"This is the first time that we have attempted to put together an overall picture of the community broadcasting sector of the Asia-Pacific region into one publication. I hope you – as a community broadcaster, advocate, teacher, and student of community radio, will find it interesting and useful. T
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he publication is primarily based on information collected through two methods. A comprehensive survey was conducted in ten countries of the Asia-Pacific region. The survey sought to collect general information about community radios in terms of location, transmission capacity, staff situation, involvement of volunteers, broadcasting languages and formats, content types, and ownership model. The survey also included questions about gender and social inclusion, disaster preparedness of radio stations, and involvement of indigenous communities, Dalits, and family (small) farming communities in community broadcasting. Surveys were conducted in Bhutan, Bangladesh, India, Indonesia, Japan, Nepal, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, South Korea, and Timor Leste." (Introduction and methodology, page 5)
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"The media is considered to be of utmost importance in all phases of disasters, before, during and after, with different types of media having different proactive roles to play in disaster risk reduction. Before disasters, they play essential roles not only in bringing early warning to people but al
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so in enhancing their perception of the need to take action. At during- and post-disaster response recovery phases, community radio and social media are the key. These necessitate a resilient media infrastructure as the core of uninterrupted coverage. Media literacy has become an important issue for several stakeholders, including governments. In addition, more focus is placed on media governance to look at the priorities of disaster risk reduction initiatives within the media. All of these are considered to lead to trust in the media, which further improves people's disaster response actions based on information from the media, before and during disasters." (Publisher description)
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"The potential role of community radio in Myanmar cannot be over-emphasized. Myanmar expands along a rich diversity of geography, populations, cultures, and languages. The people of Myanmar speak different languages and express in different cultural contexts. In this regard, community radio can in a
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great way support the establishment of a vibrant and free media to contribute to Myanmar's overall democracy, development and growth. A number of initiatives have been undertaken for the establishment of community radio in Myanmar since the year 2016. This includes activities carried out by international organizations working with local partner organizations for the development of community radio. So far Khayae community radio broadcasting on the FM band is the only terrestrial community radio station in operation in Myanmar. Six community media projects run with the support of international organisations are currently involved in content production and online distribution. All of these projects aspire to receiving broadcasting license on the FM band for operating as full-fledged terrestrial radio stations when the licensing process is set in motion in Myanmar. UNESCO's efforts in developing community media and especially community radio in Myanmar largely focuses on the encouragement of supportive regulatory policies and capacity building for duty bearers to actively promote the development of community media, as well as the promotion of national and regional cooperation and knowledge sharing between community media." (Executive summary)
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