(AMARC/IFEX) – Federal court judge Eloy Bernst Justo has ordered the closure of the four- month- old community radio station Sambaqui FM. The station broadcasts in Arroilo do Sal, a community of 7,500 people on the northern coast of the state of Rio Grande do Sul. The town has no other communications media. The judge’s […]
(AMARC/IFEX) – Federal court judge Eloy Bernst Justo has ordered the closure
of the four- month- old community radio station Sambaqui FM. The station
broadcasts in Arroilo do Sal, a community of 7,500 people on the northern
coast of the state of Rio Grande do Sul. The town has no other
communications media. The judge’s decision ignored a ruling by the Supreme
Court of Brazil which determined that it is illegal to seize material from
community radios. The judge ordered the seizure of all of the material found
at the station, including Christmas cards, public service anouncements and
job postings. Radio Sambaqui FM says that its closure is equivalent to
condemning the community to silence and preventing thepeople from receiving
information which is useful in their daily lives, as there are no other
local media through which they can be informed.
Community radio stations in Brazil are not regulated. The legislation which
will regulate them is still in committee hearings in the Senate.
