SFCG Radio Partnership for Peace Established in Pakistan

Monday, June 21, 2010
By Saadia Khalid

Islamabad – In a landmark development in Pakistan’s expansive media landscape, over 50 FM radio stations from across the country have established a formal community of peace on air and pledged to use the airwaves in the service of promoting peace, development and social empowerment of communities.

The establishment of ‘The Radio Partnership for Peace,’ the first of its kind in Asia, was announced by the largest summit ever of FM radio stations in Pakistan’s history held in Islamabad over the weekend.

In the first phase, the Radio Partnership of Peace will include 60 FM radio stations, of which 51 were represented by their senior management present at the summit, and in the coming months will be joined by all the 130 FM stations currently on air in Pakistan.

The first National Summit of FM Radio Stations in Pakistan included independent radio stations, government-run FM stations, university campus stations and other community stations such as the FM stations run by the Islamabad Traffic Police. The summit was conducted by Intermedia, an independent Pakistani media support organization specializing in advocacy, research and training on media issues.

Stations from all regions of Pakistan were represented in the summit including Balochistan, Federally Administered Tribal Areas, Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, Azad Jammu and Kashmir, Punjab, Sindh and federal capital Islamabad. This was the first time that stations from all regions of the country had gathered in one place to share their rich experiences and to develop ideas to improve professional standards of the burgeoning sector. In a joint declaration adopted by the summit, over 50 FM radio stations pledged: “We the FM Radio Stations in Pakistan emphasize that we have a key role to play in the development of Pakistan by promoting peace in the local communities. We support the initiative of a collective effort to raise the profile of FM radio sector in Pakistan as the People’s Medium. We pledge to promote empowerment of communities by being a voice of peace, education and development.”

The summit discussed at length the positive role of FM radio in community service across Pakistan in recent years and discussed various ways to strengthen this role and raise the profile nationally and internationally of this still-largely undocumented positive phenomenon. The summit also formally launched the project “Radio For Peace Building” which is supported by Search For Common Ground (SFCG) and will be implemented by Intermedia and Uks Research Centre.

Under the project, among other things, a web portal will be established to showcase the richness and diversity of the FM radio sector in Pakistan to principally serve as a platform to share the success stories, various radio programs, ideas and various developments in the sector.

The project will also include promoting Radio Partnership of Peace to become a united voice of peace and development in local communities across Pakistan through training, coaching and technical assistance for the members of the new alliance of FM radio stations of the country. Representatives of all 50 radio stations present at the summit also signed a Memorandum of Understanding under which, acceding to the demand and support of the summit, Intermedia and Uks will offer a range of services, facilitation, training and technical assistance to all the current and future members of Radio Partnership For Peace.

Read the original article in The International News here.