February 13 of every year is celebrated as World Radio Day worldwide.
It is a day proclaimed by the United Nations Educational, Science and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) and fully adopted by the United Nations General Assembly. In 2023, this international day enters its 12th edition themed “Radio and Peace”.
The theme of this year’s celebration of this international day, “Radio and Peace”, speaks, to a more significant extent, to PROCMURA’s work to see a peaceful society where no one is discriminated against based on their religious affiliations. Radio is, undoubtedly, the most relied-on source of information across Africa. It reaches even the most marginalized communities and disadvantaged areas – who form part of PROCMURA’s audiences.
For over sixty years now, PROCMURA has been championing peace and peaceful coexistence between people of different religious backgrounds in Africa. And, to achieve its vision of seeing a “continent where Christian and Muslim communities, in spite of their differences, work together for justice, peace and reconciliation, towards the holistic development of the human family and the environment”, PROCMURA has employed various means of communication – Radio included.
PROCMURA joins the world in celebrating radio as a pillar for conflict prevention and peacebuilding. It has been proven over time how radio can either bring people together or be misused to push media narratives meant to divide people along religious, political and ethnic lines. Radio shapes public opinions, influences behaviors and attitudes and plays a significant role in setting the agenda for the general public on any given topical issues – peace and religious tolerance included, the more reason why PROCMURA continually engages different stakeholders through this tool of communication.
Therefore, when well-framed, radio narratives can influence people’s behaviour, attitude and opinion towards something – in this case, peace and peaceful coexistence among people of diverse backgrounds. On many occasions, PROCMURA has been using radio to address causes and triggers of conflict before they develop into full-blown violence and have a whole conversation on peacebuilding. That goes a long way in countering misinformation and identifying and demystifying issues around distrust, stereotypes and misconceptions.
At the grassroots level, PROCMURA has mainly used community radios that speak to the people in the languages they best understand. That is done through live talk shows in which carefully selected PROCMURA personnel at the grassroots with much knowledge on the topic interact with listeners on live radio through call-ins, social media, and interviews for news pieces. These forms of participatory programmes foster dialogue on latent issues affecting their communities.
At the Central Office, PROCMURA is approaching radio use through other new technologies and platforms hosting podcasts on various subjects.
As part of peace actors, PROCMURA appreciates that radio can reach the most significant percentage of the masses worldwide, which means that it can shape opinions, set agendas for the masses, and influence behaviors and attitudes on a large scale. In conclusion, PROCMURA agrees with UNESCO’s words that “...since wars begin in the minds of men, it is the minds of men that the defenses of peace must be constructed” - something which defines and cements radio’s place in society as a pillar for conflict prevention and peacebuilding.
