AudiencScapes

By Peter GoldsteinProject Director, AudienceScapes March 11, 2010(Washington, D.C.)--Should radio stations set up by UN peacekeeping missions continue to operate after the missions end? Bill Orme, a consultant and former head of external communications at the UNDP, thinks so. Presenting a paper on the subject at the Center for International Media Assistance, Orme pointed out that peacekeeping-derived stations in many conflict and post-conflict countries become dominant media outlets which are sorely missed when the UN pulls the plug. "There is no real exit or transition strategy" for these stations, he said. This is particularly true in Africa, where there are currently UN radio operations in Liberia, Ivory Coast, Chad, Sierra Leone, Sudan-Darfur, and DR Congo.