Deliberating community radio in India

Community radio stations’ production responses to COVID-19 pandemic in India

“…India should therefore ensure social justice and community empowerment by initiating and maintaining the proper functioning of community media channels. Strict policy regulations on CR stations in India in terms of news broadcast has remained a subject of criticism among CR researchers (Bhat, 2018;Malik & Pavarala, 2020;Pavarala & Malik, 2007;Raghunath, 2020). While there have not been many regulations on the mushrooming of online news portals involved in spreading information and sometimes misinformation (The Hindu, 2021).…”

“…While there have not been many regulations on the mushrooming of online news portals involved in spreading information and sometimes misinformation (The Hindu, 2021). However, regrettably, the Indian government's policies on CR stations are stringent to the extent of authoritarian (Pavarala, 2015, Raghunath, 2020. Bhat (2018) argues that the fear among the policy regulators is mostly around the CR stations getting utilized efficiently to the extent of giving voice to the voiceless and thereby creating space for deviant opinion.…”