DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO: Mining company in eastern Congo helps aspiring journalists set up community radio station

Record ID: 452538

  • Title: DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO: Mining company in eastern Congo helps aspiring journalists set up community radio station
  • Date: 6th June 2008
  • Summary: (SOUNDBITE) (Swahili) FISH TRADER, MAMA PIERROT, SAYING: "The information we get from the radio really supports our community."
  • Embargoed: 21st June 2008 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Topics: Communications,Industry
  • Reuters ID: LVADGEWBDSAFTYIPLRSUILOE4JCJ
  • Story Text: A mining company is giving financial and technical aid to a community radio station run by self-trained, volunteer journalists in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo.
    For five years many people in the Mambasa area of the country have woken up and been entertained through the day by the sounds of Radio Amkeni.
    Amkeni means awaken in Swahili.
    The journalists here are self-trained volunteers. But recently they have been given much-needed financial and technical support by the Canadian mining company Kilo Gold.
    Twelve people from the station were trained on radio theory, fundamentals of journalism and various radio applications.
    "This has really opened our horizon, our knowledge. We learned a lot, how to plan the news, how to research information, how to broadcast information and how to verify information, at the source," said Kamil Kitoko, one of the trainees.
    Mambasa is located in the heart of the Ituri region's rainforest. It is an area that was heavily affected by Congo's civil war and the proliferation of militia groups. But now that the region is more secure, international companies like Kilo Gold Mining are trickling in. The companies seem eager to support grassroots initiatives like Radio Amkeni.
    The station initially started with a handmade transmitter and was initially funded by the UNDP in 2002. Since then it's managed to survive on private donations and selling half-hour spots to local NGOs.
    "It allows us to share the message and reach the largest group of people. Even though the radio doesn't have very big coverage, it still covers the capital of the Mambasa territory," says Adolphe Maito, the director of the Parish Centre for Justice and Peace, an NGO which regularly features on Radio Amkeni.
    People in the area say Radio Amkeni has supported the development of their community with its broadcasts of local and international news, and its relays of the BBC and Radio France International's shows. Its social and cultural programming offer a limited variety of Congolese music and theatre.
    But like much of the DRC, Mambasa doesn't have a regular supply of electricity so Radio Amkeni has to rely on a generator. The rising cost of fuel makes this an expensive affair, so until the country's infrastructure improves, the people of Mambasa can only listen to their favourite radio station for just a few hours every day.
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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