Radio for Women, Peace and Security

It began with a microphone being handed to me and the senior producer saying "just go and talk to the supermarket manager". It was 1986, an outdoor broadcast in Lautoka, and I had earlier watched in awe as the technician set up the console, phone lines and mikes.

Over the course of the next few months I learnt by co-hosting other live radio programmes including a national music talent show, charity events and then went on to intern at the national broadcaster while volunteering at the Fiji YWCA. Radio was the cornerstone of information and communication for me and many others growing up in my island home, Fiji. It connected a community of listeners with news and current affairs programmes in English while also providing dedicated programming in the Fijian and Hindi languages. So many of us grew up united by all the networks coming together around our radios tuning in to the National Quiz or other national events. It was theatre of the mind!

Fast forward a few years and I find myself writing and producing commercials, developing and producing programmes and presenting on air. Even with a transition to television I took my 'radio skills' of scripting, one to one communication and added a layer of visuals. Back in radio in the latter part of the nineties it waa clear that the commercialisation of the airwaves, corporatization of public service broadcasting meant we were no longer huddled together for information. Sure I love music as much as anyone else which is why I tried to break the norm of limiting our playlist to what was only on the American Top40 - not easy I must say!

Then there I was, 1994, reviewing the draft Beijing Platform for Action and Section J, Women and the Media. The foresight of prominent feminists who shared a belief that we needed to interrogate, to ensure that media, information and communication systems were accountable to women’s rights, were appropriate and accessible even as we all shared the excitement of the emergence of new technology including digital equipment and the Internet.

By 2000 on a much needed sabbatical from mainstream media, a time to bring myself back into feminist media and communications after spending so much energy on commercial media including commercial productions I found myself co-creating a new feminist initiative with a small group of likeminded and diverse women who met through the Blue Ribbon Peace Vigil. It was the birth of FemLINKpacific.

Our community media approach, was framed as "women speaking to women for peace". We had by then experienced two coups. We were equipped with Section J of the Beijing Platform for Action and UN Security Council Resolution 1325 on Women, Peace and Security. By 2004, FemLINK had established Fiji and the Pacific’s first mobile community radio station. Rural women gathered in community media meetings to share their stories, we used an intercultural peacebuilding approach. We invested in pre production, production and broadcasting together in local centres including a local McDonalds outlet because the family owners understood our efforts! Women were being heard in their local communities. A Community Radio Times meant women could also share their stories woven together to uplift local and national recommendations for their peace and security.

We developed a common understanding of Women’s Peace and Human Security driving a nexus approach. Community radio was not just a broadcast platform but a peace platform - "all day, everyday". By the time I ended my tenure with FemLINK in 2018, the suitcase radio initiative had become 2 permanent radio stations including a rural based platform managed by young women like Lucille Chute. Peace and Human Security issues like Climate change and disasters were priorities linked to the radio network with the Women’s Weather Watch platform and rural women including women with disabilities were supported by their own correspondents and convenors forming a national Rural Women’s Community Media Network.

The 2023 theme for World Radio Day, Radio for Peace, is a critical reminder of the role all types of radio can play is building and sustaining a culture of peace, driving human rights education to enhance prevention and protection efforts and to bring and share life saving information before, during and after disasters and humanitarian crises. It is a platform for women to not just be seen, but heard.