In this context CMFE point to the declaration of the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe of February 11, 2009 regarding the “role of community media in promoting social cohesion and inter-cultural dialogue”, which stresses that “a sufficient number of frequencies, both in analogue and digital environments” should be allocated to community media. Also community media should “not (be) disadvantaged after the transition to the digital environment”.

On this occasion, CMFE exhorts the media regulating authority for the German state of Saxony and all similar media regulating authorities to fully cover the costs of analogue and digital diffusion of community radio stations. As non-commercial and open-access media, they are especially worthy of public funding in order to allow them to provide cultural diversity, social participation and localised media coverage.

Below the full text of the CMFE letter to the Sächsische Landesanstalt für privaten Rundfunk und neue Medien in Leipzig, Germany:

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Subject: Transition of community radio stations in Saxony to DAB+

Nijmegen, 29 November 2012

Dear Madam or Sir,

We are surprised to hear from our member Bundesverband Freier Radios (BFR) about your recent proposal regarding the transition of community radio stations in the German state of Saxony to the digital radio format DAB+  ). At your press conference on October 22, 2012 in Dresden, you offered financial assistance to three community radio stations in the transition to digital radio. While we advocate equitable access to new radio broadcasting technologies, we must deem your demand to relinquish their FM frequencies as a precondition to be unacceptable.

As the success of digital radio in Germany and Europe is still uncertain, we don’t approve a package deal that links access to DAB+ to a renunciation of FM frequencies. This would lead to the de-facto termination of community radio in Saxony, and thus will diminish media diversity significantly.

In this context we point to the declaration of the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe of February 11, 2009 regarding the “role of community media in promoting social cohesion and inter-cultural dialogue”, which stresses that “a sufficient number of frequencies, both in analogue and digital environments” should be allocated to community media. Also community media should “not (be) disadvantaged after the transition to the digital environment”.

On this occasion, we exhort the media regulating authority for the German state of Saxony and all similar media regulating authorities to fully cover the costs of analogue and digital diffusion of community radio stations. As non-commercial and open-access media, they are especially worthy of public funding in order to allow them to provide cultural diversity, social participation and localised media coverage.

We are at your disposal for further enquiries,

Yours sincerely,

Pieter de Wit
President CMFE

CMFE is a European network of policy experts, organizations and federations, which aim to support and present the role of Community Media on the European level, with a total of 104 members from 25 European countries: 47 Individual Members and 57 Organizational Members, of which 26 are (National) Federations.

CMFE has close links with Germany through our members, among which “Bundesverband Offene Kanäle” (BOK), “Bundesverband Bürger- und Ausbildungsmedien” (BVBAM) and "Bundesverband Freier Radios" (BFR).