Vista On-Line: March Edition 2003

[Radio For Peace International <info at rfpi.org>]

Radio For Peace International

Vista On-Line: March Edition 2003

Dear friends and listeners,

A lot has been happening at Radio for Peace
International since our last Vista Online. In
February, RFPI hosted a training  workshop in
collaboration  with  Pauline Bartolone  from  Free
Speech Radio News, a US-based independent media news
program. It was attended by nine people working in
social justice organizations in Nicaragua. This one
week intensive course trained the participants in news
reporting for independent media and digital editing.
Several programs were produced, one of which was
featured on Free Speech Radio News this week.

Radio For Peace intends to step up its work in similar
projects this year, the central idea being to train as
many people here in Latin America as independent radio
journalists.  Many listeners have asked for more
coverage in this region and we feel that this response
will improve RFPI's coverage of events in a area of
the world that often suffers from highly distorted and
under reported media representation.

Peace Journalists Needed!!!!

In a world increasingly filled with war
correspondents, RFPI continues to train journalists in
the new concept of Peace Journalism. Our first 4 week
course this year in Peace Journalism and Progressive
Media Through Radio was completed on February 21. The
course brings together activists who wish to have a
better understanding of media and practicing
journalists who wish to learn alternative reporting
skills. The summer months are starting to fill up with
students, which is good news as the proceeds from the
course help sustain RFPI and add to the pool of
trained progressive radio correspondents.

"This course gave me a deeper understanding on how the
media really works and my place within it"

	-- Jean N, IPC student Session 1, 2003.

RFPI's summer looks to be a very full and intense time
with large numbers of students and volunteers applying
to come and work here.

More good news; after a long wait and many
postponements and disappointments, we have finally got
back our high speed internet!! We have waited for more
than four months to get this back up and running. The
benefits are already in evidence to our listeners who
are once again hearing some of the quality
programming that we were temporarily not able to
broadcast because of the long and expensive dial-up
downloading times. Free Speech Radio News is back, we
have been able to add to the line-up Pacifica Radio's
Peace Watch, an hour long show dealing with the Middle
East, and more. We have also been able to continue our
work searching out more diverse independent
programming from around the world. We are currently in
talks with the Voice of Human Rights Radio in
Indonesia and others.

We still have a way to go before we can get RFPI's
live internet-casting back, but we are working on it.
Please keep checking our progress on the web site
http://www.rfpi.org/

We are also now able to rebuild our Spanish language
programming schedule which will carry independent
media programming from ALER (Asociacion
Latinoamericana de Educacion Radiofonica) in Ecuador,
RFPI's own in-house productions, programming from
Costa Rica's University Radio and from many other
groups in Latin America. We are currently talking with
a progressive news group of media activists in
Nicaragua about a regular program of Nicaraguan news
and analysis.

April will be a pivotal month and a difficult one for
RFPI financially. What this means in practical terms
is that we have to consider reducing the air time
significantly through turning off our transmitters at
different times of the day to save on the electricity
bills, we have urgent antenna repairs (after the
strong winds we experience in Costa Rica at this time
of the year) that we cannot afford to fix, and a whole
host of daily operating problems that we have to
struggle with. In addition, the 15040 transmitter is
in need of replacement parts which will cost around
$1,000. This, our second transmitter is currently off
the air.

All of this is coming at a time when RFPI's voice
needs to be heard more than ever as an independent
media organization calling for sanity in the world in
this current war-mongering atmosphere. We heard
recently of the overwhelming support in the form of
donations (quite rightly) raised by the independent
media in the US at this time of a huge emerging global
peace movement and it got us thinking about how much
harder we have to struggle here at RFPI to get
funding. Yet, we are the ONLY shortwave progressive
radio station broadcasting independent programming and
information globally. Most of the excellent programs
you can hear on Radio For Peace International operate
on budgets that far outstrip that of RFPI's whole
radio station! The realities at RFPI are that we limp
from one month to the next, often without wages,  our
ability to carry out essential repairs is limited, as
is our ability to replace old equipment, expand and
push ahead with new projects and campaigns and hire
additional staff that we so much need.

We want to appeal to you, our listeners and supporters
to please come to our aid at this crucial time. We are
still here 16 years later because you want us here and
you believe in what we do. You made it happen and you
are the ones who will continue to make it happen. You
can make a donation securely and immediately by
clicking on the Pay Pal icon on our web site on
http://www.rfpi.org/ or you can send us a check or
postal order to:

Radio For Peace International
PO Box 3165
Newberg
OR 97132
USA

From all the staff of RFPI we thank you.
_______________________________________________
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