in time for the coffee harvest.
Coming Up!
In June, the GRP will gather information on every member station’s finances, volunteers and technical capacity to get a detailed look at what we have, and what we need. Our Technology Committee in Boston will help find technical solutions to improve the stations’ broadcast quality. Lobbying continues. Please stay tuned! (and check our website at www.cs.org – under Programs – Guatemala). |
