Radio Canal Révélation

RCR partly relies on satellite broadcasts from BBC and Radio France Internationale (RFI) news and most of its programmes are locally generated by its team. It offers private access to the outside world for the 200000 people of Bunia, a town that is largely cut off from the rest of the central African nation by fighting in the region between the Hema and Lendu tribes. The station provides communication from the outside world.

RCR has 70 volunteers, all of whom get a chance to go on air often and has a whole body of young journalists. They advise each other and do on-the-job training. The station is also used as a vehicle for HIV/AIDS information in this area and has regular programming.

The station has sponsored programmes which are pre-recorded and in other languages other than which French. It also plays music and mixes it with studio talk about issues of concern in Bunia. It aims to re-unite families, and send out ‘good message’ programmes, trying to encourage people to put their lives back together, despite the war. It also relays educational programmes that it picks up with a world receiver, because all the schools in Bunia, providing a possibility for students to still learn by listening to the radio.

Youth, Conflict, HIV/AIDS, Rights.

Richard Pituwa and his colleagues started Radio Révélation in 2001. It reaches 2million people using equipment fashioned from scrap metal. It relies on individual spirit and informality and raises its money through the dedications of individuals that are aired. It aims to provide a link in reuniting families dispersed by the conflict and to act as a central source of information to a divided community.

“The station is caught in the complicated conflict that at one time saw five factions fighting for the town. On 6 March 2003, the Lendu, supported by the Uganda Army expelled the Hemas from Bunia. Then on 18 May that same year the Hemas recaptured the town with extreme violence. “It was hard,” says Richard, of the slaughter, massacres, looting and rape which took place in Bunia. This time RCR was not spared - one of their team was beheaded in his home by the attackers. With the town drowning in blood and RCR’s gate pock-marked by bullets, a Lendu Commandant stopped his militias from taking over and looting the station. According to the Commandant, RCR had always remained neutral in its broadcasts, reporting only facts.”