Paris, France - UNESCO has invited broadcasters around the world to celebrate the first edition of the World Radio Day next week, 13 February, the UN agency announced here Thursday. UNESCO’s General Conference last year proclaimed 13 February as the World Radio Day, to celebrate radio as a vector for education, freedom of expression and public debate as well as a source of vital information in times of natural disasters.

Saying that Radio is the most prevalent mass medium in the world with the ability to reach 95% of planet’s population, UNESCO said that the Internet and mobile applications had further increased its scope and potential.

It added 'Inexpensive and with relatively basic technological requirements, radio can reach remote communities and marginalized groups.'

According to the International Telecommunication Union, over 75 % of the world’s homes own a radio and a growing number of people use broadband connections to get news and interact.

“Radio is the mass medium that reaches the widest audience, especially the most marginalised parts of our societies,” said Irina Bokova, Director-General of UNESCO, in a message recorded for the Day.

“Free, independent and pluralistic radio is essential for healthy societies, it is vital for advancing human rights and fundamental freedoms,” she said.

UNESCO also created a website with audio messages in several languages and community radio manuals to encourage public, private and community broadcasters to celebrate the Day. 

The website will also enable the public to listen to material from UNESCO’s sound archives free of charge with the voices, among others, of Pablo Neruda, Jean-Paul Sartre, Jorge Luis Borges, André Malraux, Pablo Picasso, Charles de Gaulle, Yuri Gagarin, Nikolay Nikolaevich Semenov, Nelson Mandela, Frederik de Klerk or Harry Belafonte.

Over its six decades, UNESCO has pioneered a number of initiatives with this medium, particularly in the area of community radio, and in the use of radio for humanitarian assistance, for which it developed the radio-in-a-box.

13 February also marks the anniversary of the United Nations Radio, which was launched in 1946.

Pana 10/02/2012