communications

30.11.2004 Member of Indian Parliament and film actor Dharmendra has suggested that parliamentarians set up community radio stations from their development funds. Parliamentarians in India get Rs 20 million annually to fund local development activities. In its recent meeting, the Parliamentary Consultative Committee of India's Information and Broadcasting ministry has
received the actor’s suggestion favourably.

28.11.2004 UNESCO has brough out an Arabic version of its popular community radio manual to expand the reach of community media in the Arab region. The original version of this guide, 'How to do community radio', narrates the experience of its author Mr. Louie Tabing who was the project officer of 'Tambuli', one of the first community radio stations in Phillipines.

26.11.2004 Non-resident Indians living particularly in Britain and the United States now can view the live webcast of their relative’s funerals, thanks to a new website to be operational by June next year. Through viewing the webcast and participating in chat, the relatives will be able share their griefs in the cyberspace.

24.11.2004 As treatment of numerous HIV/AIDs patients in South Africa becomes unmanageable, an AIDS treatment program called Sizophila Project has started experimenting with cell phones to build an easy communication system between doctors and patients. The project implementing a database software and cellphones to track patient records and call medical attendants, has been successful in providing timely medical assistance to the patients.

22.11.2004 Mongolia’s National Radio and Television Service struggles as it emerges out of 70 years of government control to become an independent public service broadcasting set-up. The network is being helped in the transition by Unesco and the Asia-Pacific Institute for Broadcasting Development.

22.11.2004 Venezuela’s powerful private media is protesting against a law that the government says will protect children from inappropriate programming and strengthen independent media in the country. But Opposition members in Parliament fear the legislation will be used by the President to intimidate the media.

19.11.2004 This slideshow captures the growing influence of independent local radio stations started by Internews in Afghanistan.

19.11.2004 The Union of Francophone Community Radio Stations is meeting Burkina Faso from 1-4 December 2004. The union will elect a new leadership and review strategies to strengthen grassroots radio across Africa.

18.11.2004 Responding to the high demand across Africa, a mobile company has launched a payphone that can be taken into the most remote areas of the continent. The phone has the option of a second network, which helps it support two cellular operators.

18.11.2004 India’s telecommunications department has asked a state-owned telephone company to monitor calls made from India to Nepal after complaints that international calls are being illegally bypassed by clandestine operators.

17.11.2004 Andhra Pradesh is in the midst of an agrarian emergency. The tragic farmers’ suicides are, finally, an extreme symptom of a much deeper rural distress. The result of a decade-long onslaught on the livelihoods of millions. The crisis now goes way beyond the families ravaged by the suicides. And beyond the farming community itself. There is an urgent need to end the suicides. But doing so without addressing the larger distress is to try and mop the floor dry with the taps open.

17.11.2004 “So much information can reach villages through broadband, which cannot reach there through any other media. And the villages, which have no roads and other forms of communication, have a huge hunger for information...”, says Pradip Baijal in an interview to Manish Kumar of OneWorld South Asia.

17.11.2004 The number of mobile phone subscribers in India has finally crossed that of landline users in October, almost a decade after mobile telephony was introduced in the country.

17.11.2004 Community radio stations across Timor-Leste can now produce their own live talk shows after a week-long training by Internews. Fourteen journalists from 10 stations around the country learnt how to research, produce and host shows.

17.11.2004 Zambia faces several socio-economic challenges but its community radios are helping people fight these problems better. Though the country has no clear legal definition, the stations are informing people and fostering development.

16.11.2004 Around 66,000 villages across 12 states in India will get telephones under a project by a state-owned company. The project will be supported by the Universal Services Obligation fund.

16.11.2004 A suitcase radio in Timbuktu, Mali, that helped people fight a locust attack will be able to reach and involve larger communities. The Unesco has replaced its 30-watt transmitter with a 100-watt unit that will increase the reach by three times.

10.11.2004 With about 11 million new subscribers in the last seven months, the number of mobile phone users in India has crossed that of landlines, said the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India. There is more good news: A survey by an international research group has shown that India recorded the highest annual mobile subscriber growth from the second quarter of 2003.

09.11.2004 If a record number of voters turned up at polling stations for the presidential elections in Afghanistan, the credit should go to the small radio stations that kept the people informed. But the role of radio in Afghanistan goes far beyond. Independent stations are helping set up a democratic and popular media network in the country.

04.11.2004 This study conducted by Aston University, United Kingdom, for Unesco looks at whether the worldwide web encourages language diversity. The research found that though English websites are the most common, the number of websites in other languages is growing.