Linked with The Digital Divide. with MEDIA-PHILIPPINES: Community Radio – Balm in Troubled Areas, and with Financial Meltdown Decolonising Asian Minds.
Kalinga Seneviratne is a journalist, radio broadcaster, television documentary maker and a media analyst. He was born and raised in Sri Lanka, lived in Australia for more than 20 years and is currently a senior research associate with the Asian Media Information and Communication Centre AMIC … (full text).
… He specializes in development journalism and feature writing and has been writing for the Inter Press Service (IPS) newsagency since 1991. He has been part of the IPS ‘Terra Viva » reporting team at a number of international conference. In addition he has been an award-winning community radio broadcaster in Australia in the 1980s and 1990s; In 1987 he won a UN Media Peace Award for a series broadcast on Australian community radio titled « We don’t Want No Peace » looking at the relationship between rich and poor countries. He has taught radio production, international communications and journalism at tertiary level in Australia and Singapore … (full text).
He is also Judge for the Asia Pacific Rice Journalist Award 2008: Kalinga Seneviratne – Senior Research Associate with the Asian Media Information and Communication Centre (AMIC), Singapore
Find his CV on the Asian Media Information and Communication Centre AMIC.
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Kalinga Seneviratne – Sri Lanka and Singapor
Watch the video by Dr. Kalinga Seneviratne, 3.30 min, August 15, 2008. The video is on the presentation in the annual conference of AMIC in Manila Hotel, 14-17 July 2008. The title of the presentation was “ Indonesia: Turning The Tide of Cultural Imperialism With Dangdut”.
… The country’s population, with an annual growth rate of 2.34 percent, is projected to reach 90 million this year. In 2007, the Philippines’ human development index ranking fell seven places, to number 90. « The problem of population growth is the problem of poverty, » argues Father Francis Lucas, president of the Catholic Media Network. « Don’t blame population growth for poverty. The problem is disparities in the income levels. » (full text, August 05, 2008).
SRI LANKA: Building Ethnic Harmony With Community Radio, by Kalinga Seneviratne, July 2008:
KOTHMALE, June 4, 2008 – In this tea-growing hill country, about 150 km from Colombo, a staterun community radio station is creating harmony among the country’s Sinhalese, Tamil and Muslim ethnic groups by broadcasting from the villages and opening up the airwaves to people’s participation. »People all over Sri Lanka are talking about peace, but this community radio has been doing it from the beginning, » P. Pavitheran, an announcer at the Kothmale Community Radio (KCR) told IPS … (full text).
… Dr Kalinga Seneviratne, Head of Research at AMIC, confirmed the claim made by Sasako and that it “reflects correctly what happened.” Dr Seneviratne said he was “disappointed” that Sasako could not make it but expressed support for Sasako “as a journalist and also as a person who could take the voice of the Pacific to international forums » … (full text, ).
He writes: … SINGAPORE, Sep 3 (IPS) – Threatened with arrests and canings, activists planning demonstrations at the annual meet of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank (WB), to be held here this month, are organising a parallel event on the nearby Indonesian island of Batam. But, even in that ‘free trade zone’ they are going to be less than free. Commander Anggaria Lopis, a spokesman for police in the Riau Islands province (where Batam is located) told the ‘Jakarta Post’ newspaper on Thursday, that permits would not be issued for holding the parallel event. Freedom of expression laws, introduced in Indonesia after the fall of dictator Suharto in 1998, have done away with permits for public gatherings or demonstrations. All that is needed is to inform police three days beforehand so that security arrangements can be made. However, Indonesian law does not allow foreigners to protest on the streets. Thus, foreigners taking part in a proposed anti-IMF/WB protest rally on Sep.18 could be breaching Indonesian law … (full text, January 03, 2009).
Find him and his publications on daylife SOURCE HUB; on inauthor Google-search; on Google Book-search; on Google Scholar-search; on Google Group-search; on Google Blog-search.
Castro’s Gone, but Cuba’s Revolution Marches On, By Kalinga Seneviratne: Ever since Fidel Castro came to power in 1959 heralding a communist revolution in the Carribean island just 140 km from the Florida coast, Washington establishment and the Cuban exile community in the US have been waiting for the day for Castro to go. They have long believed that his demise will erupt into a collective demand for rapid change and the long-oppressed population would overthrow Fidel’s revolutionary cronies, and clamour for capital, expertise and leadership from Uncle Sam to transform Cuba into market democracy … (full long text, not dated).
He writes also: Amidst the raging conflict between government forces and Muslim rebels on the island of Mindanao, the religiously mixed population in the North Cotabato region looks to a community radio station as a beacon of peace. Set up four years ago under the “GenPeace” (gender and peace) project, DXUP-FM serves over 42,000 people in the mountainous Shariff Kabunsuan province of southwestern ARMM (Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao). A multicultural community, Upi comprises some 17 ethnic groups. Of these the indigenous Tedurays are the most prominent, making up 44 percent of the people. The Muslims, known as Bangsa Moros make up 23 percent. Christians, mainly settlers from Luzon brought to the area during the United States’ occupation, form another 33 percent … (full text, 27 sept 2008).
… Most of the cultural programmes and the news are broadcast in the Tagalog language, which is the national language of the Philippines, so that all communities can listen to and understand the programs. “The most important aspect of this radio station is that listeners are tuning in to each other’s cultural programmes,” observes Mayet Rivera, a mass communication lecturer from Mindanao who is doing doctorate-level research on the DXUP model. “It is very exciting and kind of enlightening that people are now able to listen to things that matter, understanding each other’s culture and pave the way for respect and trust,” she added. (full text, 26 Sep 2008).
And he writes: After failing to induce young people to marry early and raise families with tax breaks and ‘baby bonus’ schemes, the government appears ready to fall back on the matchmaker to give the stork a chance. The government’s concern was reflected in the fact that Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong spent more than 30 minutes of his two-hour long National Day (Aug 9) televised speech encouraging young educated Singaporeans to marry early, and even set parenthood before careers. Lee, who seemed to be targeting young career-minded Singaporean women, referred to a recent conversation he had with two Indian women migrants. Lee said they expressed satisfaction with the marriages arranged for them by their parents and that, for them, love blossomed post-marriage … (full text, Aug 27, 2008).
Finally he wrties: A growing and heated debate in this predominantly Catholic country revolves around the church’s uncompromising stance against the use of contraceptive devices that is said to be contributing to poverty and affecting the quality of life for many Filipinos. A group of 15 bishops led some 12,000 protestors at a rally here on Jul. 25 against a proposed House of Representatives bill aimed at devising a national reproductive health policy. Pulling the other way opinion pieces in the national press have been critical of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s pro-Catholic church stand on population issues. They urged her to make a bold anti-poverty statement in the State of the Nation Address (SONA) that was delivered on Monday. Arroyo did not oblige. Her critics were disappointed with the SONA delivered live over national television and radio. Far from endorsing the reproductive health bill she defended the bishops’ stand. « By promoting natural family planning and female education, we have curbed population growth to 2.04 percent during our administration, down from 2.36 percent in the 1990s when artificial birth control was pushed. Our campaign spreads awareness of responsible parenthood regarding birth spacing. Long years pushing contraception made it synonymous to family planning. Therefore, informed choice should mean letting more couples, who are mostly Catholic, know about natural family planning, » said Arroyo, a devout Catholic, in her address … (full text, Aug 1, 2008).
IMF plan rejected by PNG people, by Kalinga Seneviratne, for Third World Network Features, 6 September 1995.
Mail Brides in Cyberspace, by Kalinga Seneviratne, IPS, 17 November 1998.
links:
Deutsche Welle, Global Media Forum: CONFLICT PREVENTION IN THE MULTIMEDIA AGE, coming events, and calendar 2009;
Congratulations to AMIC on winning 2 books awards, Sep 11th, 2008;
The Communication Initiative Network;
Developing a New Type of Journalism, sept 25, 2008.