BANGLADESH: Making Waves Over Community Radio

By Kalinga Seneviratne

DHAKA, May 22 (IPS) - For 15 years the Bangladesh NGOs Network for Radio and Communication (BNNRC) campaigned for the introduction of community radio in the country, only to be turned down by successive, democratically-elected governments.

Ironically, in March, it was a military-installed government that announced readiness to issue community radio licenses under a two-year pilot scheme.

After releasing the guidelines for the establishment and licensing of community radio stations on Mar. 12, the government formed three separate committees to process applications from community radio operators.

By the end of April some 178 applications had been received by the information ministry.

BNNRC’s chief executive officer Bazlur Rahman told IPS: ‘’We are now happy that the government is interested in assisting us to establish community radio here. We set up a help desk in our secretariat to assist those interested in applying for community radio licenses and we received a massive response from different organisations and institutions.’’

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