The BBC has given a US$5,000 “prize” to a Ugandan Catholic radio station in order for it to expand its reach and upgrade its equipment. Radio Pacis, the Arua-based Catholic radio station won the New Station of the Year category for “contributing to knowledge and development in the area”.
Robin White, of the BBC World Service, which made the award, said: “Radio Pacis is a fine example of what a community radio station outside the capital can do. It may have few staff and modest resources, but it still addresses challenging issues including providing advice on medical and health problems. It also offers debate on matters of local interest alongside local and national news.”
Father Tonino Pasolini, the priest who runs Radio Pacis, said: “We would like to thank BBC World Service for honouring Radio Pacis and making possible the launch of our new frequency.”
Sherry Meyer, Radio Pacis's station manager, added: “Our aim has always been to offer programming that helps with the development of the community as well as individual personal growth, and this extra money and recognition from the BBC will help us to do that even better”.
But it is not clear whether Radio Pacis will use the money to promote the Vatican’s lethal “no-condoms” dogma to an audience that desperately needs to hear the opposite. Its programming indicates that it is orthodox in approach, with feeds from Vatican radio and endless religious programmes.
Terry Sanderson, president of the National Secular Society, said: “We are all for helping developing countries, and we know that radio is a very important means of communication in rural areas like this, but we wonder what message is being broadcast from this station. The fact that it is a Catholic enterprise, run by a Catholic priest, feeding some programmes directly from the Vatican, indicates that it will probably give its listeners the Vatican line that condoms must not be used to defend against AIDS.”Mr Sanderson said: “The BBC has no business spending taxpayers’ money on such overt promotion of religion. The money should have gone to a broadcaster that will follow the BBC’s own ethos of impartiality, not one that is biased and sectarian."
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