World Radio Day 2023 on RRI

Happy World Radio Day everyone!

On February 13, RRI joins the community of international broadcasters in celebrating World Radio Day.

The history of this day takes us back to 1946, when the first edition of World Radio Day marked the creation of the UN headquarters-based United Nations Radio. Since then, the objectives of WRD have remained unchanged through history: to raise awareness among the public and the media regarding the importance of radio as well as to encourage decision makers to establish and provide access to information through radio as well as to enhance networking and international cooperation among broadcasters.

In 2023, UNESCO picked "Radio and Peace" as the central theme to WRD. According to UNESCO's website, radio can indeed fuel conflict but in reality, professional radio moderates conflict and/or tensions, preventing their escalation or bringing about reconciliation and reconstruction talks. In contexts of distant or immediate tension, relevant programmes and independent news reporting provide the foundation for sustainable democracy and good governance by gathering evidence about what is happening, informing citizens about it in impartial and fact-based terms, explaining what is at stake and brokering dialogue among different groups in society.

On this very special occasion, we invite all our listeners to discover a series of historic audio files released by UNESCO, which can be accessed free of charge and redistributed without copyright restriction. These include interviews and statements of former world leaders, UNESCO officials or representatives of international organizations. The full list is available here:

https://www.unesco.org/en/days/world-radio/audios

To mark WRD 2023, RRI has devoted a special program to the celebration of UNESCO's theme, "Radio and Peace", relying exclusively on contributions sent by listeners of RRI's language departments.

At the English Service, our Listeners' Letterbox segment aired last weekend included a selection of such contributions. You can listen to the programme here:

https://www.rri.ro/en_gb/listeners_letterbox_on_wrd-2677350

We thank everyone who sent their greetings on this occasion or shared with us their thoughts and ideas about this year's theme. A big thank you thus goes to Art Wormald (Canada), Pawel Nikodym (Poland), Timothy Brockett (USA), Roseanna Lakeland (USA), Christer Brunström (Sweden), Artur Fernandez Llorella (Spain), Tarun Sethi (India), Bidhan Chandra Sanyal (India), Hans Verner Lollike (Denmark), Paul Jamet (France), Najim Uddin (India),  Maria Khanam Moure (Bangladesh), Faria Khanam Mumu (Bangladesh), Saif Ahmed Utsha (Bangladesh), Prothama Prome (Bangladesh), Tanima Tanne (Bangladesh), Anika Anne (Bangladesh), Wasif Ahmed (Bangladesh), Salina Akter (Bangladesh), Yaara Ahmed (Bangladesh), Eti Mone (Bangladesh), Renita Rini (Bangladesh), Upoma Khatun (Bangladesh), Besakha Akter (Bangladesh), Juli Sarmile (Bangladesh), H.M. Tarek (Bangladesh), R.S. Vijay Kumar (India), Anand Mohan Bian (India), Ratan Kumar Paul (India), Malik Allah Bachaya (Pakistan), Teruhiko Kachi (Japan), Nasir Aziz (Pakistan), Jayanta Chakrabarty (India), James O'Brien (United Kingdom).

Many thanks to everyone sending us feedback, reports and comments on our broadcasts. We are happy to have you part of the community of RRI listeners.