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Radio News: AMARC hopes to protect press freedom on the radio
Apr 30, 2015 11:44 pm
April 30 was World Press Freedom Day, and the World Association of Community Radio Broadcasters (AMARC) hopes that press freedom extends to the radio waves. AMARC launched its International legal protection and global advocacy program for community media, and noted several recent attacks on radio press freedom. "In 2014, Radio Estéreo Luz and Radio La Voz de Sonora, located in the western department of Quiché, Guatemala, have been shut down and their equipment have been seized. In Egypt, Internet Radio Horytna was recently persecuted because of illegal internet streaming. In April 2015, in Mexico, Abel Manuel Bautista Raymundo, founder and director of Radio Espacio 96.1 FM in Juxtlahuaca, Oaxaca state, was murdered," AMARC wrote in a press release. They note that Swedish commercial stations currently occupy community radio frequencies there, and say, "community radio licences are becoming less a resource for non-profit associations and more an opportunity for commercial operators who can circumvent the formal commercial radio sector and its official responsibilities, including concession fees to the government." AMARC is creating a legal office for "frequency planning, technical standards for telecommunications and radio, and development resources" for community media.