Communication Rights Programme

The programme facilitates people’s access to communication through state-owned media or mainstream commercial media. It uses both funding and advocacy in an effort to deal with problems related to the free flow of information and to marginalised people’s access to communication. Although the particular approach used depends on the individual initiatives and their rationale, CRP supports and engages in activities revolving around local initiatives to facilitate access in practice.

The programme sees local community radio initiatives as important, as they facilitate a space for marginalised and illiterate people in West Africa and elsewhere in Africa to express their views and obtain control over communication channels. The programme has a twofold strategy for doing this:

• Supporting the role of the independent media to democratise society, by supporting advocacy of the rights of citizens to access and disseminate information and initiatives which aim at challenging laws, policies and other barriers that hinder the watchdog role of mass media; and
• Supporting initiatives that enable marginalised people (rural and urban people, those living in poverty, women, and young people) to use mass media to meet their communication and other development needs, and to hold those in authority and power accountable to them.

Programme activites are focused on these areas:

• Advocating media pluralism and targeting inhibiting media laws and regulations.
• Monitoring and documenting the media rights landscape and mobilising against abuse of media rights.
• Supporting efforts to strengthen ethics of media workers through self-regulation.
• Facilitating the involvement of mainstream media in participatory development efforts.
• Enabling marginalised disadvantaged populations to express themselves in media and thereby participate in democratic processes, primarily through community radio.
• Promoting the development, expansion and networking of community radios as a tool for empowerment, for example in relation to local governance.

Rights, Democracy and Governance.

“Issues related to media rights revolve around the framework of laws and regulatory mechanisms and are therefore best dealt with at a national or sub-regional level, supported by international networking.”

CRP aims to achieve its objectives through the:

• Promotion of rights and responsibilities of the media sector in order to ensure free access to information and freedom of expression.
• Expansion of people’s access to communication, particularly focusing on the empowerment and involvement of disadvantaged communities in a democratic dialogue.