PESHAWAR, April 15: Former information minister Javed Jabbar on Tuesday stressed the need for establishing community-based radio stations to enable the people to express their socioeconomic and other problems.

Speaking at a workshop on ‘Challenges for community broadcasters’ at Peshawar University, he said radio could play a significant role in highlighting the problems of the community. In this respect the establishment of community-based radio stations was imperative, he said.

He said Article 19 of the Constitution was mostly related to the freedom  of print media. The electronic media were equally important and their freedom should also be ensured in the Constitution, he said.

He said he had tried long for the establishment of an electronic media regulatory authority and it was formed during the Musharraf government.

He said that for the 140 million people in the country, there were 25 radio stations, including eight FM radio stations, where 56 per cent of the programmes were broadcast in the national language and 44 per cent in the regional languages.

In Indonesia and Turkey, there were 1,200 and 1,500 radio stations, respectively, he said.

He said the people needed a community radio network so that they could compete in the race for development.

He said a relationship between community radio and local government was indispensable and the civil society organizations should be strengthened for its protection.

The workshop was organised by Media Training and Research Centre of the department of journalism and mass communication, University of Peshawar, in collaboration with the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung.

The chairman of the department, Dr Shahjehan Sayyed, said efforts were being made for establishing community radio on the campus. He said a digital radio studio had been established and the broadcast would be launched soon.