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>>>AMARC-EUROPE>>>NEWS RELEASE>>>AMARC-EUROPE>>>NEWS RELEASE>>>

Community radio broadcasters launch European NGO

European community radio broadcasters meeting in Ljubljana,
Slovenia from September 15 to 18 agreed unanimously to establish a
European non-governmental organisation to advance the work in
Europe of AMARC, the World Association of Community Radio
Broadcasters. "One Europe - Many Voices", the AMARC Pan-European
Conference of Community Radio Broadcasters, attended by 120
delegates from 33 European countries, adopted a Charter for
Community Radio in Europe and approved a constitution for
AMARC-Europe, the name of the new organisation.

The Charter affirms the role of community radio stations in
promoting "the right to communicate and the free flow of
information and opinions". Karol Jacubowicz of the University of
Warsaw and keynote speaker at the conference, described community
radio as "a new vision of democratic communication - the only hope
that I can see of media being run according to democratic
principles and a model that hopefully, in the future, will serve
for other mass media".

AMARC-Europe has as its objectives to promote and support the
development of community radio through research and
representation, training, programme and personnel exchange,
co-productions and solidarity between community radio broadcasters
in Europe and with other regions of the world. AMARC-Europe has
already been invited by the Council of Europe to submit its views
to the fourth European Ministerial Conference on the Mass Media
taking place in Prague in December.

Conference delegates heard presentations from independent media
projects in Serbia, Croatia and Bosnia-Herzegovina. The conference
condemned the use of the media to incite to hatred and as a
warmongering instrument and called on the international community
to support independent media which promote tolerance and pluralism
in situations of conflict and war particularly in the countries of
former Yugoslavia.

The conference expressed its support for the development of
community radio in Austria following the ruling by the European
Court of Human Rights that the Austrian state monopoly in
broadcasting contravenes Article 10 of the European Convention on
Human Rights securing the right to freedom of expression and
information.

Conference delegates also expressed their solidarity with Radio
Panamericana, an independent Uruguayan station after hearing
reports that the station had recently and suddenly been closed by
the Uruguayan government after the station's reporting of the
shooting of demonstrators in Montevideo, the Uruguayan capital.

Women participating in the conference took steps to strengthen a
European network of women in community radio and the conference
agreed to incorporate proposals from the AMARC-Europe Women's
Network into the programme of work for the new organisation. Women
delegates from Ireland and Macedonia were nominated to represent
AMARC-Europe at the European Regional Preparatory Meeting for the
United Nations sponsored Fourth World Conference on Women in
Beijing, 1995.

Delegates to the conference were also concerned by current
proposals for digital sound broadcasting technology which could
pose a threat to the long term existence and development of
independent community radio stations. The conference called upon
the International Telecommunications Union and the European
research consortium, Eureka 147, to ensure that digital sound
broadcasting would be accessible and affordable for community and
local radio services.

For many delegates to the conference it was a first opportunity to
meet with and share experiences with community radio broadcasters
from other countries. A series of workshops and training sessions
explored the means by which such links can be extended and
developed through programme exchange, news networking, electronic
communications and training partnerships.

The conference also provided many informal opportunies for
discussion as well as entertainment, with the high point being the
Balkan Party and Radio Cabaret. Music, poetry and performance by
local Slovenian artists together with exiles from the war in
Bosnia and Herzegovina was intermingled with improvisations and
impromtu performances from conference goers and broadcast live by
Radio Student across the city of Ljubljana.

A follow up event to the AMARC Pan-European Conference will take
place at the AMARC World Assembly to be held in Senegal in January
1995 when European members of AMARC will elect the first Council
of AMARC-Europe, adopt a plan of action for the development of the
organisation and discuss North-South projects with AMARC members
from Asia, Africa and Latin America.

Further information:

Steve Buckley, Vice President AMARC <cra@gn.apc.org>

Tatiana Pelipeiko, Vice President AMARC <fonton@echomos.msk.su>

Mary Ruddy, AMARC-Europe Women's Network <connemara@gn.apc.org>

AMARC-Europe, 15 Paternoster Row, Sheffield S1 2BX

Tel: +44 742 795219   Fax: +44 742 798976   E-mail:
amarc@gn.apc.org



_______________________________________________________________
AMARC - association mondiale des radiodiffuseurs communautaires
          world association of community radio broadcasters
             asociacion mundial de radios comunitarias
3575 boul. St. Laurent, Suite 704	 Tel: +(1-514) 982-0351
Montreal, Quebec			 Fax: +(1-514) 849-7129
Canada				       Email: amarc@web.apc.org
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