After the crackdown on NGOs, the government has turned the heat on 179 Community Radio (CR) stations operational in the country, struggling to remain on air on shoe-string budgets, by ordering them to throw open their content for scrutiny on a daily basis.
This, the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting has proposed, should be done on an email. In an order, dated April 30, the Ministry ordered the radio stations, that broadcast anywhere between eight and 20 hours to mail their content every day.
The order reads as follows:"You are requested to provide recordings of all programmes broadcast on daily basis from the date of receipt of this letter along with the logbook and the Q sheet. Please provide the recordings in MP3 format."
For most CR operators, this is a logistical nightmare as they try and figure out how to execute the Government"™s recent diktat.