[Amarc-info] Re: Bolivia to build 100+ rural radio stations

[Bruce Girard]

Hi Jim,

When I first heard about the Venezuela/Bolivia radio stations about 6 
weeks ago I wrote Thomas Grisafi, who is currently doing PhD fieldwork 
on Bolivia's community radio stations (copied on this message). One of 
the things he mentioned was that the actual amount of money on offer was 
very little, apparently not enough to set up 109 community radio stations.

The other odd thing is that the announcement was made in such a way as 
to ignore the fact that there is already a very strong community radio 
movement in Bolivia.

When Chavez was elected in Venezuela there were only about a dozen 
community radio stations, I think all of them in the Catholic IRFA 
network and establishing community radio stations was seen as a way of 
confronting the country's media oligopoly. The situation in Bolivia is 
very different. The country has a long history of community radio (the 
miners stations were among the first in Latin America, a couple years 
before Pacifica was founded). I'm not sure how many stations there are, 
but more than 200. They are also historically the best organised and 
most militant stations in Latin America. Even the country's legislation 
governing the sector, while not without problems, is among the best in 
Latin America.

So the members of CEPRA and ERBOL, two of the national alternative radio 
networks were surprised to hear that Bolivia was going to get not only 
money to build a community radio network from Venezuela, but also 
expertise (given their history, organisation, and sustained growth over 
almost 60 years, I assume they thought they were more qualified to be 
the teachers). According to Thomas, the established networks were 
expecting the new one to be quasi-official and pro-government. He also 
said that the possibility of accessing Venezuelan money is  already 
inspiring some stations to break away from the established networks, 
presumably in the hope that they can join the new one.

Whatever happens, it is definitely a situation worth keeping an eye on.

bg

Jim Ellinger wrote:
> _Source_: NYTimes Sunday, May 14, 2006
> http://www.nytimes.com/2006/05/14/world/americas/14bolivia.html?_r=1&oref=slogin 
> <http://www.nytimes.com/2006/05/14/world/americas/14bolivia.html?_r=1&oref=slogin>
>  
> "...*Venezuela *has promised to help Bolivia with its plans to 
> nationalize its energy industry. And it *is building 109 rural *
> *radio stations,* offering scholarships to train Bolivian health 
> workers and leading an effort to help hundreds of thousands
> of Bolivians get identification papers..."
>  
> cheers,
> jim ellinger
> briefly in austin...

-- 

Bruce Girard  |  www.comunica.org
tel: +598 2 410.2979 | mobile: +598 99 189.652
Dr. Pablo de María 1036  |  Montevideo 11200  |  Uruguay

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