Panoscope

This initiative uses the medium of radio to create a forum for voices, views, and issues not often heard in the mainstream media. Programmes feature the perspectives of people actually living through, and working to address, various development challenges. The broadcasts fall into the following themes:

1. Conflict - Example: The March 4 2007 Panoscope broadcast featured a soldier from Nepal's Maoist People's Liberation Army. Listeners heard this soldier speak of her experience as a legislator in Nepal's interim parliament. They also heard from Sanam Anderlini, an expert on the Security Council United Nations (UN) Resolution Article 1325; she spoke about how the UN resolution on Women, Peace, and Security relates to Nepal, especially in the context of the ongoing peace process. The third guest, Professor Yash Ghai, a constitutional expert with the UN, stressed the importance of having a very representative constituent assembly.
2. Environment - Example: The January 16 2007 Panoscope broadcast focused on community radio initiatives in India and Nepal. Locals in Budikote village in the southern Indian state of Karnataka described how they benefit from programmes on agriculture, banking, health, and governance broadcast by a community cable audio network. Stories were also shared from Palpa, a small hill town in western Nepal, where schoolchildren catch up with classes by tuning into their community radio station.
3. Globalisation - Example: The August 20 2006 Panoscope broadcast focused on the role of village cooperatives in assisting thousands of small dairy farmers across Nepal in coping with the high cost of milk production.
4. Media Pluralism - The August 22 2006 Panoscope broadcast focused on advocacy: "Women make up more than half of the Nepali population. Yet they are less educated and work longer hours than men and have little control over resources. Government policies and programmes try to reduce the gap. While some women have benefited, the vast majority remain untouched..."
5. Public Health - "In this [January 5 2007 Panoscope] edition, we hear M-S-Ms, an abbreviation for men who have sex with men, in the Nepali capital Kathmandu speak about H-I-V AIDS, and about being a sexual minority in Nepal. We also hear Sunil Pant of Blue Diamond Society speak about H-I-V and AIDS concerns regarding Nepal's M-S-M population and the challenges the organisation faces as it tests traditional notions about gender identity and sexual behavior."

The PRSA website is a tool for bringing these programmes to wider audiences, in South Asia and beyond. Each of the thematic areas detailed above can be accessed through pages that enable site visitors to play the broadcast online or offline, to download the broadcast, to email it, or to listen to a podcast. Related links for each story are also offered. In addition, non-profit media as well as development and other organisations can download the Panoscope radio magazine free of cost for air or for online use, provided that PRSA is credited. (Click here to access Panoscope archives.)

Conflict, Environment, Globalisation, Health.