ARGENTINA

There is a very interesting communicational experience going on in San Cristobal, in Santa Fe province.

Here, the Municipal School of Science and Youth Technology, the Dr. Francisco de Pedro Science Club and the Museum of Natural Sciences offer workshops to students.

In 2021 they had to adapt to online learning because of COVID-19, and now the proposal is to teach through radio programs.

In 2020, a long-awaited project became a reality: Community Radio of Scientific Divulgation FM 88.9 was created, and it’s located in the facilities of the Municipal School of Science and Youth Technology.

The main objective of the station is that Mondays to Fridays workshops are taught one day on the radio, one day on-site.

Currently, radio is not one of the most popular means of communication, although the importance of radio throughout the country cannot be denied, and with this project, it is re-emerging as a place where teachers and students can meet at a distance.

The scientific experiments carried out there are really innovative and the proposals of the club and the museum have been recognized on the provincial and national level in congresses and meetings.

At the beginning, the science club offered via Whatsapp easy experiments with elements students could find at home, but they overlapped with assignments sent from schools.

At the beginning, FM 88.9 had a range of five blocks, but now that has been extended to approximately 15 kilometers in the district of Santurce. It can also be picked up anywhere in the world via the Internet.

Broadcasts begin everyday at 9 am and end at 8.30 pm with various types of programs, some that are made by the Museum of Natural Sciences.

They also have astronomy programs, experiment classes for children from kindergarten to seventh grade, chemistry for children from six years old onwards and high school, and also mathematics teachers who make programs for their students from fifth grade onwards.

PERU

With the aim of promoting radio broadcasting services in the country, especially in rural areas, the Ministry of Transport and Communications (MTC) awarded 54 frequencies that will benefit over 600 thousand people with access to FM services.

The frequencies awarded correspond to 17 localities located in the regions of Ancash, Apurimac, Cajamarca, Cusco, Huancavelica, Junin, La Libertad, Piura, San Martin and Ucayali.
Thus, within the awarded localities, there are two that will have FM radio service for the first time: Pueblo Libre (Ancash) and Pacaipampa (Piura).

COLOMBIA

On May 21, six new peace radio stations went on the air, completing 11 of the 20 agreed in the Peace Accord.

On June 25, 2019, Chaparral (in the department of Tolima) became the first municipality in Colombia to put a peace radio station on the air, in accordance with the sixth point of the Peace Agreement between the Government and the FARC guerrillas.

Said item included setting up these radio stations, that aimed at swapping narratives of terror for stories of reconciliation.

After Chaparral, Ituango (Antioquia) turned on its microphones weeks later; and in August 2020, Convención (Norte de Santander), San Jacinto (Bolívar) and Fonseca (La Guajira) did the same. Last Friday, May 21, six new peace stations were inaugurated in Algeciras (Huila), Puerto Leguízamo (Putumayo), Arauquita (Arauca), El Tambo (Cauca), Bojayá (Chocó) and Florida (Valle del Cauca).

According to the guidelines agreed in Havana, where the peace accords were signed, the National Radio of Colombia and RTVC (public media assigned to host these radio frequencies) varied their territorial content, so that the voices that wanted to be made invisible by the armed conflict could be now heard.

"Since the first peace radio station was launched, until the six most recent ones, we have overcome the biggest uncertainty listeners had, which was believing these were simply guerrilla-run stations. On the contrary, they are very professional radio stations that are not pro-government, nor pro-opposition, or against institutions. These peace radio stations are another example that there can always be tools to sow good feelings instead of generating hatred," Vicente Silva, manager of Radio Nacional de Colombia, told a newspaper.

The figure of director in these radio stations has not existed and will not exist. They are called "leaders" instead, to convey the idea that they work in a more horizontal and decentralized way.

In Bojayá, five journalists working at the local peace station are former FARC combatants and one of their co-hosts is a victim of their armed action. There is no room for hatred or revenge, but there is room for friendship and complicity that appeals to reconciliation as an input to reach the listeners.

MEXICO

The Chamber of Radio and Television Industry (CIRT) will challenge before international human rights bodies and before the Federal Judiciary Council the changes in the broadcasting guidelines approved by the Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation (SCJN).

On May 12, the Second Chamber of the SCJN ratified an injunction granted by a federal judge to return to the Federal Telecommunications Institute (IFT) the power to issue new guidelines on audience rights or reinstate those issued in November 2016 and which should have entered into force in February 2017.

For CIRT, this decision corresponds to "a direct attack on freedom of expression, the right to information and the rights of audiences".

The guidelines made it mandatory for radio and television license-holders to notify in their transmissions when a content was information, opinion or paid advertising, among other measures.

Critics of these new regulations complain that this means "a regime of editorial control" over the media.

To this end, the regulator would rely on what it described as censorship tools, such as the imposition of obligations not provided for in the law for the distinction of content, the control of the ombudsman for audiences, interference in editorial freedom through "codes of ethics", and the suspension of transmissions in the event of disregarding the guidelines.

CIRT reminded that the only body empowered by the Constitution to define the rights of audiences is the Congress of the Union, and therefore disqualified the decision that grants the IFT this right.

According to the Chamber, which includes more than 1,200 broadcasting stations, the Supreme Court’s decision is a blow to democracy, the rule of law and human rights, and will mean fewer sources of information.