Eight indigenous community radio stations will reach the airwaves in Venezuela in October this year. With programmes in indigenous languages, the community radio stations are envisioned to be a means to preserve indigenous culture and empower indigenous communities.

Eights indigenous community radio stations are set to be installed later this year in Venezuela. These stations, networked with the public Venezuelan National Radio (RNV) station, are planned to go on air on October 12, in time with the country's commemoration of Indigenous People’s Resistance Day.

In preparation for such initiative, 21 young people from 10 different indigenous groups, nearly all of them from remote border regions, participated in the short introductory course on radio broadcasting conducted last April by the National Telecommunications Commission (CONATEL), the country’s national telecommunications regulator agency.

“We want to identify and train indigenous information workers in all the communities, to work as journalists and send their reports by radio, or by telephone to the radio stations, to provide material for indigenous newscasts, which will then interact on the network,” said Wayúu activist Anairú Canbar, who is part of the team leading the recently created Indigenous Peoples Ministry. Wayúu is an ethnic group of the La Guajira Peninsula in northern Colombia and northwest Venezuela. 

Using indigenous languages in its programmes, “the new stations will help indigenous people recover and preserve their culture, and to recognise it and value it for themselves,” said Helena Salcedo, director of RNV.

Back in the late 1970s, Venezuela’s media terrain is dominated by commercial media as media was centralised in a small number of conglomerates. During the coup d’état against leftist President Hugo Chávez in April 2002, private media became the sole source of information since alternative media were taken off the air. Two days after the coup, there has been an explosion of community radio stations. Activists across the country have sought to establish local control over the information reaching their communities. In 2005, numerous community radio stations have emerged. These are created and operated by a range of local groups, including indigenous people in the Amazonian south of Venezuela, peasants in the Andean regions, Afro-Venezuelans in the coastal north of the country, and residents of the barrios in the major urban centres.

At present, CONATEL has already registered 192 community stations. The Information Ministry has continued to support community radio stations by providing funding for the installation of indigenous radio stations.

Sources:
“The Gift of Native Tongues, On the Air” from Inter Press Service News Agency, posted on May 4, 2007, <http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=37613>.
“Growing Movement of Community Radio in Venezuela” from Znet, posted on December 24, 2005, <http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?ItemID=9393>.