Ms Sally Galiana:

On the first question about how we ensure that the local community has an influence on the work and mechanisms of community media, there is an open door policy. First, the community owns the registration. Obviously we are in different legal frameworks. Some of the community radio stations might be companies. In the case of my radio station, it is a co-operative. Participation is at all levels. At governance level, anybody can put themselves forward to be a member of the committee of management. These are voluntary positions so anybody from the community can come and join, nominate or get a nomination and be elected to the committee. That means they are deciding on the policy and strategy of the organisation.

From the point of view of programming, again there is an open access or open door policy. There might be people from the local community who may be interested in doing a radio programme. They might have an opinion as an individual or they might be from a community or voluntary organisation in the local area who wish to highlight the work they are doing in the community. The way the community media will react to that is, first, we provide them with training in communication, how to put their message across. Then we offer them training on production, so they can produce their own radio programme if they wish. Then they are offered the opportunity to do a radio programme. As the committee can see, there is a straightforward mechanism for engaging the community in producing community radio.

There is also the issue of editorial control. Who decides what is important, what is news and what should be on the radio is the person or community organisation that is producing the programme. The only editorial control that is exercised in community radio is to ensure that any content broadcast falls within the guidelines and the legal restrictions in Ireland. There is no programming director or editor telling people what should be in the programme. That is the difference. We do not look at our audiences as consumers but as possible volunteers or possible members of our committee. That is how we guarantee participation - through open door access, training and access to broadcasting time and technology.