"From 2018 to 2021, the implementation of the MDP has been significant for the community media sector of Nepal. UNESCO has led continuous multi-stakeholder dialogue towards an improved framework for community media sustainability. This included the endorsement of the definition of community broadcas...ting, the allocation of frequencies, ensuring ownership and participation of community members in radio stations, the establishment of an independent regulatory agency for media, and setting up an independent fund for the development of the broadcasting sector, with the aim of securing the government’s consideration. Duty bearers from federal, provincial, and local levels have themselves now become the advocates of community media friendly policy and a Mass Media Bill, currently under revision at the Ministry of Law and Justice, defines for the first time community radio and includes provisions for community radio operations." (p.1)
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"Intimate partner violence (IPV) impacts the physical and mental health of one in three women globally, with equally high rates in rural Nepal. The risk of physical violence, stalking, harassment, and homicide between intimate partners increases when alcohol is used by the perpetrator. This study ev...aluates the impact of Change Starts at Home, a nine-month intervention to prevent IPV in which 360 married couples in the Terai region of Nepal listened to a serial radio drama and engaged in Listening Group Discussions. A sub-sample of 18 couples were selected for individual in-depth interviews that were taken at the end of the intervention and 16 months later. Participants strongly and consistently associated alcohol use with IPV against women in their own and others’ relationships. Husbands and wives agreed that men sustained reductions in alcohol use, conflict, and perpetration of IPV, attributed to improvements in communication, conflict resolution, and a reduction in alcohol expenditure following the intervention. The results of this study suggest that integrating programming on alcohol reduction within IPV prevention interventions in the Terai region of Nepal has benefits on couple functioning, alcohol consumption, and IPV perpetration." (Abstract)
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"This book tells the story of community radio in four South Asian countries: Bangladesh, India, Nepal, and Sri Lanka. The three parts of the book focus on policy (discussed country by country), issues in practice, and case studies. In effect, however, each of the chapters touches on these topics to ...one degree or another. The first section presents very helpful background on the introduction of community radio in the four countries, focusing not only on policy issues but also on the history of setting up the stations. The second section calls attention to particular challenges such as the role of NGOs, radio spectrum management, the introduction of somewhat advanced technologies into rural communities, the role of women, the possibilities of community radio for disaster response, and issues of sustainability. The third section (the case studies) offers a good deal of practical suggestions to address challenges such as conflicts in the communities, assessment of the stations, and the practices of democracy." (Review in "Religion and Social Communication", vol. 20:2, 2022, p.418-421, https://www.asianresearchcenter.org)
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"This book discusses how digital inequalities today may lead to other types of inequalities in the Global South. Contributions to this collection move past discussing an access problem - a binary division between 'haves and have-nots' - to analyse complex inequalities in the internet use, benefits, ...and opportunities of people in the Global South region. Using specific case studies, this book underlines how communities in the Global South are now attempting to participate in the information age despite high costs, a lack of infrastructure, and more barriers to entry. Contributions discuss the recent changes in the Global South. These changes include greater technological availability, the spread of digital literacy programs and computer courses, and the overall growth in engagement of people from different backgrounds, ethnicities, and languages in digital environments." (Publisher)
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"The book draws on critical media policy studies, to study the principles and performances of policies and policymaking for community radio in four countries of South Asia---Sri Lanka, Nepal, India, and Bangladesh. It focuses on the processes and practices of deliberation that go into policymaking, ...across space and time, and the global-local spectrum. It stitches together a critical media policy ethnography, drawing on over a 100 formal interviews and informal conversations with policy actors from South Asia, in a bid to present a deliberative policy analysis of policymaking for community radio in the region. Drawing on Grounded Theory, the book fleshes out the Deliberative Policy Ecology Approach as an inclusive heuristic to study media policies." (Back cover)
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"This reports examines the situation of freedom of expression of indigenous journalists in four countries and analyzes data, where available, of Indigenous Peoples’ access to mechanisms charged with ensuring their safety. We present grassroots information from Nepal in English, and from Guatemala,... Honduras, and Mexico in Spanish, along with general recommendations for improving the specific experience of Indigenous journalists and community communicators. Please note this information is far from exhaustive and represents only situations that were brought to this organization’s attention." (Introduction, p.1)
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"In this case study, I have studied three community radio stations- RS in Nepal, KCR in Sri Lanka and SCR in New Zealand- investigating how the radio management policies are positively or negatively, affecting community access and participation. The study shows that in their effort to stay economica...lly sustainable, the three stations are gradually evolving as a ‘hybrid’; something that sits in-between community and commercial radio. Consequently, programmes that are produced by the local community are often replaced by programmes that are produced by full-time paid staff; and they are more entertaining in nature and accommodate more advertisements. The radio stations also actively seek the sale of airtime to wellfunded NGOs, giving agency-driven programmes priority over local community programmes. This means the stations have become vehicles that help agency objectives. Hence, although ‘hybrid’ initiatives have merits financially, while depicting as local community representatives, they are marginalising the voices and interests of the very people that gave the radio stations their community characteristics and identity. Hence, in the interest of earning more revenue to secure market survival, the ‘hybrid’ initiatives are in fact, settling for a lesser community role." (Abstract)
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"The biennial Digital Review of Asia Pacific is a comprehensive guide to the state-of-practice and trends in information and communication technologies for development (ICTD) in Asia Pacific. This fourth edition (2009-2010) features 30 economies and four subregional groupings. The chapters provide u...pdated information on ICT infrastructure, industries, content and services, key initiatives, enabling policies, regulation, education and capacity building, open source and R&D initiatives, as well as key ICTD challenges in each of the economies covered." (Publisher)
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"Martin Chautari (MC) has been researching various aspects of Nepali media for almost a decade now. In this study, MC’s focus is on one of the major components of the media sector in Nepal, namely, media training, a subject which has so far been neglected by academics and other researchers. In thi...s study, we focus on various aspects of the current practices of media training in Nepal: institutions involved in media training, training curricula, trainers, trainees, as well as the financial aspects of the training business. Though the research was largely concentrated in the Kathmandu valley (the capital of Nepal) where a majority of the media training providers are located, field research was also carried out in six other urban centers—namely, Nepalgunj and Dhangadi in western Nepal, Butwal and Pokhara in central Nepal, and Dharan and Biratnagar in eastern Nepal (see appendix 3 for a map of Nepal where the field research sites are shown). Hence major cities for media training in all the five development regions of the country were covered in this study. To assess the quality and availability of the media trainings, our research team visited most of the institutions involved in media training in Nepal and interviewed 166 persons in total (see appendices 1 and 2 for lists of the institutions and individuals) between September and November 2009." (Preface, p.vi-vii)
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"This is an overview of strategic planning tools designed for Nepalese community radios. In plane language, it introduces to the basics of strategic planning, situation and stakeholder analysis, long-term vision and guiding principles, identification of risk factors, definition of indicators and the... implementation of strategic planning. Many graphs and tables illustrate and facilitate the use of the different concepts, as well as the concrete example of a strategic plan in the annex. Every issue is treated quite briefly, so maybe reading this manual will not be enough to really start a strategic planning process. Nevertheless, it serves the purpose of an introduction quite well." (CAMECO Update 3-2009)
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"This study considers the conflicts in India, Nepal and Sri Lanka, primarily looking at restrictions, highlighting similarities and differences and drawing some general conclusions about the ways in which authorities and combatants restrict freedom of expression. It also sets out international stand...ards pertaining to freedom of expression and information relevant to conflict situations." (Introduction)
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