Radio took away the fear we had. They used to call us coarse-haired Indians. Now, we have learned to read fluently, and to look at people on equal terms, regardless of their title or office.
— Emeterio Pérez, neighborhood leader in Taragual
In June 2009, the democratically elected president of Honduras, Manuel Zelaya, was arrested and forcibly removed from the country on the order of the Honduran Supreme Court by the Honduran Army. In the months and years that followed the coup d’état, thousands of journalists, opposition politicians, human rights activists, and others were detained, disappeared, or murdered by the new regime. Media coverage of this violence was virtually non-existent, since even during Zelaya’s presidency, Honduran media was solely controlled by a few wealthy conservative families and intentionally excluded voices critical of the government installed by the coup.
This tumultuous political landscape led to the formation of the Community Media Association of Honduras (AMCH, or Asociación de Medios de Comunicación Comunitarios de Honduras in Spanish). The AMCH is made up of approximately forty groups and organizations throughout the nation, including alternative media groups, activists, indigenous groups, young people and more. It aims to facilitate conversations with the National Telecommunications Commission of Honduras (CONATEL) to challenge the limited broadcasting landscape in the country.
Community media grants visibility to decentralized grassroots resistance and social change.
In Honduras, one must purchase a license to start a media company. After the coup in 2009, licenses could only be acquired through an auction system controlled by parties loyal to the government. This arrangement prevented large portions of the Honduran people from starting media companies, specifically excluding peasant groups, human rights organizations, young people demanding democratic change, and Indigenous and Garifuna peoples (descendants of 18th-century African shipwreck survivors). The result was that a small number of companies owned most of the radio and TV stations in Honduras—a broadcast monopoly.
A 2011 report on the events surrounding the coup, created by the government as part of the Accord for National Reconciliation and Strengthening of Democracy in Honduras, concluded that the broadcast monopolies bore significant blame for the social crisis, and recommended democratizing access to the radio frequencies, television, and the internet.
In response to the wave of national discussion that followed, the AMCH brought together local and regional collectives to demand change. In August 2013, the regulating authority approved the AMCH’s proposal to make it possible for community groups to acquire media licenses. As of January 2017, 25 community radio stations in different parts of the country are in operation, and two television stations have been approved. Prior to this, only five community radio stations existed in the entire country.
Community media grants visibility to decentralized grassroots resistance and social change. In the San Antonio neighborhood of the town of El Taragual in western Honduras, a Lenca indigenous community has been fighting a law passed by the government that would divide up their land into plots. For them, radio is a necessary tool for educating the community about the adverse effects and conflicts that this parceling would cause. Emeterio Pérez, the leader of the neighborhood where the radio station originated, joined a group of coffee and grain farmers between the ages of 80 and 100, who committed to donating a portion of their wages to the radio station’s Steering Committee. They donated one work day per week, and a group of women sold homemade bread, nacatamales and other treats to support the station. On May 3, 2015, with a year’s savings and the technical support of AMCH, the Taragual community put a radio transmitter on air with the Voice of Life program on 106.7 FM. One year after speaking into their microphones for the first time, the station’s management committee had built alliances with key players in the neighboring cities of Gracias, San Rafael and La Union.
Today, the committee is attempting to legally register with the Indigenous Association for the Integral Development of El Taragual, which would grant them governmental recognition of their community radio frequency. The AMCH is providing technical training and legal support for this effort.
Through supporting community efforts and providing resources to formalize local broadcasting, the AMCH slowly works towards building a democratized media landscape that provides a variety of cultural and educational listening options throughout the country.
