The world of public radio outside of the United States is a parallel universe. In the U.S. public radio has the connotation of being on the side of the government especially in other countries. Traditionally, many people associate government radio to authoritarian regimes who control what they want citizens to see. We talked in classes about how France's public radio is more in bed with the establishment, and how that is also a viable way of making news instead of reporting it.
But what happens when the established government is giving its opposition public radio stations? Colombia has just ended a 52-year civil war and one of the clauses in the peace treaty was giving the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) 31 radio stations. Now that the treaty is in place, people are wary about giving the group that caused the displacement of seven million people due to landmines, kidnappings, and violence a platform to speak of these ideas. Granted, more people in Colombia are actually scared of socialist ideas than the murder of thousands of people, but that's the way the Cold War made us. Having Venezuela as a neighbor does not help either. I do not believe in suppressing new ideas, and since FARC is now a political party they deserve a platform. But 31 radio stations? In a country whose information is still mostly distributed through radio waves? When most other political parties have evolved into T.V. stations that really only higher socioeconomic classes watch? Are you trying to enact another revolution? When we just got out of a war? We also do not know how radical FARC journalists would get on airwaves. It is unfair to assume that they would advocate for violence, or suppression of ideas. Hopefully, they preach for socialist ideals in a way that is politically correct and does not go handing hand with human rights abuses and the stifling of freedom of speech. At the same time, as someone who lost family to the war, I cannot help but be fearful that these ideas will be too radical, even for someone like me who identifies as a socialist. But I don't want to be the journalist who says "we need to draw a line" because I understand that marginalizing ideas create hostility and violent uprisings.
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AuthorHi! I'm Isabella Grullon. I am a junior journalism major at Ithaca College from the Dominican Republic and Colombia.
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