It has got to be a confusing moment for Radio Maej Kasheer. The service has launched its Internet stream for the global Kashmiri community as India has been blocking Internet service in Jammu and Kashmir. NDTV (New Delhi Television) quotes Kashmir’s Inspector General of Police justifying the ban on Internet services a “precautionary measure” in light […]
It would have been a bad thing indeed for Triple R community radio of Melbourne, Australia—a proposed six story development that would have blocked the link between the operation’s East Brunswick studios and its transmitter site up on Mount Dandenong. The station could have come up with a workaround, moving its radio mast, but at a […]
It looks like the government of Azerbaijan is getting a little tired of the global outrage over handing a radio host 7-1/2 years in the slammer, pretty much for asking tough questions about how that country’s government is run. Apparently Azerbaijan’s first lady Mehriban Aliyeva thought her meeting with French President Francois Hollande last week […]
As far as anyone knows, radio host Khadija Ismayilova is headed for or is already in jail in Azerbaijan. She has been convicted of and sentenced to seven-and-a-half years in the slammer for “running an illegal business, tax evasion, abuse of power and embezzlement.” But practically everyone besides a cabal of political hacks in Baku thinks […]
Some interesting items on community radio from two very different places. In Zambia supporters of the Patriotic Front (PF) electoral party “briefly interrupted operations” at the Mkushi Community Radio Station on Tuesday “in protest against [the] alleged political inclination of a Board Member of that Station.” That’s according to the Lusaka Times online newspaper. It’s […]
The United Kingdom’s broadcast regulator has awarded four more community radio licenses, and one of them goes to the Funky Academy, aka Funky SX. Ofcom says that the school will (government-speak alert) “provide a rhythmic-based music service to young people,” defined as under 35, in the Southend-on-Sea borough. That’s basically the northern half of the entrance […]
The Hindu newspaper wants to know why community radio isn’t being more widely deployed in the Indian state of Chhattisgarh. “. . . the state continues to overlook and under-utilise the radio in countering Maoist influence,” an opinion piece notes. “Oddly enough, this so in a region populated by numerous tribal languages that possess rich oral […]
A new report by Amnesty International says the government of Burundi is cracking down on independent radio stations as the country drifts towards civil war. First authorities curtailed the broadcasting range of independent radio stations Radio Publique Africaine (RPA), Bonesha FM, and Radio Isanganiro, AI says. Then in mid-May, after an attempted military coup, police […]
A somewhat discouraging report, classical music-wise, from the United Kingdom’s broadcast regulator, titled “Public Service Broadcasting in the Internet Age.” It concludes that since the government lifted requirements on content, public media spending on the arts and classical music has dropped by 25 percent. Still “there continues to be strong classical music provision on radio,” […]
I’ve been thinking a lot about reports that the United Kingdom’s broadcast regulator has shut down 400 pirate radio stations over the last two years, many of them situated in London. Well over a third of those Ofcom busts took place in two boroughs: Haringey in North London and Lambeth in South London. Why these […]
