Accra, Nov. 9, GNA - Mr. Babah Tarawally, Africa Programme Officer of FreeVoice, a Dutch non-governmental organization that supports media development in developing countries, on Friday noted that Ghana lags behind in the establishment of community radio stations.

He said community radio stations were the best in promoting developmental issues since they focused on the development of the community through the media and every member of the community had access to them.

Mr Tarawally pointed out that media coverage in most developing countries was focused in the urban areas and city centers even though majority of the population in Africa lived in the rural areas.

He made the observation in an interview with the Ghana News Agency while commenting on a proposal to be discussed in the Dutch Parliament about the need to develop independent media organizations in Africa and how that could improve good governance.

Mr Tarawally said deregulation and liberalization of broadcasting in Ghana began in 1995, about the same time as in South Africa at the end of apartheid in 1993. "Yet out of an estimated 145 radio licenses issued in Ghana, the community radio sector has only eight. "This compares woefully with the over 100 community radio stations in South Africa."

Mr. Tarawally explained that the disparity was a reflection of the different policies of the governments of the two countries with regard to radio and its role in development.

The lack of a supportive policy and regulatory environment are the biggest challenges faced by community radio sub-sector of broadcasting in Ghana, he said.

He added that in South Africa, the post-apartheid Government saw community radio as an important tool in former townships where, as a legacy of apartheid, many residents still cannot read or write. Mr Tarawally who revealed FreeVoice's intention to support the creation of community radio stations said they were used to bridge the information gap between the literate and non-literate in South African communities.

"Unfortunately, it seems the Government of Ghana does not have a similar vision of seeing the potential of community radio in bridging the information gap between the urban and rural areas of the country." Quoting the Ghana National Telecommunication policy's definition, Mr Tarawally said: "Radio that is about, for, by, and of a specific, marginalized community, whose ownership and management is representative of that community, which pursues a participatory social agenda and which is non-profit, non-partisan and non-sectarian." He said the gap between media and human aspects of information that

related to common people in the rural areas had been widening. "Increasingly, news that communities and individuals could use to transform their lives is lost to stories about politics, celebrities, crime, violence, sex and other stuff that dominate the media." He called for "development communication" in Ghana and said development communication had to take on board the needs and situation of the poor majority who live in rural areas. "By development communication we are not only looking at the views of the policy makers and the planners, but also the kind of journalism that motivates the active participation of the affected people and advocating for their interests and progress," he held.