The Civil Struggle to Access Airwaves: Study on SARU Community Radio Initiative in Sri Lanka

M. C. Rasmin and W. A. D. P. Wanigasundera
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M. C. Rasmin: Assam Don Bosco University
W. A. D. P. Wanigasundera: University of Peradeniya

Chapter 10 in Building Sustainable Communities, 2020, pp 191-209 from Springer

Abstract: Abstract A section of Community Radio (CR) scholars around the world firmly argues that the CR should be legally recognized, if it is to be sustainable as an alternative and rights-based sphere of activity. A qualitative study, using case study methods, was conducted in Sri Lanka to determine the extent to which the lack of legal recognition has affected the collapse of CR in Sri Lanka. “SARU”, the first people-led independent CR project, was started in 2005 in Sri Lanka, by the Pulathisi Federation—a people led civil society group based in the north central region. The Federation worked for nearly 10 years—a community which felt the need for a CR was mobilized; a team of 32 youngsters were trained on CR; program guidelines and sustainability plans were established and the test transmission was completed with the highest level of community participation. After such a lengthy struggle with village level lobbying, consultation with government authorities and people, and constant meetings with subject-matter ministers, SARU team realized that the existing broadcasting legal mechanism did not recognize the rights of a civil society group like the Federation to own a radio license and frequency. Though SARU went through such a comprehensive process and a decade of civil struggle, it was not able to reach its goal. This study emphasizes the probable consequences of people’s efforts to establish infrastructure for CR, in the absence of a robust CR policy, and without fighting for their own right to own airwaves. The study also confirms that legal recognition of CR is vital for the civil groups to sustain CR as a rights-based sphere of activity.

Keywords: Community radio; Sri Lanka; Broadcasting policy; Civil society media (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:spr:sprchp:978-981-15-2393-9_10

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DOI: 10.1007/978-981-15-2393-9_10

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