8 February 2010
Central Asia's first conference on community radio was held 20 - 21 January in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan. The purpose of the conference was to highlight the role of community media in promoting social development.
50 representatives of embassies, international organizations, government agencies, NGOs and rural community leaders attended the conference.Facilitating the discussion were Mr. Ashish Sen of the World Association of Community Radio (AMARC) and Ms. Bettina Ruigies, a long-time advisor for the UNESCO-founded "Radiomost" in Talas, Kyrgyzstan, the only genuine community radio operating in the CIS.
Conference themes included the role and social sustainability of community media, legal environment, use of different forms of transition from community multimedia centers using narrowcasting technology to broadcasting community radios.
Participants also took part in practical exercises on recording and digital editing a radio interview using free and open source technologies.
For further information please contact Sergey Karpov (s.karpov at unesco dot org), NPO, Communication and Information.
Permanent link: http://en.unesco.kz/community-radio-social-catalyst-for-development-of-rural-kyrgyzstan