news - Uganda CMCs Scoop Awards

news - Uganda CMCs Scoop Awards: "Uganda CMCs Scoop Awards


/noticias.info/ Two community multimedia centres supported by UNESCO in Uganda reaped the rewards of their efforts to impact at the grassroot level earlier this month, when they dominated the UNICEF Children's Broadcasting Day Awards. 'This is a milestone for community radio', commented Nabweru CMC manager Edward Juuko as he collected two prizes. The competition, which assessed the best dramatic program and the best participatory programming, attracted entries from a number of both commercial and community radios.

On a specific day, the entrants had to dedicate four hours of programming entirely to a children's show, built on specific thematic issues, under the directorship of the radio managers. Once all the programmes were assessed, Nabweru CMC took first place with the trophy for a dramatic program and also the second position trophy for participatory programming, with a cash prize equivalent to $ 755. A second CMC, Apac CMC, took the first place for participatory programming and second place for dramatic programme, with the same cash prize, leaving nothing for the commercial radios that had also participated.

Uganda's UgaBYTES Initiative, reporting on the event, noted that the success of the community broadcasters comes at a time when 'the issues of sustainability and relevancy of ICTs in community development dominate current chat rooms of development agencies'.

UNESCO established a multipurpose telecentre at the Apac community radio station and established the radio station at Nabweru's community telecentre only last year, in 2004. 'The very fact that the radio at Nabweru is so recent makes this award all the more impressive', commented UNESCO project officer Hezekiel Dlamini, 'it goes to show that the mobilisi"