February 13 is World Radio Day (WRD), a celebration of community radio as a medium of primary importance. This Day aims to promote gender equality on the air, access to information, development of independent media, safety of journalists andfreedom of expression.
For this fifth edition, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), the World Association of Community Radio Broadcasters (AMARC) and all the partners in the public, commercial and community media, invite you to celebrate and emphasize the importance of radio around the theme ”Radio in Times of Emergency and Disaster”.
This is an opportunity to enhance and promote community radio as a privileged tool for communication and access to information for people in emergency and disaster situations.
To feed the discussions during this day, five key themes were identified:
- Radio saves lives
- Freedom of expression and journalists’ safety should be disaster-proof
- Radio has social impact and provides access to information. People’s right to information should be protected.
- Radio frequencies should be protected in times of emergency.
- Radio empowers vulnerable people.
This day of celebration is also an opportunity to remember why we love community radio, to highlight the unique power of this mediumto bring people together and to share this with the entire world.
With this in mind, AMARC invites you to share:
– information regarding the events you are planning for this Day
– audio programs related to the key themes mentioned above
Please send your information or programs via We Transfer at: secretariat@si.amarc.org. In your message, please include your name, the radio that broadcasts your production, your country, the title of your production, a brief description of the topic discussed, the logo of your radio and attach, if possible, pictures to illustrate your production. This information will be used to promote your work on websites and social networks.
AMARC will give international visibility to all events and productions. Some programmes could be selected for the special broadcast of UNESCO.
Throughout the day on February 13, use the hashtags #WRD_AMARC, #WorldRadioDay and #RadioSavesLives to identify your posts on social networks. You can also follow the activities on Twitterand Facebook.
On February 13, let’s celebrate community radio together! Join us! Thank you for your participation!