February 13 is World Radio Day!
Today marks the 11th annual celebration of World Radio Day as proclaimed by UNESCO. This year's theme is "Radio and Trust."
On the first celebration of World Radio Day in 2012, former UN Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples James Anaya (Apache and Purépecha) emphasized the importance of community radio for the world's Indigenous Peoples, "Radio has been a fundamental means for Indigenous Peoples to maintain their languages and to exercise and defend their rights."
Cultural Survival continues to work to implement Indigenous Peoples' right to establish their own self-determined communication platforms as enshrined in Article 16 of the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. In 2021, we supported 57 media projects in 23 countries, totaling $340,500. We also trained 52+ Indigenous women in radio production and journalism. Our Indigenous Community Media Youth Fellowship program supported 25 youth in gaining new audiovisual and media leadership skills. Our Indigenous Rights Radio program produced and distributed over 623 urgent PSAs related to COVID-19 in 140+ Indigenous languages to over 1,200 stations in 69 countries since the start of the pandemic. Our advocacy for Indigenous community media focuses on pushing for the democratization of radio frequencies by changing telecommunication laws in countries where Indigenous Peoples want to have their own radio stations and where they face criminalization for claiming their right to freedom of expression, such as in the case we just won at the Inter-American Court of Human Rights related to community radio stations in Guatemala.
In many parts of the world, despite the risk of police raids, jail time, threats, and even death for community journalists, community radio stations serve a vital function by distributing information about important news and educational programming like emergency disaster relief, voter registration, and public health campaigns. The power of radio reaches even the most rural areas, providing Indigenous communities with access to programming in their own languages and serves as a voice that promotes their cultures, traditions, and belief systems.
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