Chapter 13

Women and the Hopes for Community Radio in Algeria

By Malika Boussof and Yasmine Medani

As previously stated during our international meetings on community radio, among them the one in Amman in November of 2006, Algeria still has no community radio stations despite the growing needs expressed by civil society associations, among others, concerned by the communication deficit between the government and its citizens. This is an increasingly important deficit that is often at the origin of popular explosions and riots that have mostly taken place in the country’s interior, and with cause! In Algeria, the further people live away from the capital, where the decision-making centres are to be found, the more they feel completely abandoned and forgotten.

A local radio broadcasting network does exist, which, when it was created by the government, was to serve as backup for the three national networks, one in Arabic, another in French and the third in Tamazight (Kabyle).

The existing 38 local radio stations, are even likely to increase to 48, to reach the number of one per Wilaya, or city hall. The great number in itself should have been enough to satisfy popular demand at least of general information. While the existence of this 38 radio stations is positive, they do not, however, meet the demand of citizens who are very much interested in what is happening in the country, nor do they meet their expectations for local news and information, about the things that touch them the most. The result is that those who can neither express their basic concerns nor have access to the kind of information, turn to radio broadcasts from neighbouring countries in the hope of learning, as they will note with irony, what is happening in their own country. They are at the same time looking for socio-cultural and even political enrichment, and to compare, the information broadcast elsewhere with what is offered to them at home. If answers to people’s questions are not to be found locally, obviously citizens will tune in elsewhere. It is worth remembering that the advantage of radio, whether it is national, local or community-based, is that one does not need to go anywhere. Newspapers,need to be distributed regularly they have to respond to citizen concerns, which is far from being the case. Radio is practical because almost everyone has one at home and people have only to stretch out their arm to turn it on.

Just like it is the case for the three national networks, a public service, local radio stations suffer from a lack of autonomy, which raises the essential question of freedom of expression.

Subjected to extreme censorship and deprived of financial autonomy, these radio stations are reduced to broadcasting entertainment programs (50 per cent), socio-educational programs (30 per cent), and centrally prepackaged news (20 per cent). Only one hour a week is given over to the associative movement.

The government has indeed stated this clearly. There is no question for now of freeing up the airwaves. If one is to believe statements made by the institutions in charge of it, such as the Ministry of Communications and the Interior Ministry, the audiovisual sector is and will continue to be the exclusive property of the State. Of a state, in other words, that values its own preservation over and above its concern for the wellbeing of its citizens in terms of news delivery, freedom or a more open society. The impertinence displayed on a daily basis by a written press which has been independent for 15 years now and which is highly critical of the government has taught the authorities their lesson, and they are anxious to avoid repeating this experience with the audiovisual sector. The impact of the broadcast media, such as television and radio, is considered even more dangerous because of reaching a greater number of people.

A survey which our association “Women in Communication” carried out of eight local radio stations, is interesting because of their geographical location and linguistic, cultural and economic characteristics. The survey was set out to analyze their influence on different social strata and whether or not there was interactivity between the local station as a whole and the audience it was supposed to reach. We wanted to see how it would be possible to raise more interest and improve the proximity index.

The survey’s observations can be summarized as follows:

1) The program schedule offered by almost all of the stations particpating in the survey wasis almost identical, it is inspired by a single model reproducing the program outline of the national network and is elaborated without previous studies or surveys by the head office.

2) According to the figures furnished by the station managers, the target audience reached by the radio programming, , is composed, in decreasing order of importance, of housewives, students and unemployed youth, executives, members of the liberal professions, and the rural population. While happy that these local media, seen as a factor of social and cultural integration, exist, nevertheless, the audience demands more local news and information and, above all, participative debates. This underscores the lack of interactivity generated, so far, by these stations.

True, public service programs have been initiated by some stations when natural catastrophes have occurred (the Boumeres earthquake, the Bab-El-Oued flood, or the Airbus crash in Tamanrasset), but their exceptional nature has meant that they have not lasted. Similarly, broadcast production experiences of social interest programming attempted by civil society associations with certain stations, , prepared and animated, in their official capacity, on the environment, for example, have not received the necessary support that may have allowed them to extend them to the network as a whole.

Only a few programs, under the label of solidarity and targeted at specific categories of the public such as prisoners, the handicapped and the very poor, have managed to mobilize and develop a loyal audience and have met with enough success to make them permanent and should be used more widely.

3) As interesting as it might be in terms of media and on a socio-cultural level, the Algerian experience nevertheless leaves the impression of a work in progress: As such, it is more focused on the development of institutional communication than on democratization of local life, which has been relegated to second place.

The lack of autonomy of the stations and the conformism of the program schedules still weigh too heavily in the balance, in the face of an excessively dispersed and poorly integrated civil society, for radio to represent a serious counterweight and give impetus to a real dynamic of proximity to its audience. Without consistent advertising resources, without measurements of audience fidelity, exposed to foreign competition, local Algerian radio stations are timidly attempting modest international cooperation.

It is clear that despite major efforts to catch up with a 15 year technological and professional lag, local Algerian radio broadcasting, which has the merit of covering many places that were previously cut off and, even more importantly, of filling the gap left by other media such as the national and local written press as well as the State agency, could do a better job if it respected the terms of reference of the information society, especially those terms of reference which refer both to openness and training, on the one hand, and to parity and cooperation, on the other.

To manage this, local Algerian radio will first have to imagine for itself a new simple and innovative status, in order to interest all the actors of local life in a medium open to playing a useful social and cultural role. A point of view shared by everyone, or almost everyone. A status for local radio that must open the way to other reforms which will ensure civil society’s full involvement in formulating communication strategies focused on a proximity medium close to its audience. The future landscape of local radio stations, needs to be better equipped and in a better position to be able to face the sets of conditions imposed by globalization of the information society.

The progress made by computer science and the new information and communications technologies over the last years has offered new possibilities which will make visible women’s contribution to the evolution of society and to the improvement of their status within it, women being a priority concern of our association. This openness toward the New Information and Communication Technologies has allowed women to become organized and to communicate amongst themselves nationally, regionally and internationally.

The “Women in Communication” Association, for its part, is in the process of creating a website that will host its Web radio, with a view to responding to the situation as quickly as possible. Taking advantage, of the exisiting legal void because Algerian law has no provisions governing Web broadcasting, our association intends to get around the absence of community radio in this way, while at the same time waiting for the law on information and the audiovisual sector generally to be liberalized.

This Web radio will be an effective communications tool offering a large interactive space (discussion forum) and operating in both languages (French and Arabic) in order to be accessible to the greatest number of people. Association members will have complete autonomy managing the radio, the goal of which will be to address women’s status in society, through its programs and themes related to women’s rights. In Algeria today, women are still marginalized and held aloof from major decisions. When an Algerian woman goes through moments of distress and needs moral, physical and psychological assistance, she has no other refuge than the handful of crisis centres that exist, when she knows of their existence. Given the extent of the problem, “Women in Communication” intends, by creating their own Web radio, to bridge in part the gulf that disadvantages information-sharing and communication among women and between them and other actors of society. The extent to which women are at the heart of all development can never be emphasized enough, because when it comes to sharing knowledge in order to fight poverty, injustice and exclusion, they know of what they speak.

The major concern of “Women in Communication,” bbesides addressing women’s issues, has set for itself other goals, among them compensating for the scarcity of information and the difficult circulation they have.The Algerian media is negligent and lacks proper coverage of issues faced on a daily basis by women.