🚀 go-pugleaf

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE    Montreal, April 26, 1996

COMMUNITY RADIO STATIONS ACROSS CANADA COMMEMORATE
WORLD PRESS FREEDOM DAY MAY 3, 1996

To mark World Press Freedom Day, the World Association of Community Radio
Broadcasters (AMARC) is organizing a national day of radio broadcasts
dedicated to the theme the right to communicate. Forty community, aborigin=
al
and campus radio stations will participate in this Canada-wide day of
programming this coming Friday, May 3, 1996.

On December 20, 1993, the United Nations General Assembly proclaimed May 3
"World Press Freedom Day." The idea originated with UNESCO's General
Conference which, in November 1991, adopted a resolution on "Promoting
Freedom of the Press in the World." The resolution stated that a free,
pluralistic and independent press is an essential component of any
democratic society. The date May 3 was chosed to commemorate the anniversa=
ry
of the Windhoek Declaration, a document issuing from a 1991 conference on
independent media held in Windhoek, Namibia in 1991.

Commemorating World Press Freedom day reminds us that freedom of the press
is a right still denied in many countries. According to the Committee to
Protect Journalists, 51 journalists lost their lives while exercising thei=
r
duties in 1995.

Radio is clearly an ideal medium for exercising the right to communicate,
given its accessibility. Community radio, free radio, indigenous radio,
popular radio - regardless of what it is called, participatory radio is
challenging the restrictive norms of communication in which a minority med=
ia
elite control the majority of mass media in the world.

"Our Right to Communicate: Where are we now?" is a series of print and aud=
io
documents produced by AMARC to help radio stations produce news and public
affairs programming in honour of May 3 (enclosed). Print matrial consist o=
f
a history of World Press Freedom Day as well as background information ont=
he
right to communicate and community radio.

Audio material consists of nine interviews (in French and English) with
representatives of community radio stations and projects on four continent=
s.
Covered are Radio Ch=E9ticamp, a young French-language station in Nova Sco=
tia;
attacks on community stations in France and El Salvador; community radio i=
n
post-Apartheid South Africa; the fight to license a youth radio station in
Senegal; and the newly-formed Association for Indigenous Radio in Ontario.
Also included is print information on Free Radio Berkeley, a US micro
station currently fighting federal laws limiting low-power radio.

AMARC is an international, non-governmental organization serving and
promoting the development of the community radio movement world-wide. It h=
as
2,000 members and offers a range of services to community broadcasters and
would-be broadcasters. AMARC's secretariat is located here in Montreal.

For more information, contact AMARC
=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=
=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=
=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D
Association Mondiale des Radiodiffuseurs Communautaires
World Association of Community Radio Broadcasters
Asociacion Mundial de Radios Comunitarias
(AMARC)

Secretariat International
3575, Boul. Saint-Laurent, suite 611
Montreal, Quebec  H2X  2T7   CANADA
Tel : +1 (514) 982 03 51        Fax : +1 (514) 849 71 29
Email: amarcho@web.apc.org
WWW : http://www.web.apc.org/amarc/
=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=
=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=
=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D
________________________________________________________
Bruce Girard
AMARC - Pulsar
Email: bgirard@pulsar.org.ec
http://www.web.apc.org/amarc/pulsar.html
Tel: +(593-2) 525-521    Fax/Tel: +(593-2) 542-818
Avenida America 3584, Casilla 17-01-1171, Quito, Ecuador