Democracy Radio

Democracy Radio includes a weekly 15-minute programme which they post out to community radio stations across the country (a total of 23 in August 2000). They work more closely with about half of those stations, and support them in producing their own local content to complement what they send them. Programming includes issues of national policy, reconciliation, reparations, racism, health issues such as HIV/AIDS, clean water, land restitution. To support stations in producing local content, they have a programme of ongoing training and mentoring. At present the programmes are sent out on cassette, but they are about to distribute them on CD, at the request of the stations. They also are investigating other distribution mechanisms, such as digital satellite. Programmes are produced in English, but they are looking at ways of providing them in other languages.

Health, environment, political development, policy, rights.

The programmes describe how people can access relevant services, make their voices heard, or change things within their community. Partner stations produce local content of their own to supplement these national programmes. They bring the specific issue into focus by means of discussion, phone-in or documentary. It's a constant challenge to translate the jargon of government into everyday language that everyone can understand – particularly since English is not the first language of most listeners.