13 February 2017: World Radio Day

UNESCO declared World Radio Day an annual event in 1946 to be celebrated on 13 February.

Radio reaches the widest audience in the world. It is also recognized as a low cost communication tool. It is particularly used in remote communities and is the preference of the illiterate, the disabled, women, youth and the poor to access information. They also use the radio as a means for public debate, irrespective of people’s educational level. Radio is also effective as emergency communication for disaster relief.

The aim of World Radio Day is to raise greater awareness of the importance of radio, to encourage decision makers to establish and provide access to information through radio, and to enhance networking and international cooperation among broadcasters.

MARTINA NICOLLS is an international aid and development consultant, and the author of:- The Shortness of Life: A Mongolian Lament (2015), Liberia’s Deadest Ends (2012), Bardot’s Comet (2011), Kashmir on a Knife-Edge (2010) and The Sudan Curse (2009).

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