Community Radio in Senegal Today

The study on community radio in Senegal was requested by the Association Mondiale des Radiodiffuseurs Communautaires (AMARC) and is part of the Catalysing Access to ICT in Africa (CATIA) initiative supported by the Department for International Development (DFID) within the British Government. The main purpose of this initiative is to significantly facilitate the most cost-effective access to ICT in Africa, and to allow the poorest populations in Africa to gain the most profit out of it by being a catalyst to the necessary reforms.

The 34-page study is part of a series of studies ordered by the CATIA initiative to AMARC in countries including the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Nigeria, Kenya, Senegal, Mozambique, Mozambique and Uganda; these studies deal with either the legal framework of broadcasting (as in South Africa) or with the global perspective of community radio (DRC, Congo and Niger).

With the main purposes of the CATIA initiative as a basis, the study aims at addressing two questions:

• Is Senegal's information and communication policy taking into account community radio?
• What can we do to enable community radio stations in Senegal to produce programmes likely to promote peace, democratisation, pluralism and the fight against poverty?

The answer to the questions requires a description of the global context of Senegal and the relevant community radio stations. The study tries to answer the question: to what extent are the study's radio stations community radio stations?


The methodology is based on the following:

• Document research: Document research involved the analysis of laws relating to the field of information and technology in Senegal, as well as various reports on those laws and on the general situation of the media in Senegal.
• Interviews (questionnaire-based): aiming at studying the various community radio stations established in Senegal in order to: establish their identification sheet (place of implementation, creation date, association or community who started the radio station, area covered, language spoken, etc.);
  study their human resources and how they work;
  study the contents of their programmes and the size of their audience; study the viability of the station;
  the purposes of the community radio's plea according to the station manager.
  
  

  The questionnaire-based interviews were carried out with station managers of 9 out of the 13 community radio stations operating in Senegal. The questionnaires were sent by the consultant to the station managers through e-mail or fax and were then returned to the consultant.
  
  

  The bias risk involved in this type of distance interviews, without having necessarily been avoided, was reduced through a telephone conversation between the consultant and the interviewee about the purposes of the study. Besides, the consultant personally knew most of the interviewees. Interviews with:
  
  

  (a) two officials from the government
  
  (b) two MPs from the National Assembly (of which one member of the Information Commission and another who is not involved in the Information and Communication policy)
  
  (c) a member of the regulating body
  
  (d) a manager who has worked for long time in the association of community broadcasters.
  
  

  The purpose of these various interviews was to understand the perception that these role-players have about the country's policy as to community radio stations and they were conducted on the basis of interview guides.
  
  

  The purpose of these various interviews was to understand the perception that these role-players have about the country's policy as to community radio stations (is there really a coherent policy? What are its objectives?) and they were conducted on the basis of interview guides

Three case studies dealing with one community radio station based in Dakar and two radio stations based and rural villages in the far north of the country (Saint-Louis region) and in the far south of the country (Ziguinchor area).

The release of the "Policy and Directions of Government Communication" and the "Audiovisual Code" announced by the government during the interviews for the study could represent an opportunity to make the debate about the role of community radio in the national information and communication policy progress.

The following issues should actually be raised:

• Guaranteed access of community radio stations to frequencies;
• Regulation of all stations in an open and transparent way;
• The viability of community stations should be understood as a contribution to the Information Public Service (it is in this respect that the non-access to brand advertisements should be compensated by public aid to community stations just as for the other media as well as a systematic access to decentralised local authorities' subsidies (region, municipalities and rural towns).

In order to start a dialogue with the Government, the President himself should be informed about the intentions of the community radio stations in Senegal. The AMARC management could initiate this information campaign during a special hearing with an international delegation.

Table of Contents

Introduction: Objectives, methodology and study plan

Chapter I - Background: the socio-economic and political background & the background of the Liberalisation of the Waves in Senegal

Chapter II - The political framework - The role of Community Radio within the national information, communication and development policy

• The regulatory and legal framework
• The political framework: Role-players' viewpoints
• Conclusion

Chapter III - About Community Radio in Senegal

• Community radios: for the community, by the community?
• Identity, property and mission: who are community radio stations for?
• Operation: Community radio by whom?
• Programmes: Why have community radio stations?

Chapter IV - The State of Things: equipments, human resources, finances and management

• Equipments
• Human Resources
• Finances and management
• Conclusion

Chapter V - Recommendations, conclusions, references

• About the political, regulatory and legal framework
• Strengthening community roots of the radio stations
• Ensuring viability

Bibliography

Appendices:

1- Questionnaire for a study on community radio in Senegal (questionnaire sent to the radio station managers)

2- 5 Interview Guides with:

• Two government officials,
• Two MPs from the National Assembly (of which one member of the Information Commission and another who is not involved in the Information and Communication policy);
• a member of the regulating body;
• a manager who has worked for long time in the association of community broadcasters.

(

• a manager from the journalists' Trade Union.

3- Indications for a case study of 3 community radio stations (1 in Dakar, 2 in rural areas in the far north and in the far south of the country).