Pacific Islands Community Radio Roundtable

More than 50 participants from across Asia-Pacific participated in the consultations and raised ssues concerning development of community broadcasting in Pacific Island countries. Community broadcasters and advocates called for legislative reform and recommended that media policy formulation involve civil society organisations (CSOs) and recognise community as a distinct sector, especially with regard to licensing, fees, and spectrum allocation.

The Pacific Community Radio Round Table upheld the importance of community radio as an alternative media that provides a unique platform for the under-represented and marginalised - women, people of diverse sexual orientation and gender identity (SOGI), and indigenous people. It discussed and highlighted the value of community broadcasting as a mechanism for poverty eradication and disaster risk reduction. It called for working with governments as partners in enhancing community broadcasting but clarified that governments didn't qualify as broadcasters or owners of community radio stations.

Rights, Women, Gender

The roundtable was held in conjunction with FemLINKPACIFIC’s Annual Young Women’s Media and Advocacy Skills Training Programme - an interactive learning and production space for a core team of young women producers and broadcasters drawn from the regional network on United Nations Security Council Resolution 1325 (on women and peace and security, October 2000), as well as other civil society partner networks wanting to gain practical community-media skills to enhance and amplify the collective call for a peaceful Pacific Island region. Participants of the training programme also attended the community radio workshop in Suva at the Fiji National University.