Last week we received a mail from the Council of Europe that Karol Jakubowicz passed away on Sunday 28 April 2013. We remember Karol as a political scientist, a journalist, a mediaexpert, but also as a great friend of Community Media. As Chairman of UNESCO's ‘Intergovernmental Information for All Programme (IFAP)’ and of committees on media issues at the Council of Europe, he supported our sector to gain acknowledgement by and access to this important international bodies.
He was present at different international community media meetings, among others as keynote speaker Amarc Europe Conferences in Ljubjana (1994) and Bucharest (2008).                                                                                                         ( Photo: Stefan Tenner, 12 December 2008)

After CMFE's contribution 2011-2012 to the european MARS programme (Media Against Racism in Sport) [>>> MARS database] we will continue to be one of the main partner in the Council of Europe's subequence programme: "MEDIANE – Media in Europe for Diversity Inclusiveness". With the Council of Europe and partner like EFJ - The European Federation of Journalists, EJTA – The European Journalism Training Association or Media Animation CMFE calling people from community media in EU member states and any other media to taking part in the upcoming meetings and exchanges!

MYCYradio, a new multilingual web radio station was officially launched the 24/4/2013 in the presence of George Markopouliotis, Head of the European Commission Representation in Cyprus, at a press conference held at the EU House in Nicosia.

MYCYradio is a community radio station open to individuals, organisations and communities in Cyprus who are looking for the opportunity to have their voice heard and who want to broadcast their own programmes online on http://mycyradio.eu/.

Radio Beca said it was aiming to be as inclusive as possible when it begins broadcasting this summer. A Welsh language radio station launching this summer has won Welsh government funding to broadcast in languages such as Polish.

Read the full BBC story

...but still a lot of global wasteland

CMFE 2013 estimate puts the number of community radio stations in the world to 16.740 operating in 85 countries. Most stations are located in Latin America 6.600 (40 %). In Europe there are 2.230 stations in 30 countries.

Regions typically lacking community radio are Russia and other former Soviet Union states, China, North Africa and the Middle East. This clearly reflects non-democratic rule and restricted freedom of speech in those countries.

Presently, Brazil is considering the choice of digital radio system; HD Radio or DRM+.  As there are more than 4.000 community radio FM stations in the country the choice for small-scale broadcasting is very crucial.  In a letter to the Brazilian Ministry of Communications CMFE together with AMARC-Europe strongly recommend the choice of DRM+ for community radio in Brazil as well in other parts of the world.

The European community radio organisations sees it valuable that DRM+ main characteristic is that it is the only open worldwide standard for viable digitization of local FM radio in a Eureka 147 compatible way. DRM+ is a universal standard accepted by ETSI and ITU.

The Norwegian Media Authority has granted 21st Venture A/S, a South-African company which runs commercial local radio station Radio Metro i Oslo and other cities 25.340 euro for development of DRM+.
Radio Metro will broadcast DRM+ on a FM frequency in Trondheim April-June 2013. Project will coordinate with the Annual Conference of the Norwegian Local Radio Association May 24-26.