PAKISTAN: Urgent need for emergency radio for quake survivors

ISLAMABAD, 26 Oct 2005 (IRIN) - Internews, a leading international media development organisation, has called for immediate action to improve the information flow to victims of the huge earthquake which hit Pakistan on 8 October, leaving over 53,000 dead and up to 3 million homeless.

"[The] information deficit among the victims of the quake has grown enormously over last two weeks and needs to be bridged fast. As a cheap information medium, radio broadcast stations need to be built in all the quake-hit districts to address the ballooning information needs - critical for the survival of the affected communities in the harsh Himalayan winter," Adnan Rehmat, country director of Internews in Pakistan, said in the capital, Islamabad, on Tuesday.

Local media in the disaster zone has been badly affected, with public and commercial radio broadcast stations and newspaper printing and distribution facilities largely destroyed.

"In the absence of any alternative media, local people are unaware of the relief activities being undertaken. They do not know where to get medical help, how they should reach relief centres or where to get food. The lack of information has aggravated the situation," Owais Aslam Ali, a spokesman for the Pakistan Press Foundation (PPF), said from the southern Pakistani city of Karachi.

Internews has already dispatched a radio production unit with a team of 12 reporters to produce programmes highlighting the immediate needs for the people in quake-hit areas in the local languages. The programmes are being aired through a private FM station in Abbottabad city in the North West Frontier Province (NWFP), with a signal that can reach almost all of the tremor-hit zone of northern Pakistan and Pakistani-administered Kashmir.

Pakistan's Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (PEMRA) this week has awarded four emergency broadcast licences to set up FM stations at various locations in Pakistani-administered Kashmir.

Internews has been working to extend technical and logistical support to the four radio stations to help them become operational as soon as possible.

"In addition, Internews is also looking to get funds for distribution of up to 100,000 radio sets in the quake-hit regions to improve information access among the quake-affected and the displaced people in emergency settlements," Rehmat added.