Central African Republic
The Central African Republic (CAR) is one of the poorest and least developed countries in the world, and has faced a variety of problems over the years. Since the end of 2012, civil war has raged. Inhabitants endure violence, and the different religious groups live at odds with each other. Partly because of this, the communications infrastructure and media capacity are extremely limited. The Central African Republic ranks 101 in the RSF Press Freedom Index.
The Central African Republic has an ongoing history of conflict between the government and different rebel groups. Relations between the Christians and Muslims in the country are tense. Fragile peace agreements are established regularly, only to be broken again. The civil war has been going on for years in this poor country, but since December 2020, after current president Faustin-Archange Touadéra won the elections again, fighting has become even heavier. People live in fear and danger with little or no access to information.
One source of information
Due to ongoing conflicts, information media is severely restricted. In many communities, radio is the sole source of information. About six community radio stations were located in the eastern part of CAR, the most vulnerable part of the country. These radio stations were set up by locals themselves and existed for several years before the conflicts put them out of action. As a result, around 900,000 people no longer received essential information about what was happening in their region.
Media and conflict
The community radio stations play a crucial role in restoring peace, promoting dialogue, broadcasting relevant and fact-based information and in preventing the spread of rumours. The deactivation of these radios not only deprives a large part of the population of information, it also contributes to instability and the spread of rumours. The need for community radio is therefore huge.
Our work in the Central African Republic
An ideal way to promote peace and stimulate the gathering and provision of information is to restore the inactive radio stations. Free Press Unlimited has joined a consortium funded by the EU Bêkou Trust Fund to restore six local radio stations in South-eastern CAR. This so-called RELSUDE project (Relèvement Socioéconomique dans la zone sud-est de la RCA, i.e. socio-economic recovery in the south-eastern zone of CAR), is set up together with ACTED, OXFAM, CONCERN, COOPI and IMPACT. Its goal is to promote peace by strengthening the role of the media as a catalyst for conflict prevention, rehabilitation, reconciliation and stabilisation. It provides training and coaching aimed at improving management, journalistic, technical and ethical skills.
Photo: Jeppe Schilder.
