UN Division for Sustainable Development

Case Study Detail Record

Organization type:	Major Groups

Submitting organization:

Affiliation:	- Indigenous peoples - Non-governmental organization

Name of Focal Point:	Sofia Widforss

Initiative Title:	Guatemala Radio Project

Internet links:	http://www.culturalsurvival.org/programs/grp/projectinfo.cfm

Scope:	National: - Guatemala

Status:	Ongoing

Timeframe:	Start: End:

Lead Institution:	Cultural Survival, 168 indigenous community radio stations operating throughout Guatemala

Stakeholders/Partners:

Relevent issues:	- Rural development - Others - Indigenous empowerment, information through radio broadcast

Objectives/Challenges:

Strengthening community radio stations’ ability to produce quality content for broadcast to indigenous peoples throughout the country. Building local capacity to sustain the project beyond Cultural Survival’s five-year involvement.
Assisting the radio stations and the four radio associations with the acquisition of needed news gathering, communication, and broadcast equipment, and pressing for reform of Guatemala’s telecommunications law.
By hosting a community radio "summit" (2007 in Chimaltenango).
168 Guatemalan towns and villages will have community radio stations that deliver high-quality information and cultural programming in local languages to an audience of approximately 8 million listeners on a daily basis. For individual radio stations to be able to create their own radio content, share content with other stations, and communicate with each other. These communities will also receive inexpensive communication services, training, and volunteer opportunities.

A major obstacle to overcome is the legalization issue; nearly every radio and television outlet is controlled by the government or by large corporations. Yet more than a thousand unlicensed stations broadcast throughout the Guatemalan countryside: religious, partisan, commercial, and community-based. Any "man of influence" can have the police raid a station, arrest the operators, and confiscate equipment—simply because it is broadcasting without a license. Therefore, legalization of our 168 community stations is a first priority for CS.

Lessons Learned:

Initially, many deputies didn't object to legalizing stations that truly represented their communities. But they would not support legislation to give partisan, religious, or commercial stations free access to the airwaves.

A general lesson from this exercise is that the access to information, or lack thereof, is critical for the empowerment of people in poor communities.

Summary:

An initiative to strengthen the local radio broadcast in Guatemala. The extened access to information is a tool for empowerment, to connect and bring ahead local issues, make the local peoples voices heard.